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 27 May 2026.

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

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 639 581 745
Rank change year-on-year -58 +164 -4
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 97 67 145
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.16% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.18% 0.15%
Number of salaries quoted 65 58 111
10th Percentile £45,000 £44,100 £37,750
25th Percentile £47,000 £51,250 £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 £72,188 £80,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,375 £92,500
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 86,844 37,958 93,943
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.41% 89.30% 94.71%
Number of salaries quoted 57,790 21,252 68,852
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £40,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% +9.52% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £51,058 £50,000
% change year-on-year -2.07% +2.12% -6.54%

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 27 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Cybersecurity Engineer in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Top 13 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 27 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 -28 95 £55,000 - 51
London +18 45 £68,750 -14.06% 17
UK excluding London -71 44 £55,000 - 54
Work from Home +33 34 £55,000 -21.43% 28
Midlands -23 22 £45,000 -16.18% 6
East Midlands -20 15 £30,000 -38.78% 1
North West -14 9 £55,000 -15.38% 5
South East -26 9 £70,000 +27.27% 19
North of England -29 9 £55,000 -8.33% 6
West Midlands -42 7 £45,000 -16.18% 5
South West -58 2 £60,000 -39.24% 7
Scotland -2 1 - - 13
East of England -31 1 - - 2

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

For the 6 months to 27 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 97 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 34 (35.05%) Azure
2 34 (35.05%) Microsoft
3 33 (34.02%) Information Security
4 31 (31.96%) Incident Response
5 30 (30.93%) Python
6 29 (29.90%) Security Operations
7 28 (28.87%) Degree
7 28 (28.87%) NIST
8 27 (27.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 26 (26.80%) SIEM
10 24 (24.74%) CISSP
10 24 (24.74%) Firewall
10 24 (24.74%) PowerShell
11 22 (22.68%) Microsoft 365
12 20 (20.62%) Security Cleared
13 19 (19.59%) SC Cleared
14 17 (17.53%) Azure Sentinel
14 17 (17.53%) Computer Science
15 16 (16.49%) Cloud Security
15 16 (16.49%) Risk Management
16 15 (15.46%) Vulnerability Management
17 13 (13.40%) Linux
17 13 (13.40%) Vulnerability Assessment
17 13 (13.40%) Windows
18 12 (12.37%) Mimecast
19 11 (11.34%) DevOps
19 11 (11.34%) Mac OS
19 11 (11.34%) Network Security
19 11 (11.34%) Threat Detection

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 34 (35.05%) Azure
2 22 (22.68%) Microsoft 365
3 17 (17.53%) Azure Sentinel
4 12 (12.37%) Mimecast
5 10 (10.31%) AWS
6 9 (9.28%) Entra ID
7 7 (7.22%) GCP
8 5 (5.15%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (2.06%) SaaS
10 1 (1.03%) Akamai
10 1 (1.03%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (1.03%) IaaS
10 1 (1.03%) PaaS
10 1 (1.03%) Serverless
10 1 (1.03%) Sumo Logic
10 1 (1.03%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 24 (24.74%) Firewall
2 11 (11.34%) Network Security
3 8 (8.25%) Intrusion Detection
4 4 (4.12%) VPN
5 3 (3.09%) Cisco ISE
5 3 (3.09%) TCP/IP
6 1 (1.03%) Broadband
6 1 (1.03%) Cisco ASA
6 1 (1.03%) Cisco Firepower
6 1 (1.03%) DMZ
6 1 (1.03%) DNS
6 1 (1.03%) Internet
6 1 (1.03%) Modbus
6 1 (1.03%) SSH
6 1 (1.03%) SSL
6 1 (1.03%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (8.25%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 1 (1.03%) JIRA
General
1 34 (35.05%) Social Skills
2 23 (23.71%) Analytical Skills
3 18 (18.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 16 (16.49%) Finance
5 10 (10.31%) Legal
5 10 (10.31%) Retail
6 8 (8.25%) Law
7 7 (7.22%) Cyber-Physical System
8 6 (6.19%) Police
9 1 (1.03%) Banking
9 1 (1.03%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (6.19%) Regular Expression
2 1 (1.03%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 20 (20.62%) Management Information System
2 14 (14.43%) Operational Technology
3 10 (10.31%) Security Operations Centre
4 9 (9.28%) Security Posture
5 8 (8.25%) Cyberattack
5 8 (8.25%) Driving Licence
5 8 (8.25%) Hedge funds
5 8 (8.25%) Legacy Systems
6 7 (7.22%) AI Agents
6 7 (7.22%) Cyber Threat
6 7 (7.22%) Onboarding
7 6 (6.19%) Low-Code
8 4 (4.12%) SCADA
9 3 (3.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 3 (3.09%) Self-Motivation
10 1 (1.03%) Cloud Security Posture
10 1 (1.03%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (1.03%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 1 (1.03%) Cyber Security Posture
10 1 (1.03%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 13 (13.40%) Linux
1 13 (13.40%) Windows
2 11 (11.34%) Mac OS
3 1 (1.03%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 33 (34.02%) Information Security
3 31 (31.96%) Incident Response
4 29 (29.90%) Security Operations
5 26 (26.80%) SIEM
6 17 (17.53%) Computer Science
7 16 (16.49%) Cloud Security
7 16 (16.49%) Risk Management
8 15 (15.46%) Vulnerability Management
9 13 (13.40%) Vulnerability Assessment
10 11 (11.34%) DevOps
10 11 (11.34%) Threat Detection
11 10 (10.31%) Cyber Resilience
11 10 (10.31%) Data Loss Prevention
12 9 (9.28%) AI
12 9 (9.28%) Problem-Solving
12 9 (9.28%) Roadmaps
12 9 (9.28%) Software Engineering
13 8 (8.25%) Business Intelligence
13 8 (8.25%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 30 (30.93%) Python
2 24 (24.74%) PowerShell
3 8 (8.25%) SQL
4 4 (4.12%) Bash
5 2 (2.06%) C++
5 2 (2.06%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.03%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 28 (28.87%) Degree
2 24 (24.74%) CISSP
3 20 (20.62%) Security Cleared
4 19 (19.59%) SC Cleared
5 9 (9.28%) Master's Degree
6 8 (8.25%) CISA
6 8 (8.25%) CompTIA CySA+
7 7 (7.22%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (6.19%) CEH
9 5 (5.15%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (4.12%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (4.12%) DBS Check
10 4 (4.12%) SANS
11 3 (3.09%) CCNA
11 3 (3.09%) CCNP
11 3 (3.09%) CISM
11 3 (3.09%) GCIA
11 3 (3.09%) GIAC
12 2 (2.06%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 1 (1.03%) (ISC)2 CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (28.87%) NIST
2 27 (27.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (8.25%) Actionable Recommendations
3 8 (8.25%) Cyber Essentials
4 5 (5.15%) PCI DSS
5 3 (3.09%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (3.09%) GRC
6 2 (2.06%) GDPR
6 2 (2.06%) NCSC
7 1 (1.03%) HIPAA
7 1 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (1.03%) SLA
7 1 (1.03%) SOC 2
System Software
1 4 (4.12%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (3.09%) Single Sign-On
1 3 (3.09%) Terraform
2 1 (1.03%) CASB
2 1 (1.03%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.03%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 34 (35.05%) Microsoft
2 9 (9.28%) CrowdStrike
3 8 (8.25%) Google
3 8 (8.25%) Qualys
3 8 (8.25%) Tenable
4 7 (7.22%) Palo Alto
5 6 (6.19%) Cisco
6 4 (4.12%) CyberArk
7 3 (3.09%) AlienVault
7 3 (3.09%) Rapid7
7 3 (3.09%) Thales
8 2 (2.06%) Apple
8 2 (2.06%) Darktrace
8 2 (2.06%) iManage
8 2 (2.06%) Netskope
8 2 (2.06%) Splunk
9 1 (1.03%) CheckPoint
9 1 (1.03%) Fortinet
9 1 (1.03%) New Relic
9 1 (1.03%) SolarWinds