Cyber Defence Job Trends in the North West

Cyber Defence
England > North West

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Cyber Defence in permanent job vacancies in the North West. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited Cyber Defence 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 179 203 181
Rank change year-on-year +24 -22 +103
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Defence 2 4 1
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 0.032% 0.077% 0.026%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.071% 0.25% 0.073%
Number of salaries quoted 2 1 0
10th Percentile £74,675 - -
25th Percentile £76,063 £78,750 -
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £81,750 £82,500 -
Median % change year-on-year -0.91% - -
75th Percentile £87,063 £86,250 -
90th Percentile £88,225 - -
England median annual salary £65,368 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +0.57% +4.00% -28.57%

All Generic Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 2,800 1,613 1,373
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 45.43% 31.02% 35.46%
Number of salaries quoted 913 810 1,010
10th Percentile £26,800 £31,250 £31,975
25th Percentile £33,125 £40,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £51,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -7.27% -
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £85,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -7.69%

Cyber Defence
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Cyber Defence job vacancy trend in the North West

Cyber Defence
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Cyber Defence.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Cyber Defence

Cyber Defence
Job Locations in the North West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Defence within the North West 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
Manchester +24 2 £81,750 - 4
Cyber Defence
England

Cyber Defence
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 1 (50.00%) Azure
1 1 (50.00%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 1 (50.00%) Intrusion Detection
General
1 1 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
1 1 (50.00%) Finance
1 1 (50.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
1 1 (50.00%) Legal
Job Titles
1 1 (50.00%) Head of Cybersecurity
1 1 (50.00%) Head of Operations
1 1 (50.00%) Head of Security
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
1 2 (100.00%) Incident Response
1 2 (100.00%) Risk Management
2 1 (50.00%) Architecture Governance
2 1 (50.00%) Blue Team
2 1 (50.00%) Cyber Resilience
2 1 (50.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
2 1 (50.00%) Disaster Recovery
2 1 (50.00%) Information Security
2 1 (50.00%) MITRE ATT&CK
2 1 (50.00%) OSINT
2 1 (50.00%) Roadmaps
2 1 (50.00%) Security Architecture
2 1 (50.00%) Security Operations
2 1 (50.00%) SIEM
2 1 (50.00%) Strategic Roadmap
2 1 (50.00%) Threat Intelligence
2 1 (50.00%) Threat Modelling
2 1 (50.00%) Use Case
2 1 (50.00%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 1 (50.00%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 1 (50.00%) CISM
1 1 (50.00%) CISSP
1 1 (50.00%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (100.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 2 (100.00%) NIST
2 1 (50.00%) GRC