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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 474 487 586
Rank change year-on-year +13 +99 -70
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 178 57 92
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.22% 0.16% 0.15%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.33% 1.16% 1.22%
Number of salaries quoted 137 44 58
10th Percentile £31,150 £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% -20.00%
75th Percentile £63,750 £52,938 £67,500
90th Percentile £81,250 £57,500 £76,250
UK median annual salary £57,500 £63,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year -8.73% -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 7,651 4,911 7,560
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 9.57% 14.08% 12.61%
Number of salaries quoted 4,888 2,623 4,222
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £26,250
25th Percentile £38,984 £34,750 £35,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £50,000 £49,000
Median % change year-on-year - +2.04% -3.92%
75th Percentile £67,500 £65,000 £63,750
90th Percentile £82,500 £80,000 £78,750
UK median annual salary £57,500 £57,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +0.88% +3.64% -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 27 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 27 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 +5 62 £42,500 +2.41% 6
North of England -12 42 £47,500 -13.64% 10
Yorkshire -8 31 £55,000 - 5
Midlands -12 28 £58,589 +67.40% 9
South West -52 26 £52,500 -4.55% 8
East Midlands -10 16 £58,589 +67.40% 4
East of England -18 12 £35,000 -53.95% 7
West Midlands -26 12 £52,000 +60.00% 5
Scotland +14 8 £60,000 +60.00% 2
North West -7 8 £47,500 +72.73% 4
North East -59 3 £40,000 -46.67% 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 21 (11.80%) 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 77 (43.26%) Azure
3 68 (38.20%) Entra ID
4 15 (8.43%) Microsoft Copilot
5 10 (5.62%) AWS
5 10 (5.62%) Google Workspace
5 10 (5.62%) Power Platform
6 8 (4.49%) Azure Sentinel
6 8 (4.49%) Power Automate
7 7 (3.93%) Copilot Studio
7 7 (3.93%) SaaS
8 3 (1.69%) Dynamics 365
8 3 (1.69%) IaaS
8 3 (1.69%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (1.69%) PaaS
9 2 (1.12%) Mimecast
10 1 (0.56%) OneDrive
10 1 (0.56%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 36 (20.22%) Firewall
2 19 (10.67%) VPN
3 18 (10.11%) DHCP
3 18 (10.11%) DNS
3 18 (10.11%) VLAN
4 16 (8.99%) WAN
5 14 (7.87%) LAN
6 13 (7.30%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (6.74%) SSL
8 11 (6.18%) Network Security
9 10 (5.62%) VoIP
10 6 (3.37%) TCP/IP
11 4 (2.25%) SAN
12 2 (1.12%) IPsec
12 2 (1.12%) SD-WAN
13 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 58 (32.58%) Social Skills
2 27 (15.17%) Analytical Skills
3 25 (14.04%) Legal
4 17 (9.55%) 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%) Aeronautics
13 1 (0.56%) Local Government
13 1 (0.56%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 37 (20.79%) IT Support
2 33 (18.54%) IT Manager
3 30 (16.85%) IT Engineer
4 20 (11.24%) Support Engineer
5 19 (10.67%) IT Support Engineer
5 19 (10.67%) Operations Manager
6 17 (9.55%) IT Operations Manager
7 16 (8.99%) Compliance Manager
8 14 (7.87%) Analyst
8 14 (7.87%) IT Technician
8 14 (7.87%) Senior
9 13 (7.30%) Security Manager
9 13 (7.30%) Senior IT Support
9 13 (7.30%) Support Technician
10 12 (6.74%) Lead
11 10 (5.62%) IT Support Technician
11 10 (5.62%) Senior IT Engineer
11 10 (5.62%) Senior Support Engineer
12 9 (5.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (5.06%) Security Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 27 (15.17%) Management Information System
1 27 (15.17%) Security Posture
2 18 (10.11%) Driving Licence
3 16 (8.99%) Analytical Mindset
3 16 (8.99%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.49%) Cyber Threat
5 6 (3.37%) Self-Motivation
6 5 (2.81%) Cyber Security Posture
6 5 (2.81%) Data Centre
7 4 (2.25%) BYOD
7 4 (2.25%) Culture of Ownership
8 3 (1.69%) Robotics
9 2 (1.12%) AI Agents
9 2 (1.12%) Housing Association
9 2 (1.12%) NHS
9 2 (1.12%) Private Cloud
10 1 (0.56%) Clustering
10 1 (0.56%) Life Science
10 1 (0.56%) PMI
10 1 (0.56%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 62 (34.83%) Windows
2 32 (17.98%) Windows Server
3 15 (8.43%) Windows Server 2019
4 14 (7.87%) Linux
4 14 (7.87%) Mac OS
5 3 (1.69%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (54.49%) Cybersecurity
2 60 (33.71%) Risk Management
3 58 (32.58%) Continuous Improvement
4 48 (26.97%) Disaster Recovery
5 44 (24.72%) Information Security
6 38 (21.35%) Incident Response
7 37 (20.79%) Project Delivery
8 36 (20.22%) ITIL
9 32 (17.98%) Problem-Solving
10 31 (17.42%) Service Management
11 28 (15.73%) ITSM
12 27 (15.17%) Data Protection
13 25 (14.04%) AI
13 25 (14.04%) ISMS
13 25 (14.04%) Security Management
14 24 (13.48%) Service Delivery
14 24 (13.48%) Vulnerability Management
15 22 (12.36%) Information Security Management
16 21 (11.80%) Internal Audit
17 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 40 (22.47%) Degree
2 28 (15.73%) CISSP
3 19 (10.67%) CompTIA Security+
4 18 (10.11%) CISM
5 17 (9.55%) Microsoft Certification
6 16 (8.99%) Security Cleared
7 11 (6.18%) DBS Check
7 11 (6.18%) Network+ Certification
7 11 (6.18%) SC Cleared
8 7 (3.93%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (3.37%) 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 2 (1.12%) CCNP
11 2 (1.12%) CompTIA CySA+
11 2 (1.12%) GCIH
11 2 (1.12%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 178 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 103 (57.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (17.42%) GDPR
4 22 (12.36%) ISO 9001
5 18 (10.11%) ISO 14001
5 18 (10.11%) NIST
6 16 (8.99%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 9 (5.06%) GRC
8 8 (4.49%) NCSC
9 7 (3.93%) PCI DSS
9 7 (3.93%) SOC 2
10 6 (3.37%) SLA
11 4 (2.25%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (1.69%) Def Stans
12 3 (1.69%) QA
13 1 (0.56%) COBIT
13 1 (0.56%) Data Quality
13 1 (0.56%) GxP
13 1 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 1 (0.56%) NIST 800
System Software
1 46 (25.84%) Active Directory
2 19 (10.67%) VMware Infrastructure
3 16 (8.99%) 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 50 (28.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (6.74%) 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 21 (11.80%) VMware
3 13 (7.30%) Cisco
3 13 (7.30%) Veeam
4 10 (5.62%) Apple
4 10 (5.62%) Datto
4 10 (5.62%) Google
4 10 (5.62%) 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