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 25 January 2026.

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

6 months to
25 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 587 601 602
Rank change year-on-year +14 +1 +175
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 71 107 164
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.20% 0.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.12% 0.22% 0.26%
Number of salaries quoted 52 74 125
10th Percentile £45,260 £37,716 £43,750
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,713 £53,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £55,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.00%
75th Percentile £85,000 £63,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £92,375 £80,200 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £59,500 £53,688 £60,000
% change year-on-year +10.83% -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 56,939 48,731 63,682
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.79% 92.28% 95.18%
Number of salaries quoted 35,361 25,094 49,715
10th Percentile £28,750 £33,663 £29,452
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -9.30%
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £93,750 £98,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,688 £50,000
% change year-on-year -6.87% +7.38% -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 25 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 25 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 +31 70 £65,000 +18.18% 38
UK excluding London -4 35 £59,500 +10.83% 35
London +44 30 £80,000 +14.29% 8
Work from Home +38 30 £65,000 +26.83% 19
West Midlands +17 11 £48,750 -4.88% 1
Midlands +3 11 £48,750 -4.88% 7
North West +16 10 £85,000 +80.85% 10
North of England -1 10 £85,000 +124.07% 14
South East +10 9 £65,000 +8.33% 6
South West -1 3 £60,000 -18.64% 4
East of England +17 2 £74,750 +57.37% 1
Scotland -16 1 £57,500 -10.16% 3

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

For the 6 months to 25 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 71 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 35 (49.30%) Incident Response
3 34 (47.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 30 (42.25%) CISSP
5 29 (40.85%) NIST
6 28 (39.44%) Information Security
6 28 (39.44%) SIEM
7 26 (36.62%) Firewall
8 21 (29.58%) Microsoft
9 20 (28.17%) Azure
9 20 (28.17%) Security Operations
10 18 (25.35%) PowerShell
11 15 (21.13%) Network Security
11 15 (21.13%) Risk Management
12 14 (19.72%) Degree
12 14 (19.72%) Microsoft 365
12 14 (19.72%) Python
12 14 (19.72%) Windows
13 13 (18.31%) Linux
13 13 (18.31%) Penetration Testing
14 12 (16.90%) Cyber Essentials
14 12 (16.90%) Mac OS
15 11 (15.49%) AWS
15 11 (15.49%) CompTIA Security+
15 11 (15.49%) TCP/IP
16 10 (14.08%) CEH
16 10 (14.08%) Entra ID
16 10 (14.08%) SQL
16 10 (14.08%) Vulnerability Assessment
17 9 (12.68%) CISA

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 (1.41%) Confluence
1 1 (1.41%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (1.41%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 20 (28.17%) Azure
2 14 (19.72%) Microsoft 365
3 11 (15.49%) AWS
4 10 (14.08%) Entra ID
5 7 (9.86%) Azure Sentinel
5 7 (9.86%) Mimecast
6 3 (4.23%) GCP
6 3 (4.23%) Tessian
7 2 (2.82%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (2.82%) dbt
7 2 (2.82%) Nutanix
8 1 (1.41%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (1.41%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (1.41%) Datadog
8 1 (1.41%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (1.41%) Power Platform
8 1 (1.41%) SaaS
8 1 (1.41%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 26 (36.62%) Firewall
2 15 (21.13%) Network Security
3 11 (15.49%) TCP/IP
4 9 (12.68%) Intrusion Detection
5 6 (8.45%) Modbus
6 5 (7.04%) VPN
7 4 (5.63%) DNS
8 3 (4.23%) DMZ
9 2 (2.82%) HTTP
9 2 (2.82%) SSH
10 1 (1.41%) DHCP
10 1 (1.41%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (9.86%) Tableau
2 1 (1.41%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.82%) JIRA
2 1 (1.41%) Artifactory
2 1 (1.41%) Git
General
1 25 (35.21%) Social Skills
2 17 (23.94%) Finance
3 15 (21.13%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (15.49%) Legal
5 5 (7.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (5.63%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (4.23%) Manufacturing
8 2 (2.82%) Law
8 2 (2.82%) Retail
9 1 (1.41%) Banking
9 1 (1.41%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.82%) Django
1 2 (2.82%) OAuth
1 2 (2.82%) OpenID
1 2 (2.82%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (15.49%) Management Information System
2 9 (12.68%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (11.27%) Operational Technology
3 8 (11.27%) Security Operations Centre
3 8 (11.27%) Security Posture
4 7 (9.86%) Driving Licence
4 7 (9.86%) Hedge funds
5 6 (8.45%) SCADA
6 5 (7.04%) Cyber Security Posture
7 4 (5.63%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 4 (5.63%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (4.23%) Cloud Native
8 3 (4.23%) Renewable Energy
9 2 (2.82%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (2.82%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.82%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (2.82%) Virtual Team
10 1 (1.41%) Cyberattack
10 1 (1.41%) IoT
10 1 (1.41%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 14 (19.72%) Windows
2 13 (18.31%) Linux
3 12 (16.90%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.41%) Android
4 1 (1.41%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.41%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 35 (49.30%) Incident Response
3 28 (39.44%) Information Security
3 28 (39.44%) SIEM
4 20 (28.17%) Security Operations
5 15 (21.13%) Risk Management
6 13 (18.31%) Penetration Testing
7 10 (14.08%) Vulnerability Assessment
8 9 (12.68%) Vulnerability Remediation
9 8 (11.27%) Actionable Insight
9 8 (11.27%) Business Intelligence
9 8 (11.27%) Regulatory Change
10 7 (9.86%) Computer Science
10 7 (9.86%) Data Loss Prevention
10 7 (9.86%) Project Delivery
10 7 (9.86%) Vulnerability Management
11 6 (8.45%) Continuous Improvement
11 6 (8.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 6 (8.45%) Problem-Solving
12 5 (7.04%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 18 (25.35%) PowerShell
2 14 (19.72%) Python
3 10 (14.08%) SQL
4 5 (7.04%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (4.23%) C++
6 2 (2.82%) Bash
7 1 (1.41%) Scala
Qualifications
1 30 (42.25%) CISSP
2 14 (19.72%) Degree
3 11 (15.49%) CompTIA Security+
4 10 (14.08%) CEH
5 9 (12.68%) CISA
5 9 (12.68%) Cisco Certification
5 9 (12.68%) CISM
6 8 (11.27%) CompTIA CySA+
6 8 (11.27%) Security Cleared
7 7 (9.86%) SC Cleared
8 5 (7.04%) CCNA
8 5 (7.04%) CCNP
8 5 (7.04%) GCIA
8 5 (7.04%) SANS
9 4 (5.63%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 4 (5.63%) OSCP
10 3 (4.23%) Azure Certification
10 3 (4.23%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (4.23%) GSEC
10 3 (4.23%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (47.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 29 (40.85%) NIST
3 12 (16.90%) Cyber Essentials
4 7 (9.86%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (5.63%) NIST 800
6 3 (4.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (4.23%) NCSC
7 2 (2.82%) Def Stans
7 2 (2.82%) GRC
7 2 (2.82%) ISO 22301
8 1 (1.41%) GDPR
8 1 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (1.41%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 5 (7.04%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (9.86%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (4.23%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (2.82%) Nessus
4 1 (1.41%) CSIRT
4 1 (1.41%) Terraform
Vendors
1 21 (29.58%) Microsoft
2 7 (9.86%) Google
2 7 (9.86%) Qualys
3 6 (8.45%) Palo Alto
3 6 (8.45%) Tenable
4 5 (7.04%) CrowdStrike
5 3 (4.23%) Apple
5 3 (4.23%) Splunk
5 3 (4.23%) VMware
6 2 (2.82%) Cisco
6 2 (2.82%) Commvault
6 2 (2.82%) Imperva
6 2 (2.82%) Thales
7 1 (1.41%) CheckPoint
7 1 (1.41%) CyberArk
7 1 (1.41%) Fortinet
7 1 (1.41%) iManage
7 1 (1.41%) LogRhythm
7 1 (1.41%) Rapid7
7 1 (1.41%) Trend Micro