Security Operations Centre Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Security Operations Centre
UK > UK excluding London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Security Operations Centre in contract job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Security Operations Centre over the 6 months leading up to 31 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 302 310 323
Rank change year-on-year +8 +13 +109
Contract jobs citing Security Operations Centre 97 46 86
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.53% 0.31% 0.44%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.62% 1.00% 1.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 33 55
10th Percentile £413 £463 £413
25th Percentile £480 £525 £519
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £560 £600 £613
Median % change year-on-year -6.75% -2.04% -
75th Percentile £652 £635 £650
90th Percentile £723 £798 £725
UK median daily rate £550 £575 £618
% change year-on-year -4.35% -6.88% +2.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 1 7
10th Percentile £46.05 - -
25th Percentile £50.25 £71.25 £62.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.34% +11.54% -0.38%
75th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £68.13
90th Percentile £84.75 - £69.25
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £72.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -10.34% +11.54% -0.38%

All Generic Skills
UK excluding London

Security Operations Centre falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 5,987 4,595 6,018
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 32.72% 31.43% 31.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,706 2,576 3,815
10th Percentile £204 £200 £210
25th Percentile £358 £356 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £503 £529 £550
% change year-on-year -4.82% -3.86% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 462 244 390
10th Percentile £13.08 £18.13 £15.88
25th Percentile £17.06 £22.72 £19.63
Median hourly rate £27.21 £32.50 £45.11
Median % change year-on-year -16.28% -27.95% +73.48%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.25 £81.58 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £27.33 £33.65 £42.19
% change year-on-year -18.77% -20.25% +27.85%

Security Operations Centre
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Security Operations Centre relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Security Operations Centre job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Security Operations Centre
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Security Operations Centre.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Security Operations Centre

Security Operations Centre
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Operations Centre in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Security Operations Centre in the UK excluding London

Security Operations Centre
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Security Operations Centre.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Security Operations Centre

Security Operations Centre
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Security Operations Centre in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Operations Centre in the UK excluding London

Security Operations Centre
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 Operations Centre within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 31 December 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 East +11 40 £559 +6.48% 3
East of England -11 18 £680 +18.26% 7
Scotland +23 16 £601 +2.26% 5
West Midlands -26 15 £588 -7.48% 1
Midlands -30 15 £588 -7.48% 3
North of England -47 6 £545 -29.68% 7
North West -17 4 £575 +9.52% 3
South West -4 3 £813 +35.42%
Wales -2 2 £238 -
Yorkshire -46 2 £506 -37.88% 4
Security Operations Centre
UK

Security Operations Centre
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Cloud Services
1 8 (8.25%) AWS
2 7 (7.22%) SaaS
3 6 (6.19%) Azure
4 4 (4.12%) Entra ID
4 4 (4.12%) Microsoft Purview
5 3 (3.09%) IaaS
5 3 (3.09%) PaaS
6 2 (2.06%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (1.03%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (1.03%) SAP Commerce Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 26 (26.80%) DNS
2 17 (17.53%) Network Security
3 15 (15.46%) HTTP
4 14 (14.43%) TCP/IP
5 13 (13.40%) Firewall
5 13 (13.40%) FTP
5 13 (13.40%) SMTP
5 13 (13.40%) SSL
6 3 (3.09%) Internet
7 1 (1.03%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (1.03%) LAN
7 1 (1.03%) VLAN
7 1 (1.03%) VSAN
7 1 (1.03%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (5.15%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (1.03%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 2 (2.06%) JIRA
2 1 (1.03%) Git
General
1 42 (43.30%) Social Skills
2 24 (24.74%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (15.46%) Public Sector
4 8 (8.25%) Legal
5 7 (7.22%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (4.12%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (3.09%) Finance
7 3 (3.09%) Presentation Skills
7 3 (3.09%) Retail
8 1 (1.03%) Law
8 1 (1.03%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 51 (52.58%) Analyst
2 44 (45.36%) SOC Analyst
3 12 (12.37%) Senior
4 10 (10.31%) Architect
4 10 (10.31%) Lead
5 7 (7.22%) Security Analyst
6 6 (6.19%) Senior Analyst
7 5 (5.15%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 5 (5.15%) Developer
7 5 (5.15%) Security Architect
7 5 (5.15%) SOC Manager
8 4 (4.12%) IT Security Officer
8 4 (4.12%) Security Officer
8 4 (4.12%) Security Specialist
8 4 (4.12%) SIEM Architect
9 3 (3.09%) Business Change Manager
9 3 (3.09%) Business Manager
9 3 (3.09%) Change Manager
9 3 (3.09%) Operations Analyst
9 3 (3.09%) Service Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (14.43%) LDAP
2 3 (3.09%) REST
3 2 (2.06%) SOAP
4 1 (1.03%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 35 (36.08%) Cyber Threat
2 26 (26.80%) CSOC
3 25 (25.77%) Cyberattack
4 19 (19.59%) Management Information System
5 13 (13.40%) Analytical Mindset
6 9 (9.28%) Security Posture
7 8 (8.25%) Cyber Defence
8 5 (5.15%) Linux Command Line
9 4 (4.12%) Operational Technology
9 4 (4.12%) PKI
10 1 (1.03%) CCTV
10 1 (1.03%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (1.03%) Legacy Systems
10 1 (1.03%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 27 (27.84%) Linux
2 23 (23.71%) Windows
3 5 (5.15%) Unix
4 2 (2.06%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.03%) Mac OS X
5 1 (1.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (100.00%) Security Operations
2 70 (72.16%) Incident Response
3 69 (71.13%) SIEM
4 67 (69.07%) Cybersecurity
5 31 (31.96%) Threat Detection
6 29 (29.90%) Continuous Improvement
7 25 (25.77%) SOAR
8 21 (21.65%) Information Security
9 19 (19.59%) Analytics
9 19 (19.59%) Threat Intelligence
10 16 (16.49%) Threat Modelling
11 15 (15.46%) Information Management
11 15 (15.46%) Risk Management
11 15 (15.46%) Runbook
12 14 (14.43%) AI
12 14 (14.43%) Root Cause Analysis
12 14 (14.43%) Vulnerability Management
13 13 (13.40%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
13 13 (13.40%) Machine Learning
13 13 (13.40%) Network Packet Capture
Programming Languages
1 26 (26.80%) Python
2 21 (21.65%) PowerShell
3 5 (5.15%) Shell Script
4 2 (2.06%) Bash
4 2 (2.06%) Search Processing Language
5 1 (1.03%) SQL
Qualifications
1 51 (52.58%) Security Cleared
2 36 (37.11%) SC Cleared
3 29 (29.90%) DV Cleared
4 26 (26.80%) CISSP
5 19 (19.59%) Degree
6 14 (14.43%) GIAC
7 12 (12.37%) CompTIA CySA+
7 12 (12.37%) GCIH
8 11 (11.34%) Computer Science Degree
9 10 (10.31%) CompTIA Security+
10 8 (8.25%) CISM
10 8 (8.25%) GCIA
11 7 (7.22%) GCFA
12 6 (6.19%) CFCE
13 5 (5.15%) CEH
13 5 (5.15%) CREST Certified
14 4 (4.12%) Azure Certification
15 3 (3.09%) APMG
15 3 (3.09%) Microsoft Certification
15 3 (3.09%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (19.59%) NIST
2 15 (15.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (10.31%) GDPR
4 5 (5.15%) HIPAA
5 3 (3.09%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (3.09%) SLA
6 2 (2.06%) COBIT
6 2 (2.06%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (2.06%) NCSC
7 1 (1.03%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (1.03%) GPG13
7 1 (1.03%) QA
7 1 (1.03%) SOC 2
System Software
1 2 (2.06%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.03%) Hyper-V
2 1 (1.03%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (1.03%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 5 (5.15%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
2 4 (4.12%) QRadar
3 2 (2.06%) SCCM
4 1 (1.03%) Check_MK
4 1 (1.03%) CSIRT
4 1 (1.03%) Nessus
4 1 (1.03%) vCenter Server
4 1 (1.03%) WSUS
Vendors
1 40 (41.24%) Splunk
2 23 (23.71%) Microsoft
3 8 (8.25%) ArcSight
3 8 (8.25%) CrowdStrike
4 7 (7.22%) Tenable
5 6 (6.19%) LogRhythm
6 5 (5.15%) Google
7 4 (4.12%) ServiceNow
8 3 (3.09%) Fortinet
9 2 (2.06%) CheckPoint
9 2 (2.06%) VMware
10 1 (1.03%) Carbon Black
10 1 (1.03%) Cisco
10 1 (1.03%) Darktrace
10 1 (1.03%) IBM
10 1 (1.03%) Intel
10 1 (1.03%) Palo Alto
10 1 (1.03%) Qualys
10 1 (1.03%) Red Hat
10 1 (1.03%) Virgin Media