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 1 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 302 284 313
Rank change year-on-year -18 +29 +83
Contract jobs citing CISM 313 198 251
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.82% 0.82% 0.67%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.43% 2.61% 2.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 215 111 184
10th Percentile £452 £463 £425
25th Percentile £492 £522 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £565 £630 £605
Median % change year-on-year -10.32% +4.13% -6.92%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £750
90th Percentile £735 £750 £850
UK median daily rate £570 £628 £600
% change year-on-year -9.16% +4.58% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 10 2
10th Percentile - £51.25 £83.77
25th Percentile £41.94 £60.75 £84.31
Median hourly rate £43.70 £67.55 £85.21
Median % change year-on-year -35.30% -20.72% +23.06%
75th Percentile £65.74 £82.00 £86.10
90th Percentile £83.13 £84.38 £86.64
UK median hourly rate £55.23 £73.60 £85.21
% change year-on-year -24.96% -13.62% +20.86%

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 12,862 7,593 11,787
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.69% 31.32% 31.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,573 4,863 7,324
10th Percentile £335 £300 £300
25th Percentile £425 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 981 430 919
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.50 £14.00
25th Percentile £20.50 £25.25 £17.80
Median hourly rate £37.00 £50.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -26.00% +33.33% -25.00%
75th Percentile £69.45 £68.00 £62.48
90th Percentile £85.36 £82.12 £75.25
UK median hourly rate £36.70 £42.50 £37.83
% change year-on-year -13.65% +12.35% -27.95%

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 1 April 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing CISM in England over the 6 months to 1 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for CISM in England

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 1 April 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 -31 130 £575 -9.80% 41
South East -41 58 £560 -11.11% 29
North of England -28 57 £537 -15.73% 18
Yorkshire -22 37 £537 -17.38% 6
Midlands -63 23 £600 -7.76% 11
South West -18 22 £570 -8.80% 18
West Midlands -47 21 £600 -7.76% 9
North West -30 19 £550 -17.29% 11
East of England -29 4 £525 +3.04% 4
East Midlands -35 2 £425 - 2
North East -14 1 £545 +2.06% 1
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 30 (9.58%) Confluence
2 3 (0.96%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.32%) nginx
Applications
1 6 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 7 (2.24%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 103 (32.91%) Azure
2 90 (28.75%) AWS
3 54 (17.25%) GCP
4 24 (7.67%) Entra ID
5 23 (7.35%) OpenShift
6 15 (4.79%) Azure Sentinel
7 7 (2.24%) Azure AKS
7 7 (2.24%) Azure DevOps
7 7 (2.24%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 7 (2.24%) Azure Monitor
8 5 (1.60%) Microsoft 365
9 4 (1.28%) SaaS
10 3 (0.96%) Microsoft Purview
10 3 (0.96%) Power Platform
11 2 (0.64%) GitHub
12 1 (0.32%) Azure Data Factory
12 1 (0.32%) Azure Key Vault
12 1 (0.32%) Azure Logic Apps
12 1 (0.32%) IaaS
12 1 (0.32%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (13.10%) Network Security
2 30 (9.58%) Firewall
3 18 (5.75%) VPN
4 8 (2.56%) SSL
5 6 (1.92%) HTTP
6 4 (1.28%) S/MIME
6 4 (1.28%) TCP/IP
7 3 (0.96%) SSH
8 2 (0.64%) DNS
8 2 (0.64%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (0.32%) BGP
9 1 (0.32%) DHCP
9 1 (0.32%) InfiniBand
9 1 (0.32%) Kerberos
9 1 (0.32%) MPLS
9 1 (0.32%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.96%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (0.64%) Data Lake
2 2 (0.64%) Metadata
2 2 (0.64%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.32%) DB2
3 1 (0.32%) EDRMS
3 1 (0.32%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.32%) Power BI
3 1 (0.32%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 35 (11.18%) JIRA
2 6 (1.92%) GitLab
3 4 (1.28%) Snyk
4 2 (0.64%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.32%) Git
General
1 123 (39.30%) Social Skills
2 73 (23.32%) Finance
3 38 (12.14%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (8.95%) Public Sector
5 27 (8.63%) Documentation Skills
6 18 (5.75%) Banking
7 11 (3.51%) Legal
8 8 (2.56%) Financial Institution
9 5 (1.60%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.60%) Marketing
9 5 (1.60%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.28%) Retail
11 3 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.64%) Law
12 2 (0.64%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.64%) Police
13 1 (0.32%) Electronics
13 1 (0.32%) Front Office
13 1 (0.32%) Investment Banking
13 1 (0.32%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 54 (17.25%) Architect
2 43 (13.74%) Security Architect
3 38 (12.14%) Consultant
4 32 (10.22%) Security Consultant
4 32 (10.22%) Security Engineer
5 30 (9.58%) Security Manager
6 28 (8.95%) Analyst
6 28 (8.95%) Lead
7 22 (7.03%) Project Manager
8 21 (6.71%) Cybersecurity Consultant
9 20 (6.39%) Solutions Architect
10 17 (5.43%) Security Specialist
11 16 (5.11%) Security Solutions Architect
12 15 (4.79%) Security Project Manager
13 14 (4.47%) Security Analyst
14 13 (4.15%) Senior
15 12 (3.83%) Cybersecurity Analyst
16 10 (3.19%) Cybersecurity Manager
17 9 (2.88%) Security Officer
18 8 (2.56%) Cybersecurity Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.58%) LDAP
2 14 (4.47%) SailPoint
3 9 (2.88%) REST
3 9 (2.88%) SOAP
4 7 (2.24%) ARM Templates
5 6 (1.92%) Leaflet
5 6 (1.92%) OAuth
6 5 (1.60%) SAML
7 4 (1.28%) JDBC
7 4 (1.28%) OpenID
7 4 (1.28%) RESTful
8 3 (0.96%) ModSecurity
8 3 (0.96%) OAuth2
9 2 (0.64%) Flash
9 2 (0.64%) J2EE
9 2 (0.64%) JSON
9 2 (0.64%) Smart Contracts
10 1 (0.32%) Flask
10 1 (0.32%) STL
10 1 (0.32%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 31 (9.90%) Management Information System
2 23 (7.35%) Security Posture
3 19 (6.07%) Operational Technology
4 18 (5.75%) Cloud Native
5 16 (5.11%) PKI
6 12 (3.83%) Cyber Threat
7 11 (3.51%) Onboarding
7 11 (3.51%) Security Operations Centre
8 10 (3.19%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.24%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (2.24%) Private Cloud
10 6 (1.92%) BYOD
10 6 (1.92%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.60%) CSOC
11 5 (1.60%) Robotics
11 5 (1.60%) Virtual Team
12 4 (1.28%) Algorithms
12 4 (1.28%) Cyber Defence
12 4 (1.28%) Smartcard
13 3 (0.96%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 11 (3.51%) Windows
2 6 (1.92%) Linux
3 5 (1.60%) Windows Server
4 3 (0.96%) Unix
5 2 (0.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.32%) Rocky
6 1 (0.32%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 209 (66.77%) Cybersecurity
2 82 (26.20%) SIEM
3 81 (25.88%) Information Security
4 80 (25.56%) Risk Management
5 77 (24.60%) Cloud Security
6 70 (22.36%) Incident Response
7 62 (19.81%) Agile
7 62 (19.81%) Problem-Solving
8 60 (19.17%) Security Operations
9 58 (18.53%) DevOps
10 56 (17.89%) Identity Access Management
11 49 (15.65%) DevSecOps
11 49 (15.65%) Stakeholder Management
11 49 (15.65%) Vulnerability Management
12 46 (14.70%) CI/CD
13 45 (14.38%) Threat Modelling
14 44 (14.06%) Security Architecture
15 41 (13.10%) AI
16 40 (12.78%) Continuous Improvement
17 39 (12.46%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 46 (14.70%) PowerShell
1 46 (14.70%) Python
2 10 (3.19%) Java
3 7 (2.24%) Bicep
4 6 (1.92%) BeanShell
4 6 (1.92%) SQL
5 4 (1.28%) Bash
6 2 (0.64%) Rust
6 2 (0.64%) Solidity
7 1 (0.32%) Go
7 1 (0.32%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.32%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 306 (97.76%) CISSP
2 107 (34.19%) Security Cleared
3 68 (21.73%) SC Cleared
4 62 (19.81%) Degree
5 42 (13.42%) CRISC
6 40 (12.78%) CEH
7 39 (12.46%) DV Cleared
8 38 (12.14%) Cisco Certification
9 36 (11.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 32 (10.22%) CompTIA Security+
11 28 (8.95%) CISA
11 28 (8.95%) GIAC
12 23 (7.35%) Master's Degree
13 21 (6.71%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 20 (6.39%) PMI Certification
14 20 (6.39%) PMP
15 17 (5.43%) Computer Science Degree
15 17 (5.43%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
16 15 (4.79%) Azure Certification
17 13 (4.15%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 148 (47.28%) NIST
2 139 (44.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 78 (24.92%) GDPR
4 32 (10.22%) GRC
4 32 (10.22%) PCI DSS
5 27 (8.63%) NCSC
6 21 (6.71%) COBIT
7 16 (5.11%) NIST 800
8 14 (4.47%) JSP 440
8 14 (4.47%) SOC 2
9 13 (4.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 11 (3.51%) Cyber Essentials
11 7 (2.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 7 (2.24%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 6 (1.92%) HIPAA
13 4 (1.28%) Government Security Classifications
13 4 (1.28%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.96%) EU AI Act
14 3 (0.96%) RMADS
15 2 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 41 (13.10%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.64%) GPFS
2 2 (0.64%) Lustre
2 2 (0.64%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 1 (0.32%) Docker
3 1 (0.32%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.32%) RACF
Systems Management
1 31 (9.90%) Kubernetes
2 15 (4.79%) Terraform
3 8 (2.56%) Ansible
4 7 (2.24%) Single Sign-On
5 6 (1.92%) CASB
5 6 (1.92%) Fluentd
6 4 (1.28%) QRadar
7 3 (0.96%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.64%) CA Single Sign-On
8 2 (0.64%) Grafana
8 2 (0.64%) PingFederate
8 2 (0.64%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.64%) SELinux
9 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.32%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 53 (16.93%) Microsoft
2 50 (15.97%) CyberArk
3 31 (9.90%) Splunk
4 27 (8.63%) BeyondTrust
5 23 (7.35%) ServiceNow
6 19 (6.07%) BiZZdesign
7 16 (5.11%) Tenable
8 14 (4.47%) Centrify
9 13 (4.15%) IBM
10 11 (3.51%) Cribl.io
11 8 (2.56%) Okta
11 8 (2.56%) Red Hat
12 7 (2.24%) Qualys
12 7 (2.24%) Thycotic
13 5 (1.60%) SAP
14 4 (1.28%) CrowdStrike
14 4 (1.28%) Thales
15 3 (0.96%) CheckPoint
15 3 (0.96%) Cisco
15 3 (0.96%) Workday