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 15 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 533 466 537
Rank change year-on-year -67 +71 +137
Contract jobs citing CompTIA Security+ 92 53 50
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.18% 0.12%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.61% 0.59% 0.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 64 35 38
10th Percentile £399 £305 £244
25th Percentile £425 £407 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +7.40% -2.44% +12.14%
75th Percentile £640 £536 £635
90th Percentile £657 £642 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £620 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +24.00% - +9.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 1
10th Percentile £28.96 - -
25th Percentile - £45.75 -
Median hourly rate £41.94 £54.50 £20.74
Median % change year-on-year -23.05% +162.78% -
75th Percentile - £63.25 -
90th Percentile £89.84 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 - £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 15,166 8,985 12,903
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.80% 30.91% 30.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,080 5,664 7,976
10th Percentile £350 £281 £301
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -0.86% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £621 £650
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £527
% change year-on-year - -5.17% +0.43%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,072 508 1,068
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.13 £13.80
25th Percentile £21.25 £21.42 £17.80
Median hourly rate £49.36 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +31.63% -6.25% -25.93%
75th Percentile £70.81 £65.15 £61.35
90th Percentile £85.36 £80.03 £75.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £38.00 £40.94
% change year-on-year +25.00% -7.18% -18.12%

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 15 May 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+
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing CompTIA Security+ over the 6 months to 15 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for CompTIA Security+ in the UK

CompTIA Security+
Top 14 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 15 May 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 74 £515 +3.00% 164
UK excluding London -66 51 £620 +24.00% 169
London -57 35 £485 -3.00% 40
North of England -47 18 £500 -6.37% 46
North West - 17 £500 - 21
Work from Home -26 16 £485 -3.00% 11
Scotland +12 12 £620 +17.87% 11
South East -56 11 £665 +33.00% 38
South West -26 5 £538 +13.16% 17
East of England -31 3 £550 - 16
Midlands -71 1 £625 +47.06% 28
Wales - 1 £815 - 12
Yorkshire - 1 - - 18
East Midlands - 1 £625 - 12

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 3 (3.26%) Confluence
2 1 (1.09%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.09%) MS Visio
1 1 (1.09%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 22 (23.91%) Azure
2 16 (17.39%) AWS
3 12 (13.04%) GCP
4 7 (7.61%) Azure Sentinel
5 4 (4.35%) Entra ID
5 4 (4.35%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (1.09%) Amazon EC2
6 1 (1.09%) Amazon EKS
6 1 (1.09%) Amazon S3
6 1 (1.09%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (1.09%) AWS CloudTrail
6 1 (1.09%) AWS Lambda
6 1 (1.09%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (1.09%) Azure Logic Apps
6 1 (1.09%) GitHub
6 1 (1.09%) Power Platform
6 1 (1.09%) SaaS
6 1 (1.09%) Serverless
6 1 (1.09%) SuccessFactors
6 1 (1.09%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 32 (34.78%) DNS
2 30 (32.61%) TCP/IP
3 21 (22.83%) Firewall
4 14 (15.22%) Network Security
5 7 (7.61%) SSL
5 7 (7.61%) VPN
6 5 (5.43%) BGP
6 5 (5.43%) Cisco ASA
7 4 (4.35%) Cisco IOS
7 4 (4.35%) MPLS
7 4 (4.35%) TACACS
7 4 (4.35%) Wireless
8 3 (3.26%) HTTP
9 1 (1.09%) Intranet
9 1 (1.09%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (1.09%) IPsec
9 1 (1.09%) NAS
9 1 (1.09%) OSPF
9 1 (1.09%) SAN
9 1 (1.09%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.17%) Metadata
2 1 (1.09%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (1.09%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (2.17%) JIRA
2 1 (1.09%) GitLab
2 1 (1.09%) Jenkins
General
1 18 (19.57%) Analytical Skills
2 17 (18.48%) Finance
3 15 (16.30%) Social Skills
4 11 (11.96%) Public Sector
5 6 (6.52%) Banking
6 5 (5.43%) Aerospace
7 3 (3.26%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.09%) Military
Job Titles
1 37 (40.22%) Analyst
2 17 (18.48%) SOC Analyst
3 13 (14.13%) Lead
4 12 (13.04%) Security Engineer
5 11 (11.96%) Security Analyst
6 9 (9.78%) Senior
7 7 (7.61%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 6 (6.52%) Consultant
8 6 (6.52%) Network Engineer
9 5 (5.43%) Cybersecurity Consultant
9 5 (5.43%) Operations Analyst
9 5 (5.43%) Security Consultant
9 5 (5.43%) Senior Analyst
9 5 (5.43%) SOC Engineer
10 4 (4.35%) Architect
10 4 (4.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 4 (4.35%) Product Lead
10 4 (4.35%) Security Architect
10 4 (4.35%) Unix Engineer
11 3 (3.26%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (13.04%) LDAP
2 4 (4.35%) 802.1X
3 3 (3.26%) REST
4 2 (2.17%) OAuth
4 2 (2.17%) OAuth2
4 2 (2.17%) OpenID
4 2 (2.17%) SAML
4 2 (2.17%) YAML
5 1 (1.09%) ADO
5 1 (1.09%) ARM Templates
5 1 (1.09%) JDBC
5 1 (1.09%) JSON
5 1 (1.09%) OpenMP
5 1 (1.09%) Regular Expression
5 1 (1.09%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 20 (21.74%) Security Operations Centre
2 17 (18.48%) Cyberattack
3 10 (10.87%) Management Information System
3 10 (10.87%) Security Posture
4 8 (8.70%) PKI
5 7 (7.61%) Onboarding
6 6 (6.52%) Cyber Threat
6 6 (6.52%) Data Centre
7 5 (5.43%) Cloud Security Posture
7 5 (5.43%) Operational Technology
8 4 (4.35%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (4.35%) Embedded Systems
8 4 (4.35%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (3.26%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 2 (2.17%) Cloud Native
10 2 (2.17%) Clustering
10 2 (2.17%) Cyber Defence
10 2 (2.17%) STIX
10 2 (2.17%) Virtual Team
10 2 (2.17%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 42 (45.65%) Linux
2 35 (38.04%) Windows
3 9 (9.78%) Unix
4 5 (5.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (5.43%) Ubuntu
5 4 (4.35%) AIX
5 4 (4.35%) HPUX
5 4 (4.35%) Oracle Linux
5 4 (4.35%) Solaris
5 4 (4.35%) SUSE
5 4 (4.35%) Windows Server
6 1 (1.09%) Rocky
6 1 (1.09%) Windows Server 2016
6 1 (1.09%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (63.04%) Cybersecurity
2 47 (51.09%) Incident Response
3 40 (43.48%) SIEM
4 33 (35.87%) Security Operations
5 24 (26.09%) Vulnerability Management
6 22 (23.91%) Computer Science
7 18 (19.57%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 17 (18.48%) Problem-Solving
9 15 (16.30%) Continuous Improvement
10 14 (15.22%) Cloud Security
10 14 (15.22%) ITIL
11 13 (14.13%) Vulnerability Remediation
12 12 (13.04%) Penetration Testing
12 12 (13.04%) SOAR
12 12 (13.04%) Vulnerability Assessment
13 11 (11.96%) Identity Management
13 11 (11.96%) Runbook
13 11 (11.96%) Vulnerability Scanning
13 11 (11.96%) Zero Trust
14 10 (10.87%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 21 (22.83%) Python
2 16 (17.39%) PowerShell
3 6 (6.52%) Bash
4 4 (4.35%) PHP
5 3 (3.26%) Kusto Query Language
6 2 (2.17%) Java
6 2 (2.17%) Search Processing Language
7 1 (1.09%) SQL
Qualifications
1 52 (56.52%) CISSP
2 45 (48.91%) Security Cleared
3 35 (38.04%) SC Cleared
4 30 (32.61%) Degree
5 25 (27.17%) DV Cleared
6 24 (26.09%) CEH
6 24 (26.09%) CompTIA CySA+
7 22 (23.91%) CISM
8 20 (21.74%) GIAC
9 19 (20.65%) Computer Science Degree
10 12 (13.04%) Cisco Certification
11 8 (8.70%) SSCP
12 7 (7.61%) CCNP
12 7 (7.61%) GCIA
12 7 (7.61%) GCIH
12 7 (7.61%) Microsoft Certification
12 7 (7.61%) Network+ Certification
13 6 (6.52%) CCNA
13 6 (6.52%) GSEC
14 5 (5.43%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (38.04%) NIST
2 29 (31.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (10.87%) NCSC
4 8 (8.70%) GRC
5 7 (7.61%) COBIT
5 7 (7.61%) GDPR
6 6 (6.52%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (6.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 3 (3.26%) SOC 2
8 2 (2.17%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (2.17%) NIST 800
9 1 (1.09%) Accessibility
9 1 (1.09%) Data Quality
9 1 (1.09%) GxP
9 1 (1.09%) HIPAA
9 1 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 1 (1.09%) PCI DSS
9 1 (1.09%) SLA
9 1 (1.09%) SOC 1
System Software
1 15 (16.30%) Active Directory
2 5 (5.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.35%) Embedded Firmware
3 4 (4.35%) Firmware
3 4 (4.35%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (2.17%) Docker
5 1 (1.09%) GPFS
5 1 (1.09%) Hyper-V
5 1 (1.09%) Lustre
5 1 (1.09%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 1 (1.09%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (6.52%) Nessus
2 5 (5.43%) CASB
2 5 (5.43%) QRadar
3 4 (4.35%) vCenter Server
4 3 (3.26%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.26%) SCOM
4 3 (3.26%) Terraform
5 2 (2.17%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (2.17%) CA Single Sign-On
5 2 (2.17%) PingFederate
5 2 (2.17%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.09%) Ansible
6 1 (1.09%) Fluentd
6 1 (1.09%) Host Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (1.09%) logstash
6 1 (1.09%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
6 1 (1.09%) Nexpose
6 1 (1.09%) Puppet
6 1 (1.09%) SELinux
Vendors
1 33 (35.87%) Splunk
2 18 (19.57%) Microsoft
3 11 (11.96%) Tenable
4 6 (6.52%) Cisco
4 6 (6.52%) CrowdStrike
5 5 (5.43%) CyberArk
5 5 (5.43%) Remedy
5 5 (5.43%) ServiceNow
5 5 (5.43%) VMware
6 4 (4.35%) ForeScout
6 4 (4.35%) HP
6 4 (4.35%) Oracle
6 4 (4.35%) Red Hat
7 3 (3.26%) Carbon Black
8 2 (2.17%) Palo Alto
8 2 (2.17%) Ping Identity
8 2 (2.17%) Qualys
9 1 (1.09%) NVIDIA
9 1 (1.09%) Progress
9 1 (1.09%) Veeam