GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for GCIH qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 17 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 698 608 870
Rank change year-on-year -90 +262 -33
Permanent jobs citing GCIH 33 48 36
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.035% 0.11% 0.033%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.18% 0.28% 0.13%
Number of salaries quoted 24 31 20
10th Percentile £43,850 £49,000 £54,875
25th Percentile £69,375 £53,750 £58,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £76,250 £75,000 £81,250
Median % change year-on-year +1.67% -7.69% +80.56%
75th Percentile £100,625 £90,000 £90,000
90th Percentile £107,750 £92,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £48,000 £55,000 £65,000
% change year-on-year -12.73% -15.38% +62.50%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GCIH falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 18,222 17,280 27,364
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 19.49% 38.77% 25.24%
Number of salaries quoted 9,581 7,324 17,232
10th Percentile £30,500 £29,750 £28,750
25th Percentile £42,500 £39,500 £38,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% +2.80% -10.83%
75th Percentile £78,750 £72,500 £70,613
90th Percentile £92,988 £90,000 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £50,890 £50,000
% change year-on-year +8.08% +1.78% -4.76%

GCIH
Job Vacancy Trend

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

GCIH job vacancy trend in the UK

GCIH
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing GCIH.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing GCIH

GCIH
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing GCIH over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Salary histogram for GCIH in the UK

GCIH
Top 8 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing GCIH within the UK over the 6 months to 17 June 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 -86 28 £85,000 +13.33% 23
London -49 18 £91,250 +7.35% 7
UK excluding London -74 11 £48,000 -12.73% 22
South East -15 8 £63,750 -11.46% 5
Work from Home +3 3 £40,750 -25.91% 16
Northern Ireland - 2 £40,750 - 2
North West -4 1 - - 4
North of England -35 1 - - 6

GCIH
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:

Cloud Services
1 16 (48.48%) AWS
2 15 (45.45%) Azure
3 9 (27.27%) Azure Sentinel
3 9 (27.27%) Microsoft 365
4 8 (24.24%) GCP
5 7 (21.21%) Entra ID
6 3 (9.09%) Amazon GuardDuty
6 3 (9.09%) AWS KMS
6 3 (9.09%) GitHub
6 3 (9.09%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 14 (42.42%) Firewall
2 9 (27.27%) Network Security
2 9 (27.27%) VPN
3 8 (24.24%) DNS
3 8 (24.24%) HTTP
3 8 (24.24%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 3 (9.09%) GitLab
1 3 (9.09%) Jenkins
General
1 13 (39.39%) Analytical Skills
2 11 (33.33%) Social Skills
3 7 (21.21%) Finance
4 5 (15.15%) Legal
5 1 (3.03%) Banking
5 1 (3.03%) Investment Banking
5 1 (3.03%) Presentation Skills
5 1 (3.03%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 17 (51.52%) Analyst
2 7 (21.21%) Cyber Threat Analyst
2 7 (21.21%) Security Analyst
2 7 (21.21%) Senior
3 5 (15.15%) Lead
3 5 (15.15%) Senior Analyst
4 4 (12.12%) SOC Analyst
5 3 (9.09%) Incident Analyst
5 3 (9.09%) Incident Manager
5 3 (9.09%) Senior Security Analyst
5 3 (9.09%) SIEM Analyst
5 3 (9.09%) Technical Leader
6 2 (6.06%) Architect
6 2 (6.06%) Consultant
6 2 (6.06%) Information Analyst
6 2 (6.06%) Security Consultant
6 2 (6.06%) Security Incident Consultant
6 2 (6.06%) Senior Architect
6 2 (6.06%) Senior Incident Analyst
6 2 (6.06%) Senior Security Architect
Miscellaneous
1 15 (45.45%) Cyber Threat
2 11 (33.33%) Cyber Defence
3 10 (30.30%) Security Posture
4 8 (24.24%) Analytical Mindset
5 5 (15.15%) Insider Threat
5 5 (15.15%) Security Operations Centre
6 3 (9.09%) Cloud Native
6 3 (9.09%) Virtual Team
7 2 (6.06%) CSOC
7 2 (6.06%) Management Information System
7 2 (6.06%) Onboarding
8 1 (3.03%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 17 (51.52%) Linux
1 17 (51.52%) Windows
2 2 (6.06%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (96.97%) Incident Response
2 28 (84.85%) SIEM
3 26 (78.79%) Cybersecurity
4 24 (72.73%) Threat Intelligence
5 21 (63.64%) Cloud Security
6 19 (57.58%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 19 (57.58%) MITRE ATT&CK
6 19 (57.58%) Security Operations
7 16 (48.48%) Threat Detection
8 14 (42.42%) SOAR
8 14 (42.42%) Use Case
9 13 (39.39%) Continuous Improvement
10 12 (36.36%) Blue Team
11 11 (33.33%) Digital Forensics
12 9 (27.27%) Incident Management
12 9 (27.27%) Information Security
12 9 (27.27%) Malware Analysis
12 9 (27.27%) Red Team
12 9 (27.27%) Security Monitoring
13 8 (24.24%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 7 (21.21%) PowerShell
1 7 (21.21%) Python
1 7 (21.21%) Search Processing Language
2 5 (15.15%) Bash
3 3 (9.09%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 25 (75.76%) GCIA
2 22 (66.67%) CISSP
3 19 (57.58%) GIAC
4 12 (36.36%) OSCP
4 12 (36.36%) SANS
4 12 (36.36%) Security Cleared
5 10 (30.30%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 10 (30.30%) Cisco Certification
5 10 (30.30%) CISM
5 10 (30.30%) CREST Certified
5 10 (30.30%) SC Cleared
6 9 (27.27%) CCSP
6 9 (27.27%) CompTIA Security+
6 9 (27.27%) Degree
7 8 (24.24%) CEH
7 8 (24.24%) CompTIA CySA+
7 8 (24.24%) GCED
8 6 (18.18%) GCFA
9 5 (15.15%) Azure Certification
10 3 (9.09%) CCSK
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (51.52%) NIST
2 13 (39.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (24.24%) Cyber Essentials
4 6 (18.18%) SOC 2
5 3 (9.09%) GDPR
5 3 (9.09%) NCSC
5 3 (9.09%) NIST 800
6 2 (6.06%) Accessibility
6 2 (6.06%) PCI DSS
7 1 (3.03%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (3.03%) PMO
7 1 (3.03%) SLA
System Software
1 5 (15.15%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 8 (24.24%) Kibana
2 3 (9.09%) Ansible
2 3 (9.09%) CSIRT
2 3 (9.09%) Terraform
3 2 (6.06%) QRadar
Vendors
1 20 (60.61%) Microsoft
2 17 (51.52%) CrowdStrike
3 11 (33.33%) Splunk
4 10 (30.30%) Carbon Black
5 6 (18.18%) Tenable
6 3 (9.09%) Intel
6 3 (9.09%) Qualys
6 3 (9.09%) Varonis
7 1 (3.03%) LogRhythm