Senior Security Engineer Job Trends

Senior Security Engineer
UK

The median Senior Security Engineer salary in the UK is £80,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 8 January 2026.

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

6 months to
8 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 586 625 577
Rank change year-on-year +39 -48 +177
Permanent jobs requiring a Senior Security Engineer 61 83 132
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.15% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.11% 0.16% 0.26%
Number of salaries quoted 57 61 114
10th Percentile £55,500 £54,500 £55,000
25th Percentile £65,000 £67,250 £56,219
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £80,000 £80,000 £61,750
Median % change year-on-year - +29.55% -5.00%
75th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £87,500
90th Percentile £132,500 £100,000 £115,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £60,000 £59,526
% change year-on-year +16.67% +0.80% -

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 54,184 50,447 51,400
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.62% 92.94% 95.28%
Number of salaries quoted 33,461 26,369 39,567
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,200 £30,750
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £41,566
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £96,539
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

Senior Security Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Senior Security Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Senior Security Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Senior Security Engineer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Senior Security Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Senior Security Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Senior Security Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Senior Security Engineer over the 6 months to 8 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Senior Security Engineer in the UK

Senior Security Engineer
Top 12 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Senior Security Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 8 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 +43 60 £80,000 -1.84% 71
UK excluding London +49 29 £70,000 +16.67% 62
London +34 29 £97,500 +14.71% 18
Work from Home +78 27 £67,500 -10.89% 27
South East +27 14 £65,000 -3.35% 17
North West +28 6 £45,000 -25.00% 4
North of England +17 6 £45,000 -24.37% 10
South West +11 4 £80,000 +14.29% 7
Midlands +6 3 - - 12
East of England - 3 £85,000 - 10
West Midlands +13 2 - - 2
East Midlands +3 1 - - 9

Senior Security Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 8 January 2026, Senior Security 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 Senior Security Engineer in the job title.

1 27 (44.26%) Cybersecurity
2 25 (40.98%) SIEM
3 21 (34.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 20 (32.79%) Security Operations
5 19 (31.15%) AWS
6 18 (29.51%) Network Security
7 17 (27.87%) Azure
8 15 (24.59%) AI
8 15 (24.59%) Degree
8 15 (24.59%) Firewall
8 15 (24.59%) Penetration Testing
9 14 (22.95%) CISSP
10 13 (21.31%) Cyber Essentials
10 13 (21.31%) Zero Trust
11 12 (19.67%) Cloud Security
11 12 (19.67%) Computer Science
11 12 (19.67%) Incident Response
11 12 (19.67%) Threat Modelling
11 12 (19.67%) Vulnerability Management
12 11 (18.03%) Cisco Certification
12 11 (18.03%) Computer Science Degree
12 11 (18.03%) Problem-Solving
12 11 (18.03%) Python
13 10 (16.39%) Microsoft
14 9 (14.75%) Analytics
14 9 (14.75%) Azure Sentinel
14 9 (14.75%) CCNA
14 9 (14.75%) CCNP
14 9 (14.75%) CompTIA Security+
14 9 (14.75%) Information Security

Senior Security 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 2 (3.28%) Apache Pulsar
2 1 (1.64%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 19 (31.15%) AWS
2 17 (27.87%) Azure
3 9 (14.75%) Azure Sentinel
4 6 (9.84%) Entra ID
4 6 (9.84%) GCP
5 5 (8.20%) Azure Service Bus
5 5 (8.20%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (4.92%) SaaS
7 2 (3.28%) AWS CloudFormation
7 2 (3.28%) Azure AKS
7 2 (3.28%) Mimecast
7 2 (3.28%) Tessian
8 1 (1.64%) Amazon Cognito
8 1 (1.64%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (1.64%) Azure Logic Apps
8 1 (1.64%) CloudFront
8 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (1.64%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 18 (29.51%) Network Security
2 15 (24.59%) Firewall
3 8 (13.11%) TCP/IP
4 2 (3.28%) Intrusion Detection
4 2 (3.28%) Modbus
4 2 (3.28%) VPN
5 1 (1.64%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (4.92%) PostgreSQL
1 3 (4.92%) Redis
Development Applications
1 1 (1.64%) GitLab
1 1 (1.64%) Jenkins
General
1 13 (21.31%) Telecoms
2 12 (19.67%) Social Skills
3 4 (6.56%) Finance
4 3 (4.92%) Legal
4 3 (4.92%) Manufacturing
5 2 (3.28%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (1.64%) Aerospace
6 1 (1.64%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.64%) Automotive
6 1 (1.64%) Financial Institution
6 1 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.64%) Law
6 1 (1.64%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (11.48%) OAuth
1 7 (11.48%) RESTful
2 6 (9.84%) OAuth2
3 5 (8.20%) Kafka
4 4 (6.56%) Android NDK
4 4 (6.56%) ARM Templates
4 4 (6.56%) WebSockets
5 3 (4.92%) JWT
5 3 (4.92%) OpenTelemetry
5 3 (4.92%) REST
6 2 (3.28%) gRPC
6 2 (3.28%) OpenID
7 1 (1.64%) AWS CDK
7 1 (1.64%) JSON
7 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (1.64%) SAML
7 1 (1.64%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (19.67%) Security Operations Centre
2 5 (8.20%) Distributed Systems
2 5 (8.20%) Security Posture
3 4 (6.56%) ARM Cortex
3 4 (6.56%) Hybrid Cloud
3 4 (6.56%) Mobile App
3 4 (6.56%) Onboarding
4 3 (4.92%) Cloud Native
4 3 (4.92%) YubiKey
5 2 (3.28%) Cyber Threat
5 2 (3.28%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 2 (3.28%) Operational Technology
5 2 (3.28%) Renewable Energy
5 2 (3.28%) SCADA
6 1 (1.64%) CCTV
6 1 (1.64%) Data Centre
6 1 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (1.64%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.64%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 8 (13.11%) Android
1 8 (13.11%) Windows
2 5 (8.20%) Linux
3 4 (6.56%) Windows Server
4 2 (3.28%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.64%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (44.26%) Cybersecurity
2 25 (40.98%) SIEM
3 20 (32.79%) Security Operations
4 15 (24.59%) AI
4 15 (24.59%) Penetration Testing
5 13 (21.31%) Zero Trust
6 12 (19.67%) Cloud Security
6 12 (19.67%) Computer Science
6 12 (19.67%) Incident Response
6 12 (19.67%) Threat Modelling
6 12 (19.67%) Vulnerability Management
7 11 (18.03%) Problem-Solving
8 9 (14.75%) Analytics
8 9 (14.75%) Information Security
8 9 (14.75%) Security Architecture
9 8 (13.11%) Continuous Improvement
9 8 (13.11%) Data Loss Prevention
9 8 (13.11%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 8 (13.11%) ITIL
9 8 (13.11%) SOAR
Programming Languages
1 11 (18.03%) Python
2 8 (13.11%) PowerShell
3 7 (11.48%) Go
4 6 (9.84%) C++
5 4 (6.56%) Bicep
5 4 (6.56%) JavaScript
5 4 (6.56%) Kotlin
5 4 (6.56%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (3.28%) Java
6 2 (3.28%) SQL
7 1 (1.64%) C#
7 1 (1.64%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 15 (24.59%) Degree
2 14 (22.95%) CISSP
3 11 (18.03%) Cisco Certification
3 11 (18.03%) Computer Science Degree
4 9 (14.75%) CCNA
4 9 (14.75%) CCNP
4 9 (14.75%) CompTIA Security+
5 8 (13.11%) GCIA
5 8 (13.11%) SANS
6 5 (8.20%) Security Cleared
7 4 (6.56%) Master's Degree
8 3 (4.92%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 3 (4.92%) CISM
8 3 (4.92%) DV Cleared
9 2 (3.28%) SC Cleared
10 1 (1.64%) AWS Certification
10 1 (1.64%) MCITP
10 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (1.64%) OSCP
10 1 (1.64%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (34.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (21.31%) Cyber Essentials
3 9 (14.75%) NIST
4 5 (8.20%) GDPR
5 4 (6.56%) QA
6 2 (3.28%) NIST 800
6 2 (3.28%) PCI DSS
6 2 (3.28%) SOC 2
7 1 (1.64%) HIPAA
7 1 (1.64%) NCSC
7 1 (1.64%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 7 (11.48%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.92%) Hyper-V
2 3 (4.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (3.28%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (11.48%) Terraform
2 4 (6.56%) Kubernetes
2 4 (6.56%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (4.92%) Grafana
3 3 (4.92%) Prometheus
4 2 (3.28%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.64%) Ansible
5 1 (1.64%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 10 (16.39%) Microsoft
2 9 (14.75%) Splunk
3 6 (9.84%) CrowdStrike
4 5 (8.20%) ServiceNow
4 5 (8.20%) VMware
5 4 (6.56%) Qualys
5 4 (6.56%) Tenable
6 3 (4.92%) Palo Alto
7 2 (3.28%) Ericsson
7 2 (3.28%) Mavenir
7 2 (3.28%) Nokia
8 1 (1.64%) Cisco
8 1 (1.64%) ForgeRock
8 1 (1.64%) Imperva
8 1 (1.64%) Okta