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 16 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 238 224 300
Rank change year-on-year -14 +76 +81
Contract jobs citing Security Operations 322 436 499
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.10% 1.02% 0.87%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.21% 1.19% 0.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 208 309 350
10th Percentile £371 £425 £406
25th Percentile £461 £488 £511
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £564 £600 £603
Median % change year-on-year -6.08% -0.50% +0.50%
75th Percentile £663 £688 £713
90th Percentile £750 £755 £814
UK excluding London median daily rate £545 £570 £610
% change year-on-year -4.39% -6.56% +6.09%
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% +101.43%
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% +51.08%

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 26,555 36,687 51,295
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.98% 86.22% 89.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,047 23,611 35,552
10th Percentile £305 £300 £325
25th Percentile £410 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -4.55% +3.77%
75th Percentile £626 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +5.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,084 2,428 1,693
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.75 £10.77
25th Percentile £18.13 £16.00 £16.13
Median hourly rate £28.00 £36.05 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.32% +0.13% +40.19%
75th Percentile £60.00 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -32.93% +7.14% +75.00%

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 16 May 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 16 May 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 16 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 -3 268 £575 -4.17% 446
London +35 139 £575 -11.54% 202
UK excluding London -59 131 £545 -4.39% 313
Work from Home +26 110 £538 +2.38% 245
South East +55 54 £523 -1.88% 131
East of England +29 21 £613 -5.77% 49
Scotland 0 17 £550 +10.00% 25
North of England +19 16 £558 -10.76% 57
North West +12 13 £558 -10.76% 28
Midlands -12 12 £600 -4.67% 33
West Midlands -12 12 £600 -5.51% 27
South West -56 10 £658 +15.35% 22
Yorkshire +11 3 - - 23
Wales - 2 - - 6

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 4 (1.24%) CMS
2 3 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (0.93%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.31%) SAS
Applications
1 3 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.62%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (0.62%) Dynamics GP
1 2 (0.62%) SAP GRC
1 2 (0.62%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 95 (29.50%) Azure
2 50 (15.53%) AWS
3 33 (10.25%) Azure Sentinel
4 23 (7.14%) Microsoft 365
5 19 (5.90%) GCP
6 11 (3.42%) SaaS
7 10 (3.11%) Power Platform
8 8 (2.48%) Amazon EC2
8 8 (2.48%) Amazon S3
8 8 (2.48%) Amazon SQS
8 8 (2.48%) Microsoft Purview
9 6 (1.86%) Entra ID
10 4 (1.24%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (1.24%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (1.24%) Serverless
11 3 (0.93%) Akamai
11 3 (0.93%) Azure AKS
11 3 (0.93%) Azure Key Vault
12 2 (0.62%) Azure Machine Learning
12 2 (0.62%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 69 (21.43%) Firewall
2 47 (14.60%) Network Security
3 28 (8.70%) DNS
4 26 (8.07%) TCP/IP
5 21 (6.52%) HTTP
6 20 (6.21%) SMTP
7 16 (4.97%) SSL
8 15 (4.66%) VPN
9 14 (4.35%) FTP
10 12 (3.73%) DHCP
11 10 (3.11%) WAN
12 8 (2.48%) Intrusion Detection
12 8 (2.48%) VLAN
13 7 (2.17%) BGP
13 7 (2.17%) OSPF
13 7 (2.17%) Wireless
14 5 (1.55%) LAN
15 4 (1.24%) 4G
15 4 (1.24%) Internet
15 4 (1.24%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.48%) Data Lake
2 7 (2.17%) Power BI
3 1 (0.31%) ClickHouse
3 1 (0.31%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.31%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 1 (0.31%) GitLab
1 1 (0.31%) JIRA
1 1 (0.31%) SonarQube
General
1 98 (30.43%) Social Skills
2 54 (16.77%) Analytical Skills
3 47 (14.60%) Finance
4 36 (11.18%) Public Sector
5 17 (5.28%) Banking
6 15 (4.66%) Legal
7 10 (3.11%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 8 (2.48%) Presentation Skills
9 7 (2.17%) Financial Institution
9 7 (2.17%) Retail
9 7 (2.17%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.86%) Law
11 5 (1.55%) Local Government
11 5 (1.55%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.55%) Marketing
12 4 (1.24%) Retail Banking
13 3 (0.93%) Electronics
13 3 (0.93%) Fire and Rescue
13 3 (0.93%) Military
Job Titles
1 64 (19.88%) Analyst
2 42 (13.04%) Security Engineer
3 40 (12.42%) Senior
4 36 (11.18%) Architect
5 33 (10.25%) Security Analyst
5 33 (10.25%) SOC Analyst
6 28 (8.70%) Security Architect
7 25 (7.76%) Consultant
8 20 (6.21%) Lead
9 19 (5.90%) Developer
9 19 (5.90%) ServiceNow Developer
10 16 (4.97%) Cybersecurity Analyst
11 15 (4.66%) Security Manager
11 15 (4.66%) Solutions Architect
12 13 (4.04%) Operations Engineer
13 12 (3.73%) Automation Engineer
14 11 (3.42%) Operations Analyst
14 11 (3.42%) Security Operations Analyst
15 10 (3.11%) SIEM Engineer
16 9 (2.80%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.66%) JSON
2 14 (4.35%) REST
3 10 (3.11%) LDAP
3 10 (3.11%) Web Services
4 9 (2.80%) HTML
4 9 (2.80%) SOAP
5 8 (2.48%) CSS
5 8 (2.48%) XML
6 4 (1.24%) .NET
7 3 (0.93%) AngularJS
8 2 (0.62%) 802.1X
8 2 (0.62%) Node.js
8 2 (0.62%) OpenTelemetry
8 2 (0.62%) SAP Fiori
8 2 (0.62%) YAML
9 1 (0.31%) Ajax
9 1 (0.31%) Kafka
9 1 (0.31%) React
Miscellaneous
1 92 (28.57%) Security Operations Centre
2 48 (14.91%) Cyber Threat
3 46 (14.29%) Security Posture
4 27 (8.39%) Management Information System
5 26 (8.07%) Onboarding
6 24 (7.45%) CSOC
7 13 (4.04%) Self-Motivation
8 12 (3.73%) Cyberattack
9 10 (3.11%) Operational Technology
10 8 (2.48%) CMDB
10 8 (2.48%) Data Centre
10 8 (2.48%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 8 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
11 6 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
11 6 (1.86%) Cyber Defence
11 6 (1.86%) Cyber Kill Chain
12 5 (1.55%) Virtual Team
13 4 (1.24%) Cloud Native
13 4 (1.24%) Cloud Security Posture
13 4 (1.24%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 36 (11.18%) Windows
2 23 (7.14%) Linux
3 9 (2.80%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.93%) Unix
5 2 (0.62%) Mac OS
5 2 (0.62%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
2 143 (44.41%) SIEM
3 139 (43.17%) Incident Response
4 66 (20.50%) Vulnerability Management
5 58 (18.01%) Threat Detection
6 57 (17.70%) Cloud Security
7 56 (17.39%) Problem-Solving
8 48 (14.91%) Threat Intelligence
9 45 (13.98%) Information Security
9 45 (13.98%) SOAR
10 41 (12.73%) Risk Management
11 39 (12.11%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
12 38 (11.80%) Incident Management
13 35 (10.87%) MITRE ATT&CK
14 34 (10.56%) Security Monitoring
15 33 (10.25%) Security Architecture
16 31 (9.63%) Agile
17 30 (9.32%) Use Case
18 28 (8.70%) Roadmaps
19 27 (8.39%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 51 (15.84%) Python
2 42 (13.04%) PowerShell
3 18 (5.59%) JavaScript
4 17 (5.28%) Kusto Query Language
5 10 (3.11%) Bash
6 9 (2.80%) Java
7 4 (1.24%) C#
7 4 (1.24%) SQL
8 2 (0.62%) Bicep
8 2 (0.62%) Rust
8 2 (0.62%) Search Processing Language
9 1 (0.31%) Go
Qualifications
1 91 (28.26%) Security Cleared
2 75 (23.29%) SC Cleared
3 57 (17.70%) CISSP
4 33 (10.25%) Degree
5 26 (8.07%) CISM
6 25 (7.76%) GIAC
7 23 (7.14%) Cisco Certification
8 22 (6.83%) DV Cleared
9 21 (6.52%) GCIH
10 15 (4.66%) CEH
10 15 (4.66%) Microsoft Certification
11 12 (3.73%) CompTIA Security+
12 11 (3.42%) CCSP
13 10 (3.11%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 10 (3.11%) Azure Certification
13 10 (3.11%) GCIA
14 9 (2.80%) CCNA
14 9 (2.80%) CCNP
14 9 (2.80%) SANS
15 7 (2.17%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (15.84%) NIST
2 38 (11.80%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (5.90%) GDPR
4 16 (4.97%) GRC
5 14 (4.35%) HIPAA
5 14 (4.35%) PCI DSS
6 13 (4.04%) SLA
7 11 (3.42%) NIST 800
8 6 (1.86%) Cyber Essentials
8 6 (1.86%) Data Quality
9 3 (0.93%) NCSC
10 2 (0.62%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 2 (0.62%) COBIT
10 2 (0.62%) Disclosure Scotland
10 2 (0.62%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.31%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.31%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.31%) QA
11 1 (0.31%) WCAG
System Software
1 13 (4.04%) Virtual Machines
2 12 (3.73%) Active Directory
3 2 (0.62%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.62%) IAG
4 1 (0.31%) BitLocker
4 1 (0.31%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 9 (2.80%) SCCM
2 8 (2.48%) Ansible
3 6 (1.86%) FortiGate
4 5 (1.55%) CSIRT
4 5 (1.55%) Kubernetes
4 5 (1.55%) QRadar
4 5 (1.55%) Terraform
5 4 (1.24%) Grafana
5 4 (1.24%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.93%) CASB
6 3 (0.93%) WSUS
7 2 (0.62%) SCOrch
8 1 (0.31%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
Vendors
1 87 (27.02%) Microsoft
2 49 (15.22%) Splunk
3 41 (12.73%) ServiceNow
4 32 (9.94%) Palo Alto
5 17 (5.28%) Google
6 15 (4.66%) Cisco
7 13 (4.04%) Qualys
8 11 (3.42%) CrowdStrike
8 11 (3.42%) Rapid7
9 7 (2.17%) CheckPoint
9 7 (2.17%) Darktrace
9 7 (2.17%) LogRhythm
10 6 (1.86%) SAP
11 5 (1.55%) FireEye
11 5 (1.55%) Tenable
12 4 (1.24%) Ariba
12 4 (1.24%) Sophos
13 3 (0.93%) Meraki
13 3 (0.93%) Symantec
13 3 (0.93%) VMware