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

6 months to
3 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 431 400 473
Rank change year-on-year -31 +73 +109
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 119 78 86
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.36% 0.30% 0.22%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.10% 2.06% 1.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 82 40 54
10th Percentile £303 £309 £383
25th Percentile £423 £406 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £518 £563
Median % change year-on-year +1.33% -7.89% +18.42%
75th Percentile £584 £626 £638
90th Percentile £675 £638 £743
UK median daily rate £525 £523 £543
% change year-on-year +0.48% -3.78% +5.85%
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 5,672 3,795 5,432
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.15% 14.56% 14.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,678 2,199 3,609
10th Percentile £325 £263 £313
25th Percentile £413 £381 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.20% -4.57% -
75th Percentile £613 £638 £649
90th Percentile £703 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 307 150 304
10th Percentile £15.31 £14.70 £12.00
25th Percentile £18.04 £20.63 £14.50
Median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £26.66
Median % change year-on-year -20.81% +19.13% -7.59%
75th Percentile £63.63 £65.00 £50.96
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £76.53
UK median hourly rate £26.34 £30.00 £25.06
% change year-on-year -12.20% +19.72% -7.64%

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 3 February 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 3 February 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 3 February 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 -4 47 £550 +20.55% 30
South East -28 20 £480 -22.27% 37
East of England -5 19 £553 +10.60% 15
North of England -50 12 £525 -4.55% 32
Midlands -60 9 £463 +42.31% 23
South West -14 8 £500 -16.67% 17
Yorkshire -44 7 £504 +0.74% 7
West Midlands -36 6 £540 +66.15% 11
North West -29 5 £533 -11.25% 23
East Midlands -31 3 £463 +54.17% 12
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 6 (5.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (2.52%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.68%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (1.68%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.84%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (0.84%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 46 (38.66%) Azure
2 32 (26.89%) AWS
3 26 (21.85%) Entra ID
3 26 (21.85%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (13.45%) Microsoft Purview
5 15 (12.61%) Amazon GuardDuty
6 12 (10.08%) Azure Sentinel
7 11 (9.24%) AWS Control Tower
8 9 (7.56%) SaaS
9 8 (6.72%) AWS CloudFormation
9 8 (6.72%) IaaS
9 8 (6.72%) PaaS
10 7 (5.88%) AWS CloudTrail
10 7 (5.88%) Mimecast
11 6 (5.04%) AWS KMS
11 6 (5.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 5 (4.20%) Amazon EKS
12 5 (4.20%) Azure AKS
13 3 (2.52%) OCI
14 2 (1.68%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 22 (18.49%) Network Security
2 21 (17.65%) Firewall
3 17 (14.29%) VPN
4 8 (6.72%) DNS
5 7 (5.88%) DHCP
6 3 (2.52%) BGP
6 3 (2.52%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (2.52%) Cisco IOS
6 3 (2.52%) MPLS
6 3 (2.52%) TACACS
6 3 (2.52%) VLAN
7 2 (1.68%) LAN
7 2 (1.68%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (1.68%) Wireless
8 1 (0.84%) HTTP
8 1 (0.84%) Intrusion Detection
8 1 (0.84%) SAN
8 1 (0.84%) TCP/IP
8 1 (0.84%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.68%) DynamoDB
2 1 (0.84%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.84%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.84%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.68%) Jenkins
1 2 (1.68%) JIRA
General
1 39 (32.77%) Social Skills
2 18 (15.13%) Public Sector
3 16 (13.45%) Finance
4 8 (6.72%) Presentation Skills
5 6 (5.04%) Aerospace
5 6 (5.04%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (4.20%) Legal
7 4 (3.36%) Aviation
7 4 (3.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.52%) Analytical Skills
8 3 (2.52%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.68%) Local Government
10 1 (0.84%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.84%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.84%) Electronics
10 1 (0.84%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.84%) Marketing
10 1 (0.84%) Retail
10 1 (0.84%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 19 (15.97%) Architect
1 19 (15.97%) Security Engineer
1 19 (15.97%) Senior
2 16 (13.45%) Analyst
3 10 (8.40%) Security Analyst
4 9 (7.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 9 (7.56%) Lead
5 8 (6.72%) Cybersecurity Engineer
5 8 (6.72%) Security Manager
6 7 (5.88%) Consultant
7 6 (5.04%) Cloud Architect
7 6 (5.04%) DevSecOps Engineer
7 6 (5.04%) Security Architect
8 5 (4.20%) 3rd Line Support
8 5 (4.20%) Information Analyst
8 5 (4.20%) Information Security Analyst
8 5 (4.20%) Lead Architect
8 5 (4.20%) Project Manager
8 5 (4.20%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 4 (3.36%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (5.88%) LDAP
2 5 (4.20%) OAuth
3 4 (3.36%) OpenID
3 4 (3.36%) SAML
4 3 (2.52%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (1.68%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.68%) AWS CDK
5 2 (1.68%) Node.js
6 1 (0.84%) .NET
6 1 (0.84%) React
6 1 (0.84%) Software Packaging
6 1 (0.84%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (11.76%) Security Posture
2 13 (10.92%) Cyber Threat
3 12 (10.08%) Onboarding
4 9 (7.56%) Operational Technology
5 7 (5.88%) Cloud Native
5 7 (5.88%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 7 (5.88%) NHS
6 6 (5.04%) SCADA
6 6 (5.04%) Security Operations Centre
7 4 (3.36%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (3.36%) Driving Licence
8 3 (2.52%) PKI
9 2 (1.68%) Cyber Defence
9 2 (1.68%) Cybercrime
9 2 (1.68%) Mobile App
10 1 (0.84%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.84%) CSOC
10 1 (0.84%) Distributed Systems
10 1 (0.84%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.84%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 16 (13.45%) Linux
2 12 (10.08%) Windows
3 7 (5.88%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.52%) Ubuntu
5 2 (1.68%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.84%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 57 (47.90%) Cybersecurity
2 27 (22.69%) Cloud Security
3 23 (19.33%) Information Security
4 22 (18.49%) Data Loss Prevention
5 21 (17.65%) Incident Response
6 19 (15.97%) Security Operations
6 19 (15.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 18 (15.13%) ITIL
7 18 (15.13%) Migration
8 17 (14.29%) Zero Trust
9 16 (13.45%) SIEM
9 16 (13.45%) Threat Detection
10 15 (12.61%) Roadmaps
11 13 (10.92%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 13 (10.92%) ITSM
11 13 (10.92%) Risk Management
12 12 (10.08%) Network Segmentation
12 12 (10.08%) Security Architecture
12 12 (10.08%) Threat Modelling
13 11 (9.24%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 12 (10.08%) PowerShell
2 9 (7.56%) Kusto Query Language
3 8 (6.72%) Python
4 3 (2.52%) PHP
5 2 (1.68%) Bicep
6 1 (0.84%) Bash
6 1 (0.84%) C#
6 1 (0.84%) Go
6 1 (0.84%) SQL
6 1 (0.84%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.84%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 35 (29.41%) Security Cleared
2 31 (26.05%) SC Cleared
3 21 (17.65%) CISSP
4 13 (10.92%) CISM
4 13 (10.92%) Degree
5 8 (6.72%) CompTIA Security+
6 7 (5.88%) AWS Certification
7 6 (5.04%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 6 (5.04%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (4.20%) DV Cleared
9 4 (3.36%) Azure Certification
9 4 (3.36%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (3.36%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 3 (2.52%) APMG
10 3 (2.52%) GIAC
10 3 (2.52%) GSEC
10 3 (2.52%) Master's Degree
10 3 (2.52%) SSCP
11 2 (1.68%) CISA
11 2 (1.68%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (57.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 52 (43.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 43 (36.13%) NIST
4 32 (26.89%) GDPR
5 23 (19.33%) NCSC
6 8 (6.72%) GRC
7 7 (5.88%) PCI DSS
8 5 (4.20%) Def Stans
9 3 (2.52%) IASME
9 3 (2.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 3 (2.52%) NIST 800
10 2 (1.68%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (1.68%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 2 (1.68%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.84%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.84%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.84%) SLA
System Software
1 12 (10.08%) Active Directory
2 7 (5.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (5.04%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (3.36%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (3.36%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (1.68%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.84%) Firmware
6 1 (0.84%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 16 (13.45%) Microsoft Intune
2 10 (8.40%) Terraform
3 9 (7.56%) Single Sign-On
4 6 (5.04%) Kubernetes
5 4 (3.36%) AirWatch
5 4 (3.36%) PingFederate
6 3 (2.52%) SCCM
6 3 (2.52%) SCOM
6 3 (2.52%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.68%) Ansible
7 2 (1.68%) CSIRT
7 2 (1.68%) QRadar
8 1 (0.84%) CASB
8 1 (0.84%) Grafana
8 1 (0.84%) WSUS
Vendors
1 46 (38.66%) Microsoft
2 17 (14.29%) Cisco
3 15 (12.61%) VMware
4 8 (6.72%) CrowdStrike
5 7 (5.88%) CyberArk
5 7 (5.88%) Palo Alto
6 6 (5.04%) Citrix
6 6 (5.04%) CloudEndure
6 6 (5.04%) ServiceNow
7 5 (4.20%) Barracuda Networks
7 5 (4.20%) Fortinet
7 5 (4.20%) Netskope
8 4 (3.36%) CheckPoint
8 4 (3.36%) Ping Identity
8 4 (3.36%) Splunk
9 3 (2.52%) Computacenter
9 3 (2.52%) Oracle
9 3 (2.52%) Tenable
10 2 (1.68%) LogRhythm
11 1 (0.84%) AlienVault