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

6 months to
16 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 203 208
Rank change year-on-year +34 +5 +85
Contract jobs citing NIST 267 159 207
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.63% 1.23% 1.14%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.69% 8.14% 8.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 189 97 150
10th Percentile £423 £480 £400
25th Percentile £503 £513 £516
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £615 £650 £650
Median % change year-on-year -5.38% - -
75th Percentile £713 £688 £775
90th Percentile £888 £843 £829
England median daily rate £575 £625 £613
% change year-on-year -8.00% +2.04% -5.77%
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% -31.80%

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 3,072 1,953 2,463
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.81% 15.05% 13.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,042 1,289 1,752
10th Percentile £350 £311 £363
25th Percentile £424 £400 £447
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £638 £675 £688
90th Percentile £750 £790 £787
England median daily rate £510 £501 £525
% change year-on-year +1.80% -4.57% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 26 60
10th Percentile £18.07 £19.07 £12.50
25th Percentile £18.72 £22.75 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.11 £39.02 £25.81
Median % change year-on-year -33.09% +51.18% -38.81%
75th Percentile £57.13 £78.40 £43.75
90th Percentile £76.68 £93.75 £57.93
England median hourly rate £25.77 £32.50 £24.99
% change year-on-year -20.71% +30.08% -37.93%

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 16 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 16 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 £625 -1.57% 19
South London -12 7 £525 - 1
East London +2 4 £450 -28.57% 8
West London -14 3 £423 - 5
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 (1.87%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.75%) Confluence
4 1 (0.37%) nginx
Applications
1 3 (1.12%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.37%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 81 (30.34%) Azure
2 67 (25.09%) AWS
3 30 (11.24%) GCP
4 16 (5.99%) AWS CloudFormation
4 16 (5.99%) Entra ID
5 14 (5.24%) OpenShift
6 12 (4.49%) Amazon ECS
6 12 (4.49%) Azure Sentinel
6 12 (4.49%) GitHub
7 11 (4.12%) Serverless
8 9 (3.37%) Amazon EKS
8 9 (3.37%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 8 (3.00%) AWS Lambda
9 8 (3.00%) Microsoft Purview
9 8 (3.00%) PaaS
10 7 (2.62%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 7 (2.62%) Amazon MSK
10 7 (2.62%) Microsoft 365
10 7 (2.62%) SaaS
11 6 (2.25%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (8.61%) Network Security
2 21 (7.87%) Firewall
3 11 (4.12%) DNS
4 5 (1.87%) VPN
5 3 (1.12%) Cisco IPT
5 3 (1.12%) Intrusion Detection
5 3 (1.12%) LAN
5 3 (1.12%) NGFW
5 3 (1.12%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.12%) WAN
6 2 (0.75%) BGP
6 2 (0.75%) DMZ
6 2 (0.75%) Ethernet VPN
6 2 (0.75%) HTTP
6 2 (0.75%) IPv4
6 2 (0.75%) IPv6
6 2 (0.75%) Kerberos
6 2 (0.75%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.75%) SSL
6 2 (0.75%) VSAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (4.49%) Data Lake
2 8 (3.00%) Amazon RDS
3 5 (1.87%) Redis
4 4 (1.50%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (1.50%) DocumentDB
4 4 (1.50%) DynamoDB
4 4 (1.50%) MySQL
4 4 (1.50%) NoSQL
4 4 (1.50%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.12%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (1.12%) Amazon Redshift
5 3 (1.12%) Star Schema
6 2 (0.75%) Big Data
6 2 (0.75%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.75%) Power BI
7 1 (0.37%) Data Hub
7 1 (0.37%) EDRMS
7 1 (0.37%) Metadata
7 1 (0.37%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 17 (6.37%) Jenkins
2 12 (4.49%) JIRA
3 6 (2.25%) GitLab
4 5 (1.87%) Git
5 4 (1.50%) JMeter
5 4 (1.50%) Snyk
6 2 (0.75%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.37%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.37%) MLflow
7 1 (0.37%) Postman
7 1 (0.37%) Selenium
General
1 107 (40.07%) Social Skills
2 79 (29.59%) Finance
3 39 (14.61%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (9.36%) Public Sector
5 24 (8.99%) Documentation Skills
6 20 (7.49%) Banking
7 19 (7.12%) Influencing Skills
8 17 (6.37%) Legal
9 14 (5.24%) Financial Institution
9 14 (5.24%) Presentation Skills
10 7 (2.62%) Law
11 6 (2.25%) Organisational Skills
11 6 (2.25%) Telecoms
12 2 (0.75%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.75%) Military
12 2 (0.75%) Retail
13 1 (0.37%) Electronics
13 1 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 1 (0.37%) Manufacturing
13 1 (0.37%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 44 (16.48%) Architect
2 35 (13.11%) Analyst
3 34 (12.73%) Security Engineer
4 31 (11.61%) Consultant
5 22 (8.24%) Senior
6 19 (7.12%) Security Architect
7 17 (6.37%) Security Consultant
8 16 (5.99%) Project Manager
8 16 (5.99%) Security Manager
8 16 (5.99%) Security Specialist
9 15 (5.62%) Lead
10 14 (5.24%) CyberArk Architect
11 13 (4.87%) Security Analyst
12 9 (3.37%) Migration Manager
12 9 (3.37%) Migration Project Manager
13 8 (3.00%) Cloud Architect
13 8 (3.00%) Cybersecurity Consultant
13 8 (3.00%) Cybersecurity Manager
14 7 (2.62%) Cybersecurity Engineer
14 7 (2.62%) Risk Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (6.74%) OpenID
2 16 (5.99%) SAML
3 13 (4.87%) LDAP
4 9 (3.37%) REST
5 8 (3.00%) .NET
5 8 (3.00%) Kafka
6 7 (2.62%) RESTful
7 5 (1.87%) OAuth
7 5 (1.87%) OpenTelemetry
7 5 (1.87%) Spring
8 4 (1.50%) gRPC
8 4 (1.50%) Hibernate
8 4 (1.50%) JPA
8 4 (1.50%) OAuth2
8 4 (1.50%) Spring Boot
8 4 (1.50%) Spring Cloud
9 3 (1.12%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (1.12%) PyTorch
9 3 (1.12%) SailPoint
9 3 (1.12%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 29 (10.86%) Onboarding
2 27 (10.11%) Cloud Native
3 25 (9.36%) Security Posture
4 18 (6.74%) Management Information System
5 13 (4.87%) Operational Technology
6 11 (4.12%) Hybrid Cloud
7 7 (2.62%) CMDB
7 7 (2.62%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 7 (2.62%) Cyber Threat
7 7 (2.62%) Data Centre
7 7 (2.62%) Security Operations Centre
8 6 (2.25%) Distributed Systems
9 5 (1.87%) BYOD
9 5 (1.87%) Product Ownership
10 4 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (1.12%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.12%) Cyber Defence
11 3 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.12%) Legacy Applications
11 3 (1.12%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 14 (5.24%) Linux
1 14 (5.24%) Windows
2 7 (2.62%) Windows Server
3 4 (1.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (1.12%) Unix
5 1 (0.37%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (47.57%) Cybersecurity
2 70 (26.22%) Information Security
3 64 (23.97%) Cloud Security
4 63 (23.60%) Risk Management
5 60 (22.47%) SIEM
6 58 (21.72%) Stakeholder Management
7 54 (20.22%) CI/CD
8 44 (16.48%) Incident Response
8 44 (16.48%) Infrastructure as Code
9 42 (15.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 41 (15.36%) Threat Modelling
11 40 (14.98%) Data Protection
11 40 (14.98%) Security Architecture
12 39 (14.61%) Agile
12 39 (14.61%) Continuous Improvement
13 37 (13.86%) DevOps
14 36 (13.48%) AI
15 34 (12.73%) Vulnerability Management
16 28 (10.49%) Identity Access Management
17 27 (10.11%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 27 (10.11%) Python
2 16 (5.99%) Java
2 16 (5.99%) PowerShell
3 12 (4.49%) SQL
4 7 (2.62%) Kusto Query Language
5 6 (2.25%) Bash
6 2 (0.75%) C++
7 1 (0.37%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 73 (27.34%) Security Cleared
2 66 (24.72%) CISSP
3 63 (23.60%) SC Cleared
4 45 (16.85%) CISM
5 36 (13.48%) Degree
6 19 (7.12%) CEH
7 18 (6.74%) CompTIA Security+
8 17 (6.37%) Cisco Certification
9 16 (5.99%) CRISC
10 15 (5.62%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 15 (5.62%) PMI Certification
10 15 (5.62%) PMP
11 13 (4.87%) CISA
12 11 (4.12%) Computer Science Degree
12 11 (4.12%) DV Cleared
12 11 (4.12%) GIAC
12 11 (4.12%) Master's Degree
13 10 (3.75%) AWS Certification
13 10 (3.75%) CCSP
13 10 (3.75%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 172 (64.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 68 (25.47%) GDPR
3 40 (14.98%) GRC
4 35 (13.11%) NCSC
4 35 (13.11%) PCI DSS
5 26 (9.74%) COBIT
6 19 (7.12%) NIST 800
7 16 (5.99%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 15 (5.62%) Cyber Essentials
8 15 (5.62%) ITGC
9 11 (4.12%) SOC 2
10 9 (3.37%) HIPAA
11 8 (3.00%) QA
12 7 (2.62%) SOX 404
13 6 (2.25%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 5 (1.87%) EU AI Act
14 5 (1.87%) SLA
15 4 (1.50%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 4 (1.50%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 3 (1.12%) ISO 22301
System Software
1 17 (6.37%) Active Directory
2 14 (5.24%) Docker
3 4 (1.50%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.75%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.37%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.37%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 32 (11.99%) Kubernetes
2 20 (7.49%) Terraform
3 6 (2.25%) Ansible
4 5 (1.87%) CASB
4 5 (1.87%) Nessus
5 3 (1.12%) Grafana
5 3 (1.12%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (1.12%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.75%) VxRail
7 1 (0.37%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.37%) FortiGate
7 1 (0.37%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (0.37%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.37%) Nmap
7 1 (0.37%) RSA Archer
7 1 (0.37%) SCCM
7 1 (0.37%) SELinux
7 1 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.37%) WSUS
Vendors
1 39 (14.61%) Microsoft
2 34 (12.73%) CyberArk
3 28 (10.49%) Splunk
4 15 (5.62%) ServiceNow
5 11 (4.12%) Tenable
6 10 (3.75%) Google
7 9 (3.37%) Cisco
7 9 (3.37%) Oracle
8 8 (3.00%) Palo Alto
8 8 (3.00%) SAP
9 7 (2.62%) Qualys
9 7 (2.62%) Rapid7
9 7 (2.62%) VMware
10 6 (2.25%) Fortinet
11 5 (1.87%) CrowdStrike
12 4 (1.50%) Trend Micro
12 4 (1.50%) Zscaler
13 3 (1.12%) CheckPoint
13 3 (1.12%) Red Hat
14 2 (0.75%) Forcepoint