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 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 35 57 50
Rank change year-on-year +22 -7 -7
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 2,922 1,433 2,385
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.64% 4.11% 4.09%
As % of the Qualifications category 21.16% 11.40% 15.81%
Number of salaries quoted 2,004 915 1,669
10th Percentile £43,497 £30,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £52,500 £45,625 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £57,500 £55,500
Median % change year-on-year +21.74% +3.60% -3.48%
75th Percentile £81,250 £73,750 £70,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £87,211 £82,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £60,000 £58,800
% change year-on-year +16.67% +2.04% -5.16%

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 13,806 12,565 15,088
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 17.18% 36.04% 25.89%
Number of salaries quoted 7,371 5,306 7,553
10th Percentile £30,000 £27,750 £29,297
25th Percentile £41,250 £33,500 £38,890
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £49,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +17.35% -6.67% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £81,250
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%

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 September 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 September 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 -4 777 £70,000 +21.74% 523
South West +2 759 £70,000 +21.74% 398
North of England +112 582 £65,000 +12.07% 446
Midlands +24 403 £61,500 -5.38% 210
North West +113 323 £70,000 +12.00% 273
West Midlands +15 280 £65,903 -9.10% 138
East of England +27 178 £55,000 +4.76% 206
Wales -9 155 £63,500 +8.55% 33
Yorkshire +10 137 £65,000 +36.84% 100
East Midlands +33 123 £60,000 +103.39% 72
North East +26 122 £57,500 -11.54% 92
Scotland +40 76 £70,000 +9.80% 180
Northern Ireland -72 13 £74,654 -12.33% 67
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
1 104 (3.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 58 (1.98%) SharePoint
3 36 (1.23%) Confluence
4 35 (1.20%) Apache Spark
5 34 (1.16%) Apache
6 16 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
7 15 (0.51%) Jupyter
7 15 (0.51%) SAS
8 9 (0.31%) Skype for Business
9 8 (0.27%) Documentum
9 8 (0.27%) nginx
10 7 (0.24%) OpenStack
10 7 (0.24%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 2 (0.068%) Exchange Server 2013
11 2 (0.068%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.068%) Palantir Foundry
11 2 (0.068%) Tomcat
12 1 (0.034%) Appian
12 1 (0.034%) IIS
12 1 (0.034%) JBoss
Applications
1 48 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
2 34 (1.16%) Microsoft Excel
3 29 (0.99%) Simulink
4 13 (0.44%) Microsoft Project
5 12 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 6 (0.21%) SOLIDWORKS
7 5 (0.17%) MS Visio
8 4 (0.14%) Mathcad
8 4 (0.14%) Windchill
9 3 (0.10%) Stateflow
10 2 (0.068%) InDesign
10 2 (0.068%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.034%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.034%) AutoCAD
11 1 (0.034%) CATIA
11 1 (0.034%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 11 (0.38%) Primavera
2 8 (0.27%) SAP EHS
2 8 (0.27%) SAP Oil and Gas
2 8 (0.27%) Workday HCM
3 7 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
4 6 (0.21%) Teamcenter
5 5 (0.17%) Dynamics CRM
6 4 (0.14%) Remedy ITSM
7 3 (0.10%) Oracle EBS
8 2 (0.068%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.068%) SAP ERP
8 2 (0.068%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.068%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 1 (0.034%) SAP BPC
9 1 (0.034%) SAP EWM
9 1 (0.034%) SAP GRC
9 1 (0.034%) SAP HCM
9 1 (0.034%) SAP MM
9 1 (0.034%) SAP R/3
Cloud Services
1 618 (21.15%) Azure
2 476 (16.29%) AWS
3 233 (7.97%) Microsoft 365
4 108 (3.70%) GCP
5 81 (2.77%) GitHub
6 78 (2.67%) Serverless
7 76 (2.60%) Entra ID
8 71 (2.43%) Power Platform
9 67 (2.29%) Azure DevOps
10 65 (2.22%) AWS CloudFormation
11 48 (1.64%) Amazon S3
11 48 (1.64%) OpenShift
12 45 (1.54%) AWS Lambda
13 38 (1.30%) SaaS
14 37 (1.27%) Amazon EC2
14 37 (1.27%) GitHub Actions
15 36 (1.23%) Azure Sentinel
16 35 (1.20%) dbt
17 30 (1.03%) PowerApps
18 26 (0.89%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 141 (4.83%) DNS
2 136 (4.65%) Firewall
3 101 (3.46%) DHCP
4 70 (2.40%) VPN
5 68 (2.33%) WAN
6 63 (2.16%) TCP/IP
7 59 (2.02%) Network Security
8 49 (1.68%) LAN
9 28 (0.96%) VLAN
10 22 (0.75%) HTTP
11 21 (0.72%) BGP
12 20 (0.68%) ATM
12 20 (0.68%) SSL
13 19 (0.65%) VoIP
14 18 (0.62%) SAN
15 17 (0.58%) SD-WAN
16 14 (0.48%) 4G
17 13 (0.44%) Broadband
17 13 (0.44%) Software-Defined Radio
17 13 (0.44%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 83 (2.84%) Amazon RDS
2 53 (1.81%) Power BI
3 48 (1.64%) PostgreSQL
4 32 (1.10%) Data Warehouse
5 30 (1.03%) Big Data
6 29 (0.99%) Relational Database
7 25 (0.86%) DynamoDB
8 20 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
9 18 (0.62%) SQL Server
10 16 (0.55%) Amazon Athena
11 15 (0.51%) Hadoop
11 15 (0.51%) MongoDB
11 15 (0.51%) MySQL
12 13 (0.44%) Data Lake
13 11 (0.38%) BigQuery
14 10 (0.34%) Looker
14 10 (0.34%) Metadata
15 9 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
15 9 (0.31%) Geospatial Data
15 9 (0.31%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 131 (4.48%) Git
2 102 (3.49%) GitLab
3 82 (2.81%) Jenkins
4 75 (2.57%) JIRA
5 31 (1.06%) JUnit
6 25 (0.86%) Rational DOORS
7 24 (0.82%) Cypress.io
7 24 (0.82%) Selenium
8 19 (0.65%) Maven
9 18 (0.62%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 18 (0.62%) SonarQube
10 14 (0.48%) Mockito
10 14 (0.48%) Visual Studio Code
11 13 (0.44%) Cucumber
11 13 (0.44%) Postman
12 11 (0.38%) JMeter
13 10 (0.34%) Gatling
13 10 (0.34%) LabVIEW
14 7 (0.24%) MSI
15 6 (0.21%) Metasploit
General
1 719 (24.61%) Social Skills
2 400 (13.69%) Public Sector
3 334 (11.43%) Analytical Skills
4 328 (11.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 306 (10.47%) Finance
6 212 (7.26%) Aerospace
7 99 (3.39%) Military
8 92 (3.15%) Electronics
9 65 (2.22%) Legal
10 64 (2.19%) Organisational Skills
11 62 (2.12%) Manufacturing
12 51 (1.75%) Law
13 41 (1.40%) Retail
14 40 (1.37%) Aviation
15 39 (1.33%) Telecoms
16 33 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
17 26 (0.89%) Documentation Skills
18 24 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
19 22 (0.75%) Police
20 16 (0.55%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 434 (14.85%) Senior
2 298 (10.20%) Systems Engineer
3 293 (10.03%) Architect
4 259 (8.86%) Developer
5 256 (8.76%) Software Engineer
6 188 (6.43%) Lead
7 179 (6.13%) Consultant
8 174 (5.95%) Analyst
9 129 (4.41%) Cloud Engineer
9 129 (4.41%) DevOps Engineer
10 112 (3.83%) Senior Developer
11 98 (3.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 85 (2.91%) Data Engineer
12 85 (2.91%) Solutions Architect
13 77 (2.64%) Security Consultant
14 75 (2.57%) Java Developer
14 75 (2.57%) Security Architect
15 64 (2.19%) Principal Engineer
16 63 (2.16%) Network Engineer
17 59 (2.02%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 256 (8.76%) Terraform
2 77 (2.64%) React
3 72 (2.46%) .NET
4 64 (2.19%) REST
5 62 (2.12%) Spring
6 55 (1.88%) CSS
6 55 (1.88%) HTML
7 51 (1.75%) Spring Boot
8 46 (1.57%) Node.js
9 40 (1.37%) AngularJS
10 35 (1.20%) Kafka
11 31 (1.06%) RESTful
12 30 (1.03%) Playwright
13 26 (0.89%) PySpark
14 22 (0.75%) .NET Core
15 21 (0.72%) Jest
16 20 (0.68%) Elastic Stack
17 19 (0.65%) ModSecurity
18 18 (0.62%) HTML5
18 18 (0.62%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 168 (5.75%) Cloud Native
2 124 (4.24%) Legacy Systems
3 90 (3.08%) Driving Licence
3 90 (3.08%) Onboarding
4 69 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
5 67 (2.29%) Data Centre
6 62 (2.12%) Product Ownership
7 57 (1.95%) Management Information System
8 56 (1.92%) Security Operations Centre
9 44 (1.51%) Security Posture
10 42 (1.44%) Cyber Threat
11 41 (1.40%) FPGA
12 38 (1.30%) Robotics
13 36 (1.23%) Distributed Systems
14 35 (1.20%) Embedded Systems
14 35 (1.20%) Hybrid Cloud
15 32 (1.10%) Algorithms
16 29 (0.99%) CSOC
17 28 (0.96%) Operational Technology
18 27 (0.92%) Blog
Operating Systems
1 357 (12.22%) Linux
2 303 (10.37%) Windows
3 154 (5.27%) Windows Server
4 87 (2.98%) Windows Server 2016
5 57 (1.95%) Unix
6 52 (1.78%) Windows 10
7 31 (1.06%) CentOS
8 28 (0.96%) Android
8 28 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 14 (0.48%) Mac OS
10 13 (0.44%) Ubuntu
11 9 (0.31%) AIX
12 8 (0.27%) Debian
13 7 (0.24%) Solaris
14 6 (0.21%) Apple iOS
15 5 (0.17%) Embedded Linux
15 5 (0.17%) VMS
16 4 (0.14%) Rocky
16 4 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
17 3 (0.10%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 546 (18.69%) Agile
2 451 (15.43%) Problem-Solving
3 429 (14.68%) DevOps
4 412 (14.10%) Continuous Improvement
5 406 (13.89%) Software Engineering
6 381 (13.04%) CI/CD
7 375 (12.83%) Cybersecurity
8 270 (9.24%) Mentoring
9 264 (9.03%) Validation
10 242 (8.28%) Infrastructure as Code
11 236 (8.08%) AI
12 219 (7.49%) ITIL
13 215 (7.36%) Technical Leadership
14 203 (6.95%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 183 (6.26%) Stakeholder Management
16 177 (6.06%) Decision-Making
17 169 (5.78%) Migration
18 166 (5.68%) Verification and Validation
19 156 (5.34%) Containerisation
20 155 (5.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 330 (11.29%) Python
2 209 (7.15%) Java
3 125 (4.28%) JavaScript
4 124 (4.24%) SQL
5 123 (4.21%) C++
6 109 (3.73%) PowerShell
7 94 (3.22%) Bash
8 88 (3.01%) C#
9 63 (2.16%) TypeScript
10 43 (1.47%) C
11 40 (1.37%) MATLAB
12 28 (0.96%) Bicep
13 24 (0.82%) Kusto Query Language
13 24 (0.82%) Rust
14 23 (0.79%) Scala
15 22 (0.75%) Go
16 20 (0.68%) Groovy
17 19 (0.65%) Ada
17 19 (0.65%) Ruby
18 18 (0.62%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 2,922 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 633 (21.66%) DV Cleared
3 310 (10.61%) Degree
4 226 (7.73%) BPSS Clearance
5 69 (2.36%) CISSP
6 63 (2.16%) Azure Certification
7 48 (1.64%) CISM
8 47 (1.61%) AWS Certification
9 44 (1.51%) Cisco Certification
9 44 (1.51%) Microsoft Certification
10 42 (1.44%) Master's Degree
11 36 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
12 30 (1.03%) HNC
13 28 (0.96%) CREST Certified
14 25 (0.86%) CompTIA Security+
15 23 (0.79%) Chartered Engineer
15 23 (0.79%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
16 22 (0.75%) PMI Certification
16 22 (0.75%) TOGAF Certification
17 19 (0.65%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 168 (5.75%) Accessibility
2 142 (4.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 128 (4.38%) QA
4 117 (4.00%) Cyber Essentials
5 100 (3.42%) PCI DSS
6 71 (2.43%) NIST
7 56 (1.92%) NCSC
8 52 (1.78%) SLA
9 45 (1.54%) Data Quality
10 37 (1.27%) GDPR
11 34 (1.16%) JSP 440
12 31 (1.06%) ISO 9001
13 30 (1.03%) WCAG
14 29 (0.99%) GRC
15 26 (0.89%) Def Stans
16 22 (0.75%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 16 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
17 16 (0.55%) NIST 800
17 16 (0.55%) PMO
18 11 (0.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 212 (7.26%) Active Directory
2 191 (6.54%) Docker
3 118 (4.04%) Hyper-V
4 80 (2.74%) Terminal Server
5 73 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
6 61 (2.09%) Firmware
7 18 (0.62%) VMware ESXi
8 17 (0.58%) vSphere
9 12 (0.41%) VMware NSX
10 10 (0.34%) BitLocker
11 9 (0.31%) Embedded Firmware
11 9 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
12 8 (0.27%) Virtual Desktop
13 5 (0.17%) NDS
13 5 (0.17%) Squid
14 4 (0.14%) KVM
15 2 (0.068%) Oracle RAC
16 1 (0.034%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 1 (0.034%) IAG
16 1 (0.034%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 230 (7.87%) Kubernetes
2 132 (4.52%) Ansible
3 50 (1.71%) Microsoft Intune
4 34 (1.16%) SCCM
5 26 (0.89%) Grafana
6 21 (0.72%) Prometheus
7 19 (0.65%) Puppet
8 18 (0.62%) Kibana
9 13 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (0.41%) Argo
10 12 (0.41%) Progress Chef
10 12 (0.41%) Proxmox
10 12 (0.41%) vCenter Server
11 10 (0.34%) Nessus
12 9 (0.31%) QRadar
13 8 (0.27%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 7 (0.24%) Graylog
14 7 (0.24%) Kustomize
14 7 (0.24%) Nagios
15 6 (0.21%) Packer
Vendors
1 445 (15.23%) Microsoft
2 180 (6.16%) VMware
3 110 (3.76%) Splunk
4 95 (3.25%) Veeam
5 91 (3.11%) SolarWinds
6 80 (2.74%) Brocade
6 80 (2.74%) Nimble Storage
6 80 (2.74%) Tanium
7 65 (2.22%) ServiceNow
8 64 (2.19%) Cisco
8 64 (2.19%) Oracle
9 46 (1.57%) Google
10 45 (1.54%) SAP
11 28 (0.96%) Red Hat
12 24 (0.82%) Fortinet
13 18 (0.62%) Databricks
14 17 (0.58%) OpenAI
15 15 (0.51%) Aruba
15 15 (0.51%) OpenText
15 15 (0.51%) Starlink