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

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 240 340 328
Rank change year-on-year +100 -12 +99
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials 570 405 618
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.85% 0.82% 0.82%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 6.99% 5.01% 5.80%
Number of salaries quoted 383 199 539
10th Percentile £29,150 £39,000 £31,750
25th Percentile £42,000 £45,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,239 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.07% - -
75th Percentile £69,375 £67,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £84,875 £85,250 £86,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.55% +10.00% -5.66%

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 8,155 8,089 10,650
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 12.12% 16.39% 14.22%
Number of salaries quoted 4,567 3,669 7,843
10th Percentile £30,250 £32,500 £27,965
25th Percentile £41,250 £45,000 £37,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,111 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% +9.09% -4.35%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,250 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.83% +8.50% -

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 16 February 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 16 February 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 +98 531 £57,239 +4.07% 159
UK excluding London +78 422 £52,500 -4.55% 147
Work from Home +63 156 £60,000 +1.27% 57
South West +82 131 £55,000 -4.35% 24
London +64 124 £67,500 +3.85% 30
North of England -11 108 £52,500 - 36
South East -4 79 £60,000 +4.81% 49
Midlands +29 68 £53,750 +7.50% 25
Yorkshire -17 58 £55,000 +4.76% 9
North West +3 45 £36,250 -11.59% 22
West Midlands +26 42 £58,750 +14.97% 15
East Midlands +2 26 £32,500 -10.34% 10
East of England +24 14 £47,500 -22.76% 13
Wales +10 14 - - 2
Scotland -17 7 £27,000 -52.63% 4
North East -2 5 £105,000 +191.67% 5
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
1 152 (26.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 68 (11.93%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.75%) WordPress
4 5 (0.88%) Drupal
4 5 (0.88%) nginx
5 2 (0.35%) Confluence
5 2 (0.35%) HCL Domino
5 2 (0.35%) HCL Notes
6 1 (0.18%) CMS
Applications
1 21 (3.68%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (1.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.53%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.18%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Elite 3E
1 1 (0.18%) Sage 200
Cloud Services
1 263 (46.14%) Azure
2 254 (44.56%) Microsoft 365
3 115 (20.18%) Entra ID
4 60 (10.53%) AWS
5 43 (7.54%) Microsoft Purview
6 29 (5.09%) Azure Sentinel
7 23 (4.04%) SaaS
8 21 (3.68%) GCP
9 18 (3.16%) OneDrive
9 18 (3.16%) Power Platform
10 12 (2.11%) Nutanix
11 11 (1.93%) IaaS
11 11 (1.93%) PaaS
11 11 (1.93%) Power Automate
12 10 (1.75%) Cloud Computing
12 10 (1.75%) Mimecast
13 9 (1.58%) Google Workspace
14 7 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
14 7 (1.23%) GitHub
14 7 (1.23%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 156 (27.37%) DNS
2 152 (26.67%) DHCP
3 114 (20.00%) Firewall
4 63 (11.05%) VPN
5 43 (7.54%) Network Security
6 32 (5.61%) WAN
7 22 (3.86%) VLAN
8 20 (3.51%) VoIP
9 19 (3.33%) LAN
10 16 (2.81%) TCP/IP
11 14 (2.46%) SD-WAN
11 14 (2.46%) Wi-Fi
12 7 (1.23%) IP Telephony
13 4 (0.70%) Internet
13 4 (0.70%) Remote Desktop
13 4 (0.70%) Wireless
14 3 (0.53%) DKIM
14 3 (0.53%) DMARC
14 3 (0.53%) Intrusion Detection
15 2 (0.35%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (19.65%) Amazon RDS
2 13 (2.28%) Power BI
3 6 (1.05%) BigQuery
3 6 (1.05%) SQL Server
4 5 (0.88%) MariaDB
5 3 (0.53%) Tableau
6 1 (0.18%) Metadata
6 1 (0.18%) MS Access
Development Applications
1 8 (1.40%) Jenkins
2 3 (0.53%) JIRA
3 1 (0.18%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.18%) Git
3 1 (0.18%) GitLab
3 1 (0.18%) Metasploit
General
1 314 (55.09%) Social Skills
2 181 (31.75%) Analytical Skills
3 54 (9.47%) Legal
4 49 (8.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 45 (7.89%) Finance
6 32 (5.61%) Organisational Skills
7 23 (4.04%) Telecoms
8 20 (3.51%) Public Sector
9 16 (2.81%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (2.63%) Law
11 14 (2.46%) Presentation Skills
12 11 (1.93%) Retail
13 9 (1.58%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.58%) Manufacturing
14 6 (1.05%) Local Government
15 5 (0.88%) Marketing
15 5 (0.88%) Police
16 4 (0.70%) Banking
17 3 (0.53%) Advertising
17 3 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 112 (19.65%) Systems Engineer
2 70 (12.28%) IT Support
2 70 (12.28%) Security Manager
3 51 (8.95%) IT Engineer
4 49 (8.60%) Analyst
5 47 (8.25%) IT Manager
6 44 (7.72%) Lead
7 43 (7.54%) Support Engineer
8 42 (7.37%) IT Support Engineer
9 33 (5.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 33 (5.79%) Senior
10 32 (5.61%) Auditor
11 30 (5.26%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 30 (5.26%) Security Analyst
11 30 (5.26%) Security Engineer
12 22 (3.86%) Head of Security
13 20 (3.51%) 2nd Line Support
13 20 (3.51%) Operations Manager
14 19 (3.33%) Consultant
15 18 (3.16%) Information Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (0.88%) EDI
1 5 (0.88%) HTML
2 2 (0.35%) SLSA
3 1 (0.18%) ADO
3 1 (0.18%) LDAP
3 1 (0.18%) OAuth
3 1 (0.18%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 114 (20.00%) Legacy Systems
2 44 (7.72%) Management Information System
3 43 (7.54%) Security Posture
4 39 (6.84%) Onboarding
5 37 (6.49%) Driving Licence
6 32 (5.61%) Data Protection Act
7 25 (4.39%) Self-Motivation
8 17 (2.98%) Cyber Threat
9 14 (2.46%) Security Operations Centre
10 13 (2.28%) Hybrid Cloud
11 9 (1.58%) CCTV
11 9 (1.58%) Cloud Native
11 9 (1.58%) Cyber Security Posture
11 9 (1.58%) Replication
12 7 (1.23%) Algorithms
13 6 (1.05%) Data Centre
13 6 (1.05%) NHS
14 5 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
14 5 (0.88%) Video Conferencing
14 5 (0.88%) YubiKey
Operating Systems
1 210 (36.84%) Windows
2 159 (27.89%) Windows Server
3 125 (21.93%) Linux
4 113 (19.82%) Windows Server 2016
5 25 (4.39%) Windows 10
6 7 (1.23%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.53%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.18%) Android
9 1 (0.18%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (41.75%) Cybersecurity
2 210 (36.84%) Problem-Solving
3 147 (25.79%) Customer Service
4 129 (22.63%) Migration
5 127 (22.28%) Vulnerability Scanning
6 124 (21.75%) Information Security
7 122 (21.40%) Kalman Filter
7 122 (21.40%) Vulnerability Remediation
8 121 (21.23%) Continuous Improvement
9 118 (20.70%) Email Filtering
10 115 (20.18%) Web Filtering
11 114 (20.00%) Customer Experience
12 109 (19.12%) Incident Response
13 85 (14.91%) Data Protection
13 85 (14.91%) Risk Management
13 85 (14.91%) SIEM
14 68 (11.93%) Disaster Recovery
15 67 (11.75%) ITIL
16 64 (11.23%) Service Delivery
17 55 (9.65%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 30 (5.26%) PowerShell
2 14 (2.46%) Python
3 11 (1.93%) SQL
4 7 (1.23%) Bash
5 4 (0.70%) Java
6 2 (0.35%) Bicep
6 2 (0.35%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.18%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 145 (25.44%) Security Cleared
2 134 (23.51%) SC Cleared
3 103 (18.07%) CISSP
4 82 (14.39%) CISM
5 34 (5.96%) Cisco Certification
6 33 (5.79%) Degree
7 30 (5.26%) Microsoft Certification
8 27 (4.74%) CISA
9 26 (4.56%) CRISC
10 24 (4.21%) CompTIA Security+
11 20 (3.51%) CREST Certified
12 18 (3.16%) CCNA
13 17 (2.98%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 17 (2.98%) CCNP
14 15 (2.63%) BPSS Clearance
14 15 (2.63%) CCSP
14 15 (2.63%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
15 13 (2.28%) CEH
16 12 (2.11%) Azure Certification
16 12 (2.11%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 268 (47.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 174 (30.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 164 (28.77%) PCI DSS
4 158 (27.72%) NIST
5 125 (21.93%) GDPR
6 46 (8.07%) GRC
7 39 (6.84%) NCSC
8 31 (5.44%) SOC 2
9 21 (3.68%) QA
10 17 (2.98%) SOC 3
11 13 (2.28%) ISO 9001
11 13 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 11 (1.93%) Actionable Recommendations
13 10 (1.75%) Data Quality
14 8 (1.40%) SLA
15 7 (1.23%) ISO 22301
16 6 (1.05%) Accessibility
16 6 (1.05%) COBIT
17 4 (0.70%) ISO 14001
17 4 (0.70%) NIST 800
System Software
1 186 (32.63%) Active Directory
2 128 (22.46%) Hyper-V
3 112 (19.65%) Terminal Server
4 14 (2.46%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (1.93%) Docker
6 3 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (0.53%) vSphere
7 2 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 82 (14.39%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (2.46%) Terraform
3 12 (2.11%) CASB
4 11 (1.93%) SCCM
5 7 (1.23%) Jamf Pro
5 7 (1.23%) Kubernetes
6 6 (1.05%) Prometheus
7 4 (0.70%) Nessus
8 3 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.53%) VxRail
9 2 (0.35%) Ansible
9 2 (0.35%) CSIRT
9 2 (0.35%) RSA Archer
9 2 (0.35%) WSUS
10 1 (0.18%) AirWatch
10 1 (0.18%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.18%) Host Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.18%) Nmap
10 1 (0.18%) SCOM
10 1 (0.18%) SCVMM
Vendors
1 308 (54.04%) Microsoft
2 139 (24.39%) VMware
3 117 (20.53%) Splunk
4 116 (20.35%) Veeam
5 114 (20.00%) SolarWinds
6 112 (19.65%) Brocade
6 112 (19.65%) Nimble Storage
6 112 (19.65%) Tanium
7 18 (3.16%) Google
8 14 (2.46%) Cisco
9 13 (2.28%) Tenable
10 12 (2.11%) Meraki
11 11 (1.93%) Apple
12 8 (1.40%) Qualys
12 8 (1.40%) WatchGuard
13 7 (1.23%) Draytek
13 7 (1.23%) Mitel
14 6 (1.05%) Sage
15 5 (0.88%) IBM
15 5 (0.88%) SAP