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

6 months to
26 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 465 432 489
Rank change year-on-year -33 +57 +42
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 150 57 60
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.35% 0.23% 0.16%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.03% 1.37% 1.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 34 40
10th Percentile £410 £268 £242
25th Percentile £463 £447 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £550 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.82% +4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £575 £675 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £664
UK median daily rate £538 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -2.27% +4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 2 0
10th Percentile £53.40 £27.73 -
25th Percentile £56.64 £28.03 -
Median hourly rate £63.14 £29.51 -
Median % change year-on-year +113.94% - -
75th Percentile £67.84 £31.99 -
90th Percentile - £32.88 -
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 7,389 4,151 5,050
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.02% 16.47% 13.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,767 2,682 3,175
10th Percentile £350 £270 £300
25th Percentile £413 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.60% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £709 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £510
% change year-on-year - -1.96% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 491 176 380
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.13 £11.00
25th Percentile £19.27 £21.81 £13.14
Median hourly rate £36.00 £32.50 £24.09
Median % change year-on-year +10.77% +34.91% -39.17%
75th Percentile £67.50 £65.00 £51.94
90th Percentile £82.25 £84.33 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £36.07 £31.64 £23.80
% change year-on-year +14.00% +32.94% -36.53%

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 June 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
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 June 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 -24 68 £550 -4.35% 20
South East -25 42 £525 -4.55% 38
North of England -58 14 £540 -6.09% 15
South West -28 9 £538 +13.16% 14
East of England -26 8 £438 +75.70% 12
Yorkshire -41 8 £540 -6.09% 9
West Midlands -54 6 £540 - 5
Midlands -61 6 £540 +35.00% 14
North West -41 5 £540 +140.00% 5
North East -31 1 £500 -35.48% 3
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 19 (12.67%) SharePoint
2 9 (6.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (2.00%) Confluence
4 1 (0.67%) Anypoint
Applications
1 9 (6.00%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.67%) AutoCAD
3 1 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.67%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 68 (45.33%) Azure
2 65 (43.33%) Microsoft 365
3 31 (20.67%) Entra ID
4 28 (18.67%) Microsoft Purview
5 19 (12.67%) Mimecast
6 11 (7.33%) SaaS
7 9 (6.00%) Azure Sentinel
7 9 (6.00%) IaaS
7 9 (6.00%) PaaS
8 6 (4.00%) AWS
8 6 (4.00%) GitHub
9 4 (2.67%) Azure Logic Apps
10 3 (2.00%) Azure DevOps
10 3 (2.00%) Azure Event Grid
10 3 (2.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 3 (2.00%) Azure Monitor
10 3 (2.00%) Azure Service Bus
10 3 (2.00%) GitHub Actions
10 3 (2.00%) Serverless
11 2 (1.33%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 22 (14.67%) Firewall
2 18 (12.00%) VPN
3 14 (9.33%) Network Security
4 5 (3.33%) VSAN
5 4 (2.67%) BGP
5 4 (2.67%) Cisco ASA
5 4 (2.67%) Cisco IOS
5 4 (2.67%) DHCP
5 4 (2.67%) DNS
5 4 (2.67%) MPLS
5 4 (2.67%) TACACS
5 4 (2.67%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (2.67%) Wireless
6 3 (2.00%) DMZ
6 3 (2.00%) LAN
6 3 (2.00%) SAN
6 3 (2.00%) VLAN
7 2 (1.33%) NAS
7 2 (1.33%) SSL
7 2 (1.33%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.00%) Azure SQL Database
1 3 (2.00%) Metadata
2 1 (0.67%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 1 (0.67%) MSI
General
1 69 (46.00%) Social Skills
2 25 (16.67%) Public Sector
3 20 (13.33%) Finance
4 11 (7.33%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (4.67%) Local Government
5 7 (4.67%) Organisational Skills
6 4 (2.67%) Legal
7 3 (2.00%) Aerospace
7 3 (2.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (2.00%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.67%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.67%) Military
Job Titles
1 27 (18.00%) Security Engineer
2 18 (12.00%) Architect
3 16 (10.67%) Cybersecurity Engineer
4 15 (10.00%) Security Specialist
4 15 (10.00%) Senior
5 14 (9.33%) Cybersecurity Specialist
5 14 (9.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 13 (8.67%) Analyst
7 9 (6.00%) Security Analyst
8 8 (5.33%) Security Manager
8 8 (5.33%) Technical Architect
9 7 (4.67%) IT Engineer
9 7 (4.67%) Solutions Architect
10 6 (4.00%) Lead
10 6 (4.00%) Project Manager
10 6 (4.00%) Senior Architect
11 5 (3.33%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 5 (3.33%) Information Security Engineer
12 4 (2.67%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
12 4 (2.67%) Risk Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.67%) LDAP
1 4 (2.67%) OAuth
2 3 (2.00%) 802.1X
3 2 (1.33%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.67%) JSON
4 1 (0.67%) JWT
4 1 (0.67%) Middleware
4 1 (0.67%) OAuth2
4 1 (0.67%) OpenAPI
4 1 (0.67%) OpenID
4 1 (0.67%) Oracle Fusion
4 1 (0.67%) RAML
4 1 (0.67%) RESTful
4 1 (0.67%) SAML
4 1 (0.67%) Software Packaging
4 1 (0.67%) STL
4 1 (0.67%) Swagger
4 1 (0.67%) XML
4 1 (0.67%) XML Schema
Miscellaneous
1 16 (10.67%) Operational Technology
2 12 (8.00%) Hybrid Cloud
2 12 (8.00%) Onboarding
3 9 (6.00%) PKI
4 8 (5.33%) SCADA
5 7 (4.67%) BYOD
5 7 (4.67%) Cloud Native
5 7 (4.67%) Management Information System
6 6 (4.00%) Cyber Defence
6 6 (4.00%) Security Operations Centre
6 6 (4.00%) Security Posture
7 5 (3.33%) Driving Licence
7 5 (3.33%) Public Cloud
8 4 (2.67%) Analytical Mindset
8 4 (2.67%) NHS
9 3 (2.00%) Cyber Threat
9 3 (2.00%) Taxonomies
10 2 (1.33%) Cybercrime
10 2 (1.33%) Data Centre
10 2 (1.33%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 25 (16.67%) Windows
2 23 (15.33%) Linux
3 13 (8.67%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.67%) Unix
5 6 (4.00%) Ubuntu
6 2 (1.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.33%) Windows Server 2012
6 2 (1.33%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.67%) Android
7 1 (0.67%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.67%) VMS
7 1 (0.67%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (64.67%) Cybersecurity
2 34 (22.67%) Data Loss Prevention
3 30 (20.00%) Information Security
3 30 (20.00%) Risk Management
4 28 (18.67%) SIEM
5 27 (18.00%) Vulnerability Management
6 25 (16.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 21 (14.00%) CI/CD
8 20 (13.33%) Incident Response
9 19 (12.67%) ITSM
9 19 (12.67%) Risk Register
10 17 (11.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 17 (11.33%) Zero Trust
11 16 (10.67%) RBAC
11 16 (10.67%) Risk Assessment
11 16 (10.67%) Security Architecture
11 16 (10.67%) Security Operations
12 14 (9.33%) Change Control
13 13 (8.67%) Containerisation
13 13 (8.67%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 16 (10.67%) PowerShell
2 10 (6.67%) Python
3 5 (3.33%) Bash
3 5 (3.33%) Kusto Query Language
3 5 (3.33%) SQL
4 4 (2.67%) PHP
Qualifications
1 45 (30.00%) Security Cleared
2 42 (28.00%) SC Cleared
3 21 (14.00%) CISSP
4 17 (11.33%) Degree
5 15 (10.00%) CISM
6 11 (7.33%) Cisco Certification
6 11 (7.33%) DV Cleared
7 10 (6.67%) GIAC
8 9 (6.00%) CESG Certified Professional
9 8 (5.33%) SSCP
10 7 (4.67%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 7 (4.67%) CRISC
10 7 (4.67%) GSEC
11 5 (3.33%) Azure Certification
11 5 (3.33%) CompTIA Security+
11 5 (3.33%) SANS
12 4 (2.67%) APMG
12 4 (2.67%) CCNA
12 4 (2.67%) Microsoft Certification
13 3 (2.00%) RHCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 81 (54.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 61 (40.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 54 (36.00%) NIST
4 29 (19.33%) NCSC
5 25 (16.67%) GDPR
6 19 (12.67%) PCI DSS
7 17 (11.33%) GRC
8 12 (8.00%) ISO 31000
9 10 (6.67%) NIST 800
10 7 (4.67%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 6 (4.00%) IASME
12 4 (2.67%) Def Stans
12 4 (2.67%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (2.00%) ISO 22301
13 3 (2.00%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 3 (2.00%) SLA
14 2 (1.33%) COBIT
14 2 (1.33%) Government Security Classifications
15 1 (0.67%) Actionable Recommendations
15 1 (0.67%) JSP 440
System Software
1 25 (16.67%) Active Directory
2 18 (12.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (4.67%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (3.33%) VMware NSX
5 4 (2.67%) Hyper-V
6 3 (2.00%) Docker
7 2 (1.33%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (1.33%) vSphere
8 1 (0.67%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 20 (13.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (8.67%) Kubernetes
3 7 (4.67%) vCenter Server
4 6 (4.00%) AirWatch
5 5 (3.33%) Nessus
5 5 (3.33%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (2.67%) Terraform
7 3 (2.00%) Ansible
7 3 (2.00%) FortiGate
7 3 (2.00%) Podman
7 3 (2.00%) SCCM
7 3 (2.00%) SCOM
8 1 (0.67%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 79 (52.67%) Microsoft
2 26 (17.33%) Cisco
3 21 (14.00%) VMware
4 17 (11.33%) CrowdStrike
5 14 (9.33%) CyberArk
5 14 (9.33%) Netskope
6 12 (8.00%) ServiceNow
7 6 (4.00%) Palo Alto
7 6 (4.00%) Tenable
8 4 (2.67%) Zscaler
9 3 (2.00%) Atlassian
9 3 (2.00%) Citrix
10 2 (1.33%) Barracuda Networks
10 2 (1.33%) Oracle
10 2 (1.33%) Snow
10 2 (1.33%) Sophos
11 1 (0.67%) Juniper
11 1 (0.67%) MuleSoft
11 1 (0.67%) Qualys
11 1 (0.67%) SAP