Executive Summary
Across 2,400+ cybersecurity job postings in 2025, hiring demand in Canada remained concentrated among a handful of large employers and mostly three provinces; Ontario, British Columbia, and Québec. Yet the second half of the year saw a sharp contraction in activity: postings fell by 34.7% compared to the first half, signaling a cooling trend after two years of post-pandemic growth. While Information Security and Engineering roles continued to dominate, new signals emerged around Systems Engineering, hinting at shifting enterprise needs toward infrastructure resilience and secure systems design.
The overall salary median hovered around $84,000, with limited remote or hybrid options reported, suggesting many employers are still transitioning toward more flexible cybersecurity talent models.
Hiring Concentrated Around a Few Employers
The Canadian cybersecurity employment landscape in 2025 was led by large multinational defense and technology companies, alongside major telecom providers and staffing firms. The Top 10 employers accounted for a significant share of all postings, below are 4 that are no surprise.
These organizations and the other top 20 collectively represent the backbone of cybersecurity employment in Canada, reflecting strong defense, telecom, and managed services hiring. Ontario led the country, followed by British Columbia and Québec). Of specific note is the noticeable absence other than a few select postings, where the federal or provincial governments continue to leverage their own job boards vs making a presence on job boards where the majority of technical talent tends to search. A trend we believe must change for public institutions to be more integrated into the cybersecurity and technical communities.
Information Security and Engineering Dominate
Despite a softer hiring environment, technical and governance roles remain dominant. The top five hiring categories reveal the balance between operational security and business enablement:
|
Rank |
Category |
|
1 |
Information Security |
|
2 |
Engineering |
|
3 |
Sales / Sales Operations |
|
4 |
Legal / Privacy |
|
5 |
Executive |
A notable newcomer hiring more and more is Systems Engineering, which emerged in the second half of the year as organizations focused more on resilient architecture and secure systems design, a reflection of the increased interdependence between cybersecurity, DevOps, and AI-driven infrastructure.
Hiring Momentum Down in the Second Half
Job postings peaked in the first half of 2025, with 1,392 listings between January and June, before declining to 909 in the latter half. This -34.7% drop suggests employers slowed hiring amid economic uncertainty, budget tightening, and possible overcapacity following earlier expansion.
Monthly activity showed a steady decline after May:
The slowdown mirrors global tech and defense-sector trends, where hiring freezes and restructuring affected even major cybersecurity vendors and service providers.
Work Arrangement
We have also seen a significant decline in remote work across Canada, with many employers now insisting on on-premise working. This contrasts with U.S. and U.K. markets, where hybrid or fully remote cybersecurity work has become more mainstream. Canadian firms may be slower to adapt due to sensitive data handling, clearance requirements, or sectoral norms in defense, telecom, and government.
What This Means for Canada’s Cyber Talent Pipeline
The 2025 hiring slowdown is reflecting an industry in change and a slight economic slowdown and also reflects the continued focus on job experience. Employers are:
At the same time, the lack of structured skill and experience tagging by employers points to another challenge: transparency. Without standardized skill definitions, job seekers struggle to align credentials with market needs, a gap that initiatives like CCN’s Cybersecurity Career Navigator aim to close.
Outlook: Slowdown, Then Specialization
2026 is expected to bring a more selective hiring wave, emphasizing:
Cybersecurity hiring may be slower in volume but deeper in specialization, focusing on resilience, automation, and leadership talent that can bridge technical and governance domains. “Cyber hiring in 2025 reflects a maturing market where employers are no longer chasing numbers, they’re building smarter, more adaptive teams ready for the next wave of AI and infrastructure security.” Francois Guay, CEO of the Canadian Cybersecurity Network.
About the Canadian Cybersecurity Network
The Canadian Cybersecurity Network (CCN) is Canada’s largest technology and cybersecurity community connecting more than 45,000 members and reaching nearly a million professionals across the country. CCN collaborates with industry, academia, and government to strengthen Canada’s cyber talent pipeline and ecosystem under its guiding principle: “Stronger Together.” CCN also runs Canadiancybersecurityjobs.com which the dataset is taken from.