CISM Contract Job Trends in England

ISACA Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for CISM qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 19 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 318 301 303
Rank change year-on-year -17 +2 +35
Contract jobs citing CISM 282 180 236
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.69% 0.74% 0.65%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.15% 2.35% 2.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 105 172
10th Percentile £453 £455 £425
25th Percentile £500 £513 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £588 £625 £600
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £688 £680 £741
90th Percentile £750 £738 £825
UK median daily rate £595 £625 £600
% change year-on-year -4.80% +4.17% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 7 1
10th Percentile - £51.25 -
25th Percentile - £56.00 -
Median hourly rate £41.94 £61.50 £83.41
Median % change year-on-year -31.80% -26.27% +14.29%
75th Percentile £44.89 £80.80 -
90th Percentile £50.21 £87.92 -
UK median hourly rate £41.94 £67.55 £83.41
% change year-on-year -37.91% -19.02% +14.29%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England

CISM falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,098 7,669 11,228
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.92% 31.53% 30.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,823 4,882 6,959
10th Percentile £350 £285 £313
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £533
% change year-on-year - -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 944 436 971
10th Percentile £17.00 £18.13 £14.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.27 £17.94
Median hourly rate £47.54 £39.66 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.87% -0.85% -23.81%
75th Percentile £72.50 £67.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.25 £81.35 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £47.80 £37.25 £40.00
% change year-on-year +28.31% -6.88% -27.25%

CISM
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

CISM job vacancy trend in England

CISM
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing CISM.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing CISM

CISM
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing CISM in England over the 6 months to 19 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for CISM in England

CISM
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing CISM.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing CISM

CISM
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing CISM within the England region over the 6 months to 19 May 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
London -41 118 £588 -8.20% 47
South East -46 56 £598 -5.16% 23
North of England -33 46 £613 +2.08% 18
Yorkshire -23 32 £625 +4.17% 5
South West -9 24 £570 -0.87% 17
Midlands -58 18 £495 -15.78% 11
West Midlands -48 17 £495 -15.78% 8
North West -31 14 £555 -18.38% 10
East of England -25 5 £525 +3.04% 6
East Midlands -34 1 - - 3
CISM
UK

CISM
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in 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 16 (5.67%) Confluence
2 2 (0.71%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.35%) nginx
Applications
1 5 (1.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 5 (1.77%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 101 (35.82%) Azure
2 90 (31.91%) AWS
3 52 (18.44%) GCP
4 28 (9.93%) Entra ID
5 15 (5.32%) OpenShift
6 14 (4.96%) Azure Sentinel
6 14 (4.96%) Microsoft 365
7 7 (2.48%) IaaS
7 7 (2.48%) PaaS
8 6 (2.13%) Azure AKS
8 6 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (2.13%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 6 (2.13%) Microsoft Purview
9 5 (1.77%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (1.42%) SaaS
11 2 (0.71%) GitHub
12 1 (0.35%) Azure Data Factory
12 1 (0.35%) Azure Key Vault
12 1 (0.35%) Cloud Computing
12 1 (0.35%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 42 (14.89%) Network Security
2 22 (7.80%) Firewall
3 12 (4.26%) VPN
4 8 (2.84%) SSL
5 6 (2.13%) HTTP
6 5 (1.77%) Intrusion Detection
6 5 (1.77%) TCP/IP
7 4 (1.42%) S/MIME
8 2 (0.71%) SSH
8 2 (0.71%) VLAN
9 1 (0.35%) BGP
9 1 (0.35%) DHCP
9 1 (0.35%) DNS
9 1 (0.35%) MPLS
9 1 (0.35%) NGFW
9 1 (0.35%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.06%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (0.71%) Data Lake
2 2 (0.71%) Metadata
2 2 (0.71%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.35%) DB2
3 1 (0.35%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.35%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 20 (7.09%) JIRA
2 4 (1.42%) Snyk
3 1 (0.35%) Jenkins
General
1 112 (39.72%) Social Skills
2 72 (25.53%) Finance
3 35 (12.41%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (7.45%) Public Sector
5 16 (5.67%) Documentation Skills
6 15 (5.32%) Banking
7 11 (3.90%) Legal
8 9 (3.19%) Financial Institution
9 6 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.42%) Manufacturing
10 4 (1.42%) Marketing
11 3 (1.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.06%) Law
11 3 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (1.06%) Retail
12 2 (0.71%) Military
12 2 (0.71%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.35%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 45 (15.96%) Architect
1 45 (15.96%) Consultant
2 32 (11.35%) Security Architect
2 32 (11.35%) Security Consultant
3 30 (10.64%) Security Manager
4 27 (9.57%) Project Manager
5 23 (8.16%) Analyst
6 22 (7.80%) Security Engineer
7 21 (7.45%) Lead
8 19 (6.74%) Security Specialist
9 17 (6.03%) Cybersecurity Consultant
10 16 (5.67%) Security Project Manager
11 11 (3.90%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 11 (3.90%) Security Analyst
11 11 (3.90%) Senior
12 10 (3.55%) Cybersecurity Analyst
12 10 (3.55%) Cybersecurity Specialist
13 8 (2.84%) DevSecOps Consultant
14 7 (2.48%) Cybersecurity Architect
14 7 (2.48%) Security Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (7.45%) LDAP
2 10 (3.55%) SailPoint
3 9 (3.19%) REST
3 9 (3.19%) SOAP
4 8 (2.84%) OAuth
4 8 (2.84%) SAML
5 7 (2.48%) JDBC
5 7 (2.48%) OpenID
6 6 (2.13%) JSON
6 6 (2.13%) Leaflet
7 5 (1.77%) ARM Templates
7 5 (1.77%) J2EE
7 5 (1.77%) RESTful
8 3 (1.06%) SLSA
9 2 (0.71%) ModSecurity
9 2 (0.71%) OAuth2
10 1 (0.35%) Flask
10 1 (0.35%) Kafka
10 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
10 1 (0.35%) STL
Miscellaneous
1 30 (10.64%) Management Information System
2 29 (10.28%) Operational Technology
2 29 (10.28%) Security Posture
3 18 (6.38%) PKI
4 11 (3.90%) Cyber Threat
4 11 (3.90%) Onboarding
5 10 (3.55%) Cloud Native
5 10 (3.55%) SCADA
6 9 (3.19%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (3.19%) Private Cloud
7 7 (2.48%) Public Cloud
7 7 (2.48%) Security Operations Centre
8 6 (2.13%) BYOD
8 6 (2.13%) Cyber Defence
8 6 (2.13%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.77%) Hybrid Cloud
9 5 (1.77%) Robotics
10 4 (1.42%) Algorithms
10 4 (1.42%) Smartcard
11 3 (1.06%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 17 (6.03%) Windows
2 13 (4.61%) Linux
3 8 (2.84%) Unix
4 5 (1.77%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.35%) Rocky
6 1 (0.35%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 182 (64.54%) Cybersecurity
2 81 (28.72%) Risk Management
3 78 (27.66%) Cloud Security
3 78 (27.66%) Information Security
4 75 (26.60%) SIEM
5 58 (20.57%) Stakeholder Management
6 57 (20.21%) Problem-Solving
7 54 (19.15%) Incident Response
7 54 (19.15%) Vulnerability Management
8 50 (17.73%) Agile
8 50 (17.73%) Security Architecture
9 47 (16.67%) Security Operations
10 46 (16.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 46 (16.31%) Threat Modelling
11 45 (15.96%) CI/CD
11 45 (15.96%) DevOps
12 44 (15.60%) Risk Assessment
13 43 (15.25%) DevSecOps
14 41 (14.54%) Continuous Improvement
15 37 (13.12%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 37 (13.12%) Python
2 33 (11.70%) PowerShell
3 10 (3.55%) Java
4 9 (3.19%) SQL
5 5 (1.77%) Bash
5 5 (1.77%) Bicep
6 3 (1.06%) BeanShell
7 1 (0.35%) Go
7 1 (0.35%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.35%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 276 (97.87%) CISSP
2 100 (35.46%) Security Cleared
3 66 (23.40%) SC Cleared
4 54 (19.15%) Cisco Certification
5 53 (18.79%) (ISC)2 CCSP
5 53 (18.79%) Degree
6 50 (17.73%) CRISC
7 39 (13.83%) CEH
8 34 (12.06%) DV Cleared
8 34 (12.06%) GIAC
9 27 (9.57%) CCSP
10 26 (9.22%) CISA
10 26 (9.22%) PMI Certification
10 26 (9.22%) PMP
11 21 (7.45%) CompTIA Security+
12 16 (5.67%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 16 (5.67%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 14 (4.96%) Azure Certification
13 14 (4.96%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (4.61%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 138 (48.94%) NIST
2 123 (43.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 67 (23.76%) GDPR
4 32 (11.35%) GRC
5 28 (9.93%) PCI DSS
6 25 (8.87%) NCSC
7 22 (7.80%) COBIT
8 14 (4.96%) NIST 800
8 14 (4.96%) SOC 2
9 13 (4.61%) Cyber Essentials
9 13 (4.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 10 (3.55%) JSP 440
11 9 (3.19%) HIPAA
12 5 (1.77%) EU AI Act
12 5 (1.77%) ISO 31000
13 4 (1.42%) Government Security Classifications
13 4 (1.42%) ISA99
14 3 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 3 (1.06%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (1.06%) RMADS
System Software
1 35 (12.41%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.35%) Docker
3 1 (0.35%) GPFS
3 1 (0.35%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.35%) Lustre
3 1 (0.35%) RACF
3 1 (0.35%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 27 (9.57%) Kubernetes
2 10 (3.55%) Terraform
3 7 (2.48%) CASB
4 6 (2.13%) Ansible
5 4 (1.42%) QRadar
5 4 (1.42%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.71%) CA Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.71%) Grafana
6 2 (0.71%) PingFederate
6 2 (0.71%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.35%) SELinux
Vendors
1 52 (18.44%) Microsoft
2 22 (7.80%) ServiceNow
3 20 (7.09%) Splunk
4 19 (6.74%) CyberArk
5 15 (5.32%) BeyondTrust
6 10 (3.55%) Tenable
7 8 (2.84%) IBM
8 7 (2.48%) SAP
9 6 (2.13%) BiZZdesign
9 6 (2.13%) Qualys
9 6 (2.13%) Red Hat
9 6 (2.13%) Workday
10 5 (1.77%) Cribl.io
10 5 (1.77%) Okta
11 4 (1.42%) Thales
12 3 (1.06%) Google
12 3 (1.06%) Palo Alto
13 2 (0.71%) CheckPoint
13 2 (0.71%) Fortinet
13 2 (0.71%) Intel