Security Operations Manager Contract Job Trends

Security Operations Manager
UK

The median Security Operations Manager daily rate in the UK is £568, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 30 November 2025.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 573 554 603
Rank change year-on-year -19 +49 +202
Contract jobs requiring a Security Operations Manager 9 7 24
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.025% 0.019% 0.052%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.028% 0.021% 0.056%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 5 20
10th Percentile £404 £498 £531
25th Percentile £536 £550 £634
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £568 £600 £713
Median % change year-on-year -5.33% -15.79% +3.64%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £800
90th Percentile £719 £725 £801
UK excluding London median daily rate £536 £538 £700
% change year-on-year -0.28% -23.21% -3.45%

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 32,598 33,656 42,848
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.95% 92.81% 93.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,655 20,421 28,929
10th Percentile £281 £300 £290
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £649
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -4.14% -0.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,903 1,218 1,519
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.24 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.88 £20.50 £19.09
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.45% +46.67%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.73 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

Security Operations Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Security Operations Manager' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Security Operations Manager job vacancy trend in the UK

Security Operations Manager
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Operations Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Operations Manager job vacancies in the UK

Security Operations Manager
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Operations Manager over the 6 months to 30 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Security Operations Manager in the UK

Security Operations Manager
Top 6 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Security Operations Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 30 November 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 -24 7 £536 -13.20% 7
Work from Home +12 6 £536 -0.28% 4
UK excluding London -12 6 £536 -0.28% 5
South East -3 5 £536 -10.67% 3
London +8 1 £600 -5.51% 5
Scotland +6 1 - -

Security Operations Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 30 November 2025, Security Operations Manager contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Security Operations Manager in the job title.

1 9 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 6 (66.67%) Security Operations
3 4 (44.44%) Azure
3 4 (44.44%) CISSP
3 4 (44.44%) Incident Response
3 4 (44.44%) SIEM
4 3 (33.33%) CEH
4 3 (33.33%) Change Management
4 3 (33.33%) Cyber Resilience
4 3 (33.33%) GIAC
4 3 (33.33%) Microsoft
4 3 (33.33%) Project Management
4 3 (33.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 3 (33.33%) Threat Intelligence
4 3 (33.33%) Vulnerability Management
5 2 (22.22%) ADO
5 2 (22.22%) Agile
5 2 (22.22%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (22.22%) Business Intelligence
5 2 (22.22%) Change Control
5 2 (22.22%) CREST Certified
5 2 (22.22%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
5 2 (22.22%) Data Protection
5 2 (22.22%) Degree
5 2 (22.22%) DevOps
5 2 (22.22%) GDPR
5 2 (22.22%) Logistics
5 2 (22.22%) Master's Degree
5 2 (22.22%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (22.22%) Penetration Testing

Security Operations Manager Skill Set
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 4 (44.44%) Azure
2 2 (22.22%) Azure DevOps
2 2 (22.22%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (22.22%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 2 (22.22%) SD-WAN
2 1 (11.11%) Intrusion Detection
2 1 (11.11%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (22.22%) Power BI
General
1 5 (55.56%) Social Skills
2 1 (11.11%) Finance
2 1 (11.11%) Influencing Skills
2 1 (11.11%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (22.22%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 3 (33.33%) Operational Technology
2 2 (22.22%) Cyber Defence
2 2 (22.22%) Data Protection Act
2 2 (22.22%) Security Operations Centre
3 1 (11.11%) CSOC
3 1 (11.11%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (11.11%) Management Information System
3 1 (11.11%) SCADA
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 6 (66.67%) Security Operations
3 4 (44.44%) Incident Response
3 4 (44.44%) SIEM
4 3 (33.33%) Change Management
4 3 (33.33%) Cyber Resilience
4 3 (33.33%) Project Management
4 3 (33.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 3 (33.33%) Threat Intelligence
4 3 (33.33%) Vulnerability Management
5 2 (22.22%) Agile
5 2 (22.22%) Business Intelligence
5 2 (22.22%) Change Control
5 2 (22.22%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
5 2 (22.22%) Data Protection
5 2 (22.22%) Logistics
5 2 (22.22%) Penetration Testing
5 2 (22.22%) Stakeholder Management
5 2 (22.22%) Threat Detection
5 2 (22.22%) Waterfall
Qualifications
1 4 (44.44%) CISSP
2 3 (33.33%) CEH
2 3 (33.33%) GIAC
3 2 (22.22%) CREST Certified
3 2 (22.22%) Degree
3 2 (22.22%) Master's Degree
3 2 (22.22%) SC Cleared
3 2 (22.22%) Security Cleared
4 1 (11.11%) APMG
4 1 (11.11%) CISM
4 1 (11.11%) CompTIA Security+
4 1 (11.11%) GCIA
4 1 (11.11%) ISSMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (22.22%) GDPR
2 1 (11.11%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (11.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (11.11%) NCSC
2 1 (11.11%) NIST
2 1 (11.11%) PCI DSS
Systems Management
1 1 (11.11%) Nessus
1 1 (11.11%) QRadar
Vendors
1 3 (33.33%) Microsoft
2 1 (11.11%) Qualys
2 1 (11.11%) Splunk