Cyber Essentials Contract Job Trends in London

Cyber Essentials
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in London requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

	6 months to 16 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	387	324	357
Rank change year-on-year	-63	+33	+30
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials	72	47	36
As % of all contract jobs in London	0.35%	0.35%	0.22%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category	1.80%	1.96%	1.66%
Number of daily rates quoted	55	34	17
10^th Percentile	£426	£423	£390
25^th Percentile	£463	£528	£475
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£550	£624	£575
Median % change year-on-year	-11.79%	+8.43%	-8.00%
75^th Percentile	£650	£675	£613
90^th Percentile	£725	£688	£706
England median daily rate	£500	£568	£503
% change year-on-year	-11.89%	+12.94%	-4.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted	0	2	2
10^th Percentile	-	£81.63	£70.24
25^th Percentile	-	£82.19	£72.40
Median hourly rate	-	£88.75	£78.40
Median % change year-on-year	-	+13.20%	-
75^th Percentile	-	£94.69	£82.00
90^th Percentile	-	£94.88	£82.72
England median hourly rate	£71.00	£32.74	£78.40
% change year-on-year	+116.89%	-58.25%	+76.18%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
London

Cyber Essentials 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 London.

	6 months to 16 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills	4,004	2,393	2,163
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London	19.53%	17.87%	13.48%
Number of daily rates quoted	2,713	1,593	1,341
10^th Percentile	£350	£325	£325
25^th Percentile	£435	£413	£425
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£535	£525	£550
Median % change year-on-year	+1.90%	-4.55%	-3.08%
75^th Percentile	£638	£650	£675
90^th Percentile	£738	£750	£800
England median daily rate	£513	£500	£513
% change year-on-year	+2.50%	-2.44%	-5.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted	49	55	36
10^th Percentile	£14.76	£23.71	£18.13
25^th Percentile	£21.33	£25.15	£23.80
Median hourly rate	£27.50	£34.00	£33.07
Median % change year-on-year	-19.12%	+2.81%	+1.75%
75^th Percentile	£41.44	£44.75	£52.56
90^th Percentile	£59.15	£68.00	£80.98
England median hourly rate	£31.46	£32.50	£35.00
% change year-on-year	-3.20%	-7.14%	-6.67%

Cyber Essentials Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Cyber Essentials relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in London.

Cyber Essentials Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Cyber Essentials.

Cyber Essentials Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in London over the 6 months to 16 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in London

Cyber Essentials Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Cyber Essentials.

Cyber Essentials Contract Job Locations in London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Essentials within the London region over the 6 months to 16 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
Central London	-18	9	£550	-4.35%	21
West London	-	3	£450	-	3
South London	-	2	£495	-	1
North London	-3	1	£650	-
Cyber Essentials England

Cyber Essentials Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London

For the 6 months to 16 October 2026, contractor job vacancies citing Cyber Essentials also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the London region with a requirement for Cyber Essentials.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Cybersecurity	70.8%	51
2	Cyber Essentials PLUS	65.3%	47
3	Microsoft	62.5%	45
4	ISO/IEC 27001	61.1%	44
5	Azure	52.8%	38
6	Microsoft 365	44.4%	32
7	Entra ID	34.7%	25
8	NIST	30.6%	22
9	Stakeholder Engagement	29.2%	21
10	Active Directory	27.8%	20
11	CISSP	23.6%	17
12	Risk Management	22.2%	16
12	SC Cleared	22.2%	16
12	Security Cleared	22.2%	16
12	Windows	22.2%	16
16	Incident Response	20.8%	15
16	Project Delivery	20.8%	15
16	Stakeholder Management	20.8%	15
19	Enterprise Architecture	19.4%	14
19	Microsoft Intune	19.4%	14
19	Vulnerability Management	19.4%	14
22	CISM	18.1%	13
22	GDPR	18.1%	13
22	NCSC	18.1%	13
25	Cloud Security	16.7%	12
25	Continuous Improvement	16.7%	12
27	GRC	15.3%	11
27	Information Security	15.3%	11
27	Network Security	15.3%	11
27	Security Operations	15.3%	11

Cyber Essentials Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Quality Assurance & Compliance

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Cyber Essentials PLUS	65.3%	47
2	ISO/IEC 27001	61.1%	44
3	NIST	30.6%	22
4	GDPR	18.1%	13
4	NCSC	18.1%	13
6	GRC	15.3%	11
7	PCI DSS	11.1%	8
8	PMO	8.3%	6
9	SLA	6.9%	5
10	Actionable Recommendations	2.8%	2
10	Def Stans	2.8%	2
10	HMG Security Policy Framework	2.8%	2
10	ISO/IEC 27005	2.8%	2
10	NIST 800	2.8%	2
15	Data Quality	1.4%	1
15	Government Security Classifications	1.4%	1
15	ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)	1.4%	1
15	JSP 440	1.4%	1
15	Sarbanes-Oxley	1.4%	1