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 21 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 402 428 513
Rank change year-on-year +26 +85 +64
Contract jobs citing Security Testing 132 167 185
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.44% 0.38% 0.33%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.45% 0.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 89 100 127
10th Percentile £305 £425 £450
25th Percentile £384 £550 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £600 £588
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +2.13% +6.82%
75th Percentile £675 £728 £738
90th Percentile £703 £780 £805
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £590 £594
% change year-on-year -15.25% -0.63% +13.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 0
10th Percentile - £37.75 -
25th Percentile £51.25 £41.88 -
Median hourly rate £52.50 £48.75 -
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% - -
75th Percentile £53.75 £55.63 -
90th Percentile - £59.75 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £48.75 -
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -

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 27,277 37,277 49,722
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 91.02% 84.89% 89.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,264 23,714 34,361
10th Percentile £300 £300 £325
25th Percentile £406 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% -4.55% +1.85%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,273 2,624 1,687
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.74 £11.25
25th Percentile £17.79 £16.06 £15.75
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.93% +7.14% +34.62%
75th Percentile £55.00 £61.30 £64.50
90th Percentile £72.50 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.11 £38.12 £32.50
% change year-on-year -34.12% +17.29% +54.76%

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 21 June 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 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 Testing within the UK over the 6 months to 21 June 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 +18 108 £500 -16.67% 446
London +27 66 £525 -12.50% 221
Work from Home +39 55 £476 -17.22% 205
UK excluding London +23 45 £500 -15.25% 256
South East +47 18 £675 +22.73% 51
West Midlands +13 7 £450 +5.88% 19
North of England +12 7 £463 -9.76% 78
Midlands +11 7 £450 -27.71% 32
Scotland -2 7 £550 -8.33% 23
North West +6 5 £650 +26.83% 45
South West +33 3 £500 -15.25% 30
East of England +26 3 £320 -54.29% 29
Yorkshire +7 2 £275 - 29
Wales +6 2 £650 -2.44% 5

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 4 (3.03%) Confluence
2 2 (1.52%) SAS
2 2 (1.52%) TPMS
3 1 (0.76%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 2 (1.52%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.76%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 4 (3.03%) Dynamics GP
2 3 (2.27%) SAP S/4HANA
3 2 (1.52%) SAP GRC
4 1 (0.76%) Payment Gateway
4 1 (0.76%) SAP APO
4 1 (0.76%) SAP CRM
Cloud Services
1 47 (35.61%) Azure
2 34 (25.76%) AWS
3 19 (14.39%) GitHub
4 18 (13.64%) GCP
5 11 (8.33%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (7.58%) Power Platform
7 7 (5.30%) Microsoft 365
8 5 (3.79%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (3.79%) Entra ID
8 5 (3.79%) GitHub Actions
9 3 (2.27%) BrowserStack
9 3 (2.27%) SaaS
10 2 (1.52%) Azure AKS
10 2 (1.52%) Azure Data Factory
10 2 (1.52%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 2 (1.52%) IaaS
10 2 (1.52%) Sauce Labs
11 1 (0.76%) Asana
11 1 (0.76%) Firebase
11 1 (0.76%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 8 (6.06%) Firewall
2 3 (2.27%) Network Security
2 3 (2.27%) SSL
3 2 (1.52%) HTTP
4 1 (0.76%) 5G
4 1 (0.76%) Wireless
4 1 (0.76%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.55%) Power BI
1 6 (4.55%) Tableau
2 3 (2.27%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (0.76%) Big Data
3 1 (0.76%) Delta Lake
3 1 (0.76%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.76%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 18 (13.64%) Selenium
2 14 (10.61%) Jenkins
3 13 (9.85%) Burp Suite
3 13 (9.85%) Metasploit
3 13 (9.85%) Postman
4 12 (9.09%) JIRA
5 11 (8.33%) Cypress.io
5 11 (8.33%) REST Assured
5 11 (8.33%) SonarQube
6 9 (6.82%) JUnit
7 8 (6.06%) GitLab
7 8 (6.06%) JMeter
8 6 (4.55%) Git
9 5 (3.79%) Appium
10 4 (3.03%) TestNG
11 3 (2.27%) Gatling
11 3 (2.27%) Travis CI
12 2 (1.52%) Robot Framework
12 2 (1.52%) SoapUI
12 2 (1.52%) TestRail
General
1 65 (49.24%) Social Skills
2 25 (18.94%) Public Sector
3 23 (17.42%) Analytical Skills
4 15 (11.36%) Finance
5 11 (8.33%) Banking
6 6 (4.55%) Presentation Skills
7 5 (3.79%) Law
8 4 (3.03%) Legal
8 4 (3.03%) Military
9 3 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.52%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.52%) Retail
11 1 (0.76%) Automotive
11 1 (0.76%) Billing
11 1 (0.76%) Electronics
11 1 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.76%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.76%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.76%) Marketing
11 1 (0.76%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 16 (12.12%) Lead
1 16 (12.12%) Security Engineer
2 15 (11.36%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 14 (10.61%) Tester
4 12 (9.09%) QA Engineer
5 11 (8.33%) Architect
5 11 (8.33%) Senior
5 11 (8.33%) Test Engineer
6 10 (7.58%) Analyst
7 9 (6.82%) Consultant
7 9 (6.82%) Security Architect
8 7 (5.30%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 7 (5.30%) Security Analyst
8 7 (5.30%) Security Consultant
9 6 (4.55%) Auditor
9 6 (4.55%) Report Analyst
9 6 (4.55%) Security Auditor
9 6 (4.55%) Test Manager
10 5 (3.79%) Information Specialist
10 5 (3.79%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (11.36%) Playwright
2 6 (4.55%) REST
3 4 (3.03%) Node.js
4 3 (2.27%) Jest
4 3 (2.27%) React
4 3 (2.27%) RESTful
5 2 (1.52%) .NET
5 2 (1.52%) Kafka
5 2 (1.52%) pytest
6 1 (0.76%) ADO
6 1 (0.76%) Flutter
6 1 (0.76%) GraphQL
6 1 (0.76%) OAuth
6 1 (0.76%) web3js
6 1 (0.76%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 13 (9.85%) Security Posture
2 8 (6.06%) Product Ownership
3 7 (5.30%) PKI
4 6 (4.55%) Cyber Security Posture
4 6 (4.55%) Cyber Threat
4 6 (4.55%) Management Information System
5 4 (3.03%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (3.03%) Cloud Native
5 4 (3.03%) Mobile App
5 4 (3.03%) SCADA
6 3 (2.27%) Algorithms
6 3 (2.27%) Embedded Systems
7 2 (1.52%) Educational Technology
8 1 (0.76%) Blockchain
8 1 (0.76%) Cloud Security Posture
8 1 (0.76%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (0.76%) Industrial Internet of Things
8 1 (0.76%) IoT
8 1 (0.76%) Operational Technology
8 1 (0.76%) Web3
Operating Systems
1 9 (6.82%) Windows
2 5 (3.79%) Linux
2 5 (3.79%) Windows Server
3 4 (3.03%) Android
3 4 (3.03%) Apple iOS
4 3 (2.27%) Unix
5 1 (0.76%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (42.42%) Agile
2 54 (40.91%) Test Automation
3 47 (35.61%) CI/CD
3 47 (35.61%) Cybersecurity
4 44 (33.33%) Penetration Testing
5 31 (23.48%) DevOps
6 27 (20.45%) Cloud Security
6 27 (20.45%) DevSecOps
6 27 (20.45%) OWASP
7 26 (19.70%) Dynamic Application Security Testing
7 26 (19.70%) Static Application Security Testing
8 25 (18.94%) Application Security
8 25 (18.94%) Problem-Solving
9 24 (18.18%) Performance Testing
9 24 (18.18%) Threat Modelling
10 22 (16.67%) SDLC
10 22 (16.67%) Test Strategy
11 19 (14.39%) Regression Testing
11 19 (14.39%) Secure Coding
12 18 (13.64%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 44 (33.33%) Python
2 24 (18.18%) Java
3 19 (14.39%) Bash
4 13 (9.85%) JavaScript
5 9 (6.82%) PowerShell
5 9 (6.82%) SQL
6 7 (5.30%) TypeScript
7 5 (3.79%) C#
7 5 (3.79%) C++
8 3 (2.27%) Bicep
8 3 (2.27%) C
8 3 (2.27%) Perl
8 3 (2.27%) Shell Script
9 2 (1.52%) PHP
10 1 (0.76%) ABAP
10 1 (0.76%) Go
10 1 (0.76%) Ruby
10 1 (0.76%) Rust
Qualifications
1 39 (29.55%) Security Cleared
2 32 (24.24%) SC Cleared
3 17 (12.88%) CREST Certified
3 17 (12.88%) Degree
4 15 (11.36%) Computer Science Degree
4 15 (11.36%) ISTQB
5 14 (10.61%) OSCP
6 13 (9.85%) CISSP
7 11 (8.33%) Tigerscheme
8 10 (7.58%) CEH
9 9 (6.82%) DV Cleared
10 8 (6.06%) CHECK Team Member
11 4 (3.03%) Azure Certification
11 4 (3.03%) BPSS Clearance
11 4 (3.03%) CISM
12 3 (2.27%) GIAC
12 3 (2.27%) OSCE
13 2 (1.52%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (1.52%) GPEN
13 2 (1.52%) GWAPT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (25.00%) QA
2 16 (12.12%) NCSC
3 14 (10.61%) NIST
4 9 (6.82%) Accessibility
4 9 (6.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 8 (6.06%) GDPR
6 6 (4.55%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (4.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 6 (4.55%) PCI DSS
7 5 (3.79%) Disclosure Scotland
8 4 (3.03%) HIPAA
8 4 (3.03%) WCAG
9 2 (1.52%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 2 (1.52%) GRC
10 1 (0.76%) EU AI Act
10 1 (0.76%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.76%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 9 (6.82%) Active Directory
2 8 (6.06%) Docker
3 4 (3.03%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 12 (9.09%) Nmap
2 9 (6.82%) Kubernetes
3 5 (3.79%) Terraform
4 4 (3.03%) SCCM
5 3 (2.27%) Ansible
5 3 (2.27%) Grafana
5 3 (2.27%) Kibana
6 2 (1.52%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (1.52%) Nessus
7 1 (0.76%) CASB
7 1 (0.76%) QRadar
Vendors
1 11 (8.33%) Veracode
2 10 (7.58%) Microsoft
3 8 (6.06%) SAP
4 5 (3.79%) Oracle
5 4 (3.03%) Salesforce
5 4 (3.03%) ServiceNow
6 3 (2.27%) Google
6 3 (2.27%) Qualys
6 3 (2.27%) Red Hat
7 2 (1.52%) Databricks
7 2 (1.52%) Splunk
8 1 (0.76%) BT
8 1 (0.76%) Confluent
8 1 (0.76%) CyberArk
8 1 (0.76%) ESRI
8 1 (0.76%) Exabeam
8 1 (0.76%) Fortinet
8 1 (0.76%) Guidewire
8 1 (0.76%) Palo Alto
8 1 (0.76%) Rapid7