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 30 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 469 463 421
Rank change year-on-year -6 -42 +249
Contract jobs citing GIAC 89 26 135
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.27% 0.098% 0.36%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.79% 0.32% 1.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 13 30
10th Percentile £340 £480 £458
25th Percentile £420 £567 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £625 £600
Median % change year-on-year -16.00% +4.17% -17.24%
75th Percentile £675 £650 £725
90th Percentile £725 - £771
UK median daily rate £520 £620 £600
% change year-on-year -16.13% +3.33% -10.11%

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 11,280 8,062 11,743
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.15% 30.34% 31.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,491 4,869 7,328
10th Percentile £313 £300 £300
25th Percentile £418 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £522 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.57% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £519 £525 £548
% change year-on-year -1.24% -4.11% -0.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 873 385 841
10th Percentile £15.65 £19.51 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.26 £21.46
Median hourly rate £25.15 £46.18 £46.39
Median % change year-on-year -45.54% -0.45% +3.09%
75th Percentile £63.40 £67.50 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.59 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £39.52 £46.39
% change year-on-year -36.36% -14.81% +3.09%

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 30 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 30 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 +8 34 £430 -24.25% 7
London -14 28 £559 -14.04% 10
North of England - 8 £608 - 1
Midlands -52 6 £575 -7.26% 3
Yorkshire - 6 £620 - 1
South West - 6 £539 - 7
West Midlands -35 5 £625 +0.81%
North West - 2 £500 -
East of England -19 1 £95 -81.00%
East Midlands -30 1 £525 - 3
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 21 (23.60%) AWS
2 19 (21.35%) Azure
3 5 (5.62%) GCP
4 3 (3.37%) Akamai
4 3 (3.37%) Cloudflare
4 3 (3.37%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (3.37%) OCI
5 2 (2.25%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.12%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (1.12%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 29 (32.58%) Network Security
2 15 (16.85%) Firewall
3 10 (11.24%) VPN
4 5 (5.62%) BGP
4 5 (5.62%) MPLS
5 4 (4.49%) Cisco ASA
5 4 (4.49%) Internet
5 4 (4.49%) S/MIME
6 3 (3.37%) Cisco IOS
6 3 (3.37%) HTTP
6 3 (3.37%) HTTPS
6 3 (3.37%) TACACS
7 2 (2.25%) DHCP
7 2 (2.25%) DNS
7 2 (2.25%) OSPF
7 2 (2.25%) Wi-Fi
8 1 (1.12%) Cisco Wireless
8 1 (1.12%) Intrusion Detection
8 1 (1.12%) VLAN
8 1 (1.12%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 1 (1.12%) Burp Suite
1 1 (1.12%) GitLab
1 1 (1.12%) Jenkins
1 1 (1.12%) Metasploit
General
1 40 (44.94%) Social Skills
2 28 (31.46%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (13.48%) Public Sector
4 5 (5.62%) Law
4 5 (5.62%) Legal
5 3 (3.37%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (3.37%) Retail
6 1 (1.12%) Banking
6 1 (1.12%) Finance
6 1 (1.12%) Investment Banking
6 1 (1.12%) Military
6 1 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 25 (28.09%) Analyst
2 18 (20.22%) SIEM Engineer
3 15 (16.85%) Architect
4 14 (15.73%) Security Analyst
5 13 (14.61%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 10 (11.24%) Security Engineer
7 9 (10.11%) Security Architect
8 8 (8.99%) SOC Analyst
9 4 (4.49%) Consultant
9 4 (4.49%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 4 (4.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 4 (4.49%) Operational Security Manager
9 4 (4.49%) Operations Analyst
9 4 (4.49%) Operations Manager
9 4 (4.49%) Security Manager
9 4 (4.49%) Security Operations Analyst
9 4 (4.49%) Security Operations Manager
10 3 (3.37%) Applications Architect
10 3 (3.37%) Data Analyst
10 3 (3.37%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (4.49%) LDAP
1 4 (4.49%) REST
2 3 (3.37%) JSON
2 3 (3.37%) XML
3 1 (1.12%) 802.1X
3 1 (1.12%) OAuth
3 1 (1.12%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (16.85%) Cyber Security Posture
1 15 (16.85%) Security Operations Centre
2 12 (13.48%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (8.99%) PKI
4 7 (7.87%) Onboarding
4 7 (7.87%) Security Posture
5 6 (6.74%) Management Information System
6 5 (5.62%) Algorithms
6 5 (5.62%) Cyber Defence
6 5 (5.62%) Cybercrime
7 4 (4.49%) Smartcard
8 3 (3.37%) Operational Technology
9 2 (2.25%) CSOC
9 2 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (2.25%) Private Cloud
10 1 (1.12%) CESG
10 1 (1.12%) Clustering
10 1 (1.12%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (1.12%) Hybrid Cloud
10 1 (1.12%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 10 (11.24%) Linux
2 4 (4.49%) Windows
3 3 (3.37%) Ubuntu
4 1 (1.12%) Android
4 1 (1.12%) Apple iOS
4 1 (1.12%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (73.03%) Cybersecurity
2 46 (51.69%) SIEM
3 42 (47.19%) Incident Response
4 33 (37.08%) Security Operations
5 26 (29.21%) Threat Detection
6 21 (23.60%) Analytical Thinking
6 21 (23.60%) Threat Intelligence
7 20 (22.47%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
8 17 (19.10%) Problem-Solving
9 14 (15.73%) Cloud Security
9 14 (15.73%) Threat Modelling
10 13 (14.61%) MITRE ATT&CK
10 13 (14.61%) Vulnerability Management
11 12 (13.48%) Vulnerability Scanning
12 10 (11.24%) Agile
12 10 (11.24%) DevOps
12 10 (11.24%) Risk Management
13 9 (10.11%) Continuous Improvement
13 9 (10.11%) Incident Management
13 9 (10.11%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 29 (32.58%) Python
2 23 (25.84%) PowerShell
3 15 (16.85%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (4.49%) SQL
5 3 (3.37%) PHP
6 1 (1.12%) Bash
6 1 (1.12%) Java
6 1 (1.12%) JavaScript
6 1 (1.12%) Kotlin
6 1 (1.12%) Objective-C
6 1 (1.12%) R
6 1 (1.12%) Search Processing Language
6 1 (1.12%) Swift
Qualifications
1 64 (71.91%) CISSP
2 49 (55.06%) Security Cleared
3 37 (41.57%) CEH
4 32 (35.96%) SC Cleared
5 25 (28.09%) CISM
6 18 (20.22%) DV Cleared
7 17 (19.10%) CompTIA Security+
8 11 (12.36%) CREST Certified
9 10 (11.24%) GCIH
10 9 (10.11%) Degree
10 9 (10.11%) GCIA
11 8 (8.99%) CompTIA CySA+
11 8 (8.99%) SSCP
12 6 (6.74%) GSEC
12 6 (6.74%) OSCP
13 5 (5.62%) Cisco Certification
13 5 (5.62%) GREM
13 5 (5.62%) ISACA
14 4 (4.49%) CFCE
14 4 (4.49%) GCFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (28.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 25 (28.09%) NIST
2 7 (7.87%) NCSC
3 5 (5.62%) PCI DSS
4 4 (4.49%) GDPR
4 4 (4.49%) HIPAA
5 3 (3.37%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (3.37%) Cyber Essentials
5 3 (3.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (3.37%) NIST 800
6 1 (1.12%) COBIT
6 1 (1.12%) Data Quality
6 1 (1.12%) HMG Security Policy Framework
6 1 (1.12%) QA
6 1 (1.12%) RMADS
6 1 (1.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (1.12%) SOC 1
System Software
1 3 (3.37%) VMware ESXi
1 3 (3.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (2.25%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 14 (15.73%) Kibana
2 6 (6.74%) QRadar
3 3 (3.37%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
3 3 (3.37%) SCOM
3 3 (3.37%) vCenter Server
4 2 (2.25%) Ansible
5 1 (1.12%) Nessus
5 1 (1.12%) SELinux
5 1 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 23 (25.84%) Splunk
2 19 (21.35%) Microsoft
3 13 (14.61%) FireEye
3 13 (14.61%) Tanium
4 8 (8.99%) ArcSight
5 7 (7.87%) Tenable
6 6 (6.74%) Cisco
6 6 (6.74%) Cribl.io
7 4 (4.49%) LogRhythm
7 4 (4.49%) Thales
8 3 (3.37%) CrowdStrike
8 3 (3.37%) F5
8 3 (3.37%) Fortinet
8 3 (3.37%) Imperva
8 3 (3.37%) Rapid7
8 3 (3.37%) VMware
9 2 (2.25%) Google
9 2 (2.25%) Palo Alto
9 2 (2.25%) Zscaler
10 1 (1.12%) Workday