Cyber Essentials Contracts in England

Cyber Essentials
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Cyber Essentials over the 6 months leading up to 4 August 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 435 467 502
Rank change year-on-year +32 +35 +183
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 77 58 115
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.28% 0.17% 0.25%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.64% 1.30% 1.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 40 86
10th Percentile £325 £245 £341
25th Percentile £430 £472 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £588 £503 £525
Median % change year-on-year +16.92% -4.29% +5.00%
75th Percentile £650 £603 £710
90th Percentile £688 £677 £800
UK median daily rate £600 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +14.29% - +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 1
10th Percentile £27.93 - -
25th Percentile £28.52 - £30.75
Median hourly rate £31.49 - £31.50
75th Percentile £34.16 - £32.25
90th Percentile £34.58 - -
UK median hourly rate £31.49 - £31.50
% change year-on-year - - +14.55%

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 4,689 4,470 6,298
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.00% 13.34% 13.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,061 2,802 4,274
10th Percentile £281 £300 £313
25th Percentile £400 £406 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% +2.38%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £658
90th Percentile £725 £750 £774
UK median daily rate £500 £505 £525
% change year-on-year -0.89% -3.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 280 227
10th Percentile £15.12 £10.95 £15.21
25th Percentile £18.20 £14.41 £20.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -35.29% +74.54%
75th Percentile £63.75 £62.59 £65.00
90th Percentile £85.45 £70.00 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £26.93 £25.68 £39.51
% change year-on-year +4.84% -35.00% +57.77%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Cyber Essentials as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Cyber Essentials in England

Cyber Essentials
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Cyber Essentials in England.

Daily rate trend for Cyber Essentials in England

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in England over the 6 months to 4 August 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in England

Cyber Essentials
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in England

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Cyber Essentials in England.

Hourly rate trend 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 4 August 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 +7 35 £625 +8.70% 67
South East +28 10 £575 +16.16% 50
North of England -10 8 £575 +15.00% 44
South West +27 7 £350 -39.13% 28
Midlands -5 6 £650 +30.00% 25
East of England - 6 £249 - 16
East Midlands -2 5 £650 +30.00% 6
North West -3 4 £288 -55.77% 25
Yorkshire -6 2 £575 +15.00% 17
North East - 2 £713 - 2
West Midlands -5 1 - - 19
Cyber Essentials
UK

Cyber Essentials
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (5.19%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.30%) CMS
2 1 (1.30%) Headless CMS
2 1 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (1.30%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 23 (29.87%) Azure
2 13 (16.88%) Microsoft 365
3 12 (15.58%) AWS
4 8 (10.39%) Azure Sentinel
4 8 (10.39%) GCP
4 8 (10.39%) GitHub
5 5 (6.49%) Entra ID
6 4 (5.19%) OneDrive
6 4 (5.19%) Power Platform
7 2 (2.60%) Azure API Management
7 2 (2.60%) Azure DevOps
7 2 (2.60%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 2 (2.60%) Cloud Computing
7 2 (2.60%) Kong
7 2 (2.60%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (1.30%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (1.30%) Google Analytics
8 1 (1.30%) IaaS
8 1 (1.30%) PaaS
8 1 (1.30%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 6 (7.79%) VLAN
2 5 (6.49%) DHCP
2 5 (6.49%) DNS
2 5 (6.49%) IP Telephony
2 5 (6.49%) TCP/IP
3 4 (5.19%) Firewall
3 4 (5.19%) VPN
4 3 (3.90%) Network Security
5 1 (1.30%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.30%) Kerberos
5 1 (1.30%) NAS
5 1 (1.30%) SAN
5 1 (1.30%) SD-WAN
5 1 (1.30%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.90%) Power BI
2 1 (1.30%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 9 (11.69%) SonarQube
2 8 (10.39%) Burp Suite
2 8 (10.39%) Metasploit
3 1 (1.30%) GitLab
3 1 (1.30%) Jenkins
General
1 28 (36.36%) Social Skills
2 18 (23.38%) Public Sector
3 6 (7.79%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (7.79%) Finance
3 6 (7.79%) Legal
4 5 (6.49%) Local Government
5 4 (5.19%) Manufacturing
6 3 (3.90%) Military
7 2 (2.60%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.30%) Banking
8 1 (1.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (1.30%) Retail
Job Titles
1 13 (16.88%) Analyst
2 12 (15.58%) Security Engineer
3 10 (12.99%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 10 (12.99%) Security Manager
4 9 (11.69%) Lead
5 6 (7.79%) Architect
5 6 (7.79%) Consultant
5 6 (7.79%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 5 (6.49%) Security Consultant
6 5 (6.49%) Support Analyst
7 4 (5.19%) IT Engineer
7 4 (5.19%) Network Engineer
7 4 (5.19%) Project Manager
8 3 (3.90%) Cisco Engineer
8 3 (3.90%) Information Manager
8 3 (3.90%) Information Security Consultant
8 3 (3.90%) PMO Manager
8 3 (3.90%) Risk Analyst
8 3 (3.90%) Security Project Manager
8 3 (3.90%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.60%) Middleware
1 2 (2.60%) OAuth
1 2 (2.60%) OpenID
1 2 (2.60%) RESTful
1 2 (2.60%) SAML
2 1 (1.30%) ADO
2 1 (1.30%) LDAP
2 1 (1.30%) Next.js
2 1 (1.30%) Node.js
2 1 (1.30%) React
Miscellaneous
1 11 (14.29%) Security Posture
2 7 (9.09%) Security Operations Centre
3 5 (6.49%) iPad
3 5 (6.49%) iPhone
3 5 (6.49%) Video Conferencing
4 4 (5.19%) Management Information System
5 3 (3.90%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (2.60%) Cloud Native
6 2 (2.60%) Data Centre
6 2 (2.60%) Low-Code
6 2 (2.60%) Product Ownership
7 1 (1.30%) NHS
7 1 (1.30%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.30%) PKI
7 1 (1.30%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 13 (16.88%) Windows
2 5 (6.49%) Android
2 5 (6.49%) Mac OS
2 5 (6.49%) Windows 10
2 5 (6.49%) Windows 7
3 4 (5.19%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.30%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (57.14%) Cybersecurity
2 28 (36.36%) Information Security
3 21 (27.27%) Incident Response
4 19 (24.68%) Data Protection
5 16 (20.78%) Risk Management
5 16 (20.78%) Security Operations
6 15 (19.48%) Cloud Security
6 15 (19.48%) Infrastructure as Code
7 14 (18.18%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 12 (15.58%) CI/CD
8 12 (15.58%) OWASP
9 10 (12.99%) Agile
9 10 (12.99%) Penetration Testing
9 10 (12.99%) Roadmaps
9 10 (12.99%) SIEM
9 10 (12.99%) Threat Modelling
9 10 (12.99%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 10 (12.99%) Vulnerability Management
10 9 (11.69%) Security Management
10 9 (11.69%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 10 (12.99%) Python
2 9 (11.69%) Bash
3 4 (5.19%) PowerShell
4 1 (1.30%) SQL
4 1 (1.30%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 20 (25.97%) CISSP
2 16 (20.78%) CISM
2 16 (20.78%) Security Cleared
3 14 (18.18%) SC Cleared
4 11 (14.29%) OSCP
5 9 (11.69%) CREST Certified
6 8 (10.39%) CHECK Team Member
6 8 (10.39%) Tigerscheme
7 5 (6.49%) CISA
7 5 (6.49%) CRISC
7 5 (6.49%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
8 4 (5.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 3 (3.90%) Degree
9 3 (3.90%) DV Cleared
9 3 (3.90%) GIAC
9 3 (3.90%) PMI Certification
9 3 (3.90%) PMP
10 1 (1.30%) AWS Certification
10 1 (1.30%) CEH
10 1 (1.30%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (54.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (41.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 26 (33.77%) NIST
4 22 (28.57%) GDPR
5 12 (15.58%) NCSC
6 9 (11.69%) GRC
7 5 (6.49%) PCI DSS
8 4 (5.19%) PMO
8 4 (5.19%) SLA
8 4 (5.19%) SOC 2
9 3 (3.90%) Accessibility
9 3 (3.90%) COBIT
9 3 (3.90%) QA
10 2 (2.60%) ISO 9001
11 1 (1.30%) HIPAA
11 1 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 1 (1.30%) JSP 440
System Software
1 11 (14.29%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.30%) Docker
2 1 (1.30%) Hyper-V
2 1 (1.30%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (1.30%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (10.39%) Nmap
2 7 (9.09%) Microsoft Intune
3 4 (5.19%) FortiGate
3 4 (5.19%) Terraform
4 3 (3.90%) Kubernetes
5 2 (2.60%) CSIRT
5 2 (2.60%) QRadar
5 2 (2.60%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.30%) Ansible
6 1 (1.30%) Grafana
6 1 (1.30%) Prometheus
6 1 (1.30%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 29 (37.66%) Microsoft
2 8 (10.39%) Veracode
3 6 (7.79%) Cisco
4 3 (3.90%) Fortinet
4 3 (3.90%) Splunk
4 3 (3.90%) Zscaler
5 2 (2.60%) Proofpoint
5 2 (2.60%) Sophos
5 2 (2.60%) VMware
6 1 (1.30%) Citrix
6 1 (1.30%) Dell
6 1 (1.30%) EMC
6 1 (1.30%) Google
6 1 (1.30%) OneTrust
6 1 (1.30%) Palo Alto
6 1 (1.30%) Ping Identity
6 1 (1.30%) Progress
6 1 (1.30%) Qualys
6 1 (1.30%) SonicWALL