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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 495 467 517
Rank change year-on-year -28 +50 -42
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 171 63 108
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.20% 0.18% 0.20%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.10% 1.34% 1.57%
Number of salaries quoted 127 53 43
10th Percentile £31,250 £30,500 £40,400
25th Percentile £38,500 £32,500 £43,121
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £41,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +26.51% -17.00% -7.41%
75th Percentile £65,000 £52,250 £62,500
90th Percentile £82,500 £72,500 £74,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £63,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% -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 8,132 4,704 6,865
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 9.51% 13.79% 12.84%
Number of salaries quoted 5,141 2,441 3,186
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £27,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £34,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £67,500 £66,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £82,500 £80,000 £80,000
UK median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year - - -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 23 September 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 September 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 -20 57 £42,500 +2.41% 36
North of England -31 41 £55,000 +33.33% 19
Yorkshire -13 29 £57,500 +4.55% 10
South West -59 26 £53,750 +16.22% 11
Midlands -43 24 £58,589 +67.40% 17
East Midlands -22 16 £58,589 +67.40% 2
East of England -24 15 £35,000 -53.95% 6
West Midlands -37 8 £57,000 +75.38% 15
Scotland +15 7 £63,750 +70.00% 18
North West -29 7 £45,000 +63.64% 8
North East -68 5 £40,000 -50.00% 3
Northern Ireland - 1 £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 23 (13.45%) SharePoint
2 19 (11.11%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.58%) Confluence
3 1 (0.58%) Site Server
Applications
1 12 (7.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (1.17%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 85 (49.71%) Microsoft 365
2 79 (46.20%) Azure
3 68 (39.77%) Entra ID
4 15 (8.77%) Microsoft Copilot
5 11 (6.43%) AWS
5 11 (6.43%) Google Workspace
5 11 (6.43%) Power Platform
6 9 (5.26%) Azure Sentinel
7 8 (4.68%) NetDocuments
7 8 (4.68%) Power Automate
7 8 (4.68%) SaaS
8 7 (4.09%) Copilot Studio
9 4 (2.34%) Dynamics 365
9 4 (2.34%) IaaS
9 4 (2.34%) PaaS
10 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Purview
11 2 (1.17%) Mimecast
12 1 (0.58%) Azure Monitor
12 1 (0.58%) OneDrive
12 1 (0.58%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 33 (19.30%) Firewall
2 20 (11.70%) VPN
3 19 (11.11%) DHCP
3 19 (11.11%) DNS
3 19 (11.11%) VLAN
4 16 (9.36%) WAN
5 14 (8.19%) LAN
6 13 (7.60%) SSL
7 12 (7.02%) Wi-Fi
8 11 (6.43%) VoIP
9 9 (5.26%) Network Security
10 6 (3.51%) TCP/IP
11 4 (2.34%) SAN
12 2 (1.17%) IPsec
12 2 (1.17%) SD-WAN
13 1 (0.58%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.68%) Power BI
2 3 (1.75%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.17%) KNIME
4 1 (0.58%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 1 (0.58%) JIRA
General
1 62 (36.26%) Social Skills
2 27 (15.79%) Analytical Skills
3 25 (14.62%) Legal
4 19 (11.11%) Finance
5 12 (7.02%) Manufacturing
6 11 (6.43%) Aerospace
6 11 (6.43%) Law
7 8 (4.68%) Public Sector
8 6 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (2.34%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.34%) Retail
9 4 (2.34%) Telecoms
10 3 (1.75%) Aviation
10 3 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.75%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (1.17%) Banking
12 1 (0.58%) Aeronautics
12 1 (0.58%) Games
12 1 (0.58%) Local Government
12 1 (0.58%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 32 (18.71%) IT Manager
2 31 (18.13%) IT Support
3 26 (15.20%) IT Engineer
4 19 (11.11%) Operations Manager
5 17 (9.94%) IT Operations Manager
6 16 (9.36%) Support Engineer
7 15 (8.77%) IT Support Engineer
7 15 (8.77%) Senior
8 14 (8.19%) IT Technician
8 14 (8.19%) Senior IT Support
9 13 (7.60%) Analyst
9 13 (7.60%) Compliance Manager
9 13 (7.60%) Security Manager
9 13 (7.60%) Support Technician
10 12 (7.02%) Lead
11 11 (6.43%) Security Analyst
11 11 (6.43%) Senior IT Engineer
11 11 (6.43%) Senior Support Engineer
12 10 (5.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 10 (5.85%) IT Support Technician
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.58%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 33 (19.30%) Management Information System
2 29 (16.96%) Security Posture
3 18 (10.53%) Driving Licence
4 13 (7.60%) Analytical Mindset
5 12 (7.02%) Onboarding
6 7 (4.09%) Cyber Threat
7 6 (3.51%) Self-Motivation
8 5 (2.92%) Cyber Security Posture
8 5 (2.92%) Data Centre
9 4 (2.34%) BYOD
9 4 (2.34%) Culture of Ownership
10 3 (1.75%) Robotics
11 2 (1.17%) AI Agents
11 2 (1.17%) Cloud Native
11 2 (1.17%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
11 2 (1.17%) Private Cloud
12 1 (0.58%) Enterprise Storage
12 1 (0.58%) IoT
12 1 (0.58%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 57 (33.33%) Windows
2 34 (19.88%) Windows Server
3 16 (9.36%) Windows Server 2019
4 13 (7.60%) Linux
4 13 (7.60%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.58%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (59.06%) Cybersecurity
2 58 (33.92%) Risk Management
3 54 (31.58%) Continuous Improvement
4 45 (26.32%) Disaster Recovery
4 45 (26.32%) Information Security
5 39 (22.81%) Incident Response
6 36 (21.05%) Project Delivery
7 33 (19.30%) ITIL
7 33 (19.30%) Problem-Solving
8 31 (18.13%) Data Protection
8 31 (18.13%) ISMS
8 31 (18.13%) Security Management
9 30 (17.54%) Service Management
10 28 (16.37%) Vulnerability Management
11 27 (15.79%) Information Security Management
11 27 (15.79%) ITSM
12 26 (15.20%) AI
13 24 (14.04%) Service Delivery
13 24 (14.04%) Stakeholder Management
14 21 (12.28%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 10 (5.85%) SQL
2 8 (4.68%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.51%) C
4 4 (2.34%) XAML
5 3 (1.75%) Bicep
6 1 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.58%) Python
Qualifications
1 41 (23.98%) Degree
2 29 (16.96%) CISSP
3 21 (12.28%) CompTIA Security+
4 19 (11.11%) CISM
5 18 (10.53%) Microsoft Certification
5 18 (10.53%) Security Cleared
6 12 (7.02%) DBS Check
6 12 (7.02%) Network+ Certification
6 12 (7.02%) SC Cleared
7 6 (3.51%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 5 (2.92%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (2.92%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (2.34%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 4 (2.34%) Azure Certification
9 4 (2.34%) CCSP
9 4 (2.34%) CISA
10 3 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (1.17%) CREST Certified
11 2 (1.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 2 (1.17%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 171 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 100 (58.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 34 (19.88%) GDPR
4 23 (13.45%) NIST
5 20 (11.70%) ISO 9001
6 15 (8.77%) ISO 14001
7 13 (7.60%) ISO/IEC 20000
8 10 (5.85%) GRC
9 9 (5.26%) NCSC
10 8 (4.68%) PCI DSS
11 7 (4.09%) SOC 2
12 6 (3.51%) SLA
13 3 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 3 (1.75%) QA
14 2 (1.17%) COBIT
14 2 (1.17%) Data Quality
14 2 (1.17%) GxP
14 2 (1.17%) NIST 800
15 1 (0.58%) Def Stans
15 1 (0.58%) RMADS
System Software
1 41 (23.98%) Active Directory
2 20 (11.70%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (9.94%) Hyper-V
4 5 (2.92%) Firmware
5 4 (2.34%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (1.17%) Docker
6 2 (1.17%) vSphere
7 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.58%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 47 (27.49%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (7.60%) Jamf Pro
3 4 (2.34%) Single Sign-On
4 3 (1.75%) Nessus
4 3 (1.75%) Proxmox
5 2 (1.17%) FortiGate
5 2 (1.17%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.58%) SCCM
6 1 (0.58%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 101 (59.06%) Microsoft
2 22 (12.87%) VMware
3 14 (8.19%) Cisco
3 14 (8.19%) Veeam
4 11 (6.43%) Apple
4 11 (6.43%) Datto
4 11 (6.43%) Google
4 11 (6.43%) SonicWALL
5 4 (2.34%) Meraki
6 3 (1.75%) Dell
6 3 (1.75%) Fortinet
7 2 (1.17%) Palo Alto
7 2 (1.17%) Qualys
7 2 (1.17%) Splunk
7 2 (1.17%) Tenable
8 1 (0.58%) LogicMonitor
8 1 (0.58%) Nimble Storage
8 1 (0.58%) Salesforce
8 1 (0.58%) SolarWinds
8 1 (0.58%) Thales