GSEC Job Trends in England

GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for GSEC qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 30 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 594 655 634
Rank change year-on-year +61 -21 +332
Permanent jobs citing GSEC 15 20 33
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.029% 0.040% 0.073%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.085% 0.11% 0.24%
Number of salaries quoted 13 13 32
10th Percentile £35,700 £40,500 £62,500
25th Percentile £39,250 - £69,063
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £70,000 £75,000
Median % change year-on-year -25.00% -6.67% -12.28%
75th Percentile £82,500 £93,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £100,500 - £92,500
UK median annual salary £52,500 £70,000 £75,000
% change year-on-year -25.00% -6.67% -12.28%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England

GSEC falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in England.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 17,554 17,917 13,855
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 33.69% 36.13% 30.47%
Number of salaries quoted 7,069 7,221 9,544
10th Percentile £28,250 £32,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £35,854 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £91,350 £93,250 £93,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £59,430 £57,500
% change year-on-year -7.45% +3.36% -

GSEC
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

GSEC job vacancy trend in England

GSEC
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing GSEC.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing GSEC

GSEC
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing GSEC in England over the 6 months to 30 December 2025.

Salary histogram for GSEC in England

GSEC
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing GSEC within the England region over the 6 months to 30 December 2025. 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 +52 6 £80,000 +14.29% 2
North of England +21 3 £38,000 - 9
Yorkshire +4 3 £38,000 - 3
Midlands +26 2 £52,500 +40.00% 9
West Midlands +24 2 £52,500 +40.00% 3
East of England - 2 £39,750 - 7
South East - 2 £35,000 - 10
GSEC
UK

GSEC
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:

Cloud Services
1 4 (26.67%) Azure
2 3 (20.00%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (13.33%) Entra ID
4 1 (6.67%) AWS
4 1 (6.67%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 13 (86.67%) Firewall
2 4 (26.67%) Intrusion Detection
3 3 (20.00%) Network Security
3 3 (20.00%) TCP/IP
4 2 (13.33%) DNS
4 2 (13.33%) HTTP
4 2 (13.33%) SSH
4 2 (13.33%) VPN
Development Applications
1 2 (13.33%) JIRA
General
1 6 (40.00%) Finance
2 4 (26.67%) Social Skills
3 2 (13.33%) Banking
3 2 (13.33%) Documentation Skills
3 2 (13.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (6.67%) Law
4 1 (6.67%) Legal
Job Titles
1 8 (53.33%) Analyst
2 4 (26.67%) Junior
2 4 (26.67%) Junior Analyst
2 4 (26.67%) Security Analyst
2 4 (26.67%) Security Engineer
2 4 (26.67%) SOC Analyst
3 3 (20.00%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 3 (20.00%) Lead
4 2 (13.33%) Email Analyst
4 2 (13.33%) Firewall Analyst
4 2 (13.33%) Incident Analyst
4 2 (13.33%) Information Security Engineer
4 2 (13.33%) IT Analyst
4 2 (13.33%) IT Security Analyst
4 2 (13.33%) Security Incident Analyst
4 2 (13.33%) SIEM Analyst
4 2 (13.33%) Technical Engineer
4 2 (13.33%) Technical Leader
5 1 (6.67%) IT Engineer
5 1 (6.67%) IT Security Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 5 (33.33%) Security Posture
2 3 (20.00%) Management Information System
3 2 (13.33%) Cloud Native
3 2 (13.33%) Cyber Security Posture
3 2 (13.33%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (6.67%) Cyber Threat
4 1 (6.67%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 2 (13.33%) Windows
2 1 (6.67%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (73.33%) Cybersecurity
2 9 (60.00%) Information Security
3 7 (46.67%) ITIL
4 6 (40.00%) Incident Response
4 6 (40.00%) SIEM
5 4 (26.67%) Cloud Security
5 4 (26.67%) ISMS
5 4 (26.67%) Logistics
5 4 (26.67%) Vulnerability Management
6 3 (20.00%) Computer Science
6 3 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
6 3 (20.00%) Data Loss Prevention
6 3 (20.00%) Kalman Filter
6 3 (20.00%) MITRE ATT&CK
6 3 (20.00%) Penetration Testing
6 3 (20.00%) Project Delivery
6 3 (20.00%) Root Cause Analysis
6 3 (20.00%) SDLC
6 3 (20.00%) Security Architecture
7 2 (13.33%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 3 (20.00%) PowerShell
1 3 (20.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (53.33%) CISSP
2 5 (33.33%) CEH
2 5 (33.33%) CompTIA Security+
3 4 (26.67%) CISM
3 4 (26.67%) CISMP
3 4 (26.67%) OSCP
4 3 (20.00%) CompTIA CySA+
5 2 (13.33%) GIAC
6 1 (6.67%) CISA
6 1 (6.67%) Degree
6 1 (6.67%) GCED
6 1 (6.67%) GCIA
6 1 (6.67%) GCIH
6 1 (6.67%) GREM
6 1 (6.67%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (40.00%) GDPR
2 5 (33.33%) NIST
3 4 (26.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (13.33%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (6.67%) NIST 800
5 1 (6.67%) PCI DSS
5 1 (6.67%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (6.67%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 2 (13.33%) Nessus
1 2 (13.33%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (6.67%) Ansible
2 1 (6.67%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
2 1 (6.67%) Progress Chef
2 1 (6.67%) Puppet
Vendors
1 8 (53.33%) Microsoft
2 2 (13.33%) Qualys
2 2 (13.33%) ServiceNow
3 1 (6.67%) Cadence
3 1 (6.67%) VMware