Incident Response Contract Job Trends in England

Incident Response
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Incident Response skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 149 127 223
Rank change year-on-year -22 +96 +31
Contract jobs citing Incident Response 857 617 368
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.85% 2.20% 1.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.18% 2.42% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 530 360 242
10th Percentile £413 £387 £400
25th Percentile £463 £456 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £539 £575
Median % change year-on-year +2.09% -6.30% -4.17%
75th Percentile £630 £649 £685
90th Percentile £750 £738 £788
UK median daily rate £550 £526 £575
% change year-on-year +4.66% -8.61% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 14 2
10th Percentile £55.40 £29.84 -
25th Percentile £65.00 £42.71 £56.25
Median hourly rate £75.00 £56.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +33.93% -2.61% -8.00%
75th Percentile £80.00 £82.13 £58.75
90th Percentile £89.00 £85.53 -
UK median hourly rate £75.00 £56.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +33.93% -2.61% -8.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Incident Response falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 39,245 25,511 27,928
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.84% 90.89% 86.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,668 16,179 17,039
10th Percentile £325 £294 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,000 1,593 1,140
10th Percentile £13.69 £14.51 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.33 £17.79 £20.24
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -40.82% -5.56%
75th Percentile £67.47 £44.81 £67.50
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.25 £74.88
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -9.60%

Incident Response
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Incident Response relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Incident Response job vacancy trend in England

Incident Response
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Incident Response.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Incident Response

Incident Response
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Incident Response in England over the 6 months to 11 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Incident Response in England

Incident Response
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Incident Response.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Incident Response

Incident Response
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Incident Response in England over the 6 months to 11 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Incident Response in England

Incident Response
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 Incident Response within the England region over the 6 months to 11 October 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 -7 403 £550 -4.35% 859
North of England -34 169 £525 +5.00% 217
South East -15 118 £572 +14.40% 193
North West -19 105 £525 +10.53% 124
South West -4 61 £575 -4.17% 69
Yorkshire -17 55 £531 +2.26% 66
East of England -20 49 £600 +14.29% 65
Midlands -70 40 £463 -14.35% 105
West Midlands -63 36 £463 -16.06% 73
North East -32 9 £425 -4.06% 28
East Midlands -20 4 £463 - 32
Incident Response
UK

Incident Response
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 33 (3.85%) Confluence
2 14 (1.63%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.28%) Jupyter
4 9 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
5 7 (0.82%) IIS
6 4 (0.47%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.35%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.35%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.23%) Apache
8 2 (0.23%) nginx
9 1 (0.12%) CMS
Applications
1 19 (2.22%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.12%) Weka
Business Applications
1 8 (0.93%) Oracle ERP
2 3 (0.35%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.23%) Dynamics AX
3 2 (0.23%) Maximo
4 1 (0.12%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.12%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.12%) Oracle BRM
4 1 (0.12%) SAP BRIM
4 1 (0.12%) SAP FI
4 1 (0.12%) SAP FI-CA
4 1 (0.12%) SAP FS
Cloud Services
1 281 (32.79%) Azure
2 217 (25.32%) AWS
3 111 (12.95%) GCP
4 73 (8.52%) Azure Sentinel
4 73 (8.52%) Entra ID
5 60 (7.00%) Microsoft 365
6 54 (6.30%) GitHub
7 43 (5.02%) GitHub Actions
8 41 (4.78%) Amazon EKS
9 32 (3.73%) SaaS
10 30 (3.50%) AWS CloudFormation
11 28 (3.27%) Microsoft Purview
11 28 (3.27%) OCI
12 26 (3.03%) Azure DevOps
13 23 (2.68%) Amazon S3
14 21 (2.45%) Azure Logic Apps
14 21 (2.45%) Datadog
15 19 (2.22%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 19 (2.22%) Serverless
16 16 (1.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 111 (12.95%) Network Security
2 99 (11.55%) Firewall
3 48 (5.60%) DNS
4 47 (5.48%) TCP/IP
5 34 (3.97%) WAN
6 33 (3.85%) VPN
7 20 (2.33%) HTTP
8 19 (2.22%) DHCP
9 17 (1.98%) SSL
10 15 (1.75%) BGP
11 14 (1.63%) Intrusion Detection
11 14 (1.63%) LAN
11 14 (1.63%) SD-WAN
12 9 (1.05%) OSPF
13 8 (0.93%) Internet
13 8 (0.93%) Wireless
14 7 (0.82%) HTTPS
14 7 (0.82%) MPLS
14 7 (0.82%) SNMP
14 7 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.40%) SQL Server
2 11 (1.28%) MongoDB
3 8 (0.93%) Amazon RDS
4 6 (0.70%) BigQuery
4 6 (0.70%) Oracle Database
4 6 (0.70%) PostgreSQL
5 5 (0.58%) MySQL
6 4 (0.47%) Data Warehouse
7 3 (0.35%) Apache Iceberg
7 3 (0.35%) Big Data
7 3 (0.35%) Db2
7 3 (0.35%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.35%) Trino
8 2 (0.23%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.23%) Data Lake
8 2 (0.23%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.23%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (0.23%) MariaDB
8 2 (0.23%) NoSQL
8 2 (0.23%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 38 (4.43%) Jenkins
2 33 (3.85%) Git
3 32 (3.73%) JIRA
4 31 (3.62%) GitLab
5 7 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.70%) Cucumber
7 5 (0.58%) Claude Code
7 5 (0.58%) JUnit
8 4 (0.47%) Postman
8 4 (0.47%) Selenium
8 4 (0.47%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.35%) Atlassian Bamboo
9 3 (0.35%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.35%) ScalaTest
10 2 (0.23%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.23%) Flyway
10 2 (0.23%) git-flow
10 2 (0.23%) Jaeger
10 2 (0.23%) Liquibase
10 2 (0.23%) Mockito
General
1 279 (32.56%) Social Skills
2 137 (15.99%) Finance
3 119 (13.89%) Analytical Skills
4 97 (11.32%) Public Sector
5 41 (4.78%) Banking
6 28 (3.27%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (2.80%) Military
8 23 (2.68%) Aerospace
8 23 (2.68%) Legal
9 20 (2.33%) Organisational Skills
10 19 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 16 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
11 16 (1.87%) Manufacturing
11 16 (1.87%) Telecoms
12 15 (1.75%) Law
13 9 (1.05%) Local Government
14 8 (0.93%) Pharmaceutical
14 8 (0.93%) Retail
15 5 (0.58%) Investment Banking
16 3 (0.35%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 123 (14.35%) Analyst
2 90 (10.50%) Security Engineer
3 82 (9.57%) Lead
4 71 (8.28%) Senior
5 56 (6.53%) Security Analyst
6 53 (6.18%) Architect
7 48 (5.60%) SOC Analyst
8 42 (4.90%) Consultant
9 40 (4.67%) Security Manager
10 36 (4.20%) Platform Engineer
11 33 (3.85%) Cloud Engineer
12 32 (3.73%) DevOps Engineer
13 31 (3.62%) Network Engineer
14 28 (3.27%) Cybersecurity Manager
15 26 (3.03%) Cybersecurity Analyst
15 26 (3.03%) Developer
16 22 (2.57%) SOC Manager
17 21 (2.45%) Security Architect
18 20 (2.33%) Cybersecurity Engineer
18 20 (2.33%) Operations Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 175 (20.42%) Terraform
2 29 (3.38%) REST
3 21 (2.45%) Loki
4 19 (2.22%) Kafka
5 14 (1.63%) Elastic Stack
5 14 (1.63%) OAuth
6 11 (1.28%) OpenID
6 11 (1.28%) SAML
6 11 (1.28%) vLLM
7 10 (1.17%) ARM Templates
7 10 (1.17%) JSON
7 10 (1.17%) LDAP
8 9 (1.05%) Flask
8 9 (1.05%) ModSecurity
9 8 (0.93%) OpenTelemetry
9 8 (0.93%) Play Framework
10 7 (0.82%) Django
10 7 (0.82%) Keycloak
10 7 (0.82%) YAML
11 6 (0.70%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 127 (14.82%) Cyber Threat
2 106 (12.37%) Security Posture
3 83 (9.68%) Security Operations Centre
4 74 (8.63%) Cloud Native
5 63 (7.35%) Onboarding
6 51 (5.95%) Management Information System
7 48 (5.60%) Cyber Defence
8 36 (4.20%) Operational Technology
9 28 (3.27%) PKI
10 24 (2.80%) CSOC
11 23 (2.68%) Data Centre
12 20 (2.33%) Distributed Systems
13 18 (2.10%) AI Agents
14 16 (1.87%) Cyberattack
15 15 (1.75%) Analytical Mindset
15 15 (1.75%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
15 15 (1.75%) SCADA
16 13 (1.52%) Enterprise Software
17 12 (1.40%) Cyber Kill Chain
17 12 (1.40%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 118 (13.77%) Windows
2 90 (10.50%) Linux
3 41 (4.78%) Windows Server
4 19 (2.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (1.87%) Unix
6 11 (1.28%) macOS
7 5 (0.58%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.58%) Windows 10
8 2 (0.23%) Android
8 2 (0.23%) CentOS
8 2 (0.23%) CoreOS
8 2 (0.23%) VMS
9 1 (0.12%) AIX
9 1 (0.12%) Amazon Linux
9 1 (0.12%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.12%) Solaris
9 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 406 (47.37%) Cybersecurity
2 281 (32.79%) Security Operations
3 244 (28.47%) Continuous Improvement
4 240 (28.00%) SIEM
5 200 (23.34%) Vulnerability Management
6 179 (20.89%) CI/CD
7 176 (20.54%) Stakeholder Management
8 173 (20.19%) Infrastructure as Code
9 148 (17.27%) Incident Management
10 145 (16.92%) Cloud Security
11 141 (16.45%) DevOps
12 134 (15.64%) Threat Detection
13 133 (15.52%) Observability
14 127 (14.82%) Security Monitoring
15 115 (13.42%) Threat Intelligence
16 109 (12.72%) Problem-Solving
17 104 (12.14%) Risk Management
18 101 (11.79%) Information Security
19 96 (11.20%) ITIL
20 95 (11.09%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 182 (21.24%) Python
2 95 (11.09%) PowerShell
3 79 (9.22%) Bash
4 36 (4.20%) Kusto Query Language
5 34 (3.97%) SQL
6 28 (3.27%) Java
7 27 (3.15%) Go
8 22 (2.57%) Bicep
9 13 (1.52%) Search Processing Language
10 9 (1.05%) C#
10 9 (1.05%) Shell Script
11 8 (0.93%) Scala
11 8 (0.93%) TypeScript
12 6 (0.70%) JavaScript
13 5 (0.58%) Perl
14 4 (0.47%) C++
15 3 (0.35%) Groovy
15 3 (0.35%) Kotlin
15 3 (0.35%) PL/SQL
16 2 (0.23%) Korn
Qualifications
1 280 (32.67%) Security Cleared
2 201 (23.45%) SC Cleared
3 116 (13.54%) CISSP
4 80 (9.33%) Degree
4 80 (9.33%) DV Cleared
5 60 (7.00%) CISM
6 37 (4.32%) Cisco Certification
7 31 (3.62%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 26 (3.03%) CompTIA Security+
8 26 (3.03%) Microsoft Certification
9 25 (2.92%) GCIH
10 24 (2.80%) AWS Certification
10 24 (2.80%) Azure Certification
11 23 (2.68%) GIAC
12 20 (2.33%) CCSP
13 19 (2.22%) CompTIA CySA+
13 19 (2.22%) GCIA
14 16 (1.87%) CEH
14 16 (1.87%) Computer Science Degree
15 14 (1.63%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 136 (15.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 128 (14.94%) NIST
3 73 (8.52%) NCSC
4 69 (8.05%) GDPR
5 45 (5.25%) SLA
6 40 (4.67%) PCI DSS
7 31 (3.62%) Cyber Essentials
8 30 (3.50%) GRC
9 17 (1.98%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 16 (1.87%) Data Quality
10 16 (1.87%) QA
11 15 (1.75%) NIST 800
12 12 (1.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 10 (1.17%) Accessibility
13 10 (1.17%) JSP 440
14 8 (0.93%) SOC 2
15 7 (0.82%) HIPAA
16 5 (0.58%) COBIT
16 5 (0.58%) ISO 22301
16 5 (0.58%) WCAG
System Software
1 88 (10.27%) Active Directory
2 70 (8.17%) Docker
3 8 (0.93%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.82%) Firmware
4 7 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.35%) NFS
5 3 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.23%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.23%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.23%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.12%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 1 (0.12%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.12%) Ceph
7 1 (0.12%) GPFS
7 1 (0.12%) Lustre
7 1 (0.12%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 1 (0.12%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.12%) VMware NSX
7 1 (0.12%) vSphere
7 1 (0.12%) zsh
Systems Management
1 135 (15.75%) Kubernetes
2 60 (7.00%) Grafana
3 52 (6.07%) Ansible
4 33 (3.85%) Prometheus
5 25 (2.92%) QRadar
6 19 (2.22%) Argo
7 17 (1.98%) Microsoft Intune
7 17 (1.98%) Progress Chef
8 15 (1.75%) Single Sign-On
9 12 (1.40%) FortiGate
10 11 (1.28%) Kubeflow
11 8 (0.93%) Puppet
12 7 (0.82%) CASB
12 7 (0.82%) Istio
13 5 (0.58%) CSIRT
13 5 (0.58%) SCCM
14 4 (0.47%) Nessus
14 4 (0.47%) ZABBIX
15 3 (0.35%) CA Single Sign-On
15 3 (0.35%) Data Guard
Vendors
1 249 (29.05%) Microsoft
2 103 (12.02%) Splunk
3 52 (6.07%) ServiceNow
4 46 (5.37%) Google
5 31 (3.62%) CrowdStrike
5 31 (3.62%) Oracle
6 29 (3.38%) Cisco
7 28 (3.27%) Zscaler
8 24 (2.80%) Palo Alto
9 17 (1.98%) VMware
10 16 (1.87%) Red Hat
11 12 (1.40%) ArcSight
11 12 (1.40%) Tenable
12 11 (1.28%) Fortinet
12 11 (1.28%) LogRhythm
13 10 (1.17%) Dynatrace
13 10 (1.17%) Qualys
14 9 (1.05%) IBM
14 9 (1.05%) Infoblox
14 9 (1.05%) Rapid7