Security Testing Contracts in the South East

Security Testing
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East requiring Security Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Security Testing over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 139 146 192
Rank change year-on-year +7 +46 +54
Contract jobs citing Security Testing 20 59 30
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.66% 1.06% 0.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.73% 1.25% 0.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 18 20
10th Percentile £393 £500 £398
25th Percentile £475 £506 £544
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% +11.11%
75th Percentile £698 £625 £669
90th Percentile £748 £641 £813
England median daily rate £495 £613 £600
% change year-on-year -19.18% +2.08% +9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £51.25 - -
Median hourly rate £52.50 - -
75th Percentile £53.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £52.50 £62.50 -
% change year-on-year -16.00% - -

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 2,757 4,716 5,181
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 91.59% 84.85% 89.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,756 2,743 3,594
10th Percentile £256 £243 £250
25th Percentile £400 £400 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £508
Median % change year-on-year - -1.53% +1.55%
75th Percentile £600 £621 £619
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 171 434 219
10th Percentile £13.85 £13.00 £18.25
25th Percentile £15.79 £18.23 £23.83
Median hourly rate £28.00 £47.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.05% -5.00% +122.22%
75th Percentile £62.50 £62.49 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.86 £74.83
England median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -19.25% -4.00% +53.06%

Security Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Security Testing as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Security Testing in the South East

Security Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Security Testing in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Security Testing in the South East

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 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Security Testing in the South East

Security Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Security Testing in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Security Testing in the South East

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 1 May 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 +4 12 £675 +22.73% 19
Berkshire -8 9 £708 +28.64% 12
Hampshire +27 6 £438 - 9
Oxfordshire - 3 £575 - 6
Surrey - 2 - - 7
Security Testing
England

Security Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (10.00%) TPMS
Cloud Services
1 3 (15.00%) Azure
2 1 (5.00%) AWS
2 1 (5.00%) AWS CloudFormation
2 1 (5.00%) Entra ID
2 1 (5.00%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 1 (5.00%) BGP
1 1 (5.00%) Ethernet VPN
1 1 (5.00%) MPLS
1 1 (5.00%) Network Security
1 1 (5.00%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (5.00%) MongoDB
1 1 (5.00%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (10.00%) Burp Suite
1 2 (10.00%) GitLab
1 2 (10.00%) JIRA
1 2 (10.00%) Metasploit
2 1 (5.00%) Jenkins
2 1 (5.00%) SonarQube
General
1 11 (55.00%) Social Skills
2 5 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (15.00%) Documentation Skills
3 3 (15.00%) Public Sector
4 2 (10.00%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 6 (30.00%) Auditor
1 6 (30.00%) Security Auditor
2 5 (25.00%) Tester
3 3 (15.00%) Information Specialist
4 2 (10.00%) Information Assurance Specialist
4 2 (10.00%) Lead
4 2 (10.00%) Penetration Tester
4 2 (10.00%) QA Tester
4 2 (10.00%) Test Leader
4 2 (10.00%) Test Manager
5 1 (5.00%) Information Security Specialist
5 1 (5.00%) Network Engineer
5 1 (5.00%) Network Manager
5 1 (5.00%) Security Specialist
5 1 (5.00%) Test Automation Engineer
5 1 (5.00%) Test Engineer
5 1 (5.00%) Vulnerability Management Manager
5 1 (5.00%) Vulnerability Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (5.00%) JSON
1 1 (5.00%) NETCONF
1 1 (5.00%) OAuth
1 1 (5.00%) REST
1 1 (5.00%) RESTCONF
1 1 (5.00%) SOAP
1 1 (5.00%) XML
1 1 (5.00%) YAML
1 1 (5.00%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 2 (10.00%) Data Protection Act
1 2 (10.00%) Embedded Systems
2 1 (5.00%) EPoS
2 1 (5.00%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 1 (5.00%) CentOS
1 1 (5.00%) Linux
1 1 (5.00%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (55.00%) Penetration Testing
2 10 (50.00%) Agile
3 8 (40.00%) Containerisation
4 5 (25.00%) Performance Testing
4 5 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
4 5 (25.00%) Test Automation
5 4 (20.00%) Cryptography
5 4 (20.00%) Test Management
6 3 (15.00%) Cybersecurity
6 3 (15.00%) Exploratory Testing
6 3 (15.00%) GAP Analysis
6 3 (15.00%) Information Assurance
6 3 (15.00%) Information Security
6 3 (15.00%) Integration Testing
6 3 (15.00%) OWASP
6 3 (15.00%) Regulatory Compliance
6 3 (15.00%) Risk Assessment
6 3 (15.00%) Risk Management
6 3 (15.00%) Validation
6 3 (15.00%) Vulnerability Scanning
Programming Languages
1 4 (20.00%) Python
2 2 (10.00%) C
2 2 (10.00%) C++
2 2 (10.00%) Java
2 2 (10.00%) Ruby
3 1 (5.00%) Bash
3 1 (5.00%) SQL
Qualifications
1 11 (55.00%) Security Cleared
2 8 (40.00%) SC Cleared
3 4 (20.00%) CISM
3 4 (20.00%) CISSP
3 4 (20.00%) DV Cleared
4 3 (15.00%) CEH
5 2 (10.00%) Computer Science Degree
5 2 (10.00%) Degree
5 2 (10.00%) GPEN
5 2 (10.00%) GWAPT
5 2 (10.00%) Master's Degree
5 2 (10.00%) OSCE
5 2 (10.00%) OSCP
6 1 (5.00%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (35.00%) NCSC
2 3 (15.00%) NIST
2 3 (15.00%) QA
3 2 (10.00%) GDPR
3 2 (10.00%) HIPAA
3 2 (10.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (10.00%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 1 (5.00%) Active Directory
1 1 (5.00%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (10.00%) Kubernetes
2 1 (5.00%) Terraform
Vendors
1 2 (10.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (5.00%) BT
2 1 (5.00%) Cisco