Vulnerability Research Contract Job Trends

Vulnerability Research
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Vulnerability Research skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 25 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 668 549 558
Rank change year-on-year -119 +9 +76
Contract jobs citing Vulnerability Research 2 1 3
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.004% 0.003% 0.008%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.004% 0.003% 0.009%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £563 - £713
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 - £725
Median % change year-on-year - - +65.71%
75th Percentile £588 - £738
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median daily rate - - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Vulnerability Research 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 45,365 29,616 33,160
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.57% 90.47% 85.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,789 18,444 20,998
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,884 1,758 1,700
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.87
25th Percentile £18.00 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +65.23% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £67.99 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.50
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.75% +6.25%

Vulnerability Research
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Vulnerability Research relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Vulnerability Research job vacancy trend in the UK

Vulnerability Research
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Vulnerability Research.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Vulnerability Research

Vulnerability Research
Top 2 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Vulnerability Research within the UK over the 6 months to 25 August 2026. 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 -111 2 £575 - 36
London - 2 £575 - 12

Vulnerability Research
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Cloud Services
1 2 (100.00%) AWS
1 2 (100.00%) Azure
1 2 (100.00%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 2 (100.00%) Internet
General
1 2 (100.00%) Finance
1 2 (100.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
1 2 (100.00%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (100.00%) Penetration Tester
1 2 (100.00%) Senior
1 2 (100.00%) Senior Penetration Tester
1 2 (100.00%) Senior Tester
1 2 (100.00%) Tester
1 2 (100.00%) Vulnerability Tester
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) AI
1 2 (100.00%) Application Security
1 2 (100.00%) Cloud Security
1 2 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
1 2 (100.00%) LLM
1 2 (100.00%) Manual Testing
1 2 (100.00%) Offensive Security
1 2 (100.00%) Penetration Testing
1 2 (100.00%) Red Team
1 2 (100.00%) Secure Coding
1 2 (100.00%) Security Testing
1 2 (100.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
1 2 (100.00%) Validation
Qualifications
1 2 (100.00%) CREST Certified
1 2 (100.00%) GPEN
1 2 (100.00%) OSCP