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 24 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 434 408 484
Rank change year-on-year -26 +76 +83
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 147 63 56
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.39% 0.26% 0.15%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.26% 1.68% 1.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 36 39
10th Percentile £378 £325 £291
25th Percentile £469 £425 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% +4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £593 £630 £644
90th Percentile £675 £672 £675
UK median daily rate £536 £525 £538
% change year-on-year +2.14% -2.33% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £68.80 -
Median hourly rate £36.00 £78.40 -
Median % change year-on-year -54.08% - -
75th Percentile £79.31 £83.20 -
90th Percentile £94.38 - -
UK median hourly rate £58.00 £83.20 -
% change year-on-year -30.29% - -

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 6,513 3,750 5,364
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.40% 15.42% 14.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,220 2,419 3,426
10th Percentile £341 £263 £304
25th Percentile £413 £384 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £613 £629 £638
90th Percentile £705 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £513
% change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 382 162 335
10th Percentile £15.34 £17.15 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.14 £13.41
Median hourly rate £27.25 £32.25 £23.50
Median % change year-on-year -15.50% +37.23% -44.71%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £45.00
90th Percentile £81.00 £78.40 £67.38
UK median hourly rate £28.80 £31.76 £22.01
% change year-on-year -9.34% +44.30% -44.98%

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 24 March 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 24 March 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 24 March 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 -22 57 £550 +15.79% 28
South East -35 35 £525 -15.32% 38
East of England -12 18 £514 +2.80% 7
North of England -55 15 £540 -10.00% 23
South West -20 12 £513 -14.58% 16
Yorkshire -53 8 £502 -16.36% 5
North West - 7 £540 - 16
West Midlands -61 6 £460 +41.54% 12
Midlands -72 6 £460 +41.54% 15
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 9 (6.12%) SharePoint
2 6 (4.08%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (2.72%) Confluence
4 1 (0.68%) Anypoint
Applications
1 5 (3.40%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.68%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 61 (41.50%) Azure
2 39 (26.53%) Microsoft 365
3 30 (20.41%) AWS
4 24 (16.33%) Microsoft Purview
5 22 (14.97%) Entra ID
6 14 (9.52%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 12 (8.16%) Mimecast
8 11 (7.48%) AWS Control Tower
8 11 (7.48%) Azure Sentinel
9 9 (6.12%) IaaS
9 9 (6.12%) PaaS
9 9 (6.12%) SaaS
10 8 (5.44%) AWS CloudFormation
11 7 (4.76%) AWS CloudTrail
12 6 (4.08%) AWS KMS
12 6 (4.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 5 (3.40%) Amazon EKS
13 5 (3.40%) Azure AKS
14 3 (2.04%) OCI
15 2 (1.36%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 26 (17.69%) Firewall
2 20 (13.61%) Network Security
3 19 (12.93%) VPN
4 8 (5.44%) DNS
5 7 (4.76%) DHCP
6 4 (2.72%) BGP
6 4 (2.72%) Cisco ASA
6 4 (2.72%) Cisco IOS
6 4 (2.72%) MPLS
6 4 (2.72%) TACACS
6 4 (2.72%) VSAN
6 4 (2.72%) Wireless
7 3 (2.04%) VLAN
8 2 (1.36%) LAN
8 2 (1.36%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (0.68%) HTTP
9 1 (0.68%) SAN
9 1 (0.68%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.04%) Metadata
2 2 (1.36%) DynamoDB
3 1 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.68%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.68%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.36%) Jenkins
2 1 (0.68%) JIRA
General
1 55 (37.41%) Social Skills
2 23 (15.65%) Finance
3 20 (13.61%) Public Sector
4 9 (6.12%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (4.76%) Aerospace
5 7 (4.76%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (4.76%) Presentation Skills
6 6 (4.08%) Legal
7 5 (3.40%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (2.72%) Aviation
9 3 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (2.04%) Local Government
10 1 (0.68%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.68%) Electronics
10 1 (0.68%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.68%) Marketing
10 1 (0.68%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 28 (19.05%) Architect
2 24 (16.33%) Security Engineer
3 22 (14.97%) Senior
4 19 (12.93%) Analyst
5 11 (7.48%) Cybersecurity Engineer
5 11 (7.48%) Security Analyst
6 10 (6.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 9 (6.12%) Technical Architect
8 8 (5.44%) Consultant
8 8 (5.44%) Lead
8 8 (5.44%) Project Manager
9 7 (4.76%) Security Architect
9 7 (4.76%) Security Manager
9 7 (4.76%) Solutions Architect
10 6 (4.08%) Cloud Architect
10 6 (4.08%) Cybersecurity Architect
11 5 (3.40%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 5 (3.40%) DevSecOps Engineer
11 5 (3.40%) Information Security Analyst
11 5 (3.40%) Security Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (5.44%) LDAP
2 6 (4.08%) OAuth
3 4 (2.72%) OpenID
3 4 (2.72%) SAML
4 3 (2.04%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (1.36%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.36%) AWS CDK
5 2 (1.36%) Node.js
6 1 (0.68%) .NET
6 1 (0.68%) JSON
6 1 (0.68%) JWT
6 1 (0.68%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.68%) OpenAPI
6 1 (0.68%) RAML
6 1 (0.68%) React
6 1 (0.68%) Software Packaging
6 1 (0.68%) STL
6 1 (0.68%) Swagger
6 1 (0.68%) XML
6 1 (0.68%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (12.24%) Onboarding
2 11 (7.48%) Cyber Threat
2 11 (7.48%) Security Posture
3 9 (6.12%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (6.12%) Operational Technology
4 8 (5.44%) PKI
5 7 (4.76%) Cloud Native
6 6 (4.08%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 6 (4.08%) NHS
7 5 (3.40%) Public Cloud
7 5 (3.40%) SCADA
7 5 (3.40%) Security Operations Centre
8 4 (2.72%) BYOD
8 4 (2.72%) Driving Licence
9 3 (2.04%) Cloud Security Posture
9 3 (2.04%) Data Centre
9 3 (2.04%) Taxonomies
10 2 (1.36%) Cybercrime
10 2 (1.36%) Management Information System
10 2 (1.36%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 23 (15.65%) Linux
2 15 (10.20%) Windows
3 10 (6.80%) Windows Server
4 6 (4.08%) Ubuntu
5 2 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.36%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.36%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.68%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 78 (53.06%) Cybersecurity
2 34 (23.13%) Data Loss Prevention
3 27 (18.37%) Migration
4 25 (17.01%) Information Security
5 22 (14.97%) Cloud Security
6 19 (12.93%) Risk Management
6 19 (12.93%) Zero Trust
7 18 (12.24%) Incident Response
7 18 (12.24%) ITIL
8 17 (11.56%) Roadmaps
8 17 (11.56%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 16 (10.88%) Threat Detection
9 16 (10.88%) TOGAF
10 15 (10.20%) Continuous Improvement
10 15 (10.20%) ITSM
10 15 (10.20%) Security Operations
10 15 (10.20%) SIEM
11 14 (9.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 12 (8.16%) CI/CD
12 12 (8.16%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 15 (10.20%) PowerShell
2 9 (6.12%) Kusto Query Language
2 9 (6.12%) Python
3 4 (2.72%) PHP
4 3 (2.04%) Bash
4 3 (2.04%) SQL
5 2 (1.36%) Bicep
6 1 (0.68%) C#
6 1 (0.68%) Go
6 1 (0.68%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.68%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 44 (29.93%) Security Cleared
2 40 (27.21%) SC Cleared
3 21 (14.29%) CISSP
4 14 (9.52%) Degree
5 13 (8.84%) CISM
6 8 (5.44%) CompTIA Security+
6 8 (5.44%) DV Cleared
7 7 (4.76%) AWS Certification
8 6 (4.08%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 5 (3.40%) Azure Certification
9 5 (3.40%) Cisco Certification
9 5 (3.40%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (2.72%) APMG
10 4 (2.72%) GIAC
10 4 (2.72%) SSCP
10 4 (2.72%) TOGAF Certification
11 3 (2.04%) CCNA
11 3 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (2.04%) GSEC
11 3 (2.04%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (54.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 64 (43.54%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 57 (38.78%) NIST
4 37 (25.17%) GDPR
5 31 (21.09%) NCSC
6 12 (8.16%) GRC
7 10 (6.80%) PCI DSS
8 5 (3.40%) Def Stans
8 5 (3.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 5 (3.40%) IASME
8 5 (3.40%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 5 (3.40%) NIST 800
9 4 (2.72%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 3 (2.04%) ISO 22301
10 3 (2.04%) ISO 31000
10 3 (2.04%) SLA
11 1 (0.68%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.68%) PMO
11 1 (0.68%) SOC 2
System Software
1 11 (7.48%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (6.80%) Active Directory
3 6 (4.08%) Virtual Desktop
4 5 (3.40%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (2.72%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (2.72%) VMware NSX
6 2 (1.36%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.68%) Firmware
7 1 (0.68%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 19 (12.93%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (6.80%) Terraform
3 9 (6.12%) Kubernetes
3 9 (6.12%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (4.76%) AirWatch
5 4 (2.72%) PingFederate
5 4 (2.72%) vCenter Server
6 3 (2.04%) SCCM
6 3 (2.04%) SCOM
7 2 (1.36%) Ansible
7 2 (1.36%) Nessus
8 1 (0.68%) CASB
8 1 (0.68%) Grafana
8 1 (0.68%) RSA Archer
8 1 (0.68%) WSUS
Vendors
1 59 (40.14%) Microsoft
2 22 (14.97%) Cisco
3 20 (13.61%) VMware
4 13 (8.84%) CrowdStrike
5 11 (7.48%) Palo Alto
6 10 (6.80%) CyberArk
6 10 (6.80%) Netskope
7 9 (6.12%) ServiceNow
8 6 (4.08%) Citrix
8 6 (4.08%) CloudEndure
9 5 (3.40%) Barracuda Networks
9 5 (3.40%) Tenable
10 4 (2.72%) Ping Identity
11 3 (2.04%) CheckPoint
11 3 (2.04%) Computacenter
11 3 (2.04%) Fortinet
11 3 (2.04%) Oracle
12 2 (1.36%) Qualys
12 2 (1.36%) SAP
12 2 (1.36%) Sophos