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

6 months to
24 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 515 479 533
Rank change year-on-year -36 +54 +159
Contract jobs citing CompTIA Security+ 89 48 49
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.16% 0.11%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.64% 0.53% 0.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 56 25 39
10th Percentile £400 £398 £343
25th Percentile £425 £469 £600
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £535 £635
Median % change year-on-year +2.80% -15.75% +15.45%
75th Percentile £638 £645 £656
90th Percentile £653 £725 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £535 £626
% change year-on-year +12.25% -14.65% +25.63%
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 13,951 8,988 13,453
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.05% 29.75% 30.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,211 5,527 8,301
10th Percentile £330 £294 £290
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £614 £630 £650
90th Percentile £719 £715 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £510 £530
% change year-on-year -1.96% -3.77% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,017 438 968
10th Percentile £16.01 £20.00 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £24.18 £20.77
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.25 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.52% -8.52% -7.37%
75th Percentile £64.00 £67.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.04 £82.15 £77.15
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £46.71 £44.50
% change year-on-year -46.16% +4.97% -1.11%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -51 66 £540 -10.00% 121
UK excluding London -39 44 £600 +12.25% 123
London -39 33 £475 -24.00% 26
Work from Home -4 17 £500 -5.66% 17
Scotland +24 15 £610 +17.99% 12
North of England -54 14 £620 +16.10% 29
North West - 10 £639 - 15
South East -31 6 £655 -1.50% 29
East of England -17 4 £550 +10.00% 14
South West -23 4 £539 +0.23% 12
Yorkshire - 4 £520 - 9
Wales - 1 £550 - 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 (1.12%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (1.12%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.12%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 17 (19.10%) Azure
2 16 (17.98%) AWS
3 9 (10.11%) GCP
4 5 (5.62%) Entra ID
5 4 (4.49%) Azure Sentinel
5 4 (4.49%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (3.37%) OCI
7 2 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (2.25%) Microsoft Purview
7 2 (2.25%) SaaS
8 1 (1.12%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (1.12%) Amazon EKS
8 1 (1.12%) AWS Lambda
8 1 (1.12%) Azure Logic Apps
8 1 (1.12%) Azure Monitor
8 1 (1.12%) GitHub
8 1 (1.12%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (1.12%) Google Workspace
8 1 (1.12%) Power Platform
8 1 (1.12%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 31 (34.83%) TCP/IP
2 30 (33.71%) DNS
3 29 (32.58%) Firewall
4 18 (20.22%) Network Security
5 7 (7.87%) VPN
6 5 (5.62%) BGP
6 5 (5.62%) Cisco ASA
6 5 (5.62%) HTTP
6 5 (5.62%) SSL
7 4 (4.49%) Cisco IOS
7 4 (4.49%) MPLS
7 4 (4.49%) TACACS
8 3 (3.37%) DHCP
9 2 (2.25%) Wireless
10 1 (1.12%) Intrusion Detection
10 1 (1.12%) IPsec
10 1 (1.12%) OSPF
10 1 (1.12%) SAN
10 1 (1.12%) SMTP
10 1 (1.12%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.12%) Amazon QuickSight
1 1 (1.12%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.12%) Power BI
1 1 (1.12%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (2.25%) JIRA
2 1 (1.12%) Burp Suite
General
1 19 (21.35%) Social Skills
2 14 (15.73%) Analytical Skills
2 14 (15.73%) Public Sector
3 10 (11.24%) Finance
4 4 (4.49%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (3.37%) Aerospace
6 2 (2.25%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (2.25%) Military
6 2 (2.25%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (2.25%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.12%) Banking
7 1 (1.12%) Electronics
7 1 (1.12%) Law
7 1 (1.12%) Legal
7 1 (1.12%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.12%) Marketing
7 1 (1.12%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (1.12%) Retail
7 1 (1.12%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 39 (43.82%) Analyst
2 19 (21.35%) SOC Analyst
3 16 (17.98%) Security Analyst
3 16 (17.98%) Security Engineer
4 11 (12.36%) Lead
4 11 (12.36%) Senior
5 9 (10.11%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 8 (8.99%) Operations Analyst
7 6 (6.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (5.62%) Consultant
8 5 (5.62%) Cybersecurity Consultant
8 5 (5.62%) Cybersecurity Engineer
8 5 (5.62%) Security Consultant
8 5 (5.62%) Senior Analyst
8 5 (5.62%) SOC Engineer
9 4 (4.49%) Cybersecurity Manager
9 4 (4.49%) Network Security Engineer
9 4 (4.49%) Security Operations Analyst
9 4 (4.49%) Senior Operations Analyst
9 4 (4.49%) Technical Operations Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (13.48%) LDAP
2 2 (2.25%) REST
3 1 (1.12%) ARM Templates
3 1 (1.12%) JSON
3 1 (1.12%) OpenMP
3 1 (1.12%) SailPoint
3 1 (1.12%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 20 (22.47%) Security Operations Centre
2 15 (16.85%) Cyberattack
3 11 (12.36%) Cyber Threat
4 10 (11.24%) Security Posture
5 6 (6.74%) Management Information System
5 6 (6.74%) Onboarding
5 6 (6.74%) Operational Technology
6 5 (5.62%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (4.49%) PKI
8 3 (3.37%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (3.37%) Cloud Native
9 2 (2.25%) Cyber Defence
9 2 (2.25%) Data Centre
9 2 (2.25%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.25%) Life Science
10 1 (1.12%) CUDA
10 1 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (1.12%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (1.12%) Freedom of Information
10 1 (1.12%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 38 (42.70%) Linux
2 36 (40.45%) Windows
3 7 (7.87%) Windows Server
4 5 (5.62%) Ubuntu
4 5 (5.62%) Unix
5 3 (3.37%) Windows Server 2016
5 3 (3.37%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (1.12%) Kali Linux
6 1 (1.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (1.12%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (66.29%) Cybersecurity
2 51 (57.30%) Incident Response
3 46 (51.69%) SIEM
4 37 (41.57%) Security Operations
5 26 (29.21%) Vulnerability Management
6 21 (23.60%) Cloud Security
6 21 (23.60%) Computer Science
7 18 (20.22%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 16 (17.98%) Vulnerability Scanning
9 13 (14.61%) Penetration Testing
9 13 (14.61%) SOAR
10 12 (13.48%) Problem-Solving
11 11 (12.36%) Information Security
11 11 (12.36%) Threat Detection
12 10 (11.24%) ITIL
13 9 (10.11%) Agile
13 9 (10.11%) Identity Management
13 9 (10.11%) Use Case
14 8 (8.99%) Threat Intelligence
14 8 (8.99%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 23 (25.84%) Python
2 19 (21.35%) PowerShell
3 8 (8.99%) Bash
4 4 (4.49%) PHP
5 3 (3.37%) Kusto Query Language
6 1 (1.12%) BeanShell
6 1 (1.12%) Java
6 1 (1.12%) SQL
Qualifications
1 53 (59.55%) CISSP
2 44 (49.44%) Security Cleared
3 32 (35.96%) SC Cleared
4 26 (29.21%) CISM
4 26 (29.21%) Degree
5 25 (28.09%) DV Cleared
6 23 (25.84%) CompTIA CySA+
7 19 (21.35%) CEH
7 19 (21.35%) GIAC
8 18 (20.22%) Computer Science Degree
9 13 (14.61%) Microsoft Certification
9 13 (14.61%) SSCP
10 9 (10.11%) GCIA
10 9 (10.11%) GCIH
11 6 (6.74%) AWS Certification
11 6 (6.74%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (5.62%) Azure Certification
12 5 (5.62%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (5.62%) MCSA
12 5 (5.62%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (32.58%) NIST
2 28 (31.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (8.99%) Cyber Essentials
4 7 (7.87%) NCSC
5 6 (6.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 5 (5.62%) GDPR
6 5 (5.62%) NIST 800
7 4 (4.49%) PCI DSS
8 3 (3.37%) GxP
9 2 (2.25%) GRC
9 2 (2.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (2.25%) SOC 2
10 1 (1.12%) Accessibility
10 1 (1.12%) COBIT
10 1 (1.12%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (1.12%) HIPAA
10 1 (1.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 19 (21.35%) Active Directory
2 7 (7.87%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.49%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (3.37%) Hyper-V
5 1 (1.12%) Docker
5 1 (1.12%) GPFS
5 1 (1.12%) Lustre
5 1 (1.12%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 1 (1.12%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (6.74%) Nessus
1 6 (6.74%) QRadar
2 5 (5.62%) CASB
3 4 (4.49%) Terraform
3 4 (4.49%) vCenter Server
4 3 (3.37%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.37%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
4 3 (3.37%) SCOM
5 1 (1.12%) Ansible
5 1 (1.12%) CSIRT
5 1 (1.12%) Fluentd
5 1 (1.12%) logstash
5 1 (1.12%) Nmap
5 1 (1.12%) SELinux
5 1 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 33 (37.08%) Splunk
2 26 (29.21%) Microsoft
3 12 (13.48%) Tenable
4 8 (8.99%) CyberArk
5 7 (7.87%) VMware
6 6 (6.74%) Cisco
6 6 (6.74%) CrowdStrike
7 5 (5.62%) Remedy
8 4 (4.49%) Carbon Black
8 4 (4.49%) Google
8 4 (4.49%) Rapid7
9 3 (3.37%) ServiceNow
9 3 (3.37%) Veeam
9 3 (3.37%) Zscaler
10 2 (2.25%) Darktrace
10 2 (2.25%) LogRhythm
10 2 (2.25%) Palo Alto
10 2 (2.25%) Qualys
11 1 (1.12%) Cribl.io
11 1 (1.12%) Okta