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

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 60 73 60
Rank change year-on-year +13 -13 +6
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 2,053 1,150 2,845
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.04% 3.95% 3.85%
As % of the Qualifications category 13.29% 9.13% 15.25%
Number of salaries quoted 1,529 808 2,087
10th Percentile £40,000 £35,500 £31,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,543 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.77% +4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £80,000 £72,625 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £81,625 £79,225
UK median annual salary £65,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +8.33% +4.35% -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 15,446 12,600 18,653
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 22.88% 43.33% 25.24%
Number of salaries quoted 6,220 4,949 12,234
10th Percentile £28,250 £27,750 £27,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,967 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.91% +1.93% -4.76%
75th Percentile £71,250 £66,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% +1.85% -10.00%

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 3 June 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 3 June 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 +14 558 £67,500 +12.50% 259
South East -12 503 £70,000 +27.27% 371
North of England +92 394 £60,000 +9.09% 214
Midlands +24 299 £57,200 -12.00% 108
North West +100 220 £65,000 +12.07% 128
West Midlands -9 197 £60,000 -9.77% 79
Yorkshire +11 122 £62,500 +39.82% 46
East of England +9 120 £61,500 +11.82% 63
Wales +5 109 £54,000 -1.82% 46
East Midlands +39 100 £55,000 +5.77% 29
Scotland +44 70 £75,000 +28.76% 51
North East -2 52 £55,000 -20.73% 41
Northern Ireland -38 5 £63,750 -25.13% 24
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 94 (4.58%) Microsoft Exchange
2 45 (2.19%) SharePoint
3 18 (0.88%) Apache
4 17 (0.83%) SAS
5 14 (0.68%) Apache Spark
6 11 (0.54%) Apache Airflow
7 9 (0.44%) Jupyter
8 8 (0.39%) Skype for Business
9 7 (0.34%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 3 (0.15%) Confluence
11 2 (0.097%) Exchange Server 2013
11 2 (0.097%) OpenStack
12 1 (0.049%) Apache Qpid
12 1 (0.049%) Appian
12 1 (0.049%) JBoss
Applications
1 104 (5.07%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.51%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.39%) Simulink
5 4 (0.19%) Windchill
6 3 (0.15%) Stateflow
7 1 (0.049%) CATIA
7 1 (0.049%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.049%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.049%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.049%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.049%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.049%) SAP EWM
3 1 (0.049%) SAP GRC
3 1 (0.049%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.049%) SAP MM
3 1 (0.049%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 456 (22.21%) Azure
2 275 (13.40%) AWS
3 261 (12.71%) Microsoft 365
4 75 (3.65%) Entra ID
5 73 (3.56%) GCP
6 49 (2.39%) Dynamics 365
7 41 (2.00%) SaaS
8 39 (1.90%) Serverless
9 38 (1.85%) Power Platform
10 33 (1.61%) GitHub
11 31 (1.51%) Amazon S3
12 30 (1.46%) Azure Sentinel
13 28 (1.36%) Azure DevOps
14 25 (1.22%) AWS CloudFormation
15 22 (1.07%) Amazon EKS
16 20 (0.97%) Amazon EC2
16 20 (0.97%) Amazon ECS
17 19 (0.93%) AWS Lambda
17 19 (0.93%) PaaS
18 17 (0.83%) Amazon ECR
Communications & Networking
1 124 (6.04%) DNS
2 122 (5.94%) Firewall
3 104 (5.07%) DHCP
4 68 (3.31%) WAN
5 63 (3.07%) VPN
6 50 (2.44%) LAN
6 50 (2.44%) Network Security
7 45 (2.19%) TCP/IP
8 35 (1.70%) Wi-Fi
9 29 (1.41%) BGP
9 29 (1.41%) Structured Cabling
10 20 (0.97%) SD-WAN
11 19 (0.93%) VLAN
11 19 (0.93%) VoIP
12 18 (0.88%) MPLS
13 17 (0.83%) Cisco Firepower
13 17 (0.83%) HTTP
14 12 (0.58%) Cisco ASA
15 10 (0.49%) MQTT
15 10 (0.49%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (3.31%) Amazon RDS
2 34 (1.66%) Power BI
3 25 (1.22%) PostgreSQL
4 21 (1.02%) DynamoDB
5 20 (0.97%) Big Data
6 16 (0.78%) Data Warehouse
7 14 (0.68%) Amazon Athena
7 14 (0.68%) Relational Database
8 11 (0.54%) GIS
8 11 (0.54%) MongoDB
9 10 (0.49%) Elasticsearch
9 10 (0.49%) NoSQL
9 10 (0.49%) SQL Server
10 9 (0.44%) Data Lake
11 8 (0.39%) Metadata
11 8 (0.39%) Pentaho
11 8 (0.39%) Redis
12 6 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
12 6 (0.29%) Hadoop
12 6 (0.29%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 70 (3.41%) Git
2 61 (2.97%) GitLab
3 31 (1.51%) Jenkins
4 24 (1.17%) JIRA
5 20 (0.97%) JUnit
6 16 (0.78%) Maven
6 16 (0.78%) SonarQube
7 14 (0.68%) Visual Studio Code
8 13 (0.63%) Mockito
9 12 (0.58%) Cypress.io
10 11 (0.54%) Selenium
11 8 (0.39%) Cucumber
12 7 (0.34%) Burp Suite
12 7 (0.34%) Metasploit
13 6 (0.29%) Postman
14 5 (0.24%) Artifactory
14 5 (0.24%) Claude Code
15 4 (0.19%) JMeter
16 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
16 3 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
General
1 471 (22.94%) Social Skills
2 267 (13.01%) Public Sector
3 191 (9.30%) Analytical Skills
4 125 (6.09%) Finance
4 125 (6.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 59 (2.87%) Telecoms
6 51 (2.48%) Back Office
7 47 (2.29%) Manufacturing
8 45 (2.19%) Law
9 39 (1.90%) Aerospace
10 38 (1.85%) Electronics
11 34 (1.66%) Legal
11 34 (1.66%) Military
11 34 (1.66%) Organisational Skills
12 29 (1.41%) Aviation
13 23 (1.12%) Retail
14 19 (0.93%) Documentation Skills
15 13 (0.63%) Influencing Skills
16 12 (0.58%) Advertising
17 11 (0.54%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 341 (16.61%) Senior
2 192 (9.35%) Architect
3 164 (7.99%) Developer
3 164 (7.99%) Software Engineer
4 159 (7.74%) Analyst
5 155 (7.55%) Consultant
6 114 (5.55%) Support Engineer
7 107 (5.21%) Systems Engineer
8 90 (4.38%) Cloud Engineer
9 86 (4.19%) Data Engineer
10 82 (3.99%) Security Consultant
11 81 (3.95%) Lead
11 81 (3.95%) Network Engineer
12 73 (3.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 69 (3.36%) IT Engineer
13 69 (3.36%) IT Support
14 66 (3.21%) Java Developer
14 66 (3.21%) Senior Developer
15 62 (3.02%) Site Engineer
16 57 (2.78%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (2.87%) .NET
2 46 (2.24%) REST
3 37 (1.80%) Spring
4 34 (1.66%) React
5 30 (1.46%) Spring Boot
6 25 (1.22%) AngularJS
7 16 (0.78%) Kafka
7 16 (0.78%) Node.js
7 16 (0.78%) PySpark
8 14 (0.68%) RESTful
9 12 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
9 12 (0.58%) Playwright
10 11 (0.54%) RabbitMQ
10 11 (0.54%) SOAP
10 11 (0.54%) YAML
11 10 (0.49%) Jest
12 9 (0.44%) gRPC
13 8 (0.39%) JSON
13 8 (0.39%) ModSecurity
13 8 (0.39%) OpenAPI
Miscellaneous
1 81 (3.95%) Legacy Systems
2 75 (3.65%) Data Centre
3 69 (3.36%) Driving Licence
4 64 (3.12%) Onboarding
5 48 (2.34%) Cloud Native
6 44 (2.14%) Security Posture
7 40 (1.95%) Security Operations Centre
8 38 (1.85%) Product Ownership
9 37 (1.80%) Management Information System
10 34 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
11 26 (1.27%) Fibre Optics
12 24 (1.17%) Embedded Systems
12 24 (1.17%) Robotics
13 23 (1.12%) CSOC
14 20 (0.97%) PKI
15 19 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
16 18 (0.88%) Algorithms
16 18 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
17 17 (0.83%) Data Structures
18 16 (0.78%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 285 (13.88%) Windows
2 225 (10.96%) Linux
3 128 (6.23%) Windows Server
4 80 (3.90%) Windows 10
5 71 (3.46%) Windows Server 2016
6 25 (1.22%) Unix
7 17 (0.83%) Android
8 15 (0.73%) Mac OS
9 13 (0.63%) CentOS
10 12 (0.58%) Ubuntu
11 8 (0.39%) Apple iOS
11 8 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 6 (0.29%) Debian
13 4 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
13 4 (0.19%) Solaris
14 3 (0.15%) VMS
15 2 (0.097%) AIX
15 2 (0.097%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.097%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.097%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 297 (14.47%) Cybersecurity
2 274 (13.35%) Problem-Solving
3 269 (13.10%) Agile
4 248 (12.08%) Continuous Improvement
5 232 (11.30%) Software Engineering
6 209 (10.18%) ITIL
7 202 (9.84%) DevOps
8 177 (8.62%) CI/CD
9 149 (7.26%) Customer Service
10 140 (6.82%) Mentoring
11 130 (6.33%) Analytics
12 122 (5.94%) Customer Experience
12 122 (5.94%) Migration
13 112 (5.46%) Infrastructure as Code
14 107 (5.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 102 (4.97%) AI
16 99 (4.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 93 (4.53%) Decision-Making
18 92 (4.48%) Technical Leadership
19 90 (4.38%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 219 (10.67%) Python
2 134 (6.53%) Java
3 106 (5.16%) SQL
4 91 (4.43%) C++
5 74 (3.60%) PowerShell
6 68 (3.31%) Bash
7 53 (2.58%) C#
8 48 (2.34%) JavaScript
9 34 (1.66%) C
10 28 (1.36%) TypeScript
11 18 (0.88%) Rust
12 17 (0.83%) PL/SQL
13 15 (0.73%) Groovy
14 14 (0.68%) MATLAB
15 12 (0.58%) VBA
16 11 (0.54%) Embedded C
17 10 (0.49%) Kusto Query Language
18 8 (0.39%) Bicep
18 8 (0.39%) Perl
19 7 (0.34%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 2,053 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 385 (18.75%) DV Cleared
3 222 (10.81%) Degree
4 61 (2.97%) CTC Cleared
5 56 (2.73%) BPSS Clearance
6 41 (2.00%) CISSP
7 39 (1.90%) Cisco Certification
8 35 (1.70%) Microsoft Certification
9 29 (1.41%) AWS Certification
10 28 (1.36%) CompTIA Security+
10 28 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
11 27 (1.32%) CISM
12 26 (1.27%) HNC
13 25 (1.22%) CREST Certified
14 24 (1.17%) Master's Degree
15 22 (1.07%) CCNP
16 21 (1.02%) Azure Certification
17 16 (0.78%) OSCP
18 15 (0.73%) CCNA
18 15 (0.73%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (5.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 97 (4.72%) Cyber Essentials
3 89 (4.34%) PCI DSS
4 86 (4.19%) SLA
5 64 (3.12%) NIST
6 55 (2.68%) QA
7 45 (2.19%) GDPR
8 29 (1.41%) Data Quality
8 29 (1.41%) NCSC
9 26 (1.27%) Accessibility
9 26 (1.27%) JSP 440
10 20 (0.97%) GRC
11 19 (0.93%) PMO
12 18 (0.88%) ISO 9001
12 18 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 15 (0.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 15 (0.73%) Def Stans
14 12 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
15 11 (0.54%) NIST 800
16 8 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 168 (8.18%) Active Directory
2 101 (4.92%) Docker
3 87 (4.24%) Hyper-V
4 65 (3.17%) Terminal Server
5 51 (2.48%) VMware Infrastructure
6 30 (1.46%) Firmware
7 18 (0.88%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.83%) VMware NSX
9 12 (0.58%) vSphere
10 9 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
11 6 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
12 5 (0.24%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
14 3 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.097%) Lustre
16 1 (0.049%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 1 (0.049%) IAG
16 1 (0.049%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 137 (6.67%) Terraform
2 103 (5.02%) Kubernetes
3 82 (3.99%) Ansible
4 33 (1.61%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (1.22%) SCCM
6 21 (1.02%) Grafana
7 20 (0.97%) Prometheus
8 15 (0.73%) Puppet
9 13 (0.63%) Proxmox
9 13 (0.63%) vCenter Server
10 12 (0.58%) Kibana
10 12 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (0.58%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 10 (0.49%) Nessus
12 7 (0.34%) Nmap
12 7 (0.34%) QRadar
13 6 (0.29%) Argo
13 6 (0.29%) HP Fortify
13 6 (0.29%) Podman
14 5 (0.24%) Endace
Vendors
1 390 (19.00%) Microsoft
2 147 (7.16%) VMware
3 138 (6.72%) Cisco
4 93 (4.53%) Splunk
5 78 (3.80%) SolarWinds
6 65 (3.17%) Veeam
7 64 (3.12%) Brocade
7 64 (3.12%) Nimble Storage
7 64 (3.12%) Tanium
8 43 (2.09%) Oracle
9 38 (1.85%) ServiceNow
10 34 (1.66%) Google
11 25 (1.22%) Red Hat
12 21 (1.02%) HP
13 17 (0.83%) CheckPoint
13 17 (0.83%) Fortinet
13 17 (0.83%) Juniper
14 16 (0.78%) Citrix
15 14 (0.68%) Palo Alto
15 14 (0.68%) Salesforce