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

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 306 357
Rank change year-on-year +18 +51 -27
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 576 398 763
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.67% 0.96% 0.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.89% 1.03% 0.94%
Number of salaries quoted 362 298 610
10th Percentile £43,750 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £49,250 £47,668
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £70,000 £62,500 £61,720
Median % change year-on-year +12.00% +1.26% -5.05%
75th Percentile £80,000 £79,688 £77,500
90th Percentile £94,875 £110,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £55,000 £54,000
% change year-on-year +18.18% +1.85% -6.59%

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 64,759 38,558 80,920
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 75.53% 92.98% 86.03%
Number of salaries quoted 39,875 22,521 59,469
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.54%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -8.26%

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 April 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 April 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 +17 532 £70,000 +12.00% 179
UK excluding London +44 348 £65,000 +18.18% 140
Work from Home +57 247 £60,000 -4.00% 98
London +13 183 £75,000 - 70
South East +5 101 £62,500 +4.17% 48
North of England -1 99 £65,000 +22.07% 35
Midlands -13 64 £50,000 -9.09% 15
North West 0 47 £65,250 +10.13% 21
South West -39 41 £70,000 +27.27% 18
Yorkshire -31 40 £50,000 - 10
East Midlands - 35 £45,000 - 8
West Midlands -20 29 £65,000 +18.18% 6
East of England -32 20 £80,000 +68.42% 11
Wales -21 13 £25,000 -71.43% 11
North East -25 12 £75,000 +66.67% 5
Scotland -30 8 £64,210 +4.83% 5
Northern Ireland -38 2 £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 7 (1.22%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (1.04%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.17%) Confluence
Business Applications
1 1 (0.17%) Exchequer
Cloud Services
1 122 (21.18%) Azure
2 63 (10.94%) AWS
3 50 (8.68%) Microsoft 365
4 46 (7.99%) Azure Sentinel
5 34 (5.90%) GCP
6 24 (4.17%) SaaS
7 23 (3.99%) Entra ID
8 15 (2.60%) Mimecast
9 12 (2.08%) IaaS
9 12 (2.08%) Microsoft Purview
9 12 (2.08%) PaaS
10 11 (1.91%) GitHub
10 11 (1.91%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (1.39%) AWS CloudFormation
12 6 (1.04%) Datadog
13 4 (0.69%) Azure DevOps
13 4 (0.69%) OneDrive
13 4 (0.69%) Power Platform
14 3 (0.52%) Azure Logic Apps
14 3 (0.52%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 83 (14.41%) Firewall
2 63 (10.94%) Network Security
3 30 (5.21%) VPN
4 22 (3.82%) Intrusion Detection
5 17 (2.95%) TCP/IP
6 16 (2.78%) DNS
7 7 (1.22%) WAN
8 5 (0.87%) Cisco ISE
8 5 (0.87%) DHCP
8 5 (0.87%) LAN
9 4 (0.69%) Cisco Nexus
9 4 (0.69%) HTTPS
9 4 (0.69%) Internet
9 4 (0.69%) SAN
9 4 (0.69%) Wireshark
10 3 (0.52%) SCCP
10 3 (0.52%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.35%) DKIM
11 2 (0.35%) DMARC
11 2 (0.35%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
1 3 (0.52%) Power BI
2 1 (0.17%) Metadata
2 1 (0.17%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.17%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (1.04%) CircleCI
1 6 (1.04%) Jenkins
2 4 (0.69%) Bitbucket
2 4 (0.69%) Metasploit
3 2 (0.35%) JIRA
4 1 (0.17%) IDA Disassembler
General
1 140 (24.31%) Social Skills
2 86 (14.93%) Analytical Skills
3 84 (14.58%) Finance
4 53 (9.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 32 (5.56%) Law
6 25 (4.34%) Retail
7 22 (3.82%) Public Sector
8 18 (3.13%) Legal
9 17 (2.95%) Banking
10 15 (2.60%) Influencing Skills
11 11 (1.91%) Financial Institution
12 10 (1.74%) Back Office
13 8 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
14 7 (1.22%) Police
15 6 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
16 4 (0.69%) Advertising
16 4 (0.69%) Aviation
17 3 (0.52%) Documentation Skills
17 3 (0.52%) Games
17 3 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 118 (20.49%) Analyst
2 117 (20.31%) Lead
3 81 (14.06%) Security Analyst
4 70 (12.15%) Security Manager
5 67 (11.63%) Security Engineer
6 60 (10.42%) Senior
7 46 (7.99%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 38 (6.60%) Operational Security Manager
8 38 (6.60%) Security Operations Manager
9 36 (6.25%) Operations Manager
10 32 (5.56%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 30 (5.21%) SOC Analyst
12 28 (4.86%) SOC Engineer
13 21 (3.65%) Architect
14 20 (3.47%) Consultant
14 20 (3.47%) Infrastructure Manager
14 20 (3.47%) IT Analyst
15 19 (3.30%) Cybersecurity Engineer
15 19 (3.30%) SOC Manager
16 18 (3.13%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.56%) ARM Templates
2 6 (1.04%) Regular Expression
3 3 (0.52%) LDAP
3 3 (0.52%) REST
4 1 (0.17%) EDI
4 1 (0.17%) Flash
4 1 (0.17%) SailPoint
4 1 (0.17%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 207 (35.94%) Security Operations Centre
2 106 (18.40%) Cyber Threat
3 77 (13.37%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 77 (13.37%) Security Posture
4 72 (12.50%) Operational Technology
5 50 (8.68%) Cyber Defence
6 31 (5.38%) Management Information System
7 23 (3.99%) Cloud Native
8 22 (3.82%) CSOC
9 16 (2.78%) Onboarding
10 11 (1.91%) Cyberattack
11 10 (1.74%) Analytical Mindset
11 10 (1.74%) Self-Motivation
12 9 (1.56%) Data Centre
13 7 (1.22%) Cyber Security Posture
13 7 (1.22%) Driving Licence
14 6 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
14 6 (1.04%) Hybrid Cloud
14 6 (1.04%) Low-Code
14 6 (1.04%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 75 (13.02%) Windows
2 47 (8.16%) Linux
3 19 (3.30%) Windows 10
4 11 (1.91%) Unix
4 11 (1.91%) Windows Server
5 5 (0.87%) Mac OS
6 4 (0.69%) Kali Linux
6 4 (0.69%) Windows Server 2012
6 4 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.17%) CentOS
7 1 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.17%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (42.71%) Cybersecurity
2 216 (37.50%) Incident Response
3 202 (35.07%) SIEM
4 156 (27.08%) Threat Intelligence
5 144 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
6 140 (24.31%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 120 (20.83%) Risk Management
8 118 (20.49%) Continuous Improvement
9 113 (19.62%) Mentoring
10 112 (19.44%) Roadmaps
11 102 (17.71%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
12 96 (16.67%) Cloud Security
13 95 (16.49%) Stakeholder Management
14 91 (15.80%) ITIL
15 89 (15.45%) Information Security
16 83 (14.41%) Cyber Intelligence
17 80 (13.89%) Coaching
18 74 (12.85%) Problem-Solving
19 72 (12.50%) Threat Detection
20 71 (12.33%) Technology Roadmap
Programming Languages
1 93 (16.15%) PowerShell
2 79 (13.72%) Python
3 23 (3.99%) Bash
4 21 (3.65%) Kusto Query Language
5 12 (2.08%) Bicep
6 9 (1.56%) SQL
7 3 (0.52%) C
7 3 (0.52%) Perl
7 3 (0.52%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.35%) C++
8 2 (0.35%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.17%) Java
Qualifications
1 89 (15.45%) Security Cleared
2 84 (14.58%) CISSP
3 77 (13.37%) SC Cleared
4 61 (10.59%) Degree
5 44 (7.64%) CompTIA Security+
6 39 (6.77%) GIAC
7 33 (5.73%) CISM
8 28 (4.86%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (3.82%) CEH
10 20 (3.47%) SANS
11 18 (3.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 18 (3.13%) CompTIA CySA+
11 18 (3.13%) GCIH
12 17 (2.95%) Computer Science Degree
13 16 (2.78%) CREST Certified
14 12 (2.08%) Azure Certification
14 12 (2.08%) CISA
14 12 (2.08%) DV Cleared
15 11 (1.91%) CCSP
16 10 (1.74%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 164 (28.47%) NIST
2 163 (28.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 68 (11.81%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 48 (8.33%) GDPR
5 35 (6.08%) Cyber Essentials
6 34 (5.90%) GRC
7 33 (5.73%) PCI DSS
8 20 (3.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 20 (3.47%) SOC 2
9 13 (2.26%) NCSC
10 11 (1.91%) SLA
11 6 (1.04%) SOC 3
12 4 (0.69%) COBIT
12 4 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 4 (0.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.52%) ITGC
14 1 (0.17%) Accessibility
14 1 (0.17%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 1 (0.17%) NIST 800
14 1 (0.17%) PMO
System Software
1 17 (2.95%) Active Directory
2 14 (2.43%) Docker
3 4 (0.69%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.52%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.35%) Firmware
5 2 (0.35%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.17%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 27 (4.69%) Terraform
2 25 (4.34%) Kubernetes
3 24 (4.17%) SCCM
4 21 (3.65%) QRadar
5 18 (3.13%) Microsoft Intune
6 14 (2.43%) Ansible
7 7 (1.22%) Computer Incident Response Team
8 6 (1.04%) Grafana
9 5 (0.87%) CASB
9 5 (0.87%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 5 (0.87%) Single Sign-On
9 5 (0.87%) vCenter Server
10 3 (0.52%) ArcSight ESM
10 3 (0.52%) CSIRT
11 2 (0.35%) FortiGate
12 1 (0.17%) Host Intrusion Detection System
12 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 168 (29.17%) Microsoft
2 52 (9.03%) ServiceNow
3 40 (6.94%) Splunk
4 25 (4.34%) CrowdStrike
5 23 (3.99%) SolarWinds
6 15 (2.60%) Qualys
7 14 (2.43%) Cisco
8 11 (1.91%) Tenable
9 9 (1.56%) VMware
10 7 (1.22%) Fortinet
10 7 (1.22%) Okta
10 7 (1.22%) Sophos
11 6 (1.04%) Zscaler
12 5 (0.87%) CheckPoint
12 5 (0.87%) Google
12 5 (0.87%) LogRhythm
12 5 (0.87%) NetApp
12 5 (0.87%) Palo Alto
12 5 (0.87%) Rapid7
12 5 (0.87%) Veeam