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

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 290 289 331
Rank change year-on-year -1 +42 +2
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 510 435 755
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.67% 1.03% 0.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.86% 1.10% 1.01%
Number of salaries quoted 316 317 617
10th Percentile £45,000 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £51,251 £48,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,500 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% - -6.72%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £92,125 £107,000 £99,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +18.18% - -8.33%

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 58,981 39,507 74,640
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 77.68% 93.49% 87.04%
Number of salaries quoted 35,808 22,230 56,250
10th Percentile £29,750 £31,750 £29,079
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,887 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.29%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,410 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -8.90%

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 March 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 March 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 +2 471 £70,000 +9.80% 154
UK excluding London +11 299 £65,000 +18.18% 108
Work from Home +56 230 £60,000 -4.00% 78
London -4 173 £72,500 -3.33% 67
South East +18 94 £62,500 - 39
North of England -32 75 £65,000 +30.00% 23
Midlands -1 56 £54,000 -1.82% 18
South West -17 36 £75,000 +30.05% 11
Yorkshire -30 32 £50,000 +11.11% 6
West Midlands -10 30 £65,000 +18.18% 13
North West -17 30 £64,250 +16.82% 14
East Midlands - 26 £42,000 - 5
East of England -21 17 £80,000 +29.03% 11
North East -15 13 £75,000 +66.67% 3
Scotland -23 11 £75,000 +25.00% 5
Wales -22 8 £55,000 -37.14% 2
Northern Ireland -30 3 £32,500 - 1

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 (1.57%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.37%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.39%) Palantir Foundry
4 1 (0.20%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 1 (0.20%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 122 (23.92%) Azure
2 68 (13.33%) AWS
3 43 (8.43%) Microsoft 365
4 38 (7.45%) Azure Sentinel
4 38 (7.45%) GCP
5 24 (4.71%) SaaS
6 20 (3.92%) Entra ID
7 17 (3.33%) Mimecast
8 14 (2.75%) PaaS
9 12 (2.35%) IaaS
10 10 (1.96%) GitHub
10 10 (1.96%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (1.96%) Microsoft Purview
11 7 (1.37%) AWS CloudFormation
12 6 (1.18%) Datadog
13 5 (0.98%) Tessian
14 4 (0.78%) Azure DevOps
14 4 (0.78%) OneDrive
14 4 (0.78%) Power Platform
15 3 (0.59%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 82 (16.08%) Firewall
2 68 (13.33%) Network Security
3 34 (6.67%) VPN
4 21 (4.12%) Intrusion Detection
5 14 (2.75%) DNS
6 12 (2.35%) TCP/IP
7 8 (1.57%) DHCP
8 6 (1.18%) SAN
9 5 (0.98%) Cisco ISE
10 4 (0.78%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.78%) HTTPS
10 4 (0.78%) Internet
10 4 (0.78%) WAN
10 4 (0.78%) Wireshark
11 3 (0.59%) LAN
11 3 (0.59%) SCCP
12 2 (0.39%) DKIM
12 2 (0.39%) DMARC
12 2 (0.39%) SSL
13 1 (0.20%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.59%) Power BI
2 2 (0.39%) Metadata
3 1 (0.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (1.18%) CircleCI
1 6 (1.18%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.78%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.78%) Metasploit
3 2 (0.39%) JIRA
4 1 (0.20%) IDA Disassembler
General
1 128 (25.10%) Social Skills
2 85 (16.67%) Finance
3 74 (14.51%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (8.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 28 (5.49%) Law
6 21 (4.12%) Legal
6 21 (4.12%) Public Sector
7 18 (3.53%) Banking
7 18 (3.53%) Retail
8 15 (2.94%) Influencing Skills
9 11 (2.16%) Financial Institution
10 10 (1.96%) Back Office
11 8 (1.57%) Organisational Skills
11 8 (1.57%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.18%) Advertising
13 3 (0.59%) Aviation
13 3 (0.59%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.59%) Games
13 3 (0.59%) Pharmaceutical
14 1 (0.20%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 119 (23.33%) Lead
2 103 (20.20%) Analyst
3 72 (14.12%) Security Analyst
4 59 (11.57%) Security Manager
5 55 (10.78%) Senior
6 54 (10.59%) Security Engineer
7 39 (7.65%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 30 (5.88%) Operational Security Manager
8 30 (5.88%) Security Operations Manager
9 28 (5.49%) Cybersecurity Manager
9 28 (5.49%) Operations Manager
10 25 (4.90%) SOC Analyst
11 21 (4.12%) SOC Manager
12 19 (3.73%) Consultant
12 19 (3.73%) Head of Security
12 19 (3.73%) SOC Engineer
13 18 (3.53%) Infrastructure Manager
14 17 (3.33%) Security Specialist
15 16 (3.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 15 (2.94%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.57%) ARM Templates
2 2 (0.39%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (0.39%) OpenTelemetry
2 2 (0.39%) REST
3 1 (0.20%) EDI
3 1 (0.20%) Flash
3 1 (0.20%) LDAP
3 1 (0.20%) SailPoint
3 1 (0.20%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 197 (38.63%) Security Operations Centre
2 106 (20.78%) Cyber Threat
3 78 (15.29%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 72 (14.12%) Operational Technology
5 71 (13.92%) Security Posture
6 45 (8.82%) Cyber Defence
7 22 (4.31%) Cloud Native
8 19 (3.73%) Management Information System
9 13 (2.55%) CSOC
10 10 (1.96%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.96%) Onboarding
11 7 (1.37%) Cyber Security Posture
11 7 (1.37%) Driving Licence
11 7 (1.37%) Hybrid Cloud
12 6 (1.18%) Enterprise Software
12 6 (1.18%) PKI
13 5 (0.98%) Cyberattack
13 5 (0.98%) Data Centre
13 5 (0.98%) Data Protection Act
13 5 (0.98%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 75 (14.71%) Windows
2 47 (9.22%) Linux
3 15 (2.94%) Windows 10
3 15 (2.94%) Windows Server
4 12 (2.35%) Unix
5 6 (1.18%) Windows Server 2012
5 6 (1.18%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (0.98%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.78%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 212 (41.57%) Incident Response
2 209 (40.98%) Cybersecurity
3 187 (36.67%) SIEM
4 150 (29.41%) Threat Intelligence
5 135 (26.47%) Vulnerability Management
6 132 (25.88%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 112 (21.96%) Risk Management
8 106 (20.78%) Mentoring
9 105 (20.59%) Continuous Improvement
10 102 (20.00%) Roadmaps
11 97 (19.02%) Stakeholder Management
11 97 (19.02%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
12 87 (17.06%) ITIL
13 86 (16.86%) Information Security
14 83 (16.27%) Cloud Security
15 81 (15.88%) Cyber Intelligence
16 79 (15.49%) Coaching
17 72 (14.12%) Business Strategy
18 71 (13.92%) Technology Roadmap
19 69 (13.53%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 76 (14.90%) PowerShell
2 67 (13.14%) Python
3 23 (4.51%) Bash
4 17 (3.33%) Kusto Query Language
5 11 (2.16%) Bicep
5 11 (2.16%) SQL
6 3 (0.59%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.39%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.39%) Perl
8 1 (0.20%) C
8 1 (0.20%) C++
Qualifications
1 82 (16.08%) CISSP
2 74 (14.51%) Security Cleared
3 63 (12.35%) Degree
4 58 (11.37%) SC Cleared
5 45 (8.82%) CompTIA Security+
6 36 (7.06%) CISM
7 35 (6.86%) GIAC
8 26 (5.10%) Cisco Certification
9 24 (4.71%) CEH
10 22 (4.31%) GCIH
11 20 (3.92%) CompTIA CySA+
12 17 (3.33%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 17 (3.33%) Computer Science Degree
12 17 (3.33%) CREST Certified
13 15 (2.94%) DV Cleared
14 13 (2.55%) Azure Certification
14 13 (2.55%) CISA
15 10 (1.96%) CCSP
16 9 (1.76%) CCNA
17 8 (1.57%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 165 (32.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 165 (32.35%) NIST
2 68 (13.33%) ISO/IEC 27005
3 47 (9.22%) GDPR
4 37 (7.25%) Cyber Essentials
5 35 (6.86%) PCI DSS
6 33 (6.47%) GRC
7 22 (4.31%) SOC 2
8 21 (4.12%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 15 (2.94%) NCSC
10 9 (1.76%) SLA
11 6 (1.18%) SOC 3
12 5 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.78%) COBIT
14 3 (0.59%) Accessibility
14 3 (0.59%) ITGC
14 3 (0.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 1 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
15 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 1 (0.20%) HIPAA
System Software
1 18 (3.53%) Active Directory
2 15 (2.94%) Docker
3 8 (1.57%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.39%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.20%) Firmware
5 1 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 28 (5.49%) Terraform
2 27 (5.29%) Kubernetes
3 21 (4.12%) SCCM
4 19 (3.73%) Microsoft Intune
5 16 (3.14%) Ansible
5 16 (3.14%) QRadar
6 7 (1.37%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.18%) Grafana
7 6 (1.18%) vCenter Server
8 5 (0.98%) CASB
8 5 (0.98%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 3 (0.59%) ArcSight ESM
9 3 (0.59%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 3 (0.59%) CSIRT
10 2 (0.39%) Prometheus
11 1 (0.20%) Host Intrusion Detection System
11 1 (0.20%) Nessus
Vendors
1 147 (28.82%) Microsoft
2 40 (7.84%) ServiceNow
3 36 (7.06%) Splunk
4 24 (4.71%) CrowdStrike
5 21 (4.12%) SolarWinds
6 13 (2.55%) Cisco
7 12 (2.35%) Qualys
7 12 (2.35%) Tenable
7 12 (2.35%) VMware
8 7 (1.37%) NetApp
8 7 (1.37%) Okta
8 7 (1.37%) Palo Alto
9 6 (1.18%) 3PAR
9 6 (1.18%) Google
9 6 (1.18%) LogRhythm
9 6 (1.18%) Sophos
9 6 (1.18%) Veeam
9 6 (1.18%) Zscaler
10 5 (0.98%) CheckPoint
10 5 (0.98%) Fortinet