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

6 months to
30 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 275 265 298
Rank change year-on-year -10 +33 +2
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 485 581 672
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.76% 1.11% 0.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.95% 1.22% 1.09%
Number of salaries quoted 285 372 546
10th Percentile £42,600 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £51,250 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £63,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +2.36% -5.93%
75th Percentile £81,250 £80,000 £76,250
90th Percentile £92,500 £110,000 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £57,585 £60,000
% change year-on-year +12.88% -4.03% -

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 50,903 47,795 61,750
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.21% 91.56% 88.84%
Number of salaries quoted 30,118 23,045 47,857
10th Percentile £28,697 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,326 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £56,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +6.19% -9.60%
75th Percentile £75,900 £80,000 £75,772
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 30 January 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 30 January 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 +10 447 £70,000 +7.69% 159
UK excluding London +18 283 £65,000 +12.88% 144
Work from Home +77 230 £65,000 +4.00% 96
London -8 173 £75,000 - 50
South East +43 104 £62,500 -6.02% 59
North of England -33 55 £65,500 +31.00% 21
Midlands +37 51 £53,000 -3.64% 23
West Midlands +19 33 £48,500 -11.82% 14
South West +18 29 £75,000 +42.18% 14
North West +13 27 £54,000 +8.00% 10
East of England +15 22 £80,000 +33.33% 16
Yorkshire -54 20 £70,000 +33.33% 5
East Midlands - 18 £60,000 - 9
Scotland -39 13 £72,500 +16.00% 7
North East +4 8 £105,000 +133.33% 6
Wales +5 7 £55,000 -37.14% 8
Northern Ireland -12 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 9 (1.86%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.44%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.82%) Palantir Foundry
4 1 (0.21%) Confluence
4 1 (0.21%) IIS
Applications
1 3 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.21%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 112 (23.09%) Azure
2 70 (14.43%) AWS
3 49 (10.10%) Microsoft 365
4 35 (7.22%) GCP
5 31 (6.39%) Azure Sentinel
6 23 (4.74%) Entra ID
7 15 (3.09%) SaaS
8 13 (2.68%) PaaS
9 11 (2.27%) Microsoft Purview
9 11 (2.27%) Mimecast
10 9 (1.86%) GitHub
10 9 (1.86%) IaaS
11 8 (1.65%) GitHub Actions
12 6 (1.24%) AWS CloudFormation
12 6 (1.24%) Azure DevOps
12 6 (1.24%) Tessian
13 5 (1.03%) Datadog
14 4 (0.82%) Power Platform
15 3 (0.62%) OneDrive
16 2 (0.41%) Amazon GuardDuty
Communications & Networking
1 83 (17.11%) Firewall
2 62 (12.78%) Network Security
3 35 (7.22%) VPN
4 30 (6.19%) DNS
5 21 (4.33%) Intrusion Detection
5 21 (4.33%) TCP/IP
6 19 (3.92%) DHCP
7 10 (2.06%) SAN
8 8 (1.65%) Wireshark
9 6 (1.24%) WAN
10 4 (0.82%) LAN
11 3 (0.62%) Internet
11 3 (0.62%) SCCP
11 3 (0.62%) SSL
11 3 (0.62%) Wireless
12 2 (0.41%) DKIM
12 2 (0.41%) DMARC
12 2 (0.41%) HTTP
12 2 (0.41%) SD-WAN
13 1 (0.21%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.62%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.62%) Power BI
2 2 (0.41%) Metadata
3 1 (0.21%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.21%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.21%) MySQL
3 1 (0.21%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.21%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 5 (1.03%) CircleCI
1 5 (1.03%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.41%) JIRA
3 1 (0.21%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.21%) Git
3 1 (0.21%) IDA Disassembler
3 1 (0.21%) MSBuild
General
1 134 (27.63%) Social Skills
2 92 (18.97%) Finance
3 68 (14.02%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (7.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 25 (5.15%) Legal
6 22 (4.54%) Law
7 19 (3.92%) Banking
8 15 (3.09%) Retail
9 11 (2.27%) Financial Institution
9 11 (2.27%) Public Sector
10 9 (1.86%) Back Office
11 8 (1.65%) Advertising
12 7 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (1.24%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
15 3 (0.62%) Aviation
16 2 (0.41%) Manufacturing
16 2 (0.41%) Marketing
16 2 (0.41%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 121 (24.95%) Lead
2 94 (19.38%) Analyst
3 66 (13.61%) Security Analyst
4 62 (12.78%) Security Engineer
5 58 (11.96%) Senior
6 46 (9.48%) Security Manager
7 31 (6.39%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 28 (5.77%) Cybersecurity Manager
8 28 (5.77%) SOC Analyst
9 21 (4.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 20 (4.12%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 19 (3.92%) Operational Security Manager
11 19 (3.92%) Operations Manager
11 19 (3.92%) Security Operations Manager
11 19 (3.92%) Senior Security Engineer
12 18 (3.71%) Information Analyst
12 18 (3.71%) Information Security Analyst
13 17 (3.51%) Senior Analyst
13 17 (3.51%) SOC Manager
14 16 (3.30%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (1.44%) ARM Templates
2 4 (0.82%) Elastic Stack
2 4 (0.82%) OpenTelemetry
3 2 (0.41%) Django
3 2 (0.41%) LDAP
3 2 (0.41%) OAuth
3 2 (0.41%) OpenID
3 2 (0.41%) REST
3 2 (0.41%) SAML
4 1 (0.21%) .NET
4 1 (0.21%) ASP.NET
4 1 (0.21%) EDI
4 1 (0.21%) Flash
4 1 (0.21%) HTML
4 1 (0.21%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 172 (35.46%) Security Operations Centre
2 123 (25.36%) Cyber Threat
3 79 (16.29%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 73 (15.05%) Operational Technology
5 65 (13.40%) Security Posture
6 24 (4.95%) Cyber Defence
7 23 (4.74%) Management Information System
8 17 (3.51%) Cloud Native
9 11 (2.27%) Data Centre
10 10 (2.06%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (2.06%) Onboarding
10 10 (2.06%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.86%) Cyberattack
12 8 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
12 8 (1.65%) Insider Threat
13 7 (1.44%) Cyber Security Posture
13 7 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
14 6 (1.24%) Enterprise Software
14 6 (1.24%) PKI
15 5 (1.03%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 81 (16.70%) Windows
2 53 (10.93%) Linux
3 28 (5.77%) Windows Server
4 11 (2.27%) Windows 10
4 11 (2.27%) Windows Server 2019
5 10 (2.06%) Windows Server 2012
6 5 (1.03%) Mac OS
6 5 (1.03%) Unix
7 1 (0.21%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.21%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 206 (42.47%) Incident Response
2 199 (41.03%) Cybersecurity
3 162 (33.40%) SIEM
4 147 (30.31%) Threat Intelligence
5 145 (29.90%) Vulnerability Management
6 125 (25.77%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 109 (22.47%) Risk Management
8 102 (21.03%) Information Security
8 102 (21.03%) Mentoring
9 96 (19.79%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
10 94 (19.38%) Continuous Improvement
10 94 (19.38%) Roadmaps
11 93 (19.18%) Stakeholder Management
12 89 (18.35%) ITIL
13 84 (17.32%) Cyber Intelligence
14 82 (16.91%) Business Strategy
15 78 (16.08%) Coaching
16 72 (14.85%) Technology Roadmap
17 70 (14.43%) Problem-Solving
18 69 (14.23%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 58 (11.96%) PowerShell
2 51 (10.52%) Python
3 20 (4.12%) Bash
4 18 (3.71%) Kusto Query Language
5 14 (2.89%) SQL
6 8 (1.65%) Bicep
7 2 (0.41%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.41%) Perl
7 2 (0.41%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.21%) C
8 1 (0.21%) C#
8 1 (0.21%) C++
8 1 (0.21%) PHP
Qualifications
1 82 (16.91%) CISSP
2 59 (12.16%) Degree
2 59 (12.16%) Security Cleared
3 45 (9.28%) SC Cleared
4 41 (8.45%) CompTIA Security+
5 33 (6.80%) CISM
6 31 (6.39%) Cisco Certification
7 27 (5.57%) GIAC
8 23 (4.74%) GCIH
9 18 (3.71%) CCNA
9 18 (3.71%) CEH
10 17 (3.51%) GCIA
11 16 (3.30%) Microsoft Certification
12 15 (3.09%) CCNP
13 14 (2.89%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (2.89%) DV Cleared
14 13 (2.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 13 (2.68%) CompTIA CySA+
15 11 (2.27%) Azure Certification
15 11 (2.27%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 173 (35.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 166 (34.23%) NIST
3 68 (14.02%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 66 (13.61%) GDPR
5 55 (11.34%) Cyber Essentials
6 35 (7.22%) PCI DSS
7 30 (6.19%) GRC
8 23 (4.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 16 (3.30%) SOC 2
10 13 (2.68%) NCSC
11 11 (2.27%) SLA
12 5 (1.03%) QA
13 4 (0.82%) Accessibility
13 4 (0.82%) COBIT
13 4 (0.82%) SOC 3
14 3 (0.62%) Data Quality
14 3 (0.62%) ITGC
15 2 (0.41%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.21%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 32 (6.60%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.30%) Docker
3 14 (2.89%) VMware ESXi
4 11 (2.27%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.24%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.21%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 25 (5.15%) Terraform
2 22 (4.54%) Kubernetes
3 20 (4.12%) SCCM
4 18 (3.71%) Microsoft Intune
4 18 (3.71%) QRadar
5 13 (2.68%) Ansible
6 10 (2.06%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (2.06%) vCenter Server
7 9 (1.86%) CSIRT
8 6 (1.24%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 5 (1.03%) CASB
9 5 (1.03%) Grafana
10 4 (0.82%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.62%) ArcSight ESM
11 3 (0.62%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 3 (0.62%) Nessus
Vendors
1 119 (24.54%) Microsoft
2 34 (7.01%) ServiceNow
3 29 (5.98%) Splunk
4 25 (5.15%) VMware
5 21 (4.33%) SolarWinds
6 20 (4.12%) CrowdStrike
7 11 (2.27%) NetApp
7 11 (2.27%) Tenable
8 10 (2.06%) 3PAR
8 10 (2.06%) Veeam
9 9 (1.86%) Qualys
10 7 (1.44%) Palo Alto
11 6 (1.24%) Google
12 5 (1.03%) LogRhythm
13 4 (0.82%) Foundry
13 4 (0.82%) McAfee
13 4 (0.82%) Palantir
14 3 (0.62%) ArcSight
14 3 (0.62%) Cisco
14 3 (0.62%) Salesforce