Every year we aggregate the offers our placement cell sees. In 2025-26 that was just over 500 verified offers for network security roles across India. Here's what the data says — no inflation, no cherry-picking.
The Headline Bands
Freshers with CCNA and strong lab skills: ₹4.5-7 LPA. Engineers with 3-5 years and a professional-level firewall cert (PCNSE, CCSE, NSE7): ₹12-22 LPA. Senior engineers (6-9 years) with multi-vendor depth: ₹22-35 LPA. CCIE Security holders with production design experience: ₹35-60 LPA, with outliers above when equity is involved.
Vendor Skills That Move the Needle
Palo Alto remains the highest-volume premium skill — PCNSE holders averaged 28% above equivalent-experience peers. Check Point MDS specialists were the scarcest pool and commanded the biggest single-skill premium. Cloud networking certs (ANS-C01, AZ-700) stacked on top of firewall skills added ₹4-8 LPA. SSE skills (Zscaler, Netskope) are the fastest-growing requirement in JDs — up 61% year over year.
City Spread
Bengaluru and Hyderabad lead for volume and pay, with Pune close behind. NCR pays comparably at senior levels but has fewer mid-level openings. Fully-remote roles for Indian entities have stabilized at roughly 10% of offers — down from the 2022 peak but real.
What Actually Gets You the Offer
Across 500 offers, three factors correlated most with landing above-band: demonstrable lab depth (candidates who could troubleshoot live during interviews), automation literacy (Python/Ansible even at a basic level), and a specific niche story — 'the MDS person', 'the SASE person' — rather than a generalist resume.
Use the Data
Pick one premium vendor skill, add cloud, add basic automation, and interview with hands-on proof. That combination moved people up a full band in our data — consistently.