CREST Certified Job Trends

CREST Certification
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for CREST Certified qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 16 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 549 613 689
Rank change year-on-year +64 +76 +192
Permanent jobs citing CREST Certified 141 38 146
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.088% 0.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.68% 0.22% 0.62%
Number of salaries quoted 93 28 125
10th Percentile £40,000 £50,125 £42,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £58,438 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £70,000 £70,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.14% - -6.67%
75th Percentile £85,000 £90,000 £87,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £98,000 £105,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £70,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year -7.14% +12.00% +4.17%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

CREST Certified falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 20,713 16,952 23,397
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 27.76% 39.31% 27.62%
Number of salaries quoted 8,355 7,543 16,223
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £43,438 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £59,430 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.45% +8.05% -4.35%
75th Percentile £75,900 £75,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £92,500 £88,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -

CREST Certified
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing CREST Certified relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

CREST Certified job vacancy trend in the UK

CREST Certified
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CREST Certified.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CREST Certified

CREST Certified
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing CREST Certified over the 6 months to 16 March 2026.

Salary histogram for CREST Certified in the UK

CREST Certified
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing CREST Certified within the UK over the 6 months to 16 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
England +52 114 £65,000 -5.45% 37
UK excluding London +32 77 £65,000 -7.14% 35
Work from Home +48 46 £60,000 -25.00% 37
London +23 45 £65,000 -23.53% 14
South East - 26 £65,000 - 18
South West -17 21 £80,000 +14.29% 1
Midlands +1 19 £51,058 - 5
West Midlands - 11 £40,000 - 4
Scotland -7 10 £90,000 +12.50% 4
East Midlands -30 8 £51,058 - 1
North of England -43 1 £55,000 +7.32% 5
North West - 1 £55,000 - 1
East of England - 1 £70,000 - 2

CREST Certified
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 33 (23.40%) AWS
2 26 (18.44%) Azure
3 20 (14.18%) GitHub
3 20 (14.18%) GitHub Actions
4 13 (9.22%) GCP
5 3 (2.13%) Entra ID
5 3 (2.13%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (1.42%) SaaS
7 1 (0.71%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (0.71%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 20 (14.18%) Wireless
2 7 (4.96%) TCP/IP
3 4 (2.84%) Network Security
4 2 (1.42%) Firewall
4 2 (1.42%) VPN
5 1 (0.71%) Bluetooth
5 1 (0.71%) LoRaWAN
5 1 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (0.71%) Wireshark
5 1 (0.71%) ZigBee
Development Applications
1 28 (19.86%) Burp Suite
1 28 (19.86%) Metasploit
2 20 (14.18%) Jenkins
3 3 (2.13%) Balsamiq
General
1 59 (41.84%) Finance
2 42 (29.79%) Social Skills
3 20 (14.18%) Organisational Skills
4 18 (12.77%) Retail
5 13 (9.22%) Banking
6 12 (8.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 12 (8.51%) Public Sector
7 11 (7.80%) Analytical Skills
7 11 (7.80%) Law
8 6 (4.26%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (3.55%) Financial Institution
10 4 (2.84%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (2.84%) Telecoms
11 3 (2.13%) Aerospace
11 3 (2.13%) Military
12 1 (0.71%) Back Office
12 1 (0.71%) Legal
Job Titles
1 39 (27.66%) Security Manager
2 30 (21.28%) Cybersecurity Manager
3 26 (18.44%) Senior
4 23 (16.31%) Tester
5 21 (14.89%) Penetration Tester
6 20 (14.18%) Applications Engineer
6 20 (14.18%) Consultant
6 20 (14.18%) Security Assurance Manager
6 20 (14.18%) Security Engineer
7 16 (11.35%) Security Consultant
8 12 (8.51%) Analyst
9 11 (7.80%) Senior Analyst
10 10 (7.09%) Business Development Manager
10 10 (7.09%) Business Manager
10 10 (7.09%) Development Manager
11 9 (6.38%) Digital Analyst
11 9 (6.38%) Security Analyst
11 9 (6.38%) Senior Digital Analyst
11 9 (6.38%) Senior Security Analyst
12 8 (5.67%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (0.71%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 48 (34.04%) Security Posture
2 25 (17.73%) Mobile App
3 19 (13.48%) Cyber Defence
4 17 (12.06%) Security Operations Centre
5 12 (8.51%) Cyber Threat
6 11 (7.80%) Insider Threat
7 8 (5.67%) Blog
8 7 (4.96%) Cyberattack
9 4 (2.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 2 (1.42%) CSOC
11 1 (0.71%) Client/Server
11 1 (0.71%) Cloud Native
11 1 (0.71%) Driving Licence
11 1 (0.71%) IoT
11 1 (0.71%) MISP
11 1 (0.71%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 12 (8.51%) Linux
2 11 (7.80%) Windows
3 8 (5.67%) Android
3 8 (5.67%) Apple iOS
4 4 (2.84%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.71%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (60.28%) Penetration Testing
2 75 (53.19%) Cybersecurity
3 45 (31.91%) Application Security
3 45 (31.91%) Red Team
4 43 (30.50%) Mentoring
5 38 (26.95%) Offensive Security
6 37 (26.24%) Agile
7 35 (24.82%) Information Security
8 34 (24.11%) Continuous Improvement
9 32 (22.70%) Security Testing
10 31 (21.99%) Problem-Solving
10 31 (21.99%) Threat Modelling
11 28 (19.86%) Business Strategy
11 28 (19.86%) Business Transformation
11 28 (19.86%) Coaching
11 28 (19.86%) Creative Thinking
11 28 (19.86%) Internal Audit
12 25 (17.73%) Incident Response
13 23 (16.31%) Roadmaps
14 22 (15.60%) Purple Team
Programming Languages
1 41 (29.08%) Python
2 39 (27.66%) Bash
3 35 (24.82%) PowerShell
4 11 (7.80%) Java
5 10 (7.09%) Go
6 7 (4.96%) C#
7 4 (2.84%) Kotlin
7 4 (2.84%) Kusto Query Language
7 4 (2.84%) SQL
8 3 (2.13%) VBScript
9 1 (0.71%) C
9 1 (0.71%) C++
Qualifications
1 53 (37.59%) OSCP
2 29 (20.57%) CHECK Team Member
2 29 (20.57%) CISSP
3 28 (19.86%) Degree
4 24 (17.02%) Security Cleared
5 22 (15.60%) SANS
5 22 (15.60%) SC Cleared
6 21 (14.89%) CHECK Team Leader
7 20 (14.18%) CEH
8 18 (12.77%) CCSAM
9 15 (10.64%) GIAC
10 12 (8.51%) CompTIA Security+
11 9 (6.38%) Cyber Scheme
11 9 (6.38%) GPEN
12 7 (4.96%) CCNA
12 7 (4.96%) Cisco Certification
12 7 (4.96%) CISMP
12 7 (4.96%) MCSE
12 7 (4.96%) Microsoft Certification
12 7 (4.96%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (27.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 27 (19.15%) GDPR
2 27 (19.15%) NIST
3 23 (16.31%) NCSC
4 21 (14.89%) Accessibility
4 21 (14.89%) Cyber Essentials
4 21 (14.89%) GRC
5 20 (14.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 19 (13.48%) SOC 2
7 18 (12.77%) SOC 3
8 16 (11.35%) PCI DSS
9 11 (7.80%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (2.84%) EU AI Act
10 4 (2.84%) QA
11 2 (1.42%) SLA
12 1 (0.71%) JTAG
System Software
1 8 (5.67%) Active Directory
2 1 (0.71%) Hyper-V
2 1 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 19 (13.48%) Nmap
2 17 (12.06%) Nessus
3 7 (4.96%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.42%) QRadar
5 1 (0.71%) Terraform
Vendors
1 11 (7.80%) Microsoft
2 7 (4.96%) Cisco
3 2 (1.42%) Splunk
4 1 (0.71%) Qualys
4 1 (0.71%) Spotify
4 1 (0.71%) Veeam
4 1 (0.71%) VMware