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 14 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 226 357 297
Rank change year-on-year +131 -60 -7
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 958 357 729
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.84% 0.72% 0.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.16% 0.81% 1.16%
Number of salaries quoted 673 264 431
10th Percentile £41,350 £37,500 £40,000
25th Percentile £53,750 £47,750 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +8.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £79,375
90th Percentile £97,500 £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 82,630 43,847 63,101
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 72.77% 88.67% 80.95%
Number of salaries quoted 57,445 24,695 36,468
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £76,250
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
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 14 September 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 14 September 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 +130 859 £70,000 +7.69% 930
UK excluding London +105 580 £65,000 +16.07% 495
London +89 326 £75,000 -3.23% 532
Work from Home +77 266 £70,000 +3.70% 390
South East +77 209 £59,000 -7.45% 157
North of England +17 119 £70,000 +16.67% 117
Midlands -7 89 £65,000 +26.21% 50
North West +40 79 £75,000 +36.36% 75
East Midlands +25 60 £65,000 +6.34% 22
South West -44 50 £65,000 +27.31% 56
East of England -7 48 £61,250 -10.58% 39
Yorkshire -7 37 £62,500 -3.85% 34
Wales -38 36 £45,000 -35.71% 17
West Midlands -51 29 £67,500 +31.07% 28
Scotland +28 28 £75,000 +25.00% 48
North East -62 3 £75,000 +30.43% 11
Northern Ireland - 3 £42,500 - 19

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 16 (1.67%) SharePoint
2 5 (0.52%) Confluence
2 5 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.31%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.10%) IIS
4 1 (0.10%) SharePoint Server
4 1 (0.10%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (0.10%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.31%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 198 (20.67%) Azure
2 124 (12.94%) AWS
3 102 (10.65%) Microsoft 365
4 85 (8.87%) Entra ID
5 81 (8.46%) Azure Sentinel
6 49 (5.11%) GCP
7 31 (3.24%) Microsoft Purview
8 24 (2.51%) Azure Logic Apps
9 19 (1.98%) Mimecast
9 19 (1.98%) SaaS
10 14 (1.46%) Anthropic Claude
11 12 (1.25%) Zapier
12 9 (0.94%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 8 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
13 8 (0.84%) Cloudflare
13 8 (0.84%) IaaS
14 7 (0.73%) Microsoft Copilot
14 7 (0.73%) PaaS
15 6 (0.63%) Google Workspace
15 6 (0.63%) Sumo Logic
Communications & Networking
1 152 (15.87%) Firewall
2 103 (10.75%) Network Security
3 55 (5.74%) WAN
4 53 (5.53%) LAN
5 49 (5.11%) VPN
6 46 (4.80%) TCP/IP
7 36 (3.76%) DNS
8 31 (3.24%) Wi-Fi
9 28 (2.92%) Internet
10 26 (2.71%) Cisco Nexus
11 24 (2.51%) Intrusion Detection
12 20 (2.09%) HTTP
13 14 (1.46%) SMTP
13 14 (1.46%) SSL
14 13 (1.36%) Cisco ISE
14 13 (1.36%) FTP
15 6 (0.63%) IPsec
15 6 (0.63%) NGFW
15 6 (0.63%) SD-WAN
16 5 (0.52%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.63%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.52%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.31%) Hadoop
3 3 (0.31%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.21%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.10%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.10%) Big Data
5 1 (0.10%) Data Mining
Development Applications
1 10 (1.04%) JIRA
2 5 (0.52%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.21%) Maven
3 2 (0.21%) Team Foundation Server
3 2 (0.21%) Yeoman
General
1 199 (20.77%) Social Skills
2 111 (11.59%) Analytical Skills
3 104 (10.86%) Finance
4 48 (5.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 44 (4.59%) Law
6 43 (4.49%) Legal
7 40 (4.18%) Public Sector
8 37 (3.86%) Aerospace
9 35 (3.65%) Retail
10 19 (1.98%) Banking
11 18 (1.88%) Influencing Skills
11 18 (1.88%) Military
12 9 (0.94%) Documentation Skills
12 9 (0.94%) Financial Institution
13 6 (0.63%) Police
14 5 (0.52%) Advertising
14 5 (0.52%) Manufacturing
15 4 (0.42%) Local Government
15 4 (0.42%) Organisational Skills
15 4 (0.42%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 235 (24.53%) Analyst
2 175 (18.27%) Senior
3 159 (16.60%) Security Analyst
4 137 (14.30%) Security Engineer
5 122 (12.73%) Lead
6 120 (12.53%) Security Manager
7 99 (10.33%) Senior Analyst
8 79 (8.25%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 74 (7.72%) SOC Analyst
10 67 (6.99%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 65 (6.78%) Senior Security Analyst
12 63 (6.58%) Cybersecurity Engineer
13 61 (6.37%) Architect
14 55 (5.74%) Operational Security Manager
14 55 (5.74%) Security Operations Manager
15 53 (5.53%) Operations Manager
16 48 (5.01%) SOC Engineer
17 43 (4.49%) Security Specialist
18 39 (4.07%) Security Architect
18 39 (4.07%) Senior Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (3.03%) Terraform
2 17 (1.77%) LDAP
3 16 (1.67%) ModSecurity
4 9 (0.94%) REST
5 6 (0.63%) ARM Templates
5 6 (0.63%) Regular Expression
6 5 (0.52%) SOAP
7 4 (0.42%) JSON
7 4 (0.42%) OpenID
7 4 (0.42%) SAML
8 3 (0.31%) Kafka
8 3 (0.31%) Smart Contracts
9 2 (0.21%) HTML
9 2 (0.21%) RESTful
10 1 (0.10%) CSS
10 1 (0.10%) Elastic Stack
10 1 (0.10%) SailPoint
10 1 (0.10%) Unreal Engine
10 1 (0.10%) WebRTC
10 1 (0.10%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 218 (22.76%) Security Operations Centre
2 180 (18.79%) Security Posture
3 86 (8.98%) Cyber Defence
4 84 (8.77%) Cyber Threat
5 66 (6.89%) Management Information System
6 38 (3.97%) CSOC
7 35 (3.65%) Cloud Native
7 35 (3.65%) Data Centre
8 34 (3.55%) Onboarding
9 22 (2.30%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 17 (1.77%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (1.57%) Cloud Security Posture
12 13 (1.36%) Hybrid Cloud
13 12 (1.25%) AI Agents
13 12 (1.25%) Social Media
14 11 (1.15%) Cyberattack
15 10 (1.04%) Cyber Security Posture
16 9 (0.94%) Client/Server
16 9 (0.94%) Virtual Team
17 8 (0.84%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 91 (9.50%) Windows
2 65 (6.78%) Linux
3 9 (0.94%) Windows Server
4 8 (0.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 8 (0.84%) Windows 10
5 7 (0.73%) Mac OS
5 7 (0.73%) Unix
6 4 (0.42%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.21%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.10%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 565 (58.98%) Cybersecurity
2 348 (36.33%) SIEM
3 344 (35.91%) Incident Response
4 247 (25.78%) Vulnerability Management
5 224 (23.38%) Continuous Improvement
6 216 (22.55%) Information Security
7 183 (19.10%) Cloud Security
8 163 (17.01%) Threat Detection
9 147 (15.34%) Risk Management
10 129 (13.47%) Problem-Solving
11 123 (12.84%) Threat Intelligence
12 111 (11.59%) AI
13 109 (11.38%) Security Monitoring
14 100 (10.44%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
15 97 (10.13%) Stakeholder Management
16 92 (9.60%) SOAR
17 90 (9.39%) Mentoring
18 88 (9.19%) Disaster Recovery
19 85 (8.87%) Incident Management
20 82 (8.56%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 100 (10.44%) PowerShell
2 92 (9.60%) Python
3 46 (4.80%) Kusto Query Language
4 24 (2.51%) Bash
5 12 (1.25%) SQL
6 11 (1.15%) C++
7 10 (1.04%) Perl
8 9 (0.94%) Search Processing Language
9 8 (0.84%) JavaScript
10 6 (0.63%) Bicep
10 6 (0.63%) C
10 6 (0.63%) Go
10 6 (0.63%) Java
11 3 (0.31%) C#
11 3 (0.31%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.10%) MATLAB
12 1 (0.10%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 197 (20.56%) Security Cleared
2 149 (15.55%) CISSP
3 132 (13.78%) SC Cleared
4 80 (8.35%) CompTIA Security+
5 79 (8.25%) CISM
5 79 (8.25%) Degree
6 56 (5.85%) DV Cleared
7 53 (5.53%) Cisco Certification
8 45 (4.70%) GIAC
9 40 (4.18%) CEH
10 30 (3.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 30 (3.13%) CompTIA CySA+
11 24 (2.51%) Computer Science Degree
12 23 (2.40%) GCIH
12 23 (2.40%) SANS
13 22 (2.30%) AWS Certification
13 22 (2.30%) GCIA
14 21 (2.19%) CCSP
15 19 (1.98%) CCNP
15 19 (1.98%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 205 (21.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 163 (17.01%) NIST
3 72 (7.52%) GDPR
4 65 (6.78%) GRC
5 56 (5.85%) Cyber Essentials
6 40 (4.18%) PCI DSS
7 24 (2.51%) SOC 2
8 21 (2.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (1.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 15 (1.57%) NCSC
10 15 (1.57%) SLA
11 11 (1.15%) Data Quality
12 6 (0.63%) NIST 800
13 5 (0.52%) Accessibility
14 3 (0.31%) COBIT
14 3 (0.31%) ISO 22301
14 3 (0.31%) ISO 9001
14 3 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 3 (0.31%) PMO
15 2 (0.21%) QA
System Software
1 34 (3.55%) Active Directory
2 9 (0.94%) Docker
3 7 (0.73%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.73%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.21%) Firmware
5 1 (0.10%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 37 (3.86%) Microsoft Intune
2 33 (3.44%) Single Sign-On
3 28 (2.92%) Kubernetes
3 28 (2.92%) QRadar
4 16 (1.67%) SCCM
5 8 (0.84%) Ansible
6 7 (0.73%) FortiGate
6 7 (0.73%) Graylog
6 7 (0.73%) Nessus
7 5 (0.52%) McAfee ePO
7 5 (0.52%) Nagios
7 5 (0.52%) Red Hat Satellite
8 4 (0.42%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 3 (0.31%) CASB
9 3 (0.31%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 3 (0.31%) Kibana
9 3 (0.31%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.31%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
10 2 (0.21%) Argo
10 2 (0.21%) Istio
Vendors
1 257 (26.83%) Microsoft
2 80 (8.35%) Splunk
3 67 (6.99%) Palo Alto
4 63 (6.58%) Cisco
5 57 (5.95%) Qualys
6 51 (5.32%) CrowdStrike
7 46 (4.80%) ServiceNow
8 26 (2.71%) Aruba
9 25 (2.61%) Fortinet
10 24 (2.51%) Google
11 22 (2.30%) Tenable
12 16 (1.67%) OpenAI
12 16 (1.67%) Rapid7
13 12 (1.25%) Meraki
13 12 (1.25%) Zscaler
14 9 (0.94%) CyberArk
14 9 (0.94%) Red Hat
14 9 (0.94%) SolarWinds
15 8 (0.84%) iManage
15 8 (0.84%) Sophos