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

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 555 458 524
Rank change year-on-year -97 +66 -14
Contract jobs citing GIAC 65 42 33
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.14% 0.15% 0.091%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.46% 0.50% 0.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 22 25
10th Percentile £425 £335 £303
25th Percentile £475 £481 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £574 £570 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.75% +3.59% -18.52%
75th Percentile £661 £692 £650
90th Percentile £734 £939 £738
UK median daily rate £570 £600 £550
% change year-on-year -5.08% +9.09% -18.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £51.25 £100.50 -
Median hourly rate £52.50 £103.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -49.03% - -
75th Percentile £53.75 £105.50 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £103.00 -
% change year-on-year -49.03% - -

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 14,226 8,407 11,056
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 31.61% 30.88% 30.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,595 5,311 6,932
10th Percentile £350 £285 £313
25th Percentile £430 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £537
Median % change year-on-year - -2.28% -2.32%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £717 £716 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +0.10% -0.10% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,061 603 934
10th Percentile £17.87 £18.13 £14.26
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £21.25
Median hourly rate £54.00 £26.50 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +103.77% -38.37% -22.17%
75th Percentile £74.26 £60.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.96 £76.25 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £51.22 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +103.66% -40.82% -24.71%

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 18 July 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 18 July 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
London -43 37 £581 -5.10% 5
South East -54 13 £447 -13.46% 2
North of England - 8 £639 - 4
South West - 5 £545 - 2
Yorkshire - 4 £558 -
North West - 4 £719 - 4
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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (1.54%) Confluence
Applications
1 2 (3.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.54%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (1.54%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 33 (50.77%) Azure
2 22 (33.85%) AWS
3 19 (29.23%) GCP
4 10 (15.38%) Entra ID
5 8 (12.31%) Microsoft 365
6 7 (10.77%) Azure Sentinel
7 6 (9.23%) IaaS
7 6 (9.23%) PaaS
8 4 (6.15%) GitHub
8 4 (6.15%) SaaS
9 3 (4.62%) Apigee
9 3 (4.62%) Azure API Management
9 3 (4.62%) Azure DevOps
9 3 (4.62%) Kong
10 2 (3.08%) Akamai
10 2 (3.08%) Cloudflare
10 2 (3.08%) Power Platform
11 1 (1.54%) AWS Control Tower
11 1 (1.54%) Microsoft Copilot
11 1 (1.54%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 13 (20.00%) Network Security
2 6 (9.23%) Firewall
3 4 (6.15%) BGP
3 4 (6.15%) MPLS
3 4 (6.15%) TCP/IP
3 4 (6.15%) VPN
4 3 (4.62%) Cisco ASA
4 3 (4.62%) Cisco IOS
4 3 (4.62%) DNS
4 3 (4.62%) TACACS
5 2 (3.08%) Cisco ISE
5 2 (3.08%) HTTP
6 1 (1.54%) DHCP
6 1 (1.54%) Internet
6 1 (1.54%) Kerberos
6 1 (1.54%) Modbus
6 1 (1.54%) OSPF
6 1 (1.54%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.54%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 4 (6.15%) Burp Suite
1 4 (6.15%) GitLab
1 4 (6.15%) Jenkins
1 4 (6.15%) Snyk
2 3 (4.62%) SonarQube
3 2 (3.08%) JIRA
4 1 (1.54%) Claude Code
4 1 (1.54%) TruffleHog
General
1 29 (44.62%) Social Skills
2 16 (24.62%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (16.92%) Public Sector
4 7 (10.77%) Finance
5 2 (3.08%) Banking
5 2 (3.08%) Influencing Skills
5 2 (3.08%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.54%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.54%) Financial Institution
6 1 (1.54%) Law
6 1 (1.54%) Military
6 1 (1.54%) Retail
Job Titles
1 17 (26.15%) Architect
2 14 (21.54%) Security Architect
3 12 (18.46%) Analyst
4 9 (13.85%) Security Analyst
4 9 (13.85%) Security Engineer
5 7 (10.77%) Cybersecurity Analyst
5 7 (10.77%) Security Specialist
6 6 (9.23%) Cybersecurity Architect
6 6 (9.23%) Cybersecurity Specialist
6 6 (9.23%) Lead
6 6 (9.23%) SOC Analyst
7 4 (6.15%) SIEM Engineer
8 3 (4.62%) Applications Architect
8 3 (4.62%) Information Assurance Leader
8 3 (4.62%) Network Engineer
8 3 (4.62%) Operations Analyst
8 3 (4.62%) Security Operations Analyst
8 3 (4.62%) SOC Engineer
8 3 (4.62%) Technical Leader
9 2 (3.08%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (7.69%) OAuth
2 4 (6.15%) LDAP
2 4 (6.15%) OAuth2
2 4 (6.15%) OpenID
2 4 (6.15%) SAML
3 3 (4.62%) JWT
4 2 (3.08%) JSON
4 2 (3.08%) XML
5 1 (1.54%) Azure Blueprints
5 1 (1.54%) FIDO
5 1 (1.54%) Kafka
5 1 (1.54%) REST
5 1 (1.54%) SailPoint
5 1 (1.54%) WebAuthn
Miscellaneous
1 9 (13.85%) Operational Technology
2 7 (10.77%) PKI
2 7 (10.77%) SCADA
3 6 (9.23%) Management Information System
3 6 (9.23%) Onboarding
4 5 (7.69%) Cyber Threat
4 5 (7.69%) Security Operations Centre
4 5 (7.69%) Security Posture
5 4 (6.15%) Cloud Native
5 4 (6.15%) Cyber Defence
6 3 (4.62%) Cyber Security Posture
6 3 (4.62%) Data Centre
7 2 (3.08%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (1.54%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 1 (1.54%) Legacy Applications
8 1 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (1.54%) Private Cloud
8 1 (1.54%) Product Ownership
8 1 (1.54%) Public Cloud
8 1 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 14 (21.54%) Linux
2 10 (15.38%) Windows
3 6 (9.23%) Unix
4 4 (6.15%) Ubuntu
5 1 (1.54%) Alpine Linux
5 1 (1.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (1.54%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (76.92%) Cybersecurity
2 33 (50.77%) SIEM
3 29 (44.62%) Security Architecture
4 26 (40.00%) SABSA
5 23 (35.38%) Incident Response
6 22 (33.85%) Threat Intelligence
7 20 (30.77%) CI/CD
8 19 (29.23%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
8 19 (29.23%) Security Operations
8 19 (29.23%) Vulnerability Management
9 18 (27.69%) OWASP
9 18 (27.69%) Threat Modelling
10 14 (21.54%) Cloud Security
10 14 (21.54%) DevSecOps
10 14 (21.54%) Risk Assessment
11 13 (20.00%) DevOps
11 13 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
11 13 (20.00%) TOGAF
12 12 (18.46%) Incident Management
12 12 (18.46%) MITRE ATT&CK
Programming Languages
1 15 (23.08%) Python
2 8 (12.31%) PowerShell
3 5 (7.69%) Kusto Query Language
4 3 (4.62%) PHP
5 2 (3.08%) Bash
5 2 (3.08%) Objective-C
6 1 (1.54%) Bicep
6 1 (1.54%) C
Qualifications
1 57 (87.69%) CISSP
2 36 (55.38%) Security Cleared
3 34 (52.31%) CISM
4 28 (43.08%) SC Cleared
5 20 (30.77%) CEH
6 17 (26.15%) Degree
7 15 (23.08%) CompTIA Security+
8 14 (21.54%) Cisco Certification
9 13 (20.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 12 (18.46%) CRISC
11 10 (15.38%) CISA
11 10 (15.38%) DV Cleared
11 10 (15.38%) GSEC
11 10 (15.38%) SANS
11 10 (15.38%) SSCP
12 6 (9.23%) CESG Certified Professional
12 6 (9.23%) CSSLP
12 6 (9.23%) GCIA
12 6 (9.23%) GCIH
13 5 (7.69%) GPEN
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 34 (52.31%) NIST
2 31 (47.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (18.46%) NCSC
4 9 (13.85%) Cyber Essentials
5 6 (9.23%) COBIT
6 5 (7.69%) ISO 31000
7 4 (6.15%) GRC
8 3 (4.62%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (4.62%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 3 (4.62%) NIST 800
9 2 (3.08%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (3.08%) RMADS
10 1 (1.54%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (1.54%) HIPAA
10 1 (1.54%) ISA99
10 1 (1.54%) SOC 2
System Software
1 8 (12.31%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.62%) Docker
2 3 (4.62%) VMware ESXi
2 3 (4.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.54%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
3 1 (1.54%) Squid
Systems Management
1 4 (6.15%) Kubernetes
1 4 (6.15%) Terraform
2 3 (4.62%) Ansible
2 3 (4.62%) Kibana
2 3 (4.62%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (4.62%) vCenter Server
3 2 (3.08%) HP Fortify
3 2 (3.08%) QRadar
3 2 (3.08%) SCOM
4 1 (1.54%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (1.54%) SELinux
4 1 (1.54%) Systems Management Server (SMS)
Vendors
1 17 (26.15%) Microsoft
2 13 (20.00%) Splunk
3 6 (9.23%) Cisco
4 5 (7.69%) Cribl.io
4 5 (7.69%) Tenable
5 3 (4.62%) ArcSight
5 3 (4.62%) Checkmarx
5 3 (4.62%) CrowdStrike
5 3 (4.62%) FireEye
5 3 (4.62%) MuleSoft
5 3 (4.62%) Palo Alto
5 3 (4.62%) Qualys
5 3 (4.62%) Tanium
5 3 (4.62%) VMware
6 2 (3.08%) Exabeam
6 2 (3.08%) F5
6 2 (3.08%) ForeScout
6 2 (3.08%) LogRhythm
6 2 (3.08%) Okta
6 2 (3.08%) Veracode