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 15 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 94 112
Rank change year-on-year -26 +18 +5
Contract jobs citing NIST 37 34 23
As % of all contract jobs in Central London 1.54% 1.78% 0.98%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 7.03% 9.02% 5.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 28 25 16
10th Percentile £458 £421 £498
25th Percentile £509 £513 £591
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £573 £575 £625
Median % change year-on-year -0.43% -8.00% -3.85%
75th Percentile £719 £720 £775
90th Percentile £750 £820 -
London median daily rate £585 £575 £644
% change year-on-year +1.74% -10.68% -2.83%

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 526 377 394
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Central London 21.91% 19.77% 16.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 384 265 226
10th Percentile £344 £316 £344
25th Percentile £450 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year - - -6.38%
75th Percentile £657 £700 £638
90th Percentile £775 £838 £744
London median daily rate £535 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +1.90% -4.55% -3.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 9 3
10th Percentile - £22.60 £26.04
25th Percentile £25.00 £22.75 £29.40
Median hourly rate £30.41 £34.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -10.56% -2.86% -
75th Percentile £41.55 £35.50 -
90th Percentile £51.87 £63.15 -
London median hourly rate £27.75 £34.00 £33.07
% change year-on-year -18.38% +2.81% +1.75%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 -19 27 £600 +6.67% 10
Kensington and Chelsea 0 4 £581 +29.17%
West End of London -8 3 £530 -18.46% 1
City of Westminster -9 2 £538 -17.31%
Southwark - 1 £550 - 1
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 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (2.70%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (2.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 11 (29.73%) Azure
2 6 (16.22%) AWS
2 6 (16.22%) Microsoft Purview
2 6 (16.22%) SaaS
3 5 (13.51%) Entra ID
3 5 (13.51%) GCP
3 5 (13.51%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (5.41%) OCI
5 1 (2.70%) Amazon Bedrock
5 1 (2.70%) Anthropic Claude
5 1 (2.70%) AWS IoT
5 1 (2.70%) Azure Key Vault
5 1 (2.70%) Azure Logic Apps
5 1 (2.70%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (2.70%) Copilot Studio
5 1 (2.70%) Google Gemini
5 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (2.70%) Vertex AI
Communications & Networking
1 3 (8.11%) Network Security
2 2 (5.41%) Firewall
2 2 (5.41%) X.509
3 1 (2.70%) Cisco IPT
3 1 (2.70%) DKIM
3 1 (2.70%) DMARC
3 1 (2.70%) DNS
3 1 (2.70%) Ethernet
3 1 (2.70%) Modbus
3 1 (2.70%) TCP/IP
3 1 (2.70%) VPN
General
1 9 (24.32%) Social Skills
2 7 (18.92%) Finance
3 6 (16.22%) Legal
4 2 (5.41%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (5.41%) Law
4 2 (5.41%) Manufacturing
5 1 (2.70%) Automotive
5 1 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (2.70%) Financial Institution
5 1 (2.70%) Public Sector
5 1 (2.70%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 9 (24.32%) Architect
2 7 (18.92%) Consultant
2 7 (18.92%) Security Architect
3 5 (13.51%) Lead
4 3 (8.11%) Analyst
4 3 (8.11%) Security Consultant
5 2 (5.41%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
5 2 (5.41%) Artificial Intelligence Consultant
5 2 (5.41%) Cybersecurity Consultant
5 2 (5.41%) Data Consultant
5 2 (5.41%) Data Protection Consultant
5 2 (5.41%) Project Manager
5 2 (5.41%) Security Analyst
5 2 (5.41%) Security Engineer
5 2 (5.41%) Security Manager
5 2 (5.41%) Senior
6 1 (2.70%) Data Architect
6 1 (2.70%) Product Architect
6 1 (2.70%) Security Incident Consultant
6 1 (2.70%) SOC Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (5.41%) JSON
1 2 (5.41%) Microsoft Graph
1 2 (5.41%) OAuth
2 1 (2.70%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 3 (8.11%) Onboarding
1 3 (8.11%) Operational Technology
1 3 (8.11%) SCADA
2 2 (5.41%) Cloud Native
2 2 (5.41%) Cyber Threat
2 2 (5.41%) Security Posture
3 1 (2.70%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (2.70%) CMDB
3 1 (2.70%) Data Fabric
3 1 (2.70%) Embedded Systems
3 1 (2.70%) Genomics
3 1 (2.70%) Industrial Internet of Things
3 1 (2.70%) IoT
3 1 (2.70%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (2.70%) Management Information System
3 1 (2.70%) Taxonomies
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (62.16%) Cybersecurity
2 8 (21.62%) Risk Management
2 8 (21.62%) Security Architecture
3 7 (18.92%) Incident Response
3 7 (18.92%) Regulatory Compliance
3 7 (18.92%) Risk Assessment
3 7 (18.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 7 (18.92%) Stakeholder Management
3 7 (18.92%) Vulnerability Management
4 6 (16.22%) OWASP
5 5 (13.51%) AI
5 5 (13.51%) Key Management
5 5 (13.51%) Remediation Plan
5 5 (13.51%) Threat Modelling
6 4 (10.81%) Cloud Security
6 4 (10.81%) Continuous Improvement
6 4 (10.81%) Cyber Resilience
6 4 (10.81%) Digital Transformation Programme
6 4 (10.81%) SIEM
7 3 (8.11%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 4 (10.81%) PowerShell
2 1 (2.70%) Bicep
2 1 (2.70%) Kusto Query Language
2 1 (2.70%) Python
Qualifications
1 12 (32.43%) Security Cleared
2 11 (29.73%) SC Cleared
3 7 (18.92%) CISSP
4 3 (8.11%) CISM
5 2 (5.41%) Azure Certification
5 2 (5.41%) CompTIA Security+
5 2 (5.41%) GIAC
6 1 (2.70%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (2.70%) CEH
6 1 (2.70%) CISA
6 1 (2.70%) CompTIA CySA+
6 1 (2.70%) Degree
6 1 (2.70%) DV Cleared
6 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (62.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (18.92%) GDPR
2 7 (18.92%) NCSC
3 6 (16.22%) GRC
4 5 (13.51%) Cyber Essentials
5 4 (10.81%) COBIT
6 3 (8.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 3 (8.11%) EU AI Act
6 3 (8.11%) ITGC
7 2 (5.41%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 2 (5.41%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 2 (5.41%) NIST 800
7 2 (5.41%) SOC 2
8 1 (2.70%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (2.70%) Data Quality
8 1 (2.70%) Def Stans
8 1 (2.70%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (2.70%) JSP 440
8 1 (2.70%) PERC
8 1 (2.70%) SLA
System Software
1 2 (5.41%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.70%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 5 (13.51%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 13 (35.14%) Microsoft
2 2 (5.41%) Google
3 1 (2.70%) IBM
3 1 (2.70%) OneTrust
3 1 (2.70%) OpenAI
3 1 (2.70%) Qualys
3 1 (2.70%) ServiceNow