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 9 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 507 473 500
Rank change year-on-year -34 +27 -32
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 170 68 119
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.20% 0.20% 0.23%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.07% 1.43% 1.74%
Number of salaries quoted 123 58 44
10th Percentile £31,250 £30,500 £42,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £32,500 £44,498
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £41,500 £50,743
Median % change year-on-year +20.48% -18.21% -6.03%
75th Percentile £65,000 £54,375 £69,940
90th Percentile £82,250 £72,500 £88,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £67,155
% change year-on-year +9.09% -18.10% +7.45%

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 8,209 4,755 6,843
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 9.50% 13.66% 13.37%
Number of salaries quoted 5,148 2,450 2,937
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £27,500
25th Percentile £37,039 £33,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,000 £66,250 £67,250
90th Percentile £81,557 £80,000 £81,250
UK median annual salary £55,000 £57,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year -4.35% - -4.17%

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 9 October 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 9 October 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 -27 54 £41,250 -0.60% 25
North of England -47 40 £55,425 +0.77% 26
Yorkshire -11 27 £60,000 +9.09% 10
South West -59 27 £53,750 +16.22% 9
Midlands -29 26 £56,295 +60.84% 18
East Midlands -21 18 £58,589 +67.40% 3
East of England -26 15 £35,000 -53.95% 3
North West -21 8 £45,000 +63.64% 15
West Midlands -38 8 £48,000 +47.69% 15
Scotland +14 6 £67,500 +80.00% 11
North East -65 5 £40,000 -56.76% 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £47,500 - 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 24 (14.12%) SharePoint
2 20 (11.76%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.59%) Confluence
3 1 (0.59%) Site Server
Applications
1 12 (7.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 88 (51.76%) Microsoft 365
2 86 (50.59%) Azure
3 68 (40.00%) Entra ID
4 15 (8.82%) Microsoft Copilot
5 14 (8.24%) AWS
6 13 (7.65%) Azure Sentinel
7 12 (7.06%) Power Platform
8 11 (6.47%) Google Workspace
9 9 (5.29%) SaaS
10 8 (4.71%) NetDocuments
10 8 (4.71%) Power Automate
11 7 (4.12%) Copilot Studio
12 6 (3.53%) Microsoft Purview
13 4 (2.35%) Dynamics 365
14 3 (1.76%) Mimecast
15 2 (1.18%) Azure Stack
15 2 (1.18%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 2 (1.18%) GCP
15 2 (1.18%) IaaS
15 2 (1.18%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 32 (18.82%) Firewall
2 18 (10.59%) VPN
3 17 (10.00%) DHCP
3 17 (10.00%) DNS
3 17 (10.00%) VLAN
4 15 (8.82%) WAN
5 13 (7.65%) SSL
5 13 (7.65%) Wi-Fi
6 12 (7.06%) LAN
7 11 (6.47%) VoIP
8 9 (5.29%) Network Security
9 6 (3.53%) TCP/IP
10 4 (2.35%) SAN
11 3 (1.76%) SD-WAN
12 2 (1.18%) IPsec
13 1 (0.59%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.29%) Power BI
2 2 (1.18%) Data Lake
2 2 (1.18%) KNIME
2 2 (1.18%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.59%) Data Vault
3 1 (0.59%) Power Query
3 1 (0.59%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.59%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 1 (0.59%) Git
1 1 (0.59%) JIRA
General
1 64 (37.65%) Social Skills
2 26 (15.29%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (14.12%) Legal
4 21 (12.35%) Finance
5 12 (7.06%) Aerospace
6 11 (6.47%) Law
6 11 (6.47%) Manufacturing
7 8 (4.71%) Public Sector
8 7 (4.12%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (2.35%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.35%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (2.35%) Retail
9 4 (2.35%) Telecoms
10 3 (1.76%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (1.18%) Aviation
11 2 (1.18%) Banking
11 2 (1.18%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.59%) Aeronautics
12 1 (0.59%) Local Government
12 1 (0.59%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 33 (19.41%) IT Manager
2 30 (17.65%) IT Support
3 25 (14.71%) IT Engineer
4 19 (11.18%) Operations Manager
5 17 (10.00%) Analyst
5 17 (10.00%) IT Operations Manager
6 15 (8.82%) Security Analyst
6 15 (8.82%) Support Engineer
7 14 (8.24%) IT Support Engineer
7 14 (8.24%) IT Technician
7 14 (8.24%) Senior
7 14 (8.24%) Senior IT Support
8 13 (7.65%) Lead
8 13 (7.65%) Support Technician
9 12 (7.06%) Security Manager
10 11 (6.47%) Cybersecurity Analyst
10 11 (6.47%) Senior IT Engineer
10 11 (6.47%) Senior Support Engineer
11 10 (5.88%) Compliance Manager
11 10 (5.88%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.59%) PySpark
1 1 (0.59%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 33 (19.41%) Management Information System
2 29 (17.06%) Security Posture
3 19 (11.18%) Driving Licence
4 10 (5.88%) Analytical Mindset
4 10 (5.88%) Onboarding
5 9 (5.29%) Cyber Threat
6 6 (3.53%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (2.94%) Cyber Security Posture
7 5 (2.94%) Data Centre
8 4 (2.35%) BYOD
8 4 (2.35%) Cloud Native
8 4 (2.35%) Culture of Ownership
9 2 (1.18%) AI Agents
9 2 (1.18%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.18%) IoT
9 2 (1.18%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.18%) Robotics
10 1 (0.59%) CSOC
10 1 (0.59%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 56 (32.94%) Windows
2 32 (18.82%) Windows Server
3 15 (8.82%) Windows Server 2019
4 14 (8.24%) Linux
5 13 (7.65%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.59%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 105 (61.76%) Cybersecurity
2 54 (31.76%) Risk Management
3 52 (30.59%) Continuous Improvement
4 44 (25.88%) Information Security
5 43 (25.29%) Disaster Recovery
6 41 (24.12%) Incident Response
7 35 (20.59%) Problem-Solving
8 34 (20.00%) Project Delivery
9 32 (18.82%) Data Protection
10 30 (17.65%) ISMS
10 30 (17.65%) Vulnerability Management
11 29 (17.06%) ITIL
11 29 (17.06%) Service Management
12 28 (16.47%) Security Management
13 26 (15.29%) AI
13 26 (15.29%) ITSM
14 25 (14.71%) Information Security Management
15 24 (14.12%) Service Delivery
16 23 (13.53%) Roadmaps
17 22 (12.94%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 11 (6.47%) SQL
2 9 (5.29%) PowerShell
3 5 (2.94%) C
4 4 (2.35%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (2.35%) XAML
5 3 (1.76%) Bicep
6 2 (1.18%) Python
7 1 (0.59%) Data Analysis Expressions
Qualifications
1 40 (23.53%) Degree
2 27 (15.88%) CISSP
3 21 (12.35%) CompTIA Security+
4 20 (11.76%) CISM
4 20 (11.76%) Security Cleared
5 18 (10.59%) Microsoft Certification
6 13 (7.65%) DBS Check
6 13 (7.65%) SC Cleared
7 11 (6.47%) Network+ Certification
8 7 (4.12%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 6 (3.53%) BPSS Clearance
10 5 (2.94%) CISA
10 5 (2.94%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (2.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (2.35%) CCSP
12 3 (1.76%) Azure Certification
12 3 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (1.76%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 2 (1.18%) CompTIA CySA+
13 2 (1.18%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 170 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 96 (56.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 30 (17.65%) GDPR
4 23 (13.53%) NIST
5 18 (10.59%) ISO 9001
6 12 (7.06%) ISO 14001
7 11 (6.47%) GRC
8 10 (5.88%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 7 (4.12%) NCSC
10 6 (3.53%) PCI DSS
10 6 (3.53%) SLA
11 5 (2.94%) SOC 2
12 3 (1.76%) Data Quality
12 3 (1.76%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (1.76%) QA
13 2 (1.18%) Accessibility
13 2 (1.18%) GxP
13 2 (1.18%) ISO 22301
13 2 (1.18%) NIST 800
13 2 (1.18%) RMADS
System Software
1 40 (23.53%) Active Directory
2 21 (12.35%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (10.00%) Hyper-V
4 5 (2.94%) Firmware
5 2 (1.18%) Docker
5 2 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.18%) vSphere
6 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.59%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 48 (28.24%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (7.65%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (2.35%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (1.76%) Nessus
4 3 (1.76%) Proxmox
5 2 (1.18%) FortiGate
5 2 (1.18%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.59%) SCCM
6 1 (0.59%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 107 (62.94%) Microsoft
2 23 (13.53%) VMware
3 14 (8.24%) Cisco
3 14 (8.24%) Veeam
4 11 (6.47%) Apple
4 11 (6.47%) Datto
4 11 (6.47%) Google
4 11 (6.47%) SonicWALL
5 4 (2.35%) Meraki
6 3 (1.76%) Dell
6 3 (1.76%) Fortinet
6 3 (1.76%) Tenable
7 2 (1.18%) Intel
7 2 (1.18%) Palo Alto
7 2 (1.18%) Qualys
7 2 (1.18%) Salesforce
7 2 (1.18%) Splunk
7 2 (1.18%) Thales
8 1 (0.59%) Nimble Storage
8 1 (0.59%) SolarWinds