CompTIA Security+ Contract Job Trends

CompTIA Security+
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for CompTIA Security+ qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 19 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 587 485 520
Rank change year-on-year -102 +35 +113
Contract jobs citing CompTIA Security+ 88 70 57
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.21% 0.15%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.52% 0.68% 0.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 52 49 43
10th Percentile £390 £310 £253
25th Percentile £425 £414 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -11.36% -3.51%
75th Percentile £600 £573 £635
90th Percentile £713 £691 £668
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 3 1
10th Percentile - £44.15 -
25th Percentile - £44.75 -
Median hourly rate £71.00 £54.50 £20.74
Median % change year-on-year +30.28% +162.78% -
75th Percentile £78.70 £62.75 -
90th Percentile £78.88 £63.05 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.00 - £20.74

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

CompTIA Security+ falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 16,783 10,249 11,642
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.33% 31.23% 29.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,254 6,303 7,364
10th Percentile £350 £288 £313
25th Percentile £433 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.48% -0.48% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £638
90th Percentile £715 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,257 823 818
10th Percentile £17.72 £17.98 £14.49
25th Percentile £25.77 £19.38 £21.25
Median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +98.81% -41.51% -21.82%
75th Percentile £73.00 £53.95 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.96 £73.75 £76.47
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.77 £25.15 £47.50
% change year-on-year +93.90% -47.05% -6.40%

CompTIA Security+
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing CompTIA Security+ relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

CompTIA Security+ job vacancy trend in the UK

CompTIA Security+
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CompTIA Security+.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CompTIA Security+

CompTIA Security+
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing CompTIA Security+ over the 6 months to 19 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for CompTIA Security+ in the UK

CompTIA Security+
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CompTIA Security+.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CompTIA Security+

CompTIA Security+
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing CompTIA Security+ within the UK over the 6 months to 19 August 2026. 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
England -92 83 £500 +1.27% 302
UK excluding London -68 45 £525 +5.00% 296
London -65 39 £500 +2.56% 83
Work from Home -61 21 £485 +3.25% 51
North of England -68 16 £417 -26.68% 77
South West -34 15 £650 +13.79% 41
North West -42 14 £417 -31.39% 34
South East -68 10 £675 +42.11% 69
East Midlands -14 2 £579 +36.18% 22
Midlands -44 2 £579 +40.30% 41
Scotland -13 1 - - 19
Wales -15 1 £815 +242.44% 13
Yorkshire - 1 £575 - 32

CompTIA Security+
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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:

Application Platforms
1 6 (6.82%) Confluence
2 1 (1.14%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (3.41%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.14%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 32 (36.36%) Azure
2 21 (23.86%) AWS
3 14 (15.91%) GCP
4 9 (10.23%) Azure Sentinel
5 6 (6.82%) Azure DevOps
5 6 (6.82%) Entra ID
5 6 (6.82%) GitHub
6 5 (5.68%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (4.55%) GitHub Actions
8 3 (3.41%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (2.27%) Anthropic Claude
9 2 (2.27%) Azure Logic Apps
9 2 (2.27%) Datadog
9 2 (2.27%) SaaS
10 1 (1.14%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (1.14%) Azure Key Vault
10 1 (1.14%) GitHub Copilot
10 1 (1.14%) Google Workspace
10 1 (1.14%) Microsoft Copilot
10 1 (1.14%) SuccessFactors
Communications & Networking
1 10 (11.36%) Network Security
2 9 (10.23%) Firewall
3 7 (7.95%) DNS
4 4 (4.55%) Wireless
5 3 (3.41%) TCP/IP
6 2 (2.27%) SSH
6 2 (2.27%) SSL
7 1 (1.14%) HTTP
7 1 (1.14%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (1.14%) IPFIX
7 1 (1.14%) SNMP
7 1 (1.14%) VPN
7 1 (1.14%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.41%) Metadata
2 1 (1.14%) MongoDB
2 1 (1.14%) Power BI
2 1 (1.14%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (5.68%) GitLab
1 5 (5.68%) Jenkins
1 5 (5.68%) JIRA
2 2 (2.27%) Claude Code
3 1 (1.14%) Git
General
1 23 (26.14%) Analytical Skills
2 20 (22.73%) Social Skills
3 17 (19.32%) Finance
4 9 (10.23%) Banking
5 8 (9.09%) Aerospace
6 4 (4.55%) Public Sector
7 3 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.14%) Investment Banking
8 1 (1.14%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 29 (32.95%) Analyst
2 14 (15.91%) Consultant
2 14 (15.91%) Security Analyst
2 14 (15.91%) Senior
3 12 (13.64%) Security Consultant
4 10 (11.36%) SOC Analyst
5 8 (9.09%) Architect
5 8 (9.09%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 7 (7.95%) Operations Analyst
6 7 (7.95%) Security Architect
6 7 (7.95%) Security Engineer
6 7 (7.95%) Security Operations Analyst
6 7 (7.95%) Senior Analyst
7 6 (6.82%) Lead
7 6 (6.82%) Project Consultant
8 5 (5.68%) Unix Engineer
9 4 (4.55%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 4 (4.55%) Network Engineer
9 4 (4.55%) Product Lead
9 4 (4.55%) Senior Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (4.55%) 802.1X
1 4 (4.55%) LDAP
1 4 (4.55%) REST
2 3 (3.41%) ARM Templates
2 3 (3.41%) OAuth
2 3 (3.41%) OAuth2
2 3 (3.41%) OpenID
2 3 (3.41%) SAML
2 3 (3.41%) YAML
3 2 (2.27%) SailPoint
4 1 (1.14%) ADO
4 1 (1.14%) JDBC
4 1 (1.14%) JSON
4 1 (1.14%) RabbitMQ
4 1 (1.14%) Regular Expression
4 1 (1.14%) Spring
4 1 (1.14%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 12 (13.64%) Security Operations Centre
2 8 (9.09%) Management Information System
2 8 (9.09%) Onboarding
2 8 (9.09%) Security Posture
3 6 (6.82%) Operational Technology
4 5 (5.68%) Analytical Mindset
4 5 (5.68%) Data Centre
4 5 (5.68%) Legacy Systems
5 4 (4.55%) Cyber Defence
5 4 (4.55%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 4 (4.55%) Embedded Systems
5 4 (4.55%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (4.55%) PKI
6 2 (2.27%) CESG
6 2 (2.27%) Clustering
6 2 (2.27%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (2.27%) Cyberattack
6 2 (2.27%) Virtual Team
7 1 (1.14%) CSOC
7 1 (1.14%) STIX
Operating Systems
1 18 (20.45%) Linux
2 16 (18.18%) Windows
3 7 (7.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (6.82%) Unix
5 5 (5.68%) AIX
5 5 (5.68%) HPUX
5 5 (5.68%) Oracle Linux
5 5 (5.68%) Solaris
5 5 (5.68%) SUSE
6 3 (3.41%) Windows Server
7 1 (1.14%) CentOS
7 1 (1.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (62.50%) Cybersecurity
2 37 (42.05%) Incident Response
3 33 (37.50%) SIEM
4 32 (36.36%) Security Operations
5 28 (31.82%) Vulnerability Management
6 21 (23.86%) Continuous Improvement
7 20 (22.73%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 19 (21.59%) Threat Detection
9 17 (19.32%) Problem-Solving
9 17 (19.32%) Threat Intelligence
10 16 (18.18%) Security Architecture
10 16 (18.18%) SOAR
11 15 (17.05%) Cloud Security
11 15 (17.05%) Security Monitoring
11 15 (17.05%) Threat Modelling
12 14 (15.91%) DevOps
13 13 (14.77%) Zero Trust
14 12 (13.64%) RBAC
15 11 (12.50%) Root Cause Analysis
15 11 (12.50%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 19 (21.59%) PowerShell
2 16 (18.18%) Python
3 10 (11.36%) Bash
4 4 (4.55%) Bicep
4 4 (4.55%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (3.41%) Java
5 3 (3.41%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (3.41%) Perl
Qualifications
1 59 (67.05%) CISSP
2 32 (36.36%) CEH
3 31 (35.23%) Security Cleared
4 25 (28.41%) CISM
5 20 (22.73%) SC Cleared
6 19 (21.59%) Cisco Certification
6 19 (21.59%) CompTIA CySA+
6 19 (21.59%) Degree
7 17 (19.32%) GIAC
8 15 (17.05%) Network+ Certification
9 13 (14.77%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 13 (14.77%) DV Cleared
10 11 (12.50%) CRISC
11 9 (10.23%) GCIH
12 7 (7.95%) GCIA
12 7 (7.95%) ISACA
12 7 (7.95%) OSCP
13 6 (6.82%) CISA
13 6 (6.82%) GSEC
13 6 (6.82%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (44.32%) NIST
2 36 (40.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 13 (14.77%) NCSC
4 8 (9.09%) GRC
5 7 (7.95%) COBIT
5 7 (7.95%) Cyber Essentials
5 7 (7.95%) GDPR
6 5 (5.68%) NIST 800
7 4 (4.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (4.55%) PCI DSS
8 3 (3.41%) SOC 2
9 2 (2.27%) HIPAA
9 2 (2.27%) SOC 1
10 1 (1.14%) Data Quality
10 1 (1.14%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (1.14%) JSP 440
10 1 (1.14%) QA
10 1 (1.14%) SLA
System Software
1 6 (6.82%) Active Directory
2 4 (4.55%) Embedded Firmware
2 4 (4.55%) Firmware
3 3 (3.41%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (7.95%) Kubernetes
2 6 (6.82%) Ansible
2 6 (6.82%) Terraform
3 4 (4.55%) QRadar
4 2 (2.27%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 2 (2.27%) CA Single Sign-On
4 2 (2.27%) Nexpose
4 2 (2.27%) PingFederate
4 2 (2.27%) Puppet
4 2 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.14%) Grafana
5 1 (1.14%) Host Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (1.14%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.14%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 23 (26.14%) Microsoft
2 17 (19.32%) Splunk
3 11 (12.50%) CrowdStrike
4 6 (6.82%) Tenable
5 5 (5.68%) HP
5 5 (5.68%) Oracle
5 5 (5.68%) Red Hat
6 4 (4.55%) ForeScout
6 4 (4.55%) Google
6 4 (4.55%) ServiceNow
7 3 (3.41%) Palo Alto
7 3 (3.41%) Ping Identity
8 2 (2.27%) CyberArk
8 2 (2.27%) IBM
8 2 (2.27%) SolarWinds
8 2 (2.27%) Trend Micro
9 1 (1.14%) Fortinet
9 1 (1.14%) MobileIron
9 1 (1.14%) New Relic
9 1 (1.14%) Progress