GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for GSEC qualifications. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months to 1 June 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
1 Jun 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 874 900 1227
Rank change year-on-year +26 +327 -313
Permanent jobs citing GSEC 33 47 34
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.031% 0.050% 0.020%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.12% 0.15% 0.074%
Number of salaries quoted 26 39 24
10th Percentile £45,000 £39,294 £40,500
25th Percentile £72,500 £72,500 £48,938
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £77,500 £85,500 £63,750
Median % change year-on-year -9.36% +34.12% -1.92%
75th Percentile £81,625 £94,125 £70,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £107,500 £78,375
UK excluding London median annual salary £43,750 £42,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year +2.94% -34.62% -13.33%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GSEC is in the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 27,927 31,974 45,711
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 26.61% 33.78% 27.09%
Number of salaries quoted 17,249 14,434 19,201
10th Percentile £28,668 £32,000 £31,000
25th Percentile £38,503 £42,500 £40,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,772 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -10.38% +9.09% -
75th Percentile £71,000 £77,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £87,500 £95,000 £91,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -

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 1 June 2024.

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 1 June 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 +25 32 £77,500 -9.36% 9
London +107 23 £77,500 -13.89% 5
Work from Home +42 19 £75,000 -12.28% 5
UK excluding London -34 10 £43,750 +2.94% 5
South West -28 4 - - 1
North of England +34 3 £40,000 -46.67% 2
North West -4 2 £42,500 -43.33% 1
South East - 2 £45,000 -
Northern Ireland +20 1 - -
North East - 1 £37,500 -

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 9 (27.27%) Azure
2 5 (15.15%) AWS
3 4 (12.12%) Serverless
4 3 (9.09%) PaaS
4 3 (9.09%) SaaS
5 2 (6.06%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (3.03%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (3.03%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 15 (45.45%) Firewall
2 12 (36.36%) Intrusion Detection
3 2 (6.06%) Network Security
4 1 (3.03%) DNS
4 1 (3.03%) HTTP
4 1 (3.03%) SMTP
4 1 (3.03%) TCP/IP
4 1 (3.03%) tcpdump
4 1 (3.03%) Wireshark
General
1 13 (39.39%) Analytical Skills
1 13 (39.39%) Law
1 13 (39.39%) Legal
2 12 (36.36%) Documentation Skills
3 9 (27.27%) Finance
4 6 (18.18%) Banking
4 6 (18.18%) Social Skills
5 4 (12.12%) Retail
6 1 (3.03%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 16 (48.48%) Lead
2 9 (27.27%) Security Engineer
3 6 (18.18%) Analyst
3 6 (18.18%) IT Engineer
3 6 (18.18%) IT Security Engineer
4 4 (12.12%) Security Specialist
5 3 (9.09%) Security Analyst
5 3 (9.09%) Senior
5 3 (9.09%) Senior Security Engineer
6 2 (6.06%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 2 (6.06%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 2 (6.06%) Risk Manager
6 2 (6.06%) Security Assurance Manager
6 2 (6.06%) Security Manager
6 2 (6.06%) SIEM Analyst
6 2 (6.06%) SOC Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 17 (51.52%) Security Posture
2 13 (39.39%) Management Information System
3 4 (12.12%) Onboarding
4 1 (3.03%) CSOC
4 1 (3.03%) Cyber Threat
4 1 (3.03%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 1 (3.03%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 4 (12.12%) Windows
2 1 (3.03%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (75.76%) Cybersecurity
2 18 (54.55%) Problem-Solving
3 17 (51.52%) Information Security
4 12 (36.36%) Business Continuity
4 12 (36.36%) Data Privacy
4 12 (36.36%) Disaster Recovery
4 12 (36.36%) Kalman Filter
4 12 (36.36%) Security Architecture
4 12 (36.36%) Web Filtering
5 8 (24.24%) SIEM
6 6 (18.18%) Cloud Security
7 5 (15.15%) DevSecOps
7 5 (15.15%) Incident Response
8 4 (12.12%) Digital Engineering
8 4 (12.12%) Dynamic Application Security Testing
8 4 (12.12%) Interactive Application Security Testing
8 4 (12.12%) OWASP
8 4 (12.12%) Static Application Security Testing
8 4 (12.12%) Threat Modelling
8 4 (12.12%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 6 (18.18%) PowerShell
1 6 (18.18%) Python
Qualifications
1 28 (84.85%) CISSP
2 22 (66.67%) GIAC
3 18 (54.55%) CEH
4 15 (45.45%) SSCP
5 10 (30.30%) Cisco Certification
6 7 (21.21%) GCIA
6 7 (21.21%) GCIH
7 6 (18.18%) CCNP
7 6 (18.18%) OSCP
8 4 (12.12%) AWS Certification
8 4 (12.12%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 4 (12.12%) CCSP
8 4 (12.12%) CISM
8 4 (12.12%) CompTIA Security+
9 3 (9.09%) Azure Certification
10 2 (6.06%) CRISC
10 2 (6.06%) GCFE
10 2 (6.06%) GISP
11 1 (3.03%) Degree
11 1 (3.03%) OSCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (51.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 15 (45.45%) GDPR
3 8 (24.24%) NIST
4 1 (3.03%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (3.03%) HIPAA
4 1 (3.03%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 1 (3.03%) Active Directory
1 1 (3.03%) Snort
Vendors
1 2 (6.06%) Darktrace
1 2 (6.06%) Splunk
2 1 (3.03%) CrowdStrike
2 1 (3.03%) iManage
2 1 (3.03%) Intel
2 1 (3.03%) Microsoft