Cybersecurity Engineer Job Trends

Cybersecurity Engineer
UK

The median Cybersecurity Engineer salary in the UK is £70,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 16 July 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 649 604 771
Rank change year-on-year -45 +167 -84
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 130 74 118
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.13% 0.15% 0.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.17% 0.12%
Number of salaries quoted 89 66 104
10th Percentile £46,939 £45,000 £39,550
25th Percentile £52,500 £51,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% -3.85% +8.33%
75th Percentile £77,500 £75,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £85,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £67,500 £56,875 £55,000
% change year-on-year +18.68% +3.41% -

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 93,088 44,174 95,628
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.23% 89.90% 94.75%
Number of salaries quoted 63,779 26,115 68,243
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.12%

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 16 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Cybersecurity Engineer in the UK

Cybersecurity Engineer
Top 15 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 16 July 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 -26 123 £70,000 +16.67% 36
UK excluding London -65 78 £67,500 +18.68% 31
London -1 45 £74,250 -18.63% 8
Work from Home +11 44 £70,000 -6.67% 18
Midlands +6 33 £65,000 +22.42% 8
East Midlands -9 27 £65,000 +32.65% 6
South East -14 25 £70,000 +17.65% 9
North of England -34 10 £55,000 -15.38% 9
North West -5 9 £55,000 -15.38% 5
West Midlands -30 6 £60,000 +11.76% 2
East of England -14 4 £80,000 +90.09% 2
Northern Ireland -55 4 - - 1
Scotland +14 1 - - 1
Yorkshire -33 1 £55,000 +4.76% 2
South West -57 1 £60,000 -39.24% 2

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

For the 6 months to 16 July 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.

1 130 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 50 (38.46%) Azure
3 45 (34.62%) Security Operations
4 43 (33.08%) Microsoft
5 41 (31.54%) SIEM
6 35 (26.92%) Python
7 32 (24.62%) Firewall
7 32 (24.62%) Incident Response
8 31 (23.85%) Information Security
8 31 (23.85%) Vulnerability Management
9 30 (23.08%) Cloud Security
9 30 (23.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 29 (22.31%) Degree
10 29 (22.31%) NIST
11 27 (20.77%) CISSP
12 26 (20.00%) Microsoft 365
13 23 (17.69%) PowerShell
14 22 (16.92%) AI
15 21 (16.15%) Threat Detection
16 20 (15.38%) Azure Sentinel
16 20 (15.38%) SC Cleared
16 20 (15.38%) Security Cleared
17 18 (13.85%) Computer Science
17 18 (13.85%) Entra ID
18 17 (13.08%) Risk Management
19 16 (12.31%) CrowdStrike
19 16 (12.31%) Problem-Solving
19 16 (12.31%) Software Engineering
20 15 (11.54%) AWS
20 15 (11.54%) Qualys

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 5 (3.85%) IIS
2 2 (1.54%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 50 (38.46%) Azure
2 26 (20.00%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (15.38%) Azure Sentinel
4 18 (13.85%) Entra ID
5 15 (11.54%) AWS
6 11 (8.46%) Microsoft Purview
6 11 (8.46%) Mimecast
7 9 (6.92%) GCP
8 2 (1.54%) Akamai
8 2 (1.54%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.54%) SaaS
8 2 (1.54%) Serverless
8 2 (1.54%) Sumo Logic
9 1 (0.77%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (0.77%) IaaS
9 1 (0.77%) Microsoft Copilot
9 1 (0.77%) PaaS
9 1 (0.77%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 32 (24.62%) Firewall
2 10 (7.69%) Network Security
3 8 (6.15%) Internet
4 7 (5.38%) LAN
4 7 (5.38%) WAN
4 7 (5.38%) Wi-Fi
5 6 (4.62%) Intrusion Detection
5 6 (4.62%) VPN
6 4 (3.08%) Cisco ISE
6 4 (3.08%) Cisco Nexus
7 3 (2.31%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.77%) Broadband
8 1 (0.77%) Cisco ASA
8 1 (0.77%) Cisco Firepower
8 1 (0.77%) DNS
8 1 (0.77%) SSH
8 1 (0.77%) SSL
8 1 (0.77%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.31%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 3 (2.31%) JIRA
2 1 (0.77%) Yeoman
General
1 31 (23.85%) Social Skills
2 21 (16.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 19 (14.62%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (9.23%) Finance
5 10 (7.69%) Retail
6 9 (6.92%) Law
7 8 (6.15%) Legal
8 7 (5.38%) Cyber-Physical System
9 6 (4.62%) Police
10 2 (1.54%) Banking
11 1 (0.77%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.62%) Regular Expression
2 1 (0.77%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 22 (16.92%) Cyber Threat
2 18 (13.85%) Security Posture
3 17 (13.08%) Management Information System
4 14 (10.77%) Security Operations Centre
5 12 (9.23%) Operational Technology
6 9 (6.92%) Cyberattack
7 7 (5.38%) AI Agents
7 7 (5.38%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (5.38%) Onboarding
8 6 (4.62%) Low-Code
9 5 (3.85%) Driving Licence
10 4 (3.08%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 4 (3.08%) Embedded Systems
10 4 (3.08%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (2.31%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 3 (2.31%) Hedge funds
11 3 (2.31%) SCADA
12 2 (1.54%) Cloud Security Posture
13 1 (0.77%) Cyber Defence
13 1 (0.77%) Cyber Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 12 (9.23%) Linux
2 10 (7.69%) Windows
3 4 (3.08%) Mac OS
4 3 (2.31%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 45 (34.62%) Security Operations
3 41 (31.54%) SIEM
4 32 (24.62%) Incident Response
5 31 (23.85%) Information Security
5 31 (23.85%) Vulnerability Management
6 30 (23.08%) Cloud Security
7 22 (16.92%) AI
8 21 (16.15%) Threat Detection
9 18 (13.85%) Computer Science
10 17 (13.08%) Risk Management
11 16 (12.31%) Problem-Solving
11 16 (12.31%) Software Engineering
12 14 (10.77%) Data Loss Prevention
12 14 (10.77%) Penetration Testing
13 13 (10.00%) Continuous Improvement
14 12 (9.23%) Business Continuity
14 12 (9.23%) DevOps
14 12 (9.23%) SOAR
14 12 (9.23%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 35 (26.92%) Python
2 23 (17.69%) PowerShell
3 8 (6.15%) SQL
4 4 (3.08%) Bash
5 3 (2.31%) C++
6 2 (1.54%) JavaScript
6 2 (1.54%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.77%) Rust
7 1 (0.77%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 29 (22.31%) Degree
2 27 (20.77%) CISSP
3 20 (15.38%) SC Cleared
3 20 (15.38%) Security Cleared
4 11 (8.46%) CompTIA Security+
5 10 (7.69%) Master's Degree
6 9 (6.92%) CEH
7 8 (6.15%) Cisco Certification
7 8 (6.15%) CISM
7 8 (6.15%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (4.62%) CCNA
9 5 (3.85%) GIAC
9 5 (3.85%) SANS
10 4 (3.08%) CompTIA CySA+
10 4 (3.08%) DBS Check
11 3 (2.31%) CCNP
11 3 (2.31%) CISA
11 3 (2.31%) GCIA
12 2 (1.54%) CCSP
12 2 (1.54%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (23.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 29 (22.31%) NIST
3 13 (10.00%) Cyber Essentials
4 7 (5.38%) GDPR
4 7 (5.38%) PCI DSS
5 4 (3.08%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 4 (3.08%) GRC
5 4 (3.08%) NCSC
6 3 (2.31%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.77%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (0.77%) SLA
7 1 (0.77%) SOC 2
System Software
1 4 (3.08%) Active Directory
1 4 (3.08%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 5 (3.85%) Terraform
2 4 (3.08%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (2.31%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.54%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (1.54%) Nessus
5 1 (0.77%) CASB
Vendors
1 43 (33.08%) Microsoft
2 16 (12.31%) CrowdStrike
3 15 (11.54%) Qualys
4 13 (10.00%) Palo Alto
5 11 (8.46%) Cisco
6 6 (4.62%) Tenable
7 5 (3.85%) Splunk
8 4 (3.08%) Aruba
8 4 (3.08%) CyberArk
8 4 (3.08%) Rapid7
9 3 (2.31%) AlienVault
9 3 (2.31%) Google
9 3 (2.31%) New Relic
9 3 (2.31%) SolarWinds
9 3 (2.31%) Thales
9 3 (2.31%) Zerto
10 2 (1.54%) Darktrace
10 2 (1.54%) Fortinet
10 2 (1.54%) iManage
10 2 (1.54%) Netskope