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 29 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 273 270 286
Rank change year-on-year -3 +16 +4
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 464 621 567
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.78% 1.12% 1.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.95% 1.25% 1.20%
Number of salaries quoted 277 411 449
10th Percentile £41,250 £42,500 £38,700
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £52,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £68,500 £65,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +5.38% - -3.70%
75th Percentile £82,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £105,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £62,500 £55,000 £61,000
% change year-on-year +13.64% -9.84% -

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 48,671 49,754 47,191
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 82.04% 89.85% 91.49%
Number of salaries quoted 28,569 24,792 36,014
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,750
25th Percentile £36,500 £45,000 £42,631
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% -3.67%

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 29 December 2025.

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 29 December 2025. 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 +11 432 £69,384 +6.74% 883
UK excluding London +16 283 £62,500 +13.64% 827
Work from Home +51 219 £65,000 +4.00% 420
London -40 157 £77,500 +6.90% 116
South East +57 107 £62,500 -3.10% 194
Midlands +47 57 £52,500 +0.06% 159
North of England -49 50 £65,000 +29.20% 171
West Midlands +31 40 £52,000 -0.89% 79
East of England +25 28 £75,000 +25.00% 145
North West +10 27 £54,000 +7.67% 81
South West +14 24 £75,000 -4.76% 101
East Midlands - 17 £60,000 - 70
Yorkshire -45 13 £65,000 +23.81% 73
North East +15 10 £105,000 +108.71% 17
Scotland -32 10 £75,000 +33.33% 40
Wales -1 5 £48,250 -31.37% 24
Northern Ireland -8 3 £32,500 -35.40% 7

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 (2.16%) Microsoft Exchange
1 10 (2.16%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.22%) Confluence
2 1 (0.22%) IIS
Applications
1 4 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.22%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 103 (22.20%) Azure
2 68 (14.66%) AWS
3 48 (10.34%) Microsoft 365
4 30 (6.47%) GCP
5 29 (6.25%) Azure Sentinel
6 22 (4.74%) Entra ID
7 15 (3.23%) SaaS
8 11 (2.37%) PaaS
9 10 (2.16%) Microsoft Purview
9 10 (2.16%) Mimecast
10 7 (1.51%) IaaS
10 7 (1.51%) Tessian
11 6 (1.29%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.29%) GitHub
12 5 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
13 3 (0.65%) AWS CloudFormation
14 2 (0.43%) Amazon ECR
14 2 (0.43%) Datadog
14 2 (0.43%) dbt
14 2 (0.43%) Google App Engine
Communications & Networking
1 84 (18.10%) Firewall
2 59 (12.72%) Network Security
3 35 (7.54%) VPN
4 32 (6.90%) DNS
5 24 (5.17%) TCP/IP
6 22 (4.74%) Intrusion Detection
7 21 (4.53%) DHCP
8 13 (2.80%) SAN
9 7 (1.51%) Wireshark
10 6 (1.29%) WAN
11 4 (0.86%) LAN
11 4 (0.86%) Wireless
12 3 (0.65%) DMARC
12 3 (0.65%) Internet
12 3 (0.65%) SSL
13 2 (0.43%) DKIM
13 2 (0.43%) HTTP
13 2 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
14 1 (0.22%) Modbus
14 1 (0.22%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (0.43%) Metadata
3 1 (0.22%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.22%) DTS
3 1 (0.22%) GIS
3 1 (0.22%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.22%) MySQL
3 1 (0.22%) Power BI
3 1 (0.22%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 3 (0.65%) JIRA
2 2 (0.43%) CircleCI
2 2 (0.43%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.22%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.22%) Git
3 1 (0.22%) IDA Disassembler
3 1 (0.22%) MSBuild
General
1 134 (28.88%) Social Skills
2 87 (18.75%) Finance
3 67 (14.44%) Analytical Skills
4 30 (6.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 24 (5.17%) Legal
6 21 (4.53%) Law
7 16 (3.45%) Banking
8 15 (3.23%) Public Sector
9 12 (2.59%) Retail
10 10 (2.16%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.72%) Advertising
11 8 (1.72%) Back Office
12 7 (1.51%) Documentation Skills
13 6 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
15 4 (0.86%) Police
15 4 (0.86%) Presentation Skills
16 3 (0.65%) Local Government
16 3 (0.65%) Manufacturing
17 2 (0.43%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 120 (25.86%) Lead
2 89 (19.18%) Analyst
3 61 (13.15%) Security Engineer
4 58 (12.50%) Security Analyst
5 56 (12.07%) Senior
6 44 (9.48%) Security Manager
7 29 (6.25%) SOC Analyst
8 25 (5.39%) Operations Manager
9 24 (5.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 23 (4.96%) Cybersecurity Analyst
10 23 (4.96%) Cybersecurity Engineer
10 23 (4.96%) Operational Security Manager
10 23 (4.96%) Security Operations Manager
11 21 (4.53%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 20 (4.31%) Senior Analyst
13 19 (4.09%) Senior Security Engineer
14 16 (3.45%) Information Analyst
14 16 (3.45%) Information Security Analyst
14 16 (3.45%) SOC Manager
15 14 (3.02%) Senior Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.29%) ARM Templates
2 5 (1.08%) Elastic Stack
3 4 (0.86%) OpenTelemetry
4 3 (0.65%) .NET
4 3 (0.65%) HTML
4 3 (0.65%) Software Packaging
5 2 (0.43%) AWS CDK
5 2 (0.43%) Django
5 2 (0.43%) OAuth
5 2 (0.43%) OpenID
5 2 (0.43%) React
5 2 (0.43%) SAML
6 1 (0.22%) ASP.NET
6 1 (0.22%) Flash
6 1 (0.22%) LDAP
6 1 (0.22%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 171 (36.85%) Security Operations Centre
2 125 (26.94%) Cyber Threat
3 77 (16.59%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 73 (15.73%) Operational Technology
5 62 (13.36%) Security Posture
6 21 (4.53%) Management Information System
7 20 (4.31%) Cyber Defence
8 13 (2.80%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.16%) Data Centre
9 10 (2.16%) Onboarding
9 10 (2.16%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (1.94%) Cyberattack
10 9 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.72%) Hybrid Cloud
11 8 (1.72%) Insider Threat
12 6 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (1.08%) Cyber Security Posture
13 5 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
13 5 (1.08%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 73 (15.73%) Windows
2 45 (9.70%) Linux
3 28 (6.03%) Windows Server
4 13 (2.80%) Windows Server 2019
5 12 (2.59%) Windows Server 2012
6 8 (1.72%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.65%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.43%) Unix
9 1 (0.22%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (40.95%) Incident Response
2 186 (40.09%) Cybersecurity
3 160 (34.48%) SIEM
4 144 (31.03%) Vulnerability Management
5 143 (30.82%) Threat Intelligence
6 120 (25.86%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 106 (22.84%) Information Security
7 106 (22.84%) Risk Management
8 101 (21.77%) Mentoring
9 97 (20.91%) ITIL
10 94 (20.26%) Roadmaps
10 94 (20.26%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
11 93 (20.04%) Stakeholder Management
12 86 (18.53%) Continuous Improvement
13 84 (18.10%) Cyber Intelligence
14 80 (17.24%) Business Strategy
15 74 (15.95%) Problem-Solving
16 73 (15.73%) Coaching
17 72 (15.52%) Technology Roadmap
18 69 (14.87%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 44 (9.48%) PowerShell
1 44 (9.48%) Python
2 18 (3.88%) Bash
2 18 (3.88%) Kusto Query Language
3 16 (3.45%) SQL
4 7 (1.51%) Bicep
5 3 (0.65%) C#
5 3 (0.65%) Perl
6 2 (0.43%) Java
7 1 (0.22%) C
7 1 (0.22%) C++
7 1 (0.22%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.22%) PHP
7 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 79 (17.03%) CISSP
2 64 (13.79%) Degree
3 61 (13.15%) Security Cleared
4 44 (9.48%) SC Cleared
5 43 (9.27%) CompTIA Security+
6 32 (6.90%) Cisco Certification
7 31 (6.68%) CISM
8 23 (4.96%) GIAC
9 22 (4.74%) GCIH
10 21 (4.53%) CCNA
11 19 (4.09%) GCIA
12 18 (3.88%) CCNP
13 16 (3.45%) CEH
13 16 (3.45%) DV Cleared
14 15 (3.23%) Computer Science Degree
15 14 (3.02%) Microsoft Certification
16 11 (2.37%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 11 (2.37%) CompTIA CySA+
16 11 (2.37%) CREST Certified
17 10 (2.16%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 166 (35.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 154 (33.19%) NIST
3 68 (14.66%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 67 (14.44%) GDPR
5 59 (12.72%) Cyber Essentials
6 28 (6.03%) PCI DSS
7 26 (5.60%) GRC
8 23 (4.96%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 13 (2.80%) SOC 2
10 11 (2.37%) SLA
11 10 (2.16%) NCSC
12 6 (1.29%) Accessibility
13 5 (1.08%) QA
14 4 (0.86%) Data Quality
15 3 (0.65%) ITGC
15 3 (0.65%) SOC 3
16 2 (0.43%) COBIT
16 2 (0.43%) ISO 22301
17 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
17 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 32 (6.90%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.45%) VMware ESXi
3 13 (2.80%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.16%) Docker
5 7 (1.51%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.43%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 20 (4.31%) SCCM
2 19 (4.09%) QRadar
2 19 (4.09%) Terraform
3 18 (3.88%) Kubernetes
4 17 (3.66%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (2.59%) Single Sign-On
5 12 (2.59%) vCenter Server
6 9 (1.94%) CSIRT
7 7 (1.51%) Ansible
8 6 (1.29%) Nessus
9 5 (1.08%) Computer Incident Response Team
10 4 (0.86%) CASB
10 4 (0.86%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 4 (0.86%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.65%) ArcSight ESM
12 2 (0.43%) Grafana
13 1 (0.22%) Kibana
13 1 (0.22%) ZENworks
Vendors
1 117 (25.22%) Microsoft
2 32 (6.90%) Splunk
3 30 (6.47%) ServiceNow
4 28 (6.03%) VMware
5 25 (5.39%) CrowdStrike
6 20 (4.31%) SolarWinds
7 12 (2.59%) 3PAR
7 12 (2.59%) NetApp
7 12 (2.59%) Veeam
8 10 (2.16%) Tenable
9 9 (1.94%) Palo Alto
9 9 (1.94%) Qualys
10 5 (1.08%) ArcSight
10 5 (1.08%) LogRhythm
11 4 (0.86%) Cisco
11 4 (0.86%) Foundry
11 4 (0.86%) McAfee
11 4 (0.86%) Palantir
11 4 (0.86%) Rapid7
12 3 (0.65%) Google