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 12 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 486 469 554
Rank change year-on-year -17 +85 +168
Contract jobs citing CompTIA Security+ 88 55 45
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.24% 0.17% 0.10%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.72% 0.59% 0.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 52 30 37
10th Percentile £328 £468 £335
25th Percentile £400 £566 £600
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £625 £625
Median % change year-on-year -18.40% - +4.17%
75th Percentile £611 £664 £675
90th Percentile £653 £725 £720
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £628 £618
% change year-on-year -12.35% +1.62% +2.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £41.94 - -
Median hourly rate £45.46 - -
75th Percentile £59.63 - -
90th Percentile £72.50 - -
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 12,299 9,399 12,977
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.93% 29.83% 30.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,064 5,705 8,157
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £419 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £631 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 943 453 757
10th Percentile £16.10 £18.82 £15.01
25th Percentile £19.07 £24.18 £23.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £39.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -35.51% -22.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £55.00 £66.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £76.58 £77.77 £78.36
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £41.25 £50.00
% change year-on-year -39.03% -17.50% +11.11%

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 12 January 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 12 January 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 12 January 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 -47 67 £500 -20.95% 141
London -2 41 £500 -20.00% 24
UK excluding London -35 34 £550 -12.35% 149
Work from Home -2 22 £388 -38.00% 22
Scotland +12 11 £596 +13.48% 14
North of England -39 9 £520 -18.75% 34
North West -25 6 £375 -41.41% 15
South East -15 5 £655 -6.43% 37
East of England -16 4 £550 +10.00% 16
Yorkshire - 3 £520 - 12
South West -27 2 - - 15
Wales - 2 £394 - 6
Midlands -46 1 £425 -33.07% 28
East Midlands - 1 £425 - 14

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 (1.14%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (2.27%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 19 (21.59%) Azure
2 16 (18.18%) AWS
3 9 (10.23%) GCP
4 6 (6.82%) Azure Sentinel
4 6 (6.82%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (5.68%) Entra ID
6 3 (3.41%) OCI
7 2 (2.27%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (2.27%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (1.14%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (1.14%) Amazon EKS
8 1 (1.14%) Amazon S3
8 1 (1.14%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (1.14%) Azure Logic Apps
8 1 (1.14%) GitHub
8 1 (1.14%) Google Workspace
8 1 (1.14%) Power Platform
8 1 (1.14%) SaaS
8 1 (1.14%) Serverless
8 1 (1.14%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 28 (31.82%) Firewall
2 20 (22.73%) TCP/IP
3 19 (21.59%) DNS
4 16 (18.18%) Network Security
5 4 (4.55%) HTTP
6 3 (3.41%) DHCP
7 2 (2.27%) Intrusion Detection
7 2 (2.27%) iSCSI
7 2 (2.27%) SMTP
7 2 (2.27%) SSL
7 2 (2.27%) VPN
7 2 (2.27%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (2.27%) Wireless
8 1 (1.14%) Cisco ASA
8 1 (1.14%) DKIM
8 1 (1.14%) DMARC
8 1 (1.14%) Internet
8 1 (1.14%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.14%) Amazon QuickSight
1 1 (1.14%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.14%) Power BI
1 1 (1.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (2.27%) JIRA
2 1 (1.14%) Burp Suite
General
1 20 (22.73%) Analytical Skills
2 19 (21.59%) Social Skills
3 13 (14.77%) Public Sector
4 12 (13.64%) Finance
5 3 (3.41%) Aerospace
5 3 (3.41%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.27%) Banking
6 2 (2.27%) Electronics
6 2 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (2.27%) Law
6 2 (2.27%) Legal
6 2 (2.27%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.27%) Marketing
6 2 (2.27%) Military
6 2 (2.27%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (2.27%) Pharmaceutical
6 2 (2.27%) Telecoms
7 1 (1.14%) German Language
7 1 (1.14%) Retail
7 1 (1.14%) Welsh Language
Job Titles
1 35 (39.77%) Analyst
2 17 (19.32%) Security Analyst
3 14 (15.91%) Security Engineer
3 14 (15.91%) SOC Analyst
4 12 (13.64%) Senior
5 9 (10.23%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 8 (9.09%) Operations Analyst
7 7 (7.95%) Consultant
7 7 (7.95%) Lead
7 7 (7.95%) Security Manager
8 6 (6.82%) Cybersecurity Manager
9 5 (5.68%) Cybersecurity Consultant
9 5 (5.68%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 5 (5.68%) Security Consultant
9 5 (5.68%) Senior Analyst
10 4 (4.55%) Architect
10 4 (4.55%) Senior Operations Analyst
10 4 (4.55%) Senior Technical Analyst
10 4 (4.55%) SOC Engineer
10 4 (4.55%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (6.82%) LDAP
2 3 (3.41%) YAML
3 2 (2.27%) REST
3 2 (2.27%) SailPoint
4 1 (1.14%) OpenMP
Miscellaneous
1 17 (19.32%) Security Operations Centre
2 12 (13.64%) Cyber Threat
3 9 (10.23%) Cyberattack
3 9 (10.23%) Security Posture
4 8 (9.09%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 7 (7.95%) Management Information System
6 4 (4.55%) Operational Technology
7 3 (3.41%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (3.41%) Cloud Security Posture
7 3 (3.41%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (3.41%) Onboarding
7 3 (3.41%) STIX
7 3 (3.41%) YARA
8 2 (2.27%) CSOC
8 2 (2.27%) Cyber Defence
8 2 (2.27%) Data Centre
8 2 (2.27%) Data Protection Act
8 2 (2.27%) Life Science
8 2 (2.27%) NHS
9 1 (1.14%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 34 (38.64%) Windows
2 24 (27.27%) Linux
3 8 (9.09%) Windows Server
4 3 (3.41%) Windows Server 2016
4 3 (3.41%) Windows Server 2019
5 2 (2.27%) Unix
6 1 (1.14%) Kali Linux
6 1 (1.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (1.14%) Rocky
6 1 (1.14%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (63.64%) Cybersecurity
2 54 (61.36%) Incident Response
3 50 (56.82%) SIEM
4 37 (42.05%) Security Operations
5 24 (27.27%) Vulnerability Management
6 18 (20.45%) Cloud Security
7 16 (18.18%) Computer Science
7 16 (18.18%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 14 (15.91%) Vulnerability Scanning
9 12 (13.64%) SOAR
9 12 (13.64%) Threat Detection
10 11 (12.50%) Information Security
10 11 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
11 10 (11.36%) Use Case
12 9 (10.23%) Threat Intelligence
12 9 (10.23%) Zero Trust
13 8 (9.09%) ITIL
13 8 (9.09%) Stakeholder Management
13 8 (9.09%) Threat Modelling
14 7 (7.95%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 20 (22.73%) PowerShell
2 18 (20.45%) Python
3 11 (12.50%) Kusto Query Language
4 6 (6.82%) Bash
5 2 (2.27%) BeanShell
5 2 (2.27%) Java
5 2 (2.27%) SQL
Qualifications
1 56 (63.64%) CISSP
2 34 (38.64%) Security Cleared
3 27 (30.68%) CISM
4 24 (27.27%) Degree
5 23 (26.14%) SC Cleared
6 20 (22.73%) CEH
7 18 (20.45%) CompTIA CySA+
7 18 (20.45%) DV Cleared
8 14 (15.91%) GIAC
9 12 (13.64%) Cisco Certification
9 12 (13.64%) Computer Science Degree
10 10 (11.36%) GCIH
10 10 (11.36%) Microsoft Certification
11 9 (10.23%) GCIA
11 9 (10.23%) SSCP
12 6 (6.82%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 5 (5.68%) AWS Certification
13 5 (5.68%) Azure Certification
14 4 (4.55%) CCNA
14 4 (4.55%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (28.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 25 (28.41%) NIST
2 9 (10.23%) NCSC
3 6 (6.82%) Cyber Essentials
3 6 (6.82%) GDPR
3 6 (6.82%) PCI DSS
4 4 (4.55%) NIST 800
5 2 (2.27%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (2.27%) GxP
5 2 (2.27%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (1.14%) COBIT
6 1 (1.14%) Government Security Classifications
6 1 (1.14%) GRC
6 1 (1.14%) HIPAA
6 1 (1.14%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (1.14%) SOC 2
System Software
1 21 (23.86%) Active Directory
2 4 (4.55%) Hyper-V
3 3 (3.41%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (1.14%) GPFS
4 1 (1.14%) Lustre
4 1 (1.14%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 3 (3.41%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
1 3 (3.41%) Nessus
2 2 (2.27%) CASB
2 2 (2.27%) CSIRT
2 2 (2.27%) Kubernetes
2 2 (2.27%) QRadar
2 2 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
2 2 (2.27%) Terraform
2 2 (2.27%) WhatsUp Gold
3 1 (1.14%) Failover Clustering
3 1 (1.14%) Nmap
3 1 (1.14%) SELinux
Vendors
1 32 (36.36%) Microsoft
2 23 (26.14%) Splunk
3 11 (12.50%) Tenable
4 6 (6.82%) Cisco
4 6 (6.82%) CrowdStrike
4 6 (6.82%) CyberArk
5 5 (5.68%) Citrix
5 5 (5.68%) Google
6 4 (4.55%) Forcepoint
6 4 (4.55%) Fortinet
6 4 (4.55%) Rapid7
6 4 (4.55%) VMware
6 4 (4.55%) Zscaler
7 3 (3.41%) Darktrace
7 3 (3.41%) Qualys
7 3 (3.41%) Veeam
8 2 (2.27%) Remedy
8 2 (2.27%) SAP
8 2 (2.27%) ServiceNow
8 2 (2.27%) Thycotic