Example Career: Security Managers
Career Description
Direct an organization's security functions, including physical security and safety of employees and facilities.
What Job Titles Security Managers Might Have
- Corporate Physical Security Supervisor
- Corporate Security Manager
- Security Director
- Security Manager
What Security Managers Do
- Analyze and evaluate security operations to identify risks or opportunities for improvement through auditing, review, or assessment.
- Assess risks to mitigate potential consequences of incidents and develop a plan to respond to incidents.
- Attend meetings, professional seminars, or conferences to keep abreast of changes in executive legislative directives or new technologies impacting security operations.
- Communicate security status, updates, and actual or potential problems, using established protocols.
- Conduct physical examinations of property to ensure compliance with security policies and regulations.
- Conduct threat or vulnerability analyses to determine probable frequency, criticality, consequence, or severity of natural or man-made disasters or criminal activity on the organization's profitability or delivery of products or services.
- Coordinate security operations or activities with public law enforcement, fire and other agencies.
- Create or implement security standards, policies, and procedures.
- Develop budgets for security operations.
- Develop or manage investigation programs, including collection and preservation of video and notes of surveillance processes or investigative interviews.
- Develop, arrange for, perform, or assess executive protection activities to reduce security risks.
- Develop, conduct, support, or assist in governmental reviews, internal corporate evaluations, or assessments of the overall effectiveness of facility and personnel security processes.
- Develop, implement, manage, or evaluate policies and methods to protect personnel against harassment, threats, or violence.
- Develop, recommend, or manage security procedures for operations or processes, such as security call centers, access control, and reporting tools.
- Direct or participate in emergency management and contingency planning.
- Identify, investigate, or resolve security breaches.
- Monitor and ensure a sound, ethical environment.
- Monitor security policies, programs or procedures to ensure compliance with internal security policies, or applicable government security requirements, policies, and directives.
- Plan security for special and high-risk events.
- Plan, direct, or coordinate security activities to safeguard company employees, guests, or others on company property.
- Prepare reports or make presentations on internal investigations, losses, or violations of regulations, policies and procedures.
- Purchase security-related supplies, equipment, or technology.
- Respond to medical emergencies, bomb threats, fire alarms, or intrusion alarms, following emergency response procedures.
- Review financial reports to ensure efficiency and quality of security operations.
- Supervise or provide leadership to subordinate security professionals, performing activities such as hiring, investigating applicants' backgrounds, training, assigning work, evaluating performance, or disciplining.
- Support efforts to reduce substance abuse or other illegal activities in the workplace.
- Train subordinate security professionals or other organization members in security rules and procedures.
- Write or review security-related documents, such as incident reports, proposals, and tactical or strategic initiatives.
What Security Managers Should Be Good At
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
What Security Managers Need to Learn
- Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
- Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
This page includes information from by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the license.