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 21 November 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 471 504 411
Rank change year-on-year +33 -93 +314
Contract jobs citing GIAC 70 23 160
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.23% 0.074% 0.41%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.69% 0.25% 1.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 15 49
10th Percentile £340 £258 £453
25th Percentile £429 £394 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £613 £620 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.21% +12.73% -8.33%
75th Percentile £709 £650 £688
90th Percentile £935 £733 £771
UK median daily rate £600 £620 £550
% change year-on-year -3.23% +12.73% -8.33%
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 10,210 9,268 11,688
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 33.43% 29.84% 29.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,617 5,670 7,418
10th Percentile £305 £313 £308
25th Percentile £416 £425 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £526 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.24% -4.32% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £720 £734 £738
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 898 437 711
10th Percentile £17.69 £20.30 £17.72
25th Percentile £19.06 £27.00 £26.77
Median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £53.50
Median % change year-on-year -49.70% -6.54% +18.89%
75th Percentile £52.00 £68.00 £69.81
90th Percentile £74.48 £75.00 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £53.67
% change year-on-year -44.11% -16.15% +19.26%

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 21 November 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 21 November 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 - 22 £390 - 10
London -5 21 £656 +20.97% 16
Midlands -22 9 £875 +41.13% 3
West Midlands -15 8 £1,125 +81.45% 2
North of England - 7 £675 -
Yorkshire - 6 £620 -
South West - 3 £625 - 4
East of England -11 2 £95 -81.00% 1
East Midlands -14 1 £525 - 1
North West - 1 £675 -
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 16 (22.86%) AWS
2 14 (20.00%) Azure
3 7 (10.00%) GCP
4 3 (4.29%) Akamai
4 3 (4.29%) Cloudflare
4 3 (4.29%) OCI
5 2 (2.86%) Entra ID
5 2 (2.86%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (1.43%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (1.43%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (31.43%) Network Security
2 17 (24.29%) Firewall
3 4 (5.71%) Internet
4 3 (4.29%) HTTP
4 3 (4.29%) HTTPS
4 3 (4.29%) VPN
4 3 (4.29%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (2.86%) Cisco ASA
5 2 (2.86%) DHCP
5 2 (2.86%) DNS
5 2 (2.86%) LAN
5 2 (2.86%) SD-WAN
5 2 (2.86%) WAN
6 1 (1.43%) 802.11
6 1 (1.43%) BGP
6 1 (1.43%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (1.43%) MPLS
6 1 (1.43%) OSPF
6 1 (1.43%) SSL
6 1 (1.43%) VLAN
Development Applications
1 1 (1.43%) Burp Suite
1 1 (1.43%) GitLab
1 1 (1.43%) Jenkins
1 1 (1.43%) Metasploit
General
1 33 (47.14%) Social Skills
2 22 (31.43%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (12.86%) Legal
4 8 (11.43%) Public Sector
5 5 (7.14%) Law
6 4 (5.71%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (2.86%) Banking
7 2 (2.86%) Finance
7 2 (2.86%) Retail
8 1 (1.43%) Investment Banking
8 1 (1.43%) Military
8 1 (1.43%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 21 (30.00%) Analyst
2 12 (17.14%) Security Analyst
3 11 (15.71%) Cybersecurity Analyst
4 10 (14.29%) SIEM Engineer
5 9 (12.86%) Architect
6 8 (11.43%) SOC Analyst
7 7 (10.00%) Security Architect
8 6 (8.57%) Security Manager
9 5 (7.14%) Consultant
9 5 (7.14%) Security Engineer
10 4 (5.71%) Operations Analyst
10 4 (5.71%) Security Operations Analyst
11 3 (4.29%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 3 (4.29%) Cybersecurity Specialist
11 3 (4.29%) Data Analyst
11 3 (4.29%) Operational Security Manager
11 3 (4.29%) Operations Manager
11 3 (4.29%) Security Operations Manager
11 3 (4.29%) Security Specialist
11 3 (4.29%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (5.71%) REST
2 3 (4.29%) JSON
2 3 (4.29%) XML
3 1 (1.43%) 802.1X
3 1 (1.43%) LDAP
3 1 (1.43%) OAuth
3 1 (1.43%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (25.71%) Security Operations Centre
2 12 (17.14%) Cyber Threat
3 9 (12.86%) Cyber Security Posture
3 9 (12.86%) Management Information System
4 7 (10.00%) Security Posture
5 5 (7.14%) Cybercrime
6 4 (5.71%) Cyber Defence
6 4 (5.71%) Onboarding
7 3 (4.29%) CSOC
7 3 (4.29%) Operational Technology
8 2 (2.86%) Algorithms
8 2 (2.86%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (2.86%) Low-Code
8 2 (2.86%) PKI
9 1 (1.43%) Cloud Native
9 1 (1.43%) Clustering
9 1 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (1.43%) Mobile App
9 1 (1.43%) Private Cloud
9 1 (1.43%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 8 (11.43%) Linux
2 6 (8.57%) Windows
3 1 (1.43%) Android
3 1 (1.43%) Apple iOS
3 1 (1.43%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (71.43%) Cybersecurity
2 39 (55.71%) SIEM
3 35 (50.00%) Incident Response
4 32 (45.71%) Security Operations
5 18 (25.71%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
5 18 (25.71%) Threat Intelligence
6 17 (24.29%) Threat Detection
7 14 (20.00%) Analytical Thinking
8 13 (18.57%) Problem-Solving
8 13 (18.57%) Threat Modelling
9 11 (15.71%) DevOps
9 11 (15.71%) Vulnerability Management
9 11 (15.71%) Vulnerability Scanning
10 10 (14.29%) Cloud Security
10 10 (14.29%) Forensic Analysis
10 10 (14.29%) MITRE ATT&CK
10 10 (14.29%) Risk Management
11 9 (12.86%) Continuous Improvement
12 8 (11.43%) Behavioural Analysis
12 8 (11.43%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 19 (27.14%) Python
2 17 (24.29%) PowerShell
3 6 (8.57%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (5.71%) SQL
5 2 (2.86%) Search Processing Language
6 1 (1.43%) Bash
6 1 (1.43%) Java
6 1 (1.43%) JavaScript
6 1 (1.43%) Kotlin
6 1 (1.43%) Objective-C
6 1 (1.43%) R
6 1 (1.43%) Swift
Qualifications
1 53 (75.71%) CISSP
2 29 (41.43%) CEH
3 25 (35.71%) Security Cleared
4 19 (27.14%) CISM
5 13 (18.57%) SC Cleared
6 11 (15.71%) GCIA
7 10 (14.29%) CREST Certified
7 10 (14.29%) Degree
7 10 (14.29%) GCIH
8 9 (12.86%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (12.86%) OSCP
9 7 (10.00%) CRISC
9 7 (10.00%) DV Cleared
10 6 (8.57%) CFCE
10 6 (8.57%) CISA
10 6 (8.57%) GCFA
10 6 (8.57%) SANS
11 5 (7.14%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (7.14%) GREM
11 5 (7.14%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (32.86%) NIST
2 22 (31.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (15.71%) GDPR
4 8 (11.43%) PCI DSS
5 7 (10.00%) HIPAA
6 5 (7.14%) QA
7 4 (5.71%) NIST 800
8 3 (4.29%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (4.29%) NCSC
9 1 (1.43%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (1.43%) Data Quality
9 1 (1.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (1.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 1 (1.43%) SOC 1
System Software
1 2 (2.86%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 8 (11.43%) QRadar
2 6 (8.57%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
2 6 (8.57%) Kibana
3 2 (2.86%) Nessus
4 1 (1.43%) Ansible
4 1 (1.43%) SELinux
4 1 (1.43%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 21 (30.00%) Splunk
2 11 (15.71%) Microsoft
3 10 (14.29%) ArcSight
4 6 (8.57%) FireEye
4 6 (8.57%) LogRhythm
4 6 (8.57%) Tanium
5 5 (7.14%) CrowdStrike
5 5 (7.14%) Tenable
6 4 (5.71%) Cisco
7 3 (4.29%) F5
7 3 (4.29%) Fortinet
7 3 (4.29%) Imperva
7 3 (4.29%) Rapid7
7 3 (4.29%) Zscaler
8 2 (2.86%) Google
8 2 (2.86%) Palo Alto
8 2 (2.86%) Proofpoint
8 2 (2.86%) Qualys
9 1 (1.43%) AirMagnet
9 1 (1.43%) SonicWALL