SOC Analyst Contracts

Security Operations Centre Analyst
UK

The median Security Operations Centre Analyst daily rate in the UK is £500, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 5 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
5 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 473 432 571
Rank change year-on-year -41 +139 +203
Contract jobs requiring a SOC Analyst 57 169 145
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.20% 0.39% 0.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.21% 0.42% 0.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 113 117
10th Percentile £325 £388 £323
25th Percentile £456 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - +5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £645 £631
90th Percentile £630 £700 £684
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £513 £481
% change year-on-year +1.95% +6.49% -5.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 2 6
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £80.34 - £62.75
Median hourly rate £81.35 £11.25 £68.15
Median % change year-on-year +623.11% -83.49% +9.04%
75th Percentile £82.10 - £75.83
90th Percentile £83.24 - £77.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £81.35 £11.25 £68.15
% change year-on-year +623.11% -83.49% +9.04%

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 26,887 40,034 55,895
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.47% 92.76% 94.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,565 26,064 39,048
10th Percentile £300 £280 £313
25th Percentile £406 £409 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.97% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £740 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,046 2,665 1,566
10th Percentile £14.08 £12.86 £14.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.11
Median hourly rate £28.88 £36.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.89% -18.89% +90.68%
75th Percentile £62.50 £61.30 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £76.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £40.00 £42.00
% change year-on-year -30.00% -4.76% +115.16%

SOC Analyst
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for SOC Analyst in the UK

SOC Analyst
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SOC Analyst.

Daily rate trend for SOC Analyst in the UK

SOC Analyst
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SOC Analyst over the 6 months to 5 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SOC Analyst in the UK

SOC Analyst
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SOC Analyst.

Hourly rate trend for SOC Analyst in the UK

SOC Analyst
Top 10 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SOC Analyst within the UK over the 6 months to 5 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 -40 54 £500 -4.76% 52
UK excluding London -50 36 £523 +1.95% 60
East of England +31 18 £600 -7.69% 12
London +48 16 £388 -16.67% 6
South East +45 15 £500 +11.11% 18
Work from Home +39 11 £500 +11.11% 23
Scotland +10 1 - - 8
Midlands -15 1 - - 7
West Midlands -16 1 - - 5
South West -25 1 - - 2

SOC Analyst Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 5 May 2025, SOC Analyst 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 SOC Analyst in the job title.

1 40 (70.18%) SIEM
2 37 (64.91%) Cybersecurity
3 34 (59.65%) Security Cleared
4 31 (54.39%) Security Operations
5 30 (52.63%) Incident Response
6 29 (50.88%) Security Operations Centre
7 27 (47.37%) SC Cleared
8 21 (36.84%) Cyber Threat
9 20 (35.09%) Analytical Skills
10 18 (31.58%) Threat Detection
11 17 (29.82%) Splunk
12 16 (28.07%) DV Cleared
12 16 (28.07%) SMTP
12 16 (28.07%) HTTP
13 15 (26.32%) DNS
14 14 (24.56%) Social Skills
15 13 (22.81%) Cyberattack
15 13 (22.81%) SSL
15 13 (22.81%) LDAP
15 13 (22.81%) FTP
16 12 (21.05%) Network Security
17 11 (19.30%) Security Monitoring
17 11 (19.30%) Threat Intelligence
18 10 (17.54%) CompTIA Security+
18 10 (17.54%) Microsoft
19 9 (15.79%) Firewall
19 9 (15.79%) Information Security
19 9 (15.79%) Information Management
19 9 (15.79%) Network Packet Capture
19 9 (15.79%) CSOC

SOC Analyst 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:

Application Platforms
1 4 (7.02%) CMS
Cloud Services
1 7 (12.28%) Azure
2 5 (8.77%) Azure Sentinel
3 4 (7.02%) AWS
4 1 (1.75%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 16 (28.07%) HTTP
1 16 (28.07%) SMTP
2 15 (26.32%) DNS
3 13 (22.81%) FTP
3 13 (22.81%) SSL
4 12 (21.05%) Network Security
5 9 (15.79%) Firewall
6 3 (5.26%) DHCP
6 3 (5.26%) TCP/IP
7 1 (1.75%) Internet
7 1 (1.75%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (1.75%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.75%) Relational Database
General
1 20 (35.09%) Analytical Skills
2 14 (24.56%) Social Skills
3 4 (7.02%) Law
4 3 (5.26%) Finance
5 2 (3.51%) Public Sector
5 2 (3.51%) Telecoms
6 1 (1.75%) Electronics
6 1 (1.75%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.75%) Marketing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (22.81%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 29 (50.88%) Security Operations Centre
2 21 (36.84%) Cyber Threat
3 13 (22.81%) Cyberattack
4 9 (15.79%) CSOC
4 9 (15.79%) Security Posture
5 8 (14.04%) Analytical Mindset
6 7 (12.28%) Management Information System
7 6 (10.53%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (3.51%) Client/Server
8 2 (3.51%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 1 (1.75%) Cyber Security Posture
9 1 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (1.75%) Onboarding
9 1 (1.75%) Operational Technology
9 1 (1.75%) Public Cloud
9 1 (1.75%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 8 (14.04%) Linux
1 8 (14.04%) Windows
2 2 (3.51%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (70.18%) SIEM
2 37 (64.91%) Cybersecurity
3 31 (54.39%) Security Operations
4 30 (52.63%) Incident Response
5 18 (31.58%) Threat Detection
6 11 (19.30%) Security Monitoring
6 11 (19.30%) Threat Intelligence
7 9 (15.79%) Information Management
7 9 (15.79%) Information Security
7 9 (15.79%) Network Packet Capture
8 8 (14.04%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
9 6 (10.53%) Analytics
9 6 (10.53%) Artificial Intelligence
9 6 (10.53%) Behavioural Analytics
9 6 (10.53%) Machine Learning
9 6 (10.53%) Problem-Solving
9 6 (10.53%) Vulnerability Management
10 5 (8.77%) Continuous Improvement
10 5 (8.77%) Digital Forensics
11 4 (7.02%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 7 (12.28%) Python
2 6 (10.53%) PowerShell
3 5 (8.77%) Kusto Query Language
4 2 (3.51%) Bash
Qualifications
1 34 (59.65%) Security Cleared
2 27 (47.37%) SC Cleared
3 16 (28.07%) DV Cleared
4 10 (17.54%) CompTIA Security+
5 6 (10.53%) CISSP
5 6 (10.53%) GCIA
5 6 (10.53%) GCIH
6 4 (7.02%) GIAC
7 3 (5.26%) CEH
7 3 (5.26%) GCFA
8 1 (1.75%) CCNA
8 1 (1.75%) CCSP
8 1 (1.75%) CFCE
8 1 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
8 1 (1.75%) CompTIA CySA+
8 1 (1.75%) Degree
8 1 (1.75%) GSEC
8 1 (1.75%) OSCP
8 1 (1.75%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (3.51%) SLA
2 1 (1.75%) GDPR
2 1 (1.75%) HIPAA
2 1 (1.75%) NIST
2 1 (1.75%) NIST 800
System Software
1 1 (1.75%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (10.53%) QRadar
2 1 (1.75%) CSIRT
Vendors
1 17 (29.82%) Splunk
2 10 (17.54%) Microsoft
3 6 (10.53%) LogRhythm
4 5 (8.77%) CrowdStrike
5 4 (7.02%) Darktrace
5 4 (7.02%) FireEye
6 2 (3.51%) IronPort
6 2 (3.51%) Okta
6 2 (3.51%) Palo Alto
6 2 (3.51%) Symantec
7 1 (1.75%) Google
7 1 (1.75%) IBM
7 1 (1.75%) SAP
7 1 (1.75%) VMware