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

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 272 334 354
Rank change year-on-year +62 +20 -17
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 624 391 772
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.90% 0.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.92% 0.96% 0.94%
Number of salaries quoted 446 284 608
10th Percentile £41,250 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £50,295 £47,725
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,500 £60,250
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +3.73% -7.31%
75th Percentile £80,000 £79,063 £80,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £110,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +18.18% +1.85% -6.09%

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 68,096 40,631 82,220
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.48% 93.01% 85.54%
Number of salaries quoted 42,564 22,679 59,766
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,580 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,773 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.38% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -0.95% +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 7 May 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 7 May 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 +65 569 £70,000 +9.80% 220
UK excluding London +58 367 £65,000 +18.18% 144
Work from Home +75 218 £57,500 -4.17% 95
London +29 211 £72,500 -3.33% 100
North of England +15 107 £70,000 +23.35% 36
South East +27 105 £52,500 -12.50% 53
Midlands +4 65 £57,500 +4.55% 18
North West +24 57 £75,000 +26.58% 27
Yorkshire -32 41 £50,000 -9.09% 6
South West -33 41 £65,000 +22.57% 18
East Midlands +4 37 £52,500 -27.59% 8
West Midlands -30 28 £66,250 +20.45% 9
Wales -8 24 £25,000 -64.91% 5
East of England -23 17 £68,750 +44.74% 11
North East -22 9 £75,000 +66.67% 3
Scotland -22 7 £60,000 -2.04% 7
Northern Ireland -36 1 £39,000 -

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 (1.28%) SharePoint
2 6 (0.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.16%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 1 (0.16%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 143 (22.92%) Azure
2 72 (11.54%) AWS
3 68 (10.90%) Microsoft 365
4 61 (9.78%) Azure Sentinel
5 36 (5.77%) Entra ID
6 35 (5.61%) GCP
7 21 (3.37%) SaaS
8 16 (2.56%) Mimecast
9 13 (2.08%) Microsoft Purview
10 9 (1.44%) GitHub
10 9 (1.44%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (1.28%) AWS CloudFormation
11 8 (1.28%) IaaS
11 8 (1.28%) PaaS
12 6 (0.96%) Datadog
13 4 (0.64%) Azure Logic Apps
13 4 (0.64%) OneDrive
13 4 (0.64%) Power Platform
13 4 (0.64%) Sumo Logic
14 3 (0.48%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 92 (14.74%) Firewall
2 72 (11.54%) Network Security
3 31 (4.97%) VPN
4 28 (4.49%) DNS
5 26 (4.17%) TCP/IP
6 21 (3.37%) Intrusion Detection
7 8 (1.28%) Cisco ISE
8 7 (1.12%) HTTP
8 7 (1.12%) SSL
9 6 (0.96%) WAN
10 4 (0.64%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.64%) DHCP
10 4 (0.64%) HTTPS
10 4 (0.64%) LAN
10 4 (0.64%) SAN
11 3 (0.48%) Internet
11 3 (0.48%) SCCP
11 3 (0.48%) SD-WAN
11 3 (0.48%) SMTP
12 2 (0.32%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.48%) Power BI
2 1 (0.16%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.16%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (0.96%) CircleCI
1 6 (0.96%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.64%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.64%) Metasploit
3 2 (0.32%) JIRA
General
1 148 (23.72%) Social Skills
2 90 (14.42%) Analytical Skills
3 79 (12.66%) Finance
4 50 (8.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 31 (4.97%) Law
6 29 (4.65%) Retail
7 24 (3.85%) Public Sector
8 22 (3.53%) Legal
9 15 (2.40%) Influencing Skills
10 13 (2.08%) Banking
11 9 (1.44%) Financial Institution
12 7 (1.12%) Back Office
12 7 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (1.12%) Police
13 6 (0.96%) Aviation
13 6 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (0.80%) Advertising
15 3 (0.48%) Documentation Skills
15 3 (0.48%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 138 (22.12%) Analyst
2 94 (15.06%) Security Analyst
3 83 (13.30%) Security Manager
4 77 (12.34%) Security Engineer
5 76 (12.18%) Lead
6 69 (11.06%) Senior
7 51 (8.17%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 48 (7.69%) Operational Security Manager
8 48 (7.69%) Security Operations Manager
9 46 (7.37%) Operations Manager
10 43 (6.89%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 39 (6.25%) SOC Engineer
12 36 (5.77%) SOC Analyst
13 30 (4.81%) Architect
14 25 (4.01%) Security Architect
15 23 (3.69%) Cybersecurity Engineer
15 23 (3.69%) Infrastructure Manager
15 23 (3.69%) Operations Analyst
15 23 (3.69%) Security Specialist
15 23 (3.69%) Team Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.28%) ARM Templates
2 6 (0.96%) Regular Expression
3 4 (0.64%) LDAP
3 4 (0.64%) REST
4 1 (0.16%) EDI
4 1 (0.16%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.16%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 172 (27.56%) Security Operations Centre
2 88 (14.10%) Security Posture
3 64 (10.26%) Cyber Threat
4 58 (9.29%) Cyber Defence
5 40 (6.41%) Management Information System
6 28 (4.49%) CSOC
7 25 (4.01%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 24 (3.85%) Operational Technology
9 21 (3.37%) Cloud Native
9 21 (3.37%) Onboarding
10 12 (1.92%) Analytical Mindset
11 11 (1.76%) Cyberattack
12 10 (1.60%) Data Centre
12 10 (1.60%) Self-Motivation
13 7 (1.12%) Cloud Security Posture
13 7 (1.12%) Hybrid Cloud
14 6 (0.96%) AI Agents
14 6 (0.96%) Driving Licence
14 6 (0.96%) Life Science
14 6 (0.96%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 94 (15.06%) Windows
2 55 (8.81%) Linux
3 23 (3.69%) Windows 10
4 13 (2.08%) Unix
5 10 (1.60%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.64%) Kali Linux
6 4 (0.64%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (0.64%) Windows Server 2019
7 2 (0.32%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.16%) CentOS
8 1 (0.16%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.16%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 307 (49.20%) Cybersecurity
2 228 (36.54%) Incident Response
3 226 (36.22%) SIEM
4 133 (21.31%) Continuous Improvement
5 119 (19.07%) Cloud Security
6 115 (18.43%) Vulnerability Management
7 114 (18.27%) Threat Intelligence
8 101 (16.19%) Information Security
9 98 (15.71%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
10 84 (13.46%) Problem-Solving
11 82 (13.14%) Risk Management
12 79 (12.66%) Threat Detection
13 70 (11.22%) SOAR
14 66 (10.58%) Mentoring
14 66 (10.58%) MITRE ATT&CK
15 65 (10.42%) Roadmaps
16 58 (9.29%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
17 54 (8.65%) ITIL
17 54 (8.65%) Security Monitoring
17 54 (8.65%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 103 (16.51%) PowerShell
2 88 (14.10%) Python
3 23 (3.69%) Bash
4 21 (3.37%) Kusto Query Language
5 11 (1.76%) Bicep
6 8 (1.28%) SQL
7 4 (0.64%) Perl
8 3 (0.48%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.32%) C
9 2 (0.32%) C#
9 2 (0.32%) C++
9 2 (0.32%) Go
9 2 (0.32%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.16%) Java
Qualifications
1 111 (17.79%) Security Cleared
2 98 (15.71%) SC Cleared
3 90 (14.42%) CISSP
4 61 (9.78%) Degree
5 54 (8.65%) CompTIA Security+
6 42 (6.73%) GIAC
7 38 (6.09%) CISM
8 32 (5.13%) Cisco Certification
9 25 (4.01%) CEH
10 23 (3.69%) GCIH
10 23 (3.69%) SANS
11 22 (3.53%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 19 (3.04%) CompTIA CySA+
12 19 (3.04%) Computer Science Degree
13 17 (2.72%) CREST Certified
14 14 (2.24%) CCSP
15 13 (2.08%) Azure Certification
16 12 (1.92%) CISA
17 11 (1.76%) DV Cleared
17 11 (1.76%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 139 (22.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 133 (21.31%) NIST
3 55 (8.81%) GDPR
4 41 (6.57%) GRC
5 40 (6.41%) Cyber Essentials
6 33 (5.29%) PCI DSS
7 21 (3.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 19 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 17 (2.72%) SOC 2
10 15 (2.40%) NCSC
11 8 (1.28%) SLA
12 5 (0.80%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 5 (0.80%) SOC 3
13 4 (0.64%) COBIT
14 3 (0.48%) ITGC
14 3 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 2 (0.32%) Accessibility
15 2 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
15 2 (0.32%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.32%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 25 (4.01%) Active Directory
2 13 (2.08%) Docker
3 4 (0.64%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.32%) Firmware
5 2 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.16%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 31 (4.97%) SCCM
2 27 (4.33%) Microsoft Intune
3 24 (3.85%) Terraform
4 23 (3.69%) Kubernetes
5 21 (3.37%) QRadar
6 14 (2.24%) Ansible
7 9 (1.44%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.96%) CASB
8 6 (0.96%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
8 6 (0.96%) Grafana
9 5 (0.80%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 5 (0.80%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.48%) ArcSight ESM
10 3 (0.48%) CSIRT
10 3 (0.48%) Graylog
11 2 (0.32%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.16%) Host Intrusion Detection System
12 1 (0.16%) Kibana
12 1 (0.16%) Nessus
12 1 (0.16%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 192 (30.77%) Microsoft
2 55 (8.81%) ServiceNow
3 41 (6.57%) Splunk
4 31 (4.97%) CrowdStrike
5 27 (4.33%) SolarWinds
6 18 (2.88%) Cisco
7 16 (2.56%) Qualys
8 11 (1.76%) Tenable
9 9 (1.44%) VMware
10 8 (1.28%) Fortinet
10 8 (1.28%) Sophos
11 7 (1.12%) Google
11 7 (1.12%) Okta
11 7 (1.12%) Palo Alto
11 7 (1.12%) Rapid7
12 6 (0.96%) Zscaler
13 5 (0.80%) CheckPoint
13 5 (0.80%) NetApp
13 5 (0.80%) Veeam
14 4 (0.64%) LogRhythm