Cybersecurity Engineer Job Trends

Cybersecurity Engineer
UK

The median Cybersecurity Engineer salary in the UK is £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 8 May 2026.

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

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 616 582 727
Rank change year-on-year -34 +145 +24
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 92 82 140
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.19% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.21% 0.15%
Number of salaries quoted 61 71 107
10th Percentile £45,000 £37,716 £40,300
25th Percentile £46,939 £47,250 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year - -15.38% +8.33%
75th Percentile £73,750 £67,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £91,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £54,344 £57,500
% change year-on-year +1.21% -5.49% +4.55%

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 84,240 38,844 90,932
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.95% 89.44% 94.56%
Number of salaries quoted 54,564 23,127 66,916
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £58,033 £53,000
Median % change year-on-year -5.23% +9.50% -11.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £71,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%

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 8 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Cybersecurity Engineer in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Top 11 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 8 May 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 -34 91 £55,000 - 56
London +24 46 £68,750 -1.79% 26
UK excluding London -96 39 £55,000 +1.21% 43
Work from Home +10 33 £55,000 - 34
Midlands -23 20 £45,000 -15.24% 7
East Midlands -17 13 £30,000 -38.78% 4
North West -22 11 £55,000 - 4
North of England -59 11 £55,000 +4.76% 6
West Midlands -34 7 £45,000 -16.18% 3
South East -49 6 £70,000 +27.27% 13
South West -51 2 £60,000 -39.24% 7

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

For the 6 months to 8 May 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 92 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 35 (38.04%) Information Security
3 33 (35.87%) Microsoft
4 32 (34.78%) Incident Response
5 29 (31.52%) Python
6 28 (30.43%) Azure
7 27 (29.35%) Degree
7 27 (29.35%) NIST
8 25 (27.17%) CISSP
8 25 (27.17%) Firewall
8 25 (27.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 25 (27.17%) SIEM
9 24 (26.09%) PowerShell
10 23 (25.00%) Microsoft 365
10 23 (25.00%) Security Operations
11 21 (22.83%) Security Cleared
12 20 (21.74%) SC Cleared
13 18 (19.57%) Computer Science
14 17 (18.48%) Risk Management
15 14 (15.22%) Azure Sentinel
15 14 (15.22%) Linux
15 14 (15.22%) Windows
16 13 (14.13%) Cloud Security
16 13 (14.13%) Mac OS
17 12 (13.04%) Network Security
18 11 (11.96%) Mimecast
18 11 (11.96%) Threat Detection
19 10 (10.87%) Business Intelligence
19 10 (10.87%) CISA
19 10 (10.87%) CompTIA CySA+

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:

Applications
1 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 28 (30.43%) Azure
2 23 (25.00%) Microsoft 365
3 14 (15.22%) Azure Sentinel
4 11 (11.96%) Mimecast
5 9 (9.78%) Entra ID
6 7 (7.61%) AWS
7 6 (6.52%) GCP
8 4 (4.35%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (2.17%) SaaS
10 1 (1.09%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (1.09%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (1.09%) IaaS
10 1 (1.09%) PaaS
10 1 (1.09%) Power Platform
10 1 (1.09%) Serverless
10 1 (1.09%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 25 (27.17%) Firewall
2 12 (13.04%) Network Security
3 7 (7.61%) Intrusion Detection
4 5 (5.43%) VPN
5 4 (4.35%) TCP/IP
6 3 (3.26%) Cisco ISE
6 3 (3.26%) DMZ
6 3 (3.26%) Modbus
7 2 (2.17%) DNS
7 2 (2.17%) SSH
8 1 (1.09%) Broadband
8 1 (1.09%) Cisco ASA
8 1 (1.09%) Cisco Firepower
8 1 (1.09%) HTTP
8 1 (1.09%) Internet
8 1 (1.09%) SSL
8 1 (1.09%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (9.78%) Tableau
2 1 (1.09%) Power BI
General
1 34 (36.96%) Social Skills
2 21 (22.83%) Analytical Skills
3 18 (19.57%) Finance
3 18 (19.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 11 (11.96%) Legal
5 9 (9.78%) Retail
6 8 (8.70%) Law
7 7 (7.61%) Cyber-Physical System
8 6 (6.52%) Police
9 3 (3.26%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (1.09%) Banking
10 1 (1.09%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (6.52%) Regular Expression
2 1 (1.09%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 19 (20.65%) Management Information System
2 15 (16.30%) Operational Technology
3 9 (9.78%) Driving Licence
3 9 (9.78%) Hedge funds
3 9 (9.78%) Legacy Systems
3 9 (9.78%) Security Operations Centre
4 8 (8.70%) Security Posture
5 7 (7.61%) AI Agents
5 7 (7.61%) Cyberattack
5 7 (7.61%) Onboarding
6 6 (6.52%) Low-Code
7 5 (5.43%) Cyber Threat
7 5 (5.43%) SCADA
8 3 (3.26%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (3.26%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (2.17%) Cyber Security Posture
10 1 (1.09%) Cloud Native
10 1 (1.09%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (1.09%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (1.09%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 14 (15.22%) Linux
1 14 (15.22%) Windows
2 13 (14.13%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 35 (38.04%) Information Security
3 32 (34.78%) Incident Response
4 25 (27.17%) SIEM
5 23 (25.00%) Security Operations
6 18 (19.57%) Computer Science
7 17 (18.48%) Risk Management
8 13 (14.13%) Cloud Security
9 11 (11.96%) Threat Detection
10 10 (10.87%) Business Intelligence
10 10 (10.87%) Data Loss Prevention
10 10 (10.87%) Regulatory Change
10 10 (10.87%) Vulnerability Assessment
10 10 (10.87%) Vulnerability Management
11 9 (9.78%) Actionable Insight
11 9 (9.78%) Cyber Resilience
11 9 (9.78%) Roadmaps
11 9 (9.78%) Software Engineering
12 8 (8.70%) AI
12 8 (8.70%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 29 (31.52%) Python
2 24 (26.09%) PowerShell
3 9 (9.78%) SQL
4 5 (5.43%) Bash
5 2 (2.17%) C++
6 1 (1.09%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 27 (29.35%) Degree
2 25 (27.17%) CISSP
3 21 (22.83%) Security Cleared
4 20 (21.74%) SC Cleared
5 10 (10.87%) CISA
5 10 (10.87%) CompTIA CySA+
6 9 (9.78%) Master's Degree
7 6 (6.52%) CEH
7 6 (6.52%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (4.35%) CompTIA Security+
8 4 (4.35%) DBS Check
9 3 (3.26%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (3.26%) HND
9 3 (3.26%) SANS
10 2 (2.17%) CCNA
10 2 (2.17%) CCNP
10 2 (2.17%) CISM
10 2 (2.17%) GCIA
10 2 (2.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 1 (1.09%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (29.35%) NIST
2 25 (27.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (9.78%) Actionable Recommendations
4 7 (7.61%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (5.43%) PCI DSS
6 3 (3.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (3.26%) GRC
7 2 (2.17%) GDPR
8 1 (1.09%) HIPAA
8 1 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 1 (1.09%) NCSC
8 1 (1.09%) SLA
8 1 (1.09%) SOC 2
System Software
1 3 (3.26%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (4.35%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (1.09%) CASB
2 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (1.09%) Nessus
2 1 (1.09%) Terraform
Vendors
1 33 (35.87%) Microsoft
2 9 (9.78%) Google
3 8 (8.70%) CrowdStrike
3 8 (8.70%) Palo Alto
4 7 (7.61%) Qualys
4 7 (7.61%) Tenable
5 6 (6.52%) Cisco
6 5 (5.43%) CyberArk
7 4 (4.35%) Thales
8 3 (3.26%) AlienVault
8 3 (3.26%) iManage
8 3 (3.26%) Rapid7
9 2 (2.17%) Apple
9 2 (2.17%) Netskope
10 1 (1.09%) CheckPoint
10 1 (1.09%) Darktrace
10 1 (1.09%) Fortinet
10 1 (1.09%) LogRhythm
10 1 (1.09%) Meraki
10 1 (1.09%) Splunk