CCSP Contract Job Trends

Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for CCSP qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 18 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 569 502 582
Rank change year-on-year -67 +80 +128
Contract jobs citing CCSP 31 23 16
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.076% 0.075% 0.036%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.23% 0.25% 0.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 17 11
10th Percentile £416 £565 £272
25th Percentile £428 £650 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £680 £600
Median % change year-on-year -30.15% +13.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £688 £750 -
90th Percentile £775 £765 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £715 £600
% change year-on-year -33.57% +19.17% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £36.25 £45.75 -
Median hourly rate £39.50 £54.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -27.52% - -
75th Percentile £42.75 £63.25 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

CCSP falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 13,750 9,102 13,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.90% 29.67% 30.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,079 5,551 8,278
10th Percentile £325 £294 £294
25th Percentile £418 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £619 £630 £650
90th Percentile £721 £715 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £503 £530
% change year-on-year -0.50% -5.19% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 999 426 962
10th Percentile £15.84 £19.90 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.02 £24.18 £21.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £39.52 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.36% -12.18% -2.17%
75th Percentile £63.75 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £80.34 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.88 £46.18
% change year-on-year -41.35% -7.15% +2.62%

CCSP
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing CCSP relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

CCSP job vacancy trend in the UK

CCSP
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CCSP.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CCSP

CCSP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing CCSP over the 6 months to 18 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for CCSP in the UK

CCSP
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CCSP.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing CCSP

CCSP
Top 11 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing CCSP within the UK over the 6 months to 18 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
England -68 30 £481 -29.23% 20
London -27 16 £506 -18.02% 12
UK excluding London -74 13 £475 -33.57% 12
Work from Home -20 6 £423 -21.76% 8
West Midlands -45 5 £475 -38.71% 2
Midlands -52 5 £475 -38.71% 2
South East -27 3 £750 +36.36% 5
Yorkshire -52 3 £464 -31.73% 1
North of England -59 3 £464 -31.73% 2
East of England - 1 - - 1
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 -

CCSP
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 2 (6.45%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (6.45%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (3.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (3.23%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 25 (80.65%) AWS
1 25 (80.65%) Azure
2 20 (64.52%) GCP
3 7 (22.58%) Azure Sentinel
4 5 (16.13%) AWS CloudFormation
4 5 (16.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 4 (12.90%) Entra ID
5 4 (12.90%) OCI
6 3 (9.68%) Amazon ECS
6 3 (9.68%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 3 (9.68%) GitHub
6 3 (9.68%) IaaS
6 3 (9.68%) PaaS
6 3 (9.68%) SaaS
7 2 (6.45%) AWS Direct Connect
7 2 (6.45%) AWS KMS
7 2 (6.45%) Google Workspace
7 2 (6.45%) Microsoft 365
7 2 (6.45%) Microsoft Purview
7 2 (6.45%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 12 (38.71%) Network Security
2 7 (22.58%) Firewall
3 5 (16.13%) LAN
3 5 (16.13%) MPLS
3 5 (16.13%) SD-WAN
3 5 (16.13%) WAN
3 5 (16.13%) Wireless
3 5 (16.13%) WLAN
4 4 (12.90%) BGP
4 4 (12.90%) DNS
4 4 (12.90%) IPv4
4 4 (12.90%) IPv6
4 4 (12.90%) OSPF
4 4 (12.90%) VPN
4 4 (12.90%) VXLAN
5 3 (9.68%) Cisco ASA
5 3 (9.68%) DHCP
5 3 (9.68%) EIGRP
5 3 (9.68%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 3 (9.68%) VLAN
Development Applications
1 3 (9.68%) Git
2 1 (3.23%) Burp Suite
General
1 9 (29.03%) Analytical Skills
1 9 (29.03%) Social Skills
2 6 (19.35%) Public Sector
3 5 (16.13%) Finance
3 5 (16.13%) Presentation Skills
4 4 (12.90%) Influencing Skills
5 1 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (3.23%) Legal
Job Titles
1 15 (48.39%) Architect
2 11 (35.48%) Security Architect
3 7 (22.58%) Security Engineer
4 5 (16.13%) Cloud Engineer
4 5 (16.13%) Network Architect
5 4 (12.90%) Cloud Security Engineer
5 4 (12.90%) Consultant
5 4 (12.90%) Senior
5 4 (12.90%) Solutions Architect
6 2 (6.45%) Analyst
6 2 (6.45%) AWS Architect
6 2 (6.45%) Cloud Consultant
6 2 (6.45%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 2 (6.45%) Enterprise Architect
6 2 (6.45%) Enterprise Security Architect
6 2 (6.45%) Forensic Consultant
6 2 (6.45%) Security Analyst
6 2 (6.45%) Security Consultant
6 2 (6.45%) Senior Consultant
7 1 (3.23%) Azure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (16.13%) .NET
2 2 (6.45%) OAuth
2 2 (6.45%) OAuth2
2 2 (6.45%) OpenID
2 2 (6.45%) SAML
3 1 (3.23%) eBPF
3 1 (3.23%) REST
3 1 (3.23%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 7 (22.58%) Security Posture
2 5 (16.13%) Data Centre
2 5 (16.13%) Management Information System
3 4 (12.90%) Cloud Native
3 4 (12.90%) Cloud Security Posture
3 4 (12.90%) IoT
4 3 (9.68%) Enterprise Software
4 3 (9.68%) Public Cloud
5 2 (6.45%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (6.45%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (6.45%) PKI
6 1 (3.23%) CSOC
6 1 (3.23%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (3.23%) Legacy Applications
6 1 (3.23%) Operational Technology
6 1 (3.23%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 4 (12.90%) Linux
2 3 (9.68%) Windows
3 2 (6.45%) Mac OS
3 2 (6.45%) Unix
4 1 (3.23%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (74.19%) Cloud Security
2 17 (54.84%) Security Architecture
2 17 (54.84%) Zero Trust
3 14 (45.16%) Cybersecurity
3 14 (45.16%) TOGAF
4 13 (41.94%) CI/CD
4 13 (41.94%) DevSecOps
4 13 (41.94%) Incident Response
5 12 (38.71%) SIEM
6 11 (35.48%) Threat Modelling
7 10 (32.26%) Computer Science
7 10 (32.26%) Data Protection
7 10 (32.26%) Identity Access Management
7 10 (32.26%) Information Security
7 10 (32.26%) Infrastructure as Code
8 9 (29.03%) Vulnerability Management
9 8 (25.81%) Strategic Thinking
10 7 (22.58%) DevOps
10 7 (22.58%) Mentoring
11 6 (19.35%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 11 (35.48%) Python
2 5 (16.13%) Java
3 1 (3.23%) Bash
3 1 (3.23%) Kusto Query Language
3 1 (3.23%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 31 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
2 28 (90.32%) (ISC)2 CCSP
3 27 (87.10%) CISSP
4 11 (35.48%) AWS Certification
5 10 (32.26%) Degree
6 9 (29.03%) Security Cleared
7 6 (19.35%) Azure Certification
7 6 (19.35%) Computer Science Degree
8 5 (16.13%) CCNP
8 5 (16.13%) Master's Degree
8 5 (16.13%) OSCP
9 4 (12.90%) CCIE
9 4 (12.90%) CISM
9 4 (12.90%) SANS
10 3 (9.68%) CCIE Security
10 3 (9.68%) CEH
10 3 (9.68%) GCIH
10 3 (9.68%) SC Cleared
11 2 (6.45%) GCFE
11 2 (6.45%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 18 (58.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 17 (54.84%) NIST
3 14 (45.16%) GDPR
3 14 (45.16%) PCI DSS
4 4 (12.90%) NCSC
5 3 (9.68%) HIPAA
5 3 (9.68%) PSD2
6 2 (6.45%) GRC
6 2 (6.45%) JSP 440
7 1 (3.23%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (3.23%) NIST 800
System Software
1 7 (22.58%) Docker
2 3 (9.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (9.68%) VMware NSX
3 1 (3.23%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 12 (38.71%) Kubernetes
2 10 (32.26%) Terraform
3 5 (16.13%) Ansible
4 3 (9.68%) Nessus
5 2 (6.45%) CASB
5 2 (6.45%) EnCase
5 2 (6.45%) FTK
5 2 (6.45%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (3.23%) CSIRT
6 1 (3.23%) FortiGate
6 1 (3.23%) Nmap
6 1 (3.23%) SELinux
Vendors
1 7 (22.58%) Cisco
1 7 (22.58%) Microsoft
2 5 (16.13%) Fortinet
3 4 (12.90%) F5
3 4 (12.90%) Google
3 4 (12.90%) Meraki
3 4 (12.90%) Palo Alto
4 3 (9.68%) CrowdStrike
4 3 (9.68%) Darktrace
4 3 (9.68%) Rapid7
4 3 (9.68%) SolarWinds
4 3 (9.68%) VMware
5 2 (6.45%) CheckPoint
5 2 (6.45%) Forcepoint
5 2 (6.45%) Juniper
5 2 (6.45%) Tenable
6 1 (3.23%) CyberArk
6 1 (3.23%) Okta
6 1 (3.23%) Splunk
6 1 (3.23%) Zscaler