Salary Developments H1 2026
Six months after our comprehensive Salary Guide, it's time for an update. The market has moved — some roles have risen significantly, others stabilised. Here's what changed.
Risers
AI Security Engineer: +15% on average. From EUR 90,000-130,000 to EUR 100,000-147,000. Demand far exceeds supply. OT Security Specialist: +10%. Critical infrastructure and industrial sector driving demand. GRC Specialist: +8%. NIS2 deadlines approaching, organisations panic-hiring.
Stable
SOC Analyst: stable. Supply growing in line with demand. Security Architect: +3%, in line with inflation. Penetration Tester: stable to slightly rising.
New Profiles
LLM Red Teamer: EUR 97,000-150,000. Tests the security of Large Language Models. Very niche, very scarce. AI Governance Specialist: EUR 87,000-120,000. Combination of AI expertise and compliance. Expect strong growth in H2.
Freelance Rate Shifts
Average increase of 4% across all cybersecurity interim roles. AI-related roles are the exception with increases up to 20%. Cloud security rates have slightly decreased due to increasing supply of remote professionals from other EU countries.