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

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 297 293 320
Rank change year-on-year -4 +27 +6
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 501 449 756
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.67% 1.04% 0.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.86% 1.11% 1.02%
Number of salaries quoted 309 324 617
10th Percentile £44,600 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £51,232 £48,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +4.00% -6.72%
75th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £77,500
90th Percentile £91,900 £110,000 £98,000
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 58,145 40,321 73,905
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 77.92% 93.51% 87.23%
Number of salaries quoted 35,200 22,427 56,120
10th Percentile £29,750 £31,925 £29,000
25th Percentile £39,911 £44,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -11.78%
75th Percentile £76,299 £80,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £93,750
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 16 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 16 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 +5 463 £70,000 +7.69% 191
UK excluding London +9 299 £65,000 +18.18% 161
Work from Home +53 227 £60,000 -4.00% 133
London -10 167 £75,000 - 63
South East +36 100 £62,500 - 48
North of England -33 70 £65,000 +30.00% 36
Midlands -2 56 £54,000 -1.82% 22
South West -18 36 £75,000 +36.36% 22
Yorkshire -37 31 £50,000 +11.11% 8
West Midlands -14 30 £65,000 +18.18% 15
North West -19 28 £63,000 +26.00% 22
East Midlands - 26 £42,000 - 7
East of England -20 16 £80,000 +29.03% 21
Scotland -21 12 £72,500 +20.83% 9
North East -18 11 £75,000 +66.67% 6
Wales -17 7 £55,000 -37.14% 5
Northern Ireland -29 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 (1.80%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (1.60%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.40%) Palantir Foundry
4 1 (0.20%) Confluence
4 1 (0.20%) IIS
Business Applications
1 1 (0.20%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 119 (23.75%) Azure
2 65 (12.97%) AWS
3 40 (7.98%) Microsoft 365
4 36 (7.19%) GCP
5 35 (6.99%) Azure Sentinel
6 24 (4.79%) SaaS
7 22 (4.39%) Entra ID
8 15 (2.99%) Mimecast
9 14 (2.79%) PaaS
10 12 (2.40%) IaaS
11 11 (2.20%) GitHub
11 11 (2.20%) Microsoft Purview
12 10 (2.00%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.40%) AWS CloudFormation
14 6 (1.20%) Datadog
15 5 (1.00%) Azure DevOps
15 5 (1.00%) Power Platform
15 5 (1.00%) Tessian
16 4 (0.80%) Dynamics 365
16 4 (0.80%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 81 (16.17%) Firewall
2 68 (13.57%) Network Security
3 32 (6.39%) VPN
4 20 (3.99%) Intrusion Detection
5 17 (3.39%) DNS
6 14 (2.79%) TCP/IP
7 10 (2.00%) DHCP
8 7 (1.40%) SAN
9 5 (1.00%) WAN
10 4 (0.80%) Cisco ISE
10 4 (0.80%) HTTPS
10 4 (0.80%) Wireshark
11 3 (0.60%) Cisco Nexus
11 3 (0.60%) Internet
11 3 (0.60%) LAN
11 3 (0.60%) SCCP
12 2 (0.40%) DKIM
12 2 (0.40%) DMARC
12 2 (0.40%) SD-WAN
12 2 (0.40%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.60%) Power BI
2 2 (0.40%) Metadata
3 1 (0.20%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.20%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.20%) MySQL
3 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (1.20%) CircleCI
1 6 (1.20%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.80%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.80%) Metasploit
3 2 (0.40%) JIRA
4 1 (0.20%) Git
4 1 (0.20%) IDA Disassembler
4 1 (0.20%) MSBuild
General
1 123 (24.55%) Social Skills
2 85 (16.97%) Finance
3 73 (14.57%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (8.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 27 (5.39%) Law
6 20 (3.99%) Legal
7 18 (3.59%) Banking
7 18 (3.59%) Public Sector
7 18 (3.59%) Retail
8 15 (2.99%) Influencing Skills
9 11 (2.20%) Financial Institution
10 10 (2.00%) Back Office
11 8 (1.60%) Advertising
11 8 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
12 7 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.60%) Aviation
13 3 (0.60%) Documentation Skills
13 3 (0.60%) Games
13 3 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
14 1 (0.20%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 120 (23.95%) Lead
2 100 (19.96%) Analyst
3 69 (13.77%) Security Analyst
4 58 (11.58%) Security Manager
5 55 (10.98%) Security Engineer
5 55 (10.98%) Senior
6 37 (7.39%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 28 (5.59%) Cybersecurity Manager
7 28 (5.59%) Operational Security Manager
7 28 (5.59%) Security Operations Manager
8 26 (5.19%) Operations Manager
8 26 (5.19%) SOC Analyst
9 21 (4.19%) SOC Manager
10 18 (3.59%) Consultant
10 18 (3.59%) Head of Security
10 18 (3.59%) Infrastructure Manager
11 17 (3.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 17 (3.39%) SOC Engineer
12 16 (3.19%) Security Specialist
12 16 (3.19%) Senior Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (1.60%) ARM Templates
2 2 (0.40%) Elastic Stack
2 2 (0.40%) OpenTelemetry
2 2 (0.40%) REST
3 1 (0.20%) .NET
3 1 (0.20%) ASP.NET
3 1 (0.20%) EDI
3 1 (0.20%) Flash
3 1 (0.20%) LDAP
3 1 (0.20%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 194 (38.72%) Security Operations Centre
2 105 (20.96%) Cyber Threat
3 78 (15.57%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 71 (14.17%) Operational Technology
5 67 (13.37%) Security Posture
6 41 (8.18%) Cyber Defence
7 21 (4.19%) Cloud Native
8 19 (3.79%) Management Information System
9 13 (2.59%) CSOC
10 10 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
11 9 (1.80%) Onboarding
12 7 (1.40%) Cyber Security Posture
12 7 (1.40%) Driving Licence
12 7 (1.40%) Hybrid Cloud
13 6 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
13 6 (1.20%) PKI
14 5 (1.00%) Cyberattack
14 5 (1.00%) Data Centre
14 5 (1.00%) Replication
15 4 (0.80%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 71 (14.17%) Windows
2 46 (9.18%) Linux
3 16 (3.19%) Windows Server
4 15 (2.99%) Windows 10
5 12 (2.40%) Unix
6 7 (1.40%) Windows Server 2012
6 7 (1.40%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (1.00%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.80%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 208 (41.52%) Incident Response
2 199 (39.72%) Cybersecurity
3 180 (35.93%) SIEM
4 148 (29.54%) Threat Intelligence
5 133 (26.55%) Vulnerability Management
6 130 (25.95%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 110 (21.96%) Risk Management
8 105 (20.96%) Continuous Improvement
8 105 (20.96%) Mentoring
9 101 (20.16%) Roadmaps
10 98 (19.56%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
11 96 (19.16%) Stakeholder Management
12 88 (17.56%) ITIL
13 85 (16.97%) Information Security
14 80 (15.97%) Cloud Security
14 80 (15.97%) Cyber Intelligence
15 79 (15.77%) Coaching
16 72 (14.37%) Business Strategy
17 71 (14.17%) Technology Roadmap
18 69 (13.77%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 72 (14.37%) PowerShell
2 65 (12.97%) Python
3 23 (4.59%) Bash
4 17 (3.39%) Kusto Query Language
5 11 (2.20%) Bicep
5 11 (2.20%) SQL
6 3 (0.60%) JavaScript
6 3 (0.60%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.40%) Perl
8 1 (0.20%) C
8 1 (0.20%) C#
8 1 (0.20%) C++
8 1 (0.20%) PHP
Qualifications
1 83 (16.57%) CISSP
2 74 (14.77%) Security Cleared
3 62 (12.38%) Degree
4 59 (11.78%) SC Cleared
5 43 (8.58%) CompTIA Security+
6 37 (7.39%) CISM
7 32 (6.39%) GIAC
8 23 (4.59%) Cisco Certification
9 21 (4.19%) CEH
9 21 (4.19%) GCIH
10 19 (3.79%) CompTIA CySA+
11 17 (3.39%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (3.39%) CREST Certified
12 15 (2.99%) DV Cleared
13 14 (2.79%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 13 (2.59%) Azure Certification
15 12 (2.40%) CISA
16 10 (2.00%) Microsoft Certification
17 9 (1.80%) CCNA
17 9 (1.80%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 166 (33.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 161 (32.14%) NIST
3 68 (13.57%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 47 (9.38%) GDPR
5 40 (7.98%) Cyber Essentials
6 35 (6.99%) PCI DSS
7 30 (5.99%) GRC
8 22 (4.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 21 (4.19%) SOC 2
10 15 (2.99%) NCSC
11 9 (1.80%) SLA
12 6 (1.20%) SOC 3
13 5 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 4 (0.80%) COBIT
15 3 (0.60%) Accessibility
15 3 (0.60%) ITGC
15 3 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 1 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
16 1 (0.20%) California Consumer Privacy Act
16 1 (0.20%) NIST 800
System Software
1 17 (3.39%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.19%) Docker
3 9 (1.80%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (0.40%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 29 (5.79%) Terraform
2 27 (5.39%) Kubernetes
3 22 (4.39%) SCCM
4 17 (3.39%) Microsoft Intune
5 16 (3.19%) Ansible
6 15 (2.99%) QRadar
7 7 (1.40%) vCenter Server
8 6 (1.20%) Grafana
8 6 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (1.00%) CASB
9 5 (1.00%) Computer Incident Response Team
10 3 (0.60%) ArcSight ESM
10 3 (0.60%) CSIRT
11 2 (0.40%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 2 (0.40%) Nessus
11 2 (0.40%) Prometheus
12 1 (0.20%) Host Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 142 (28.34%) Microsoft
2 39 (7.78%) ServiceNow
3 32 (6.39%) Splunk
4 23 (4.59%) CrowdStrike
4 23 (4.59%) SolarWinds
5 13 (2.59%) Tenable
5 13 (2.59%) VMware
6 10 (2.00%) Qualys
7 9 (1.80%) Cisco
8 8 (1.60%) NetApp
9 7 (1.40%) 3PAR
9 7 (1.40%) Okta
9 7 (1.40%) Palo Alto
9 7 (1.40%) Veeam
10 6 (1.20%) Google
10 6 (1.20%) LogRhythm
11 5 (1.00%) CheckPoint
12 4 (0.80%) Fortinet
12 4 (0.80%) Rapid7
12 4 (0.80%) Zscaler