Cyber Essentials Job Trends in the South West

Cyber Essentials
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 115 100 178
Rank change year-on-year -15 +78 -43
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials 142 64 55
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 1.44% 1.84% 0.72%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 14.88% 13.33% 6.06%
Number of salaries quoted 75 22 32
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,700 -
25th Percentile £36,750 £30,500 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,750 £40,000 £61,000
Median % change year-on-year +21.88% -34.43% +8.44%
75th Percentile £61,250 £53,438 £80,000
90th Percentile £77,500 £55,000 £85,750
England median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +1.77%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
South West

Cyber Essentials 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 South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 954 480 908
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 9.64% 13.82% 11.96%
Number of salaries quoted 572 317 476
10th Percentile £31,250 £29,750 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,875 £35,532 £37,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £50,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £63,750 £70,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,738 £86,250
England median annual salary £57,500 £56,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year +1.77% -1.74% -4.17%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

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

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend in the South West

Cyber Essentials
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Cyber Essentials.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in the South West over the 6 months to 10 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Cyber Essentials in the South West

Cyber Essentials
Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Essentials within the South West region over the 6 months to 10 September 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
Somerset -6 45 £45,000 - 1
Wiltshire +1 37 £58,750 - 3
Bristol -33 27 £66,000 +55.29% 4
Devon -8 19 £32,500 +4.84%
Gloucestershire -46 12 £42,500 +13.33% 4
Cyber Essentials
England

Cyber Essentials
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South 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 95 (66.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 17 (11.97%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.41%) Confluence
4 1 (0.70%) Site Server
Cloud Services
1 102 (71.83%) Microsoft 365
2 95 (66.90%) Azure
3 41 (28.87%) Entra ID
4 8 (5.63%) Serverless
5 7 (4.93%) Power Platform
6 5 (3.52%) AWS
7 4 (2.82%) Dynamics 365
7 4 (2.82%) Microsoft Copilot
7 4 (2.82%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (1.41%) IaaS
8 2 (1.41%) PaaS
8 2 (1.41%) Rubrik
9 1 (0.70%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 82 (57.75%) DNS
2 80 (56.34%) DHCP
3 35 (24.65%) Firewall
4 23 (16.20%) Wi-Fi
5 17 (11.97%) Network Security
5 17 (11.97%) VLAN
6 14 (9.86%) VPN
7 12 (8.45%) TCP/IP
8 11 (7.75%) VoIP
8 11 (7.75%) WAN
9 8 (5.63%) LAN
10 4 (2.82%) DMZ
10 4 (2.82%) Wireshark
11 3 (2.11%) SD-WAN
12 1 (0.70%) BGP
12 1 (0.70%) IP Telephony
12 1 (0.70%) NAS
12 1 (0.70%) OSPF
12 1 (0.70%) SAN
12 1 (0.70%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (45.07%) Amazon RDS
2 8 (5.63%) SQL Server
General
1 81 (57.04%) Analytical Skills
2 73 (51.41%) Social Skills
3 11 (7.75%) Advertising
3 11 (7.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 7 (4.93%) Influencing Skills
5 6 (4.23%) Finance
5 6 (4.23%) Law
5 6 (4.23%) Public Sector
6 4 (2.82%) Presentation Skills
7 3 (2.11%) Pharmaceutical
8 2 (1.41%) Retail
Job Titles
1 63 (44.37%) Systems Engineer
2 33 (23.24%) IT Engineer
3 30 (21.13%) Support Engineer
4 28 (19.72%) IT Support
4 28 (19.72%) IT Support Engineer
5 16 (11.27%) Infrastructure Support
6 15 (10.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 14 (9.86%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
8 12 (8.45%) Field Engineer
8 12 (8.45%) Field Support Engineer
8 12 (8.45%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
9 10 (7.04%) Security Specialist
10 8 (5.63%) Analyst
11 6 (4.23%) Consultant
11 6 (4.23%) Cybersecurity Specialist
12 5 (3.52%) IT Security Engineer
12 5 (3.52%) Principal Consultant
12 5 (3.52%) Security Analyst
12 5 (3.52%) Security Consultant
12 5 (3.52%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.41%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 63 (44.37%) Legacy Systems
2 13 (9.15%) Driving Licence
3 9 (6.34%) Cyber Threat
3 9 (6.34%) Security Posture
4 5 (3.52%) Management Information System
5 3 (2.11%) Replication
6 2 (1.41%) BYOD
7 1 (0.70%) Clustering
7 1 (0.70%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.70%) Enterprise Storage
7 1 (0.70%) Life Science
7 1 (0.70%) NHS
7 1 (0.70%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 97 (68.31%) Windows
2 84 (59.15%) Windows Server
3 67 (47.18%) Linux
3 67 (47.18%) Windows Server 2016
4 12 (8.45%) Mac OS
5 4 (2.82%) Windows Server 2012
5 4 (2.82%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (51.41%) Problem-Solving
2 69 (48.59%) Migration
3 67 (47.18%) Customer Service
3 67 (47.18%) Vulnerability Scanning
4 64 (45.07%) Vulnerability Remediation
5 63 (44.37%) Customer Experience
5 63 (44.37%) Email Filtering
5 63 (44.37%) Kalman Filter
5 63 (44.37%) Web Filtering
6 55 (38.73%) Cybersecurity
7 29 (20.42%) Continuous Improvement
8 21 (14.79%) Risk Management
9 18 (12.68%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 13 (9.15%) Incident Management
10 13 (9.15%) Information Security
10 13 (9.15%) Stakeholder Management
10 13 (9.15%) Vulnerability Management
11 12 (8.45%) Preventative Maintenance
11 12 (8.45%) Service Delivery
12 11 (7.75%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 2 (1.41%) SQL
Qualifications
1 71 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 71 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 8 (5.63%) CISSP
3 7 (4.93%) CISM
3 7 (4.93%) Degree
4 6 (4.23%) Azure Certification
5 5 (3.52%) CompTIA Security+
6 4 (2.82%) AWS Certification
6 4 (2.82%) CCNA
6 4 (2.82%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (2.82%) CRISC
6 4 (2.82%) DV Cleared
6 4 (2.82%) MCSA
6 4 (2.82%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (2.82%) Microsoft Certified Professional
7 2 (1.41%) ISTQB
7 2 (1.41%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (0.70%) IISP
8 1 (0.70%) OSCP
8 1 (0.70%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (47.89%) PCI DSS
2 43 (30.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 26 (18.31%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 14 (9.86%) NIST
5 8 (5.63%) GRC
6 7 (4.93%) GDPR
7 6 (4.23%) QA
8 5 (3.52%) JSP 440
9 2 (1.41%) Data Quality
9 2 (1.41%) GxP
10 1 (0.70%) COBIT
10 1 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.70%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.70%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 96 (67.61%) Active Directory
2 83 (58.45%) Hyper-V
3 63 (44.37%) Terminal Server
4 10 (7.04%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.70%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 21 (14.79%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (2.82%) Iperf
3 2 (1.41%) FortiGate
4 1 (0.70%) Proxmox
4 1 (0.70%) SCCM
4 1 (0.70%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 109 (76.76%) Microsoft
2 78 (54.93%) Veeam
3 73 (51.41%) VMware
4 63 (44.37%) Brocade
4 63 (44.37%) Nimble Storage
4 63 (44.37%) SolarWinds
4 63 (44.37%) Splunk
4 63 (44.37%) Tanium
5 12 (8.45%) Ubiquiti
6 7 (4.93%) Fortinet
7 4 (2.82%) Cisco
7 4 (2.82%) Ruckus Wireless
7 4 (2.82%) SonicWALL
8 3 (2.11%) Aruba
9 2 (1.41%) HP
10 1 (0.70%) Google
10 1 (0.70%) OneTrust
10 1 (0.70%) Qualys
10 1 (0.70%) Zerto