Security Specialist
UK

The median Security Specialist salary in the UK is £50,500 per year according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months to 16 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
16 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 700 752 1000
Rank change year-on-year +52 +248 -266
Permanent jobs requiring a Security Specialist 202 218 243
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.20% 0.22% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.24% 0.16%
Number of salaries quoted 165 154 184
10th Percentile - £44,118 £41,625
25th Percentile £45,000 £55,000 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,500 £65,000 £64,000
Median % change year-on-year -22.31% +1.56% -1.54%
75th Percentile £62,500 £77,500 £82,500
90th Percentile £75,000 £107,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,500 £57,500 £62,250
% change year-on-year -12.17% -7.63% +4.78%

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 94,378 91,115 153,780
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.69% 91.48% 96.09%
Number of salaries quoted 67,475 57,415 84,334
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £38,500 £45,000 £42,521
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% - +9.09%
75th Percentile £71,000 £80,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £53,000 £50,173
% change year-on-year -5.66% +5.64% +5.63%

Security Specialist
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Security Specialist in the UK

Security Specialist
Salary Trend

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

Salary trend for Security Specialist in the UK

Security Specialist
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Specialist over the 6 months to 16 May 2024.

Salary histogram for Security Specialist in the UK

Security Specialist
Top 13 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Security Specialist within the UK over the 6 months to 16 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 +100 195 £50,500 -22.31% 31
UK excluding London +32 155 £50,500 -12.17% 24
South East +44 75 £50,500 +6.32% 2
London +66 38 £75,000 - 8
North of England +47 38 £50,000 -24.24% 5
North West +15 34 £50,000 -24.24% 3
Work from Home +10 34 £47,500 -26.92% 12
East of England +27 25 £47,500 - 5
South West -26 12 £60,000 -52.00% 4
Yorkshire +70 4 £49,375 -26.58% 1
Scotland -85 3 £62,500 +13.64% 3
Midlands -13 2 - - 7
East Midlands - 2 - -

Security Specialist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 16 May 2024, Security Specialist 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 Security Specialist in the job title.

1 139 (68.81%) Cybersecurity
2 100 (49.50%) NIST
3 71 (35.15%) GRC
4 68 (33.66%) Def Stans
5 52 (25.74%) Information Security
6 36 (17.82%) Incident Response
7 35 (17.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 31 (15.35%) Risk Management
9 30 (14.85%) Degree
10 28 (13.86%) Finance
11 27 (13.37%) Microsoft
11 27 (13.37%) Security Cleared
12 25 (12.38%) Firewall
13 24 (11.88%) Social Skills
14 23 (11.39%) Problem-Solving
14 23 (11.39%) Windows
15 22 (10.89%) Azure
16 20 (9.90%) Linux
17 19 (9.41%) Aerospace
18 18 (8.91%) Cisco
18 18 (8.91%) Network Security
19 17 (8.42%) VMware
19 17 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
20 16 (7.92%) Cyber Essentials
20 16 (7.92%) CISSP
21 14 (6.93%) Penetration Testing
21 14 (6.93%) AWS
21 14 (6.93%) Vulnerability Management
21 14 (6.93%) Operational Technology
22 13 (6.44%) Palo Alto

Security Specialist 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 22 (10.89%) Azure
2 14 (6.93%) AWS
3 13 (6.44%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (2.97%) Microsoft Purview
5 4 (1.98%) Serverless
6 2 (0.99%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (0.99%) Entra ID
6 2 (0.99%) OneDrive
7 1 (0.50%) IaaS
7 1 (0.50%) OCI
7 1 (0.50%) PaaS
7 1 (0.50%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 25 (12.38%) Firewall
2 18 (8.91%) Network Security
3 12 (5.94%) DNS
4 7 (3.47%) Intrusion Detection
5 3 (1.49%) Wireshark
5 3 (1.49%) X.509
6 2 (0.99%) Internet
6 2 (0.99%) NAS
6 2 (0.99%) SAN
7 1 (0.50%) tcpdump
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.98%) Metadata
2 1 (0.50%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 1 (0.50%) SonarQube
General
1 28 (13.86%) Finance
2 24 (11.88%) Social Skills
3 19 (9.41%) Aerospace
4 17 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.46%) Manufacturing
6 8 (3.96%) Banking
7 7 (3.47%) Retail
8 6 (2.97%) Law
8 6 (2.97%) Legal
9 4 (1.98%) Military
9 4 (1.98%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.49%) Multimedia
11 2 (0.99%) Automotive
12 1 (0.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.50%) Mandarin Language
12 1 (0.50%) Marketing
12 1 (0.50%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.50%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (1.49%) Sass
2 1 (0.50%) J2EE
2 1 (0.50%) LDAP
2 1 (0.50%) OAuth
2 1 (0.50%) OAuth2
2 1 (0.50%) OpenID
2 1 (0.50%) REST
2 1 (0.50%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (6.93%) Operational Technology
2 12 (5.94%) Management Information System
3 9 (4.46%) Cyber Threat
3 9 (4.46%) Industrial Internet of Things
4 5 (2.48%) Onboarding
4 5 (2.48%) PKI
4 5 (2.48%) Security Posture
5 3 (1.49%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 3 (1.49%) Greenfield Project
5 3 (1.49%) Smart Energy
6 2 (0.99%) Algorithms
6 2 (0.99%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (0.50%) Client/Server
7 1 (0.50%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 1 (0.50%) Cyberattack
7 1 (0.50%) Data Centre
7 1 (0.50%) NHS
7 1 (0.50%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.50%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 23 (11.39%) Windows
2 20 (9.90%) Linux
3 9 (4.46%) Unix
4 6 (2.97%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.98%) Kali Linux
5 4 (1.98%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.98%) Windows 10
5 4 (1.98%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 139 (68.81%) Cybersecurity
2 52 (25.74%) Information Security
3 36 (17.82%) Incident Response
4 31 (15.35%) Risk Management
5 23 (11.39%) Problem-Solving
6 14 (6.93%) Penetration Testing
6 14 (6.93%) Vulnerability Management
7 12 (5.94%) Change Management
7 12 (5.94%) Cryptography
7 12 (5.94%) Information Management
7 12 (5.94%) Project Management
8 11 (5.45%) OWASP
8 11 (5.45%) SIEM
9 9 (4.46%) Mentoring
9 9 (4.46%) Threat Management
10 8 (3.96%) Coaching
10 8 (3.96%) Computer Science
10 8 (3.96%) Data Loss Prevention
10 8 (3.96%) Patch Management
10 8 (3.96%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 1 (0.50%) Java
1 1 (0.50%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 30 (14.85%) Degree
2 27 (13.37%) Security Cleared
3 16 (7.92%) CISSP
4 12 (5.94%) DV Cleared
5 8 (3.96%) CISA
6 7 (3.47%) CISM
6 7 (3.47%) OSCP
7 6 (2.97%) CEH
7 6 (2.97%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (2.97%) Master's Degree
8 5 (2.48%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.98%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 4 (1.98%) GSEC
10 3 (1.49%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (1.49%) CompTIA Security+
11 2 (0.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 2 (0.99%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.99%) CompTIA CySA+
11 2 (0.99%) SC Cleared
12 1 (0.50%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 100 (49.50%) NIST
2 71 (35.15%) GRC
3 68 (33.66%) Def Stans
4 35 (17.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (7.92%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (3.96%) GDPR
6 8 (3.96%) NCSC
7 7 (3.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 7 (3.47%) NIST 800
8 4 (1.98%) Data Quality
8 4 (1.98%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.99%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.99%) TickIT
10 1 (0.50%) COBIT
10 1 (0.50%) ISO 31000
10 1 (0.50%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (0.50%) SOC 2
System Software
1 13 (6.44%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (2.48%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.98%) Terminal Services
4 2 (0.99%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.50%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (3.96%) SCCM
2 4 (1.98%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (1.49%) SELinux
4 2 (0.99%) vCenter Server
5 1 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 27 (13.37%) Microsoft
2 18 (8.91%) Cisco
3 17 (8.42%) VMware
4 13 (6.44%) Palo Alto
5 12 (5.94%) Blue Coat
5 12 (5.94%) CheckPoint
5 12 (5.94%) Infoblox
5 12 (5.94%) Juniper
5 12 (5.94%) Riverbed
6 11 (5.45%) Qualys
7 3 (1.49%) ServiceNow
8 2 (0.99%) Forcepoint
8 2 (0.99%) LogRhythm
8 2 (0.99%) Splunk
8 2 (0.99%) Varonis
9 1 (0.50%) Meraki
9 1 (0.50%) Okta
9 1 (0.50%) Oracle
9 1 (0.50%) Sonatype
9 1 (0.50%) Zscaler