Cyber Essentials Contract Job Trends in the Midlands

Cyber Essentials
England > Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Midlands requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 185 138 135
Rank change year-on-year -47 -3 -12
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 9 12 4
As % of all contract jobs in the Midlands 0.18% 0.43% 0.15%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.07% 2.51% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 9 2
10th Percentile £415 £386 £151
25th Percentile £438 £413 £209
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £463 £308
Median % change year-on-year +13.51% +50.41% -38.50%
75th Percentile £631 £650 £404
90th Percentile £733 - £462
England median daily rate £500 £575 £500
% change year-on-year -13.04% +15.00% -6.98%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £58.43 - -
Median hourly rate £63.14 - -
75th Percentile £67.84 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £71.00 £32.74 £78.40
% change year-on-year +116.89% -58.25% +76.18%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
Midlands

Cyber Essentials 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 the Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 841 478 403
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands 16.98% 17.33% 14.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 531 337 251
10th Percentile £309 £309 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year - -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £539 £550 £588
90th Percentile £656 £650 £725
England median daily rate £513 £500 £513
% change year-on-year +2.50% -2.44% -5.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 21 18
10th Percentile £12.90 £15.12 £12.00
25th Percentile £14.71 £16.13 £14.70
Median hourly rate £19.04 £25.00 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.84% +16.28% -21.82%
75th Percentile £22.75 £33.88 £47.13
90th Percentile £41.78 £40.46 £53.25
England median hourly rate £32.40 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year -0.32% -7.14% -2.78%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Cyber Essentials relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands.

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend in the Midlands

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Cyber Essentials.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Histogram in the Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in the Midlands over the 6 months to 11 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in the Midlands

Cyber Essentials
Hourly Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Cyber Essentials.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Contract Job Locations in the Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Essentials within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 11 October 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
West Midlands -46 7 £550 - 25
East Midlands -15 2 £500 +8.11% 13
Cyber Essentials
England

Cyber Essentials
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Midlands 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:

Cloud Services
1 3 (33.33%) GitHub
2 2 (22.22%) Azure
2 2 (22.22%) Entra ID
2 2 (22.22%) Microsoft 365
3 1 (11.11%) AWS
3 1 (11.11%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 3 (33.33%) Network Security
2 2 (22.22%) Firewall
3 1 (11.11%) VLAN
3 1 (11.11%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 1 (11.11%) Git
1 1 (11.11%) Visual Studio
General
1 4 (44.44%) Social Skills
2 3 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (33.33%) Public Sector
3 2 (22.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 2 (22.22%) Manufacturing
4 1 (11.11%) Aerospace
4 1 (11.11%) Legal
Job Titles
1 3 (33.33%) Architect
1 3 (33.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
1 3 (33.33%) Lead
1 3 (33.33%) Security Architect
2 2 (22.22%) Lead Architect
2 2 (22.22%) Lead Security Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Consultant
3 1 (11.11%) Network Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) Security Technical Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (22.22%) EDI
1 2 (22.22%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 2 (22.22%) Analytical Mindset
2 1 (11.11%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (11.11%) NHS
2 1 (11.11%) Onboarding
2 1 (11.11%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 4 (44.44%) Windows
2 3 (33.33%) Windows Server
3 2 (22.22%) Linux
4 1 (11.11%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (44.44%) Information Security
2 3 (33.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 3 (33.33%) Roadmaps
2 3 (33.33%) Security Architecture
2 3 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
2 3 (33.33%) User Experience
3 2 (22.22%) Agile
3 2 (22.22%) Architectural Patterns
3 2 (22.22%) Business Strategy
3 2 (22.22%) Containerisation
3 2 (22.22%) Cybersecurity
3 2 (22.22%) Enterprise Architecture
3 2 (22.22%) Infrastructure as Code
3 2 (22.22%) IT Strategy
3 2 (22.22%) Problem Management
3 2 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
3 2 (22.22%) Strategic Thinking
3 2 (22.22%) Technical Leadership
3 2 (22.22%) Technology Strategy
4 1 (11.11%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 4 (44.44%) PowerShell
2 3 (33.33%) Python
3 2 (22.22%) Bash
Qualifications
1 4 (44.44%) SC Cleared
1 4 (44.44%) Security Cleared
2 3 (33.33%) CCNA
2 3 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
3 2 (22.22%) DV Cleared
3 2 (22.22%) MCSE
3 2 (22.22%) Microsoft Certification
3 2 (22.22%) RHCA
3 2 (22.22%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
4 1 (11.11%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (11.11%) CCNP
4 1 (11.11%) CEH
4 1 (11.11%) CISM
4 1 (11.11%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (88.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (55.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 3 (33.33%) NCSC
4 1 (11.11%) GDPR
System Software
1 3 (33.33%) Docker
2 2 (22.22%) Hyper-V
2 2 (22.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (11.11%) Active Directory
3 1 (11.11%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 2 (22.22%) Ansible
1 2 (22.22%) Kubernetes
1 2 (22.22%) Podman
1 2 (22.22%) SCCM
2 1 (11.11%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 3 (33.33%) Cisco
2 2 (22.22%) Atlassian
2 2 (22.22%) Microsoft
2 2 (22.22%) VMware
3 1 (11.11%) Aruba
3 1 (11.11%) CheckPoint
3 1 (11.11%) Fortinet