Security Operations Jobs

Security Operations (SecOps)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for permanent job vacancies requiring Security Operations skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the annual salaries offered in vacancies that cited Security Operations over the 6 months leading up to 31 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 398 328 339
Rank change year-on-year -70 +11 +37
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 329 862 947
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 0.59% 0.83% 0.99%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.63% 0.99% 1.04%
Number of salaries quoted 232 620 656
10th Percentile £42,500 £37,500 £37,463
25th Percentile £50,295 £47,500 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £60,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -7.41%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £111,125 £100,000 £96,125
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £52,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year +4.76% -8.70% -4.17%

All Process and 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 52,256 87,133 91,481
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 93.58% 84.04% 95.51%
Number of salaries quoted 25,854 60,896 54,581
10th Percentile £28,822 £29,250 £34,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £40,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,000 £55,000 £60,899
Median % change year-on-year +3.64% -9.69% +1.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £72,500 £81,250
90th Percentile £97,500 £92,500 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,564 £50,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +3.13% -9.09% +4.76%

Security Operations
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Security Operations as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Salary Trend

3-month moving average salary quoted in jobs citing Security Operations.

Salary trend for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Security Operations over the 6 months to 31 May 2025.

Salary histogram for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Top 16 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 31 May 2025. 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 -83 308 £62,500 +4.17% 393
UK excluding London -69 177 £55,000 +4.76% 241
London -17 127 £77,500 +6.90% 193
Work from Home -76 108 £55,298 -7.84% 229
Midlands +26 43 £55,000 +4.76% 29
West Midlands +40 41 £55,000 +18.95% 24
South East -15 41 £62,500 +19.05% 67
North of England -56 32 £60,000 +20.00% 54
South West +42 23 £51,729 -17.23% 23
East of England +38 23 £54,750 -5.05% 32
North West -47 17 £60,000 +20.00% 31
Scotland +72 14 £60,000 +14.29% 24
Yorkshire +24 13 £60,000 +14.29% 17
North East +37 2 £70,000 +55.56% 6
Wales +36 2 £52,697 +5.39%
East Midlands +21 2 £57,000 -0.87% 5

Security Operations
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (2.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (2.13%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (1.22%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.30%) C-CURE
1 1 (0.30%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 102 (31.00%) Azure
2 49 (14.89%) AWS
3 47 (14.29%) Microsoft 365
4 33 (10.03%) Azure Sentinel
5 23 (6.99%) GCP
6 22 (6.69%) Entra ID
7 15 (4.56%) Microsoft Purview
8 11 (3.34%) SaaS
9 9 (2.74%) PaaS
10 8 (2.43%) Cloud Computing
11 7 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
12 6 (1.82%) IaaS
13 5 (1.52%) Amazon EC2
13 5 (1.52%) Microsoft Copilot
13 5 (1.52%) Power Platform
14 4 (1.22%) Route 53
15 3 (0.91%) Copilot Studio
16 2 (0.61%) Amazon ECS
16 2 (0.61%) Amazon GuardDuty
16 2 (0.61%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 116 (35.26%) Firewall
2 49 (14.89%) Network Security
3 34 (10.33%) VPN
4 33 (10.03%) Intrusion Detection
5 32 (9.73%) TCP/IP
6 24 (7.29%) DNS
7 21 (6.38%) HTTP
7 21 (6.38%) SMTP
8 17 (5.17%) WAN
9 14 (4.26%) Internet
10 13 (3.95%) LAN
11 12 (3.65%) FTP
12 8 (2.43%) DHCP
13 5 (1.52%) NGFW
14 4 (1.22%) HTTPS
14 4 (1.22%) SD-WAN
14 4 (1.22%) VLAN
15 2 (0.61%) DKIM
15 2 (0.61%) DMARC
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.43%) Relational Database
2 4 (1.22%) Power BI
3 1 (0.30%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 2 (0.61%) GitLab
2 1 (0.30%) Jaeger
2 1 (0.30%) Jenkins
General
1 92 (27.96%) Social Skills
2 58 (17.63%) Finance
3 56 (17.02%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (11.25%) Law
5 32 (9.73%) Retail
6 24 (7.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 17 (5.17%) Legal
8 15 (4.56%) Telecoms
9 11 (3.34%) Pharmaceutical
10 7 (2.13%) Banking
10 7 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.82%) Aerospace
11 6 (1.82%) Documentation Skills
12 5 (1.52%) Financial Institution
12 5 (1.52%) Police
13 4 (1.22%) Military
14 3 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.91%) Public Sector
15 2 (0.61%) Games
15 2 (0.61%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 119 (36.17%) Analyst
2 79 (24.01%) Security Analyst
3 43 (13.07%) Security Engineer
4 34 (10.33%) Lead
4 34 (10.33%) Senior
5 33 (10.03%) SOC Analyst
6 26 (7.90%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 22 (6.69%) Security Manager
8 18 (5.47%) IT Analyst
9 16 (4.86%) Consultant
10 15 (4.56%) Cloud Engineer
11 14 (4.26%) Head of Security
11 14 (4.26%) Operations Manager
11 14 (4.26%) Senior Analyst
12 13 (3.95%) IT Security Analyst
13 12 (3.65%) Operations Analyst
13 12 (3.65%) Security Operations Analyst
14 11 (3.34%) Automation Engineer
14 11 (3.34%) Operational Security Manager
14 11 (3.34%) Security Operations Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (3.34%) LDAP
2 2 (0.61%) HTML
2 2 (0.61%) Leaflet
3 1 (0.30%) .NET
3 1 (0.30%) 802.1X
3 1 (0.30%) CSS
3 1 (0.30%) Elastic Stack
3 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (0.30%) Middleware
3 1 (0.30%) OpenTelemetry
3 1 (0.30%) SailPoint
3 1 (0.30%) Spring
3 1 (0.30%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 93 (28.27%) Security Operations Centre
2 64 (19.45%) Security Posture
3 57 (17.33%) Management Information System
4 51 (15.50%) Cyber Threat
5 22 (6.69%) Cyber Defence
6 13 (3.95%) Client/Server
7 12 (3.65%) PKI
8 11 (3.34%) Hedge funds
8 11 (3.34%) Self-Motivation
9 10 (3.04%) Cyberattack
9 10 (3.04%) Private Cloud
10 8 (2.43%) Cloud Security Posture
10 8 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
10 8 (2.43%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.52%) CSOC
11 5 (1.52%) Cyber Security Posture
11 5 (1.52%) Data Centre
11 5 (1.52%) Onboarding
12 4 (1.22%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (1.22%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 53 (16.11%) Windows
2 17 (5.17%) Linux
3 7 (2.13%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.91%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.61%) Unix
6 1 (0.30%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.30%) VMS
6 1 (0.30%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 192 (58.36%) Cybersecurity
2 159 (48.33%) Incident Response
3 153 (46.50%) SIEM
4 135 (41.03%) Information Security
5 87 (26.44%) Vulnerability Management
6 69 (20.97%) Risk Management
7 65 (19.76%) Problem-Solving
8 57 (17.33%) Continuous Improvement
9 55 (16.72%) Threat Intelligence
10 54 (16.41%) Incident Management
11 52 (15.81%) Cloud Security
12 51 (15.50%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
13 45 (13.68%) Data Loss Prevention
13 45 (13.68%) Threat Detection
14 44 (13.37%) Data Protection
15 43 (13.07%) Vulnerability Assessment
16 36 (10.94%) MITRE ATT&CK
17 34 (10.33%) Security Monitoring
18 33 (10.03%) Identity Access Management
19 26 (7.90%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 59 (17.93%) PowerShell
2 58 (17.63%) Python
3 25 (7.60%) Bash
4 11 (3.34%) Kusto Query Language
5 10 (3.04%) C#
6 8 (2.43%) Perl
7 6 (1.82%) C++
8 4 (1.22%) JavaScript
9 3 (0.91%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (0.91%) SQL
10 1 (0.30%) Java
10 1 (0.30%) VBA
Qualifications
1 71 (21.58%) CISSP
2 68 (20.67%) Degree
3 55 (16.72%) Security Cleared
4 47 (14.29%) CISM
5 45 (13.68%) CompTIA Security+
6 37 (11.25%) SC Cleared
7 30 (9.12%) CEH
8 29 (8.81%) GCIH
9 21 (6.38%) DV Cleared
10 20 (6.08%) GCIA
11 19 (5.78%) CRISC
11 19 (5.78%) GIAC
11 19 (5.78%) OSCP
12 14 (4.26%) AWS Certification
12 14 (4.26%) SANS
13 12 (3.65%) Microsoft Certification
14 9 (2.74%) Azure Certification
14 9 (2.74%) CISA
15 8 (2.43%) PMI Certification
16 7 (2.13%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (21.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 69 (20.97%) NIST
3 34 (10.33%) GDPR
4 26 (7.90%) COBIT
5 20 (6.08%) Cyber Essentials
5 20 (6.08%) PCI DSS
6 15 (4.56%) GRC
7 12 (3.65%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 5 (1.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (1.22%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.91%) NCSC
10 3 (0.91%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.61%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.61%) SLA
12 1 (0.30%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.30%) NIST 800
12 1 (0.30%) QA
12 1 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.30%) SOC 1
System Software
1 27 (8.21%) Active Directory
2 6 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (1.52%) Docker
4 2 (0.61%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.30%) Firmware
5 1 (0.30%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.30%) Snort
5 1 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 25 (7.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 20 (6.08%) QRadar
3 13 (3.95%) Kubernetes
4 8 (2.43%) Terraform
5 3 (0.91%) Nessus
6 2 (0.61%) Host Intrusion Detection System
6 2 (0.61%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.30%) CASB
7 1 (0.30%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 1 (0.30%) CSIRT
7 1 (0.30%) Demisto
7 1 (0.30%) Graylog
7 1 (0.30%) Kiali
7 1 (0.30%) Kibana
7 1 (0.30%) McAfee ePO
7 1 (0.30%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.30%) Puppet
7 1 (0.30%) RSA Archer
7 1 (0.30%) SCCM
Vendors
1 127 (38.60%) Microsoft
2 42 (12.77%) Splunk
3 15 (4.56%) Google
3 15 (4.56%) Tenable
4 12 (3.65%) ServiceNow
4 12 (3.65%) VMware
5 8 (2.43%) CrowdStrike
6 5 (1.52%) Cisco
7 3 (0.91%) LogRhythm
7 3 (0.91%) Palo Alto
7 3 (0.91%) Proofpoint
7 3 (0.91%) Rapid7
8 2 (0.61%) AlienVault
8 2 (0.61%) Checkmarx
8 2 (0.61%) Darktrace
8 2 (0.61%) IBM
8 2 (0.61%) Juniper
8 2 (0.61%) McAfee
8 2 (0.61%) Trend Micro
8 2 (0.61%) Zscaler