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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 267 260 282
Rank change year-on-year -7 +22 +12
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 467 622 564
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.79% 1.13% 1.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.96% 1.25% 1.20%
Number of salaries quoted 279 412 444
10th Percentile £41,250 £42,500 £38,750
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £51,625
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £69,384 £65,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year +6.74% - -3.70%
75th Percentile £82,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £104,875 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £62,500 £55,000 £60,500
% change year-on-year +13.64% -9.09% -3.20%

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 48,455 49,716 46,950
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.91% 90.02% 91.47%
Number of salaries quoted 28,359 24,660 35,854
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,552
25th Percentile £36,500 £45,000 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -4.00%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £49,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -10.91% +4.76% -4.50%

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 1 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 1 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 +11 436 £69,692 +7.22% 183
UK excluding London +23 284 £62,500 +13.64% 138
Work from Home +49 221 £65,000 +4.00% 87
London -49 159 £77,500 +6.90% 60
South East +49 106 £62,500 -6.02% 45
Midlands +47 60 £52,500 -1.09% 23
North of England -30 50 £65,000 +29.20% 28
West Midlands +27 42 £51,500 -2.97% 13
East of England +16 27 £75,000 +25.00% 18
North West +12 27 £54,000 +7.67% 15
South West +7 24 £75,000 -4.76% 16
East Midlands - 18 £60,000 - 10
Yorkshire -49 13 £65,000 +23.81% 9
North East +12 10 £105,000 +108.71% 4
Scotland -31 10 £75,000 +33.33% 9
Wales +3 5 £48,250 -31.37% 3
Northern Ireland -8 3 £32,500 -35.40%

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 (2.14%) Microsoft Exchange
1 10 (2.14%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.21%) Confluence
2 1 (0.21%) IIS
Applications
1 4 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 3 (0.64%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.21%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 105 (22.48%) Azure
2 70 (14.99%) AWS
3 46 (9.85%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (6.64%) GCP
5 30 (6.42%) Azure Sentinel
6 21 (4.50%) Entra ID
7 14 (3.00%) SaaS
8 11 (2.36%) Mimecast
8 11 (2.36%) PaaS
9 10 (2.14%) Microsoft Purview
10 7 (1.50%) IaaS
10 7 (1.50%) Tessian
11 6 (1.28%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.28%) GitHub
12 5 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
13 3 (0.64%) AWS CloudFormation
13 3 (0.64%) OneDrive
14 2 (0.43%) Datadog
14 2 (0.43%) Dynamics 365
14 2 (0.43%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 83 (17.77%) Firewall
2 58 (12.42%) Network Security
3 34 (7.28%) VPN
4 32 (6.85%) DNS
5 24 (5.14%) TCP/IP
6 22 (4.71%) Intrusion Detection
7 21 (4.50%) DHCP
8 13 (2.78%) SAN
9 7 (1.50%) Wireshark
10 6 (1.28%) WAN
11 4 (0.86%) LAN
11 4 (0.86%) Wireless
12 3 (0.64%) DMARC
12 3 (0.64%) Internet
12 3 (0.64%) SSL
13 2 (0.43%) DKIM
13 2 (0.43%) HTTP
13 2 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
14 1 (0.21%) SCCP
14 1 (0.21%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (0.43%) Metadata
3 1 (0.21%) Apache Cassandra
3 1 (0.21%) GIS
3 1 (0.21%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.21%) MySQL
3 1 (0.21%) Power BI
3 1 (0.21%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.21%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (0.43%) CircleCI
1 2 (0.43%) Jenkins
1 2 (0.43%) JIRA
2 1 (0.21%) Burp Suite
2 1 (0.21%) Git
2 1 (0.21%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (0.21%) MSBuild
General
1 134 (28.69%) Social Skills
2 90 (19.27%) Finance
3 70 (14.99%) Analytical Skills
4 30 (6.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 25 (5.35%) Legal
6 21 (4.50%) Law
7 17 (3.64%) Banking
8 16 (3.43%) Public Sector
9 12 (2.57%) Retail
10 10 (2.14%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.71%) Advertising
12 7 (1.50%) Back Office
12 7 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
12 7 (1.50%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
14 4 (0.86%) Police
15 3 (0.64%) Local Government
16 2 (0.43%) Manufacturing
16 2 (0.43%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 121 (25.91%) Lead
2 90 (19.27%) Analyst
3 62 (13.28%) Security Engineer
4 58 (12.42%) Security Analyst
5 56 (11.99%) Senior
6 45 (9.64%) Security Manager
7 28 (6.00%) SOC Analyst
8 25 (5.35%) Operations Manager
9 24 (5.14%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 24 (5.14%) Cybersecurity Engineer
10 23 (4.93%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 23 (4.93%) Operational Security Manager
10 23 (4.93%) Security Operations Manager
11 22 (4.71%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 19 (4.07%) Senior Analyst
12 19 (4.07%) Senior Security Engineer
13 16 (3.43%) Information Analyst
13 16 (3.43%) Information Security Analyst
13 16 (3.43%) SOC Manager
14 14 (3.00%) Senior Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.28%) ARM Templates
2 5 (1.07%) Elastic Stack
3 4 (0.86%) OpenTelemetry
4 3 (0.64%) .NET
4 3 (0.64%) HTML
4 3 (0.64%) Software Packaging
5 2 (0.43%) AWS CDK
5 2 (0.43%) Django
5 2 (0.43%) LDAP
5 2 (0.43%) OAuth
5 2 (0.43%) OpenID
5 2 (0.43%) React
5 2 (0.43%) SAML
6 1 (0.21%) ASP.NET
6 1 (0.21%) Flash
6 1 (0.21%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 170 (36.40%) Security Operations Centre
2 126 (26.98%) Cyber Threat
3 77 (16.49%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 72 (15.42%) Operational Technology
5 63 (13.49%) Security Posture
6 21 (4.50%) Management Information System
7 19 (4.07%) Cyber Defence
8 13 (2.78%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.14%) Analytical Mindset
9 10 (2.14%) Data Centre
9 10 (2.14%) Onboarding
9 10 (2.14%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.93%) Cyberattack
10 9 (1.93%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.71%) Hybrid Cloud
11 8 (1.71%) Insider Threat
12 6 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
13 5 (1.07%) Cyber Security Posture
13 5 (1.07%) Enterprise Software
13 5 (1.07%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 74 (15.85%) Windows
2 45 (9.64%) Linux
3 29 (6.21%) Windows Server
4 13 (2.78%) Windows Server 2019
5 12 (2.57%) Windows Server 2012
6 9 (1.93%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.64%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.64%) Unix
8 1 (0.21%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 191 (40.90%) Cybersecurity
1 191 (40.90%) Incident Response
2 162 (34.69%) SIEM
3 142 (30.41%) Threat Intelligence
3 142 (30.41%) Vulnerability Management
4 119 (25.48%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
5 108 (23.13%) Information Security
6 105 (22.48%) Risk Management
7 104 (22.27%) Mentoring
8 96 (20.56%) ITIL
9 95 (20.34%) Roadmaps
10 94 (20.13%) Stakeholder Management
11 93 (19.91%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
12 87 (18.63%) Continuous Improvement
13 84 (17.99%) Cyber Intelligence
14 82 (17.56%) Business Strategy
15 75 (16.06%) Coaching
16 74 (15.85%) Problem-Solving
17 72 (15.42%) Technology Roadmap
18 69 (14.78%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 48 (10.28%) Python
2 47 (10.06%) PowerShell
3 19 (4.07%) Bash
3 19 (4.07%) Kusto Query Language
3 19 (4.07%) SQL
4 7 (1.50%) Bicep
5 4 (0.86%) Perl
6 3 (0.64%) C#
7 2 (0.43%) Java
8 1 (0.21%) C
8 1 (0.21%) C++
8 1 (0.21%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.21%) PHP
8 1 (0.21%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 79 (16.92%) CISSP
2 65 (13.92%) Degree
3 60 (12.85%) Security Cleared
4 45 (9.64%) CompTIA Security+
5 44 (9.42%) SC Cleared
6 33 (7.07%) Cisco Certification
7 31 (6.64%) CISM
8 22 (4.71%) GCIH
8 22 (4.71%) GIAC
9 21 (4.50%) CCNA
10 19 (4.07%) GCIA
11 18 (3.85%) CCNP
11 18 (3.85%) CEH
12 15 (3.21%) Computer Science Degree
12 15 (3.21%) DV Cleared
13 14 (3.00%) Microsoft Certification
14 12 (2.57%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 11 (2.36%) CompTIA CySA+
16 10 (2.14%) CREST Certified
16 10 (2.14%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 168 (35.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 155 (33.19%) NIST
3 68 (14.56%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 66 (14.13%) GDPR
5 60 (12.85%) Cyber Essentials
6 29 (6.21%) PCI DSS
7 25 (5.35%) GRC
8 24 (5.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 13 (2.78%) SOC 2
10 11 (2.36%) SLA
11 10 (2.14%) NCSC
12 6 (1.28%) Accessibility
13 5 (1.07%) QA
14 4 (0.86%) Data Quality
15 3 (0.64%) ITGC
15 3 (0.64%) SOC 3
16 2 (0.43%) COBIT
16 2 (0.43%) ISO 22301
16 2 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 1 (0.21%) HIPAA
System Software
1 33 (7.07%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.43%) VMware ESXi
3 12 (2.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.14%) Docker
5 7 (1.50%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.21%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 21 (4.50%) SCCM
2 19 (4.07%) QRadar
2 19 (4.07%) Terraform
3 18 (3.85%) Kubernetes
4 17 (3.64%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (2.57%) Single Sign-On
5 12 (2.57%) vCenter Server
6 10 (2.14%) CSIRT
7 7 (1.50%) Ansible
8 6 (1.28%) Nessus
9 5 (1.07%) Computer Incident Response Team
10 4 (0.86%) CASB
10 4 (0.86%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 4 (0.86%) Prometheus
11 3 (0.64%) ArcSight ESM
12 2 (0.43%) Grafana
13 1 (0.21%) Kibana
13 1 (0.21%) ZENworks
Vendors
1 119 (25.48%) Microsoft
2 32 (6.85%) Splunk
3 31 (6.64%) ServiceNow
4 28 (6.00%) VMware
5 24 (5.14%) CrowdStrike
6 21 (4.50%) SolarWinds
7 12 (2.57%) 3PAR
7 12 (2.57%) NetApp
7 12 (2.57%) Veeam
8 11 (2.36%) Tenable
9 10 (2.14%) Qualys
10 9 (1.93%) Palo Alto
11 5 (1.07%) ArcSight
11 5 (1.07%) LogRhythm
12 4 (0.86%) Cisco
12 4 (0.86%) Foundry
12 4 (0.86%) McAfee
12 4 (0.86%) Palantir
12 4 (0.86%) Rapid7
13 3 (0.64%) Google