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 16 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 425 427 585
Rank change year-on-year +2 +158 +104
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 124 86 120
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.23% 0.31% 0.20%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.34% 1.96% 1.42%
Number of salaries quoted 108 39 100
10th Percentile £30,250 £35,600 £30,775
25th Percentile £37,500 £40,500 £40,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £69,612
90th Percentile £73,750 £89,000 £82,500
UK median annual salary £62,500 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +13.64% -8.33% -7.69%

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 5,310 4,386 8,422
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 9.93% 15.87% 14.26%
Number of salaries quoted 2,858 2,325 5,881
10th Percentile £29,000 £29,000 £25,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £37,716 £32,603
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £53,688 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -6.87% +13.03% -5.00%
75th Percentile £66,250 £70,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £83,750 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year - +11.11% -6.09%

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 16 March 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 16 March 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 +1 48 £65,000 +18.18% 20
Midlands +7 32 £54,000 +5.68% 6
West Midlands +17 24 £52,500 +0.57% 4
North of England -33 24 £45,000 +12.50% 8
Yorkshire -32 14 £30,000 -58.62% 1
South West -40 13 £37,500 -45.45% 3
East Midlands -33 8 £55,000 +37.50% 2
North West -20 7 £50,000 +25.00% 7
East of England -2 4 £37,262 - 6
Scotland -14 3 £60,000 +37.14% 2
North East -22 3 £105,000 +191.67%
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 (19.35%) SharePoint
2 20 (16.13%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (4.03%) Drupal
3 5 (4.03%) nginx
3 5 (4.03%) WordPress
4 1 (0.81%) CMS
Applications
1 4 (3.23%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.81%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 53 (42.74%) Microsoft 365
2 37 (29.84%) Azure
3 32 (25.81%) Entra ID
4 19 (15.32%) AWS
5 9 (7.26%) SaaS
6 7 (5.65%) OneDrive
7 5 (4.03%) Azure Sentinel
7 5 (4.03%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (2.42%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 3 (2.42%) Cloud Computing
8 3 (2.42%) IaaS
8 3 (2.42%) PaaS
9 2 (1.61%) Power Automate
10 1 (0.81%) Amazon EKS
10 1 (0.81%) AWS Control Tower
10 1 (0.81%) Azure AKS
10 1 (0.81%) GCP
10 1 (0.81%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.81%) Nutanix
10 1 (0.81%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 18 (14.52%) Firewall
2 15 (12.10%) DHCP
2 15 (12.10%) DNS
3 13 (10.48%) Wi-Fi
4 11 (8.87%) VPN
4 11 (8.87%) WAN
5 10 (8.06%) LAN
6 4 (3.23%) Network Security
7 1 (0.81%) BGP
7 1 (0.81%) Internet
7 1 (0.81%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.81%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.81%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.81%) VLAN
7 1 (0.81%) Wireless
7 1 (0.81%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.03%) MariaDB
2 4 (3.23%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.81%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (0.81%) Burp Suite
1 1 (0.81%) JIRA
1 1 (0.81%) Metasploit
General
1 57 (45.97%) Social Skills
2 21 (16.94%) Organisational Skills
3 19 (15.32%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (12.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 10 (8.06%) Finance
5 10 (8.06%) Public Sector
6 6 (4.84%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (4.03%) Local Government
7 5 (4.03%) Manufacturing
7 5 (4.03%) Police
8 4 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (3.23%) Retail
9 2 (1.61%) Legal
10 1 (0.81%) Banking
10 1 (0.81%) Electronics
10 1 (0.81%) Games
10 1 (0.81%) Marketing
10 1 (0.81%) Social Housing
10 1 (0.81%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 37 (29.84%) Security Manager
2 24 (19.35%) Cybersecurity Manager
3 23 (18.55%) IT Manager
4 19 (15.32%) IT Engineer
5 18 (14.52%) IT Support
5 18 (14.52%) Security Assurance Manager
6 11 (8.87%) Analyst
6 11 (8.87%) Support Engineer
7 10 (8.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 10 (8.06%) IT Support Engineer
8 9 (7.26%) Information Security Manager
8 9 (7.26%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
8 9 (7.26%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (7.26%) Operations Engineer
9 8 (6.45%) IT Security Manager
9 8 (6.45%) Operations Manager
10 7 (5.65%) Information Manager
10 7 (5.65%) IT Operations Manager
11 6 (4.84%) Support Analyst
12 5 (4.03%) Support Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.81%) OAuth
1 1 (0.81%) SAP CAF
Miscellaneous
1 19 (15.32%) Security Posture
2 15 (12.10%) Driving Licence
3 12 (9.68%) Cyber Threat
4 10 (8.06%) Management Information System
4 10 (8.06%) Onboarding
5 8 (6.45%) Security Operations Centre
6 7 (5.65%) Replication
7 5 (4.03%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (3.23%) Cyber Security Posture
8 4 (3.23%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (3.23%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (2.42%) NHS
10 2 (1.61%) Cloud Native
10 2 (1.61%) Cloud Security Posture
10 2 (1.61%) Educational Technology
11 1 (0.81%) Enterprise Storage
11 1 (0.81%) Housing Association
11 1 (0.81%) Legacy Systems
11 1 (0.81%) Robotics
11 1 (0.81%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 26 (20.97%) Windows
2 7 (5.65%) Windows 10
3 4 (3.23%) Linux
3 4 (3.23%) Mac OS
3 4 (3.23%) Windows Server 2019
4 2 (1.61%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.81%) Android
5 1 (0.81%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (58.06%) Cybersecurity
2 51 (41.13%) Continuous Improvement
3 42 (33.87%) Information Security
4 27 (21.77%) Disaster Recovery
5 25 (20.16%) Problem-Solving
6 21 (16.94%) ITIL
7 19 (15.32%) Incident Response
7 19 (15.32%) Risk Management
8 16 (12.90%) Security Operations
8 16 (12.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 15 (12.10%) Business Continuity
9 15 (12.10%) Cloud Security
9 15 (12.10%) Roadmaps
10 12 (9.68%) Migration
10 12 (9.68%) Service Delivery
11 11 (8.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 11 (8.87%) IT Strategy
11 11 (8.87%) Regulatory Change
12 9 (7.26%) Customer Service
12 9 (7.26%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 8 (6.45%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.42%) SQL
3 2 (1.61%) Bicep
3 2 (1.61%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.81%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 20 (16.13%) CREST Certified
2 19 (15.32%) CISSP
3 18 (14.52%) CISM
4 15 (12.10%) Security Cleared
5 14 (11.29%) SC Cleared
6 13 (10.48%) Microsoft Certification
7 12 (9.68%) BPSS Clearance
8 8 (6.45%) AWS Certification
9 6 (4.84%) CRISC
9 6 (4.84%) Degree
10 5 (4.03%) CEH
10 5 (4.03%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (3.23%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (3.23%) CCSP
12 3 (2.42%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (2.42%) Azure Certification
12 3 (2.42%) CISA
12 3 (2.42%) Computer Science Degree
12 3 (2.42%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 3 (2.42%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 124 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 95 (76.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 36 (29.03%) GDPR
4 32 (25.81%) NIST
5 26 (20.97%) GRC
6 22 (17.74%) NCSC
6 22 (17.74%) SOC 2
7 20 (16.13%) PCI DSS
8 18 (14.52%) SOC 3
9 11 (8.87%) ISO 9001
10 8 (6.45%) Actionable Recommendations
11 6 (4.84%) ISO 14001
12 4 (3.23%) ISO 22301
12 4 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 3 (2.42%) Def Stans
13 3 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 1 (0.81%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 28 (22.58%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.03%) Docker
3 3 (2.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.61%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.81%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.81%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 20 (16.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.61%) Terraform
3 1 (0.81%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.81%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.81%) Nessus
3 1 (0.81%) Nmap
3 1 (0.81%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 56 (45.16%) Microsoft
2 11 (8.87%) Cisco
3 10 (8.06%) Meraki
4 6 (4.84%) VMware
5 4 (3.23%) Palo Alto
5 4 (3.23%) SAP
5 4 (3.23%) Ubiquiti
6 3 (2.42%) Google
6 3 (2.42%) Infor
6 3 (2.42%) Tenable
6 3 (2.42%) Xero
7 1 (0.81%) Acronis
7 1 (0.81%) Autodesk
7 1 (0.81%) Avaya
7 1 (0.81%) ForgeRock
7 1 (0.81%) Genesys
7 1 (0.81%) HubSpot
7 1 (0.81%) Qualys
7 1 (0.81%) ServiceNow
7 1 (0.81%) Trend Micro