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 8 February 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 590 598 647
Rank change year-on-year +8 +49 +128
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 76 99 155
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.20% 0.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.21% 0.22%
Number of salaries quoted 55 68 115
10th Percentile £46,040 £37,716 £43,750
25th Percentile £50,000 £51,188 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £55,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.84%
75th Percentile £84,375 £63,750 £75,625
90th Percentile £92,000 £85,000 £99,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £59,750 £53,688 £60,000
% change year-on-year +11.29% -10.52% -

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 59,491 46,587 70,587
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.01% 91.89% 94.95%
Number of salaries quoted 37,142 24,097 55,321
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,520
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 £73,750
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% -4.76%

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 February 2026.

Salary histogram for Cybersecurity Engineer in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Top 12 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 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 +36 75 £65,000 +18.18% 53
UK excluding London +2 36 £59,750 +11.29% 46
London +57 32 £80,000 - 13
Work from Home +35 31 £65,000 +18.18% 23
West Midlands +9 12 £52,500 +2.44% 4
Midlands +5 12 £52,500 +2.44% 9
North West +22 10 £85,000 +124.07% 12
North of England -11 10 £85,000 +124.07% 20
South East -7 9 £65,000 +18.18% 9
South West +9 3 £60,000 -22.58% 4
East of England +19 2 £74,750 +57.37% 1
Scotland -14 1 £57,500 -13.53% 3

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

For the 6 months to 8 February 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 76 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 38 (50.00%) Incident Response
3 35 (46.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 32 (42.11%) CISSP
4 32 (42.11%) NIST
5 31 (40.79%) Information Security
6 27 (35.53%) Firewall
6 27 (35.53%) SIEM
7 24 (31.58%) Microsoft
8 21 (27.63%) Azure
8 21 (27.63%) Security Operations
9 20 (26.32%) PowerShell
10 18 (23.68%) Risk Management
11 16 (21.05%) Degree
11 16 (21.05%) Microsoft 365
11 16 (21.05%) Python
11 16 (21.05%) Windows
12 15 (19.74%) Linux
13 14 (18.42%) Mac OS
13 14 (18.42%) Network Security
14 12 (15.79%) Penetration Testing
14 12 (15.79%) SQL
15 11 (14.47%) AWS
15 11 (14.47%) CISA
15 11 (14.47%) Cyber Essentials
15 11 (14.47%) Vulnerability Assessment
16 10 (13.16%) Actionable Insight
16 10 (13.16%) Business Intelligence
16 10 (13.16%) CompTIA CySA+
16 10 (13.16%) CompTIA Security+

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 (1.32%) Confluence
1 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 21 (27.63%) Azure
2 16 (21.05%) Microsoft 365
3 11 (14.47%) AWS
4 10 (13.16%) Entra ID
5 9 (11.84%) Mimecast
6 7 (9.21%) Azure Sentinel
7 4 (5.26%) GCP
8 3 (3.95%) Tessian
9 2 (2.63%) Azure Logic Apps
9 2 (2.63%) dbt
9 2 (2.63%) Nutanix
10 1 (1.32%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (1.32%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (1.32%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (1.32%) Datadog
10 1 (1.32%) Microsoft Purview
10 1 (1.32%) Power Platform
10 1 (1.32%) SaaS
10 1 (1.32%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 27 (35.53%) Firewall
2 14 (18.42%) Network Security
3 10 (13.16%) TCP/IP
4 9 (11.84%) Intrusion Detection
5 6 (7.89%) Modbus
6 5 (6.58%) VPN
7 4 (5.26%) DNS
8 3 (3.95%) DMZ
9 2 (2.63%) HTTP
9 2 (2.63%) SSH
10 1 (1.32%) Cisco ASA
10 1 (1.32%) Cisco Firepower
10 1 (1.32%) DHCP
10 1 (1.32%) Internet
10 1 (1.32%) NGFW
10 1 (1.32%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (11.84%) Tableau
2 1 (1.32%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.63%) JIRA
2 1 (1.32%) Artifactory
2 1 (1.32%) Git
General
1 27 (35.53%) Social Skills
2 19 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
2 19 (25.00%) Finance
3 13 (17.11%) Legal
4 5 (6.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 4 (5.26%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (3.95%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.63%) Law
7 2 (2.63%) Retail
8 1 (1.32%) Banking
8 1 (1.32%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.63%) Django
1 2 (2.63%) OAuth
1 2 (2.63%) OpenID
1 2 (2.63%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (15.79%) Management Information System
2 9 (11.84%) Driving Licence
2 9 (11.84%) Hedge funds
3 8 (10.53%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (10.53%) Operational Technology
3 8 (10.53%) Security Operations Centre
4 7 (9.21%) Security Posture
5 6 (7.89%) SCADA
6 5 (6.58%) Cyber Security Posture
7 4 (5.26%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 4 (5.26%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (3.95%) Cloud Native
8 3 (3.95%) Renewable Energy
9 2 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (2.63%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.63%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (2.63%) Virtual Team
10 1 (1.32%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (1.32%) Cyberattack
10 1 (1.32%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 16 (21.05%) Windows
2 15 (19.74%) Linux
3 14 (18.42%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.32%) Android
4 1 (1.32%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.32%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 38 (50.00%) Incident Response
3 31 (40.79%) Information Security
4 27 (35.53%) SIEM
5 21 (27.63%) Security Operations
6 18 (23.68%) Risk Management
7 12 (15.79%) Penetration Testing
8 11 (14.47%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 10 (13.16%) Actionable Insight
9 10 (13.16%) Business Intelligence
9 10 (13.16%) Regulatory Change
10 9 (11.84%) Vulnerability Remediation
11 8 (10.53%) Project Delivery
12 7 (9.21%) Computer Science
12 7 (9.21%) Data Loss Prevention
12 7 (9.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 7 (9.21%) Problem-Solving
12 7 (9.21%) Vulnerability Management
13 5 (6.58%) Continuous Improvement
13 5 (6.58%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 20 (26.32%) PowerShell
2 16 (21.05%) Python
3 12 (15.79%) SQL
4 5 (6.58%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (3.95%) C++
6 2 (2.63%) Bash
7 1 (1.32%) Scala
Qualifications
1 32 (42.11%) CISSP
2 16 (21.05%) Degree
3 11 (14.47%) CISA
4 10 (13.16%) CompTIA CySA+
4 10 (13.16%) CompTIA Security+
5 8 (10.53%) CEH
5 8 (10.53%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (10.53%) CISM
5 8 (10.53%) Security Cleared
6 7 (9.21%) SC Cleared
7 5 (6.58%) CCNA
7 5 (6.58%) CCNP
7 5 (6.58%) GCIA
7 5 (6.58%) SANS
8 4 (5.26%) OSCP
9 3 (3.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 3 (3.95%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (3.95%) HND
10 2 (2.63%) Azure Certification
10 2 (2.63%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (46.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (42.11%) NIST
3 11 (14.47%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (11.84%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (3.95%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (3.95%) GRC
5 3 (3.95%) NCSC
5 3 (3.95%) NIST 800
6 2 (2.63%) Def Stans
6 2 (2.63%) ISO 22301
7 1 (1.32%) GDPR
7 1 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 1 (1.32%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (1.32%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 5 (6.58%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (9.21%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (3.95%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (2.63%) Nessus
4 1 (1.32%) CSIRT
4 1 (1.32%) Terraform
Vendors
1 24 (31.58%) Microsoft
2 9 (11.84%) Google
2 9 (11.84%) Qualys
3 8 (10.53%) Tenable
4 7 (9.21%) Palo Alto
5 5 (6.58%) CrowdStrike
6 3 (3.95%) Apple
6 3 (3.95%) Cisco
6 3 (3.95%) Splunk
6 3 (3.95%) VMware
7 2 (2.63%) Commvault
7 2 (2.63%) Fortinet
7 2 (2.63%) Imperva
7 2 (2.63%) Thales
8 1 (1.32%) CyberArk
8 1 (1.32%) LogRhythm
8 1 (1.32%) Meraki
8 1 (1.32%) Rapid7
8 1 (1.32%) Trend Micro
8 1 (1.32%) Zscaler