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

6 months to
1 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 169 230 208
Rank change year-on-year +61 -22 +118
Contract jobs citing NIST 236 142 200
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.64% 0.97% 1.10%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.97% 7.10% 7.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 156 79 134
10th Percentile £413 £488 £400
25th Percentile £497 £519 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £635 £630
Median % change year-on-year -9.45% +0.79% -3.08%
75th Percentile £688 £690 £725
90th Percentile £755 £776 £800
England median daily rate £550 £625 £625
% change year-on-year -12.00% - -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 2,630 2,001 2,548
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.24% 13.69% 14.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,755 1,212 1,871
10th Percentile £340 £300 £363
25th Percentile £415 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £563
Median % change year-on-year - -6.67% +2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £650 £700
90th Percentile £750 £775 £788
England median daily rate £500 £500 £550
% change year-on-year - -9.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 30 49
10th Percentile £18.25 £19.81 £17.90
25th Percentile £25.15 £22.65 £22.29
Median hourly rate £28.00 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +7.69% -7.14%
75th Percentile £38.75 £78.40 £51.75
90th Percentile £73.75 £95.25 £64.60
England median hourly rate £25.15 £30.11 £33.75
% change year-on-year -16.46% -10.80% +45.05%

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 1 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 1 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 +7 32 £528 -4.09% 24
South London -4 5 £525 -
West London - 5 £423 - 5
East London - 3 £450 - 2
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 7 (2.97%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.27%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.42%) Confluence
3 1 (0.42%) nginx
Applications
1 5 (2.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.42%) GNU Octave
3 1 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.42%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.42%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.42%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 91 (38.56%) Azure
2 62 (26.27%) AWS
3 26 (11.02%) Entra ID
4 22 (9.32%) GCP
5 21 (8.90%) Azure Sentinel
6 16 (6.78%) GitHub
7 13 (5.51%) GitHub Actions
8 10 (4.24%) Microsoft 365
9 9 (3.81%) AWS CloudFormation
9 9 (3.81%) Microsoft Purview
10 7 (2.97%) Amazon EKS
10 7 (2.97%) Serverless
11 6 (2.54%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (2.54%) Azure Key Vault
11 6 (2.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 5 (2.12%) Amazon ECS
12 5 (2.12%) Amazon S3
12 5 (2.12%) AWS Lambda
12 5 (2.12%) Azure AKS
12 5 (2.12%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 37 (15.68%) Firewall
2 24 (10.17%) Network Security
3 8 (3.39%) VPN
4 7 (2.97%) DNS
5 5 (2.12%) NGFW
5 5 (2.12%) WAN
6 4 (1.69%) Intrusion Detection
6 4 (1.69%) SD-WAN
7 3 (1.27%) LAN
7 3 (1.27%) TCP/IP
8 2 (0.85%) BGP
8 2 (0.85%) DMZ
8 2 (0.85%) Modbus
8 2 (0.85%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (0.85%) Wireshark
9 1 (0.42%) Cisco ASA
9 1 (0.42%) Software-Defined Networking
9 1 (0.42%) SSH
9 1 (0.42%) Telnet
9 1 (0.42%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (4.66%) Data Lake
2 5 (2.12%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (1.69%) Redis
4 3 (1.27%) Amazon Aurora
4 3 (1.27%) DocumentDB
4 3 (1.27%) DynamoDB
4 3 (1.27%) MySQL
4 3 (1.27%) NoSQL
4 3 (1.27%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (1.27%) Power BI
5 2 (0.85%) Delta Lake
5 2 (0.85%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.85%) Star Schema
6 1 (0.42%) Amazon Athena
6 1 (0.42%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.42%) EDRMS
6 1 (0.42%) Pinecone
6 1 (0.42%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (5.51%) JIRA
2 6 (2.54%) Snyk
3 5 (2.12%) CircleCI
3 5 (2.12%) GitLab
3 5 (2.12%) Jenkins
4 3 (1.27%) JMeter
4 3 (1.27%) Metasploit
5 2 (0.85%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.42%) Git
6 1 (0.42%) MLflow
6 1 (0.42%) Postman
6 1 (0.42%) Selenium
6 1 (0.42%) SonarQube
General
1 81 (34.32%) Social Skills
2 52 (22.03%) Finance
3 31 (13.14%) Public Sector
4 23 (9.75%) Analytical Skills
5 19 (8.05%) Banking
6 14 (5.93%) Presentation Skills
7 13 (5.51%) Legal
8 8 (3.39%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (3.39%) Financial Institution
9 6 (2.54%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (2.12%) Law
10 5 (2.12%) Local Government
10 5 (2.12%) Organisational Skills
11 3 (1.27%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.27%) Military
12 2 (0.85%) Investment Banking
12 2 (0.85%) Telecoms
13 1 (0.42%) Games
13 1 (0.42%) Japanese Language
13 1 (0.42%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 38 (16.10%) Security Engineer
2 33 (13.98%) Architect
3 32 (13.56%) Analyst
4 25 (10.59%) Consultant
5 24 (10.17%) Lead
6 22 (9.32%) Security Architect
7 19 (8.05%) Senior
8 15 (6.36%) Security Analyst
9 12 (5.08%) Security Specialist
10 11 (4.66%) Security Consultant
11 10 (4.24%) Security Manager
11 10 (4.24%) Tester
12 9 (3.81%) Project Manager
13 8 (3.39%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
13 8 (3.39%) Cloud Architect
13 8 (3.39%) Cybersecurity Engineer
13 8 (3.39%) Risk Consultant
14 7 (2.97%) Senior Security Engineer
15 6 (2.54%) Cybersecurity Manager
15 6 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (2.97%) OpenID
1 7 (2.97%) REST
2 6 (2.54%) OAuth
3 5 (2.12%) Loki
3 5 (2.12%) RESTful
3 5 (2.12%) SAML
4 4 (1.69%) .NET
4 4 (1.69%) Kafka
4 4 (1.69%) Spring
5 3 (1.27%) gRPC
5 3 (1.27%) Hibernate
5 3 (1.27%) JPA
5 3 (1.27%) OAuth2
5 3 (1.27%) OpenTelemetry
5 3 (1.27%) PyTorch
5 3 (1.27%) Semantic Kernel
5 3 (1.27%) Spring Boot
5 3 (1.27%) Spring Cloud
5 3 (1.27%) TensorFlow
5 3 (1.27%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (9.32%) Security Posture
2 20 (8.47%) Cloud Native
3 19 (8.05%) Management Information System
4 18 (7.63%) Onboarding
5 12 (5.08%) Cyber Threat
6 10 (4.24%) Operational Technology
7 8 (3.39%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 7 (2.97%) Data Centre
8 7 (2.97%) Security Operations Centre
9 6 (2.54%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.69%) AI Agents
10 4 (1.69%) NHS
11 3 (1.27%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.27%) Cloud Security Posture
11 3 (1.27%) Data Protection Act
11 3 (1.27%) Distributed Systems
11 3 (1.27%) Greenfield Project
11 3 (1.27%) Product Ownership
11 3 (1.27%) STIX
11 3 (1.27%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 17 (7.20%) Windows
2 14 (5.93%) Linux
3 8 (3.39%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 3 (1.27%) Unix
6 2 (0.85%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.42%) CentOS
7 1 (0.42%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.42%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 102 (43.22%) Cybersecurity
2 70 (29.66%) Cloud Security
3 67 (28.39%) Risk Management
4 62 (26.27%) Information Security
4 62 (26.27%) SIEM
5 50 (21.19%) Incident Response
6 49 (20.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 41 (17.37%) CI/CD
8 39 (16.53%) Infrastructure as Code
9 37 (15.68%) Stakeholder Management
10 35 (14.83%) DevOps
11 33 (13.98%) Data Protection
12 31 (13.14%) Security Architecture
13 30 (12.71%) Vulnerability Management
14 29 (12.29%) Data Loss Prevention
15 28 (11.86%) Threat Modelling
16 27 (11.44%) AI
17 26 (11.02%) Identity Access Management
18 23 (9.75%) DevSecOps
18 23 (9.75%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 24 (10.17%) Python
2 21 (8.90%) PowerShell
3 9 (3.81%) Java
3 9 (3.81%) Kusto Query Language
3 9 (3.81%) SQL
4 7 (2.97%) Bash
5 4 (1.69%) Bicep
6 2 (0.85%) C++
7 1 (0.42%) C#
Qualifications
1 61 (25.85%) CISSP
2 53 (22.46%) Security Cleared
3 47 (19.92%) SC Cleared
4 43 (18.22%) CISM
5 25 (10.59%) Degree
6 20 (8.47%) CISA
7 14 (5.93%) CompTIA Security+
7 14 (5.93%) CRISC
8 13 (5.51%) CEH
8 13 (5.51%) Cisco Certification
8 13 (5.51%) DV Cleared
9 9 (3.81%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 9 (3.81%) OSCP
9 9 (3.81%) PMI Certification
9 9 (3.81%) PMP
10 8 (3.39%) FFIEC
10 8 (3.39%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 8 (3.39%) SANS
11 7 (2.97%) Azure Certification
11 7 (2.97%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 152 (64.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 63 (26.69%) GDPR
3 31 (13.14%) PCI DSS
4 27 (11.44%) GRC
5 25 (10.59%) COBIT
6 23 (9.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 17 (7.20%) Cyber Essentials
8 16 (6.78%) NCSC
9 12 (5.08%) NIST 800
10 11 (4.66%) EU AI Act
11 10 (4.24%) HIPAA
11 10 (4.24%) ITGC
12 8 (3.39%) QA
13 7 (2.97%) SOC 2
13 7 (2.97%) SOX 404
14 5 (2.12%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 4 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 4 (1.69%) SLA
16 2 (0.85%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 23 (9.75%) Active Directory
2 13 (5.51%) Docker
3 3 (1.27%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.27%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.42%) Firmware
4 1 (0.42%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 25 (10.59%) Terraform
2 18 (7.63%) Kubernetes
3 7 (2.97%) Prometheus
4 6 (2.54%) Ansible
5 5 (2.12%) CASB
5 5 (2.12%) Nessus
5 5 (2.12%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (1.69%) CSIRT
6 4 (1.69%) QRadar
7 3 (1.27%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (1.27%) SCCM
8 2 (0.85%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.85%) Grafana
8 2 (0.85%) Nmap
8 2 (0.85%) RSA Archer
9 1 (0.42%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
9 1 (0.42%) Fluentd
9 1 (0.42%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.42%) Kubeflow
9 1 (0.42%) VxRail
Vendors
1 54 (22.88%) Microsoft
2 14 (5.93%) Splunk
3 12 (5.08%) CyberArk
4 11 (4.66%) ServiceNow
5 10 (4.24%) Palo Alto
6 9 (3.81%) Oracle
6 9 (3.81%) Tenable
7 8 (3.39%) Fortinet
7 8 (3.39%) SAP
8 7 (2.97%) Cisco
8 7 (2.97%) CrowdStrike
8 7 (2.97%) Qualys
9 5 (2.12%) Google
9 5 (2.12%) Rapid7
9 5 (2.12%) VMware
10 4 (1.69%) CheckPoint
10 4 (1.69%) Dell
10 4 (1.69%) OpenAI
11 3 (1.27%) Trend Micro
11 3 (1.27%) Zscaler