Cyber Essentials PLUS Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Cyber Essentials PLUS
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Cyber Essentials PLUS skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 435 430 629
Rank change year-on-year -5 +199 +27
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 130 64 106
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.20% 0.24% 0.16%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.23% 1.52% 1.15%
Number of salaries quoted 113 34 91
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,975 £28,750
25th Percentile £38,750 £39,000 £36,875
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,313 £71,139
90th Percentile £73,750 £79,875 £82,500
UK median annual salary £65,000 £60,250 £57,500
% change year-on-year +7.88% +4.78% -11.54%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK excluding London

Cyber Essentials PLUS 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 UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 5,824 4,217 9,210
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 9.15% 15.85% 13.73%
Number of salaries quoted 3,316 2,371 6,272
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £25,750
25th Percentile £37,500 £37,170 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,500 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £68,750 £68,114 £62,500
90th Percentile £83,750 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £58,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +2.56% +11.43% -8.70%

Cyber Essentials PLUS
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Cyber Essentials PLUS job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Cyber Essentials PLUS
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

Cyber Essentials PLUS
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 21 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Cyber Essentials PLUS in the UK excluding London

Cyber Essentials PLUS
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 Essentials PLUS within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 21 April 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
South East -29 49 £65,000 +18.18% 18
Midlands -1 34 £55,000 +22.22% 14
North of England -44 29 £43,500 +8.75% 15
West Midlands -1 26 £52,500 +5.00% 8
Yorkshire -39 20 £30,000 -58.62% 9
South West -56 10 £52,500 -23.64% 12
East Midlands -50 8 £55,000 +37.50% 6
North West -33 7 £50,000 +25.00% 4
Scotland -18 4 £60,000 +37.14% 4
East of England -31 4 £37,262 - 11
North East -38 2 £105,000 +81.03% 4
Cyber Essentials PLUS
UK

Cyber Essentials PLUS
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:

Application Platforms
1 23 (17.69%) SharePoint
2 19 (14.62%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (3.85%) Drupal
3 5 (3.85%) nginx
3 5 (3.85%) WordPress
4 1 (0.77%) CMS
Business Applications
1 1 (0.77%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 55 (42.31%) Microsoft 365
2 36 (27.69%) Azure
3 27 (20.77%) Entra ID
4 15 (11.54%) AWS
5 9 (6.92%) SaaS
6 7 (5.38%) OneDrive
7 4 (3.08%) IaaS
7 4 (3.08%) PaaS
8 3 (2.31%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (2.31%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (1.54%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 2 (1.54%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.77%) GCP
10 1 (0.77%) Microsoft Purview
10 1 (0.77%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 21 (16.15%) Firewall
2 13 (10.00%) DHCP
2 13 (10.00%) DNS
2 13 (10.00%) VPN
2 13 (10.00%) Wi-Fi
3 12 (9.23%) LAN
3 12 (9.23%) WAN
4 5 (3.85%) Network Security
5 3 (2.31%) VLAN
6 1 (0.77%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.77%) Unified Communications
6 1 (0.77%) Wireless
6 1 (0.77%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (5.38%) SQL Server
2 5 (3.85%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 1 (0.77%) Burp Suite
1 1 (0.77%) JIRA
1 1 (0.77%) Metasploit
General
1 51 (39.23%) Social Skills
2 20 (15.38%) Organisational Skills
3 17 (13.08%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (12.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 13 (10.00%) Public Sector
6 9 (6.92%) Manufacturing
7 8 (6.15%) Finance
8 6 (4.62%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (3.85%) Local Government
9 5 (3.85%) Police
10 4 (3.08%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (3.08%) Retail
11 3 (2.31%) Legal
12 2 (1.54%) Aviation
12 2 (1.54%) Social Housing
13 1 (0.77%) Banking
13 1 (0.77%) Electronics
13 1 (0.77%) Games
13 1 (0.77%) Marketing
13 1 (0.77%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 40 (30.77%) Security Manager
2 27 (20.77%) Cybersecurity Manager
3 25 (19.23%) IT Manager
4 22 (16.92%) IT Engineer
5 18 (13.85%) IT Support
5 18 (13.85%) Security Assurance Manager
6 13 (10.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 13 (10.00%) IT Support Engineer
6 13 (10.00%) Support Engineer
7 11 (8.46%) Information Security Manager
8 9 (6.92%) Analyst
8 9 (6.92%) Information Manager
8 9 (6.92%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
8 9 (6.92%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (6.92%) Operations Engineer
9 8 (6.15%) IT Security Manager
9 8 (6.15%) Operations Manager
10 7 (5.38%) Compliance Manager
10 7 (5.38%) IT Operations Manager
11 6 (4.62%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.77%) SAP CAF
Miscellaneous
1 23 (17.69%) Security Posture
2 15 (11.54%) Driving Licence
3 14 (10.77%) Management Information System
4 13 (10.00%) Onboarding
5 12 (9.23%) Cyber Threat
6 8 (6.15%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (5.38%) Replication
7 7 (5.38%) Security Operations Centre
8 4 (3.08%) Cyber Security Posture
9 2 (1.54%) Cloud Native
9 2 (1.54%) Cloud Security Posture
9 2 (1.54%) Educational Technology
9 2 (1.54%) Housing Association
9 2 (1.54%) NHS
9 2 (1.54%) Robotics
10 1 (0.77%) Mobile App
10 1 (0.77%) Public Cloud
10 1 (0.77%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 29 (22.31%) Windows
2 6 (4.62%) Windows Server
3 4 (3.08%) Linux
3 4 (3.08%) Mac OS
4 3 (2.31%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.77%) Android
5 1 (0.77%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (60.00%) Cybersecurity
2 54 (41.54%) Continuous Improvement
3 45 (34.62%) Information Security
4 31 (23.85%) Disaster Recovery
5 27 (20.77%) Risk Management
6 24 (18.46%) ITIL
7 22 (16.92%) Incident Response
8 21 (16.15%) Problem-Solving
9 19 (14.62%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 17 (13.08%) Business Continuity
10 17 (13.08%) Security Operations
11 16 (12.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 16 (12.31%) Service Delivery
12 15 (11.54%) IT Strategy
13 12 (9.23%) Change Management
13 12 (9.23%) Cloud Security
13 12 (9.23%) Internal Audit
14 11 (8.46%) ERP
14 11 (8.46%) Migration
14 11 (8.46%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 8 (6.15%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.31%) SQL
3 2 (1.54%) Bicep
3 2 (1.54%) C
3 2 (1.54%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 22 (16.92%) CISSP
2 20 (15.38%) CREST Certified
3 16 (12.31%) Security Cleared
4 15 (11.54%) CISM
4 15 (11.54%) SC Cleared
5 12 (9.23%) BPSS Clearance
5 12 (9.23%) Microsoft Certification
6 9 (6.92%) Degree
7 7 (5.38%) AWS Certification
8 6 (4.62%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (3.85%) CEH
10 4 (3.08%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 4 (3.08%) CCSP
11 3 (2.31%) Azure Certification
11 3 (2.31%) CISA
11 3 (2.31%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (2.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 2 (1.54%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (1.54%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 2 (1.54%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 130 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 99 (76.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 40 (30.77%) GDPR
4 32 (24.62%) NIST
5 27 (20.77%) GRC
6 24 (18.46%) NCSC
7 21 (16.15%) SOC 2
8 19 (14.62%) PCI DSS
9 17 (13.08%) SOC 3
10 14 (10.77%) ISO 9001
11 9 (6.92%) Actionable Recommendations
11 9 (6.92%) ISO 14001
12 6 (4.62%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 4 (3.08%) ISO 22301
14 3 (2.31%) Def Stans
15 1 (0.77%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 1 (0.77%) COBIT
15 1 (0.77%) NIST 800
System Software
1 28 (21.54%) Active Directory
2 5 (3.85%) Docker
3 4 (3.08%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.77%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.77%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.77%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 22 (16.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.54%) Terraform
3 1 (0.77%) Nessus
3 1 (0.77%) Nmap
3 1 (0.77%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 57 (43.85%) Microsoft
2 10 (7.69%) Cisco
3 9 (6.92%) Meraki
4 4 (3.08%) Palo Alto
4 4 (3.08%) SAP
4 4 (3.08%) Ubiquiti
4 4 (3.08%) VMware
5 3 (2.31%) Google
5 3 (2.31%) Infor
5 3 (2.31%) Tenable
5 3 (2.31%) Xero
6 1 (0.77%) Autodesk
6 1 (0.77%) Avaya
6 1 (0.77%) ForgeRock
6 1 (0.77%) Genesys
6 1 (0.77%) HubSpot
6 1 (0.77%) Okta
6 1 (0.77%) Qualys
6 1 (0.77%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.77%) Trend Micro