Cyber Essentials Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Cyber Essentials
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 10 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 231 178 159
Rank change year-on-year -53 -19 +25
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 16 8 10
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.22% 0.20% 0.24%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.44% 1.27% 1.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 6 9
10th Percentile £263 £269 £310
25th Percentile £413 £375 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £575 £500
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +15.00% -
75th Percentile £545 £638 £650
90th Percentile £653 £731 £655
England median daily rate £525 £588 £500
% change year-on-year -10.64% +17.50% -6.54%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
North of England

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 North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 1,111 631 559
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 15.09% 15.80% 13.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 716 430 329
10th Percentile £325 £267 £308
25th Percentile £400 £366 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £461 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.98% -7.75% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £585
90th Percentile £665 £650 £665
England median daily rate £510 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -2.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 118 31 45
10th Percentile £17.08 £13.50 -
25th Percentile £26.16 - £10.95
Median hourly rate £50.00 £22.14 £11.20
Median % change year-on-year +125.84% +97.77% -68.01%
75th Percentile £70.00 £35.82 £19.18
90th Percentile £76.00 £71.45 £43.10
England median hourly rate £38.72 £31.50 £27.50
% change year-on-year +22.92% +14.55% -35.29%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend in the North of England

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

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

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

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in the North of England over the 6 months to 10 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in the North of England

Cyber Essentials
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 Cyber Essentials within the North of England region over the 6 months to 10 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
Yorkshire -34 9 £520 -9.57% 7
North West -40 6 £425 +47.83% 24
North East -43 1 £500 -29.82% 3
Cyber Essentials
England

Cyber Essentials
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 4 (25.00%) Azure
1 4 (25.00%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (12.50%) Microsoft Purview
3 1 (6.25%) Entra ID
3 1 (6.25%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 5 (31.25%) Firewall
2 2 (12.50%) Network Security
3 1 (6.25%) DHCP
3 1 (6.25%) DMZ
3 1 (6.25%) DNS
3 1 (6.25%) VPN
3 1 (6.25%) Wi-Fi
General
1 10 (62.50%) Social Skills
2 2 (12.50%) Finance
3 1 (6.25%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (6.25%) Financial Institution
3 1 (6.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (6.25%) Legal
3 1 (6.25%) Retail
Job Titles
1 4 (25.00%) Analyst
2 3 (18.75%) Compliance Manager
2 3 (18.75%) Governance Manager
2 3 (18.75%) Risk Manager
3 2 (12.50%) Cybersecurity Engineer
3 2 (12.50%) Information Security Engineer
3 2 (12.50%) Security Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Consultant
4 1 (6.25%) Cybersecurity Analyst
4 1 (6.25%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Integration Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Lead
4 1 (6.25%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
4 1 (6.25%) Network Analyst
4 1 (6.25%) Project Manager
4 1 (6.25%) Risk Analyst
4 1 (6.25%) SC Cleared Project Manager
4 1 (6.25%) Security Analyst
4 1 (6.25%) Security Risk Analyst
4 1 (6.25%) Technology Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (6.25%) 802.1X
1 1 (6.25%) OAuth
1 1 (6.25%) OpenID
1 1 (6.25%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 2 (12.50%) Management Information System
1 2 (12.50%) Onboarding
1 2 (12.50%) Operational Technology
1 2 (12.50%) Security Operations Centre
2 1 (6.25%) Cyber Security Posture
2 1 (6.25%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 1 (6.25%) Windows
1 1 (6.25%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (81.25%) Cybersecurity
2 8 (50.00%) Information Security
2 8 (50.00%) Risk Management
3 6 (37.50%) Incident Response
3 6 (37.50%) Security Operations
3 6 (37.50%) SIEM
4 4 (25.00%) Decision-Making
4 4 (25.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 4 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
5 3 (18.75%) Continuous Improvement
5 3 (18.75%) Incident Management
5 3 (18.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 3 (18.75%) Major Incident Management
5 3 (18.75%) Risk Register
5 3 (18.75%) Roadmaps
5 3 (18.75%) Strategic Roadmap
5 3 (18.75%) Vulnerability Remediation
6 2 (12.50%) Logistics
6 2 (12.50%) Security Testing
6 2 (12.50%) SOAR
Programming Languages
1 1 (6.25%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 2 (12.50%) CompTIA Security+
1 2 (12.50%) Network+ Certification
1 2 (12.50%) SC Cleared
1 2 (12.50%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (68.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (43.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
2 7 (43.75%) GRC
3 5 (31.25%) NIST
4 2 (12.50%) IASME
5 1 (6.25%) ISO/IEC 27005
5 1 (6.25%) PMO
System Software
1 2 (12.50%) Active Directory
2 1 (6.25%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (6.25%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 1 (6.25%) FortiGate
1 1 (6.25%) Nessus
1 1 (6.25%) RSA Archer
1 1 (6.25%) SCCM
1 1 (6.25%) Single Sign-On
1 1 (6.25%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 5 (31.25%) Microsoft
2 4 (25.00%) Cisco
2 4 (25.00%) ServiceNow
3 2 (12.50%) Sophos
4 1 (6.25%) Citrix
4 1 (6.25%) OneTrust
4 1 (6.25%) Tenable
4 1 (6.25%) VMware
4 1 (6.25%) Zscaler