Security Operations Contract Job Trends in Central London

Security Operations (SecOps)
London > Central London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Central London requiring Security Operations skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 105 120
Rank change year-on-year +3 +15 +44
Contract jobs citing Security Operations 31 18 23
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 1.51% 0.86% 0.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.70% 0.93% 0.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 29 8 19
10th Percentile £408 £486 £415
25th Percentile £463 £550 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £605 £650
Median % change year-on-year -13.22% -6.92% -10.34%
75th Percentile £625 £731 £719
90th Percentile £776 £795 £725
London median daily rate £525 £575 £650
% change year-on-year -8.70% -11.54% -3.70%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Central London

Security Operations falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in Central London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,824 1,936 2,345
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 89.02% 92.23% 89.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,263 1,195 1,677
10th Percentile £356 £363 £350
25th Percentile £437 £463 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £575 £560
Median % change year-on-year -6.09% +2.68% -4.27%
75th Percentile £663 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
London median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - -8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 20 27
10th Percentile £19.86 £20.93 £18.16
25th Percentile £23.15 £24.55 £21.36
Median hourly rate £26.11 £35.00 £27.81
Median % change year-on-year -25.40% +25.85% -17.60%
75th Percentile £41.85 £36.31 £40.00
90th Percentile £46.53 £50.58 £65.00
London median hourly rate £34.50 £35.50 £30.00
% change year-on-year -2.83% +18.33% -18.06%

Security Operations
Job Vacancy Trend in Central London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Security Operations relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London.

Security Operations job vacancy trend in Central London

Security Operations
Daily Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Security Operations.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Security Operations

Security Operations
Daily Rate Histogram in Central London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Operations in Central London over the 6 months to 3 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Operations in Central London

Security Operations
Hourly Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Security Operations.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing Security Operations

Security Operations
Contract Job Locations in Central London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Operations within the Central London region over the 6 months to 3 February 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
City of London +2 31 £525 -13.22% 9
Security Operations
London

Security Operations
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Central London 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 7 (22.58%) Microsoft 365
2 6 (19.35%) Azure
3 5 (16.13%) Entra ID
3 5 (16.13%) GCP
4 3 (9.68%) Azure Sentinel
4 3 (9.68%) Cloud Functions
5 2 (6.45%) Microsoft Purview
6 1 (3.23%) AWS
6 1 (3.23%) Azure Machine Learning
6 1 (3.23%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 7 (22.58%) Network Security
2 5 (16.13%) Wi-Fi
3 3 (9.68%) DNS
4 2 (6.45%) Firewall
5 1 (3.23%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (3.23%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (16.13%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 1 (3.23%) Burp Suite
1 1 (3.23%) JIRA
1 1 (3.23%) Metasploit
General
1 8 (25.81%) Finance
2 3 (9.68%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (9.68%) Social Skills
3 2 (6.45%) Public Sector
4 1 (3.23%) Banking
4 1 (3.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (3.23%) Legal
4 1 (3.23%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 9 (29.03%) Analyst
2 8 (25.81%) Microsoft Engineer
2 8 (25.81%) Security Analyst
3 7 (22.58%) Security Engineer
4 5 (16.13%) Network Analyst
4 5 (16.13%) Network Security Analyst
4 5 (16.13%) Network Support
4 5 (16.13%) Network Support Analyst
5 3 (9.68%) Architect
5 3 (9.68%) GCP Engineer
5 3 (9.68%) Security Architect
6 2 (6.45%) GCP Architect
6 2 (6.45%) Operations Engineer
7 1 (3.23%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 1 (3.23%) Operational Security Manager
7 1 (3.23%) Security Manager
7 1 (3.23%) Security Operations Manager
7 1 (3.23%) SIEM Engineer
7 1 (3.23%) SOC Engineer
7 1 (3.23%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.23%) OAuth
1 1 (3.23%) OpenID
1 1 (3.23%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (32.26%) Onboarding
2 9 (29.03%) Cyber Threat
3 5 (16.13%) Security Operations Centre
3 5 (16.13%) Virtual Team
4 4 (12.90%) Security Posture
5 3 (9.68%) Cyber Defence
6 2 (6.45%) Cloud Security Posture
7 1 (3.23%) BYOD
7 1 (3.23%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (3.23%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (3.23%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 1 (3.23%) Kali Linux
1 1 (3.23%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (64.52%) Incident Response
2 11 (35.48%) Cybersecurity
3 8 (25.81%) Change Management
3 8 (25.81%) Cloud Security
3 8 (25.81%) Threat Detection
4 7 (22.58%) SIEM
5 5 (16.13%) Actionable Insight
5 5 (16.13%) IT Strategy
5 5 (16.13%) Network Architecture
5 5 (16.13%) Vulnerability Assessment
6 4 (12.90%) Incident Management
7 3 (9.68%) Identity Access Management
7 3 (9.68%) MITRE ATT&CK
7 3 (9.68%) Penetration Testing
7 3 (9.68%) Red Team
7 3 (9.68%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 3 (9.68%) Threat Intelligence
7 3 (9.68%) Vulnerability Management
8 2 (6.45%) Analytics
8 2 (6.45%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 3 (9.68%) PowerShell
2 2 (6.45%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 6 (19.35%) SC Cleared
1 6 (19.35%) Security Cleared
2 4 (12.90%) CompTIA Security+
3 3 (9.68%) CISSP
3 3 (9.68%) CompTIA CySA+
3 3 (9.68%) Degree
4 2 (6.45%) CISMP
4 2 (6.45%) GIAC
5 1 (3.23%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (3.23%) CISM
5 1 (3.23%) DBS Check
5 1 (3.23%) DV Cleared
5 1 (3.23%) ISSMP
5 1 (3.23%) Master's Degree
5 1 (3.23%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (19.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (12.90%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (12.90%) NCSC
2 4 (12.90%) NIST
3 2 (6.45%) GDPR
4 1 (3.23%) PCI DSS
4 1 (3.23%) SLA
System Software
1 4 (12.90%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 15 (48.39%) Microsoft
2 5 (16.13%) Google
2 5 (16.13%) Splunk
3 3 (9.68%) CyberArk
4 2 (6.45%) LogRhythm
4 2 (6.45%) Tenable
5 1 (3.23%) CheckPoint
5 1 (3.23%) Cribl.io
5 1 (3.23%) CrowdStrike
5 1 (3.23%) F5
5 1 (3.23%) Fortinet
5 1 (3.23%) Palo Alto