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 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 276 256 287
Rank change year-on-year -20 +31 +13
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 456 721 570
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.84% 1.08% 1.12%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.00% 1.27% 1.19%
Number of salaries quoted 276 478 459
10th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £38,750
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,813 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £62,500 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% -3.85% -3.70%
75th Percentile £82,500 £78,750 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £61,250 £53,559 £62,500
% change year-on-year +14.36% -14.31% -

All Process and 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 45,707 56,896 47,775
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 84.68% 85.15% 93.78%
Number of salaries quoted 27,910 29,661 36,781
10th Percentile £28,250 £34,001 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £98,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £54,439 £52,500
% change year-on-year -12.75% +3.69% -0.94%

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 November 2025.

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 November 2025. 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 +1 422 £67,500 +3.85% 193
UK excluding London +1 278 £61,250 +14.36% 152
Work from Home +52 217 £67,500 +12.50% 89
London -25 152 £77,500 +3.33% 78
South East +31 96 £65,000 +8.33% 64
Midlands +92 63 £52,500 +2.44% 24
North of England -45 52 £56,250 +12.15% 12
West Midlands +70 44 £52,500 +2.44% 15
East of England +24 29 £75,000 +25.00% 16
North West +17 27 £55,000 +9.33% 8
South West -3 22 £51,058 -27.06% 27
East Midlands +40 19 £54,875 - 9
Yorkshire -32 16 £38,750 -22.50% 2
North East +12 9 £87,500 +83.61% 2
Scotland -29 9 £75,000 +42.86% 7
Wales +6 5 £63,250 +25.72% 7
Northern Ireland -4 3 £32,500 -35.20%

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 14 (3.07%) SharePoint
2 9 (1.97%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.22%) Confluence
3 1 (0.22%) IIS
Applications
1 8 (1.75%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.22%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 104 (22.81%) Azure
2 69 (15.13%) AWS
3 46 (10.09%) Microsoft 365
4 29 (6.36%) Azure Sentinel
5 24 (5.26%) GCP
6 21 (4.61%) Entra ID
7 12 (2.63%) SaaS
8 10 (2.19%) PaaS
9 9 (1.97%) Microsoft Purview
9 9 (1.97%) Mimecast
10 7 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.32%) IaaS
11 6 (1.32%) Tessian
12 5 (1.10%) Amazon ECS
13 4 (0.88%) GitHub
14 3 (0.66%) GitHub Actions
14 3 (0.66%) Google App Engine
15 2 (0.44%) Amazon ECR
15 2 (0.44%) Amazon GuardDuty
15 2 (0.44%) dbt
Communications & Networking
1 81 (17.76%) Firewall
2 55 (12.06%) Network Security
3 32 (7.02%) DNS
4 30 (6.58%) VPN
5 27 (5.92%) Intrusion Detection
6 24 (5.26%) TCP/IP
7 20 (4.39%) DHCP
8 11 (2.41%) SAN
9 7 (1.54%) Wireshark
10 6 (1.32%) WAN
11 4 (0.88%) LAN
11 4 (0.88%) Wireless
12 2 (0.44%) DMARC
12 2 (0.44%) HTTP
12 2 (0.44%) Wi-Fi
13 1 (0.22%) DMZ
13 1 (0.22%) Internet
13 1 (0.22%) IPv6
13 1 (0.22%) SD-WAN
13 1 (0.22%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.66%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.66%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.44%) Metadata
3 1 (0.22%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.22%) DTS
3 1 (0.22%) GIS
3 1 (0.22%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.22%) MySQL
3 1 (0.22%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (0.66%) JIRA
2 1 (0.22%) Burp Suite
2 1 (0.22%) Git
2 1 (0.22%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (0.22%) MSBuild
General
1 139 (30.48%) Social Skills
2 76 (16.67%) Finance
3 75 (16.45%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (5.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 20 (4.39%) Legal
5 20 (4.39%) Public Sector
6 19 (4.17%) Law
7 13 (2.85%) Banking
7 13 (2.85%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (2.19%) Financial Institution
9 9 (1.97%) Advertising
9 9 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
9 9 (1.97%) Retail
10 6 (1.32%) Back Office
11 5 (1.10%) Local Government
11 5 (1.10%) Police
11 5 (1.10%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.66%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 125 (27.41%) Lead
2 94 (20.61%) Analyst
3 64 (14.04%) Security Engineer
4 61 (13.38%) Security Analyst
5 51 (11.18%) Senior
6 39 (8.55%) Security Manager
7 28 (6.14%) SOC Analyst
8 26 (5.70%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 24 (5.26%) Operations Manager
10 23 (5.04%) Cybersecurity Analyst
11 21 (4.61%) Operational Security Manager
11 21 (4.61%) Security Operations Manager
12 20 (4.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 20 (4.39%) Senior Analyst
13 18 (3.95%) SOC Manager
14 16 (3.51%) Cybersecurity Manager
14 16 (3.51%) Senior Security Engineer
15 14 (3.07%) Senior Security Analyst
16 12 (2.63%) Information Analyst
16 12 (2.63%) Information Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (1.54%) Elastic Stack
2 6 (1.32%) .NET
3 5 (1.10%) ARM Templates
3 5 (1.10%) Software Packaging
4 4 (0.88%) OpenTelemetry
5 3 (0.66%) HTML
5 3 (0.66%) React
6 2 (0.44%) ADO.NET
6 2 (0.44%) AWS CDK
6 2 (0.44%) Django
6 2 (0.44%) EDI
6 2 (0.44%) OAuth
6 2 (0.44%) OpenID
6 2 (0.44%) REST
6 2 (0.44%) SAML
7 1 (0.22%) 802.1X
7 1 (0.22%) ASP.NET
7 1 (0.22%) Flash
7 1 (0.22%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 178 (39.04%) Security Operations Centre
2 142 (31.14%) Cyber Threat
3 77 (16.89%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 74 (16.23%) Operational Technology
5 65 (14.25%) Security Posture
6 18 (3.95%) Management Information System
7 15 (3.29%) Cyber Defence
8 10 (2.19%) Data Centre
8 10 (2.19%) Virtual Team
9 9 (1.97%) Cyberattack
9 9 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
10 8 (1.75%) Cloud Native
10 8 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.75%) Insider Threat
11 7 (1.54%) Onboarding
12 6 (1.32%) Cloud Security Posture
13 5 (1.10%) Cyber Security Posture
13 5 (1.10%) NHS
14 4 (0.88%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 71 (15.57%) Windows
2 43 (9.43%) Linux
3 25 (5.48%) Windows Server
4 11 (2.41%) Windows Server 2019
5 10 (2.19%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (0.88%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.44%) Unix
7 2 (0.44%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.22%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 198 (43.42%) Cybersecurity
2 182 (39.91%) Incident Response
3 153 (33.55%) SIEM
4 148 (32.46%) Vulnerability Management
5 147 (32.24%) Threat Intelligence
6 129 (28.29%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 110 (24.12%) Information Security
8 103 (22.59%) Risk Management
9 101 (22.15%) ITIL
10 99 (21.71%) Mentoring
11 91 (19.96%) Roadmaps
12 89 (19.52%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
13 87 (19.08%) Stakeholder Management
14 85 (18.64%) Cyber Intelligence
15 81 (17.76%) Business Strategy
16 80 (17.54%) Problem-Solving
17 77 (16.89%) Continuous Improvement
18 71 (15.57%) Coaching
19 70 (15.35%) Technology Roadmap
20 69 (15.13%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 38 (8.33%) Python
2 33 (7.24%) PowerShell
3 17 (3.73%) Kusto Query Language
4 16 (3.51%) Bash
5 15 (3.29%) SQL
6 6 (1.32%) Bicep
7 4 (0.88%) C#
8 3 (0.66%) Java
9 2 (0.44%) Perl
10 1 (0.22%) C
10 1 (0.22%) C++
10 1 (0.22%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.22%) PHP
10 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 77 (16.89%) CISSP
2 74 (16.23%) Degree
3 66 (14.47%) Security Cleared
4 48 (10.53%) SC Cleared
5 44 (9.65%) CompTIA Security+
6 30 (6.58%) CISM
7 26 (5.70%) Cisco Certification
8 21 (4.61%) CCNA
9 20 (4.39%) CEH
9 20 (4.39%) DV Cleared
9 20 (4.39%) GCIA
9 20 (4.39%) GIAC
10 19 (4.17%) GCIH
11 18 (3.95%) CCNP
12 14 (3.07%) Computer Science Degree
12 14 (3.07%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (2.85%) SANS
14 12 (2.63%) CompTIA CySA+
15 11 (2.41%) Network+ Certification
16 9 (1.97%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 158 (34.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 151 (33.11%) NIST
3 68 (14.91%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 63 (13.82%) GDPR
5 52 (11.40%) Cyber Essentials
6 24 (5.26%) PCI DSS
7 23 (5.04%) GRC
8 19 (4.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 11 (2.41%) SLA
10 8 (1.75%) NCSC
10 8 (1.75%) SOC 2
11 6 (1.32%) Accessibility
12 5 (1.10%) QA
13 4 (0.88%) COBIT
13 4 (0.88%) Data Quality
14 3 (0.66%) ITGC
15 2 (0.44%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
16 1 (0.22%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 1 (0.22%) NIST 800
System Software
1 33 (7.24%) Active Directory
2 14 (3.07%) VMware ESXi
2 14 (3.07%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (1.97%) Docker
4 8 (1.75%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.44%) Firmware
6 1 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 20 (4.39%) QRadar
2 18 (3.95%) Kubernetes
2 18 (3.95%) Microsoft Intune
3 15 (3.29%) Terraform
4 12 (2.63%) SCCM
5 10 (2.19%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (2.19%) vCenter Server
6 9 (1.97%) CSIRT
7 8 (1.75%) Nessus
8 6 (1.32%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 5 (1.10%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 4 (0.88%) Ansible
10 4 (0.88%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.66%) ArcSight ESM
12 1 (0.22%) CASB
12 1 (0.22%) Kibana
12 1 (0.22%) ZENworks
Vendors
1 118 (25.88%) Microsoft
2 38 (8.33%) Splunk
3 27 (5.92%) VMware
4 24 (5.26%) CrowdStrike
5 21 (4.61%) ServiceNow
6 12 (2.63%) SolarWinds
7 11 (2.41%) Tenable
8 10 (2.19%) 3PAR
8 10 (2.19%) NetApp
8 10 (2.19%) Qualys
8 10 (2.19%) Veeam
9 9 (1.97%) Palo Alto
9 9 (1.97%) Rapid7
10 7 (1.54%) LogRhythm
11 5 (1.10%) ArcSight
11 5 (1.10%) Cisco
12 4 (0.88%) Foundry
12 4 (0.88%) McAfee
12 4 (0.88%) Palantir
12 4 (0.88%) Zscaler