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

6 months to
2 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 427 414 459
Rank change year-on-year -13 +45 +157
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 121 83 97
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.38% 0.30% 0.27%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.20% 2.10% 1.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 44 64
10th Percentile £358 £286 £400
25th Percentile £459 £397 £455
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £508 £563
Median % change year-on-year +8.25% -9.67% +25.00%
75th Percentile £622 £629 £650
90th Percentile £660 £674 £775
UK median daily rate £535 £520 £542
% change year-on-year +2.88% -4.10% +8.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 10
10th Percentile - - -
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 £79.31 £83.20 £46.75
90th Percentile £94.38 - £49.00
UK median hourly rate £58.00 £83.20 £44.50
% change year-on-year -30.29% +86.97% -

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 5,500 3,959 5,267
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.36% 14.22% 14.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,588 2,291 3,530
10th Percentile £313 £264 £325
25th Percentile £407 £381 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £650
90th Percentile £700 £738 £760
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 276 157 220
10th Percentile £15.61 £14.70 £13.69
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.30 £18.75
Median hourly rate £25.63 £30.21 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.16% -8.45% +41.83%
75th Percentile £61.79 £64.73 £61.38
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £83.12
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £29.00 £33.00
% change year-on-year -13.28% -12.12% +46.07%

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 2 January 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 2 January 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 2 January 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 0 50 £560 +14.87% 37
South East -16 21 £528 -14.57% 29
East of England -11 14 £602 +20.30% 6
North of England -32 12 £504 +0.74% 22
Midlands -39 10 £463 +42.31% 28
South West -3 9 £475 -20.83% 21
Yorkshire -47 6 £502 +0.37% 6
East Midlands -21 5 £463 +54.17% 11
North West -28 5 £438 -14.63% 13
West Midlands -38 5 £465 +43.08% 17
North East - 1 £650 - 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 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 48 (39.67%) Azure
2 33 (27.27%) AWS
3 23 (19.01%) Entra ID
4 22 (18.18%) Microsoft 365
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
7 9 (7.44%) Microsoft Purview
8 8 (6.61%) SaaS
9 7 (5.79%) AWS CloudTrail
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
12 3 (2.48%) Mimecast
12 3 (2.48%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 16 (13.22%) Firewall
1 16 (13.22%) Network Security
2 14 (11.57%) VPN
3 7 (5.79%) DNS
4 6 (4.96%) DHCP
5 3 (2.48%) VLAN
6 2 (1.65%) LAN
6 2 (1.65%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (1.65%) Wireless
7 1 (0.83%) HTTP
7 1 (0.83%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.83%) TCP/IP
7 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 37 (30.58%) Social Skills
2 22 (18.18%) Public Sector
3 17 (14.05%) 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 5 (4.13%) Aerospace
9 4 (3.31%) Aviation
9 4 (3.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (2.48%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.83%) Digital Health
11 1 (0.83%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.83%) Electronics
11 1 (0.83%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.83%) Marketing
11 1 (0.83%) Retail
11 1 (0.83%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 22 (18.18%) Architect
2 16 (13.22%) Analyst
3 15 (12.40%) Senior
4 13 (10.74%) Lead
5 11 (9.09%) Security Analyst
5 11 (9.09%) Security Engineer
5 11 (9.09%) Security Manager
6 8 (6.61%) Cloud Architect
7 7 (5.79%) Consultant
8 6 (4.96%) Cybersecurity Manager
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%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 5 (4.13%) Lead Architect
9 5 (4.13%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 4 (3.31%) Cybersecurity Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.31%) LDAP
1 4 (3.31%) OpenID
1 4 (3.31%) SAML
2 3 (2.48%) OAuth
2 3 (2.48%) Oracle Fusion
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%) RESTful
4 1 (0.83%) .NET
4 1 (0.83%) React
4 1 (0.83%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (12.40%) Security Posture
2 13 (10.74%) Cyber Threat
3 10 (8.26%) Onboarding
4 8 (6.61%) Operational Technology
5 7 (5.79%) Cloud Native
5 7 (5.79%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 5 (4.13%) SCADA
7 4 (3.31%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (3.31%) NHS
8 3 (2.48%) Data Centre
8 3 (2.48%) Security Operations Centre
9 2 (1.65%) Cyber Defence
9 2 (1.65%) Driving Licence
9 2 (1.65%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.65%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.83%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.83%) CMDB
10 1 (0.83%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.83%) Distributed Systems
10 1 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 12 (9.92%) Linux
2 11 (9.09%) Windows
3 6 (4.96%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.65%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (46.28%) Cybersecurity
2 28 (23.14%) Information Security
3 26 (21.49%) Cloud Security
4 25 (20.66%) Incident Response
4 25 (20.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 19 (15.70%) Security Operations
6 18 (14.88%) Migration
7 17 (14.05%) Risk Management
7 17 (14.05%) Roadmaps
7 17 (14.05%) SIEM
8 16 (13.22%) ITIL
8 16 (13.22%) Threat Detection
9 15 (12.40%) Stakeholder Management
10 14 (11.57%) Continuous Improvement
10 14 (11.57%) Data Protection
11 13 (10.74%) Data Loss Prevention
11 13 (10.74%) Zero Trust
12 12 (9.92%) Decision-Making
12 12 (9.92%) Threat Modelling
13 11 (9.09%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 12 (9.92%) PowerShell
2 5 (4.13%) Kusto Query Language
2 5 (4.13%) 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 30 (24.79%) Security Cleared
2 27 (22.31%) CISSP
2 27 (22.31%) SC Cleared
3 18 (14.88%) CISM
4 12 (9.92%) 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%) Master's Degree
11 2 (1.65%) CCNA
11 2 (1.65%) CompTIA CySA+
11 2 (1.65%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (63.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 54 (44.63%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 45 (37.19%) NIST
4 41 (33.88%) GDPR
5 25 (20.66%) NCSC
6 8 (6.61%) GRC
7 5 (4.13%) PCI DSS
8 4 (3.31%) Def Stans
8 4 (3.31%) SLA
9 3 (2.48%) IASME
9 3 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
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%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 2 (1.65%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.83%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.83%) JSP 440
System Software
1 11 (9.09%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.96%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (2.48%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (2.48%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.83%) Docker
4 1 (0.83%) Firmware
4 1 (0.83%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.83%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.83%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 15 (12.40%) 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%) SCCM
6 2 (1.65%) AirWatch
6 2 (1.65%) FortiGate
6 2 (1.65%) Grafana
7 1 (0.83%) CASB
7 1 (0.83%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.83%) WSUS
Vendors
1 46 (38.02%) Microsoft
2 14 (11.57%) Cisco
3 10 (8.26%) VMware
4 7 (5.79%) Fortinet
4 7 (5.79%) Splunk
5 6 (4.96%) Citrix
5 6 (4.96%) CloudEndure
5 6 (4.96%) Palo Alto
6 5 (4.13%) CyberArk
6 5 (4.13%) ServiceNow
7 4 (3.31%) Barracuda Networks
7 4 (3.31%) CheckPoint
7 4 (3.31%) CrowdStrike
7 4 (3.31%) Ping Identity
8 3 (2.48%) Computacenter
8 3 (2.48%) Netskope
8 3 (2.48%) Oracle
8 3 (2.48%) Tenable
9 2 (1.65%) Sophos
9 2 (1.65%) Zscaler