Cybersecurity Engineer Job Trends

Cybersecurity Engineer
UK

The median Cybersecurity Engineer salary in the UK is £65,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 4 March 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 601 595 686
Rank change year-on-year -6 +91 +95
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 74 91 135
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.20% 0.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.22% 0.18%
Number of salaries quoted 51 69 103
10th Percentile £45,000 £37,716 £43,750
25th Percentile £50,000 £51,250 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £55,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +8.33%
75th Percentile £84,375 £63,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £85,000 £101,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £58,750 £53,688 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.43% -10.52% +9.09%

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 65,273 41,513 74,477
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.58% 91.10% 94.66%
Number of salaries quoted 41,213 22,694 57,615
10th Percentile £29,520 £32,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £38,000 £45,000 £39,085
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £73,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -5.21%

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 4 March 2026.

Salary histogram for Cybersecurity Engineer in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Top 10 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 4 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 -38 74 £65,000 +18.18% 62
UK excluding London -33 35 £58,750 +9.43% 60
London +39 32 £80,000 +14.29% 7
Work from Home +13 30 £55,000 -8.33% 20
West Midlands +2 12 £52,500 +2.44% 8
Midlands -22 12 £52,500 +2.44% 12
North West +3 11 £75,000 +97.71% 7
North of England -28 11 £75,000 +97.71% 15
South East -32 10 £65,000 +18.18% 14
South West -15 3 £60,000 -39.24% 8

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

For the 6 months to 4 March 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 74 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 36 (48.65%) Incident Response
3 32 (43.24%) CISSP
3 32 (43.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 31 (41.89%) Information Security
5 30 (40.54%) NIST
6 27 (36.49%) Microsoft
7 25 (33.78%) Firewall
8 22 (29.73%) PowerShell
9 20 (27.03%) Azure
9 20 (27.03%) Microsoft 365
9 20 (27.03%) SIEM
10 19 (25.68%) Python
10 19 (25.68%) Risk Management
11 16 (21.62%) Degree
11 16 (21.62%) Security Operations
12 15 (20.27%) Mac OS
12 15 (20.27%) Windows
13 14 (18.92%) Linux
14 11 (14.86%) Actionable Insight
14 11 (14.86%) Business Intelligence
14 11 (14.86%) CISA
14 11 (14.86%) CompTIA CySA+
14 11 (14.86%) Regulatory Change
14 11 (14.86%) SQL
14 11 (14.86%) Vulnerability Remediation
15 10 (13.51%) Actionable Recommendations
15 10 (13.51%) Cyber Essentials
15 10 (13.51%) Data Loss Prevention
15 10 (13.51%) Google

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 1 (1.35%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (1.35%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 20 (27.03%) Azure
1 20 (27.03%) Microsoft 365
2 10 (13.51%) Mimecast
3 9 (12.16%) Entra ID
4 8 (10.81%) AWS
5 5 (6.76%) Azure Sentinel
5 5 (6.76%) GCP
6 3 (4.05%) Tessian
7 2 (2.70%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (2.70%) Microsoft Purview
7 2 (2.70%) Nutanix
7 2 (2.70%) SaaS
8 1 (1.35%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 1 (1.35%) Datadog
8 1 (1.35%) IaaS
8 1 (1.35%) PaaS
8 1 (1.35%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 25 (33.78%) Firewall
2 9 (12.16%) Network Security
3 8 (10.81%) Intrusion Detection
4 7 (9.46%) TCP/IP
5 6 (8.11%) Modbus
6 5 (6.76%) VPN
7 4 (5.41%) DNS
8 3 (4.05%) DMZ
9 2 (2.70%) HTTP
9 2 (2.70%) SSH
10 1 (1.35%) Cisco ASA
10 1 (1.35%) Cisco Firepower
10 1 (1.35%) Internet
10 1 (1.35%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (13.51%) Tableau
2 1 (1.35%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.70%) JIRA
2 1 (1.35%) Git
General
1 27 (36.49%) Social Skills
2 18 (24.32%) Analytical Skills
2 18 (24.32%) Finance
3 13 (17.57%) Legal
4 4 (5.41%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (4.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 3 (4.05%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.70%) Law
7 1 (1.35%) Banking
7 1 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.35%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.35%) OAuth
1 1 (1.35%) OpenID
1 1 (1.35%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (16.22%) Management Information System
2 10 (13.51%) Hedge funds
2 10 (13.51%) Security Posture
3 9 (12.16%) Driving Licence
4 8 (10.81%) Operational Technology
5 6 (8.11%) Cyber Security Posture
5 6 (8.11%) SCADA
6 4 (5.41%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (5.41%) Security Operations Centre
7 3 (4.05%) Cyber Threat
7 3 (4.05%) Renewable Energy
8 2 (2.70%) Cloud Native
8 2 (2.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (2.70%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (2.70%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (1.35%) Cyber Defence
9 1 (1.35%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (1.35%) IoT
9 1 (1.35%) Virtual Team
9 1 (1.35%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 15 (20.27%) Mac OS
1 15 (20.27%) Windows
2 14 (18.92%) Linux
3 1 (1.35%) Android
3 1 (1.35%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 74 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 36 (48.65%) Incident Response
3 31 (41.89%) Information Security
4 20 (27.03%) SIEM
5 19 (25.68%) Risk Management
6 16 (21.62%) Security Operations
7 11 (14.86%) Actionable Insight
7 11 (14.86%) Business Intelligence
7 11 (14.86%) Regulatory Change
7 11 (14.86%) Vulnerability Remediation
8 10 (13.51%) Data Loss Prevention
8 10 (13.51%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 9 (12.16%) Penetration Testing
10 8 (10.81%) Project Delivery
10 8 (10.81%) Vulnerability Management
11 7 (9.46%) Cloud Security
11 7 (9.46%) Computer Science
11 7 (9.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 7 (9.46%) Threat Detection
12 5 (6.76%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 22 (29.73%) PowerShell
2 19 (25.68%) Python
3 11 (14.86%) SQL
4 3 (4.05%) Bash
4 3 (4.05%) C++
5 2 (2.70%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.35%) Scala
Qualifications
1 32 (43.24%) CISSP
2 16 (21.62%) Degree
3 11 (14.86%) CISA
3 11 (14.86%) CompTIA CySA+
4 8 (10.81%) CEH
4 8 (10.81%) Security Cleared
5 7 (9.46%) CompTIA Security+
5 7 (9.46%) SC Cleared
6 6 (8.11%) Cisco Certification
6 6 (8.11%) CISM
7 3 (4.05%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 3 (4.05%) CCNA
7 3 (4.05%) CCNP
7 3 (4.05%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (4.05%) GCIA
7 3 (4.05%) HND
7 3 (4.05%) OSCP
7 3 (4.05%) SANS
8 2 (2.70%) CESG Certified Professional
8 2 (2.70%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (43.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 30 (40.54%) NIST
3 10 (13.51%) Actionable Recommendations
3 10 (13.51%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (5.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (4.05%) GRC
5 3 (4.05%) NIST 800
6 2 (2.70%) Def Stans
6 2 (2.70%) ISO 22301
6 2 (2.70%) PCI DSS
7 1 (1.35%) GDPR
7 1 (1.35%) HIPAA
7 1 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 1 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (1.35%) NCSC
7 1 (1.35%) SOC 2
System Software
1 3 (4.05%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 5 (6.76%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (2.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (2.70%) Nessus
2 2 (2.70%) Terraform
3 1 (1.35%) CASB
Vendors
1 27 (36.49%) Microsoft
2 10 (13.51%) Google
3 8 (10.81%) Qualys
3 8 (10.81%) Tenable
4 7 (9.46%) CrowdStrike
4 7 (9.46%) Palo Alto
5 3 (4.05%) Apple
5 3 (4.05%) Cisco
5 3 (4.05%) CyberArk
5 3 (4.05%) Thales
5 3 (4.05%) VMware
6 2 (2.70%) Commvault
6 2 (2.70%) Fortinet
6 2 (2.70%) iManage
6 2 (2.70%) Rapid7
6 2 (2.70%) Splunk
7 1 (1.35%) LogRhythm
7 1 (1.35%) Meraki
7 1 (1.35%) Netskope
7 1 (1.35%) Zscaler