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

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 411 428 572
Rank change year-on-year +17 +144 +112
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 120 95 123
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.23% 0.34% 0.21%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.35% 2.09% 1.50%
Number of salaries quoted 105 41 103
10th Percentile £30,250 £36,250 £31,000
25th Percentile £38,750 £42,000 £40,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -7.95%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £68,945
90th Percentile £75,000 £88,750 £82,500
UK median annual salary £63,000 £57,500 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.57% -4.17% -4.38%

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 5,110 4,536 8,217
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 9.90% 16.03% 14.20%
Number of salaries quoted 2,724 2,279 5,810
10th Percentile £29,000 £29,750 £25,750
25th Percentile £36,125 £38,750 £32,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £54,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% +13.68% -5.00%
75th Percentile £66,250 £70,425 £63,750
90th Percentile £84,375 £83,750 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +9.09% -4.35%

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 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 9 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 -14 46 £65,000 +18.18% 21
Midlands +9 31 £53,750 +5.19% 10
North of England -18 24 £45,000 +12.50% 11
West Midlands +23 23 £52,500 +0.57% 7
Yorkshire -29 13 £30,000 -58.62% 2
South West -30 12 £42,500 -34.62% 9
East Midlands -20 8 £55,000 +37.50% 3
North West -16 7 £43,500 +8.75% 9
East of England +5 4 £37,262 - 4
North East -14 4 £105,000 +191.67%
Scotland -8 3 £60,000 +37.14% 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 25 (20.83%) SharePoint
2 20 (16.67%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (5.00%) WordPress
4 5 (4.17%) Drupal
4 5 (4.17%) nginx
5 1 (0.83%) CMS
Applications
1 4 (3.33%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.83%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 55 (45.83%) Microsoft 365
2 39 (32.50%) Azure
3 32 (26.67%) Entra ID
4 20 (16.67%) AWS
5 9 (7.50%) SaaS
6 8 (6.67%) OneDrive
7 5 (4.17%) Azure Sentinel
7 5 (4.17%) Microsoft Purview
8 4 (3.33%) Cloud Computing
9 3 (2.50%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 3 (2.50%) IaaS
9 3 (2.50%) PaaS
9 3 (2.50%) Power Automate
9 3 (2.50%) Power Platform
10 2 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
11 1 (0.83%) Amazon EKS
11 1 (0.83%) AWS Control Tower
11 1 (0.83%) GCP
11 1 (0.83%) Mimecast
11 1 (0.83%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 17 (14.17%) Firewall
2 15 (12.50%) DHCP
2 15 (12.50%) DNS
3 12 (10.00%) Wi-Fi
4 11 (9.17%) VPN
4 11 (9.17%) WAN
5 10 (8.33%) LAN
6 3 (2.50%) Network Security
7 1 (0.83%) BGP
7 1 (0.83%) Internet
7 1 (0.83%) SD-WAN
7 1 (0.83%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.83%) Unified Communications
7 1 (0.83%) VLAN
7 1 (0.83%) Wireless
7 1 (0.83%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (4.17%) MariaDB
2 4 (3.33%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.67%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 1 (0.83%) Burp Suite
1 1 (0.83%) JIRA
1 1 (0.83%) Metasploit
General
1 59 (49.17%) Social Skills
2 20 (16.67%) Organisational Skills
3 17 (14.17%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (13.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 10 (8.33%) Finance
6 9 (7.50%) Public Sector
7 6 (5.00%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (4.17%) Local Government
8 5 (4.17%) Manufacturing
8 5 (4.17%) Police
9 3 (2.50%) Retail
10 2 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.67%) Legal
11 1 (0.83%) Banking
11 1 (0.83%) Electronics
11 1 (0.83%) Games
11 1 (0.83%) Marketing
11 1 (0.83%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 36 (30.00%) Security Manager
2 23 (19.17%) Cybersecurity Manager
3 22 (18.33%) IT Manager
4 18 (15.00%) Security Assurance Manager
5 17 (14.17%) IT Engineer
5 17 (14.17%) IT Support
6 11 (9.17%) Analyst
7 10 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (7.50%) Information Security Manager
8 9 (7.50%) Infrastructure Operations Engineer
8 9 (7.50%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (7.50%) Operations Engineer
8 9 (7.50%) Support Engineer
9 8 (6.67%) IT Security Manager
9 8 (6.67%) IT Support Engineer
9 8 (6.67%) Operations Manager
10 7 (5.83%) Information Manager
10 7 (5.83%) IT Operations Manager
11 6 (5.00%) Head of IT
11 6 (5.00%) Support Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.83%) HTML
1 1 (0.83%) OAuth
1 1 (0.83%) SAP CAF
Miscellaneous
1 18 (15.00%) Security Posture
2 14 (11.67%) Driving Licence
3 12 (10.00%) Cyber Threat
4 11 (9.17%) Management Information System
4 11 (9.17%) Onboarding
5 8 (6.67%) Security Operations Centre
6 7 (5.83%) Replication
7 4 (3.33%) Cyber Security Posture
7 4 (3.33%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (3.33%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (2.50%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (1.67%) Cloud Native
9 2 (1.67%) Cloud Security Posture
9 2 (1.67%) Educational Technology
9 2 (1.67%) NHS
10 1 (0.83%) AS400
10 1 (0.83%) Legacy Applications
10 1 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
10 1 (0.83%) Robotics
10 1 (0.83%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 26 (21.67%) Windows
2 8 (6.67%) Windows 10
3 4 (3.33%) Linux
3 4 (3.33%) Windows Server 2019
4 3 (2.50%) Mac OS
4 3 (2.50%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.83%) Android
5 1 (0.83%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (59.17%) Cybersecurity
2 49 (40.83%) Continuous Improvement
3 42 (35.00%) Information Security
4 27 (22.50%) Problem-Solving
5 26 (21.67%) Disaster Recovery
6 22 (18.33%) ITIL
7 19 (15.83%) Incident Response
8 17 (14.17%) Security Operations
9 16 (13.33%) Roadmaps
10 15 (12.50%) Cloud Security
10 15 (12.50%) Risk Management
10 15 (12.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 14 (11.67%) Business Continuity
12 13 (10.83%) Migration
12 13 (10.83%) Service Delivery
13 11 (9.17%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 11 (9.17%) Regulatory Change
14 9 (7.50%) Customer Service
14 9 (7.50%) IT Strategy
14 9 (7.50%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 9 (7.50%) PowerShell
2 3 (2.50%) SQL
3 2 (1.67%) Bicep
3 2 (1.67%) JavaScript
4 1 (0.83%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 20 (16.67%) CREST Certified
2 17 (14.17%) CISSP
3 16 (13.33%) CISM
4 15 (12.50%) Security Cleared
5 14 (11.67%) Microsoft Certification
5 14 (11.67%) SC Cleared
6 12 (10.00%) BPSS Clearance
7 9 (7.50%) AWS Certification
8 6 (5.00%) CRISC
8 6 (5.00%) Degree
9 4 (3.33%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 4 (3.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (3.33%) Azure Certification
9 4 (3.33%) CCSP
9 4 (3.33%) CEH
9 4 (3.33%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (3.33%) Computer Science Degree
9 4 (3.33%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 4 (3.33%) Master's Degree
10 3 (2.50%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 120 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 91 (75.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (30.83%) GDPR
4 31 (25.83%) NIST
5 25 (20.83%) GRC
6 22 (18.33%) NCSC
6 22 (18.33%) SOC 2
7 20 (16.67%) PCI DSS
8 18 (15.00%) SOC 3
9 9 (7.50%) ISO 9001
10 7 (5.83%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (3.33%) ISO 14001
11 4 (3.33%) ISO 22301
11 4 (3.33%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (1.67%) Def Stans
13 1 (0.83%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 1 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 26 (21.67%) Active Directory
2 5 (4.17%) Docker
3 3 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (1.67%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.83%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 21 (17.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (1.67%) Terraform
3 1 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
3 1 (0.83%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.83%) Nessus
3 1 (0.83%) Nmap
3 1 (0.83%) RSA Archer
3 1 (0.83%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 58 (48.33%) Microsoft
2 11 (9.17%) Cisco
3 10 (8.33%) Meraki
4 6 (5.00%) VMware
5 4 (3.33%) Palo Alto
5 4 (3.33%) SAP
6 3 (2.50%) Google
6 3 (2.50%) Infor
6 3 (2.50%) Tenable
6 3 (2.50%) Ubiquiti
6 3 (2.50%) Xero
7 1 (0.83%) Acronis
7 1 (0.83%) Avaya
7 1 (0.83%) ForgeRock
7 1 (0.83%) Genesys
7 1 (0.83%) HubSpot
7 1 (0.83%) IBM
7 1 (0.83%) Qualys
7 1 (0.83%) ServiceNow
7 1 (0.83%) Trend Micro