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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 227 387 318
Rank change year-on-year +160 -69 -24
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 894 342 701
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.84% 0.69% 0.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.15% 0.77% 1.04%
Number of salaries quoted 655 249 471
10th Percentile £42,200 £40,650 £38,880
25th Percentile £52,750 £48,165 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,625
90th Percentile £96,000 £96,500 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +18.18% +4.76% -12.50%

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 77,887 44,584 67,368
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.57% 89.31% 81.13%
Number of salaries quoted 53,644 25,395 43,808
10th Percentile £30,750 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,170 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £48,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +14.58% -4.00% -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 10 August 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 10 August 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 +137 802 £70,000 +12.00% 431
UK excluding London +113 552 £65,000 +18.18% 249
London +79 292 £75,000 -6.25% 229
Work from Home +83 243 £70,000 +16.67% 177
South East +100 189 £60,000 -4.00% 86
North of England +33 124 £70,000 +16.67% 64
Midlands -2 86 £65,000 +22.42% 31
North West +44 79 £75,000 +36.36% 38
East Midlands +29 57 £58,500 -4.29% 13
East of England -13 48 £67,500 +8.87% 11
South West -42 44 £65,000 +27.31% 33
Yorkshire -13 40 £55,000 -12.00% 22
Wales -21 34 £42,250 -23.18% 6
West Midlands -49 29 £67,500 +27.13% 18
Scotland +27 26 £75,000 +30.43% 15
North East -57 5 £75,000 +17.65% 5
Northern Ireland - 3 £42,500 - 8

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 (1.01%) SharePoint
2 5 (0.56%) Confluence
3 3 (0.34%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.34%) Distributed Ledger
Cloud Services
1 177 (19.80%) Azure
2 106 (11.86%) AWS
3 84 (9.40%) Microsoft 365
4 73 (8.17%) Azure Sentinel
5 54 (6.04%) Entra ID
6 40 (4.47%) GCP
7 21 (2.35%) SaaS
8 20 (2.24%) Microsoft Purview
9 18 (2.01%) Azure Logic Apps
10 16 (1.79%) Mimecast
11 14 (1.57%) Anthropic Claude
12 12 (1.34%) Zapier
13 9 (1.01%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 8 (0.89%) AWS CloudFormation
14 8 (0.89%) IaaS
14 8 (0.89%) PaaS
15 6 (0.67%) Cloudflare
15 6 (0.67%) GitHub
15 6 (0.67%) Google Workspace
15 6 (0.67%) Sumo Logic
Communications & Networking
1 139 (15.55%) Firewall
2 100 (11.19%) Network Security
3 48 (5.37%) WAN
4 46 (5.15%) LAN
5 45 (5.03%) TCP/IP
6 40 (4.47%) VPN
7 34 (3.80%) DNS
8 27 (3.02%) Wi-Fi
9 24 (2.68%) Cisco Nexus
9 24 (2.68%) Internet
9 24 (2.68%) Intrusion Detection
10 18 (2.01%) HTTP
11 12 (1.34%) FTP
11 12 (1.34%) SMTP
12 11 (1.23%) SSL
13 10 (1.12%) Cisco ISE
14 6 (0.67%) NGFW
14 6 (0.67%) SD-WAN
15 5 (0.56%) Kerberos
16 4 (0.45%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.67%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.56%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.34%) Hadoop
3 3 (0.34%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.22%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.11%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.11%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 5 (0.56%) JIRA
2 4 (0.45%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.45%) Metasploit
3 3 (0.34%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.11%) Yeoman
General
1 178 (19.91%) Social Skills
2 106 (11.86%) Analytical Skills
3 98 (10.96%) Finance
4 50 (5.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 39 (4.36%) Law
6 38 (4.25%) Legal
6 38 (4.25%) Public Sector
7 28 (3.13%) Aerospace
8 27 (3.02%) Retail
9 18 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (1.57%) Banking
11 12 (1.34%) Military
12 9 (1.01%) Financial Institution
13 7 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
14 6 (0.67%) Advertising
14 6 (0.67%) Documentation Skills
14 6 (0.67%) Police
15 4 (0.45%) Digital Health
15 4 (0.45%) Games
15 4 (0.45%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 223 (24.94%) Analyst
2 156 (17.45%) Security Analyst
3 148 (16.55%) Senior
4 126 (14.09%) Security Manager
5 107 (11.97%) Security Engineer
6 104 (11.63%) Lead
7 87 (9.73%) Senior Analyst
8 85 (9.51%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 65 (7.27%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 61 (6.82%) Operational Security Manager
10 61 (6.82%) Security Operations Manager
10 61 (6.82%) SOC Analyst
11 59 (6.60%) Senior Security Analyst
11 59 (6.60%) SOC Engineer
12 57 (6.38%) Operations Manager
13 51 (5.70%) Architect
14 50 (5.59%) Cybersecurity Engineer
15 40 (4.47%) Security Specialist
16 35 (3.91%) Security Architect
17 34 (3.80%) IT Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (1.79%) LDAP
2 9 (1.01%) ModSecurity
3 6 (0.67%) ARM Templates
3 6 (0.67%) Regular Expression
4 4 (0.45%) OpenID
4 4 (0.45%) REST
4 4 (0.45%) SAML
5 3 (0.34%) JSON
5 3 (0.34%) Kafka
5 3 (0.34%) Smart Contracts
6 2 (0.22%) RESTful
7 1 (0.11%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.11%) FFmpeg
7 1 (0.11%) GStreamer
7 1 (0.11%) HTML
7 1 (0.11%) SailPoint
7 1 (0.11%) TAPI
7 1 (0.11%) Unreal Engine
7 1 (0.11%) WebRTC
7 1 (0.11%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 213 (23.83%) Security Operations Centre
2 158 (17.67%) Security Posture
3 89 (9.96%) Cyber Defence
4 71 (7.94%) Cyber Threat
5 59 (6.60%) Management Information System
6 46 (5.15%) CSOC
7 33 (3.69%) Onboarding
8 31 (3.47%) Cloud Native
9 23 (2.57%) Data Centre
10 17 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
11 16 (1.79%) Cyberattack
12 14 (1.57%) Cloud Security Posture
13 13 (1.45%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
14 12 (1.34%) Hybrid Cloud
15 11 (1.23%) Social Media
16 10 (1.12%) AI Agents
17 9 (1.01%) Client/Server
17 9 (1.01%) Cyber Security Posture
18 7 (0.78%) Insider Threat
18 7 (0.78%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 96 (10.74%) Windows
2 66 (7.38%) Linux
3 12 (1.34%) Windows 10
4 11 (1.23%) Unix
5 7 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.67%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.56%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.45%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.34%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.11%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 506 (56.60%) Cybersecurity
2 336 (37.58%) SIEM
3 321 (35.91%) Incident Response
4 207 (23.15%) Vulnerability Management
5 204 (22.82%) Continuous Improvement
6 186 (20.81%) Information Security
7 170 (19.02%) Cloud Security
8 141 (15.77%) Threat Detection
9 125 (13.98%) Threat Intelligence
10 122 (13.65%) Risk Management
11 111 (12.42%) Problem-Solving
12 102 (11.41%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
13 94 (10.51%) AI
14 92 (10.29%) SOAR
15 84 (9.40%) Security Monitoring
15 84 (9.40%) Stakeholder Management
16 78 (8.72%) Penetration Testing
17 77 (8.61%) Incident Management
18 76 (8.50%) Mentoring
19 73 (8.17%) MITRE ATT&CK
Programming Languages
1 102 (11.41%) PowerShell
2 91 (10.18%) Python
3 39 (4.36%) Kusto Query Language
4 23 (2.57%) Bash
5 11 (1.23%) SQL
6 10 (1.12%) C++
7 9 (1.01%) Perl
7 9 (1.01%) Search Processing Language
8 8 (0.89%) Bicep
9 6 (0.67%) C
10 5 (0.56%) Java
11 4 (0.45%) JavaScript
12 3 (0.34%) C#
13 2 (0.22%) Go
13 2 (0.22%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.11%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 184 (20.58%) Security Cleared
2 135 (15.10%) CISSP
3 129 (14.43%) SC Cleared
4 83 (9.28%) CompTIA Security+
5 69 (7.72%) Degree
6 64 (7.16%) CISM
7 49 (5.48%) Cisco Certification
8 48 (5.37%) GIAC
9 41 (4.59%) CEH
9 41 (4.59%) DV Cleared
10 28 (3.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 28 (3.13%) CompTIA CySA+
10 28 (3.13%) SANS
11 25 (2.80%) GCIH
12 22 (2.46%) CISA
12 22 (2.46%) GCIA
13 21 (2.35%) Computer Science Degree
14 19 (2.13%) CCSP
15 18 (2.01%) CCNP
15 18 (2.01%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 188 (21.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 158 (17.67%) NIST
3 76 (8.50%) GDPR
4 54 (6.04%) GRC
5 53 (5.93%) Cyber Essentials
6 31 (3.47%) PCI DSS
7 25 (2.80%) SOC 2
8 21 (2.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 18 (2.01%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 16 (1.79%) SLA
11 14 (1.57%) NCSC
12 9 (1.01%) Data Quality
13 7 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 5 (0.56%) Accessibility
15 4 (0.45%) NIST 800
16 2 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
16 2 (0.22%) COBIT
16 2 (0.22%) ISO 22301
16 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
16 2 (0.22%) PMO
System Software
1 23 (2.57%) Active Directory
2 8 (0.89%) Docker
2 8 (0.89%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.22%) Firmware
5 1 (0.11%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 32 (3.58%) Microsoft Intune
2 29 (3.24%) Terraform
3 27 (3.02%) QRadar
4 23 (2.57%) Kubernetes
5 22 (2.46%) Single Sign-On
6 20 (2.24%) SCCM
7 11 (1.23%) Ansible
8 7 (0.78%) FortiGate
8 7 (0.78%) Nessus
9 6 (0.67%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 6 (0.67%) Graylog
10 5 (0.56%) Red Hat Satellite
11 3 (0.34%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 3 (0.34%) Kibana
11 3 (0.34%) McAfee ePO
11 3 (0.34%) Nagios
12 2 (0.22%) Jamf Pro
12 2 (0.22%) Symantec Endpoint Protection
13 1 (0.11%) Host Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.11%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 242 (27.07%) Microsoft
2 76 (8.50%) Splunk
3 55 (6.15%) Palo Alto
4 53 (5.93%) Cisco
5 52 (5.82%) Qualys
6 46 (5.15%) CrowdStrike
6 46 (5.15%) ServiceNow
7 24 (2.68%) Fortinet
8 22 (2.46%) Aruba
8 22 (2.46%) Tenable
9 16 (1.79%) Google
9 16 (1.79%) OpenAI
10 15 (1.68%) Rapid7
11 12 (1.34%) SolarWinds
12 10 (1.12%) Sophos
13 9 (1.01%) iManage
13 9 (1.01%) Zscaler
14 8 (0.89%) CyberArk
14 8 (0.89%) LogRhythm
14 8 (0.89%) Red Hat