Security Specialist Contracts

Security Specialist
UK

The median Security Specialist daily rate in the UK is £588, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 456 485 609
Rank change year-on-year +29 +124 +114
Contract jobs requiring a Security Specialist 64 97 109
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.22% 0.22% 0.18%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.24% 0.24% 0.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 32 46 60
10th Percentile £476 £301 £425
25th Percentile £513 £425 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £588 £500 £573
Median % change year-on-year +17.50% -12.66% +8.02%
75th Percentile £650 £547 £650
90th Percentile £688 £625 £801
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £450 £575
% change year-on-year +22.22% -21.74% +17.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 10
10th Percentile - - £32.56
25th Percentile £60.75 - £59.73
Median hourly rate £61.50 - £68.27
75th Percentile £62.24 - £73.44
90th Percentile - - £74.08
UK excluding London median hourly rate £61.50 - £72.40
% change year-on-year - - +14.91%

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 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Security Specialist
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Security Specialist in the UK

Security Specialist
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Security Specialist in the UK

Security Specialist
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Daily rate histogram for Security Specialist in the UK

Security Specialist
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Security Specialist in the UK

Security Specialist
Top 12 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Specialist 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 +20 48 £600 +20.00% 293
UK excluding London +33 41 £550 +22.22% 267
South East +18 25 £600 +33.33% 65
Work from Home +6 24 £603 +33.89% 109
London +31 15 £575 +7.98% 46
Scotland +13 9 £494 +2.60% 11
Midlands +22 3 £651 +4.08% 49
West Midlands +14 3 £651 +4.08% 26
East of England - 2 £663 - 44
North of England +18 1 - - 65
North West - 1 - - 31
Wales - 1 £488 - 8

Security Specialist Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Security Specialist 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 Security Specialist in the job title.

1 28 (43.75%) Security Cleared
1 28 (43.75%) Cybersecurity
2 24 (37.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (34.38%) CISM
4 19 (29.69%) Threat Modelling
5 18 (28.13%) Risk Management
5 18 (28.13%) Azure
6 17 (26.56%) DV Cleared
6 17 (26.56%) Information Security
7 16 (25.00%) Public Sector
8 15 (23.44%) Risk Assessment
9 14 (21.88%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 14 (21.88%) Social Skills
10 13 (20.31%) AWS
10 13 (20.31%) CISSP
11 12 (18.75%) SC Cleared
11 12 (18.75%) Security Architecture
11 12 (18.75%) Cyber Threat
11 12 (18.75%) Security Posture
12 10 (15.63%) Security Operations
12 10 (15.63%) Stakeholder Management
12 10 (15.63%) Firewall
13 9 (14.06%) Management Information System
13 9 (14.06%) Telecoms
13 9 (14.06%) Incident Response
13 9 (14.06%) NIST
14 8 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
14 8 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
14 8 (12.50%) GCP
14 8 (12.50%) Microsoft

Security Specialist 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:

Business Applications
1 4 (6.25%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 18 (28.13%) Azure
2 13 (20.31%) AWS
3 8 (12.50%) GCP
4 6 (9.38%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (9.38%) Power Platform
5 3 (4.69%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (3.13%) IaaS
6 2 (3.13%) PaaS
6 2 (3.13%) SaaS
7 1 (1.56%) Cloud Computing
7 1 (1.56%) Entra ID
7 1 (1.56%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 10 (15.63%) Firewall
2 8 (12.50%) Network Security
3 3 (4.69%) VPN
4 2 (3.13%) SD-WAN
4 2 (3.13%) SSL
4 2 (3.13%) WAN
5 1 (1.56%) BGP
5 1 (1.56%) DNS
5 1 (1.56%) DSL
5 1 (1.56%) FTP
5 1 (1.56%) HTTP
5 1 (1.56%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.56%) IPsec
5 1 (1.56%) MPLS
5 1 (1.56%) OSPF
5 1 (1.56%) SMTP
5 1 (1.56%) TCP/IP
5 1 (1.56%) tcpdump
5 1 (1.56%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.56%) Elasticsearch
1 1 (1.56%) NonStop SQL
General
1 16 (25.00%) Public Sector
2 14 (21.88%) Social Skills
3 9 (14.06%) Telecoms
4 8 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
5 4 (6.25%) Finance
5 4 (6.25%) Military
5 4 (6.25%) Presentation Skills
6 3 (4.69%) Banking
6 3 (4.69%) Legal
7 2 (3.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (3.13%) Local Government
7 2 (3.13%) Marketing
7 2 (3.13%) Retail Banking
8 1 (1.56%) Electronics
8 1 (1.56%) Manufacturing
8 1 (1.56%) Organisational Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.56%) Elastic Stack
1 1 (1.56%) LDAP
1 1 (1.56%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 12 (18.75%) Cyber Threat
1 12 (18.75%) Security Posture
2 9 (14.06%) Management Information System
3 6 (9.38%) PKI
4 3 (4.69%) Cyber Security Posture
5 2 (3.13%) e-Learning
5 2 (3.13%) Security Operations Centre
5 2 (3.13%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (1.56%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (1.56%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.56%) CSOC
6 1 (1.56%) Cyberattack
6 1 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (1.56%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (1.56%) MISP
6 1 (1.56%) NHS
6 1 (1.56%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.56%) Renewable Energy
6 1 (1.56%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (1.56%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 6 (9.38%) Windows
2 4 (6.25%) Windows Server
3 2 (3.13%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (43.75%) Cybersecurity
2 19 (29.69%) Threat Modelling
3 18 (28.13%) Risk Management
4 17 (26.56%) Information Security
5 15 (23.44%) Risk Assessment
6 14 (21.88%) Vulnerability Assessment
7 12 (18.75%) Security Architecture
8 10 (15.63%) Security Operations
8 10 (15.63%) Stakeholder Management
9 9 (14.06%) Incident Response
10 8 (12.50%) Cloud Security
10 8 (12.50%) Penetration Testing
10 8 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
10 8 (12.50%) SIEM
10 8 (12.50%) Vulnerability Management
11 7 (10.94%) Agile
11 7 (10.94%) Analytics
11 7 (10.94%) Decision-Making
12 6 (9.38%) DevSecOps
12 6 (9.38%) Information Assurance
Programming Languages
1 4 (6.25%) Python
2 3 (4.69%) Bash
2 3 (4.69%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 28 (43.75%) Security Cleared
2 22 (34.38%) CISM
3 17 (26.56%) DV Cleared
4 13 (20.31%) CISSP
5 12 (18.75%) SC Cleared
6 8 (12.50%) Degree
7 4 (6.25%) CEH
7 4 (6.25%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (6.25%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (4.69%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (4.69%) MCSE
8 3 (4.69%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (3.13%) CCNA
9 2 (3.13%) CISA
9 2 (3.13%) GCIH
9 2 (3.13%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (3.13%) OSCP
10 1 (1.56%) CRISC
10 1 (1.56%) GCFA
10 1 (1.56%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (37.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (14.06%) NIST
3 6 (9.38%) NCSC
4 3 (4.69%) GDPR
5 2 (3.13%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (3.13%) JSP 440
5 2 (3.13%) NIST 800
6 1 (1.56%) FedRAMP
6 1 (1.56%) GRC
6 1 (1.56%) HIPAA
6 1 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (1.56%) SLA
System Software
1 5 (7.81%) Active Directory
2 4 (6.25%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 4 (6.25%) Microsoft Intune
1 4 (6.25%) SCCM
2 3 (4.69%) Ansible
2 3 (4.69%) Terraform
3 2 (3.13%) Nessus
3 2 (3.13%) QRadar
4 1 (1.56%) CSIRT
4 1 (1.56%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.56%) Kibana
4 1 (1.56%) Kubernetes
4 1 (1.56%) logstash
4 1 (1.56%) OpenVAS
Vendors
1 8 (12.50%) Microsoft
2 5 (7.81%) Qualys
3 3 (4.69%) CrowdStrike
3 3 (4.69%) ServiceNow
3 3 (4.69%) Splunk
4 2 (3.13%) Fortinet
4 2 (3.13%) Google
4 2 (3.13%) IBM
4 2 (3.13%) Tenable
5 1 (1.56%) ArcSight
5 1 (1.56%) Ariba
5 1 (1.56%) Carbon Black
5 1 (1.56%) CyberArk
5 1 (1.56%) LogRhythm
5 1 (1.56%) Okta
5 1 (1.56%) Ping Identity
5 1 (1.56%) Rapid7
5 1 (1.56%) SAP
5 1 (1.56%) Tripwire