Use job-market data to explore a specialism
Job-market figures can help you explore a direction, but they cannot tell you whether you will enjoy a role or what an employer will offer you. This example uses the site’s saved UK infrastructure snapshot from 12 August 2026.
The recorded figures
These are approximate advert counts and advertised salary medians from IT Jobs Watch at that date.
- Cyber security (all roles): about 4,200 live ads, median £60,000
- DevOps: about 4,200 ads, median £70,000
- Data centre roles: about 1,400 ads, median £65,000
- Security engineer: about 970 ads, median £60,000
- Cloud engineer: about 930 ads, median £70,000
- Platform engineer: about 880 ads, median £80,000
- Infrastructure engineer: about 560 ads, median £55,000
- Network engineer: about 520 ads, median £60,000
- Cloud architect: about 420 ads, median £90,000
- Site reliability engineer: about 260 ads, median £77,500
- Systems administrator: about 90 ads, median £45,000
- Database administrator: about 60 ads, median £60,000
- 2nd line support: about 60 ads, median £33,000
- 1st line support: about 50 ads, median £28,000
Read the limits as well as the numbers
An advert count is not a count of employers or distinct vacancies. Listings can overlap across categories, be duplicated or remain visible after a role is filled. A national source also does not capture every local or agency vacancy.
A salary median describes the adverts in the source’s reporting period. Location, seniority and responsibilities affect the offer for an individual job. The difference between two medians is not a promised pay rise from retraining.
Compare the work behind the title
Security and DevOps had many more adverts than some other categories in this snapshot. That makes them worth investigating if the work interests you. It does not establish that entry is easy or that a smaller category is a poor choice.
Read several actual job descriptions. Similar infrastructure work can appear under systems administration, cloud, platform or DevOps titles, with different expectations.
Ask what a working day involves
Consider interruptions, on-call duties, documentation, travel, teamwork and opportunities to concentrate. Think about the environment and support you need, rather than assuming a particular specialism suits a diagnosis.
Use the figures to find options, then explore those options through small projects, conversations and job descriptions. The job-demand page has another dated snapshot to compare.
Statistics: IT Jobs Watch, snapshot 12 August 2026, retained with source attribution under its licence terms.