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 31 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 294 287 268
Rank change year-on-year -7 -19 +139
Contract jobs citing CISM 275 216 323
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.83% 0.81% 0.85%
As % of the Qualifications category 2.44% 2.68% 2.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 177 128 240
10th Percentile £425 £500 £474
25th Percentile £463 £550 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £640 £625
Median % change year-on-year -16.09% +2.40% -3.85%
75th Percentile £631 £675 £725
90th Percentile £725 £753 £825
UK median daily rate £550 £640 £600
% change year-on-year -14.06% +6.67% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 6 4
10th Percentile - £64.77 -
25th Percentile £41.94 £68.80 £68.26
Median hourly rate £43.70 £78.40 £78.36
Median % change year-on-year -44.26% +0.05% +7.37%
75th Percentile £77.81 £83.20 £84.31
90th Percentile £94.13 £89.10 £85.92
UK median hourly rate £55.23 £83.20 £78.36
% change year-on-year -33.62% +6.18% +15.24%

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 11,275 8,055 11,828
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.10% 30.36% 31.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,495 4,860 7,380
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £417 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £518 £525 £548
% change year-on-year -1.43% -4.11% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 871 386 851
10th Percentile £15.75 £18.67 £14.27
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.26 £21.46
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £46.39
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% -0.45% +3.09%
75th Percentile £63.75 £67.44 £65.80
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.42 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £39.00 £46.39
% change year-on-year -35.51% -15.93% +3.09%

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 31 January 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 31 January 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 31 January 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 -53 97 £540 -16.92% 30
North of England -9 60 £537 -17.38% 17
South East -9 50 £492 -23.13% 20
Yorkshire -12 39 £537 -19.25% 7
Midlands -37 23 £550 +10.00% 16
South West -12 20 £500 -23.08% 12
North West -21 20 £519 -18.95% 8
West Midlands -32 18 £625 +25.00% 9
East Midlands -26 5 £437 -27.17% 7
East of England -22 3 £600 +4.35% 6
North East - 1 £545 - 2
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 27 (9.82%) Confluence
2 2 (0.73%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.36%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.82%) Microsoft Project
3 4 (1.45%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.36%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 8 (2.91%) Maximo
Cloud Services
1 90 (32.73%) Azure
2 73 (26.55%) AWS
3 46 (16.73%) GCP
4 25 (9.09%) OpenShift
5 20 (7.27%) Entra ID
6 18 (6.55%) Azure Sentinel
7 14 (5.09%) Microsoft 365
8 8 (2.91%) Azure AKS
8 8 (2.91%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 8 (2.91%) Azure Monitor
8 8 (2.91%) Microsoft Purview
9 7 (2.55%) Azure DevOps
10 5 (1.82%) SaaS
11 4 (1.45%) Power Platform
12 2 (0.73%) Azure Key Vault
12 2 (0.73%) Google Workspace
13 1 (0.36%) Akamai
13 1 (0.36%) GitHub
13 1 (0.36%) IaaS
13 1 (0.36%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (14.91%) Firewall
2 32 (11.64%) Network Security
3 23 (8.36%) VPN
4 6 (2.18%) Intrusion Detection
4 6 (2.18%) SSL
5 5 (1.82%) Kerberos
5 5 (1.82%) TCP/IP
6 4 (1.45%) S/MIME
7 3 (1.09%) HTTP
7 3 (1.09%) SSH
8 2 (0.73%) DNS
9 1 (0.36%) BGP
9 1 (0.36%) DHCP
9 1 (0.36%) InfiniBand
9 1 (0.36%) MPLS
9 1 (0.36%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.73%) Power BI
1 2 (0.73%) Tableau
2 1 (0.36%) EDRMS
Development Applications
1 33 (12.00%) JIRA
2 8 (2.91%) GitLab
3 2 (0.73%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.36%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.36%) Git
4 1 (0.36%) TestDirector
General
1 110 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 55 (20.00%) Finance
3 38 (13.82%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (8.73%) Documentation Skills
5 21 (7.64%) Public Sector
6 13 (4.73%) Banking
6 13 (4.73%) Legal
7 7 (2.55%) Presentation Skills
8 5 (1.82%) Marketing
9 4 (1.45%) Retail
10 3 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.09%) Law
10 3 (1.09%) Local Government
11 2 (0.73%) Automotive
11 2 (0.73%) Financial Institution
11 2 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.73%) Police
12 1 (0.36%) Electronics
12 1 (0.36%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.36%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 39 (14.18%) Architect
2 33 (12.00%) Analyst
3 32 (11.64%) Consultant
4 30 (10.91%) Security Architect
5 25 (9.09%) Security Engineer
6 23 (8.36%) Lead
6 23 (8.36%) Security Consultant
7 22 (8.00%) Security Manager
8 18 (6.55%) Security Analyst
8 18 (6.55%) Solutions Architect
9 16 (5.82%) Cybersecurity Consultant
10 15 (5.45%) Senior
11 14 (5.09%) Security Solutions Architect
11 14 (5.09%) Security Specialist
12 12 (4.36%) Cybersecurity Manager
13 11 (4.00%) Cybersecurity Analyst
13 11 (4.00%) Cybersecurity Specialist
14 10 (3.64%) Azure Engineer
14 10 (3.64%) Project Manager
15 9 (3.27%) Cybersecurity Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (9.82%) LDAP
2 15 (5.45%) SailPoint
3 9 (3.27%) OAuth
4 8 (2.91%) ARM Templates
4 8 (2.91%) SAML
5 5 (1.82%) REST
5 5 (1.82%) SOAP
6 3 (1.09%) Microsoft Graph
6 3 (1.09%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.73%) Flash
7 2 (0.73%) ModSecurity
7 2 (0.73%) OpenID
7 2 (0.73%) Smart Contracts
8 1 (0.36%) JWT
8 1 (0.36%) OpenMP
8 1 (0.36%) PyTorch
8 1 (0.36%) SLSA
8 1 (0.36%) TensorFlow
8 1 (0.36%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 34 (12.36%) Management Information System
2 22 (8.00%) Security Posture
3 19 (6.91%) Cyber Threat
4 16 (5.82%) PKI
5 14 (5.09%) Cloud Native
6 13 (4.73%) Onboarding
7 11 (4.00%) Enterprise Software
7 11 (4.00%) Security Operations Centre
8 10 (3.64%) Operational Technology
9 9 (3.27%) Hybrid Cloud
10 5 (1.82%) CSOC
11 4 (1.45%) Algorithms
11 4 (1.45%) NHS
11 4 (1.45%) Robotics
11 4 (1.45%) Smartcard
12 3 (1.09%) BYOD
12 3 (1.09%) Cyber Defence
12 3 (1.09%) Data Centre
12 3 (1.09%) IoT
13 2 (0.73%) Blockchain
Operating Systems
1 11 (4.00%) Windows
2 9 (3.27%) Linux
3 5 (1.82%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.09%) Unix
5 2 (0.73%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.36%) Rocky
6 1 (0.36%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 171 (62.18%) Cybersecurity
2 86 (31.27%) Incident Response
3 76 (27.64%) SIEM
4 74 (26.91%) Information Security
5 73 (26.55%) Risk Management
6 68 (24.73%) Cloud Security
7 63 (22.91%) Identity Access Management
8 54 (19.64%) DevOps
9 51 (18.55%) Problem-Solving
10 49 (17.82%) Security Operations
11 45 (16.36%) Vulnerability Management
12 44 (16.00%) CI/CD
13 41 (14.91%) DevSecOps
14 40 (14.55%) Computer Science
15 38 (13.82%) Stakeholder Management
16 37 (13.45%) Agile
17 34 (12.36%) Threat Modelling
17 34 (12.36%) Zero Trust
18 33 (12.00%) Security Architecture
18 33 (12.00%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 43 (15.64%) PowerShell
2 39 (14.18%) Python
3 8 (2.91%) Bicep
4 5 (1.82%) BeanShell
4 5 (1.82%) Java
5 3 (1.09%) Bash
6 2 (0.73%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.73%) Rust
6 2 (0.73%) Solidity
7 1 (0.36%) Go
7 1 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 265 (96.36%) CISSP
2 89 (32.36%) Security Cleared
3 70 (25.45%) Degree
4 61 (22.18%) SC Cleared
5 42 (15.27%) CISA
6 34 (12.36%) CRISC
6 34 (12.36%) DV Cleared
7 26 (9.45%) CEH
8 25 (9.09%) CompTIA Security+
8 25 (9.09%) GIAC
9 24 (8.73%) Master's Degree
10 20 (7.27%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 17 (6.18%) Azure Certification
12 16 (5.82%) TOGAF Certification
13 15 (5.45%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 13 (4.73%) Cisco Certification
14 13 (4.73%) Microsoft Certification
15 12 (4.36%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (4.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 11 (4.00%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 147 (53.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 131 (47.64%) NIST
3 73 (26.55%) GDPR
4 29 (10.55%) GRC
5 27 (9.82%) PCI DSS
6 25 (9.09%) NCSC
7 15 (5.45%) COBIT
7 15 (5.45%) NIST 800
8 13 (4.73%) Cyber Essentials
9 11 (4.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 8 (2.91%) JSP 440
10 8 (2.91%) SOC 2
11 6 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 5 (1.82%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (1.82%) HIPAA
12 5 (1.82%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (1.45%) Actionable Recommendations
13 4 (1.45%) PMO
14 3 (1.09%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 2 (0.73%) RMADS
System Software
1 42 (15.27%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.73%) GPFS
2 2 (0.73%) Lustre
2 2 (0.73%) Slurm Workload Manager
3 1 (0.36%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 31 (11.27%) Kubernetes
2 17 (6.18%) Terraform
3 15 (5.45%) Single Sign-On
4 9 (3.27%) Ansible
5 8 (2.91%) Fluentd
6 7 (2.55%) QRadar
7 5 (1.82%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (1.82%) RSA Archer
8 3 (1.09%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 2 (0.73%) CSIRT
9 2 (0.73%) EnCase
9 2 (0.73%) FTK
9 2 (0.73%) Grafana
9 2 (0.73%) PingFederate
9 2 (0.73%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.73%) SELinux
10 1 (0.36%) Nexpose
Vendors
1 61 (22.18%) Microsoft
2 47 (17.09%) CyberArk
3 30 (10.91%) Splunk
4 24 (8.73%) BeyondTrust
5 20 (7.27%) BiZZdesign
6 14 (5.09%) Centrify
7 13 (4.73%) Cribl.io
8 11 (4.00%) IBM
9 10 (3.64%) Tenable
10 9 (3.27%) ServiceNow
11 8 (2.91%) Red Hat
12 7 (2.55%) Thycotic
13 5 (1.82%) CrowdStrike
13 5 (1.82%) Fortinet
13 5 (1.82%) Okta
13 5 (1.82%) Palo Alto
13 5 (1.82%) Rapid7
14 4 (1.45%) Cisco
14 4 (1.45%) Thales
15 3 (1.09%) SAP