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 7 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 155 200 198
Rank change year-on-year +45 -2 +107
Contract jobs citing NIST 277 158 213
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.70% 1.18% 1.16%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 9.04% 7.98% 8.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 192 89 155
10th Percentile £424 £450 £405
25th Percentile £506 £513 £517
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £640 £650
Median % change year-on-year -3.13% -1.54% -
75th Percentile £702 £688 £763
90th Percentile £888 £808 £825
England median daily rate £563 £625 £610
% change year-on-year -10.00% +2.46% -6.15%
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 £81.50 £83.20 £44.50
% change year-on-year -2.04% +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 3,065 1,980 2,519
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.85% 14.77% 13.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,040 1,272 1,810
10th Percentile £350 £309 £363
25th Percentile £419 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £680
90th Percentile £750 £788 £780
England median daily rate £510 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 27 63
10th Percentile £18.07 £19.25 £12.85
25th Percentile £18.56 £23.23 £18.38
Median hourly rate £26.11 £35.00 £28.75
Median % change year-on-year -25.40% +21.74% -17.86%
75th Percentile £56.38 £78.40 £43.75
90th Percentile £76.69 £93.75 £60.90
England median hourly rate £26.11 £31.88 £25.00
% change year-on-year -18.10% +27.52% -33.33%

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 7 March 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 7 March 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 35 £638 +15.91% 21
South London -13 5 £525 - 3
East London +5 4 £450 -28.57% 7
West London -19 3 £423 - 3
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 5 (1.81%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.72%) Confluence
4 1 (0.36%) nginx
Applications
1 3 (1.08%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.36%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.36%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 78 (28.16%) Azure
2 66 (23.83%) AWS
3 27 (9.75%) GCP
4 18 (6.50%) Entra ID
5 16 (5.78%) AWS CloudFormation
6 14 (5.05%) OpenShift
7 13 (4.69%) Azure Sentinel
8 12 (4.33%) Amazon ECS
8 12 (4.33%) GitHub
9 11 (3.97%) Serverless
10 9 (3.25%) Amazon EKS
10 9 (3.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 8 (2.89%) AWS Lambda
11 8 (2.89%) Microsoft 365
11 8 (2.89%) Microsoft Purview
11 8 (2.89%) PaaS
12 7 (2.53%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 7 (2.53%) Amazon MSK
12 7 (2.53%) SaaS
13 6 (2.17%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 30 (10.83%) Firewall
2 24 (8.66%) Network Security
3 12 (4.33%) DNS
4 6 (2.17%) VPN
5 5 (1.81%) NGFW
6 4 (1.44%) TCP/IP
7 3 (1.08%) BGP
7 3 (1.08%) Intrusion Detection
7 3 (1.08%) LAN
7 3 (1.08%) SSL
7 3 (1.08%) WAN
8 2 (0.72%) Cisco IPT
8 2 (0.72%) DMZ
8 2 (0.72%) Ethernet VPN
8 2 (0.72%) Modbus
8 2 (0.72%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.72%) VSAN
8 2 (0.72%) VXLAN
8 2 (0.72%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (0.72%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (4.69%) Data Lake
2 8 (2.89%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (1.81%) Redis
4 4 (1.44%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (1.44%) DocumentDB
4 4 (1.44%) DynamoDB
4 4 (1.44%) MySQL
4 4 (1.44%) NoSQL
4 4 (1.44%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.08%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (1.08%) Amazon Redshift
5 3 (1.08%) Star Schema
6 2 (0.72%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.72%) Power BI
7 1 (0.36%) Data Hub
7 1 (0.36%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.36%) Metadata
7 1 (0.36%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 18 (6.50%) Jenkins
2 12 (4.33%) JIRA
3 6 (2.17%) GitLab
4 5 (1.81%) Git
5 4 (1.44%) JMeter
5 4 (1.44%) Snyk
6 2 (0.72%) Metasploit
6 2 (0.72%) MLflow
7 1 (0.36%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.36%) Postman
7 1 (0.36%) Selenium
General
1 111 (40.07%) Social Skills
2 81 (29.24%) Finance
3 34 (12.27%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (9.39%) Public Sector
5 22 (7.94%) Documentation Skills
6 21 (7.58%) Banking
7 19 (6.86%) Influencing Skills
8 18 (6.50%) Presentation Skills
9 14 (5.05%) Legal
10 12 (4.33%) Financial Institution
11 6 (2.17%) Law
11 6 (2.17%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (1.44%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.72%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.72%) Manufacturing
13 2 (0.72%) Military
13 2 (0.72%) Retail
14 1 (0.36%) Aerospace
14 1 (0.36%) Electronics
14 1 (0.36%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 42 (15.16%) Architect
2 38 (13.72%) Analyst
3 36 (13.00%) Security Engineer
4 33 (11.91%) Consultant
5 23 (8.30%) Senior
6 20 (7.22%) Security Architect
7 18 (6.50%) Security Consultant
7 18 (6.50%) Security Specialist
8 16 (5.78%) Security Analyst
8 16 (5.78%) Security Manager
9 15 (5.42%) Project Manager
10 14 (5.05%) CyberArk Architect
10 14 (5.05%) Lead
11 9 (3.25%) Cybersecurity Consultant
12 8 (2.89%) Cloud Architect
12 8 (2.89%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 8 (2.89%) Migration Manager
12 8 (2.89%) Migration Project Manager
12 8 (2.89%) Risk Consultant
13 7 (2.53%) Senior Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (6.50%) OpenID
2 17 (6.14%) SAML
3 13 (4.69%) LDAP
4 8 (2.89%) .NET
4 8 (2.89%) Kafka
4 8 (2.89%) REST
5 7 (2.53%) RESTful
6 5 (1.81%) OAuth
6 5 (1.81%) OpenTelemetry
6 5 (1.81%) Spring
7 4 (1.44%) gRPC
7 4 (1.44%) Hibernate
7 4 (1.44%) JPA
7 4 (1.44%) OAuth2
7 4 (1.44%) Spring Boot
7 4 (1.44%) Spring Cloud
8 3 (1.08%) Model Context Protocol
8 3 (1.08%) PyTorch
8 3 (1.08%) SailPoint
8 3 (1.08%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 30 (10.83%) Onboarding
2 26 (9.39%) Cloud Native
2 26 (9.39%) Security Posture
3 21 (7.58%) Management Information System
4 12 (4.33%) Operational Technology
5 10 (3.61%) Hybrid Cloud
6 9 (3.25%) Cyber Threat
7 8 (2.89%) Security Operations Centre
8 7 (2.53%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 6 (2.17%) Data Centre
9 6 (2.17%) Distributed Systems
10 5 (1.81%) BYOD
10 5 (1.81%) Product Ownership
11 4 (1.44%) CMDB
11 4 (1.44%) Data Protection Act
12 3 (1.08%) Cyber Defence
12 3 (1.08%) PKI
12 3 (1.08%) Private Cloud
12 3 (1.08%) SCADA
12 3 (1.08%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 16 (5.78%) Linux
2 13 (4.69%) Windows
3 6 (2.17%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (1.08%) Unix
6 1 (0.36%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (48.01%) Cybersecurity
2 77 (27.80%) Risk Management
3 73 (26.35%) Information Security
4 70 (25.27%) Cloud Security
5 67 (24.19%) Stakeholder Management
6 66 (23.83%) SIEM
7 50 (18.05%) CI/CD
8 47 (16.97%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 46 (16.61%) Infrastructure as Code
10 43 (15.52%) Incident Response
11 41 (14.80%) Security Architecture
11 41 (14.80%) Threat Modelling
12 37 (13.36%) Agile
12 37 (13.36%) Data Protection
13 36 (13.00%) AI
13 36 (13.00%) DevOps
14 35 (12.64%) Continuous Improvement
14 35 (12.64%) Vulnerability Management
15 30 (10.83%) Identity Access Management
16 27 (9.75%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 27 (9.75%) Python
2 16 (5.78%) Java
2 16 (5.78%) PowerShell
3 12 (4.33%) SQL
4 7 (2.53%) Bash
4 7 (2.53%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (0.72%) C++
6 1 (0.36%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 72 (25.99%) Security Cleared
2 68 (24.55%) CISSP
3 63 (22.74%) SC Cleared
4 48 (17.33%) CISM
5 34 (12.27%) Degree
6 18 (6.50%) CRISC
7 17 (6.14%) CEH
7 17 (6.14%) Cisco Certification
7 17 (6.14%) CompTIA Security+
8 15 (5.42%) CISA
9 14 (5.05%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 14 (5.05%) DV Cleared
9 14 (5.05%) PMI Certification
9 14 (5.05%) PMP
10 11 (3.97%) Master's Degree
11 10 (3.61%) OSCP
12 9 (3.25%) AWS Certification
12 9 (3.25%) Computer Science Degree
12 9 (3.25%) FFIEC
12 9 (3.25%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 181 (65.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 68 (24.55%) GDPR
3 44 (15.88%) GRC
4 42 (15.16%) PCI DSS
5 33 (11.91%) NCSC
6 25 (9.03%) COBIT
7 22 (7.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 18 (6.50%) NIST 800
9 15 (5.42%) Cyber Essentials
10 14 (5.05%) ITGC
11 13 (4.69%) SOC 2
12 10 (3.61%) HIPAA
13 8 (2.89%) QA
14 7 (2.53%) EU AI Act
14 7 (2.53%) SOX 404
15 6 (2.17%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 6 (2.17%) SLA
16 4 (1.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 4 (1.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
17 3 (1.08%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 18 (6.50%) Active Directory
2 12 (4.33%) Docker
3 4 (1.44%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.72%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.36%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 30 (10.83%) Kubernetes
2 20 (7.22%) Terraform
3 7 (2.53%) Ansible
4 5 (1.81%) CASB
4 5 (1.81%) Nessus
5 3 (1.08%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.08%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.72%) RSA Archer
6 2 (0.72%) VxRail
7 1 (0.36%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.36%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.36%) Grafana
7 1 (0.36%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.36%) Kubeflow
7 1 (0.36%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.36%) Nmap
7 1 (0.36%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.36%) SCCM
7 1 (0.36%) SELinux
7 1 (0.36%) WSUS
Vendors
1 40 (14.44%) Microsoft
2 33 (11.91%) CyberArk
3 29 (10.47%) Splunk
4 15 (5.42%) ServiceNow
5 11 (3.97%) Tenable
6 9 (3.25%) Cisco
6 9 (3.25%) Oracle
7 8 (2.89%) Google
7 8 (2.89%) Palo Alto
7 8 (2.89%) SAP
8 7 (2.53%) Qualys
8 7 (2.53%) Rapid7
8 7 (2.53%) VMware
9 6 (2.17%) CrowdStrike
9 6 (2.17%) Fortinet
10 5 (1.81%) Zscaler
11 4 (1.44%) Trend Micro
12 3 (1.08%) CheckPoint
12 3 (1.08%) Red Hat
13 2 (0.72%) Forcepoint