A working operator's read on the Jacksonville cybersecurity market: who's buying, what they pay, which firms hold share, and what the federal and Florida compliance regimes require. Built from BLS, Census, and state regulator data.
The Jacksonville, FL metro hosts 1,264 cybersecurity firms employing roughly 14,820 people as of Q2 2024.[1] Median wage for the lead operator role (Information Security Analyst) is $92,140/yr[2] against a metro median household income of $67,817.[3] Buyer demand is real - the market is growing 5.9% year over year - but margin compression at the SMB tier is the operating story for 2026.
Jacksonville is the third Florida federal-anchored cyber market after Tampa and the Pentagon-adjacent footprint in the Panhandle. Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport, and the SUBASE Kings Bay (a short drive into Georgia) make naval IT and OT cybersecurity a real local specialty. Layered on top: Jacksonville is the country's third-largest banking center by assets headquartered locally - Bank of America's mortgage operations, Black Knight, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS, $14B annual revenue), and Citizens Property Insurance all run major Jacksonville cyber programs. Add the Port of Jacksonville (JAXPORT) - one of the country's busiest container ports and biggest auto import facility - and you get a unique mix of naval, banking, and maritime logistics cyber demand. The University of North Florida runs the only NSA-designated cyber program in Northeast Florida.
The Jacksonville cyber buyer divides into four personas. Naval contractor: 50-200-employee firm supporting NAS Jacksonville or Mayport with CMMC L2 obligations, often with industrial control system (ICS / OT) cyber requirements. Banking and fintech: regional banks, mortgage servicers, and payment processors with overlapping regulatory regimes (OCC, FDIC, GLBA, NYDFS-adjacent through correspondent relationships). Maritime logistics: port operators, intermodal trucking, customs brokers - growing OT cyber demand around shipping operations. Healthcare: Mayo Clinic Jacksonville and Baptist Health System anchor HIPAA-heavy work. The naval and banking personas are the dominant buyers; they want fixed-fee programs with named compliance outcomes, not open-ended retainers.
Jacksonville cyber prices roughly 8-12% below Tampa - smaller market, lower cost of living. A SOC 2 Type II readiness program for a 50-200-employee Jacksonville firm runs $32,000-$68,000 over 8-13 months. CMMC L2 readiness for a naval contractor runs $75,000-$200,000 to first assessment plus $35,000-$80,000 per year ongoing. FFIEC CAT-aligned cyber program work for a regional bank or mortgage servicer runs $60,000-$180,000 for the initial assessment plus quarterly attestation. Managed detection and response seat pricing runs $30-$70 per endpoint per month. ICS / OT cyber assessments at JAXPORT or for naval ICS contractors price at $25,000-$95,000 per assessment, with OT-specialized engineers commanding a 20-30% premium over IT-only seats.
Florida regulations (FL Statute 282.318; FL Statute 501.171) apply. Federal: DFARS 252.204-7012 + 7020 + 7021 for DoD naval contractors; NIST 800-171; CMMC 2.0 Final Rule effective late 2024. Banking-specific: FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) replaced by the FFIEC Architecture, Infrastructure, and Operations Booklet (2024 update); OCC Heightened Standards; GLBA Safeguards Rule (FTC, updated 2023). Maritime: CISA's Transportation Systems Sector cyber guidance; Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA). Healthcare: HIPAA Security Rule. Industry baselines: NIST CSF 2.0, NIST 800-53. Banking insurance: FDIC Computer Security Incident Notification Rule (36-hour notification window for "computer security incidents").
Jacksonville's cyber competitive set is anchored by financial services and naval contractors. Banking specialists: Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) - Jacksonville HQ, $14B revenue - runs one of the largest enterprise cyber teams in the southeast. Black Knight (Jacksonville HQ, $1.5B revenue) and Citizens Property Insurance (Jacksonville HQ) anchor additional in-house teams. Naval contractor cyber: SAIC, Leidos, Booz Allen Hamilton, ManTech, Engility all maintain Jacksonville offices. Regional pure-play security firms: Kyber Security, Cyber Defense Group Jacksonville, Bowman Williams (Lake Mary but Jacksonville-active). Big-4: Deloitte, EY, KPMG run Jacksonville banking-sector security practices. Three Jacksonville MSP / MSSP acquisitions have closed in the last 18 months, all by PE-backed roll-ups at 5-7x EBITDA.
A SOC 2 Type II readiness program for a 50-200-employee Jacksonville business runs $32,000-$68,000 over 8-13 months with a managed services provider handling control implementation. The CPA-firm audit itself adds $18,000-$40,000. Jacksonville pricing runs roughly 8-12% below Tampa and 15-20% below Miami because of lower cost of living.
Fidelity National Information Services alone employs over 60,000 globally with a major Jacksonville cyber footprint. Add Black Knight, Bank of America's mortgage operations, Citizens Property Insurance, and dozens of regional banks - Jacksonville hosts the third-largest concentration of banking and mortgage cyber operations in the US after New York and Charlotte.
Yes. The naval base presence and JAXPORT - one of the busiest container and auto import ports in the US - drive demand for OT / industrial control system cyber engineering. OT-specialized engineers in Jacksonville command a 20-30% premium over IT-only seats.
The Jacksonville MSA hosts approximately 1,264 firms in NAICS 5415 (Computer Systems Design Services) as of Q2 2024, employing roughly 14,820 people. The pure-play cybersecurity firm count is around 180-260.
Per BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2024), the median annual wage for an Information Security Analyst (SOC 15-1212) in the Jacksonville MSA is $92,140 - roughly 7% below the Tampa median, consistent with the lower regional cost of living.
Mark runs the Florida side of the WETYR practice personally. If you're a $1M-$50M owner thinking about your next move - whether that's selling, acquiring, or building the function in-house - the first call is free, 30 minutes, and has no commission attached.
Book a 30-minute callParent service page: Cybersecurity - the full WETYR offering
