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 4 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 214 357 274
Rank change year-on-year +143 -83 -1
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 1,036 371 737
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.88% 0.75% 0.99%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.20% 0.84% 1.21%
Number of salaries quoted 693 269 423
10th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £40,000
25th Percentile £53,750 £48,165 £48,750
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 £56,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +16.07% +1.82% -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 86,432 44,324 60,758
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.12% 89.10% 81.90%
Number of salaries quoted 59,358 24,582 33,017
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,250 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £59,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -6.78% -1.67%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £96,250
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 4 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 4 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 +126 933 £70,000 +7.69% 944
UK excluding London +115 619 £65,000 +16.07% 587
London +95 371 £77,000 -0.65% 466
Work from Home +79 278 £70,000 +3.70% 463
South East +75 225 £60,000 -4.00% 177
North of England +29 129 £70,000 +24.44% 138
Midlands +3 93 £65,000 +23.22% 57
North West +51 91 £75,000 +66.67% 74
East Midlands +13 62 £65,000 +6.34% 30
South West -32 53 £60,000 +17.51% 61
East of England -13 50 £61,250 -14.63% 43
Yorkshire -17 38 £62,500 -3.85% 46
Wales -39 36 £45,000 -18.18% 21
Scotland +25 31 £75,000 +13.12% 66
West Midlands -49 31 £67,500 +27.96% 27
Northern Ireland -77 4 £42,500 - 30

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 (1.74%) SharePoint
2 10 (0.97%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.39%) Confluence
4 3 (0.29%) Apache Spark
4 3 (0.29%) IIS
5 1 (0.097%) SharePoint Server
5 1 (0.097%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.097%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (0.097%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.29%) Distributed Ledger
2 1 (0.097%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 224 (21.62%) Azure
2 136 (13.13%) AWS
3 109 (10.52%) Microsoft 365
4 103 (9.94%) Entra ID
5 83 (8.01%) Azure Sentinel
6 66 (6.37%) GCP
7 36 (3.47%) Microsoft Purview
8 27 (2.61%) SaaS
9 26 (2.51%) Azure Logic Apps
10 19 (1.83%) Mimecast
11 14 (1.35%) Anthropic Claude
12 12 (1.16%) AWS CloudFormation
12 12 (1.16%) IaaS
12 12 (1.16%) Zapier
13 9 (0.87%) Microsoft Copilot
13 9 (0.87%) PaaS
14 8 (0.77%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 8 (0.77%) Cloudflare
15 6 (0.58%) Google Workspace
15 6 (0.58%) Sumo Logic
Communications & Networking
1 164 (15.83%) Firewall
2 110 (10.62%) Network Security
3 59 (5.69%) WAN
4 57 (5.50%) LAN
5 53 (5.12%) VPN
6 50 (4.83%) TCP/IP
7 39 (3.76%) DNS
8 31 (2.99%) Wi-Fi
9 27 (2.61%) Internet
10 25 (2.41%) Cisco Nexus
11 24 (2.32%) HTTP
12 21 (2.03%) Intrusion Detection
13 16 (1.54%) SMTP
14 15 (1.45%) FTP
15 14 (1.35%) Cisco ISE
15 14 (1.35%) SSL
16 8 (0.77%) Wireless
17 6 (0.58%) IPsec
17 6 (0.58%) NGFW
17 6 (0.58%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.48%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.39%) 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 (0.097%) Big Data
5 1 (0.097%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.097%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 9 (0.87%) JIRA
2 6 (0.58%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.29%) Maven
3 3 (0.29%) Team Foundation Server
4 2 (0.19%) Yeoman
5 1 (0.097%) Git
5 1 (0.097%) GitLab
General
1 209 (20.17%) Social Skills
2 131 (12.64%) Finance
3 115 (11.10%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (5.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 49 (4.73%) Law
6 48 (4.63%) Legal
6 48 (4.63%) Public Sector
7 42 (4.05%) Aerospace
8 38 (3.67%) Retail
9 28 (2.70%) Banking
10 24 (2.32%) Influencing Skills
11 21 (2.03%) Military
12 11 (1.06%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (0.87%) Financial Institution
14 6 (0.58%) Advertising
14 6 (0.58%) Back Office
14 6 (0.58%) Investment Banking
15 5 (0.48%) Aviation
15 5 (0.48%) Manufacturing
16 4 (0.39%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 261 (25.19%) Analyst
2 200 (19.31%) Senior
3 179 (17.28%) Security Analyst
4 148 (14.29%) Lead
5 147 (14.19%) Security Engineer
6 127 (12.26%) Security Manager
7 108 (10.42%) Senior Analyst
8 85 (8.20%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 85 (8.20%) SOC Analyst
9 74 (7.14%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 72 (6.95%) Senior Security Analyst
11 67 (6.47%) Architect
12 65 (6.27%) Cybersecurity Engineer
13 60 (5.79%) Operational Security Manager
13 60 (5.79%) Security Operations Manager
14 52 (5.02%) Operations Manager
15 47 (4.54%) SOC Engineer
16 45 (4.34%) Senior Security Engineer
17 44 (4.25%) Cloud Engineer
18 42 (4.05%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (3.76%) Terraform
2 21 (2.03%) LDAP
3 16 (1.54%) ModSecurity
4 15 (1.45%) REST
5 8 (0.77%) ARM Templates
6 7 (0.68%) JSON
6 7 (0.68%) SOAP
7 5 (0.48%) Regular Expression
8 4 (0.39%) OpenID
8 4 (0.39%) SAML
9 3 (0.29%) HTML
9 3 (0.29%) Kafka
9 3 (0.29%) SailPoint
9 3 (0.29%) Smart Contracts
10 2 (0.19%) CSS
10 2 (0.19%) Elastic Stack
10 2 (0.19%) RESTful
10 2 (0.19%) XML
11 1 (0.097%) TAPI
11 1 (0.097%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 232 (22.39%) Security Operations Centre
2 187 (18.05%) Security Posture
3 99 (9.56%) Cyber Threat
4 90 (8.69%) Cyber Defence
5 71 (6.85%) Management Information System
6 44 (4.25%) Data Centre
7 41 (3.96%) Cloud Native
7 41 (3.96%) CSOC
8 33 (3.19%) Onboarding
9 25 (2.41%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 18 (1.74%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (1.45%) Cloud Security Posture
11 15 (1.45%) Hybrid Cloud
12 13 (1.25%) AI Agents
13 12 (1.16%) Social Media
14 11 (1.06%) PKI
15 10 (0.97%) Cyber Security Posture
15 10 (0.97%) Public Cloud
15 10 (0.97%) Virtual Team
16 9 (0.87%) Client/Server
Operating Systems
1 98 (9.46%) Windows
2 73 (7.05%) Linux
3 13 (1.25%) Windows Server
4 12 (1.16%) Mac OS
5 9 (0.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (0.77%) Unix
7 6 (0.58%) Ubuntu
7 6 (0.58%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.48%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.19%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.097%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 614 (59.27%) Cybersecurity
2 378 (36.49%) Incident Response
3 365 (35.23%) SIEM
4 278 (26.83%) Vulnerability Management
5 251 (24.23%) Continuous Improvement
6 243 (23.46%) Information Security
7 195 (18.82%) Cloud Security
8 177 (17.08%) Threat Detection
9 161 (15.54%) Risk Management
10 139 (13.42%) Threat Intelligence
11 135 (13.03%) Problem-Solving
12 133 (12.84%) AI
13 126 (12.16%) Stakeholder Management
14 125 (12.07%) Security Monitoring
15 111 (10.71%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
16 98 (9.46%) Disaster Recovery
16 98 (9.46%) Mentoring
17 96 (9.27%) Incident Management
18 95 (9.17%) SOAR
19 87 (8.40%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 109 (10.52%) PowerShell
2 102 (9.85%) Python
3 53 (5.12%) Kusto Query Language
4 29 (2.80%) Bash
5 15 (1.45%) SQL
6 13 (1.25%) C++
7 12 (1.16%) Perl
8 10 (0.97%) Bicep
8 10 (0.97%) Search Processing Language
9 9 (0.87%) Go
9 9 (0.87%) JavaScript
10 6 (0.58%) Java
11 5 (0.48%) C
12 4 (0.39%) Shell Script
13 3 (0.29%) C#
14 1 (0.097%) MATLAB
14 1 (0.097%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 201 (19.40%) Security Cleared
2 161 (15.54%) CISSP
3 133 (12.84%) SC Cleared
4 85 (8.20%) CISM
5 81 (7.82%) Degree
6 78 (7.53%) CompTIA Security+
7 63 (6.08%) DV Cleared
8 48 (4.63%) Cisco Certification
9 44 (4.25%) GIAC
10 37 (3.57%) CEH
11 33 (3.19%) CompTIA CySA+
12 26 (2.51%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 26 (2.51%) AWS Certification
12 26 (2.51%) Computer Science Degree
13 25 (2.41%) SANS
14 24 (2.32%) GCIA
15 23 (2.22%) GCIH
16 21 (2.03%) Azure Certification
17 19 (1.83%) CISA
18 18 (1.74%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 224 (21.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 171 (16.51%) NIST
3 75 (7.24%) Cyber Essentials
4 73 (7.05%) GRC
5 72 (6.95%) GDPR
6 51 (4.92%) PCI DSS
7 28 (2.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 23 (2.22%) NCSC
8 23 (2.22%) SOC 2
9 19 (1.83%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 18 (1.74%) SLA
11 12 (1.16%) Data Quality
12 6 (0.58%) Accessibility
12 6 (0.58%) 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)
14 2 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.19%) QA
System Software
1 43 (4.15%) Active Directory
2 15 (1.45%) Docker
3 11 (1.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.19%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.19%) NFS
5 2 (0.19%) Snort
5 2 (0.19%) VMware Workstation
6 1 (0.097%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 41 (3.96%) Kubernetes
2 40 (3.86%) Microsoft Intune
3 39 (3.76%) Single Sign-On
4 31 (2.99%) QRadar
5 14 (1.35%) SCCM
6 10 (0.97%) Ansible
7 7 (0.68%) FortiGate
7 7 (0.68%) Graylog
7 7 (0.68%) Nessus
8 6 (0.58%) Progress Chef
9 5 (0.48%) McAfee ePO
9 5 (0.48%) Nagios
10 4 (0.39%) Kibana
10 4 (0.39%) 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%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 285 (27.51%) Microsoft
2 86 (8.30%) Splunk
3 69 (6.66%) Palo Alto
4 64 (6.18%) Cisco
5 60 (5.79%) CrowdStrike
6 54 (5.21%) Qualys
7 43 (4.15%) ServiceNow
8 33 (3.19%) Google
9 26 (2.51%) Aruba
10 24 (2.32%) Fortinet
11 21 (2.03%) Tenable
12 16 (1.54%) OpenAI
13 15 (1.45%) Rapid7
14 14 (1.35%) Meraki
15 13 (1.25%) VMware
15 13 (1.25%) Zscaler
16 9 (0.87%) Carbon Black
17 8 (0.77%) CyberArk
17 8 (0.77%) iManage
17 8 (0.77%) Red Hat