NIST Job Trends in the North West

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North West requiring NIST skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 2 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 144 131 161
Rank change year-on-year -13 +30 +79
Permanent jobs citing NIST 36 84 27
As % of all permanent jobs in the North West 0.58% 1.62% 0.69%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 7.35% 8.88% 5.57%
Number of salaries quoted 16 50 25
10th Percentile £49,375 £35,850 £35,920
25th Percentile £55,938 £39,000 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,280 £47,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.75% +21.87% -27.69%
75th Percentile £82,813 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £88,250 £77,750 £76,500
England median annual salary £70,000 £74,000 £68,500
% change year-on-year -5.41% +8.03% -2.14%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
North West

NIST falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in the North West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 490 946 485
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North West 7.91% 18.29% 12.35%
Number of salaries quoted 263 395 354
10th Percentile £30,750 £30,600 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,854 £35,901 £35,230
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £47,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% - -5.00%
75th Percentile £65,945 £62,500 £62,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £76,250
England median annual salary £58,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -3.33% - +4.35%

NIST
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

NIST job vacancy trend in the North West

NIST
Salary Trend in the North West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing NIST.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing NIST

NIST
Salary Histogram in the North West

Salary distribution for jobs citing NIST in the North West over the 6 months to 2 January 2026.

Salary histogram for NIST in the North West

NIST
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 NIST within the North West region over the 6 months to 2 January 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
Manchester -17 21 £77,500 +21.57% 14
Lancashire +1 9 £57,500 +15.00% 16
Merseyside +2 5 £45,000 - 1
Cheshire -14 1 - - 1
NIST
England

NIST
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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (2.78%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 9 (25.00%) Azure
2 6 (16.67%) AWS
3 4 (11.11%) GCP
4 3 (8.33%) Azure Logic Apps
4 3 (8.33%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (5.56%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (2.78%) Amazon EKS
6 1 (2.78%) Amazon GuardDuty
6 1 (2.78%) AWS Lambda
6 1 (2.78%) CloudFront
6 1 (2.78%) dbt
6 1 (2.78%) Entra ID
6 1 (2.78%) Mimecast
6 1 (2.78%) OpenShift
6 1 (2.78%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 5 (13.89%) Network Security
2 3 (8.33%) DMZ
2 3 (8.33%) Modbus
3 2 (5.56%) Firewall
3 2 (5.56%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (2.78%) Internet
4 1 (2.78%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (8.33%) NoSQL
2 2 (5.56%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 1 (2.78%) Git
1 1 (2.78%) GitLab
General
1 5 (13.89%) Social Skills
2 4 (11.11%) Finance
3 2 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (5.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
4 1 (2.78%) Influencing Skills
4 1 (2.78%) Legal
4 1 (2.78%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 13 (36.11%) Lead
2 6 (16.67%) Senior
3 5 (13.89%) Architect
3 5 (13.89%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 5 (13.89%) Security Engineer
4 3 (8.33%) AWS Architect
4 3 (8.33%) AWS DevOps
4 3 (8.33%) AWS Solution Architect
4 3 (8.33%) DevOps Architect
4 3 (8.33%) Senior Architect
4 3 (8.33%) Senior DevOps
4 3 (8.33%) Senior Solutions Architect
4 3 (8.33%) Solutions Architect
4 3 (8.33%) TOGAF Architect
5 2 (5.56%) Analyst
5 2 (5.56%) IT Manager
5 2 (5.56%) Security Analyst
5 2 (5.56%) Security Architect
5 2 (5.56%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
6 1 (2.78%) Disaster Recovery Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.78%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 11 (30.56%) Cyber Threat
1 11 (30.56%) Operational Technology
2 9 (25.00%) Security Operations Centre
3 8 (22.22%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 5 (13.89%) Management Information System
5 3 (8.33%) Cloud Native
5 3 (8.33%) Driving Licence
5 3 (8.33%) SCADA
6 2 (5.56%) Cyber Defence
6 2 (5.56%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (5.56%) Security Posture
7 1 (2.78%) Hybrid Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (50.00%) Risk Management
2 17 (47.22%) Cybersecurity
3 13 (36.11%) Roadmaps
4 12 (33.33%) Security Operations
5 11 (30.56%) Information Security
5 11 (30.56%) Technology Roadmap
6 10 (27.78%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 10 (27.78%) ITIL
6 10 (27.78%) Threat Intelligence
6 10 (27.78%) Vulnerability Management
7 9 (25.00%) Coaching
7 9 (25.00%) Cyber Intelligence
7 9 (25.00%) Stakeholder Management
8 8 (22.22%) Business Strategy
8 8 (22.22%) Change Advisory Board
8 8 (22.22%) Incident Response
8 8 (22.22%) Mentoring
8 8 (22.22%) SABSA
8 8 (22.22%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
9 6 (16.67%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 4 (11.11%) SQL
2 3 (8.33%) C#
2 3 (8.33%) Java
2 3 (8.33%) PowerShell
2 3 (8.33%) Python
3 1 (2.78%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 9 (25.00%) CISSP
2 8 (22.22%) CISM
3 7 (19.44%) CRISC
4 5 (13.89%) Azure Certification
4 5 (13.89%) Degree
5 3 (8.33%) AWS Certification
5 3 (8.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
5 3 (8.33%) HND
5 3 (8.33%) SC Cleared
5 3 (8.33%) Security Cleared
6 2 (5.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 2 (5.56%) BPSS Clearance
6 2 (5.56%) Cisco Certification
6 2 (5.56%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (2.78%) CISA
7 1 (2.78%) CISMP
7 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (75.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (22.22%) ISO/IEC 27005
3 7 (19.44%) GRC
4 5 (13.89%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (8.33%) GDPR
5 3 (8.33%) HIPAA
5 3 (8.33%) PCI DSS
6 2 (5.56%) COBIT
6 2 (5.56%) Def Stans
6 2 (5.56%) ISO 22301
6 2 (5.56%) NIST 800
7 1 (2.78%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (2.78%) NCSC
System Software
1 3 (8.33%) Docker
2 1 (2.78%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (11.11%) Kubernetes
2 1 (2.78%) Fluentd
2 1 (2.78%) Terraform
Vendors
1 4 (11.11%) Microsoft
2 3 (8.33%) Google
3 1 (2.78%) Cribl.io
3 1 (2.78%) CrowdStrike
3 1 (2.78%) Splunk