Cyber Defence Contract Job Trends in the South East

Cyber Defence
England > South East

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Cyber Defence in contract job vacancies in the South East. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Cyber Defence over the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 178 166 187
Rank change year-on-year -12 +21 +62
Contract jobs citing Cyber Defence 11 4 17
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.25% 0.11% 0.34%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.84% 0.34% 1.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 4 2
10th Percentile £344 £656 £531
25th Percentile £450 £668 £540
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £700 £574
Median % change year-on-year -32.14% +22.00% -
75th Percentile £630 £725 £600
90th Percentile - - £605
England median daily rate £588 £700 £735
% change year-on-year -16.07% -4.76% +17.60%

All Generic Skills
South East

Cyber Defence falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 1,317 1,185 1,559
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 30.12% 31.83% 31.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 875 694 976
10th Percentile £204 £245 £205
25th Percentile £363 £381 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -6.29% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £610
90th Percentile £675 £700 £697
England median daily rate £513 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -6.82% - -4.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 78 47 93
10th Percentile £12.50 £19.13 £19.06
25th Percentile £15.94 £24.97 £24.34
Median hourly rate £23.50 £35.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -32.86% -33.33% +56.72%
75th Percentile £68.18 £58.13 £63.29
90th Percentile £82.50 £71.51 £77.31
England median hourly rate £29.00 £37.00 £43.84
% change year-on-year -21.62% -15.60% +25.25%

Cyber Defence
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Cyber Defence relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Cyber Defence job vacancy trend in the South East

Cyber Defence
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Cyber Defence.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Cyber Defence

Cyber Defence
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Defence in the South East over the 6 months to 20 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Defence in the South East

Cyber Defence
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Cyber Defence.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing Cyber Defence

Cyber Defence
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Defence within the South East region over the 6 months to 20 December 2025. 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
Hampshire - 6 £450 - 1
Thames Valley -8 4 £630 -6.67%
Buckinghamshire +7 2 £630 -6.67%
Berkshire - 2 £275 -
East Sussex +4 1 £475 -32.14%
Cyber Defence
England

Cyber Defence
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 1 (9.09%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 6 (54.55%) Azure
2 5 (45.45%) Microsoft 365
3 2 (18.18%) Azure Sentinel
4 1 (9.09%) AWS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (27.27%) Firewall
2 1 (9.09%) DNS
2 1 (9.09%) LAN
2 1 (9.09%) MPLS
2 1 (9.09%) SAN
2 1 (9.09%) TCP/IP
2 1 (9.09%) WAN
2 1 (9.09%) WLAN
General
1 6 (54.55%) Social Skills
2 3 (27.27%) Legal
3 1 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (9.09%) Retail
Job Titles
1 4 (36.36%) Analyst
1 4 (36.36%) SOC Analyst
2 3 (27.27%) Coordinator
2 3 (27.27%) Security Assurance Coordinator
3 2 (18.18%) Lead
3 2 (18.18%) Operational Security Manager
3 2 (18.18%) Operations Manager
3 2 (18.18%) Security Manager
3 2 (18.18%) Security Operations Manager
4 1 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 1 (9.09%) IT Security Specialist
4 1 (9.09%) Security Specialist
4 1 (9.09%) SIEM Specialist
Miscellaneous
1 2 (18.18%) Operational Technology
2 1 (9.09%) Analytical Mindset
2 1 (9.09%) Data Centre
2 1 (9.09%) Fat Client
2 1 (9.09%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 1 (9.09%) Linux
1 1 (9.09%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (63.64%) Cybersecurity
2 5 (45.45%) Security Operations
3 4 (36.36%) Risk Management
3 4 (36.36%) SIEM
4 3 (27.27%) Agile
4 3 (27.27%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 3 (27.27%) Data Privacy
4 3 (27.27%) Impact Assessments
4 3 (27.27%) Incident Response
4 3 (27.27%) Information Assurance
4 3 (27.27%) Information Security
4 3 (27.27%) Threat Intelligence
5 2 (18.18%) ISMS
5 2 (18.18%) ITIL
5 2 (18.18%) Problem-Solving
5 2 (18.18%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
5 2 (18.18%) Threat Detection
5 2 (18.18%) Vulnerability Management
6 1 (9.09%) Data Management
6 1 (9.09%) Migration
Qualifications
1 4 (36.36%) Security Cleared
2 3 (27.27%) SC Cleared
3 2 (18.18%) CEH
3 2 (18.18%) CISMP
3 2 (18.18%) CISSP
3 2 (18.18%) CREST Certified
3 2 (18.18%) GIAC
3 2 (18.18%) GSEC
4 1 (9.09%) CCNA
4 1 (9.09%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (9.09%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (9.09%) Degree
4 1 (9.09%) MCSE
4 1 (9.09%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (27.27%) RMADS
2 2 (18.18%) GDPR
3 1 (9.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
Vendors
1 9 (81.82%) Microsoft
2 2 (18.18%) Splunk