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

6 months to
17 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 273 260 294
Rank change year-on-year -13 +34 -12
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 471 607 601
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.77% 1.14% 1.02%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.96% 1.25% 1.13%
Number of salaries quoted 278 398 478
10th Percentile £41,775 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £69,875 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.50% +4.00% -7.41%
75th Percentile £82,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,750 £110,750 £92,875
UK excluding London median annual salary £63,419 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +15.31% -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 49,261 48,421 52,980
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.81% 90.77% 89.63%
Number of salaries quoted 29,011 23,517 40,505
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,439
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £58,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +3.45% -7.20%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
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 17 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 17 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 +6 438 £70,000 +7.69% 152
UK excluding London +5 282 £63,419 +15.31% 125
Work from Home +50 223 £65,000 +8.33% 89
London -14 165 £77,500 +3.33% 46
South East +52 105 £62,500 -6.02% 44
Midlands +41 55 £53,000 -1.28% 16
North of England -31 53 £67,442 +34.06% 24
West Midlands +35 37 £52,000 -3.14% 8
North West +9 28 £63,000 +26.00% 16
South West +14 27 £75,000 +30.05% 11
East of England +8 23 £80,000 +33.33% 23
East Midlands - 18 £60,000 - 8
Yorkshire -52 17 £70,000 +33.33% 5
Scotland -32 11 £75,000 +25.00% 6
North East +7 8 £105,000 +120.34% 4
Wales +4 6 £48,250 -44.86% 5
Northern Ireland -8 3 £32,500 -35.40% 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 (1.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.70%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.21%) Confluence
3 1 (0.21%) IIS
Applications
1 4 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.21%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.21%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 106 (22.51%) Azure
2 70 (14.86%) AWS
3 46 (9.77%) Microsoft 365
4 32 (6.79%) GCP
5 27 (5.73%) Azure Sentinel
6 21 (4.46%) Entra ID
7 13 (2.76%) SaaS
8 11 (2.34%) PaaS
9 10 (2.12%) Mimecast
10 9 (1.91%) Microsoft Purview
11 7 (1.49%) GitHub
11 7 (1.49%) IaaS
12 6 (1.27%) Azure DevOps
12 6 (1.27%) GitHub Actions
12 6 (1.27%) Tessian
13 5 (1.06%) AWS CloudFormation
14 3 (0.64%) Datadog
14 3 (0.64%) OneDrive
14 3 (0.64%) Power Platform
15 2 (0.42%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 81 (17.20%) Firewall
2 57 (12.10%) Network Security
3 35 (7.43%) VPN
4 32 (6.79%) DNS
5 22 (4.67%) TCP/IP
6 21 (4.46%) DHCP
6 21 (4.46%) Intrusion Detection
7 12 (2.55%) SAN
8 7 (1.49%) Wireshark
9 5 (1.06%) WAN
10 4 (0.85%) LAN
10 4 (0.85%) Wireless
11 3 (0.64%) Internet
11 3 (0.64%) SCCP
11 3 (0.64%) SSL
12 2 (0.42%) DKIM
12 2 (0.42%) DMARC
12 2 (0.42%) HTTP
13 1 (0.21%) SD-WAN
13 1 (0.21%) UWB
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (0.42%) Metadata
2 2 (0.42%) Power BI
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 3 (0.64%) CircleCI
1 3 (0.64%) Jenkins
2 2 (0.42%) JIRA
3 1 (0.21%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.21%) Git
3 1 (0.21%) IDA Disassembler
3 1 (0.21%) MSBuild
General
1 131 (27.81%) Social Skills
2 86 (18.26%) Finance
3 62 (13.16%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (7.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 26 (5.52%) Legal
6 19 (4.03%) Law
7 17 (3.61%) Banking
8 15 (3.18%) Retail
9 12 (2.55%) Public Sector
10 9 (1.91%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.70%) Advertising
12 7 (1.49%) Back Office
12 7 (1.49%) Influencing Skills
13 6 (1.27%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
15 3 (0.64%) Aviation
16 2 (0.42%) Manufacturing
16 2 (0.42%) Marketing
16 2 (0.42%) Police
Job Titles
1 120 (25.48%) Lead
2 92 (19.53%) Analyst
3 62 (13.16%) Security Analyst
4 60 (12.74%) Security Engineer
5 57 (12.10%) Senior
6 44 (9.34%) Security Manager
7 29 (6.16%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 28 (5.94%) SOC Analyst
9 25 (5.31%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 23 (4.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 23 (4.88%) Operations Manager
11 21 (4.46%) Operational Security Manager
11 21 (4.46%) Security Operations Manager
12 20 (4.25%) Cybersecurity Engineer
13 19 (4.03%) Senior Analyst
14 18 (3.82%) Senior Security Engineer
15 17 (3.61%) SOC Manager
16 16 (3.40%) Information Analyst
16 16 (3.40%) Information Security Analyst
16 16 (3.40%) Senior Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.27%) ARM Templates
2 4 (0.85%) Elastic Stack
2 4 (0.85%) OpenTelemetry
3 2 (0.42%) Django
3 2 (0.42%) HTML
3 2 (0.42%) LDAP
3 2 (0.42%) OAuth
3 2 (0.42%) OpenID
3 2 (0.42%) REST
3 2 (0.42%) SAML
4 1 (0.21%) .NET
4 1 (0.21%) ASP.NET
4 1 (0.21%) AWS CDK
4 1 (0.21%) EDI
4 1 (0.21%) Flash
4 1 (0.21%) SOAP
4 1 (0.21%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 166 (35.24%) Security Operations Centre
2 123 (26.11%) Cyber Threat
3 78 (16.56%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 72 (15.29%) Operational Technology
5 60 (12.74%) Security Posture
6 22 (4.67%) Cyber Defence
7 19 (4.03%) Management Information System
8 15 (3.18%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.12%) Onboarding
9 10 (2.12%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (1.91%) Cyberattack
10 9 (1.91%) Data Centre
11 8 (1.70%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.70%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.49%) Cyber Security Posture
12 7 (1.49%) Insider Threat
13 6 (1.27%) Data Structures
14 5 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
14 5 (1.06%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 76 (16.14%) Windows
2 48 (10.19%) Linux
3 30 (6.37%) Windows Server
4 13 (2.76%) Windows Server 2019
5 12 (2.55%) Windows Server 2012
6 10 (2.12%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.85%) Unix
8 3 (0.64%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.21%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 196 (41.61%) Incident Response
2 194 (41.19%) Cybersecurity
3 157 (33.33%) SIEM
4 144 (30.57%) Vulnerability Management
5 143 (30.36%) Threat Intelligence
6 121 (25.69%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 104 (22.08%) Mentoring
7 104 (22.08%) Risk Management
8 101 (21.44%) Information Security
9 97 (20.59%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
10 93 (19.75%) Roadmaps
10 93 (19.75%) Stakeholder Management
11 91 (19.32%) Continuous Improvement
12 90 (19.11%) ITIL
13 83 (17.62%) Cyber Intelligence
14 82 (17.41%) Business Strategy
15 77 (16.35%) Coaching
16 72 (15.29%) Technology Roadmap
17 69 (14.65%) Change Advisory Board
17 69 (14.65%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 51 (10.83%) PowerShell
2 48 (10.19%) Python
3 19 (4.03%) Bash
4 17 (3.61%) Kusto Query Language
5 15 (3.18%) SQL
6 7 (1.49%) Bicep
7 2 (0.42%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.42%) Perl
7 2 (0.42%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.21%) C
8 1 (0.21%) C#
8 1 (0.21%) C++
8 1 (0.21%) PHP
Qualifications
1 77 (16.35%) CISSP
2 58 (12.31%) Degree
2 58 (12.31%) Security Cleared
3 42 (8.92%) SC Cleared
4 40 (8.49%) CompTIA Security+
5 32 (6.79%) Cisco Certification
5 32 (6.79%) CISM
6 23 (4.88%) GIAC
7 22 (4.67%) GCIH
8 18 (3.82%) CCNA
9 17 (3.61%) CEH
10 16 (3.40%) GCIA
10 16 (3.40%) Microsoft Certification
11 15 (3.18%) CCNP
12 14 (2.97%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 13 (2.76%) Computer Science Degree
13 13 (2.76%) DV Cleared
14 11 (2.34%) Azure Certification
14 11 (2.34%) CompTIA CySA+
15 10 (2.12%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 168 (35.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 160 (33.97%) NIST
3 68 (14.44%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 64 (13.59%) GDPR
5 56 (11.89%) Cyber Essentials
6 30 (6.37%) PCI DSS
7 26 (5.52%) GRC
8 24 (5.10%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 12 (2.55%) SOC 2
10 11 (2.34%) NCSC
10 11 (2.34%) SLA
11 6 (1.27%) Accessibility
12 5 (1.06%) QA
13 4 (0.85%) Data Quality
14 3 (0.64%) ITGC
14 3 (0.64%) SOC 3
15 2 (0.42%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.21%) COBIT
16 1 (0.21%) HIPAA
System Software
1 31 (6.58%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.40%) VMware ESXi
3 13 (2.76%) Docker
4 11 (2.34%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.27%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.21%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 22 (4.67%) Terraform
2 21 (4.46%) SCCM
3 20 (4.25%) Kubernetes
4 19 (4.03%) QRadar
5 18 (3.82%) Microsoft Intune
6 12 (2.55%) vCenter Server
7 11 (2.34%) Ansible
8 10 (2.12%) Single Sign-On
9 9 (1.91%) CSIRT
10 6 (1.27%) Nessus
11 5 (1.06%) Computer Incident Response Team
12 4 (0.85%) Prometheus
13 3 (0.64%) ArcSight ESM
13 3 (0.64%) CASB
13 3 (0.64%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
13 3 (0.64%) Grafana
Vendors
1 118 (25.05%) Microsoft
2 30 (6.37%) ServiceNow
2 30 (6.37%) Splunk
3 27 (5.73%) VMware
4 22 (4.67%) CrowdStrike
4 22 (4.67%) SolarWinds
5 12 (2.55%) 3PAR
5 12 (2.55%) NetApp
5 12 (2.55%) Veeam
6 10 (2.12%) Qualys
6 10 (2.12%) Tenable
7 7 (1.49%) Palo Alto
8 5 (1.06%) ArcSight
8 5 (1.06%) Google
8 5 (1.06%) LogRhythm
9 4 (0.85%) Foundry
9 4 (0.85%) McAfee
9 4 (0.85%) Palantir
9 4 (0.85%) Rapid7
10 3 (0.64%) LogLogic