Cybersecurity Contract Job Trends in England

Cybersecurity
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Cybersecurity skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 39 47 49
Rank change year-on-year +8 +2 0
Contract jobs citing Cybersecurity 2,356 1,286 1,311
As % of all contract jobs in England 5.10% 4.63% 3.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.02% 5.10% 4.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,488 787 850
10th Percentile £413 £375 £400
25th Percentile £479 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £559 £550 £585
Median % change year-on-year +1.67% -5.98% -2.50%
75th Percentile £668 £671 £688
90th Percentile £755 £750 £788
UK median daily rate £555 £540 £583
% change year-on-year +2.78% -7.30% -2.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 150 35 31
10th Percentile £24.63 £30.25 £33.00
25th Percentile £51.25 £34.67 £46.18
Median hourly rate £80.00 £50.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -13.04% -24.01%
75th Percentile £85.36 £78.18 £87.46
90th Percentile £100.00 £88.87 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £80.00 £47.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +70.21% -18.26% -23.67%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Cybersecurity falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 39,153 25,217 28,330
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.77% 90.89% 86.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,009 16,021 17,785
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,713 1,491 1,342
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.30 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.85 £17.65 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £66.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%

Cybersecurity
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Cybersecurity relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Cybersecurity job vacancy trend in England

Cybersecurity
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cybersecurity.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cybersecurity in England over the 6 months to 13 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cybersecurity in England

Cybersecurity
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cybersecurity.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Cybersecurity in England over the 6 months to 13 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cybersecurity in England

Cybersecurity
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 Cybersecurity within the England region over the 6 months to 13 September 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 -3 882 £575 -2.13% 1,517
South East +15 514 £575 +9.79% 629
North of England +19 493 £530 +2.42% 500
North West +23 277 £530 +0.95% 270
Yorkshire +4 205 £540 +4.85% 170
South West +13 204 £570 -0.87% 284
Midlands -28 139 £500 -4.76% 324
West Midlands -24 111 £500 -9.09% 178
East of England +9 91 £525 -12.50% 196
East Midlands -28 27 £500 +25.00% 146
North East - 9 £594 - 68
Cybersecurity
UK

Cybersecurity
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 57 (2.42%) Confluence
2 43 (1.83%) SharePoint
3 28 (1.19%) Microsoft Exchange
4 19 (0.81%) Apache Spark
5 13 (0.55%) Apache
6 11 (0.47%) IIS
7 6 (0.25%) Apache Superset
8 5 (0.21%) FactoryTalk
9 4 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
9 4 (0.17%) CMS
10 3 (0.13%) nginx
11 1 (0.042%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.042%) IBM Transformation Extender
11 1 (0.042%) WordPress
Applications
1 34 (1.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 27 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
3 19 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (0.55%) MS Visio
5 11 (0.47%) Microsoft Office
6 9 (0.38%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.085%) Trello
8 1 (0.042%) InfoPath
8 1 (0.042%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 7 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
2 5 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.21%) SAP S/4HANA
3 3 (0.13%) Maximo
4 2 (0.085%) BASE24
4 2 (0.085%) NEC Housing
5 1 (0.042%) Actimize
5 1 (0.042%) Integrated Workplace Management System
5 1 (0.042%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.042%) Primavera
5 1 (0.042%) Sage 50
5 1 (0.042%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.042%) SAP MDG
5 1 (0.042%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
5 1 (0.042%) VisionPLUS
5 1 (0.042%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 569 (24.15%) Azure
2 334 (14.18%) AWS
3 206 (8.74%) Entra ID
4 191 (8.11%) Microsoft 365
5 159 (6.75%) GCP
6 103 (4.37%) SaaS
7 67 (2.84%) Azure Sentinel
8 64 (2.72%) Microsoft Purview
9 63 (2.67%) Power Platform
10 57 (2.42%) Azure DevOps
11 49 (2.08%) GitHub
12 34 (1.44%) IaaS
13 33 (1.40%) PaaS
14 29 (1.23%) Serverless
15 28 (1.19%) Microsoft Copilot
16 25 (1.06%) Azure Monitor
17 24 (1.02%) GitHub Actions
18 18 (0.76%) Azure Logic Apps
18 18 (0.76%) OCI
18 18 (0.76%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 179 (7.60%) Firewall
2 153 (6.49%) Network Security
3 91 (3.86%) DNS
4 59 (2.50%) VPN
5 53 (2.25%) TCP/IP
6 42 (1.78%) DHCP
7 34 (1.44%) WAN
8 27 (1.15%) Intrusion Detection
8 27 (1.15%) LAN
9 25 (1.06%) HTTP
10 24 (1.02%) Internet
11 23 (0.98%) SSL
12 20 (0.85%) VLAN
13 15 (0.64%) Wi-Fi
13 15 (0.64%) Wireless
14 13 (0.55%) Broadband
14 13 (0.55%) IPsec
14 13 (0.55%) NAS
15 11 (0.47%) BGP
15 11 (0.47%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 42 (1.78%) Power BI
2 26 (1.10%) Big Data
3 23 (0.98%) Data Lake
4 15 (0.64%) SQL Server
5 11 (0.47%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (0.34%) DynamoDB
7 7 (0.30%) Data Warehouse
7 7 (0.30%) Elasticsearch
8 6 (0.25%) Amazon QuickSight
8 6 (0.25%) PostgreSQL
9 5 (0.21%) Db2
9 5 (0.21%) Metadata
9 5 (0.21%) NoSQL
10 4 (0.17%) Neo4j
10 4 (0.17%) Trino
11 3 (0.13%) Amazon Aurora
11 3 (0.13%) Delta Lake
11 3 (0.13%) EDRMS
11 3 (0.13%) Oracle Database
11 3 (0.13%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 85 (3.61%) JIRA
2 31 (1.32%) Git
3 23 (0.98%) GitLab
3 23 (0.98%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.38%) SonarQube
5 6 (0.25%) Burp Suite
5 6 (0.25%) Claude Code
5 6 (0.25%) Snyk
6 5 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.085%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.085%) JUnit
7 2 (0.085%) MSBuild
7 2 (0.085%) MSI
7 2 (0.085%) NUnit
7 2 (0.085%) Postman
7 2 (0.085%) Selenium
7 2 (0.085%) Subversion
7 2 (0.085%) Tricentis qTest
7 2 (0.085%) Visual Studio
7 2 (0.085%) Zephyr
General
1 681 (28.90%) Social Skills
2 382 (16.21%) Finance
3 243 (10.31%) Analytical Skills
4 238 (10.10%) Public Sector
5 122 (5.18%) Banking
6 85 (3.61%) Documentation Skills
7 84 (3.57%) Legal
8 73 (3.10%) Manufacturing
9 70 (2.97%) Aerospace
10 69 (2.93%) Influencing Skills
11 56 (2.38%) Military
12 51 (2.16%) Organisational Skills
13 43 (1.83%) Retail
14 31 (1.32%) Telecoms
15 30 (1.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 28 (1.19%) Local Government
17 22 (0.93%) Financial Institution
18 20 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
19 18 (0.76%) Marketing
20 17 (0.72%) Law
Job Titles
1 343 (14.56%) Analyst
2 332 (14.09%) Architect
3 263 (11.16%) Lead
4 192 (8.15%) Consultant
5 190 (8.06%) Security Architect
6 171 (7.26%) Security Analyst
7 165 (7.00%) Senior
8 159 (6.75%) Security Engineer
9 154 (6.54%) Project Manager
10 128 (5.43%) Security Consultant
11 123 (5.22%) Security Manager
12 119 (5.05%) Cybersecurity Analyst
13 92 (3.90%) Cybersecurity Manager
14 90 (3.82%) Cybersecurity Engineer
15 85 (3.61%) Business Analyst
16 79 (3.35%) Cybersecurity Consultant
17 78 (3.31%) SOC Analyst
18 76 (3.23%) Cybersecurity Architect
19 65 (2.76%) Security Specialist
20 64 (2.72%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 143 (6.07%) Terraform
2 43 (1.83%) LDAP
3 39 (1.66%) OAuth
4 32 (1.36%) SAML
5 30 (1.27%) OpenID
5 30 (1.27%) REST
6 28 (1.19%) SailPoint
7 24 (1.02%) Kafka
8 18 (0.76%) ARM Templates
8 18 (0.76%) RESTful
9 16 (0.68%) JSON
9 16 (0.68%) OAuth2
10 14 (0.59%) Middleware
11 13 (0.55%) PySpark
12 11 (0.47%) Elastic Stack
12 11 (0.47%) SLSA
13 10 (0.42%) FIDO
13 10 (0.42%) WebAuthn
14 9 (0.38%) XML
15 8 (0.34%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 227 (9.63%) Operational Technology
2 155 (6.58%) Onboarding
2 155 (6.58%) Security Posture
3 145 (6.15%) Cyber Threat
4 129 (5.48%) Management Information System
5 103 (4.37%) Security Operations Centre
6 72 (3.06%) Cloud Native
7 71 (3.01%) SCADA
8 61 (2.59%) Cyber Defence
9 58 (2.46%) Product Ownership
10 55 (2.33%) Data Centre
11 54 (2.29%) PKI
12 43 (1.83%) Hybrid Cloud
13 42 (1.78%) Data Protection Act
14 39 (1.66%) Enterprise Software
15 30 (1.27%) AI Agents
16 28 (1.19%) CSOC
17 26 (1.10%) Private Cloud
17 26 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
18 25 (1.06%) Distributed Systems
Operating Systems
1 173 (7.34%) Windows
2 131 (5.56%) Linux
3 54 (2.29%) Windows Server
4 32 (1.36%) Unix
5 22 (0.93%) Mac OS
6 19 (0.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.34%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
9 4 (0.17%) Alpine Linux
10 3 (0.13%) Apple iOS
10 3 (0.13%) CentOS
11 2 (0.085%) Android
11 2 (0.085%) VMS
11 2 (0.085%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.042%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 560 (23.77%) Stakeholder Management
2 420 (17.83%) Risk Management
3 383 (16.26%) Incident Response
4 373 (15.83%) SIEM
5 365 (15.49%) Continuous Improvement
5 365 (15.49%) Vulnerability Management
6 355 (15.07%) Security Operations
7 329 (13.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 292 (12.39%) Roadmaps
9 266 (11.29%) Agile
10 244 (10.36%) Cloud Security
11 240 (10.19%) CI/CD
11 240 (10.19%) Information Security
12 234 (9.93%) AI
13 230 (9.76%) Problem-Solving
14 229 (9.72%) Identity Access Management
15 228 (9.68%) Security Architecture
16 216 (9.17%) DevOps
17 198 (8.40%) Decision-Making
18 181 (7.68%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 200 (8.49%) Python
2 165 (7.00%) PowerShell
3 64 (2.72%) Bash
4 54 (2.29%) SQL
5 38 (1.61%) Bicep
6 35 (1.49%) Kusto Query Language
7 22 (0.93%) Java
8 13 (0.55%) Shell Script
9 11 (0.47%) Search Processing Language
10 9 (0.38%) C#
11 5 (0.21%) Korn
11 5 (0.21%) Perl
11 5 (0.21%) TypeScript
12 4 (0.17%) Rust
13 3 (0.13%) JavaScript
14 2 (0.085%) Go
14 2 (0.085%) Objective-C
14 2 (0.085%) PL/SQL
15 1 (0.042%) Apex Code
15 1 (0.042%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 768 (32.60%) Security Cleared
2 534 (22.67%) SC Cleared
3 328 (13.92%) CISSP
4 223 (9.47%) CISM
5 220 (9.34%) DV Cleared
6 212 (9.00%) Degree
7 106 (4.50%) Cisco Certification
8 82 (3.48%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 61 (2.59%) Azure Certification
10 56 (2.38%) CEH
10 56 (2.38%) PMP
11 52 (2.21%) CompTIA Security+
12 51 (2.16%) CRISC
12 51 (2.16%) PMI Certification
13 49 (2.08%) GIAC
14 47 (1.99%) AWS Certification
15 43 (1.83%) CCSP
16 42 (1.78%) Computer Science Degree
17 38 (1.61%) Microsoft Certification
18 35 (1.49%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 442 (18.76%) NIST
2 419 (17.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 164 (6.96%) GRC
4 163 (6.92%) NCSC
5 147 (6.24%) GDPR
6 102 (4.33%) Cyber Essentials
7 61 (2.59%) PCI DSS
8 58 (2.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 55 (2.33%) QA
10 51 (2.16%) NIST 800
11 49 (2.08%) COBIT
12 42 (1.78%) PMO
13 30 (1.27%) JSP 440
14 27 (1.15%) Data Quality
14 27 (1.15%) SOC 2
15 26 (1.10%) SLA
16 19 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
16 19 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 15 (0.64%) Def Stans
18 13 (0.55%) ISO 31000
System Software
1 192 (8.15%) Active Directory
2 67 (2.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 60 (2.55%) Docker
4 30 (1.27%) Hyper-V
5 26 (1.10%) Virtual Machines
6 17 (0.72%) vSphere
7 15 (0.64%) VMware NSX
8 13 (0.55%) NFS
9 11 (0.47%) Firmware
10 10 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
11 6 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
11 6 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
12 4 (0.17%) Embedded Firmware
12 4 (0.17%) ISA Server
13 3 (0.13%) OpenAM
14 2 (0.085%) Microsoft Virtual Server
15 1 (0.042%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
15 1 (0.042%) NDS
15 1 (0.042%) NetIQ eDirectory
15 1 (0.042%) Samba
Systems Management
1 110 (4.67%) Kubernetes
2 74 (3.14%) Ansible
3 36 (1.53%) Microsoft Intune
3 36 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
4 19 (0.81%) Grafana
5 18 (0.76%) CASB
5 18 (0.76%) Prometheus
6 17 (0.72%) QRadar
7 15 (0.64%) SCCM
8 13 (0.55%) VxRail
9 10 (0.42%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 9 (0.38%) Puppet
11 8 (0.34%) Nessus
12 6 (0.25%) Jamf Pro
12 6 (0.25%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.21%) CSIRT
13 5 (0.21%) Podman
14 4 (0.17%) Kustomize
14 4 (0.17%) McAfee ePO
14 4 (0.17%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 493 (20.93%) Microsoft
2 95 (4.03%) ServiceNow
3 78 (3.31%) VMware
4 77 (3.27%) Splunk
5 71 (3.01%) CyberArk
6 59 (2.50%) Google
7 58 (2.46%) CrowdStrike
8 47 (1.99%) Cisco
9 43 (1.83%) Tenable
10 41 (1.74%) Databricks
11 39 (1.66%) Palo Alto
11 39 (1.66%) Qualys
12 32 (1.36%) Oracle
13 25 (1.06%) BeyondTrust
14 22 (0.93%) Zscaler
15 20 (0.85%) SAP
16 18 (0.76%) Fortinet
16 18 (0.76%) Okta
17 14 (0.59%) F5
17 14 (0.59%) Rapid7