SOC 2 Contract Job Trends in England

System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring SOC 2 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 520 428 539
Rank change year-on-year -92 +111 +49
Contract jobs citing SOC 2 63 40 10
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.15% 0.16% 0.027%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.92% 1.02% 0.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 22 5
10th Percentile £425 £406 £499
25th Percentile £475 £466 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £580 £625 £625
Median % change year-on-year -7.20% - +3.31%
75th Percentile £650 £751 £675
90th Percentile £725 £875 £690
UK median daily rate £574 £650 £650
% change year-on-year -11.77% - +5.69%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
England

SOC 2 falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 6,849 3,921 5,221
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 16.84% 16.01% 14.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,462 2,522 3,346
10th Percentile £340 £275 £300
25th Percentile £413 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £600 £630 £638
90th Percentile £700 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £510
% change year-on-year - -1.96% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 434 155 350
10th Percentile £14.09 £18.11 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.63 £13.18
Median hourly rate £31.68 £35.00 £22.75
Median % change year-on-year -9.49% +53.85% -40.99%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £45.00
90th Percentile £77.63 £78.58 £68.75
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £35.00 £21.12
% change year-on-year - +65.76% -39.67%

SOC 2
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SOC 2 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

SOC 2 job vacancy trend in England

SOC 2
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SOC 2.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing SOC 2

SOC 2
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SOC 2 in England over the 6 months to 11 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SOC 2 in England

SOC 2
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 SOC 2 within the England region over the 6 months to 11 May 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 -53 26 £525 -27.59% 32
South East -38 21 £650 - 10
North of England -65 8 £550 +33.33% 6
Midlands - 5 £438 - 2
Yorkshire -53 4 £500 +21.21%
North West - 4 £574 - 5
East Midlands - 3 £438 -
East of England -31 2 £503 -4.29% 1
West Midlands - 2 - - 2
SOC 2
UK

SOC 2
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 4 (6.35%) Confluence
2 1 (1.59%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (4.76%) MS Visio
2 2 (3.17%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 16 (25.40%) Azure
2 11 (17.46%) AWS
3 10 (15.87%) Entra ID
4 9 (14.29%) GCP
5 5 (7.94%) Azure Sentinel
5 5 (7.94%) Microsoft 365
6 4 (6.35%) SaaS
7 3 (4.76%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 3 (4.76%) AWS CloudFormation
7 3 (4.76%) Azure AKS
7 3 (4.76%) Azure Key Vault
8 2 (3.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (3.17%) Cloud Run
8 2 (3.17%) GitHub
8 2 (3.17%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (3.17%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 2 (3.17%) Lucidchart
8 2 (3.17%) Microsoft Purview
9 1 (1.59%) Google Workspace
9 1 (1.59%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 8 (12.70%) Network Security
2 5 (7.94%) Firewall
2 5 (7.94%) Reverse Proxy
3 2 (3.17%) NGFW
3 2 (3.17%) VPN
4 1 (1.59%) DHCP
4 1 (1.59%) DNS
4 1 (1.59%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (1.59%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.59%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (1.59%) Data Lake
1 1 (1.59%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (3.17%) JIRA
2 1 (1.59%) Burp Suite
2 1 (1.59%) GitLab
2 1 (1.59%) Jenkins
General
1 22 (34.92%) Finance
2 20 (31.75%) Social Skills
3 6 (9.52%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (9.52%) Legal
4 4 (6.35%) Banking
5 2 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (3.17%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.59%) Law
6 1 (1.59%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.59%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 18 (28.57%) Project Manager
2 15 (23.81%) Security Manager
2 15 (23.81%) Security Project Manager
3 8 (12.70%) Analyst
3 8 (12.70%) Senior
4 7 (11.11%) Cybersecurity Manager
4 7 (11.11%) Project Manager - Cybersecurity
5 6 (9.52%) Security Specialist
6 5 (7.94%) Project Assurance Manager
6 5 (7.94%) Security Engineer
7 4 (6.35%) Architect
7 4 (6.35%) Business Analyst
7 4 (6.35%) Security Assurance Manager
7 4 (6.35%) SOC Manager
8 3 (4.76%) Security Architect
8 3 (4.76%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
8 3 (4.76%) Senior Manager
8 3 (4.76%) Senior Project Manager
8 3 (4.76%) Senior Security Specialist
8 3 (4.76%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (9.52%) OAuth
2 5 (7.94%) OAuth2
2 5 (7.94%) OpenID
2 5 (7.94%) SAML
3 2 (3.17%) 802.1X
3 2 (3.17%) JWT
3 2 (3.17%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (3.17%) Middleware
3 2 (3.17%) Node.js
3 2 (3.17%) RESTful
4 1 (1.59%) ARM Templates
4 1 (1.59%) LDAP
4 1 (1.59%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 9 (14.29%) Security Posture
2 8 (12.70%) Cloud Native
3 6 (9.52%) Operational Technology
3 6 (9.52%) Product Ownership
4 5 (7.94%) Onboarding
5 4 (6.35%) Management Information System
5 4 (6.35%) Virtual Team
6 3 (4.76%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (3.17%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (3.17%) PMI
7 2 (3.17%) Security Operations Centre
8 1 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (1.59%) CMDB
8 1 (1.59%) Cyberattack
8 1 (1.59%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 1 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
8 1 (1.59%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (1.59%) NHS
8 1 (1.59%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 4 (6.35%) Linux
2 3 (4.76%) Windows
3 2 (3.17%) AIX
3 2 (3.17%) Solaris
4 1 (1.59%) CoreOS
4 1 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (1.59%) VMS
4 1 (1.59%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (61.90%) Cybersecurity
2 26 (41.27%) Stakeholder Management
3 25 (39.68%) Risk Management
4 21 (33.33%) Change Management
5 17 (26.98%) Data Protection
6 16 (25.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 15 (23.81%) CI/CD
8 14 (22.22%) Information Security
9 13 (20.63%) Security Operations
9 13 (20.63%) SIEM
9 13 (20.63%) Zero Trust
10 12 (19.05%) Agile
10 12 (19.05%) Infrastructure as Code
10 12 (19.05%) Matrix Organization
11 11 (17.46%) Budget Management
11 11 (17.46%) DevOps
11 11 (17.46%) Runbook
12 10 (15.87%) Regulatory Compliance
12 10 (15.87%) Vulnerability Management
13 9 (14.29%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 7 (11.11%) Python
2 6 (9.52%) PowerShell
3 5 (7.94%) Bash
3 5 (7.94%) Bicep
4 4 (6.35%) Go
5 3 (4.76%) Java
6 1 (1.59%) SQL
Qualifications
1 16 (25.40%) CISSP
2 14 (22.22%) CISM
3 12 (19.05%) Degree
4 11 (17.46%) PMI Certification
4 11 (17.46%) PMP
5 7 (11.11%) CRISC
6 4 (6.35%) CISA
6 4 (6.35%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (6.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 3 (4.76%) Azure Certification
7 3 (4.76%) CCSP
7 3 (4.76%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (4.76%) Master's Degree
7 3 (4.76%) Security Cleared
8 2 (3.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 2 (3.17%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (3.17%) CAPM
8 2 (3.17%) CBAP
8 2 (3.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 2 (3.17%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (85.71%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 40 (63.49%) NIST
3 32 (50.79%) GDPR
4 16 (25.40%) PCI DSS
5 13 (20.63%) GRC
6 5 (7.94%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 5 (7.94%) PMO
7 4 (6.35%) HIPAA
7 4 (6.35%) NIST 800
8 3 (4.76%) SOC 1
9 2 (3.17%) COBIT
9 2 (3.17%) EU AI Act
9 2 (3.17%) ISO 31000
9 2 (3.17%) SLA
10 1 (1.59%) FedRAMP
10 1 (1.59%) ISO 9001
10 1 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (1.59%) NCSC
10 1 (1.59%) QA
System Software
1 2 (3.17%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.59%) Ceph
2 1 (1.59%) Docker
2 1 (1.59%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (1.59%) Virtual Servers
2 1 (1.59%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 9 (14.29%) Terraform
2 8 (12.70%) Kubernetes
2 8 (12.70%) Single Sign-On
3 2 (3.17%) CASB
3 2 (3.17%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.59%) Ansible
4 1 (1.59%) Argo
4 1 (1.59%) CSIRT
4 1 (1.59%) Grafana
4 1 (1.59%) HP Fortify
4 1 (1.59%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.59%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 8 (12.70%) Microsoft
2 4 (6.35%) Splunk
3 3 (4.76%) Google
3 3 (4.76%) Qualys
3 3 (4.76%) ServiceNow
3 3 (4.76%) Tenable
4 2 (3.17%) CrowdStrike
4 2 (3.17%) Okta
4 2 (3.17%) Ping Identity
4 2 (3.17%) Rapid7
5 1 (1.59%) Checkmarx
5 1 (1.59%) Commvault
5 1 (1.59%) CyberArk
5 1 (1.59%) Intel
5 1 (1.59%) Palo Alto
5 1 (1.59%) Red Hat
5 1 (1.59%) Remedy
5 1 (1.59%) Veeam
5 1 (1.59%) Veracode
5 1 (1.59%) VMware