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 11 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 523 467 558
Rank change year-on-year -56 +91 +132
Contract jobs citing CompTIA Security+ 86 50 49
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.16% 0.11%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.64% 0.55% 0.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 52 25 40
10th Percentile £328 £403 £308
25th Percentile £415 £500 £600
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £539 £600 £630
Median % change year-on-year -10.21% -4.76% +8.39%
75th Percentile £615 £650 £647
90th Percentile £650 £725 £705
UK excluding London median daily rate £563 £600 £618
% change year-on-year -6.25% -2.83% +14.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 1 0
10th Percentile £34.66 - -
25th Percentile - £45.75 -
Median hourly rate £41.94 £54.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -23.05% - -
75th Percentile £54.12 £63.25 -
90th Percentile £77.43 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 - -

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 13,407 9,119 13,521
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.78% 29.63% 30.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,856 5,538 8,370
10th Percentile £319 £296 £294
25th Percentile £416 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.52% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £619 £630 £650
90th Percentile £719 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £502 £530
% change year-on-year -0.35% -5.33% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 981 434 952
10th Percentile £15.75 £20.00 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.10 £24.18 £21.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -12.82% +1.96%
75th Percentile £63.75 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £79.59 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -40.82% -7.97% +2.62%

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 11 February 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 11 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for CompTIA Security+ in the UK

CompTIA Security+
Top 12 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 11 February 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 -52 61 £529 -11.88% 104
UK excluding London -49 40 £563 -6.25% 109
London -33 33 £500 -16.67% 19
Work from Home -7 20 £395 -32.19% 17
Scotland +24 15 £610 +28.42% 9
North of England -51 8 £520 -18.75% 26
South East -36 7 £643 -8.21% 23
North West -23 5 - - 12
East of England -17 4 £550 +10.00% 10
South West -26 4 £539 +0.23% 16
Yorkshire - 3 £520 - 11
Wales - 2 £394 - 5

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 1 (1.16%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.16%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 17 (19.77%) Azure
2 15 (17.44%) AWS
3 8 (9.30%) GCP
4 6 (6.98%) Entra ID
4 6 (6.98%) Microsoft 365
5 4 (4.65%) Azure Sentinel
6 3 (3.49%) OCI
7 2 (2.33%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (2.33%) Microsoft Purview
7 2 (2.33%) SaaS
8 1 (1.16%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (1.16%) Amazon EKS
8 1 (1.16%) Amazon S3
8 1 (1.16%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (1.16%) Azure Logic Apps
8 1 (1.16%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (1.16%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (1.16%) Google Workspace
8 1 (1.16%) Power Platform
8 1 (1.16%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 23 (26.74%) Firewall
1 23 (26.74%) TCP/IP
2 22 (25.58%) DNS
3 19 (22.09%) Network Security
4 6 (6.98%) VPN
5 5 (5.81%) Cisco ASA
6 4 (4.65%) BGP
6 4 (4.65%) Cisco IOS
6 4 (4.65%) MPLS
6 4 (4.65%) TACACS
7 3 (3.49%) DHCP
7 3 (3.49%) HTTP
8 2 (2.33%) Wireless
9 1 (1.16%) DKIM
9 1 (1.16%) DMARC
9 1 (1.16%) Intranet
9 1 (1.16%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (1.16%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.16%) Amazon QuickSight
1 1 (1.16%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.16%) Power BI
1 1 (1.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (2.33%) JIRA
2 1 (1.16%) Burp Suite
General
1 19 (22.09%) Social Skills
2 16 (18.60%) Public Sector
3 15 (17.44%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (4.65%) Finance
5 3 (3.49%) Aerospace
5 3 (3.49%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (2.33%) Law
6 2 (2.33%) Military
6 2 (2.33%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (2.33%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.16%) Banking
7 1 (1.16%) Electronics
7 1 (1.16%) German Language
7 1 (1.16%) Legal
7 1 (1.16%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.16%) Marketing
7 1 (1.16%) Retail
7 1 (1.16%) Telecoms
7 1 (1.16%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 41 (47.67%) Analyst
2 19 (22.09%) SOC Analyst
3 17 (19.77%) Security Analyst
4 16 (18.60%) Security Engineer
5 11 (12.79%) Senior
6 10 (11.63%) Lead
7 9 (10.47%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 8 (9.30%) Operations Analyst
9 7 (8.14%) Consultant
10 6 (6.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 5 (5.81%) Cybersecurity Consultant
11 5 (5.81%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 5 (5.81%) Security Consultant
11 5 (5.81%) Security Manager
11 5 (5.81%) Senior Analyst
12 4 (4.65%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 4 (4.65%) Security Operations Analyst
12 4 (4.65%) Senior Operations Analyst
12 4 (4.65%) Technical Analyst
12 4 (4.65%) Technical Operations Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (8.14%) LDAP
2 2 (2.33%) REST
3 1 (1.16%) ARM Templates
3 1 (1.16%) JSON
3 1 (1.16%) OpenMP
3 1 (1.16%) SailPoint
3 1 (1.16%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (26.74%) Security Operations Centre
2 15 (17.44%) Cyberattack
3 12 (13.95%) Cyber Threat
4 7 (8.14%) Management Information System
5 6 (6.98%) Security Posture
6 5 (5.81%) Onboarding
7 4 (4.65%) Operational Technology
7 4 (4.65%) PKI
8 3 (3.49%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.33%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (2.33%) Cloud Native
9 2 (2.33%) CSOC
9 2 (2.33%) Cyber Defence
9 2 (2.33%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 2 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (2.33%) Life Science
9 2 (2.33%) NHS
10 1 (1.16%) Cloud Security Posture
10 1 (1.16%) Insider Threat
Operating Systems
1 31 (36.05%) Linux
2 30 (34.88%) Windows
3 7 (8.14%) Windows Server
4 5 (5.81%) Ubuntu
5 3 (3.49%) Windows Server 2016
5 3 (3.49%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (1.16%) Kali Linux
6 1 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (1.16%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (74.42%) Cybersecurity
2 52 (60.47%) Incident Response
3 48 (55.81%) SIEM
4 41 (47.67%) Security Operations
5 20 (23.26%) Computer Science
5 20 (23.26%) Vulnerability Management
6 17 (19.77%) Cloud Security
7 16 (18.60%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 12 (13.95%) Problem-Solving
8 12 (13.95%) Threat Detection
8 12 (13.95%) Vulnerability Scanning
9 11 (12.79%) Information Security
10 10 (11.63%) SOAR
11 9 (10.47%) Agile
12 8 (9.30%) Stakeholder Management
12 8 (9.30%) Threat Modelling
12 8 (9.30%) Use Case
12 8 (9.30%) Zero Trust
13 7 (8.14%) Runbook
13 7 (8.14%) Threat Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 20 (23.26%) Python
2 17 (19.77%) PowerShell
3 6 (6.98%) Bash
4 4 (4.65%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (4.65%) PHP
5 2 (2.33%) SQL
6 1 (1.16%) BeanShell
6 1 (1.16%) Java
Qualifications
1 48 (55.81%) CISSP
2 42 (48.84%) Security Cleared
3 29 (33.72%) SC Cleared
4 28 (32.56%) Degree
5 26 (30.23%) CISM
5 26 (30.23%) DV Cleared
6 23 (26.74%) CompTIA CySA+
7 19 (22.09%) GIAC
8 18 (20.93%) CEH
9 17 (19.77%) Computer Science Degree
10 14 (16.28%) SSCP
11 8 (9.30%) Microsoft Certification
12 7 (8.14%) GCIA
12 7 (8.14%) GCIH
13 6 (6.98%) AWS Certification
13 6 (6.98%) Azure Certification
13 6 (6.98%) Cisco Certification
14 4 (4.65%) APMG
14 4 (4.65%) BPSS Clearance
15 3 (3.49%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (32.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 26 (30.23%) NIST
3 9 (10.47%) Cyber Essentials
3 9 (10.47%) NCSC
4 6 (6.98%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 6 (6.98%) GDPR
5 5 (5.81%) PCI DSS
6 4 (4.65%) NIST 800
7 2 (2.33%) GRC
7 2 (2.33%) GxP
7 2 (2.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 2 (2.33%) SOC 2
8 1 (1.16%) Accessibility
8 1 (1.16%) COBIT
8 1 (1.16%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (1.16%) HIPAA
8 1 (1.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 16 (18.60%) Active Directory
2 7 (8.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.65%) Hyper-V
3 4 (4.65%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.16%) Docker
4 1 (1.16%) GPFS
4 1 (1.16%) Lustre
4 1 (1.16%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 4 (4.65%) vCenter Server
2 3 (3.49%) Kubernetes
2 3 (3.49%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
2 3 (3.49%) QRadar
2 3 (3.49%) SCOM
2 3 (3.49%) Terraform
3 1 (1.16%) CSIRT
3 1 (1.16%) Failover Clustering
3 1 (1.16%) Fluentd
3 1 (1.16%) logstash
3 1 (1.16%) Nessus
3 1 (1.16%) Nmap
3 1 (1.16%) SELinux
3 1 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 28 (32.56%) Splunk
2 25 (29.07%) Microsoft
3 8 (9.30%) Tenable
4 7 (8.14%) Cisco
4 7 (8.14%) VMware
5 4 (4.65%) CrowdStrike
5 4 (4.65%) Google
5 4 (4.65%) Rapid7
6 3 (3.49%) CyberArk
6 3 (3.49%) Qualys
6 3 (3.49%) Veeam
6 3 (3.49%) Zscaler
7 2 (2.33%) Carbon Black
7 2 (2.33%) Darktrace
7 2 (2.33%) LogRhythm
7 2 (2.33%) ServiceNow
8 1 (1.16%) Cribl.io
8 1 (1.16%) FireEye
8 1 (1.16%) Okta
8 1 (1.16%) Tanium