NIST Contract Job Trends in Central London

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
London > Central London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Central London requiring NIST skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 92 110
Rank change year-on-year -9 +18 +8
Contract jobs citing NIST 49 35 24
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 1.91% 1.70% 1.04%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 9.90% 9.33% 6.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 39 29 20
10th Percentile £460 £425 £545
25th Percentile £500 £513 £591
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £585 £690
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -15.19% +9.48%
75th Percentile £750 £700 £775
90th Percentile £755 £760 £808
London median daily rate £600 £590 £668
% change year-on-year +1.69% -11.68% -1.04%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
Central London

NIST falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in Central London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 495 375 380
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 19.34% 18.25% 16.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 369 270 251
10th Percentile £350 £331 £363
25th Percentile £460 £414 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £551
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% -2.45% -8.17%
75th Percentile £653 £698 £675
90th Percentile £764 £823 £765
London median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -2.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 7 5
10th Percentile £39.91 £22.45 £18.40
25th Percentile £46.04 £22.75 £22.00
Median hourly rate £57.50 £34.48 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +66.76% +44.87% -
75th Percentile £67.75 £45.62 £26.56
90th Percentile £73.15 £69.55 £36.87
London median hourly rate £29.04 £34.48 £26.68
% change year-on-year -15.78% +29.24% -23.77%

NIST
Job Vacancy Trend in Central London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing NIST relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London.

NIST job vacancy trend in Central London

NIST
Daily Rate Trend in Central London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing NIST.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Central London citing NIST

NIST
Daily Rate Histogram in Central London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NIST in Central London over the 6 months to 13 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for NIST in Central London

NIST
Contract Job Locations in Central London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing NIST within the Central London region over the 6 months to 13 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
City of London 0 43 £610 +5.17% 18
West End of London -7 2 £625 -3.85% 1
City of Westminster -8 2 £538 -17.31% 7
Kensington and Chelsea -3 1 £638 +41.67%
Southwark - 1 £550 -
NIST
London

NIST
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Central London 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:

Application Platforms
1 2 (4.08%) SharePoint
2 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (2.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 17 (34.69%) Azure
2 14 (28.57%) AWS
3 7 (14.29%) GCP
4 6 (12.24%) Microsoft Purview
4 6 (12.24%) SaaS
5 3 (6.12%) Entra ID
5 3 (6.12%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (4.08%) OCI
6 2 (4.08%) Vertex AI
7 1 (2.04%) Amazon Bedrock
7 1 (2.04%) Amazon SageMaker
7 1 (2.04%) Anthropic Claude
7 1 (2.04%) Azure AI
7 1 (2.04%) Azure Key Vault
7 1 (2.04%) Azure Logic Apps
7 1 (2.04%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (2.04%) Copilot Studio
7 1 (2.04%) Google Gemini
7 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 4 (8.16%) Network Security
2 2 (4.08%) X.509
3 1 (2.04%) Cisco IPT
3 1 (2.04%) DKIM
3 1 (2.04%) DMARC
3 1 (2.04%) DNS
3 1 (2.04%) Firewall
3 1 (2.04%) Intrusion Detection
3 1 (2.04%) TCP/IP
3 1 (2.04%) VPN
Development Applications
1 1 (2.04%) JIRA
General
1 17 (34.69%) Social Skills
2 14 (28.57%) Finance
3 8 (16.33%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (14.29%) Financial Institution
5 6 (12.24%) Legal
6 2 (4.08%) Banking
6 2 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (4.08%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (4.08%) Law
6 2 (4.08%) Public Sector
7 1 (2.04%) Automotive
7 1 (2.04%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 12 (24.49%) Architect
2 10 (20.41%) Security Architect
3 8 (16.33%) Analyst
4 7 (14.29%) Project Manager
5 5 (10.20%) Consultant
5 5 (10.20%) Lead
5 5 (10.20%) Migration Manager
5 5 (10.20%) Migration Project Manager
6 4 (8.16%) IT Analyst
6 4 (8.16%) Senior
6 4 (8.16%) SOX Analyst
7 3 (6.12%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
7 3 (6.12%) Security Consultant
7 3 (6.12%) Security Manager
7 3 (6.12%) Senior Architect
7 3 (6.12%) Senior Security Architect
8 2 (4.08%) Cybersecurity Consultant
8 2 (4.08%) IT Risk Analyst
8 2 (4.08%) Risk Analyst
8 2 (4.08%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.08%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 4 (8.16%) Security Posture
2 3 (6.12%) Cloud Native
3 2 (4.08%) Cyber Threat
3 2 (4.08%) Management Information System
3 2 (4.08%) Onboarding
4 1 (2.04%) Analytical Mindset
4 1 (2.04%) CMDB
4 1 (2.04%) CSOC
4 1 (2.04%) Data Fabric
4 1 (2.04%) Embedded Systems
4 1 (2.04%) Genomics
4 1 (2.04%) Legacy Systems
4 1 (2.04%) Operational Technology
4 1 (2.04%) SCADA
4 1 (2.04%) Taxonomies
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (59.18%) Cybersecurity
2 16 (32.65%) Security Architecture
3 13 (26.53%) Stakeholder Management
4 11 (22.45%) Risk Management
5 10 (20.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 8 (16.33%) AI
6 8 (16.33%) Incident Response
6 8 (16.33%) Project Delivery
6 8 (16.33%) Risk Assessment
7 7 (14.29%) Agile
7 7 (14.29%) Project Management
7 7 (14.29%) Validation
7 7 (14.29%) Vulnerability Management
8 6 (12.24%) Attestation
8 6 (12.24%) Computer Science
8 6 (12.24%) Continuous Improvement
8 6 (12.24%) Information Security
8 6 (12.24%) Key Management
8 6 (12.24%) Migration
8 6 (12.24%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 2 (4.08%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.04%) Bicep
2 1 (2.04%) Kusto Query Language
2 1 (2.04%) Python
Qualifications
1 13 (26.53%) CISSP
2 12 (24.49%) Security Cleared
3 10 (20.41%) SC Cleared
4 7 (14.29%) Degree
5 6 (12.24%) CISA
6 5 (10.20%) CISM
6 5 (10.20%) CRISC
6 5 (10.20%) PMI Certification
6 5 (10.20%) PMP
7 3 (6.12%) CEH
7 3 (6.12%) CompTIA Security+
7 3 (6.12%) GIAC
8 2 (4.08%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 2 (4.08%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (4.08%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (4.08%) CompTIA CySA+
8 2 (4.08%) OSCP
9 1 (2.04%) CCSK
9 1 (2.04%) DV Cleared
9 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (67.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 12 (24.49%) GDPR
3 10 (20.41%) COBIT
4 9 (18.37%) NCSC
5 7 (14.29%) ITGC
5 7 (14.29%) NIST 800
6 6 (12.24%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (12.24%) GRC
7 4 (8.16%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 4 (8.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (6.12%) EU AI Act
8 3 (6.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 2 (4.08%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 2 (4.08%) PCI DSS
9 2 (4.08%) SOC 2
10 1 (2.04%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (2.04%) Def Stans
10 1 (2.04%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (2.04%) JSP 440
10 1 (2.04%) PERC
System Software
1 2 (4.08%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.04%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 3 (6.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (2.04%) Terraform
Vendors
1 12 (24.49%) Microsoft
2 5 (10.20%) CyberArk
3 4 (8.16%) Google
4 1 (2.04%) CrowdStrike
4 1 (2.04%) OneTrust
4 1 (2.04%) OpenAI
4 1 (2.04%) Qualys
4 1 (2.04%) Splunk