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 4 January 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 573 593 582
Rank change year-on-year +20 -11 +216
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 72 120 138
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.12% 0.22% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.24% 0.27%
Number of salaries quoted 54 87 118
10th Percentile £45,780 £37,716 £46,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,713 £53,813
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £51,251 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +26.83% -21.15% +0.78%
75th Percentile £84,688 £63,750 £79,313
90th Percentile £92,125 £78,150 £98,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £51,251 £63,000
% change year-on-year +17.07% -18.65% +14.55%

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 53,448 50,590 50,228
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.53% 92.97% 95.23%
Number of salaries quoted 32,896 26,513 38,772
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,125 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,738 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £59,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +1.69% -1.67%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,261
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 4 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 4 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 +56 71 £65,000 +23.81% 24
UK excluding London +17 40 £60,000 +17.07% 15
Work from Home +44 31 £65,000 +29.20% 19
London +57 26 £82,500 +17.44% 10
West Midlands +21 12 £50,000 -2.44% 1
Midlands +11 12 £50,000 -2.44% 1
North West +30 11 £77,192 +59.16% 3
North of England +13 11 £77,192 +59.16% 5
South East +9 11 £65,000 +8.33% 5
East of England +21 3 £75,000 +57.89%
South West +11 3 £60,000 -4.00% 4
Scotland -7 1 £57,500 -6.50%

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

For the 6 months to 4 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 72 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 37 (51.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 36 (50.00%) Incident Response
4 32 (44.44%) CISSP
5 31 (43.06%) SIEM
6 30 (41.67%) Firewall
7 29 (40.28%) NIST
8 28 (38.89%) Information Security
9 24 (33.33%) Security Operations
10 21 (29.17%) Azure
11 20 (27.78%) Microsoft
12 18 (25.00%) Network Security
13 17 (23.61%) Penetration Testing
14 16 (22.22%) PowerShell
15 15 (20.83%) Cyber Essentials
16 14 (19.44%) CompTIA Security+
16 14 (19.44%) Degree
16 14 (19.44%) Risk Management
16 14 (19.44%) TCP/IP
16 14 (19.44%) Windows
17 13 (18.06%) Linux
17 13 (18.06%) Python
18 12 (16.67%) AWS
18 12 (16.67%) Cisco Certification
18 12 (16.67%) Microsoft 365
19 10 (13.89%) CEH
19 10 (13.89%) Entra ID
19 10 (13.89%) Mac OS
19 10 (13.89%) Vulnerability Assessment
20 9 (12.50%) CISM

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 (1.39%) Confluence
1 1 (1.39%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (1.39%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 21 (29.17%) Azure
2 12 (16.67%) AWS
2 12 (16.67%) Microsoft 365
3 10 (13.89%) Entra ID
4 8 (11.11%) Azure Sentinel
5 7 (9.72%) Mimecast
6 3 (4.17%) GCP
6 3 (4.17%) Tessian
7 2 (2.78%) Azure Logic Apps
7 2 (2.78%) dbt
7 2 (2.78%) Nutanix
7 2 (2.78%) SaaS
8 1 (1.39%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (1.39%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (1.39%) Datadog
8 1 (1.39%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (1.39%) Power Platform
8 1 (1.39%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 30 (41.67%) Firewall
2 18 (25.00%) Network Security
3 14 (19.44%) TCP/IP
4 9 (12.50%) Intrusion Detection
5 6 (8.33%) Modbus
6 5 (6.94%) VPN
7 4 (5.56%) DNS
8 3 (4.17%) DMZ
9 2 (2.78%) HTTP
9 2 (2.78%) SSH
10 1 (1.39%) DHCP
10 1 (1.39%) Internet
10 1 (1.39%) NAS
10 1 (1.39%) NGFW
10 1 (1.39%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (8.33%) Tableau
2 1 (1.39%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.78%) JIRA
2 1 (1.39%) Artifactory
2 1 (1.39%) Git
General
1 25 (34.72%) Social Skills
2 16 (22.22%) Finance
3 15 (20.83%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (13.89%) Legal
5 5 (6.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (5.56%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (4.17%) Manufacturing
8 2 (2.78%) Law
8 2 (2.78%) Retail
9 1 (1.39%) Banking
9 1 (1.39%) Financial Institution
9 1 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.78%) Django
1 2 (2.78%) OAuth
1 2 (2.78%) OpenID
1 2 (2.78%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (16.67%) Security Operations Centre
2 10 (13.89%) Cyber Threat
2 10 (13.89%) Management Information System
2 10 (13.89%) Security Posture
3 8 (11.11%) Operational Technology
4 7 (9.72%) Driving Licence
5 6 (8.33%) Hedge funds
5 6 (8.33%) SCADA
6 5 (6.94%) Cyber Security Posture
7 4 (5.56%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 4 (5.56%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (4.17%) Cloud Native
8 3 (4.17%) Renewable Energy
9 2 (2.78%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (2.78%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.78%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (2.78%) Virtual Team
10 1 (1.39%) Cyberattack
10 1 (1.39%) IoT
10 1 (1.39%) Web Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 14 (19.44%) Windows
2 13 (18.06%) Linux
3 10 (13.89%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.39%) Android
4 1 (1.39%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.39%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 72 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 36 (50.00%) Incident Response
3 31 (43.06%) SIEM
4 28 (38.89%) Information Security
5 24 (33.33%) Security Operations
6 17 (23.61%) Penetration Testing
7 14 (19.44%) Risk Management
8 10 (13.89%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 9 (12.50%) Vulnerability Remediation
10 8 (11.11%) ITIL
11 7 (9.72%) Actionable Insight
11 7 (9.72%) Business Intelligence
11 7 (9.72%) Computer Science
11 7 (9.72%) Data Loss Prevention
11 7 (9.72%) Problem-Solving
11 7 (9.72%) Project Delivery
11 7 (9.72%) Regulatory Change
11 7 (9.72%) Vulnerability Management
12 6 (8.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 6 (8.33%) Threat Detection
Programming Languages
1 16 (22.22%) PowerShell
2 13 (18.06%) Python
3 9 (12.50%) SQL
4 5 (6.94%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (2.78%) Bash
6 1 (1.39%) C++
6 1 (1.39%) Scala
Qualifications
1 32 (44.44%) CISSP
2 14 (19.44%) CompTIA Security+
2 14 (19.44%) Degree
3 12 (16.67%) Cisco Certification
4 10 (13.89%) CEH
5 9 (12.50%) CISM
6 8 (11.11%) CCNA
6 8 (11.11%) CCNP
6 8 (11.11%) CISA
6 8 (11.11%) GCIA
6 8 (11.11%) SANS
6 8 (11.11%) Security Cleared
7 7 (9.72%) CompTIA CySA+
7 7 (9.72%) SC Cleared
8 4 (5.56%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 4 (5.56%) OSCP
9 3 (4.17%) Azure Certification
9 3 (4.17%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (4.17%) GSEC
9 3 (4.17%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (51.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 29 (40.28%) NIST
3 15 (20.83%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (8.33%) Actionable Recommendations
5 4 (5.56%) NIST 800
6 3 (4.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (4.17%) NCSC
7 2 (2.78%) Def Stans
7 2 (2.78%) GRC
7 2 (2.78%) ISO 22301
8 1 (1.39%) GDPR
8 1 (1.39%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (1.39%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 5 (6.94%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (9.72%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (4.17%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (2.78%) Nessus
4 1 (1.39%) CSIRT
4 1 (1.39%) Terraform
Vendors
1 20 (27.78%) Microsoft
2 7 (9.72%) Qualys
3 6 (8.33%) Google
3 6 (8.33%) Palo Alto
3 6 (8.33%) Tenable
4 5 (6.94%) CrowdStrike
5 3 (4.17%) VMware
6 2 (2.78%) Commvault
6 2 (2.78%) Imperva
6 2 (2.78%) Splunk
6 2 (2.78%) Thales
7 1 (1.39%) Apple
7 1 (1.39%) Cisco
7 1 (1.39%) CyberArk
7 1 (1.39%) Fortinet
7 1 (1.39%) iManage
7 1 (1.39%) Rapid7
7 1 (1.39%) Tanium
7 1 (1.39%) Trend Micro
7 1 (1.39%) Zscaler