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 21 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 170 220
Rank change year-on-year +1 +50 -11
Contract jobs citing NIST 332 220 179
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.65% 1.64% 1.10%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.77% 9.55% 8.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 229 156 141
10th Percentile £430 £423 £475
25th Percentile £500 £507 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £590 £585 £660
Median % change year-on-year +0.85% -11.36% -2.22%
75th Percentile £700 £700 £775
90th Percentile £792 £819 £780
England median daily rate £575 £600 £650
% change year-on-year -4.09% -7.77% -

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 3,787 2,304 2,227
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.86% 17.19% 13.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,562 1,548 1,495
10th Percentile £350 £325 £338
25th Percentile £429 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -2.22%
75th Percentile £638 £652 £678
90th Percentile £738 £750 £798
England median daily rate £510 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 47 45
10th Percentile £19.94 - £17.12
25th Percentile £25.25 £25.15 £21.00
Median hourly rate £33.36 £34.00 £26.68
Median % change year-on-year -1.88% +27.44% -2.98%
75th Percentile £41.80 £43.98 £48.75
90th Percentile £65.87 £54.25 £67.13
England median hourly rate £36.07 £31.64 £27.09
% change year-on-year +14.00% +16.80% -22.60%

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 21 August 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 21 August 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 48 £580 +0.87% 16
West London -19 4 £431 +11.29% 8
East London -2 3 £750 +33.33% 1
South London -7 3 £744 +35.18% 1
North London - 1 £650 - 1
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 (1.81%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.51%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.90%) Confluence
4 1 (0.30%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.30%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 8 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.60%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 141 (42.47%) Azure
2 102 (30.72%) AWS
3 60 (18.07%) Entra ID
4 49 (14.76%) GCP
5 21 (6.33%) Azure Sentinel
6 19 (5.72%) SaaS
7 17 (5.12%) Azure DevOps
7 17 (5.12%) Microsoft 365
8 12 (3.61%) OCI
9 11 (3.31%) Microsoft Purview
10 10 (3.01%) GitHub
11 8 (2.41%) Azure Key Vault
11 8 (2.41%) Datadog
12 7 (2.11%) AWS Control Tower
13 6 (1.81%) Azure Monitor
13 6 (1.81%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (1.51%) Amazon Bedrock
14 5 (1.51%) AWS KMS
14 5 (1.51%) Azure Logic Apps
14 5 (1.51%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 27 (8.13%) Network Security
2 18 (5.42%) Firewall
3 12 (3.61%) DNS
4 10 (3.01%) VPN
5 7 (2.11%) TCP/IP
6 6 (1.81%) Kerberos
6 6 (1.81%) NGFW
6 6 (1.81%) X.509
7 5 (1.51%) HTTP
7 5 (1.51%) IPsec
7 5 (1.51%) SSL
8 4 (1.20%) Cisco IPT
8 4 (1.20%) SSH
9 3 (0.90%) DHCP
9 3 (0.90%) Internet
9 3 (0.90%) Modbus
10 2 (0.60%) 4G
10 2 (0.60%) BGP
10 2 (0.60%) IPv4
10 2 (0.60%) S/MIME
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
1 4 (1.20%) Big Data
1 4 (1.20%) DynamoDB
2 3 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
3 2 (0.60%) Power BI
4 1 (0.30%) Data Hub
4 1 (0.30%) Metadata
4 1 (0.30%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 9 (2.71%) JIRA
2 6 (1.81%) GitLab
2 6 (1.81%) Snyk
3 5 (1.51%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.20%) Burp Suite
4 4 (1.20%) SonarQube
5 3 (0.90%) Git
6 2 (0.60%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.60%) MSI
7 1 (0.30%) Postman
7 1 (0.30%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.30%) Selenium
7 1 (0.30%) TestRail
General
1 107 (32.23%) Social Skills
2 99 (29.82%) Finance
3 43 (12.95%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (8.13%) Banking
5 25 (7.53%) Public Sector
6 24 (7.23%) Legal
7 16 (4.82%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.41%) Influencing Skills
9 7 (2.11%) Financial Institution
10 6 (1.81%) Law
10 6 (1.81%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.90%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.90%) Local Government
12 3 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
12 3 (0.90%) Retail
12 3 (0.90%) Telecoms
13 2 (0.60%) German Language
13 2 (0.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 2 (0.60%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 85 (25.60%) Architect
2 57 (17.17%) Analyst
3 47 (14.16%) Security Architect
4 37 (11.14%) Consultant
5 30 (9.04%) Senior
6 27 (8.13%) Lead
7 25 (7.53%) Security Analyst
8 23 (6.93%) Business Analyst
9 22 (6.63%) Security Consultant
10 21 (6.33%) Security Engineer
11 16 (4.82%) Cybersecurity Consultant
11 16 (4.82%) Security Manager
12 14 (4.22%) Cybersecurity Analyst
13 13 (3.92%) Solutions Architect
14 12 (3.61%) Project Manager
15 11 (3.31%) Senior Architect
16 9 (2.71%) CyberArk Architect
16 9 (2.71%) Cybersecurity Architect
16 9 (2.71%) Security Specialist
17 8 (2.41%) Head of Security
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (7.23%) Terraform
2 16 (4.82%) SailPoint
3 10 (3.01%) OAuth
4 9 (2.71%) SAML
5 8 (2.41%) JSON
5 8 (2.41%) REST
6 6 (1.81%) LDAP
7 4 (1.20%) SOAP
7 4 (1.20%) YAML
8 3 (0.90%) OpenID
8 3 (0.90%) SLSA
8 3 (0.90%) SPIFFE
9 2 (0.60%) Azure Blueprints
9 2 (0.60%) Elastic Stack
9 2 (0.60%) JDBC
9 2 (0.60%) Kafka
9 2 (0.60%) Middleware
9 2 (0.60%) OAuth2
9 2 (0.60%) Playwright
9 2 (0.60%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 31 (9.34%) Cloud Native
2 29 (8.73%) Onboarding
3 27 (8.13%) Security Posture
4 20 (6.02%) Operational Technology
5 15 (4.52%) Hybrid Cloud
6 12 (3.61%) CMDB
7 11 (3.31%) AI Agents
8 10 (3.01%) Management Information System
8 10 (3.01%) PKI
9 9 (2.71%) SCADA
10 8 (2.41%) Cyber Threat
11 7 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.81%) Data Centre
13 5 (1.51%) Cloud Security Posture
13 5 (1.51%) Data Protection Act
14 4 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
15 3 (0.90%) Algorithms
15 3 (0.90%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
15 3 (0.90%) Mainframe
15 3 (0.90%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 22 (6.63%) Windows
2 19 (5.72%) Linux
3 8 (2.41%) Windows Server
4 6 (1.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (1.20%) Unix
6 3 (0.90%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.60%) Alpine Linux
8 1 (0.30%) Android
8 1 (0.30%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.30%) CentOS
8 1 (0.30%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 185 (55.72%) Cybersecurity
2 78 (23.49%) Security Architecture
3 72 (21.69%) Stakeholder Management
4 68 (20.48%) Risk Management
5 64 (19.28%) Cloud Security
6 60 (18.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 57 (17.17%) Roadmaps
8 55 (16.57%) Identity Access Management
9 52 (15.66%) Information Security
10 51 (15.36%) Incident Response
11 50 (15.06%) AI
12 47 (14.16%) CI/CD
12 47 (14.16%) Threat Modelling
12 47 (14.16%) Vulnerability Management
13 43 (12.95%) SIEM
13 43 (12.95%) Zero Trust
14 40 (12.05%) Continuous Improvement
15 38 (11.45%) DevOps
16 37 (11.14%) Data Protection
17 35 (10.54%) Risk Assessment
Programming Languages
1 38 (11.45%) Python
2 35 (10.54%) PowerShell
3 19 (5.72%) SQL
4 10 (3.01%) Bash
5 6 (1.81%) Bicep
5 6 (1.81%) Kusto Query Language
6 5 (1.51%) Java
7 2 (0.60%) BeanShell
7 2 (0.60%) Go
7 2 (0.60%) Objective-C
8 1 (0.30%) C
8 1 (0.30%) C#
8 1 (0.30%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.30%) Korn
Qualifications
1 96 (28.92%) CISSP
2 68 (20.48%) Security Cleared
3 52 (15.66%) CISM
4 51 (15.36%) SC Cleared
5 33 (9.94%) Degree
6 24 (7.23%) Cisco Certification
7 21 (6.33%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 20 (6.02%) GIAC
9 19 (5.72%) Azure Certification
9 19 (5.72%) CEH
9 19 (5.72%) CRISC
10 18 (5.42%) CompTIA Security+
11 16 (4.82%) CISA
12 15 (4.52%) AWS Certification
12 15 (4.52%) DV Cleared
13 12 (3.61%) FFIEC
14 11 (3.31%) PMI Certification
14 11 (3.31%) PMP
15 10 (3.01%) CCSP
15 10 (3.01%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 198 (59.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 53 (15.96%) GDPR
3 45 (13.55%) GRC
4 39 (11.75%) COBIT
5 35 (10.54%) NCSC
6 28 (8.43%) NIST 800
7 19 (5.72%) PCI DSS
7 19 (5.72%) SOC 2
8 18 (5.42%) Cyber Essentials
9 15 (4.52%) ITGC
10 14 (4.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 12 (3.61%) EU AI Act
11 12 (3.61%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 10 (3.01%) QA
13 8 (2.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 7 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 7 (2.11%) SLA
15 5 (1.51%) PMO
16 4 (1.20%) HIPAA
16 4 (1.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 41 (12.35%) Active Directory
2 15 (4.52%) Docker
3 3 (0.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.60%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.60%) OpenSSH
4 2 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.30%) Firmware
5 1 (0.30%) Varnish
5 1 (0.30%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 21 (6.33%) Kubernetes
2 12 (3.61%) Single Sign-On
3 10 (3.01%) Ansible
4 9 (2.71%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (0.90%) Nessus
6 2 (0.60%) CASB
6 2 (0.60%) Docker Swarm
6 2 (0.60%) Grafana
6 2 (0.60%) HP Fortify
6 2 (0.60%) Nexpose
6 2 (0.60%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.60%) Puppet
6 2 (0.60%) SCCM
7 1 (0.30%) Argo
7 1 (0.30%) QRadar
7 1 (0.30%) VxRail
Vendors
1 72 (21.69%) Microsoft
2 28 (8.43%) CyberArk
3 24 (7.23%) ServiceNow
3 24 (7.23%) Splunk
4 15 (4.52%) CrowdStrike
5 14 (4.22%) Google
6 13 (3.92%) Tenable
7 11 (3.31%) Qualys
8 10 (3.01%) Palo Alto
9 8 (2.41%) Okta
10 7 (2.11%) Rapid7
10 7 (2.11%) Zscaler
11 6 (1.81%) Cisco
12 5 (1.51%) ForgeRock
13 4 (1.20%) Veracode
13 4 (1.20%) VMware
14 3 (0.90%) BeyondTrust
14 3 (0.90%) Forcepoint
14 3 (0.90%) OpenAI
14 3 (0.90%) Workday