NIST Contract Job Trends in London

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in London requiring NIST skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 172 225 207
Rank change year-on-year +53 -18 +119
Contract jobs citing NIST 229 138 192
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.59% 0.98% 1.08%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.67% 7.15% 7.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 150 77 130
10th Percentile £416 £477 £400
25th Percentile £500 £513 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £635 £628
Median % change year-on-year -5.51% +1.20% -3.46%
75th Percentile £689 £688 £750
90th Percentile £775 £777 £825
England median daily rate £570 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -8.80% - -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 5 0
10th Percentile £81.63 - -
25th Percentile £82.19 £68.80 -
Median hourly rate £88.75 £83.20 -
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% - -
75th Percentile £94.69 - -
90th Percentile £94.88 £90.28 -
England median hourly rate £87.50 £83.20 £44.50
% change year-on-year +5.17% +86.97% -35.73%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
London

NIST 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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 2,642 1,931 2,459
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.39% 13.75% 13.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,760 1,173 1,793
10th Percentile £350 £300 £363
25th Percentile £414 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £570
Median % change year-on-year - -7.89% +2.70%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £700
90th Percentile £750 £788 £790
England median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 29 50
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.00 £18.92
25th Percentile £25.15 £23.80 £24.43
Median hourly rate £27.04 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.76% - +22.81%
75th Percentile £37.81 £78.40 £52.50
90th Percentile £74.48 £95.50 £65.30
England median hourly rate £25.15 £30.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year -16.17% -7.69% +31.10%

NIST
Job Vacancy Trend in London

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

NIST job vacancy trend in London

NIST
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing NIST.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing NIST

NIST
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NIST in London over the 6 months to 15 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for NIST in London

NIST
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing NIST.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing NIST

NIST
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 NIST within the London region over the 6 months to 15 January 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 +1 29 £594 +7.95% 30
South London 0 5 £525 - 11
West London - 4 £423 - 13
East London - 4 £450 - 14
NIST
England

NIST
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 6 (2.62%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.44%) Confluence
3 1 (0.44%) nginx
Applications
1 2 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.44%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.44%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 88 (38.43%) Azure
2 62 (27.07%) AWS
3 25 (10.92%) Entra ID
4 21 (9.17%) Azure Sentinel
5 20 (8.73%) GCP
6 17 (7.42%) GitHub
7 12 (5.24%) AWS CloudFormation
7 12 (5.24%) GitHub Actions
8 10 (4.37%) Microsoft 365
9 9 (3.93%) Amazon ECS
9 9 (3.93%) Amazon EKS
9 9 (3.93%) Microsoft Purview
9 9 (3.93%) Serverless
10 8 (3.49%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 7 (3.06%) AWS Lambda
11 7 (3.06%) SaaS
12 6 (2.62%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (2.62%) Amazon S3
12 6 (2.62%) Azure Key Vault
12 6 (2.62%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 34 (14.85%) Firewall
2 23 (10.04%) Network Security
3 8 (3.49%) DNS
4 6 (2.62%) NGFW
4 6 (2.62%) VPN
5 4 (1.75%) WAN
6 3 (1.31%) Intrusion Detection
6 3 (1.31%) LAN
6 3 (1.31%) SD-WAN
7 2 (0.87%) BGP
7 2 (0.87%) Modbus
7 2 (0.87%) TCP/IP
7 2 (0.87%) Wi-Fi
7 2 (0.87%) Wireshark
8 1 (0.44%) DMZ
8 1 (0.44%) Internet
8 1 (0.44%) OSPF
8 1 (0.44%) Software-Defined Networking
8 1 (0.44%) SSL
8 1 (0.44%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (5.24%) Data Lake
2 7 (3.06%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (2.18%) Redis
4 4 (1.75%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (1.75%) DocumentDB
4 4 (1.75%) DynamoDB
4 4 (1.75%) MySQL
4 4 (1.75%) NoSQL
4 4 (1.75%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.31%) Star Schema
6 2 (0.87%) Amazon Athena
6 2 (0.87%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.87%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.87%) Power BI
7 1 (0.44%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.44%) Pinecone
7 1 (0.44%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (4.80%) JIRA
2 7 (3.06%) Jenkins
2 7 (3.06%) Snyk
3 6 (2.62%) GitLab
4 5 (2.18%) CircleCI
5 4 (1.75%) JMeter
6 3 (1.31%) Git
7 2 (0.87%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.44%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.44%) MLflow
8 1 (0.44%) Postman
8 1 (0.44%) Selenium
8 1 (0.44%) SonarQube
General
1 79 (34.50%) Social Skills
2 47 (20.52%) Finance
3 30 (13.10%) Public Sector
4 21 (9.17%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (6.99%) Banking
5 16 (6.99%) Presentation Skills
6 12 (5.24%) Legal
7 9 (3.93%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (3.06%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (2.62%) Financial Institution
10 5 (2.18%) Law
10 5 (2.18%) Local Government
10 5 (2.18%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (1.31%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.31%) Military
12 2 (0.87%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.87%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.44%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.44%) Japanese Language
13 1 (0.44%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 40 (17.47%) Security Engineer
2 33 (14.41%) Architect
3 30 (13.10%) Analyst
4 24 (10.48%) Lead
5 23 (10.04%) Consultant
6 22 (9.61%) Security Architect
7 16 (6.99%) Senior
8 14 (6.11%) Security Analyst
9 12 (5.24%) Security Specialist
10 10 (4.37%) Project Manager
10 10 (4.37%) Security Consultant
11 9 (3.93%) Security Manager
12 8 (3.49%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 8 (3.49%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 8 (3.49%) Risk Consultant
13 7 (3.06%) Cloud Architect
13 7 (3.06%) Senior Security Engineer
14 6 (2.62%) AWS Architect
14 6 (2.62%) Solutions Architect
15 5 (2.18%) Cybersecurity Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.93%) OpenID
2 8 (3.49%) REST
3 7 (3.06%) OAuth
4 6 (2.62%) .NET
4 6 (2.62%) Kafka
4 6 (2.62%) RESTful
4 6 (2.62%) SAML
5 5 (2.18%) Loki
5 5 (2.18%) Spring
6 4 (1.75%) gRPC
6 4 (1.75%) Hibernate
6 4 (1.75%) JPA
6 4 (1.75%) OAuth2
6 4 (1.75%) OpenTelemetry
6 4 (1.75%) Spring Boot
6 4 (1.75%) Spring Cloud
7 3 (1.31%) Semantic Kernel
7 3 (1.31%) YAML
8 2 (0.87%) LDAP
8 2 (0.87%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 22 (9.61%) Security Posture
2 21 (9.17%) Cloud Native
3 20 (8.73%) Onboarding
4 19 (8.30%) Management Information System
5 12 (5.24%) Cyber Threat
6 9 (3.93%) Operational Technology
7 8 (3.49%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 7 (3.06%) Security Operations Centre
9 6 (2.62%) Data Centre
10 4 (1.75%) AI Agents
10 4 (1.75%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (1.75%) NHS
11 3 (1.31%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.31%) Cloud Security Posture
11 3 (1.31%) Greenfield Project
11 3 (1.31%) Hybrid Cloud
11 3 (1.31%) Product Ownership
11 3 (1.31%) STIX
11 3 (1.31%) Taxonomies
11 3 (1.31%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 16 (6.99%) Windows
2 13 (5.68%) Linux
3 7 (3.06%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.31%) Unix
5 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (44.54%) Cybersecurity
2 70 (30.57%) Cloud Security
3 66 (28.82%) Risk Management
4 63 (27.51%) SIEM
5 57 (24.89%) Information Security
6 48 (20.96%) Incident Response
7 47 (20.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 43 (18.78%) Stakeholder Management
9 42 (18.34%) CI/CD
10 40 (17.47%) Infrastructure as Code
11 34 (14.85%) DevOps
12 33 (14.41%) Security Architecture
13 29 (12.66%) Data Protection
13 29 (12.66%) Threat Modelling
14 28 (12.23%) Data Loss Prevention
14 28 (12.23%) Identity Access Management
14 28 (12.23%) Vulnerability Management
15 26 (11.35%) AI
16 25 (10.92%) Agile
16 25 (10.92%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 24 (10.48%) Python
2 18 (7.86%) PowerShell
3 12 (5.24%) Java
4 9 (3.93%) Kusto Query Language
4 9 (3.93%) SQL
5 7 (3.06%) Bash
6 2 (0.87%) Bicep
6 2 (0.87%) C++
7 1 (0.44%) C#
Qualifications
1 57 (24.89%) Security Cleared
2 55 (24.02%) CISSP
3 51 (22.27%) SC Cleared
4 38 (16.59%) CISM
5 25 (10.92%) Degree
6 15 (6.55%) CISA
6 15 (6.55%) CompTIA Security+
7 13 (5.68%) DV Cleared
8 12 (5.24%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (5.24%) CRISC
9 10 (4.37%) CEH
9 10 (4.37%) PMI Certification
9 10 (4.37%) PMP
10 9 (3.93%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 9 (3.93%) OSCP
10 9 (3.93%) SANS
11 8 (3.49%) AWS Certification
11 8 (3.49%) FFIEC
11 8 (3.49%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 7 (3.06%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 152 (66.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 64 (27.95%) GDPR
3 30 (13.10%) PCI DSS
4 29 (12.66%) GRC
5 23 (10.04%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 17 (7.42%) COBIT
6 17 (7.42%) Cyber Essentials
6 17 (7.42%) NCSC
7 11 (4.80%) EU AI Act
8 10 (4.37%) HIPAA
8 10 (4.37%) ITGC
8 10 (4.37%) NIST 800
9 9 (3.93%) QA
10 7 (3.06%) SOX 404
11 6 (2.62%) SOC 2
12 5 (2.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 4 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 3 (1.31%) Actionable Recommendations
15 2 (0.87%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 23 (10.04%) Active Directory
2 16 (6.99%) Docker
3 3 (1.31%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.44%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 26 (11.35%) Terraform
2 22 (9.61%) Kubernetes
3 7 (3.06%) Prometheus
4 5 (2.18%) Ansible
4 5 (2.18%) CASB
4 5 (2.18%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (1.75%) CSIRT
5 4 (1.75%) Nessus
5 4 (1.75%) QRadar
6 3 (1.31%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (0.87%) Grafana
7 2 (0.87%) RSA Archer
7 2 (0.87%) SCCM
8 1 (0.44%) Fluentd
8 1 (0.44%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.44%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.44%) Kubeflow
8 1 (0.44%) Nmap
8 1 (0.44%) VxRail
8 1 (0.44%) WSUS
Vendors
1 52 (22.71%) Microsoft
2 15 (6.55%) CyberArk
2 15 (6.55%) Splunk
3 10 (4.37%) ServiceNow
4 9 (3.93%) Oracle
4 9 (3.93%) Palo Alto
5 8 (3.49%) Fortinet
5 8 (3.49%) SAP
6 7 (3.06%) Cisco
6 7 (3.06%) Google
6 7 (3.06%) Tenable
7 6 (2.62%) CrowdStrike
8 5 (2.18%) Qualys
8 5 (2.18%) Rapid7
8 5 (2.18%) VMware
9 4 (1.75%) Dell
10 3 (1.31%) CheckPoint
10 3 (1.31%) Trend Micro
11 2 (0.87%) Foundry
11 2 (0.87%) LogRhythm