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 29 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 473 492 565
Rank change year-on-year +19 +73 -63
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 178 56 93
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.22% 0.16% 0.16%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.32% 1.14% 1.27%
Number of salaries quoted 137 44 56
10th Percentile £31,250 £31,625 £37,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £41,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.48% -17.00% -18.37%
75th Percentile £63,750 £52,938 £67,500
90th Percentile £81,250 £57,500 £76,250
UK median annual salary £57,750 £63,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% -3.08% +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 7,661 4,903 7,325
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 9.58% 14.05% 12.60%
Number of salaries quoted 4,906 2,611 3,979
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £26,250
25th Percentile £38,756 £35,000 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £48,793
Median % change year-on-year - +2.47% -5.26%
75th Percentile £67,500 £65,500 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £80,000 £78,750
UK median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +4.55% -8.33%

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 29 August 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 29 August 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 -2 63 £42,500 +2.41% 17
North of England -20 42 £47,500 -13.64% 15
Yorkshire -12 31 £55,000 - 6
Midlands -20 26 £58,589 +67.40% 10
South West -46 26 £52,500 -4.55% 10
East Midlands -16 16 £58,589 +67.40% 5
East of England -1 13 £35,000 -53.95% 11
West Midlands -16 10 £57,000 +75.38% 5
Scotland +4 8 £60,000 +60.00% 5
North West -9 8 £47,500 +72.73% 5
North East -61 3 £40,000 -46.67% 5
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 22 (12.36%) SharePoint
2 19 (10.67%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.56%) Confluence
3 1 (0.56%) Site Server
Applications
1 12 (6.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.12%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 87 (48.88%) Microsoft 365
2 76 (42.70%) Azure
3 68 (38.20%) Entra ID
4 15 (8.43%) Microsoft Copilot
5 11 (6.18%) Google Workspace
6 10 (5.62%) AWS
6 10 (5.62%) Power Platform
7 8 (4.49%) Azure Sentinel
7 8 (4.49%) Power Automate
8 7 (3.93%) Copilot Studio
8 7 (3.93%) SaaS
9 3 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
9 3 (1.69%) IaaS
9 3 (1.69%) Microsoft Purview
9 3 (1.69%) PaaS
10 2 (1.12%) Mimecast
11 1 (0.56%) OneDrive
11 1 (0.56%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 37 (20.79%) Firewall
2 20 (11.24%) VPN
3 19 (10.67%) DHCP
3 19 (10.67%) DNS
3 19 (10.67%) VLAN
4 16 (8.99%) WAN
5 14 (7.87%) LAN
5 14 (7.87%) Wi-Fi
6 13 (7.30%) SSL
7 11 (6.18%) Network Security
7 11 (6.18%) VoIP
8 6 (3.37%) TCP/IP
9 4 (2.25%) SAN
10 2 (1.12%) IPsec
10 2 (1.12%) SD-WAN
11 1 (0.56%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.49%) Power BI
2 3 (1.69%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.12%) KNIME
Development Applications
1 1 (0.56%) JIRA
General
1 59 (33.15%) Social Skills
2 27 (15.17%) Analytical Skills
3 25 (14.04%) Legal
4 18 (10.11%) Finance
5 13 (7.30%) Manufacturing
6 11 (6.18%) Law
7 10 (5.62%) Aerospace
8 9 (5.06%) Public Sector
9 6 (3.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (3.37%) Retail
10 4 (2.25%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (2.25%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (2.25%) Telecoms
11 3 (1.69%) Aviation
11 3 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
12 2 (1.12%) Pharmaceutical
12 2 (1.12%) Social Housing
13 1 (0.56%) Banking
13 1 (0.56%) Games
13 1 (0.56%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 37 (20.79%) IT Support
2 33 (18.54%) IT Manager
3 31 (17.42%) IT Engineer
4 21 (11.80%) Support Engineer
5 20 (11.24%) IT Support Engineer
6 19 (10.67%) Operations Manager
7 17 (9.55%) IT Operations Manager
8 16 (8.99%) Compliance Manager
9 15 (8.43%) Senior
10 14 (7.87%) IT Technician
10 14 (7.87%) Senior IT Support
11 13 (7.30%) Security Manager
11 13 (7.30%) Support Technician
12 12 (6.74%) Analyst
12 12 (6.74%) Lead
13 11 (6.18%) Senior IT Engineer
13 11 (6.18%) Senior Support Engineer
14 10 (5.62%) IT Support Technician
15 9 (5.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 9 (5.06%) Security Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 28 (15.73%) Management Information System
2 27 (15.17%) Security Posture
3 19 (10.67%) Driving Licence
4 16 (8.99%) Analytical Mindset
4 16 (8.99%) Onboarding
5 8 (4.49%) Cyber Threat
6 6 (3.37%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (2.81%) Cyber Security Posture
7 5 (2.81%) Data Centre
8 4 (2.25%) BYOD
8 4 (2.25%) Culture of Ownership
9 3 (1.69%) Robotics
10 2 (1.12%) AI Agents
10 2 (1.12%) Housing Association
10 2 (1.12%) NHS
10 2 (1.12%) Private Cloud
11 1 (0.56%) Clustering
11 1 (0.56%) Enterprise Software
11 1 (0.56%) PMI
11 1 (0.56%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 61 (34.27%) Windows
2 33 (18.54%) Windows Server
3 16 (8.99%) Windows Server 2019
4 15 (8.43%) Mac OS
5 13 (7.30%) Linux
6 2 (1.12%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (55.62%) Cybersecurity
2 61 (34.27%) Risk Management
3 58 (32.58%) Continuous Improvement
4 49 (27.53%) Disaster Recovery
5 45 (25.28%) Information Security
6 38 (21.35%) Incident Response
6 38 (21.35%) Project Delivery
7 34 (19.10%) ITIL
8 32 (17.98%) Problem-Solving
9 31 (17.42%) Service Management
10 28 (15.73%) Data Protection
10 28 (15.73%) ITSM
11 26 (14.61%) ISMS
11 26 (14.61%) Security Management
12 25 (14.04%) AI
13 24 (13.48%) Service Delivery
13 24 (13.48%) Vulnerability Management
14 23 (12.92%) Information Security Management
15 21 (11.80%) Internal Audit
16 20 (11.24%) IT Strategy
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.06%) SQL
2 7 (3.93%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.37%) C
4 4 (2.25%) XAML
5 2 (1.12%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 41 (23.03%) Degree
2 29 (16.29%) CISSP
3 21 (11.80%) CompTIA Security+
4 19 (10.67%) CISM
5 18 (10.11%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (8.99%) Security Cleared
7 12 (6.74%) DBS Check
7 12 (6.74%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (6.18%) SC Cleared
9 7 (3.93%) Cisco Certification
9 7 (3.93%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (2.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 4 (2.25%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.25%) BPSS Clearance
10 4 (2.25%) CCSP
10 4 (2.25%) CEH
11 3 (1.69%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 2 (1.12%) CompTIA CySA+
12 2 (1.12%) CREST Certified
12 2 (1.12%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 178 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 104 (58.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 32 (17.98%) GDPR
4 22 (12.36%) ISO 9001
5 19 (10.67%) NIST
6 18 (10.11%) ISO 14001
7 16 (8.99%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 10 (5.62%) GRC
9 8 (4.49%) NCSC
10 7 (3.93%) PCI DSS
10 7 (3.93%) SOC 2
11 6 (3.37%) SLA
12 4 (2.25%) Actionable Recommendations
13 3 (1.69%) Def Stans
13 3 (1.69%) QA
14 1 (0.56%) COBIT
14 1 (0.56%) Data Quality
14 1 (0.56%) GxP
14 1 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 1 (0.56%) NIST 800
System Software
1 45 (25.28%) Active Directory
2 20 (11.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (9.55%) Hyper-V
4 5 (2.81%) Firmware
5 3 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (1.12%) Docker
6 2 (1.12%) vSphere
7 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.56%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 49 (27.53%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (7.30%) Jamf Pro
3 3 (1.69%) Nessus
3 3 (1.69%) Proxmox
3 3 (1.69%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (1.12%) FortiGate
4 2 (1.12%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.56%) SCCM
5 1 (0.56%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 101 (56.74%) Microsoft
2 22 (12.36%) VMware
3 14 (7.87%) Cisco
3 14 (7.87%) Veeam
4 11 (6.18%) Apple
4 11 (6.18%) Datto
4 11 (6.18%) Google
4 11 (6.18%) SonicWALL
5 4 (2.25%) Meraki
6 3 (1.69%) Dell
6 3 (1.69%) Fortinet
7 2 (1.12%) Palo Alto
7 2 (1.12%) Qualys
7 2 (1.12%) Splunk
7 2 (1.12%) Tenable
7 2 (1.12%) Ubiquiti
8 1 (0.56%) LogicMonitor
8 1 (0.56%) Nimble Storage
8 1 (0.56%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.56%) SolarWinds