SOC Engineer Contract Job Trends in the South East

Security Operations Centre Engineer
England > South East

The median Security Operations Centre Engineer daily rate in the South East is £550, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 162 183 201
Rank change year-on-year +21 +18 -
Contract jobs requiring a SOC Engineer 2 2 12
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 0.058% 0.044% 0.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.064% 0.047% 0.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 2 11
10th Percentile - £399 -
25th Percentile - £434 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £513 £650
Median % change year-on-year +7.32% -21.11% -
75th Percentile - £584 £650
90th Percentile - £616 £650
England median daily rate £481 £635 £525
% change year-on-year -24.21% +20.95% -12.50%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
South East

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the South East. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the South East with a recognized job title 3,107 4,215 5,327
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 89.98% 92.39% 94.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,004 2,517 3,613
10th Percentile £204 £243 £213
25th Percentile £363 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% +2.00% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -2.86% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 277 304 251
10th Percentile £13.20 £16.00 £16.00
25th Percentile £15.50 £30.00 £21.03
Median hourly rate £25.15 £57.43 £51.42
Median % change year-on-year -56.20% +11.68% +114.25%
75th Percentile £57.50 £75.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £72.10 £80.00 £75.67
England median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £45.00
% change year-on-year -45.54% +2.62% +73.08%

SOC Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings that featured SOC Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for SOC Engineer in the South East

SOC Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for SOC Engineer job vacancies in the South East.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for SOC Engineer job vacancies in the South East

SOC Engineer
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 SOC Engineer within the South East region over the 6 months to 21 September 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 +12 2 £550 +7.32% 2
Buckinghamshire - 2 £550 - 1
SOC Engineer
England

SOC Engineer Skill Set
Top 16 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East

For the 6 months to 21 September 2025, SOC Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the South East region featuring SOC Engineer in the job title.

1 2 (100.00%) LogRhythm
1 2 (100.00%) DV Cleared
1 2 (100.00%) Security Cleared
1 2 (100.00%) SIEM
2 1 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
2 1 (50.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (50.00%) Migration
2 1 (50.00%) SC Cleared
2 1 (50.00%) Terraform
2 1 (50.00%) Security Operations
2 1 (50.00%) Security Operations Centre
2 1 (50.00%) Threat Detection
2 1 (50.00%) Infrastructure as Code
2 1 (50.00%) Bicep
2 1 (50.00%) MITRE ATT&CK
2 1 (50.00%) Kusto Query Language

SOC Engineer Skill Set
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:

Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Security Operations Centre
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) SIEM
2 1 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
2 1 (50.00%) Infrastructure as Code
2 1 (50.00%) Migration
2 1 (50.00%) MITRE ATT&CK
2 1 (50.00%) Security Operations
2 1 (50.00%) Threat Detection
Programming Languages
1 1 (50.00%) Bicep
1 1 (50.00%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) DV Cleared
1 2 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 1 (50.00%) SC Cleared
Systems Management
1 1 (50.00%) Terraform
Vendors
1 2 (100.00%) LogRhythm
2 1 (50.00%) Microsoft