Cyber Essentials Job Trends

Cyber Essentials
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 289 362 370
Rank change year-on-year +73 +8 +58
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials 566 314 668
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.65% 0.75% 0.71%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 6.13% 4.66% 5.08%
Number of salaries quoted 422 211 584
10th Percentile £31,250 £37,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £42,500 £45,000 £39,688
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,239 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.45% +4.55% -
75th Percentile £72,500 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £82,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% -0.94%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

Cyber Essentials 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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 9,233 6,742 13,147
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 10.62% 16.15% 13.89%
Number of salaries quoted 5,414 3,896 9,227
10th Percentile £31,250 £30,375 £27,000
25th Percentile £42,500 £42,500 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £59,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% +12.38% -8.70%
75th Percentile £78,800 £76,849 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £53,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year -0.94% +11.58% -5.00%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend in the UK

Cyber Essentials
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Essentials.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials over the 6 months to 19 April 2026.

Salary histogram for Cyber Essentials in the UK

Cyber Essentials
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Essentials within the UK over the 6 months to 19 April 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 +83 533 £57,239 -0.45% 111
UK excluding London +54 404 £52,500 -4.55% 93
Work from Home +65 181 £60,000 +1.27% 44
London +46 138 £70,000 +7.69% 25
North of England -9 119 £50,000 -9.09% 19
South West +38 110 £52,500 -16.00% 11
Midlands +1 75 £52,500 +7.69% 22
Yorkshire -5 72 £52,500 -4.55% 8
South East -51 70 £62,500 +4.17% 30
West Midlands -1 51 £52,500 +5.00% 17
North West -14 44 £43,500 -20.94% 11
East Midlands -39 24 £32,500 -7.14% 4
East of England -36 11 £41,000 -8.89% 9
Wales -19 9 - -
Scotland -31 9 £45,000 -10.00% 4
North East -31 3 £105,000 +81.03% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 £32,500 -

Cyber Essentials
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
1 110 (19.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 62 (10.95%) SharePoint
3 6 (1.06%) Confluence
4 5 (0.88%) Drupal
4 5 (0.88%) nginx
4 5 (0.88%) WordPress
5 1 (0.18%) CMS
Applications
1 11 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.35%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.18%) Elite 3E
1 1 (0.18%) Sage 200
1 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 222 (39.22%) Microsoft 365
2 220 (38.87%) Azure
3 131 (23.14%) Entra ID
4 59 (10.42%) AWS
5 41 (7.24%) Microsoft Purview
6 29 (5.12%) SaaS
7 22 (3.89%) Azure Sentinel
8 19 (3.36%) GCP
9 14 (2.47%) OneDrive
10 12 (2.12%) IaaS
10 12 (2.12%) Mimecast
10 12 (2.12%) Nutanix
10 12 (2.12%) PaaS
11 10 (1.77%) Google Workspace
12 8 (1.41%) Twilio
13 5 (0.88%) GitHub
13 5 (0.88%) Intacct
13 5 (0.88%) Power Automate
13 5 (0.88%) Power Platform
13 5 (0.88%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 121 (21.38%) Firewall
2 116 (20.49%) DNS
3 108 (19.08%) DHCP
4 67 (11.84%) VPN
5 37 (6.54%) WAN
6 34 (6.01%) Network Security
7 32 (5.65%) VoIP
8 30 (5.30%) VLAN
9 24 (4.24%) LAN
9 24 (4.24%) Wi-Fi
10 16 (2.83%) TCP/IP
11 13 (2.30%) SD-WAN
12 8 (1.41%) PBX
12 8 (1.41%) WebEx
13 4 (0.71%) IP Telephony
13 4 (0.71%) Remote Desktop
14 3 (0.53%) DKIM
14 3 (0.53%) DMARC
14 3 (0.53%) Internet
15 2 (0.35%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 65 (11.48%) Amazon RDS
2 13 (2.30%) SQL Server
3 5 (0.88%) MariaDB
4 3 (0.53%) Tableau
5 2 (0.35%) BigQuery
5 2 (0.35%) Data Mining
5 2 (0.35%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.18%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.18%) Metadata
6 1 (0.18%) MS Access
6 1 (0.18%) MySQL
6 1 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 6 (1.06%) Jenkins
2 5 (0.88%) JIRA
3 3 (0.53%) GitLab
4 2 (0.35%) Git
5 1 (0.18%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.18%) Metasploit
General
1 282 (49.82%) Social Skills
2 139 (24.56%) Analytical Skills
3 50 (8.83%) Legal
4 47 (8.30%) Finance
5 41 (7.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 34 (6.01%) Organisational Skills
7 24 (4.24%) Public Sector
8 21 (3.71%) Retail
9 17 (3.00%) Influencing Skills
9 17 (3.00%) Telecoms
10 12 (2.12%) Manufacturing
11 11 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
12 9 (1.59%) Law
13 8 (1.41%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (1.24%) Banking
14 7 (1.24%) Local Government
15 6 (1.06%) Marketing
15 6 (1.06%) Police
16 3 (0.53%) Games
16 3 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 88 (15.55%) Security Manager
2 67 (11.84%) IT Support
3 64 (11.31%) Systems Engineer
4 63 (11.13%) IT Manager
5 58 (10.25%) IT Engineer
6 49 (8.66%) Analyst
7 45 (7.95%) IT Support Engineer
7 45 (7.95%) Support Engineer
8 44 (7.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 37 (6.54%) Lead
10 36 (6.36%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 35 (6.18%) Auditor
12 27 (4.77%) Senior
13 26 (4.59%) Information Security Manager
13 26 (4.59%) Security Analyst
14 24 (4.24%) Information Manager
15 21 (3.71%) Consultant
15 21 (3.71%) Operations Manager
15 21 (3.71%) Security Engineer
16 20 (3.53%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.53%) EDI
2 2 (0.35%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.18%) ADO
3 1 (0.18%) AWS CDK
3 1 (0.18%) LDAP
3 1 (0.18%) Middleware
3 1 (0.18%) Node.js
3 1 (0.18%) SAP CAF
Miscellaneous
1 64 (11.31%) Legacy Systems
2 45 (7.95%) Security Posture
3 41 (7.24%) Management Information System
4 32 (5.65%) Driving Licence
5 31 (5.48%) Onboarding
6 27 (4.77%) Data Protection Act
7 19 (3.36%) Cyber Threat
8 16 (2.83%) Self-Motivation
9 12 (2.12%) Hybrid Cloud
10 10 (1.77%) Cloud Native
10 10 (1.77%) Replication
11 9 (1.59%) Cyber Security Posture
11 9 (1.59%) Security Operations Centre
12 8 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.41%) IVR
12 8 (1.41%) NHS
13 6 (1.06%) Mobile App
14 5 (0.88%) CCTV
14 5 (0.88%) Data Centre
14 5 (0.88%) YubiKey
Operating Systems
1 172 (30.39%) Windows
2 117 (20.67%) Windows Server
3 85 (15.02%) Linux
4 65 (11.48%) Windows Server 2016
5 19 (3.36%) Windows 10
6 14 (2.47%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.35%) Android
7 2 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (43.82%) Cybersecurity
2 166 (29.33%) Problem-Solving
3 139 (24.56%) Continuous Improvement
4 129 (22.79%) Incident Response
5 126 (22.26%) Information Security
6 98 (17.31%) Risk Management
7 95 (16.78%) Customer Service
8 88 (15.55%) SIEM
9 86 (15.19%) Vulnerability Remediation
10 83 (14.66%) Migration
11 80 (14.13%) ITIL
11 80 (14.13%) Service Delivery
12 78 (13.78%) Disaster Recovery
13 77 (13.60%) Customer Experience
14 76 (13.43%) Vulnerability Scanning
15 75 (13.25%) Data Protection
16 71 (12.54%) Vulnerability Management
17 69 (12.19%) Kalman Filter
18 67 (11.84%) Web Filtering
19 66 (11.66%) Email Filtering
Programming Languages
1 29 (5.12%) PowerShell
2 10 (1.77%) SQL
3 9 (1.59%) Python
4 5 (0.88%) Bash
5 2 (0.35%) Bicep
5 2 (0.35%) C
5 2 (0.35%) JavaScript
5 2 (0.35%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (0.35%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 109 (19.26%) Security Cleared
2 106 (18.73%) CISSP
3 97 (17.14%) SC Cleared
4 76 (13.43%) CISM
5 40 (7.07%) Degree
6 31 (5.48%) Microsoft Certification
7 27 (4.77%) CompTIA Security+
8 26 (4.59%) Cisco Certification
9 21 (3.71%) CREST Certified
10 19 (3.36%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 18 (3.18%) CISA
12 16 (2.83%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 16 (2.83%) BPSS Clearance
12 16 (2.83%) CCSP
13 14 (2.47%) CEH
13 14 (2.47%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 12 (2.12%) Azure Certification
15 11 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
15 11 (1.94%) CRISC
15 11 (1.94%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 293 (51.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 215 (37.99%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 154 (27.21%) GDPR
4 153 (27.03%) NIST
5 130 (22.97%) PCI DSS
6 47 (8.30%) GRC
7 43 (7.60%) NCSC
8 34 (6.01%) SOC 2
9 33 (5.83%) QA
10 18 (3.18%) ISO 9001
11 17 (3.00%) SOC 3
12 13 (2.30%) Actionable Recommendations
13 11 (1.94%) ISO 14001
14 9 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
15 8 (1.41%) SLA
16 6 (1.06%) COBIT
16 6 (1.06%) ISO 22301
16 6 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 5 (0.88%) Def Stans
17 5 (0.88%) NIST 800
System Software
1 158 (27.92%) Active Directory
2 82 (14.49%) Hyper-V
3 64 (11.31%) Terminal Server
4 14 (2.47%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.24%) Docker
6 4 (0.71%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.53%) vSphere
8 2 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 95 (16.78%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (2.65%) Terraform
3 12 (2.12%) CASB
4 11 (1.94%) SCCM
5 9 (1.59%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (0.71%) Ansible
7 3 (0.53%) CSIRT
7 3 (0.53%) Nessus
7 3 (0.53%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.35%) AirWatch
8 2 (0.35%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.35%) Kubernetes
8 2 (0.35%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.35%) VxRail
8 2 (0.35%) WSUS
9 1 (0.18%) Grafana
9 1 (0.18%) Host Intrusion Detection System
9 1 (0.18%) RSA Archer
9 1 (0.18%) SCVMM
9 1 (0.18%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 280 (49.47%) Microsoft
2 88 (15.55%) VMware
3 70 (12.37%) Veeam
4 68 (12.01%) Splunk
5 65 (11.48%) SolarWinds
6 64 (11.31%) Brocade
6 64 (11.31%) Nimble Storage
6 64 (11.31%) Tanium
7 25 (4.42%) Cisco
8 15 (2.65%) Google
9 13 (2.30%) Tenable
10 12 (2.12%) Apple
10 12 (2.12%) Meraki
11 10 (1.77%) Ubiquiti
12 9 (1.59%) Genesys
13 8 (1.41%) CrowdStrike
13 8 (1.41%) Logitech
13 8 (1.41%) Verint
13 8 (1.41%) Yealink
14 7 (1.24%) Palo Alto