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 14 May 2026.

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

6 months to
14 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 620 584 739
Rank change year-on-year -36 +155 -4
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 92 79 141
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.18% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.20% 0.15%
Number of salaries quoted 60 68 108
10th Percentile £45,000 £40,190 £40,725
25th Percentile £46,939 £50,000 £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 £81,625 £91,125
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year - -4.35% +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 84,582 38,850 91,176
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.27% 89.47% 94.56%
Number of salaries quoted 55,708 22,832 66,939
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,670 £52,686
Median % change year-on-year -4.63% +9.46% -12.19%
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 14 May 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 14 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 -29 91 £55,000 - 57
London +20 45 £68,750 -1.79% 24
UK excluding London -96 40 £55,000 - 46
Work from Home +5 32 £55,000 - 34
Midlands -30 20 £45,000 -16.18% 8
East Midlands -12 14 £30,000 -38.78% 4
North West 0 11 £55,000 - 9
North of England -31 11 £55,000 - 10
South East -31 6 £70,000 +27.27% 13
West Midlands -33 6 £45,000 -16.18% 4
South West -45 2 £60,000 -39.24% 8
East of England -21 1 - - 4

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

For the 6 months to 14 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 34 (36.96%) Microsoft
3 32 (34.78%) Information Security
4 31 (33.70%) Incident Response
5 28 (30.43%) Azure
5 28 (30.43%) Python
6 27 (29.35%) Degree
7 26 (28.26%) NIST
8 24 (26.09%) CISSP
8 24 (26.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 24 (26.09%) Security Operations
8 24 (26.09%) SIEM
9 23 (25.00%) Firewall
9 23 (25.00%) PowerShell
10 22 (23.91%) Microsoft 365
10 22 (23.91%) Security Cleared
11 21 (22.83%) SC Cleared
12 18 (19.57%) Computer Science
13 16 (17.39%) Risk Management
14 15 (16.30%) Azure Sentinel
15 13 (14.13%) Cloud Security
15 13 (14.13%) Linux
15 13 (14.13%) Network Security
15 13 (14.13%) Windows
16 12 (13.04%) Mac OS
17 11 (11.96%) Mimecast
17 11 (11.96%) Vulnerability Assessment
17 11 (11.96%) Vulnerability Management
18 10 (10.87%) Threat Detection
19 9 (9.78%) Actionable Insight

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 22 (23.91%) Microsoft 365
3 15 (16.30%) Azure Sentinel
4 11 (11.96%) Mimecast
5 8 (8.70%) Entra ID
6 7 (7.61%) AWS
7 5 (5.43%) 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%) Serverless
10 1 (1.09%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 23 (25.00%) Firewall
2 13 (14.13%) Network Security
3 7 (7.61%) Intrusion Detection
4 4 (4.35%) VPN
5 3 (3.26%) Cisco ISE
5 3 (3.26%) DMZ
5 3 (3.26%) Modbus
6 2 (2.17%) TCP/IP
7 1 (1.09%) Broadband
7 1 (1.09%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (1.09%) Cisco Firepower
7 1 (1.09%) DNS
7 1 (1.09%) Internet
7 1 (1.09%) SSH
7 1 (1.09%) SSL
7 1 (1.09%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (9.78%) Tableau
General
1 35 (38.04%) Social Skills
2 21 (22.83%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (18.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 16 (17.39%) Finance
5 10 (10.87%) Legal
6 9 (9.78%) Retail
7 8 (8.70%) Law
8 7 (7.61%) Cyber-Physical System
9 6 (6.52%) Police
10 2 (2.17%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (1.09%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (6.52%) Regular Expression
2 1 (1.09%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 20 (21.74%) Management Information System
2 16 (17.39%) Operational Technology
3 10 (10.87%) Security Operations Centre
4 9 (9.78%) Driving Licence
4 9 (9.78%) Hedge funds
4 9 (9.78%) Legacy Systems
5 7 (7.61%) AI Agents
5 7 (7.61%) Cyberattack
5 7 (7.61%) Onboarding
5 7 (7.61%) Security Posture
6 6 (6.52%) Cyber Threat
6 6 (6.52%) Low-Code
6 6 (6.52%) SCADA
7 3 (3.26%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (3.26%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (1.09%) Cyber Defence
8 1 (1.09%) Cyber Security Posture
8 1 (1.09%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 13 (14.13%) Linux
1 13 (14.13%) Windows
2 12 (13.04%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 32 (34.78%) Information Security
3 31 (33.70%) Incident Response
4 24 (26.09%) Security Operations
4 24 (26.09%) SIEM
5 18 (19.57%) Computer Science
6 16 (17.39%) Risk Management
7 13 (14.13%) Cloud Security
8 11 (11.96%) Vulnerability Assessment
8 11 (11.96%) Vulnerability Management
9 10 (10.87%) Threat Detection
10 9 (9.78%) Actionable Insight
10 9 (9.78%) Business Intelligence
10 9 (9.78%) Cyber Resilience
10 9 (9.78%) DevOps
10 9 (9.78%) Regulatory Change
10 9 (9.78%) Roadmaps
10 9 (9.78%) Software Engineering
11 8 (8.70%) AI
11 8 (8.70%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 28 (30.43%) Python
2 23 (25.00%) PowerShell
3 9 (9.78%) SQL
4 4 (4.35%) Bash
5 2 (2.17%) C++
6 1 (1.09%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 27 (29.35%) Degree
2 24 (26.09%) CISSP
3 22 (23.91%) Security Cleared
4 21 (22.83%) SC Cleared
5 9 (9.78%) CISA
5 9 (9.78%) CompTIA CySA+
5 9 (9.78%) Master's Degree
6 6 (6.52%) CEH
6 6 (6.52%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (4.35%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (4.35%) DBS Check
8 3 (3.26%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (3.26%) HND
8 3 (3.26%) SANS
9 2 (2.17%) CCNA
9 2 (2.17%) CCNP
9 2 (2.17%) CISM
9 2 (2.17%) GCIA
9 2 (2.17%) GIAC
9 2 (2.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (28.26%) NIST
2 24 (26.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (9.78%) Actionable Recommendations
4 6 (6.52%) 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
7 2 (2.17%) NCSC
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%) SLA
8 1 (1.09%) SOC 2
System Software
1 3 (3.26%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (3.26%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (1.09%) CASB
2 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (1.09%) Terraform
Vendors
1 34 (36.96%) Microsoft
2 9 (9.78%) Google
3 8 (8.70%) CrowdStrike
3 8 (8.70%) Palo Alto
4 7 (7.61%) Tenable
5 6 (6.52%) Cisco
5 6 (6.52%) Qualys
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%) Darktrace
9 2 (2.17%) Netskope
10 1 (1.09%) CheckPoint
10 1 (1.09%) Fortinet
10 1 (1.09%) Meraki
10 1 (1.09%) Splunk
10 1 (1.09%) Zscaler