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

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 45 84
Rank change year-on-year -63 +39 +2
Contract jobs citing NIST 13 54 12
As % of all contract jobs in the East of England 0.54% 4.07% 0.80%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 3.09% 22.88% 7.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 19 6
10th Percentile £413 £197 £506
25th Percentile £459 £488 £544
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £588
Median % change year-on-year -4.29% -10.64% +1.82%
75th Percentile £551 £567 £609
90th Percentile £659 £650 £619
England median daily rate £563 £573 £625
% change year-on-year -1.75% -8.32% -0.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 15 1
10th Percentile £83.25 £29.95 -
25th Percentile £84.38 £82.88 -
Median hourly rate £87.50 £91.00 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +13.75% +79.78%
75th Percentile £89.38 £91.50 -
90th Percentile £89.75 £96.60 -
England median hourly rate £65.69 £90.00 £80.00
% change year-on-year -27.01% +12.50% +71.12%

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 421 236 158
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the East of England 17.40% 17.77% 10.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 147 111 72
10th Percentile £308 £225 £263
25th Percentile £400 £350 £320
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £433
Median % change year-on-year - +15.61% -13.50%
75th Percentile £600 £580 £550
90th Percentile £725 £650 £611
England median daily rate £513 £500 £520
% change year-on-year +2.50% -3.85% -3.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 187 43 21
10th Percentile £13.52 £13.50 £14.42
25th Percentile £16.13 £16.45 £15.98
Median hourly rate £40.00 £31.49 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.02% +25.96% -43.82%
75th Percentile £67.50 £88.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £79.40 £91.50 £67.50
England median hourly rate £32.40 £32.74 £34.47
% change year-on-year -1.04% -5.02% -12.77%

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 3 October 2026.

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
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 3 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
Bedfordshire -20 6 £610 +22.00% 3
Essex -17 2 £425 - 5
Suffolk -19 2 £503 -8.64% 2
Norfolk -8 1 £500 - 1
Cambridgeshire -10 1 £620 +15.35% 10
Hertfordshire -31 1 - - 7
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 1 (7.69%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (7.69%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 7 (53.85%) Azure
2 5 (38.46%) Azure Sentinel
3 4 (30.77%) Entra ID
4 2 (15.38%) AWS
4 2 (15.38%) Azure AKS
4 2 (15.38%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (7.69%) GCP
5 1 (7.69%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 4 (30.77%) Network Security
2 2 (15.38%) Firewall
2 2 (15.38%) VPN
Development Applications
1 1 (7.69%) JIRA
General
1 3 (23.08%) Manufacturing
1 3 (23.08%) Military
1 3 (23.08%) Social Skills
2 2 (15.38%) Aerospace
2 2 (15.38%) Finance
2 2 (15.38%) Influencing Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (7.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (7.69%) Retail
Job Titles
1 6 (46.15%) Security Engineer
2 2 (15.38%) Analyst
2 2 (15.38%) Architect
2 2 (15.38%) Product Engineer
2 2 (15.38%) SOC Analyst
3 1 (7.69%) Application Security Specialist
3 1 (7.69%) Applications Specialist
3 1 (7.69%) Consultant
3 1 (7.69%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 1 (7.69%) DevSecOps Consultant
3 1 (7.69%) DevSecOps Engineer
3 1 (7.69%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 1 (7.69%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
3 1 (7.69%) IT Manager
3 1 (7.69%) IT Project Manager
3 1 (7.69%) Project Manager
3 1 (7.69%) Security Specialist
3 1 (7.69%) Technology Architect
3 1 (7.69%) Transformation Manager
3 1 (7.69%) Transformation Project Manager
Miscellaneous
1 4 (30.77%) Management Information System
2 3 (23.08%) Insider Threat
3 2 (15.38%) Cloud Native
3 2 (15.38%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 1 (7.69%) Data Centre
4 1 (7.69%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (7.69%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (7.69%) Operational Technology
4 1 (7.69%) PKI
4 1 (7.69%) Private Cloud
4 1 (7.69%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1 (7.69%) Windows
1 1 (7.69%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (53.85%) Cybersecurity
2 5 (38.46%) Incident Response
3 4 (30.77%) CI/CD
3 4 (30.77%) Cyber Resilience
3 4 (30.77%) Information Security
3 4 (30.77%) Key Management
3 4 (30.77%) Risk Management
3 4 (30.77%) SIEM
3 4 (30.77%) Threat Intelligence
4 3 (23.08%) AI
4 3 (23.08%) Cryptography
4 3 (23.08%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 3 (23.08%) Data Protection
4 3 (23.08%) DevSecOps
4 3 (23.08%) GAP Analysis
4 3 (23.08%) Model-Based Systems Engineering
4 3 (23.08%) Security Management
4 3 (23.08%) Stakeholder Management
4 3 (23.08%) Threat Modelling
4 3 (23.08%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (15.38%) Kusto Query Language
2 1 (7.69%) Bash
2 1 (7.69%) PowerShell
2 1 (7.69%) Python
Qualifications
1 7 (53.85%) Security Cleared
2 6 (46.15%) SC Cleared
3 5 (38.46%) Degree
4 3 (23.08%) CCSP
4 3 (23.08%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (23.08%) ISACA
5 2 (15.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 2 (15.38%) CISSP
5 2 (15.38%) DV Cleared
6 1 (7.69%) Azure Certification
6 1 (7.69%) CISM
6 1 (7.69%) CRISC
6 1 (7.69%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (61.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (23.08%) GDPR
2 3 (23.08%) NCSC
2 3 (23.08%) NIST 800
3 2 (15.38%) SOC 2
4 1 (7.69%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 3 (23.08%) Active Directory
1 3 (23.08%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 2 (15.38%) QRadar
2 1 (7.69%) CSIRT
2 1 (7.69%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 5 (38.46%) Microsoft
2 2 (15.38%) IBM
3 1 (7.69%) Palo Alto