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

6 months to
10 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 484 407 447
Rank change year-on-year -77 +40 +7
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 151 104 71
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.33% 0.37% 0.22%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.82% 2.11% 1.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 105 75 37
10th Percentile £374 £328 £283
25th Percentile £425 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £575 £500
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +15.00% -6.98%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £600
90th Percentile £725 £688 £644
UK median daily rate £500 £568 £516
% change year-on-year -11.89% +10.07% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 4 2
10th Percentile £55.56 £28.12 £70.24
25th Percentile £58.43 £29.02 £72.40
Median hourly rate £71.00 £32.11 £78.40
Median % change year-on-year +121.10% -59.04% +76.18%
75th Percentile - £49.89 £82.00
90th Percentile £76.60 £76.96 £82.72
UK median hourly rate £71.00 £32.11 £78.40
% change year-on-year +121.10% -59.04% +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 8,301 4,933 4,251
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.94% 17.59% 13.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,172 3,202 2,462
10th Percentile £325 £300 £291
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +2.55% -2.44% -5.09%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £716 £750
UK median daily rate £505 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +1.00% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 656 244 201
10th Percentile £13.96 £15.13 £12.75
25th Percentile £16.60 £17.69 £18.13
Median hourly rate £31.73 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.37% -7.14% -4.76%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.49 £67.50
90th Percentile £74.29 £80.00 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £30.00 £30.00 £27.84
% change year-on-year - +7.76% -21.58%

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 10 October 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 10 October 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 10 October 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 -59 72 £550 -11.79% 127
South East -40 39 £440 -16.98% 48
North of England -60 23 £450 +20.00% 64
North West -43 13 £450 +38.46% 36
Midlands -45 9 £525 +13.51% 38
Yorkshire -22 8 £540 +44.00% 20
West Midlands -42 7 £550 - 25
South West -34 3 £615 +49.09% 22
East Midlands -19 2 £500 +8.11% 13
North East -42 2 £500 -29.82% 9
East of England -44 2 £510 -7.78% 16
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 13 (8.61%) SharePoint
2 6 (3.97%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.66%) Confluence
3 1 (0.66%) Documentum
Applications
1 4 (2.65%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (1.99%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (1.99%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.66%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.32%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 72 (47.68%) Azure
2 69 (45.70%) Microsoft 365
3 46 (30.46%) Entra ID
4 14 (9.27%) SaaS
5 13 (8.61%) Microsoft Purview
6 12 (7.95%) Azure Sentinel
7 10 (6.62%) AWS
7 10 (6.62%) GitHub
8 8 (5.30%) IaaS
8 8 (5.30%) Mimecast
8 8 (5.30%) Power Platform
9 7 (4.64%) Azure DevOps
9 7 (4.64%) GitHub Actions
9 7 (4.64%) PaaS
10 5 (3.31%) Microsoft Copilot
11 4 (2.65%) Azure Logic Apps
12 3 (1.99%) Azure Event Grid
12 3 (1.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 3 (1.99%) Azure Monitor
12 3 (1.99%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 17 (11.26%) Firewall
2 16 (10.60%) Network Security
3 11 (7.28%) VPN
4 6 (3.97%) DNS
5 5 (3.31%) Intranet
5 5 (3.31%) WAN
6 4 (2.65%) DHCP
6 4 (2.65%) VLAN
7 3 (1.99%) DMZ
7 3 (1.99%) LAN
7 3 (1.99%) Wi-Fi
7 3 (1.99%) Wireless
8 2 (1.32%) NAS
8 2 (1.32%) Remote Desktop
8 2 (1.32%) SAN
8 2 (1.32%) SSL
8 2 (1.32%) TCP/IP
9 1 (0.66%) Cisco ISE
9 1 (0.66%) VSAN
9 1 (0.66%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.99%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (1.32%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.66%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.66%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.66%) EDMS
3 1 (0.66%) Metadata
3 1 (0.66%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 3 (1.99%) GitLab
1 3 (1.99%) Jenkins
2 2 (1.32%) JIRA
3 1 (0.66%) Git
3 1 (0.66%) Visual Studio
General
1 69 (45.70%) Social Skills
2 25 (16.56%) Public Sector
3 22 (14.57%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (7.95%) Finance
5 8 (5.30%) Legal
6 7 (4.64%) Local Government
7 6 (3.97%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (3.31%) Aerospace
8 5 (3.31%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (2.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.32%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.32%) Military
10 2 (1.32%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.66%) Automotive
11 1 (0.66%) Banking
11 1 (0.66%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.66%) Law
11 1 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.66%) Retail
Job Titles
1 17 (11.26%) Analyst
2 16 (10.60%) Architect
2 16 (10.60%) Senior
3 15 (9.93%) Lead
4 14 (9.27%) Security Specialist
5 13 (8.61%) Security Analyst
6 12 (7.95%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 12 (7.95%) Security Engineer
7 11 (7.28%) Cybersecurity Specialist
8 9 (5.96%) Consultant
8 9 (5.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 9 (5.96%) IT Manager
9 8 (5.30%) Solutions Architect
10 7 (4.64%) Security Manager
11 6 (3.97%) Cloud Engineer
11 6 (3.97%) IT Analyst
11 6 (3.97%) IT Engineer
11 6 (3.97%) Security Architect
11 6 (3.97%) Technical Architect
12 5 (3.31%) Cybersecurity Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (3.97%) Terraform
2 3 (1.99%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.99%) ARM Templates
3 2 (1.32%) EDI
3 2 (1.32%) SAML
3 2 (1.32%) Software Packaging
4 1 (0.66%) LDAP
4 1 (0.66%) OAuth
4 1 (0.66%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 18 (11.92%) Operational Technology
2 16 (10.60%) Security Posture
3 13 (8.61%) Onboarding
4 12 (7.95%) Management Information System
5 11 (7.28%) Cyber Threat
5 11 (7.28%) Security Operations Centre
6 9 (5.96%) Cyber Defence
7 7 (4.64%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (3.97%) SCADA
9 5 (3.31%) Cloud Native
10 4 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.99%) BYOD
11 3 (1.99%) Driving Licence
11 3 (1.99%) NHS
12 2 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
12 2 (1.32%) CESG
12 2 (1.32%) Data Centre
12 2 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
13 1 (0.66%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 36 (23.84%) Windows
2 16 (10.60%) Linux
3 14 (9.27%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.64%) Unix
5 6 (3.97%) Windows 10
6 2 (1.32%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (70.86%) Cybersecurity
2 53 (35.10%) Vulnerability Management
3 37 (24.50%) Risk Management
4 36 (23.84%) SIEM
5 35 (23.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 31 (20.53%) Incident Response
7 30 (19.87%) Information Security
8 28 (18.54%) Security Operations
8 28 (18.54%) Stakeholder Management
9 26 (17.22%) Security Architecture
10 25 (16.56%) RBAC
11 23 (15.23%) Continuous Improvement
12 21 (13.91%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
12 21 (13.91%) Threat Intelligence
13 20 (13.25%) Cloud Security
13 20 (13.25%) Problem-Solving
14 19 (12.58%) Project Delivery
14 19 (12.58%) Remediation Plan
15 18 (11.92%) Risk Register
15 18 (11.92%) Security Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 18 (11.92%) PowerShell
2 6 (3.97%) Python
3 5 (3.31%) Bash
4 3 (1.99%) Bicep
4 3 (1.99%) SQL
5 1 (0.66%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 41 (27.15%) Security Cleared
2 40 (26.49%) SC Cleared
3 32 (21.19%) CISSP
4 25 (16.56%) CISM
5 17 (11.26%) Cisco Certification
6 15 (9.93%) Degree
7 11 (7.28%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 11 (7.28%) CRISC
8 10 (6.62%) CESG Certified Professional
8 10 (6.62%) GIAC
9 8 (5.30%) Azure Certification
10 7 (4.64%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (3.97%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (3.97%) DV Cleared
12 5 (3.31%) CCNA
12 5 (3.31%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 5 (3.31%) SANS
12 5 (3.31%) TOGAF Certification
13 4 (2.65%) CISA
13 4 (2.65%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 96 (63.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 76 (50.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 57 (37.75%) NIST
4 26 (17.22%) NCSC
5 23 (15.23%) GRC
6 20 (13.25%) GDPR
7 12 (7.95%) PCI DSS
8 9 (5.96%) ISO 31000
9 6 (3.97%) PMO
10 5 (3.31%) SLA
11 4 (2.65%) Def Stans
11 4 (2.65%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 4 (2.65%) NIST 800
12 3 (1.99%) Government Security Classifications
12 3 (1.99%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 2 (1.32%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (1.32%) IASME
14 1 (0.66%) 21 CFR Part 11
14 1 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 1 (0.66%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 37 (24.50%) Active Directory
2 10 (6.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (1.99%) Docker
3 3 (1.99%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.99%) VMware ESXi
4 2 (1.32%) Firmware
4 2 (1.32%) Virtual Desktop
4 2 (1.32%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.32%) vSphere
5 1 (0.66%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 20 (13.25%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (7.28%) Kubernetes
3 6 (3.97%) SCCM
4 5 (3.31%) Ansible
5 3 (1.99%) FortiGate
5 3 (1.99%) Nessus
5 3 (1.99%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (1.99%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.32%) Podman
6 2 (1.32%) QRadar
Vendors
1 81 (53.64%) Microsoft
2 16 (10.60%) ServiceNow
3 14 (9.27%) VMware
4 13 (8.61%) Cisco
5 7 (4.64%) CrowdStrike
5 7 (4.64%) Tenable
6 5 (3.31%) CyberArk
6 5 (3.31%) Fortinet
6 5 (3.31%) Netskope
6 5 (3.31%) Zscaler
7 4 (2.65%) Splunk
8 3 (1.99%) Citrix
8 3 (1.99%) Palo Alto
8 3 (1.99%) Qualys
8 3 (1.99%) Rapid7
9 2 (1.32%) Atlassian
9 2 (1.32%) F5
9 2 (1.32%) Google
9 2 (1.32%) Oracle
9 2 (1.32%) Sophos