Cybersecurity Engineer Job Trends

Cybersecurity Engineer
UK

The median Cybersecurity Engineer salary in the UK is £70,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 October 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 594 602 630
Rank change year-on-year +8 +28 -51
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 223 67 125
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.14% 0.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.20% 0.15% 0.19%
Number of salaries quoted 163 60 90
10th Percentile £46,939 £50,000 -
25th Percentile £57,500 £56,094 £46,713
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +13.04% -11.54%
75th Percentile £77,250 £83,750 £80,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £95,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £60,000 £50,309
% change year-on-year +8.33% +19.26% -16.15%

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 110,105 43,964 67,208
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.43% 89.90% 95.34%
Number of salaries quoted 74,779 25,831 38,509
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,000 £35,000 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,396 £53,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.15% -2.73% -8.33%
75th Percentile £76,250 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £95,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £46,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +19.57% -8.00% -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 16 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Cybersecurity Engineer in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Top 16 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 16 October 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 +13 213 £70,000 +7.69% 46
UK excluding London -23 154 £65,000 +8.33% 40
Work from Home +2 71 £73,500 +13.08% 27
Midlands +19 68 £65,000 +21.07% 8
London -28 66 £77,000 -10.98% 13
East Midlands - 49 £65,000 - 1
South East -33 45 £70,000 +7.69% 8
North of England -51 24 £55,000 -15.38% 12
West Midlands -28 19 £70,000 +30.38% 7
Yorkshire - 12 £55,000 - 2
North West -30 9 £56,000 -13.85% 9
East of England -44 8 £80,000 +34.45% 4
Scotland +6 4 £35,000 -39.13% 1
Northern Ireland -78 4 - -
North East - 3 £50,000 - 1
South West -69 1 £40,000 -29.02% 3

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

For the 6 months to 16 October 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.

1 223 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 86 (38.57%) Azure
3 66 (29.60%) Microsoft
4 63 (28.25%) SIEM
5 59 (26.46%) Security Operations
6 51 (22.87%) Vulnerability Management
7 49 (21.97%) AI
8 43 (19.28%) Incident Response
8 43 (19.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 40 (17.94%) Cloud Security
9 40 (17.94%) Firewall
10 39 (17.49%) Python
11 38 (17.04%) Entra ID
11 38 (17.04%) Threat Detection
12 36 (16.14%) NIST
13 33 (14.80%) CISSP
13 33 (14.80%) DevOps
14 30 (13.45%) Microsoft 365
15 29 (13.00%) Azure Sentinel
15 29 (13.00%) Software Engineering
16 27 (12.11%) Degree
17 26 (11.66%) Problem-Solving
18 25 (11.21%) AWS
18 25 (11.21%) CrowdStrike
18 25 (11.21%) Data Loss Prevention
18 25 (11.21%) Penetration Testing
19 24 (10.76%) CompTIA Security+
20 23 (10.31%) Business Continuity
20 23 (10.31%) Palo Alto
21 22 (9.87%) Cyber Essentials

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 11 (4.93%) IIS
2 3 (1.35%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
Business Applications
1 1 (0.45%) FLEXCUBE
Cloud Services
1 86 (38.57%) Azure
2 38 (17.04%) Entra ID
3 30 (13.45%) Microsoft 365
4 29 (13.00%) Azure Sentinel
5 25 (11.21%) AWS
6 22 (9.87%) Microsoft Purview
7 17 (7.62%) Mimecast
8 16 (7.17%) GCP
9 8 (3.59%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (1.79%) Akamai
11 2 (0.90%) AWS CloudFormation
11 2 (0.90%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (0.90%) Cloudflare
11 2 (0.90%) Serverless
11 2 (0.90%) Sumo Logic
12 1 (0.45%) Amazon Kinesis
12 1 (0.45%) Amazon S3
12 1 (0.45%) SaaS
12 1 (0.45%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 40 (17.94%) Firewall
2 17 (7.62%) Network Security
3 15 (6.73%) VPN
4 14 (6.28%) Internet
4 14 (6.28%) LAN
4 14 (6.28%) WAN
4 14 (6.28%) Wi-Fi
5 11 (4.93%) Cisco Nexus
6 8 (3.59%) Cisco ISE
7 3 (1.35%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.90%) DHCP
8 2 (0.90%) DNS
8 2 (0.90%) HTTP
8 2 (0.90%) Intrusion Detection
8 2 (0.90%) SSH
8 2 (0.90%) SSL
9 1 (0.45%) Cisco Firepower
9 1 (0.45%) DMARC
9 1 (0.45%) NetScaler
9 1 (0.45%) Unified Communications
Development Applications
1 4 (1.79%) JIRA
2 1 (0.45%) Yeoman
General
1 32 (14.35%) Social Skills
2 17 (7.62%) Finance
3 13 (5.83%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 11 (4.93%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (3.14%) Law
6 6 (2.69%) Cyber-Physical System
6 6 (2.69%) Legal
7 5 (2.24%) Automotive
8 4 (1.79%) Banking
9 3 (1.35%) Public Sector
10 2 (0.90%) Back Office
10 2 (0.90%) Retail
11 1 (0.45%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.45%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (4.93%) Terraform
2 5 (2.24%) Node.js
2 5 (2.24%) React
3 2 (0.90%) JSON
3 2 (0.90%) LDAP
3 2 (0.90%) Regular Expression
4 1 (0.45%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 42 (18.83%) Cyber Threat
2 26 (11.66%) Security Posture
3 18 (8.07%) Operational Technology
4 11 (4.93%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 10 (4.48%) Security Operations Centre
6 9 (4.04%) Embedded Systems
7 8 (3.59%) Management Information System
8 7 (3.14%) AI Agents
9 6 (2.69%) Cyber Defence
9 6 (2.69%) Legacy Systems
10 5 (2.24%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 5 (2.24%) Hackathon
11 3 (1.35%) Cyberattack
11 3 (1.35%) PKI
11 3 (1.35%) SCADA
12 2 (0.90%) CSOC
12 2 (0.90%) Cyber Security Posture
12 2 (0.90%) Hedge funds
12 2 (0.90%) Onboarding
12 2 (0.90%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 19 (8.52%) Linux
2 18 (8.07%) Windows
3 10 (4.48%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.90%) Windows Server 2016
4 2 (0.90%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (0.45%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 223 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 63 (28.25%) SIEM
3 59 (26.46%) Security Operations
4 51 (22.87%) Vulnerability Management
5 49 (21.97%) AI
6 43 (19.28%) Incident Response
7 40 (17.94%) Cloud Security
8 38 (17.04%) Threat Detection
9 33 (14.80%) DevOps
10 29 (13.00%) Software Engineering
11 26 (11.66%) Problem-Solving
12 25 (11.21%) Data Loss Prevention
12 25 (11.21%) Penetration Testing
13 23 (10.31%) Business Continuity
14 22 (9.87%) Security Architecture
15 21 (9.42%) Information Security
16 20 (8.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 20 (8.97%) SOAR
17 19 (8.52%) Continuous Improvement
17 19 (8.52%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 39 (17.49%) Python
2 19 (8.52%) PowerShell
3 11 (4.93%) SQL
4 7 (3.14%) JavaScript
4 7 (3.14%) TypeScript
5 6 (2.69%) C++
6 5 (2.24%) Bash
7 3 (1.35%) Kusto Query Language
7 3 (1.35%) Rust
8 1 (0.45%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 33 (14.80%) CISSP
2 27 (12.11%) Degree
3 24 (10.76%) CompTIA Security+
4 18 (8.07%) CISM
5 15 (6.73%) SC Cleared
5 15 (6.73%) Security Cleared
6 14 (6.28%) CEH
7 13 (5.83%) Cisco Certification
8 9 (4.04%) CCNA
8 9 (4.04%) GIAC
9 8 (3.59%) Master's Degree
10 6 (2.69%) CompTIA CySA+
11 4 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
11 4 (1.79%) SANS
12 3 (1.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (1.35%) CCNP
12 3 (1.35%) CCSP
12 3 (1.35%) DBS Check
13 2 (0.90%) GCIA
13 2 (0.90%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (19.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 36 (16.14%) NIST
3 22 (9.87%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (4.04%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 9 (4.04%) PCI DSS
5 6 (2.69%) GDPR
5 6 (2.69%) GRC
6 4 (1.79%) NCSC
7 1 (0.45%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (8.07%) Firmware
2 14 (6.28%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.24%) Docker
4 2 (0.90%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.90%) NFS
4 2 (0.90%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.90%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 12 (5.38%) Kubernetes
2 11 (4.93%) Single Sign-On
3 7 (3.14%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.90%) Ansible
4 2 (0.90%) Nessus
4 2 (0.90%) Progress Chef
5 1 (0.45%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 66 (29.60%) Microsoft
2 25 (11.21%) CrowdStrike
3 23 (10.31%) Palo Alto
4 22 (9.87%) Qualys
5 20 (8.97%) Cisco
6 11 (4.93%) Aruba
7 10 (4.48%) CyberArk
8 9 (4.04%) Rapid7
9 8 (3.59%) Splunk
10 7 (3.14%) Netskope
11 5 (2.24%) Google
12 4 (1.79%) New Relic
12 4 (1.79%) SolarWinds
12 4 (1.79%) Zerto
13 3 (1.35%) AlienVault
14 2 (0.90%) Darktrace
14 2 (0.90%) Fortinet
14 2 (0.90%) Tenable
14 2 (0.90%) VMware
15 1 (0.45%) Oracle