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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 72 60
Rank change year-on-year +11 -12 +9
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 2,034 1,140 2,819
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.02% 3.95% 3.90%
As % of the Qualifications category 13.08% 9.07% 15.22%
Number of salaries quoted 1,515 800 2,069
10th Percentile £40,000 £36,250 £31,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.70% +4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £80,000 £72,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £81,250 £78,750
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 15,554 12,573 18,516
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 23.08% 43.52% 25.63%
Number of salaries quoted 6,267 4,937 12,210
10th Percentile £28,250 £28,000 £27,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,058 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.72% +2.12% -4.76%
75th Percentile £71,250 £66,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £79,640
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £53,664
% change year-on-year +9.09% +2.49% -10.56%

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 30 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 30 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 +17 550 £65,000 +8.33% 207
South East -13 496 £67,500 +22.73% 307
North of England +87 391 £60,000 +9.09% 181
Midlands +29 303 £56,900 -12.46% 92
North West +98 220 £65,000 +12.07% 107
West Midlands -1 202 £60,000 -7.69% 71
Yorkshire +11 119 £62,500 +39.35% 42
East of England +10 119 £61,500 +11.82% 46
Wales +6 105 £54,000 -1.82% 34
East Midlands +43 99 £53,750 +3.37% 21
Scotland +50 69 £75,000 +28.76% 33
North East 0 52 £55,000 -20.73% 33
Northern Ireland -41 6 £63,750 -25.13% 13
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 85 (4.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 44 (2.16%) SharePoint
3 18 (0.88%) Apache
4 16 (0.79%) SAS
5 14 (0.69%) 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 2 (0.098%) Confluence
10 2 (0.098%) Exchange Server 2013
10 2 (0.098%) OpenStack
11 1 (0.049%) Apache Qpid
11 1 (0.049%) Appian
11 1 (0.049%) JBoss
Applications
1 103 (5.06%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.34%) Simulink
5 4 (0.20%) Windchill
6 2 (0.098%) 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 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.049%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.049%) Primavera
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
1 443 (21.78%) Azure
2 275 (13.52%) AWS
3 248 (12.19%) Microsoft 365
4 73 (3.59%) Entra ID
5 72 (3.54%) GCP
6 49 (2.41%) Dynamics 365
7 39 (1.92%) SaaS
7 39 (1.92%) Serverless
8 37 (1.82%) Power Platform
9 33 (1.62%) GitHub
10 31 (1.52%) Amazon S3
11 30 (1.47%) Azure Sentinel
12 29 (1.43%) Azure DevOps
13 25 (1.23%) AWS CloudFormation
14 22 (1.08%) Amazon EKS
15 20 (0.98%) Amazon EC2
15 20 (0.98%) Amazon ECS
16 19 (0.93%) AWS Lambda
16 19 (0.93%) PaaS
17 17 (0.84%) Amazon ECR
Communications & Networking
1 120 (5.90%) Firewall
2 118 (5.80%) DNS
3 98 (4.82%) DHCP
4 66 (3.24%) WAN
5 62 (3.05%) VPN
6 51 (2.51%) Network Security
7 48 (2.36%) LAN
8 46 (2.26%) TCP/IP
9 35 (1.72%) Wi-Fi
10 29 (1.43%) Structured Cabling
11 28 (1.38%) BGP
12 20 (0.98%) SD-WAN
13 19 (0.93%) VLAN
13 19 (0.93%) VoIP
14 18 (0.88%) MPLS
15 17 (0.84%) Cisco Firepower
15 17 (0.84%) HTTP
16 12 (0.59%) Cisco ASA
17 10 (0.49%) MQTT
17 10 (0.49%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (2.95%) Amazon RDS
2 33 (1.62%) Power BI
3 23 (1.13%) PostgreSQL
4 21 (1.03%) DynamoDB
5 20 (0.98%) Big Data
6 16 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
7 14 (0.69%) Amazon Athena
7 14 (0.69%) Relational Database
8 11 (0.54%) Elasticsearch
8 11 (0.54%) GIS
8 11 (0.54%) MongoDB
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 (3.44%) Git
2 60 (2.95%) GitLab
3 31 (1.52%) Jenkins
4 23 (1.13%) JIRA
5 20 (0.98%) JUnit
6 16 (0.79%) Maven
6 16 (0.79%) SonarQube
7 14 (0.69%) Visual Studio Code
8 13 (0.64%) Mockito
8 13 (0.64%) Selenium
9 12 (0.59%) Cypress.io
10 8 (0.39%) Cucumber
11 7 (0.34%) Burp Suite
11 7 (0.34%) Metasploit
12 6 (0.29%) Postman
13 5 (0.25%) Claude Code
14 4 (0.20%) Artifactory
14 4 (0.20%) JMeter
15 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
15 3 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
General
1 466 (22.91%) Social Skills
2 267 (13.13%) Public Sector
3 185 (9.10%) Analytical Skills
4 125 (6.15%) Finance
4 125 (6.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 60 (2.95%) Telecoms
6 51 (2.51%) Back Office
6 51 (2.51%) Manufacturing
7 45 (2.21%) Law
8 38 (1.87%) Aerospace
8 38 (1.87%) Electronics
9 35 (1.72%) Legal
9 35 (1.72%) Organisational Skills
10 33 (1.62%) Military
11 27 (1.33%) Aviation
12 23 (1.13%) Retail
13 19 (0.93%) Documentation Skills
14 12 (0.59%) Advertising
14 12 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
14 12 (0.59%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 339 (16.67%) Senior
2 188 (9.24%) Architect
3 165 (8.11%) Software Engineer
4 164 (8.06%) Developer
5 163 (8.01%) Analyst
6 154 (7.57%) Consultant
7 112 (5.51%) Support Engineer
8 99 (4.87%) Systems Engineer
9 90 (4.42%) Cloud Engineer
10 84 (4.13%) Data Engineer
11 82 (4.03%) Security Consultant
12 81 (3.98%) Lead
13 77 (3.79%) Network Engineer
14 73 (3.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 66 (3.24%) IT Engineer
15 66 (3.24%) IT Support
15 66 (3.24%) Java Developer
15 66 (3.24%) Senior Developer
16 60 (2.95%) Site Engineer
17 56 (2.75%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (2.90%) .NET
2 47 (2.31%) REST
3 37 (1.82%) Spring
4 34 (1.67%) React
5 30 (1.47%) Spring Boot
6 25 (1.23%) AngularJS
7 16 (0.79%) Kafka
7 16 (0.79%) Node.js
7 16 (0.79%) PySpark
8 14 (0.69%) RESTful
9 12 (0.59%) Playwright
10 11 (0.54%) Elastic Stack
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%) OpenAPI
13 8 (0.39%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 74 (3.64%) Data Centre
1 74 (3.64%) Legacy Systems
2 68 (3.34%) Driving Licence
3 65 (3.20%) Onboarding
4 45 (2.21%) Cloud Native
4 45 (2.21%) Security Posture
5 42 (2.06%) Security Operations Centre
6 39 (1.92%) Product Ownership
7 37 (1.82%) Management Information System
8 34 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
9 26 (1.28%) Fibre Optics
10 23 (1.13%) CSOC
10 23 (1.13%) Embedded Systems
11 22 (1.08%) Robotics
12 20 (0.98%) PKI
13 19 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
14 18 (0.88%) Algorithms
14 18 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
15 17 (0.84%) Data Structures
16 16 (0.79%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 273 (13.42%) Windows
2 217 (10.67%) Linux
3 118 (5.80%) Windows Server
4 78 (3.83%) Windows 10
5 62 (3.05%) Windows Server 2016
6 25 (1.23%) Unix
7 17 (0.84%) Android
8 14 (0.69%) Mac OS
9 12 (0.59%) CentOS
10 11 (0.54%) Ubuntu
11 9 (0.44%) Apple iOS
12 8 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 6 (0.29%) Debian
14 5 (0.25%) Solaris
15 3 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
15 3 (0.15%) VMS
16 2 (0.098%) AIX
16 2 (0.098%) Mac OS X
16 2 (0.098%) Windows 7
16 2 (0.098%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 295 (14.50%) Cybersecurity
2 268 (13.18%) Agile
2 268 (13.18%) Problem-Solving
3 248 (12.19%) Continuous Improvement
4 231 (11.36%) Software Engineering
5 208 (10.23%) ITIL
6 203 (9.98%) DevOps
7 176 (8.65%) CI/CD
8 142 (6.98%) Customer Service
9 140 (6.88%) Mentoring
10 130 (6.39%) Analytics
11 114 (5.60%) Customer Experience
12 112 (5.51%) Migration
13 111 (5.46%) Infrastructure as Code
14 107 (5.26%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 103 (5.06%) AI
16 93 (4.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 92 (4.52%) Decision-Making
18 90 (4.42%) Technical Leadership
19 89 (4.38%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 220 (10.82%) Python
2 134 (6.59%) Java
3 108 (5.31%) SQL
4 89 (4.38%) C++
5 73 (3.59%) PowerShell
6 68 (3.34%) Bash
7 52 (2.56%) C#
8 49 (2.41%) JavaScript
9 33 (1.62%) C
10 28 (1.38%) TypeScript
11 18 (0.88%) Rust
12 17 (0.84%) PL/SQL
13 15 (0.74%) Groovy
14 13 (0.64%) MATLAB
15 12 (0.59%) 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 2,034 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 384 (18.88%) DV Cleared
3 223 (10.96%) Degree
4 61 (3.00%) CTC Cleared
5 56 (2.75%) BPSS Clearance
6 41 (2.02%) CISSP
7 38 (1.87%) Cisco Certification
8 36 (1.77%) Microsoft Certification
9 30 (1.47%) Computer Science Degree
10 29 (1.43%) AWS Certification
11 28 (1.38%) CompTIA Security+
12 27 (1.33%) CISM
13 26 (1.28%) HNC
14 25 (1.23%) CREST Certified
15 24 (1.18%) Master's Degree
16 21 (1.03%) Azure Certification
16 21 (1.03%) CCNP
17 16 (0.79%) OSCP
18 15 (0.74%) CCNA
18 15 (0.74%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 104 (5.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 89 (4.38%) Cyber Essentials
3 85 (4.18%) SLA
4 81 (3.98%) PCI DSS
5 64 (3.15%) NIST
6 55 (2.70%) QA
7 45 (2.21%) GDPR
8 28 (1.38%) Data Quality
8 28 (1.38%) NCSC
9 26 (1.28%) Accessibility
10 25 (1.23%) JSP 440
11 19 (0.93%) GRC
11 19 (0.93%) PMO
12 18 (0.88%) ISO 9001
12 18 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 15 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 14 (0.69%) Def Stans
15 11 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
16 10 (0.49%) NIST 800
17 8 (0.39%) HIPAA
System Software
1 160 (7.87%) Active Directory
2 102 (5.01%) Docker
3 77 (3.79%) Hyper-V
4 57 (2.80%) Terminal Server
5 51 (2.51%) VMware Infrastructure
6 29 (1.43%) Firmware
7 17 (0.84%) Virtual Desktop
7 17 (0.84%) VMware NSX
8 11 (0.54%) vSphere
9 9 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
10 5 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
11 4 (0.20%) BitLocker
11 4 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
12 3 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 2 (0.098%) Lustre
14 1 (0.049%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 1 (0.049%) IAG
14 1 (0.049%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 136 (6.69%) Terraform
2 100 (4.92%) Kubernetes
3 83 (4.08%) Ansible
4 32 (1.57%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (1.18%) SCCM
6 19 (0.93%) Grafana
7 18 (0.88%) Prometheus
8 15 (0.74%) Puppet
9 12 (0.59%) Kibana
9 12 (0.59%) Proxmox
9 12 (0.59%) vCenter Server
10 11 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (0.54%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
11 9 (0.44%) Nessus
12 7 (0.34%) Nmap
12 7 (0.34%) QRadar
13 6 (0.29%) HP Fortify
13 6 (0.29%) Podman
14 5 (0.25%) Endace
14 5 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 380 (18.68%) Microsoft
2 139 (6.83%) VMware
3 137 (6.74%) Cisco
4 86 (4.23%) Splunk
5 70 (3.44%) SolarWinds
6 57 (2.80%) Veeam
7 56 (2.75%) Brocade
7 56 (2.75%) Nimble Storage
7 56 (2.75%) Tanium
8 42 (2.06%) Oracle
9 36 (1.77%) Google
10 35 (1.72%) ServiceNow
11 22 (1.08%) Red Hat
12 21 (1.03%) HP
13 18 (0.88%) CheckPoint
14 17 (0.84%) Fortinet
14 17 (0.84%) Juniper
15 16 (0.79%) Citrix
16 15 (0.74%) Palo Alto
16 15 (0.74%) SAP