Security Operations Manager Contract Job Trends

Security Operations Manager
UK

The median Security Operations Manager daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 12 June 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 623 520 582
Rank change year-on-year -103 +62 +103
Contract jobs requiring a Security Operations Manager 27 5 13
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.054% 0.017% 0.030%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.058% 0.018% 0.032%
Number of daily rates quoted 22 3 10
10th Percentile £280 £625 £515
25th Percentile £513 £663 £600
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £750 £750
Median % change year-on-year -30.00% - +20.97%
75th Percentile £598 £800 £775
90th Percentile £636 £815 £779
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 - £600
% change year-on-year - - -9.43%

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 46,156 27,173 40,538
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.35% 92.32% 92.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,087 17,480 26,089
10th Percentile £325 £289 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.68% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,077 1,137 2,938
10th Percentile £15.19 £13.94 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.79 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.00 £27.64 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +55.57% -26.29% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £61.71
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -4.76%

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 12 June 2026.

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 12 June 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 -95 27 £525 -30.00% 3
UK excluding London - 21 £525 - 3
South East - 17 £525 - 1
Work from Home -49 8 £280 -63.87%
London -65 6 £600 -20.00%
South West - 4 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 12 June 2026, 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 24 (88.89%) Security Operations
2 14 (51.85%) Cyber Resilience
3 12 (44.44%) Cybersecurity
4 11 (40.74%) Programme Delivery
5 10 (37.04%) Storytelling
6 8 (29.63%) CISSP
7 7 (25.93%) CISM
7 7 (25.93%) Incident Response
8 6 (22.22%) Threat Intelligence
9 5 (18.52%) Continuous Improvement
9 5 (18.52%) MITRE ATT&CK
9 5 (18.52%) Security Cleared
9 5 (18.52%) SIEM
9 5 (18.52%) Vulnerability Management
10 4 (14.81%) Azure
10 4 (14.81%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
10 4 (14.81%) GDPR
10 4 (14.81%) ITIL
10 4 (14.81%) Microsoft
10 4 (14.81%) NCSC
10 4 (14.81%) Risk Management
10 4 (14.81%) Use Case
11 3 (11.11%) AWS
11 3 (11.11%) Budget Management
11 3 (11.11%) Cloud Security
11 3 (11.11%) Information Security
11 3 (11.11%) NIST
11 3 (11.11%) SC Cleared
11 3 (11.11%) Security Monitoring
12 2 (7.41%) (ISC)2 CCSP

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 (14.81%) Azure
2 3 (11.11%) AWS
3 2 (7.41%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (3.70%) Entra ID
4 1 (3.70%) IaaS
4 1 (3.70%) PaaS
4 1 (3.70%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (3.70%) Intrusion Detection
General
1 4 (14.81%) Public Sector
2 3 (11.11%) Finance
3 2 (7.41%) Social Skills
4 1 (3.70%) Manufacturing
4 1 (3.70%) Military
Miscellaneous
1 5 (18.52%) Security Operations Centre
2 3 (11.11%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (7.41%) CSOC
3 2 (7.41%) Cyber Defence
3 2 (7.41%) Management Information System
3 2 (7.41%) Onboarding
3 2 (7.41%) Operational Technology
4 1 (3.70%) Private Cloud
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (88.89%) Security Operations
2 14 (51.85%) Cyber Resilience
3 12 (44.44%) Cybersecurity
4 11 (40.74%) Programme Delivery
5 10 (37.04%) Storytelling
6 7 (25.93%) Incident Response
7 6 (22.22%) Threat Intelligence
8 5 (18.52%) Continuous Improvement
8 5 (18.52%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 5 (18.52%) SIEM
8 5 (18.52%) Vulnerability Management
9 4 (14.81%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
9 4 (14.81%) ITIL
9 4 (14.81%) Risk Management
9 4 (14.81%) Use Case
10 3 (11.11%) Budget Management
10 3 (11.11%) Cloud Security
10 3 (11.11%) Information Security
10 3 (11.11%) Security Monitoring
11 2 (7.41%) Incident Management
Qualifications
1 8 (29.63%) CISSP
2 7 (25.93%) CISM
3 5 (18.52%) Security Cleared
4 3 (11.11%) SC Cleared
5 2 (7.41%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 2 (7.41%) Cisco Certification
5 2 (7.41%) DV Cleared
5 2 (7.41%) GIAC
6 1 (3.70%) Azure Certification
6 1 (3.70%) CEH
6 1 (3.70%) CREST Certified
6 1 (3.70%) Degree
6 1 (3.70%) PMI Certification
6 1 (3.70%) PMP
6 1 (3.70%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (14.81%) GDPR
1 4 (14.81%) NCSC
2 3 (11.11%) NIST
3 2 (7.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (3.70%) QA
4 1 (3.70%) SOC 2
Systems Management
1 1 (3.70%) CASB
Vendors
1 4 (14.81%) Microsoft