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 3 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 540 466 530
Rank change year-on-year -74 +64 +126
Contract jobs citing CompTIA Security+ 93 55 49
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.19% 0.11%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.60% 0.61% 0.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 65 34 38
10th Percentile £402 £304 £218
25th Percentile £443 £404 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.30% - +9.41%
75th Percentile £640 £534 £635
90th Percentile £657 £609 £636
UK excluding London median daily rate £610 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +22.00% +5.26% +3.94%
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 15,413 8,949 12,884
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.55% 31.10% 29.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,220 5,610 8,017
10th Percentile £350 £275 £310
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £530
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -1.89% -3.64%
75th Percentile £620 £619 £644
90th Percentile £713 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £534
% change year-on-year - -6.30% +1.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,135 529 1,104
10th Percentile £16.88 £17.59 £13.87
25th Percentile £21.33 £21.50 £18.13
Median hourly rate £48.50 £32.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.23% -18.75% -27.27%
75th Percentile £71.50 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £85.25 £77.68 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £32.05 £41.27
% change year-on-year +48.21% -22.33% -21.40%

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 3 June 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 3 June 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 3 June 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 -93 76 £515 +3.00% 247
UK excluding London -69 53 £610 +22.00% 262
London -76 35 £487 -2.60% 53
North of England -57 21 £485 -9.27% 76
North West - 20 £485 - 33
Work from Home -42 15 £505 +1.00% 37
Scotland +8 11 £630 +19.77% 21
South East -59 11 £665 +40.00% 60
South West -24 6 £538 +13.16% 24
East of England -30 2 £550 - 26
Midlands -60 1 £625 +47.06% 43
Wales - 1 £815 - 13
Yorkshire - 1 - - 32
East Midlands - 1 £625 - 22

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 (6.45%) Confluence
2 1 (1.08%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (4.30%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.08%) MS Visio
2 1 (1.08%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 22 (23.66%) Azure
2 16 (17.20%) AWS
3 11 (11.83%) GCP
4 8 (8.60%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (3.23%) Entra ID
5 3 (3.23%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (2.15%) Azure Logic Apps
6 2 (2.15%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (1.08%) Amazon EKS
7 1 (1.08%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (1.08%) AWS CloudTrail
7 1 (1.08%) AWS Lambda
7 1 (1.08%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (1.08%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.08%) GitHub
7 1 (1.08%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.08%) SaaS
7 1 (1.08%) Serverless
7 1 (1.08%) SuccessFactors
7 1 (1.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 31 (33.33%) DNS
2 29 (31.18%) TCP/IP
3 18 (19.35%) Firewall
4 12 (12.90%) Network Security
5 7 (7.53%) SSL
6 6 (6.45%) VPN
7 5 (5.38%) BGP
8 4 (4.30%) Cisco ASA
8 4 (4.30%) Cisco IOS
8 4 (4.30%) MPLS
8 4 (4.30%) TACACS
8 4 (4.30%) Wireless
9 3 (3.23%) HTTP
10 1 (1.08%) DHCP
10 1 (1.08%) Intrusion Detection
10 1 (1.08%) IPsec
10 1 (1.08%) NAS
10 1 (1.08%) OSPF
10 1 (1.08%) SAN
10 1 (1.08%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.15%) Metadata
2 1 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (1.08%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (5.38%) JIRA
2 1 (1.08%) GitLab
2 1 (1.08%) Jenkins
General
1 21 (22.58%) Analytical Skills
2 19 (20.43%) Finance
3 16 (17.20%) Social Skills
4 11 (11.83%) Public Sector
5 7 (7.53%) Banking
6 5 (5.38%) Aerospace
7 3 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 35 (37.63%) Analyst
2 18 (19.35%) SOC Analyst
3 13 (13.98%) Lead
4 11 (11.83%) Security Engineer
5 10 (10.75%) Security Analyst
5 10 (10.75%) Senior
6 8 (8.60%) Consultant
7 7 (7.53%) Operations Analyst
7 7 (7.53%) Security Consultant
8 6 (6.45%) Network Engineer
8 6 (6.45%) Senior Analyst
9 5 (5.38%) Architect
9 5 (5.38%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 5 (5.38%) SOC Engineer
10 4 (4.30%) Cybersecurity Consultant
10 4 (4.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 4 (4.30%) Product Lead
10 4 (4.30%) Security Operations Analyst
10 4 (4.30%) Senior Operations Analyst
10 4 (4.30%) Unix Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (12.90%) LDAP
2 4 (4.30%) 802.1X
3 3 (3.23%) REST
4 2 (2.15%) OAuth
4 2 (2.15%) OAuth2
4 2 (2.15%) OpenID
4 2 (2.15%) SAML
4 2 (2.15%) YAML
5 1 (1.08%) ADO
5 1 (1.08%) ARM Templates
5 1 (1.08%) JDBC
5 1 (1.08%) JSON
5 1 (1.08%) Regular Expression
5 1 (1.08%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 22 (23.66%) Security Operations Centre
2 17 (18.28%) Cyberattack
3 10 (10.75%) Management Information System
4 9 (9.68%) Security Posture
5 8 (8.60%) PKI
6 7 (7.53%) Onboarding
7 6 (6.45%) Operational Technology
8 5 (5.38%) Cloud Security Posture
8 5 (5.38%) Cyber Threat
8 5 (5.38%) Data Centre
9 4 (4.30%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (4.30%) Embedded Systems
9 4 (4.30%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (3.23%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 2 (2.15%) Cloud Native
11 2 (2.15%) Clustering
11 2 (2.15%) Cyber Defence
11 2 (2.15%) STIX
11 2 (2.15%) Virtual Team
11 2 (2.15%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 44 (47.31%) Linux
2 37 (39.78%) Windows
3 9 (9.68%) Unix
4 4 (4.30%) AIX
4 4 (4.30%) HPUX
4 4 (4.30%) Oracle Linux
4 4 (4.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (4.30%) Solaris
4 4 (4.30%) SUSE
4 4 (4.30%) Ubuntu
4 4 (4.30%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.08%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (1.08%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (63.44%) Cybersecurity
2 47 (50.54%) Incident Response
3 40 (43.01%) SIEM
4 37 (39.78%) Security Operations
5 27 (29.03%) Vulnerability Management
6 21 (22.58%) Computer Science
7 20 (21.51%) Problem-Solving
8 19 (20.43%) MITRE ATT&CK
9 16 (17.20%) Continuous Improvement
9 16 (17.20%) Penetration Testing
10 14 (15.05%) Cloud Security
10 14 (15.05%) SOAR
11 13 (13.98%) ITIL
12 12 (12.90%) Vulnerability Assessment
12 12 (12.90%) Vulnerability Remediation
13 11 (11.83%) Runbook
13 11 (11.83%) Threat Detection
13 11 (11.83%) Threat Modelling
14 10 (10.75%) Information Security
14 10 (10.75%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 19 (20.43%) Python
2 15 (16.13%) PowerShell
3 5 (5.38%) Bash
4 4 (4.30%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (4.30%) PHP
5 3 (3.23%) Search Processing Language
6 2 (2.15%) Java
Qualifications
1 54 (58.06%) CISSP
2 42 (45.16%) Security Cleared
3 33 (35.48%) SC Cleared
4 32 (34.41%) Degree
5 26 (27.96%) CEH
6 25 (26.88%) CompTIA CySA+
7 23 (24.73%) DV Cleared
8 22 (23.66%) CISM
9 20 (21.51%) GIAC
10 19 (20.43%) Computer Science Degree
11 13 (13.98%) Cisco Certification
12 9 (9.68%) SSCP
13 8 (8.60%) GCIA
13 8 (8.60%) GCIH
13 8 (8.60%) Network+ Certification
14 7 (7.53%) GSEC
14 7 (7.53%) Microsoft Certification
15 6 (6.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 6 (6.45%) CCNA
15 6 (6.45%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (36.56%) NIST
2 29 (31.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (8.60%) NCSC
4 7 (7.53%) COBIT
4 7 (7.53%) GRC
5 6 (6.45%) GDPR
6 5 (5.38%) Cyber Essentials
6 5 (5.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (4.30%) SOC 2
8 3 (3.23%) NIST 800
9 2 (2.15%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (2.15%) SOC 1
10 1 (1.08%) Accessibility
10 1 (1.08%) Data Quality
10 1 (1.08%) GxP
10 1 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (1.08%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (15.05%) Active Directory
2 5 (5.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.30%) Embedded Firmware
3 4 (4.30%) Firmware
3 4 (4.30%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (2.15%) Docker
5 1 (1.08%) Hyper-V
5 1 (1.08%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 5 (5.38%) CASB
1 5 (5.38%) Nessus
1 5 (5.38%) QRadar
2 4 (4.30%) vCenter Server
3 3 (3.23%) Kubernetes
3 3 (3.23%) SCOM
3 3 (3.23%) Terraform
4 2 (2.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 2 (2.15%) CA Single Sign-On
4 2 (2.15%) Nexpose
4 2 (2.15%) PingFederate
4 2 (2.15%) Puppet
4 2 (2.15%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.08%) Ansible
5 1 (1.08%) Fluentd
5 1 (1.08%) Host Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (1.08%) logstash
5 1 (1.08%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
Vendors
1 34 (36.56%) Splunk
2 19 (20.43%) Microsoft
3 11 (11.83%) Tenable
4 7 (7.53%) CrowdStrike
5 5 (5.38%) Cisco
5 5 (5.38%) CyberArk
5 5 (5.38%) Remedy
5 5 (5.38%) VMware
6 4 (4.30%) ForeScout
6 4 (4.30%) HP
6 4 (4.30%) Oracle
6 4 (4.30%) Red Hat
6 4 (4.30%) ServiceNow
7 3 (3.23%) Carbon Black
8 2 (2.15%) Ping Identity
9 1 (1.08%) Cribl.io
9 1 (1.08%) MobileIron
9 1 (1.08%) Okta
9 1 (1.08%) OneTrust
9 1 (1.08%) Rapid7