SC Cleared Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Security Check (SC) Clearance
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London with a requirement for SC Cleared qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered over the 6 months leading up to 1 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 68 61
Rank change year-on-year +23 -7 +4
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 2,250 1,242 2,837
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.23% 3.93% 3.70%
As % of the Qualifications category 17.10% 9.77% 14.78%
Number of salaries quoted 1,693 850 2,092
10th Percentile £41,250 £35,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £80,000 £73,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,887 £85,000 £79,225
UK median annual salary £67,500 £61,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.76% +6.96% -8.00%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK excluding London

SC Cleared falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in the UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,157 12,717 19,191
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 18.90% 40.24% 25.03%
Number of salaries quoted 6,597 5,146 12,120
10th Percentile £29,325 £27,500 £27,500
25th Percentile £39,000 £35,000 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,055 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.88% +0.11% -4.76%
75th Percentile £73,750 £66,274 £65,000
90th Percentile £86,954 £78,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £52,777
% change year-on-year +9.09% +4.21% -12.04%

SC Cleared
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing SC Cleared relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

SC Cleared job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

SC Cleared
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing SC Cleared.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing SC Cleared

SC Cleared
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing SC Cleared in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 1 July 2026.

Salary histogram for SC Cleared in the UK excluding London

SC Cleared
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing SC Cleared within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 July 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 West +12 607 £70,000 +16.67% 263
South East -11 579 £70,000 +20.69% 422
North of England +94 443 £62,500 +13.64% 258
Midlands +29 312 £59,056 -9.15% 156
North West +105 248 £67,500 +8.00% 153
West Midlands +3 205 £60,000 -11.28% 121
Wales +6 136 £55,395 +0.72% 63
Yorkshire +5 122 £62,500 +31.58% 61
East of England +8 112 £63,250 +15.00% 58
East Midlands +31 105 £53,750 +3.37% 35
North East +7 73 £57,500 -17.13% 45
Scotland +51 64 £75,000 +20.00% 61
Northern Ireland -29 7 £63,500 -25.43% 19
SC Cleared
UK

SC Cleared
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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
1 100 (4.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 51 (2.27%) SharePoint
3 22 (0.98%) Apache
4 20 (0.89%) SAS
5 17 (0.76%) Apache Spark
6 14 (0.62%) Apache Airflow
7 13 (0.58%) Confluence
8 11 (0.49%) Jupyter
9 8 (0.36%) Skype for Business
10 5 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 3 (0.13%) Documentum
11 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.089%) Exchange Server 2013
13 1 (0.044%) Apache Qpid
13 1 (0.044%) Appian
13 1 (0.044%) JBoss
13 1 (0.044%) Site Server
Applications
1 89 (3.96%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.40%) Simulink
4 4 (0.18%) Windchill
5 3 (0.13%) Stateflow
6 1 (0.044%) CATIA
6 1 (0.044%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.044%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (0.31%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
3 4 (0.18%) Workday HCM
4 3 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
5 1 (0.044%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.044%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.044%) SAP BPC
5 1 (0.044%) SAP EHS
5 1 (0.044%) SAP EWM
5 1 (0.044%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.044%) SAP HCM
5 1 (0.044%) SAP MM
5 1 (0.044%) SAP Oil and Gas
5 1 (0.044%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 496 (22.04%) Azure
2 306 (13.60%) AWS
3 266 (11.82%) Microsoft 365
4 84 (3.73%) Entra ID
5 82 (3.64%) GCP
6 50 (2.22%) Power Platform
6 50 (2.22%) Serverless
7 49 (2.18%) Azure DevOps
8 47 (2.09%) GitHub
9 44 (1.96%) SaaS
10 36 (1.60%) Amazon S3
11 32 (1.42%) AWS CloudFormation
11 32 (1.42%) Azure Sentinel
12 31 (1.38%) Dynamics 365
13 27 (1.20%) Amazon EC2
14 24 (1.07%) AWS Lambda
14 24 (1.07%) PaaS
15 22 (0.98%) Amazon EKS
16 21 (0.93%) OpenShift
17 20 (0.89%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 130 (5.78%) DNS
2 125 (5.56%) Firewall
3 106 (4.71%) DHCP
4 68 (3.02%) WAN
5 64 (2.84%) VPN
6 50 (2.22%) LAN
7 49 (2.18%) Network Security
8 48 (2.13%) TCP/IP
9 29 (1.29%) Wi-Fi
10 28 (1.24%) BGP
11 25 (1.11%) Structured Cabling
12 22 (0.98%) VLAN
13 20 (0.89%) HTTP
14 18 (0.80%) MPLS
14 18 (0.80%) SD-WAN
15 16 (0.71%) Cisco Firepower
15 16 (0.71%) VoIP
16 15 (0.67%) Broadband
17 14 (0.62%) ATM
18 12 (0.53%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (3.38%) Amazon RDS
2 41 (1.82%) Power BI
3 35 (1.56%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (0.98%) Big Data
5 19 (0.84%) DynamoDB
6 18 (0.80%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (0.71%) Relational Database
8 14 (0.62%) Amazon Athena
8 14 (0.62%) MongoDB
9 12 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
10 11 (0.49%) SQL Server
11 10 (0.44%) Redis
12 9 (0.40%) Data Lake
13 8 (0.36%) GIS
13 8 (0.36%) MySQL
14 7 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
14 7 (0.31%) Hadoop
14 7 (0.31%) NoSQL
15 6 (0.27%) Pentaho
15 6 (0.27%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 82 (3.64%) Git
2 74 (3.29%) GitLab
3 45 (2.00%) Jenkins
4 35 (1.56%) JIRA
5 21 (0.93%) JUnit
6 17 (0.76%) SonarQube
7 16 (0.71%) Selenium
8 15 (0.67%) Cypress.io
8 15 (0.67%) Maven
8 15 (0.67%) Visual Studio Code
9 11 (0.49%) Mockito
10 8 (0.36%) Cucumber
11 7 (0.31%) Burp Suite
11 7 (0.31%) Metasploit
12 6 (0.27%) JMeter
12 6 (0.27%) Postman
13 5 (0.22%) Artifactory
13 5 (0.22%) Atlassian Bamboo
13 5 (0.22%) Claude Code
13 5 (0.22%) REST Assured
General
1 503 (22.36%) Social Skills
2 293 (13.02%) Public Sector
3 221 (9.82%) Analytical Skills
4 139 (6.18%) Finance
5 137 (6.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 56 (2.49%) Telecoms
7 46 (2.04%) Aerospace
8 40 (1.78%) Organisational Skills
9 38 (1.69%) Back Office
9 38 (1.69%) Electronics
9 38 (1.69%) Military
10 37 (1.64%) Manufacturing
11 36 (1.60%) Legal
12 32 (1.42%) Law
13 30 (1.33%) Aviation
14 24 (1.07%) Retail
15 19 (0.84%) Documentation Skills
16 13 (0.58%) Games
17 11 (0.49%) Influencing Skills
18 10 (0.44%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 368 (16.36%) Senior
2 213 (9.47%) Architect
3 203 (9.02%) Developer
4 189 (8.40%) Software Engineer
5 179 (7.96%) Consultant
6 162 (7.20%) Analyst
7 120 (5.33%) Systems Engineer
8 101 (4.49%) Cloud Engineer
9 95 (4.22%) Data Engineer
9 95 (4.22%) Support Engineer
10 94 (4.18%) Security Consultant
11 92 (4.09%) Lead
12 80 (3.56%) Senior Developer
13 79 (3.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 75 (3.33%) Network Engineer
14 75 (3.33%) Security Architect
15 67 (2.98%) Java Developer
16 65 (2.89%) DevOps Engineer
17 64 (2.84%) IT Engineer
18 60 (2.67%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (2.53%) .NET
2 51 (2.27%) REST
3 43 (1.91%) React
4 42 (1.87%) Spring
5 38 (1.69%) Spring Boot
6 25 (1.11%) AngularJS
6 25 (1.11%) Node.js
7 23 (1.02%) HTML
8 21 (0.93%) Kafka
9 20 (0.89%) CSS
10 18 (0.80%) PySpark
10 18 (0.80%) RESTful
11 14 (0.62%) Elastic Stack
11 14 (0.62%) Playwright
12 13 (0.58%) Jest
13 12 (0.53%) RabbitMQ
13 12 (0.53%) YAML
14 10 (0.44%) gRPC
14 10 (0.44%) Web Services
15 9 (0.40%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 92 (4.09%) Legacy Systems
2 86 (3.82%) Cloud Native
3 77 (3.42%) Driving Licence
4 75 (3.33%) Onboarding
5 74 (3.29%) Data Centre
6 46 (2.04%) Security Posture
7 45 (2.00%) Product Ownership
8 44 (1.96%) Security Operations Centre
9 42 (1.87%) Self-Motivation
10 38 (1.69%) Management Information System
11 25 (1.11%) CSOC
11 25 (1.11%) Embedded Systems
11 25 (1.11%) Fibre Optics
11 25 (1.11%) Robotics
12 23 (1.02%) PKI
13 20 (0.89%) Algorithms
13 20 (0.89%) Cyber Threat
13 20 (0.89%) Operational Technology
14 19 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
14 19 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 281 (12.49%) Windows
2 251 (11.16%) Linux
3 128 (5.69%) Windows Server
4 78 (3.47%) Windows Server 2016
5 71 (3.16%) Windows 10
6 30 (1.33%) Unix
7 23 (1.02%) Android
8 18 (0.80%) CentOS
9 17 (0.76%) Mac OS
10 12 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 12 (0.53%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.31%) Debian
12 6 (0.27%) AIX
13 5 (0.22%) Apple iOS
13 5 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
14 3 (0.13%) Solaris
14 3 (0.13%) VMS
15 2 (0.089%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.089%) Rocky
15 2 (0.089%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 332 (14.76%) Agile
2 320 (14.22%) Cybersecurity
3 305 (13.56%) Problem-Solving
4 270 (12.00%) Continuous Improvement
5 264 (11.73%) Software Engineering
6 257 (11.42%) DevOps
7 227 (10.09%) CI/CD
8 222 (9.87%) ITIL
9 170 (7.56%) Mentoring
10 148 (6.58%) Infrastructure as Code
11 144 (6.40%) Customer Service
12 136 (6.04%) Analytics
13 134 (5.96%) Migration
14 129 (5.73%) AI
15 123 (5.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 118 (5.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 117 (5.20%) Customer Experience
17 117 (5.20%) Technical Leadership
18 110 (4.89%) Decision-Making
19 106 (4.71%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 260 (11.56%) Python
2 163 (7.24%) Java
3 109 (4.84%) SQL
4 98 (4.36%) C++
5 86 (3.82%) PowerShell
6 68 (3.02%) Bash
7 64 (2.84%) JavaScript
8 58 (2.58%) C#
9 38 (1.69%) TypeScript
10 33 (1.47%) C
11 22 (0.98%) Scala
12 19 (0.84%) Groovy
12 19 (0.84%) Rust
13 16 (0.71%) Bicep
13 16 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
14 15 (0.67%) MATLAB
14 15 (0.67%) PL/SQL
15 14 (0.62%) VBA
16 12 (0.53%) Embedded C
17 10 (0.44%) Go
Qualifications
1 2,250 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 417 (18.53%) DV Cleared
3 220 (9.78%) Degree
4 72 (3.20%) BPSS Clearance
5 51 (2.27%) CISSP
6 47 (2.09%) CTC Cleared
7 43 (1.91%) Cisco Certification
8 39 (1.73%) CISM
9 37 (1.64%) Azure Certification
10 35 (1.56%) Microsoft Certification
11 27 (1.20%) AWS Certification
11 27 (1.20%) HNC
12 26 (1.16%) CompTIA Security+
12 26 (1.16%) Master's Degree
13 25 (1.11%) Computer Science Degree
13 25 (1.11%) CREST Certified
14 20 (0.89%) CCNP
15 18 (0.80%) SANS
16 16 (0.71%) A+ Certification
17 15 (0.67%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 127 (5.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 113 (5.02%) Cyber Essentials
3 97 (4.31%) PCI DSS
4 83 (3.69%) SLA
5 65 (2.89%) NIST
6 63 (2.80%) QA
7 45 (2.00%) GDPR
8 44 (1.96%) NCSC
9 36 (1.60%) Accessibility
10 30 (1.33%) JSP 440
11 29 (1.29%) Data Quality
12 26 (1.16%) GRC
13 24 (1.07%) ISO 9001
14 21 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 20000
15 20 (0.89%) PMO
16 19 (0.84%) Def Stans
17 18 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
18 13 (0.58%) WCAG
19 12 (0.53%) NIST 800
20 11 (0.49%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 181 (8.04%) Active Directory
2 124 (5.51%) Docker
3 108 (4.80%) Hyper-V
4 72 (3.20%) Terminal Server
5 53 (2.36%) VMware Infrastructure
6 33 (1.47%) Firmware
7 20 (0.89%) Virtual Desktop
8 16 (0.71%) VMware NSX
9 14 (0.62%) vSphere
10 9 (0.40%) Embedded Firmware
11 6 (0.27%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
12 4 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
13 1 (0.044%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 1 (0.044%) IAG
13 1 (0.044%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.044%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 169 (7.51%) Terraform
2 133 (5.91%) Kubernetes
3 92 (4.09%) Ansible
4 36 (1.60%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (1.02%) Grafana
6 22 (0.98%) Prometheus
7 18 (0.80%) SCCM
8 17 (0.76%) Puppet
9 16 (0.71%) Proxmox
10 14 (0.62%) Kibana
10 14 (0.62%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 12 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
12 11 (0.49%) Nessus
12 11 (0.49%) vCenter Server
13 9 (0.40%) Argo
14 8 (0.36%) QRadar
15 7 (0.31%) HP Fortify
15 7 (0.31%) Nmap
16 6 (0.27%) Graylog
16 6 (0.27%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 417 (18.53%) Microsoft
2 153 (6.80%) VMware
3 111 (4.93%) Cisco
4 104 (4.62%) Splunk
5 83 (3.69%) SolarWinds
6 75 (3.33%) Veeam
7 72 (3.20%) Brocade
7 72 (3.20%) Nimble Storage
7 72 (3.20%) Tanium
8 49 (2.18%) Oracle
9 47 (2.09%) ServiceNow
10 33 (1.47%) Google
11 22 (0.98%) Red Hat
12 18 (0.80%) Fortinet
12 18 (0.80%) HP
13 14 (0.62%) Aruba
13 14 (0.62%) CheckPoint
14 13 (0.58%) Databricks
14 13 (0.58%) Juniper
14 13 (0.58%) SAP