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 16 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 157 159 156
Rank change year-on-year +2 -3 +87
Contract jobs citing Security Testing 11 18 48
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.30% 0.42% 0.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.34% 0.50% 0.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 13 21
10th Percentile - £375 £463
25th Percentile £556 £521 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £585 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.71% +11.43% -19.23%
75th Percentile £688 £659 £625
90th Percentile £705 £671 £638
England median daily rate £540 £625 £575
% change year-on-year -13.60% +8.70% +4.55%

All Process and 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 3,216 3,588 4,913
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 88.82% 83.71% 89.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,013 2,171 3,285
10th Percentile £213 £260 £239
25th Percentile £380 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% +2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £625
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 334 183 257
10th Percentile £13.50 £16.25 £15.50
25th Percentile £16.17 £30.00 £24.50
Median hourly rate £20.73 £58.49 £54.37
Median % change year-on-year -64.56% +7.58% +55.34%
75th Percentile £40.91 £70.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £69.38 £75.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -40.82% -5.56% +36.36%

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 16 October 2025.

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 16 October 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Thames Valley -5 7 £675 +12.50% 6
Berkshire +12 6 £675 +10.43% 3
Hampshire +12 3 £563 +2.27% 2
West Sussex -5 1 £570 +26.67%
Oxfordshire -9 1 £675 +159.62% 3
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 3 (27.27%) AWS
1 3 (27.27%) Azure
1 3 (27.27%) Entra ID
1 3 (27.27%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 6 (54.55%) Network Security
2 3 (27.27%) Firewall
2 3 (27.27%) HTTP
General
1 6 (54.55%) Analytical Skills
2 4 (36.36%) Social Skills
3 3 (27.27%) Finance
4 1 (9.09%) Presentation Skills
4 1 (9.09%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 4 (36.36%) Security Specialist
2 3 (27.27%) Analyst
2 3 (27.27%) Architect
2 3 (27.27%) Information Security Specialist
2 3 (27.27%) Information Specialist
2 3 (27.27%) Security Analyst
2 3 (27.27%) Security Architect
3 1 (9.09%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (9.09%) JWT
1 1 (9.09%) OAuth
1 1 (9.09%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 6 (54.55%) Management Information System
2 3 (27.27%) BYOD
2 3 (27.27%) Cloud Native
2 3 (27.27%) Cloud Security Posture
2 3 (27.27%) Enterprise Software
2 3 (27.27%) Hybrid Cloud
2 3 (27.27%) Public Cloud
2 3 (27.27%) Security Posture
3 1 (9.09%) Distributed Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (81.82%) Information Security
2 6 (54.55%) Application Security
2 6 (54.55%) Regulatory Compliance
2 6 (54.55%) Risk Management
2 6 (54.55%) Security Architecture
3 5 (45.45%) Penetration Testing
4 4 (36.36%) Agile
4 4 (36.36%) Dynamic Application Security Testing
4 4 (36.36%) SDLC
4 4 (36.36%) Secure Coding
4 4 (36.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 4 (36.36%) Static Application Security Testing
4 4 (36.36%) Test Automation
4 4 (36.36%) Threat Modelling
4 4 (36.36%) Waterfall
5 3 (27.27%) Analytical Thinking
5 3 (27.27%) DevSecOps
5 3 (27.27%) Due Diligence
5 3 (27.27%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (27.27%) Strategic Thinking
Qualifications
1 6 (54.55%) CISSP
2 5 (45.45%) Security Cleared
3 4 (36.36%) DV Cleared
4 3 (27.27%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 3 (27.27%) AWS Certification
4 3 (27.27%) Azure Certification
4 3 (27.27%) CCSP
4 3 (27.27%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (27.27%) CISM
4 3 (27.27%) Degree
5 1 (9.09%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (63.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 7 (63.64%) NIST
2 6 (54.55%) GDPR
2 6 (54.55%) PCI DSS
3 4 (36.36%) NCSC
4 3 (27.27%) PSD2
4 3 (27.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (9.09%) QA
System Software
1 3 (27.27%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (27.27%) Kubernetes