Head of Security Contracts

Head of Security
UK

The median Head of Security daily rate in the UK is £750, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 July 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 535 553 629
Rank change year-on-year +18 +76 +188
Contract jobs requiring a Head of Security 15 21 50
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.047% 0.048% 0.088%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.051% 0.052% 0.094%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 16 33
10th Percentile £506 £606 £630
25th Percentile £541 £716 £663
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £750 £900 £750
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +20.00% -
75th Percentile £844 £978 £850
90th Percentile £906 £999 £965
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £750 £775
% change year-on-year -13.33% -3.23% +3.33%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 29,261 40,308 53,403
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.00% 92.99% 94.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,659 25,937 37,084
10th Percentile £287 £285 £313
25th Percentile £400 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +1.42%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £494 £500
% change year-on-year -3.85% -1.20% +4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,318 2,814 1,558
10th Percentile £13.75 £12.86 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.44 £16.65 £19.00
Median hourly rate £26.39 £38.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year -31.47% -10.47% +70.13%
75th Percentile £55.25 £63.31 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.90 £74.00 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £39.55
% change year-on-year -37.13% +1.14% +96.47%

Head of Security
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Head of Security in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Head of Security in the UK

Head of Security
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Head of Security.

Daily rate trend for Head of Security in the UK

Head of Security
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Head of Security over the 6 months to 5 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Head of Security in the UK

Head of Security
Top 9 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Head of Security within the UK over the 6 months to 5 July 2025. 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 +48 15 £750 -16.67% 89
London +43 9 £800 -11.11% 46
Work from Home +31 7 £775 +6.90% 20
UK excluding London +40 6 £650 -13.33% 46
North of England - 4 £650 - 10
Yorkshire - 4 £650 - 5
South East +29 1 - - 9
Midlands +9 1 - - 16
West Midlands - 1 - - 11

Head of Security Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 July 2025, Head of Security contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Head of Security in the job title.

1 11 (73.33%) Information Security
1 11 (73.33%) Cybersecurity
2 9 (60.00%) Security Operations
2 9 (60.00%) Social Skills
3 7 (46.67%) Incident Response
3 7 (46.67%) Security Posture
4 6 (40.00%) Continuous Improvement
4 6 (40.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (40.00%) Azure
5 5 (33.33%) GDPR
5 5 (33.33%) Roadmaps
6 4 (26.67%) CISSP
7 3 (20.00%) CISM
7 3 (20.00%) Finance
7 3 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
7 3 (20.00%) Security Cleared
7 3 (20.00%) Degree
7 3 (20.00%) Cloud Security
7 3 (20.00%) Threat Intelligence
7 3 (20.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 3 (20.00%) Strategic Thinking
7 3 (20.00%) Threat Detection
7 3 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
7 3 (20.00%) NIST
8 2 (13.33%) Public Sector
8 2 (13.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 2 (13.33%) Strategic Roadmap
8 2 (13.33%) NCSC
8 2 (13.33%) Application Security
8 2 (13.33%) Decision-Making

Head of Security Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (6.67%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 6 (40.00%) Azure
2 2 (13.33%) Azure Sentinel
3 1 (6.67%) AWS
3 1 (6.67%) Cloud Computing
3 1 (6.67%) Entra ID
3 1 (6.67%) GCP
3 1 (6.67%) Microsoft 365
3 1 (6.67%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (6.67%) Firewall
1 1 (6.67%) Network Security
General
1 9 (60.00%) Social Skills
2 3 (20.00%) Finance
3 2 (13.33%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (13.33%) Law
3 2 (13.33%) Public Sector
4 1 (6.67%) Banking
4 1 (6.67%) Legal
4 1 (6.67%) Military
4 1 (6.67%) Retail
Miscellaneous
1 7 (46.67%) Security Posture
2 2 (13.33%) Cyber Threat
2 2 (13.33%) Security Operations Centre
3 1 (6.67%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (6.67%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 1 (6.67%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (73.33%) Cybersecurity
1 11 (73.33%) Information Security
2 9 (60.00%) Security Operations
3 7 (46.67%) Incident Response
4 6 (40.00%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (33.33%) Roadmaps
6 3 (20.00%) Cloud Security
6 3 (20.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 3 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
6 3 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
6 3 (20.00%) Strategic Thinking
6 3 (20.00%) Threat Detection
6 3 (20.00%) Threat Intelligence
7 2 (13.33%) Computer Science
7 2 (13.33%) Ethical Hacking
7 2 (13.33%) Forensic Analysis
7 2 (13.33%) Project Management
7 2 (13.33%) Security Monitoring
7 2 (13.33%) Strategic Planning
7 2 (13.33%) Vulnerability Management
Qualifications
1 4 (26.67%) CISSP
2 3 (20.00%) CISM
2 3 (20.00%) Degree
2 3 (20.00%) Security Cleared
3 2 (13.33%) Computer Science Degree
3 2 (13.33%) Microsoft Certification
3 2 (13.33%) SC Cleared
4 1 (6.67%) BC Cleared
4 1 (6.67%) DBS Check
4 1 (6.67%) GIAC
4 1 (6.67%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
4 1 (6.67%) Master's Degree
4 1 (6.67%) MCP
4 1 (6.67%) PMI Certification
4 1 (6.67%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (40.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (33.33%) GDPR
3 3 (20.00%) NIST
4 2 (13.33%) NCSC
5 1 (6.67%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (6.67%) GRC
5 1 (6.67%) ISO 9001
5 1 (6.67%) PCI DSS
Systems Management
1 1 (6.67%) QRadar
Vendors
1 2 (13.33%) Microsoft
2 1 (6.67%) Splunk