Security Operations Specialist Contract Job Trends

Security Operations Specialist
UK

The median Security Operations Specialist daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 27 August 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 669 555 567
Rank change year-on-year -114 +12 +92
Contract jobs requiring a Security Operations Specialist 5 1 2
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.009% 0.003% 0.005%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.010% 0.003% 0.006%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £513 - £625
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 - £650
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.70%
75th Percentile £550 - £675
90th Percentile £573 - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
Median hourly rate - - £93.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - £93.00

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 49,647 29,883 36,109
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 91.23% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,658 18,862 22,923
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £625 £620 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,547 1,583 1,920
10th Percentile £14.99 £13.66 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.51 £17.08 £19.50
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -1.44%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.93 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £71.20 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +7.50%

Security Operations Specialist
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Security Operations Specialist' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Security Operations Specialist job vacancy trend in the UK

Security Operations Specialist
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Operations Specialist job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Operations Specialist job vacancies in the UK

Security Operations Specialist
Top 5 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Operations Specialist within the UK over the 6 months to 27 August 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 - 5 £525 - 9
UK excluding London -95 3 £525 - 5
South West - 3 £525 - 4
London - 2 £575 - 3
Work from Home - 2 £575 - 3

Security Operations Specialist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 27 August 2026, Security Operations Specialist contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Security Operations Specialist in the job title.

1 4 (80.00%) Security Operations
2 3 (60.00%) Cybersecurity
3 2 (40.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 2 (40.00%) Incident Response
3 2 (40.00%) SIEM
3 2 (40.00%) Threat Intelligence
3 2 (40.00%) Vulnerability Management
3 2 (40.00%) Vulnerability Remediation
4 1 (20.00%) CheckPoint
4 1 (20.00%) Configuration Management
4 1 (20.00%) CrowdStrike
4 1 (20.00%) Customer Experience
4 1 (20.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 1 (20.00%) Data Loss Prevention
4 1 (20.00%) DHCP
4 1 (20.00%) DNS
4 1 (20.00%) E-Discovery
4 1 (20.00%) F5
4 1 (20.00%) FireEye
4 1 (20.00%) Firewall
4 1 (20.00%) FortiGate
4 1 (20.00%) LAN
4 1 (20.00%) Load Balancing
4 1 (20.00%) Microsoft
4 1 (20.00%) Microsoft Purview
4 1 (20.00%) Proactive Monitoring
4 1 (20.00%) Proofpoint
4 1 (20.00%) Service Delivery
4 1 (20.00%) Splunk
4 1 (20.00%) TCP/IP

Security Operations Specialist Skill Set
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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (20.00%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 1 (20.00%) DHCP
1 1 (20.00%) DNS
1 1 (20.00%) Firewall
1 1 (20.00%) LAN
1 1 (20.00%) TCP/IP
General
1 1 (20.00%) Social Skills
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (80.00%) Security Operations
2 3 (60.00%) Cybersecurity
3 2 (40.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 2 (40.00%) Incident Response
3 2 (40.00%) SIEM
3 2 (40.00%) Threat Intelligence
3 2 (40.00%) Vulnerability Management
3 2 (40.00%) Vulnerability Remediation
4 1 (20.00%) Configuration Management
4 1 (20.00%) Customer Experience
4 1 (20.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 1 (20.00%) Data Loss Prevention
4 1 (20.00%) E-Discovery
4 1 (20.00%) Load Balancing
4 1 (20.00%) Proactive Monitoring
4 1 (20.00%) Service Delivery
4 1 (20.00%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
4 1 (20.00%) Threat Detection
Systems Management
1 1 (20.00%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 1 (20.00%) CheckPoint
1 1 (20.00%) CrowdStrike
1 1 (20.00%) F5
1 1 (20.00%) FireEye
1 1 (20.00%) Microsoft
1 1 (20.00%) Proofpoint
1 1 (20.00%) Splunk
1 1 (20.00%) Trend Micro