GIAC Contract Job Trends in England

Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC)
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in England with a requirement for GIAC qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 4 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 472 473 416
Rank change year-on-year +1 -57 +263
Contract jobs citing GIAC 74 23 141
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.24% 0.084% 0.39%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.69% 0.27% 1.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 46 12 37
10th Percentile £338 £507 £459
25th Percentile £419 £592 £486
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £630 £600
Median % change year-on-year -17.06% +5.00% -1.64%
75th Percentile £697 £650 £725
90th Percentile £738 - £772
UK median daily rate £520 £625 £600
% change year-on-year -16.80% +4.17% -1.64%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
England

GIAC falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications in England.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 10,776 8,392 11,182
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.26% 30.54% 30.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,096 5,131 7,044
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £420 £419 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £734
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 882 413 690
10th Percentile £16.31 £18.51 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.00 £24.50 £25.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £51.89
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% -11.00% +15.31%
75th Percentile £58.19 £68.00 £67.75
90th Percentile £76.58 £80.49 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £52.05
% change year-on-year -37.13% -23.15% +15.67%

GIAC
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

GIAC job vacancy trend in England

GIAC
Daily Rate Trend in England

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing GIAC

GIAC
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing GIAC in England over the 6 months to 4 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for GIAC in England

GIAC
Hourly Rate Trend in England

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing GIAC

GIAC
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 GIAC within the England region over the 6 months to 4 January 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
South East +9 29 £429 -24.34% 7
London -2 21 £530 -18.46% 13
North of England - 8 £608 - 2
Midlands -42 6 £575 -7.26% 1
Yorkshire - 6 £620 -
West Midlands -40 5 £625 +0.81%
South West - 3 £625 - 1
North West - 2 £500 - 2
East of England -14 1 £95 -81.00% 1
East Midlands -25 1 £525 - 1
GIAC
UK

GIAC
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:

Cloud Services
1 17 (22.97%) AWS
2 15 (20.27%) Azure
3 4 (5.41%) GCP
4 3 (4.05%) Akamai
4 3 (4.05%) Cloudflare
4 3 (4.05%) OCI
5 2 (2.70%) Entra ID
5 2 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (1.35%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (1.35%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (31.08%) Network Security
2 14 (18.92%) Firewall
3 5 (6.76%) VPN
4 4 (5.41%) Internet
5 3 (4.05%) HTTP
5 3 (4.05%) HTTPS
5 3 (4.05%) S/MIME
6 2 (2.70%) Wi-Fi
7 1 (1.35%) 802.11
7 1 (1.35%) BGP
7 1 (1.35%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (1.35%) DHCP
7 1 (1.35%) DNS
7 1 (1.35%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (1.35%) LAN
7 1 (1.35%) MPLS
7 1 (1.35%) OSPF
7 1 (1.35%) VLAN
7 1 (1.35%) WAN
7 1 (1.35%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 1 (1.35%) Burp Suite
1 1 (1.35%) GitLab
1 1 (1.35%) Jenkins
1 1 (1.35%) Metasploit
General
1 35 (47.30%) Social Skills
2 24 (32.43%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (9.46%) Legal
4 6 (8.11%) Public Sector
5 5 (6.76%) Law
6 3 (4.05%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (4.05%) Retail
7 2 (2.70%) Finance
8 1 (1.35%) Banking
8 1 (1.35%) Investment Banking
8 1 (1.35%) Military
8 1 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 25 (33.78%) Analyst
2 15 (20.27%) SIEM Engineer
3 14 (18.92%) Security Analyst
4 13 (17.57%) Cybersecurity Analyst
5 10 (13.51%) Architect
6 9 (12.16%) SOC Analyst
7 6 (8.11%) Security Engineer
8 5 (6.76%) Security Architect
9 4 (5.41%) Consultant
9 4 (5.41%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 4 (5.41%) Operations Analyst
9 4 (5.41%) Security Manager
9 4 (5.41%) Security Operations Analyst
10 3 (4.05%) Cybersecurity Specialist
10 3 (4.05%) Data Analyst
10 3 (4.05%) Operational Security Manager
10 3 (4.05%) Operations Manager
10 3 (4.05%) Security Operations Manager
10 3 (4.05%) Security Specialist
10 3 (4.05%) Supply Chain Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (5.41%) REST
2 3 (4.05%) JSON
2 3 (4.05%) XML
3 1 (1.35%) 802.1X
3 1 (1.35%) LDAP
3 1 (1.35%) OAuth
3 1 (1.35%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (21.62%) Security Operations Centre
2 12 (16.22%) Cyber Security Posture
2 12 (16.22%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (10.81%) Management Information System
4 7 (9.46%) Security Posture
5 6 (8.11%) Onboarding
6 5 (6.76%) Cybercrime
7 4 (5.41%) Algorithms
7 4 (5.41%) Cyber Defence
7 4 (5.41%) PKI
8 3 (4.05%) CSOC
8 3 (4.05%) Operational Technology
8 3 (4.05%) Smartcard
9 1 (1.35%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (1.35%) Clustering
9 1 (1.35%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (1.35%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (1.35%) Insider Threat
9 1 (1.35%) Legacy Systems
9 1 (1.35%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 7 (9.46%) Linux
2 5 (6.76%) Windows
3 1 (1.35%) Android
3 1 (1.35%) Apple iOS
3 1 (1.35%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (75.68%) Cybersecurity
2 40 (54.05%) SIEM
3 35 (47.30%) Incident Response
4 30 (40.54%) Security Operations
5 21 (28.38%) Threat Detection
6 18 (24.32%) Analytical Thinking
7 15 (20.27%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 15 (20.27%) Threat Intelligence
8 14 (18.92%) Problem-Solving
9 13 (17.57%) Threat Modelling
10 12 (16.22%) Risk Management
10 12 (16.22%) Vulnerability Scanning
11 11 (14.86%) DevOps
11 11 (14.86%) MITRE ATT&CK
12 9 (12.16%) Cloud Security
12 9 (12.16%) Continuous Improvement
12 9 (12.16%) Forensic Analysis
13 8 (10.81%) Incident Management
14 7 (9.46%) Behavioural Analysis
14 7 (9.46%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (31.08%) Python
2 21 (28.38%) PowerShell
3 11 (14.86%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (5.41%) SQL
5 1 (1.35%) Bash
5 1 (1.35%) Java
5 1 (1.35%) JavaScript
5 1 (1.35%) Kotlin
5 1 (1.35%) Objective-C
5 1 (1.35%) R
5 1 (1.35%) Search Processing Language
5 1 (1.35%) Swift
Qualifications
1 54 (72.97%) CISSP
2 36 (48.65%) Security Cleared
3 34 (45.95%) CEH
4 21 (28.38%) SC Cleared
5 19 (25.68%) CISM
6 13 (17.57%) CompTIA Security+
6 13 (17.57%) DV Cleared
7 11 (14.86%) Degree
8 10 (13.51%) GCIA
9 9 (12.16%) GCIH
10 8 (10.81%) CREST Certified
11 7 (9.46%) CompTIA CySA+
12 6 (8.11%) OSCP
13 5 (6.76%) CFCE
13 5 (6.76%) GCFA
13 5 (6.76%) GREM
13 5 (6.76%) ISACA
13 5 (6.76%) SSCP
14 4 (5.41%) CRISC
14 4 (5.41%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (29.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 22 (29.73%) NIST
2 8 (10.81%) GDPR
3 6 (8.11%) HIPAA
4 5 (6.76%) PCI DSS
5 4 (5.41%) NCSC
6 3 (4.05%) NIST 800
7 2 (2.70%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (1.35%) COBIT
8 1 (1.35%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (1.35%) Data Quality
8 1 (1.35%) QA
8 1 (1.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (1.35%) SOC 1
System Software
1 1 (1.35%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 11 (14.86%) Kibana
2 7 (9.46%) QRadar
3 4 (5.41%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
4 2 (2.70%) Nessus
5 1 (1.35%) Ansible
5 1 (1.35%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (27.03%) Splunk
2 17 (22.97%) Microsoft
3 10 (13.51%) FireEye
3 10 (13.51%) Tanium
4 9 (12.16%) ArcSight
5 7 (9.46%) Tenable
6 5 (6.76%) LogRhythm
7 4 (5.41%) CrowdStrike
8 3 (4.05%) F5
8 3 (4.05%) Imperva
8 3 (4.05%) Rapid7
8 3 (4.05%) Thales
9 2 (2.70%) Cisco
9 2 (2.70%) Fortinet
9 2 (2.70%) Google
9 2 (2.70%) Qualys
9 2 (2.70%) Zscaler
10 1 (1.35%) Cribl.io
10 1 (1.35%) Darktrace
10 1 (1.35%) IBM