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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 273 357 345
Rank change year-on-year +84 -12 -14
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 652 350 796
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.71% 0.80% 0.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.96% 0.85% 0.97%
Number of salaries quoted 488 254 597
10th Percentile £41,250 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,924 £50,607 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £69,875 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +11.80% +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £110,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +18.18% +1.85% -6.23%

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 67,989 40,970 82,440
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.70% 93.29% 84.80%
Number of salaries quoted 43,964 22,120 59,644
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,033 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.39% +5.51% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £51,887 £50,000
% change year-on-year +1.18% +3.77% -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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +94 593 £70,000 +11.11% 213
UK excluding London +78 378 £65,000 +18.18% 172
London +40 224 £72,500 -3.33% 90
Work from Home +101 211 £57,500 -4.17% 99
North of England +35 112 £70,000 +16.67% 37
South East +41 106 £52,500 -16.00% 63
Midlands +3 67 £55,000 - 26
North West +49 62 £75,000 +26.58% 19
Yorkshire -17 42 £62,500 +4.17% 15
South West -38 40 £65,000 +25.65% 22
East Midlands +14 37 £52,500 -27.59% 8
West Midlands -46 30 £65,000 +18.18% 17
Wales -8 26 £25,000 -54.55% 6
East of England -14 18 £50,000 -19.35% 9
Scotland -9 8 £61,710 +0.75% 12
North East -34 8 £75,000 +30.43% 3
Northern Ireland - 1 £39,000 - 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 (1.23%) SharePoint
2 6 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.15%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.15%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 144 (22.09%) Azure
2 73 (11.20%) AWS
3 72 (11.04%) Microsoft 365
4 59 (9.05%) Azure Sentinel
5 41 (6.29%) Entra ID
6 36 (5.52%) GCP
7 22 (3.37%) SaaS
8 17 (2.61%) Mimecast
9 10 (1.53%) Microsoft Purview
10 8 (1.23%) AWS CloudFormation
10 8 (1.23%) GitHub
10 8 (1.23%) GitHub Actions
11 7 (1.07%) IaaS
11 7 (1.07%) PaaS
12 6 (0.92%) Datadog
13 4 (0.61%) Anthropic Claude
13 4 (0.61%) Cloudflare
13 4 (0.61%) Power Platform
13 4 (0.61%) Sumo Logic
13 4 (0.61%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 93 (14.26%) Firewall
2 75 (11.50%) Network Security
3 33 (5.06%) VPN
4 31 (4.75%) TCP/IP
5 29 (4.45%) DNS
6 19 (2.91%) Intrusion Detection
7 14 (2.15%) WAN
8 12 (1.84%) HTTP
9 11 (1.69%) LAN
10 9 (1.38%) Cisco ISE
11 8 (1.23%) SMTP
11 8 (1.23%) SSL
12 7 (1.07%) FTP
13 5 (0.77%) Internet
13 5 (0.77%) SD-WAN
14 4 (0.61%) Cisco Nexus
14 4 (0.61%) DHCP
14 4 (0.61%) HTTPS
14 4 (0.61%) SAN
15 3 (0.46%) SCCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.46%) Power BI
2 2 (0.31%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (0.31%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.15%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.15%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.15%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (0.92%) CircleCI
1 6 (0.92%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.61%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.61%) Metasploit
3 2 (0.31%) JIRA
General
1 151 (23.16%) Social Skills
2 100 (15.34%) Analytical Skills
3 80 (12.27%) Finance
4 46 (7.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 31 (4.75%) Law
6 28 (4.29%) Retail
7 27 (4.14%) Legal
7 27 (4.14%) Public Sector
8 16 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
9 14 (2.15%) Banking
10 9 (1.38%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.23%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (1.07%) Aerospace
12 7 (1.07%) Back Office
12 7 (1.07%) Police
13 6 (0.92%) Aviation
13 6 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.77%) Advertising
15 4 (0.61%) Documentation Skills
16 3 (0.46%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 153 (23.47%) Analyst
2 103 (15.80%) Security Analyst
3 87 (13.34%) Security Manager
4 77 (11.81%) Security Engineer
5 76 (11.66%) Senior
6 61 (9.36%) Lead
7 55 (8.44%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 51 (7.82%) Operational Security Manager
8 51 (7.82%) Security Operations Manager
9 48 (7.36%) Operations Manager
10 46 (7.06%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 44 (6.75%) SOC Engineer
12 38 (5.83%) SOC Analyst
13 36 (5.52%) Architect
14 29 (4.45%) Operations Analyst
14 29 (4.45%) Senior Analyst
15 27 (4.14%) Security Architect
15 27 (4.14%) Security Specialist
16 25 (3.83%) Cybersecurity Engineer
17 23 (3.53%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.38%) LDAP
2 6 (0.92%) Regular Expression
3 5 (0.77%) ARM Templates
4 4 (0.61%) REST
5 1 (0.15%) EDI
5 1 (0.15%) SailPoint
5 1 (0.15%) SOAP
5 1 (0.15%) TAPI
Miscellaneous
1 156 (23.93%) Security Operations Centre
2 89 (13.65%) Security Posture
3 63 (9.66%) Cyber Defence
4 45 (6.90%) Management Information System
5 44 (6.75%) Cyber Threat
6 30 (4.60%) CSOC
7 25 (3.83%) Cloud Native
8 22 (3.37%) Onboarding
9 12 (1.84%) Analytical Mindset
9 12 (1.84%) Cyberattack
9 12 (1.84%) Data Centre
10 10 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.38%) Cloud Security Posture
12 8 (1.23%) AI Agents
13 7 (1.07%) Client/Server
13 7 (1.07%) Driving Licence
14 6 (0.92%) Cyber Kill Chain
14 6 (0.92%) Life Science
14 6 (0.92%) Low-Code
14 6 (0.92%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 96 (14.72%) Windows
2 55 (8.44%) Linux
3 22 (3.37%) Windows 10
4 12 (1.84%) Unix
5 10 (1.53%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.61%) Kali Linux
6 4 (0.61%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (0.61%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.46%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.15%) CentOS
8 1 (0.15%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.15%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 331 (50.77%) Cybersecurity
2 233 (35.74%) Incident Response
3 231 (35.43%) SIEM
4 140 (21.47%) Continuous Improvement
5 118 (18.10%) Cloud Security
6 108 (16.56%) Information Security
7 98 (15.03%) Vulnerability Management
8 94 (14.42%) Threat Intelligence
9 84 (12.88%) Problem-Solving
10 79 (12.12%) Threat Detection
11 77 (11.81%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
12 72 (11.04%) SOAR
13 68 (10.43%) Risk Management
14 64 (9.82%) MITRE ATT&CK
15 56 (8.59%) Security Monitoring
16 55 (8.44%) Roadmaps
17 54 (8.28%) Use Case
18 52 (7.98%) Mentoring
19 51 (7.82%) ITSM
20 47 (7.21%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 102 (15.64%) PowerShell
2 87 (13.34%) Python
3 22 (3.37%) Bash
4 20 (3.07%) Kusto Query Language
5 9 (1.38%) Perl
5 9 (1.38%) SQL
6 7 (1.07%) Bicep
6 7 (1.07%) C++
7 3 (0.46%) C
7 3 (0.46%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.31%) C#
8 2 (0.31%) Go
8 2 (0.31%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.15%) Java
Qualifications
1 122 (18.71%) Security Cleared
2 102 (15.64%) SC Cleared
3 89 (13.65%) CISSP
4 56 (8.59%) CompTIA Security+
4 56 (8.59%) Degree
5 43 (6.60%) GIAC
6 40 (6.13%) CISM
7 31 (4.75%) Cisco Certification
8 29 (4.45%) CEH
9 24 (3.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 24 (3.68%) SANS
10 21 (3.22%) CREST Certified
11 19 (2.91%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (2.76%) GCIH
13 16 (2.45%) CCSP
14 15 (2.30%) CompTIA CySA+
15 14 (2.15%) Azure Certification
16 13 (1.99%) DV Cleared
17 11 (1.69%) CISA
17 11 (1.69%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 121 (18.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 116 (17.79%) NIST
3 55 (8.44%) GDPR
4 48 (7.36%) GRC
5 43 (6.60%) Cyber Essentials
6 34 (5.21%) PCI DSS
7 22 (3.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 18 (2.76%) SOC 2
9 16 (2.45%) NCSC
10 10 (1.53%) SLA
11 7 (1.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 5 (0.77%) SOC 3
13 4 (0.61%) Accessibility
13 4 (0.61%) COBIT
14 3 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
15 2 (0.31%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.31%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.31%) NIST 800
16 1 (0.15%) California Consumer Privacy Act
System Software
1 25 (3.83%) Active Directory
2 13 (1.99%) Docker
3 4 (0.61%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.46%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.31%) Firmware
5 2 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.15%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 30 (4.60%) SCCM
2 28 (4.29%) Microsoft Intune
3 23 (3.53%) Kubernetes
4 22 (3.37%) QRadar
5 20 (3.07%) Terraform
6 14 (2.15%) Ansible
7 10 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.92%) CASB
8 6 (0.92%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 6 (0.92%) Grafana
9 5 (0.77%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 5 (0.77%) vCenter Server
10 4 (0.61%) FortiGate
10 4 (0.61%) Graylog
11 3 (0.46%) CSIRT
12 2 (0.31%) Kibana
13 1 (0.15%) Host Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.15%) Nessus
13 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 199 (30.52%) Microsoft
2 54 (8.28%) ServiceNow
3 43 (6.60%) Splunk
4 29 (4.45%) CrowdStrike
5 26 (3.99%) SolarWinds
6 20 (3.07%) Qualys
7 19 (2.91%) Cisco
8 14 (2.15%) Tenable
9 10 (1.53%) Fortinet
10 9 (1.38%) Sophos
11 8 (1.23%) Google
11 8 (1.23%) VMware
12 7 (1.07%) Okta
12 7 (1.07%) Rapid7
12 7 (1.07%) Zscaler
13 5 (0.77%) CheckPoint
13 5 (0.77%) NetApp
13 5 (0.77%) OpenAI
13 5 (0.77%) Palo Alto
13 5 (0.77%) Veeam