SOC Manager Job Trends

Security Operations Centre Manager
UK

The median Security Operations Centre Manager salary in the UK is £72,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 31 December 2025.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 619 713 686
Rank change year-on-year +94 -27 +326
Permanent jobs requiring a SOC Manager 25 3 15
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.042% 0.005% 0.029%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.047% 0.006% 0.031%
Number of salaries quoted 12 2 11
10th Percentile £65,000 £63,000 £57,500
25th Percentile £68,750 £63,750 £63,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £72,500 £67,500 £75,000
Median % change year-on-year +7.41% -10.00% -1.32%
75th Percentile £76,875 £71,250 £86,125
90th Percentile £84,750 £72,000 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £70,000 £67,500 £69,500
% change year-on-year +3.70% -2.88% -7.95%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 53,514 51,675 48,695
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.46% 93.18% 95.25%
Number of salaries quoted 32,893 27,368 37,623
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,173 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,750 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,750 £77,715
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -4.76%

SOC Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'SOC Manager' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

SOC Manager job vacancy trend in the UK

SOC Manager
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for SOC Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for SOC Manager job vacancies in the UK

SOC Manager
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing SOC Manager over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Salary histogram for SOC Manager in the UK

SOC Manager
Top 12 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing SOC Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 31 December 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 +89 24 £70,000 +3.70% 9
UK excluding London +70 21 £70,000 +3.70% 4
South East +38 8 £70,000 -
West Midlands +36 8 - -
Midlands +33 8 - -
Work from Home - 6 £75,000 - 5
East of England - 3 £75,000 - 2
North of England - 2 £65,000 - 2
London - 2 £90,000 - 4
Yorkshire - 1 £65,000 - 2
North West - 1 - -
South West - 1 - -

SOC Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 31 December 2025, SOC Manager job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring SOC Manager in the job title.

1 20 (80.00%) Incident Response
2 16 (64.00%) Security Operations
3 11 (44.00%) Cybersecurity
4 7 (28.00%) SC Cleared
4 7 (28.00%) Security Cleared
5 6 (24.00%) Microsoft
6 5 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
6 5 (20.00%) DNS
6 5 (20.00%) Event Correlation
6 5 (20.00%) Mentoring
6 5 (20.00%) SIEM
6 5 (20.00%) TCP/IP
7 4 (16.00%) AWS
7 4 (16.00%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (16.00%) Degree
7 4 (16.00%) Incident Management
7 4 (16.00%) NIST
8 3 (12.00%) Analytics
8 3 (12.00%) Azure
8 3 (12.00%) CREST Certified
8 3 (12.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
8 3 (12.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (12.00%) Kusto Query Language
8 3 (12.00%) Network Security
8 3 (12.00%) Network+ Certification
8 3 (12.00%) SQL
8 3 (12.00%) Threat Detection
8 3 (12.00%) Threat Intelligence
8 3 (12.00%) Workflow
9 2 (8.00%) CISM

SOC Manager Skill Set
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:

Cloud Services
1 4 (16.00%) AWS
2 3 (12.00%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 5 (20.00%) DNS
1 5 (20.00%) TCP/IP
2 3 (12.00%) Network Security
3 1 (4.00%) Firewall
3 1 (4.00%) Internet
3 1 (4.00%) Modbus
General
1 5 (20.00%) Social Skills
2 3 (12.00%) Finance
2 3 (12.00%) Public Sector
3 1 (4.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (4.00%) Legal
3 1 (4.00%) Manufacturing
3 1 (4.00%) Presentation Skills
Miscellaneous
1 16 (64.00%) Security Operations Centre
2 5 (20.00%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (8.00%) Security Posture
4 1 (4.00%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 1 (4.00%) Operational Technology
4 1 (4.00%) PKI
4 1 (4.00%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.00%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (80.00%) Incident Response
2 16 (64.00%) Security Operations
3 11 (44.00%) Cybersecurity
4 5 (20.00%) Continuous Improvement
4 5 (20.00%) Event Correlation
4 5 (20.00%) Mentoring
4 5 (20.00%) SIEM
5 4 (16.00%) Incident Management
6 3 (12.00%) Analytics
6 3 (12.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 3 (12.00%) Threat Detection
6 3 (12.00%) Threat Intelligence
6 3 (12.00%) Workflow
7 2 (8.00%) Cyber Intelligence
7 2 (8.00%) Information Security
7 2 (8.00%) SOAR
8 1 (4.00%) Computer Science
8 1 (4.00%) Digital Forensics
8 1 (4.00%) Identity Access Management
8 1 (4.00%) Kalman Filter
Programming Languages
1 3 (12.00%) Kusto Query Language
1 3 (12.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 7 (28.00%) SC Cleared
1 7 (28.00%) Security Cleared
2 4 (16.00%) CompTIA Security+
2 4 (16.00%) Degree
3 3 (12.00%) CREST Certified
3 3 (12.00%) Network+ Certification
4 2 (8.00%) CISM
4 2 (8.00%) CISSP
5 1 (4.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (4.00%) GCFA
5 1 (4.00%) GCIH
5 1 (4.00%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (16.00%) NIST
2 3 (12.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (4.00%) GDPR
Systems Management
1 1 (4.00%) QRadar
Vendors
1 6 (24.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (4.00%) Google
2 1 (4.00%) Splunk