Security Testing Contracts

Security Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Security Testing skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Security Testing 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 407 368 488
Rank change year-on-year -39 +120 +65
Contract jobs citing Security Testing 114 217 233
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.39% 0.50% 0.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.43% 0.58% 0.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 79 122 148
10th Percentile £287 £463 £450
25th Percentile £384 £550 £510
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £625 £600
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +4.17% +9.09%
75th Percentile £650 £700 £738
90th Percentile £756 £780 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £516 £585 £600
% change year-on-year -11.75% -2.50% +9.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £51.25 - -
Median hourly rate £52.50 £62.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -16.00% - -
75th Percentile £53.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £62.50 -
% change year-on-year -16.00% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Security Testing 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 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Security Testing
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Security Testing in the UK

Security Testing
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Security Testing in the UK

Security Testing
Daily Rate Histogram

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

Daily rate histogram for Security Testing in the UK

Security Testing
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Security Testing in the UK

Security Testing
Top 13 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Testing 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 -41 93 £495 -19.18% 134
Work from Home -13 50 £500 -16.67% 73
London -14 50 £450 -30.77% 63
UK excluding London +12 47 £516 -11.75% 81
South East +7 20 £575 +4.55% 27
Midlands +27 10 £516 -3.96% 10
West Midlands +20 10 £516 -20.58% 6
North of England +13 7 £275 -47.62% 21
Scotland +9 5 £375 -37.50% 2
Yorkshire +11 4 £275 - 7
Wales +3 4 £625 -6.19% 1
South West +42 3 £555 -5.13% 11
North West +8 3 £650 +23.81% 12

Security Testing
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 (4.39%) Confluence
2 2 (1.75%) SAS
2 2 (1.75%) TPMS
3 1 (0.88%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.88%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (1.75%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (2.63%) Dynamics GP
2 2 (1.75%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.88%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.88%) SAP APO
3 1 (0.88%) SAP CRM
3 1 (0.88%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 37 (32.46%) Azure
2 23 (20.18%) AWS
3 10 (8.77%) Azure DevOps
4 9 (7.89%) Power Platform
5 7 (6.14%) GCP
5 7 (6.14%) GitHub
5 7 (6.14%) Microsoft 365
6 6 (5.26%) Entra ID
7 4 (3.51%) GitHub Actions
8 3 (2.63%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (2.63%) SaaS
9 2 (1.75%) Azure AKS
9 2 (1.75%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (1.75%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 2 (1.75%) BrowserStack
9 2 (1.75%) IaaS
9 2 (1.75%) Sauce Labs
10 1 (0.88%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.88%) Firebase
10 1 (0.88%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 9 (7.89%) Firewall
2 3 (2.63%) Network Security
3 2 (1.75%) BGP
3 2 (1.75%) Ethernet VPN
3 2 (1.75%) HTTP
3 2 (1.75%) MPLS
3 2 (1.75%) VPN
4 1 (0.88%) 5G
4 1 (0.88%) SSL
4 1 (0.88%) Wireless
4 1 (0.88%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (5.26%) Power BI
1 6 (5.26%) Tableau
2 3 (2.63%) Elasticsearch
2 3 (2.63%) Oracle Reports
3 2 (1.75%) MongoDB
3 2 (1.75%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.88%) Big Data
4 1 (0.88%) Delta Lake
4 1 (0.88%) IDMS
4 1 (0.88%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 19 (16.67%) Selenium
2 17 (14.91%) JIRA
3 15 (13.16%) Postman
4 14 (12.28%) Jenkins
5 13 (11.40%) Cypress.io
6 11 (9.65%) REST Assured
7 8 (7.02%) GitLab
7 8 (7.02%) JMeter
7 8 (7.02%) JUnit
8 6 (5.26%) Git
9 4 (3.51%) Burp Suite
9 4 (3.51%) SoapUI
9 4 (3.51%) TestNG
10 3 (2.63%) Appium
10 3 (2.63%) Gatling
10 3 (2.63%) Metasploit
10 3 (2.63%) Travis CI
11 2 (1.75%) LoadRunner
11 2 (1.75%) Robot Framework
12 1 (0.88%) SonarQube
General
1 53 (46.49%) Social Skills
2 21 (18.42%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (13.16%) Finance
4 14 (12.28%) Public Sector
5 6 (5.26%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (4.39%) Banking
6 5 (4.39%) Legal
7 4 (3.51%) Law
8 3 (2.63%) Documentation Skills
9 2 (1.75%) Aerospace
9 2 (1.75%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.75%) Marketing
10 1 (0.88%) Automotive
10 1 (0.88%) Billing
10 1 (0.88%) Electronics
10 1 (0.88%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.88%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.88%) Military
10 1 (0.88%) Retail
10 1 (0.88%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 19 (16.67%) Tester
2 14 (12.28%) Senior
3 13 (11.40%) Lead
4 12 (10.53%) Architect
5 11 (9.65%) Test Engineer
6 10 (8.77%) Analyst
6 10 (8.77%) Security Architect
7 9 (7.89%) Consultant
8 8 (7.02%) QA Engineer
9 7 (6.14%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 7 (6.14%) Security Analyst
9 7 (6.14%) Security Consultant
10 6 (5.26%) Auditor
10 6 (5.26%) QA Tester
10 6 (5.26%) Report Analyst
10 6 (5.26%) Security Auditor
10 6 (5.26%) Security Manager
10 6 (5.26%) Senior Test Engineer
11 5 (4.39%) Test Automation Engineer
12 4 (3.51%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (7.89%) Playwright
2 7 (6.14%) REST
3 4 (3.51%) Node.js
4 3 (2.63%) .NET
4 3 (2.63%) Jest
4 3 (2.63%) React
4 3 (2.63%) RESTful
4 3 (2.63%) YAML
5 2 (1.75%) Gherkin
5 2 (1.75%) JSON
5 2 (1.75%) Kafka
5 2 (1.75%) NETCONF
5 2 (1.75%) pytest
5 2 (1.75%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.75%) SOAP
5 2 (1.75%) XML
5 2 (1.75%) YANG
6 1 (0.88%) .NET Framework
6 1 (0.88%) OAuth
6 1 (0.88%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 11 (9.65%) Security Posture
2 7 (6.14%) Product Ownership
3 6 (5.26%) Cyber Security Posture
4 5 (4.39%) Management Information System
5 4 (3.51%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (3.51%) Cloud Native
5 4 (3.51%) Cyber Threat
5 4 (3.51%) PKI
6 3 (2.63%) Embedded Systems
7 2 (1.75%) Cyberattack
7 2 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.75%) Educational Technology
7 2 (1.75%) Mobile App
8 1 (0.88%) Cloud Security Posture
8 1 (0.88%) EPoS
8 1 (0.88%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.88%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.88%) SCADA
8 1 (0.88%) SWIFT Messaging Network
8 1 (0.88%) Web3
Operating Systems
1 8 (7.02%) Windows
2 5 (4.39%) Unix
3 4 (3.51%) Linux
3 4 (3.51%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.75%) Android
4 2 (1.75%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.75%) CentOS
5 1 (0.88%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (51.75%) Agile
2 45 (39.47%) Test Automation
3 34 (29.82%) CI/CD
4 32 (28.07%) Penetration Testing
5 28 (24.56%) Cybersecurity
6 26 (22.81%) Problem-Solving
7 25 (21.93%) DevOps
8 23 (20.18%) Performance Testing
9 22 (19.30%) Test Strategy
10 19 (16.67%) Information Security
11 18 (15.79%) Cloud Security
11 18 (15.79%) OWASP
11 18 (15.79%) Risk Management
12 17 (14.91%) API Testing
12 17 (14.91%) Computer Science
12 17 (14.91%) Regression Testing
12 17 (14.91%) Threat Modelling
13 16 (14.04%) Application Security
14 15 (13.16%) Dynamic Application Security Testing
14 15 (13.16%) Static Application Security Testing
Programming Languages
1 32 (28.07%) Python
2 19 (16.67%) Java
3 13 (11.40%) SQL
4 9 (7.89%) JavaScript
5 7 (6.14%) Bash
5 7 (6.14%) TypeScript
6 5 (4.39%) PowerShell
7 3 (2.63%) C++
8 2 (1.75%) C
8 2 (1.75%) PHP
8 2 (1.75%) Ruby
9 1 (0.88%) ABAP
9 1 (0.88%) COBOL
9 1 (0.88%) Perl
9 1 (0.88%) Rust
Qualifications
1 25 (21.93%) Security Cleared
2 22 (19.30%) SC Cleared
3 21 (18.42%) Degree
4 19 (16.67%) CISSP
5 17 (14.91%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (12.28%) ISTQB
7 10 (8.77%) CEH
8 8 (7.02%) CISM
9 5 (4.39%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 5 (4.39%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (4.39%) CREST Certified
9 5 (4.39%) OSCE
9 5 (4.39%) OSCP
10 4 (3.51%) Azure Certification
10 4 (3.51%) DV Cleared
10 4 (3.51%) Master's Degree
11 3 (2.63%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (2.63%) CCSP
12 2 (1.75%) Cyber Scheme
12 2 (1.75%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (25.44%) QA
2 18 (15.79%) NIST
3 11 (9.65%) Accessibility
4 10 (8.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (7.02%) GDPR
6 7 (6.14%) NCSC
7 6 (5.26%) PCI DSS
8 5 (4.39%) Disclosure Scotland
8 5 (4.39%) HIPAA
9 3 (2.63%) WCAG
10 2 (1.75%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 1 (0.88%) EU AI Act
11 1 (0.88%) GRC
11 1 (0.88%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.88%) PMO
System Software
1 10 (8.77%) Docker
2 5 (4.39%) Active Directory
3 3 (2.63%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 11 (9.65%) Kubernetes
2 3 (2.63%) CASB
2 3 (2.63%) Kibana
2 3 (2.63%) SCCM
3 2 (1.75%) Nessus
3 2 (1.75%) Terraform
4 1 (0.88%) Grafana
4 1 (0.88%) Nmap
4 1 (0.88%) QRadar
Vendors
1 8 (7.02%) Microsoft
2 5 (4.39%) Oracle
2 5 (4.39%) SAP
3 3 (2.63%) Cisco
4 2 (1.75%) Databricks
4 2 (1.75%) Palo Alto
4 2 (1.75%) Qualys
4 2 (1.75%) Salesforce
4 2 (1.75%) ServiceNow
4 2 (1.75%) Splunk
4 2 (1.75%) TOWER Software
5 1 (0.88%) BT
5 1 (0.88%) Confluent
5 1 (0.88%) CyberArk
5 1 (0.88%) ESRI
5 1 (0.88%) Google
5 1 (0.88%) Guidewire
5 1 (0.88%) Rapid7