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 15 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 476 423 465
Rank change year-on-year -53 +42 +32
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 150 80 63
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.33% 0.29% 0.19%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.87% 1.68% 1.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 56 45
10th Percentile £383 £325 £220
25th Percentile £459 £439 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £575 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.09% +15.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £600
90th Percentile £743 £688 £650
UK median daily rate £525 £575 £511
% change year-on-year -8.70% +12.48% -2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 3 0
10th Percentile £55.56 £27.93 -
25th Percentile £58.43 £28.52 -
Median hourly rate £63.14 £31.49 -
Median % change year-on-year +100.49% - -
75th Percentile £69.42 £34.16 -
90th Percentile £71.00 £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 8,010 4,764 4,387
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.48% 17.21% 13.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,117 3,104 2,750
10th Percentile £340 £283 £300
25th Percentile £413 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -1.87%
75th Percentile £609 £623 £638
90th Percentile £713 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £510
% change year-on-year - -1.96% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 538 226 273
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.13 £10.97
25th Percentile £18.63 £18.87 £14.41
Median hourly rate £38.72 £31.64 £27.84
Median % change year-on-year +22.38% +13.65% -24.24%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £87.38 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £38.72 £28.18 £26.68
% change year-on-year +37.40% +5.62% -25.37%

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 15 August 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 15 August 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 15 August 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 -36 70 £575 -8.00% 89
South East -33 46 £525 -4.55% 52
North of England -56 17 £475 -13.64% 40
Yorkshire -35 9 £520 -5.45% 11
Midlands -44 9 - - 28
West Midlands -39 8 - - 18
North West -47 7 £425 +47.83% 21
South West -52 4 £525 +50.00% 27
East of England -23 2 £455 +82.73% 23
East Midlands -19 1 - - 10
North East -44 1 £500 -29.82% 8
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 17 (11.33%) SharePoint
2 6 (4.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.67%) Confluence
4 1 (0.67%) Anypoint
Applications
1 4 (2.67%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (2.67%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.33%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 66 (44.00%) Microsoft 365
2 65 (43.33%) Azure
3 31 (20.67%) Entra ID
4 16 (10.67%) Microsoft Purview
5 12 (8.00%) Mimecast
6 11 (7.33%) SaaS
7 9 (6.00%) AWS
7 9 (6.00%) GitHub
8 8 (5.33%) Azure Sentinel
9 7 (4.67%) IaaS
9 7 (4.67%) PaaS
10 5 (3.33%) Azure DevOps
10 5 (3.33%) GitHub Actions
11 4 (2.67%) Azure Logic Apps
12 3 (2.00%) Azure Event Grid
12 3 (2.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 3 (2.00%) Azure Monitor
12 3 (2.00%) Azure Service Bus
12 3 (2.00%) Microsoft Copilot
12 3 (2.00%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 18 (12.00%) Firewall
2 12 (8.00%) VPN
3 8 (5.33%) Network Security
4 5 (3.33%) VSAN
5 4 (2.67%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (2.67%) Wireless
6 3 (2.00%) DHCP
6 3 (2.00%) DMZ
6 3 (2.00%) DNS
6 3 (2.00%) Intranet
6 3 (2.00%) LAN
6 3 (2.00%) VLAN
7 2 (1.33%) NAS
7 2 (1.33%) SAN
7 2 (1.33%) SSL
7 2 (1.33%) WAN
8 1 (0.67%) Cisco ISE
8 1 (0.67%) Intrusion Detection
8 1 (0.67%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.00%) Azure SQL Database
1 3 (2.00%) Metadata
2 1 (0.67%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.67%) Data Warehouse
2 1 (0.67%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 2 (1.33%) GitLab
1 2 (1.33%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.67%) JIRA
2 1 (0.67%) MSI
General
1 66 (44.00%) Social Skills
2 26 (17.33%) Public Sector
3 18 (12.00%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (10.67%) Finance
5 8 (5.33%) Local Government
6 6 (4.00%) Legal
6 6 (4.00%) Organisational Skills
7 5 (3.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 4 (2.67%) Aerospace
8 4 (2.67%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.33%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.67%) Automotive
11 1 (0.67%) Banking
11 1 (0.67%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.67%) Law
11 1 (0.67%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.67%) Military
11 1 (0.67%) Retail
Job Titles
1 21 (14.00%) Architect
2 19 (12.67%) Analyst
3 15 (10.00%) Security Analyst
3 15 (10.00%) Security Specialist
3 15 (10.00%) Senior
4 13 (8.67%) Security Engineer
5 12 (8.00%) Cybersecurity Specialist
6 11 (7.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 11 (7.33%) Lead
7 10 (6.67%) Cybersecurity Engineer
8 9 (6.00%) Security Manager
9 7 (4.67%) IT Engineer
9 7 (4.67%) Senior Architect
9 7 (4.67%) Solutions Architect
9 7 (4.67%) Technical Architect
10 6 (4.00%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 5 (3.33%) Consultant
11 5 (3.33%) Governance Manager
11 5 (3.33%) IT Manager
11 5 (3.33%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (2.00%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.33%) ARM Templates
2 2 (1.33%) EDI
2 2 (1.33%) Microsoft Graph
2 2 (1.33%) OAuth
3 1 (0.67%) JSON
3 1 (0.67%) JWT
3 1 (0.67%) Middleware
3 1 (0.67%) OAuth2
3 1 (0.67%) OpenAPI
3 1 (0.67%) OpenID
3 1 (0.67%) RAML
3 1 (0.67%) RESTful
3 1 (0.67%) SAML
3 1 (0.67%) Swagger
3 1 (0.67%) XML
3 1 (0.67%) XML Schema
Miscellaneous
1 17 (11.33%) Operational Technology
2 14 (9.33%) Hybrid Cloud
3 13 (8.67%) Onboarding
4 10 (6.67%) Security Posture
5 9 (6.00%) Management Information System
5 9 (6.00%) Security Operations Centre
6 8 (5.33%) Cyber Defence
7 7 (4.67%) BYOD
7 7 (4.67%) Cyber Threat
8 6 (4.00%) Cloud Native
8 6 (4.00%) SCADA
9 5 (3.33%) Analytical Mindset
9 5 (3.33%) PKI
9 5 (3.33%) Public Cloud
10 3 (2.00%) Driving Licence
10 3 (2.00%) Legacy Systems
10 3 (2.00%) Taxonomies
11 2 (1.33%) CESG
11 2 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (1.33%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 26 (17.33%) Windows
2 18 (12.00%) Linux
3 11 (7.33%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.67%) Unix
5 4 (2.67%) Windows 10
6 2 (1.33%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.67%) Android
7 1 (0.67%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (68.00%) Cybersecurity
2 40 (26.67%) Vulnerability Management
3 35 (23.33%) Information Security
4 33 (22.00%) Risk Management
5 32 (21.33%) SIEM
5 32 (21.33%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 27 (18.00%) Incident Response
7 25 (16.67%) CI/CD
8 23 (15.33%) Security Operations
9 21 (14.00%) Security Architecture
10 20 (13.33%) Continuous Improvement
11 19 (12.67%) RBAC
11 19 (12.67%) Risk Register
12 18 (12.00%) Data Loss Prevention
12 18 (12.00%) ITSM
13 17 (11.33%) Containerisation
13 17 (11.33%) Roadmaps
14 16 (10.67%) Remediation Plan
14 16 (10.67%) Service Delivery
14 16 (10.67%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 13 (8.67%) PowerShell
2 6 (4.00%) Bash
2 6 (4.00%) Python
3 3 (2.00%) SQL
4 2 (1.33%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 44 (29.33%) Security Cleared
2 42 (28.00%) SC Cleared
3 30 (20.00%) CISSP
4 20 (13.33%) CISM
5 17 (11.33%) Cisco Certification
6 10 (6.67%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 10 (6.67%) CESG Certified Professional
6 10 (6.67%) DV Cleared
7 9 (6.00%) CRISC
7 9 (6.00%) Degree
8 7 (4.67%) Azure Certification
8 7 (4.67%) GIAC
9 6 (4.00%) CCNA
9 6 (4.00%) CompTIA Security+
10 5 (3.33%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 5 (3.33%) MCSE
10 5 (3.33%) Microsoft Certification
10 5 (3.33%) SANS
11 4 (2.67%) SSCP
11 4 (2.67%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (61.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 68 (45.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 61 (40.67%) NIST
4 36 (24.00%) NCSC
5 27 (18.00%) GDPR
6 24 (16.00%) GRC
7 17 (11.33%) PCI DSS
8 12 (8.00%) ISO 31000
9 10 (6.67%) NIST 800
10 8 (5.33%) IASME
11 7 (4.67%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 6 (4.00%) SLA
13 4 (2.67%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 4 (2.67%) PMO
14 3 (2.00%) Government Security Classifications
14 3 (2.00%) ISO 22301
15 2 (1.33%) Actionable Recommendations
15 2 (1.33%) COBIT
15 2 (1.33%) Def Stans
15 2 (1.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 25 (16.67%) Active Directory
2 14 (9.33%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (3.33%) VMware NSX
4 4 (2.67%) Docker
4 4 (2.67%) Hyper-V
5 3 (2.00%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.33%) Virtual Desktop
6 2 (1.33%) vSphere
7 1 (0.67%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 15 (10.00%) Kubernetes
1 15 (10.00%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (4.67%) Terraform
3 6 (4.00%) Ansible
4 4 (2.67%) Podman
5 3 (2.00%) FortiGate
5 3 (2.00%) Nessus
5 3 (2.00%) SCCM
5 3 (2.00%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (2.00%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.33%) QRadar
7 1 (0.67%) AirWatch
7 1 (0.67%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 73 (48.67%) Microsoft
2 17 (11.33%) Cisco
3 15 (10.00%) ServiceNow
3 15 (10.00%) VMware
4 11 (7.33%) CrowdStrike
5 9 (6.00%) CyberArk
5 9 (6.00%) Netskope
6 5 (3.33%) Palo Alto
6 5 (3.33%) Tenable
7 4 (2.67%) Atlassian
7 4 (2.67%) Zscaler
8 3 (2.00%) Citrix
8 3 (2.00%) Splunk
9 2 (1.33%) Oracle
9 2 (1.33%) Sophos
10 1 (0.67%) Apple
10 1 (0.67%) Barracuda Networks
10 1 (0.67%) Dell
10 1 (0.67%) Juniper
10 1 (0.67%) SAP