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

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 238 371 329
Rank change year-on-year +133 -42 +5
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 735 320 883
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.79% 0.72% 0.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.09% 0.78% 1.00%
Number of salaries quoted 553 227 649
10th Percentile £41,350 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £49,375 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £78,125 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £111,250 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £53,886
% change year-on-year +18.18% +2.07% -6.29%

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 67,454 41,012 87,985
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 72.86% 92.64% 82.31%
Number of salaries quoted 46,240 21,844 62,402
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,000 £29,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.69%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +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 12 June 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 12 June 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 +127 667 £70,000 +12.00% 179
UK excluding London +108 432 £65,000 +18.18% 156
London +81 252 £73,500 -6.67% 66
Work from Home +106 236 £60,500 +10.00% 86
South East +62 130 £53,000 -16.86% 64
North of England +55 119 £70,000 +15.70% 38
Midlands +15 80 £60,000 +9.09% 13
North West +66 70 £75,000 +25.00% 20
East Midlands +12 46 £55,000 -3.51% 7
Yorkshire -7 42 £62,500 -3.85% 15
South West -49 37 £65,000 +26.48% 17
West Midlands -32 34 £65,000 +18.18% 6
Wales -15 27 £25,000 -52.56% 8
East of England -14 26 £56,250 +2.74% 8
Scotland +15 13 £70,000 +27.27% 10
North East -35 7 £75,000 +22.45% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £40,750 - 4

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 10 (1.36%) SharePoint
2 4 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.27%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.14%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.14%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 154 (20.95%) Azure
2 83 (11.29%) AWS
3 71 (9.66%) Microsoft 365
4 60 (8.16%) Azure Sentinel
5 43 (5.85%) Entra ID
6 41 (5.58%) GCP
7 22 (2.99%) SaaS
8 15 (2.04%) Mimecast
9 14 (1.90%) Anthropic Claude
10 12 (1.63%) Zapier
11 11 (1.50%) Microsoft Purview
12 8 (1.09%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (1.09%) GitHub
12 8 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (0.95%) Azure Logic Apps
13 7 (0.95%) IaaS
13 7 (0.95%) PaaS
14 6 (0.82%) Cloudflare
14 6 (0.82%) Google Workspace
15 5 (0.68%) Sumo Logic
Communications & Networking
1 107 (14.56%) Firewall
2 74 (10.07%) Network Security
3 34 (4.63%) DNS
4 33 (4.49%) TCP/IP
5 30 (4.08%) VPN
6 28 (3.81%) WAN
7 25 (3.40%) LAN
8 16 (2.18%) HTTP
8 16 (2.18%) Intrusion Detection
9 12 (1.63%) Cisco Nexus
9 12 (1.63%) Internet
10 11 (1.50%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (1.36%) Cisco ISE
11 10 (1.36%) FTP
11 10 (1.36%) SMTP
11 10 (1.36%) SSL
12 6 (0.82%) SD-WAN
13 5 (0.68%) NGFW
14 4 (0.54%) DHCP
14 4 (0.54%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.41%) Power BI
1 3 (0.41%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.27%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (0.27%) MongoDB
2 2 (0.27%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.14%) Big Data
3 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (0.82%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.54%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.54%) CircleCI
2 4 (0.54%) Metasploit
3 3 (0.41%) JIRA
General
1 161 (21.90%) Social Skills
2 99 (13.47%) Analytical Skills
3 81 (11.02%) Finance
4 48 (6.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 37 (5.03%) Law
6 34 (4.63%) Legal
7 32 (4.35%) Public Sector
8 26 (3.54%) Retail
9 18 (2.45%) Influencing Skills
10 12 (1.63%) Banking
11 9 (1.22%) Aerospace
12 7 (0.95%) Advertising
12 7 (0.95%) Financial Institution
12 7 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
13 6 (0.82%) Aviation
13 6 (0.82%) Police
13 6 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.68%) Back Office
15 4 (0.54%) Manufacturing
16 3 (0.41%) Games
Job Titles
1 181 (24.63%) Analyst
2 131 (17.82%) Security Analyst
3 105 (14.29%) Senior
4 89 (12.11%) Security Engineer
4 89 (12.11%) Security Manager
5 76 (10.34%) Lead
6 75 (10.20%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 52 (7.07%) Senior Analyst
8 50 (6.80%) Cybersecurity Manager
8 50 (6.80%) SOC Engineer
9 49 (6.67%) Operational Security Manager
9 49 (6.67%) Security Operations Manager
10 46 (6.26%) Operations Manager
11 45 (6.12%) Architect
11 45 (6.12%) SOC Analyst
12 39 (5.31%) Senior Security Analyst
13 34 (4.63%) Cybersecurity Engineer
14 33 (4.49%) Operations Analyst
14 33 (4.49%) Security Specialist
15 28 (3.81%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (1.63%) LDAP
2 6 (0.82%) Regular Expression
3 5 (0.68%) REST
4 4 (0.54%) ARM Templates
5 3 (0.41%) JSON
6 2 (0.27%) RESTful
7 1 (0.14%) EDI
7 1 (0.14%) FFmpeg
7 1 (0.14%) GStreamer
7 1 (0.14%) HTML
7 1 (0.14%) OpenID
7 1 (0.14%) SailPoint
7 1 (0.14%) SAML
7 1 (0.14%) SOAP
7 1 (0.14%) TAPI
7 1 (0.14%) Unreal Engine
7 1 (0.14%) WebRTC
7 1 (0.14%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 179 (24.35%) Security Operations Centre
2 115 (15.65%) Security Posture
3 69 (9.39%) Cyber Defence
4 52 (7.07%) Cyber Threat
5 49 (6.67%) Management Information System
6 35 (4.76%) CSOC
7 27 (3.67%) Cloud Native
8 22 (2.99%) Onboarding
9 13 (1.77%) Cyberattack
9 13 (1.77%) Data Centre
10 12 (1.63%) Cloud Security Posture
10 12 (1.63%) Self-Motivation
11 10 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
12 8 (1.09%) AI Agents
12 8 (1.09%) Client/Server
13 7 (0.95%) Virtual Team
14 6 (0.82%) Cyber Kill Chain
14 6 (0.82%) Driving Licence
14 6 (0.82%) Low-Code
14 6 (0.82%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 93 (12.65%) Windows
2 58 (7.89%) Linux
3 18 (2.45%) Windows 10
4 12 (1.63%) Unix
5 8 (1.09%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.54%) Kali Linux
6 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (0.54%) Windows Server 2019
7 3 (0.41%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.14%) CentOS
9 1 (0.14%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 401 (54.56%) Cybersecurity
2 269 (36.60%) SIEM
3 254 (34.56%) Incident Response
4 161 (21.90%) Continuous Improvement
5 135 (18.37%) Cloud Security
6 133 (18.10%) Vulnerability Management
7 130 (17.69%) Information Security
8 109 (14.83%) Threat Intelligence
9 95 (12.93%) Problem-Solving
10 93 (12.65%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
11 89 (12.11%) Threat Detection
12 81 (11.02%) Risk Management
13 80 (10.88%) SOAR
14 68 (9.25%) MITRE ATT&CK
15 64 (8.71%) Roadmaps
16 63 (8.57%) AI
17 61 (8.30%) Security Monitoring
18 59 (8.03%) Mentoring
19 55 (7.48%) Use Case
20 53 (7.21%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 101 (13.74%) PowerShell
2 90 (12.24%) Python
3 28 (3.81%) Kusto Query Language
4 24 (3.27%) Bash
5 11 (1.50%) SQL
6 10 (1.36%) Perl
7 9 (1.22%) C++
8 6 (0.82%) Bicep
9 5 (0.68%) C
9 5 (0.68%) JavaScript
10 4 (0.54%) Search Processing Language
11 3 (0.41%) C#
12 2 (0.27%) Go
12 2 (0.27%) Java
12 2 (0.27%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.14%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 142 (19.32%) Security Cleared
2 110 (14.97%) SC Cleared
3 93 (12.65%) CISSP
4 64 (8.71%) CompTIA Security+
5 58 (7.89%) Degree
6 47 (6.39%) GIAC
7 42 (5.71%) CISM
8 32 (4.35%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (4.22%) CEH
10 25 (3.40%) SANS
11 24 (3.27%) DV Cleared
12 22 (2.99%) Computer Science Degree
12 22 (2.99%) CREST Certified
13 21 (2.86%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 19 (2.59%) GCIH
15 18 (2.45%) CompTIA CySA+
16 15 (2.04%) CCSP
17 14 (1.90%) Azure Certification
17 14 (1.90%) GCIA
18 13 (1.77%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 138 (18.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 133 (18.10%) NIST
3 59 (8.03%) GDPR
4 46 (6.26%) Cyber Essentials
5 45 (6.12%) GRC
6 35 (4.76%) PCI DSS
7 22 (2.99%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 18 (2.45%) NCSC
9 16 (2.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 15 (2.04%) SOC 2
11 10 (1.36%) SLA
12 5 (0.68%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.54%) SOC 3
14 3 (0.41%) COBIT
14 3 (0.41%) NIST 800
15 2 (0.27%) Actionable Recommendations
15 2 (0.27%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.27%) ISO 9001
15 2 (0.27%) PMO
System Software
1 27 (3.67%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.50%) Docker
3 4 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
3 4 (0.54%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.27%) Firmware
6 1 (0.14%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 31 (4.22%) Microsoft Intune
2 26 (3.54%) SCCM
3 24 (3.27%) QRadar
4 23 (3.13%) Terraform
5 22 (2.99%) Kubernetes
6 13 (1.77%) Ansible
6 13 (1.77%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (0.82%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 6 (0.82%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.82%) Graylog
8 5 (0.68%) CASB
8 5 (0.68%) vCenter Server
9 4 (0.54%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 4 (0.54%) Grafana
10 3 (0.41%) CSIRT
10 3 (0.41%) Kibana
10 3 (0.41%) Nessus
11 2 (0.27%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.14%) Host Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 214 (29.12%) Microsoft
2 56 (7.62%) Splunk
3 51 (6.94%) ServiceNow
4 36 (4.90%) CrowdStrike
5 30 (4.08%) Qualys
6 29 (3.95%) Cisco
7 22 (2.99%) SolarWinds
8 16 (2.18%) Palo Alto
8 16 (2.18%) Tenable
9 15 (2.04%) OpenAI
10 14 (1.90%) Google
11 12 (1.63%) Fortinet
12 10 (1.36%) Rapid7
13 9 (1.22%) Aruba
13 9 (1.22%) Sophos
13 9 (1.22%) VMware
14 7 (0.95%) Okta
14 7 (0.95%) Zscaler
15 6 (0.82%) Carbon Black
15 6 (0.82%) iManage