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 19 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
19 Sep 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 485 438 460
Rank change year-on-year -47 +22 +13
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 159 81 66
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.34% 0.29% 0.20%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.92% 1.69% 1.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 112 57 36
10th Percentile £375 £315 £225
25th Percentile £448 £444 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £575 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.87% +15.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £591
90th Percentile £724 £688 £613
UK median daily rate £511 £575 £511
% change year-on-year -11.09% +12.48% -2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 3 0
10th Percentile £56.28 £27.93 -
25th Percentile £58.43 £28.52 -
Median hourly rate £63.14 £31.49 -
Median % change year-on-year +100.49% - -
75th Percentile £71.00 £34.16 -
90th Percentile - £34.58 -
UK median hourly rate £63.14 £31.49 -
% change year-on-year +100.49% - -

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 8,280 4,794 4,314
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.79% 17.24% 13.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,205 3,132 2,570
10th Percentile £329 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.33%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £713 £725 £763
UK median daily rate £505 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +1.00% -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 598 226 213
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.13 £12.24
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.96 £15.50
Median hourly rate £33.00 £32.50 £31.62
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% +2.78% -15.68%
75th Percentile £67.50 £61.69 £64.73
90th Percentile £76.00 £82.88 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £30.00 £27.50
% change year-on-year +8.33% +9.09% -22.82%

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 19 September 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 19 September 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 19 September 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 -38 78 £550 -12.00% 131
South East -26 44 £506 -10.40% 78
North of England -60 20 £450 - 58
North West -49 11 £450 +50.00% 36
Midlands -50 9 £525 +3.70% 31
Yorkshire -31 8 £540 -1.82% 15
West Midlands -45 7 £550 - 21
South West -38 3 £615 +75.71% 20
East Midlands -19 2 £500 +8.11% 10
East of England -29 2 £455 +82.73% 28
North East -51 1 £500 -29.82% 9
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 14 (8.81%) SharePoint
2 6 (3.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.63%) Anypoint
3 1 (0.63%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (2.52%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.26%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 77 (48.43%) Azure
2 73 (45.91%) Microsoft 365
3 47 (29.56%) Entra ID
4 14 (8.81%) Microsoft Purview
4 14 (8.81%) SaaS
5 13 (8.18%) Azure Sentinel
6 12 (7.55%) GitHub
7 10 (6.29%) AWS
8 9 (5.66%) Mimecast
9 8 (5.03%) Power Platform
10 7 (4.40%) Azure DevOps
10 7 (4.40%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (4.40%) IaaS
11 6 (3.77%) PaaS
12 5 (3.14%) Microsoft Copilot
13 4 (2.52%) Azure Logic Apps
14 3 (1.89%) Azure Event Grid
14 3 (1.89%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 3 (1.89%) Azure Monitor
14 3 (1.89%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 19 (11.95%) Firewall
2 13 (8.18%) Network Security
3 12 (7.55%) VPN
4 6 (3.77%) DNS
5 5 (3.14%) Intranet
5 5 (3.14%) WAN
6 4 (2.52%) DHCP
6 4 (2.52%) VLAN
6 4 (2.52%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (1.89%) DMZ
7 3 (1.89%) LAN
7 3 (1.89%) Wireless
8 2 (1.26%) NAS
8 2 (1.26%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (1.26%) SAN
8 2 (1.26%) SSL
8 2 (1.26%) TCP/IP
8 2 (1.26%) VSAN
9 1 (0.63%) Cisco ISE
9 1 (0.63%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.89%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (1.26%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.63%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.63%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.63%) Metadata
3 1 (0.63%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 3 (1.89%) GitLab
1 3 (1.89%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.63%) Git
2 1 (0.63%) JIRA
2 1 (0.63%) MSI
2 1 (0.63%) Visual Studio
General
1 72 (45.28%) Social Skills
2 30 (18.87%) Public Sector
3 26 (16.35%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (8.18%) Finance
5 10 (6.29%) Local Government
6 7 (4.40%) Legal
7 6 (3.77%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (3.14%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (3.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (2.52%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.26%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.26%) Military
10 2 (1.26%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.63%) Automotive
11 1 (0.63%) Banking
11 1 (0.63%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.63%) Law
11 1 (0.63%) Retail
Job Titles
1 20 (12.58%) Analyst
2 18 (11.32%) Architect
2 18 (11.32%) Senior
3 16 (10.06%) Security Analyst
4 14 (8.81%) Security Specialist
5 13 (8.18%) Cybersecurity Engineer
5 13 (8.18%) Lead
5 13 (8.18%) Security Engineer
6 12 (7.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 11 (6.92%) Cybersecurity Specialist
7 11 (6.92%) Security Manager
8 9 (5.66%) IT Manager
8 9 (5.66%) Solutions Architect
9 8 (5.03%) Consultant
10 7 (4.40%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 6 (3.77%) Cloud Engineer
11 6 (3.77%) IT Analyst
11 6 (3.77%) IT Engineer
11 6 (3.77%) Technical Architect
12 5 (3.14%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.66%) Terraform
2 3 (1.89%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.89%) ARM Templates
3 2 (1.26%) EDI
3 2 (1.26%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (1.26%) OAuth
3 2 (1.26%) SAML
3 2 (1.26%) Software Packaging
4 1 (0.63%) JSON
4 1 (0.63%) JWT
4 1 (0.63%) LDAP
4 1 (0.63%) Middleware
4 1 (0.63%) OAuth2
4 1 (0.63%) OpenAPI
4 1 (0.63%) OpenID
4 1 (0.63%) RAML
4 1 (0.63%) RESTful
4 1 (0.63%) Swagger
4 1 (0.63%) XML
4 1 (0.63%) XML Schema
Miscellaneous
1 16 (10.06%) Operational Technology
2 14 (8.81%) Security Posture
3 13 (8.18%) Management Information System
4 12 (7.55%) Onboarding
5 11 (6.92%) Security Operations Centre
6 10 (6.29%) Cyber Threat
7 9 (5.66%) Cyber Defence
8 8 (5.03%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (3.77%) Cloud Native
9 6 (3.77%) SCADA
10 4 (2.52%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.89%) BYOD
11 3 (1.89%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.89%) Driving Licence
12 2 (1.26%) CESG
12 2 (1.26%) Data Centre
12 2 (1.26%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
12 2 (1.26%) NHS
12 2 (1.26%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 39 (24.53%) Windows
2 18 (11.32%) Linux
3 16 (10.06%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.40%) Unix
4 7 (4.40%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.26%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.63%) Android
6 1 (0.63%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 110 (69.18%) Cybersecurity
2 53 (33.33%) Vulnerability Management
3 39 (24.53%) SIEM
4 38 (23.90%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 35 (22.01%) Incident Response
5 35 (22.01%) Risk Management
6 32 (20.13%) Information Security
7 30 (18.87%) Security Operations
8 25 (15.72%) RBAC
8 25 (15.72%) Security Architecture
8 25 (15.72%) Stakeholder Management
9 23 (14.47%) Continuous Improvement
10 22 (13.84%) CI/CD
10 22 (13.84%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
10 22 (13.84%) Problem-Solving
10 22 (13.84%) Threat Intelligence
11 19 (11.95%) Incident Management
11 19 (11.95%) Project Delivery
11 19 (11.95%) Remediation Plan
11 19 (11.95%) Security Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 22 (13.84%) PowerShell
2 8 (5.03%) Python
3 7 (4.40%) Bash
4 3 (1.89%) Bicep
4 3 (1.89%) SQL
Qualifications
1 44 (27.67%) Security Cleared
2 42 (26.42%) SC Cleared
3 34 (21.38%) CISSP
4 25 (15.72%) CISM
5 18 (11.32%) Cisco Certification
6 14 (8.81%) Degree
7 11 (6.92%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 10 (6.29%) CESG Certified Professional
8 10 (6.29%) GIAC
9 9 (5.66%) Azure Certification
9 9 (5.66%) CRISC
9 9 (5.66%) Microsoft Certification
10 8 (5.03%) DV Cleared
11 6 (3.77%) CCNA
11 6 (3.77%) CompTIA Security+
12 5 (3.14%) MCSE
12 5 (3.14%) OSCP
12 5 (3.14%) SANS
12 5 (3.14%) TOGAF Certification
13 4 (2.52%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 95 (59.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 81 (50.94%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 57 (35.85%) NIST
4 30 (18.87%) NCSC
5 23 (14.47%) GDPR
6 21 (13.21%) GRC
7 17 (10.69%) PCI DSS
8 9 (5.66%) ISO 31000
8 9 (5.66%) NIST 800
9 6 (3.77%) IASME
9 6 (3.77%) PMO
10 5 (3.14%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 5 (3.14%) SLA
11 3 (1.89%) Def Stans
11 3 (1.89%) Government Security Classifications
11 3 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (1.26%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (1.26%) COBIT
12 2 (1.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.63%) JSP 440
System Software
1 36 (22.64%) Active Directory
2 13 (8.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (3.14%) Docker
3 5 (3.14%) Hyper-V
4 3 (1.89%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (1.26%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.26%) VMware NSX
5 2 (1.26%) vSphere
6 1 (0.63%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 21 (13.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 18 (11.32%) Kubernetes
3 7 (4.40%) Ansible
4 6 (3.77%) SCCM
5 4 (2.52%) Podman
6 3 (1.89%) FortiGate
6 3 (1.89%) Nessus
6 3 (1.89%) Single Sign-On
6 3 (1.89%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.26%) QRadar
Vendors
1 85 (53.46%) Microsoft
2 17 (10.69%) VMware
3 16 (10.06%) ServiceNow
4 15 (9.43%) Cisco
5 8 (5.03%) CrowdStrike
6 7 (4.40%) Tenable
7 6 (3.77%) CyberArk
7 6 (3.77%) Netskope
8 5 (3.14%) Zscaler
9 4 (2.52%) Atlassian
9 4 (2.52%) Fortinet
9 4 (2.52%) Palo Alto
9 4 (2.52%) Splunk
10 3 (1.89%) Citrix
10 3 (1.89%) Qualys
10 3 (1.89%) Rapid7
11 2 (1.26%) F5
11 2 (1.26%) Oracle
11 2 (1.26%) Sophos
12 1 (0.63%) Google
336 Cyber Essentials jobs in England