Security Operations Manager Contract Job Trends

Security Operations Manager
UK

The median Security Operations Manager daily rate in the UK is £600, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 3 January 2026.

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

6 months to
3 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 575 526 573
Rank change year-on-year -49 +47 +198
Contract jobs requiring a Security Operations Manager 12 6 23
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.032% 0.018% 0.053%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.036% 0.020% 0.057%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 4 19
10th Percentile £483 £489 £530
25th Percentile £536 £528 £631
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £588 £725
Median % change year-on-year +2.13% -18.97% -3.33%
75th Percentile £625 £639 £800
90th Percentile £723 £646 £803
UK excluding London median daily rate £536 £538 £700
% change year-on-year -0.28% -23.21% -6.67%

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 33,764 30,229 40,234
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.23% 92.70% 93.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,403 18,500 26,941
10th Percentile £300 £289 £281
25th Percentile £405 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,953 944 1,572
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.51 £14.18
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.17 £19.06
Median hourly rate £26.30 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.08% -27.78% +40.82%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £72.00 £73.75 £76.73
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.13 £45.88
% change year-on-year -21.72% -29.97% +77.97%

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 3 January 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 3 January 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 -38 10 £600 -
UK excluding London -55 7 £536 -0.28% 2
Work from Home +1 6 £536 -0.28%
South East -11 6 £536 -10.67%
London -15 3 £600 -0.83%
Scotland 0 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 3 January 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 12 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 7 (58.33%) Security Operations
3 5 (41.67%) CISSP
4 4 (33.33%) Azure
4 4 (33.33%) Cyber Resilience
4 4 (33.33%) Incident Response
4 4 (33.33%) Security Cleared
4 4 (33.33%) SIEM
5 3 (25.00%) CEH
5 3 (25.00%) Change Management
5 3 (25.00%) Degree
5 3 (25.00%) GIAC
5 3 (25.00%) Microsoft
5 3 (25.00%) Project Management
5 3 (25.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 3 (25.00%) Threat Intelligence
5 3 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
6 2 (16.67%) ADO
6 2 (16.67%) Agile
6 2 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (16.67%) Business Intelligence
6 2 (16.67%) Change Control
6 2 (16.67%) CISM
6 2 (16.67%) Client Onboarding
6 2 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
6 2 (16.67%) CREST Certified
6 2 (16.67%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 2 (16.67%) Data Protection
6 2 (16.67%) DevOps
6 2 (16.67%) DV Cleared

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 (33.33%) Azure
2 2 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
2 2 (16.67%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (16.67%) Power Platform
3 1 (8.33%) IaaS
3 1 (8.33%) PaaS
3 1 (8.33%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (16.67%) SD-WAN
2 1 (8.33%) Intrusion Detection
2 1 (8.33%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (16.67%) Power BI
General
1 5 (41.67%) Social Skills
2 2 (16.67%) Finance
2 2 (16.67%) Public Sector
3 1 (8.33%) Influencing Skills
3 1 (8.33%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (16.67%) ADO
Miscellaneous
1 3 (25.00%) Operational Technology
2 2 (16.67%) Cyber Defence
2 2 (16.67%) Data Protection Act
2 2 (16.67%) Onboarding
2 2 (16.67%) Security Operations Centre
3 1 (8.33%) CSOC
3 1 (8.33%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (8.33%) Management Information System
3 1 (8.33%) Private Cloud
3 1 (8.33%) SCADA
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
2 7 (58.33%) Security Operations
3 4 (33.33%) Cyber Resilience
3 4 (33.33%) Incident Response
3 4 (33.33%) SIEM
4 3 (25.00%) Change Management
4 3 (25.00%) Project Management
4 3 (25.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 3 (25.00%) Threat Intelligence
4 3 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
5 2 (16.67%) Agile
5 2 (16.67%) Business Intelligence
5 2 (16.67%) Continuous Improvement
5 2 (16.67%) Data Protection
5 2 (16.67%) Information Security
5 2 (16.67%) Logistics
5 2 (16.67%) Penetration Testing
5 2 (16.67%) Risk Management
5 2 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
5 2 (16.67%) Waterfall
Qualifications
1 5 (41.67%) CISSP
2 4 (33.33%) Security Cleared
3 3 (25.00%) CEH
3 3 (25.00%) Degree
3 3 (25.00%) GIAC
4 2 (16.67%) CISM
4 2 (16.67%) CREST Certified
4 2 (16.67%) DV Cleared
4 2 (16.67%) Master's Degree
4 2 (16.67%) SC Cleared
5 1 (8.33%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 1 (8.33%) APMG
5 1 (8.33%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (8.33%) CompTIA Security+
5 1 (8.33%) GCIA
5 1 (8.33%) ISSMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (16.67%) GDPR
2 1 (8.33%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (8.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (8.33%) NCSC
2 1 (8.33%) NIST
2 1 (8.33%) PCI DSS
Systems Management
1 1 (8.33%) Nessus
1 1 (8.33%) QRadar
Vendors
1 3 (25.00%) Microsoft
2 1 (8.33%) Qualys
2 1 (8.33%) Splunk