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 1 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
1 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 428 439 472
Rank change year-on-year +11 +33 +164
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 109 78 108
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.25% 0.28%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.04% 1.87% 1.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 39 75
10th Percentile £350 £305 £400
25th Percentile £413 £419 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +15.79%
75th Percentile £638 £620 £650
90th Percentile £675 £693 £775
UK median daily rate £550 £516 £533
% change year-on-year +6.67% -3.31% +6.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 11
10th Percentile £33.85 £70.24 -
25th Percentile - £72.40 £42.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £78.40 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -54.08% +76.18% +81.63%
75th Percentile £64.88 £82.00 £46.75
90th Percentile £94.25 £82.72 £49.00
UK median hourly rate £36.00 £78.40 £44.50
% change year-on-year -54.08% +76.18% +81.63%

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 5,343 4,164 5,533
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.54% 13.61% 14.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,465 2,421 3,718
10th Percentile £313 £288 £320
25th Percentile £404 £394 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £545
Median % change year-on-year - -8.26% +3.81%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £710 £738 £760
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 275 179 225
10th Percentile £15.25 £13.26 £14.82
25th Percentile £17.69 £17.31 £20.51
Median hourly rate £25.15 £29.00 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.28% -19.44% +58.24%
75th Percentile £56.88 £62.99 £65.00
90th Percentile £77.41 £70.00 £83.34
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £26.50 £35.79
% change year-on-year -5.09% -25.96% +52.30%

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 2025.

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 1 December 2025. 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 48 £575 +9.52% 37
South East -13 15 £528 -5.80% 45
Midlands -30 13 £463 +42.31% 38
North of England -38 11 £502 +0.37% 26
South West +11 9 £475 - 10
East Midlands -8 8 £463 +54.17% 22
East of England -12 8 £553 +79.11% 5
Yorkshire -37 6 £502 +0.37% 3
West Midlands -23 5 £465 +43.08% 16
North West -18 4 £350 -31.71% 21
North East - 1 £650 - 2
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 4 (3.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.83%) Confluence
3 1 (0.92%) CMS
3 1 (0.92%) Headless CMS
3 1 (0.92%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (2.75%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.92%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 46 (42.20%) Azure
2 28 (25.69%) AWS
3 22 (20.18%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (12.84%) Azure Sentinel
4 14 (12.84%) Entra ID
5 8 (7.34%) SaaS
6 7 (6.42%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 6 (5.50%) IaaS
7 6 (5.50%) PaaS
8 5 (4.59%) GCP
8 5 (4.59%) Microsoft Purview
8 5 (4.59%) Power Platform
9 3 (2.75%) Amazon EKS
9 3 (2.75%) AWS CloudFormation
9 3 (2.75%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (2.75%) Azure AKS
9 3 (2.75%) GitHub
10 2 (1.83%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (1.83%) Kong
10 2 (1.83%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 12 (11.01%) Firewall
1 12 (11.01%) Network Security
2 10 (9.17%) DNS
3 9 (8.26%) DHCP
4 8 (7.34%) VPN
5 7 (6.42%) VLAN
6 6 (5.50%) TCP/IP
7 5 (4.59%) IP Telephony
8 2 (1.83%) Wireless
9 1 (0.92%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (0.92%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.75%) Power BI
2 1 (0.92%) DynamoDB
2 1 (0.92%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 4 (3.67%) SonarQube
2 3 (2.75%) Burp Suite
2 3 (2.75%) Jenkins
2 3 (2.75%) Metasploit
3 2 (1.83%) JIRA
4 1 (0.92%) GitLab
General
1 39 (35.78%) Social Skills
2 19 (17.43%) Public Sector
3 10 (9.17%) Legal
4 8 (7.34%) Presentation Skills
5 7 (6.42%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (6.42%) Local Government
6 5 (4.59%) Finance
6 5 (4.59%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (3.67%) Aviation
8 3 (2.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.83%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.92%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.92%) Electronics
10 1 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.92%) Marketing
10 1 (0.92%) Military
10 1 (0.92%) Retail
10 1 (0.92%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 22 (20.18%) Analyst
2 12 (11.01%) Architect
2 12 (11.01%) Security Manager
2 12 (11.01%) Senior
3 11 (10.09%) Security Analyst
4 10 (9.17%) Security Engineer
5 9 (8.26%) Lead
6 7 (6.42%) Consultant
6 7 (6.42%) Cybersecurity Manager
7 6 (5.50%) Security Architect
7 6 (5.50%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.59%) DevSecOps Engineer
8 5 (4.59%) Information Analyst
8 5 (4.59%) Information Security Analyst
8 5 (4.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 5 (4.59%) Project Manager
8 5 (4.59%) Support Analyst
9 4 (3.67%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 4 (3.67%) Network Engineer
9 4 (3.67%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.67%) LDAP
1 4 (3.67%) OpenID
1 4 (3.67%) SAML
2 3 (2.75%) OAuth
3 2 (1.83%) ARM Templates
3 2 (1.83%) AWS CDK
3 2 (1.83%) Middleware
3 2 (1.83%) Node.js
3 2 (1.83%) RESTful
4 1 (0.92%) ADO
4 1 (0.92%) Next.js
4 1 (0.92%) React
Miscellaneous
1 16 (14.68%) Security Posture
2 12 (11.01%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (7.34%) Onboarding
4 7 (6.42%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 5 (4.59%) Cloud Native
5 5 (4.59%) iPad
5 5 (4.59%) iPhone
5 5 (4.59%) NHS
5 5 (4.59%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (3.67%) Cloud Security Posture
6 4 (3.67%) Security Operations Centre
7 2 (1.83%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.83%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.83%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.83%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.92%) CMDB
8 1 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.92%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.92%) EPoS
8 1 (0.92%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 10 (9.17%) Windows
2 7 (6.42%) Linux
3 5 (4.59%) Android
3 5 (4.59%) Mac OS
3 5 (4.59%) Windows 10
3 5 (4.59%) Windows 7
4 3 (2.75%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (54.13%) Cybersecurity
2 30 (27.52%) Information Security
3 29 (26.61%) Cloud Security
4 23 (21.10%) Incident Response
5 22 (20.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 20 (18.35%) Security Operations
7 17 (15.60%) Data Protection
8 16 (14.68%) Risk Management
8 16 (14.68%) SIEM
8 16 (14.68%) Threat Modelling
9 14 (12.84%) Stakeholder Management
10 13 (11.93%) Continuous Improvement
11 12 (11.01%) Infrastructure as Code
12 11 (10.09%) Decision-Making
12 11 (10.09%) Risk Register
12 11 (10.09%) Vulnerability Management
13 10 (9.17%) Agile
13 10 (9.17%) DevOps
13 10 (9.17%) Migration
13 10 (9.17%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 11 (10.09%) PowerShell
2 7 (6.42%) Python
3 5 (4.59%) Bash
4 4 (3.67%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (1.83%) Bicep
5 2 (1.83%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.92%) Go
6 1 (0.92%) SQL
Qualifications
1 27 (24.77%) CISSP
2 21 (19.27%) Security Cleared
3 18 (16.51%) CISM
3 18 (16.51%) SC Cleared
4 11 (10.09%) Degree
5 8 (7.34%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
6 6 (5.50%) CompTIA Security+
7 5 (4.59%) CISA
8 4 (3.67%) Azure Certification
8 4 (3.67%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 4 (3.67%) Microsoft Certification
8 4 (3.67%) PMI Certification
8 4 (3.67%) PMP
9 3 (2.75%) CHECK Team Member
9 3 (2.75%) CREST Certified
9 3 (2.75%) CRISC
9 3 (2.75%) DV Cleared
9 3 (2.75%) Master's Degree
9 3 (2.75%) OSCP
9 3 (2.75%) Tigerscheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (66.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 51 (46.79%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 41 (37.61%) GDPR
3 41 (37.61%) NIST
4 19 (17.43%) NCSC
5 9 (8.26%) GRC
6 6 (5.50%) PCI DSS
7 3 (2.75%) IASME
7 3 (2.75%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 3 (2.75%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 3 (2.75%) NIST 800
7 3 (2.75%) PMO
7 3 (2.75%) QA
7 3 (2.75%) SLA
8 2 (1.83%) Accessibility
8 2 (1.83%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (1.83%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.92%) ISO 22301
9 1 (0.92%) JSP 440
System Software
1 15 (13.76%) Active Directory
2 3 (2.75%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (1.83%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.92%) Docker
4 1 (0.92%) Firmware
4 1 (0.92%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (10.09%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (6.42%) Kubernetes
2 7 (6.42%) Single Sign-On
3 6 (5.50%) Terraform
4 4 (3.67%) CSIRT
4 4 (3.67%) PingFederate
4 4 (3.67%) QRadar
5 3 (2.75%) Ansible
5 3 (2.75%) FortiGate
5 3 (2.75%) Nmap
5 3 (2.75%) SCCM
6 1 (0.92%) Grafana
6 1 (0.92%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.92%) vCenter Server
6 1 (0.92%) WSUS
Vendors
1 47 (43.12%) Microsoft
2 11 (10.09%) Cisco
3 7 (6.42%) Fortinet
3 7 (6.42%) Splunk
4 4 (3.67%) CheckPoint
4 4 (3.67%) Ping Identity
5 3 (2.75%) Computacenter
5 3 (2.75%) CyberArk
5 3 (2.75%) Tenable
5 3 (2.75%) Veracode
5 3 (2.75%) Zscaler
6 2 (1.83%) Google
6 2 (1.83%) LogRhythm
6 2 (1.83%) Palo Alto
6 2 (1.83%) Sophos
6 2 (1.83%) VMware
7 1 (0.92%) Apple
7 1 (0.92%) Citrix
7 1 (0.92%) Datto
7 1 (0.92%) SAP
139 Cyber Essentials jobs in England