Cyber Defence Job Trends in England

Cyber Defence
UK > England

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Cyber Defence in permanent job vacancies in England. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited Cyber Defence over the 6 months leading up to 11 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 559 563 732
Rank change year-on-year +4 +169 -213
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Defence 113 36 89
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.15% 0.098% 0.11%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.51% 0.25% 0.31%
Number of salaries quoted 39 27 57
10th Percentile £49,200 £43,358 £58,100
25th Percentile £64,375 £48,295 £65,230
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £90,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -27.78% +5.88%
75th Percentile £85,000 £68,750 £107,500
90th Percentile - £105,000 -
UK median annual salary £70,000 £65,000 £90,000
% change year-on-year +7.69% -27.78% +5.88%

All Generic Skills
England

Cyber Defence falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 21,956 14,213 28,550
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 29.57% 38.81% 35.48%
Number of salaries quoted 11,412 8,189 20,596
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,750 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,750 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -15.38%
75th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £76,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £115,000 £98,750
UK median annual salary £58,446 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -2.59% +9.09% -15.38%

Cyber Defence
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Cyber Defence relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

Cyber Defence job vacancy trend in England

Cyber Defence
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cyber Defence.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cyber Defence

Cyber Defence
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cyber Defence in England over the 6 months to 11 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Cyber Defence in England

Cyber Defence
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Defence within the England region over the 6 months to 11 April 2026. 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
London +48 78 £70,000 +7.69% 6
Midlands -30 16 £41,000 -8.50% 2
West Midlands -5 11 £32,000 -28.59% 1
South East -35 7 £47,000 - 3
North of England -64 7 £80,000 +28.00% 2
East Midlands - 5 £50,000 - 1
South West - 5 £45,665 - 2
East of England -28 4 £55,000 - 1
Yorkshire -52 4 £57,028 +5.61%
North East - 2 £80,000 - 2
North West -36 1 £86,000 +18.62%
Cyber Defence
UK

Cyber Defence
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 2 (1.77%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 16 (14.16%) Azure
2 8 (7.08%) AWS
3 6 (5.31%) GCP
4 5 (4.42%) Azure Sentinel
5 4 (3.54%) Mimecast
5 4 (3.54%) SaaS
6 3 (2.65%) AWS CloudFormation
7 2 (1.77%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 28 (24.78%) Network Security
2 15 (13.27%) Firewall
3 9 (7.96%) Wireless
4 7 (6.19%) DNS
5 6 (5.31%) TCP/IP
6 5 (4.42%) VPN
7 4 (3.54%) Cisco ISE
7 4 (3.54%) Cisco Nexus
7 4 (3.54%) HTTPS
7 4 (3.54%) Intrusion Detection
8 3 (2.65%) SCCP
9 1 (0.88%) Ethernet
9 1 (0.88%) FTP
9 1 (0.88%) HTTP
9 1 (0.88%) Internet
9 1 (0.88%) LAN
9 1 (0.88%) SMTP
9 1 (0.88%) SSL
9 1 (0.88%) WAN
9 1 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.88%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 13 (11.50%) Metasploit
2 9 (7.96%) Burp Suite
3 4 (3.54%) Bitbucket
4 2 (1.77%) GitLab
General
1 37 (32.74%) Social Skills
2 35 (30.97%) Finance
3 22 (19.47%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (12.39%) Retail
5 12 (10.62%) Aviation
6 5 (4.42%) Influencing Skills
7 4 (3.54%) Aerospace
7 4 (3.54%) Legal
8 3 (2.65%) Automotive
8 3 (2.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.65%) Marketing
9 2 (1.77%) Games
10 1 (0.88%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 51 (45.13%) Analyst
2 39 (34.51%) Security Analyst
3 26 (23.01%) Cybersecurity Analyst
4 25 (22.12%) Senior
5 17 (15.04%) Senior Analyst
6 16 (14.16%) Digital Analyst
6 16 (14.16%) Senior Digital Analyst
7 13 (11.50%) Security Manager
8 11 (9.73%) Consultant
9 10 (8.85%) Security Consultant
9 10 (8.85%) Senior Security Analyst
10 8 (7.08%) Engineering Manager
10 8 (7.08%) Operational Security Manager
10 8 (7.08%) Operations Manager
10 8 (7.08%) Security Operations Manager
11 6 (5.31%) Cyber Defence Analyst
12 5 (4.42%) Cybersecurity Manager
13 4 (3.54%) Incident Responder
13 4 (3.54%) Innovation Manager
13 4 (3.54%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.88%) LDAP
1 1 (0.88%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 30 (26.55%) Security Posture
2 24 (21.24%) Security Operations Centre
3 9 (7.96%) Cyber Threat
3 9 (7.96%) Mobile App
4 8 (7.08%) Cloud Native
4 8 (7.08%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 4 (3.54%) Social Media
6 3 (2.65%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (2.65%) Cyber Security Posture
6 3 (2.65%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.77%) CSOC
7 2 (1.77%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.77%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.77%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.77%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 23 (20.35%) Windows
2 22 (19.47%) Linux
3 4 (3.54%) Kali Linux
3 4 (3.54%) Unix
4 3 (2.65%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (56.64%) Cybersecurity
2 51 (45.13%) Agile
3 50 (44.25%) Security Operations
4 44 (38.94%) Incident Response
5 40 (35.40%) SIEM
6 36 (31.86%) Mentoring
7 32 (28.32%) Coaching
7 32 (28.32%) Creative Thinking
8 29 (25.66%) Threat Intelligence
9 28 (24.78%) Business Strategy
9 28 (24.78%) Business Transformation
9 28 (24.78%) Internal Audit
9 28 (24.78%) Problem-Solving
10 27 (23.89%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
11 26 (23.01%) Penetration Testing
12 25 (22.12%) MITRE ATT&CK
13 24 (21.24%) Root Cause Analysis
14 23 (20.35%) Red Team
14 23 (20.35%) Vulnerability Management
15 21 (18.58%) SOAR
Programming Languages
1 38 (33.63%) PowerShell
2 34 (30.09%) Python
3 15 (13.27%) Bash
4 2 (1.77%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (0.88%) C
5 1 (0.88%) C++
5 1 (0.88%) Perl
Qualifications
1 25 (22.12%) Security Cleared
2 20 (17.70%) CISSP
2 20 (17.70%) OSCP
3 19 (16.81%) CREST Certified
3 19 (16.81%) GIAC
4 15 (13.27%) SC Cleared
5 11 (9.73%) CEH
6 9 (7.96%) CCSAM
6 9 (7.96%) CHECK Team Leader
6 9 (7.96%) CHECK Team Member
6 9 (7.96%) Cisco Certification
6 9 (7.96%) CISM
7 8 (7.08%) CompTIA Security+
8 7 (6.19%) CISA
8 7 (6.19%) Degree
8 7 (6.19%) SSCP
9 5 (4.42%) CCNA
9 5 (4.42%) CompTIA CySA+
10 4 (3.54%) CCNP
10 4 (3.54%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (34.51%) NIST
2 10 (8.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (2.65%) GDPR
3 3 (2.65%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.77%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (1.77%) GRC
4 2 (1.77%) RMADS
4 2 (1.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (1.77%) SLA
5 1 (0.88%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.88%) NCSC
System Software
1 3 (2.65%) Active Directory
1 3 (2.65%) Docker
1 3 (2.65%) Hyper-V
1 3 (2.65%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 9 (7.96%) Kubernetes
1 9 (7.96%) Nessus
2 7 (6.19%) Ansible
3 3 (2.65%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
3 3 (2.65%) SCCM
3 3 (2.65%) Terraform
4 1 (0.88%) CSIRT
4 1 (0.88%) QRadar
Vendors
1 25 (22.12%) Microsoft
2 7 (6.19%) Splunk
3 5 (4.42%) CheckPoint
3 5 (4.42%) Cisco
4 4 (3.54%) Fortinet
4 4 (3.54%) Okta
4 4 (3.54%) Sophos
4 4 (3.54%) Zscaler
5 3 (2.65%) Google
5 3 (2.65%) Salesforce
5 3 (2.65%) VMware
6 2 (1.77%) CrowdStrike
6 2 (1.77%) Rapid7
7 1 (0.88%) ArcSight
7 1 (0.88%) Blue Coat
7 1 (0.88%) Darktrace
7 1 (0.88%) F5
7 1 (0.88%) LogRhythm
7 1 (0.88%) Palo Alto