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

6 months to
3 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 228 380 331
Rank change year-on-year +152 -49 0
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 807 335 849
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.83% 0.71% 0.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.13% 0.78% 0.98%
Number of salaries quoted 603 243 615
10th Percentile £41,800 £41,300 £37,500
25th Percentile £53,750 £48,165 £50,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.90% +3.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £82,500 £77,500 £79,375
90th Percentile £95,000 £96,250 £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 71,140 43,093 86,602
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.59% 91.19% 82.11%
Number of salaries quoted 49,140 23,729 61,208
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.09%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,688 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +7.38% - -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 3 July 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 3 July 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 +135 724 £70,000 +12.00% 258
UK excluding London +111 470 £65,000 +18.18% 189
London +98 282 £75,000 -3.23% 100
Work from Home +101 243 £70,000 +26.59% 130
South East +68 145 £60,000 -7.69% 71
North of England +46 123 £70,000 +16.67% 34
Midlands +9 78 £60,000 +9.09% 20
North West +45 74 £75,000 +36.36% 21
East Midlands +27 45 £53,750 -12.07% 8
Yorkshire -4 43 £62,500 - 12
East of England -2 37 £62,500 +0.81% 26
South West -55 36 £65,000 +27.31% 21
West Midlands -31 33 £67,500 +22.73% 12
Wales -13 31 £25,000 -54.55% 9
Scotland +27 19 £75,000 +30.43% 11
North East -46 6 £75,000 +30.43% 1
Northern Ireland - 3 £42,500 - 4

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 10 (1.24%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.37%) Apache Spark
2 3 (0.37%) Confluence
3 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.12%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.25%) Distributed Ledger
2 1 (0.12%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 177 (21.93%) Azure
2 100 (12.39%) AWS
3 79 (9.79%) Microsoft 365
4 65 (8.05%) Azure Sentinel
5 56 (6.94%) Entra ID
6 44 (5.45%) GCP
7 24 (2.97%) SaaS
8 15 (1.86%) Microsoft Purview
8 15 (1.86%) Mimecast
9 14 (1.73%) Anthropic Claude
10 13 (1.61%) Azure Logic Apps
11 12 (1.49%) Zapier
12 9 (1.12%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (1.12%) GitHub
12 9 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (1.12%) IaaS
12 9 (1.12%) PaaS
13 8 (0.99%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 6 (0.74%) Cloudflare
14 6 (0.74%) Sumo Logic
Communications & Networking
1 122 (15.12%) Firewall
2 84 (10.41%) Network Security
3 39 (4.83%) WAN
4 37 (4.58%) TCP/IP
5 36 (4.46%) LAN
6 35 (4.34%) VPN
7 33 (4.09%) DNS
8 20 (2.48%) Wi-Fi
9 18 (2.23%) Cisco Nexus
10 17 (2.11%) HTTP
10 17 (2.11%) Internet
10 17 (2.11%) Intrusion Detection
11 11 (1.36%) FTP
11 11 (1.36%) SMTP
12 10 (1.24%) Cisco ISE
13 8 (0.99%) SSL
14 7 (0.87%) SD-WAN
15 5 (0.62%) NGFW
16 4 (0.50%) HTTPS
17 3 (0.37%) Kerberos
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.50%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.37%) Hadoop
2 3 (0.37%) MongoDB
2 3 (0.37%) NoSQL
3 2 (0.25%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (0.25%) Power BI
3 2 (0.25%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.12%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.12%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 7 (0.87%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.50%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.50%) CircleCI
2 4 (0.50%) JIRA
2 4 (0.50%) Metasploit
3 1 (0.12%) Yeoman
General
1 174 (21.56%) Social Skills
2 103 (12.76%) Analytical Skills
3 100 (12.39%) Finance
4 51 (6.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 42 (5.20%) Law
6 34 (4.21%) Legal
6 34 (4.21%) Public Sector
7 28 (3.47%) Retail
8 16 (1.98%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (1.86%) Banking
10 12 (1.49%) Aerospace
11 10 (1.24%) Financial Institution
12 6 (0.74%) Advertising
12 6 (0.74%) Back Office
12 6 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (0.74%) Police
13 5 (0.62%) Aviation
13 5 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (0.50%) Digital Health
14 4 (0.50%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 196 (24.29%) Analyst
2 147 (18.22%) Security Analyst
3 127 (15.74%) Senior
4 103 (12.76%) Security Manager
5 99 (12.27%) Security Engineer
6 89 (11.03%) Lead
7 85 (10.53%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 68 (8.43%) Senior Analyst
9 54 (6.69%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 53 (6.57%) Senior Security Analyst
10 53 (6.57%) SOC Engineer
11 51 (6.32%) Operational Security Manager
11 51 (6.32%) Security Operations Manager
12 48 (5.95%) Operations Manager
12 48 (5.95%) SOC Analyst
13 47 (5.82%) Architect
14 38 (4.71%) Cybersecurity Engineer
15 35 (4.34%) Operations Analyst
15 35 (4.34%) Security Specialist
16 33 (4.09%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.61%) LDAP
2 6 (0.74%) ARM Templates
2 6 (0.74%) Regular Expression
3 5 (0.62%) REST
4 4 (0.50%) OpenID
4 4 (0.50%) SAML
5 3 (0.37%) JSON
5 3 (0.37%) Kafka
6 2 (0.25%) RESTful
6 2 (0.25%) Smart Contracts
7 1 (0.12%) EDI
7 1 (0.12%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.12%) FFmpeg
7 1 (0.12%) GStreamer
7 1 (0.12%) HTML
7 1 (0.12%) SOAP
7 1 (0.12%) TAPI
7 1 (0.12%) Unreal Engine
7 1 (0.12%) WebRTC
7 1 (0.12%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 197 (24.41%) Security Operations Centre
2 140 (17.35%) Security Posture
3 73 (9.05%) Cyber Defence
4 52 (6.44%) Cyber Threat
4 52 (6.44%) Management Information System
5 37 (4.58%) CSOC
6 33 (4.09%) Cloud Native
7 27 (3.35%) Onboarding
8 15 (1.86%) Data Centre
9 14 (1.73%) Cloud Security Posture
10 13 (1.61%) Cyberattack
10 13 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
10 13 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.12%) AI Agents
11 9 (1.12%) Client/Server
12 7 (0.87%) Virtual Team
13 6 (0.74%) Analytical Mindset
13 6 (0.74%) Cyber Kill Chain
13 6 (0.74%) Insider Threat
13 6 (0.74%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 95 (11.77%) Windows
2 64 (7.93%) Linux
3 15 (1.86%) Windows 10
4 12 (1.49%) Unix
5 6 (0.74%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.50%) Kali Linux
7 3 (0.37%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
8 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.12%) CentOS
9 1 (0.12%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 454 (56.26%) Cybersecurity
2 306 (37.92%) SIEM
3 285 (35.32%) Incident Response
4 180 (22.30%) Continuous Improvement
5 172 (21.31%) Vulnerability Management
6 168 (20.82%) Cloud Security
7 147 (18.22%) Information Security
8 125 (15.49%) Threat Intelligence
9 108 (13.38%) Problem-Solving
9 108 (13.38%) Threat Detection
10 106 (13.14%) Risk Management
11 105 (13.01%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
12 87 (10.78%) SOAR
13 76 (9.42%) AI
14 75 (9.29%) Security Monitoring
15 74 (9.17%) MITRE ATT&CK
16 68 (8.43%) Mentoring
16 68 (8.43%) Penetration Testing
17 67 (8.30%) Roadmaps
18 63 (7.81%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 107 (13.26%) PowerShell
2 90 (11.15%) Python
3 32 (3.97%) Kusto Query Language
4 23 (2.85%) Bash
5 11 (1.36%) SQL
6 9 (1.12%) C++
7 8 (0.99%) Bicep
7 8 (0.99%) Perl
8 7 (0.87%) Search Processing Language
9 6 (0.74%) JavaScript
10 5 (0.62%) C
11 3 (0.37%) C#
11 3 (0.37%) Java
12 2 (0.25%) Go
12 2 (0.25%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.12%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 160 (19.83%) Security Cleared
2 119 (14.75%) SC Cleared
3 107 (13.26%) CISSP
4 68 (8.43%) CompTIA Security+
5 60 (7.43%) Degree
6 54 (6.69%) CISM
7 51 (6.32%) GIAC
8 35 (4.34%) Cisco Certification
9 34 (4.21%) CEH
9 34 (4.21%) DV Cleared
10 26 (3.22%) SANS
11 23 (2.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 23 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
12 22 (2.73%) CompTIA CySA+
13 21 (2.60%) CREST Certified
13 21 (2.60%) GCIH
14 19 (2.35%) CISA
15 18 (2.23%) CCSP
15 18 (2.23%) GCIA
16 15 (1.86%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 163 (20.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 153 (18.96%) NIST
3 72 (8.92%) GDPR
4 50 (6.20%) GRC
5 47 (5.82%) Cyber Essentials
6 35 (4.34%) PCI DSS
7 22 (2.73%) SOC 2
8 20 (2.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 17 (2.11%) NCSC
10 16 (1.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 10 (1.24%) SLA
12 5 (0.62%) Accessibility
12 5 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.50%) Data Quality
14 3 (0.37%) COBIT
14 3 (0.37%) NIST 800
14 3 (0.37%) SOC 3
15 2 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
15 2 (0.25%) ISO 22301
15 2 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 25 (3.10%) Active Directory
2 12 (1.49%) Docker
3 6 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.25%) Firmware
5 2 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.12%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 35 (4.34%) Microsoft Intune
2 31 (3.84%) Terraform
3 27 (3.35%) QRadar
4 25 (3.10%) Kubernetes
4 25 (3.10%) SCCM
5 15 (1.86%) Ansible
5 15 (1.86%) Single Sign-On
6 7 (0.87%) FortiGate
7 6 (0.74%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 6 (0.74%) Graylog
8 4 (0.50%) Computer Incident Response Team
8 4 (0.50%) Grafana
9 3 (0.37%) CASB
9 3 (0.37%) Kibana
9 3 (0.37%) Nessus
9 3 (0.37%) Red Hat Satellite
9 3 (0.37%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.12%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.12%) Host Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 233 (28.87%) Microsoft
2 70 (8.67%) Splunk
3 50 (6.20%) ServiceNow
4 45 (5.58%) Qualys
5 42 (5.20%) CrowdStrike
6 36 (4.46%) Cisco
7 30 (3.72%) Palo Alto
8 23 (2.85%) Tenable
9 17 (2.11%) Google
9 17 (2.11%) SolarWinds
10 16 (1.98%) OpenAI
11 15 (1.86%) Aruba
12 14 (1.73%) Fortinet
13 12 (1.49%) Rapid7
14 10 (1.24%) Sophos
15 9 (1.12%) iManage
16 8 (0.99%) Zscaler
17 7 (0.87%) Meraki
17 7 (0.87%) Okta
18 6 (0.74%) VMware