Head of Security
UK

The median Head of Security salary in the UK is £95,000 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 19 May 2024.

The first table below provides salary benchmarking and summary statistics including a comparison to same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
19 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 847 879 1104
Rank change year-on-year +32 +225 -288
Permanent jobs requiring a Head of Security 60 81 125
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.060% 0.081% 0.078%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.063% 0.089% 0.081%
Number of salaries quoted 53 60 88
10th Percentile £66,000 £74,702 £60,760
25th Percentile £82,500 £85,000 £72,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £95,000 £105,000 £93,750
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% +12.00% +10.29%
75th Percentile £112,829 £137,831 £105,000
90th Percentile £120,000 £138,073 £120,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £90,000 £95,000 £77,500
% change year-on-year -5.26% +22.58% -

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

The following table is for comparison with the above and includes 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 94,634 91,081 154,945
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.69% 91.52% 96.08%
Number of salaries quoted 67,599 57,631 84,466
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £70,974 £80,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,183 £50,000
% change year-on-year -5.98% +6.37% +5.26%

Head of Security
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Head of Security in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Head of Security in the UK

Head of Security
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Head of Security.

Salary trend for Head of Security in the UK

Head of Security
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Head of Security over the 6 months to 19 May 2024.

Salary histogram for Head of Security in the UK

Head of Security
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Head of Security within the UK over the 6 months to 19 May 2024. 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 +53 53 £95,000 -9.52% 22
London +93 29 £97,500 -7.14% 10
Work from Home +55 27 £95,000 -11.63% 7
UK excluding London -15 27 £90,000 -5.26% 13
North of England +43 9 £90,000 -5.26% 4
Midlands +7 9 £100,000 +21.21% 2
West Midlands +19 8 £102,250 +23.94% 1
South East -11 5 £75,000 -16.67% 4
North West +1 4 - - 1
North East - 3 £62,946 - 1
Yorkshire +78 2 £92,500 -29.28% 2
Scotland -74 2 £200,000 +81.82%
Wales - 2 £87,500 -
East Midlands - 1 £100,000 - 1

Head of Security Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 May 2024, Head of Security job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Head of Security in the job title.

1 42 (70.00%) Cybersecurity
2 39 (65.00%) Information Security
3 20 (33.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 18 (30.00%) CISSP
5 17 (28.33%) CISM
5 17 (28.33%) Risk Management
6 15 (25.00%) Incident Response
7 12 (20.00%) Cyber Essentials
7 12 (20.00%) Degree
7 12 (20.00%) Data Protection
8 11 (18.33%) Security Operations
8 11 (18.33%) Finance
8 11 (18.33%) Legal
8 11 (18.33%) NIST
9 9 (15.00%) IT Strategy
9 9 (15.00%) Social Skills
9 9 (15.00%) PCI DSS
10 8 (13.33%) Agile
10 8 (13.33%) Disaster Recovery
11 7 (11.67%) Project Management
11 7 (11.67%) ISMS
11 7 (11.67%) SIEM
12 6 (10.00%) Law
13 5 (8.33%) Stakeholder Management
13 5 (8.33%) Business Continuity
13 5 (8.33%) Data Security
13 5 (8.33%) ITIL
13 5 (8.33%) Microsoft
13 5 (8.33%) Cyber Threat
13 5 (8.33%) Cyber Threat Intelligence

Head of Security Skill Set
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 (6.67%) Azure
2 3 (5.00%) SaaS
3 2 (3.33%) AWS
4 1 (1.67%) Amazon CloudWatch
4 1 (1.67%) Amazon S3
4 1 (1.67%) AWS CloudTrail
4 1 (1.67%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 3 (5.00%) Firewall
2 2 (3.33%) Network Security
3 1 (1.67%) LAN
3 1 (1.67%) TCP/IP
3 1 (1.67%) WAN
General
1 11 (18.33%) Finance
1 11 (18.33%) Legal
2 9 (15.00%) Social Skills
3 6 (10.00%) Law
4 4 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (6.67%) Influencing Skills
5 3 (5.00%) Public Sector
6 2 (3.33%) Marketing
7 1 (1.67%) Advertising
7 1 (1.67%) Aerospace
7 1 (1.67%) Banking
7 1 (1.67%) Military
7 1 (1.67%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.67%) Smart Contracts
Miscellaneous
1 5 (8.33%) Cyber Threat
2 4 (6.67%) Security Posture
3 3 (5.00%) Management Information System
4 2 (3.33%) Cyber Security Posture
4 2 (3.33%) Operational Technology
4 2 (3.33%) SCADA
4 2 (3.33%) Taxonomies
5 1 (1.67%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.67%) Blockchain
5 1 (1.67%) Cloud Security Posture
5 1 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.67%) e-Learning
5 1 (1.67%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.67%) Public Cloud
5 1 (1.67%) Security Operations Centre
5 1 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.67%) Windows
1 1 (1.67%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (70.00%) Cybersecurity
2 39 (65.00%) Information Security
3 17 (28.33%) Risk Management
4 15 (25.00%) Incident Response
5 12 (20.00%) Data Protection
6 11 (18.33%) Security Operations
7 9 (15.00%) IT Strategy
8 8 (13.33%) Agile
8 8 (13.33%) Disaster Recovery
9 7 (11.67%) ISMS
9 7 (11.67%) Project Management
9 7 (11.67%) SIEM
10 5 (8.33%) Business Continuity
10 5 (8.33%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
10 5 (8.33%) Data Security
10 5 (8.33%) Decision-Making
10 5 (8.33%) Identity Access Management
10 5 (8.33%) ITIL
10 5 (8.33%) Stakeholder Management
10 5 (8.33%) Threat Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 1 (1.67%) Java
1 1 (1.67%) PowerShell
1 1 (1.67%) Python
Qualifications
1 18 (30.00%) CISSP
2 17 (28.33%) CISM
3 12 (20.00%) Degree
4 4 (6.67%) CISA
4 4 (6.67%) CompTIA Security+
5 3 (5.00%) CITP
5 3 (5.00%) SSCP
6 2 (3.33%) Computer Science Degree
6 2 (3.33%) PMI Certification
6 2 (3.33%) PMP
7 1 (1.67%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 1 (1.67%) Azure Certification
7 1 (1.67%) Cisco Certification
7 1 (1.67%) CRISC
7 1 (1.67%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (33.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (20.00%) Cyber Essentials
3 11 (18.33%) NIST
4 9 (15.00%) PCI DSS
5 4 (6.67%) GRC
6 3 (5.00%) Accessibility
6 3 (5.00%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (5.00%) GDPR
6 3 (5.00%) QA
7 1 (1.67%) SOC 2
System Software
1 4 (6.67%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (1.67%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 2 (3.33%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
1 2 (3.33%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.67%) Computer Incident Response Team
2 1 (1.67%) Nessus
2 1 (1.67%) Network Intrusion Detection System
2 1 (1.67%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (8.33%) Microsoft
2 2 (3.33%) Cisco
3 1 (1.67%) CheckPoint
3 1 (1.67%) Citrix
3 1 (1.67%) Meraki
3 1 (1.67%) Splunk
3 1 (1.67%) VMware