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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 72 60
Rank change year-on-year +11 -12 +10
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 1,936 1,181 2,733
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 2.92% 4.02% 3.95%
As % of the Qualifications category 12.41% 9.22% 15.02%
Number of salaries quoted 1,444 867 2,011
10th Percentile £40,000 £36,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £61,500 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.96% +4.55% -
75th Percentile £80,000 £72,500 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £81,250 £77,500
UK median annual salary £65,000 £60,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +8.33% +4.35% -7.26%

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 15,596 12,809 18,195
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 23.51% 43.63% 26.29%
Number of salaries quoted 6,064 5,241 12,146
10th Percentile £28,250 £28,750 £27,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £36,925 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £54,000 £51,564 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.72% +3.13% -3.85%
75th Percentile £70,000 £66,274 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £79,600
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% +1.85% -9.28%

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 18 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 18 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 +10 509 £65,000 +8.33% 212
South East -15 481 £67,500 +22.73% 346
North of England +82 358 £60,000 +9.09% 215
Midlands +25 293 £56,900 -12.46% 108
North West +98 203 £62,500 +13.64% 114
West Midlands -5 196 £60,000 -7.69% 76
East of England +13 117 £61,500 +6.96% 64
Yorkshire +15 115 £62,500 +39.82% 44
Wales +6 99 £54,500 -0.91% 33
East Midlands +26 93 £53,750 +3.37% 32
Scotland +42 72 £75,000 +20.00% 26
North East -5 40 £56,250 -18.93% 59
Northern Ireland -35 12 £60,000 -29.54% 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 69 (3.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 43 (2.22%) SharePoint
3 10 (0.52%) Apache
3 10 (0.52%) SAS
4 8 (0.41%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.41%) Skype for Business
5 6 (0.31%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 5 (0.26%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.15%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.10%) Confluence
8 2 (0.10%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.10%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.052%) Apache Qpid
9 1 (0.052%) Appian
9 1 (0.052%) Camunda
9 1 (0.052%) IIS
9 1 (0.052%) JBoss
Applications
1 103 (5.32%) Microsoft Office
2 29 (1.50%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.41%) Simulink
5 3 (0.15%) Adobe XD
5 3 (0.15%) Windchill
6 2 (0.10%) CATIA
6 2 (0.10%) Stateflow
7 1 (0.052%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.052%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 5 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.21%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.052%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.052%) Primavera
3 1 (0.052%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.052%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.052%) SAP EWM
3 1 (0.052%) SAP GRC
3 1 (0.052%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.052%) SAP MM
3 1 (0.052%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 401 (20.71%) Azure
2 240 (12.40%) AWS
3 225 (11.62%) Microsoft 365
4 73 (3.77%) Entra ID
5 64 (3.31%) GCP
6 49 (2.53%) Dynamics 365
7 38 (1.96%) Power Platform
8 37 (1.91%) Serverless
9 32 (1.65%) SaaS
10 30 (1.55%) Azure DevOps
11 29 (1.50%) Azure Sentinel
12 28 (1.45%) GitHub
13 24 (1.24%) Amazon S3
14 22 (1.14%) Amazon EKS
14 22 (1.14%) AWS CloudFormation
15 20 (1.03%) Amazon ECS
16 19 (0.98%) AWS Lambda
17 17 (0.88%) PaaS
18 16 (0.83%) PowerApps
19 14 (0.72%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 105 (5.42%) Firewall
2 98 (5.06%) DNS
3 83 (4.29%) DHCP
4 64 (3.31%) WAN
5 57 (2.94%) VPN
6 46 (2.38%) Network Security
7 45 (2.32%) LAN
8 40 (2.07%) TCP/IP
9 35 (1.81%) Wi-Fi
10 29 (1.50%) Structured Cabling
11 27 (1.39%) BGP
12 21 (1.08%) SD-WAN
13 18 (0.93%) MPLS
13 18 (0.93%) VLAN
14 17 (0.88%) VoIP
15 15 (0.77%) Cisco Firepower
16 14 (0.72%) HTTP
17 11 (0.57%) Cisco ASA
18 10 (0.52%) Skype
19 9 (0.46%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 44 (2.27%) Amazon RDS
2 34 (1.76%) Power BI
3 22 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (0.88%) DynamoDB
5 15 (0.77%) Relational Database
6 12 (0.62%) Big Data
7 11 (0.57%) Elasticsearch
8 10 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
8 10 (0.52%) GIS
8 10 (0.52%) MongoDB
8 10 (0.52%) NoSQL
9 9 (0.46%) Metadata
9 9 (0.46%) SQL Server
10 8 (0.41%) Amazon Athena
10 8 (0.41%) Pentaho
11 6 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
11 6 (0.31%) Data Lake
11 6 (0.31%) Hadoop
11 6 (0.31%) Redis
11 6 (0.31%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 64 (3.31%) Git
2 47 (2.43%) GitLab
3 26 (1.34%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.29%) JIRA
5 15 (0.77%) JUnit
5 15 (0.77%) Maven
5 15 (0.77%) SonarQube
6 14 (0.72%) Visual Studio Code
7 12 (0.62%) Mockito
7 12 (0.62%) Selenium
8 11 (0.57%) Cypress.io
9 6 (0.31%) Cucumber
10 5 (0.26%) Burp Suite
10 5 (0.26%) Claude Code
10 5 (0.26%) Metasploit
10 5 (0.26%) Rational DOORS
11 4 (0.21%) JMeter
11 4 (0.21%) Postman
11 4 (0.21%) Storybook
12 3 (0.15%) Artifactory
General
1 421 (21.75%) Social Skills
2 246 (12.71%) Public Sector
3 148 (7.64%) Analytical Skills
4 127 (6.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 123 (6.35%) Finance
6 65 (3.36%) Telecoms
7 59 (3.05%) Manufacturing
8 52 (2.69%) Back Office
9 49 (2.53%) Law
10 36 (1.86%) Electronics
11 33 (1.70%) Aerospace
11 33 (1.70%) Legal
11 33 (1.70%) Organisational Skills
12 30 (1.55%) Military
13 22 (1.14%) Aviation
13 22 (1.14%) Documentation Skills
14 21 (1.08%) Retail
15 19 (0.98%) Marketing
16 13 (0.67%) Influencing Skills
17 11 (0.57%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 325 (16.79%) Senior
2 184 (9.50%) Architect
3 163 (8.42%) Software Engineer
4 162 (8.37%) Developer
5 160 (8.26%) Analyst
6 149 (7.70%) Consultant
7 113 (5.84%) Support Engineer
8 86 (4.44%) Cloud Engineer
9 81 (4.18%) Lead
9 81 (4.18%) Systems Engineer
10 80 (4.13%) Security Consultant
11 72 (3.72%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 72 (3.72%) Network Engineer
12 67 (3.46%) IT Engineer
13 66 (3.41%) Data Engineer
14 65 (3.36%) IT Support
15 63 (3.25%) Senior Developer
16 62 (3.20%) Java Developer
17 57 (2.94%) Site Engineer
18 56 (2.89%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (2.94%) .NET
2 50 (2.58%) REST
3 34 (1.76%) Spring
4 31 (1.60%) React
5 29 (1.50%) Spring Boot
6 25 (1.29%) AngularJS
7 15 (0.77%) Node.js
8 14 (0.72%) Kafka
9 13 (0.67%) SOAP
10 12 (0.62%) RESTful
11 11 (0.57%) RabbitMQ
12 10 (0.52%) Elastic Stack
12 10 (0.52%) JSON
12 10 (0.52%) Playwright
13 9 (0.46%) ASP.NET
13 9 (0.46%) gRPC
13 9 (0.46%) Middleware
13 9 (0.46%) PySpark
13 9 (0.46%) YAML
14 8 (0.41%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 65 (3.36%) Data Centre
2 60 (3.10%) Onboarding
3 58 (3.00%) Driving Licence
3 58 (3.00%) Legacy Systems
4 40 (2.07%) Product Ownership
4 40 (2.07%) Security Operations Centre
5 38 (1.96%) Management Information System
5 38 (1.96%) Security Posture
6 35 (1.81%) Cloud Native
7 27 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
8 23 (1.19%) Fibre Optics
9 20 (1.03%) CSOC
10 19 (0.98%) PKI
10 19 (0.98%) Robotics
11 18 (0.93%) Algorithms
12 16 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
12 16 (0.83%) Embedded Systems
13 14 (0.72%) Data Structures
14 13 (0.67%) Analytical Mindset
14 13 (0.67%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 245 (12.65%) Windows
2 181 (9.35%) Linux
3 102 (5.27%) Windows Server
4 75 (3.87%) Windows 10
5 47 (2.43%) Windows Server 2016
6 24 (1.24%) Unix
7 16 (0.83%) Android
8 12 (0.62%) Mac OS
9 10 (0.52%) Apple iOS
9 10 (0.52%) Ubuntu
10 9 (0.46%) CentOS
11 7 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 5 (0.26%) Solaris
13 4 (0.21%) Debian
14 3 (0.15%) VMS
15 2 (0.10%) AIX
15 2 (0.10%) Mac OS X
15 2 (0.10%) Windows 7
15 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 270 (13.95%) Cybersecurity
2 249 (12.86%) Agile
3 228 (11.78%) Continuous Improvement
4 227 (11.73%) Problem-Solving
5 222 (11.47%) Software Engineering
6 194 (10.02%) ITIL
7 189 (9.76%) DevOps
8 149 (7.70%) CI/CD
9 127 (6.56%) Customer Service
10 124 (6.40%) Mentoring
11 120 (6.20%) Analytics
12 102 (5.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 100 (5.17%) Customer Experience
14 93 (4.80%) Infrastructure as Code
14 93 (4.80%) Migration
15 88 (4.55%) AI
16 85 (4.39%) Scrum
17 82 (4.24%) Risk Management
18 81 (4.18%) Service Delivery
19 79 (4.08%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 200 (10.33%) Python
2 127 (6.56%) Java
3 96 (4.96%) SQL
4 82 (4.24%) C++
5 62 (3.20%) PowerShell
6 58 (3.00%) Bash
7 48 (2.48%) C#
8 47 (2.43%) JavaScript
9 31 (1.60%) C
10 28 (1.45%) TypeScript
11 20 (1.03%) Rust
12 15 (0.77%) PL/SQL
13 14 (0.72%) Groovy
14 12 (0.62%) MATLAB
14 12 (0.62%) VBA
15 9 (0.46%) Bicep
15 9 (0.46%) Embedded C
15 9 (0.46%) Kusto Query Language
16 8 (0.41%) Kotlin
17 7 (0.36%) Go
Qualifications
1 1,936 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 355 (18.34%) DV Cleared
3 224 (11.57%) Degree
4 62 (3.20%) CTC Cleared
5 47 (2.43%) BPSS Clearance
6 37 (1.91%) CISSP
6 37 (1.91%) Microsoft Certification
7 33 (1.70%) Cisco Certification
8 28 (1.45%) AWS Certification
8 28 (1.45%) Computer Science Degree
9 27 (1.39%) CISM
9 27 (1.39%) CompTIA Security+
10 25 (1.29%) Master's Degree
11 24 (1.24%) Azure Certification
12 22 (1.14%) HNC
13 20 (1.03%) CREST Certified
14 18 (0.93%) CCNP
15 17 (0.88%) DBS Check
16 13 (0.67%) A+ Certification
16 13 (0.67%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (4.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 84 (4.34%) SLA
3 71 (3.67%) Cyber Essentials
4 62 (3.20%) PCI DSS
5 61 (3.15%) NIST
6 50 (2.58%) QA
7 41 (2.12%) GDPR
8 25 (1.29%) Accessibility
9 21 (1.08%) NCSC
10 20 (1.03%) GRC
10 20 (1.03%) JSP 440
11 18 (0.93%) Data Quality
12 17 (0.88%) PMO
13 15 (0.77%) ISO 9001
13 15 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 14 (0.72%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 11 (0.57%) Def Stans
16 8 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
16 8 (0.41%) HIPAA
16 8 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 136 (7.02%) Active Directory
2 87 (4.49%) Docker
3 58 (3.00%) Hyper-V
4 46 (2.38%) VMware Infrastructure
5 41 (2.12%) Terminal Server
6 20 (1.03%) Firmware
7 15 (0.77%) Virtual Desktop
7 15 (0.77%) VMware NSX
8 8 (0.41%) vSphere
9 4 (0.21%) Embedded Firmware
9 4 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
9 4 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
10 3 (0.15%) BitLocker
10 3 (0.15%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 2 (0.10%) Lustre
12 1 (0.052%) Citrix Hypervisor
12 1 (0.052%) IAG
12 1 (0.052%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 117 (6.04%) Terraform
2 87 (4.49%) Kubernetes
3 78 (4.03%) Ansible
4 30 (1.55%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (1.19%) SCCM
6 18 (0.93%) Grafana
7 17 (0.88%) Prometheus
8 15 (0.77%) Puppet
9 11 (0.57%) vCenter Server
10 10 (0.52%) Kibana
10 10 (0.52%) Proxmox
11 9 (0.46%) Nessus
11 9 (0.46%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 7 (0.36%) Podman
12 7 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
13 6 (0.31%) Endace
13 6 (0.31%) HP Fortify
13 6 (0.31%) Jamf Pro
13 6 (0.31%) QRadar
13 6 (0.31%) WSUS
Vendors
1 352 (18.18%) Microsoft
2 136 (7.02%) Cisco
3 116 (5.99%) VMware
4 68 (3.51%) Splunk
5 53 (2.74%) SolarWinds
6 41 (2.12%) Veeam
7 40 (2.07%) Brocade
7 40 (2.07%) Nimble Storage
7 40 (2.07%) Tanium
8 39 (2.01%) Oracle
9 36 (1.86%) Google
10 31 (1.60%) ServiceNow
11 22 (1.14%) Red Hat
11 22 (1.14%) SAP
12 19 (0.98%) Juniper
13 18 (0.93%) CheckPoint
13 18 (0.93%) HP
14 16 (0.83%) Citrix
14 16 (0.83%) Salesforce
15 15 (0.77%) Fortinet