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

6 months to
25 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 36 51 47
Rank change year-on-year +15 -4 -13
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 3,284 1,493 2,291
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.82% 4.34% 4.20%
As % of the Qualifications category 22.59% 11.98% 15.37%
Number of salaries quoted 2,161 920 1,496
10th Percentile £43,497 £29,479 £38,938
25th Percentile £52,750 £43,499 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £56,450 £56,525
Median % change year-on-year +24.00% -0.13% -1.70%
75th Percentile £81,250 £73,750 £71,250
90th Percentile £96,250 £87,500 £85,500
UK median annual salary £70,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +16.67% - -

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 14,535 12,466 14,902
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 16.93% 36.21% 27.33%
Number of salaries quoted 7,936 4,958 6,452
10th Percentile £30,173 £28,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £42,000 £33,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,250 £68,750
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £82,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £56,517
% change year-on-year +9.09% -2.68% -3.39%

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 25 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 25 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 -3 864 £70,000 +27.27% 637
South West -3 831 £75,000 +31.58% 357
North of England +119 702 £66,805 +7.75% 508
Midlands +25 452 £62,500 +4.99% 279
North West +118 407 £70,000 +7.69% 289
West Midlands +6 308 £70,000 +0.89% 171
East of England +22 188 £55,000 +8.91% 249
Wales -6 164 £63,500 -7.31% 46
North East +28 151 £60,000 -7.69% 136
Yorkshire +24 150 £66,805 +40.64% 85
East Midlands +22 144 £60,000 +103.39% 107
Scotland +60 87 £70,000 +4.18% 201
Northern Ireland -72 21 £74,654 -13.60% 38
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 96 (2.92%) Microsoft Exchange
2 55 (1.67%) SharePoint
3 42 (1.28%) Apache Spark
4 40 (1.22%) Confluence
5 38 (1.16%) Apache
6 18 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
7 17 (0.52%) Jupyter
8 16 (0.49%) SAS
9 11 (0.33%) Oracle Workflow
10 10 (0.30%) nginx
11 8 (0.24%) Documentum
11 8 (0.24%) Skype for Business
12 7 (0.21%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 6 (0.18%) OpenStack
14 2 (0.061%) CMS
14 2 (0.061%) Exchange Server 2013
14 2 (0.061%) IIS
14 2 (0.061%) Palantir Foundry
14 2 (0.061%) Tomcat
15 1 (0.030%) JBoss
Applications
1 67 (2.04%) Microsoft Office
2 57 (1.74%) Microsoft Excel
3 39 (1.19%) Microsoft Project
4 32 (0.97%) Simulink
5 13 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 9 (0.27%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.21%) SOLIDWORKS
8 4 (0.12%) Mathcad
8 4 (0.12%) Mathematica
8 4 (0.12%) Windchill
9 3 (0.091%) Stateflow
10 2 (0.061%) AutoCAD
10 2 (0.061%) InDesign
10 2 (0.061%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.061%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.030%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.030%) CATIA
11 1 (0.030%) Revit
Business Applications
1 32 (0.97%) SAP EHS
2 31 (0.94%) Primavera
3 12 (0.37%) SAP Oil and Gas
4 11 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
5 9 (0.27%) Workday HCM
6 7 (0.21%) Teamcenter
7 6 (0.18%) SAP ERP
8 5 (0.15%) Dynamics CRM
8 5 (0.15%) Oracle EBS
8 5 (0.15%) SAP R/3
9 4 (0.12%) Remedy ITSM
10 3 (0.091%) SAP PSCD
10 3 (0.091%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
11 2 (0.061%) Oracle Applications
11 2 (0.061%) Siebel CRM
12 1 (0.030%) ENOVIA
12 1 (0.030%) SAP BPC
12 1 (0.030%) SAP EWM
12 1 (0.030%) SAP GRC
12 1 (0.030%) SAP MM
Cloud Services
1 647 (19.70%) Azure
2 530 (16.14%) AWS
3 231 (7.03%) Microsoft 365
4 112 (3.41%) GCP
5 91 (2.77%) Serverless
6 89 (2.71%) GitHub
7 81 (2.47%) Entra ID
8 75 (2.28%) Power Platform
9 72 (2.19%) Azure DevOps
10 67 (2.04%) AWS CloudFormation
11 66 (2.01%) Amazon S3
12 57 (1.74%) AWS Lambda
13 52 (1.58%) OpenShift
14 42 (1.28%) Amazon EC2
15 41 (1.25%) GitHub Actions
15 41 (1.25%) SaaS
16 35 (1.07%) dbt
17 34 (1.04%) Azure Sentinel
18 32 (0.97%) Amazon EKS
19 29 (0.88%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 134 (4.08%) DNS
1 134 (4.08%) Firewall
2 94 (2.86%) DHCP
3 72 (2.19%) VPN
4 66 (2.01%) WAN
5 64 (1.95%) TCP/IP
6 62 (1.89%) Network Security
7 49 (1.49%) LAN
8 28 (0.85%) VLAN
9 24 (0.73%) HTTP
10 22 (0.67%) SSL
11 21 (0.64%) SAN
12 19 (0.58%) ATM
13 18 (0.55%) BGP
14 15 (0.46%) Internet
14 15 (0.46%) SD-WAN
15 14 (0.43%) 4G
15 14 (0.43%) Software-Defined Radio
16 13 (0.40%) Broadband
16 13 (0.40%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (2.31%) Amazon RDS
2 57 (1.74%) Power BI
3 51 (1.55%) PostgreSQL
4 38 (1.16%) Data Warehouse
5 35 (1.07%) Big Data
6 29 (0.88%) Relational Database
7 28 (0.85%) Elasticsearch
8 24 (0.73%) DynamoDB
9 23 (0.70%) MongoDB
10 22 (0.67%) Amazon Athena
11 21 (0.64%) Data Lake
12 19 (0.58%) NoSQL
13 18 (0.55%) Hadoop
13 18 (0.55%) SQL Server
14 17 (0.52%) Metadata
15 14 (0.43%) MySQL
16 13 (0.40%) Amazon Redshift
17 11 (0.33%) BigQuery
18 10 (0.30%) Looker
19 9 (0.27%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 155 (4.72%) Git
2 125 (3.81%) GitLab
3 93 (2.83%) Jenkins
4 82 (2.50%) JIRA
5 31 (0.94%) Rational DOORS
6 30 (0.91%) JUnit
7 24 (0.73%) Selenium
8 23 (0.70%) Cypress.io
9 21 (0.64%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 18 (0.55%) LabVIEW
11 17 (0.52%) Maven
11 17 (0.52%) SonarQube
12 16 (0.49%) Cucumber
13 14 (0.43%) Gatling
13 14 (0.43%) JMeter
13 14 (0.43%) Mockito
13 14 (0.43%) Visual Studio Code
14 11 (0.33%) Postman
15 7 (0.21%) Burp Suite
15 7 (0.21%) MSI
General
1 797 (24.27%) Social Skills
2 455 (13.86%) Public Sector
3 361 (10.99%) Analytical Skills
4 355 (10.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 341 (10.38%) Finance
6 316 (9.62%) Aerospace
7 117 (3.56%) Military
8 116 (3.53%) Electronics
9 94 (2.86%) Retail
10 90 (2.74%) Legal
11 82 (2.50%) Organisational Skills
12 80 (2.44%) Manufacturing
13 58 (1.77%) Law
14 48 (1.46%) Aviation
15 45 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
16 40 (1.22%) Telecoms
17 34 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
18 30 (0.91%) Documentation Skills
19 29 (0.88%) Police
20 21 (0.64%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 483 (14.71%) Senior
2 355 (10.81%) Systems Engineer
3 344 (10.48%) Architect
4 281 (8.56%) Developer
5 266 (8.10%) Software Engineer
6 241 (7.34%) Lead
7 186 (5.66%) Analyst
8 184 (5.60%) Consultant
9 143 (4.35%) DevOps Engineer
10 126 (3.84%) Cloud Engineer
11 120 (3.65%) Data Engineer
12 108 (3.29%) Senior Developer
13 103 (3.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 91 (2.77%) Solutions Architect
15 81 (2.47%) Software Developer
16 80 (2.44%) Security Architect
17 79 (2.41%) Java Developer
18 77 (2.34%) Principal Engineer
19 69 (2.10%) Technical Architect
20 64 (1.95%) Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 279 (8.50%) Terraform
2 82 (2.50%) React
3 70 (2.13%) Spring
4 69 (2.10%) REST
5 68 (2.07%) HTML
6 67 (2.04%) CSS
7 65 (1.98%) .NET
8 60 (1.83%) Node.js
9 57 (1.74%) Spring Boot
10 50 (1.52%) Kafka
11 44 (1.34%) AngularJS
12 39 (1.19%) RESTful
13 33 (1.00%) PySpark
14 30 (0.91%) Playwright
15 22 (0.67%) .NET Core
15 22 (0.67%) Jest
15 22 (0.67%) LDAP
16 20 (0.61%) Elastic Stack
17 19 (0.58%) OpenAPI
17 19 (0.58%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 200 (6.09%) Cloud Native
2 113 (3.44%) Legacy Systems
3 98 (2.98%) Driving Licence
4 96 (2.92%) Onboarding
5 85 (2.59%) Self-Motivation
6 82 (2.50%) Management Information System
7 77 (2.34%) Product Ownership
8 68 (2.07%) Data Centre
9 61 (1.86%) Security Operations Centre
10 47 (1.43%) Cyber Threat
11 43 (1.31%) Robotics
11 43 (1.31%) Security Posture
12 42 (1.28%) FPGA
13 40 (1.22%) Algorithms
13 40 (1.22%) Distributed Systems
14 38 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
15 36 (1.10%) Embedded Systems
16 33 (1.00%) Operational Technology
16 33 (1.00%) PMI
17 29 (0.88%) CSOC
Operating Systems
1 364 (11.08%) Linux
2 302 (9.20%) Windows
3 151 (4.60%) Windows Server
4 81 (2.47%) Windows Server 2016
5 54 (1.64%) Unix
6 52 (1.58%) Windows 10
7 37 (1.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 36 (1.10%) CentOS
9 30 (0.91%) Android
10 16 (0.49%) Mac OS
11 15 (0.46%) Ubuntu
12 12 (0.37%) AIX
13 10 (0.30%) Debian
13 10 (0.30%) Solaris
14 8 (0.24%) Apple iOS
15 6 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
15 6 (0.18%) Rocky
15 6 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
16 5 (0.15%) VMS
16 5 (0.15%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 642 (19.55%) Agile
2 512 (15.59%) Problem-Solving
3 479 (14.59%) DevOps
4 472 (14.37%) Continuous Improvement
5 446 (13.58%) Software Engineering
6 432 (13.15%) CI/CD
7 401 (12.21%) Cybersecurity
8 359 (10.93%) Validation
9 338 (10.29%) Mentoring
10 290 (8.83%) AI
11 275 (8.37%) Technical Leadership
12 269 (8.19%) Infrastructure as Code
13 258 (7.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 256 (7.80%) Stakeholder Management
15 241 (7.34%) Verification and Validation
16 231 (7.03%) Decision-Making
17 225 (6.85%) ITIL
18 194 (5.91%) Analytics
19 173 (5.27%) Containerisation
20 172 (5.24%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 372 (11.33%) Python
2 232 (7.06%) Java
3 147 (4.48%) JavaScript
3 147 (4.48%) SQL
4 144 (4.38%) C++
5 111 (3.38%) PowerShell
6 99 (3.01%) Bash
7 93 (2.83%) C#
8 72 (2.19%) TypeScript
9 52 (1.58%) MATLAB
10 41 (1.25%) C
11 28 (0.85%) Go
12 25 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
12 25 (0.76%) Rust
13 24 (0.73%) Bicep
14 23 (0.70%) Scala
15 19 (0.58%) Ada
15 19 (0.58%) PL/SQL
15 19 (0.58%) Ruby
16 18 (0.55%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 3,284 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 629 (19.15%) DV Cleared
3 389 (11.85%) Degree
4 233 (7.10%) BPSS Clearance
5 77 (2.34%) CISSP
6 67 (2.04%) Azure Certification
7 58 (1.77%) Master's Degree
8 52 (1.58%) CISM
9 48 (1.46%) AWS Certification
10 47 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
11 46 (1.40%) Microsoft Certification
12 45 (1.37%) PMI Certification
13 41 (1.25%) Computer Science Degree
14 35 (1.07%) HNC
15 33 (1.00%) Chartered Engineer
16 29 (0.88%) CREST Certified
16 29 (0.88%) HND
17 25 (0.76%) CompTIA Security+
18 24 (0.73%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
18 24 (0.73%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 178 (5.42%) Accessibility
2 150 (4.57%) QA
3 134 (4.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 106 (3.23%) Cyber Essentials
5 80 (2.44%) PCI DSS
6 78 (2.38%) NIST
7 64 (1.95%) Data Quality
8 60 (1.83%) NCSC
9 58 (1.77%) SLA
10 36 (1.10%) Def Stans
11 34 (1.04%) GRC
12 33 (1.00%) GDPR
13 32 (0.97%) ISO 9001
13 32 (0.97%) JSP 440
14 30 (0.91%) WCAG
15 22 (0.67%) NIST 800
16 21 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 20000
17 18 (0.55%) PMO
18 17 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
19 13 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 213 (6.49%) Docker
2 207 (6.30%) Active Directory
3 112 (3.41%) Hyper-V
4 79 (2.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (2.19%) Terminal Server
6 61 (1.86%) Firmware
7 20 (0.61%) vSphere
8 19 (0.58%) VMware ESXi
9 11 (0.33%) BitLocker
9 11 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
10 10 (0.30%) NDS
10 10 (0.30%) VMware NSX
11 9 (0.27%) Embedded Firmware
12 8 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
13 5 (0.15%) KVM
13 5 (0.15%) Squid
14 1 (0.030%) IAG
14 1 (0.030%) NFS
14 1 (0.030%) Oracle RAC
14 1 (0.030%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 253 (7.70%) Kubernetes
2 140 (4.26%) Ansible
3 52 (1.58%) Microsoft Intune
4 37 (1.13%) SCCM
5 32 (0.97%) Grafana
6 24 (0.73%) Prometheus
7 21 (0.64%) Puppet
8 20 (0.61%) Kibana
9 15 (0.46%) Argo
10 14 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
11 12 (0.37%) Progress Chef
11 12 (0.37%) Proxmox
12 11 (0.33%) vCenter Server
13 10 (0.30%) Nessus
14 9 (0.27%) QRadar
15 8 (0.24%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
16 7 (0.21%) Graylog
16 7 (0.21%) Kustomize
16 7 (0.21%) Nagios
16 7 (0.21%) Podman
Vendors
1 454 (13.82%) Microsoft
2 178 (5.42%) VMware
3 104 (3.17%) Splunk
4 90 (2.74%) Veeam
5 83 (2.53%) SolarWinds
6 78 (2.38%) SAP
6 78 (2.38%) Thales
7 74 (2.25%) Oracle
8 73 (2.22%) Brocade
9 72 (2.19%) Nimble Storage
9 72 (2.19%) Tanium
10 71 (2.16%) ServiceNow
11 60 (1.83%) Cisco
12 47 (1.43%) Google
13 33 (1.00%) Red Hat
14 26 (0.79%) EMC
15 25 (0.76%) Databricks
16 24 (0.73%) Fortinet
17 22 (0.67%) YouTube
18 21 (0.64%) OpenText