Incident Response Job Trends in the South East

Incident Response
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Incident Response skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 1 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 207 217 188
Rank change year-on-year +10 -29 +136
Permanent jobs citing Incident Response 68 85 82
As % of all permanent jobs in the South East 0.66% 0.92% 1.06%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.81% 1.05% 1.18%
Number of salaries quoted 53 33 67
10th Percentile £42,200 £45,500 £38,502
25th Percentile £43,000 £57,000 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,410 £67,500 £60,500
Median % change year-on-year -25.32% +11.57% +0.83%
75th Percentile £65,000 £78,750 £68,750
90th Percentile £70,000 - £82,500
England median annual salary £70,000 £66,250 £62,500
% change year-on-year +5.66% +6.00% -3.85%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

Incident Response 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 the South East.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 8,378 8,110 6,969
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South East 80.85% 87.72% 89.80%
Number of salaries quoted 4,956 3,982 4,915
10th Percentile £27,750 £32,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £34,000 £44,253 £39,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £53,500
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +7.48% -2.73%
75th Percentile £65,000 £75,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £82,000
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%

Incident Response
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Incident Response relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Incident Response job vacancy trend in the South East

Incident Response
Salary Trend in the South East

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Incident Response.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Incident Response

Incident Response
Salary Histogram in the South East

Salary distribution for jobs citing Incident Response in the South East over the 6 months to 1 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Incident Response in the South East

Incident Response
Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Incident Response within the South East 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
Hampshire +40 35 £47,962 -38.11% 6
Thames Valley +19 21 £65,000 +18.72% 35
Buckinghamshire +13 10 £68,750 - 8
Berkshire -2 6 £46,000 -15.98% 22
Surrey -7 6 - -
Oxfordshire - 5 £56,455 - 6
West Sussex 0 2 £72,500 +225.00% 1
Kent -13 2 - - 3
East Sussex +3 1 £44,000 -26.67% 3
Incident Response
England

Incident Response
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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:

Cloud Services
1 31 (45.59%) Azure
2 23 (33.82%) AWS
3 12 (17.65%) GCP
4 6 (8.82%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (4.41%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (1.47%) Amazon GuardDuty
6 1 (1.47%) AWS CloudTrail
6 1 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
6 1 (1.47%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.47%) Microsoft Purview
6 1 (1.47%) Nutanix
6 1 (1.47%) OCI
6 1 (1.47%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 19 (27.94%) Firewall
2 17 (25.00%) Network Security
3 16 (23.53%) VPN
4 6 (8.82%) DNS
5 5 (7.35%) TCP/IP
5 5 (7.35%) Wireless
6 3 (4.41%) BGP
6 3 (4.41%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (4.41%) MPLS
6 3 (4.41%) Wireshark
7 1 (1.47%) Broadband
7 1 (1.47%) DHCP
7 1 (1.47%) S/MIME
7 1 (1.47%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.47%) Metadata
1 1 (1.47%) SQL Server
1 1 (1.47%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (2.94%) Burp Suite
1 2 (2.94%) Metasploit
General
1 36 (52.94%) Social Skills
2 11 (16.18%) Finance
3 10 (14.71%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (11.76%) Legal
5 7 (10.29%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (4.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (2.94%) Banking
7 2 (2.94%) Public Sector
8 1 (1.47%) Automotive
8 1 (1.47%) Games
8 1 (1.47%) Retail
Job Titles
1 19 (27.94%) Analyst
2 12 (17.65%) Security Analyst
2 12 (17.65%) Senior
3 10 (14.71%) Security Engineer
3 10 (14.71%) Senior Analyst
4 8 (11.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 8 (11.76%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
4 8 (11.76%) Security Specialist
4 8 (11.76%) SOC Manager
5 7 (10.29%) SOC Analyst
6 6 (8.82%) Lead
6 6 (8.82%) Senior Security Analyst
7 5 (7.35%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 5 (7.35%) IT Engineer
7 5 (7.35%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
7 5 (7.35%) IT Security Engineer
8 4 (5.88%) Penetration Tester
8 4 (5.88%) Security Manager
8 4 (5.88%) Tester
9 3 (4.41%) Network Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 19 (27.94%) Security Operations Centre
2 17 (25.00%) Security Posture
3 5 (7.35%) Cyber Threat
3 5 (7.35%) Data Centre
4 4 (5.88%) Management Information System
4 4 (5.88%) Onboarding
5 2 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.47%) Algorithms
6 1 (1.47%) Cyber Defence
6 1 (1.47%) Over-the-Top Content
6 1 (1.47%) PKI
6 1 (1.47%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 4 (5.88%) Linux
2 2 (2.94%) Kali Linux
2 2 (2.94%) Windows
3 1 (1.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (1.47%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (58.82%) Security Operations
2 32 (47.06%) SIEM
3 28 (41.18%) Cybersecurity
4 19 (27.94%) Information Security
5 18 (26.47%) Threat Intelligence
6 17 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
7 15 (22.06%) Vulnerability Management
8 12 (17.65%) Mentoring
8 12 (17.65%) Problem-Solving
8 12 (17.65%) Situational Awareness
9 11 (16.18%) Cloud Security
9 11 (16.18%) Customer Requirements
9 11 (16.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 9 (13.24%) Business Continuity
10 9 (13.24%) Data Protection
10 9 (13.24%) Root Cause Analysis
11 8 (11.76%) Analytics
11 8 (11.76%) SOAR
11 8 (11.76%) Technical Leadership
12 7 (10.29%) Cyber Resilience
Programming Languages
1 8 (11.76%) Kusto Query Language
2 7 (10.29%) SQL
3 6 (8.82%) PowerShell
3 6 (8.82%) Python
4 5 (7.35%) Bash
Qualifications
1 19 (27.94%) Security Cleared
2 17 (25.00%) Degree
3 16 (23.53%) SC Cleared
4 11 (16.18%) CISSP
5 9 (13.24%) CEH
5 9 (13.24%) CISM
5 9 (13.24%) CompTIA Security+
6 6 (8.82%) CompTIA CySA+
6 6 (8.82%) GCIH
6 6 (8.82%) Network+ Certification
7 5 (7.35%) Microsoft Certification
7 5 (7.35%) OSCP
8 4 (5.88%) CISA
8 4 (5.88%) CREST Certified
8 4 (5.88%) GCIA
9 2 (2.94%) CHECK Team Leader
9 2 (2.94%) CHECK Team Member
10 1 (1.47%) AWS Certification
10 1 (1.47%) GPEN
10 1 (1.47%) RHCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (25.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 13 (19.12%) NIST
3 11 (16.18%) GDPR
4 4 (5.88%) GRC
5 3 (4.41%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (4.41%) HIPAA
6 2 (2.94%) PCI DSS
6 2 (2.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (1.47%) NIST 800
System Software
1 2 (2.94%) Docker
1 2 (2.94%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (1.47%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.47%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 4 (5.88%) Nessus
1 4 (5.88%) QRadar
2 3 (4.41%) CSIRT
2 3 (4.41%) FortiGate
2 3 (4.41%) Terraform
3 2 (2.94%) Kubernetes
3 2 (2.94%) Nmap
4 1 (1.47%) Ansible
4 1 (1.47%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.47%) Red Hat Satellite
4 1 (1.47%) SCCM
4 1 (1.47%) WSUS
Vendors
1 18 (26.47%) Microsoft
2 4 (5.88%) Cisco
2 4 (5.88%) Fortinet
2 4 (5.88%) Tenable
3 3 (4.41%) Aruba
3 3 (4.41%) Juniper
3 3 (4.41%) LogRhythm
4 2 (2.94%) Splunk
4 2 (2.94%) VMware
5 1 (1.47%) ArcSight
5 1 (1.47%) Citrix
5 1 (1.47%) Extreme Networks
5 1 (1.47%) Netskope
5 1 (1.47%) Oracle
5 1 (1.47%) Palo Alto
5 1 (1.47%) Rapid7
5 1 (1.47%) Red Hat
5 1 (1.47%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.47%) SolarWinds
5 1 (1.47%) Thales