Cyber Essentials Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Cyber Essentials
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 141 180
Rank change year-on-year -2 +39 +67
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials 29 39 28
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.70% 1.15% 0.61%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 5.22% 9.58% 3.98%
Number of salaries quoted 28 22 21
10th Percentile £27,000 £32,325 £41,750
25th Percentile £39,750 £50,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £50,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +18.81% -4.72%
75th Percentile £67,500 £87,188 £67,500
90th Percentile £68,250 £90,000 £77,500
South East median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £55,000

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 556 407 704
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 13.35% 11.96% 15.27%
Number of salaries quoted 245 222 413
10th Percentile £28,000 £34,525 £28,000
25th Percentile £39,000 £50,294 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £64,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -14.06% +16.36% +4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £83,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £85,000
South East median annual salary £50,410 £58,250 £50,000
% change year-on-year -13.46% +16.50% -4.86%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Cyber Essentials
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Cyber Essentials.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 23 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Cyber Essentials in the Thames Valley

Cyber Essentials
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Essentials within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 23 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
Oxfordshire +23 19 £55,000 +69.23%
Berkshire -7 9 £65,000 +8.33% 1
Buckinghamshire -9 1 £52,500 -36.36% 2
Cyber Essentials
South East

Cyber Essentials
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 4 (13.79%) SharePoint
2 2 (6.90%) Exchange Server 2013
2 2 (6.90%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (6.90%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 13 (44.83%) Azure
2 12 (41.38%) Microsoft 365
3 8 (27.59%) AWS
4 6 (20.69%) Entra ID
5 4 (13.79%) Azure Sentinel
6 3 (10.34%) Cloud Computing
7 2 (6.90%) SaaS
8 1 (3.45%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 15 (51.72%) Firewall
2 6 (20.69%) DHCP
2 6 (20.69%) DNS
2 6 (20.69%) Network Security
3 5 (17.24%) TCP/IP
3 5 (17.24%) VPN
4 4 (13.79%) VoIP
5 2 (6.90%) LAN
5 2 (6.90%) SAN
5 2 (6.90%) VLAN
5 2 (6.90%) WAN
5 2 (6.90%) Wi-Fi
General
1 11 (37.93%) Social Skills
2 4 (13.79%) Telecoms
3 3 (10.34%) Legal
4 1 (3.45%) Aerospace
4 1 (3.45%) Banking
4 1 (3.45%) Finance
4 1 (3.45%) Games
4 1 (3.45%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 6 (20.69%) IT Support
1 6 (20.69%) Security Engineer
1 6 (20.69%) Senior
1 6 (20.69%) Senior Security Engineer
2 5 (17.24%) Cybersecurity Engineer
2 5 (17.24%) Lead
3 4 (13.79%) Analyst
3 4 (13.79%) IT Engineer
3 4 (13.79%) IT Support Engineer
3 4 (13.79%) Security Analyst
3 4 (13.79%) Support Engineer
3 4 (13.79%) Support Technician
4 3 (10.34%) Cybersecurity Analyst
5 2 (6.90%) 2nd Line Support
5 2 (6.90%) 2nd Line Support Technician
5 2 (6.90%) 3rd Line Support
5 2 (6.90%) 3rd Line Support Technician
5 2 (6.90%) Head of Compliance
5 2 (6.90%) Head of Cybersecurity
5 2 (6.90%) IT Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.45%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 5 (17.24%) Security Operations Centre
2 4 (13.79%) Driving Licence
3 3 (10.34%) Security Posture
4 2 (6.90%) Management Information System
4 2 (6.90%) Replication
5 1 (3.45%) AS400
5 1 (3.45%) iSeries
5 1 (3.45%) Legacy Applications
5 1 (3.45%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 8 (27.59%) Windows
2 6 (20.69%) Windows 10
3 2 (6.90%) Windows Server
3 2 (6.90%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (37.93%) Cybersecurity
2 7 (24.14%) ITIL
2 7 (24.14%) Security Operations
2 7 (24.14%) SIEM
3 6 (20.69%) Information Security
4 5 (17.24%) B2B
4 5 (17.24%) Penetration Testing
5 4 (13.79%) Collaborative Culture
5 4 (13.79%) Project Delivery
5 4 (13.79%) Risk Management
6 3 (10.34%) Business Continuity
6 3 (10.34%) Continuous Improvement
6 3 (10.34%) Due Diligence
6 3 (10.34%) Identity Management
6 3 (10.34%) Kalman Filter
6 3 (10.34%) Security Architecture
6 3 (10.34%) Web Filtering
7 2 (6.90%) Information Security Governance
7 2 (6.90%) Mentoring
7 2 (6.90%) Vulnerability Scanning
Qualifications
1 13 (44.83%) CISSP
2 8 (27.59%) Cisco Certification
3 7 (24.14%) CISM
4 5 (17.24%) CCNA
4 5 (17.24%) CCNP
4 5 (17.24%) CompTIA Security+
4 5 (17.24%) GCIA
4 5 (17.24%) SANS
5 4 (13.79%) CISA
6 3 (10.34%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 3 (10.34%) CCSP
6 3 (10.34%) CEH
6 3 (10.34%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 2 (6.90%) CRISC
7 2 (6.90%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 1 (3.45%) CESG Certified Professional
8 1 (3.45%) Degree
8 1 (3.45%) DV Cleared
8 1 (3.45%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (86.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 11 (37.93%) NIST
3 10 (34.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 6 (20.69%) GRC
5 5 (17.24%) GDPR
5 5 (17.24%) SLA
6 3 (10.34%) PCI DSS
7 1 (3.45%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (3.45%) NCSC
7 1 (3.45%) SOC 2
System Software
1 6 (20.69%) Active Directory
2 2 (6.90%) Hyper-V
2 2 (6.90%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 6 (20.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (6.90%) SCCM
Vendors
1 9 (31.03%) Microsoft
2 4 (13.79%) Tenable
3 3 (10.34%) Google
3 3 (10.34%) Palo Alto
4 2 (6.90%) arcserve
4 2 (6.90%) VMware
5 1 (3.45%) IBM
5 1 (3.45%) Qualys
5 1 (3.45%) Splunk