Security Operations Job Trends in England

Security Operations (SecOps)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in England requiring Security Operations skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 260 265 278
Rank change year-on-year +5 +13 +26
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 430 543 505
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.82% 1.12% 1.05%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.01% 1.24% 1.17%
Number of salaries quoted 254 373 406
10th Percentile £42,575 £42,500 £39,375
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £52,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £69,384 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.74% +4.00% -7.41%
75th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £109,000 £95,000
UK median annual salary £68,500 £65,000 £64,500
% change year-on-year +5.38% +0.78% -4.44%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Security Operations falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 42,771 43,733 43,286
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in England 81.37% 90.61% 89.79%
Number of salaries quoted 25,631 21,503 33,434
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £32,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £80,000
90th Percentile £96,750 £100,000 £100,000
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Security Operations
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Security Operations relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

Security Operations job vacancy trend in England

Security Operations
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Security Operations.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in England citing Security Operations

Security Operations
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Operations in England over the 6 months to 9 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Operations in England

Security Operations
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Security Operations within the England region over the 6 months to 9 January 2026. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London -19 157 £77,500 +6.90% 55
South East +50 107 £62,500 -6.02% 69
Midlands +51 57 £51,500 -2.97% 34
North of England -36 52 £65,000 +29.20% 31
West Midlands +31 39 £49,500 -6.74% 18
North West +10 27 £54,000 +8.00% 14
South West +7 25 £75,000 +9.09% 29
East of England +7 22 £74,250 +23.75% 42
East Midlands - 18 £60,000 - 16
Yorkshire -48 16 £67,500 +28.57% 10
North East +10 9 £105,000 +108.71% 7
Security Operations
UK

Security Operations
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 8 (1.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.63%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.23%) Confluence
3 1 (0.23%) IIS
Applications
1 4 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 93 (21.63%) Azure
2 64 (14.88%) AWS
3 42 (9.77%) Microsoft 365
4 30 (6.98%) GCP
5 27 (6.28%) Azure Sentinel
6 17 (3.95%) Entra ID
7 14 (3.26%) SaaS
8 11 (2.56%) Mimecast
9 9 (2.09%) PaaS
10 7 (1.63%) Microsoft Purview
10 7 (1.63%) Tessian
11 6 (1.40%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.40%) GitHub
12 5 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
12 5 (1.16%) IaaS
13 3 (0.70%) AWS CloudFormation
13 3 (0.70%) OneDrive
14 2 (0.47%) Datadog
14 2 (0.47%) dbt
14 2 (0.47%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 77 (17.91%) Firewall
2 59 (13.72%) Network Security
3 31 (7.21%) VPN
4 30 (6.98%) DNS
5 22 (5.12%) TCP/IP
6 21 (4.88%) Intrusion Detection
7 19 (4.42%) DHCP
8 13 (3.02%) SAN
9 6 (1.40%) Wireshark
10 4 (0.93%) Wireless
11 3 (0.70%) DMARC
11 3 (0.70%) Internet
11 3 (0.70%) SSL
11 3 (0.70%) WAN
12 2 (0.47%) DKIM
12 2 (0.47%) HTTP
12 2 (0.47%) Wi-Fi
13 1 (0.23%) FTP
13 1 (0.23%) SCCP
13 1 (0.23%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (0.23%) Apache Cassandra
2 1 (0.23%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.23%) MySQL
2 1 (0.23%) Power BI
2 1 (0.23%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.23%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (0.47%) CircleCI
1 2 (0.47%) Jenkins
1 2 (0.47%) JIRA
2 1 (0.23%) Burp Suite
2 1 (0.23%) Git
2 1 (0.23%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (0.23%) MSBuild
General
1 126 (29.30%) Social Skills
2 75 (17.44%) Finance
3 63 (14.65%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (6.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 23 (5.35%) Legal
6 21 (4.88%) Law
7 17 (3.95%) Banking
8 12 (2.79%) Public Sector
8 12 (2.79%) Retail
9 9 (2.09%) Financial Institution
10 8 (1.86%) Advertising
11 7 (1.63%) Back Office
11 7 (1.63%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.40%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.70%) Police
15 2 (0.47%) Local Government
15 2 (0.47%) Manufacturing
15 2 (0.47%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 106 (24.65%) Lead
2 86 (20.00%) Analyst
3 57 (13.26%) Security Engineer
3 57 (13.26%) Senior
4 54 (12.56%) Security Analyst
5 37 (8.60%) Security Manager
6 28 (6.51%) SOC Analyst
7 24 (5.58%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 23 (5.35%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 22 (5.12%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 21 (4.88%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 21 (4.88%) Senior Analyst
11 20 (4.65%) Operations Manager
11 20 (4.65%) Senior Security Engineer
12 18 (4.19%) Operational Security Manager
12 18 (4.19%) Security Operations Manager
13 16 (3.72%) Information Analyst
13 16 (3.72%) Information Security Analyst
13 16 (3.72%) Senior Security Analyst
13 16 (3.72%) SOC Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.40%) ARM Templates
2 4 (0.93%) Elastic Stack
2 4 (0.93%) OpenTelemetry
3 3 (0.70%) HTML
4 2 (0.47%) .NET
4 2 (0.47%) Django
4 2 (0.47%) LDAP
4 2 (0.47%) OAuth
4 2 (0.47%) OpenID
4 2 (0.47%) REST
4 2 (0.47%) SAML
4 2 (0.47%) Software Packaging
5 1 (0.23%) ASP.NET
5 1 (0.23%) AWS CDK
5 1 (0.23%) Flash
5 1 (0.23%) React
5 1 (0.23%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 156 (36.28%) Security Operations Centre
2 117 (27.21%) Cyber Threat
3 73 (16.98%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 68 (15.81%) Operational Technology
5 60 (13.95%) Security Posture
6 20 (4.65%) Cyber Defence
7 19 (4.42%) Management Information System
8 13 (3.02%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.33%) Onboarding
9 10 (2.33%) Virtual Team
10 9 (2.09%) Cyberattack
10 9 (2.09%) Data Centre
11 8 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
11 8 (1.86%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.86%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.63%) Insider Threat
13 6 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
14 5 (1.16%) Cyber Security Posture
14 5 (1.16%) PKI
15 4 (0.93%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 70 (16.28%) Windows
2 45 (10.47%) Linux
3 25 (5.81%) Windows Server
4 13 (3.02%) Windows Server 2019
5 12 (2.79%) Windows Server 2012
6 9 (2.09%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.70%) Unix
8 2 (0.47%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.23%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (40.93%) Incident Response
2 171 (39.77%) Cybersecurity
3 147 (34.19%) SIEM
4 134 (31.16%) Threat Intelligence
5 133 (30.93%) Vulnerability Management
6 111 (25.81%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 102 (23.72%) Information Security
8 100 (23.26%) Risk Management
9 97 (22.56%) Mentoring
10 90 (20.93%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
11 89 (20.70%) Stakeholder Management
12 88 (20.47%) Roadmaps
13 87 (20.23%) ITIL
14 81 (18.84%) Continuous Improvement
15 80 (18.60%) Cyber Intelligence
16 77 (17.91%) Business Strategy
17 71 (16.51%) Coaching
18 69 (16.05%) Technology Roadmap
19 68 (15.81%) Problem-Solving
20 66 (15.35%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 43 (10.00%) PowerShell
1 43 (10.00%) Python
2 18 (4.19%) SQL
3 17 (3.95%) Kusto Query Language
4 16 (3.72%) Bash
5 7 (1.63%) Bicep
6 3 (0.70%) Perl
7 2 (0.47%) C#
7 2 (0.47%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.23%) C
8 1 (0.23%) C++
8 1 (0.23%) Java
8 1 (0.23%) PHP
8 1 (0.23%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 77 (17.91%) CISSP
2 60 (13.95%) Degree
3 54 (12.56%) Security Cleared
4 44 (10.23%) CompTIA Security+
5 40 (9.30%) SC Cleared
6 31 (7.21%) Cisco Certification
7 29 (6.74%) CISM
8 22 (5.12%) GCIH
9 21 (4.88%) GIAC
10 19 (4.42%) CCNA
10 19 (4.42%) GCIA
11 16 (3.72%) CCNP
11 16 (3.72%) CEH
12 14 (3.26%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (3.02%) Computer Science Degree
14 12 (2.79%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 12 (2.79%) DV Cleared
15 11 (2.56%) CompTIA CySA+
16 10 (2.33%) Azure Certification
16 10 (2.33%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 154 (35.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 143 (33.26%) NIST
3 65 (15.12%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 54 (12.56%) GDPR
5 49 (11.40%) Cyber Essentials
6 25 (5.81%) PCI DSS
7 21 (4.88%) GRC
8 18 (4.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 13 (3.02%) SOC 2
10 11 (2.56%) SLA
11 8 (1.86%) NCSC
12 5 (1.16%) Accessibility
12 5 (1.16%) QA
13 4 (0.93%) Data Quality
14 3 (0.70%) ITGC
14 3 (0.70%) SOC 3
15 2 (0.47%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.23%) COBIT
16 1 (0.23%) HIPAA
System Software
1 31 (7.21%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.72%) VMware ESXi
3 12 (2.79%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.33%) Docker
5 7 (1.63%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.23%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 21 (4.88%) SCCM
2 19 (4.42%) Terraform
3 17 (3.95%) Kubernetes
4 16 (3.72%) QRadar
5 15 (3.49%) Microsoft Intune
6 12 (2.79%) vCenter Server
7 11 (2.56%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (2.09%) CSIRT
9 7 (1.63%) Ansible
10 6 (1.40%) Nessus
11 4 (0.93%) CASB
11 4 (0.93%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 4 (0.93%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 4 (0.93%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.70%) ArcSight ESM
13 2 (0.47%) Grafana
Vendors
1 104 (24.19%) Microsoft
2 31 (7.21%) ServiceNow
3 28 (6.51%) VMware
4 26 (6.05%) Splunk
5 22 (5.12%) CrowdStrike
6 21 (4.88%) SolarWinds
7 12 (2.79%) 3PAR
7 12 (2.79%) NetApp
7 12 (2.79%) Veeam
8 11 (2.56%) Tenable
9 9 (2.09%) Palo Alto
9 9 (2.09%) Qualys
10 5 (1.16%) ArcSight
11 4 (0.93%) Cisco
11 4 (0.93%) Foundry
11 4 (0.93%) McAfee
11 4 (0.93%) Palantir
11 4 (0.93%) Rapid7
12 3 (0.70%) Google
12 3 (0.70%) LogRhythm