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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 71 61
Rank change year-on-year +25 -10 +6
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 2,199 1,206 2,885
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.22% 3.97% 3.64%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.91% 9.51% 14.83%
Number of salaries quoted 1,654 826 2,109
10th Percentile £41,152 £35,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £58,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% +6.36% -6.78%
75th Percentile £80,000 £73,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £84,375 £79,225
UK median annual salary £67,500 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +12.50% +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 13,006 12,685 19,449
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 19.06% 41.80% 24.54%
Number of salaries quoted 6,499 5,062 12,309
10th Percentile £28,750 £27,500 £27,468
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 £72,500 £66,254 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,050 £78,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £52,738
% change year-on-year +9.09% +4.29% -12.10%

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 23 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 23 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 +15 598 £70,000 +13.14% 179
South East -6 553 £70,000 +21.74% 296
North of England +104 436 £62,500 +13.64% 188
Midlands +26 309 £58,589 -9.86% 89
North West +118 243 £67,500 +14.41% 105
West Midlands +7 200 £60,000 -11.11% 65
Yorkshire +22 129 £62,500 +35.14% 47
Wales +4 128 £55,000 - 38
East of England +6 110 £65,000 +18.18% 51
East Midlands +33 107 £52,500 +0.96% 24
Scotland +51 66 £75,000 +20.00% 29
North East +2 64 £55,500 -20.01% 39
Northern Ireland -35 7 £63,500 -25.43% 18
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 (4.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 48 (2.18%) SharePoint
3 21 (0.95%) Apache
4 18 (0.82%) SAS
5 16 (0.73%) Apache Spark
6 14 (0.64%) Apache Airflow
7 11 (0.50%) Jupyter
8 10 (0.45%) Confluence
9 8 (0.36%) Skype for Business
10 6 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 3 (0.14%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.091%) Exchange Server 2013
13 1 (0.045%) Apache Qpid
13 1 (0.045%) Appian
13 1 (0.045%) JBoss
13 1 (0.045%) Site Server
Applications
1 88 (4.00%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (1.41%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.41%) Simulink
5 4 (0.18%) Windchill
6 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
7 1 (0.045%) CATIA
7 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.045%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.045%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.045%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.045%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.045%) SAP EWM
3 1 (0.045%) SAP GRC
3 1 (0.045%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.045%) SAP MM
3 1 (0.045%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 494 (22.46%) Azure
2 305 (13.87%) AWS
3 265 (12.05%) Microsoft 365
4 82 (3.73%) Entra ID
5 79 (3.59%) GCP
6 49 (2.23%) Power Platform
7 47 (2.14%) Serverless
8 45 (2.05%) Azure DevOps
8 45 (2.05%) GitHub
9 43 (1.96%) SaaS
10 39 (1.77%) Dynamics 365
11 36 (1.64%) Amazon S3
12 32 (1.46%) Azure Sentinel
13 31 (1.41%) AWS CloudFormation
14 26 (1.18%) Amazon EC2
15 24 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
16 22 (1.00%) PaaS
17 21 (0.95%) Amazon ECS
17 21 (0.95%) Amazon EKS
18 20 (0.91%) Amazon ECR
Communications & Networking
1 131 (5.96%) DNS
2 127 (5.78%) Firewall
3 107 (4.87%) DHCP
4 68 (3.09%) WAN
5 64 (2.91%) VPN
6 50 (2.27%) LAN
7 49 (2.23%) Network Security
7 49 (2.23%) TCP/IP
8 31 (1.41%) Wi-Fi
9 28 (1.27%) BGP
9 28 (1.27%) Structured Cabling
10 22 (1.00%) VLAN
11 20 (0.91%) HTTP
12 19 (0.86%) SD-WAN
13 18 (0.82%) MPLS
14 17 (0.77%) VoIP
15 16 (0.73%) Cisco Firepower
16 14 (0.64%) Broadband
17 12 (0.55%) ATM
18 11 (0.50%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (3.46%) Amazon RDS
2 41 (1.86%) Power BI
3 32 (1.46%) PostgreSQL
4 24 (1.09%) DynamoDB
5 21 (0.95%) Big Data
6 18 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
7 16 (0.73%) Amazon Athena
7 16 (0.73%) Relational Database
8 14 (0.64%) MongoDB
9 13 (0.59%) NoSQL
10 11 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
10 11 (0.50%) SQL Server
11 10 (0.45%) Redis
12 9 (0.41%) Data Lake
12 9 (0.41%) GIS
13 8 (0.36%) Metadata
14 7 (0.32%) Amazon Redshift
14 7 (0.32%) MySQL
14 7 (0.32%) Pentaho
15 6 (0.27%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 78 (3.55%) Git
2 71 (3.23%) GitLab
3 41 (1.86%) Jenkins
4 32 (1.46%) JIRA
5 21 (0.95%) JUnit
6 17 (0.77%) SonarQube
7 16 (0.73%) Maven
8 15 (0.68%) Cypress.io
8 15 (0.68%) Selenium
8 15 (0.68%) Visual Studio Code
9 12 (0.55%) Mockito
10 9 (0.41%) Burp Suite
10 9 (0.41%) Metasploit
11 8 (0.36%) Cucumber
12 6 (0.27%) JMeter
12 6 (0.27%) Postman
13 5 (0.23%) Artifactory
13 5 (0.23%) Claude Code
13 5 (0.23%) REST Assured
14 3 (0.14%) Bitbucket
General
1 491 (22.33%) Social Skills
2 279 (12.69%) Public Sector
3 219 (9.96%) Analytical Skills
4 134 (6.09%) Finance
5 133 (6.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 56 (2.55%) Telecoms
7 43 (1.96%) Aerospace
8 42 (1.91%) Manufacturing
9 37 (1.68%) Back Office
9 37 (1.68%) Electronics
10 35 (1.59%) Legal
10 35 (1.59%) Military
10 35 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
11 34 (1.55%) Law
12 30 (1.36%) Aviation
13 26 (1.18%) Retail
14 17 (0.77%) Documentation Skills
15 12 (0.55%) Games
15 12 (0.55%) Influencing Skills
16 10 (0.45%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 362 (16.46%) Senior
2 212 (9.64%) Architect
3 188 (8.55%) Developer
4 179 (8.14%) Software Engineer
5 174 (7.91%) Consultant
6 162 (7.37%) Analyst
7 119 (5.41%) Systems Engineer
8 98 (4.46%) Cloud Engineer
9 96 (4.37%) Support Engineer
10 93 (4.23%) Data Engineer
10 93 (4.23%) Security Consultant
11 89 (4.05%) Lead
12 78 (3.55%) Network Engineer
13 77 (3.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 76 (3.46%) Senior Developer
15 69 (3.14%) Java Developer
15 69 (3.14%) Security Architect
16 66 (3.00%) IT Engineer
17 64 (2.91%) IT Support
18 59 (2.68%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (2.64%) .NET
2 48 (2.18%) REST
3 39 (1.77%) React
3 39 (1.77%) Spring
4 35 (1.59%) Spring Boot
5 26 (1.18%) AngularJS
6 22 (1.00%) Node.js
7 19 (0.86%) Kafka
8 18 (0.82%) PySpark
9 17 (0.77%) HTML
9 17 (0.77%) RESTful
10 14 (0.64%) CSS
10 14 (0.64%) Elastic Stack
10 14 (0.64%) Playwright
11 13 (0.59%) Jest
12 12 (0.55%) YAML
13 11 (0.50%) RabbitMQ
14 10 (0.45%) SOAP
14 10 (0.45%) Web Services
15 9 (0.41%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 91 (4.14%) Legacy Systems
2 76 (3.46%) Data Centre
3 74 (3.37%) Driving Licence
4 73 (3.32%) Onboarding
5 71 (3.23%) Cloud Native
6 48 (2.18%) Security Posture
7 45 (2.05%) Product Ownership
8 44 (2.00%) Security Operations Centre
9 41 (1.86%) Self-Motivation
10 38 (1.73%) Management Information System
11 27 (1.23%) Fibre Optics
12 25 (1.14%) CSOC
12 25 (1.14%) Embedded Systems
13 24 (1.09%) Robotics
14 22 (1.00%) PKI
15 20 (0.91%) Algorithms
15 20 (0.91%) Cyber Threat
16 19 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
17 18 (0.82%) Data Structures
17 18 (0.82%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 281 (12.78%) Windows
2 245 (11.14%) Linux
3 129 (5.87%) Windows Server
4 78 (3.55%) Windows Server 2016
5 70 (3.18%) Windows 10
6 28 (1.27%) Unix
7 20 (0.91%) Android
8 17 (0.77%) Mac OS
9 13 (0.59%) CentOS
10 11 (0.50%) Ubuntu
11 7 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 6 (0.27%) Debian
13 5 (0.23%) AIX
13 5 (0.23%) Apple iOS
13 5 (0.23%) Embedded Linux
14 3 (0.14%) Solaris
14 3 (0.14%) VMS
15 2 (0.091%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.091%) Windows 7
16 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 318 (14.46%) Cybersecurity
2 310 (14.10%) Agile
3 301 (13.69%) Problem-Solving
4 257 (11.69%) Continuous Improvement
5 249 (11.32%) Software Engineering
6 242 (11.01%) DevOps
7 217 (9.87%) ITIL
8 215 (9.78%) CI/CD
9 162 (7.37%) Mentoring
10 144 (6.55%) Customer Service
11 136 (6.18%) Infrastructure as Code
12 133 (6.05%) Migration
13 128 (5.82%) Analytics
14 122 (5.55%) AI
15 120 (5.46%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 116 (5.28%) Customer Experience
17 115 (5.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 107 (4.87%) Decision-Making
18 107 (4.87%) Technical Leadership
19 102 (4.64%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 255 (11.60%) Python
2 156 (7.09%) Java
3 112 (5.09%) SQL
4 97 (4.41%) C++
5 83 (3.77%) PowerShell
6 69 (3.14%) Bash
7 59 (2.68%) JavaScript
8 56 (2.55%) C#
9 36 (1.64%) TypeScript
10 34 (1.55%) C
11 19 (0.86%) Groovy
11 19 (0.86%) Rust
12 17 (0.77%) Scala
13 16 (0.73%) PL/SQL
14 15 (0.68%) Kusto Query Language
14 15 (0.68%) MATLAB
15 14 (0.64%) Bicep
16 13 (0.59%) VBA
17 12 (0.55%) Embedded C
18 8 (0.36%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 2,199 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 410 (18.64%) DV Cleared
3 219 (9.96%) Degree
4 68 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
5 52 (2.36%) CISSP
6 46 (2.09%) CTC Cleared
7 45 (2.05%) Cisco Certification
8 38 (1.73%) CISM
9 35 (1.59%) Microsoft Certification
10 33 (1.50%) Azure Certification
11 30 (1.36%) AWS Certification
12 29 (1.32%) CompTIA Security+
13 27 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
13 27 (1.23%) CREST Certified
13 27 (1.23%) HNC
13 27 (1.23%) Master's Degree
14 21 (0.95%) CCNP
15 18 (0.82%) SANS
16 17 (0.77%) OSCP
17 16 (0.73%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 126 (5.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 112 (5.09%) Cyber Essentials
3 98 (4.46%) PCI DSS
4 78 (3.55%) SLA
5 67 (3.05%) NIST
6 61 (2.77%) QA
7 48 (2.18%) GDPR
8 42 (1.91%) NCSC
9 32 (1.46%) Accessibility
9 32 (1.46%) Data Quality
10 29 (1.32%) JSP 440
11 26 (1.18%) GRC
12 22 (1.00%) ISO 9001
13 20 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 20 (0.91%) PMO
14 18 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 17 (0.77%) Def Stans
16 13 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
17 12 (0.55%) NIST 800
18 11 (0.50%) WCAG
System Software
1 179 (8.14%) Active Directory
2 120 (5.46%) Docker
3 105 (4.77%) Hyper-V
4 72 (3.27%) Terminal Server
5 52 (2.36%) VMware Infrastructure
6 32 (1.46%) Firmware
7 20 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
8 16 (0.73%) VMware NSX
9 14 (0.64%) vSphere
10 9 (0.41%) Embedded Firmware
11 6 (0.27%) BitLocker
12 4 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
12 4 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
13 1 (0.045%) Citrix Hypervisor
13 1 (0.045%) IAG
13 1 (0.045%) Oracle RAC
13 1 (0.045%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 159 (7.23%) Terraform
2 124 (5.64%) Kubernetes
3 84 (3.82%) Ansible
4 37 (1.68%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (1.09%) Grafana
6 23 (1.05%) Prometheus
7 19 (0.86%) SCCM
8 16 (0.73%) Proxmox
8 16 (0.73%) Puppet
9 14 (0.64%) Kibana
9 14 (0.64%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 12 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
11 11 (0.50%) Nessus
11 11 (0.50%) vCenter Server
12 9 (0.41%) Argo
12 9 (0.41%) Nmap
13 7 (0.32%) HP Fortify
13 7 (0.32%) QRadar
14 6 (0.27%) Graylog
14 6 (0.27%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 417 (18.96%) Microsoft
2 152 (6.91%) VMware
3 114 (5.18%) Cisco
4 104 (4.73%) Splunk
5 83 (3.77%) SolarWinds
6 73 (3.32%) Veeam
7 72 (3.27%) Brocade
7 72 (3.27%) Nimble Storage
7 72 (3.27%) Tanium
8 47 (2.14%) ServiceNow
9 45 (2.05%) Oracle
10 31 (1.41%) Google
11 21 (0.95%) Red Hat
12 19 (0.86%) Fortinet
12 19 (0.86%) HP
13 15 (0.68%) CheckPoint
14 14 (0.64%) Aruba
14 14 (0.64%) Juniper
14 14 (0.64%) Tenable
15 13 (0.59%) Databricks