Cybersecurity Engineer Job Trends

Cybersecurity Engineer
UK

The median Cybersecurity Engineer salary in the UK is £66,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 27 September 2026.

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

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 616 595 646
Rank change year-on-year -21 +51 -74
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 194 73 130
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.17% 0.15% 0.17%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.18% 0.16% 0.18%
Number of salaries quoted 144 66 93
10th Percentile £47,857 £50,000 -
25th Percentile £55,000 £57,031 £46,713
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £66,500 £65,000 £58,500
Median % change year-on-year +2.31% +11.11% -9.65%
75th Percentile £77,000 £77,500 £81,250
90th Percentile £80,000 £95,000 £94,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £63,750 £50,309
% change year-on-year +1.96% +26.72% -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 109,253 44,520 72,425
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 92.96% 89.71% 95.27%
Number of salaries quoted 74,753 26,003 42,216
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,250 £30,750
25th Percentile £40,625 £36,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £58,589 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.53% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £73,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £98,750 £95,000 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -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 27 September 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 27 September 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 +5 187 £68,000 +4.62% 177
UK excluding London -38 135 £65,000 +1.96% 107
Work from Home -4 61 £73,500 +5.93% 65
Midlands +1 57 £65,000 +22.42% 18
London -19 55 £75,000 -13.04% 72
East Midlands - 46 £65,000 - 5
South East -35 40 £70,000 +7.69% 24
North of England -38 25 £55,000 -15.38% 31
North West -24 12 £55,000 -15.38% 20
West Midlands -34 11 £60,000 +13.01% 13
Yorkshire - 11 £55,000 - 8
East of England -31 7 £80,000 +90.09% 13
Northern Ireland -85 4 - - 4
North East - 2 £50,000 - 3
Scotland +16 1 - - 16
South West -83 1 £40,000 -36.00% 5

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

For the 6 months to 27 September 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.

1 194 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 74 (38.14%) Azure
3 66 (34.02%) Security Operations
4 64 (32.99%) SIEM
5 57 (29.38%) Microsoft
6 47 (24.23%) Vulnerability Management
7 41 (21.13%) AI
7 41 (21.13%) Incident Response
8 40 (20.62%) Firewall
9 39 (20.10%) Threat Detection
10 37 (19.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 35 (18.04%) Python
12 34 (17.53%) NIST
13 33 (17.01%) Entra ID
14 32 (16.49%) CISSP
14 32 (16.49%) Cloud Security
15 31 (15.98%) Azure Sentinel
16 28 (14.43%) Degree
16 28 (14.43%) Microsoft 365
17 25 (12.89%) Penetration Testing
18 24 (12.37%) Information Security
19 23 (11.86%) Business Continuity
19 23 (11.86%) DevOps
19 23 (11.86%) Qualys
19 23 (11.86%) Software Engineering
20 22 (11.34%) Palo Alto
20 22 (11.34%) Problem-Solving
21 21 (10.82%) CompTIA Security+
21 21 (10.82%) Cyber Essentials
21 21 (10.82%) SC Cleared

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 10 (5.15%) IIS
2 3 (1.55%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
Business Applications
1 1 (0.52%) FLEXCUBE
Cloud Services
1 74 (38.14%) Azure
2 33 (17.01%) Entra ID
3 31 (15.98%) Azure Sentinel
4 28 (14.43%) Microsoft 365
5 20 (10.31%) AWS
6 19 (9.79%) Microsoft Purview
7 15 (7.73%) Mimecast
8 10 (5.15%) GCP
9 5 (2.58%) Microsoft Copilot
10 4 (2.06%) Akamai
11 2 (1.03%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (1.03%) Cloudflare
11 2 (1.03%) Serverless
11 2 (1.03%) Sumo Logic
12 1 (0.52%) Amazon Kinesis
12 1 (0.52%) Amazon S3
12 1 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
12 1 (0.52%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 40 (20.62%) Firewall
2 15 (7.73%) Network Security
3 14 (7.22%) Internet
3 14 (7.22%) LAN
3 14 (7.22%) WAN
3 14 (7.22%) Wi-Fi
4 12 (6.19%) VPN
5 11 (5.67%) Cisco Nexus
6 7 (3.61%) Cisco ISE
7 4 (2.06%) Intrusion Detection
7 4 (2.06%) TCP/IP
8 2 (1.03%) DHCP
8 2 (1.03%) DNS
8 2 (1.03%) SSH
8 2 (1.03%) SSL
9 1 (0.52%) BGP
9 1 (0.52%) EIGRP
9 1 (0.52%) IPsec
9 1 (0.52%) OSPF
9 1 (0.52%) Unified Communications
Development Applications
1 4 (2.06%) JIRA
2 1 (0.52%) Yeoman
General
1 35 (18.04%) Social Skills
2 20 (10.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 15 (7.73%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (6.70%) Finance
5 12 (6.19%) Law
6 9 (4.64%) Retail
7 7 (3.61%) Cyber-Physical System
8 6 (3.09%) Legal
8 6 (3.09%) Police
9 4 (2.06%) Banking
10 2 (1.03%) Automotive
10 2 (1.03%) Public Sector
11 1 (0.52%) Back Office
11 1 (0.52%) Financial Institution
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.61%) Regular Expression
2 5 (2.58%) Terraform
3 1 (0.52%) JSON
3 1 (0.52%) LDAP
3 1 (0.52%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 36 (18.56%) Cyber Threat
2 25 (12.89%) Security Posture
3 17 (8.76%) Operational Technology
4 16 (8.25%) Security Operations Centre
5 15 (7.73%) Management Information System
6 10 (5.15%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 9 (4.64%) Cyberattack
8 7 (3.61%) AI Agents
8 7 (3.61%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (3.61%) Onboarding
9 6 (3.09%) Embedded Systems
9 6 (3.09%) Low-Code
10 5 (2.58%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 4 (2.06%) SCADA
11 4 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
12 3 (1.55%) PKI
13 2 (1.03%) Cloud Security Posture
13 2 (1.03%) Cyber Security Posture
13 2 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
13 2 (1.03%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 14 (7.22%) Linux
2 12 (6.19%) Windows
3 8 (4.12%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.03%) Windows Server 2016
4 2 (1.03%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (0.52%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 66 (34.02%) Security Operations
3 64 (32.99%) SIEM
4 47 (24.23%) Vulnerability Management
5 41 (21.13%) AI
5 41 (21.13%) Incident Response
6 39 (20.10%) Threat Detection
7 32 (16.49%) Cloud Security
8 25 (12.89%) Penetration Testing
9 24 (12.37%) Information Security
10 23 (11.86%) Business Continuity
10 23 (11.86%) DevOps
10 23 (11.86%) Software Engineering
11 22 (11.34%) Problem-Solving
12 20 (10.31%) Continuous Improvement
12 20 (10.31%) Data Loss Prevention
13 18 (9.28%) Disaster Recovery
13 18 (9.28%) Risk Management
13 18 (9.28%) Security Architecture
14 17 (8.76%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 35 (18.04%) Python
2 19 (9.79%) PowerShell
3 9 (4.64%) SQL
4 6 (3.09%) C++
5 3 (1.55%) Bash
5 3 (1.55%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (1.55%) Rust
6 2 (1.03%) JavaScript
6 2 (1.03%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.52%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 32 (16.49%) CISSP
2 28 (14.43%) Degree
3 21 (10.82%) CompTIA Security+
3 21 (10.82%) SC Cleared
3 21 (10.82%) Security Cleared
4 15 (7.73%) CISM
5 14 (7.22%) CEH
5 14 (7.22%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (5.15%) CCNA
6 10 (5.15%) Master's Degree
7 7 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (3.61%) GIAC
8 6 (3.09%) CompTIA CySA+
9 5 (2.58%) SANS
10 4 (2.06%) CCNP
10 4 (2.06%) DBS Check
11 3 (1.55%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 3 (1.55%) CCSP
11 3 (1.55%) GCIA
12 2 (1.03%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (19.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 34 (17.53%) NIST
3 21 (10.82%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (4.64%) PCI DSS
5 7 (3.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 6 (3.09%) GDPR
6 6 (3.09%) GRC
7 4 (2.06%) NCSC
8 1 (0.52%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (8.25%) Firmware
2 9 (4.64%) Active Directory
3 1 (0.52%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.52%) NFS
3 1 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.52%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 10 (5.15%) Single Sign-On
2 7 (3.61%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (2.58%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.03%) Nessus
5 1 (0.52%) Ansible
5 1 (0.52%) Network Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.52%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 57 (29.38%) Microsoft
2 23 (11.86%) Qualys
3 22 (11.34%) Palo Alto
4 20 (10.31%) CrowdStrike
5 19 (9.79%) Cisco
6 11 (5.67%) Aruba
7 8 (4.12%) Splunk
8 6 (3.09%) CyberArk
8 6 (3.09%) Rapid7
9 5 (2.58%) Netskope
10 4 (2.06%) New Relic
10 4 (2.06%) SolarWinds
10 4 (2.06%) Zerto
11 3 (1.55%) AlienVault
11 3 (1.55%) Tenable
12 2 (1.03%) Darktrace
12 2 (1.03%) Fortinet
13 1 (0.52%) F5
13 1 (0.52%) Oracle
13 1 (0.52%) Thales