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 17 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 535 475 523
Rank change year-on-year -60 +48 +177
Contract jobs citing CompTIA Security+ 93 52 62
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.18% 0.14%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.64% 0.58% 0.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 58 33 50
10th Percentile £393 £373 £263
25th Percentile £425 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £618
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -14.98% +14.35%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £635
90th Percentile £653 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £610 £535 £618
% change year-on-year +14.13% -13.44% +36.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 1 1
10th Percentile £34.66 - -
25th Percentile - £45.75 -
Median hourly rate £41.94 £54.50 £20.74
Median % change year-on-year -23.05% +162.78% -
75th Percentile £54.12 £63.25 -
90th Percentile £77.43 - -
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 14,590 8,931 13,563
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.79% 30.42% 30.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,589 5,638 8,379
10th Percentile £333 £285 £300
25th Percentile £420 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £613 £626 £650
90th Percentile £720 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,079 472 1,018
10th Percentile £16.17 £18.52 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.83 £24.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate £29.61 £44.00 £38.45
Median % change year-on-year -32.70% +14.43% -25.33%
75th Percentile £67.50 £67.50 £61.91
90th Percentile £84.00 £82.03 £75.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.97 £50.00 £39.92
% change year-on-year -46.06% +25.25% -18.53%

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 17 March 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 17 March 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 17 March 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 -72 71 £540 +1.12% 158
UK excluding London -72 45 £610 +14.13% 158
London -39 36 £450 -14.29% 35
Work from Home -22 19 £513 +2.50% 13
Scotland +21 14 £610 +17.99% 11
North of England -56 13 £620 +16.10% 39
North West - 10 £639 - 15
South East -43 7 £653 -6.79% 35
South West -25 5 £538 - 16
East of England -26 4 £550 +10.00% 22
Yorkshire - 3 £530 - 15
Midlands -55 1 £625 - 28
East Midlands - 1 £625 - 16
Wales - 1 £550 - 9

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 (1.08%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (1.08%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.08%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 19 (20.43%) Azure
2 16 (17.20%) AWS
3 10 (10.75%) GCP
4 5 (5.38%) Azure Sentinel
4 5 (5.38%) Entra ID
5 4 (4.30%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (2.15%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (2.15%) OCI
6 2 (2.15%) SaaS
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 Logic Apps
7 1 (1.08%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.08%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (1.08%) Power Platform
7 1 (1.08%) Serverless
7 1 (1.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 33 (35.48%) TCP/IP
2 32 (34.41%) DNS
3 29 (31.18%) Firewall
4 18 (19.35%) Network Security
5 7 (7.53%) VPN
6 5 (5.38%) BGP
6 5 (5.38%) Cisco ASA
6 5 (5.38%) HTTP
6 5 (5.38%) SSL
7 4 (4.30%) Cisco IOS
7 4 (4.30%) MPLS
7 4 (4.30%) TACACS
8 3 (3.23%) DHCP
9 2 (2.15%) Wireless
10 1 (1.08%) Intranet
10 1 (1.08%) Intrusion Detection
10 1 (1.08%) IPsec
10 1 (1.08%) OSPF
10 1 (1.08%) SAN
10 1 (1.08%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.08%) Amazon QuickSight
1 1 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.08%) Power BI
1 1 (1.08%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (2.15%) JIRA
2 1 (1.08%) Burp Suite
General
1 19 (20.43%) Social Skills
2 14 (15.05%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (13.98%) Public Sector
4 10 (10.75%) Finance
5 4 (4.30%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (3.23%) Aerospace
7 2 (2.15%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (2.15%) Military
7 2 (2.15%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (2.15%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (1.08%) Banking
8 1 (1.08%) Electronics
8 1 (1.08%) Law
8 1 (1.08%) Legal
8 1 (1.08%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.08%) Marketing
8 1 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.08%) Retail
8 1 (1.08%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 40 (43.01%) Analyst
2 19 (20.43%) SOC Analyst
3 17 (18.28%) Security Engineer
4 15 (16.13%) Security Analyst
5 11 (11.83%) Lead
5 11 (11.83%) Senior
6 8 (8.60%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 7 (7.53%) Consultant
7 7 (7.53%) Cybersecurity Consultant
7 7 (7.53%) Operations Analyst
7 7 (7.53%) Security Consultant
8 6 (6.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 5 (5.38%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 5 (5.38%) Senior Analyst
9 5 (5.38%) SOC Engineer
10 4 (4.30%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 4 (4.30%) Network Security Engineer
10 4 (4.30%) Senior Operations Analyst
10 4 (4.30%) Technical Analyst
10 4 (4.30%) Technical Operations Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (12.90%) LDAP
2 2 (2.15%) REST
2 2 (2.15%) YAML
3 1 (1.08%) ARM Templates
3 1 (1.08%) JSON
3 1 (1.08%) OpenMP
3 1 (1.08%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 22 (23.66%) Security Operations Centre
2 17 (18.28%) Cyberattack
3 11 (11.83%) Cyber Threat
4 10 (10.75%) Security Posture
5 7 (7.53%) Management Information System
5 7 (7.53%) Onboarding
6 6 (6.45%) Operational Technology
7 5 (5.38%) Cloud Security Posture
8 4 (4.30%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (4.30%) PKI
9 3 (3.23%) Cloud Native
10 2 (2.15%) Cyber Defence
10 2 (2.15%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 2 (2.15%) Data Centre
10 2 (2.15%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (2.15%) Life Science
10 2 (2.15%) STIX
10 2 (2.15%) YARA
11 1 (1.08%) Anti-Spyware
11 1 (1.08%) Insider Threat
Operating Systems
1 41 (44.09%) Linux
2 39 (41.94%) Windows
3 7 (7.53%) Windows Server
4 5 (5.38%) Ubuntu
4 5 (5.38%) Unix
5 3 (3.23%) Windows Server 2016
5 3 (3.23%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (1.08%) Kali Linux
6 1 (1.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (1.08%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (67.74%) Cybersecurity
2 53 (56.99%) Incident Response
3 49 (52.69%) SIEM
4 38 (40.86%) Security Operations
5 25 (26.88%) Vulnerability Management
6 23 (24.73%) Computer Science
7 20 (21.51%) Cloud Security
8 18 (19.35%) MITRE ATT&CK
9 15 (16.13%) Vulnerability Scanning
10 13 (13.98%) Penetration Testing
10 13 (13.98%) SOAR
11 12 (12.90%) Information Security
11 12 (12.90%) Problem-Solving
11 12 (12.90%) Threat Detection
12 10 (10.75%) Identity Management
12 10 (10.75%) ITIL
12 10 (10.75%) Use Case
13 9 (9.68%) Agile
13 9 (9.68%) Threat Intelligence
14 8 (8.60%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 24 (25.81%) Python
2 20 (21.51%) PowerShell
3 8 (8.60%) Bash
4 4 (4.30%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (4.30%) PHP
5 1 (1.08%) BeanShell
5 1 (1.08%) Java
5 1 (1.08%) SQL
Qualifications
1 56 (60.22%) CISSP
2 49 (52.69%) Security Cleared
3 35 (37.63%) SC Cleared
4 28 (30.11%) CISM
4 28 (30.11%) Degree
5 27 (29.03%) DV Cleared
6 25 (26.88%) CompTIA CySA+
7 22 (23.66%) CEH
8 20 (21.51%) Computer Science Degree
8 20 (21.51%) GIAC
9 13 (13.98%) Microsoft Certification
10 11 (11.83%) SSCP
11 9 (9.68%) GCIA
11 9 (9.68%) GCIH
12 8 (8.60%) Cisco Certification
13 6 (6.45%) AWS Certification
14 5 (5.38%) Azure Certification
14 5 (5.38%) BPSS Clearance
14 5 (5.38%) MCSA
14 5 (5.38%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (34.41%) NIST
2 30 (32.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (10.75%) NCSC
4 9 (9.68%) Cyber Essentials
5 7 (7.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 6 (6.45%) GDPR
7 4 (4.30%) NIST 800
8 3 (3.23%) COBIT
8 3 (3.23%) GxP
8 3 (3.23%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 3 (3.23%) PCI DSS
9 2 (2.15%) GRC
9 2 (2.15%) SOC 2
10 1 (1.08%) Accessibility
10 1 (1.08%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (1.08%) HIPAA
10 1 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 20 (21.51%) Active Directory
2 7 (7.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.30%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (3.23%) Hyper-V
5 1 (1.08%) Docker
5 1 (1.08%) GPFS
5 1 (1.08%) Lustre
5 1 (1.08%) Slurm Workload Manager
5 1 (1.08%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (6.45%) Nessus
1 6 (6.45%) QRadar
2 5 (5.38%) CASB
3 4 (4.30%) Terraform
3 4 (4.30%) vCenter Server
4 3 (3.23%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.23%) Microsoft Data Protection Manager
4 3 (3.23%) SCOM
5 1 (1.08%) Ansible
5 1 (1.08%) CSIRT
5 1 (1.08%) Fluentd
5 1 (1.08%) logstash
5 1 (1.08%) Nmap
5 1 (1.08%) SELinux
5 1 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 36 (38.71%) Splunk
2 26 (27.96%) Microsoft
3 13 (13.98%) Tenable
4 8 (8.60%) CyberArk
5 7 (7.53%) VMware
6 6 (6.45%) Cisco
6 6 (6.45%) CrowdStrike
7 5 (5.38%) Remedy
8 4 (4.30%) Carbon Black
8 4 (4.30%) Google
9 3 (3.23%) Rapid7
9 3 (3.23%) ServiceNow
9 3 (3.23%) Veeam
9 3 (3.23%) Zscaler
10 2 (2.15%) Darktrace
10 2 (2.15%) LogRhythm
10 2 (2.15%) Palo Alto
10 2 (2.15%) Qualys
11 1 (1.08%) Proofpoint
11 1 (1.08%) SAP