The demand side is strong and the talent pool is tight. There are approximately 143,000 individuals in the UK cyber security workforce, and that workforce is growing faster than it was, with annual growth moving from 2% in 2022 to 5% in 2024 Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK. Growth is good news, but it has not caught up with need.
The pressure shows in vacancies. A comparison with the Cyber Security Skills 2024 figures 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. When secure by design becomes the default way of working, that demand spreads beyond dedicated security teams and into every engineering role.
Secure by design changes who you hire, not just how many. Security is no longer the job of one specialist team; it is a skill expected of software engineers, cloud engineers, platform teams and architects. The habit means threat modelling in design reviews, security testing in the pipeline and secure defaults chosen before a product ships.
That broad demand sits on a finite base. With roughly 143,000 people in the UK cyber security workforce Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK and 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, employers compete for the same engineers who can write code and reason about risk. The roles that move fastest are the ones blending both.
Start by defining the security behaviours you actually need, not a wish list of certifications. Can the person threat model a feature, spot an insecure default, or explain a trade-off to a product owner? Write the role around those behaviours so you widen your pool rather than shrink it.
Speed matters here. When 70% of cyber firms report at least one hard-to-fill vacancy AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk, a slow process loses good people to faster employers. Keep your stages tight and your feedback fast.
We built our AI recruitment agent to help you move at the pace this sector demands. It searches a database of 15 million candidates, ranks a shortlist for you and surfaces the engineers whose skills match your brief, so secure by design roles do not sit open while demand keeps rising. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. That fee reflects the value of finding the right person and managing your recruitment end to end. Tell Reed.ai about the role you are trying to fill and see your shortlist today.
