Security Operations Contracts

Security Operations (SecOps)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Security Operations skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Security Operations over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 248 239 312
Rank change year-on-year -9 +73 +85
Contract jobs citing Security Operations 317 443 492
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.08% 1.02% 0.82%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.19% 1.18% 0.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 206 315 346
10th Percentile £375 £425 £413
25th Percentile £452 £500 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £558 £600 £613
Median % change year-on-year -7.08% -2.04% +2.08%
75th Percentile £657 £688 £730
90th Percentile £750 £775 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £545 £575 £613
% change year-on-year -5.22% -6.12% +10.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 4
10th Percentile £36.00 - £44.86
25th Percentile £45.00 - £63.11
Median hourly rate £50.97 £11.25 £84.50
Median % change year-on-year +353.07% -86.69% +63.29%
75th Percentile £81.01 - £95.31
90th Percentile £81.34 - £98.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.44 £11.25 £92.50
% change year-on-year +321.69% -87.84% +14.91%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Security Operations falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,551 37,621 53,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.82% 86.30% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,137 24,254 37,244
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.86% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £744 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,437 1,746
10th Percentile £14.70 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.50 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.31% -4.83% +49.20%
75th Percentile £62.00 £59.95 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.94 £36.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -23.45% +1.39% +80.00%

Security Operations
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Operations over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Security Operations.

Hourly rate trend for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Security Operations over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Operations in the UK

Security Operations
Top 14 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Operations within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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 -20 263 £575 -4.17% 285
London +44 136 £575 -11.54% 116
UK excluding London -43 133 £545 -5.22% 197
Work from Home +41 106 £525 -1.87% 165
South East +43 51 £525 +1.65% 51
East of England +37 21 £600 -7.69% 28
Scotland +5 20 £510 -0.49% 20
North of England +28 14 £558 -12.51% 47
Midlands -8 13 £563 -8.91% 33
West Midlands -13 13 £563 -10.00% 23
South West -53 13 £658 +15.35% 19
North West +14 11 £558 -12.51% 30
Yorkshire +12 3 - - 14
Wales - 2 - - 3

Security Operations
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 5 (1.58%) CMS
2 3 (0.95%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.63%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.32%) SAS
Applications
1 4 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.26%) SAP GRC
1 4 (1.26%) SAP S/4HANA
2 3 (0.95%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 89 (28.08%) Azure
2 39 (12.30%) AWS
3 31 (9.78%) Azure Sentinel
4 25 (7.89%) Microsoft 365
5 16 (5.05%) GCP
6 11 (3.47%) Power Platform
7 9 (2.84%) Microsoft Purview
8 8 (2.52%) Entra ID
9 4 (1.26%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (1.26%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (1.26%) Serverless
10 3 (0.95%) Akamai
10 3 (0.95%) Azure AKS
10 3 (0.95%) Azure Key Vault
10 3 (0.95%) SaaS
11 2 (0.63%) AWS CloudFormation
11 2 (0.63%) Azure Machine Learning
11 2 (0.63%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (0.63%) Datadog
11 2 (0.63%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 66 (20.82%) Firewall
2 44 (13.88%) Network Security
3 28 (8.83%) DNS
4 24 (7.57%) TCP/IP
5 22 (6.94%) HTTP
6 21 (6.62%) SMTP
7 17 (5.36%) SSL
8 15 (4.73%) FTP
9 12 (3.79%) VPN
10 11 (3.47%) DHCP
11 10 (3.15%) Intrusion Detection
12 9 (2.84%) WAN
13 6 (1.89%) VLAN
13 6 (1.89%) Wireless
14 5 (1.58%) BGP
14 5 (1.58%) OSPF
15 4 (1.26%) Internet
15 4 (1.26%) LAN
15 4 (1.26%) Wi-Fi
16 3 (0.95%) 4G
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.52%) Data Lake
2 7 (2.21%) Power BI
3 1 (0.32%) ClickHouse
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.32%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.32%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 1 (0.32%) GitLab
1 1 (0.32%) JIRA
1 1 (0.32%) SonarQube
General
1 96 (30.28%) Social Skills
2 54 (17.03%) Analytical Skills
3 50 (15.77%) Finance
4 34 (10.73%) Public Sector
5 19 (5.99%) Banking
6 15 (4.73%) Legal
7 8 (2.52%) Financial Institution
8 7 (2.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 7 (2.21%) Law
8 7 (2.21%) Presentation Skills
8 7 (2.21%) Telecoms
9 6 (1.89%) Manufacturing
9 6 (1.89%) Retail
10 5 (1.58%) Marketing
11 4 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.26%) Local Government
11 4 (1.26%) Retail Banking
12 3 (0.95%) Electronics
12 3 (0.95%) Fire and Rescue
13 2 (0.63%) French Language
Job Titles
1 68 (21.45%) Analyst
2 43 (13.56%) Security Engineer
3 39 (12.30%) Senior
4 33 (10.41%) Security Analyst
4 33 (10.41%) SOC Analyst
5 31 (9.78%) Architect
6 24 (7.57%) Consultant
7 22 (6.94%) Security Architect
8 21 (6.62%) Lead
9 18 (5.68%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 18 (5.68%) Developer
9 18 (5.68%) ServiceNow Developer
10 15 (4.73%) Operations Engineer
10 15 (4.73%) Security Manager
10 15 (4.73%) Solutions Architect
11 12 (3.79%) Automation Engineer
12 10 (3.15%) SIEM Engineer
13 9 (2.84%) Azure Engineer
13 9 (2.84%) Security Operations Analyst
13 9 (2.84%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.73%) JSON
2 13 (4.10%) REST
3 11 (3.47%) LDAP
4 10 (3.15%) Web Services
5 9 (2.84%) HTML
6 8 (2.52%) CSS
6 8 (2.52%) SOAP
6 8 (2.52%) XML
7 4 (1.26%) .NET
7 4 (1.26%) SAP Fiori
8 2 (0.63%) 802.1X
8 2 (0.63%) AngularJS
8 2 (0.63%) Node.js
8 2 (0.63%) OpenTelemetry
8 2 (0.63%) SailPoint
8 2 (0.63%) YAML
9 1 (0.32%) Ajax
9 1 (0.32%) Kafka
9 1 (0.32%) Leaflet
Miscellaneous
1 83 (26.18%) Security Operations Centre
2 48 (15.14%) Cyber Threat
3 46 (14.51%) Security Posture
4 26 (8.20%) Management Information System
5 18 (5.68%) Onboarding
6 17 (5.36%) CSOC
7 14 (4.42%) Cyberattack
7 14 (4.42%) Self-Motivation
8 10 (3.15%) Operational Technology
9 9 (2.84%) Data Centre
10 8 (2.52%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 7 (2.21%) Analytical Mindset
11 7 (2.21%) Legacy Systems
12 6 (1.89%) CMDB
12 6 (1.89%) Cyber Defence
12 6 (1.89%) Cyber Kill Chain
13 5 (1.58%) Distributed Systems
13 5 (1.58%) Public Cloud
13 5 (1.58%) Virtual Team
14 4 (1.26%) Cloud Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 35 (11.04%) Windows
2 22 (6.94%) Linux
3 10 (3.15%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.95%) Unix
5 2 (0.63%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.63%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 160 (50.47%) Cybersecurity
2 134 (42.27%) Incident Response
2 134 (42.27%) SIEM
3 68 (21.45%) Vulnerability Management
4 56 (17.67%) Problem-Solving
4 56 (17.67%) Threat Detection
5 53 (16.72%) Cloud Security
6 47 (14.83%) Threat Intelligence
7 46 (14.51%) Information Security
8 43 (13.56%) Risk Management
9 38 (11.99%) Incident Management
9 38 (11.99%) SOAR
10 37 (11.67%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
11 36 (11.36%) Security Architecture
12 33 (10.41%) Security Monitoring
13 31 (9.78%) Agile
13 31 (9.78%) MITRE ATT&CK
14 29 (9.15%) Continuous Improvement
15 27 (8.52%) ITIL
15 27 (8.52%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 41 (12.93%) Python
2 36 (11.36%) PowerShell
3 15 (4.73%) JavaScript
3 15 (4.73%) Kusto Query Language
4 8 (2.52%) Bash
5 7 (2.21%) Java
6 4 (1.26%) C#
6 4 (1.26%) SQL
7 2 (0.63%) Bicep
7 2 (0.63%) Rust
7 2 (0.63%) Search Processing Language
8 1 (0.32%) Go
Qualifications
1 87 (27.44%) Security Cleared
2 68 (21.45%) SC Cleared
3 56 (17.67%) CISSP
4 35 (11.04%) Degree
5 29 (9.15%) CISM
6 24 (7.57%) DV Cleared
7 22 (6.94%) GIAC
8 21 (6.62%) Cisco Certification
9 20 (6.31%) GCIH
10 15 (4.73%) CEH
11 14 (4.42%) CompTIA Security+
11 14 (4.42%) Microsoft Certification
12 11 (3.47%) Azure Certification
12 11 (3.47%) CCSP
13 10 (3.15%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 10 (3.15%) GCIA
14 9 (2.84%) CCNA
15 7 (2.21%) CCNP
15 7 (2.21%) CISA
15 7 (2.21%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (15.46%) NIST
2 38 (11.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (5.68%) GDPR
3 18 (5.68%) GRC
4 13 (4.10%) NIST 800
4 13 (4.10%) SLA
5 11 (3.47%) HIPAA
6 10 (3.15%) PCI DSS
7 6 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials
7 6 (1.89%) Data Quality
8 3 (0.95%) COBIT
8 3 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.95%) Disclosure Scotland
8 3 (0.95%) NCSC
9 2 (0.63%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (0.63%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.32%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.32%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.32%) SOC 2
System Software
1 14 (4.42%) Virtual Machines
2 12 (3.79%) Active Directory
3 4 (1.26%) IAG
4 3 (0.95%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.32%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.32%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 10 (3.15%) SCCM
2 6 (1.89%) Ansible
2 6 (1.89%) QRadar
3 5 (1.58%) CASB
3 5 (1.58%) CSIRT
3 5 (1.58%) FortiGate
3 5 (1.58%) Kubernetes
3 5 (1.58%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (1.58%) Terraform
4 4 (1.26%) Grafana
5 3 (0.95%) WSUS
6 2 (0.63%) OPNET
6 2 (0.63%) SCOrch
7 1 (0.32%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
7 1 (0.32%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 88 (27.76%) Microsoft
2 39 (12.30%) ServiceNow
2 39 (12.30%) Splunk
3 28 (8.83%) Palo Alto
4 18 (5.68%) Google
5 13 (4.10%) Cisco
6 12 (3.79%) Qualys
7 11 (3.47%) CrowdStrike
7 11 (3.47%) Rapid7
8 8 (2.52%) LogRhythm
9 7 (2.21%) Darktrace
9 7 (2.21%) SAP
10 6 (1.89%) FireEye
11 5 (1.58%) CheckPoint
11 5 (1.58%) Tenable
12 4 (1.26%) Ariba
12 4 (1.26%) Sophos
12 4 (1.26%) Symantec
13 3 (0.95%) IBM
13 3 (0.95%) IronPort