GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for GSEC qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months to 8 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
8 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 852 946 1208
Rank change year-on-year +94 +262 -319
Permanent jobs citing GSEC 36 49 27
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.036% 0.048% 0.017%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.13% 0.15% 0.064%
Number of salaries quoted 28 39 19
10th Percentile £57,250 £39,294 £37,500
25th Percentile £65,625 £72,500 £48,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £75,000 £85,500 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -12.28% +36.80% -3.85%
75th Percentile £80,500 £94,125 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £104,500 £70,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year -30.77% +4.00% -16.67%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GSEC is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 27,491 33,185 42,304
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 27.72% 32.68% 26.87%
Number of salaries quoted 17,282 14,890 18,866
10th Percentile £28,254 £31,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £38,500 £41,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,000 £59,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.24% +8.18% -
75th Percentile £71,000 £77,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £87,500 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £51,350 £50,000
% change year-on-year -2.63% +2.70% +1.01%

GSEC
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing GSEC as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing GSEC.

Salary trend for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing GSEC over the 6 months to 8 May 2024.

Salary histogram for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Top 10 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing GSEC within the UK over the 6 months to 8 May 2024. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +69 35 £75,000 -12.28% 5
London +116 24 £77,500 -13.89% 1
Work from Home +64 19 £75,000 -12.28% 3
UK excluding London -10 11 £45,000 -30.77% 4
South West -25 6 £66,250 +5.28% 2
North of England +41 2 £37,500 -50.00% 1
South East - 2 £45,000 -
Northern Ireland +27 1 - -
North West +5 1 - - 1
North East - 1 £37,500 -

GSEC
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Cloud Services
1 14 (38.89%) Azure
2 7 (19.44%) Microsoft 365
3 5 (13.89%) AWS
4 4 (11.11%) Serverless
5 3 (8.33%) PaaS
5 3 (8.33%) SaaS
6 1 (2.78%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (2.78%) Entra ID
6 1 (2.78%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 19 (52.78%) Firewall
2 12 (33.33%) Intrusion Detection
3 2 (5.56%) Network Security
4 1 (2.78%) tcpdump
4 1 (2.78%) Wireshark
General
1 14 (38.89%) Legal
2 13 (36.11%) Law
3 12 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (33.33%) Documentation Skills
4 7 (19.44%) Finance
5 5 (13.89%) Social Skills
6 4 (11.11%) Banking
6 4 (11.11%) Retail
7 1 (2.78%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 16 (44.44%) Lead
2 11 (30.56%) Analyst
3 8 (22.22%) Security Analyst
3 8 (22.22%) Senior
4 7 (19.44%) Cybersecurity Analyst
4 7 (19.44%) Security Engineer
5 5 (13.89%) Senior Analyst
5 5 (13.89%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
5 5 (13.89%) Senior Security Analyst
6 4 (11.11%) IT Engineer
6 4 (11.11%) IT Security Engineer
6 4 (11.11%) Security Specialist
7 3 (8.33%) Senior Security Engineer
8 2 (5.56%) Cybersecurity Manager
8 2 (5.56%) Risk Manager
8 2 (5.56%) Security Assurance Manager
8 2 (5.56%) Security Manager
8 2 (5.56%) SIEM Analyst
8 2 (5.56%) SOC Analyst
9 1 (2.78%) Junior Security Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 17 (47.22%) Security Posture
2 13 (36.11%) Management Information System
3 4 (11.11%) Onboarding
4 1 (2.78%) CSOC
4 1 (2.78%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 9 (25.00%) Windows
2 6 (16.67%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (77.78%) Cybersecurity
2 17 (47.22%) Kalman Filter
2 17 (47.22%) Problem-Solving
2 17 (47.22%) Web Filtering
3 16 (44.44%) Information Security
4 12 (33.33%) Business Continuity
4 12 (33.33%) Data Privacy
4 12 (33.33%) Disaster Recovery
4 12 (33.33%) Security Architecture
5 10 (27.78%) Cloud Security
6 9 (25.00%) Incident Response
7 8 (22.22%) Security Operations
8 7 (19.44%) SIEM
9 6 (16.67%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
9 6 (16.67%) Threat Intelligence
10 5 (13.89%) Mobile Device Management
10 5 (13.89%) Project Delivery
10 5 (13.89%) Vulnerability Management
11 4 (11.11%) Agile
11 4 (11.11%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 4 (11.11%) PowerShell
1 4 (11.11%) Python
Qualifications
1 25 (69.44%) CISSP
2 24 (66.67%) GIAC
3 21 (58.33%) CEH
4 15 (41.67%) SSCP
5 9 (25.00%) CompTIA Security+
6 8 (22.22%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (13.89%) GCIA
7 5 (13.89%) GCIH
7 5 (13.89%) OSCP
8 4 (11.11%) AWS Certification
8 4 (11.11%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 4 (11.11%) CCNP
8 4 (11.11%) CCSP
9 3 (8.33%) Azure Certification
9 3 (8.33%) CISM
10 2 (5.56%) CRISC
10 2 (5.56%) GCFE
10 2 (5.56%) GISP
11 1 (2.78%) Master's Degree
11 1 (2.78%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (44.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (38.89%) GDPR
3 8 (22.22%) NIST
4 1 (2.78%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (2.78%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 7 (19.44%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.78%) Snort
Systems Management
1 5 (13.89%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 2 (5.56%) Darktrace
1 2 (5.56%) Splunk
2 1 (2.78%) CrowdStrike
2 1 (2.78%) iManage
2 1 (2.78%) Intel
2 1 (2.78%) Microsoft