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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 166 227 205
Rank change year-on-year +61 -22 +120
Contract jobs citing NIST 226 141 199
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.58% 1.01% 1.09%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.57% 7.28% 7.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 147 79 138
10th Percentile £415 £455 £400
25th Percentile £494 £513 £491
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £635 £625
Median % change year-on-year -9.45% +1.60% -3.85%
75th Percentile £700 £681 £750
90th Percentile £785 £776 £825
England median daily rate £557 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -10.96% - -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 2,636 1,938 2,512
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.38% 13.84% 13.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,756 1,177 1,836
10th Percentile £350 £300 £363
25th Percentile £415 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £563
Median % change year-on-year - -6.67% +0.91%
75th Percentile £638 £660 £700
90th Percentile £750 £788 £788
England median daily rate £500 £500 £540
% change year-on-year - -7.41% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 30 52
10th Percentile £18.25 £20.00 £17.57
25th Percentile £23.86 £23.90 £22.89
Median hourly rate £26.34 £35.90 £33.75
Median % change year-on-year -26.63% +6.37% +26.67%
75th Percentile £36.35 £78.40 £52.50
90th Percentile £74.48 £95.25 £64.95
England median hourly rate £25.15 £30.11 £32.50
% change year-on-year -16.46% -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 18 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 18 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 +6 28 £563 +2.27% 28
South London 0 5 £525 - 10
West London - 4 £423 - 14
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 (2.65%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.88%) Confluence
4 1 (0.44%) nginx
Applications
1 2 (0.88%) 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 82 (36.28%) Azure
2 58 (25.66%) AWS
3 24 (10.62%) Entra ID
4 20 (8.85%) Azure Sentinel
4 20 (8.85%) GCP
5 14 (6.19%) GitHub
6 13 (5.75%) AWS CloudFormation
7 10 (4.42%) Amazon ECS
7 10 (4.42%) Microsoft 365
8 9 (3.98%) Amazon EKS
8 9 (3.98%) Microsoft Purview
8 9 (3.98%) Serverless
9 8 (3.54%) GitHub Actions
9 8 (3.54%) SaaS
9 8 (3.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 7 (3.10%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (3.10%) PaaS
11 6 (2.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 6 (2.65%) Amazon S3
11 6 (2.65%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 32 (14.16%) Firewall
2 23 (10.18%) Network Security
3 8 (3.54%) DNS
4 6 (2.65%) NGFW
4 6 (2.65%) VPN
5 3 (1.33%) Intrusion Detection
5 3 (1.33%) LAN
5 3 (1.33%) WAN
6 2 (0.88%) BGP
6 2 (0.88%) Modbus
6 2 (0.88%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.88%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.88%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (0.88%) Wireshark
7 1 (0.44%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (0.44%) Ethernet VPN
7 1 (0.44%) OSPF
7 1 (0.44%) Software-Defined Networking
7 1 (0.44%) VSAN
7 1 (0.44%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (5.31%) Data Lake
2 7 (3.10%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (2.21%) Redis
4 4 (1.77%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (1.77%) DocumentDB
4 4 (1.77%) DynamoDB
4 4 (1.77%) MySQL
4 4 (1.77%) NoSQL
4 4 (1.77%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.33%) Star Schema
6 2 (0.88%) Amazon Athena
6 2 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.88%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.88%) Power BI
7 1 (0.44%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.44%) Pinecone
7 1 (0.44%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 12 (5.31%) JIRA
2 8 (3.54%) Jenkins
3 6 (2.65%) GitLab
4 4 (1.77%) Git
4 4 (1.77%) JMeter
5 3 (1.33%) Snyk
6 2 (0.88%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.44%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.44%) CircleCI
7 1 (0.44%) MLflow
7 1 (0.44%) Postman
7 1 (0.44%) Selenium
7 1 (0.44%) SonarQube
General
1 80 (35.40%) Social Skills
2 48 (21.24%) Finance
3 30 (13.27%) Public Sector
4 22 (9.73%) Analytical Skills
5 17 (7.52%) Presentation Skills
6 16 (7.08%) Banking
7 12 (5.31%) Legal
8 10 (4.42%) Documentation Skills
9 8 (3.54%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (2.65%) Financial Institution
11 5 (2.21%) Law
11 5 (2.21%) Local Government
11 5 (2.21%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (1.33%) Manufacturing
13 2 (0.88%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.88%) Military
13 2 (0.88%) Telecoms
14 1 (0.44%) Aerospace
14 1 (0.44%) Japanese Language
14 1 (0.44%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 39 (17.26%) Security Engineer
2 34 (15.04%) Architect
3 30 (13.27%) Analyst
4 23 (10.18%) Consultant
5 22 (9.73%) Security Architect
6 20 (8.85%) Lead
7 16 (7.08%) Senior
8 14 (6.19%) Security Analyst
9 12 (5.31%) Security Specialist
10 10 (4.42%) Project Manager
10 10 (4.42%) Security Consultant
11 9 (3.98%) Security Manager
12 8 (3.54%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 8 (3.54%) Risk Consultant
13 7 (3.10%) Cloud Architect
13 7 (3.10%) Cybersecurity Engineer
13 7 (3.10%) Senior Security Engineer
14 6 (2.65%) AWS Architect
14 6 (2.65%) Cloud Engineer
14 6 (2.65%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (4.42%) OpenID
2 8 (3.54%) REST
3 7 (3.10%) .NET
3 7 (3.10%) OAuth
3 7 (3.10%) SAML
4 6 (2.65%) Kafka
4 6 (2.65%) RESTful
5 5 (2.21%) Spring
6 4 (1.77%) gRPC
6 4 (1.77%) Hibernate
6 4 (1.77%) JPA
6 4 (1.77%) OAuth2
6 4 (1.77%) OpenTelemetry
6 4 (1.77%) Spring Boot
6 4 (1.77%) Spring Cloud
7 3 (1.33%) LDAP
7 3 (1.33%) Semantic Kernel
8 2 (0.88%) LangChain
8 2 (0.88%) TensorFlow
8 2 (0.88%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (9.73%) Security Posture
2 21 (9.29%) Onboarding
3 19 (8.41%) Management Information System
4 18 (7.96%) Cloud Native
5 12 (5.31%) Cyber Threat
6 9 (3.98%) Operational Technology
7 7 (3.10%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 7 (3.10%) Security Operations Centre
8 5 (2.21%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.77%) AI Agents
9 4 (1.77%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (1.77%) NHS
10 3 (1.33%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (1.33%) Cloud Security Posture
10 3 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (1.33%) Hybrid Cloud
10 3 (1.33%) IoT
10 3 (1.33%) Product Ownership
10 3 (1.33%) Taxonomies
11 2 (0.88%) Algorithms
Operating Systems
1 14 (6.19%) Windows
2 12 (5.31%) Linux
3 7 (3.10%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.33%) Unix
5 1 (0.44%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (45.13%) Cybersecurity
2 70 (30.97%) Cloud Security
3 66 (29.20%) Risk Management
4 58 (25.66%) SIEM
5 57 (25.22%) Information Security
6 47 (20.80%) Incident Response
6 47 (20.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 44 (19.47%) Stakeholder Management
8 40 (17.70%) CI/CD
9 38 (16.81%) Infrastructure as Code
10 34 (15.04%) Security Architecture
11 31 (13.72%) DevOps
12 30 (13.27%) Data Protection
13 29 (12.83%) Identity Access Management
14 28 (12.39%) Threat Modelling
15 27 (11.95%) AI
15 27 (11.95%) Data Loss Prevention
15 27 (11.95%) Vulnerability Management
16 26 (11.50%) Roadmaps
17 25 (11.06%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 24 (10.62%) Python
2 17 (7.52%) PowerShell
3 13 (5.75%) Java
4 9 (3.98%) SQL
5 8 (3.54%) Kusto Query Language
6 7 (3.10%) Bash
7 2 (0.88%) Bicep
7 2 (0.88%) C++
8 1 (0.44%) C#
Qualifications
1 55 (24.34%) Security Cleared
2 54 (23.89%) CISSP
3 49 (21.68%) SC Cleared
4 38 (16.81%) CISM
5 25 (11.06%) Degree
6 15 (6.64%) CISA
7 14 (6.19%) CompTIA Security+
8 13 (5.75%) DV Cleared
9 12 (5.31%) CRISC
10 11 (4.87%) Cisco Certification
11 10 (4.42%) CEH
11 10 (4.42%) PMI Certification
11 10 (4.42%) PMP
12 9 (3.98%) OSCP
12 9 (3.98%) SANS
13 8 (3.54%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 8 (3.54%) AWS Certification
13 8 (3.54%) FFIEC
13 8 (3.54%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 7 (3.10%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 148 (65.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 65 (28.76%) GDPR
3 31 (13.72%) PCI DSS
4 29 (12.83%) GRC
5 23 (10.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 18 (7.96%) NCSC
7 17 (7.52%) COBIT
7 17 (7.52%) Cyber Essentials
8 11 (4.87%) EU AI Act
9 10 (4.42%) HIPAA
9 10 (4.42%) ITGC
9 10 (4.42%) NIST 800
10 9 (3.98%) QA
11 7 (3.10%) SOX 404
12 6 (2.65%) SOC 2
13 5 (2.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 5 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 4 (1.77%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 3 (1.33%) Actionable Recommendations
16 2 (0.88%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 22 (9.73%) Active Directory
2 13 (5.75%) Docker
3 3 (1.33%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.44%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 23 (10.18%) Terraform
2 20 (8.85%) Kubernetes
3 5 (2.21%) Ansible
3 5 (2.21%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (1.77%) CASB
4 4 (1.77%) CSIRT
4 4 (1.77%) Nessus
4 4 (1.77%) QRadar
5 3 (1.33%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.33%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.88%) Grafana
6 2 (0.88%) RSA Archer
6 2 (0.88%) SCCM
7 1 (0.44%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.44%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.44%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.44%) Kubeflow
7 1 (0.44%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.44%) Nmap
7 1 (0.44%) WSUS
Vendors
1 50 (22.12%) Microsoft
2 16 (7.08%) CyberArk
2 16 (7.08%) Splunk
3 10 (4.42%) ServiceNow
4 9 (3.98%) Oracle
5 8 (3.54%) Fortinet
5 8 (3.54%) Google
5 8 (3.54%) Palo Alto
5 8 (3.54%) SAP
6 7 (3.10%) Cisco
6 7 (3.10%) Tenable
7 5 (2.21%) CrowdStrike
7 5 (2.21%) Qualys
7 5 (2.21%) Rapid7
7 5 (2.21%) VMware
8 4 (1.77%) Dell
9 3 (1.33%) CheckPoint
9 3 (1.33%) Trend Micro
10 2 (0.88%) Foundry
10 2 (0.88%) LogRhythm