Security Testing Contract Job Trends in the South East

Security Testing
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Security Testing skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 22 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 197 138 188
Rank change year-on-year -59 +50 +3
Contract jobs citing Security Testing 21 18 18
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.34% 0.59% 0.31%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.42% 0.65% 0.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 12 12
10th Percentile £523 £384 £506
25th Percentile £556 £472 £520
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £563 £675 £550
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +22.73% -8.33%
75th Percentile £638 £703 £628
90th Percentile £673 £752 £649
England median daily rate £550 £500 £600
% change year-on-year +10.00% -16.67% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 0
Median hourly rate - £52.50 -
England median hourly rate - £52.50 £48.75
% change year-on-year - +7.69% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

Security Testing 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 the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 5,023 2,778 4,763
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 81.09% 91.32% 82.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,187 1,745 2,744
10th Percentile £280 £250 £263
25th Percentile £413 £400 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -2.44% +0.49%
75th Percentile £610 £600 £634
90th Percentile £700 £663 £700
England median daily rate £520 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 490 214 481
10th Percentile £15.09 £13.33 £13.05
25th Percentile £23.47 £15.12 £18.32
Median hourly rate £53.90 £24.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +124.58% -52.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £82.25 £55.00 £66.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £76.99
England median hourly rate £47.50 £27.06 £38.12
% change year-on-year +75.52% -29.01% +8.82%

Security Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Security Testing relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Security Testing job vacancy trend in the South East

Security Testing
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Security Testing.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Security Testing

Security Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Testing in the South East over the 6 months to 22 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Testing in the South East

Security Testing
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Security Testing.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Security Testing

Security Testing
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Testing within the South East region over the 6 months to 22 June 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
Hampshire -25 11 £563 +40.63% 2
Thames Valley -51 9 £560 -17.04% 2
Berkshire -33 5 £575 -17.62% 1
Oxfordshire -30 2 - - 1
Buckinghamshire - 2 £560 -
Surrey -21 1 £600 - 2
Security Testing
England

Security Testing
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 9 (42.86%) AWS
2 3 (14.29%) Azure
3 2 (9.52%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (4.76%) AWS CloudFormation
4 1 (4.76%) Entra ID
4 1 (4.76%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 6 (28.57%) HTTP
1 6 (28.57%) Network Security
2 5 (23.81%) BGP
2 5 (23.81%) OSPF
3 3 (14.29%) IPsec
3 3 (14.29%) NGFW
3 3 (14.29%) SD-WAN
3 3 (14.29%) WAN
4 2 (9.52%) Cisco ASA
4 2 (9.52%) Firewall
4 2 (9.52%) MPLS
4 2 (9.52%) Multicast
4 2 (9.52%) TCP/IP
4 2 (9.52%) VLAN
4 2 (9.52%) VPN
4 2 (9.52%) Wireshark
5 1 (4.76%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 1 (4.76%) Burp Suite
1 1 (4.76%) Git
General
1 5 (23.81%) Public Sector
1 5 (23.81%) Social Skills
2 2 (9.52%) Aviation
2 2 (9.52%) Organisational Skills
2 2 (9.52%) Telecoms
3 1 (4.76%) Aerospace
3 1 (4.76%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (4.76%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 7 (33.33%) Consultant
1 7 (33.33%) Security Consultant
2 4 (19.05%) Senior
3 3 (14.29%) Analyst
3 3 (14.29%) Security Analyst
4 2 (9.52%) Cloud Engineer
4 2 (9.52%) DevOps Engineer
4 2 (9.52%) Senior Consultant
4 2 (9.52%) Senior Security Consultant
4 2 (9.52%) Technical Design Authority
4 2 (9.52%) Tester
5 1 (4.76%) Azure Engineer
5 1 (4.76%) Information Officer
5 1 (4.76%) Information Security Officer
5 1 (4.76%) Network Infrastructure Manager
5 1 (4.76%) Network Manager
5 1 (4.76%) Security Officer
5 1 (4.76%) Senior Developer
5 1 (4.76%) Senior Tester
5 1 (4.76%) Validation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.76%) Node.js
1 1 (4.76%) React
Miscellaneous
1 8 (38.10%) Management Information System
2 6 (28.57%) BYOD
3 3 (14.29%) Onboarding
4 2 (9.52%) Cloud Native
4 2 (9.52%) Security Posture
4 2 (9.52%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.76%) Kali Linux
1 1 (4.76%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (42.86%) Agile
1 9 (42.86%) Information Security
1 9 (42.86%) Penetration Testing
1 9 (42.86%) Risk Management
2 8 (38.10%) Cloud Security
2 8 (38.10%) Cybersecurity
3 7 (33.33%) Due Diligence
3 7 (33.33%) Incident Management
3 7 (33.33%) Information Security Management
3 7 (33.33%) ISMS
3 7 (33.33%) Security Management
4 6 (28.57%) Application Security
4 6 (28.57%) Change Management
4 6 (28.57%) Data Flow Diagram
4 6 (28.57%) Information Governance
4 6 (28.57%) Mobile Device Management
4 6 (28.57%) Risk Analysis
4 6 (28.57%) Security Operations
4 6 (28.57%) Waterfall
5 5 (23.81%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 3 (14.29%) PowerShell
1 3 (14.29%) Python
2 2 (9.52%) Bash
Qualifications
1 7 (33.33%) SC Cleared
1 7 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 6 (28.57%) CISM
2 6 (28.57%) CISSP
2 6 (28.57%) Degree
3 2 (9.52%) BC Cleared
3 2 (9.52%) CCIE
3 2 (9.52%) CCNP
3 2 (9.52%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (9.52%) DV Cleared
3 2 (9.52%) ISTQB
4 1 (4.76%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (42.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (38.10%) NIST
3 7 (33.33%) GDPR
3 7 (33.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 6 (28.57%) PCI DSS
5 4 (19.05%) NCSC
6 3 (14.29%) GRC
7 2 (9.52%) Cyber Essentials
7 2 (9.52%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (4.76%) QA
System Software
1 1 (4.76%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (14.29%) FortiGate
1 3 (14.29%) Nmap
1 3 (14.29%) Terraform
2 2 (9.52%) Ansible
2 2 (9.52%) Cisco Prime
2 2 (9.52%) Iperf
3 1 (4.76%) Nessus
3 1 (4.76%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 5 (23.81%) Fortinet
2 3 (14.29%) Microsoft
3 2 (9.52%) CheckPoint
3 2 (9.52%) Cisco
3 2 (9.52%) Palo Alto
3 2 (9.52%) SolarWinds
3 2 (9.52%) Tufin