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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 73 59
Rank change year-on-year +12 -14 +10
Permanent jobs citing SC Cleared 2,022 1,127 2,813
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 3.00% 3.94% 3.92%
As % of the Qualifications category 12.92% 9.03% 15.26%
Number of salaries quoted 1,504 788 2,063
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 £66,500
90th Percentile £90,000 £81,250 £78,156
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 15,646 12,480 18,433
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 23.19% 43.68% 25.71%
Number of salaries quoted 6,252 4,879 12,191
10th Percentile £28,250 £28,000 £27,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £51,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.84% +2.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £71,106 £66,250 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £80,000
UK median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% +1.85% -10.00%

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 29 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 29 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 +15 549 £65,000 +8.33% 198
South East -16 493 £67,500 +22.73% 310
North of England +90 384 £60,000 +9.09% 177
Midlands +30 303 £57,500 -11.54% 89
North West +95 218 £65,000 +12.07% 102
West Midlands 0 202 £60,000 -7.69% 73
East of England +11 119 £61,500 +11.82% 44
Yorkshire +2 118 £62,500 +39.35% 41
Wales +6 105 £54,000 -1.82% 32
East Midlands +34 99 £55,000 +5.77% 16
Scotland +41 69 £75,000 +28.76% 33
North East +4 48 £55,000 -20.73% 35
Northern Ireland -41 5 £63,750 -25.13% 9
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 (4.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 43 (2.13%) SharePoint
3 15 (0.74%) Apache
3 15 (0.74%) SAS
4 11 (0.54%) Apache Spark
5 8 (0.40%) Apache Airflow
5 8 (0.40%) Skype for Business
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 6 (0.30%) Jupyter
8 2 (0.099%) Confluence
8 2 (0.099%) Exchange Server 2013
8 2 (0.099%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.049%) Apache Qpid
9 1 (0.049%) Appian
9 1 (0.049%) JBoss
Applications
1 103 (5.09%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 10 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.35%) Simulink
5 4 (0.20%) Windchill
6 2 (0.099%) Stateflow
7 1 (0.049%) CATIA
7 1 (0.049%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.049%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (0.30%) 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
1 440 (21.76%) Azure
2 268 (13.25%) AWS
3 247 (12.22%) Microsoft 365
4 73 (3.61%) Entra ID
5 71 (3.51%) GCP
6 49 (2.42%) Dynamics 365
7 39 (1.93%) Serverless
8 38 (1.88%) SaaS
9 37 (1.83%) Power Platform
10 33 (1.63%) GitHub
11 30 (1.48%) Azure Sentinel
12 29 (1.43%) Azure DevOps
13 28 (1.38%) Amazon S3
14 25 (1.24%) AWS CloudFormation
15 22 (1.09%) Amazon EKS
16 20 (0.99%) Amazon ECS
17 19 (0.94%) AWS Lambda
17 19 (0.94%) PaaS
18 17 (0.84%) Amazon EC2
19 16 (0.79%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 120 (5.93%) Firewall
2 118 (5.84%) DNS
3 98 (4.85%) DHCP
4 66 (3.26%) WAN
5 62 (3.07%) VPN
6 51 (2.52%) Network Security
7 48 (2.37%) LAN
8 46 (2.27%) TCP/IP
9 35 (1.73%) Wi-Fi
10 28 (1.38%) BGP
10 28 (1.38%) Structured Cabling
11 20 (0.99%) SD-WAN
12 19 (0.94%) VLAN
12 19 (0.94%) VoIP
13 18 (0.89%) MPLS
14 17 (0.84%) Cisco Firepower
14 17 (0.84%) HTTP
15 12 (0.59%) Cisco ASA
16 10 (0.49%) MQTT
16 10 (0.49%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (2.97%) Amazon RDS
2 33 (1.63%) Power BI
3 23 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
4 19 (0.94%) Big Data
4 19 (0.94%) DynamoDB
5 16 (0.79%) Data Warehouse
6 14 (0.69%) Relational Database
7 11 (0.54%) Amazon Athena
7 11 (0.54%) Elasticsearch
7 11 (0.54%) GIS
7 11 (0.54%) MongoDB
8 10 (0.49%) NoSQL
8 10 (0.49%) SQL Server
9 8 (0.40%) Data Lake
9 8 (0.40%) Metadata
9 8 (0.40%) Pentaho
9 8 (0.40%) Redis
10 6 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
10 6 (0.30%) Hadoop
10 6 (0.30%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 70 (3.46%) Git
2 57 (2.82%) GitLab
3 31 (1.53%) Jenkins
4 23 (1.14%) JIRA
5 20 (0.99%) 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 (0.40%) Cucumber
11 6 (0.30%) Burp Suite
11 6 (0.30%) Metasploit
11 6 (0.30%) Postman
12 5 (0.25%) Claude Code
13 4 (0.20%) Artifactory
13 4 (0.20%) JMeter
14 3 (0.15%) Bitbucket
14 3 (0.15%) Rational DOORS
General
1 459 (22.70%) Social Skills
2 262 (12.96%) Public Sector
3 179 (8.85%) Analytical Skills
4 124 (6.13%) Finance
5 123 (6.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 59 (2.92%) Telecoms
7 51 (2.52%) Back Office
7 51 (2.52%) Manufacturing
8 44 (2.18%) Law
9 38 (1.88%) Aerospace
9 38 (1.88%) Electronics
10 35 (1.73%) Legal
10 35 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
11 32 (1.58%) Military
12 27 (1.34%) Aviation
13 21 (1.04%) Retail
14 19 (0.94%) Documentation Skills
15 12 (0.59%) Advertising
15 12 (0.59%) Influencing Skills
15 12 (0.59%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 338 (16.72%) Senior
2 187 (9.25%) Architect
3 166 (8.21%) Software Engineer
4 164 (8.11%) Analyst
4 164 (8.11%) Developer
5 154 (7.62%) Consultant
6 111 (5.49%) Support Engineer
7 99 (4.90%) Systems Engineer
8 89 (4.40%) Cloud Engineer
9 82 (4.06%) Data Engineer
10 81 (4.01%) Security Consultant
11 78 (3.86%) Lead
12 77 (3.81%) Network Engineer
13 73 (3.61%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 66 (3.26%) IT Engineer
14 66 (3.26%) IT Support
14 66 (3.26%) Java Developer
14 66 (3.26%) Senior Developer
15 60 (2.97%) Site Engineer
16 56 (2.77%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 60 (2.97%) .NET
2 47 (2.32%) REST
3 37 (1.83%) Spring
4 34 (1.68%) React
5 30 (1.48%) Spring Boot
6 25 (1.24%) AngularJS
7 16 (0.79%) Kafka
7 16 (0.79%) Node.js
8 14 (0.69%) RESTful
9 13 (0.64%) PySpark
10 12 (0.59%) Playwright
11 11 (0.54%) Elastic Stack
11 11 (0.54%) RabbitMQ
11 11 (0.54%) SOAP
11 11 (0.54%) YAML
12 10 (0.49%) Jest
13 9 (0.45%) gRPC
14 8 (0.40%) ASP.NET
14 8 (0.40%) OpenAPI
14 8 (0.40%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 74 (3.66%) Data Centre
1 74 (3.66%) Legacy Systems
2 67 (3.31%) Driving Licence
3 64 (3.17%) Onboarding
4 43 (2.13%) Security Posture
5 42 (2.08%) Cloud Native
5 42 (2.08%) Security Operations Centre
6 39 (1.93%) Product Ownership
7 36 (1.78%) Management Information System
8 33 (1.63%) Self-Motivation
9 26 (1.29%) Fibre Optics
10 23 (1.14%) CSOC
10 23 (1.14%) Embedded Systems
11 22 (1.09%) Robotics
12 20 (0.99%) PKI
13 18 (0.89%) Algorithms
13 18 (0.89%) Distributed Systems
14 17 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
15 16 (0.79%) Cyber Threat
16 15 (0.74%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 273 (13.50%) Windows
2 217 (10.73%) Linux
3 118 (5.84%) Windows Server
4 78 (3.86%) Windows 10
5 62 (3.07%) Windows Server 2016
6 25 (1.24%) Unix
7 17 (0.84%) Android
8 14 (0.69%) Mac OS
9 12 (0.59%) CentOS
10 11 (0.54%) Ubuntu
11 9 (0.45%) Apple iOS
12 8 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 6 (0.30%) Debian
14 5 (0.25%) Solaris
15 3 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
15 3 (0.15%) VMS
16 2 (0.099%) AIX
16 2 (0.099%) Mac OS X
16 2 (0.099%) Windows 7
16 2 (0.099%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 292 (14.44%) Cybersecurity
2 263 (13.01%) Agile
2 263 (13.01%) Problem-Solving
3 245 (12.12%) Continuous Improvement
4 231 (11.42%) Software Engineering
5 207 (10.24%) ITIL
6 199 (9.84%) DevOps
7 172 (8.51%) CI/CD
8 142 (7.02%) Customer Service
9 137 (6.78%) Mentoring
10 128 (6.33%) Analytics
11 114 (5.64%) Customer Experience
12 112 (5.54%) Migration
13 107 (5.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 106 (5.24%) Infrastructure as Code
15 102 (5.04%) AI
16 92 (4.55%) Stakeholder Engagement
17 89 (4.40%) Scrum
18 87 (4.30%) SIEM
18 87 (4.30%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 217 (10.73%) Python
2 133 (6.58%) Java
3 105 (5.19%) SQL
4 89 (4.40%) C++
5 73 (3.61%) PowerShell
6 67 (3.31%) Bash
7 53 (2.62%) C#
8 49 (2.42%) JavaScript
9 33 (1.63%) C
10 28 (1.38%) TypeScript
11 18 (0.89%) 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 (0.40%) Bicep
18 8 (0.40%) Perl
19 7 (0.35%) Embedded C++
Qualifications
1 2,022 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 383 (18.94%) DV Cleared
3 222 (10.98%) Degree
4 61 (3.02%) CTC Cleared
5 54 (2.67%) BPSS Clearance
6 39 (1.93%) CISSP
7 37 (1.83%) Cisco Certification
8 36 (1.78%) Microsoft Certification
9 30 (1.48%) Computer Science Degree
10 29 (1.43%) AWS Certification
11 28 (1.38%) CompTIA Security+
12 26 (1.29%) HNC
13 25 (1.24%) CISM
13 25 (1.24%) CREST Certified
14 24 (1.19%) Master's Degree
15 21 (1.04%) Azure Certification
15 21 (1.04%) CCNP
16 16 (0.79%) OSCP
17 15 (0.74%) CCNA
17 15 (0.74%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 102 (5.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 88 (4.35%) Cyber Essentials
3 84 (4.15%) SLA
4 81 (4.01%) PCI DSS
5 63 (3.12%) NIST
6 53 (2.62%) QA
7 44 (2.18%) GDPR
8 28 (1.38%) NCSC
9 26 (1.29%) Accessibility
10 25 (1.24%) Data Quality
11 24 (1.19%) JSP 440
12 18 (0.89%) GRC
12 18 (0.89%) ISO 9001
12 18 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 18 (0.89%) PMO
13 14 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 14 (0.69%) Def Stans
14 11 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
15 9 (0.45%) NIST 800
16 8 (0.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 160 (7.91%) Active Directory
2 99 (4.90%) Docker
3 77 (3.81%) Hyper-V
4 57 (2.82%) Terminal Server
5 51 (2.52%) 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 (0.45%) 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 (0.099%) Lustre
14 1 (0.049%) Citrix Hypervisor
14 1 (0.049%) IAG
14 1 (0.049%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 132 (6.53%) Terraform
2 99 (4.90%) Kubernetes
3 83 (4.10%) Ansible
4 32 (1.58%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (1.19%) SCCM
6 19 (0.94%) Grafana
7 18 (0.89%) 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 (0.45%) Nessus
12 7 (0.35%) QRadar
13 6 (0.30%) HP Fortify
13 6 (0.30%) Nmap
13 6 (0.30%) Podman
14 5 (0.25%) Graylog
14 5 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 378 (18.69%) Microsoft
2 139 (6.87%) VMware
3 137 (6.78%) Cisco
4 86 (4.25%) Splunk
5 70 (3.46%) SolarWinds
6 57 (2.82%) Veeam
7 56 (2.77%) Brocade
7 56 (2.77%) Nimble Storage
7 56 (2.77%) Tanium
8 42 (2.08%) Oracle
9 35 (1.73%) Google
9 35 (1.73%) ServiceNow
10 21 (1.04%) HP
10 21 (1.04%) Red Hat
11 18 (0.89%) CheckPoint
12 17 (0.84%) Fortinet
12 17 (0.84%) Juniper
13 16 (0.79%) Citrix
14 15 (0.74%) Palo Alto
14 15 (0.74%) SAP