Def Stans Contract Job Trends in England

UK Defence Standards (Def Stans)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Def Stans skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 488 463 531
Rank change year-on-year -25 +68 +204
Contract jobs citing Def Stans 49 33 30
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.16% 0.11% 0.081%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.90% 0.81% 0.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 8 3 20
10th Percentile - £523 £535
25th Percentile £450 £538 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £564 £603
Median % change year-on-year -11.35% -6.39% +20.50%
75th Percentile £563 £620 £646
90th Percentile £698 £653 £710
UK median daily rate £500 £545 £575
% change year-on-year -8.17% -5.30% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 18 6
10th Percentile - £60.13 £29.19
25th Percentile £33.50 £62.19 £47.34
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year - +18.18% +10.00%
75th Percentile - - £65.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £75.13 £73.75
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year - +18.18% +10.00%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
England

Def Stans 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 5,462 4,068 5,383
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 17.35% 14.08% 14.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,539 2,376 3,615
10th Percentile £313 £266 £325
25th Percentile £406 £385 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% +4.76%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £706 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 291 158 215
10th Percentile £15.60 £14.70 £14.22
25th Percentile £17.96 £20.22 £20.29
Median hourly rate £25.15 £30.11 £35.95
Median % change year-on-year -16.46% -16.26% +59.88%
75th Percentile £57.25 £63.21 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £70.00 £83.34
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £28.00 £35.50
% change year-on-year -10.18% -21.13% +57.88%

Def Stans
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Def Stans job vacancy trend in England

Def Stans
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Def Stans.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Def Stans

Def Stans
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Def Stans in England over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Def Stans in England

Def Stans
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Def Stans.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Def Stans

Def Stans
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Def Stans in England over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Def Stans in England

Def Stans
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 Def Stans within the England region over the 6 months to 20 December 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
South West 0 33 - - 18
London +4 6 £500 - 1
South East - 5 £450 - 5
East of England -19 4 £650 - 6
Def Stans
UK

Def Stans
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:

Applications
1 3 (6.12%) Microsoft Excel
1 3 (6.12%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (6.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 3 (6.12%) GitHub
1 3 (6.12%) GitHub Actions
1 3 (6.12%) OpenShift
2 1 (2.04%) AWS
2 1 (2.04%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 1 (2.04%) Cisco IOS
1 1 (2.04%) InfiniBand
1 1 (2.04%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (6.12%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 4 (8.16%) GitLab
2 3 (6.12%) Maven
2 3 (6.12%) Rational Rhapsody
General
1 18 (36.73%) Social Skills
2 13 (26.53%) Electronics
3 10 (20.41%) Organisational Skills
4 9 (18.37%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (14.29%) Aerospace
6 4 (8.16%) Manufacturing
7 2 (4.08%) Finance
7 2 (4.08%) Law
7 2 (4.08%) Marketing
7 2 (4.08%) Military
7 2 (4.08%) Public Sector
7 2 (4.08%) Telecoms
8 1 (2.04%) Environmental Health
8 1 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 1 (2.04%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (2.04%) Police
Job Titles
1 23 (46.94%) Software Engineer
2 13 (26.53%) C++ Software Engineer
3 10 (20.41%) Information Security Advisor
3 10 (20.41%) Security Advisor
4 9 (18.37%) Embedded Engineer
4 9 (18.37%) Embedded Software Engineer
5 5 (10.20%) Architect
6 3 (6.12%) Lead
7 2 (4.08%) C Software Engineer
7 2 (4.08%) C/C++ Software Engineer
7 2 (4.08%) Hardware Architect
7 2 (4.08%) Project Engineer
7 2 (4.08%) Project Leader
7 2 (4.08%) Technical Architect
8 1 (2.04%) Developer
8 1 (2.04%) Enterprise Architect
8 1 (2.04%) Java Developer
8 1 (2.04%) RF Engineer
8 1 (2.04%) Systems Engineer
8 1 (2.04%) Technical Trainer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (28.57%) Middleware
2 11 (22.45%) Qt
3 3 (6.12%) Elastic Stack
3 3 (6.12%) Kafka
3 3 (6.12%) Spring Boot
4 1 (2.04%) PyTorch
4 1 (2.04%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 11 (22.45%) Embedded Systems
2 10 (20.41%) Management Information System
2 10 (20.41%) Security Posture
3 3 (6.12%) Self-Motivation
4 2 (4.08%) Operational Technology
4 2 (4.08%) SCADA
5 1 (2.04%) CUDA
5 1 (2.04%) FPGA
5 1 (2.04%) Linux Command Line
5 1 (2.04%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 1 (2.04%) Linux
1 1 (2.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (53.06%) Software Engineering
2 15 (30.61%) Systems Engineering
3 13 (26.53%) Validation
4 12 (24.49%) Risk Management
5 11 (22.45%) Computer Science
5 11 (22.45%) Information Security
6 10 (20.41%) Facilities Management
6 10 (20.41%) Information Security Governance
6 10 (20.41%) Internal Audit
7 8 (16.33%) Collaborative Culture
8 7 (14.29%) Cybersecurity
9 6 (12.24%) Problem-Solving
9 6 (12.24%) Project Delivery
9 6 (12.24%) Roadmaps
9 6 (12.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 4 (8.16%) Analytics
10 4 (8.16%) Containerisation
10 4 (8.16%) Project Management
11 3 (6.12%) Ontologies
11 3 (6.12%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 14 (28.57%) C++
2 12 (24.49%) C
3 11 (22.45%) Ada
4 3 (6.12%) Java
Qualifications
1 29 (59.18%) SC Cleared
1 29 (59.18%) Security Cleared
2 15 (30.61%) Degree
3 11 (22.45%) Computer Science Degree
4 10 (20.41%) BPSS Clearance
4 10 (20.41%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
4 10 (20.41%) Master's Degree
5 3 (6.12%) DV Cleared
5 3 (6.12%) EMC Certification
5 3 (6.12%) HNC
5 3 (6.12%) HND
6 2 (4.08%) CISSP
7 1 (2.04%) AWS Certification
7 1 (2.04%) CESG Certified Professional
7 1 (2.04%) CISM
7 1 (2.04%) OSCP
7 1 (2.04%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (40.82%) MISRA
2 17 (34.69%) IEC 61508
3 11 (22.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (22.45%) MISRA C
4 10 (20.41%) GRC
5 9 (18.37%) DO-178B
6 4 (8.16%) NIST
7 3 (6.12%) ISO/IEC 15288
8 2 (4.08%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (4.08%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (4.08%) JSP 440
9 1 (2.04%) DO-160
9 1 (2.04%) GDPR
9 1 (2.04%) NCSC
9 1 (2.04%) NIST 800
9 1 (2.04%) QA
System Software
1 9 (18.37%) Firmware
2 1 (2.04%) Docker
2 1 (2.04%) GPFS
2 1 (2.04%) Lustre
2 1 (2.04%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 4 (8.16%) Kubernetes
2 3 (6.12%) Functional Safety
2 3 (6.12%) Grafana
2 3 (6.12%) Prometheus
3 1 (2.04%) Ansible
3 1 (2.04%) SELinux
3 1 (2.04%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (10.20%) VMware
2 4 (8.16%) EMC
3 2 (4.08%) SAP
4 1 (2.04%) Cisco
4 1 (2.04%) IBM
4 1 (2.04%) Keysight
4 1 (2.04%) NVIDIA
4 1 (2.04%) Splunk