Cybersecurity Job Trends

Cybersecurity
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Cybersecurity skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 6 36 34
Rank change year-on-year +30 -2 +19
Permanent jobs citing Cybersecurity 7,657 3,079 3,307
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 12.70% 5.74% 5.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 15.69% 6.33% 6.63%
Number of salaries quoted 2,309 1,580 2,426
10th Percentile £28,250 £37,716 £35,920
25th Percentile £30,000 £48,565 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £64,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year -21.88% +2.40% -3.85%
75th Percentile £74,066 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £45,000 £56,700 £55,050
% change year-on-year -20.63% +3.00% -4.26%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Cybersecurity falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 48,808 48,616 49,870
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.95% 90.71% 89.93%
Number of salaries quoted 28,796 23,669 37,967
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,715
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £51,971
% change year-on-year -9.09% +5.83% -5.51%

Cybersecurity
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Cybersecurity relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Cybersecurity job vacancy trend in the UK

Cybersecurity
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cybersecurity.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cybersecurity over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Cybersecurity in the UK

Cybersecurity
Top 18 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cybersecurity within the UK over the 6 months to 15 January 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 +29 7,128 £50,000 -23.08% 1,795
UK excluding London +33 6,091 £45,000 -20.63% 1,658
North of England +39 2,247 £30,500 -44.55% 342
North West +35 1,779 £41,000 -25.31% 179
Midlands +27 1,426 £42,500 -26.53% 224
London +17 1,348 £67,500 -7.53% 421
West Midlands +20 1,184 £45,250 -24.58% 96
South East +29 1,084 £47,750 -16.96% 518
Work from Home +6 978 £60,000 -4.00% 673
East of England +51 571 £35,000 -37.18% 217
South West +37 402 £52,500 -19.23% 211
Yorkshire +37 399 £30,500 -48.20% 124
East Midlands +32 251 £37,500 -21.36% 126
Scotland +14 221 £30,500 -45.05% 87
Wales +15 113 £52,500 +1.94% 76
North East +42 69 £30,500 -34.01% 43
Northern Ireland +10 44 £59,000 +17.28% 26
Channel Islands +8 8 - -

Cybersecurity
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
1 139 (1.82%) SharePoint
2 70 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 16 (0.21%) Confluence
3 16 (0.21%) IIS
4 13 (0.17%) CMS
5 12 (0.16%) WordPress
6 7 (0.091%) Apache
7 6 (0.078%) Apache Spark
7 6 (0.078%) nginx
8 5 (0.065%) Drupal
9 4 (0.052%) FactoryTalk
9 4 (0.052%) Oracle Workflow
9 4 (0.052%) WinCC
10 3 (0.039%) Apache Airflow
10 3 (0.039%) Oracle Coherence
11 2 (0.026%) ArchestrA
11 2 (0.026%) SAS
11 2 (0.026%) WildFly
12 1 (0.013%) FileNet
Applications
1 129 (1.68%) Microsoft Office
2 70 (0.91%) Microsoft Excel
3 59 (0.77%) Maya
4 32 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 26 (0.34%) Chatbot
6 11 (0.14%) MS Visio
6 11 (0.14%) Simulink
7 6 (0.078%) AutoCAD
7 6 (0.078%) Spreadsheet
8 4 (0.052%) Microsoft Project
9 3 (0.039%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 3 (0.039%) CATIA
9 3 (0.039%) CINEMA 4D
10 1 (0.013%) Adobe After Effects
10 1 (0.013%) GNU Octave
Business Applications
1 37 (0.48%) Dynamics CRM
2 21 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
3 16 (0.21%) SAP IBP
4 10 (0.13%) SAP CO
4 10 (0.13%) SAP FI
4 10 (0.13%) SAP FI/CO
4 10 (0.13%) SAP FSCM
5 9 (0.12%) SAP FS
5 9 (0.12%) SAP IS-U
6 7 (0.091%) Shopify
7 6 (0.078%) Exchequer
7 6 (0.078%) NetSuite
8 4 (0.052%) Dynamics NAV
8 4 (0.052%) Endur
8 4 (0.052%) NEC Housing
8 4 (0.052%) SAP ERP
9 3 (0.039%) SAP CX
9 3 (0.039%) SAP GRC
9 3 (0.039%) Teamcenter
9 3 (0.039%) Yoast SEO
Cloud Services
1 4,103 (53.58%) Cloud Computing
2 1,240 (16.19%) Azure
3 590 (7.71%) AWS
4 459 (5.99%) Microsoft 365
5 255 (3.33%) GitHub
6 252 (3.29%) Entra ID
7 97 (1.27%) Power Platform
7 97 (1.27%) SaaS
8 71 (0.93%) GCP
9 62 (0.81%) PaaS
10 52 (0.68%) Azure DevOps
11 46 (0.60%) Azure Sentinel
12 45 (0.59%) Google Workspace
13 41 (0.54%) Dynamics 365
14 40 (0.52%) IaaS
14 40 (0.52%) OneDrive
15 27 (0.35%) Microsoft Purview
15 27 (0.35%) Nutanix
16 21 (0.27%) Power Automate
17 19 (0.25%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 4,310 (56.29%) Internet
2 268 (3.50%) Firewall
3 142 (1.85%) Network Security
4 131 (1.71%) VPN
5 111 (1.45%) DNS
5 111 (1.45%) TCP/IP
6 87 (1.14%) DHCP
7 78 (1.02%) WAN
8 73 (0.95%) LAN
9 67 (0.88%) VoIP
10 60 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
11 55 (0.72%) VLAN
12 44 (0.57%) Broadband
13 37 (0.48%) Intrusion Detection
14 33 (0.43%) Wireless
15 29 (0.38%) SD-WAN
16 26 (0.34%) Modbus
17 23 (0.30%) SAN
18 18 (0.24%) Wireshark
19 17 (0.22%) DMZ
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (0.84%) Power BI
2 60 (0.78%) SQL Server
3 44 (0.57%) Tableau
4 35 (0.46%) Data Warehouse
5 23 (0.30%) Big Data
6 20 (0.26%) Relational Database
7 19 (0.25%) Metadata
8 18 (0.24%) SAP BW
9 17 (0.22%) Data Lake
10 15 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
11 13 (0.17%) Neo4j
12 11 (0.14%) Oracle Database
13 10 (0.13%) NoSQL
14 9 (0.12%) Amazon RDS
14 9 (0.12%) SQL Server Integration Services
15 7 (0.091%) MariaDB
16 6 (0.078%) MS Access
17 4 (0.052%) Azure SQL Database
17 4 (0.052%) PostgreSQL
17 4 (0.052%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 250 (3.26%) Git
2 33 (0.43%) JIRA
3 20 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
4 16 (0.21%) Jenkins
5 11 (0.14%) GitLab
6 10 (0.13%) Cucumber
7 8 (0.10%) Burp Suite
7 8 (0.10%) Metasploit
8 7 (0.091%) JMeter
8 7 (0.091%) Locust
9 4 (0.052%) MLflow
9 4 (0.052%) Toad
10 3 (0.039%) Apache Continuum
10 3 (0.039%) Cypress.io
10 3 (0.039%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.026%) Snyk
12 1 (0.013%) Artifactory
12 1 (0.013%) Bitbucket
12 1 (0.013%) SonarQube
General
1 5,400 (70.52%) Social Skills
2 4,233 (55.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 4,209 (54.97%) Banking
4 590 (7.71%) Finance
5 395 (5.16%) Analytical Skills
6 393 (5.13%) Multimedia
7 205 (2.68%) Marketing
8 192 (2.51%) Public Sector
9 177 (2.31%) Law
10 167 (2.18%) Telecoms
11 166 (2.17%) Legal
12 151 (1.97%) Organisational Skills
13 114 (1.49%) Games
14 110 (1.44%) Manufacturing
15 104 (1.36%) Retail
16 73 (0.95%) Presentation Skills
17 71 (0.93%) Electronics
18 65 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
19 56 (0.73%) Back Office
20 48 (0.63%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 3,168 (41.37%) Lecturer
2 551 (7.20%) Analyst
3 432 (5.64%) Senior
4 399 (5.21%) Security Analyst
4 399 (5.21%) Trainee
5 351 (4.58%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 298 (3.89%) Junior
7 276 (3.60%) Junior Analyst
8 275 (3.59%) Junior Security Analyst
9 252 (3.29%) Architect
10 244 (3.19%) Consultant
11 233 (3.04%) Lead
12 200 (2.61%) IT Support
13 190 (2.48%) Support Engineer
14 176 (2.30%) Developer
15 150 (1.96%) IT Manager
15 150 (1.96%) Security Consultant
16 134 (1.75%) Security Engineer
16 134 (1.75%) Security Manager
16 134 (1.75%) Trainee Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 269 (3.51%) HTML
2 265 (3.46%) CSS
3 49 (0.64%) REST
4 39 (0.51%) OAuth
5 38 (0.50%) SAML
6 37 (0.48%) React
7 36 (0.47%) OpenID
8 35 (0.46%) GraphQL
9 34 (0.44%) LDAP
9 34 (0.44%) SOAP
10 26 (0.34%) SAP CAF
11 24 (0.31%) AngularJS
12 18 (0.24%) EDI
13 17 (0.22%) YAML
14 15 (0.20%) Middleware
15 13 (0.17%) MERN Stack
15 13 (0.17%) Pandas
16 12 (0.16%) Node.js
16 12 (0.16%) PyTorch
16 12 (0.16%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 4,116 (53.75%) IoT
2 198 (2.59%) Management Information System
3 164 (2.14%) Enterprise Software
4 156 (2.04%) Security Posture
5 152 (1.99%) Cyber Threat
6 132 (1.72%) Onboarding
7 121 (1.58%) Driving Licence
8 101 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
9 79 (1.03%) Data Centre
10 76 (0.99%) Operational Technology
11 70 (0.91%) Cloud Native
12 63 (0.82%) Security Operations Centre
13 60 (0.78%) Cyberattack
14 58 (0.76%) Analytical Mindset
15 46 (0.60%) Hybrid Cloud
16 43 (0.56%) Cyber Defence
17 40 (0.52%) Public Cloud
18 38 (0.50%) Product Ownership
19 34 (0.44%) Blockchain
20 32 (0.42%) CCTV
Operating Systems
1 405 (5.29%) Windows
2 152 (1.99%) Windows Server
3 142 (1.85%) Linux
4 87 (1.14%) Windows 10
5 70 (0.91%) Mac OS
6 27 (0.35%) Android
7 23 (0.30%) Apple iOS
8 22 (0.29%) Unix
9 10 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
10 8 (0.10%) VMS
11 7 (0.091%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 7 (0.091%) Ubuntu
12 6 (0.078%) Debian
12 6 (0.078%) Windows Server 2019
13 5 (0.065%) Kali Linux
14 3 (0.039%) Mac OS X
14 3 (0.039%) Windows Server 2012
15 2 (0.026%) CentOS
15 2 (0.026%) Nucleus RTOS
16 1 (0.013%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 4,326 (56.50%) AI
2 4,124 (53.86%) Machine Learning
3 4,101 (53.56%) User Experience
4 4,079 (53.27%) Web Development
5 936 (12.22%) Mentoring
6 548 (7.16%) Problem-Solving
7 386 (5.04%) Continuous Improvement
8 382 (4.99%) Risk Management
9 355 (4.64%) Information Security
10 343 (4.48%) Incident Response
11 298 (3.89%) Agile
12 278 (3.63%) ITIL
13 251 (3.28%) Analytics
14 240 (3.13%) Roadmaps
15 216 (2.82%) Project Management
16 211 (2.76%) Line Management
17 202 (2.64%) SIEM
18 201 (2.63%) Data Protection
18 201 (2.63%) Decision-Making
19 197 (2.57%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 427 (5.58%) Python
2 296 (3.87%) JavaScript
3 187 (2.44%) PowerShell
4 132 (1.72%) R
5 126 (1.65%) SQL
6 78 (1.02%) Bash
7 35 (0.46%) T-SQL
8 34 (0.44%) Java
9 31 (0.40%) C++
10 27 (0.35%) C
11 24 (0.31%) C#
12 20 (0.26%) TypeScript
13 16 (0.21%) Bicep
13 16 (0.21%) Kusto Query Language
14 11 (0.14%) MATLAB
15 6 (0.078%) Go
16 5 (0.065%) Rust
16 5 (0.065%) Shell Script
17 4 (0.052%) Kotlin
17 4 (0.052%) VB
Qualifications
1 4,622 (60.36%) Degree
2 4,122 (53.83%) Master's Degree
3 4,055 (52.96%) PhD
4 4,046 (52.84%) Postgraduate
5 563 (7.35%) Azure Certification
6 482 (6.29%) CompTIA Security+
7 366 (4.78%) CISSP
8 330 (4.31%) Microsoft Certification
9 322 (4.21%) Security Cleared
10 300 (3.92%) AWS Certification
11 294 (3.84%) CompTIA CySA+
12 263 (3.43%) CISM
13 251 (3.28%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
14 234 (3.06%) SC Cleared
15 208 (2.72%) CEH
16 169 (2.21%) Network+ Certification
17 165 (2.15%) A+ Certification
18 109 (1.42%) CISA
19 92 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
20 91 (1.19%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 478 (6.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 460 (6.01%) NIST
3 257 (3.36%) GDPR
4 233 (3.04%) Cyber Essentials
5 187 (2.44%) GRC
6 128 (1.67%) NCSC
7 97 (1.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 96 (1.25%) PCI DSS
9 86 (1.12%) SLA
10 65 (0.85%) QA
11 45 (0.59%) COBIT
12 42 (0.55%) NIST 800
13 39 (0.51%) SOC 2
14 32 (0.42%) JSP 440
15 30 (0.39%) Accessibility
16 25 (0.33%) Data Quality
17 21 (0.27%) RMADS
18 19 (0.25%) PMO
18 19 (0.25%) Sarbanes-Oxley
19 18 (0.24%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 284 (3.71%) Active Directory
2 89 (1.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 59 (0.77%) Hyper-V
4 51 (0.67%) Virtual Machines
5 50 (0.65%) Docker
6 19 (0.25%) vSphere
7 17 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
8 9 (0.12%) Firmware
9 6 (0.078%) BitLocker
10 5 (0.065%) Virtual Servers
10 5 (0.065%) VMware ESXi
10 5 (0.065%) VMware NSX
11 4 (0.052%) Kamailio
12 3 (0.039%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 2 (0.026%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 2 (0.026%) GPFS
13 2 (0.026%) Lustre
13 2 (0.026%) pfSense
13 2 (0.026%) Samba
14 1 (0.013%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 175 (2.29%) Microsoft Intune
2 62 (0.81%) Terraform
3 43 (0.56%) Kubernetes
4 30 (0.39%) Ansible
5 22 (0.29%) SCCM
6 21 (0.27%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (0.24%) Nessus
8 17 (0.22%) Jamf Pro
9 14 (0.18%) CASB
9 14 (0.18%) CSIRT
10 11 (0.14%) QRadar
11 10 (0.13%) Functional Safety
12 9 (0.12%) FortiGate
12 9 (0.12%) Grafana
12 9 (0.12%) Nmap
12 9 (0.12%) RSA Archer
13 8 (0.10%) Nagios
13 8 (0.10%) PaperCut
14 7 (0.091%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 6 (0.078%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 1,329 (17.36%) Microsoft
2 275 (3.59%) ForeScout
3 126 (1.65%) VMware
4 116 (1.51%) SAP
5 113 (1.48%) Cisco
6 88 (1.15%) Palo Alto
7 76 (0.99%) CrowdStrike
7 76 (0.99%) Fortinet
8 69 (0.90%) Apple
9 67 (0.88%) Adobe
9 67 (0.88%) Oracle
10 56 (0.73%) Salesforce
11 39 (0.51%) ServiceNow
12 38 (0.50%) Google
13 31 (0.40%) Splunk
14 29 (0.38%) Dell
15 24 (0.31%) Tenable
16 22 (0.29%) MuleSoft
16 22 (0.29%) Siemens
17 19 (0.25%) PayPal