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 28 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 265 270 295
Rank change year-on-year +5 +25 0
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 487 587 660
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.77% 1.12% 0.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.96% 1.22% 1.09%
Number of salaries quoted 287 379 534
10th Percentile £42,300 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £50,588 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £64,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +0.78% -4.44%
75th Percentile £81,875 £78,750 £76,250
90th Percentile £92,500 £110,000 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £64,250 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +16.82% -8.33% -

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 50,653 47,952 60,543
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.28% 91.49% 88.83%
Number of salaries quoted 29,910 23,033 46,850
10th Percentile £28,738 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -8.00%
75th Percentile £75,900 £80,000 £76,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £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 28 January 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 28 January 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 +6 451 £70,000 +7.69% 209
UK excluding London +12 284 £64,250 +16.82% 198
Work from Home +59 232 £65,000 +4.00% 116
London -7 175 £76,250 +1.67% 49
South East +43 105 £62,500 -6.02% 73
North of England -26 55 £65,500 +31.00% 32
Midlands +28 52 £52,750 -1.75% 27
West Midlands +29 34 £51,500 -4.08% 15
South West +15 29 £75,000 +41.51% 23
North West +8 27 £54,000 +8.00% 14
East of England +12 22 £80,000 +33.33% 24
Yorkshire -55 20 £70,000 +33.33% 11
East Midlands - 18 £60,000 - 12
Scotland -38 13 £72,500 +16.00% 9
North East 0 8 £105,000 +133.33% 7
Wales +5 6 £48,250 -44.86% 12
Northern Ireland -11 3 £32,500 -35.40% 3

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 (1.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.44%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.21%) Confluence
3 1 (0.21%) IIS
Applications
1 3 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 112 (23.00%) Azure
2 71 (14.58%) AWS
3 50 (10.27%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (6.98%) GCP
5 31 (6.37%) Azure Sentinel
6 23 (4.72%) Entra ID
7 15 (3.08%) SaaS
8 12 (2.46%) PaaS
9 11 (2.26%) Microsoft Purview
9 11 (2.26%) Mimecast
10 8 (1.64%) GitHub
10 8 (1.64%) IaaS
11 7 (1.44%) GitHub Actions
12 6 (1.23%) AWS CloudFormation
12 6 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
12 6 (1.23%) Tessian
13 4 (0.82%) Datadog
13 4 (0.82%) Power Platform
14 3 (0.62%) OneDrive
15 2 (0.41%) Amazon GuardDuty
Communications & Networking
1 83 (17.04%) Firewall
2 62 (12.73%) Network Security
3 36 (7.39%) VPN
4 31 (6.37%) DNS
5 22 (4.52%) Intrusion Detection
5 22 (4.52%) TCP/IP
6 20 (4.11%) DHCP
7 11 (2.26%) SAN
8 8 (1.64%) Wireshark
9 6 (1.23%) WAN
10 4 (0.82%) LAN
11 3 (0.62%) Internet
11 3 (0.62%) SCCP
11 3 (0.62%) SSL
11 3 (0.62%) Wireless
12 2 (0.41%) DKIM
12 2 (0.41%) DMARC
12 2 (0.41%) HTTP
12 2 (0.41%) SD-WAN
13 1 (0.21%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.62%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.62%) Power BI
2 2 (0.41%) Metadata
3 1 (0.21%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.21%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.21%) MySQL
3 1 (0.21%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.21%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 4 (0.82%) CircleCI
1 4 (0.82%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.41%) JIRA
3 1 (0.21%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.21%) Git
3 1 (0.21%) IDA Disassembler
3 1 (0.21%) MSBuild
General
1 137 (28.13%) Social Skills
2 93 (19.10%) Finance
3 68 (13.96%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (7.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 25 (5.13%) Legal
6 22 (4.52%) Law
7 19 (3.90%) Banking
8 15 (3.08%) Retail
9 11 (2.26%) Financial Institution
9 11 (2.26%) Public Sector
10 9 (1.85%) Back Office
11 8 (1.64%) Advertising
11 8 (1.64%) Influencing Skills
12 7 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.03%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.62%) Aviation
15 2 (0.41%) Manufacturing
15 2 (0.41%) Marketing
15 2 (0.41%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 121 (24.85%) Lead
2 95 (19.51%) Analyst
3 67 (13.76%) Security Analyst
4 63 (12.94%) Security Engineer
5 56 (11.50%) Senior
6 45 (9.24%) Security Manager
7 31 (6.37%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 28 (5.75%) SOC Analyst
9 27 (5.54%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 22 (4.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 21 (4.31%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 20 (4.11%) Operational Security Manager
12 20 (4.11%) Operations Manager
12 20 (4.11%) Security Operations Manager
13 19 (3.90%) Senior Security Engineer
14 18 (3.70%) Information Analyst
14 18 (3.70%) Information Security Analyst
15 17 (3.49%) Senior Analyst
15 17 (3.49%) SOC Manager
16 16 (3.29%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (1.44%) ARM Templates
2 4 (0.82%) Elastic Stack
2 4 (0.82%) OpenTelemetry
3 2 (0.41%) Django
3 2 (0.41%) HTML
3 2 (0.41%) LDAP
3 2 (0.41%) OAuth
3 2 (0.41%) OpenID
3 2 (0.41%) REST
3 2 (0.41%) SAML
4 1 (0.21%) .NET
4 1 (0.21%) ASP.NET
4 1 (0.21%) EDI
4 1 (0.21%) Flash
4 1 (0.21%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 171 (35.11%) Security Operations Centre
2 124 (25.46%) Cyber Threat
3 79 (16.22%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 72 (14.78%) Operational Technology
5 66 (13.55%) Security Posture
6 24 (4.93%) Cyber Defence
7 21 (4.31%) Management Information System
8 16 (3.29%) Cloud Native
9 11 (2.26%) Data Centre
10 10 (2.05%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (2.05%) Onboarding
10 10 (2.05%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.85%) Cyberattack
12 8 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
12 8 (1.64%) Hybrid Cloud
12 8 (1.64%) Insider Threat
13 7 (1.44%) Cyber Security Posture
14 6 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
15 5 (1.03%) Data Structures
15 5 (1.03%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 82 (16.84%) Windows
2 52 (10.68%) Linux
3 29 (5.95%) Windows Server
4 12 (2.46%) Windows Server 2019
5 11 (2.26%) Windows 10
5 11 (2.26%) Windows Server 2012
6 5 (1.03%) Mac OS
6 5 (1.03%) Unix
7 1 (0.21%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.21%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (42.30%) Incident Response
2 200 (41.07%) Cybersecurity
3 161 (33.06%) SIEM
4 146 (29.98%) Threat Intelligence
4 146 (29.98%) Vulnerability Management
5 124 (25.46%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 108 (22.18%) Risk Management
7 103 (21.15%) Information Security
7 103 (21.15%) Mentoring
8 97 (19.92%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
9 96 (19.71%) Continuous Improvement
10 95 (19.51%) Roadmaps
11 93 (19.10%) Stakeholder Management
12 90 (18.48%) ITIL
13 84 (17.25%) Cyber Intelligence
14 81 (16.63%) Business Strategy
15 78 (16.02%) Coaching
16 72 (14.78%) Technology Roadmap
17 71 (14.58%) Problem-Solving
18 69 (14.17%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 57 (11.70%) PowerShell
2 50 (10.27%) Python
3 19 (3.90%) Bash
4 18 (3.70%) Kusto Query Language
5 14 (2.87%) SQL
6 8 (1.64%) Bicep
7 2 (0.41%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.41%) Perl
7 2 (0.41%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.21%) C
8 1 (0.21%) C#
8 1 (0.21%) C++
8 1 (0.21%) PHP
Qualifications
1 79 (16.22%) CISSP
2 59 (12.11%) Degree
3 58 (11.91%) Security Cleared
4 44 (9.03%) SC Cleared
5 42 (8.62%) CompTIA Security+
6 32 (6.57%) Cisco Certification
7 31 (6.37%) CISM
8 27 (5.54%) GIAC
9 23 (4.72%) GCIH
10 19 (3.90%) CEH
11 18 (3.70%) CCNA
12 17 (3.49%) GCIA
13 16 (3.29%) Microsoft Certification
14 15 (3.08%) CCNP
15 14 (2.87%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 14 (2.87%) Computer Science Degree
15 14 (2.87%) DV Cleared
16 13 (2.67%) CompTIA CySA+
17 11 (2.26%) Azure Certification
17 11 (2.26%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 174 (35.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 165 (33.88%) NIST
3 68 (13.96%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 66 (13.55%) GDPR
5 57 (11.70%) Cyber Essentials
6 35 (7.19%) PCI DSS
7 30 (6.16%) GRC
8 24 (4.93%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 16 (3.29%) SOC 2
10 13 (2.67%) NCSC
11 12 (2.46%) SLA
12 5 (1.03%) QA
13 4 (0.82%) Accessibility
13 4 (0.82%) COBIT
13 4 (0.82%) SOC 3
14 3 (0.62%) Data Quality
14 3 (0.62%) ITGC
15 2 (0.41%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.21%) HIPAA
System Software
1 33 (6.78%) Active Directory
2 15 (3.08%) Docker
2 15 (3.08%) VMware ESXi
3 11 (2.26%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.23%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.21%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 24 (4.93%) Terraform
2 21 (4.31%) Kubernetes
2 21 (4.31%) SCCM
3 19 (3.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (3.70%) QRadar
5 12 (2.46%) Ansible
6 11 (2.26%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.85%) CSIRT
7 9 (1.85%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (1.23%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 4 (0.82%) CASB
9 4 (0.82%) Grafana
9 4 (0.82%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.62%) ArcSight ESM
10 3 (0.62%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 3 (0.62%) Nessus
Vendors
1 120 (24.64%) Microsoft
2 35 (7.19%) ServiceNow
3 29 (5.95%) Splunk
4 26 (5.34%) VMware
5 22 (4.52%) SolarWinds
6 20 (4.11%) CrowdStrike
7 12 (2.46%) NetApp
8 11 (2.26%) 3PAR
8 11 (2.26%) Tenable
8 11 (2.26%) Veeam
9 9 (1.85%) Qualys
10 7 (1.44%) Palo Alto
11 6 (1.23%) Google
12 5 (1.03%) LogRhythm
13 4 (0.82%) Foundry
13 4 (0.82%) McAfee
13 4 (0.82%) Palantir
14 3 (0.62%) ArcSight
14 3 (0.62%) Cisco
14 3 (0.62%) Salesforce