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 23 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 428 428 541
Rank change year-on-year 0 +113 +154
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 108 116 113
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.22% 0.37% 0.22%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.14% 2.27% 1.59%
Number of salaries quoted 94 45 91
10th Percentile £28,750 £37,350 £31,000
25th Percentile £40,322 £42,000 £40,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £54,000
Median % change year-on-year - +1.85% -7.69%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £68,125
90th Percentile £74,625 £86,250 £82,500
UK median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +18.18% -8.33% -4.00%

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 5,038 5,105 7,097
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.24% 16.23% 13.95%
Number of salaries quoted 2,683 2,205 5,056
10th Percentile £28,750 £30,000 £26,000
25th Percentile £35,000 £40,000 £33,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,250 £49,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.83% +10.71% -2.00%
75th Percentile £65,640 £71,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £83,750 £78,750
UK median annual salary £59,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -1.67% +9.09% -4.35%

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 23 February 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 23 February 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 -11 39 £65,000 +18.18% 22
Midlands +14 28 £55,000 +10.00% 11
North of England -18 25 £45,000 +12.50% 12
West Midlands +22 20 £52,500 +0.57% 8
Yorkshire -27 11 £45,000 -37.93% 5
North West +3 10 £35,500 -11.25% 6
South West -25 10 £50,000 -18.37% 11
East Midlands -19 8 £55,000 +25.71% 3
East of England +13 4 £37,262 - 7
North East -12 4 £105,000 +191.67% 1
Scotland -7 2 £63,750 +45.71% 1
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 28 (25.93%) SharePoint
2 19 (17.59%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (8.33%) WordPress
4 5 (4.63%) Drupal
4 5 (4.63%) nginx
5 1 (0.93%) CMS
Applications
1 4 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.93%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 51 (47.22%) Microsoft 365
2 34 (31.48%) Azure
3 30 (27.78%) Entra ID
4 20 (18.52%) AWS
5 11 (10.19%) OneDrive
6 9 (8.33%) SaaS
7 7 (6.48%) Cloud Computing
8 6 (5.56%) Power Automate
8 6 (5.56%) Power Platform
9 5 (4.63%) Azure Sentinel
9 5 (4.63%) Dynamics 365
9 5 (4.63%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (2.78%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 3 (2.78%) IaaS
10 3 (2.78%) PaaS
11 1 (0.93%) Amazon EKS
11 1 (0.93%) AWS Control Tower
11 1 (0.93%) GCP
11 1 (0.93%) Mimecast
11 1 (0.93%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 15 (13.89%) DHCP
1 15 (13.89%) DNS
1 15 (13.89%) Firewall
2 11 (10.19%) VPN
2 11 (10.19%) WAN
3 10 (9.26%) LAN
3 10 (9.26%) Wi-Fi
4 3 (2.78%) Network Security
5 1 (0.93%) BGP
5 1 (0.93%) Internet
5 1 (0.93%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.93%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.93%) Unified Communications
5 1 (0.93%) VLAN
5 1 (0.93%) Wireless
5 1 (0.93%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.63%) MariaDB
1 5 (4.63%) Power BI
2 4 (3.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (0.93%) Burp Suite
1 1 (0.93%) JIRA
1 1 (0.93%) Metasploit
General
1 57 (52.78%) Social Skills
2 18 (16.67%) Organisational Skills
3 15 (13.89%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (13.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 9 (8.33%) Finance
4 9 (8.33%) Public Sector
5 5 (4.63%) Influencing Skills
5 5 (4.63%) Local Government
5 5 (4.63%) Police
6 4 (3.70%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.85%) Legal
8 1 (0.93%) Banking
8 1 (0.93%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.93%) Electronics
8 1 (0.93%) Games
8 1 (0.93%) Marketing
8 1 (0.93%) Retail
8 1 (0.93%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 33 (30.56%) Security Manager
2 22 (20.37%) Cybersecurity Manager
3 19 (17.59%) IT Manager
4 17 (15.74%) Security Assurance Manager
5 14 (12.96%) IT Support
6 13 (12.04%) IT Engineer
7 10 (9.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (8.33%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
8 9 (8.33%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (8.33%) Operations Engineer
9 8 (7.41%) Analyst
9 8 (7.41%) IT Security Manager
9 8 (7.41%) Operations Manager
10 7 (6.48%) Information Security Manager
10 7 (6.48%) IT Operations Manager
11 6 (5.56%) Head of IT
12 5 (4.63%) Information Manager
12 5 (4.63%) Infrastructure Manager
12 5 (4.63%) Infrastructure Specialist
12 5 (4.63%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.70%) HTML
2 1 (0.93%) OAuth
2 1 (0.93%) SAP CAF
Miscellaneous
1 17 (15.74%) Security Posture
2 12 (11.11%) Driving Licence
3 11 (10.19%) Management Information System
3 11 (10.19%) Onboarding
4 10 (9.26%) Cyber Threat
5 7 (6.48%) Replication
5 7 (6.48%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (3.70%) Cyber Security Posture
6 4 (3.70%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (3.70%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (3.70%) Video Conferencing
7 2 (1.85%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.85%) Cloud Native
7 2 (1.85%) Cloud Security Posture
7 2 (1.85%) Educational Technology
7 2 (1.85%) NHS
8 1 (0.93%) AS400
8 1 (0.93%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (0.93%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 22 (20.37%) Windows
2 9 (8.33%) Windows 10
3 4 (3.70%) Windows Server 2019
4 3 (2.78%) Windows Server
5 2 (1.85%) Linux
6 1 (0.93%) Android
6 1 (0.93%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.93%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 70 (64.81%) Cybersecurity
2 43 (39.81%) Continuous Improvement
3 38 (35.19%) Information Security
4 28 (25.93%) Problem-Solving
5 24 (22.22%) Disaster Recovery
6 18 (16.67%) ITIL
7 17 (15.74%) Incident Response
8 16 (14.81%) Security Operations
9 15 (13.89%) Cloud Security
10 14 (12.96%) Business Continuity
10 14 (12.96%) Roadmaps
10 14 (12.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 13 (12.04%) Migration
12 12 (11.11%) Service Delivery
13 11 (10.19%) Risk Management
14 10 (9.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 10 (9.26%) Regulatory Change
15 9 (8.33%) Data Migration
15 9 (8.33%) Performance Optimisation
16 8 (7.41%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 9 (8.33%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.78%) SQL
3 2 (1.85%) Bicep
3 2 (1.85%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.93%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 19 (17.59%) CREST Certified
2 17 (15.74%) CISSP
3 16 (14.81%) CISM
4 15 (13.89%) Security Cleared
5 14 (12.96%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (12.96%) SC Cleared
6 12 (11.11%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (8.33%) AWS Certification
8 6 (5.56%) CRISC
8 6 (5.56%) Degree
9 4 (3.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 4 (3.70%) A+ Certification
9 4 (3.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (3.70%) Azure Certification
9 4 (3.70%) CCSP
9 4 (3.70%) CEH
9 4 (3.70%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (3.70%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 4 (3.70%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 108 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 84 (77.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 34 (31.48%) GDPR
4 30 (27.78%) NIST
5 24 (22.22%) GRC
6 21 (19.44%) NCSC
6 21 (19.44%) SOC 2
7 19 (17.59%) PCI DSS
8 17 (15.74%) SOC 3
9 8 (7.41%) ISO 9001
10 5 (4.63%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (3.70%) ISO 22301
11 4 (3.70%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (2.78%) ISO 14001
13 1 (0.93%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 1 (0.93%) Def Stans
System Software
1 19 (17.59%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.63%) Docker
3 3 (2.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.85%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.93%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.93%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 19 (17.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.85%) Terraform
3 1 (0.93%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.93%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.93%) Nessus
3 1 (0.93%) Nmap
3 1 (0.93%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 52 (48.15%) Microsoft
2 11 (10.19%) Cisco
3 10 (9.26%) Meraki
4 6 (5.56%) VMware
5 4 (3.70%) Palo Alto
5 4 (3.70%) SAP
6 3 (2.78%) Google
6 3 (2.78%) Infor
6 3 (2.78%) Tenable
6 3 (2.78%) Xero
7 1 (0.93%) Acronis
7 1 (0.93%) Autodesk
7 1 (0.93%) Avaya
7 1 (0.93%) CrowdStrike
7 1 (0.93%) Genesys
7 1 (0.93%) IBM
7 1 (0.93%) Okta
7 1 (0.93%) Qualys
7 1 (0.93%) Trend Micro
7 1 (0.93%) Ubiquiti