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

6 months to
6 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 73 60
Rank change year-on-year +25 -13 +5
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 2,075 1,163 2,866
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.12% 3.96% 3.82%
As % of the Qualifications category 15.02% 9.18% 15.24%
Number of salaries quoted 1,546 818 2,081
10th Percentile £40,000 £35,500 £31,750
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £58,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.07% +5.45% -4.35%
75th Percentile £80,000 £73,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £82,500 £79,225
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 13,816 12,666 18,801
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 20.80% 43.08% 25.07%
Number of salaries quoted 6,247 4,999 12,235
10th Percentile £28,250 £27,500 £27,270
25th Percentile £37,500 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £50,967 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.91% +1.93% -4.76%
75th Percentile £71,250 £66,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £53,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% +2.80% -10.83%

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 6 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 6 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 +19 568 £67,500 +12.50% 261
South East -9 508 £70,000 +27.27% 352
North of England +95 397 £60,000 +9.09% 209
Midlands +28 304 £57,500 -11.54% 94
North West +103 221 £63,750 +8.05% 117
West Midlands -4 199 £60,000 -11.11% 72
Yorkshire +15 124 £62,500 +39.82% 44
East of England +7 116 £63,250 +15.00% 56
Wales +8 113 £54,000 -1.82% 30
East Midlands +32 103 £55,000 +5.77% 22
Scotland +49 69 £75,000 +22.45% 52
North East +2 52 £55,000 -20.73% 49
Northern Ireland -38 5 £63,750 -25.13% 22
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 94 (4.53%) Microsoft Exchange
2 43 (2.07%) SharePoint
3 19 (0.92%) Apache
4 18 (0.87%) SAS
5 14 (0.67%) Apache Spark
6 12 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
7 9 (0.43%) Jupyter
8 8 (0.39%) Skype for Business
9 7 (0.34%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 5 (0.24%) Confluence
11 2 (0.096%) Exchange Server 2013
11 2 (0.096%) OpenStack
12 1 (0.048%) Apache Qpid
12 1 (0.048%) Appian
12 1 (0.048%) JBoss
12 1 (0.048%) Site Server
Applications
1 105 (5.06%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (1.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.39%) Simulink
5 4 (0.19%) Windchill
6 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
7 1 (0.048%) CATIA
7 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.048%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.048%) Integrated Workplace Management System
3 1 (0.048%) Salesforce CRM
3 1 (0.048%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.048%) SAP EWM
3 1 (0.048%) SAP GRC
3 1 (0.048%) SAP HCM
3 1 (0.048%) SAP MM
3 1 (0.048%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 459 (22.12%) Azure
2 287 (13.83%) AWS
3 262 (12.63%) Microsoft 365
4 74 (3.57%) Entra ID
4 74 (3.57%) GCP
5 47 (2.27%) Dynamics 365
6 43 (2.07%) Serverless
7 41 (1.98%) SaaS
8 38 (1.83%) GitHub
8 38 (1.83%) Power Platform
9 32 (1.54%) Amazon S3
10 30 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
11 29 (1.40%) AWS CloudFormation
12 28 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
13 24 (1.16%) Amazon EC2
14 22 (1.06%) AWS Lambda
15 21 (1.01%) Amazon EKS
16 20 (0.96%) Amazon ECS
17 19 (0.92%) PaaS
18 17 (0.82%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 125 (6.02%) DNS
1 125 (6.02%) Firewall
2 104 (5.01%) DHCP
3 70 (3.37%) WAN
4 65 (3.13%) VPN
5 51 (2.46%) Network Security
6 50 (2.41%) LAN
7 46 (2.22%) TCP/IP
8 35 (1.69%) Wi-Fi
9 31 (1.49%) BGP
10 29 (1.40%) Structured Cabling
11 22 (1.06%) VLAN
12 21 (1.01%) SD-WAN
13 19 (0.92%) VoIP
14 18 (0.87%) HTTP
14 18 (0.87%) MPLS
15 17 (0.82%) Cisco Firepower
16 12 (0.58%) Broadband
16 12 (0.58%) Cisco ASA
17 10 (0.48%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 68 (3.28%) Amazon RDS
2 34 (1.64%) Power BI
3 27 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
4 21 (1.01%) DynamoDB
5 20 (0.96%) Big Data
6 16 (0.77%) Data Warehouse
7 15 (0.72%) Relational Database
8 14 (0.67%) Amazon Athena
9 12 (0.58%) MongoDB
10 11 (0.53%) GIS
10 11 (0.53%) NoSQL
10 11 (0.53%) SQL Server
11 10 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
12 9 (0.43%) Data Lake
12 9 (0.43%) Redis
13 8 (0.39%) Metadata
13 8 (0.39%) Pentaho
14 6 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
14 6 (0.29%) Hadoop
14 6 (0.29%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 73 (3.52%) Git
2 63 (3.04%) GitLab
3 35 (1.69%) Jenkins
4 25 (1.20%) JIRA
5 21 (1.01%) JUnit
6 16 (0.77%) Maven
6 16 (0.77%) SonarQube
7 14 (0.67%) Visual Studio Code
8 13 (0.63%) Mockito
8 13 (0.63%) Selenium
9 12 (0.58%) Cypress.io
10 8 (0.39%) Burp Suite
10 8 (0.39%) Cucumber
10 8 (0.39%) Metasploit
11 6 (0.29%) Postman
12 5 (0.24%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.24%) Claude Code
13 4 (0.19%) JMeter
14 3 (0.14%) Bitbucket
14 3 (0.14%) Rational DOORS
General
1 477 (22.99%) Social Skills
2 272 (13.11%) Public Sector
3 196 (9.45%) Analytical Skills
4 125 (6.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 124 (5.98%) Finance
6 59 (2.84%) Telecoms
7 51 (2.46%) Back Office
8 45 (2.17%) Manufacturing
9 42 (2.02%) Law
10 38 (1.83%) Electronics
11 37 (1.78%) Aerospace
12 35 (1.69%) Military
13 34 (1.64%) Legal
13 34 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
14 29 (1.40%) Aviation
15 24 (1.16%) Retail
16 19 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
17 13 (0.63%) Influencing Skills
18 11 (0.53%) Advertising
19 10 (0.48%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 343 (16.53%) Senior
2 194 (9.35%) Architect
3 167 (8.05%) Developer
4 163 (7.86%) Software Engineer
5 161 (7.76%) Analyst
6 153 (7.37%) Consultant
7 113 (5.45%) Support Engineer
8 107 (5.16%) Systems Engineer
9 91 (4.39%) Cloud Engineer
10 88 (4.24%) Data Engineer
11 83 (4.00%) Lead
11 83 (4.00%) Security Consultant
12 82 (3.95%) Network Engineer
13 75 (3.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 69 (3.33%) IT Support
15 68 (3.28%) IT Engineer
16 67 (3.23%) Senior Developer
17 66 (3.18%) Java Developer
18 62 (2.99%) Site Engineer
19 57 (2.75%) Desktop Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (2.84%) .NET
2 47 (2.27%) REST
3 40 (1.93%) Spring
4 36 (1.73%) React
5 33 (1.59%) Spring Boot
6 25 (1.20%) AngularJS
7 20 (0.96%) Node.js
8 17 (0.82%) Kafka
9 16 (0.77%) PySpark
10 15 (0.72%) RESTful
11 12 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
11 12 (0.58%) Jest
11 12 (0.58%) Playwright
12 11 (0.53%) RabbitMQ
12 11 (0.53%) SOAP
12 11 (0.53%) YAML
13 10 (0.48%) Web Services
14 9 (0.43%) gRPC
14 9 (0.43%) HTML
15 8 (0.39%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 83 (4.00%) Legacy Systems
2 75 (3.61%) Data Centre
3 70 (3.37%) Driving Licence
4 64 (3.08%) Onboarding
5 53 (2.55%) Cloud Native
6 47 (2.27%) Security Posture
7 40 (1.93%) Product Ownership
7 40 (1.93%) Security Operations Centre
8 37 (1.78%) Management Information System
9 34 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
10 26 (1.25%) Fibre Optics
11 24 (1.16%) Embedded Systems
11 24 (1.16%) Robotics
12 23 (1.11%) CSOC
13 21 (1.01%) PKI
14 19 (0.92%) Analytical Mindset
14 19 (0.92%) Distributed Systems
15 18 (0.87%) Algorithms
16 17 (0.82%) Cyber Threat
16 17 (0.82%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 285 (13.73%) Windows
2 230 (11.08%) Linux
3 126 (6.07%) Windows Server
4 83 (4.00%) Windows 10
5 71 (3.42%) Windows Server 2016
6 25 (1.20%) Unix
7 19 (0.92%) Android
8 15 (0.72%) Mac OS
9 13 (0.63%) CentOS
10 12 (0.58%) Ubuntu
11 8 (0.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 7 (0.34%) Apple iOS
13 6 (0.29%) Debian
14 5 (0.24%) AIX
15 4 (0.19%) Embedded Linux
15 4 (0.19%) Solaris
16 3 (0.14%) VMS
17 2 (0.096%) Mac OS X
17 2 (0.096%) Windows 7
18 1 (0.048%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 304 (14.65%) Cybersecurity
2 279 (13.45%) Problem-Solving
3 271 (13.06%) Agile
4 250 (12.05%) Continuous Improvement
5 231 (11.13%) Software Engineering
6 215 (10.36%) ITIL
7 206 (9.93%) DevOps
8 186 (8.96%) CI/CD
9 151 (7.28%) Customer Service
10 141 (6.80%) Mentoring
11 130 (6.27%) Analytics
12 125 (6.02%) Migration
13 122 (5.88%) Customer Experience
14 119 (5.73%) Infrastructure as Code
15 112 (5.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 103 (4.96%) AI
16 103 (4.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 96 (4.63%) Decision-Making
18 93 (4.48%) Stakeholder Management
18 93 (4.48%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 226 (10.89%) Python
2 138 (6.65%) Java
3 107 (5.16%) SQL
4 91 (4.39%) C++
5 76 (3.66%) PowerShell
6 67 (3.23%) Bash
7 53 (2.55%) C#
8 50 (2.41%) JavaScript
9 34 (1.64%) C
10 28 (1.35%) TypeScript
11 18 (0.87%) Groovy
11 18 (0.87%) Rust
12 17 (0.82%) PL/SQL
13 14 (0.67%) MATLAB
14 11 (0.53%) Embedded C
14 11 (0.53%) VBA
15 10 (0.48%) Kusto Query Language
16 8 (0.39%) Bicep
16 8 (0.39%) Perl
17 7 (0.34%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 2,075 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 386 (18.60%) DV Cleared
3 227 (10.94%) Degree
4 61 (2.94%) CTC Cleared
5 59 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
6 44 (2.12%) CISSP
7 43 (2.07%) Cisco Certification
8 35 (1.69%) Microsoft Certification
9 31 (1.49%) AWS Certification
10 30 (1.45%) CISM
11 28 (1.35%) CompTIA Security+
11 28 (1.35%) Computer Science Degree
12 26 (1.25%) CREST Certified
12 26 (1.25%) HNC
13 24 (1.16%) Master's Degree
14 23 (1.11%) Azure Certification
15 22 (1.06%) CCNP
16 17 (0.82%) A+ Certification
16 17 (0.82%) CCNA
16 17 (0.82%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 109 (5.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 98 (4.72%) Cyber Essentials
3 90 (4.34%) PCI DSS
4 87 (4.19%) SLA
5 64 (3.08%) NIST
6 54 (2.60%) QA
7 46 (2.22%) GDPR
8 31 (1.49%) NCSC
9 29 (1.40%) Data Quality
10 27 (1.30%) Accessibility
10 27 (1.30%) JSP 440
11 22 (1.06%) GRC
12 19 (0.92%) PMO
13 18 (0.87%) ISO 9001
13 18 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 17 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 16 (0.77%) Def Stans
16 12 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
17 11 (0.53%) NIST 800
18 8 (0.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 163 (7.86%) Active Directory
2 107 (5.16%) Docker
3 87 (4.19%) Hyper-V
4 64 (3.08%) Terminal Server
5 51 (2.46%) VMware Infrastructure
6 30 (1.45%) Firmware
7 18 (0.87%) Virtual Desktop
8 17 (0.82%) VMware NSX
9 13 (0.63%) vSphere
10 9 (0.43%) Embedded Firmware
11 6 (0.29%) Virtual Machines
12 5 (0.24%) BitLocker
13 4 (0.19%) VMware ESXi
14 3 (0.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
15 2 (0.096%) Lustre
16 1 (0.048%) Citrix Hypervisor
16 1 (0.048%) IAG
16 1 (0.048%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 144 (6.94%) Terraform
2 108 (5.20%) Kubernetes
3 83 (4.00%) Ansible
4 33 (1.59%) Microsoft Intune
5 23 (1.11%) SCCM
6 21 (1.01%) Grafana
7 20 (0.96%) Prometheus
8 15 (0.72%) Puppet
9 14 (0.67%) Proxmox
10 13 (0.63%) Kibana
10 13 (0.63%) vCenter Server
11 12 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
11 12 (0.58%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
12 10 (0.48%) Nessus
13 8 (0.39%) Nmap
14 7 (0.34%) QRadar
15 6 (0.29%) Argo
15 6 (0.29%) HP Fortify
15 6 (0.29%) Podman
15 6 (0.29%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 390 (18.80%) Microsoft
2 146 (7.04%) VMware
3 138 (6.65%) Cisco
4 94 (4.53%) Splunk
5 78 (3.76%) SolarWinds
6 65 (3.13%) Veeam
7 64 (3.08%) Brocade
7 64 (3.08%) Nimble Storage
7 64 (3.08%) Tanium
8 46 (2.22%) Oracle
9 39 (1.88%) ServiceNow
10 33 (1.59%) Google
11 24 (1.16%) Red Hat
12 21 (1.01%) HP
13 18 (0.87%) CheckPoint
13 18 (0.87%) Fortinet
14 16 (0.77%) Juniper
15 15 (0.72%) Citrix
16 14 (0.67%) Aruba
16 14 (0.67%) Salesforce