NIS2 is in active enforcement with approximately 19,000 companies estimated non-compliant, with fines up to €10 million or 2% of global turnover, and personal executive liability now a real risk. The employers scrambling to achieve compliance need people who understand the specific technical and governance requirements of the directive, who can implement the controls it mandates, and who can maintain the documentation and reporting that demonstrates compliance to regulators. These people are scarce, urgently needed, and being paid premiums that reflect both factors.
For technology professionals considering where to invest their career development in 2026, NIS2 compliance has created a specific and accessible opportunity: roles that did not exist in significant volume two years ago, in an area where the regulatory deadline creates genuine employer urgency that translates into faster hiring decisions and premium compensation.
What NIS2 Compliance Actually Requires in Terms of Roles
The directive creates four specific hiring needs that map to specific role types.
Security governance and risk management involves identifying and documenting risks across networks and systems, then defining the policies and processes needed to manage them. It also includes board-level reporting that shows accountability for security decisions. The role requires both technical security knowledge and the ability to translate risk into business terms for executives and boards.
The strongest candidates typically come from security analyst or security management roles in regulated sectors such as financial services or healthcare, where they have developed both technical expertise and governance and compliance communication skills.
Incident response capability
the operational ability to detect, contain, and report security incidents within NIS2’s mandatory notification timelines (24 hours for significant incidents, 72 hours for full notification). This requires SOC (security operations centre) experience, incident handling process expertise, and enough technical depth to diagnose and contain a range of incident types. The background that produces strong candidates: SOC analysts with three to five years of experience who have handled real incidents rather than theoretical exercises.
Supply chain security
assessment of the security posture of ICT vendors and suppliers against defined criteria, contractual security requirements, and ongoing monitoring of third-party security performance. This is a newer role category with strong demand and limited experienced supply. The background that transfers best: vendor risk management or third-party risk management professionals from financial services, extended with the cybersecurity knowledge of what specifically to assess.
Technical security controls
the implementation of the specific security controls that NIS2 mandates (access control, encryption, network segmentation, logging and monitoring). This is the most technical role category and requires hands-on security engineering capability. Strong profiles come from: systems administrators or cloud engineers who have developed security configuration depth, plus certified security practitioners with production implementation experience.
Also read: What the 10 IT Jobs in Romania in 2026 are (Based on Demand, Salaries, and Growth)
What NIS2-Related Roles Pay in the UK and Ireland
The compensation premium for NIS2-relevant security profiles reflects the concentrated demand from simultaneously-complying organisations in the same talent markets. Multiple employers seeking the same profile type at the same time drives rates upward.
Security governance and risk management at mid-to-senior level in London: £65,000 to £85,000. In Dublin: €65,000 to €80,000. These are meaningful premiums over equivalent non-security risk roles.
Incident response specialists at senior level in London: £75,000 to £95,000. This range has moved upward in 2025 and 2026 as NIS2 enforcement has made incident response capability a compliance requirement rather than a best practice.
Third-party and supply chain security specialists: £60,000 to £80,000 at mid level, £80,000 to £100,000 at senior level. The range reflects the newer nature of the role category and the thin supply of genuinely experienced practitioners.
Technical security controls engineers with cloud security depth: £80,000 to £110,000 at senior level. This is the highest-paid category within NIS2 compliance hiring, reflecting the combination of technical depth and regulatory context knowledge that the profile requires.
The Fastest Routes In From Adjacent Backgrounds
The urgency of NIS2 compliance hiring means that employers are necessarily considering candidates who are not fully formed security compliance professionals but who have strong adjacent backgrounds and the potential to develop the specific gaps quickly.
For IT managers or systems administrators: the technical infrastructure knowledge is valuable and the security control implementation work is accessible. The primary gap is typically governance process knowledge and regulatory compliance understanding. Two to three months of deliberate study of the NIS2 requirements and the ISO 27001 framework (which provides the governance structure that most NIS2 compliance programmes use as a foundation) produces enough competency to engage in entry-level NIS2 compliance work.
For risk managers in non-security functions (financial risk, operational risk, compliance): the governance and risk management methodology transfers directly. The primary gap is the technical security knowledge required to assess and understand the systems being governed. Targeted study of network security concepts, cloud security fundamentals, and the specific attack vectors and vulnerabilities that the directive is designed to address produces enough technical literacy to engage in governance and supply chain security roles.
For SOC analysts seeking career progression: NIS2 incident response requirements create a direct application of existing skills with the addition of regulatory process knowledge (specifically the notification requirements and the documentation standards that regulators will examine). This is the most accessible transition for experienced security professionals.
The Ireland-Specific Demand
Dublin has a high concentration of multinational financial services and technology firms that fall under NIS2 scope, which creates strong demand for NIS2 compliance professionals in a relatively small talent pool. Financial services companies with European operations such as banks, payment processors, and insurers—as well as large technology firms handling EU data, are all building NIS2 compliance programmes at the same time. However, the supply of professionals with direct NIS2 experience in Dublin remains limited compared with London, which increases local demand pressure.
For Irish-based security professionals or those considering a move to Ireland, NIS2 compliance is one of the strongest entry points into Dublin’s security market in 2026. The combination of compliance expertise and financial services domain knowledge is especially valuable, given the concentration of firms in the IFSC.
