By JJ, Principal Cybersecurity Recruiter at The Recruitment Company Ireland, a specialist IT recruitment agency in Ireland

Two employers, one job spec, two very different numbers. That is not a hypothetical. It is one of the most common reasons a cybersecurity hire falls through in Ireland right now, and it has nothing to do with the candidate's skills.

Our 2026 Information Security Salary Guide put real numbers on something anyone doing cybersecurity recruitment in Ireland already feels: where you work changes what you get paid for doing the exact same job, sometimes by 20% or more, before a single negotiation happens.

The premium, sector by sector

Baseline salaries for a given role are relatively consistent across the Irish cyber market. What moves the number is who is hiring:

The pattern holds at every level, from Security Analyst to CISO. A role paying €70,000 at a public body can be an €80,000 to €84,000 role at a Dublin-based tech firm with the same title and the same day-to-day responsibilities.

Why Cybersecurity Recruitment in Ireland Pays Differently by Sector

1. Regulatory exposure. Financial services carry the heaviest compliance load under NIS2 and DORA, and pay to keep the people managing that exposure in house.
2. Global pay benchmarking. US-headquartered tech and fintech firms with Dublin hubs set salaries against global bands, not the Irish market average, and can absorb a higher number because the budget was never set locally in the first place.
3. Data sensitivity in healthcare. Digital transformation projects mean security roles increasingly sit alongside clinical risk, which pushes pay up even where margins are tighter than tech.
4. Procurement cycles in the public sector. Government and public pay scales move slower and cap lower, no matter how critical the infrastructure being protected actually is.

What this means if you are hiring

We see this constantly: two near-identical Cloud Security Engineer specs, one from an Irish public body, one from a US-headquartered tech firm's Dublin office. The tech firm's offer lands 15% to 20% higher before either side negotiates, and the public sector role, however strong the mission or the pension, struggles to compete on the number alone. If you cannot win on salary, the same data points to what does: flexible work, family health cover, pension contributions, and covered certifications and training all show up as the benefits candidates now weigh against a higher base. None of that closes a 20% gap on its own, but it closes enough of it to keep a strong candidate in the process past the first offer.

What this means if you are job hunting

If the number matters most to you, look at where the Dublin tech and fintech hubs are hiring, not just what your current sector pays for your title. If stability, pension, or a shorter commute matter more than the ceiling, that trade-off is real and worth making with your eyes open, rather than discovering it after you have accepted an offer 15% below what a near-identical role elsewhere would have paid. Either way, know which one you are optimising for before you take the call, not after.

The bottom line

The Irish cybersecurity market does not pay one salary for one job title. It pays a salary set by which sector is asking, and that gap now regularly rivals the swing between a junior and a senior candidate at the same organisation. Both employers and candidates make better decisions once that is on the table rather than assumed away.

Every sector reads the market differently, and it is worth knowing where a specific role actually sits before you set a budget or accept an offer. If you would like a clear read on where yours falls, I am happy to run the numbers with you. No agenda, just what the data says.

About The Recruitment Company Ireland

The Recruitment Company (TRC) is a specialist IT recruitment agency in Ireland, based in Dublin. We provide permanent, contract and executive search across IT infrastructure and cloud, software development, cybersecurity recruitment in Ireland, data and AI, and IT leadership, working with clients across the Irish market and internationally.

Source

The Recruitment Company (TRC), 2026 Information Security Salary Guide and Market Insights Report, compiled by John James Baird, Cybersecurity Specialist Recruiter