These UK tech workers are being screwed on pay
Key Points
- Only 29% of cybersecurity professionals received a pay rise in the last year, the lowest of any tech specialism
- DevOps led the field at 56%, almost double the cyber rate
- Cyber is the third most unhappy specialism in tech globally at 23%
- Just 40% of cyber workers expect a pay rise in 2026, below the 44% global average
- UK cyber salaries range from £50,000 for SOC analysts to £180,000 for chief information security officers
Cybersecurity professionals received the fewest pay rises of any tech specialism last year despite their skills ranking among the top three most sought after globally,
This is according to Harvey Nash’s 2026 Tech Talent and Salary Report, which shows that just 29% of cybersecurity workers got a pay rise in the past 12 months.
This is less than half the rate of DevOps engineers at 56%, product managers at 51%, and business analysts at 50%. The global average across all tech roles sat at 45%, with UK respondents tracking close behind at 44%.
UK cybersecurity salaries currently range from £50,000 for Security Operations Centre Analysts to £180,000 for Chief Information Security Officers, with contractor day rates between £400 and £1,200 according to the report’s UK figures.
Fewer than 3 in 10 cyber workers globally saw any uplift in those numbers in the last year, even as employers across the survey reported cybersecurity as one of the three biggest skills shortages they face.
The squeeze comes as the World Economic Forum forecasts the global cost of cybercrime will reach $12.2 trillion by 2031.
Burnout and exit risk
Cybersecurity is the third most unhappy specialism in tech globally at 23% dissatisfaction, behind only QA testing at 24% and infrastructure support at 25%.
Looking ahead, 40% of cyber professionals expect a pay rise in 2026, below the 44% global average, and the role does not feature in the top 10 specialisms expecting an uplift this year.
The Harvey Nash data also notes that 19% of organisations surveyed reported a major cyberattack in the last two years, with 22% subsequently allocating extra resources to security and 20% experiencing service interruption as a direct result.
The UK saw 24% of organisations report service disruption from breaches, above the global average.
What UK cybersecurity workers earn in 2026
| Role | Lower | Average | Upper | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOC analyst | £50,000 | £60,000 | £70,000 | Entry operational role, frontline monitoring |
| Cybersecurity engineer | £70,000 | £80,000 | £85,000 | Hands on technical defence |
| Cybersecurity architect | £90,000 | £100,000 | £110,000 | Design and strategy function |
| Head of cybersecurity | £95,000 | £110,000 | £130,000 | Department leadership |
| Chief information security officer | £130,000 | £150,000 | £180,000 | Executive role, board reporting |
Source: Harvey Nash Tech Talent and Salary Report 2026, UK permanent salary bands.
The UK has weathered a string of major breaches in the past 18 months, including incidents at Jaguar Land Rover, Salesforce and Change Healthcare.
When cyber teams leave or burn out, the institutions handling personal data, payments and health records lose the people best placed to defend them.
The Harvey Nash findings raise a question about whether UK employers prepared to pay AI architects up to £110,000 and DevOps engineers up to £120,000 are willing to match those increases for the staff who keep their systems running and their customer data intact.
Across the full survey of more than 3,600 technologists in 53 countries, 45% received a pay rise last year and 47% expect one in the next 12 months.
The data points to a market where employers pay a premium for AI, software engineering and infrastructure skills, while employers treat the cyber function as a fixed cost rather than a growth investment.
With cybersecurity ranking as the third most in demand specialism globally and the third most unhappy, the gap between what the market says it needs and what it pays for is widening.
