Security Testing Contracts

Security Testing
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Security Testing skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Security Testing over the 6 months to 11 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
11 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 408 487 557
Rank change year-on-year +79 +70 -34
Contract jobs citing Security Testing 183 218 296
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.43% 0.38% 0.34%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.49% 0.42% 0.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 115 139 215
10th Percentile £463 £450 £355
25th Percentile £550 £500 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £588 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.13% +6.82% +4.76%
75th Percentile £700 £731 £644
90th Percentile £780 £790 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £580 £588 £533
% change year-on-year -1.28% +10.33% +6.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 5
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £17.00
Median hourly rate £62.50 - £19.00
75th Percentile - - £21.00
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 - £19.00
% change year-on-year - - -5.00%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Security Testing is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 37,094 51,920 79,222
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.26% 89.82% 90.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,889 35,981 55,625
10th Percentile £300 £325 £343
25th Percentile £413 £438 £426
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +3.77% +8.72%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £638
90th Percentile £750 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,438 1,716 1,886
10th Percentile £12.75 £11.00 £12.50
25th Percentile £16.00 £16.24 £15.50
Median hourly rate £36.50 £36.40 £25.68
Median % change year-on-year +0.29% +41.73% +4.82%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £49.50
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.06 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year +8.74% +75.00% -6.98%

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 11 May 2024.

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 15 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 11 May 2024. 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 +81 157 £600 - 57
London +100 95 £650 +8.33% 18
Work from Home +114 74 £600 +9.09% 68
UK excluding London +34 69 £580 -1.28% 32
South East +17 28 £550 -8.33% 6
North of England +29 13 £525 -8.70% 13
North West +17 12 £525 -2.33% 7
Scotland +46 10 £600 +4.35% 1
South West +18 8 £590 -0.63% 5
Midlands +8 5 £538 -18.87% 5
West Midlands -5 4 £650 -10.34% 4
East of England +10 3 £700 -15.15% 3
Wales - 2 £666 - 1
East Midlands +20 1 £355 -40.83% 1
Yorkshire +15 1 - - 6

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 13 (7.10%) nginx
2 12 (6.56%) Apache
2 12 (6.56%) Apache Airflow
3 5 (2.73%) Anypoint
4 2 (1.09%) CMS
5 1 (0.55%) Confluence
5 1 (0.55%) Jupyter
5 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.55%) SAS
Applications
1 3 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (1.64%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 3 (1.64%) Dynamics GP
1 3 (1.64%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 51 (27.87%) Azure
2 46 (25.14%) AWS
3 24 (13.11%) Serverless
4 23 (12.57%) SaaS
5 16 (8.74%) Azure DevOps
5 16 (8.74%) IaaS
6 15 (8.20%) AWS CloudFormation
6 15 (8.20%) PaaS
7 13 (7.10%) AWS Elastic Beanstalk
8 7 (3.83%) Azure Data Factory
8 7 (3.83%) Microsoft 365
9 6 (3.28%) AWS Lambda
9 6 (3.28%) Azure Key Vault
9 6 (3.28%) Azure Monitor
9 6 (3.28%) GCP
9 6 (3.28%) OpenShift
10 5 (2.73%) Apigee
10 5 (2.73%) Azure API Management
10 5 (2.73%) Azure Functions
10 5 (2.73%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 20 (10.93%) Firewall
2 17 (9.29%) VPN
3 16 (8.74%) BGP
4 12 (6.56%) Ethernet VPN
4 12 (6.56%) MPLS
5 11 (6.01%) Radio Access Network
6 6 (3.28%) LAN
6 6 (3.28%) WAN
6 6 (3.28%) WLAN
7 5 (2.73%) Wireless
8 4 (2.19%) Cisco ASA
8 4 (2.19%) OSPF
9 3 (1.64%) Cisco Wireless
9 3 (1.64%) Intrusion Detection
9 3 (1.64%) IPsec
9 3 (1.64%) SSL
10 2 (1.09%) DNS
10 2 (1.09%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (10.38%) NoSQL
2 14 (7.65%) SQL Server
3 11 (6.01%) MongoDB
3 11 (6.01%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (3.83%) Oracle Database
5 6 (3.28%) Azure SQL Database
6 4 (2.19%) Big Data
7 3 (1.64%) Data Lake
7 3 (1.64%) MySQL
7 3 (1.64%) RDBMS
7 3 (1.64%) Relational Database
7 3 (1.64%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 1 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
8 1 (0.55%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.55%) HDInsight
8 1 (0.55%) Oracle Exadata
8 1 (0.55%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 22 (12.02%) Git
2 20 (10.93%) JIRA
3 19 (10.38%) GitLab
4 18 (9.84%) Jenkins
5 15 (8.20%) TestRail
6 13 (7.10%) Visual Studio
7 12 (6.56%) Robot Framework
8 9 (4.92%) Selenium
9 8 (4.37%) Postman
10 7 (3.83%) NUnit
11 6 (3.28%) Burp Suite
11 6 (3.28%) JMeter
11 6 (3.28%) LoadRunner
12 5 (2.73%) TeamCity
13 3 (1.64%) Cucumber
13 3 (1.64%) Cypress.io
13 3 (1.64%) FitNesse
13 3 (1.64%) SonarQube
13 3 (1.64%) SpecFlow
14 2 (1.09%) Subversion
General
1 37 (20.22%) Finance
2 36 (19.67%) Social Skills
3 22 (12.02%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (8.74%) Banking
4 16 (8.74%) Public Sector
5 10 (5.46%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.73%) Financial Institution
7 4 (2.19%) Telecoms
8 3 (1.64%) Back Office
8 3 (1.64%) Electronics
8 3 (1.64%) Front Office
8 3 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.64%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.64%) Marketing
9 2 (1.09%) Law
9 2 (1.09%) Retail Banking
10 1 (0.55%) Automotive
10 1 (0.55%) Health Technology
10 1 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 32 (17.49%) Senior
2 31 (16.94%) Architect
3 25 (13.66%) Test Engineer
4 24 (13.11%) Developer
5 22 (12.02%) Security Architect
6 13 (7.10%) Consultant
6 13 (7.10%) Full Stack Developer
6 13 (7.10%) Security Engineer
7 12 (6.56%) Lead
7 12 (6.56%) Security Consultant
7 12 (6.56%) Senior Test Engineer
8 11 (6.01%) Tester
9 10 (5.46%) Network Engineer
9 10 (5.46%) Senior Architect
10 9 (4.92%) Azure Engineer
10 9 (4.92%) Cloud Architect
10 9 (4.92%) Senior Security Architect
11 8 (4.37%) Project Manager
11 8 (4.37%) Security Manager
11 8 (4.37%) Security Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (12.57%) REST
2 20 (10.93%) SOAP
3 17 (9.29%) CSS
4 16 (8.74%) HTML
5 15 (8.20%) Sass
6 14 (7.65%) Laravel
6 14 (7.65%) WebSockets
7 12 (6.56%) NETCONF
7 12 (6.56%) RESTCONF
8 11 (6.01%) YANG
9 10 (5.46%) .NET
10 9 (4.92%) AngularJS
10 9 (4.92%) Playwright
11 7 (3.83%) GraphQL
11 7 (3.83%) Node.js
12 5 (2.73%) ActiveMQ
12 5 (2.73%) Apache Camel
12 5 (2.73%) RabbitMQ
12 5 (2.73%) Spring
12 5 (2.73%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (9.29%) Security Posture
2 16 (8.74%) IoT
2 16 (8.74%) Mobile App
3 11 (6.01%) PKI
3 11 (6.01%) Public Cloud
4 10 (5.46%) Management Information System
5 8 (4.37%) Cyber Threat
6 5 (2.73%) Data Protection Act
7 3 (1.64%) Cloud Native
7 3 (1.64%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 3 (1.64%) PMI
8 2 (1.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.09%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.09%) Reference Data
8 2 (1.09%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.55%) Client/Server
9 1 (0.55%) Embedded Systems
9 1 (0.55%) SCADA
9 1 (0.55%) W3C
Operating Systems
1 23 (12.57%) Linux
2 13 (7.10%) Unix
2 13 (7.10%) Windows
3 10 (5.46%) Windows Server
4 6 (3.28%) Oracle Linux
4 6 (3.28%) Solaris
4 6 (3.28%) VMS
5 2 (1.09%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.55%) CentOS
6 1 (0.55%) Ubuntu
6 1 (0.55%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 75 (40.98%) Test Automation
2 61 (33.33%) CI/CD
3 57 (31.15%) Agile
4 52 (28.42%) DevOps
5 48 (26.23%) Application Security
6 40 (21.86%) DevSecOps
6 40 (21.86%) Infrastructure as Code
7 34 (18.58%) Static Application Security Testing
8 31 (16.94%) Problem-Solving
9 29 (15.85%) Cybersecurity
9 29 (15.85%) Performance Testing
10 28 (15.30%) Dynamic Application Security Testing
11 27 (14.75%) SDLC
12 25 (13.66%) Scrum
13 23 (12.57%) TDD
14 22 (12.02%) Cloud Security
15 21 (11.48%) Microservices
15 21 (11.48%) Penetration Testing
15 21 (11.48%) Vulnerability Management
16 20 (10.93%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 31 (16.94%) Python
1 31 (16.94%) SQL
2 20 (10.93%) JavaScript
3 17 (9.29%) PHP
4 11 (6.01%) TypeScript
5 9 (4.92%) PowerShell
6 6 (3.28%) Java
7 4 (2.19%) C#
8 3 (1.64%) Bash
8 3 (1.64%) C
9 2 (1.09%) C++
9 2 (1.09%) Perl
9 2 (1.09%) Ruby
9 2 (1.09%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 31 (16.94%) Degree
2 18 (9.84%) Security Cleared
3 17 (9.29%) Computer Science Degree
3 17 (9.29%) SC Cleared
4 14 (7.65%) CISSP
5 11 (6.01%) CISM
6 7 (3.83%) ISTQB
7 5 (2.73%) CISA
7 5 (2.73%) Master's Degree
8 4 (2.19%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 4 (2.19%) PMI Certification
9 3 (1.64%) CREST Certified
9 3 (1.64%) CRISC
9 3 (1.64%) CTC Cleared
9 3 (1.64%) ITIL Certification
9 3 (1.64%) MCSE
9 3 (1.64%) Microsoft Certification
9 3 (1.64%) SANS
10 2 (1.09%) CEH
10 2 (1.09%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 32 (17.49%) Accessibility
2 24 (13.11%) NIST
3 16 (8.74%) QA
4 9 (4.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (4.92%) PCI DSS
5 6 (3.28%) Disclosure Scotland
6 4 (2.19%) GDPR
6 4 (2.19%) HIPAA
7 3 (1.64%) Software Quality Assurance
8 2 (1.09%) Data Quality
8 2 (1.09%) GRC
8 2 (1.09%) NCSC
System Software
1 31 (16.94%) Docker
2 8 (4.37%) Active Directory
3 7 (3.83%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (3.28%) KVM
4 6 (3.28%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (1.64%) Hyper-V
6 2 (1.09%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 31 (16.94%) Terraform
2 17 (9.29%) Ansible
3 15 (8.20%) Kubernetes
4 5 (2.73%) SCCM
5 4 (2.19%) FortiGate
5 4 (2.19%) Grafana
6 3 (1.64%) Graylog
6 3 (1.64%) HP Fortify
6 3 (1.64%) Nagios
6 3 (1.64%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.64%) Puppet
7 2 (1.09%) Nessus
7 2 (1.09%) Progress Chef
7 2 (1.09%) WebInspect
8 1 (0.55%) Kibana
8 1 (0.55%) Nmap
Vendors
1 25 (13.66%) Microsoft
2 20 (10.93%) Oracle
3 10 (5.46%) VMware
4 9 (4.92%) SAP
5 6 (3.28%) Google
6 5 (2.73%) Checkmarx
6 5 (2.73%) Cisco
6 5 (2.73%) MuleSoft
6 5 (2.73%) Palo Alto
6 5 (2.73%) Rapid7
6 5 (2.73%) Salesforce
6 5 (2.73%) Sophos
6 5 (2.73%) WSO2
7 4 (2.19%) Fortinet
7 4 (2.19%) Juniper
7 4 (2.19%) Veracode
8 3 (1.64%) Extreme Networks
8 3 (1.64%) Qualys
8 3 (1.64%) Splunk
9 2 (1.09%) Databricks