GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for GSEC qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 703 858 932
Rank change year-on-year +155 +74 +263
Permanent jobs citing GSEC 14 36 49
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.025% 0.036% 0.049%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.051% 0.13% 0.15%
Number of salaries quoted 6 28 39
10th Percentile £53,750 £57,250 £39,294
25th Percentile £58,438 £70,313 £72,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £73,750 £75,000 £85,500
Median % change year-on-year -1.67% -12.28% +36.80%
75th Percentile £105,313 £81,250 £95,500
90th Percentile £111,250 £90,000 £107,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £56,250 £45,000 £52,678
% change year-on-year +25.00% -14.58% -15.72%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GSEC 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 27,186 27,486 33,056
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 49.31% 27.70% 32.76%
Number of salaries quoted 11,493 17,304 14,953
10th Percentile £32,500 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £44,000 £38,500 £41,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £54,000 £59,526
Median % change year-on-year +1.85% -9.28% +8.23%
75th Percentile £68,568 £71,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £83,750 £87,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,000 £50,000 £51,500
% change year-on-year +4.00% -2.91% +3.00%

GSEC
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing GSEC as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing GSEC.

Salary trend for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing GSEC over the 6 months to 12 May 2025.

Salary histogram for GSEC in the UK

GSEC
Top 10 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing GSEC within the UK over the 6 months to 12 May 2025. 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 +128 14 £73,750 -1.67% 18
London +101 11 £96,250 +24.19% 12
UK excluding London +154 3 £56,250 +25.00% 9
North of England +62 2 £56,250 +50.00% 3
South West +101 1 - -
South East +96 1 £50,000 +11.11% 4
North West +2 1 £62,500 - 1
Yorkshire - 1 £50,000 - 1
East Midlands - 1 £50,000 - 2
Midlands - 1 £50,000 - 2

GSEC
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Cloud Services
1 4 (28.57%) SaaS
2 3 (21.43%) AWS
2 3 (21.43%) IaaS
2 3 (21.43%) PaaS
3 2 (14.29%) Azure
3 2 (14.29%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 8 (57.14%) TCP/IP
2 7 (50.00%) Link 16
2 7 (50.00%) RS-232
2 7 (50.00%) RS-485
2 7 (50.00%) Tactical Data Link
2 7 (50.00%) VLAN
3 6 (42.86%) Firewall
4 1 (7.14%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (7.14%) Network Security
General
1 8 (57.14%) Analytical Skills
2 7 (50.00%) Military
2 7 (50.00%) Telecoms
3 3 (21.43%) Banking
3 3 (21.43%) Finance
3 3 (21.43%) Social Skills
4 1 (7.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (7.14%) Law
4 1 (7.14%) Legal
Job Titles
1 7 (50.00%) Field Engineer
2 2 (14.29%) Analyst
2 2 (14.29%) Security Engineer
2 2 (14.29%) Security Specialist
3 1 (7.14%) Cloud Engineer
3 1 (7.14%) Cloud Security Engineer
3 1 (7.14%) Cloud Security Specialist
3 1 (7.14%) Cloud Specialist
3 1 (7.14%) Cybersecurity Analyst
3 1 (7.14%) Cybersecurity Specialist
3 1 (7.14%) Engineering Specialist
3 1 (7.14%) IT Security Specialist
3 1 (7.14%) Lead
3 1 (7.14%) Security Analyst
3 1 (7.14%) SOC Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 4 (28.57%) Management Information System
2 3 (21.43%) Cyber Threat
2 3 (21.43%) Security Posture
3 1 (7.14%) Cyber Defence
3 1 (7.14%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 1 (7.14%) Insider Threat
3 1 (7.14%) Onboarding
3 1 (7.14%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 9 (64.29%) Linux
2 3 (21.43%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (50.00%) Communications Security
1 7 (50.00%) Key Management
1 7 (50.00%) Preventative Maintenance
2 5 (35.71%) Cybersecurity
2 5 (35.71%) Information Security
2 5 (35.71%) Vulnerability Management
3 4 (28.57%) Computer Science
3 4 (28.57%) Security Operations
4 3 (21.43%) Incident Response
4 3 (21.43%) Internal Audit
4 3 (21.43%) Security Monitoring
4 3 (21.43%) Time Management
5 2 (14.29%) Cloud Security
5 2 (14.29%) Cyber Resilience
5 2 (14.29%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
5 2 (14.29%) Information Management
5 2 (14.29%) MITRE ATT&CK
5 2 (14.29%) Security Architecture
5 2 (14.29%) SIEM
5 2 (14.29%) Threat Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 7 (50.00%) C
1 7 (50.00%) R
2 1 (7.14%) PowerShell
2 1 (7.14%) Python
Qualifications
1 9 (64.29%) CCNA
1 9 (64.29%) CCNP
1 9 (64.29%) Cisco Certification
2 8 (57.14%) Degree
3 7 (50.00%) CompTIA Security+
3 7 (50.00%) Security Cleared
3 7 (50.00%) SSCP
4 5 (35.71%) CISSP
5 4 (28.57%) GIAC
6 3 (21.43%) GCED
6 3 (21.43%) GCIA
6 3 (21.43%) GCIH
6 3 (21.43%) GREM
6 3 (21.43%) SANS
7 2 (14.29%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 2 (14.29%) AWS Certification
7 2 (14.29%) CCSK
7 2 (14.29%) CEH
7 2 (14.29%) CISA
7 2 (14.29%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (50.00%) MIL-STD-1553
2 5 (35.71%) NIST
3 3 (21.43%) GDPR
3 3 (21.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (14.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 1 (7.14%) NIST 800
System Software
1 1 (7.14%) Active Directory
1 1 (7.14%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (7.14%) Ansible
1 1 (7.14%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
1 1 (7.14%) CSIRT
1 1 (7.14%) Progress Chef
1 1 (7.14%) Puppet
1 1 (7.14%) SCCM
Vendors
1 3 (21.43%) Microsoft
2 2 (14.29%) Cisco
3 1 (7.14%) ArcSight
3 1 (7.14%) Exabeam
3 1 (7.14%) Intel
3 1 (7.14%) LogRhythm
3 1 (7.14%) Qualys
3 1 (7.14%) Rapid7
3 1 (7.14%) Splunk
3 1 (7.14%) VMware