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 25 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 282 263 297
Rank change year-on-year -19 +34 +18
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 504 535 720
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.73% 1.13% 0.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.92% 1.22% 1.08%
Number of salaries quoted 309 346 587
10th Percentile £43,000 £42,500 £36,280
25th Percentile £51,250 £51,251 £48,375
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -6.72%
75th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £76,250
90th Percentile £95,000 £110,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £56,500
% change year-on-year +18.18% -2.65% -5.83%

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 54,960 44,026 66,518
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 79.09% 92.87% 88.40%
Number of salaries quoted 32,942 21,945 51,245
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,750 £29,494
25th Percentile £38,250 £45,651 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 25 February 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 25 February 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 +9 467 £70,000 +7.69% 140
UK excluding London +9 298 £65,000 +18.18% 109
Work from Home +59 235 £63,000 +0.80% 83
London -19 172 £75,000 - 47
South East +33 111 £63,750 +2.00% 39
North of England -52 61 £65,500 +31.00% 25
Midlands +8 52 £51,500 -6.36% 23
South West -3 33 £75,000 +36.15% 3
West Midlands +3 28 £55,000 - 15
North West -14 26 £54,000 +8.00% 20
Yorkshire -47 25 £65,000 +30.00% 3
East Midlands - 24 £42,000 - 8
East of England -4 19 £80,000 +33.33% 15
Scotland -39 13 £70,000 +16.67% 2
North East -5 10 £105,000 +133.33% 2
Wales -5 7 £55,000 -37.14% 3
Northern Ireland -25 3 £32,500 - 1

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 9 (1.79%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.59%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
4 1 (0.20%) Confluence
4 1 (0.20%) IIS
Business Applications
1 1 (0.20%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 118 (23.41%) Azure
2 68 (13.49%) AWS
3 45 (8.93%) Microsoft 365
4 37 (7.34%) GCP
5 29 (5.75%) Azure Sentinel
6 25 (4.96%) Entra ID
7 22 (4.37%) SaaS
8 14 (2.78%) Mimecast
8 14 (2.78%) PaaS
9 13 (2.58%) Microsoft Purview
10 12 (2.38%) IaaS
11 10 (1.98%) GitHub
12 9 (1.79%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.39%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (1.19%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (1.19%) Datadog
14 6 (1.19%) Tessian
15 5 (0.99%) Power Platform
16 4 (0.79%) Dynamics 365
16 4 (0.79%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 83 (16.47%) Firewall
2 65 (12.90%) Network Security
3 35 (6.94%) VPN
4 24 (4.76%) DNS
5 23 (4.56%) Intrusion Detection
6 18 (3.57%) TCP/IP
7 13 (2.58%) DHCP
8 9 (1.79%) SAN
9 5 (0.99%) WAN
9 5 (0.99%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.60%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (0.60%) Internet
10 3 (0.60%) LAN
10 3 (0.60%) SCCP
10 3 (0.60%) SSL
10 3 (0.60%) Wireless
11 2 (0.40%) Cisco Nexus
11 2 (0.40%) DKIM
11 2 (0.40%) DMARC
11 2 (0.40%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.79%) Elasticsearch
2 3 (0.60%) Power BI
3 2 (0.40%) Metadata
4 1 (0.20%) Apache Cassandra
4 1 (0.20%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.20%) MySQL
4 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (1.19%) CircleCI
1 6 (1.19%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.40%) Bitbucket
2 2 (0.40%) JIRA
2 2 (0.40%) Metasploit
3 1 (0.20%) Git
3 1 (0.20%) IDA Disassembler
3 1 (0.20%) MSBuild
General
1 128 (25.40%) Social Skills
2 93 (18.45%) Finance
3 71 (14.09%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (7.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 24 (4.76%) Law
6 22 (4.37%) Legal
7 21 (4.17%) Banking
8 17 (3.37%) Retail
9 14 (2.78%) Public Sector
10 13 (2.58%) Influencing Skills
11 11 (2.18%) Financial Institution
12 10 (1.98%) Back Office
13 9 (1.79%) Advertising
14 7 (1.39%) Presentation Skills
15 6 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
16 3 (0.60%) Aviation
16 3 (0.60%) Documentation Skills
16 3 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
17 2 (0.40%) Games
18 1 (0.20%) Military
Job Titles
1 123 (24.40%) Lead
2 102 (20.24%) Analyst
3 72 (14.29%) Security Analyst
4 63 (12.50%) Security Engineer
5 62 (12.30%) Senior
6 49 (9.72%) Security Manager
7 37 (7.34%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 28 (5.56%) Cybersecurity Manager
9 27 (5.36%) SOC Analyst
10 21 (4.17%) Senior Security Engineer
11 19 (3.77%) Consultant
11 19 (3.77%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 19 (3.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 19 (3.77%) Operational Security Manager
11 19 (3.77%) Operations Manager
11 19 (3.77%) Security Operations Manager
11 19 (3.77%) SOC Manager
12 18 (3.57%) Infrastructure Manager
13 17 (3.37%) Information Analyst
13 17 (3.37%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.59%) ARM Templates
2 2 (0.40%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (0.40%) LDAP
2 2 (0.40%) OAuth
2 2 (0.40%) OpenID
2 2 (0.40%) OpenTelemetry
2 2 (0.40%) REST
2 2 (0.40%) SAML
3 1 (0.20%) .NET
3 1 (0.20%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.20%) EDI
3 1 (0.20%) Flash
3 1 (0.20%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 189 (37.50%) Security Operations Centre
2 116 (23.02%) Cyber Threat
3 77 (15.28%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 72 (14.29%) Operational Technology
5 66 (13.10%) Security Posture
6 34 (6.75%) Cyber Defence
7 21 (4.17%) Management Information System
8 19 (3.77%) Cloud Native
9 10 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
9 10 (1.98%) CSOC
9 10 (1.98%) Onboarding
10 9 (1.79%) Cyberattack
11 8 (1.59%) Virtual Team
12 7 (1.39%) Cyber Security Posture
12 7 (1.39%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.39%) Insider Threat
13 6 (1.19%) Data Centre
13 6 (1.19%) Data Protection Act
13 6 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
13 6 (1.19%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 73 (14.48%) Windows
2 45 (8.93%) Linux
3 19 (3.77%) Windows Server
4 13 (2.58%) Windows 10
5 9 (1.79%) Unix
5 9 (1.79%) Windows Server 2012
5 9 (1.79%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (0.99%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.40%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 211 (41.87%) Incident Response
2 207 (41.07%) Cybersecurity
3 177 (35.12%) SIEM
4 148 (29.37%) Threat Intelligence
5 136 (26.98%) Vulnerability Management
6 128 (25.40%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 110 (21.83%) Risk Management
8 107 (21.23%) Mentoring
9 101 (20.04%) Continuous Improvement
9 101 (20.04%) Roadmaps
10 100 (19.84%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
11 97 (19.25%) Information Security
11 97 (19.25%) Stakeholder Management
12 91 (18.06%) ITIL
13 81 (16.07%) Cyber Intelligence
14 79 (15.67%) Coaching
15 75 (14.88%) Business Strategy
16 72 (14.29%) Cloud Security
16 72 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
16 72 (14.29%) Technology Roadmap
Programming Languages
1 66 (13.10%) PowerShell
2 59 (11.71%) Python
3 22 (4.37%) Bash
4 16 (3.17%) Kusto Query Language
5 11 (2.18%) SQL
6 9 (1.79%) Bicep
7 3 (0.60%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.60%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.40%) Perl
9 1 (0.20%) C
9 1 (0.20%) C#
9 1 (0.20%) C++
9 1 (0.20%) PHP
Qualifications
1 86 (17.06%) CISSP
2 69 (13.69%) Security Cleared
3 64 (12.70%) Degree
4 56 (11.11%) SC Cleared
5 45 (8.93%) CompTIA Security+
6 35 (6.94%) CISM
7 30 (5.95%) GIAC
8 28 (5.56%) Cisco Certification
9 21 (4.17%) GCIH
10 18 (3.57%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (3.37%) CEH
12 16 (3.17%) CompTIA CySA+
13 15 (2.98%) CREST Certified
14 14 (2.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 14 (2.78%) CCNA
14 14 (2.78%) Microsoft Certification
15 13 (2.58%) DV Cleared
16 12 (2.38%) Azure Certification
16 12 (2.38%) GCIA
17 11 (2.18%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 170 (33.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 160 (31.75%) NIST
3 68 (13.49%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 58 (11.51%) GDPR
5 48 (9.52%) Cyber Essentials
6 37 (7.34%) PCI DSS
7 29 (5.75%) GRC
8 22 (4.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 19 (3.77%) SOC 2
10 13 (2.58%) NCSC
11 12 (2.38%) SLA
12 5 (0.99%) SOC 3
13 4 (0.79%) COBIT
13 4 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.79%) QA
14 3 (0.60%) Accessibility
14 3 (0.60%) ITGC
14 3 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 1 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
15 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 22 (4.37%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.17%) Docker
3 11 (2.18%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.20%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 25 (4.96%) Kubernetes
1 25 (4.96%) Terraform
2 22 (4.37%) SCCM
3 19 (3.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (2.98%) QRadar
5 14 (2.78%) Ansible
6 9 (1.79%) Single Sign-On
6 9 (1.79%) vCenter Server
7 6 (1.19%) Grafana
8 5 (0.99%) CASB
8 5 (0.99%) Computer Incident Response Team
8 5 (0.99%) CSIRT
9 3 (0.60%) ArcSight ESM
10 2 (0.40%) Nessus
10 2 (0.40%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.20%) Host Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 134 (26.59%) Microsoft
2 39 (7.74%) ServiceNow
3 28 (5.56%) Splunk
4 23 (4.56%) SolarWinds
5 19 (3.77%) CrowdStrike
6 16 (3.17%) VMware
7 11 (2.18%) Tenable
8 10 (1.98%) NetApp
9 9 (1.79%) 3PAR
9 9 (1.79%) Qualys
9 9 (1.79%) Veeam
10 7 (1.39%) Palo Alto
11 6 (1.19%) Cisco
11 6 (1.19%) Google
12 5 (0.99%) LogRhythm
12 5 (0.99%) Okta
13 4 (0.79%) CheckPoint
13 4 (0.79%) McAfee
14 3 (0.60%) Fortinet
14 3 (0.60%) Salesforce