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 30 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 172 163 222
Rank change year-on-year -9 +59 -6
Contract jobs citing NIST 321 233 177
As % of all contract jobs in London 1.60% 1.71% 1.08%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 8.62% 10.06% 7.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 217 161 138
10th Percentile £430 £425 £453
25th Percentile £500 £510 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £585 £600 £650
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -7.69% -3.70%
75th Percentile £688 £700 £775
90th Percentile £775 £825 £780
England median daily rate £584 £599 £625
% change year-on-year -2.55% -4.16% -3.85%

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 3,724 2,317 2,252
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 18.60% 17.04% 13.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,508 1,559 1,556
10th Percentile £350 £319 £350
25th Percentile £428 £413 £426
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £638 £652 £675
90th Percentile £735 £750 £791
England median daily rate £510 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 37 47
10th Percentile £21.07 £22.75 £17.24
25th Percentile £25.25 £25.15 £21.13
Median hourly rate £28.80 £34.48 £26.68
Median % change year-on-year -16.49% +29.24% -32.32%
75th Percentile £53.56 £44.75 £43.75
90th Percentile £65.02 £55.70 £57.00
England median hourly rate £38.86 £31.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year +23.37% +14.55% -34.16%

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 30 July 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 30 July 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 51 £610 +4.27% 23
East London -2 3 £750 +28.21% 3
South London -19 2 £744 +35.18%
West London -20 2 £431 +11.29% 7
North London - 1 £650 -
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 (1.87%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.62%) Confluence
4 1 (0.31%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.31%) Red Hat Fuse
Applications
1 7 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 129 (40.19%) Azure
2 94 (29.28%) AWS
3 50 (15.58%) Entra ID
4 44 (13.71%) GCP
5 19 (5.92%) Azure Sentinel
6 17 (5.30%) SaaS
7 16 (4.98%) Azure DevOps
8 14 (4.36%) Microsoft 365
9 12 (3.74%) OCI
10 11 (3.43%) Microsoft Purview
11 10 (3.12%) GitHub
12 8 (2.49%) Datadog
13 7 (2.18%) Azure Key Vault
13 7 (2.18%) Serverless
14 6 (1.87%) Azure Monitor
14 6 (1.87%) GitHub Actions
15 5 (1.56%) Amazon Bedrock
15 5 (1.56%) AWS Control Tower
15 5 (1.56%) AWS KMS
15 5 (1.56%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 26 (8.10%) Network Security
2 16 (4.98%) Firewall
3 12 (3.74%) DNS
4 10 (3.12%) VPN
5 7 (2.18%) TCP/IP
6 6 (1.87%) Kerberos
6 6 (1.87%) NGFW
6 6 (1.87%) X.509
7 5 (1.56%) HTTP
7 5 (1.56%) IPsec
7 5 (1.56%) SSL
8 4 (1.25%) Cisco IPT
9 3 (0.93%) DHCP
9 3 (0.93%) Internet
9 3 (0.93%) SSH
10 2 (0.62%) BGP
10 2 (0.62%) IPv4
10 2 (0.62%) IPv6
10 2 (0.62%) S/MIME
10 2 (0.62%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.25%) Big Data
2 3 (0.93%) Azure SQL Database
3 2 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.62%) Data Hub
3 2 (0.62%) Power BI
4 1 (0.31%) Amazon Athena
4 1 (0.31%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.31%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.31%) DynamoDB
4 1 (0.31%) Metadata
4 1 (0.31%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 8 (2.49%) JIRA
2 7 (2.18%) Snyk
3 5 (1.56%) GitLab
4 4 (1.25%) Burp Suite
4 4 (1.25%) Jenkins
4 4 (1.25%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.62%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.62%) Git
6 1 (0.31%) MLflow
6 1 (0.31%) Postman
General
1 102 (31.78%) Social Skills
2 101 (31.46%) Finance
3 44 (13.71%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (8.10%) Banking
5 21 (6.54%) Public Sector
6 20 (6.23%) Legal
7 16 (4.98%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (3.43%) Financial Institution
9 8 (2.49%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (1.87%) Law
11 5 (1.56%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (1.25%) Retail
13 3 (0.93%) Local Government
13 3 (0.93%) Telecoms
14 2 (0.62%) Investment Banking
14 2 (0.62%) Manufacturing
14 2 (0.62%) Pharmaceutical
14 2 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
15 1 (0.31%) Aerospace
15 1 (0.31%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 70 (21.81%) Architect
2 56 (17.45%) Analyst
3 37 (11.53%) Security Architect
4 33 (10.28%) Consultant
5 32 (9.97%) Senior
6 22 (6.85%) Security Analyst
6 22 (6.85%) Security Consultant
7 21 (6.54%) Lead
7 21 (6.54%) Security Engineer
8 20 (6.23%) Business Analyst
9 18 (5.61%) Security Manager
10 16 (4.98%) Project Manager
11 14 (4.36%) Cybersecurity Analyst
12 13 (4.05%) Solutions Architect
13 12 (3.74%) Security Specialist
14 11 (3.43%) Cybersecurity Consultant
15 9 (2.80%) CyberArk Architect
15 9 (2.80%) Head of Security
15 9 (2.80%) Risk Analyst
15 9 (2.80%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (4.67%) SailPoint
2 9 (2.80%) OAuth
2 9 (2.80%) SAML
3 5 (1.56%) JSON
4 4 (1.25%) Kafka
4 4 (1.25%) LDAP
4 4 (1.25%) YAML
5 3 (0.93%) OpenID
5 3 (0.93%) REST
5 3 (0.93%) SLSA
5 3 (0.93%) SPIFFE
6 2 (0.62%) Azure Blueprints
6 2 (0.62%) Elastic Stack
6 2 (0.62%) Middleware
6 2 (0.62%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.62%) OpenTelemetry
6 2 (0.62%) RESTful
6 2 (0.62%) SOAP
6 2 (0.62%) Vert.x
7 1 (0.31%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 30 (9.35%) Security Posture
2 29 (9.03%) Cloud Native
3 23 (7.17%) Onboarding
4 21 (6.54%) Operational Technology
5 18 (5.61%) Hybrid Cloud
6 14 (4.36%) Management Information System
7 11 (3.43%) CMDB
8 10 (3.12%) AI Agents
8 10 (3.12%) PKI
8 10 (3.12%) SCADA
9 6 (1.87%) Cyber Threat
9 6 (1.87%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.56%) Cloud Security Posture
10 5 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (1.25%) BYOD
11 4 (1.25%) Data Centre
12 3 (0.93%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 3 (0.93%) Distributed Systems
12 3 (0.93%) Mainframe
12 3 (0.93%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 18 (5.61%) Windows
2 15 (4.67%) Linux
3 8 (2.49%) Windows Server
4 6 (1.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (1.25%) Unix
6 3 (0.93%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.62%) Alpine Linux
8 1 (0.31%) Android
8 1 (0.31%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.31%) CentOS
8 1 (0.31%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 174 (54.21%) Cybersecurity
2 74 (23.05%) Risk Management
3 67 (20.87%) Security Architecture
4 66 (20.56%) Stakeholder Management
5 62 (19.31%) Information Security
6 54 (16.82%) Cloud Security
6 54 (16.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 49 (15.26%) AI
7 49 (15.26%) CI/CD
8 48 (14.95%) Roadmaps
9 47 (14.64%) Identity Access Management
9 47 (14.64%) Incident Response
10 46 (14.33%) Vulnerability Management
11 41 (12.77%) Continuous Improvement
11 41 (12.77%) Threat Modelling
12 39 (12.15%) Data Protection
12 39 (12.15%) DevOps
12 39 (12.15%) Zero Trust
13 38 (11.84%) Agile
14 37 (11.53%) Risk Assessment
Programming Languages
1 35 (10.90%) Python
2 27 (8.41%) PowerShell
3 16 (4.98%) SQL
4 8 (2.49%) Bash
5 6 (1.87%) Kusto Query Language
6 4 (1.25%) Java
7 3 (0.93%) Bicep
8 2 (0.62%) Go
8 2 (0.62%) Objective-C
9 1 (0.31%) C
9 1 (0.31%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.31%) Korn
Qualifications
1 92 (28.66%) CISSP
2 52 (16.20%) Security Cleared
3 49 (15.26%) CISM
4 39 (12.15%) SC Cleared
5 38 (11.84%) Degree
6 23 (7.17%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (6.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 22 (6.85%) CRISC
8 21 (6.54%) CISA
9 20 (6.23%) CEH
10 19 (5.92%) GIAC
11 18 (5.61%) CompTIA Security+
12 16 (4.98%) Azure Certification
13 13 (4.05%) PMI Certification
13 13 (4.05%) PMP
14 12 (3.74%) AWS Certification
14 12 (3.74%) DV Cleared
15 10 (3.12%) CCSP
15 10 (3.12%) Computer Science Degree
15 10 (3.12%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 195 (60.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 57 (17.76%) GDPR
3 49 (15.26%) GRC
4 42 (13.08%) COBIT
5 33 (10.28%) NIST 800
6 31 (9.66%) NCSC
7 28 (8.72%) PCI DSS
8 26 (8.10%) SOC 2
9 17 (5.30%) Cyber Essentials
10 15 (4.67%) ITGC
11 13 (4.05%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 9 (2.80%) EU AI Act
12 9 (2.80%) QA
13 8 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 6 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 6 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 6 (1.87%) PMO
14 6 (1.87%) SLA
15 5 (1.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 4 (1.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 34 (10.59%) Active Directory
2 14 (4.36%) Docker
3 4 (1.25%) VMware Infrastructure
4 2 (0.62%) Hyper-V
4 2 (0.62%) OpenSSH
4 2 (0.62%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.31%) Firmware
5 1 (0.31%) Varnish
5 1 (0.31%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 21 (6.54%) Kubernetes
2 19 (5.92%) Terraform
3 12 (3.74%) Single Sign-On
4 9 (2.80%) Ansible
5 7 (2.18%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (0.62%) Docker Swarm
6 2 (0.62%) Grafana
6 2 (0.62%) HP Fortify
6 2 (0.62%) Nexpose
6 2 (0.62%) Prometheus
6 2 (0.62%) Puppet
7 1 (0.31%) CASB
7 1 (0.31%) Nessus
7 1 (0.31%) VxRail
Vendors
1 65 (20.25%) Microsoft
2 27 (8.41%) CyberArk
3 22 (6.85%) Splunk
4 20 (6.23%) ServiceNow
5 13 (4.05%) CrowdStrike
5 13 (4.05%) Google
5 13 (4.05%) Tenable
6 12 (3.74%) Qualys
7 9 (2.80%) Palo Alto
8 6 (1.87%) Cisco
8 6 (1.87%) Okta
8 6 (1.87%) Rapid7
9 5 (1.56%) VMware
9 5 (1.56%) Zscaler
10 4 (1.25%) Veracode
11 3 (0.93%) BeyondTrust
11 3 (0.93%) Commvault
11 3 (0.93%) Forcepoint
11 3 (0.93%) ForgeRock
11 3 (0.93%) Workday