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

6 months to
28 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 269 318 349
Rank change year-on-year +49 +31 -12
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 633 392 764
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.71% 0.93% 0.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.94% 1.00% 0.94%
Number of salaries quoted 408 289 604
10th Percentile £41,250 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,924 £50,393 £47,725
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,500 £60,500
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +3.31% -6.92%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,750 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,875 £110,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% +1.85% -6.59%

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 67,035 39,288 81,690
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.86% 92.85% 85.64%
Number of salaries quoted 41,557 22,685 59,435
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.93%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £98,750 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -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 April 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 April 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 +56 577 £70,000 +11.11% 187
UK excluding London +52 389 £60,000 +9.09% 125
Work from Home +73 257 £57,500 -6.12% 81
London +27 198 £75,000 - 95
North of England +18 115 £70,000 +27.27% 31
South East +10 107 £52,500 -12.50% 50
Midlands -5 70 £55,000 - 17
North West +13 59 £70,000 +15.70% 18
Yorkshire -35 44 £50,000 -4.76% 6
South West -31 42 £65,000 +27.31% 9
East Midlands -6 39 £45,000 -37.93% 8
West Midlands -26 31 £67,500 +22.73% 8
Wales -13 23 £24,500 -72.00% 4
East of England -26 22 £68,750 +44.74% 10
North East -33 12 £75,000 +66.67% 7
Scotland -29 7 £60,000 -2.04% 9
Northern Ireland -35 3 £35,750 - 2

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 8 (1.26%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.11%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.16%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 139 (21.96%) Azure
2 68 (10.74%) AWS
3 64 (10.11%) Microsoft 365
4 60 (9.48%) Azure Sentinel
5 35 (5.53%) Entra ID
6 33 (5.21%) GCP
7 20 (3.16%) SaaS
8 16 (2.53%) Mimecast
9 12 (1.90%) Microsoft Purview
10 10 (1.58%) GitHub
10 10 (1.58%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (1.58%) IaaS
10 10 (1.58%) PaaS
11 8 (1.26%) AWS CloudFormation
12 6 (0.95%) Datadog
13 4 (0.63%) Azure Logic Apps
13 4 (0.63%) Dynamics 365
13 4 (0.63%) OneDrive
13 4 (0.63%) Power Platform
13 4 (0.63%) Tessian
Communications & Networking
1 91 (14.38%) Firewall
2 68 (10.74%) Network Security
3 32 (5.06%) VPN
4 27 (4.27%) DNS
5 24 (3.79%) TCP/IP
6 21 (3.32%) Intrusion Detection
7 8 (1.26%) WAN
8 7 (1.11%) Cisco ISE
8 7 (1.11%) SSL
9 6 (0.95%) HTTP
9 6 (0.95%) LAN
10 5 (0.79%) DHCP
11 4 (0.63%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (0.63%) HTTPS
11 4 (0.63%) Internet
11 4 (0.63%) SAN
12 3 (0.47%) SCCP
12 3 (0.47%) SD-WAN
12 3 (0.47%) SMTP
13 2 (0.32%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.47%) Power BI
2 1 (0.16%) Metadata
2 1 (0.16%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.16%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (0.95%) CircleCI
1 6 (0.95%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.63%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.63%) Metasploit
3 2 (0.32%) JIRA
General
1 148 (23.38%) Social Skills
2 90 (14.22%) Analytical Skills
3 77 (12.16%) Finance
4 51 (8.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 30 (4.74%) Law
6 29 (4.58%) Retail
7 23 (3.63%) Public Sector
8 18 (2.84%) Legal
9 14 (2.21%) Influencing Skills
10 13 (2.05%) Banking
11 9 (1.42%) Financial Institution
12 7 (1.11%) Back Office
12 7 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (1.11%) Police
12 7 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.79%) Aviation
14 4 (0.63%) Advertising
15 3 (0.47%) Documentation Skills
15 3 (0.47%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 129 (20.38%) Analyst
2 122 (19.27%) Lead
3 87 (13.74%) Security Analyst
4 76 (12.01%) Security Engineer
4 76 (12.01%) Security Manager
5 62 (9.79%) Senior
6 52 (8.21%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 44 (6.95%) Operational Security Manager
7 44 (6.95%) Security Operations Manager
8 42 (6.64%) Operations Manager
9 37 (5.85%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 36 (5.69%) SOC Analyst
11 33 (5.21%) SOC Engineer
12 28 (4.42%) Architect
13 23 (3.63%) Cybersecurity Engineer
13 23 (3.63%) Infrastructure Manager
13 23 (3.63%) Security Architect
14 21 (3.32%) SOC Manager
14 21 (3.32%) Team Leader
15 20 (3.16%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.26%) ARM Templates
2 6 (0.95%) Regular Expression
3 4 (0.63%) LDAP
3 4 (0.63%) REST
4 1 (0.16%) EDI
4 1 (0.16%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.16%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 214 (33.81%) Security Operations Centre
2 110 (17.38%) Cyber Threat
3 80 (12.64%) Security Posture
4 74 (11.69%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 73 (11.53%) Operational Technology
6 55 (8.69%) Cyber Defence
7 36 (5.69%) Management Information System
8 25 (3.95%) CSOC
9 19 (3.00%) Cloud Native
10 16 (2.53%) Onboarding
11 12 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.74%) Cyberattack
13 10 (1.58%) Self-Motivation
14 9 (1.42%) Data Centre
15 7 (1.11%) Cyber Security Posture
15 7 (1.11%) Hybrid Cloud
16 6 (0.95%) Cloud Security Posture
16 6 (0.95%) Driving Licence
16 6 (0.95%) Insider Threat
16 6 (0.95%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 87 (13.74%) Windows
2 51 (8.06%) Linux
3 22 (3.48%) Windows 10
4 11 (1.74%) Unix
4 11 (1.74%) Windows Server
5 4 (0.63%) Kali Linux
5 4 (0.63%) Windows Server 2012
5 4 (0.63%) Windows Server 2019
6 2 (0.32%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.16%) CentOS
7 1 (0.16%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.16%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 281 (44.39%) Cybersecurity
2 223 (35.23%) Incident Response
3 216 (34.12%) SIEM
4 160 (25.28%) Threat Intelligence
5 156 (24.64%) Vulnerability Management
6 146 (23.06%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 125 (19.75%) Continuous Improvement
8 123 (19.43%) Risk Management
9 115 (18.17%) Roadmaps
10 113 (17.85%) Mentoring
11 111 (17.54%) Cloud Security
12 106 (16.75%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
13 101 (15.96%) ITIL
14 99 (15.64%) Stakeholder Management
15 92 (14.53%) Information Security
16 84 (13.27%) Cyber Intelligence
17 80 (12.64%) Coaching
18 79 (12.48%) Problem-Solving
19 75 (11.85%) Threat Detection
20 73 (11.53%) Business Strategy
Programming Languages
1 100 (15.80%) PowerShell
2 85 (13.43%) Python
3 24 (3.79%) Bash
4 21 (3.32%) Kusto Query Language
5 11 (1.74%) Bicep
6 8 (1.26%) SQL
7 4 (0.63%) Perl
8 3 (0.47%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.32%) C
9 2 (0.32%) C#
9 2 (0.32%) C++
9 2 (0.32%) Go
9 2 (0.32%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.16%) Java
Qualifications
1 106 (16.75%) Security Cleared
2 94 (14.85%) SC Cleared
3 88 (13.90%) CISSP
4 60 (9.48%) Degree
5 53 (8.37%) CompTIA Security+
6 41 (6.48%) GIAC
7 35 (5.53%) CISM
8 30 (4.74%) Cisco Certification
9 23 (3.63%) CEH
10 21 (3.32%) SANS
11 20 (3.16%) GCIH
12 19 (3.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 19 (3.00%) CompTIA CySA+
13 18 (2.84%) Computer Science Degree
14 17 (2.69%) CREST Certified
15 12 (1.90%) Azure Certification
15 12 (1.90%) CISA
16 11 (1.74%) CCNA
16 11 (1.74%) CCSP
16 11 (1.74%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 177 (27.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 173 (27.33%) NIST
3 68 (10.74%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 51 (8.06%) GDPR
5 40 (6.32%) GRC
6 37 (5.85%) Cyber Essentials
7 30 (4.74%) PCI DSS
8 20 (3.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (2.69%) SOC 2
10 15 (2.37%) NCSC
11 8 (1.26%) SLA
12 5 (0.79%) SOC 3
13 4 (0.63%) COBIT
13 4 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.47%) ITGC
15 2 (0.32%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.32%) ISO 9001
16 1 (0.16%) Actionable Recommendations
16 1 (0.16%) HIPAA
System Software
1 24 (3.79%) Active Directory
2 13 (2.05%) Docker
3 4 (0.63%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.47%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.32%) Firmware
5 2 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.16%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 29 (4.58%) SCCM
2 26 (4.11%) Microsoft Intune
3 24 (3.79%) Terraform
4 23 (3.63%) Kubernetes
5 22 (3.48%) QRadar
6 14 (2.21%) Ansible
7 7 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.95%) Grafana
9 5 (0.79%) CASB
9 5 (0.79%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 5 (0.79%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.63%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 3 (0.47%) ArcSight ESM
11 3 (0.47%) CSIRT
11 3 (0.47%) Graylog
12 2 (0.32%) FortiGate
13 1 (0.16%) Host Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.16%) Kibana
13 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 186 (29.38%) Microsoft
2 56 (8.85%) ServiceNow
3 40 (6.32%) Splunk
4 29 (4.58%) CrowdStrike
5 26 (4.11%) SolarWinds
6 17 (2.69%) Cisco
7 15 (2.37%) Qualys
8 10 (1.58%) Tenable
9 9 (1.42%) VMware
10 8 (1.26%) Sophos
11 7 (1.11%) Fortinet
11 7 (1.11%) Okta
11 7 (1.11%) Palo Alto
12 6 (0.95%) Google
12 6 (0.95%) Rapid7
12 6 (0.95%) Zscaler
13 5 (0.79%) CheckPoint
13 5 (0.79%) NetApp
13 5 (0.79%) Veeam
14 4 (0.63%) 3PAR