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 16 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 224 389 307
Rank change year-on-year +165 -82 -25
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 923 337 703
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.86% 0.67% 0.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.18% 0.75% 1.05%
Number of salaries quoted 669 252 466
10th Percentile £42,000 £40,000 £38,190
25th Percentile £52,500 £47,750 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,250 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.45% +3.75% -4.00%
75th Percentile £85,000 £78,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £96,250 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +18.18% +4.76% -13.93%

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 78,515 44,640 67,074
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.47% 89.25% 80.94%
Number of salaries quoted 54,079 25,322 43,171
10th Percentile £30,975 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,236 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -9.09%

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 16 August 2026.

Salary histogram for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Top 17 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 16 August 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 +144 827 £70,000 +12.00% 459
UK excluding London +113 570 £65,000 +18.18% 277
London +102 303 £75,000 -6.25% 242
Work from Home +75 245 £70,000 +14.29% 183
South East +93 199 £60,000 -4.00% 94
North of England +27 126 £70,000 +21.74% 69
Midlands +9 89 £65,000 +23.81% 36
North West +50 82 £75,000 +36.36% 48
East Midlands +31 59 £61,750 +1.02% 14
East of England -15 49 £67,500 +8.87% 11
South West -53 43 £65,000 +27.31% 34
Yorkshire -5 40 £55,000 -12.00% 19
Wales -28 36 £45,000 -18.18% 8
West Midlands -48 30 £67,500 +28.57% 22
Scotland +23 27 £75,000 +30.43% 18
North East -63 4 £75,000 +30.43% 3
Northern Ireland - 3 £42,500 - 11

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 10 (1.08%) SharePoint
2 5 (0.54%) Confluence
3 3 (0.33%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.33%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 184 (19.93%) Azure
2 112 (12.13%) AWS
3 89 (9.64%) Microsoft 365
4 76 (8.23%) Azure Sentinel
5 56 (6.07%) Entra ID
6 42 (4.55%) GCP
7 21 (2.28%) Microsoft Purview
8 20 (2.17%) Azure Logic Apps
9 19 (2.06%) SaaS
10 16 (1.73%) Mimecast
11 14 (1.52%) Anthropic Claude
12 12 (1.30%) Zapier
13 9 (0.98%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 8 (0.87%) AWS CloudFormation
15 7 (0.76%) IaaS
15 7 (0.76%) PaaS
16 6 (0.65%) Cloudflare
16 6 (0.65%) GitHub
16 6 (0.65%) Google Workspace
16 6 (0.65%) Sumo Logic
Communications & Networking
1 145 (15.71%) Firewall
2 106 (11.48%) Network Security
3 52 (5.63%) WAN
4 50 (5.42%) LAN
5 48 (5.20%) TCP/IP
6 45 (4.88%) VPN
7 36 (3.90%) DNS
8 28 (3.03%) Wi-Fi
9 25 (2.71%) Cisco Nexus
9 25 (2.71%) Internet
9 25 (2.71%) Intrusion Detection
10 19 (2.06%) HTTP
11 13 (1.41%) FTP
11 13 (1.41%) SMTP
11 13 (1.41%) SSL
12 11 (1.19%) Cisco ISE
13 6 (0.65%) IPsec
13 6 (0.65%) NGFW
13 6 (0.65%) SD-WAN
14 5 (0.54%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.65%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.54%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.33%) Hadoop
3 3 (0.33%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.22%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.11%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.11%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 6 (0.65%) JIRA
2 3 (0.33%) Bitbucket
2 3 (0.33%) Jenkins
2 3 (0.33%) Metasploit
3 2 (0.22%) Yeoman
General
1 189 (20.48%) Social Skills
2 109 (11.81%) Analytical Skills
3 98 (10.62%) Finance
4 49 (5.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 40 (4.33%) Legal
6 37 (4.01%) Law
6 37 (4.01%) Public Sector
7 31 (3.36%) Aerospace
8 26 (2.82%) Retail
9 17 (1.84%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (1.52%) Military
11 12 (1.30%) Banking
12 7 (0.76%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (0.76%) Financial Institution
13 6 (0.65%) Advertising
13 6 (0.65%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (0.65%) Police
14 5 (0.54%) Manufacturing
15 4 (0.43%) Games
15 4 (0.43%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 231 (25.03%) Analyst
2 158 (17.12%) Senior
3 157 (17.01%) Security Analyst
4 127 (13.76%) Security Manager
5 112 (12.13%) Security Engineer
6 111 (12.03%) Lead
7 95 (10.29%) Senior Analyst
8 83 (8.99%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 68 (7.37%) SOC Analyst
10 66 (7.15%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 63 (6.83%) Senior Security Analyst
12 62 (6.72%) Operational Security Manager
12 62 (6.72%) Security Operations Manager
13 58 (6.28%) Operations Manager
14 57 (6.18%) SOC Engineer
15 52 (5.63%) Architect
16 51 (5.53%) Cybersecurity Engineer
17 44 (4.77%) Security Specialist
18 36 (3.90%) Security Architect
19 35 (3.79%) Operations Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (1.84%) LDAP
2 11 (1.19%) ModSecurity
3 6 (0.65%) ARM Templates
3 6 (0.65%) Regular Expression
4 5 (0.54%) REST
5 4 (0.43%) OpenID
5 4 (0.43%) SAML
6 3 (0.33%) JSON
6 3 (0.33%) Kafka
6 3 (0.33%) Smart Contracts
7 2 (0.22%) HTML
7 2 (0.22%) RESTful
8 1 (0.11%) CSS
8 1 (0.11%) GStreamer
8 1 (0.11%) SOAP
8 1 (0.11%) TAPI
8 1 (0.11%) Unreal Engine
8 1 (0.11%) WebRTC
8 1 (0.11%) WPF
8 1 (0.11%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 219 (23.73%) Security Operations Centre
2 163 (17.66%) Security Posture
3 92 (9.97%) Cyber Defence
4 74 (8.02%) Cyber Threat
5 59 (6.39%) Management Information System
6 47 (5.09%) CSOC
7 34 (3.68%) Onboarding
8 33 (3.58%) Cloud Native
9 26 (2.82%) Data Centre
10 17 (1.84%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (1.63%) Cyberattack
12 14 (1.52%) Cloud Security Posture
12 14 (1.52%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 12 (1.30%) AI Agents
13 12 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
13 12 (1.30%) Social Media
14 10 (1.08%) Cyber Security Posture
15 9 (0.98%) Client/Server
16 8 (0.87%) Insider Threat
17 7 (0.76%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 96 (10.40%) Windows
2 66 (7.15%) Linux
3 12 (1.30%) Unix
4 11 (1.19%) Windows 10
5 8 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (0.76%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.54%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.43%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.33%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.11%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 526 (56.99%) Cybersecurity
2 345 (37.38%) SIEM
3 342 (37.05%) Incident Response
4 224 (24.27%) Vulnerability Management
5 214 (23.19%) Continuous Improvement
6 196 (21.24%) Information Security
7 174 (18.85%) Cloud Security
8 151 (16.36%) Threat Detection
9 131 (14.19%) Risk Management
10 128 (13.87%) Threat Intelligence
11 113 (12.24%) Problem-Solving
12 104 (11.27%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
13 99 (10.73%) AI
14 93 (10.08%) Security Monitoring
14 93 (10.08%) SOAR
15 86 (9.32%) Stakeholder Management
16 84 (9.10%) Disaster Recovery
17 81 (8.78%) Mentoring
18 80 (8.67%) Penetration Testing
19 78 (8.45%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 104 (11.27%) PowerShell
2 94 (10.18%) Python
3 40 (4.33%) Kusto Query Language
4 25 (2.71%) Bash
5 11 (1.19%) C++
5 11 (1.19%) SQL
6 10 (1.08%) Perl
7 9 (0.98%) Search Processing Language
8 8 (0.87%) Bicep
9 6 (0.65%) C
10 5 (0.54%) Java
10 5 (0.54%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.33%) C#
11 3 (0.33%) Go
11 3 (0.33%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.11%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.11%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 193 (20.91%) Security Cleared
2 139 (15.06%) CISSP
3 134 (14.52%) SC Cleared
4 84 (9.10%) CompTIA Security+
5 72 (7.80%) Degree
6 68 (7.37%) CISM
7 55 (5.96%) Cisco Certification
8 47 (5.09%) GIAC
9 46 (4.98%) DV Cleared
10 44 (4.77%) CEH
11 30 (3.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 30 (3.25%) CompTIA CySA+
12 27 (2.93%) SANS
13 26 (2.82%) GCIH
14 23 (2.49%) Computer Science Degree
14 23 (2.49%) GCIA
15 21 (2.28%) CCNP
16 20 (2.17%) CCSP
16 20 (2.17%) CISA
17 17 (1.84%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 187 (20.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 157 (17.01%) NIST
3 74 (8.02%) GDPR
4 62 (6.72%) GRC
5 51 (5.53%) Cyber Essentials
6 30 (3.25%) PCI DSS
7 24 (2.60%) SOC 2
8 21 (2.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 18 (1.95%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 16 (1.73%) SLA
11 15 (1.63%) NCSC
12 11 (1.19%) Data Quality
13 5 (0.54%) Accessibility
13 5 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 4 (0.43%) NIST 800
15 2 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
15 2 (0.22%) COBIT
15 2 (0.22%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.22%) PMO
System Software
1 25 (2.71%) Active Directory
2 8 (0.87%) Docker
2 8 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.22%) Firmware
5 1 (0.11%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 33 (3.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 30 (3.25%) Terraform
3 28 (3.03%) QRadar
4 25 (2.71%) Kubernetes
5 23 (2.49%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (2.06%) SCCM
7 10 (1.08%) Ansible
8 7 (0.76%) FortiGate
8 7 (0.76%) Nessus
9 6 (0.65%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 6 (0.65%) Graylog
10 5 (0.54%) McAfee ePO
10 5 (0.54%) Nagios
10 5 (0.54%) Red Hat Satellite
11 3 (0.33%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 3 (0.33%) Kibana
11 3 (0.33%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
12 2 (0.22%) Jamf Pro
13 1 (0.11%) Prometheus
13 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 246 (26.65%) Microsoft
2 79 (8.56%) Splunk
3 59 (6.39%) Palo Alto
4 58 (6.28%) Cisco
5 53 (5.74%) Qualys
6 47 (5.09%) CrowdStrike
7 46 (4.98%) ServiceNow
8 27 (2.93%) Fortinet
9 23 (2.49%) Aruba
10 22 (2.38%) Tenable
11 17 (1.84%) Google
12 16 (1.73%) OpenAI
12 16 (1.73%) Rapid7
13 12 (1.30%) Zscaler
14 11 (1.19%) SolarWinds
15 10 (1.08%) Sophos
16 9 (0.98%) iManage
16 9 (0.98%) LogRhythm
16 9 (0.98%) Red Hat
17 8 (0.87%) Meraki