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

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 422 480 628
Rank change year-on-year +58 +148 -50
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 165 56 127
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.24% 0.19% 0.16%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.60% 1.21% 1.29%
Number of salaries quoted 130 34 99
10th Percentile £30,250 £37,075 £30,550
25th Percentile £38,563 £39,750 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £45,750 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +20.22% -8.50% -20.00%
75th Percentile £64,125 £57,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £77,875 £71,000 £82,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £63,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +14.55% -15.38%

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 6,350 4,624 9,827
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 9.37% 15.37% 12.35%
Number of salaries quoted 4,127 2,340 6,403
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £25,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £35,000 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,500 £47,143
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +11.36% -5.71%
75th Percentile £67,625 £68,114 £62,500
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £58,750 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +2.17% +9.52% -8.70%

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 20 June 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 20 June 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 60 £62,750 +51.20% 10
Midlands +6 35 £54,500 +21.11% 10
North of England 0 33 £45,000 -18.18% 6
Yorkshire -18 24 £45,000 -18.18% 3
South West -43 23 £52,500 -8.70% 7
East Midlands -16 18 £58,589 +46.47% 4
West Midlands -2 17 £45,000 -10.00% 6
East of England -3 10 £51,012 - 6
North West +10 8 £52,925 -3.77% 2
Scotland +13 4 £60,000 +60.00% 2
North East -51 1 £40,000 -46.67% 2
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 26 (15.76%) SharePoint
2 22 (13.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.61%) CMS
3 1 (0.61%) Site Server
Applications
1 6 (3.64%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.61%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.61%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 76 (46.06%) Microsoft 365
2 58 (35.15%) Azure
2 58 (35.15%) Entra ID
3 10 (6.06%) Microsoft Copilot
3 10 (6.06%) Power Automate
4 9 (5.45%) SaaS
5 8 (4.85%) AWS
6 7 (4.24%) Copilot Studio
7 6 (3.64%) OneDrive
8 4 (2.42%) Google Workspace
8 4 (2.42%) IaaS
8 4 (2.42%) PaaS
9 3 (1.82%) Power Platform
10 2 (1.21%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Purview
11 1 (0.61%) Dynamics 365
11 1 (0.61%) Nutanix
11 1 (0.61%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 32 (19.39%) Firewall
2 17 (10.30%) DHCP
2 17 (10.30%) DNS
3 15 (9.09%) VPN
4 14 (8.48%) Wi-Fi
5 11 (6.67%) LAN
5 11 (6.67%) WAN
6 9 (5.45%) VLAN
7 8 (4.85%) Network Security
8 4 (2.42%) SSL
8 4 (2.42%) VoIP
9 2 (1.21%) TCP/IP
10 1 (0.61%) NAS
10 1 (0.61%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.64%) SQL Server
2 2 (1.21%) Power BI
3 1 (0.61%) KNIME
Development Applications
1 1 (0.61%) JIRA
General
1 56 (33.94%) Social Skills
2 25 (15.15%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (10.30%) Legal
4 16 (9.70%) Manufacturing
5 11 (6.67%) Organisational Skills
6 10 (6.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 9 (5.45%) Aerospace
7 9 (5.45%) Finance
7 9 (5.45%) Public Sector
8 8 (4.85%) Retail
9 5 (3.03%) Law
10 4 (2.42%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (2.42%) Telecoms
11 3 (1.82%) Aviation
11 3 (1.82%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (1.21%) Banking
12 2 (1.21%) Games
12 2 (1.21%) Social Housing
13 1 (0.61%) Aeronautics
13 1 (0.61%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 32 (19.39%) IT Engineer
1 32 (19.39%) IT Support
2 28 (16.97%) IT Manager
3 25 (15.15%) Security Manager
4 19 (11.52%) Cybersecurity Manager
5 18 (10.91%) IT Support Engineer
5 18 (10.91%) Support Engineer
6 15 (9.09%) Compliance Manager
7 14 (8.48%) IT Operations Manager
7 14 (8.48%) Operations Manager
8 13 (7.88%) Analyst
8 13 (7.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (6.67%) Lead
10 10 (6.06%) Infrastructure Manager
11 9 (5.45%) IT Infrastructure Manager
11 9 (5.45%) Security Assurance Manager
11 9 (5.45%) Senior
12 8 (4.85%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
12 8 (4.85%) Senior IT Support
13 7 (4.24%) IT Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.61%) SAP CAF
Miscellaneous
1 25 (15.15%) Security Posture
2 20 (12.12%) Management Information System
3 17 (10.30%) Driving Licence
4 14 (8.48%) Analytical Mindset
5 13 (7.88%) Onboarding
6 11 (6.67%) Cyber Threat
7 8 (4.85%) Cyber Security Posture
8 6 (3.64%) Replication
9 4 (2.42%) Security Operations Centre
9 4 (2.42%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.82%) Data Centre
10 3 (1.82%) Robotics
11 2 (1.21%) AI Agents
11 2 (1.21%) Housing Association
11 2 (1.21%) NHS
12 1 (0.61%) Clustering
12 1 (0.61%) Enterprise Storage
12 1 (0.61%) PMI
12 1 (0.61%) Private Cloud
12 1 (0.61%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 54 (32.73%) Windows
2 21 (12.73%) Windows Server
3 11 (6.67%) Linux
4 8 (4.85%) Mac OS
5 7 (4.24%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (1.82%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 89 (53.94%) Cybersecurity
2 53 (32.12%) Continuous Improvement
3 50 (30.30%) Risk Management
4 42 (25.45%) Disaster Recovery
5 38 (23.03%) Information Security
6 31 (18.79%) Incident Response
7 27 (16.36%) ITIL
8 23 (13.94%) Problem-Solving
8 23 (13.94%) Project Delivery
9 22 (13.33%) Roadmaps
10 21 (12.73%) Data Protection
10 21 (12.73%) Internal Audit
10 21 (12.73%) Service Delivery
11 20 (12.12%) Data Security
12 18 (10.91%) IT Strategy
12 18 (10.91%) ITSM
12 18 (10.91%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 17 (10.30%) Business Continuity
13 17 (10.30%) Service Management
14 16 (9.70%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.45%) PowerShell
2 5 (3.03%) C
3 4 (2.42%) SQL
4 2 (1.21%) JavaScript
5 1 (0.61%) Bicep
5 1 (0.61%) XAML
Qualifications
1 26 (15.76%) CISSP
2 25 (15.15%) Security Cleared
3 24 (14.55%) Degree
4 19 (11.52%) SC Cleared
5 17 (10.30%) CISM
6 13 (7.88%) BPSS Clearance
6 13 (7.88%) Microsoft Certification
7 9 (5.45%) CREST Certified
8 8 (4.85%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (3.64%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 5 (3.03%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 5 (3.03%) CCSP
10 5 (3.03%) CompTIA Security+
10 5 (3.03%) DBS Check
10 5 (3.03%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (1.82%) Azure Certification
11 3 (1.82%) CRISC
11 3 (1.82%) DV Cleared
11 3 (1.82%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 2 (1.21%) AAT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 165 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 106 (64.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (20.00%) GDPR
4 18 (10.91%) NIST
5 17 (10.30%) GRC
5 17 (10.30%) ISO 14001
5 17 (10.30%) ISO 9001
5 17 (10.30%) NCSC
6 14 (8.48%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 10 (6.06%) PCI DSS
8 9 (5.45%) Actionable Recommendations
8 9 (5.45%) SOC 2
9 7 (4.24%) SOC 3
10 3 (1.82%) Def Stans
10 3 (1.82%) ISO 22301
11 2 (1.21%) QA
11 2 (1.21%) SLA
12 1 (0.61%) COBIT
12 1 (0.61%) NIST 800
System Software
1 40 (24.24%) Active Directory
2 10 (6.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (4.85%) Hyper-V
4 4 (2.42%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.82%) vSphere
6 1 (0.61%) Docker
6 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 1 (0.61%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 40 (24.24%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (2.42%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.61%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.61%) Nessus
3 1 (0.61%) Proxmox
3 1 (0.61%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.61%) SCCM
3 1 (0.61%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 84 (50.91%) Microsoft
2 12 (7.27%) Cisco
2 12 (7.27%) VMware
3 7 (4.24%) Meraki
4 5 (3.03%) Veeam
5 4 (2.42%) Apple
5 4 (2.42%) Datto
5 4 (2.42%) Google
5 4 (2.42%) SonicWALL
5 4 (2.42%) Ubiquiti
6 3 (1.82%) Infor
6 3 (1.82%) SAP
6 3 (1.82%) Xero
7 2 (1.21%) Qualys
8 1 (0.61%) ForgeRock
8 1 (0.61%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.61%) HubSpot
8 1 (0.61%) Nimble Storage
8 1 (0.61%) ServiceNow
8 1 (0.61%) SolarWinds