Security Operations Contract Job Trends in Cheshire

Security Operations (SecOps)
North West > Cheshire

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Cheshire requiring Security Operations skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 57 52 64
Rank change year-on-year -5 +12 -3
Contract jobs citing Security Operations 16 5 1
As % of all contract jobs in Cheshire 2.31% 1.19% 0.19%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.61% 1.25% 0.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 5 1
10th Percentile £309 £599 -
25th Percentile £424 £613 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £626 £567
Median % change year-on-year -28.12% +10.41% -11.41%
75th Percentile £530 £715 -
90th Percentile £748 - -
North West median daily rate £484 £608 £584
% change year-on-year -20.36% +4.16% -10.23%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Cheshire

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 Cheshire.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 613 400 456
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Cheshire 88.33% 95.24% 86.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 460 258 309
10th Percentile £313 £300 £305
25th Percentile £367 £358 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £564 £560
90th Percentile £653 £638 £616
North West median daily rate £455 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -4.21% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 34 34
10th Percentile £14.49 £19.61 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.36 £24.18 £16.61
Median hourly rate £22.85 £32.95 £21.84
Median % change year-on-year -30.65% +50.87% -4.13%
75th Percentile £37.08 £83.31 £38.00
90th Percentile £60.63 £86.00 £43.75
North West median hourly rate £45.00 £31.88 £23.53
% change year-on-year +41.15% +35.49% -36.92%

Security Operations
Job Vacancy Trend in Cheshire

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

Security Operations job vacancy trend in Cheshire

Security Operations
Daily Rate Trend in Cheshire

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Cheshire citing Security Operations

Security Operations
Daily Rate Histogram in Cheshire

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Operations in Cheshire over the 6 months to 18 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Operations in Cheshire

Security Operations
Contract Job Locations in Cheshire

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 Cheshire region over the 6 months to 18 March 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
Knutsford -23 11 £475 -24.00% 2
Warrington - 5 £450 -
Security Operations
North West

Security Operations
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Cheshire 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 2 (12.50%) Confluence
2 1 (6.25%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 6 (37.50%) Azure
2 5 (31.25%) Microsoft 365
3 4 (25.00%) AWS
4 3 (18.75%) GCP
5 2 (12.50%) Apigee
5 2 (12.50%) Azure API Management
5 2 (12.50%) Azure Logic Apps
5 2 (12.50%) Azure Monitor
5 2 (12.50%) Azure Sentinel
5 2 (12.50%) Entra ID
5 2 (12.50%) Kong
6 1 (6.25%) Akamai
6 1 (6.25%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 3 (18.75%) DNS
1 3 (18.75%) SSH
2 2 (12.50%) Firewall
3 1 (6.25%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (6.25%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (6.25%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 3 (18.75%) JIRA
2 1 (6.25%) Git
General
1 5 (31.25%) Finance
2 2 (12.50%) Documentation Skills
2 2 (12.50%) Public Sector
3 1 (6.25%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (6.25%) Banking
3 1 (6.25%) Military
3 1 (6.25%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 4 (25.00%) Security Engineer
2 3 (18.75%) Administrator
2 3 (18.75%) Analyst
2 3 (18.75%) Architect
3 2 (12.50%) Azure Engineer
3 2 (12.50%) Azure Security Engineer
3 2 (12.50%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 2 (12.50%) Security Architect
4 1 (6.25%) Automation Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Data Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Data Protection Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Monitoring Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Senior
4 1 (6.25%) Senior Data Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Senior Security Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) ServiceNow Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (12.50%) JSON
1 2 (12.50%) JWT
1 2 (12.50%) OAuth
1 2 (12.50%) OAuth2
1 2 (12.50%) OpenID
2 1 (6.25%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 5 (31.25%) Onboarding
2 1 (6.25%) CMDB
2 1 (6.25%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
2 1 (6.25%) Security Posture
2 1 (6.25%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 6 (37.50%) Windows
2 3 (18.75%) Windows 10
3 1 (6.25%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (31.25%) Migration
1 5 (31.25%) OWASP
1 5 (31.25%) SIEM
2 4 (25.00%) Analytics
2 4 (25.00%) CI/CD
2 4 (25.00%) Cloud Security
2 4 (25.00%) ITIL
2 4 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
2 4 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
3 3 (18.75%) Agile
3 3 (18.75%) API Integration
3 3 (18.75%) Application Security
3 3 (18.75%) Cryptography
3 3 (18.75%) Cybersecurity
3 3 (18.75%) DevSecOps
3 3 (18.75%) Fintech
3 3 (18.75%) Information Security
3 3 (18.75%) Stakeholder Management
3 3 (18.75%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
3 3 (18.75%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 6 (37.50%) Python
2 3 (18.75%) PowerShell
3 2 (12.50%) Kusto Query Language
4 1 (6.25%) Bash
4 1 (6.25%) Shell Script
4 1 (6.25%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (37.50%) Security Cleared
2 5 (31.25%) SC Cleared
3 3 (18.75%) CISSP
3 3 (18.75%) Degree
4 2 (12.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 2 (12.50%) Azure Certification
4 2 (12.50%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (12.50%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (12.50%) GIAC
4 2 (12.50%) ITIL Certification
5 1 (6.25%) CISM
5 1 (6.25%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (6.25%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
5 1 (6.25%) PMI Certification
5 1 (6.25%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (18.75%) NIST
2 2 (12.50%) GDPR
3 1 (6.25%) California Consumer Privacy Act
3 1 (6.25%) GRC
3 1 (6.25%) HIPAA
3 1 (6.25%) SLA
System Software
1 2 (12.50%) Active Directory
2 1 (6.25%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (18.75%) Norton AntiVirus
1 3 (18.75%) SCCM
2 2 (12.50%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 1 (6.25%) Ansible
3 1 (6.25%) Kubernetes
3 1 (6.25%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (31.25%) Microsoft
2 3 (18.75%) Gemalto
2 3 (18.75%) McAfee
2 3 (18.75%) Symantec
2 3 (18.75%) Thales
3 2 (12.50%) LogRhythm
3 2 (12.50%) MuleSoft
3 2 (12.50%) ServiceNow
4 1 (6.25%) CyberArk
4 1 (6.25%) IBM
4 1 (6.25%) Oracle
4 1 (6.25%) Qualys
4 1 (6.25%) Rapid7
4 1 (6.25%) Splunk
4 1 (6.25%) Tenable
4 1 (6.25%) Varonis