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 8 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 443 413 489
Rank change year-on-year -30 +76 +91
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 142 58 55
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.24% 0.15%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.11% 1.54% 1.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 34 39
10th Percentile £377 £325 £300
25th Percentile £463 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £575 £627 £650
90th Percentile £668 £635 £685
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £575
% change year-on-year - -8.70% +6.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 3 0
10th Percentile - £71.68 -
25th Percentile - £76.00 -
Median hourly rate £36.00 £83.20 -
Median % change year-on-year -56.73% - -
75th Percentile £67.84 - -
90th Percentile £78.20 - -
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £83.20 -
% change year-on-year -24.12% - -

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 6,739 3,778 5,282
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.24% 15.51% 14.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,385 2,446 3,388
10th Percentile £340 £267 £305
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -2.86% -
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £706 £736 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 403 156 338
10th Percentile £14.29 £17.48 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.14 £13.18
Median hourly rate £28.55 £32.66 £21.38
Median % change year-on-year -12.57% +52.75% -49.70%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £81.00 £80.73 £65.00
UK median hourly rate £30.58 £32.00 £20.80
% change year-on-year -4.44% +53.83% -47.99%

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 8 April 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 8 April 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 8 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 -34 54 £550 +18.92% 28
South East -28 36 £525 -15.32% 39
East of England -17 15 £475 -5.00% 6
North of England -49 15 £540 -6.09% 24
South West -23 12 £513 -14.58% 16
Yorkshire -46 8 £502 -12.72% 3
West Midlands -64 7 £460 +41.54% 13
Midlands -67 7 £460 +41.54% 16
North West - 7 £540 - 19
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 10 (7.04%) SharePoint
2 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.82%) Confluence
4 1 (0.70%) Anypoint
Applications
1 5 (3.52%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.70%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (0.70%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 59 (41.55%) Azure
2 42 (29.58%) Microsoft 365
3 25 (17.61%) AWS
3 25 (17.61%) Microsoft Purview
4 23 (16.20%) Entra ID
5 13 (9.15%) Mimecast
6 12 (8.45%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 10 (7.04%) AWS Control Tower
7 10 (7.04%) Azure Sentinel
7 10 (7.04%) SaaS
8 8 (5.63%) AWS CloudFormation
8 8 (5.63%) IaaS
8 8 (5.63%) PaaS
9 7 (4.93%) AWS CloudTrail
10 6 (4.23%) AWS KMS
10 6 (4.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 4 (2.82%) Amazon EKS
11 4 (2.82%) Azure AKS
12 3 (2.11%) OCI
13 2 (1.41%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 24 (16.90%) Firewall
2 19 (13.38%) VPN
3 16 (11.27%) Network Security
4 8 (5.63%) DNS
5 7 (4.93%) DHCP
6 4 (2.82%) BGP
6 4 (2.82%) Cisco ASA
6 4 (2.82%) Cisco IOS
6 4 (2.82%) MPLS
6 4 (2.82%) TACACS
6 4 (2.82%) VLAN
6 4 (2.82%) VSAN
6 4 (2.82%) Wireless
7 3 (2.11%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (0.70%) HTTP
8 1 (0.70%) LAN
8 1 (0.70%) SAN
8 1 (0.70%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.11%) Metadata
2 2 (1.41%) DynamoDB
3 1 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.70%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.41%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.70%) JIRA
2 1 (0.70%) MSI
General
1 52 (36.62%) Social Skills
2 23 (16.20%) Finance
3 21 (14.79%) Public Sector
4 9 (6.34%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (4.93%) Aerospace
5 7 (4.93%) Legal
6 6 (4.23%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (3.52%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (2.82%) Aviation
8 4 (2.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (2.11%) Local Government
9 3 (2.11%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 27 (19.01%) Architect
2 24 (16.90%) Security Engineer
3 21 (14.79%) Senior
4 17 (11.97%) Analyst
5 13 (9.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 12 (8.45%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 12 (8.45%) Security Analyst
7 9 (6.34%) Technical Architect
8 8 (5.63%) Lead
9 7 (4.93%) Consultant
9 7 (4.93%) Project Manager
9 7 (4.93%) Security Manager
9 7 (4.93%) Solutions Architect
10 6 (4.23%) Cloud Architect
10 6 (4.23%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 5 (3.52%) Cybersecurity Architect
11 5 (3.52%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 5 (3.52%) Information Analyst
11 5 (3.52%) Information Security Analyst
11 5 (3.52%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (5.63%) LDAP
2 5 (3.52%) OAuth
3 4 (2.82%) OpenID
3 4 (2.82%) SAML
4 3 (2.11%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (1.41%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.41%) AWS CDK
5 2 (1.41%) Microsoft Graph
5 2 (1.41%) Node.js
6 1 (0.70%) JSON
6 1 (0.70%) JWT
6 1 (0.70%) Middleware
6 1 (0.70%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.70%) OpenAPI
6 1 (0.70%) RAML
6 1 (0.70%) React
6 1 (0.70%) RESTful
6 1 (0.70%) Software Packaging
6 1 (0.70%) Swagger
6 1 (0.70%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (11.97%) Onboarding
2 9 (6.34%) Hybrid Cloud
2 9 (6.34%) Operational Technology
2 9 (6.34%) PKI
3 8 (5.63%) Cloud Native
4 6 (4.23%) Cyber Threat
5 5 (3.52%) NHS
5 5 (3.52%) Public Cloud
5 5 (3.52%) SCADA
5 5 (3.52%) Security Operations Centre
5 5 (3.52%) Security Posture
6 4 (2.82%) BYOD
6 4 (2.82%) Driving Licence
7 3 (2.11%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (2.11%) Data Centre
7 3 (2.11%) Taxonomies
8 2 (1.41%) Cybercrime
8 2 (1.41%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.41%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.41%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 25 (17.61%) Linux
2 19 (13.38%) Windows
3 12 (8.45%) Windows Server
4 6 (4.23%) Ubuntu
5 3 (2.11%) Windows 10
6 2 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.41%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.70%) Android
7 1 (0.70%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.70%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
2 34 (23.94%) Data Loss Prevention
3 27 (19.01%) Migration
4 23 (16.20%) Information Security
5 19 (13.38%) ITIL
6 18 (12.68%) Risk Management
6 18 (12.68%) Zero Trust
7 17 (11.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 17 (11.97%) Roadmaps
7 17 (11.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 16 (11.27%) Cloud Security
8 16 (11.27%) Continuous Improvement
8 16 (11.27%) Incident Response
9 15 (10.56%) CI/CD
9 15 (10.56%) ITSM
10 14 (9.86%) SIEM
10 14 (9.86%) TOGAF
11 12 (8.45%) Network Segmentation
12 11 (7.75%) Security Operations
12 11 (7.75%) Threat Detection
Programming Languages
1 19 (13.38%) PowerShell
2 11 (7.75%) Python
3 8 (5.63%) Kusto Query Language
4 5 (3.52%) Bash
5 4 (2.82%) PHP
6 3 (2.11%) SQL
7 2 (1.41%) Bicep
8 1 (0.70%) C#
8 1 (0.70%) Go
8 1 (0.70%) T-SQL
8 1 (0.70%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 44 (30.99%) Security Cleared
2 40 (28.17%) SC Cleared
3 18 (12.68%) CISSP
4 12 (8.45%) Degree
5 11 (7.75%) CISM
6 10 (7.04%) DV Cleared
7 8 (5.63%) CompTIA Security+
8 7 (4.93%) AWS Certification
8 7 (4.93%) Cisco Certification
8 7 (4.93%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (4.23%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 5 (3.52%) Azure Certification
10 5 (3.52%) CCNA
11 4 (2.82%) APMG
11 4 (2.82%) GIAC
11 4 (2.82%) SSCP
11 4 (2.82%) TOGAF Certification
12 3 (2.11%) GSEC
12 3 (2.11%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 3 (2.11%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (51.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 59 (41.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 49 (34.51%) NIST
4 32 (22.54%) NCSC
5 31 (21.83%) GDPR
6 11 (7.75%) GRC
7 9 (6.34%) PCI DSS
8 6 (4.23%) IASME
8 6 (4.23%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 6 (4.23%) NIST 800
9 5 (3.52%) Def Stans
9 5 (3.52%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 4 (2.82%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 3 (2.11%) ISO 22301
11 3 (2.11%) ISO 31000
11 3 (2.11%) SLA
12 1 (0.70%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.70%) PMO
System Software
1 13 (9.15%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (7.04%) Active Directory
3 6 (4.23%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (3.52%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (2.82%) Hyper-V
5 4 (2.82%) VMware NSX
6 3 (2.11%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.41%) Docker
8 1 (0.70%) Firmware
8 1 (0.70%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 20 (14.08%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (9.15%) Kubernetes
2 13 (9.15%) Terraform
3 8 (5.63%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (4.93%) AirWatch
5 4 (2.82%) Ansible
5 4 (2.82%) PingFederate
5 4 (2.82%) vCenter Server
6 3 (2.11%) SCCM
6 3 (2.11%) SCOM
7 2 (1.41%) Nessus
7 2 (1.41%) Podman
8 1 (0.70%) CASB
8 1 (0.70%) Grafana
8 1 (0.70%) RSA Archer
8 1 (0.70%) WSUS
Vendors
1 59 (41.55%) Microsoft
2 22 (15.49%) Cisco
2 22 (15.49%) VMware
3 14 (9.86%) CrowdStrike
4 11 (7.75%) CyberArk
4 11 (7.75%) Netskope
5 10 (7.04%) Palo Alto
5 10 (7.04%) ServiceNow
6 6 (4.23%) Citrix
6 6 (4.23%) CloudEndure
7 5 (3.52%) Barracuda Networks
7 5 (3.52%) Tenable
8 4 (2.82%) Ping Identity
9 3 (2.11%) CheckPoint
9 3 (2.11%) Fortinet
9 3 (2.11%) Oracle
10 2 (1.41%) Apple
10 2 (1.41%) Atlassian
10 2 (1.41%) Qualys
10 2 (1.41%) Sophos