NIST Contract Job Trends in the East of England

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
England > East of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the East of England requiring NIST skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 47 69 83
Rank change year-on-year +22 +14 +36
Contract jobs citing NIST 55 18 28
As % of all contract jobs in the East of England 3.51% 1.47% 1.56%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 21.74% 10.17% 11.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 24 8 8
10th Percentile £134 £493 £589
25th Percentile £500 £528 £649
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £588 £650
Median % change year-on-year -6.38% -9.62% -
75th Percentile £606 £616 £684
90th Percentile £655 £663 £767
England median daily rate £550 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -12.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 0 12
10th Percentile £83.25 - -
25th Percentile £88.13 - £42.25
Median hourly rate £91.00 - £44.50
75th Percentile £91.50 - £49.00
90th Percentile - - £54.40
England median hourly rate £90.00 £83.20 £46.75
% change year-on-year +8.17% +77.97% -28.63%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
East of England

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 the East of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 253 177 242
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East of England 16.14% 14.47% 13.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 105 87 123
10th Percentile £183 £263 £300
25th Percentile £350 £326 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £523
Median % change year-on-year - -4.31% +12.97%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £655 £700
England median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 18 28
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.99 £13.29
25th Percentile £16.48 £16.45 £14.16
Median hourly rate £18.50 £25.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -26.00% -43.82% +154.29%
75th Percentile £20.35 £39.47 £47.31
90th Percentile £90.15 £55.88 £61.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £29.00 £35.79
% change year-on-year -13.28% -18.97% +59.07%

NIST
Job Vacancy Trend in the East of England

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

NIST job vacancy trend in the East of England

NIST
Daily Rate Trend in the East of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing NIST.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing NIST

NIST
Daily Rate Histogram in the East of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NIST in the East of England over the 6 months to 9 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for NIST in the East of England

NIST
Hourly Rate Trend in the East of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing NIST.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the East of England citing NIST

NIST
Hourly Rate Histogram in the East of England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing NIST in the East of England over the 6 months to 9 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for NIST in the East of England

NIST
Contract Job Locations in the East of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing NIST within the East of England region over the 6 months to 9 December 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
Bedfordshire +14 22 £500 - 1
Cambridgeshire +3 20 £570 -5.00% 4
Hertfordshire -13 8 £602 +9.36% 5
Suffolk - 3 £550 -
Norfolk - 1 £500 - 1
Essex - 1 - -
NIST
England

NIST
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the East of England 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 4 (7.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (5.45%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 24 (43.64%) Azure
2 10 (18.18%) GitHub
3 9 (16.36%) Azure AKS
3 9 (16.36%) GitHub Copilot
4 8 (14.55%) PaaS
4 8 (14.55%) Serverless
5 6 (10.91%) AWS
5 6 (10.91%) Azure DevOps
5 6 (10.91%) Azure Functions
5 6 (10.91%) Azure Sentinel
5 6 (10.91%) GCP
6 5 (9.09%) Entra ID
7 4 (7.27%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (7.27%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (5.45%) OneDrive
9 1 (1.82%) AWS KMS
9 1 (1.82%) Azure Logic Apps
9 1 (1.82%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (1.82%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (1.82%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 3 (5.45%) Firewall
1 3 (5.45%) Network Security
2 2 (3.64%) Cisco ASA
2 2 (3.64%) DHCP
2 2 (3.64%) DNS
2 2 (3.64%) LAN
2 2 (3.64%) Modbus
2 2 (3.64%) SD-WAN
2 2 (3.64%) VPN
2 2 (3.64%) WAN
2 2 (3.64%) Wi-Fi
3 1 (1.82%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.82%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (3.64%) JMeter
1 2 (3.64%) Postman
1 2 (3.64%) Selenium
2 1 (1.82%) Burp Suite
General
1 16 (29.09%) Social Skills
2 14 (25.45%) Military
3 4 (7.27%) Presentation Skills
4 3 (5.45%) Finance
4 3 (5.45%) Organisational Skills
5 2 (3.64%) Aerospace
5 2 (3.64%) Banking
5 2 (3.64%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (3.64%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.82%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.82%) Police
Job Titles
1 20 (36.36%) Security Engineer
2 13 (23.64%) Lead
3 7 (12.73%) Analyst
3 7 (12.73%) Senior
4 5 (9.09%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
5 4 (7.27%) Architect
5 4 (7.27%) Design Engineer
5 4 (7.27%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
5 4 (7.27%) Security Architect
6 3 (5.45%) Security Analyst
7 2 (3.64%) Consultant
7 2 (3.64%) Cyber Threat Analyst
7 2 (3.64%) Data Centre Engineer
7 2 (3.64%) Developer
7 2 (3.64%) Network Architect
7 2 (3.64%) Network Security Architect
7 2 (3.64%) QA Leader
7 2 (3.64%) Risk Analyst
7 2 (3.64%) Senior Developer
7 2 (3.64%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (23.64%) .NET
2 9 (16.36%) PyTorch
2 9 (16.36%) RESTful
2 9 (16.36%) Semantic Kernel
2 9 (16.36%) TensorFlow
3 1 (1.82%) eBPF
3 1 (1.82%) Pandas
3 1 (1.82%) REST
3 1 (1.82%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 16 (29.09%) Cloud Native
2 9 (16.36%) Algorithms
2 9 (16.36%) Security Posture
3 5 (9.09%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 5 (9.09%) Cyber Threat
3 5 (9.09%) Management Information System
4 3 (5.45%) Cloud Security Posture
4 3 (5.45%) Data Centre
4 3 (5.45%) Operational Technology
5 2 (3.64%) SCADA
5 2 (3.64%) Security Operations Centre
6 1 (1.82%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (1.82%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (1.82%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 5 (9.09%) Windows
2 1 (1.82%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (30.91%) Incident Response
2 15 (27.27%) GAP Analysis
2 15 (27.27%) Information Assurance
3 14 (25.45%) Agile
3 14 (25.45%) AI
3 14 (25.45%) LLM
3 14 (25.45%) Prompt Engineering
3 14 (25.45%) Retrieval-Augmented Generation
3 14 (25.45%) Security Operations
3 14 (25.45%) Test Automation
4 13 (23.64%) Problem-Solving
4 13 (23.64%) Threat Modelling
5 12 (21.82%) Patch Management
5 12 (21.82%) SABSA
6 11 (20.00%) Cybersecurity
6 11 (20.00%) Incident Management
6 11 (20.00%) Key Management
6 11 (20.00%) Machine Learning
6 11 (20.00%) MODAF
6 11 (20.00%) Security Management
Programming Languages
1 12 (21.82%) Python
2 6 (10.91%) PowerShell
3 1 (1.82%) Bash
3 1 (1.82%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 23 (41.82%) Security Cleared
2 22 (40.00%) SC Cleared
3 14 (25.45%) CISSP
4 13 (23.64%) Degree
5 9 (16.36%) MCP
6 7 (12.73%) CISM
7 4 (7.27%) Microsoft Certification
8 3 (5.45%) CEH
8 3 (5.45%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (3.64%) CCIE
9 2 (3.64%) CCIE Security
9 2 (3.64%) CCNP
9 2 (3.64%) CRISC
9 2 (3.64%) GIAC
10 1 (1.82%) AWS Certification
10 1 (1.82%) Azure Certification
10 1 (1.82%) CCSP
10 1 (1.82%) CISA
10 1 (1.82%) CompTIA CySA+
10 1 (1.82%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (43.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 15 (27.27%) JSP 440
3 14 (25.45%) EU AI Act
3 14 (25.45%) NCSC
3 14 (25.45%) NIST 800
4 11 (20.00%) GDPR
5 7 (12.73%) Cyber Essentials
6 6 (10.91%) HIPAA
6 6 (10.91%) PCI DSS
7 5 (9.09%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 4 (7.27%) GRC
8 4 (7.27%) QA
9 1 (1.82%) Def Stans
9 1 (1.82%) GPG13
9 1 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 1 (1.82%) SOC 2
System Software
1 13 (23.64%) Firmware
2 4 (7.27%) Active Directory
3 2 (3.64%) Docker
4 1 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 5 (9.09%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.82%) FortiGate
2 1 (1.82%) Nexpose
2 1 (1.82%) Terraform
Vendors
1 20 (36.36%) Microsoft
2 9 (16.36%) Foundry
3 3 (5.45%) Fortinet
4 2 (3.64%) Cisco
4 2 (3.64%) Computacenter
4 2 (3.64%) Palo Alto
4 2 (3.64%) ServiceNow
4 2 (3.64%) Splunk
4 2 (3.64%) Tenable
4 2 (3.64%) Zscaler
5 1 (1.82%) BeyondTrust
5 1 (1.82%) CheckPoint
5 1 (1.82%) Citrix
5 1 (1.82%) Cribl.io
5 1 (1.82%) CrowdStrike
5 1 (1.82%) CyberArk
5 1 (1.82%) Qualys
5 1 (1.82%) Thycotic
5 1 (1.82%) VMware