Cyber Defence Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Cyber Defence
UK > UK excluding London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Cyber Defence in permanent job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited Cyber Defence over the 6 months leading up to 5 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 484 529 530
Rank change year-on-year +45 +1 -76
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Defence 30 35 32
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.072% 0.096% 0.099%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.22% 0.28% 0.28%
Number of salaries quoted 13 12 11
10th Percentile - £47,157 £44,538
25th Percentile £30,165 £55,188 £46,019
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,500 £58,750 £56,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.94% +3.98% -38.70%
75th Percentile £77,500 £65,313 £67,500
90th Percentile £81,250 £78,250 £72,500
UK median annual salary £62,500 £63,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year -0.79% +0.80% -32.19%

All Generic Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 13,682 12,483 11,366
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 32.61% 34.13% 35.25%
Number of salaries quoted 6,299 5,424 8,074
10th Percentile £26,375 £30,000 £29,500
25th Percentile £31,500 £41,250 £38,856
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £47,000 £54,063 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.06% -0.80% -0.91%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,115 £67,500
90th Percentile £78,750 £82,500 £83,750
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -7.69%

Cyber Defence
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Cyber Defence job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Cyber Defence
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Cyber Defence.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Cyber Defence

Cyber Defence
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cyber Defence in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 5 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Cyber Defence in the UK excluding London

Cyber Defence
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Defence within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 5 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
North of England +26 8 £77,500 +13.55% 3
South East +14 8 £47,000 - 5
Midlands +25 7 £64,250 +11.74% 3
Yorkshire -3 6 £57,028 +5.61% 1
South West - 6 £31,330 -
East Midlands -4 4 £37,500 -34.78% 2
West Midlands +26 3 £75,000 +73.13% 1
North West +18 2 £81,750 -0.91% 2
East of England +18 1 £55,000 -8.33% 4
Cyber Defence
UK

Cyber Defence
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 3 (10.00%) AWS
1 3 (10.00%) Azure
2 2 (6.67%) Azure Logic Apps
3 1 (3.33%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 7 (23.33%) Network Security
2 4 (13.33%) Ethernet
2 4 (13.33%) Wi-Fi
2 4 (13.33%) Wireshark
3 3 (10.00%) Firewall
4 2 (6.67%) DNS
4 2 (6.67%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (3.33%) SSL
5 1 (3.33%) TCP/IP
5 1 (3.33%) VLAN
5 1 (3.33%) VPN
Development Applications
1 1 (3.33%) GitLab
General
1 16 (53.33%) Analytical Skills
2 13 (43.33%) Social Skills
3 4 (13.33%) Electronics
4 3 (10.00%) Automotive
4 3 (10.00%) Finance
4 3 (10.00%) Legal
4 3 (10.00%) Marketing
5 2 (6.67%) Law
6 1 (3.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (3.33%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (3.33%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 17 (56.67%) Analyst
2 8 (26.67%) Security Analyst
3 6 (20.00%) Cyber Defence Analyst
3 6 (20.00%) Cybersecurity Analyst
4 4 (13.33%) Data Analyst
4 4 (13.33%) Digital Director
5 3 (10.00%) Security Engineer
5 3 (10.00%) Senior
6 2 (6.67%) Coordinator
6 2 (6.67%) Lead
6 2 (6.67%) Operational Security Analyst
6 2 (6.67%) Operations Analyst
6 2 (6.67%) Security Assurance Coordinator
6 2 (6.67%) Security Operations Analyst
6 2 (6.67%) Senior Analyst
7 1 (3.33%) Cloud Engineer
7 1 (3.33%) Cyber Threat Analyst
7 1 (3.33%) DevOps Engineer
7 1 (3.33%) Head of Security
7 1 (3.33%) Information Risk Manager
Miscellaneous
1 6 (20.00%) Operational Technology
2 5 (16.67%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 4 (13.33%) Analytical Mindset
3 4 (13.33%) Cyber Threat
4 3 (10.00%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (6.67%) SCADA
5 2 (6.67%) Security Posture
6 1 (3.33%) Cloud Native
6 1 (3.33%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.33%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (63.33%) Cybersecurity
2 9 (30.00%) Incident Response
3 8 (26.67%) Agile
3 8 (26.67%) Risk Management
4 7 (23.33%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 7 (23.33%) Penetration Testing
4 7 (23.33%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (23.33%) SIEM
4 7 (23.33%) Threat Intelligence
5 6 (20.00%) Information Security
5 6 (20.00%) MITRE ATT&CK
5 6 (20.00%) Roadmaps
5 6 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
6 5 (16.67%) Creative Thinking
6 5 (16.67%) Regulatory Change
6 5 (16.67%) Systems Engineering
6 5 (16.67%) Vulnerability Management
7 4 (13.33%) Impact Assessments
7 4 (13.33%) Systems Thinking
7 4 (13.33%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 6 (20.00%) Python
2 4 (13.33%) C
2 4 (13.33%) C++
3 3 (10.00%) PowerShell
4 1 (3.33%) Bash
Qualifications
1 12 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 11 (36.67%) SC Cleared
3 7 (23.33%) CISSP
4 6 (20.00%) CISM
4 6 (20.00%) Degree
5 5 (16.67%) DV Cleared
6 4 (13.33%) SANS
7 3 (10.00%) GIAC
8 2 (6.67%) CompTIA CySA+
8 2 (6.67%) CRISC
9 1 (3.33%) CEH
9 1 (3.33%) CompTIA Security+
9 1 (3.33%) DBS Check
9 1 (3.33%) GCIH
9 1 (3.33%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (43.33%) NIST
2 10 (33.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (13.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (6.67%) GRC
4 2 (6.67%) RMADS
5 1 (3.33%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (3.33%) NCSC
Systems Management
1 1 (3.33%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 2 (6.67%) Microsoft
2 1 (3.33%) Blue Coat
2 1 (3.33%) CheckPoint
2 1 (3.33%) Cisco
2 1 (3.33%) CrowdStrike
2 1 (3.33%) Darktrace
2 1 (3.33%) F5
2 1 (3.33%) Intel
2 1 (3.33%) LogRhythm
2 1 (3.33%) Palo Alto
2 1 (3.33%) Splunk