NCSC Contract Job Trends in the North of England

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring NCSC skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 210 148 184
Rank change year-on-year -62 +36 +10
Contract jobs citing NCSC 11 16 10
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.21% 0.48% 0.20%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.41% 3.61% 1.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 11 5
10th Percentile £381 £500 -
25th Percentile £504 £572 £563
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £725 £575
Median % change year-on-year -24.14% +26.09% -11.54%
75th Percentile £638 £750 £588
90th Percentile £683 - £715
England median daily rate £600 £630 £586
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.46% -13.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
Median hourly rate £41.94 - £75.00
England median hourly rate £74.31 £61.50 £83.40
% change year-on-year +20.83% -26.26% +14.28%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
North of England

NCSC 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 North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 779 443 768
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 14.94% 13.23% 15.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 543 283 450
10th Percentile £313 £250 £265
25th Percentile £383 £356 £386
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £481
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -6.49% -3.75%
75th Percentile £550 £556 £575
90th Percentile £649 £680 £653
England median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 22 65
10th Percentile £15.40 - £10.95
25th Percentile £40.16 £15.50 £12.00
Median hourly rate £55.00 £22.09 £16.94
Median % change year-on-year +148.98% +30.44% -54.84%
75th Percentile £62.33 £26.42 £34.21
90th Percentile £69.89 £33.91 £48.75
England median hourly rate £24.19 £30.99 £25.06
% change year-on-year -21.93% +23.66% -17.26%

NCSC
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing NCSC relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

NCSC job vacancy trend in the North of England

NCSC
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing NCSC.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing NCSC

NCSC
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NCSC in the North of England over the 6 months to 14 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for NCSC in the North of England

NCSC
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing NCSC.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing NCSC

NCSC
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing NCSC within the North of England region over the 6 months to 14 February 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
North West -31 7 £463 -19.14% 4
Yorkshire -60 3 £589 -18.71% 2
North East -15 1 £550 -6.78% 3
NCSC
England

NCSC
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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 1 (9.09%) Amazon EMR
1 1 (9.09%) Amazon S3
1 1 (9.09%) AWS
1 1 (9.09%) AWS Step Functions
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (9.09%) Amazon Athena
1 1 (9.09%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 1 (9.09%) Git
General
1 2 (18.18%) Public Sector
1 2 (18.18%) Social Skills
2 1 (9.09%) Influencing Skills
2 1 (9.09%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 7 (63.64%) Senior
2 2 (18.18%) Consultant
3 1 (9.09%) Architect
3 1 (9.09%) AWS Data Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) AWS Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) Cybersecurity Manager
3 1 (9.09%) Data Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) Governance Consultant
3 1 (9.09%) Information Assurance Manager
3 1 (9.09%) Information Manager
3 1 (9.09%) Information Security Manager
3 1 (9.09%) Management Consultant
3 1 (9.09%) Python Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) Risk Consultant
3 1 (9.09%) Risk Management Consultant
3 1 (9.09%) Security Assurance Manager
3 1 (9.09%) Security Manager
3 1 (9.09%) Senior Consultant
3 1 (9.09%) ServiceNow Architect
3 1 (9.09%) Technical Architect
Miscellaneous
1 5 (45.45%) Cyber Threat
2 2 (18.18%) Operational Technology
2 2 (18.18%) SCADA
3 1 (9.09%) Management Information System
3 1 (9.09%) NHS
3 1 (9.09%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (72.73%) Cybersecurity
2 7 (63.64%) Risk Management
3 6 (54.55%) Threat Modelling
4 5 (45.45%) Cyber Intelligence
4 5 (45.45%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 5 (45.45%) Data Flow Diagram
4 5 (45.45%) GAP Analysis
4 5 (45.45%) Mentoring
4 5 (45.45%) MITRE ATT&CK
4 5 (45.45%) OWASP
4 5 (45.45%) Purple Team
4 5 (45.45%) Red Team
4 5 (45.45%) Remediation Plan
4 5 (45.45%) Situational Awareness
4 5 (45.45%) Threat Intelligence
4 5 (45.45%) Validation
4 5 (45.45%) Vulnerability Management
5 3 (27.27%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 2 (18.18%) Incident Response
6 2 (18.18%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 1 (9.09%) Java
1 1 (9.09%) Python
Qualifications
1 9 (81.82%) Security Cleared
2 7 (63.64%) SC Cleared
3 4 (36.36%) BPSS Clearance
4 2 (18.18%) Degree
5 1 (9.09%) CISM
5 1 (9.09%) CISSP
5 1 (9.09%) DV Cleared
5 1 (9.09%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (72.73%) NIST
2 4 (36.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (18.18%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (18.18%) GDPR
4 1 (9.09%) QA
Systems Management
1 1 (9.09%) Terraform
Vendors
1 1 (9.09%) Databricks
1 1 (9.09%) ServiceNow
1 1 (9.09%) Zscaler