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

6 months to
8 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 284 261 285
Rank change year-on-year -23 +24 +14
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 455 662 569
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.81% 1.07% 1.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.96% 1.23% 1.20%
Number of salaries quoted 274 430 457
10th Percentile £40,000 £41,963 £38,650
25th Percentile £50,125 £47,500 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £65,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.85% - -3.70%
75th Percentile £82,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £62,500 £55,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +13.64% -12.00% -

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 47,424 53,892 47,309
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 84.09% 86.75% 93.74%
Number of salaries quoted 28,060 28,022 36,472
10th Percentile £28,250 £35,000 £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% - -0.83%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,750 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -13.64% +4.76% -1.87%

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 8 December 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 8 December 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% 166
UK excluding London +18 280 £62,500 +13.64% 144
Work from Home +38 214 £65,500 +9.17% 90
London -21 149 £77,500 +3.33% 67
South East +44 100 £65,000 +8.33% 52
Midlands +64 59 £52,500 +2.44% 18
North of England -33 50 £57,500 +14.29% 19
West Midlands +46 41 £52,000 +1.46% 11
East of England +18 30 £75,000 +25.00% 18
North West +18 26 £55,000 +9.33% 13
South West +18 25 £65,000 -25.71% 25
East Midlands +31 18 £60,000 - 7
Yorkshire -49 16 £38,750 -26.19% 3
Scotland -32 9 £75,000 +36.36% 12
North East +8 8 £96,250 +91.32% 3
Wales +2 5 £63,250 -10.04% 6
Northern Ireland -4 3 £32,500 -35.40%

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 13 (2.86%) SharePoint
2 9 (1.98%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.22%) Confluence
3 1 (0.22%) IIS
Applications
1 7 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.22%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 105 (23.08%) Azure
2 69 (15.16%) AWS
3 47 (10.33%) Microsoft 365
4 28 (6.15%) Azure Sentinel
5 25 (5.49%) GCP
6 22 (4.84%) Entra ID
7 12 (2.64%) SaaS
8 11 (2.42%) Mimecast
9 10 (2.20%) PaaS
10 9 (1.98%) Microsoft Purview
11 7 (1.54%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (1.54%) Tessian
12 6 (1.32%) IaaS
13 5 (1.10%) Amazon ECS
13 5 (1.10%) GitHub
14 4 (0.88%) GitHub Actions
15 3 (0.66%) Google App Engine
16 2 (0.44%) Amazon GuardDuty
16 2 (0.44%) dbt
16 2 (0.44%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 81 (17.80%) Firewall
2 58 (12.75%) Network Security
3 31 (6.81%) DNS
3 31 (6.81%) VPN
4 26 (5.71%) Intrusion Detection
5 22 (4.84%) TCP/IP
6 19 (4.18%) DHCP
7 11 (2.42%) SAN
8 7 (1.54%) Wireshark
9 6 (1.32%) WAN
10 4 (0.88%) LAN
10 4 (0.88%) Wireless
11 3 (0.66%) DMARC
12 2 (0.44%) DKIM
12 2 (0.44%) HTTP
12 2 (0.44%) Wi-Fi
13 1 (0.22%) FTP
13 1 (0.22%) IPv6
13 1 (0.22%) SMTP
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%) CircleCI
2 1 (0.22%) Git
2 1 (0.22%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (0.22%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.22%) MSBuild
General
1 135 (29.67%) Social Skills
2 78 (17.14%) Finance
3 71 (15.60%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (5.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 20 (4.40%) Legal
5 20 (4.40%) Public Sector
6 18 (3.96%) Law
7 14 (3.08%) Banking
8 12 (2.64%) Documentation Skills
9 10 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
10 9 (1.98%) Advertising
10 9 (1.98%) Financial Institution
11 7 (1.54%) Retail
12 6 (1.32%) Back Office
13 5 (1.10%) Local Government
13 5 (1.10%) Police
14 4 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (0.88%) Telecoms
15 3 (0.66%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 125 (27.47%) Lead
2 89 (19.56%) Analyst
3 65 (14.29%) Security Engineer
4 61 (13.41%) Security Analyst
5 51 (11.21%) Senior
6 42 (9.23%) Security Manager
7 26 (5.71%) Cybersecurity Engineer
8 25 (5.49%) SOC Analyst
9 24 (5.27%) Operations Manager
10 23 (5.05%) Cybersecurity Analyst
11 22 (4.84%) Operational Security Manager
11 22 (4.84%) Security Operations Manager
12 21 (4.62%) Senior Analyst
13 20 (4.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 19 (4.18%) Cybersecurity Manager
15 17 (3.74%) SOC Manager
16 16 (3.52%) Senior Security Engineer
17 15 (3.30%) Senior Security Analyst
18 14 (3.08%) Information Analyst
18 14 (3.08%) Information Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.32%) .NET
1 6 (1.32%) Elastic Stack
2 5 (1.10%) ARM Templates
2 5 (1.10%) Software Packaging
3 4 (0.88%) OpenTelemetry
4 3 (0.66%) HTML
4 3 (0.66%) React
5 2 (0.44%) ADO.NET
5 2 (0.44%) AWS CDK
5 2 (0.44%) Django
5 2 (0.44%) OAuth
5 2 (0.44%) OpenID
5 2 (0.44%) REST
5 2 (0.44%) SAML
6 1 (0.22%) ASP.NET
6 1 (0.22%) Flash
6 1 (0.22%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 177 (38.90%) Security Operations Centre
2 136 (29.89%) Cyber Threat
3 77 (16.92%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 73 (16.04%) Operational Technology
5 65 (14.29%) Security Posture
6 18 (3.96%) Management Information System
7 17 (3.74%) Cyber Defence
8 10 (2.20%) Data Centre
8 10 (2.20%) Virtual Team
9 9 (1.98%) Cyberattack
9 9 (1.98%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (1.76%) Cloud Native
10 8 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (1.76%) Insider Threat
11 7 (1.54%) Onboarding
12 6 (1.32%) Cloud Security Posture
12 6 (1.32%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (1.10%) Cyber Security Posture
13 5 (1.10%) NHS
14 4 (0.88%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 73 (16.04%) Windows
2 46 (10.11%) Linux
3 25 (5.49%) Windows Server
4 11 (2.42%) Windows Server 2019
5 10 (2.20%) Windows Server 2012
6 5 (1.10%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.66%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.44%) Unix
9 1 (0.22%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (42.20%) Cybersecurity
2 180 (39.56%) Incident Response
3 153 (33.63%) SIEM
4 145 (31.87%) Vulnerability Management
5 142 (31.21%) Threat Intelligence
6 123 (27.03%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 108 (23.74%) Information Security
8 101 (22.20%) Risk Management
9 99 (21.76%) ITIL
10 97 (21.32%) Mentoring
11 93 (20.44%) Roadmaps
12 90 (19.78%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
13 88 (19.34%) Stakeholder Management
14 83 (18.24%) Cyber Intelligence
15 80 (17.58%) Business Strategy
16 77 (16.92%) Problem-Solving
17 76 (16.70%) Continuous Improvement
18 71 (15.60%) Coaching
19 70 (15.38%) Technology Roadmap
20 69 (15.16%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 40 (8.79%) Python
2 37 (8.13%) PowerShell
3 17 (3.74%) Bash
3 17 (3.74%) Kusto Query Language
4 15 (3.30%) SQL
5 6 (1.32%) Bicep
6 4 (0.88%) C#
7 3 (0.66%) Java
8 2 (0.44%) Perl
9 1 (0.22%) C
9 1 (0.22%) C++
9 1 (0.22%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.22%) PHP
9 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 73 (16.04%) CISSP
2 72 (15.82%) Degree
3 65 (14.29%) Security Cleared
4 48 (10.55%) SC Cleared
5 45 (9.89%) CompTIA Security+
6 28 (6.15%) Cisco Certification
6 28 (6.15%) CISM
7 21 (4.62%) CCNA
7 21 (4.62%) GIAC
8 20 (4.40%) GCIA
8 20 (4.40%) GCIH
9 18 (3.96%) CCNP
9 18 (3.96%) CEH
9 18 (3.96%) DV Cleared
10 14 (3.08%) Computer Science Degree
11 12 (2.64%) CompTIA CySA+
11 12 (2.64%) Microsoft Certification
12 11 (2.42%) Network+ Certification
12 11 (2.42%) SANS
13 10 (2.20%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 158 (34.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 150 (32.97%) NIST
3 68 (14.95%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 65 (14.29%) GDPR
5 53 (11.65%) Cyber Essentials
6 24 (5.27%) GRC
6 24 (5.27%) PCI DSS
7 19 (4.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 11 (2.42%) SLA
9 10 (2.20%) SOC 2
10 9 (1.98%) NCSC
11 6 (1.32%) Accessibility
12 5 (1.10%) QA
13 4 (0.88%) Data Quality
14 3 (0.66%) COBIT
14 3 (0.66%) ITGC
15 2 (0.44%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.44%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
15 2 (0.44%) SOC 3
16 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 33 (7.25%) Active Directory
2 14 (3.08%) VMware ESXi
3 13 (2.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.20%) Docker
5 7 (1.54%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.44%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 20 (4.40%) QRadar
2 19 (4.18%) Kubernetes
3 17 (3.74%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (3.52%) Terraform
5 15 (3.30%) SCCM
6 10 (2.20%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (2.20%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.98%) CSIRT
8 8 (1.76%) Nessus
9 5 (1.10%) Ansible
9 5 (1.10%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 5 (1.10%) Computer Incident Response Team
10 4 (0.88%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.66%) ArcSight ESM
12 2 (0.44%) CASB
13 1 (0.22%) Grafana
13 1 (0.22%) Kibana
13 1 (0.22%) ZENworks
Vendors
1 117 (25.71%) Microsoft
2 34 (7.47%) Splunk
3 26 (5.71%) VMware
4 25 (5.49%) CrowdStrike
5 24 (5.27%) ServiceNow
6 15 (3.30%) SolarWinds
7 13 (2.86%) Tenable
8 11 (2.42%) Qualys
9 10 (2.20%) 3PAR
9 10 (2.20%) NetApp
9 10 (2.20%) Veeam
10 9 (1.98%) Palo Alto
11 7 (1.54%) Rapid7
12 6 (1.32%) LogRhythm
13 5 (1.10%) ArcSight
13 5 (1.10%) Cisco
14 4 (0.88%) Foundry
14 4 (0.88%) McAfee
14 4 (0.88%) Palantir
15 3 (0.66%) LogLogic