The hiring picture is cautious but far from flat. Against a subdued 2025 economic backdrop, businesses took a careful approach to recruitment, yet clear demand hotspots stayed open for specialist skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). For insurers, cyber security sits right in that hotspot, because the risks they underwrite and the claims they pay out depend on the same scarce expertise.
That scarcity is measurable. There are roughly 143,000 people in the UK cyber security workforce, with growth moderately accelerating from 2% in 2022 to 5% in 2024 Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK. A growing workforce is good news. But demand is climbing faster than supply in the specialist corners, which is exactly where cyber claims response work lives.
Cyber claims are not ordinary claims. When a policyholder is breached, the insurer coordinates forensics, legal counsel, incident response and recovery, often within hours. That mix of technical judgement and claims discipline is hard to buy in, and the hiring gap shows it: a comparison with the Cyber Security Skills 2024 report found 70% of cyber firms reported at least one hard-to-fill vacancy AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk.
So insurers stop splitting the work across general claims handlers and external vendors, and start naming the role. A dedicated cyber claims response hire owns the incident from first notification to settlement. They read the forensic report, challenge the vendor invoices, protect the policyholder and feed lessons back into underwriting. The role sits at the join of claims, risk and security, and that is why it needs its own person rather than borrowed hours.
Start by writing the role around the work, not the job title. With specialist tech skills in high demand, the strongest candidates have options, so a vague advert loses them Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). Be specific about the incidents they will handle, the autonomy they will have and the path to senior claims or risk leadership.
Then keep the process humane. Fewer stages, clear feedback and fast decisions respect people's time and signal how the team works. The firms that win these hires are rarely the ones with the longest shortlist; they are the ones that act first and act clearly.
This is where we come in. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface people with the claims and cyber judgement these roles demand, then rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds so you can move while the best people are still available. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If you are building a named cyber claims response role, start a conversation with Reed.ai today.
