Cyber Essentials Contract Job Trends in England

Cyber Essentials
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 421 413 462
Rank change year-on-year -8 +49 +140
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 114 79 88
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.29% 0.24%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.13% 2.05% 1.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 79 41 56
10th Percentile £363 £275 £400
25th Percentile £463 £350 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £525 £520
Median % change year-on-year +0.95% +0.96% +9.47%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £675 £690 £700
UK median daily rate £530 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +0.95% - +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 10
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £68.80 £42.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £78.40 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -54.08% +76.18% -
75th Percentile £79.31 £83.20 £46.75
90th Percentile £94.38 - £49.00
UK median hourly rate £58.00 £83.20 £44.50
% change year-on-year -30.29% +86.97% -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
England

Cyber Essentials 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 England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 5,347 3,860 5,204
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.18% 14.33% 14.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,469 2,247 3,477
10th Percentile £313 £263 £319
25th Percentile £410 £384 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £543
Median % change year-on-year - -7.92% +3.43%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 272 149 227
10th Percentile £15.66 £14.70 £13.11
25th Percentile £18.08 £20.50 £17.36
Median hourly rate £25.63 £30.21 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -15.16% -7.05% +32.65%
75th Percentile £61.79 £65.00 £60.63
90th Percentile £71.32 £75.00 £79.87
UK median hourly rate £26.11 £29.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -9.97% -10.77% +36.74%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend in England

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cyber Essentials.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in England over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in England

Cyber Essentials
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cyber Essentials.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Cyber Essentials in England over the 6 months to 11 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in England

Cyber Essentials
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 Cyber Essentials within the England region over the 6 months to 11 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 +10 48 £550 +12.82% 34
South East -6 20 £525 -15.66% 32
East of England -8 16 £602 +20.30% 20
North of England -34 11 £514 +2.87% 26
Midlands -42 9 £444 +36.54% 34
Yorkshire -43 6 £502 +0.37% 6
South West -13 5 £475 -20.83% 21
West Midlands -30 5 £465 +43.08% 23
East Midlands -24 4 £444 +47.92% 11
North West -24 4 £525 +2.44% 16
North East - 1 £650 - 4
Cyber Essentials
UK

Cyber Essentials
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 5 (4.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.75%) Confluence
2 2 (1.75%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (0.88%) AutoCAD
1 1 (0.88%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.88%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 45 (39.47%) Azure
2 32 (28.07%) AWS
3 22 (19.30%) Entra ID
4 21 (18.42%) Microsoft 365
5 13 (11.40%) Amazon GuardDuty
5 13 (11.40%) Azure Sentinel
6 11 (9.65%) Microsoft Purview
7 9 (7.89%) AWS Control Tower
8 8 (7.02%) AWS CloudFormation
8 8 (7.02%) SaaS
9 7 (6.14%) AWS CloudTrail
10 6 (5.26%) AWS KMS
10 6 (5.26%) IaaS
10 6 (5.26%) PaaS
10 6 (5.26%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (4.39%) Mimecast
12 3 (2.63%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (2.63%) Azure AKS
12 3 (2.63%) OCI
13 2 (1.75%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 17 (14.91%) Firewall
2 16 (14.04%) Network Security
3 13 (11.40%) VPN
4 7 (6.14%) DNS
5 6 (5.26%) DHCP
6 3 (2.63%) VLAN
7 2 (1.75%) LAN
7 2 (1.75%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (1.75%) Wireless
8 1 (0.88%) HTTP
8 1 (0.88%) Intrusion Detection
8 1 (0.88%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.88%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.75%) DynamoDB
2 1 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.88%) Metadata
2 1 (0.88%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.88%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.75%) Jenkins
1 2 (1.75%) JIRA
General
1 33 (28.95%) Social Skills
2 21 (18.42%) Public Sector
3 15 (13.16%) Finance
4 8 (7.02%) Presentation Skills
5 7 (6.14%) Legal
6 6 (5.26%) Aerospace
6 6 (5.26%) Local Government
6 6 (5.26%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (3.51%) Aviation
7 4 (3.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.63%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.75%) Analytical Skills
10 1 (0.88%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.88%) Electronics
10 1 (0.88%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.88%) Marketing
10 1 (0.88%) Retail
10 1 (0.88%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 20 (17.54%) Architect
2 15 (13.16%) Analyst
2 15 (13.16%) Senior
3 13 (11.40%) Lead
3 13 (11.40%) Security Engineer
4 11 (9.65%) Security Manager
5 10 (8.77%) Security Analyst
6 7 (6.14%) Consultant
7 6 (5.26%) Cloud Architect
7 6 (5.26%) Cybersecurity Manager
7 6 (5.26%) Project Manager
7 6 (5.26%) Security Architect
8 5 (4.39%) 3rd Line Support
8 5 (4.39%) Cybersecurity Engineer
8 5 (4.39%) Information Analyst
8 5 (4.39%) Information Security Analyst
8 5 (4.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (4.39%) Lead Architect
8 5 (4.39%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (4.39%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.51%) LDAP
1 4 (3.51%) OpenID
1 4 (3.51%) SAML
2 3 (2.63%) OAuth
2 3 (2.63%) Oracle Fusion
3 2 (1.75%) ARM Templates
3 2 (1.75%) AWS CDK
3 2 (1.75%) Node.js
4 1 (0.88%) .NET
4 1 (0.88%) Middleware
4 1 (0.88%) React
4 1 (0.88%) RESTful
4 1 (0.88%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (13.16%) Security Posture
2 13 (11.40%) Cyber Threat
3 10 (8.77%) Onboarding
4 9 (7.89%) Operational Technology
5 7 (6.14%) Cloud Native
5 7 (6.14%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 6 (5.26%) SCADA
7 4 (3.51%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (3.51%) NHS
8 3 (2.63%) Driving Licence
8 3 (2.63%) Security Operations Centre
9 2 (1.75%) Cyber Defence
9 2 (1.75%) Management Information System
10 1 (0.88%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.88%) CMDB
10 1 (0.88%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
10 1 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.88%) Legacy Systems
10 1 (0.88%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 13 (11.40%) Linux
2 11 (9.65%) Windows
3 7 (6.14%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.75%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (48.25%) Cybersecurity
2 26 (22.81%) Cloud Security
3 25 (21.93%) Incident Response
3 25 (21.93%) Information Security
4 21 (18.42%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 19 (16.67%) Security Operations
6 18 (15.79%) Roadmaps
7 17 (14.91%) ITIL
7 17 (14.91%) Migration
8 16 (14.04%) Threat Detection
9 15 (13.16%) Data Loss Prevention
9 15 (13.16%) SIEM
10 14 (12.28%) Zero Trust
11 12 (10.53%) Network Segmentation
11 12 (10.53%) Risk Management
11 12 (10.53%) Threat Modelling
12 11 (9.65%) Data Protection
12 11 (9.65%) ITSM
12 11 (9.65%) Stakeholder Management
12 11 (9.65%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 10 (8.77%) PowerShell
2 6 (5.26%) Kusto Query Language
3 4 (3.51%) Python
4 2 (1.75%) Bicep
5 1 (0.88%) Bash
5 1 (0.88%) C#
5 1 (0.88%) Go
5 1 (0.88%) SQL
5 1 (0.88%) T-SQL
5 1 (0.88%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 30 (26.32%) Security Cleared
2 27 (23.68%) SC Cleared
3 26 (22.81%) CISSP
4 18 (15.79%) CISM
5 13 (11.40%) Degree
6 9 (7.89%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 7 (6.14%) AWS Certification
8 6 (5.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 6 (5.26%) CompTIA Security+
9 5 (4.39%) CISA
9 5 (4.39%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (3.51%) Azure Certification
10 4 (3.51%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 3 (2.63%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (2.63%) Master's Degree
12 2 (1.75%) CCNA
12 2 (1.75%) CISMP
12 2 (1.75%) CRISC
12 2 (1.75%) DV Cleared
12 2 (1.75%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (61.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 47 (41.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 46 (40.35%) NIST
4 37 (32.46%) GDPR
5 24 (21.05%) NCSC
6 8 (7.02%) GRC
7 6 (5.26%) PCI DSS
8 5 (4.39%) Def Stans
9 3 (2.63%) IASME
9 3 (2.63%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 3 (2.63%) NIST 800
10 2 (1.75%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 2 (1.75%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.88%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.88%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.88%) SLA
System Software
1 10 (8.77%) Active Directory
2 6 (5.26%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (3.51%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (2.63%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.88%) Firmware
5 1 (0.88%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.88%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 14 (12.28%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (9.65%) Terraform
3 7 (6.14%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (4.39%) Kubernetes
5 4 (3.51%) CSIRT
5 4 (3.51%) PingFederate
5 4 (3.51%) QRadar
6 3 (2.63%) AirWatch
6 3 (2.63%) SCCM
7 2 (1.75%) Ansible
8 1 (0.88%) CASB
8 1 (0.88%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.88%) Grafana
8 1 (0.88%) WSUS
Vendors
1 40 (35.09%) Microsoft
2 12 (10.53%) Cisco
2 12 (10.53%) VMware
3 7 (6.14%) Fortinet
3 7 (6.14%) Palo Alto
4 6 (5.26%) Citrix
4 6 (5.26%) CloudEndure
4 6 (5.26%) CrowdStrike
4 6 (5.26%) CyberArk
4 6 (5.26%) ServiceNow
4 6 (5.26%) Splunk
5 5 (4.39%) Barracuda Networks
6 4 (3.51%) CheckPoint
6 4 (3.51%) Netskope
6 4 (3.51%) Ping Identity
7 3 (2.63%) Computacenter
7 3 (2.63%) Oracle
7 3 (2.63%) Tenable
8 2 (1.75%) LogRhythm
9 1 (0.88%) Meraki