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

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 471 469 420
Rank change year-on-year -2 -49 +247
Contract jobs citing GIAC 81 24 133
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.24% 0.093% 0.35%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.70% 0.31% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 10 25
10th Percentile £337 £498 £435
25th Percentile £421 £575 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £523 £623 £600
Median % change year-on-year -16.06% +3.75% -14.29%
75th Percentile £647 £650 £750
90th Percentile £724 £691 £773
UK median daily rate £523 £610 £600
% change year-on-year -14.34% +1.67% -14.29%

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 11,590 7,771 11,825
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 34.08% 30.12% 31.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,698 4,738 7,305
10th Percentile £320 £295 £300
25th Percentile £419 £414 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £518 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -1.43% -2.42% -2.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 896 364 877
10th Percentile £15.81 £19.98 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.87 £25.26 £21.46
Median hourly rate £25.15 £47.37 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -46.91% +3.25% +1.96%
75th Percentile £63.75 £68.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £82.43 £78.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £39.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year -35.51% -15.00% -0.26%

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 February 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 16 February 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 -2 31 £430 -30.76% 4
London -24 26 £515 -20.77% 9
North of England - 7 £540 - 2
Yorkshire - 6 £620 - 1
South West - 6 £539 - 3
Midlands -53 5 £525 -15.32% 2
West Midlands -45 4 - - 1
East of England -22 1 £95 -81.00% 1
East Midlands -24 1 £525 - 1
North West - 1 £325 - 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:

Applications
1 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 20 (24.69%) AWS
2 18 (22.22%) Azure
3 5 (6.17%) GCP
4 3 (3.70%) Akamai
4 3 (3.70%) Cloudflare
4 3 (3.70%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (3.70%) OCI
5 2 (2.47%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 27 (33.33%) Network Security
2 15 (18.52%) Firewall
3 11 (13.58%) VPN
4 6 (7.41%) BGP
4 6 (7.41%) MPLS
5 5 (6.17%) Cisco ASA
6 4 (4.94%) Cisco IOS
6 4 (4.94%) Internet
6 4 (4.94%) S/MIME
6 4 (4.94%) TACACS
7 3 (3.70%) HTTP
7 3 (3.70%) HTTPS
8 2 (2.47%) DHCP
8 2 (2.47%) DNS
8 2 (2.47%) OSPF
8 2 (2.47%) Wi-Fi
9 1 (1.23%) 802.11
9 1 (1.23%) SSL
9 1 (1.23%) TCP/IP
9 1 (1.23%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 1 (1.23%) GitLab
1 1 (1.23%) Jenkins
General
1 36 (44.44%) Social Skills
2 24 (29.63%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (16.05%) Public Sector
4 4 (4.94%) Law
5 3 (3.70%) Legal
5 3 (3.70%) Retail
6 2 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.23%) Banking
7 1 (1.23%) Investment Banking
7 1 (1.23%) Military
Job Titles
1 24 (29.63%) Analyst
2 14 (17.28%) Security Analyst
2 14 (17.28%) SIEM Engineer
3 13 (16.05%) Architect
3 13 (16.05%) Cybersecurity Analyst
4 11 (13.58%) Security Engineer
5 8 (9.88%) SOC Analyst
6 7 (8.64%) Security Architect
7 4 (4.94%) Consultant
7 4 (4.94%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 4 (4.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (4.94%) Operational Security Manager
7 4 (4.94%) Operations Analyst
7 4 (4.94%) Operations Manager
7 4 (4.94%) Security Manager
7 4 (4.94%) Security Operations Analyst
7 4 (4.94%) Security Operations Manager
8 3 (3.70%) Cybersecurity Specialist
8 3 (3.70%) Data Analyst
8 3 (3.70%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (6.17%) LDAP
2 4 (4.94%) REST
3 3 (3.70%) JSON
3 3 (3.70%) XML
4 1 (1.23%) 802.1X
4 1 (1.23%) OAuth
4 1 (1.23%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (18.52%) Security Operations Centre
2 12 (14.81%) Cyber Security Posture
3 11 (13.58%) Cyber Threat
4 8 (9.88%) PKI
5 7 (8.64%) Onboarding
6 6 (7.41%) Security Posture
7 5 (6.17%) Algorithms
7 5 (6.17%) Cyber Defence
7 5 (6.17%) Cybercrime
8 4 (4.94%) Management Information System
8 4 (4.94%) Smartcard
9 2 (2.47%) CSOC
9 2 (2.47%) Operational Technology
9 2 (2.47%) Private Cloud
10 1 (1.23%) Insider Threat
10 1 (1.23%) Legacy Applications
10 1 (1.23%) Legacy Systems
10 1 (1.23%) MISP
10 1 (1.23%) STIX
10 1 (1.23%) TAXII
Operating Systems
1 10 (12.35%) Linux
2 4 (4.94%) Ubuntu
2 4 (4.94%) Windows
3 1 (1.23%) Android
3 1 (1.23%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (74.07%) Cybersecurity
2 41 (50.62%) SIEM
3 38 (46.91%) Incident Response
4 31 (38.27%) Security Operations
5 21 (25.93%) Threat Detection
5 21 (25.93%) Threat Intelligence
6 20 (24.69%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 18 (22.22%) Analytical Thinking
8 15 (18.52%) Problem-Solving
9 14 (17.28%) Cloud Security
10 13 (16.05%) Threat Modelling
10 13 (16.05%) Vulnerability Management
11 12 (14.81%) MITRE ATT&CK
12 11 (13.58%) Vulnerability Scanning
13 10 (12.35%) Agile
14 9 (11.11%) Continuous Improvement
14 9 (11.11%) DevOps
14 9 (11.11%) Incident Management
14 9 (11.11%) Risk Management
14 9 (11.11%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 25 (30.86%) Python
2 19 (23.46%) PowerShell
3 14 (17.28%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (4.94%) PHP
4 4 (4.94%) SQL
5 1 (1.23%) Bash
5 1 (1.23%) Java
5 1 (1.23%) JavaScript
5 1 (1.23%) Kotlin
5 1 (1.23%) Objective-C
5 1 (1.23%) R
5 1 (1.23%) Swift
Qualifications
1 56 (69.14%) CISSP
2 46 (56.79%) Security Cleared
3 33 (40.74%) CEH
4 29 (35.80%) SC Cleared
5 23 (28.40%) CISM
6 19 (23.46%) DV Cleared
7 18 (22.22%) CompTIA Security+
8 11 (13.58%) CREST Certified
9 10 (12.35%) Degree
9 10 (12.35%) GCIH
10 9 (11.11%) GCIA
11 8 (9.88%) CompTIA CySA+
12 7 (8.64%) SSCP
13 5 (6.17%) GREM
13 5 (6.17%) OSCP
14 4 (4.94%) APMG
14 4 (4.94%) CFCE
14 4 (4.94%) Cisco Certification
14 4 (4.94%) GCFA
14 4 (4.94%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (29.63%) NIST
2 22 (27.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (8.64%) NCSC
4 4 (4.94%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (4.94%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (4.94%) GDPR
4 4 (4.94%) HIPAA
5 3 (3.70%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (3.70%) NIST 800
5 3 (3.70%) PCI DSS
6 2 (2.47%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (1.23%) COBIT
7 1 (1.23%) Data Quality
7 1 (1.23%) QA
7 1 (1.23%) RMADS
7 1 (1.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 4 (4.94%) VMware ESXi
1 4 (4.94%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (2.47%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 14 (17.28%) Kibana
2 4 (4.94%) vCenter Server
3 3 (3.70%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
3 3 (3.70%) SCOM
4 2 (2.47%) Ansible
5 1 (1.23%) QRadar
5 1 (1.23%) SELinux
Vendors
1 18 (22.22%) Microsoft
1 18 (22.22%) Splunk
2 13 (16.05%) FireEye
2 13 (16.05%) Tanium
3 7 (8.64%) Cisco
3 7 (8.64%) Tenable
4 6 (7.41%) Cribl.io
5 5 (6.17%) ArcSight
6 4 (4.94%) LogRhythm
6 4 (4.94%) Thales
6 4 (4.94%) VMware
7 3 (3.70%) CrowdStrike
7 3 (3.70%) F5
7 3 (3.70%) Fortinet
7 3 (3.70%) Imperva
7 3 (3.70%) Rapid7
8 2 (2.47%) Palo Alto
8 2 (2.47%) Zscaler
9 1 (1.23%) Arista
9 1 (1.23%) Workday