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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 53 50
Rank change year-on-year +19 -3 -12
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 3,176 1,473 2,298
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.80% 4.30% 4.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 22.11% 11.93% 15.88%
Number of salaries quoted 2,117 901 1,570
10th Percentile £44,479 £29,750 £38,000
25th Percentile £52,500 £45,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £57,500 £56,525
Median % change year-on-year +21.74% +1.72% -1.70%
75th Percentile £80,000 £73,750 £70,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £87,500 £83,750
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 14,366 12,350 14,473
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 17.20% 36.09% 26.26%
Number of salaries quoted 7,639 4,938 6,703
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £42,000 £33,500 £39,775
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £50,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year +15.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £75,000 £66,000 £67,563
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £82,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,756
% change year-on-year +9.09% -1.36% -3.87%

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 15 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 15 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 -5 837 £70,000 +21.74% 663
South West -2 812 £72,500 +26.76% 431
North of England +117 649 £66,805 +11.34% 603
Midlands +22 446 £62,500 -3.85% 296
North West +119 373 £70,000 +7.69% 368
West Midlands +10 305 £68,076 -6.10% 183
East of England +23 186 £58,250 +12.02% 287
Wales -7 161 £63,500 -7.31% 49
Yorkshire +13 144 £66,805 +40.64% 130
East Midlands +28 141 £60,000 +103.39% 113
North East +28 132 £60,000 +4.35% 126
Scotland +52 87 £70,000 +7.69% 234
Northern Ireland -63 21 £74,654 -14.68% 65
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 97 (3.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 58 (1.83%) SharePoint
3 40 (1.26%) Apache Spark
4 39 (1.23%) Confluence
5 36 (1.13%) Apache
6 17 (0.54%) SAS
7 16 (0.50%) Apache Airflow
8 15 (0.47%) Jupyter
9 11 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
10 9 (0.28%) Skype for Business
11 8 (0.25%) Documentum
11 8 (0.25%) nginx
12 7 (0.22%) OpenStack
12 7 (0.22%) Oracle SOA Suite
13 2 (0.063%) Exchange Server 2013
13 2 (0.063%) IIS
13 2 (0.063%) Palantir Foundry
13 2 (0.063%) Tomcat
14 1 (0.031%) Appian
14 1 (0.031%) JBoss
Applications
1 63 (1.98%) Microsoft Office
2 54 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 33 (1.04%) Microsoft Project
4 32 (1.01%) Simulink
5 14 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 8 (0.25%) MS Visio
7 7 (0.22%) SOLIDWORKS
8 4 (0.13%) Mathcad
8 4 (0.13%) Windchill
9 3 (0.094%) Mathematica
9 3 (0.094%) Stateflow
10 2 (0.063%) InDesign
10 2 (0.063%) Spreadsheet
10 2 (0.063%) UserZoom
11 1 (0.031%) Adobe XD
11 1 (0.031%) AutoCAD
11 1 (0.031%) CATIA
Business Applications
1 26 (0.82%) Primavera
1 26 (0.82%) SAP EHS
2 11 (0.35%) SAP Oil and Gas
3 10 (0.31%) SAP S/4HANA
4 8 (0.25%) Workday HCM
5 6 (0.19%) Teamcenter
6 5 (0.16%) Dynamics CRM
6 5 (0.16%) SAP ERP
7 4 (0.13%) Oracle EBS
7 4 (0.13%) Remedy ITSM
7 4 (0.13%) SAP R/3
8 2 (0.063%) Oracle Applications
8 2 (0.063%) SAP PSCD
8 2 (0.063%) Siebel CRM
8 2 (0.063%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
9 1 (0.031%) Oracle Cash Management
9 1 (0.031%) Oracle Payables
9 1 (0.031%) SAP BPC
9 1 (0.031%) SAP EWM
9 1 (0.031%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 632 (19.90%) Azure
2 505 (15.90%) AWS
3 234 (7.37%) Microsoft 365
4 111 (3.49%) GCP
5 87 (2.74%) Serverless
6 82 (2.58%) Entra ID
6 82 (2.58%) GitHub
7 73 (2.30%) Power Platform
8 67 (2.11%) Azure DevOps
9 65 (2.05%) AWS CloudFormation
10 57 (1.79%) Amazon S3
11 55 (1.73%) AWS Lambda
12 52 (1.64%) OpenShift
13 41 (1.29%) SaaS
14 40 (1.26%) Amazon EC2
15 38 (1.20%) GitHub Actions
16 35 (1.10%) dbt
17 34 (1.07%) Azure Sentinel
18 30 (0.94%) PowerApps
19 29 (0.91%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 136 (4.28%) DNS
2 134 (4.22%) Firewall
3 95 (2.99%) DHCP
4 71 (2.24%) VPN
5 66 (2.08%) WAN
6 64 (2.02%) TCP/IP
7 59 (1.86%) Network Security
8 48 (1.51%) LAN
9 27 (0.85%) VLAN
10 23 (0.72%) HTTP
11 22 (0.69%) SSL
12 20 (0.63%) ATM
12 20 (0.63%) BGP
13 19 (0.60%) SAN
14 16 (0.50%) SD-WAN
15 14 (0.44%) 4G
15 14 (0.44%) Internet
16 13 (0.41%) Broadband
16 13 (0.41%) Software-Defined Radio
17 12 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (2.39%) Amazon RDS
2 55 (1.73%) Power BI
3 49 (1.54%) PostgreSQL
4 36 (1.13%) Data Warehouse
5 35 (1.10%) Big Data
6 29 (0.91%) Relational Database
7 25 (0.79%) DynamoDB
7 25 (0.79%) Elasticsearch
8 22 (0.69%) Amazon Athena
9 19 (0.60%) Data Lake
9 19 (0.60%) MongoDB
10 18 (0.57%) Hadoop
11 16 (0.50%) SQL Server
12 15 (0.47%) MySQL
13 14 (0.44%) Metadata
13 14 (0.44%) NoSQL
14 13 (0.41%) Amazon Redshift
15 11 (0.35%) BigQuery
16 10 (0.31%) Looker
16 10 (0.31%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 141 (4.44%) Git
2 105 (3.31%) GitLab
3 85 (2.68%) Jenkins
4 81 (2.55%) JIRA
5 31 (0.98%) JUnit
6 30 (0.94%) Rational DOORS
7 25 (0.79%) Cypress.io
7 25 (0.79%) Selenium
8 18 (0.57%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 18 (0.57%) Maven
9 17 (0.54%) SonarQube
10 14 (0.44%) Cucumber
10 14 (0.44%) LabVIEW
10 14 (0.44%) Mockito
10 14 (0.44%) Postman
10 14 (0.44%) Visual Studio Code
11 13 (0.41%) JMeter
12 11 (0.35%) Gatling
13 7 (0.22%) MSI
14 6 (0.19%) Metasploit
General
1 762 (23.99%) Social Skills
2 432 (13.60%) Public Sector
3 346 (10.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 344 (10.83%) Analytical Skills
5 332 (10.45%) Finance
6 293 (9.23%) Aerospace
7 110 (3.46%) Military
8 109 (3.43%) Electronics
9 83 (2.61%) Legal
9 83 (2.61%) Retail
10 78 (2.46%) Organisational Skills
11 73 (2.30%) Manufacturing
12 58 (1.83%) Law
13 46 (1.45%) Aviation
14 40 (1.26%) Telecoms
15 39 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
16 32 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
17 28 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
18 27 (0.85%) Police
19 20 (0.63%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 475 (14.96%) Senior
2 352 (11.08%) Systems Engineer
3 325 (10.23%) Architect
4 274 (8.63%) Developer
5 264 (8.31%) Software Engineer
6 223 (7.02%) Lead
7 185 (5.82%) Consultant
8 181 (5.70%) Analyst
9 136 (4.28%) DevOps Engineer
10 127 (4.00%) Cloud Engineer
11 114 (3.59%) Data Engineer
12 111 (3.49%) Senior Developer
13 100 (3.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 89 (2.80%) Solutions Architect
15 79 (2.49%) Security Architect
16 77 (2.42%) Java Developer
17 71 (2.24%) Software Developer
18 70 (2.20%) Security Consultant
19 68 (2.14%) Principal Engineer
20 66 (2.08%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 261 (8.22%) Terraform
2 81 (2.55%) React
3 67 (2.11%) .NET
3 67 (2.11%) REST
3 67 (2.11%) Spring
4 60 (1.89%) CSS
4 60 (1.89%) HTML
5 55 (1.73%) Spring Boot
6 53 (1.67%) Node.js
7 42 (1.32%) AngularJS
8 41 (1.29%) Kafka
9 34 (1.07%) RESTful
10 32 (1.01%) PySpark
11 31 (0.98%) Playwright
12 22 (0.69%) .NET Core
12 22 (0.69%) LDAP
13 21 (0.66%) Jest
14 20 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
15 19 (0.60%) OpenAPI
15 19 (0.60%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 186 (5.86%) Cloud Native
2 116 (3.65%) Legacy Systems
3 100 (3.15%) Driving Licence
4 92 (2.90%) Onboarding
5 80 (2.52%) Self-Motivation
6 76 (2.39%) Management Information System
7 70 (2.20%) Product Ownership
8 67 (2.11%) Data Centre
9 59 (1.86%) Security Operations Centre
10 47 (1.48%) Cyber Threat
11 45 (1.42%) Security Posture
12 41 (1.29%) Robotics
13 40 (1.26%) FPGA
14 38 (1.20%) Algorithms
15 37 (1.16%) Distributed Systems
15 37 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
16 34 (1.07%) Embedded Systems
17 31 (0.98%) Operational Technology
18 29 (0.91%) CSOC
19 28 (0.88%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 359 (11.30%) Linux
2 299 (9.41%) Windows
3 147 (4.63%) Windows Server
4 80 (2.52%) Windows Server 2016
5 56 (1.76%) Unix
6 53 (1.67%) Windows 10
7 34 (1.07%) CentOS
8 33 (1.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 29 (0.91%) Android
10 15 (0.47%) Ubuntu
11 14 (0.44%) Mac OS
12 11 (0.35%) AIX
13 10 (0.31%) Debian
14 9 (0.28%) Solaris
15 7 (0.22%) Apple iOS
16 6 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
16 6 (0.19%) Rocky
17 5 (0.16%) VMS
17 5 (0.16%) VxWorks
17 5 (0.16%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 598 (18.83%) Agile
2 481 (15.14%) Problem-Solving
3 456 (14.36%) DevOps
4 444 (13.98%) Continuous Improvement
5 435 (13.70%) Software Engineering
6 404 (12.72%) CI/CD
7 397 (12.50%) Cybersecurity
8 349 (10.99%) Validation
9 312 (9.82%) Mentoring
10 270 (8.50%) AI
11 251 (7.90%) Infrastructure as Code
12 248 (7.81%) Technical Leadership
13 239 (7.53%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 235 (7.40%) Verification and Validation
15 223 (7.02%) ITIL
16 222 (6.99%) Stakeholder Management
17 215 (6.77%) Decision-Making
18 180 (5.67%) Analytics
19 166 (5.23%) Migration
20 165 (5.20%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 357 (11.24%) Python
2 224 (7.05%) Java
3 144 (4.53%) SQL
4 137 (4.31%) C++
4 137 (4.31%) JavaScript
5 111 (3.49%) PowerShell
6 98 (3.09%) Bash
7 90 (2.83%) C#
8 67 (2.11%) TypeScript
9 48 (1.51%) MATLAB
10 45 (1.42%) C
11 26 (0.82%) Go
12 24 (0.76%) Bicep
12 24 (0.76%) Kusto Query Language
12 24 (0.76%) Rust
13 23 (0.72%) Scala
14 19 (0.60%) Ada
14 19 (0.60%) Groovy
14 19 (0.60%) PL/SQL
14 19 (0.60%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 3,176 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 631 (19.87%) DV Cleared
3 366 (11.52%) Degree
4 230 (7.24%) BPSS Clearance
5 77 (2.42%) CISSP
6 65 (2.05%) Azure Certification
7 56 (1.76%) Master's Degree
8 54 (1.70%) CISM
9 47 (1.48%) AWS Certification
9 47 (1.48%) Cisco Certification
10 46 (1.45%) Microsoft Certification
11 40 (1.26%) PMI Certification
12 38 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
13 32 (1.01%) Chartered Engineer
13 32 (1.01%) HNC
14 28 (0.88%) CREST Certified
15 25 (0.79%) CompTIA Security+
15 25 (0.79%) HND
16 24 (0.76%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
17 23 (0.72%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 176 (5.54%) Accessibility
2 141 (4.44%) QA
3 135 (4.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 103 (3.24%) Cyber Essentials
5 81 (2.55%) PCI DSS
6 76 (2.39%) NIST
7 61 (1.92%) Data Quality
8 60 (1.89%) NCSC
9 56 (1.76%) SLA
10 33 (1.04%) Def Stans
10 33 (1.04%) GDPR
10 33 (1.04%) GRC
10 33 (1.04%) JSP 440
11 30 (0.94%) ISO 9001
11 30 (0.94%) WCAG
12 21 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 20 (0.63%) NIST 800
14 17 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
14 17 (0.54%) PMO
15 11 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 207 (6.52%) Active Directory
2 199 (6.27%) Docker
3 111 (3.49%) Hyper-V
4 77 (2.42%) VMware Infrastructure
5 72 (2.27%) Terminal Server
6 60 (1.89%) Firmware
7 20 (0.63%) vSphere
8 19 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
9 12 (0.38%) VMware NSX
10 11 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
11 10 (0.31%) BitLocker
11 10 (0.31%) NDS
12 9 (0.28%) Embedded Firmware
13 8 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
14 5 (0.16%) Squid
15 4 (0.13%) KVM
16 1 (0.031%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 1 (0.031%) IAG
16 1 (0.031%) Slurm Workload Manager
16 1 (0.031%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 241 (7.59%) Kubernetes
2 136 (4.28%) Ansible
3 51 (1.61%) Microsoft Intune
4 34 (1.07%) SCCM
5 28 (0.88%) Grafana
6 22 (0.69%) Prometheus
7 21 (0.66%) Puppet
8 19 (0.60%) Kibana
9 13 (0.41%) Argo
9 13 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (0.38%) Progress Chef
10 12 (0.38%) Proxmox
10 12 (0.38%) vCenter Server
11 10 (0.31%) Nessus
12 9 (0.28%) QRadar
13 8 (0.25%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
14 7 (0.22%) FortiGate
14 7 (0.22%) Graylog
14 7 (0.22%) Kustomize
14 7 (0.22%) Nagios
Vendors
1 447 (14.07%) Microsoft
2 179 (5.64%) VMware
3 104 (3.27%) Splunk
4 89 (2.80%) Veeam
5 83 (2.61%) SolarWinds
6 73 (2.30%) Oracle
7 72 (2.27%) Brocade
7 72 (2.27%) Nimble Storage
7 72 (2.27%) Tanium
8 69 (2.17%) SAP
9 66 (2.08%) ServiceNow
10 64 (2.02%) Thales
11 58 (1.83%) Cisco
12 47 (1.48%) Google
13 33 (1.04%) Red Hat
14 24 (0.76%) Fortinet
15 22 (0.69%) EMC
16 21 (0.66%) OpenText
17 20 (0.63%) Databricks
18 19 (0.60%) YouTube