Cyber Essentials Job Trends in the West Midlands

Cyber Essentials
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 135 160 101
Rank change year-on-year +25 -59 +152
Permanent jobs citing Cyber Essentials 43 39 79
As % of all permanent jobs in the West Midlands 0.81% 0.94% 2.09%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 6.63% 5.51% 14.01%
Number of salaries quoted 38 28 76
10th Percentile £31,250 £41,550 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £42,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £52,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +14.29% -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £63,750 £60,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £83,938 £87,100 -
England median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +4.55% - -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
West Midlands

Cyber Essentials falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in the West Midlands.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 649 708 564
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the West Midlands 12.28% 17.09% 14.95%
Number of salaries quoted 299 376 490
10th Percentile £30,580 £28,822 £27,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £38,938 £37,192
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,500 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - - +5.00%
75th Percentile £66,250 £70,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £83,125 £73,875
England median annual salary £58,000 £60,000 £59,000
% change year-on-year -3.33% +1.69% +2.61%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Cyber Essentials relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

Cyber Essentials
Salary Trend in the West Midlands

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Cyber Essentials.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Salary Histogram in the West Midlands

Salary distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Cyber Essentials in the West Midlands

Cyber Essentials
Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Essentials within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 14 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
Birmingham +14 26 £60,000 +14.61% 10
Herefordshire - 8 £60,000 - 1
Worcestershire -10 4 £35,000 -39.85% 1
Staffordshire -6 2 £63,000 -37.00% 3
Halesowen - 2 £32,500 - 1
Cyber Essentials
England

Cyber Essentials
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 9 (20.93%) SharePoint
2 3 (6.98%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 15 (34.88%) Microsoft 365
2 14 (32.56%) Azure
3 12 (27.91%) Entra ID
4 4 (9.30%) Google Workspace
5 1 (2.33%) Amazon EKS
5 1 (2.33%) Amazon GuardDuty
5 1 (2.33%) AWS
5 1 (2.33%) AWS Control Tower
5 1 (2.33%) Azure AKS
5 1 (2.33%) Azure Key Vault
5 1 (2.33%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (2.33%) Dynamics 365
5 1 (2.33%) IaaS
5 1 (2.33%) PaaS
5 1 (2.33%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 10 (23.26%) VPN
2 7 (16.28%) LAN
2 7 (16.28%) WAN
3 6 (13.95%) Firewall
4 5 (11.63%) DNS
5 4 (9.30%) Remote Desktop
6 3 (6.98%) DHCP
6 3 (6.98%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (4.65%) HTTP
7 2 (4.65%) SSH
7 2 (4.65%) TCP/IP
General
1 16 (37.21%) Social Skills
2 13 (30.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 4 (9.30%) Presentation Skills
3 4 (9.30%) Public Sector
4 3 (6.98%) Law
4 3 (6.98%) Manufacturing
5 2 (4.65%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (4.65%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (2.33%) Legal
Job Titles
1 10 (23.26%) Auditor
1 10 (23.26%) IT Engineer
2 7 (16.28%) Security Engineer
3 6 (13.95%) Analyst
3 6 (13.95%) IT Support
3 6 (13.95%) IT Support Engineer
3 6 (13.95%) Support Engineer
4 5 (11.63%) IT Manager
4 5 (11.63%) IT Security Engineer
4 5 (11.63%) Security Manager
5 4 (9.30%) 2nd Line Engineer
5 4 (9.30%) 2nd Line Support
5 4 (9.30%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
5 4 (9.30%) Head of Information
5 4 (9.30%) Head of Information Security
5 4 (9.30%) Head of Security
5 4 (9.30%) Information Security Manager
5 4 (9.30%) IT Security Manager
5 4 (9.30%) Security Support Engineer
6 3 (6.98%) IT Compliance Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.33%) OAuth
1 1 (2.33%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 11 (25.58%) Security Posture
2 6 (13.95%) Management Information System
3 5 (11.63%) Cyber Threat
4 4 (9.30%) Cyber Security Posture
5 3 (6.98%) Driving Licence
6 2 (4.65%) Cloud Native
6 2 (4.65%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (2.33%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 6 (13.95%) Windows
2 4 (9.30%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (53.49%) Cybersecurity
2 18 (41.86%) Information Security
3 9 (20.93%) Information Security Management
3 9 (20.93%) Risk Management
3 9 (20.93%) Security Management
3 9 (20.93%) SIEM
4 8 (18.60%) Risk Assessment
5 6 (13.95%) Information Governance
6 5 (11.63%) Decision-Making
6 5 (11.63%) Document Management
6 5 (11.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 4 (9.30%) Cloud Security
7 4 (9.30%) Problem-Solving
7 4 (9.30%) Remote Monitoring and Management
7 4 (9.30%) Strategic Thinking
8 3 (6.98%) Collaborative Working
8 3 (6.98%) Data Loss Prevention
8 3 (6.98%) Incident Response
8 3 (6.98%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 3 (6.98%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 2 (4.65%) Kusto Query Language
2 1 (2.33%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.33%) Python
Qualifications
1 10 (23.26%) CISSP
2 9 (20.93%) SC Cleared
2 9 (20.93%) Security Cleared
3 8 (18.60%) CISM
4 7 (16.28%) CompTIA Security+
5 5 (11.63%) BPSS Clearance
6 3 (6.98%) CEH
6 3 (6.98%) Microsoft Certification
7 2 (4.65%) Degree
7 2 (4.65%) GSEC
7 2 (4.65%) OSCP
8 1 (2.33%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 1 (2.33%) Azure Certification
8 1 (2.33%) CCSP
8 1 (2.33%) CISA
8 1 (2.33%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (62.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 19 (44.19%) NIST
3 16 (37.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (9.30%) COBIT
4 4 (9.30%) GRC
5 3 (6.98%) PCI DSS
5 3 (6.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (2.33%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (2.33%) QA
System Software
1 5 (11.63%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 8 (18.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (6.98%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (4.65%) Nessus
4 1 (2.33%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 18 (41.86%) Microsoft
2 4 (9.30%) Cisco
2 4 (9.30%) Google
2 4 (9.30%) Meraki
3 2 (4.65%) Infor
3 2 (4.65%) Qualys
4 1 (2.33%) Exabeam
4 1 (2.33%) SAP