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 13 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 564 496 561
Rank change year-on-year -68 +65 +74
Contract jobs citing CCSP 61 20 22
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.13% 0.069% 0.051%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.41% 0.22% 0.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 45 13 15
10th Percentile £486 £538 £288
25th Percentile £514 £550 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £638 £680 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% +23.64% -15.38%
75th Percentile £688 £750 £600
90th Percentile £762 £850 £735
UK excluding London median daily rate £588 £680 £600
% change year-on-year -13.49% +13.33% +23.46%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £54.50 -
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 15,023 8,977 12,977
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.83% 30.98% 30.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,981 5,660 7,999
10th Percentile £350 £285 £305
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £619 £623 £650
90th Percentile £719 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £530
% change year-on-year - -5.66% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,063 507 1,065
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.13 £13.75
25th Percentile £21.25 £21.27 £17.80
Median hourly rate £50.00 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +33.33% -6.25% -25.93%
75th Percentile £70.42 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.36 £79.22 £75.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £37.50 £40.94
% change year-on-year +26.67% -8.40% -18.12%

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 13 May 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 12 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 13 May 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 -82 49 £663 -2.57% 25
London -49 27 £663 -22.06% 10
UK excluding London -79 23 £588 -13.49% 18
Work from Home -26 21 £550 - 9
North of England -60 16 £663 -2.57% 8
Yorkshire -39 14 £663 -2.57% 4
East of England - 4 £505 - 1
North West -34 2 - - 4
South East -54 1 - - 1
West Midlands - 1 £450 - 5
Midlands - 1 £450 - 5
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:

Applications
1 3 (4.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.64%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 45 (73.77%) Azure
2 36 (59.02%) AWS
3 24 (39.34%) GCP
4 18 (29.51%) Azure Sentinel
5 12 (19.67%) Entra ID
6 5 (8.20%) GitHub
6 5 (8.20%) SaaS
7 4 (6.56%) AWS CloudFormation
7 4 (6.56%) IaaS
7 4 (6.56%) PaaS
8 3 (4.92%) Amazon ECS
8 3 (4.92%) Azure AKS
8 3 (4.92%) Microsoft 365
8 3 (4.92%) OCI
9 2 (3.28%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (1.64%) Amazon ECR
10 1 (1.64%) Amazon EKS
10 1 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
10 1 (1.64%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 30 (49.18%) Network Security
2 4 (6.56%) Firewall
3 3 (4.92%) VPN
4 1 (1.64%) Cisco Wireless
4 1 (1.64%) Internet
4 1 (1.64%) LAN
4 1 (1.64%) MPLS
4 1 (1.64%) NGFW
4 1 (1.64%) SD-WAN
4 1 (1.64%) SNA
4 1 (1.64%) WAN
4 1 (1.64%) Wireless
4 1 (1.64%) WLAN
Development Applications
1 4 (6.56%) Snyk
2 3 (4.92%) Git
3 1 (1.64%) GitLab
3 1 (1.64%) Jenkins
3 1 (1.64%) JIRA
General
1 25 (40.98%) Social Skills
2 19 (31.15%) Finance
3 9 (14.75%) Banking
4 8 (13.11%) Public Sector
5 7 (11.48%) Financial Institution
6 4 (6.56%) Analytical Skills
7 3 (4.92%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (3.28%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (3.28%) Police
9 1 (1.64%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (1.64%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 23 (37.70%) Architect
2 21 (34.43%) Security Architect
3 18 (29.51%) Consultant
4 10 (16.39%) DevSecOps Consultant
4 10 (16.39%) Security Consultant
5 6 (9.84%) Security Engineer
6 5 (8.20%) Cloud Engineer
6 5 (8.20%) Lead
7 4 (6.56%) Cybersecurity Architect
7 4 (6.56%) Cybersecurity Consultant
8 3 (4.92%) Cloud Security Engineer
8 3 (4.92%) Security Specialist
9 2 (3.28%) Application Security Specialist
9 2 (3.28%) Applications Specialist
9 2 (3.28%) Cloud Consultant
9 2 (3.28%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 2 (3.28%) Network Security Consultant
9 2 (3.28%) Security Officer
9 2 (3.28%) Solutions Architect
9 2 (3.28%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (8.20%) RESTful
2 3 (4.92%) .NET
2 3 (4.92%) SLSA
3 1 (1.64%) eBPF
3 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (1.64%) OAuth
3 1 (1.64%) OpenTelemetry
3 1 (1.64%) REST
3 1 (1.64%) SAML
3 1 (1.64%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 13 (21.31%) Security Posture
2 7 (11.48%) Private Cloud
3 5 (8.20%) Cloud Native
3 5 (8.20%) Data Centre
3 5 (8.20%) Management Information System
4 4 (6.56%) Public Cloud
5 3 (4.92%) Cyber Security Posture
5 3 (4.92%) Legacy Systems
5 3 (4.92%) Onboarding
6 2 (3.28%) Cloud Security Posture
6 2 (3.28%) CMDB
6 2 (3.28%) IBM Mainframe
6 2 (3.28%) Mainframe
6 2 (3.28%) Security Operations Centre
6 2 (3.28%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (1.64%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (1.64%) IoT
7 1 (1.64%) Legacy Applications
7 1 (1.64%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 3 (4.92%) Windows
2 2 (3.28%) Linux
3 1 (1.64%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (67.21%) Cloud Security
2 39 (63.93%) Threat Modelling
3 25 (40.98%) Application Security
4 24 (39.34%) CI/CD
4 24 (39.34%) Cybersecurity
4 24 (39.34%) DevSecOps
5 23 (37.70%) Identity Access Management
5 23 (37.70%) Security Architecture
6 22 (36.07%) Vulnerability Management
7 20 (32.79%) SIEM
8 18 (29.51%) Architectural Patterns
9 17 (27.87%) Cryptography
10 16 (26.23%) DevOps
10 16 (26.23%) Zero Trust
11 15 (24.59%) Stakeholder Management
12 14 (22.95%) Data Protection
13 13 (21.31%) Risk Management
13 13 (21.31%) Roadmaps
13 13 (21.31%) TOGAF
14 12 (19.67%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 6 (9.84%) Python
2 3 (4.92%) Java
2 3 (4.92%) PowerShell
3 2 (3.28%) Bash
3 2 (3.28%) Search Processing Language
4 1 (1.64%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 61 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
2 57 (93.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
3 56 (91.80%) CISSP
4 33 (54.10%) CISM
5 17 (27.87%) Security Cleared
6 15 (24.59%) SC Cleared
7 10 (16.39%) OSCP
8 9 (14.75%) CEH
9 8 (13.11%) Degree
10 7 (11.48%) Azure Certification
11 5 (8.20%) AWS Certification
11 5 (8.20%) CCSK
11 5 (8.20%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (8.20%) CSSLP
12 4 (6.56%) CISA
12 4 (6.56%) CRISC
12 4 (6.56%) GCIH
12 4 (6.56%) SANS
13 3 (4.92%) GSEC
14 2 (3.28%) CISMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (57.38%) NIST
2 26 (42.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 12 (19.67%) GDPR
4 11 (18.03%) PCI DSS
5 8 (13.11%) GRC
5 8 (13.11%) NCSC
6 6 (9.84%) COBIT
7 3 (4.92%) SOC 2
8 1 (1.64%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (1.64%) HIPAA
8 1 (1.64%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 1 (1.64%) ISO 31000
8 1 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 1 (1.64%) NIST 800
System Software
1 3 (4.92%) Active Directory
1 3 (4.92%) Docker
Systems Management
1 21 (34.43%) Kubernetes
2 6 (9.84%) Terraform
3 2 (3.28%) Ansible
4 1 (1.64%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.64%) Grafana
4 1 (1.64%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.64%) SELinux
4 1 (1.64%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 12 (19.67%) Microsoft
2 7 (11.48%) Splunk
3 4 (6.56%) Google
3 4 (6.56%) Okta
3 4 (6.56%) Qualys
3 4 (6.56%) Tenable
4 3 (4.92%) Rapid7
5 2 (3.28%) CheckPoint
5 2 (3.28%) CrowdStrike
5 2 (3.28%) IBM
5 2 (3.28%) Palo Alto
5 2 (3.28%) ServiceNow
6 1 (1.64%) Adobe
6 1 (1.64%) Cisco
6 1 (1.64%) Fortinet
6 1 (1.64%) Netlify
6 1 (1.64%) Red Hat
6 1 (1.64%) Sage
6 1 (1.64%) Symantec
6 1 (1.64%) Zscaler