Security Hardening Contracts in the UK excluding London

Security Hardening
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Security Hardening skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Security Hardening over the 6 months leading up to 18 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 329 346 403
Rank change year-on-year +17 +57 +77
Contract jobs citing Security Hardening 35 33 31
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.23% 0.18% 0.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.26% 0.22% 0.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 24 27 21
10th Percentile £375 £433 £413
25th Percentile £478 £513 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £570 £550 £675
Median % change year-on-year +3.64% -18.52% +17.39%
75th Percentile £650 £625 £750
90th Percentile £668 - £775
UK median daily rate £540 £550 £625
% change year-on-year -1.82% -12.00% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 2
10th Percentile - £65.18 £61.63
25th Percentile - £67.31 £62.19
Median hourly rate - £72.75 £63.75
Median % change year-on-year - +14.12% -
75th Percentile - £76.31 £64.69
90th Percentile - £77.33 £64.88
UK median hourly rate - £23.80 £63.75
% change year-on-year - -62.67% -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Security Hardening 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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 13,713 15,054 19,260
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 89.26% 82.90% 88.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,208 9,069 12,909
10th Percentile £239 £250 £260
25th Percentile £368 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -4.76% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,372 1,502 1,189
10th Percentile £13.81 £13.69 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.95 £16.50 £17.25
Median hourly rate £22.92 £42.50 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.07% +19.72% +61.36%
75th Percentile £45.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £75.89
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £40.94 £40.59
% change year-on-year -38.57% +0.86% +53.17%

Security Hardening
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Security Hardening as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Security Hardening in the UK excluding London

Security Hardening
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Security Hardening in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Security Hardening in the UK excluding London

Security Hardening
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Hardening in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 18 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Security Hardening in the UK excluding London

Security Hardening
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Security Hardening in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Security Hardening in the UK excluding London

Security Hardening
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Hardening within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 18 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
South West +35 14 £485 -3.00% 3
North of England -10 11 £650 +188.89% 1
North West +1 9 £650 +188.89% 1
South East +7 5 £600 - 6
Scotland -3 3 £483 -
East of England +7 2 £695 - 5
Yorkshire -6 2 £650 -
Security Hardening
UK

Security Hardening
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 (5.71%) BizTalk Server
1 2 (5.71%) Confluence
1 2 (5.71%) IIS
Applications
1 1 (2.86%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 7 (20.00%) AWS
2 6 (17.14%) Azure
3 2 (5.71%) Amazon S3
3 2 (5.71%) Cloud Computing
3 2 (5.71%) Cohesity
3 2 (5.71%) Datadog
3 2 (5.71%) GitHub
3 2 (5.71%) GitHub Actions
3 2 (5.71%) OpenShift
4 1 (2.86%) IaaS
4 1 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 11 (31.43%) Firewall
2 3 (8.57%) 4G
2 3 (8.57%) 5G
2 3 (8.57%) DNS
2 3 (8.57%) VSAN
3 2 (5.71%) NAS
3 2 (5.71%) SAN
3 2 (5.71%) TCP/IP
3 2 (5.71%) X.509
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.71%) SQL Server
2 1 (2.86%) InfluxDB
2 1 (2.86%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 11 (31.43%) Jenkins
2 7 (20.00%) Git
2 7 (20.00%) JIRA
3 3 (8.57%) Rational DOORS
4 2 (5.71%) Artifactory
4 2 (5.71%) Postman
4 2 (5.71%) SpecFlow
General
1 7 (20.00%) Social Skills
2 4 (11.43%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (8.57%) Military
4 2 (5.71%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (5.71%) Finance
4 2 (5.71%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 5 (14.29%) Consultant
1 5 (14.29%) Software Engineer
2 4 (11.43%) Analyst
2 4 (11.43%) Infrastructure Analyst
2 4 (11.43%) Security Analyst
2 4 (11.43%) VMware Consultant
3 3 (8.57%) Administrator
3 3 (8.57%) DevOps Administrator
3 3 (8.57%) DevSecOps Engineer
3 3 (8.57%) Engineering Specialist
3 3 (8.57%) Linux Administrator
3 3 (8.57%) Linux DevOps Administrator
3 3 (8.57%) Linux/Unix DevOps
3 3 (8.57%) Project Manager
3 3 (8.57%) Security Manager
3 3 (8.57%) Security Project Manager
3 3 (8.57%) Senior
3 3 (8.57%) Test Specialist
4 2 (5.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 2 (5.71%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (11.43%) .NET
2 2 (5.71%) .NET Framework
2 2 (5.71%) AngularJS
2 2 (5.71%) Gherkin
2 2 (5.71%) Playwright
3 1 (2.86%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 5 (14.29%) PKI
2 4 (11.43%) Data Centre
2 4 (11.43%) Legacy Applications
2 4 (11.43%) Linux Command Line
3 3 (8.57%) Hybrid Cloud
4 2 (5.71%) Cloud Native
4 2 (5.71%) Enterprise Software
4 2 (5.71%) Management Information System
5 1 (2.86%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (2.86%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 19 (54.29%) Windows
2 12 (34.29%) Linux
3 11 (31.43%) Windows Server
4 4 (11.43%) Unix
5 2 (5.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (5.71%) Ubuntu
6 1 (2.86%) AIX
6 1 (2.86%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (2.86%) Solaris
6 1 (2.86%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (28.57%) CI/CD
1 10 (28.57%) DevOps
2 9 (25.71%) Infrastructure as Code
3 8 (22.86%) Agile
3 8 (22.86%) Disaster Recovery
4 7 (20.00%) Vulnerability Management
5 6 (17.14%) Asset Management
5 6 (17.14%) Containerisation
6 5 (14.29%) Configuration Management
6 5 (14.29%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (14.29%) Software Engineering
6 5 (14.29%) Task Automation
6 5 (14.29%) Test Scripting
6 5 (14.29%) Unit Testing
6 5 (14.29%) Vulnerability Scanning
7 4 (11.43%) Kanban
7 4 (11.43%) Patch Management
7 4 (11.43%) Server Hardening
7 4 (11.43%) Virtual Environments
7 4 (11.43%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 11 (31.43%) Python
2 7 (20.00%) Bash
3 4 (11.43%) Perl
3 4 (11.43%) PowerShell
4 3 (8.57%) C++
4 3 (8.57%) Java
5 2 (5.71%) C#
5 2 (5.71%) JavaScript
6 1 (2.86%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 16 (45.71%) Security Cleared
2 12 (34.29%) SC Cleared
3 1 (2.86%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (8.57%) NCSC
2 2 (5.71%) Disclosure Scotland
3 1 (2.86%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (2.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
System Software
1 8 (22.86%) Docker
1 8 (22.86%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (8.57%) VMware ESXi
2 3 (8.57%) VMware NSX
2 3 (8.57%) vSphere
3 2 (5.71%) Active Directory
4 1 (2.86%) KVM
4 1 (2.86%) Veritas Cluster Server
4 1 (2.86%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (2.86%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (34.29%) Ansible
1 12 (34.29%) Kubernetes
2 6 (17.14%) Nessus
2 6 (17.14%) SCCM
2 6 (17.14%) Terraform
3 5 (14.29%) WSUS
4 4 (11.43%) Grafana
5 3 (8.57%) Check_MK
5 3 (8.57%) Podman
5 3 (8.57%) Prometheus
5 3 (8.57%) SELinux
5 3 (8.57%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (8.57%) vCenter Server
6 2 (5.71%) NetBackup
6 2 (5.71%) Oracle RMAN
6 2 (5.71%) PowerCLI
6 2 (5.71%) Puppet
6 2 (5.71%) SCOM
7 1 (2.86%) Nagios
7 1 (2.86%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 13 (37.14%) VMware
2 4 (11.43%) Microsoft
2 4 (11.43%) Qualys
3 3 (8.57%) Cisco
3 3 (8.57%) Fortinet
3 3 (8.57%) Juniper
3 3 (8.57%) Splunk
4 2 (5.71%) Atlassian
4 2 (5.71%) Dynatrace
4 2 (5.71%) IBM
4 2 (5.71%) MuleSoft
4 2 (5.71%) Red Hat
4 2 (5.71%) ServiceNow
4 2 (5.71%) Veritas
5 1 (2.86%) Commvault
5 1 (2.86%) Dell
5 1 (2.86%) NetApp
5 1 (2.86%) Oracle
5 1 (2.86%) Palo Alto