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 10 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 421 480 464
Rank change year-on-year +59 -16 +294
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials PLUS 83 117 94
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.21% 0.27% 0.32%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.80% 1.85% 2.20%
Number of salaries quoted 71 38 79
10th Percentile £26,250 £33,000 £34,250
25th Percentile £32,500 £42,000 £41,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £48,500 £51,843 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.45% +3.69% -18.03%
75th Percentile £59,375 £69,315 £67,500
90th Percentile £72,500 £89,125 £72,500
UK median annual salary £57,500 £67,155 £60,000
% change year-on-year -14.38% +11.93% -3.61%

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 4,601 6,333 4,265
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.58% 14.80% 14.67%
Number of salaries quoted 2,508 2,741 3,128
10th Percentile £28,750 £29,750 £28,290
25th Percentile £34,500 £37,500 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £52,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% +5.00%
75th Percentile £65,000 £68,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £83,750 £82,500
UK median annual salary £57,500 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -4.17% - +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 10 December 2025.

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 10 December 2025. 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 +42 33 £52,000 +15.56% 23
North of England +17 20 £27,500 -31.25% 13
Midlands +35 17 £35,000 -39.13% 18
Yorkshire -5 12 £45,000 +38.46% 3
West Midlands +35 11 £45,000 -25.00% 12
South West +14 9 £52,500 -14.29% 9
North West +30 6 £27,500 -31.25% 7
East Midlands +13 6 £35,000 -26.32% 6
Scotland +3 3 £57,500 - 2
North East +8 2 £105,000 +130.77% 3
East of England +25 1 £76,000 - 4
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 18 (21.69%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (12.05%) WordPress
3 9 (10.84%) SharePoint
4 8 (9.64%) Exchange Server 2013
5 5 (6.02%) Drupal
5 5 (6.02%) nginx
6 1 (1.20%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (10.84%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 5 (6.02%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 40 (48.19%) Microsoft 365
2 28 (33.73%) Azure
3 23 (27.71%) AWS
4 21 (25.30%) Entra ID
5 11 (13.25%) Dynamics 365
6 7 (8.43%) Cloud Computing
6 7 (8.43%) Power Platform
6 7 (8.43%) SaaS
7 6 (7.23%) OneDrive
8 5 (6.02%) Power Automate
9 4 (4.82%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (4.82%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (3.61%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 2 (2.41%) Azure Key Vault
11 2 (2.41%) IaaS
11 2 (2.41%) PaaS
12 1 (1.20%) Amazon EKS
12 1 (1.20%) AWS Control Tower
12 1 (1.20%) Azure AKS
12 1 (1.20%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 16 (19.28%) Firewall
2 13 (15.66%) DNS
3 12 (14.46%) DHCP
3 12 (14.46%) WAN
4 11 (13.25%) LAN
5 9 (10.84%) SAN
5 9 (10.84%) VLAN
5 9 (10.84%) VPN
5 9 (10.84%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (2.41%) Network Security
6 2 (2.41%) Unified Communications
7 1 (1.20%) BGP
7 1 (1.20%) Internet
7 1 (1.20%) SD-WAN
7 1 (1.20%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (7.23%) Power BI
2 5 (6.02%) MariaDB
General
1 52 (62.65%) Social Skills
2 12 (14.46%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (9.64%) Organisational Skills
4 6 (7.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 6 (7.23%) Public Sector
5 5 (6.02%) Finance
5 5 (6.02%) Local Government
5 5 (6.02%) Police
6 3 (3.61%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (2.41%) Law
8 1 (1.20%) Legal
8 1 (1.20%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 15 (18.07%) Security Manager
2 13 (15.66%) Analyst
3 12 (14.46%) Support Technician
4 11 (13.25%) Cybersecurity Manager
4 11 (13.25%) Infrastructure Support
5 10 (12.05%) IT Manager
5 10 (12.05%) IT Support
6 9 (10.84%) Security Assurance Manager
7 8 (9.64%) 3rd Line Support
7 8 (9.64%) 3rd Line Support Technician
7 8 (9.64%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 7 (8.43%) Support Engineer
9 6 (7.23%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
9 6 (7.23%) Security Specialist
10 5 (6.02%) Applications Engineer
10 5 (6.02%) Applications Support
10 5 (6.02%) Applications Support Analyst
10 5 (6.02%) Head of IT
10 5 (6.02%) Infrastructure Analyst
10 5 (6.02%) Support Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (6.02%) HTML
2 1 (1.20%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 14 (16.87%) Onboarding
2 12 (14.46%) Security Posture
3 9 (10.84%) Replication
4 6 (7.23%) Management Information System
5 5 (6.02%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (4.82%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (4.82%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (3.61%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (3.61%) Security Operations Centre
8 2 (2.41%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (2.41%) Cloud Native
8 2 (2.41%) Cloud Security Posture
8 2 (2.41%) Cyber Security Posture
8 2 (2.41%) Driving Licence
8 2 (2.41%) Educational Technology
9 1 (1.20%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (1.20%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (1.20%) iSeries
9 1 (1.20%) Legacy Applications
9 1 (1.20%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 27 (32.53%) Windows
2 14 (16.87%) Windows 10
3 13 (15.66%) Windows Server
4 6 (7.23%) Mac OS
5 4 (4.82%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (1.20%) Apple iOS
6 1 (1.20%) Linux
6 1 (1.20%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (57.83%) Cybersecurity
2 37 (44.58%) Information Security
3 30 (36.14%) Problem-Solving
4 21 (25.30%) Continuous Improvement
4 21 (25.30%) ITIL
5 20 (24.10%) Agile
6 12 (14.46%) Business Continuity
6 12 (14.46%) Migration
6 12 (14.46%) Process Improvement
7 11 (13.25%) Data Protection
7 11 (13.25%) Risk Management
8 9 (10.84%) Knowledge Transfer
8 9 (10.84%) Security Operations
8 9 (10.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 8 (9.64%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 8 (9.64%) Regulatory Change
9 8 (9.64%) Roadmaps
9 8 (9.64%) Service Management
10 7 (8.43%) Disaster Recovery
10 7 (8.43%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (7.23%) PowerShell
2 3 (3.61%) Kusto Query Language
2 3 (3.61%) SQL
3 2 (2.41%) Bicep
3 2 (2.41%) Python
Qualifications
1 13 (15.66%) CISSP
2 12 (14.46%) CISM
3 10 (12.05%) Microsoft Certification
4 9 (10.84%) CREST Certified
5 7 (8.43%) AWS Certification
5 7 (8.43%) Degree
6 5 (6.02%) A+ Certification
6 5 (6.02%) MCP
7 4 (4.82%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 4 (4.82%) CCSP
7 4 (4.82%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (4.82%) CRISC
8 3 (3.61%) CEH
9 2 (2.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (2.41%) Azure Certification
9 2 (2.41%) CISA
9 2 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (2.41%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 2 (2.41%) Master's Degree
9 2 (2.41%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (100.00%) Cyber Essentials
2 61 (73.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 20 (24.10%) NIST
4 17 (20.48%) GDPR
4 17 (20.48%) GRC
5 13 (15.66%) PCI DSS
6 12 (14.46%) SOC 2
7 11 (13.25%) NCSC
8 8 (9.64%) SOC 3
9 5 (6.02%) ISO 9001
10 4 (4.82%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 4 (4.82%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (1.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 17 (20.48%) Active Directory
2 12 (14.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (13.25%) Hyper-V
4 5 (6.02%) Docker
5 1 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 18 (21.69%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (10.84%) SCCM
3 2 (2.41%) Terraform
4 1 (1.20%) Jamf Pro
4 1 (1.20%) Kubernetes
4 1 (1.20%) Proxmox
4 1 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 44 (53.01%) Microsoft
2 13 (15.66%) VMware
3 9 (10.84%) arcserve
4 5 (6.02%) Cisco
5 4 (4.82%) Meraki
6 2 (2.41%) Exabeam
6 2 (2.41%) Google
6 2 (2.41%) Palo Alto
6 2 (2.41%) Sophos
6 2 (2.41%) Tenable
7 1 (1.20%) Acronis
7 1 (1.20%) Apple
7 1 (1.20%) Avaya
7 1 (1.20%) CrowdStrike
7 1 (1.20%) Forcepoint
7 1 (1.20%) Genesys
7 1 (1.20%) IBM