Demand for specialist security skills is holding firm even where wider hiring has cooled. Against a subdued 2025 economic backdrop, businesses took a cautious approach to hiring, but there were clear demand hotspots for specialist tech skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). In other words, security talent is one of the pockets that keeps moving while other roles slow down.
The cyber side of the picture tells the same story. There are approximately 143,000 individuals 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 it also means the people you want are already in work and being approached by others.
And the squeeze on specialists is real. A comparison with the 2024 cyber security skills research showed 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. When most firms in a field can't fill a role, the brief you write is the first thing that decides whether you join that 70% or move past it AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk.
A security manager sits at the join of several fast-moving fields, so the title alone tells you very little. The demand hotspots span AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026), which means two postings with the same job title can ask for completely different things. One may lean on physical and personnel security, another on cyber risk, incident response and compliance.
Qualification level matters too, and live postings reveal it. In regulated fields, recruitment tends to cluster at higher qualification levels: in financial services, for example, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3 to 5 GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report. Reading current adverts in your own field shows you where the real bar sits, so you neither over-specify nor under-sell the role.
The practical move is simple. Before you finalise anything, pull up 10 to 15 live postings for the role you have in mind. Note the recurring skills, the certifications that appear again and again, and the responsibilities that keep showing up. That pattern is your market brief.
Start with the live market, then write the brief. Reading current postings first stops you anchoring on an old job description and keeps your requirements aligned with what skilled people expect to see. With 70% of cyber firms reporting at least one hard-to-fill vacancy AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk, a vague or dated advert simply gets skipped.
Separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves. Clearances, specific certifications and sector experience are often genuine gatekeepers, so name them plainly. But every extra 'essential' you add narrows a pool that, in a workforce of around 143,000 cyber professionals Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK, is already competitive. Be clear about what the role truly needs on day one versus what someone can grow into.
Finally, move fast when the right person surfaces. In a demand hotspot, a slow process loses good people to employers who act sooner.
Once your brief reflects the live market, we help you act on it. We search a database of 15 million candidates, rank a shortlist for you in under 30 seconds, and manage the process end to end so you can keep your attention on the people, not the admin. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. Share your brief with us today and see your shortlist.
