Security Operations Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Security Operations (SecOps)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Security Operations skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 275 350 354
Rank change year-on-year +75 +4 -18
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 361 196 459
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.55% 0.68% 0.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.78% 0.74% 0.80%
Number of salaries quoted 283 151 342
10th Percentile £41,250 £42,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £55,000 £54,500
Median % change year-on-year +13.64% +0.92% -5.36%
75th Percentile £75,000 £68,750 £68,750
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £89,875
UK median annual salary £70,000 £63,500 £60,250
% change year-on-year +10.24% +5.39% -3.60%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Security Operations falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 46,509 26,449 57,406
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 71.06% 92.02% 83.48%
Number of salaries quoted 29,799 13,959 41,086
10th Percentile £29,750 £27,500 £27,117
25th Percentile £37,500 £36,250 £36,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year - +5.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £70,000 £67,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
UK median annual salary £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +9.09% -9.84%

Security Operations
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Security Operations relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Security Operations job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Security Operations
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Security Operations.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Security Operations

Security Operations
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Operations in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 12 May 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Operations in the UK excluding London

Security Operations
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 Security Operations within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 12 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
North of England +30 105 £70,000 +18.14% 44
South East +41 103 £52,500 -16.00% 58
Midlands -3 64 £55,000 - 26
North West +33 57 £75,000 +25.00% 30
South West -28 40 £65,000 +25.65% 16
Yorkshire -32 40 £62,500 +13.64% 11
East Midlands +3 35 £52,500 -27.59% 7
West Midlands -31 29 £65,000 +18.18% 18
Wales -8 24 £24,500 -65.61% 6
East of England -22 17 £53,750 +13.16% 10
North East -31 8 £75,000 +30.43% 3
Scotland -9 7 £60,000 -2.04% 11
Northern Ireland -35 1 £39,000 - 1
Security Operations
UK

Security Operations
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 7 (1.94%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 76 (21.05%) Azure
2 41 (11.36%) Microsoft 365
3 36 (9.97%) AWS
4 35 (9.70%) Azure Sentinel
5 19 (5.26%) Entra ID
6 17 (4.71%) GCP
7 6 (1.66%) Datadog
7 6 (1.66%) GitHub
7 6 (1.66%) GitHub Actions
7 6 (1.66%) IaaS
7 6 (1.66%) PaaS
8 5 (1.39%) AWS CloudFormation
8 5 (1.39%) SaaS
9 4 (1.11%) Sumo Logic
10 3 (0.83%) Cloudflare
10 3 (0.83%) Dynamics 365
10 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (0.83%) OneDrive
11 2 (0.55%) Azure AKS
12 1 (0.28%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 38 (10.53%) Firewall
2 34 (9.42%) Network Security
3 22 (6.09%) DNS
4 17 (4.71%) TCP/IP
5 16 (4.43%) VPN
6 9 (2.49%) HTTP
7 8 (2.22%) LAN
7 8 (2.22%) WAN
8 7 (1.94%) SSL
9 6 (1.66%) Intrusion Detection
10 5 (1.39%) FTP
10 5 (1.39%) SMTP
11 4 (1.11%) DHCP
11 4 (1.11%) Internet
11 4 (1.11%) SAN
12 3 (0.83%) SD-WAN
13 1 (0.28%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.28%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 6 (1.66%) CircleCI
1 6 (1.66%) Jenkins
General
1 85 (23.55%) Social Skills
2 46 (12.74%) Analytical Skills
3 32 (8.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 26 (7.20%) Finance
5 20 (5.54%) Public Sector
6 16 (4.43%) Retail
7 15 (4.16%) Law
8 10 (2.77%) Legal
9 9 (2.49%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (1.66%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.66%) Police
11 5 (1.39%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.83%) Aviation
13 2 (0.55%) Documentation Skills
13 2 (0.55%) Games
13 2 (0.55%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.28%) Aeronautics
14 1 (0.28%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 69 (19.11%) Analyst
2 55 (15.24%) Security Manager
3 45 (12.47%) Security Analyst
4 42 (11.63%) Senior
5 41 (11.36%) SOC Engineer
6 40 (11.08%) Security Engineer
7 39 (10.80%) Cybersecurity Manager
8 32 (8.86%) Lead
9 30 (8.31%) Operations Manager
10 29 (8.03%) Operational Security Manager
10 29 (8.03%) Security Operations Manager
11 25 (6.93%) SOC Analyst
12 24 (6.65%) Cybersecurity Analyst
13 23 (6.37%) Infrastructure Manager
14 20 (5.54%) Infrastructure Support
14 20 (5.54%) Infrastructure Support Manager
14 20 (5.54%) Support Manager
14 20 (5.54%) Team Leader
15 19 (5.26%) Operations Team Leader
16 16 (4.43%) SOC Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (1.94%) ARM Templates
2 6 (1.66%) Regular Expression
3 5 (1.39%) LDAP
4 2 (0.55%) REST
5 1 (0.28%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 100 (27.70%) Security Operations Centre
2 44 (12.19%) Security Posture
3 21 (5.82%) CSOC
4 19 (5.26%) Cyber Threat
5 18 (4.99%) Management Information System
6 13 (3.60%) Onboarding
7 12 (3.32%) Cyber Defence
8 11 (3.05%) Cyberattack
9 9 (2.49%) Cloud Native
10 7 (1.94%) Cloud Security Posture
11 6 (1.66%) Life Science
11 6 (1.66%) Low-Code
12 5 (1.39%) Client/Server
12 5 (1.39%) Hybrid Cloud
12 5 (1.39%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.83%) Analytical Mindset
13 3 (0.83%) ARM Cortex
13 3 (0.83%) Enterprise Software
13 3 (0.83%) Greenfield Project
13 3 (0.83%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 42 (11.63%) Windows
2 23 (6.37%) Windows 10
3 15 (4.16%) Linux
4 5 (1.39%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.11%) Windows Server 2012
5 4 (1.11%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.28%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (47.92%) Cybersecurity
2 126 (34.90%) SIEM
3 105 (29.09%) Incident Response
4 79 (21.88%) Continuous Improvement
5 64 (17.73%) Cloud Security
6 55 (15.24%) Information Security
7 48 (13.30%) Vulnerability Management
8 46 (12.74%) Problem-Solving
9 44 (12.19%) Threat Detection
10 39 (10.80%) ITSM
11 37 (10.25%) Threat Intelligence
12 29 (8.03%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
13 27 (7.48%) Patch Management
13 27 (7.48%) Risk Management
13 27 (7.48%) Roadmaps
14 26 (7.20%) Mentoring
15 24 (6.65%) Use Case
16 23 (6.37%) Infrastructure Monitoring
16 23 (6.37%) Software Deployment
16 23 (6.37%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 51 (14.13%) PowerShell
2 45 (12.47%) Python
3 15 (4.16%) Kusto Query Language
4 12 (3.32%) Bash
5 9 (2.49%) Bicep
6 5 (1.39%) C++
6 5 (1.39%) Perl
6 5 (1.39%) SQL
7 2 (0.55%) C
7 2 (0.55%) C#
7 2 (0.55%) Go
8 1 (0.28%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 76 (21.05%) Security Cleared
2 67 (18.56%) SC Cleared
3 29 (8.03%) CISSP
3 29 (8.03%) CompTIA Security+
4 22 (6.09%) Degree
5 17 (4.71%) CISM
6 14 (3.88%) CREST Certified
7 13 (3.60%) SANS
8 12 (3.32%) CompTIA CySA+
9 11 (3.05%) CEH
10 9 (2.49%) Computer Science Degree
10 9 (2.49%) DV Cleared
11 8 (2.22%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (2.22%) Microsoft Certification
12 7 (1.94%) GIAC
13 5 (1.39%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 5 (1.39%) Azure Certification
13 5 (1.39%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 4 (1.11%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 4 (1.11%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 57 (15.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 46 (12.74%) NIST
3 31 (8.59%) Cyber Essentials
4 28 (7.76%) GDPR
5 22 (6.09%) GRC
6 17 (4.71%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 16 (4.43%) PCI DSS
8 11 (3.05%) NCSC
9 9 (2.49%) SOC 2
10 7 (1.94%) SLA
11 5 (1.39%) SOC 3
12 3 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 2 (0.55%) COBIT
13 2 (0.55%) ISO 22301
13 2 (0.55%) ISO 9001
14 1 (0.28%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 1 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 13 (3.60%) Active Directory
2 10 (2.77%) Docker
3 4 (1.11%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 27 (7.48%) SCCM
2 17 (4.71%) Terraform
3 15 (4.16%) Kubernetes
4 14 (3.88%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (3.32%) QRadar
6 6 (1.66%) Ansible
6 6 (1.66%) Grafana
7 4 (1.11%) CASB
7 4 (1.11%) vCenter Server
8 3 (0.83%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 3 (0.83%) FortiGate
8 3 (0.83%) Graylog
9 2 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.28%) Computer Incident Response Team
10 1 (0.28%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.28%) Host Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.28%) Kibana
Vendors
1 110 (30.47%) Microsoft
2 29 (8.03%) ServiceNow
3 27 (7.48%) SolarWinds
4 16 (4.43%) Splunk
5 12 (3.32%) CrowdStrike
6 7 (1.94%) VMware
7 4 (1.11%) 3PAR
7 4 (1.11%) Cisco
7 4 (1.11%) NetApp
7 4 (1.11%) Veeam
8 3 (0.83%) Fortinet
8 3 (0.83%) Okta
8 3 (0.83%) Tenable
9 2 (0.55%) Meraki
9 2 (0.55%) Netskope
9 2 (0.55%) Rapid7
10 1 (0.28%) ForgeRock
10 1 (0.28%) LogRhythm
10 1 (0.28%) Proofpoint
10 1 (0.28%) Zscaler