Demand for analytical and technical skills in the security space is strong and still building. The UK cyber security workforce now numbers roughly 143,000 people, with growth moderately accelerating from 2% in 2022 to 5% in 2024 Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK. That is a workforce that keeps expanding year on year, and open-source intelligence sits right alongside it as a growing specialism.
Analytical roles more broadly are also under pressure. IT business analysts, architects and systems designers, a group of around 193,000 workers, are among the occupations in critical demand, with three out of five indicators in critical demand in 2025 Occupations in demand 2025, Explore Education Statistics, GOV.UK. The appetite for people who can structure, question and interpret data is clear, and open-source intelligence work draws on exactly those muscles.
Open-source intelligence, often shortened to OSINT, means gathering and analysing information that is publicly available: news, social media, company records, satellite imagery, forums and more. It turns scattered public data into insight that teams can act on. As that discipline matures, it is creating distinct entry points for analysts.
The common thread is curiosity and rigour. These roles reward people who ask sharp questions of a dataset, check their sources and explain findings plainly. Many come from unexpected backgrounds: journalism, research, languages and investigation all transfer well.
Start by writing for skills, not job titles. OSINT is a young field, so the best people often lack a matching label on their CV. Describe the thinking you need: verifying sources, spotting patterns, summarising for decision-makers. That widens your pool at a time when analytical occupations are in critical demand Occupations in demand 2025, Explore Education Statistics, GOV.UK.
Move quickly and communicate clearly. In a growing workforce where cyber headcount rose 5% in 2024 Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK, strong people have options and short attention spans for slow processes. Set out progression, clearance timelines and the kind of work on offer early, and keep each stage tight.
Finally, test for the work itself. A short, practical exercise, assessing a public dataset and presenting one clear finding, tells you more than a generic interview. It also shows people you respect their time and take the craft seriously.
We built Reed.ai to make specialist hiring faster and fairer. We search a database of 15 million candidates, rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds, contact matched people in under a minute and can book an interview in under three minutes, so you reach strong analysts before anyone else does. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. That is the value of finding the right person and managing your recruitment end to end. Ready to find your next analyst? Start a search with us today.
