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 28 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 176 164 222
Rank change year-on-year -12 +58 -13
Contract jobs citing NIST 327 231 175
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.62% 1.73% 1.08%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.40% 9.95% 7.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 230 152 125
10th Percentile £430 £401 £475
25th Percentile £500 £499 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £575 £650
Median % change year-on-year - -11.54% -1.89%
75th Percentile £675 £695 £775
90th Percentile £790 £775 -
England median daily rate £565 £575 £625
% change year-on-year -1.74% -8.00% -3.85%

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 3,895 2,321 2,213
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 19.35% 17.37% 13.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,650 1,544 1,396
10th Percentile £350 £325 £327
25th Percentile £431 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -2.22%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £688
90th Percentile £725 £750 £800
England median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 50 39
10th Percentile £15.88 £24.91 £18.13
25th Percentile £21.33 £25.15 £23.80
Median hourly rate £28.00 £34.00 £31.62
Median % change year-on-year -17.65% +7.53% +12.43%
75th Percentile £40.00 £41.75 £50.88
90th Percentile £55.78 £54.05 £73.25
England median hourly rate £32.40 £32.50 £33.93
% change year-on-year -0.32% -4.21% -11.78%

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 28 September 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 28 September 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 -11 43 £573 +1.78% 52
West London -22 4 £431 +1.47% 12
East London +2 3 £750 +33.33% 6
South London -9 3 £495 -23.85% 1
North London - 1 £650 -
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 7 (2.14%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.92%) Confluence
4 1 (0.31%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 6 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (0.92%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 135 (41.28%) Azure
2 102 (31.19%) AWS
3 63 (19.27%) Entra ID
4 51 (15.60%) GCP
5 23 (7.03%) Azure Sentinel
6 22 (6.73%) Microsoft 365
7 19 (5.81%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (5.50%) SaaS
9 17 (5.20%) OCI
10 14 (4.28%) GitHub
10 14 (4.28%) Microsoft Purview
11 10 (3.06%) AWS Control Tower
11 10 (3.06%) Azure Key Vault
12 9 (2.75%) Amazon S3
13 8 (2.45%) Amazon EC2
13 8 (2.45%) GitHub Actions
14 6 (1.83%) AWS KMS
14 6 (1.83%) Azure Monitor
15 5 (1.53%) Amazon Bedrock
15 5 (1.53%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 28 (8.56%) Network Security
2 20 (6.12%) Firewall
3 11 (3.36%) VPN
4 9 (2.75%) X.509
5 8 (2.45%) DNS
5 8 (2.45%) IPsec
6 6 (1.83%) SSH
7 5 (1.53%) Modbus
7 5 (1.53%) NGFW
8 4 (1.22%) TCP/IP
9 3 (0.92%) Internet
9 3 (0.92%) SSL
9 3 (0.92%) Wireless
10 2 (0.61%) 4G
10 2 (0.61%) Cisco ASA
10 2 (0.61%) Cisco Firepower
10 2 (0.61%) Cisco IOS
10 2 (0.61%) HTTP
10 2 (0.61%) Kerberos
10 2 (0.61%) S/MIME
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.83%) Amazon RDS
1 6 (1.83%) DynamoDB
2 4 (1.22%) Power BI
3 3 (0.92%) Azure SQL Database
4 2 (0.61%) Metadata
5 1 (0.31%) Data Hub
5 1 (0.31%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 10 (3.06%) GitLab
2 9 (2.75%) JIRA
3 8 (2.45%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.83%) Snyk
5 5 (1.53%) Git
6 4 (1.22%) Burp Suite
6 4 (1.22%) SonarQube
7 3 (0.92%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.92%) Selenium
7 3 (0.92%) TestRail
8 2 (0.61%) MSI
9 1 (0.31%) Claude Code
9 1 (0.31%) Postman
General
1 103 (31.50%) Social Skills
2 84 (25.69%) Finance
3 34 (10.40%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (10.09%) Public Sector
5 21 (6.42%) Banking
5 21 (6.42%) Legal
6 17 (5.20%) Manufacturing
7 11 (3.36%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (3.06%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.53%) Financial Institution
10 3 (0.92%) Cyber-Physical System
10 3 (0.92%) Investment Banking
10 3 (0.92%) Local Government
10 3 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (0.92%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (0.92%) Retail
11 2 (0.61%) German Language
11 2 (0.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.61%) Law
11 2 (0.61%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 80 (24.46%) Architect
2 52 (15.90%) Analyst
3 46 (14.07%) Consultant
3 46 (14.07%) Security Architect
4 32 (9.79%) Lead
5 29 (8.87%) Senior
6 25 (7.65%) Security Analyst
7 23 (7.03%) Security Consultant
8 21 (6.42%) Security Engineer
9 17 (5.20%) Business Analyst
9 17 (5.20%) Cybersecurity Consultant
9 17 (5.20%) Security Manager
10 14 (4.28%) Cybersecurity Analyst
11 12 (3.67%) Project Manager
11 12 (3.67%) Senior Architect
12 10 (3.06%) Solutions Architect
13 9 (2.75%) Security Project Manager
13 9 (2.75%) Senior Analyst
14 7 (2.14%) Head of Security
14 7 (2.14%) Risk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (10.09%) Terraform
2 15 (4.59%) SailPoint
3 13 (3.98%) OAuth
4 10 (3.06%) JSON
4 10 (3.06%) REST
5 8 (2.45%) SAML
6 7 (2.14%) LDAP
7 5 (1.53%) SOAP
8 4 (1.22%) JDBC
8 4 (1.22%) Playwright
9 3 (0.92%) OpenID
9 3 (0.92%) pytest
9 3 (0.92%) SLSA
9 3 (0.92%) SPIFFE
9 3 (0.92%) YAML
10 2 (0.61%) Azure Blueprints
10 2 (0.61%) Kafka
10 2 (0.61%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (0.61%) OAuth2
10 2 (0.61%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 33 (10.09%) Cloud Native
1 33 (10.09%) Onboarding
2 30 (9.17%) Security Posture
3 29 (8.87%) Operational Technology
4 16 (4.89%) PKI
5 15 (4.59%) Cyber Threat
6 14 (4.28%) Management Information System
7 13 (3.98%) SCADA
8 10 (3.06%) AI Agents
9 7 (2.14%) Hybrid Cloud
10 6 (1.83%) Cloud Security Posture
10 6 (1.83%) CMDB
10 6 (1.83%) Enterprise Software
10 6 (1.83%) IoT
11 5 (1.53%) Data Centre
11 5 (1.53%) Taxonomies
12 4 (1.22%) Algorithms
12 4 (1.22%) Cyberattack
12 4 (1.22%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (1.22%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 16 (4.89%) Windows
2 14 (4.28%) Linux
3 8 (2.45%) Windows Server
4 7 (2.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (0.92%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.61%) Alpine Linux
7 1 (0.31%) Android
7 1 (0.31%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.31%) CentOS
7 1 (0.31%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.31%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 194 (59.33%) Cybersecurity
2 83 (25.38%) Security Architecture
3 81 (24.77%) Stakeholder Management
4 80 (24.46%) Risk Management
5 69 (21.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 66 (20.18%) Cloud Security
7 61 (18.65%) Identity Access Management
8 60 (18.35%) Roadmaps
9 58 (17.74%) Vulnerability Management
10 54 (16.51%) Incident Response
11 51 (15.60%) Threat Modelling
12 47 (14.37%) Information Security
13 44 (13.46%) AI
14 42 (12.84%) CI/CD
14 42 (12.84%) Zero Trust
15 41 (12.54%) Continuous Improvement
15 41 (12.54%) SIEM
16 39 (11.93%) Security Operations
17 37 (11.31%) Infrastructure as Code
18 36 (11.01%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 42 (12.84%) Python
2 37 (11.31%) PowerShell
3 18 (5.50%) SQL
4 16 (4.89%) Bash
5 8 (2.45%) Bicep
5 8 (2.45%) Java
6 6 (1.83%) Kusto Query Language
7 4 (1.22%) BeanShell
8 3 (0.92%) Korn
9 2 (0.61%) C#
9 2 (0.61%) Go
9 2 (0.61%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.31%) C
10 1 (0.31%) CodeQL
10 1 (0.31%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 105 (32.11%) CISSP
2 81 (24.77%) Security Cleared
3 70 (21.41%) CISM
4 67 (20.49%) SC Cleared
5 30 (9.17%) CRISC
6 24 (7.34%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (6.73%) Degree
8 19 (5.81%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 19 (5.81%) Azure Certification
9 18 (5.50%) AWS Certification
9 18 (5.50%) GIAC
10 16 (4.89%) CISA
10 16 (4.89%) DV Cleared
11 15 (4.59%) CompTIA Security+
12 12 (3.67%) PMI Certification
12 12 (3.67%) PMP
13 11 (3.36%) CEH
14 10 (3.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 10 (3.06%) FFIEC
14 10 (3.06%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 207 (63.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 51 (15.60%) GRC
3 42 (12.84%) GDPR
4 41 (12.54%) NCSC
5 30 (9.17%) NIST 800
6 28 (8.56%) COBIT
7 22 (6.73%) Cyber Essentials
7 22 (6.73%) SOC 2
8 21 (6.42%) PCI DSS
9 13 (3.98%) QA
10 12 (3.67%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 11 (3.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 10 (3.06%) EU AI Act
13 8 (2.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 7 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 7 (2.14%) ITGC
15 5 (1.53%) Data Quality
15 5 (1.53%) SLA
16 4 (1.22%) HIPAA
16 4 (1.22%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 42 (12.84%) Active Directory
2 16 (4.89%) Docker
3 5 (1.53%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.61%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.61%) OpenSSH
5 1 (0.31%) Firmware
5 1 (0.31%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (6.42%) Kubernetes
2 13 (3.98%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (3.67%) Ansible
4 7 (2.14%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (0.92%) Argo
5 3 (0.92%) HP Fortify
6 2 (0.61%) Docker Swarm
6 2 (0.61%) Nessus
6 2 (0.61%) Nexpose
6 2 (0.61%) Puppet
6 2 (0.61%) SCCM
7 1 (0.31%) CASB
7 1 (0.31%) QRadar
Vendors
1 77 (23.55%) Microsoft
2 22 (6.73%) CyberArk
3 18 (5.50%) ServiceNow
4 17 (5.20%) CrowdStrike
4 17 (5.20%) Splunk
5 15 (4.59%) Google
6 13 (3.98%) Qualys
7 11 (3.36%) Palo Alto
7 11 (3.36%) Tenable
8 10 (3.06%) Okta
9 9 (2.75%) Rapid7
10 8 (2.45%) Cisco
11 6 (1.83%) VMware
12 5 (1.53%) ForgeRock
12 5 (1.53%) Zscaler
13 4 (1.22%) OpenAI
13 4 (1.22%) Salesforce
13 4 (1.22%) SAP
13 4 (1.22%) Siemens
13 4 (1.22%) Veracode