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 15 May 2026.

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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 624 569 742
Rank change year-on-year -55 +173 +4
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 91 78 142
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.18% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.20% 0.16%
Number of salaries quoted 60 67 109
10th Percentile £45,000 £39,836 £41,150
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 £72,813 £67,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £81,750 £92,750
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 84,829 38,939 91,215
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.28% 89.48% 94.59%
Number of salaries quoted 55,870 22,758 66,964
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £41,250 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,508
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.51% -12.49%
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 15 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 15 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 90 £55,000 - 62
London +7 43 £67,500 -3.57% 24
UK excluding London -81 41 £55,000 - 53
Work from Home +35 32 £55,000 - 33
Midlands -29 21 £45,000 -16.18% 8
East Midlands -8 14 £30,000 -38.78% 4
North West -3 11 £55,000 - 8
North of England -40 11 £55,000 - 9
West Midlands -38 7 £45,000 -16.18% 4
South East -37 6 £70,000 +27.27% 14
South West -52 2 £60,000 -39.24% 11
East of England -17 1 - - 6

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

For the 6 months to 15 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 91 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 33 (36.26%) Microsoft
3 30 (32.97%) Information Security
4 29 (31.87%) Incident Response
5 28 (30.77%) Azure
6 27 (29.67%) Degree
6 27 (29.67%) Python
7 25 (27.47%) NIST
8 24 (26.37%) Security Operations
9 23 (25.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 23 (25.27%) SIEM
10 22 (24.18%) CISSP
10 22 (24.18%) Firewall
10 22 (24.18%) PowerShell
10 22 (24.18%) Security Cleared
11 21 (23.08%) Microsoft 365
11 21 (23.08%) SC Cleared
12 18 (19.78%) Computer Science
13 16 (17.58%) Azure Sentinel
13 16 (17.58%) Risk Management
14 13 (14.29%) Cloud Security
14 13 (14.29%) Network Security
15 12 (13.19%) Linux
15 12 (13.19%) Vulnerability Assessment
15 12 (13.19%) Windows
16 11 (12.09%) Mac OS
16 11 (12.09%) Mimecast
16 11 (12.09%) Vulnerability Management
17 10 (10.99%) Threat Detection
18 9 (9.89%) Cyber Resilience

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:

Cloud Services
1 28 (30.77%) Azure
2 21 (23.08%) Microsoft 365
3 16 (17.58%) Azure Sentinel
4 11 (12.09%) Mimecast
5 9 (9.89%) Entra ID
6 7 (7.69%) AWS
7 5 (5.49%) GCP
7 5 (5.49%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (2.20%) SaaS
9 1 (1.10%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (1.10%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (1.10%) IaaS
9 1 (1.10%) PaaS
9 1 (1.10%) Serverless
9 1 (1.10%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 22 (24.18%) Firewall
2 13 (14.29%) Network Security
3 7 (7.69%) Intrusion Detection
4 4 (4.40%) VPN
5 3 (3.30%) Cisco ISE
5 3 (3.30%) DMZ
5 3 (3.30%) Modbus
6 2 (2.20%) TCP/IP
7 1 (1.10%) Broadband
7 1 (1.10%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (1.10%) Cisco Firepower
7 1 (1.10%) DNS
7 1 (1.10%) Internet
7 1 (1.10%) SSH
7 1 (1.10%) SSL
7 1 (1.10%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (8.79%) Tableau
General
1 34 (37.36%) Social Skills
2 20 (21.98%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (18.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 15 (16.48%) Finance
5 9 (9.89%) Legal
5 9 (9.89%) Retail
6 8 (8.79%) Law
7 7 (7.69%) Cyber-Physical System
8 6 (6.59%) Police
9 1 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (1.10%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (6.59%) Regular Expression
2 1 (1.10%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 19 (20.88%) Management Information System
2 16 (17.58%) Operational Technology
3 10 (10.99%) Security Operations Centre
4 9 (9.89%) Driving Licence
4 9 (9.89%) Legacy Systems
5 8 (8.79%) Hedge funds
6 7 (7.69%) AI Agents
6 7 (7.69%) Cyberattack
6 7 (7.69%) Onboarding
6 7 (7.69%) Security Posture
7 6 (6.59%) Cyber Threat
7 6 (6.59%) Low-Code
7 6 (6.59%) SCADA
8 3 (3.30%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (3.30%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (1.10%) Cyber Defence
9 1 (1.10%) Cyber Security Posture
9 1 (1.10%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 12 (13.19%) Linux
1 12 (13.19%) Windows
2 11 (12.09%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 30 (32.97%) Information Security
3 29 (31.87%) Incident Response
4 24 (26.37%) Security Operations
5 23 (25.27%) SIEM
6 18 (19.78%) Computer Science
7 16 (17.58%) Risk Management
8 13 (14.29%) Cloud Security
9 12 (13.19%) Vulnerability Assessment
10 11 (12.09%) Vulnerability Management
11 10 (10.99%) Threat Detection
12 9 (9.89%) Cyber Resilience
12 9 (9.89%) DevOps
12 9 (9.89%) Roadmaps
12 9 (9.89%) Software Engineering
13 8 (8.79%) Actionable Insight
13 8 (8.79%) Business Intelligence
13 8 (8.79%) Data Loss Prevention
13 8 (8.79%) Problem-Solving
13 8 (8.79%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 27 (29.67%) Python
2 22 (24.18%) PowerShell
3 8 (8.79%) SQL
4 4 (4.40%) Bash
5 2 (2.20%) C++
6 1 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 27 (29.67%) Degree
2 22 (24.18%) CISSP
2 22 (24.18%) Security Cleared
3 21 (23.08%) SC Cleared
4 9 (9.89%) Master's Degree
5 8 (8.79%) CISA
5 8 (8.79%) CompTIA CySA+
6 6 (6.59%) Computer Science Degree
7 5 (5.49%) CEH
8 4 (4.40%) CompTIA Security+
8 4 (4.40%) DBS Check
9 3 (3.30%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (3.30%) HND
9 3 (3.30%) SANS
10 2 (2.20%) CCNA
10 2 (2.20%) CCNP
10 2 (2.20%) CISM
10 2 (2.20%) GCIA
10 2 (2.20%) GIAC
10 2 (2.20%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (27.47%) NIST
2 23 (25.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (8.79%) Actionable Recommendations
4 6 (6.59%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (5.49%) PCI DSS
6 3 (3.30%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (3.30%) GRC
7 2 (2.20%) GDPR
7 2 (2.20%) NCSC
8 1 (1.10%) HIPAA
8 1 (1.10%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 1 (1.10%) SLA
8 1 (1.10%) SOC 2
System Software
1 4 (4.40%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (3.30%) Single Sign-On
2 1 (1.10%) CASB
2 1 (1.10%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (1.10%) Terraform
Vendors
1 33 (36.26%) Microsoft
2 8 (8.79%) Google
3 7 (7.69%) CrowdStrike
3 7 (7.69%) Palo Alto
3 7 (7.69%) Tenable
4 6 (6.59%) Cisco
4 6 (6.59%) Qualys
5 4 (4.40%) CyberArk
6 3 (3.30%) AlienVault
6 3 (3.30%) Thales
7 2 (2.20%) Apple
7 2 (2.20%) Darktrace
7 2 (2.20%) iManage
7 2 (2.20%) Netskope
7 2 (2.20%) Rapid7
8 1 (1.10%) CheckPoint
8 1 (1.10%) Fortinet
8 1 (1.10%) LogRhythm
8 1 (1.10%) Meraki
8 1 (1.10%) Splunk