Security Operations Job Trends

Security Operations (SecOps)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Security Operations skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 8 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 209 338 272
Rank change year-on-year +129 -66 +2
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 1,044 370 736
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.89% 0.75% 1.00%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.21% 0.84% 1.23%
Number of salaries quoted 693 269 427
10th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £40,000
25th Percentile £53,750 £48,165 £48,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +8.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £86,250 £80,000 £78,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £57,250 £55,000
% change year-on-year +13.54% +4.09% -12.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 86,155 44,192 60,081
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.18% 88.99% 81.99%
Number of salaries quoted 59,150 24,458 32,463
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,325 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £42,608
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £96,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

Security Operations
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Security Operations job vacancy trend in the UK

Security Operations
Salary Trend

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

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Security Operations

Security Operations
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Operations over the 6 months to 8 October 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Top 16 Job Locations

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 over the 6 months to 8 October 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
England +128 943 £70,000 +7.69% 913
UK excluding London +110 626 £65,000 +13.54% 498
London +99 373 £77,000 +2.67% 479
Work from Home +70 275 £70,000 +3.70% 383
South East +76 234 £60,000 -5.88% 169
North of England +25 130 £71,250 +26.67% 129
North West +49 91 £75,000 +66.67% 75
Midlands +4 90 £65,000 +23.22% 49
East Midlands +24 59 £65,000 +6.34% 23
South West -30 55 £60,000 +17.51% 43
East of England -11 49 £61,250 -14.63% 36
Yorkshire -7 39 £62,500 -3.85% 41
Wales -43 35 £45,000 -18.18% 12
Scotland +22 31 £75,000 +7.14% 37
West Midlands -50 31 £67,500 +27.96% 26
Northern Ireland -75 4 £42,500 - 27

Security Operations
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 18 (1.72%) SharePoint
2 11 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.38%) Confluence
3 4 (0.38%) IIS
4 3 (0.29%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.096%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.096%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.29%) Distributed Ledger
2 1 (0.096%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 225 (21.55%) Azure
2 138 (13.22%) AWS
3 109 (10.44%) Microsoft 365
4 105 (10.06%) Entra ID
5 85 (8.14%) Azure Sentinel
6 67 (6.42%) GCP
7 36 (3.45%) Microsoft Purview
8 27 (2.59%) SaaS
9 26 (2.49%) Azure Logic Apps
10 21 (2.01%) Mimecast
11 14 (1.34%) Anthropic Claude
12 12 (1.15%) Zapier
13 11 (1.05%) AWS CloudFormation
13 11 (1.05%) IaaS
14 9 (0.86%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 9 (0.86%) Microsoft Copilot
15 8 (0.77%) Cloudflare
15 8 (0.77%) PaaS
16 6 (0.57%) Google Workspace
16 6 (0.57%) Sumo Logic
Communications & Networking
1 166 (15.90%) Firewall
2 110 (10.54%) Network Security
3 61 (5.84%) WAN
4 59 (5.65%) LAN
5 54 (5.17%) VPN
6 51 (4.89%) TCP/IP
7 38 (3.64%) DNS
8 31 (2.97%) Wi-Fi
9 27 (2.59%) Internet
10 25 (2.39%) Cisco Nexus
10 25 (2.39%) HTTP
11 19 (1.82%) Intrusion Detection
12 16 (1.53%) FTP
12 16 (1.53%) SMTP
13 15 (1.44%) Cisco ISE
14 14 (1.34%) SSL
15 9 (0.86%) Wireless
16 7 (0.67%) SD-WAN
17 6 (0.57%) IPsec
17 6 (0.57%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.48%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.38%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.29%) Azure SQL Database
3 3 (0.29%) Hadoop
3 3 (0.29%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.19%) Power BI
4 2 (0.19%) Power Query
4 2 (0.19%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.096%) Big Data
5 1 (0.096%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.096%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 9 (0.86%) JIRA
2 6 (0.57%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.29%) Maven
3 3 (0.29%) Team Foundation Server
4 2 (0.19%) GitLab
4 2 (0.19%) Yeoman
5 1 (0.096%) Git
5 1 (0.096%) Snyk
5 1 (0.096%) SonarQube
General
1 207 (19.83%) Social Skills
2 133 (12.74%) Finance
3 109 (10.44%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (4.79%) Law
5 49 (4.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 48 (4.60%) Legal
7 47 (4.50%) Public Sector
8 43 (4.12%) Aerospace
9 37 (3.54%) Retail
10 29 (2.78%) Banking
11 24 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
12 21 (2.01%) Military
13 12 (1.15%) Documentation Skills
14 9 (0.86%) Financial Institution
15 6 (0.57%) Advertising
15 6 (0.57%) Back Office
15 6 (0.57%) Investment Banking
16 5 (0.48%) Aviation
16 5 (0.48%) Manufacturing
17 4 (0.38%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 266 (25.48%) Analyst
2 209 (20.02%) Senior
3 181 (17.34%) Security Analyst
4 152 (14.56%) Lead
5 142 (13.60%) Security Engineer
6 130 (12.45%) Security Manager
7 114 (10.92%) Senior Analyst
8 92 (8.81%) SOC Analyst
9 81 (7.76%) Cybersecurity Analyst
10 75 (7.18%) Senior Security Analyst
11 73 (6.99%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 70 (6.70%) Architect
13 63 (6.03%) Cybersecurity Engineer
14 62 (5.94%) Operational Security Manager
14 62 (5.94%) Security Operations Manager
15 53 (5.08%) Operations Manager
16 47 (4.50%) Operations Analyst
16 47 (4.50%) Senior Security Engineer
17 46 (4.41%) SOC Engineer
18 44 (4.21%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (3.74%) Terraform
2 22 (2.11%) LDAP
3 16 (1.53%) ModSecurity
4 14 (1.34%) REST
5 7 (0.67%) ARM Templates
5 7 (0.67%) JSON
5 7 (0.67%) SOAP
6 4 (0.38%) OpenID
6 4 (0.38%) Regular Expression
6 4 (0.38%) SAML
7 3 (0.29%) HTML
7 3 (0.29%) Kafka
7 3 (0.29%) SailPoint
7 3 (0.29%) Smart Contracts
8 2 (0.19%) CSS
8 2 (0.19%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (0.19%) RESTful
8 2 (0.19%) XML
9 1 (0.096%) FFmpeg
9 1 (0.096%) WebRTC
Miscellaneous
1 241 (23.08%) Security Operations Centre
2 183 (17.53%) Security Posture
3 105 (10.06%) Cyber Threat
4 94 (9.00%) Cyber Defence
5 71 (6.80%) Management Information System
6 46 (4.41%) Data Centre
7 41 (3.93%) Cloud Native
8 36 (3.45%) CSOC
9 32 (3.07%) Onboarding
10 26 (2.49%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 14 (1.34%) Cloud Security Posture
11 14 (1.34%) Hybrid Cloud
12 13 (1.25%) AI Agents
12 13 (1.25%) Self-Motivation
13 12 (1.15%) Social Media
14 11 (1.05%) PKI
15 10 (0.96%) Cyber Security Posture
15 10 (0.96%) Public Cloud
15 10 (0.96%) Virtual Team
16 9 (0.86%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 96 (9.20%) Windows
2 71 (6.80%) Linux
3 13 (1.25%) Mac OS
3 13 (1.25%) Windows Server
4 9 (0.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.77%) Unix
6 6 (0.57%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.48%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.48%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.19%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 617 (59.10%) Cybersecurity
2 380 (36.40%) Incident Response
3 361 (34.58%) SIEM
4 279 (26.72%) Vulnerability Management
5 248 (23.75%) Continuous Improvement
6 247 (23.66%) Information Security
7 197 (18.87%) Cloud Security
8 175 (16.76%) Threat Detection
9 166 (15.90%) Risk Management
10 139 (13.31%) Threat Intelligence
11 132 (12.64%) Problem-Solving
12 131 (12.55%) AI
13 128 (12.26%) Security Monitoring
14 127 (12.16%) Stakeholder Management
15 112 (10.73%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
16 97 (9.29%) Disaster Recovery
17 96 (9.20%) Incident Management
18 94 (9.00%) Mentoring
19 92 (8.81%) SOAR
20 87 (8.33%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 108 (10.34%) PowerShell
2 102 (9.77%) Python
3 51 (4.89%) Kusto Query Language
4 30 (2.87%) Bash
5 15 (1.44%) SQL
6 14 (1.34%) C++
7 13 (1.25%) Perl
8 10 (0.96%) Search Processing Language
9 9 (0.86%) Bicep
9 9 (0.86%) Go
9 9 (0.86%) JavaScript
10 6 (0.57%) Java
11 5 (0.48%) C
12 4 (0.38%) Shell Script
13 3 (0.29%) C#
14 1 (0.096%) MATLAB
14 1 (0.096%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 196 (18.77%) Security Cleared
2 164 (15.71%) CISSP
3 127 (12.16%) SC Cleared
4 87 (8.33%) CISM
5 79 (7.57%) CompTIA Security+
6 78 (7.47%) Degree
7 64 (6.13%) DV Cleared
8 48 (4.60%) Cisco Certification
9 44 (4.21%) GIAC
10 37 (3.54%) CEH
11 35 (3.35%) CompTIA CySA+
12 27 (2.59%) AWS Certification
13 26 (2.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 25 (2.39%) GCIA
15 24 (2.30%) Computer Science Degree
15 24 (2.30%) GCIH
16 21 (2.01%) Azure Certification
16 21 (2.01%) SANS
17 19 (1.82%) CISA
18 18 (1.72%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 228 (21.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 170 (16.28%) NIST
3 78 (7.47%) Cyber Essentials
4 74 (7.09%) GRC
5 70 (6.70%) GDPR
6 51 (4.89%) PCI DSS
7 30 (2.87%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 25 (2.39%) SOC 2
9 24 (2.30%) NCSC
10 19 (1.82%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 19 (1.82%) SLA
11 12 (1.15%) Data Quality
12 6 (0.57%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.57%) NIST 800
13 3 (0.29%) COBIT
13 3 (0.29%) ISO 22301
13 3 (0.29%) ISO 9001
13 3 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 3 (0.29%) QA
14 2 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 42 (4.02%) Active Directory
2 14 (1.34%) Docker
3 10 (0.96%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.19%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.19%) NFS
5 2 (0.19%) Snort
5 2 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 42 (4.02%) Microsoft Intune
2 41 (3.93%) Kubernetes
3 40 (3.83%) Single Sign-On
4 30 (2.87%) QRadar
5 13 (1.25%) SCCM
6 10 (0.96%) Ansible
7 7 (0.67%) FortiGate
7 7 (0.67%) Graylog
7 7 (0.67%) Nessus
8 6 (0.57%) Progress Chef
9 5 (0.48%) McAfee ePO
9 5 (0.48%) Nagios
10 4 (0.38%) Kibana
10 4 (0.38%) Red Hat Satellite
11 3 (0.29%) CASB
11 3 (0.29%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 3 (0.29%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 3 (0.29%) Puppet
11 3 (0.29%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
12 2 (0.19%) Istio
Vendors
1 287 (27.49%) Microsoft
2 85 (8.14%) Splunk
3 70 (6.70%) Palo Alto
4 65 (6.23%) Cisco
5 62 (5.94%) CrowdStrike
6 54 (5.17%) Qualys
7 41 (3.93%) ServiceNow
8 35 (3.35%) Google
9 26 (2.49%) Aruba
10 24 (2.30%) Fortinet
11 22 (2.11%) Tenable
12 16 (1.53%) OpenAI
13 15 (1.44%) Meraki
14 14 (1.34%) Rapid7
14 14 (1.34%) Zscaler
15 12 (1.15%) VMware
16 9 (0.86%) Carbon Black
16 9 (0.86%) Darktrace
17 8 (0.77%) CyberArk
17 8 (0.77%) iManage