Security Testing Contracts in the Thames Valley

Security Testing
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the Thames Valley 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 90 94 137
Rank change year-on-year +4 +43 +18
Contract jobs citing Security Testing 12 51 14
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 0.79% 1.90% 0.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.86% 2.18% 0.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 16 8
10th Percentile £495 £500 £504
25th Percentile £500 £505 £544
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £675 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year +22.73% -8.33% +14.29%
75th Percentile £717 £625 £636
90th Percentile £756 £644 £676
South East median daily rate £575 £550 £600
% change year-on-year +4.55% -8.33% +11.11%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 1,403 2,340 2,682
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 92.85% 87.12% 91.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 851 1,306 1,860
10th Percentile £300 £213 £320
25th Percentile £413 £369 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - +5.26%
75th Percentile £605 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £508
% change year-on-year - -1.53% +1.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 170 62
10th Percentile £14.20 £15.30 £18.60
25th Percentile £14.54 £19.48 £24.86
Median hourly rate £32.05 £45.00 £51.25
Median % change year-on-year -28.78% -12.20% +192.86%
75th Percentile £62.44 £64.57 £66.21
90th Percentile £78.03 £85.65 £79.19
South East median hourly rate £28.00 £47.50 £50.00
% change year-on-year -41.05% -5.00% +122.22%

Security Testing
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Job vacancy trend for Security Testing in the Thames Valley

Security Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Security Testing in the Thames Valley.

Daily rate trend for Security Testing in the Thames Valley

Security Testing
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Testing in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Security Testing in the Thames Valley

Security Testing
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley 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
Berkshire -8 9 £708 +28.64% 12
Oxfordshire - 3 £575 - 6
Security Testing
South East

Security Testing
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

Cloud Services
1 2 (16.67%) Azure
2 1 (8.33%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 1 (8.33%) BGP
1 1 (8.33%) Ethernet VPN
1 1 (8.33%) MPLS
1 1 (8.33%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (8.33%) MongoDB
1 1 (8.33%) NoSQL
Development Applications
1 2 (16.67%) Burp Suite
1 2 (16.67%) JIRA
1 2 (16.67%) Metasploit
2 1 (8.33%) GitLab
General
1 4 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 3 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (8.33%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 6 (50.00%) Auditor
1 6 (50.00%) Security Auditor
2 2 (16.67%) Lead
2 2 (16.67%) Penetration Tester
2 2 (16.67%) Test Leader
2 2 (16.67%) Tester
3 1 (8.33%) Information Security Specialist
3 1 (8.33%) Information Specialist
3 1 (8.33%) Network Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Security Specialist
3 1 (8.33%) Test Automation Engineer
3 1 (8.33%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (8.33%) JSON
1 1 (8.33%) NETCONF
1 1 (8.33%) OAuth
1 1 (8.33%) REST
1 1 (8.33%) RESTCONF
1 1 (8.33%) SOAP
1 1 (8.33%) XML
1 1 (8.33%) YAML
1 1 (8.33%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 2 (16.67%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (8.33%) EPoS
2 1 (8.33%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 1 (8.33%) CentOS
1 1 (8.33%) Linux
1 1 (8.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (66.67%) Penetration Testing
2 7 (58.33%) Agile
2 7 (58.33%) Containerisation
3 3 (25.00%) Information Security
3 3 (25.00%) Integration Testing
3 3 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
3 3 (25.00%) Regulatory Compliance
4 2 (16.67%) Cloud Security
4 2 (16.67%) Computer Science
4 2 (16.67%) Cryptography
4 2 (16.67%) Data Protection
4 2 (16.67%) End-to-End Testing
4 2 (16.67%) Load Testing
4 2 (16.67%) OWASP
4 2 (16.67%) Reverse Engineering
4 2 (16.67%) Scenario Testing
4 2 (16.67%) Test Automation
4 2 (16.67%) Test Management
4 2 (16.67%) Test Strategy
5 1 (8.33%) Analytical Thinking
Programming Languages
1 3 (25.00%) Python
2 2 (16.67%) C
2 2 (16.67%) C++
2 2 (16.67%) Java
2 2 (16.67%) Ruby
3 1 (8.33%) SQL
Qualifications
1 6 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 5 (41.67%) SC Cleared
3 2 (16.67%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (16.67%) Degree
3 2 (16.67%) GPEN
3 2 (16.67%) GWAPT
3 2 (16.67%) Master's Degree
3 2 (16.67%) OSCE
3 2 (16.67%) OSCP
4 1 (8.33%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (58.33%) NCSC
2 2 (16.67%) GDPR
2 2 (16.67%) HIPAA
2 2 (16.67%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 1 (8.33%) Active Directory
1 1 (8.33%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (8.33%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 2 (16.67%) Microsoft
2 1 (8.33%) Cisco