Security Operations (SecOps)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies with a requirement for Security Operations skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that have cited Security Operations over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 351 338 383
Rank change year-on-year -13 +45 -9
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 789 1,067 1,490
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.80% 1.02% 0.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.94% 1.07% 1.01%
Number of salaries quoted 604 703 879
10th Percentile £37,500 £39,294 £41,250
25th Percentile £47,725 £50,826 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,500 £65,000 £67,500
Median % change year-on-year -6.92% -3.70% +8.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £85,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,290 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,000 £57,810 £55,000
% change year-on-year -6.59% +5.11% -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Security Operations is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 84,305 100,095 147,310
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 85.99% 95.64% 95.57%
Number of salaries quoted 59,591 58,745 83,129
10th Percentile £29,000 £34,000 £33,500
25th Percentile £40,000 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £62,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -11.29% +3.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £72,500 £82,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £100,000 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -9.09% +4.76% +9.38%

Security Operations
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Security Operations as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Security Operations.

Salary trend for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Operations over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

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 27 April 2024. 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 +9 707 £61,439 -5.48% 186
UK excluding London -28 468 £54,000 -6.59% 130
Work from Home +47 314 £60,000 -7.69% 78
London +37 288 £70,000 - 69
South East -6 121 £52,500 -4.55% 41
South West +24 96 £58,750 +9.77% 14
North of England +9 93 £50,000 -23.08% 26
Midlands -4 62 £52,500 -4.55% 23
North West -18 54 £45,000 -30.77% 16
Scotland -60 50 £52,500 -9.19% 10
West Midlands +15 45 £37,500 -31.82% 18
East of England +27 38 £62,500 +13.64% 11
Yorkshire +74 32 £55,750 -7.08% 8
East Midlands -17 17 £57,500 +40.83% 5
North East +2 7 £45,000 -36.84% 2
Wales -13 6 £52,500 -4.55% 6
Northern Ireland +32 3 £32,500 - 2

Security Operations
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 22 (2.79%) SAS
2 9 (1.14%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.51%) Confluence
3 4 (0.51%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.25%) Apache
4 2 (0.25%) Apache Airflow
4 2 (0.25%) IIS
4 2 (0.25%) MS Project Server
5 1 (0.13%) Site Server
Applications
1 16 (2.03%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.89%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (0.25%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.25%) SAP GRC
2 1 (0.13%) Endur
Cloud Services
1 228 (28.90%) Azure
2 140 (17.74%) Microsoft 365
3 78 (9.89%) AWS
4 54 (6.84%) Azure Sentinel
5 45 (5.70%) SaaS
6 32 (4.06%) Entra ID
7 20 (2.53%) Cloud Computing
8 19 (2.41%) GCP
9 17 (2.15%) PaaS
10 16 (2.03%) Azure DevOps
10 16 (2.03%) IaaS
11 15 (1.90%) Microsoft Purview
12 9 (1.14%) Azure AKS
13 6 (0.76%) OCI
14 4 (0.51%) Mimecast
14 4 (0.51%) Power Platform
15 3 (0.38%) Datadog
16 2 (0.25%) Pendo
16 2 (0.25%) Stackdriver
16 2 (0.25%) WhatsApp
Communications & Networking
1 176 (22.31%) Firewall
2 121 (15.34%) Network Security
3 62 (7.86%) Intrusion Detection
4 44 (5.58%) TCP/IP
5 31 (3.93%) VPN
6 28 (3.55%) Internet
7 25 (3.17%) LAN
7 25 (3.17%) WAN
8 23 (2.92%) Wireshark
9 20 (2.53%) DNS
10 10 (1.27%) DHCP
11 7 (0.89%) HTTP
11 7 (0.89%) SMTP
12 6 (0.76%) Broadband
13 5 (0.63%) Wireless
14 4 (0.51%) SSL
15 3 (0.38%) FTP
15 3 (0.38%) Sourcefire
15 3 (0.38%) tcpdump
15 3 (0.38%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.01%) Relational Database
2 5 (0.63%) BigQuery
2 5 (0.63%) Data Warehouse
2 5 (0.63%) Hadoop
3 4 (0.51%) Big Data
4 3 (0.38%) Power BI
5 2 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.13%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.13%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.13%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (0.63%) Git
2 4 (0.51%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.51%) JIRA
3 1 (0.13%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.13%) GitLab
3 1 (0.13%) SonarQube
General
1 210 (26.62%) Social Skills
2 152 (19.26%) Finance
3 110 (13.94%) Analytical Skills
4 51 (6.46%) Law
5 48 (6.08%) Military
6 41 (5.20%) Legal
7 38 (4.82%) Retail
8 35 (4.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 31 (3.93%) Banking
10 18 (2.28%) Games
11 16 (2.03%) Aerospace
12 14 (1.77%) Public Sector
13 12 (1.52%) Presentation Skills
14 11 (1.39%) Telecoms
15 9 (1.14%) Pharmaceutical
16 7 (0.89%) Marketing
17 6 (0.76%) Police
18 4 (0.51%) Aviation
18 4 (0.51%) Organisational Skills
19 3 (0.38%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 267 (33.84%) Analyst
2 159 (20.15%) Security Analyst
3 105 (13.31%) Senior
4 104 (13.18%) Security Engineer
5 78 (9.89%) Consultant
6 76 (9.63%) Lead
6 76 (9.63%) Security Manager
6 76 (9.63%) SOC Analyst
7 75 (9.51%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 70 (8.87%) Security Consultant
9 64 (8.11%) Senior Analyst
10 48 (6.08%) IT Analyst
11 47 (5.96%) IT Security Analyst
12 40 (5.07%) Cybersecurity Consultant
13 37 (4.69%) Developer
13 37 (4.69%) Senior Security Analyst
13 37 (4.69%) ServiceNow Developer
14 30 (3.80%) Operations Analyst
15 29 (3.68%) Security Operations Analyst
16 27 (3.42%) Operational Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (3.42%) Web Services
2 24 (3.04%) AngularJS
2 24 (3.04%) CSS
3 22 (2.79%) HTML
3 22 (2.79%) Twitter Bootstrap
4 17 (2.15%) Elastic Stack
5 10 (1.27%) Fluent Bit
6 8 (1.01%) LDAP
7 5 (0.63%) Kafka
7 5 (0.63%) OAuth
7 5 (0.63%) REST
7 5 (0.63%) SAML
7 5 (0.63%) SOAP
8 3 (0.38%) ADO
8 3 (0.38%) EDI
8 3 (0.38%) ODBC
9 2 (0.25%) JDBC
9 2 (0.25%) Middleware
10 1 (0.13%) .NET
10 1 (0.13%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 235 (29.78%) Security Operations Centre
2 127 (16.10%) Management Information System
3 121 (15.34%) Cyber Threat
4 61 (7.73%) Cyberattack
5 55 (6.97%) Cyber Defence
5 55 (6.97%) Security Posture
6 37 (4.69%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 30 (3.80%) CMDB
8 24 (3.04%) Legacy Systems
9 22 (2.79%) Operational Technology
10 21 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
10 21 (2.66%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 20 (2.53%) Client/Server
12 16 (2.03%) Product Ownership
12 16 (2.03%) SCADA
13 15 (1.90%) Onboarding
14 14 (1.77%) Analytical Mindset
14 14 (1.77%) Data Centre
15 12 (1.52%) PKI
15 12 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 143 (18.12%) Windows
2 70 (8.87%) Linux
3 37 (4.69%) Windows Server
4 21 (2.66%) Unix
5 16 (2.03%) Mac OS X
6 14 (1.77%) Android
6 14 (1.77%) Apple iOS
7 4 (0.51%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.38%) Kali Linux
9 2 (0.25%) AIX
9 2 (0.25%) CentOS
9 2 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.13%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.13%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Vista
Processes & Methodologies
1 522 (66.16%) Cybersecurity
2 331 (41.95%) SIEM
3 279 (35.36%) Incident Response
4 270 (34.22%) Information Security
5 185 (23.45%) Vulnerability Management
6 141 (17.87%) Incident Management
7 121 (15.34%) Threat Intelligence
8 119 (15.08%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
9 102 (12.93%) Risk Management
10 100 (12.67%) Problem-Solving
11 97 (12.29%) Agile
12 96 (12.17%) Mentoring
13 91 (11.53%) Cloud Security
14 79 (10.01%) Identity Access Management
15 70 (8.87%) Computer Science
15 70 (8.87%) DevOps
16 69 (8.75%) Security Architecture
17 68 (8.62%) Continuous Improvement
17 68 (8.62%) Roadmaps
18 67 (8.49%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 61 (7.73%) PowerShell
2 47 (5.96%) Python
3 18 (2.28%) Bash
4 12 (1.52%) Kusto Query Language
5 8 (1.01%) Java
5 8 (1.01%) SQL
6 7 (0.89%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.25%) C
7 2 (0.25%) Scala
8 1 (0.13%) C#
8 1 (0.13%) Go
Qualifications
1 177 (22.43%) CISSP
2 145 (18.38%) Security Cleared
3 142 (18.00%) Degree
4 71 (9.00%) CISM
5 69 (8.75%) SC Cleared
6 62 (7.86%) CompTIA Security+
7 56 (7.10%) Cisco Certification
7 56 (7.10%) DV Cleared
8 49 (6.21%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 48 (6.08%) CCSP
10 37 (4.69%) GIAC
11 34 (4.31%) CEH
11 34 (4.31%) CompTIA CySA+
12 31 (3.93%) Computer Science Degree
13 25 (3.17%) Master's Degree
14 22 (2.79%) CISA
14 22 (2.79%) SSCP
15 21 (2.66%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 20 (2.53%) GCIA
16 20 (2.53%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 182 (23.07%) NIST
2 151 (19.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 74 (9.38%) GDPR
4 62 (7.86%) PCI DSS
5 60 (7.60%) Cyber Essentials
6 43 (5.45%) GRC
7 32 (4.06%) NCSC
8 29 (3.68%) SOC 2
9 26 (3.30%) NIST 800
10 25 (3.17%) JSP 440
11 20 (2.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 15 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 7 (0.89%) COBIT
13 7 (0.89%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 6 (0.76%) ISO 9001
14 6 (0.76%) QA
15 5 (0.63%) Data Quality
15 5 (0.63%) HIPAA
16 3 (0.38%) RMADS
16 3 (0.38%) SLA
System Software
1 78 (9.89%) Active Directory
2 17 (2.15%) Virtual Desktop
2 17 (2.15%) VMware Infrastructure
3 15 (1.90%) vSphere
4 11 (1.39%) Docker
5 5 (0.63%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.63%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.51%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 1 (0.13%) Snort
7 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.13%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 29 (3.68%) Microsoft Intune
2 23 (2.92%) QRadar
3 22 (2.79%) CASB
4 21 (2.66%) Kubernetes
5 15 (1.90%) logstash
6 14 (1.77%) Nmap
6 14 (1.77%) Terraform
7 11 (1.39%) Ansible
8 10 (1.27%) Fluentd
8 10 (1.27%) Nessus
9 9 (1.14%) CSIRT
10 8 (1.01%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 4 (0.51%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.38%) DatAdvantage
12 3 (0.38%) FortiGate
12 3 (0.38%) SCCM
12 3 (0.38%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.38%) Suricata
12 3 (0.38%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.25%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 245 (31.05%) Microsoft
2 75 (9.51%) Splunk
3 48 (6.08%) Qualys
3 48 (6.08%) ServiceNow
4 23 (2.92%) VMware
5 21 (2.66%) Cisco
6 20 (2.53%) CrowdStrike
7 18 (2.28%) Tripwire
8 17 (2.15%) SolarWinds
8 17 (2.15%) Tanium
9 16 (2.03%) Rapid7
10 15 (1.90%) IBM
11 14 (1.77%) Darktrace
11 14 (1.77%) Dell
11 14 (1.77%) Thycotic
12 9 (1.14%) Oracle
13 8 (1.01%) Google
13 8 (1.01%) Juniper
14 6 (0.76%) CheckPoint
15 5 (0.63%) BT