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 31 July 2026.

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

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 633 613 692
Rank change year-on-year -20 +79 -8
Permanent jobs requiring a Cybersecurity Engineer 140 66 126
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.14% 0.13% 0.14%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.15% 0.15%
Number of salaries quoted 97 59 111
10th Percentile £46,939 £45,000 £45,000
25th Percentile £52,500 £51,250 £46,713
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -3.04%
75th Percentile £77,000 £75,000 £81,250
90th Percentile £82,000 £95,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £59,000 £50,309
% change year-on-year +10.17% +17.28% -8.53%

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 96,998 44,483 82,509
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.27% 90.02% 94.82%
Number of salaries quoted 66,411 26,428 56,723
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,500 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - -8.33%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £96,250 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -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 31 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 31 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 -13 133 £70,000 +9.80% 63
UK excluding London -39 90 £65,000 +10.17% 42
Work from Home +7 46 £70,000 -9.68% 35
London -5 44 £74,250 -21.84% 14
Midlands -10 38 £65,000 +26.83% 8
East Midlands +7 31 £65,000 +32.65% 7
South East -33 27 £70,000 +7.69% 15
North of England -26 14 £55,000 -15.38% 14
North West +2 10 £55,000 -15.38% 6
West Midlands -20 7 £60,000 +14.29% 1
East of England -21 5 £80,000 +90.09% 2
Yorkshire -30 4 £55,000 +4.76% 5
Northern Ireland -62 4 - -
Scotland +9 1 - -
South West -64 1 £60,000 -34.25% 5

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

For the 6 months to 31 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.

1 140 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 57 (40.71%) Azure
3 49 (35.00%) Security Operations
4 46 (32.86%) Microsoft
4 46 (32.86%) SIEM
5 34 (24.29%) Cloud Security
5 34 (24.29%) Python
6 33 (23.57%) Firewall
6 33 (23.57%) Incident Response
6 33 (23.57%) Vulnerability Management
7 30 (21.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 29 (20.71%) Information Security
8 29 (20.71%) NIST
9 28 (20.00%) Degree
10 26 (18.57%) AI
10 26 (18.57%) CISSP
11 25 (17.86%) Microsoft 365
11 25 (17.86%) Threat Detection
12 23 (16.43%) Azure Sentinel
13 21 (15.00%) Entra ID
13 21 (15.00%) PowerShell
14 20 (14.29%) SC Cleared
14 20 (14.29%) Security Cleared
15 18 (12.86%) Computer Science
15 18 (12.86%) Software Engineering
16 17 (12.14%) Qualys
16 17 (12.14%) Risk Management
17 16 (11.43%) AWS
17 16 (11.43%) CrowdStrike
17 16 (11.43%) Penetration Testing

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 6 (4.29%) IIS
2 2 (1.43%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 57 (40.71%) Azure
2 25 (17.86%) Microsoft 365
3 23 (16.43%) Azure Sentinel
4 21 (15.00%) Entra ID
5 16 (11.43%) AWS
6 12 (8.57%) Microsoft Purview
7 10 (7.14%) GCP
7 10 (7.14%) Mimecast
8 3 (2.14%) Akamai
9 2 (1.43%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (1.43%) SaaS
9 2 (1.43%) Serverless
9 2 (1.43%) Sumo Logic
10 1 (0.71%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (0.71%) Cloudflare
10 1 (0.71%) IaaS
10 1 (0.71%) Microsoft Copilot
10 1 (0.71%) PaaS
10 1 (0.71%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 33 (23.57%) Firewall
2 12 (8.57%) Network Security
3 10 (7.14%) Internet
4 9 (6.43%) LAN
4 9 (6.43%) WAN
4 9 (6.43%) Wi-Fi
5 7 (5.00%) VPN
6 6 (4.29%) Cisco Nexus
7 5 (3.57%) Intrusion Detection
8 4 (2.86%) Cisco ISE
9 3 (2.14%) TCP/IP
10 1 (0.71%) Broadband
10 1 (0.71%) Cisco ASA
10 1 (0.71%) Cisco Firepower
10 1 (0.71%) DNS
10 1 (0.71%) SSH
10 1 (0.71%) SSL
10 1 (0.71%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.43%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 3 (2.14%) JIRA
2 1 (0.71%) Yeoman
General
1 30 (21.43%) Social Skills
2 21 (15.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 17 (12.14%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (7.86%) Finance
5 10 (7.14%) Retail
6 9 (6.43%) Law
7 7 (5.00%) Cyber-Physical System
7 7 (5.00%) Legal
8 6 (4.29%) Police
9 2 (1.43%) Banking
10 1 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.29%) Regular Expression
2 1 (0.71%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 25 (17.86%) Cyber Threat
2 19 (13.57%) Security Posture
3 16 (11.43%) Management Information System
4 14 (10.00%) Security Operations Centre
5 12 (8.57%) Operational Technology
6 9 (6.43%) Cyberattack
7 7 (5.00%) AI Agents
7 7 (5.00%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (5.00%) Onboarding
8 6 (4.29%) Low-Code
9 5 (3.57%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 4 (2.86%) Driving Licence
10 4 (2.86%) Embedded Systems
10 4 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (2.14%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 3 (2.14%) SCADA
12 2 (1.43%) Cloud Security Posture
12 2 (1.43%) Hedge funds
13 1 (0.71%) Client/Server
13 1 (0.71%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 11 (7.86%) Linux
2 9 (6.43%) Windows
3 3 (2.14%) Mac OS
3 3 (2.14%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 140 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 49 (35.00%) Security Operations
3 46 (32.86%) SIEM
4 34 (24.29%) Cloud Security
5 33 (23.57%) Incident Response
5 33 (23.57%) Vulnerability Management
6 29 (20.71%) Information Security
7 26 (18.57%) AI
8 25 (17.86%) Threat Detection
9 18 (12.86%) Computer Science
9 18 (12.86%) Software Engineering
10 17 (12.14%) Risk Management
11 16 (11.43%) Penetration Testing
12 15 (10.71%) Data Loss Prevention
12 15 (10.71%) Problem-Solving
13 14 (10.00%) Business Continuity
14 13 (9.29%) Continuous Improvement
14 13 (9.29%) DevOps
14 13 (9.29%) Security Architecture
15 12 (8.57%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 34 (24.29%) Python
2 21 (15.00%) PowerShell
3 8 (5.71%) SQL
4 4 (2.86%) Bash
4 4 (2.86%) C++
5 2 (1.43%) JavaScript
5 2 (1.43%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (0.71%) Rust
6 1 (0.71%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 28 (20.00%) Degree
2 26 (18.57%) CISSP
3 20 (14.29%) SC Cleared
3 20 (14.29%) Security Cleared
4 13 (9.29%) CompTIA Security+
5 10 (7.14%) Master's Degree
6 9 (6.43%) CEH
6 9 (6.43%) Cisco Certification
6 9 (6.43%) CISM
7 8 (5.71%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (4.29%) CCNA
9 5 (3.57%) CompTIA CySA+
9 5 (3.57%) GIAC
9 5 (3.57%) SANS
10 4 (2.86%) DBS Check
11 3 (2.14%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 3 (2.14%) CCNP
11 3 (2.14%) CCSP
11 3 (2.14%) GCIA
12 2 (1.43%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (21.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 29 (20.71%) NIST
3 13 (9.29%) Cyber Essentials
4 7 (5.00%) GDPR
4 7 (5.00%) PCI DSS
5 4 (2.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 4 (2.86%) GRC
5 4 (2.86%) NCSC
6 2 (1.43%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.71%) HIPAA
7 1 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (0.71%) SLA
7 1 (0.71%) SOC 2
System Software
1 7 (5.00%) Firmware
2 5 (3.57%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 5 (3.57%) Terraform
2 4 (2.86%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (2.14%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.43%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (1.43%) Nessus
5 1 (0.71%) CASB
Vendors
1 46 (32.86%) Microsoft
2 17 (12.14%) Qualys
3 16 (11.43%) CrowdStrike
4 15 (10.71%) Palo Alto
5 12 (8.57%) Cisco
6 6 (4.29%) Aruba
7 4 (2.86%) CyberArk
7 4 (2.86%) Rapid7
7 4 (2.86%) Splunk
7 4 (2.86%) Tenable
8 3 (2.14%) AlienVault
8 3 (2.14%) New Relic
8 3 (2.14%) SolarWinds
8 3 (2.14%) Thales
8 3 (2.14%) Zerto
9 2 (1.43%) Darktrace
9 2 (1.43%) Fortinet
9 2 (1.43%) Google
9 2 (1.43%) iManage
9 2 (1.43%) Netskope