OSCE Contracts

Offensive Security Certified Expert (OSCE)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for OSCE qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 515 580 716
Rank change year-on-year +65 +136 +136
Contract jobs citing OSCE 5 2 2
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.017% 0.005% 0.003%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.056% 0.015% 0.012%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 2 1
10th Percentile - £436 -
25th Percentile £500 £490 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £585 £486
Median % change year-on-year -1.71% +20.37% -10.83%
75th Percentile £650 £685 -
90th Percentile - £742 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 - £486

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

OSCE 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 8,993 13,316 16,299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.72% 30.57% 27.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,686 8,190 10,861
10th Percentile £288 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £535 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.87% -2.73% +4.76%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £707 £743 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £501 £533 £530
% change year-on-year -6.10% +0.57% +6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 509 1,076 849
10th Percentile £18.13 £13.87 £15.25
25th Percentile £22.00 £17.88 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £40.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year - -25.93% +29.16%
75th Percentile £66.00 £61.60 £68.25
90th Percentile £80.20 £75.24 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £40.94 £49.57
% change year-on-year +3.81% -17.41% +53.14%

OSCE
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing OSCE as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for OSCE in the UK

OSCE
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing OSCE.

Daily rate trend for OSCE in the UK

OSCE
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing OSCE over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for OSCE in the UK

OSCE
Top 7 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing OSCE within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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 +60 5 £575 -1.71% 11
Work from Home - 4 £650 - 13
UK excluding London - 4 £575 - 6
North of England - 2 £650 -
North West - 2 £650 -
South East - 2 £500 - 1
Wales - 2 £650 -

OSCE
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 2 (40.00%) SAS
Cloud Services
1 4 (80.00%) Azure
2 3 (60.00%) Entra ID
3 2 (40.00%) IaaS
3 2 (40.00%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (40.00%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (20.00%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 2 (40.00%) Burp Suite
1 2 (40.00%) Metasploit
General
1 2 (40.00%) Analytical Skills
1 2 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 1 (20.00%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 2 (40.00%) Penetration Tester
1 2 (40.00%) Tester
2 1 (20.00%) Consultant
2 1 (20.00%) Penetration Test Consultant
2 1 (20.00%) Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (20.00%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 2 (40.00%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (20.00%) Embedded Systems
2 1 (20.00%) Industrial Internet of Things
2 1 (20.00%) IoT
2 1 (20.00%) Operational Technology
2 1 (20.00%) SCADA
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (100.00%) Penetration Testing
1 5 (100.00%) Security Testing
2 4 (80.00%) Cloud Security
3 3 (60.00%) Computer Science
3 3 (60.00%) Cryptography
4 2 (40.00%) Data Protection
4 2 (40.00%) Ethical Hacking
4 2 (40.00%) Information Security
4 2 (40.00%) OWASP
4 2 (40.00%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (40.00%) Red Team
4 2 (40.00%) Regulatory Compliance
4 2 (40.00%) Reverse Engineering
4 2 (40.00%) Scenario Testing
5 1 (20.00%) Application Security
5 1 (20.00%) Cybersecurity
5 1 (20.00%) Mentoring
5 1 (20.00%) Offensive Security
Programming Languages
1 2 (40.00%) C
1 2 (40.00%) C++
1 2 (40.00%) Java
1 2 (40.00%) Python
1 2 (40.00%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 3 (60.00%) Computer Science Degree
1 3 (60.00%) Degree
1 3 (60.00%) OSCP
2 2 (40.00%) CREST Certified
2 2 (40.00%) GPEN
2 2 (40.00%) GWAPT
2 2 (40.00%) Master's Degree
3 1 (20.00%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (40.00%) GDPR
1 2 (40.00%) HIPAA
1 2 (40.00%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 1 (20.00%) Active Directory
Vendors
1 2 (40.00%) Microsoft