Cyber Essentials Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Cyber Essentials
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 115 114 139
Rank change year-on-year -1 +25 +36
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 6 14 3
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.33% 0.66% 0.11%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.71% 5.19% 0.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 10 0
10th Percentile £491 £499 -
25th Percentile £561 £501 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £536 -
Median % change year-on-year +12.03% - -
75th Percentile £613 £611 -
90th Percentile £635 £630 -
South East median daily rate £530 £536 £525
% change year-on-year -1.04% +2.02% +40.00%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 350 270 446
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 19.08% 12.69% 16.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 215 123 234
10th Percentile £306 £256 £148
25th Percentile £408 £376 £353
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.01% -1.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £600 £568 £600
90th Percentile £650 £650 £743
South East median daily rate £500 £493 £525
% change year-on-year +1.52% -6.19% +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 11 32
10th Percentile £13.81 £15.22 £18.55
25th Percentile £15.13 £48.17 £24.46
Median hourly rate £18.15 £61.71 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -70.58% +23.41% +138.10%
75th Percentile £81.00 £64.08 £70.87
90th Percentile £88.92 £64.73 £79.41
South East median hourly rate £17.96 £54.36 £51.06
% change year-on-year -66.96% +6.47% +129.46%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

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

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

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 3 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in the Thames Valley

Cyber Essentials
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 3 November 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
Berkshire +12 3 £650 - 7
Oxfordshire - 3 £600 - 5
Cyber Essentials
South East

Cyber Essentials
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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 2 (33.33%) Azure
1 2 (33.33%) Azure ExpressRoute
1 2 (33.33%) Azure Sentinel
1 2 (33.33%) Entra ID
1 2 (33.33%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 2 (33.33%) VPN
General
1 2 (33.33%) Legal
1 2 (33.33%) Retail
2 1 (16.67%) Public Sector
2 1 (16.67%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (33.33%) Architect
1 2 (33.33%) Cloud Architect
1 2 (33.33%) Migration Architect
2 1 (16.67%) Cloud Infrastructure Architect
2 1 (16.67%) Consultant
2 1 (16.67%) Cybersecurity Consultant
2 1 (16.67%) EPoS Manager
2 1 (16.67%) EPoS Project Manager
2 1 (16.67%) Head of Information
2 1 (16.67%) Head of Information Security
2 1 (16.67%) Head of Security
2 1 (16.67%) Information Security Engineer
2 1 (16.67%) Infrastructure Architect
2 1 (16.67%) IT Manager
2 1 (16.67%) IT Project Manager
2 1 (16.67%) PCI DSS Project Manager
2 1 (16.67%) Project Manager
2 1 (16.67%) Security Consultant
2 1 (16.67%) Security Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 2 (33.33%) Data Centre
1 2 (33.33%) Security Posture
2 1 (16.67%) EPoS
2 1 (16.67%) Management Information System
2 1 (16.67%) Security Operations Centre
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (66.67%) Data Protection
2 3 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
2 3 (50.00%) SIEM
3 2 (33.33%) Identity Access Management
3 2 (33.33%) Information Security
3 2 (33.33%) Infrastructure as Code
3 2 (33.33%) Infrastructure Transformation
3 2 (33.33%) Migration
3 2 (33.33%) RBAC
3 2 (33.33%) Risk Management
3 2 (33.33%) Runbook
4 1 (16.67%) Customer Experience
4 1 (16.67%) Incident Response
4 1 (16.67%) Information Security Management
4 1 (16.67%) Order Management
4 1 (16.67%) PRINCE2
4 1 (16.67%) Project Delivery
4 1 (16.67%) Risk Register
4 1 (16.67%) Roadmaps
4 1 (16.67%) Security Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (33.33%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 1 (16.67%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
1 1 (16.67%) PMI Certification
1 1 (16.67%) PMP
1 1 (16.67%) PRINCE2 Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (83.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (66.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 2 (33.33%) NIST
4 1 (16.67%) GDPR
4 1 (16.67%) GRC
4 1 (16.67%) ISO 9001
4 1 (16.67%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 2 (33.33%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (33.33%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 2 (33.33%) Cisco
1 2 (33.33%) Microsoft
1 2 (33.33%) Sophos