PCI DSS Contract Job Trends in the South East

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring PCI DSS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 160 157 113
Rank change year-on-year -3 -44 +124
Contract jobs citing PCI DSS 32 12 98
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.73% 0.32% 1.95%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 4.21% 2.15% 11.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 22 10 10
10th Percentile £402 £464 £396
25th Percentile £466 £508 £422
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £608 £525
Median % change year-on-year -13.58% +15.71% -2.33%
75th Percentile £584 £627 £563
90th Percentile £760 £701 £655
England median daily rate £513 £600 £600
% change year-on-year -14.58% - +7.87%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
South East

PCI DSS 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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 760 557 872
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 17.40% 14.84% 17.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 525 286 521
10th Percentile £300 £221 £186
25th Percentile £413 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year - -3.85% +11.47%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £615
90th Percentile £667 £688 £688
England median daily rate £500 £500 £545
% change year-on-year - -8.26% +3.81%
Number of hourly rates quoted 39 29 49
10th Percentile £15.20 £18.33 £19.25
25th Percentile £17.34 £24.18 £30.00
Median hourly rate £36.00 £50.00 £51.06
Median % change year-on-year -28.00% -2.07% +143.12%
75th Percentile £75.01 £62.24 £70.50
90th Percentile £84.33 £64.90 £76.90
England median hourly rate £25.63 £29.50 £35.50
% change year-on-year -13.12% -16.90% +58.41%

PCI DSS
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

PCI DSS job vacancy trend in the South East

PCI DSS
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing PCI DSS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing PCI DSS

PCI DSS
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PCI DSS in the South East over the 6 months to 19 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for PCI DSS in the South East

PCI DSS
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing PCI DSS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing PCI DSS

PCI DSS
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 PCI DSS within the South East region over the 6 months to 19 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
Thames Valley +5 19 £525 +5.00% 14
Berkshire 0 14 £575 +15.00% 5
Hampshire -12 9 £525 -26.42% 5
Buckinghamshire - 3 £500 - 9
West Sussex -7 2 £663 +10.42% 1
Oxfordshire - 2 £525 -
Surrey +3 1 - - 5
Kent +2 1 - - 3
PCI DSS
England

PCI DSS
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:

Applications
1 9 (28.13%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (28.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 8 (25.00%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (3.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (12.50%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 14 (43.75%) AWS
2 13 (40.63%) Azure
3 6 (18.75%) GCP
4 3 (9.38%) Entra ID
5 1 (3.13%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 13 (40.63%) Firewall
2 8 (25.00%) Wireless
3 7 (21.88%) Network Security
4 3 (9.38%) HTTP
5 2 (6.25%) Cisco IPT
6 1 (3.13%) DHCP
6 1 (3.13%) DMZ
6 1 (3.13%) DNS
6 1 (3.13%) TCP/IP
Development Applications
1 8 (25.00%) Burp Suite
1 8 (25.00%) Metasploit
General
1 16 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 10 (31.25%) Finance
3 6 (18.75%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (9.38%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (9.38%) Public Sector
5 2 (6.25%) Legal
5 2 (6.25%) Marketing
5 2 (6.25%) Retail
6 1 (3.13%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 8 (25.00%) Architect
1 8 (25.00%) Penetration Tester
1 8 (25.00%) Tester
2 6 (18.75%) Analyst
2 6 (18.75%) Security Architect
3 3 (9.38%) Project Manager
3 3 (9.38%) Security Analyst
4 2 (6.25%) Business Analyst
4 2 (6.25%) Engineering Manager
4 2 (6.25%) Payments Analyst
4 2 (6.25%) Payments Business Analyst
4 2 (6.25%) PCI DSS Project Manager
4 2 (6.25%) Senior
4 2 (6.25%) Senior Manager
4 2 (6.25%) Solutions Architect
5 1 (3.13%) EPoS Manager
5 1 (3.13%) EPoS Project Manager
5 1 (3.13%) Stakeholder Management Project Manager
5 1 (3.13%) Vulnerability Management Manager
5 1 (3.13%) Vulnerability Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (3.13%) Middleware
1 1 (3.13%) REST
1 1 (3.13%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 10 (31.25%) Security Posture
2 5 (15.63%) Cloud Native
3 4 (12.50%) Enterprise Software
3 4 (12.50%) Product Ownership
3 4 (12.50%) Public Cloud
4 3 (9.38%) BYOD
4 3 (9.38%) Cloud Security Posture
4 3 (9.38%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (9.38%) Management Information System
5 2 (6.25%) Onboarding
5 2 (6.25%) PMI
6 1 (3.13%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 1 (3.13%) Data Centre
6 1 (3.13%) EPoS
6 1 (3.13%) Mobile App
6 1 (3.13%) Mobile Computing
6 1 (3.13%) Operational Technology
6 1 (3.13%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (3.13%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 8 (25.00%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (43.75%) Regulatory Compliance
2 12 (37.50%) Cloud Security
2 12 (37.50%) Cybersecurity
2 12 (37.50%) Information Security
2 12 (37.50%) Penetration Testing
3 10 (31.25%) Risk Management
4 9 (28.13%) Agile
5 8 (25.00%) Security Management
6 7 (21.88%) Security Architecture
6 7 (21.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 7 (21.88%) Threat Modelling
7 6 (18.75%) Application Security
7 6 (18.75%) Business Development
7 6 (18.75%) CI/CD
7 6 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
7 6 (18.75%) Roadmaps
7 6 (18.75%) Security Testing
7 6 (18.75%) Stakeholder Management
8 5 (15.63%) Data Protection
8 5 (15.63%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 1 (3.13%) PowerShell
1 1 (3.13%) VB
Qualifications
1 10 (31.25%) Degree
1 10 (31.25%) Security Cleared
2 8 (25.00%) CHECK Team Member
2 8 (25.00%) CISSP
2 8 (25.00%) SC Cleared
3 6 (18.75%) CREST Certified
3 6 (18.75%) Cyber Scheme
3 6 (18.75%) Postgraduate
4 4 (12.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 4 (12.50%) AWS Certification
4 4 (12.50%) CCSP
4 4 (12.50%) Cisco Certification
4 4 (12.50%) CISM
4 4 (12.50%) PMI Certification
5 3 (9.38%) Azure Certification
6 2 (6.25%) CBAP
6 2 (6.25%) PMP
7 1 (3.13%) CISA
7 1 (3.13%) DV Cleared
7 1 (3.13%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (71.88%) GDPR
2 20 (62.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (37.50%) NIST
4 8 (25.00%) PSD2
5 7 (21.88%) QA
6 6 (18.75%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (15.63%) PMO
8 2 (6.25%) EU AI Act
8 2 (6.25%) GRC
8 2 (6.25%) ISO 8583
8 2 (6.25%) PERC
9 1 (3.13%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (3.13%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (3.13%) GAMP
9 1 (3.13%) HIPAA
9 1 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 1 (3.13%) ISO/IEC 42001
9 1 (3.13%) JSP 440
9 1 (3.13%) NCSC
System Software
1 4 (12.50%) Docker
2 1 (3.13%) Active Directory
2 1 (3.13%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 8 (25.00%) Nmap
2 4 (12.50%) Kubernetes
3 1 (3.13%) Ansible
3 1 (3.13%) Avamar
3 1 (3.13%) EMC NetWorker
3 1 (3.13%) RSA Archer
3 1 (3.13%) Terraform
3 1 (3.13%) vCenter Server
3 1 (3.13%) VxRail
Vendors
1 2 (6.25%) Microsoft
2 1 (3.13%) Dell
2 1 (3.13%) Veeam
2 1 (3.13%) VMware