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

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 62 56 60
Rank change year-on-year -6 +4 +8
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 1,822 1,140 2,747
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.79% 4.19% 4.04%
As % of the Qualifications category 10.75% 9.75% 15.15%
Number of salaries quoted 1,331 883 2,027
10th Percentile £39,280 £38,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £56,785 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.66% +3.25% -
75th Percentile £78,915 £70,000 £66,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £78,750 £76,250
UK median annual salary £65,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +8.33% +4.35% -4.17%

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 16,949 11,690 18,133
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 25.95% 42.98% 26.64%
Number of salaries quoted 5,908 5,222 12,163
10th Percentile £28,250 £29,500 £27,000
25th Percentile £35,250 £37,500 £36,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,344 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.30% +4.69% -1.71%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,295 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £78,750
UK median annual salary £60,000 £56,785 £54,296
% change year-on-year +5.66% +4.58% -6.39%

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 2 May 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 2 May 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 +11 498 £62,500 +4.17% 210
South East -28 456 £65,000 +18.18% 337
North of England +36 301 £60,000 +11.11% 221
Midlands +1 263 £56,650 -9.36% 123
West Midlands -6 176 £60,000 -7.69% 85
North West +43 166 £65,000 +18.18% 102
East of England +20 126 £55,000 -4.76% 83
Yorkshire -17 98 £60,000 +34.23% 58
Wales +10 95 £55,000 +5.26% 34
East Midlands +10 83 £51,779 -0.43% 38
Scotland +14 75 £75,000 +20.00% 28
North East -9 37 £57,500 -11.12% 65
Northern Ireland -34 13 £60,000 -31.43% 15
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 74 (4.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 45 (2.47%) SharePoint
3 8 (0.44%) Apache
3 8 (0.44%) SAS
4 6 (0.33%) Apache Spark
4 6 (0.33%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 6 (0.33%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.11%) Exchange Server 2013
6 2 (0.11%) Jupyter
6 2 (0.11%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.055%) Apache Qpid
7 1 (0.055%) Appian
7 1 (0.055%) Camunda
7 1 (0.055%) Confluence
7 1 (0.055%) IIS
7 1 (0.055%) JBoss
Applications
1 107 (5.87%) Microsoft Office
2 29 (1.59%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.27%) Adobe XD
4 5 (0.27%) Simulink
5 2 (0.11%) CATIA
6 1 (0.055%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.055%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.055%) Integrated Workplace Management System
4 1 (0.055%) Primavera
4 1 (0.055%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.055%) SAP BPC
4 1 (0.055%) SAP EWM
4 1 (0.055%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.055%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.055%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.055%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 348 (19.10%) Azure
2 237 (13.01%) Microsoft 365
3 198 (10.87%) AWS
4 71 (3.90%) Entra ID
5 53 (2.91%) GCP
6 48 (2.63%) Dynamics 365
7 35 (1.92%) Power Platform
8 29 (1.59%) Serverless
9 28 (1.54%) SaaS
10 27 (1.48%) Azure Sentinel
11 26 (1.43%) Azure DevOps
12 23 (1.26%) AWS CloudFormation
13 20 (1.10%) Amazon EKS
13 20 (1.10%) Amazon S3
14 19 (1.04%) AWS Lambda
15 17 (0.93%) Amazon ECS
15 17 (0.93%) GitHub
15 17 (0.93%) PowerApps
16 15 (0.82%) PaaS
17 12 (0.66%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 103 (5.65%) DNS
2 90 (4.94%) DHCP
3 87 (4.77%) Firewall
4 56 (3.07%) WAN
5 49 (2.69%) VPN
6 39 (2.14%) Network Security
7 38 (2.09%) LAN
8 36 (1.98%) TCP/IP
9 35 (1.92%) Wi-Fi
10 29 (1.59%) Structured Cabling
11 24 (1.32%) BGP
12 20 (1.10%) SD-WAN
13 19 (1.04%) VLAN
14 18 (0.99%) MPLS
15 17 (0.93%) VoIP
16 11 (0.60%) Cisco Firepower
16 11 (0.60%) HTTP
17 8 (0.44%) ATM
17 8 (0.44%) PBX
17 8 (0.44%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (2.91%) Amazon RDS
2 31 (1.70%) Power BI
3 17 (0.93%) PostgreSQL
4 16 (0.88%) DynamoDB
5 11 (0.60%) NoSQL
5 11 (0.60%) Relational Database
6 10 (0.55%) Metadata
7 9 (0.49%) MongoDB
8 8 (0.44%) Big Data
8 8 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
8 8 (0.44%) Pentaho
8 8 (0.44%) SQL Server
9 7 (0.38%) Amazon Athena
9 7 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
10 6 (0.33%) GIS
11 5 (0.27%) Amazon Redshift
11 5 (0.27%) Hadoop
11 5 (0.27%) Redis
11 5 (0.27%) Snowflake Schema
11 5 (0.27%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 52 (2.85%) Git
2 40 (2.20%) GitLab
3 24 (1.32%) JIRA
4 19 (1.04%) Jenkins
5 14 (0.77%) Visual Studio Code
6 12 (0.66%) Maven
7 11 (0.60%) SonarQube
8 10 (0.55%) JUnit
9 9 (0.49%) Selenium
10 8 (0.44%) Cypress.io
10 8 (0.44%) Mockito
11 6 (0.33%) Balsamiq
12 5 (0.27%) Axure RP
12 5 (0.27%) Claude Code
12 5 (0.27%) Cucumber
12 5 (0.27%) Rational DOORS
13 4 (0.22%) Burp Suite
13 4 (0.22%) Metasploit
13 4 (0.22%) Postman
13 4 (0.22%) Storybook
General
1 435 (23.87%) Social Skills
2 226 (12.40%) Public Sector
3 153 (8.40%) Analytical Skills
4 123 (6.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 119 (6.53%) Finance
6 70 (3.84%) Telecoms
7 65 (3.57%) Manufacturing
8 63 (3.46%) Back Office
9 56 (3.07%) Law
10 34 (1.87%) Electronics
10 34 (1.87%) Organisational Skills
11 31 (1.70%) Legal
12 27 (1.48%) Aerospace
13 26 (1.43%) Military
14 25 (1.37%) Marketing
15 22 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
15 22 (1.21%) Retail
16 15 (0.82%) Aeronautics
17 14 (0.77%) Aviation
18 11 (0.60%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 309 (16.96%) Senior
2 169 (9.28%) Architect
3 163 (8.95%) Consultant
4 148 (8.12%) Analyst
5 146 (8.01%) Software Engineer
6 140 (7.68%) Developer
7 120 (6.59%) Support Engineer
8 85 (4.67%) Security Consultant
9 83 (4.56%) Systems Engineer
10 70 (3.84%) Lead
11 69 (3.79%) Cloud Engineer
11 69 (3.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 64 (3.51%) Desktop Engineer
13 63 (3.46%) Desktop Support
13 63 (3.46%) IT Engineer
13 63 (3.46%) Site Engineer
14 62 (3.40%) Desktop Support Engineer
15 61 (3.35%) IT Support
16 58 (3.18%) Senior Developer
17 57 (3.13%) Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (3.24%) .NET
2 45 (2.47%) REST
3 26 (1.43%) React
4 25 (1.37%) Spring
5 23 (1.26%) AngularJS
6 22 (1.21%) Spring Boot
7 15 (0.82%) Node.js
7 15 (0.82%) SOAP
8 11 (0.60%) Middleware
8 11 (0.60%) RabbitMQ
8 11 (0.60%) SAP CAF
9 10 (0.55%) JSON
10 9 (0.49%) ASP.NET
10 9 (0.49%) RESTful
11 8 (0.44%) Elastic Stack
11 8 (0.44%) Vue
12 7 (0.38%) Jest
12 7 (0.38%) Kafka
12 7 (0.38%) Qt
12 7 (0.38%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 64 (3.51%) Legacy Systems
2 59 (3.24%) Onboarding
3 55 (3.02%) Data Centre
4 49 (2.69%) Driving Licence
5 39 (2.14%) Management Information System
6 37 (2.03%) Security Operations Centre
7 36 (1.98%) Product Ownership
8 34 (1.87%) Security Posture
9 32 (1.76%) Cloud Native
10 25 (1.37%) Robotics
11 20 (1.10%) PKI
12 19 (1.04%) Self-Motivation
13 18 (0.99%) CSOC
14 17 (0.93%) Algorithms
14 17 (0.93%) Fibre Optics
15 16 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
16 14 (0.77%) Data Structures
17 13 (0.71%) Embedded Systems
17 13 (0.71%) Low-Code
17 13 (0.71%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 247 (13.56%) Windows
2 169 (9.28%) Linux
3 108 (5.93%) Windows Server
4 79 (4.34%) Windows 10
5 53 (2.91%) Windows Server 2016
6 24 (1.32%) Unix
7 13 (0.71%) Android
8 12 (0.66%) Apple iOS
9 11 (0.60%) Mac OS
10 8 (0.44%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.38%) CentOS
11 7 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.22%) Debian
12 4 (0.22%) Solaris
13 2 (0.11%) Mac OS X
13 2 (0.11%) VMS
13 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
14 1 (0.055%) AIX
14 1 (0.055%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 264 (14.49%) Cybersecurity
2 224 (12.29%) Continuous Improvement
3 218 (11.96%) Agile
4 208 (11.42%) Software Engineering
5 202 (11.09%) Problem-Solving
6 191 (10.48%) ITIL
7 164 (9.00%) DevOps
8 147 (8.07%) Customer Service
9 118 (6.48%) Customer Experience
10 115 (6.31%) Analytics
10 115 (6.31%) CI/CD
11 105 (5.76%) Mentoring
12 104 (5.71%) Migration
12 104 (5.71%) Risk Management
13 100 (5.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 80 (4.39%) AI
14 80 (4.39%) Service Delivery
15 79 (4.34%) Decision-Making
16 78 (4.28%) Infrastructure as Code
17 74 (4.06%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 179 (9.82%) Python
2 114 (6.26%) Java
3 85 (4.67%) SQL
4 64 (3.51%) C++
5 53 (2.91%) PowerShell
6 51 (2.80%) Bash
7 42 (2.31%) JavaScript
8 41 (2.25%) C#
9 25 (1.37%) C
9 25 (1.37%) TypeScript
10 17 (0.93%) Rust
11 15 (0.82%) VBA
12 13 (0.71%) PL/SQL
13 12 (0.66%) Groovy
14 10 (0.55%) Bicep
15 9 (0.49%) Kusto Query Language
16 8 (0.44%) Kotlin
17 7 (0.38%) Go
18 6 (0.33%) Apex Code
18 6 (0.33%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 1,822 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 315 (17.29%) DV Cleared
3 229 (12.57%) Degree
4 73 (4.01%) CTC Cleared
5 41 (2.25%) CISSP
6 37 (2.03%) BPSS Clearance
7 34 (1.87%) CISM
8 33 (1.81%) Microsoft Certification
9 28 (1.54%) Master's Degree
10 25 (1.37%) AWS Certification
10 25 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
11 24 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
12 23 (1.26%) CompTIA Security+
13 19 (1.04%) Azure Certification
14 18 (0.99%) HNC
15 16 (0.88%) CREST Certified
15 16 (0.88%) DBS Check
16 12 (0.66%) CCNP
16 12 (0.66%) SANS
16 12 (0.66%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (4.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 88 (4.83%) SLA
2 80 (4.39%) Cyber Essentials
3 70 (3.84%) PCI DSS
4 64 (3.51%) NIST
5 43 (2.36%) GDPR
5 43 (2.36%) QA
6 26 (1.43%) GRC
7 18 (0.99%) Accessibility
7 18 (0.99%) JSP 440
8 17 (0.93%) NCSC
8 17 (0.93%) PMO
9 15 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 13 (0.71%) Data Quality
11 9 (0.49%) ISO 9001
11 9 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 8 (0.44%) HIPAA
12 8 (0.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 8 (0.44%) WCAG
13 5 (0.27%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 139 (7.63%) Active Directory
2 76 (4.17%) Docker
3 66 (3.62%) Hyper-V
4 49 (2.69%) Terminal Server
5 42 (2.31%) VMware Infrastructure
6 17 (0.93%) Firmware
7 15 (0.82%) Virtual Desktop
8 14 (0.77%) VMware NSX
9 8 (0.44%) vSphere
10 6 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
10 6 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
11 3 (0.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 2 (0.11%) Lustre
13 1 (0.055%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 1 (0.055%) IAG
13 1 (0.055%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 92 (5.05%) Terraform
2 69 (3.79%) Kubernetes
3 62 (3.40%) Ansible
4 29 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
5 20 (1.10%) SCCM
6 14 (0.77%) Grafana
7 13 (0.71%) Prometheus
8 11 (0.60%) Puppet
8 11 (0.60%) vCenter Server
9 10 (0.55%) Proxmox
10 9 (0.49%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 7 (0.38%) Jamf Pro
11 7 (0.38%) Kibana
12 6 (0.33%) Endace
12 6 (0.33%) HP Fortify
12 6 (0.33%) Nessus
12 6 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.33%) WSUS
13 4 (0.22%) Nmap
13 4 (0.22%) SCOM
Vendors
1 338 (18.55%) Microsoft
2 144 (7.90%) Cisco
3 120 (6.59%) VMware
4 73 (4.01%) Splunk
5 61 (3.35%) SolarWinds
6 49 (2.69%) Veeam
7 48 (2.63%) Brocade
7 48 (2.63%) Nimble Storage
7 48 (2.63%) Tanium
8 38 (2.09%) Google
9 35 (1.92%) Oracle
10 26 (1.43%) ServiceNow
11 24 (1.32%) SAP
12 22 (1.21%) Red Hat
12 22 (1.21%) Salesforce
13 18 (0.99%) CheckPoint
14 17 (0.93%) Juniper
15 16 (0.88%) Citrix
16 15 (0.82%) Palo Alto
17 14 (0.77%) HP