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 12 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 167 221 209
Rank change year-on-year +54 -12 +122
Contract jobs citing NIST 221 136 199
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.57% 0.98% 1.10%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.66% 7.12% 7.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 144 75 133
10th Percentile £416 £498 £400
25th Percentile £500 £525 £506
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £638 £630
Median % change year-on-year -5.88% +1.19% -3.08%
75th Percentile £693 £690 £750
90th Percentile £771 £778 £825
England median daily rate £563 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -10.00% - -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 2,553 1,911 2,508
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.18% 13.73% 13.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,698 1,157 1,830
10th Percentile £343 £300 £363
25th Percentile £415 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -8.70% +3.60%
75th Percentile £638 £660 £700
90th Percentile £750 £788 £790
England median daily rate £500 £500 £543
% change year-on-year - -7.83% +3.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 29 50
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.00 £18.92
25th Percentile £25.15 £23.80 £24.43
Median hourly rate £27.50 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% - +22.81%
75th Percentile £38.13 £78.40 £52.50
90th Percentile £75.21 £95.50 £65.30
England median hourly rate £26.11 £30.11 £32.50
% change year-on-year -13.27% -7.37% +32.65%

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 12 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 12 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 +2 27 £594 +7.95% 36
South London -4 5 £525 - 10
West London - 4 £423 - 13
East London - 4 £450 - 15
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 (2.71%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.36%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.45%) Confluence
3 1 (0.45%) nginx
Applications
1 2 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.45%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.45%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.45%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 86 (38.91%) Azure
2 59 (26.70%) AWS
3 25 (11.31%) Entra ID
4 21 (9.50%) Azure Sentinel
5 18 (8.14%) GCP
6 15 (6.79%) GitHub
7 12 (5.43%) GitHub Actions
8 10 (4.52%) AWS CloudFormation
8 10 (4.52%) Microsoft 365
9 9 (4.07%) Microsoft Purview
10 8 (3.62%) Amazon EKS
10 8 (3.62%) Serverless
11 7 (3.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 6 (2.71%) Amazon ECS
12 6 (2.71%) Amazon S3
12 6 (2.71%) AWS Lambda
12 6 (2.71%) Azure Key Vault
13 5 (2.26%) Amazon MSK
13 5 (2.26%) Azure AKS
13 5 (2.26%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 33 (14.93%) Firewall
2 22 (9.95%) Network Security
3 8 (3.62%) DNS
4 6 (2.71%) VPN
5 5 (2.26%) NGFW
6 4 (1.81%) WAN
7 3 (1.36%) Intrusion Detection
7 3 (1.36%) LAN
7 3 (1.36%) SD-WAN
8 2 (0.90%) BGP
8 2 (0.90%) Modbus
8 2 (0.90%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.90%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (0.90%) Wireshark
9 1 (0.45%) DMZ
9 1 (0.45%) Internet
9 1 (0.45%) OSPF
9 1 (0.45%) Software-Defined Networking
9 1 (0.45%) SSL
9 1 (0.45%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (5.43%) Data Lake
2 6 (2.71%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (2.26%) Redis
4 4 (1.81%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (1.81%) DocumentDB
4 4 (1.81%) DynamoDB
4 4 (1.81%) MySQL
4 4 (1.81%) NoSQL
4 4 (1.81%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.36%) Star Schema
6 2 (0.90%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.90%) Power BI
7 1 (0.45%) Amazon Athena
7 1 (0.45%) Amazon Redshift
7 1 (0.45%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.45%) Pinecone
7 1 (0.45%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (4.98%) JIRA
2 7 (3.17%) Jenkins
3 6 (2.71%) GitLab
3 6 (2.71%) Snyk
4 5 (2.26%) CircleCI
5 4 (1.81%) JMeter
6 2 (0.90%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.45%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.45%) Git
7 1 (0.45%) MLflow
7 1 (0.45%) Postman
7 1 (0.45%) Selenium
7 1 (0.45%) SonarQube
General
1 75 (33.94%) Social Skills
2 45 (20.36%) Finance
3 29 (13.12%) Public Sector
4 18 (8.14%) Analytical Skills
5 16 (7.24%) Banking
6 14 (6.33%) Presentation Skills
7 12 (5.43%) Legal
8 9 (4.07%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (3.17%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (2.71%) Financial Institution
11 5 (2.26%) Law
11 5 (2.26%) Local Government
11 5 (2.26%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.36%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.36%) Military
13 2 (0.90%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.90%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.45%) Electronics
14 1 (0.45%) Japanese Language
14 1 (0.45%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 36 (16.29%) Security Engineer
2 33 (14.93%) Architect
3 30 (13.57%) Analyst
4 24 (10.86%) Lead
5 22 (9.95%) Security Architect
6 21 (9.50%) Consultant
7 17 (7.69%) Senior
8 14 (6.33%) Security Analyst
9 12 (5.43%) Security Specialist
10 9 (4.07%) Project Manager
10 9 (4.07%) Security Consultant
11 8 (3.62%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 8 (3.62%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 8 (3.62%) Risk Consultant
11 8 (3.62%) Security Manager
12 7 (3.17%) Cloud Architect
12 7 (3.17%) Senior Security Engineer
13 6 (2.71%) AWS Architect
13 6 (2.71%) Solutions Architect
14 5 (2.26%) Cybersecurity Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (4.07%) OpenID
2 8 (3.62%) REST
3 7 (3.17%) OAuth
4 6 (2.71%) RESTful
4 6 (2.71%) SAML
5 5 (2.26%) Kafka
5 5 (2.26%) Loki
5 5 (2.26%) Spring
6 4 (1.81%) .NET
6 4 (1.81%) gRPC
6 4 (1.81%) Hibernate
6 4 (1.81%) JPA
6 4 (1.81%) OAuth2
6 4 (1.81%) OpenTelemetry
6 4 (1.81%) Spring Boot
6 4 (1.81%) Spring Cloud
7 3 (1.36%) Semantic Kernel
7 3 (1.36%) YAML
8 2 (0.90%) LDAP
8 2 (0.90%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 21 (9.50%) Cloud Native
1 21 (9.50%) Security Posture
2 19 (8.60%) Onboarding
3 18 (8.14%) Management Information System
4 12 (5.43%) Cyber Threat
5 9 (4.07%) Operational Technology
6 8 (3.62%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 7 (3.17%) Security Operations Centre
8 5 (2.26%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.81%) AI Agents
9 4 (1.81%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (1.81%) Hybrid Cloud
9 4 (1.81%) NHS
10 3 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (1.36%) Cloud Security Posture
10 3 (1.36%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (1.36%) Product Ownership
10 3 (1.36%) STIX
10 3 (1.36%) Taxonomies
10 3 (1.36%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.24%) Windows
2 13 (5.88%) Linux
3 7 (3.17%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.36%) Unix
5 1 (0.45%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (44.34%) Cybersecurity
2 66 (29.86%) Cloud Security
3 64 (28.96%) Risk Management
4 62 (28.05%) SIEM
5 54 (24.43%) Information Security
6 46 (20.81%) Incident Response
7 45 (20.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 40 (18.10%) CI/CD
9 39 (17.65%) Stakeholder Management
10 38 (17.19%) Infrastructure as Code
11 35 (15.84%) DevOps
12 31 (14.03%) Security Architecture
13 28 (12.67%) Data Loss Prevention
13 28 (12.67%) Data Protection
14 27 (12.22%) Threat Modelling
14 27 (12.22%) Vulnerability Management
15 26 (11.76%) Identity Access Management
16 24 (10.86%) Agile
16 24 (10.86%) AI
16 24 (10.86%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 21 (9.50%) Python
2 18 (8.14%) PowerShell
3 9 (4.07%) Java
3 9 (4.07%) Kusto Query Language
3 9 (4.07%) SQL
4 6 (2.71%) Bash
5 2 (0.90%) Bicep
5 2 (0.90%) C++
6 1 (0.45%) C#
Qualifications
1 53 (23.98%) CISSP
1 53 (23.98%) Security Cleared
2 48 (21.72%) SC Cleared
3 38 (17.19%) CISM
4 23 (10.41%) Degree
5 15 (6.79%) CISA
6 14 (6.33%) CompTIA Security+
7 13 (5.88%) DV Cleared
8 12 (5.43%) CRISC
9 10 (4.52%) CEH
9 10 (4.52%) Cisco Certification
10 9 (4.07%) PMI Certification
10 9 (4.07%) PMP
11 8 (3.62%) FFIEC
11 8 (3.62%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 7 (3.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 7 (3.17%) AWS Certification
12 7 (3.17%) OSCP
12 7 (3.17%) SANS
13 6 (2.71%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 147 (66.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 61 (27.60%) GDPR
3 27 (12.22%) GRC
3 27 (12.22%) PCI DSS
4 23 (10.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 17 (7.69%) COBIT
5 17 (7.69%) Cyber Essentials
5 17 (7.69%) NCSC
6 11 (4.98%) EU AI Act
7 10 (4.52%) HIPAA
7 10 (4.52%) ITGC
7 10 (4.52%) NIST 800
8 9 (4.07%) QA
9 7 (3.17%) SOX 404
10 6 (2.71%) SOC 2
11 5 (2.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 4 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.90%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.90%) SLA
System Software
1 23 (10.41%) Active Directory
2 14 (6.33%) Docker
3 3 (1.36%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.45%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 24 (10.86%) Terraform
2 20 (9.05%) Kubernetes
3 7 (3.17%) Prometheus
4 5 (2.26%) Ansible
4 5 (2.26%) CASB
4 5 (2.26%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (1.81%) CSIRT
5 4 (1.81%) Nessus
5 4 (1.81%) QRadar
6 3 (1.36%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (0.90%) Grafana
7 2 (0.90%) RSA Archer
7 2 (0.90%) SCCM
8 1 (0.45%) Fluentd
8 1 (0.45%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.45%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.45%) Kubeflow
8 1 (0.45%) Nmap
8 1 (0.45%) VxRail
8 1 (0.45%) WSUS
Vendors
1 51 (23.08%) Microsoft
2 15 (6.79%) Splunk
3 14 (6.33%) CyberArk
4 9 (4.07%) Oracle
4 9 (4.07%) ServiceNow
5 8 (3.62%) Palo Alto
5 8 (3.62%) SAP
6 7 (3.17%) Cisco
6 7 (3.17%) Fortinet
7 6 (2.71%) CrowdStrike
7 6 (2.71%) Tenable
8 5 (2.26%) Google
8 5 (2.26%) VMware
9 4 (1.81%) Dell
9 4 (1.81%) Qualys
10 3 (1.36%) CheckPoint
10 3 (1.36%) Rapid7
10 3 (1.36%) Trend Micro
11 2 (0.90%) Foundry
11 2 (0.90%) LogRhythm