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

 6 months to
26 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 426 409 462
Rank change year-on-year -17 +53 +162
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 121 86 97
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.38% 0.30% 0.26%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.20% 2.13% 1.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 46 64
10th Percentile £356 £294 £400
25th Percentile £458 £416 £489
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £503 £563
Median % change year-on-year +9.45% -10.67% +25.00%
75th Percentile £626 £625 £650
90th Percentile £650 £664 £775
UK median daily rate £543 £520 £542
% change year-on-year +4.33% -4.10% +8.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 4 10
10th Percentile £33.85 - -
25th Percentile - £68.80 £42.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £78.40 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -54.08% +76.18% -
75th Percentile £64.88 £83.20 £46.75
90th Percentile £94.25 - £49.00
UK median hourly rate £36.00 £78.40 £44.50
% change year-on-year -54.08% +76.18% -

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 5,506 4,045 5,306
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.33% 14.13% 14.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,578 2,351 3,553
10th Percentile £313 £266 £325
25th Percentile £406 £385 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £545
Median % change year-on-year - -8.26% +3.81%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £706 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 283 162 216
10th Percentile £15.60 £14.73 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.35 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.37 £34.75
Median % change year-on-year -19.83% -9.73% +54.44%
75th Percentile £60.31 £64.73 £64.63
90th Percentile £73.75 £74.94 £83.33
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £29.00 £33.00
% change year-on-year -13.28% -12.12% +46.67%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 +15 49 £568 +8.10% 43
South East -14 21 £528 -11.90% 30
East of England -15 13 £602 +20.30% 7
Midlands -46 12 £463 +42.31% 29
North of England -53 12 £504 +0.74% 28
South West 0 9 £475 - 29
East Midlands -18 7 £463 +54.17% 12
Yorkshire -37 6 £502 +0.37% 6
North West -25 5 £438 -14.63% 18
West Midlands -33 5 £465 +43.08% 17
North East - 1 £650 - 4
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 (3.31%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.65%) Confluence
3 1 (0.83%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (2.48%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.83%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 47 (38.84%) Azure
2 33 (27.27%) AWS
3 23 (19.01%) Microsoft 365
4 22 (18.18%) Entra ID
5 15 (12.40%) Azure Sentinel
6 13 (10.74%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 9 (7.44%) AWS CloudFormation
7 9 (7.44%) AWS Control Tower
8 8 (6.61%) SaaS
9 7 (5.79%) AWS CloudTrail
9 7 (5.79%) Microsoft Purview
10 6 (4.96%) AWS KMS
10 6 (4.96%) IaaS
10 6 (4.96%) PaaS
10 6 (4.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (4.13%) Power Platform
12 3 (2.48%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (2.48%) Azure AKS
13 2 (1.65%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 2 (1.65%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 15 (12.40%) Firewall
1 15 (12.40%) Network Security
2 13 (10.74%) VPN
3 9 (7.44%) DNS
4 8 (6.61%) DHCP
5 6 (4.96%) VLAN
6 3 (2.48%) TCP/IP
7 2 (1.65%) IP Telephony
7 2 (1.65%) LAN
7 2 (1.65%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (1.65%) Wireless
8 1 (0.83%) HTTP
8 1 (0.83%) Intrusion Detection
8 1 (0.83%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.48%) Power BI
2 2 (1.65%) DynamoDB
3 1 (0.83%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.83%) Metadata
3 1 (0.83%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.83%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 3 (2.48%) Jenkins
2 2 (1.65%) JIRA
3 1 (0.83%) GitLab
3 1 (0.83%) SonarQube
General
1 38 (31.40%) Social Skills
2 22 (18.18%) Public Sector
3 15 (12.40%) Finance
4 10 (8.26%) Legal
5 8 (6.61%) Presentation Skills
6 7 (5.79%) Analytical Skills
7 6 (4.96%) Local Government
7 6 (4.96%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (3.31%) Aerospace
8 4 (3.31%) Aviation
8 4 (3.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (2.48%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.83%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.83%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.83%) Electronics
10 1 (0.83%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.83%) Marketing
10 1 (0.83%) Retail
10 1 (0.83%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 21 (17.36%) Architect
2 19 (15.70%) Analyst
3 15 (12.40%) Senior
4 13 (10.74%) Lead
5 11 (9.09%) Security Analyst
5 11 (9.09%) Security Manager
6 9 (7.44%) Security Engineer
7 8 (6.61%) Cloud Architect
8 6 (4.96%) Consultant
8 6 (4.96%) Cybersecurity Manager
8 6 (4.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 6 (4.96%) Project Manager
8 6 (4.96%) Security Architect
8 6 (4.96%) Solutions Architect
9 5 (4.13%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 5 (4.13%) Information Analyst
9 5 (4.13%) Information Security Analyst
9 5 (4.13%) Lead Architect
9 5 (4.13%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 4 (3.31%) Lead Cloud Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.31%) LDAP
1 4 (3.31%) OpenID
1 4 (3.31%) SAML
2 3 (2.48%) OAuth
3 2 (1.65%) ARM Templates
3 2 (1.65%) AWS CDK
3 2 (1.65%) Middleware
3 2 (1.65%) Node.js
3 2 (1.65%) Oracle Fusion
3 2 (1.65%) RESTful
4 1 (0.83%) .NET
4 1 (0.83%) React
4 1 (0.83%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (13.22%) Security Posture
2 13 (10.74%) Cyber Threat
3 10 (8.26%) Onboarding
4 7 (5.79%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 7 (5.79%) Operational Technology
5 6 (4.96%) Cloud Native
6 4 (3.31%) Cloud Security Posture
6 4 (3.31%) NHS
6 4 (3.31%) SCADA
6 4 (3.31%) Security Operations Centre
7 3 (2.48%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.65%) Cyber Defence
8 2 (1.65%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.65%) iPad
8 2 (1.65%) iPhone
8 2 (1.65%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.65%) Product Ownership
8 2 (1.65%) Video Conferencing
9 1 (0.83%) CMDB
9 1 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 12 (9.92%) Windows
2 11 (9.09%) Linux
3 5 (4.13%) Windows Server
4 4 (3.31%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.65%) Android
5 2 (1.65%) Mac OS
5 2 (1.65%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (47.11%) Cybersecurity
2 29 (23.97%) Information Security
3 26 (21.49%) Cloud Security
4 25 (20.66%) Incident Response
4 25 (20.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 20 (16.53%) Security Operations
6 18 (14.88%) Risk Management
7 17 (14.05%) Migration
7 17 (14.05%) Roadmaps
7 17 (14.05%) SIEM
8 16 (13.22%) Threat Detection
9 15 (12.40%) Data Protection
9 15 (12.40%) ITIL
9 15 (12.40%) Stakeholder Management
10 14 (11.57%) Continuous Improvement
11 13 (10.74%) Threat Modelling
12 11 (9.09%) Data Loss Prevention
12 11 (9.09%) Decision-Making
12 11 (9.09%) Risk Register
12 11 (9.09%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 11 (9.09%) PowerShell
2 4 (3.31%) Kusto Query Language
2 4 (3.31%) Python
3 2 (1.65%) Bash
3 2 (1.65%) Bicep
3 2 (1.65%) SQL
4 1 (0.83%) C#
4 1 (0.83%) Go
4 1 (0.83%) T-SQL
4 1 (0.83%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 28 (23.14%) CISSP
1 28 (23.14%) Security Cleared
2 25 (20.66%) SC Cleared
3 19 (15.70%) CISM
4 11 (9.09%) Degree
5 9 (7.44%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
6 8 (6.61%) AWS Certification
7 6 (4.96%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 6 (4.96%) CompTIA Security+
8 5 (4.13%) CISA
8 5 (4.13%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (3.31%) Azure Certification
9 4 (3.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 4 (3.31%) PMI Certification
9 4 (3.31%) PMP
10 3 (2.48%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (2.48%) CRISC
10 3 (2.48%) Master's Degree
11 2 (1.65%) CEH
11 2 (1.65%) CISMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (63.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 52 (42.98%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 45 (37.19%) NIST
4 42 (34.71%) GDPR
5 24 (19.83%) NCSC
6 9 (7.44%) GRC
7 6 (4.96%) PCI DSS
8 4 (3.31%) SLA
9 3 (2.48%) Def Stans
9 3 (2.48%) IASME
9 3 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 3 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 3 (2.48%) NIST 800
9 3 (2.48%) PMO
9 3 (2.48%) QA
10 2 (1.65%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (1.65%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.83%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.83%) JSP 440
System Software
1 13 (10.74%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.96%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (2.48%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.65%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.65%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.83%) Docker
5 1 (0.83%) Firmware
5 1 (0.83%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.83%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 14 (11.57%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (10.74%) Terraform
3 7 (5.79%) Kubernetes
3 7 (5.79%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (3.31%) CSIRT
4 4 (3.31%) PingFederate
4 4 (3.31%) QRadar
5 3 (2.48%) Ansible
5 3 (2.48%) FortiGate
5 3 (2.48%) SCCM
6 2 (1.65%) Grafana
7 1 (0.83%) AirWatch
7 1 (0.83%) CASB
7 1 (0.83%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.83%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.83%) WSUS
Vendors
1 46 (38.02%) Microsoft
2 14 (11.57%) Cisco
3 9 (7.44%) VMware
4 7 (5.79%) Citrix
4 7 (5.79%) Fortinet
4 7 (5.79%) Splunk
5 6 (4.96%) CloudEndure
6 5 (4.13%) Palo Alto
7 4 (3.31%) CheckPoint
7 4 (3.31%) CyberArk
7 4 (3.31%) Ping Identity
7 4 (3.31%) ServiceNow
8 3 (2.48%) Barracuda Networks
8 3 (2.48%) Computacenter
8 3 (2.48%) Tenable
8 3 (2.48%) Zscaler
9 2 (1.65%) CrowdStrike
9 2 (1.65%) LogRhythm
9 2 (1.65%) Netskope
9 2 (1.65%) Sophos
149 Cyber Essentials jobs in England