Cybersecurity Engineer Job Trends

Cybersecurity Engineer
UK

The median Cybersecurity Engineer salary in the UK is £68,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 21 August 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 633 603 685
Rank change year-on-year -30 +82 -62
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 155 67 126
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.14% 0.13% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.15% 0.15% 0.16%
Number of salaries quoted 107 61 107
10th Percentile £46,939 £45,000 £42,000
25th Percentile £55,000 £51,250 £46,713
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £68,500 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.38% +8.33% -7.69%
75th Percentile £76,125 £75,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £59,250 £50,309
% change year-on-year +9.70% +17.77% -16.15%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 101,140 44,848 79,070
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.97% 89.92% 95.08%
Number of salaries quoted 69,235 26,502 52,116
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £72,000
90th Percentile £96,250 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,712 £47,683 £50,000
% change year-on-year +12.64% -4.63% -6.54%

Cybersecurity Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Cybersecurity Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Cybersecurity Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Cybersecurity Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Cybersecurity Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cybersecurity Engineer over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Cybersecurity Engineer in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Top 15 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cybersecurity Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 21 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
England -10 148 £70,000 +7.69% 48
UK excluding London -55 108 £65,000 +9.70% 39
Work from Home -2 51 £71,250 +2.69% 16
Midlands +2 46 £65,000 +23.81% 10
London -29 42 £75,000 -17.81% 14
East Midlands +18 39 £65,000 +32.65% 7
South East -24 34 £70,000 +12.00% 14
North of England -39 17 £55,000 -15.38% 7
North West -23 9 £55,000 -15.38% 2
Yorkshire -32 8 £55,000 +4.76% 3
West Midlands -31 7 £60,000 +13.01% 3
East of England -21 5 £80,000 +60.00% 1
Northern Ireland -76 4 - -
Scotland +13 1 - -
South West -68 1 £40,000 -36.00% 7

Cybersecurity Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 August 2026, Cybersecurity Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Cybersecurity Engineer in the job title.

1 155 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 59 (38.06%) Azure
3 53 (34.19%) Security Operations
4 52 (33.55%) SIEM
5 45 (29.03%) Microsoft
6 36 (23.23%) Vulnerability Management
7 35 (22.58%) Firewall
8 33 (21.29%) Python
9 31 (20.00%) Cloud Security
10 30 (19.35%) AI
10 30 (19.35%) Incident Response
10 30 (19.35%) Threat Detection
11 28 (18.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 28 (18.06%) NIST
12 26 (16.77%) Information Security
13 25 (16.13%) Degree
13 25 (16.13%) Microsoft 365
14 24 (15.48%) Azure Sentinel
14 24 (15.48%) CISSP
15 22 (14.19%) Qualys
16 21 (13.55%) Entra ID
16 21 (13.55%) Penetration Testing
16 21 (13.55%) Software Engineering
17 20 (12.90%) SC Cleared
17 20 (12.90%) Security Cleared
18 19 (12.26%) Business Continuity
18 19 (12.26%) PowerShell
19 18 (11.61%) Palo Alto
20 17 (10.97%) Computer Science
20 17 (10.97%) Data Loss Prevention

Cybersecurity Engineer Skill Set
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 7 (4.52%) IIS
2 2 (1.29%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 59 (38.06%) Azure
2 25 (16.13%) Microsoft 365
3 24 (15.48%) Azure Sentinel
4 21 (13.55%) Entra ID
5 16 (10.32%) AWS
6 13 (8.39%) Microsoft Purview
7 9 (5.81%) Mimecast
8 8 (5.16%) GCP
9 3 (1.94%) Akamai
10 2 (1.29%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.29%) Serverless
10 2 (1.29%) Sumo Logic
11 1 (0.65%) Cloudflare
11 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Copilot
11 1 (0.65%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 35 (22.58%) Firewall
2 13 (8.39%) Network Security
3 12 (7.74%) Internet
3 12 (7.74%) LAN
3 12 (7.74%) WAN
3 12 (7.74%) Wi-Fi
4 9 (5.81%) Cisco Nexus
5 7 (4.52%) VPN
6 5 (3.23%) Intrusion Detection
7 4 (2.58%) Cisco ISE
8 3 (1.94%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.65%) Broadband
9 1 (0.65%) SSH
9 1 (0.65%) SSL
9 1 (0.65%) Unified Communications
Development Applications
1 4 (2.58%) JIRA
2 1 (0.65%) Yeoman
General
1 26 (16.77%) Social Skills
2 20 (12.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 15 (9.68%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (6.45%) Retail
5 9 (5.81%) Law
6 8 (5.16%) Finance
7 7 (4.52%) Cyber-Physical System
8 6 (3.87%) Police
9 5 (3.23%) Legal
10 2 (1.29%) Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.87%) Regular Expression
2 4 (2.58%) Terraform
3 1 (0.65%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 27 (17.42%) Cyber Threat
2 19 (12.26%) Security Posture
3 15 (9.68%) Operational Technology
3 15 (9.68%) Security Operations Centre
4 14 (9.03%) Management Information System
5 9 (5.81%) Cyberattack
6 7 (4.52%) AI Agents
6 7 (4.52%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (4.52%) Onboarding
7 6 (3.87%) Low-Code
8 5 (3.23%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 5 (3.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 4 (2.58%) Embedded Systems
9 4 (2.58%) SCADA
9 4 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.94%) Driving Licence
11 2 (1.29%) Cloud Security Posture
12 1 (0.65%) Cyber Defence
12 1 (0.65%) Cyber Security Posture
12 1 (0.65%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 11 (7.10%) Linux
2 9 (5.81%) Windows
3 5 (3.23%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.65%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 155 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 53 (34.19%) Security Operations
3 52 (33.55%) SIEM
4 36 (23.23%) Vulnerability Management
5 31 (20.00%) Cloud Security
6 30 (19.35%) AI
6 30 (19.35%) Incident Response
6 30 (19.35%) Threat Detection
7 26 (16.77%) Information Security
8 21 (13.55%) Penetration Testing
8 21 (13.55%) Software Engineering
9 19 (12.26%) Business Continuity
10 17 (10.97%) Computer Science
10 17 (10.97%) Data Loss Prevention
11 16 (10.32%) Continuous Improvement
11 16 (10.32%) Disaster Recovery
12 15 (9.68%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
12 15 (9.68%) DevOps
12 15 (9.68%) Risk Management
12 15 (9.68%) Threat Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 33 (21.29%) Python
2 19 (12.26%) PowerShell
3 7 (4.52%) SQL
4 4 (2.58%) C++
5 3 (1.94%) Bash
6 2 (1.29%) JavaScript
6 2 (1.29%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.65%) Rust
7 1 (0.65%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 25 (16.13%) Degree
2 24 (15.48%) CISSP
3 20 (12.90%) SC Cleared
3 20 (12.90%) Security Cleared
4 14 (9.03%) CompTIA Security+
5 11 (7.10%) CEH
6 10 (6.45%) CISM
6 10 (6.45%) Master's Degree
7 9 (5.81%) Cisco Certification
8 7 (4.52%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (4.52%) GIAC
9 6 (3.87%) CCNA
10 5 (3.23%) SANS
11 4 (2.58%) DBS Check
12 3 (1.94%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (1.94%) CCNP
12 3 (1.94%) CCSP
12 3 (1.94%) CompTIA CySA+
12 3 (1.94%) GCIA
13 2 (1.29%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (18.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 28 (18.06%) NIST
2 15 (9.68%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (3.87%) GDPR
3 6 (3.87%) PCI DSS
4 4 (2.58%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (2.58%) NCSC
5 3 (1.94%) GRC
6 1 (0.65%) SLA
System Software
1 12 (7.74%) Firmware
2 6 (3.87%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 5 (3.23%) Kubernetes
2 4 (2.58%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (1.94%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (1.29%) Nessus
5 1 (0.65%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 45 (29.03%) Microsoft
2 22 (14.19%) Qualys
3 18 (11.61%) Palo Alto
4 16 (10.32%) CrowdStrike
5 13 (8.39%) Cisco
6 9 (5.81%) Aruba
7 6 (3.87%) Splunk
8 4 (2.58%) CyberArk
8 4 (2.58%) New Relic
8 4 (2.58%) Rapid7
8 4 (2.58%) SolarWinds
8 4 (2.58%) Zerto
9 3 (1.94%) AlienVault
9 3 (1.94%) Tenable
9 3 (1.94%) Thales
10 2 (1.29%) Darktrace
10 2 (1.29%) Fortinet
10 2 (1.29%) iManage
10 2 (1.29%) Netskope