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 16 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 466 485 413
Rank change year-on-year +19 -72 +290
Contract jobs citing GIAC 77 21 154
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.25% 0.072% 0.41%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.73% 0.24% 1.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 47 11 46
10th Percentile £338 £363 £453
25th Percentile £419 £550 £482
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £635 £550
Median % change year-on-year -14.96% +15.45% -12.70%
75th Percentile £700 £650 £697
90th Percentile £770 - £768
UK median daily rate £530 £628 £563
% change year-on-year -15.54% +11.56% -7.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £100.50 - -
Median hourly rate £103.00 - -
75th Percentile £105.50 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £103.00 - -

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 10,614 8,768 11,323
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.88% 30.20% 30.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,948 5,419 7,158
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £419 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £530 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% -
75th Percentile £627 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 905 415 680
10th Percentile £16.84 £20.00 £17.69
25th Percentile £19.29 £25.26 £26.85
Median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.05% -9.52% +16.67%
75th Percentile £56.69 £68.00 £67.81
90th Percentile £76.58 £75.00 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £53.50
% change year-on-year -37.13% -25.23% +18.89%

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 16 December 2025.

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 16 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 East - 29 £425 - 10
London +4 20 £650 - 11
Midlands -32 9 £875 +43.44% 3
West Midlands -24 8 £1,125 +84.43% 2
North of England - 8 £608 - 3
Yorkshire - 6 £620 -
South West - 3 £625 - 1
East of England -23 2 £95 -81.00% 2
North West - 2 £500 - 3
East Midlands -16 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 (22.08%) AWS
2 15 (19.48%) Azure
3 5 (6.49%) GCP
4 3 (3.90%) Akamai
4 3 (3.90%) Cloudflare
4 3 (3.90%) OCI
5 2 (2.60%) Entra ID
5 2 (2.60%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (1.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (1.30%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 27 (35.06%) Network Security
2 17 (22.08%) Firewall
3 5 (6.49%) VPN
4 4 (5.19%) Internet
5 3 (3.90%) HTTP
5 3 (3.90%) HTTPS
5 3 (3.90%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (2.60%) Cisco ASA
6 2 (2.60%) DHCP
6 2 (2.60%) DNS
6 2 (2.60%) LAN
6 2 (2.60%) S/MIME
6 2 (2.60%) SD-WAN
6 2 (2.60%) WAN
7 1 (1.30%) 802.11
7 1 (1.30%) BGP
7 1 (1.30%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (1.30%) MPLS
7 1 (1.30%) OSPF
7 1 (1.30%) VLAN
Development Applications
1 1 (1.30%) Burp Suite
1 1 (1.30%) GitLab
1 1 (1.30%) Jenkins
1 1 (1.30%) Metasploit
General
1 38 (49.35%) Social Skills
2 27 (35.06%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (10.39%) Legal
4 7 (9.09%) Public Sector
5 5 (6.49%) Law
6 4 (5.19%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (3.90%) Retail
8 2 (2.60%) Banking
8 2 (2.60%) Finance
9 1 (1.30%) Investment Banking
9 1 (1.30%) Military
9 1 (1.30%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 24 (31.17%) Analyst
2 15 (19.48%) SIEM Engineer
3 14 (18.18%) Security Analyst
4 13 (16.88%) Cybersecurity Analyst
5 10 (12.99%) Architect
6 8 (10.39%) SOC Analyst
7 6 (7.79%) Security Architect
7 6 (7.79%) Security Engineer
8 5 (6.49%) Consultant
9 4 (5.19%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 4 (5.19%) Operations Analyst
9 4 (5.19%) Security Manager
9 4 (5.19%) Security Operations Analyst
10 3 (3.90%) Cybersecurity Specialist
10 3 (3.90%) Data Analyst
10 3 (3.90%) Operational Security Manager
10 3 (3.90%) Operations Manager
10 3 (3.90%) Security Operations Manager
10 3 (3.90%) Security Specialist
10 3 (3.90%) Supply Chain Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (5.19%) REST
2 3 (3.90%) JSON
2 3 (3.90%) XML
3 1 (1.30%) 802.1X
3 1 (1.30%) LDAP
3 1 (1.30%) OAuth
3 1 (1.30%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 17 (22.08%) Security Operations Centre
2 13 (16.88%) Cyber Security Posture
2 13 (16.88%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (10.39%) Management Information System
4 7 (9.09%) Security Posture
5 5 (6.49%) Cybercrime
5 5 (6.49%) Onboarding
6 4 (5.19%) Cyber Defence
6 4 (5.19%) Operational Technology
7 3 (3.90%) Algorithms
7 3 (3.90%) CSOC
7 3 (3.90%) PKI
8 2 (2.60%) Smartcard
9 1 (1.30%) Cloud Native
9 1 (1.30%) Clustering
9 1 (1.30%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (1.30%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (1.30%) Mobile App
9 1 (1.30%) Private Cloud
9 1 (1.30%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 8 (10.39%) Linux
2 6 (7.79%) Windows
3 1 (1.30%) Android
3 1 (1.30%) Apple iOS
3 1 (1.30%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (75.32%) Cybersecurity
2 42 (54.55%) SIEM
3 35 (45.45%) Incident Response
4 29 (37.66%) Security Operations
5 20 (25.97%) Threat Detection
6 18 (23.38%) Analytical Thinking
7 17 (22.08%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 17 (22.08%) Problem-Solving
7 17 (22.08%) Threat Intelligence
8 13 (16.88%) Risk Management
8 13 (16.88%) Threat Modelling
9 12 (15.58%) Vulnerability Scanning
10 11 (14.29%) Cloud Security
11 10 (12.99%) DevOps
11 10 (12.99%) Forensic Analysis
12 9 (11.69%) MITRE ATT&CK
12 9 (11.69%) Vulnerability Management
13 8 (10.39%) Behavioural Analysis
13 8 (10.39%) Continuous Improvement
13 8 (10.39%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 24 (31.17%) Python
2 22 (28.57%) PowerShell
3 11 (14.29%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (5.19%) SQL
5 2 (2.60%) Search Processing Language
6 1 (1.30%) Bash
6 1 (1.30%) Java
6 1 (1.30%) JavaScript
6 1 (1.30%) Kotlin
6 1 (1.30%) Objective-C
6 1 (1.30%) R
6 1 (1.30%) Swift
Qualifications
1 59 (76.62%) CISSP
2 36 (46.75%) CEH
3 33 (42.86%) Security Cleared
4 20 (25.97%) CISM
5 18 (23.38%) SC Cleared
6 11 (14.29%) Degree
6 11 (14.29%) DV Cleared
6 11 (14.29%) GCIA
7 10 (12.99%) CompTIA Security+
7 10 (12.99%) GCIH
8 9 (11.69%) OSCP
9 8 (10.39%) CREST Certified
10 6 (7.79%) CFCE
10 6 (7.79%) CISA
10 6 (7.79%) CRISC
10 6 (7.79%) GCFA
11 5 (6.49%) GREM
11 5 (6.49%) ISACA
11 5 (6.49%) SANS
11 5 (6.49%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (27.27%) NIST
2 20 (25.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (11.69%) GDPR
4 8 (10.39%) PCI DSS
5 7 (9.09%) HIPAA
6 4 (5.19%) NIST 800
6 4 (5.19%) QA
7 3 (3.90%) NCSC
8 2 (2.60%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (1.30%) Data Quality
9 1 (1.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (1.30%) SOC 1
System Software
1 1 (1.30%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 11 (14.29%) Kibana
2 7 (9.09%) QRadar
3 6 (7.79%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
4 2 (2.60%) Nessus
5 1 (1.30%) Ansible
5 1 (1.30%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 21 (27.27%) Splunk
2 15 (19.48%) Microsoft
3 10 (12.99%) ArcSight
3 10 (12.99%) FireEye
3 10 (12.99%) Tanium
4 6 (7.79%) LogRhythm
4 6 (7.79%) Tenable
5 5 (6.49%) CrowdStrike
6 4 (5.19%) Cisco
7 3 (3.90%) F5
7 3 (3.90%) Fortinet
7 3 (3.90%) Imperva
7 3 (3.90%) Rapid7
7 3 (3.90%) Zscaler
8 2 (2.60%) Google
8 2 (2.60%) Palo Alto
8 2 (2.60%) Qualys
8 2 (2.60%) Thales
9 1 (1.30%) AirMagnet
9 1 (1.30%) SonicWALL