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 10 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 138 168 191
Rank change year-on-year +30 +23 +66
Contract jobs citing Security Testing 20 18 25
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.57% 0.37% 0.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.63% 0.44% 0.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 15 13
10th Percentile £384 £388 £423
25th Percentile £472 £506 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £675 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year +22.73% +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £703 £613 £631
90th Percentile £752 £666 £648
England median daily rate £495 £600 £575
% change year-on-year -17.50% +4.35% +4.55%
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 £35.00 -
% change year-on-year +50.00% - -

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 3,175 4,058 5,020
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 89.92% 82.72% 89.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,986 2,480 3,387
10th Percentile £250 £255 £260
25th Percentile £400 £402 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £517 £518
Median % change year-on-year -3.34% -0.22% +3.68%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £623
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
England median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 293 323 240
10th Percentile £13.50 £15.00 £15.48
25th Percentile £15.13 £26.25 £21.18
Median hourly rate £21.25 £57.35 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -62.95% +14.70% +105.00%
75th Percentile £50.00 £70.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £71.45 £76.86 £75.00
England median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £41.90
% change year-on-year -41.51% +2.63% +58.11%

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 10 August 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 10 August 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 +10 13 £675 +17.39% 7
Berkshire +17 11 £698 +20.34% 5
Hampshire +23 5 £400 -27.27% 4
Oxfordshire -6 2 £575 +121.15% 2
Surrey - 2 - - 2
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 4 (20.00%) Azure
1 4 (20.00%) Entra ID
2 3 (15.00%) AWS
2 3 (15.00%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 4 (20.00%) Network Security
2 3 (15.00%) Firewall
Development Applications
1 1 (5.00%) Burp Suite
1 1 (5.00%) Metasploit
General
1 11 (55.00%) Social Skills
2 9 (45.00%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (20.00%) Public Sector
4 3 (15.00%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (15.00%) Finance
5 2 (10.00%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 5 (25.00%) Auditor
1 5 (25.00%) Information Specialist
1 5 (25.00%) Security Auditor
2 4 (20.00%) Tester
3 3 (15.00%) Architect
3 3 (15.00%) Information Security Specialist
3 3 (15.00%) Security Architect
3 3 (15.00%) Security Specialist
4 2 (10.00%) Information Assurance Specialist
4 2 (10.00%) QA Tester
4 2 (10.00%) Test Manager
5 1 (5.00%) Lead
5 1 (5.00%) Network Manager
5 1 (5.00%) Penetration Tester
5 1 (5.00%) Test Leader
5 1 (5.00%) Vulnerability Management Manager
5 1 (5.00%) Vulnerability Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (5.00%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 3 (15.00%) Cloud Native
1 3 (15.00%) Cloud Security Posture
1 3 (15.00%) Enterprise Software
1 3 (15.00%) Hybrid Cloud
1 3 (15.00%) Management Information System
1 3 (15.00%) Public Cloud
1 3 (15.00%) Security Posture
2 2 (10.00%) Embedded Systems
3 1 (5.00%) Data Protection Act
3 1 (5.00%) EPoS
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (45.00%) Penetration Testing
2 8 (40.00%) Agile
3 7 (35.00%) Information Security
3 7 (35.00%) Problem-Solving
3 7 (35.00%) Test Automation
4 6 (30.00%) Security Architecture
5 5 (25.00%) Containerisation
5 5 (25.00%) Information Assurance
5 5 (25.00%) Regulatory Compliance
6 4 (20.00%) Cloud Security
6 4 (20.00%) Performance Testing
6 4 (20.00%) Risk Management
6 4 (20.00%) SDLC
6 4 (20.00%) Vulnerability Management
7 3 (15.00%) Cybersecurity
7 3 (15.00%) Data Privacy
7 3 (15.00%) Mentoring
7 3 (15.00%) SIEM
7 3 (15.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 3 (15.00%) Translating Business Requirements
Programming Languages
1 1 (5.00%) C
1 1 (5.00%) C++
1 1 (5.00%) Java
1 1 (5.00%) Python
1 1 (5.00%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 13 (65.00%) Security Cleared
2 7 (35.00%) SC Cleared
3 6 (30.00%) CISSP
3 6 (30.00%) DV Cleared
4 3 (15.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 3 (15.00%) AWS Certification
4 3 (15.00%) Azure Certification
4 3 (15.00%) CCSP
4 3 (15.00%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (15.00%) CISM
5 2 (10.00%) CEH
6 1 (5.00%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (5.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (5.00%) Degree
6 1 (5.00%) GPEN
6 1 (5.00%) GWAPT
6 1 (5.00%) Master's Degree
6 1 (5.00%) OSCE
6 1 (5.00%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (40.00%) NCSC
2 5 (25.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (25.00%) NIST
3 4 (20.00%) GDPR
3 4 (20.00%) PCI DSS
4 3 (15.00%) PSD2
4 3 (15.00%) QA
5 1 (5.00%) HIPAA
System Software
1 3 (15.00%) Docker
2 1 (5.00%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (15.00%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 1 (5.00%) BT
1 1 (5.00%) Microsoft