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

6 months to
24 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 72 61
Rank change year-on-year +26 -11 +5
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 2,205 1,209 2,872
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.22% 3.98% 3.66%
As % of the Qualifications category 16.91% 9.53% 14.85%
Number of salaries quoted 1,660 823 2,101
10th Percentile £41,236 £35,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £59,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +10.17% +7.27% -8.33%
75th Percentile £80,000 £73,750 £67,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £84,750 £79,225
UK median annual salary £67,500 £60,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year +11.57% +5.22% -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 13,042 12,692 19,341
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 19.04% 41.76% 24.66%
Number of salaries quoted 6,533 5,062 12,239
10th Percentile £29,000 £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 £85,000 £78,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £52,777
% change year-on-year +9.09% +4.21% -12.04%

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 24 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 24 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 +14 600 £70,000 +15.23% 167
South East -9 561 £70,000 +21.74% 284
North of England +102 433 £62,500 +13.64% 174
Midlands +33 307 £58,589 -9.86% 86
North West +111 243 £67,500 +14.41% 95
West Midlands +10 199 £60,000 -11.19% 58
Wales +4 129 £55,000 - 35
Yorkshire +12 125 £62,500 +31.58% 47
East of England +4 110 £65,000 +18.18% 48
East Midlands +32 106 £52,500 +0.96% 28
Scotland +47 66 £75,000 +20.00% 23
North East +9 65 £55,500 -20.01% 35
Northern Ireland -33 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 (4.54%) Microsoft Exchange
2 49 (2.22%) SharePoint
3 21 (0.95%) Apache
4 19 (0.86%) SAS
5 16 (0.73%) Apache Spark
6 14 (0.63%) Apache Airflow
7 11 (0.50%) Confluence
7 11 (0.50%) Jupyter
8 8 (0.36%) Skype for Business
9 6 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
10 3 (0.14%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.091%) Exchange Server 2013
12 1 (0.045%) Apache Qpid
12 1 (0.045%) Appian
12 1 (0.045%) JBoss
12 1 (0.045%) Site Server
Applications
1 88 (3.99%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (1.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.41%) Simulink
4 4 (0.18%) Windchill
5 3 (0.14%) Stateflow
6 1 (0.045%) CATIA
6 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.045%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (0.32%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (0.091%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.091%) Workday HCM
4 1 (0.045%) Integrated Workplace Management System
4 1 (0.045%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.045%) SAP BPC
4 1 (0.045%) SAP EWM
4 1 (0.045%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.045%) SAP HCM
4 1 (0.045%) SAP MM
4 1 (0.045%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 493 (22.36%) Azure
2 301 (13.65%) AWS
3 266 (12.06%) Microsoft 365
4 83 (3.76%) Entra ID
5 79 (3.58%) GCP
6 48 (2.18%) Power Platform
7 47 (2.13%) Serverless
8 45 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
9 44 (2.00%) GitHub
9 44 (2.00%) SaaS
10 39 (1.77%) Dynamics 365
11 36 (1.63%) Amazon S3
12 32 (1.45%) Azure Sentinel
13 30 (1.36%) AWS CloudFormation
14 26 (1.18%) Amazon EC2
15 24 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
16 22 (1.00%) PaaS
17 21 (0.95%) Amazon EKS
18 20 (0.91%) Amazon ECR
18 20 (0.91%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 131 (5.94%) DNS
2 127 (5.76%) Firewall
3 107 (4.85%) DHCP
4 68 (3.08%) WAN
5 64 (2.90%) VPN
6 50 (2.27%) LAN
7 49 (2.22%) Network Security
7 49 (2.22%) TCP/IP
8 30 (1.36%) Wi-Fi
9 28 (1.27%) BGP
10 27 (1.22%) Structured Cabling
11 22 (1.00%) VLAN
12 20 (0.91%) HTTP
13 19 (0.86%) SD-WAN
14 18 (0.82%) MPLS
15 17 (0.77%) VoIP
16 16 (0.73%) Cisco Firepower
17 14 (0.63%) Broadband
18 13 (0.59%) ATM
19 11 (0.50%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 76 (3.45%) Amazon RDS
2 40 (1.81%) Power BI
3 32 (1.45%) PostgreSQL
4 22 (1.00%) DynamoDB
5 21 (0.95%) Big Data
6 18 (0.82%) Data Warehouse
7 15 (0.68%) Amazon Athena
7 15 (0.68%) Relational Database
8 14 (0.63%) MongoDB
9 11 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
9 11 (0.50%) SQL Server
10 10 (0.45%) NoSQL
10 10 (0.45%) Redis
11 9 (0.41%) Data Lake
11 9 (0.41%) GIS
12 7 (0.32%) Amazon Redshift
12 7 (0.32%) MySQL
12 7 (0.32%) Pentaho
13 6 (0.27%) Hadoop
13 6 (0.27%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 78 (3.54%) Git
2 71 (3.22%) GitLab
3 41 (1.86%) Jenkins
4 33 (1.50%) JIRA
5 22 (1.00%) JUnit
6 17 (0.77%) SonarQube
7 16 (0.73%) Maven
7 16 (0.73%) Selenium
8 15 (0.68%) Cypress.io
8 15 (0.68%) Visual Studio Code
9 12 (0.54%) Mockito
10 8 (0.36%) Burp Suite
10 8 (0.36%) Cucumber
10 8 (0.36%) Metasploit
11 6 (0.27%) JMeter
11 6 (0.27%) Postman
12 5 (0.23%) Artifactory
12 5 (0.23%) Claude Code
12 5 (0.23%) REST Assured
13 3 (0.14%) Bitbucket
General
1 492 (22.31%) Social Skills
2 283 (12.83%) Public Sector
3 218 (9.89%) Analytical Skills
4 135 (6.12%) Finance
5 133 (6.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 55 (2.49%) Telecoms
7 44 (2.00%) Aerospace
8 42 (1.90%) Manufacturing
9 38 (1.72%) Electronics
10 37 (1.68%) Back Office
11 36 (1.63%) Legal
11 36 (1.63%) Military
11 36 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
12 34 (1.54%) Law
13 30 (1.36%) Aviation
14 25 (1.13%) Retail
15 18 (0.82%) Documentation Skills
16 12 (0.54%) Games
16 12 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
17 11 (0.50%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 363 (16.46%) Senior
2 211 (9.57%) Architect
3 189 (8.57%) Developer
4 181 (8.21%) Software Engineer
5 176 (7.98%) Consultant
6 161 (7.30%) Analyst
7 120 (5.44%) Systems Engineer
8 98 (4.44%) Cloud Engineer
9 96 (4.35%) Support Engineer
10 94 (4.26%) Security Consultant
11 93 (4.22%) Data Engineer
12 90 (4.08%) Lead
13 77 (3.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 77 (3.49%) Network Engineer
14 76 (3.45%) Senior Developer
15 70 (3.17%) Security Architect
16 68 (3.08%) Java Developer
17 66 (2.99%) IT Engineer
18 64 (2.90%) IT Support
19 59 (2.68%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (2.63%) .NET
2 49 (2.22%) REST
3 40 (1.81%) React
3 40 (1.81%) Spring
4 36 (1.63%) Spring Boot
5 25 (1.13%) AngularJS
6 22 (1.00%) Node.js
7 19 (0.86%) Kafka
8 18 (0.82%) HTML
8 18 (0.82%) PySpark
9 17 (0.77%) RESTful
10 15 (0.68%) CSS
11 14 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
11 14 (0.63%) Playwright
12 13 (0.59%) Jest
13 12 (0.54%) YAML
14 11 (0.50%) RabbitMQ
15 10 (0.45%) SOAP
15 10 (0.45%) Web Services
16 9 (0.41%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 92 (4.17%) Legacy Systems
2 75 (3.40%) Data Centre
2 75 (3.40%) Driving Licence
3 73 (3.31%) Onboarding
4 72 (3.27%) Cloud Native
5 47 (2.13%) Security Posture
6 45 (2.04%) Product Ownership
6 45 (2.04%) Security Operations Centre
7 41 (1.86%) Self-Motivation
8 38 (1.72%) Management Information System
9 26 (1.18%) Fibre Optics
10 25 (1.13%) CSOC
10 25 (1.13%) Embedded Systems
11 24 (1.09%) Robotics
12 22 (1.00%) PKI
13 20 (0.91%) Algorithms
13 20 (0.91%) Cyber Threat
14 19 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
14 19 (0.86%) Operational Technology
15 18 (0.82%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 281 (12.74%) Windows
2 245 (11.11%) Linux
3 129 (5.85%) Windows Server
4 78 (3.54%) Windows Server 2016
5 70 (3.17%) Windows 10
6 28 (1.27%) Unix
7 21 (0.95%) 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%) AIX
12 6 (0.27%) Debian
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
1 322 (14.60%) Cybersecurity
2 312 (14.15%) Agile
3 300 (13.61%) Problem-Solving
4 260 (11.79%) Continuous Improvement
5 251 (11.38%) Software Engineering
6 242 (10.98%) DevOps
7 218 (9.89%) ITIL
8 215 (9.75%) CI/CD
9 164 (7.44%) Mentoring
10 144 (6.53%) Customer Service
11 136 (6.17%) Infrastructure as Code
12 134 (6.08%) Migration
13 130 (5.90%) Analytics
14 123 (5.58%) AI
15 120 (5.44%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 116 (5.26%) Customer Experience
17 114 (5.17%) Stakeholder Engagement
18 108 (4.90%) Technical Leadership
19 107 (4.85%) Decision-Making
20 102 (4.63%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 255 (11.56%) Python
2 156 (7.07%) Java
3 110 (4.99%) SQL
4 97 (4.40%) C++
5 83 (3.76%) PowerShell
6 69 (3.13%) Bash
7 59 (2.68%) JavaScript
8 56 (2.54%) C#
9 35 (1.59%) TypeScript
10 34 (1.54%) 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 (0.63%) Bicep
16 13 (0.59%) VBA
17 12 (0.54%) Embedded C
18 8 (0.36%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 2,205 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 408 (18.50%) DV Cleared
3 219 (9.93%) Degree
4 69 (3.13%) BPSS Clearance
5 51 (2.31%) CISSP
6 46 (2.09%) CTC Cleared
7 44 (2.00%) Cisco Certification
8 38 (1.72%) CISM
9 34 (1.54%) Azure Certification
9 34 (1.54%) Microsoft Certification
10 29 (1.32%) AWS Certification
11 28 (1.27%) CompTIA Security+
12 27 (1.22%) HNC
13 26 (1.18%) Computer Science Degree
13 26 (1.18%) CREST Certified
13 26 (1.18%) Master's Degree
14 21 (0.95%) CCNP
15 18 (0.82%) SANS
16 16 (0.73%) A+ Certification
16 16 (0.73%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 128 (5.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 113 (5.12%) Cyber Essentials
3 98 (4.44%) PCI DSS
4 79 (3.58%) SLA
5 68 (3.08%) NIST
6 61 (2.77%) QA
7 48 (2.18%) GDPR
8 43 (1.95%) NCSC
9 33 (1.50%) Accessibility
10 31 (1.41%) Data Quality
11 29 (1.32%) JSP 440
12 26 (1.18%) GRC
13 22 (1.00%) ISO 9001
14 20 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 20 (0.91%) PMO
15 18 (0.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 18 (0.82%) Def Stans
16 12 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
16 12 (0.54%) NIST 800
16 12 (0.54%) WCAG
System Software
1 180 (8.16%) Active Directory
2 120 (5.44%) Docker
3 106 (4.81%) Hyper-V
4 72 (3.27%) Terminal Server
5 52 (2.36%) VMware Infrastructure
6 32 (1.45%) Firmware
7 20 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
8 16 (0.73%) VMware NSX
9 14 (0.63%) 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
1 160 (7.26%) Terraform
2 125 (5.67%) Kubernetes
3 84 (3.81%) Ansible
4 38 (1.72%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (1.09%) Grafana
6 23 (1.04%) Prometheus
7 19 (0.86%) SCCM
8 16 (0.73%) Proxmox
8 16 (0.73%) Puppet
9 14 (0.63%) Kibana
9 14 (0.63%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
10 12 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
11 11 (0.50%) Nessus
11 11 (0.50%) vCenter Server
12 9 (0.41%) Argo
13 8 (0.36%) Nmap
13 8 (0.36%) QRadar
14 7 (0.32%) HP Fortify
15 6 (0.27%) Graylog
15 6 (0.27%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 418 (18.96%) Microsoft
2 152 (6.89%) VMware
3 113 (5.12%) Cisco
4 104 (4.72%) Splunk
5 83 (3.76%) SolarWinds
6 73 (3.31%) Veeam
7 72 (3.27%) Brocade
7 72 (3.27%) Nimble Storage
7 72 (3.27%) Tanium
8 48 (2.18%) Oracle
9 46 (2.09%) ServiceNow
10 32 (1.45%) Google
11 21 (0.95%) Red Hat
12 19 (0.86%) Fortinet
12 19 (0.86%) HP
13 15 (0.68%) CheckPoint
14 14 (0.63%) Aruba
14 14 (0.63%) Juniper
14 14 (0.63%) Tenable
15 13 (0.59%) Databricks