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 26 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 593 535 557
Rank change year-on-year -58 +22 +14
Contract jobs citing CCSP 87 24 16
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.073% 0.041%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.52% 0.23% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 15 8
10th Percentile £477 £473 £374
25th Percentile £513 £650 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £725 £575
Median % change year-on-year -17.24% +26.09% -8.51%
75th Percentile £688 £775 £666
90th Percentile £725 £850 £735
UK excluding London median daily rate £625 £750 £650
% change year-on-year -16.67% +15.38% +3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 0
Median hourly rate - £57.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £100.00 -

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 16,745 10,249 11,593
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.22% 31.33% 29.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,209 6,338 7,308
10th Percentile £350 £290 £313
25th Percentile £437 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £622 £638
90th Percentile £715 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £518 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +3.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,263 826 776
10th Percentile £17.44 £17.97 £14.49
25th Percentile £25.77 £19.23 £21.37
Median hourly rate £48.81 £25.15 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +94.08% -44.11% -18.18%
75th Percentile £72.54 £53.50 £67.14
90th Percentile £87.96 £73.75 £77.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.54 £25.15 £48.56
% change year-on-year +89.03% -48.21% -6.42%

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 26 August 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 10 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 26 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
England -64 70 £625 -12.28% 62
UK excluding London -52 42 £625 -16.67% 34
Work from Home -39 32 £550 -15.38% 39
North of England - 32 £663 - 13
London -65 26 £650 - 38
Yorkshire - 22 £675 - 4
North West - 9 £600 - 8
East of England -21 4 £505 - 1
South East -73 4 £713 -5.00% 3
South West -43 2 £520 -28.28% 8

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:

Applications
1 2 (2.30%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 55 (63.22%) Azure
2 48 (55.17%) AWS
3 25 (28.74%) GCP
4 13 (14.94%) Azure Sentinel
4 13 (14.94%) Entra ID
5 9 (10.34%) SaaS
6 5 (5.75%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (4.60%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (4.60%) IaaS
7 4 (4.60%) PaaS
8 3 (3.45%) Azure AI
8 3 (3.45%) Azure AKS
8 3 (3.45%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 3 (3.45%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 3 (3.45%) Serverless
9 2 (2.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (2.30%) GitHub
9 2 (2.30%) OpenShift
10 1 (1.15%) Amazon EKS
10 1 (1.15%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 43 (49.43%) Network Security
2 9 (10.34%) Firewall
3 3 (3.45%) VPN
4 2 (2.30%) LAN
4 2 (2.30%) Software-Defined Networking
4 2 (2.30%) WAN
5 1 (1.15%) 4G
5 1 (1.15%) 5G
5 1 (1.15%) Calico
5 1 (1.15%) Cisco ASA
5 1 (1.15%) Cisco Firepower
5 1 (1.15%) DNS
5 1 (1.15%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.15%) MPLS
5 1 (1.15%) NGFW
5 1 (1.15%) SD-WAN
5 1 (1.15%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.45%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 1 (1.15%) GitLab
1 1 (1.15%) Jenkins
1 1 (1.15%) JIRA
1 1 (1.15%) Snyk
General
1 39 (44.83%) Social Skills
2 29 (33.33%) Finance
3 13 (14.94%) Banking
4 8 (9.20%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (9.20%) Public Sector
5 6 (6.90%) Financial Institution
6 5 (5.75%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (4.60%) Police
8 3 (3.45%) Telecoms
9 2 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (2.30%) Local Government
10 1 (1.15%) Aerospace
10 1 (1.15%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 32 (36.78%) Architect
2 28 (32.18%) Consultant
2 28 (32.18%) Security Architect
3 16 (18.39%) DevSecOps Consultant
4 15 (17.24%) Security Consultant
5 9 (10.34%) Cloud Architect
5 9 (10.34%) Lead
6 7 (8.05%) Security Engineer
6 7 (8.05%) Senior
7 6 (6.90%) Cybersecurity Architect
8 5 (5.75%) Cybersecurity Consultant
9 3 (3.45%) Analyst
9 3 (3.45%) Azure Architect
9 3 (3.45%) Information Architect
9 3 (3.45%) Information Security Architect
9 3 (3.45%) Security Officer
9 3 (3.45%) Security Specialist
9 3 (3.45%) SOC Analyst
9 3 (3.45%) Solutions Architect
9 3 (3.45%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (10.34%) RESTful
2 8 (9.20%) Terraform
3 5 (5.75%) SLSA
4 1 (1.15%) ARM Templates
4 1 (1.15%) Azure Blueprints
4 1 (1.15%) OAuth
4 1 (1.15%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (1.15%) SailPoint
4 1 (1.15%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (17.24%) Security Posture
2 11 (12.64%) Private Cloud
3 10 (11.49%) Cloud Native
4 9 (10.34%) Management Information System
5 7 (8.05%) Data Centre
6 5 (5.75%) Onboarding
7 4 (4.60%) Security Operations Centre
8 3 (3.45%) Cyber Defence
8 3 (3.45%) Cyber Security Posture
8 3 (3.45%) Data Fabric
8 3 (3.45%) Public Cloud
9 2 (2.30%) CMDB
9 2 (2.30%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 2 (2.30%) Cyber Threat
9 2 (2.30%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.30%) IBM Mainframe
9 2 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (2.30%) Mainframe
9 2 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
10 1 (1.15%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 5 (5.75%) Windows
2 4 (4.60%) Linux
3 1 (1.15%) Android
3 1 (1.15%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 55 (63.22%) Threat Modelling
2 54 (62.07%) Cloud Security
3 42 (48.28%) Cybersecurity
4 31 (35.63%) Stakeholder Management
5 30 (34.48%) DevSecOps
6 29 (33.33%) Security Architecture
6 29 (33.33%) Vulnerability Management
7 27 (31.03%) CI/CD
8 26 (29.89%) Application Security
8 26 (29.89%) SIEM
8 26 (29.89%) Zero Trust
9 25 (28.74%) Cryptography
9 25 (28.74%) Identity Access Management
9 25 (28.74%) Roadmaps
10 24 (27.59%) Architectural Patterns
11 23 (26.44%) Incident Response
12 20 (22.99%) GAP Analysis
12 20 (22.99%) SABSA
13 19 (21.84%) Risk Management
14 18 (20.69%) SBOM
Programming Languages
1 7 (8.05%) PowerShell
1 7 (8.05%) Python
2 6 (6.90%) Bash
3 5 (5.75%) Bicep
3 5 (5.75%) Search Processing Language
4 1 (1.15%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 87 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
2 86 (98.85%) CISSP
3 85 (97.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 49 (56.32%) CISM
5 24 (27.59%) Security Cleared
6 23 (26.44%) SC Cleared
7 15 (17.24%) CEH
8 13 (14.94%) OSCP
9 11 (12.64%) Azure Certification
9 11 (12.64%) GCIH
10 10 (11.49%) AWS Certification
11 7 (8.05%) CRISC
11 7 (8.05%) Degree
11 7 (8.05%) GCIA
12 6 (6.90%) CCSK
12 6 (6.90%) CISA
12 6 (6.90%) CompTIA CySA+
12 6 (6.90%) CompTIA Security+
13 5 (5.75%) GSEC
13 5 (5.75%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (55.17%) NIST
2 39 (44.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 14 (16.09%) PCI DSS
4 12 (13.79%) GDPR
5 11 (12.64%) NCSC
6 10 (11.49%) COBIT
6 10 (11.49%) GRC
7 2 (2.30%) Data Quality
7 2 (2.30%) SOC 2
8 1 (1.15%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (1.15%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (1.15%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (1.15%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (1.15%) ISO 31000
8 1 (1.15%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (1.15%) NIST 800
System Software
1 5 (5.75%) Active Directory
2 1 (1.15%) Docker
2 1 (1.15%) Hyper-V
2 1 (1.15%) KVM
2 1 (1.15%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (1.15%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (1.15%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 23 (26.44%) Kubernetes
2 4 (4.60%) Ansible
3 2 (2.30%) CASB
4 1 (1.15%) Grafana
4 1 (1.15%) Istio
4 1 (1.15%) Progress Chef
4 1 (1.15%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.15%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 20 (22.99%) Microsoft
2 6 (6.90%) Splunk
3 5 (5.75%) CrowdStrike
4 4 (4.60%) Cisco
4 4 (4.60%) Google
4 4 (4.60%) IBM
4 4 (4.60%) Palo Alto
5 3 (3.45%) AlgoSec
5 3 (3.45%) Databricks
5 3 (3.45%) ServiceNow
6 2 (2.30%) CheckPoint
7 1 (1.15%) Adobe
7 1 (1.15%) Broadcom
7 1 (1.15%) CyberArk
7 1 (1.15%) Fortinet
7 1 (1.15%) Qualys
7 1 (1.15%) Red Hat
7 1 (1.15%) SAP
7 1 (1.15%) Symantec
7 1 (1.15%) VMware