SOC Engineer Job Trends in England

Security Operations Centre Engineer
UK > England

The median Security Operations Centre Engineer salary in England is £45,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 1 January 2026.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 593 665 646
Rank change year-on-year +72 -19 +328
Permanent jobs requiring a SOC Engineer 7 11 20
As % of all permanent jobs in England 0.013% 0.022% 0.044%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.015% 0.024% 0.046%
Number of salaries quoted 5 10 18
10th Percentile - £54,250 £55,500
25th Percentile - £62,500 £57,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £65,000 £60,500
Median % change year-on-year -30.77% +7.44% +5.22%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £98,000 - £68,750
UK median annual salary £45,000 £65,000 £60,500
% change year-on-year -30.77% +7.44% +5.22%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in England with a recognized job title 47,162 46,092 43,112
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.67% 92.95% 95.07%
Number of salaries quoted 29,558 24,542 33,827
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,205 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -1.64%
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,000 £79,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £97,500
UK median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

SOC Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'SOC Engineer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in England.

SOC Engineer job vacancy trend in England

SOC Engineer
Salary Trend in England

Salary distribution trend for SOC Engineer job vacancies in England.

Salary distribution trend for SOC Engineer job vacancies in England

SOC Engineer
Salary Histogram in England

Salary distribution for jobs citing SOC Engineer in England over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for SOC Engineer in England

SOC Engineer
Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing SOC Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 1 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
South East +30 4 £45,000 +20.00% 3
London +23 2 £120,000 +84.62%
North of England +25 1 - - 2
Yorkshire - 1 - - 2
SOC Engineer
UK

SOC Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 1 January 2026, SOC Engineer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the England region featuring SOC Engineer in the job title.

1 4 (57.14%) DNS
1 4 (57.14%) PowerShell
1 4 (57.14%) Python
1 4 (57.14%) Security Monitoring
1 4 (57.14%) Security Operations
2 3 (42.86%) Bash
2 3 (42.86%) Cybersecurity
2 3 (42.86%) Firewall
2 3 (42.86%) Incident Response
2 3 (42.86%) Linux
2 3 (42.86%) Security Cleared
2 3 (42.86%) SIEM
2 3 (42.86%) Task Automation
2 3 (42.86%) TCP/IP
2 3 (42.86%) Windows
3 2 (28.57%) Information Security
3 2 (28.57%) SC Cleared
3 2 (28.57%) SOAR
4 1 (14.29%) Azure
4 1 (14.29%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (14.29%) Cloud Security
4 1 (14.29%) CrowdStrike
4 1 (14.29%) Data Loss Prevention
4 1 (14.29%) Data Pipeline
4 1 (14.29%) DevOps
4 1 (14.29%) Digital Forensics
4 1 (14.29%) Elite 3E
4 1 (14.29%) GAP Analysis
4 1 (14.29%) GCP
4 1 (14.29%) Internet

SOC Engineer Skill Set
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:

Business Applications
1 1 (14.29%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 1 (14.29%) Azure
1 1 (14.29%) Azure DevOps
1 1 (14.29%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 4 (57.14%) DNS
2 3 (42.86%) Firewall
2 3 (42.86%) TCP/IP
3 1 (14.29%) Internet
General
1 2 (28.57%) Law
2 1 (14.29%) Finance
2 1 (14.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 1 (14.29%) Legal
Miscellaneous
1 1 (14.29%) Cloud Security Posture
1 1 (14.29%) Security Operations Centre
1 1 (14.29%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 3 (42.86%) Linux
1 3 (42.86%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (57.14%) Security Monitoring
1 4 (57.14%) Security Operations
2 3 (42.86%) Cybersecurity
2 3 (42.86%) Incident Response
2 3 (42.86%) SIEM
2 3 (42.86%) Task Automation
3 2 (28.57%) Information Security
3 2 (28.57%) SOAR
4 1 (14.29%) Cloud Security
4 1 (14.29%) Data Pipeline
4 1 (14.29%) DevOps
4 1 (14.29%) Digital Forensics
4 1 (14.29%) GAP Analysis
4 1 (14.29%) MITRE ATT&CK
4 1 (14.29%) Platform Engineering
4 1 (14.29%) Process Improvement
4 1 (14.29%) Threat Analysis
4 1 (14.29%) Threat Detection
4 1 (14.29%) Threat Intelligence
4 1 (14.29%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 4 (57.14%) PowerShell
1 4 (57.14%) Python
2 3 (42.86%) Bash
Qualifications
1 3 (42.86%) Security Cleared
2 2 (28.57%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (14.29%) NIST
Systems Management
1 1 (14.29%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 1 (14.29%) CrowdStrike
1 1 (14.29%) Splunk