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State of Cyber Security Hiring 2026: Employer Survey

CyberHire is researching how organisations evaluate cybersecurity candidates.

We want to understand what works, what is difficult and how hiring practices are changing.

All approaches and experiences are welcome; you do not need to use CyberHire or technical assessments.

Participation is voluntary. Results will be reported in aggregate. Please do not identify individual candidates or disclose confidential information.

About your experience

1. During the past 12 months, have you or your team helped screen, interview, assess or select applicants for a UK-based cybersecurity role within your own organisation?

A
B

2. What was your main role in those hiring decisions?

A
B
C
D
E

3. How many people does your organisation employ?

A
B
C
D
E
F
Your most recent completed recruitment process
For the following questions, think about the most recent recruitment process for a single cybersecurity vacancy that ended within the past 12 months, whether or not someone was hired.

4. Do you have a completed recruitment process you can answer about?

A
B
C

5. What was the primary specialism of that vacancy?

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H

6. What level was the vacancy?

A
B
C
D
E
F
G

7. How did the recruitment process end?

A
B
C
D
E

8. Which methods were actually used to evaluate applicants? Select all that apply.

9. How confident were you that the overall process provided enough evidence of candidates’ technical ability to make a hiring decision?

0 = Not at all confident 10 = Completely confident

10. Approximately how many candidates did your team evaluate through a technical interview, knowledge test or practical task? Count each person once.

11. Of those candidates, how many met the minimum technical requirements for the role?

12. Approximately how many total staff-hours were spent on each activity for this vacancy?

Your hiring experience over the past 12 months

13. Which issues, if any, created the greatest difficulty when evaluating cybersecurity applicants? Select up to three.

14. Which abilities, if any, were difficult to evaluate adequately using your organisation’s hiring processes? Select up to three.

15. How did the number of applications per cybersecurity vacancy compare with the preceding 12 months?

A
B
C
D
E
F
G

16. Has your organisation changed its candidate evaluation process specifically in response to AI tools becoming available to applicants?

A
B
C
D

16a. Which changes have been implemented? Select all that apply.

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I

17. For the most recent recruitment process in which candidates completed an assessment, what AI-use guidance was provided?

A
B
C
D
E
F

18. What one change would most improve your organisation’s ability to evaluate cybersecurity candidates technical skills?

19. May we publish a quotation from your written response without identifying you or your organisation?

A
B
Thank you