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 1 January 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 578 589 581
Rank change year-on-year +11 -8 +227
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 73 122 132
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.22% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.24% 0.27%
Number of salaries quoted 55 89 116
10th Percentile £46,040 £37,716 £46,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,713 £53,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £51,251 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +26.83% -21.15% +0.78%
75th Percentile £84,375 £63,750 £78,750
90th Percentile £92,000 £78,750 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £50,780 £61,000
% change year-on-year +18.16% -16.75% +10.91%

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 53,514 51,440 48,883
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.46% 93.14% 95.23%
Number of salaries quoted 32,905 27,168 37,760
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,200 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,956 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -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 1 January 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 1 January 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 +41 72 £65,000 +23.81% 42
UK excluding London +15 41 £60,000 +18.16% 29
Work from Home +37 31 £65,000 +29.20% 27
London +25 26 £82,500 +6.45% 15
South East +14 12 £65,000 +8.33% 3
Midlands +12 12 £50,000 -2.44% 3
West Midlands +9 12 £50,000 -2.44% 3
North West +27 11 £77,192 +59.16% 6
North of England +16 11 £77,192 +59.16% 10
East of England +21 3 £75,000 +57.89% 1
South West +8 3 £60,000 +9.09% 9
Scotland +3 1 £57,500 -6.50% 1

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

For the 6 months to 1 January 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 73 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 38 (52.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (50.68%) Incident Response
4 33 (45.21%) CISSP
5 32 (43.84%) SIEM
6 31 (42.47%) Firewall
7 30 (41.10%) NIST
8 28 (38.36%) Information Security
9 24 (32.88%) Security Operations
10 22 (30.14%) Azure
11 21 (28.77%) Microsoft
12 18 (24.66%) Network Security
13 17 (23.29%) Penetration Testing
13 17 (23.29%) PowerShell
14 15 (20.55%) CompTIA Security+
14 15 (20.55%) Cyber Essentials
14 15 (20.55%) Degree
15 14 (19.18%) Python
15 14 (19.18%) Risk Management
15 14 (19.18%) TCP/IP
15 14 (19.18%) Windows
16 13 (17.81%) AWS
16 13 (17.81%) Linux
17 12 (16.44%) Cisco Certification
17 12 (16.44%) Microsoft 365
18 11 (15.07%) CEH
19 10 (13.70%) CISM
19 10 (13.70%) Entra ID
19 10 (13.70%) Mac OS
19 10 (13.70%) Vulnerability Assessment

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 (1.37%) Confluence
1 1 (1.37%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (1.37%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 22 (30.14%) Azure
2 13 (17.81%) AWS
3 12 (16.44%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (13.70%) Entra ID
5 9 (12.33%) Azure Sentinel
6 7 (9.59%) Mimecast
7 4 (5.48%) GCP
8 3 (4.11%) Tessian
9 2 (2.74%) Azure Logic Apps
9 2 (2.74%) dbt
9 2 (2.74%) Nutanix
9 2 (2.74%) SaaS
10 1 (1.37%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (1.37%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (1.37%) Datadog
10 1 (1.37%) Microsoft Purview
10 1 (1.37%) Power Platform
10 1 (1.37%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 31 (42.47%) Firewall
2 18 (24.66%) Network Security
3 14 (19.18%) TCP/IP
4 9 (12.33%) Intrusion Detection
5 6 (8.22%) Modbus
5 6 (8.22%) VPN
6 4 (5.48%) DNS
7 3 (4.11%) DMZ
8 2 (2.74%) HTTP
8 2 (2.74%) SSH
9 1 (1.37%) DHCP
9 1 (1.37%) Internet
9 1 (1.37%) NAS
9 1 (1.37%) NGFW
9 1 (1.37%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (8.22%) Tableau
2 1 (1.37%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.74%) JIRA
2 1 (1.37%) Artifactory
2 1 (1.37%) Git
General
1 26 (35.62%) Social Skills
2 16 (21.92%) Analytical Skills
2 16 (21.92%) Finance
3 10 (13.70%) Legal
4 5 (6.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 4 (5.48%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (4.11%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.74%) Law
7 2 (2.74%) Retail
8 1 (1.37%) Banking
8 1 (1.37%) Financial Institution
8 1 (1.37%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.74%) Django
1 2 (2.74%) OAuth
1 2 (2.74%) OpenID
1 2 (2.74%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (16.44%) Security Operations Centre
2 11 (15.07%) Security Posture
3 10 (13.70%) Cyber Threat
3 10 (13.70%) Management Information System
4 8 (10.96%) Operational Technology
5 7 (9.59%) Driving Licence
6 6 (8.22%) Hedge funds
6 6 (8.22%) SCADA
7 5 (6.85%) Cyber Security Posture
8 4 (5.48%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 4 (5.48%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (4.11%) Cloud Native
9 3 (4.11%) Renewable Energy
10 2 (2.74%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (2.74%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (2.74%) Legacy Systems
10 2 (2.74%) Virtual Team
11 1 (1.37%) Cyberattack
11 1 (1.37%) IoT
11 1 (1.37%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 14 (19.18%) Windows
2 13 (17.81%) Linux
3 10 (13.70%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.37%) Android
4 1 (1.37%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.37%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 73 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 37 (50.68%) Incident Response
3 32 (43.84%) SIEM
4 28 (38.36%) Information Security
5 24 (32.88%) Security Operations
6 17 (23.29%) Penetration Testing
7 14 (19.18%) Risk Management
8 10 (13.70%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 9 (12.33%) Vulnerability Remediation
10 8 (10.96%) ITIL
10 8 (10.96%) Problem-Solving
11 7 (9.59%) Actionable Insight
11 7 (9.59%) Business Intelligence
11 7 (9.59%) Cloud Security
11 7 (9.59%) Computer Science
11 7 (9.59%) Data Loss Prevention
11 7 (9.59%) Project Delivery
11 7 (9.59%) Regulatory Change
11 7 (9.59%) Threat Detection
11 7 (9.59%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (23.29%) PowerShell
2 14 (19.18%) Python
3 9 (12.33%) SQL
4 6 (8.22%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (4.11%) Bash
6 1 (1.37%) C++
6 1 (1.37%) Scala
Qualifications
1 33 (45.21%) CISSP
2 15 (20.55%) CompTIA Security+
2 15 (20.55%) Degree
3 12 (16.44%) Cisco Certification
4 11 (15.07%) CEH
5 10 (13.70%) CISM
6 8 (10.96%) CCNA
6 8 (10.96%) CCNP
6 8 (10.96%) CISA
6 8 (10.96%) GCIA
6 8 (10.96%) SANS
6 8 (10.96%) Security Cleared
7 7 (9.59%) CompTIA CySA+
7 7 (9.59%) SC Cleared
8 5 (6.85%) OSCP
9 4 (5.48%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 3 (4.11%) Azure Certification
10 3 (4.11%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (4.11%) GSEC
10 3 (4.11%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (52.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 30 (41.10%) NIST
3 15 (20.55%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (8.22%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (5.48%) NIST 800
6 3 (4.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (4.11%) NCSC
7 2 (2.74%) Def Stans
7 2 (2.74%) GDPR
7 2 (2.74%) GRC
7 2 (2.74%) ISO 22301
8 1 (1.37%) HIPAA
8 1 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (1.37%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 5 (6.85%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (9.59%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (4.11%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (2.74%) Nessus
4 1 (1.37%) CSIRT
4 1 (1.37%) QRadar
4 1 (1.37%) Terraform
Vendors
1 21 (28.77%) Microsoft
2 7 (9.59%) Palo Alto
2 7 (9.59%) Qualys
3 6 (8.22%) Google
3 6 (8.22%) Tenable
4 5 (6.85%) CrowdStrike
5 3 (4.11%) Splunk
5 3 (4.11%) VMware
6 2 (2.74%) Cisco
6 2 (2.74%) Commvault
6 2 (2.74%) Imperva
6 2 (2.74%) Thales
7 1 (1.37%) Apple
7 1 (1.37%) CyberArk
7 1 (1.37%) Fortinet
7 1 (1.37%) iManage
7 1 (1.37%) Rapid7
7 1 (1.37%) Tanium
7 1 (1.37%) Trend Micro
7 1 (1.37%) Zscaler