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 15 February 2026.

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

6 months to
15 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 583 584 660
Rank change year-on-year +1 +76 +124
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 77 98 146
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.20% 0.20%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.13% 0.22% 0.21%
Number of salaries quoted 55 68 110
10th Percentile £45,800 £37,716 £43,750
25th Percentile £50,000 £51,250 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £55,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +18.18% -15.38% +4.84%
75th Percentile £84,375 £67,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £92,000 £86,875 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £54,344 £60,000
% change year-on-year +10.41% -9.43% -

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 61,307 45,494 70,946
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 91.18% 91.70% 94.90%
Number of salaries quoted 38,565 23,655 55,494
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,500 £28,500
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £39,420
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 15 February 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 February 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 +48 76 £65,000 +18.18% 42
UK excluding London -20 36 £60,000 +10.41% 42
London +27 33 £80,000 - 7
Work from Home +21 31 £61,250 +2.08% 23
West Midlands +9 12 £52,500 +2.44% 4
Midlands -2 12 £52,500 +2.44% 9
North West +15 10 £85,000 +124.07% 7
South East -2 10 £65,000 +13.04% 11
North of England -3 10 £85,000 +124.07% 13
South West -3 3 £60,000 -39.24% 4
East of England +17 1 £90,000 +89.47% 1
Scotland -15 1 £57,500 -13.53% 4

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

For the 6 months to 15 February 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 77 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 37 (48.05%) Incident Response
3 35 (45.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 33 (42.86%) CISSP
5 31 (40.26%) Information Security
5 31 (40.26%) NIST
6 27 (35.06%) Firewall
7 24 (31.17%) Microsoft
7 24 (31.17%) SIEM
8 21 (27.27%) PowerShell
9 20 (25.97%) Azure
9 20 (25.97%) Security Operations
10 18 (23.38%) Microsoft 365
10 18 (23.38%) Risk Management
11 17 (22.08%) Python
12 16 (20.78%) Degree
12 16 (20.78%) Linux
12 16 (20.78%) Windows
13 15 (19.48%) Mac OS
14 12 (15.58%) Penetration Testing
15 11 (14.29%) Actionable Insight
15 11 (14.29%) Business Intelligence
15 11 (14.29%) CISA
15 11 (14.29%) CompTIA CySA+
15 11 (14.29%) Cyber Essentials
15 11 (14.29%) Entra ID
15 11 (14.29%) Network Security
15 11 (14.29%) Regulatory Change
15 11 (14.29%) SQL
15 11 (14.29%) Vulnerability Assessment

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 (1.30%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (1.30%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 20 (25.97%) Azure
2 18 (23.38%) Microsoft 365
3 11 (14.29%) Entra ID
4 9 (11.69%) AWS
4 9 (11.69%) Mimecast
5 6 (7.79%) Azure Sentinel
6 4 (5.19%) GCP
7 3 (3.90%) Tessian
8 2 (2.60%) Azure Logic Apps
8 2 (2.60%) Nutanix
8 2 (2.60%) SaaS
9 1 (1.30%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (1.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (1.30%) Datadog
9 1 (1.30%) IaaS
9 1 (1.30%) Microsoft Purview
9 1 (1.30%) PaaS
9 1 (1.30%) Power Platform
9 1 (1.30%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 27 (35.06%) Firewall
2 11 (14.29%) Network Security
3 9 (11.69%) Intrusion Detection
3 9 (11.69%) TCP/IP
4 6 (7.79%) Modbus
5 5 (6.49%) VPN
6 4 (5.19%) DNS
7 3 (3.90%) DMZ
8 2 (2.60%) HTTP
8 2 (2.60%) SSH
9 1 (1.30%) Cisco ASA
9 1 (1.30%) Cisco Firepower
9 1 (1.30%) Internet
9 1 (1.30%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (12.99%) Tableau
2 1 (1.30%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.60%) JIRA
2 1 (1.30%) Artifactory
2 1 (1.30%) Git
General
1 27 (35.06%) Social Skills
2 21 (27.27%) Finance
3 19 (24.68%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (16.88%) Legal
5 4 (5.19%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (3.90%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (2.60%) Law
8 1 (1.30%) Banking
8 1 (1.30%) Financial Institution
8 1 (1.30%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.60%) OAuth
1 2 (2.60%) OpenID
1 2 (2.60%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (15.58%) Management Information System
2 10 (12.99%) Hedge funds
3 9 (11.69%) Driving Licence
4 8 (10.39%) Operational Technology
4 8 (10.39%) Security Posture
5 6 (7.79%) SCADA
5 6 (7.79%) Security Operations Centre
6 5 (6.49%) Cyber Security Posture
6 5 (6.49%) Cyber Threat
7 4 (5.19%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 4 (5.19%) Enterprise Software
8 3 (3.90%) Cloud Native
8 3 (3.90%) Renewable Energy
9 2 (2.60%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (2.60%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.60%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (2.60%) Virtual Team
10 1 (1.30%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (1.30%) Cyberattack
10 1 (1.30%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 16 (20.78%) Linux
1 16 (20.78%) Windows
2 15 (19.48%) Mac OS
3 1 (1.30%) Android
3 1 (1.30%) Apple iOS
3 1 (1.30%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 77 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 37 (48.05%) Incident Response
3 31 (40.26%) Information Security
4 24 (31.17%) SIEM
5 20 (25.97%) Security Operations
6 18 (23.38%) Risk Management
7 12 (15.58%) Penetration Testing
8 11 (14.29%) Actionable Insight
8 11 (14.29%) Business Intelligence
8 11 (14.29%) Regulatory Change
8 11 (14.29%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 10 (12.99%) Vulnerability Remediation
10 8 (10.39%) Project Delivery
10 8 (10.39%) Vulnerability Management
11 7 (9.09%) Data Loss Prevention
11 7 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 6 (7.79%) Computer Science
12 6 (7.79%) Problem-Solving
12 6 (7.79%) Threat Detection
13 5 (6.49%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 21 (27.27%) PowerShell
2 17 (22.08%) Python
3 11 (14.29%) SQL
4 3 (3.90%) C++
4 3 (3.90%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (2.60%) Bash
6 1 (1.30%) Scala
Qualifications
1 33 (42.86%) CISSP
2 16 (20.78%) Degree
3 11 (14.29%) CISA
3 11 (14.29%) CompTIA CySA+
4 9 (11.69%) CompTIA Security+
5 8 (10.39%) Cisco Certification
5 8 (10.39%) Security Cleared
6 7 (9.09%) CEH
6 7 (9.09%) CISM
6 7 (9.09%) SC Cleared
7 5 (6.49%) CCNA
7 5 (6.49%) CCNP
7 5 (6.49%) GCIA
7 5 (6.49%) SANS
8 4 (5.19%) OSCP
9 3 (3.90%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 3 (3.90%) HND
10 2 (2.60%) Azure Certification
10 2 (2.60%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (2.60%) CESG Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (45.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 31 (40.26%) NIST
3 11 (14.29%) Cyber Essentials
4 10 (12.99%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (3.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (3.90%) GRC
5 3 (3.90%) NIST 800
6 2 (2.60%) Def Stans
6 2 (2.60%) ISO 22301
7 1 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 1 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (1.30%) NCSC
7 1 (1.30%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 4 (5.19%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 7 (9.09%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Intune
3 2 (2.60%) Nessus
4 1 (1.30%) Terraform
Vendors
1 24 (31.17%) Microsoft
2 10 (12.99%) Google
3 9 (11.69%) Qualys
4 8 (10.39%) Tenable
5 7 (9.09%) Palo Alto
6 5 (6.49%) CrowdStrike
7 4 (5.19%) Cisco
8 3 (3.90%) Apple
8 3 (3.90%) Splunk
8 3 (3.90%) VMware
9 2 (2.60%) Commvault
9 2 (2.60%) Fortinet
9 2 (2.60%) Imperva
9 2 (2.60%) Thales
10 1 (1.30%) CheckPoint
10 1 (1.30%) CyberArk
10 1 (1.30%) Meraki
10 1 (1.30%) Rapid7
10 1 (1.30%) Trend Micro
10 1 (1.30%) Zscaler