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

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 267 257 284
Rank change year-on-year -10 +27 +6
Permanent jobs citing Security Operations 463 616 584
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.78% 1.15% 1.04%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.96% 1.27% 1.16%
Number of salaries quoted 271 410 466
10th Percentile £41,500 £42,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £47,500 £51,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £68,500 £65,000 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +5.38% +4.00% -7.41%
75th Percentile £82,500 £82,500 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £110,000 £94,375
UK excluding London median annual salary £62,500 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +13.64% -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 48,096 48,629 50,303
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 81.07% 90.53% 89.95%
Number of salaries quoted 28,289 23,726 38,360
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £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 £78,750
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £52,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +5.77% -5.45%

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 11 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 11 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 0 431 £69,384 +6.74% 202
UK excluding London +13 281 £62,500 +13.64% 176
Work from Home +61 224 £65,000 +8.33% 144
London -33 158 £77,500 +3.33% 46
South East +54 108 £62,500 - 59
Midlands +45 56 £52,000 -2.03% 22
North of England -28 52 £65,000 +29.20% 27
West Midlands +40 38 £50,000 -5.80% 12
North West +13 27 £54,000 +8.00% 13
South West +8 25 £75,000 +30.05% 21
East of England +5 22 £74,250 +23.75% 32
East Midlands - 18 £60,000 - 10
Yorkshire -57 16 £67,500 +28.57% 8
Scotland -35 10 £75,000 +30.43% 10
North East +8 9 £105,000 +108.71% 6
Wales -3 6 £48,250 -31.37% 8
Northern Ireland -10 3 £32,500 -35.40% 3

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 (2.16%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (1.94%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.22%) Confluence
3 1 (0.22%) IIS
Applications
1 4 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.43%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.22%) Elite 3E
Cloud Services
1 102 (22.03%) Azure
2 66 (14.25%) AWS
3 45 (9.72%) Microsoft 365
4 30 (6.48%) GCP
5 29 (6.26%) Azure Sentinel
6 21 (4.54%) Entra ID
7 14 (3.02%) SaaS
8 11 (2.38%) Mimecast
8 11 (2.38%) PaaS
9 10 (2.16%) Microsoft Purview
10 7 (1.51%) IaaS
10 7 (1.51%) Tessian
11 6 (1.30%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (1.30%) GitHub
12 5 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
13 4 (0.86%) AWS CloudFormation
14 3 (0.65%) OneDrive
15 2 (0.43%) Datadog
15 2 (0.43%) Dynamics 365
15 2 (0.43%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 82 (17.71%) Firewall
2 60 (12.96%) Network Security
3 34 (7.34%) VPN
4 33 (7.13%) DNS
5 24 (5.18%) TCP/IP
6 22 (4.75%) DHCP
7 21 (4.54%) Intrusion Detection
8 14 (3.02%) SAN
9 7 (1.51%) Wireshark
10 6 (1.30%) WAN
11 4 (0.86%) LAN
11 4 (0.86%) Wireless
12 3 (0.65%) DMARC
12 3 (0.65%) Internet
12 3 (0.65%) SSL
13 2 (0.43%) DKIM
13 2 (0.43%) HTTP
13 2 (0.43%) SCCP
13 2 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
14 1 (0.22%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.43%) Elasticsearch
1 2 (0.43%) Metadata
2 1 (0.22%) Apache Cassandra
2 1 (0.22%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.22%) MySQL
2 1 (0.22%) Power BI
2 1 (0.22%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.22%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (0.43%) CircleCI
1 2 (0.43%) Jenkins
1 2 (0.43%) JIRA
2 1 (0.22%) Burp Suite
2 1 (0.22%) Git
2 1 (0.22%) IDA Disassembler
2 1 (0.22%) MSBuild
General
1 132 (28.51%) Social Skills
2 84 (18.14%) Finance
3 66 (14.25%) Analytical Skills
4 30 (6.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 25 (5.40%) Legal
6 21 (4.54%) Law
7 17 (3.67%) Banking
8 13 (2.81%) Public Sector
8 13 (2.81%) Retail
9 10 (2.16%) Financial Institution
10 8 (1.73%) Advertising
11 7 (1.51%) Back Office
11 7 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (1.30%) Documentation Skills
13 5 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.65%) Police
15 2 (0.43%) Aviation
15 2 (0.43%) Local Government
15 2 (0.43%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 115 (24.84%) Lead
2 90 (19.44%) Analyst
3 62 (13.39%) Security Engineer
4 59 (12.74%) Security Analyst
5 58 (12.53%) Senior
6 42 (9.07%) Security Manager
7 28 (6.05%) SOC Analyst
8 26 (5.62%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 24 (5.18%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 24 (5.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 23 (4.97%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 22 (4.75%) Operations Manager
12 20 (4.32%) Operational Security Manager
12 20 (4.32%) Security Operations Manager
12 20 (4.32%) Senior Analyst
12 20 (4.32%) Senior Security Engineer
13 16 (3.46%) Information Analyst
13 16 (3.46%) Information Security Analyst
13 16 (3.46%) Senior Security Analyst
13 16 (3.46%) SOC Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.30%) ARM Templates
2 4 (0.86%) Elastic Stack
2 4 (0.86%) OpenTelemetry
3 3 (0.65%) HTML
4 2 (0.43%) Django
4 2 (0.43%) LDAP
4 2 (0.43%) OAuth
4 2 (0.43%) OpenID
4 2 (0.43%) REST
4 2 (0.43%) SAML
4 2 (0.43%) Software Packaging
5 1 (0.22%) .NET
5 1 (0.22%) ASP.NET
5 1 (0.22%) AWS CDK
5 1 (0.22%) Flash
5 1 (0.22%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 164 (35.42%) Security Operations Centre
2 123 (26.57%) Cyber Threat
3 77 (16.63%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 72 (15.55%) Operational Technology
5 63 (13.61%) Security Posture
6 21 (4.54%) Cyber Defence
7 20 (4.32%) Management Information System
8 14 (3.02%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.16%) Onboarding
9 10 (2.16%) Virtual Team
10 9 (1.94%) Analytical Mindset
10 9 (1.94%) Cyberattack
10 9 (1.94%) Data Centre
10 9 (1.94%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.73%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.51%) Insider Threat
13 6 (1.30%) Cyber Security Posture
13 6 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
14 5 (1.08%) Data Structures
14 5 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 77 (16.63%) Windows
2 46 (9.94%) Linux
3 30 (6.48%) Windows Server
4 14 (3.02%) Windows Server 2019
5 13 (2.81%) Windows Server 2012
6 10 (2.16%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.65%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.65%) Unix
8 1 (0.22%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 189 (40.82%) Cybersecurity
1 189 (40.82%) Incident Response
2 156 (33.69%) SIEM
3 141 (30.45%) Vulnerability Management
4 140 (30.24%) Threat Intelligence
5 117 (25.27%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 104 (22.46%) Risk Management
7 103 (22.25%) Information Security
7 103 (22.25%) Mentoring
8 94 (20.30%) Roadmaps
8 94 (20.30%) Stakeholder Management
9 93 (20.09%) ITIL
9 93 (20.09%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
10 86 (18.57%) Continuous Improvement
11 83 (17.93%) Cyber Intelligence
12 82 (17.71%) Business Strategy
13 75 (16.20%) Coaching
14 72 (15.55%) Technology Roadmap
15 71 (15.33%) Problem-Solving
16 69 (14.90%) Change Advisory Board
Programming Languages
1 48 (10.37%) PowerShell
2 45 (9.72%) Python
3 18 (3.89%) Bash
3 18 (3.89%) Kusto Query Language
3 18 (3.89%) SQL
4 7 (1.51%) Bicep
5 3 (0.65%) Perl
6 2 (0.43%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.22%) C
7 1 (0.22%) C#
7 1 (0.22%) C++
7 1 (0.22%) PHP
7 1 (0.22%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 79 (17.06%) CISSP
2 61 (13.17%) Degree
3 56 (12.10%) Security Cleared
4 45 (9.72%) CompTIA Security+
5 41 (8.86%) SC Cleared
6 33 (7.13%) Cisco Certification
7 31 (6.70%) CISM
8 22 (4.75%) GCIH
8 22 (4.75%) GIAC
9 21 (4.54%) CCNA
10 19 (4.10%) GCIA
11 18 (3.89%) CCNP
11 18 (3.89%) CEH
12 14 (3.02%) DV Cleared
12 14 (3.02%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (2.81%) Computer Science Degree
14 12 (2.59%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 11 (2.38%) CompTIA CySA+
16 10 (2.16%) Azure Certification
16 10 (2.16%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 166 (35.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 154 (33.26%) NIST
3 68 (14.69%) ISO/IEC 27005
4 62 (13.39%) GDPR
5 57 (12.31%) Cyber Essentials
6 28 (6.05%) PCI DSS
7 24 (5.18%) GRC
8 22 (4.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 13 (2.81%) SOC 2
10 11 (2.38%) SLA
11 10 (2.16%) NCSC
12 6 (1.30%) Accessibility
13 5 (1.08%) QA
14 4 (0.86%) Data Quality
15 3 (0.65%) ITGC
15 3 (0.65%) SOC 3
16 2 (0.43%) ISO 22301
16 2 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 1 (0.22%) COBIT
17 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 33 (7.13%) Active Directory
2 17 (3.67%) VMware ESXi
3 12 (2.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (2.38%) Docker
5 7 (1.51%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.22%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 23 (4.97%) SCCM
2 20 (4.32%) Terraform
3 19 (4.10%) QRadar
4 18 (3.89%) Kubernetes
4 18 (3.89%) Microsoft Intune
5 13 (2.81%) vCenter Server
6 11 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
7 9 (1.94%) CSIRT
8 8 (1.73%) Ansible
9 6 (1.30%) Nessus
10 5 (1.08%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 4 (0.86%) CASB
11 4 (0.86%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
11 4 (0.86%) Prometheus
12 3 (0.65%) ArcSight ESM
13 2 (0.43%) Grafana
Vendors
1 117 (25.27%) Microsoft
2 31 (6.70%) ServiceNow
3 30 (6.48%) Splunk
4 29 (6.26%) VMware
5 23 (4.97%) CrowdStrike
5 23 (4.97%) SolarWinds
6 13 (2.81%) 3PAR
6 13 (2.81%) NetApp
6 13 (2.81%) Veeam
7 11 (2.38%) Tenable
8 9 (1.94%) Palo Alto
8 9 (1.94%) Qualys
9 5 (1.08%) ArcSight
10 4 (0.86%) Cisco
10 4 (0.86%) Foundry
10 4 (0.86%) Google
10 4 (0.86%) LogRhythm
10 4 (0.86%) McAfee
10 4 (0.86%) Palantir
10 4 (0.86%) Rapid7