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 23 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 585 527 552
Rank change year-on-year -58 +25 +18
Contract jobs citing CCSP 98 24 13
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.18% 0.073% 0.034%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.56% 0.23% 0.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 72 15 5
10th Percentile £464 £513 £398
25th Percentile £510 £650 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £568 £750 £600
Median % change year-on-year -24.33% +25.00% -4.31%
75th Percentile £678 £781 £650
90th Percentile £710 £850 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £750 £650
% change year-on-year -20.00% +15.38% +5.95%
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 17,371 10,286 10,994
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.67% 31.46% 29.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,547 6,425 6,738
10th Percentile £350 £300 £313
25th Percentile £443 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £529 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £631 £625 £638
90th Percentile £715 £711 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,392 845 628
10th Percentile £17.17 £17.87 £17.59
25th Percentile £25.75 £18.87 £24.99
Median hourly rate £47.54 £25.15 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +89.03% -49.70% -7.41%
75th Percentile £72.54 £43.75 £68.19
90th Percentile £88.00 £70.16 £75.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £52.50
% change year-on-year +88.87% -52.10% -

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 23 September 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 13 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 23 September 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 -53 81 £575 -22.03% 77
UK excluding London -65 51 £600 -20.00% 30
North of England - 32 £663 - 6
Work from Home -42 31 £550 -26.67% 30
London -70 29 £575 -11.54% 49
Yorkshire - 23 £675 - 1
South East -60 9 £550 -27.63% 10
North West - 8 £600 - 5
East of England -26 4 £505 -
Midlands - 3 £450 - 10
West Midlands - 3 £450 - 8
South West -36 2 £520 -28.28% 4
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

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 4 (4.08%) IIS
Cloud Services
1 63 (64.29%) AWS
1 63 (64.29%) Azure
2 33 (33.67%) GCP
3 12 (12.24%) Azure Sentinel
4 11 (11.22%) Entra ID
5 9 (9.18%) SaaS
6 8 (8.16%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (4.08%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (4.08%) IaaS
7 4 (4.08%) PaaS
8 3 (3.06%) Azure AI
8 3 (3.06%) Azure AKS
8 3 (3.06%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 3 (3.06%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 3 (3.06%) Serverless
9 2 (2.04%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (2.04%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (2.04%) OpenShift
10 1 (1.02%) Amazon Bedrock
10 1 (1.02%) Google Gemini
Communications & Networking
1 52 (53.06%) Network Security
2 12 (12.24%) Firewall
3 3 (3.06%) VPN
3 3 (3.06%) WAN
4 2 (2.04%) LAN
4 2 (2.04%) Software-Defined Networking
5 1 (1.02%) 4G
5 1 (1.02%) 5G
5 1 (1.02%) BIG-IP
5 1 (1.02%) Calico
5 1 (1.02%) Cisco ASA
5 1 (1.02%) Cisco Firepower
5 1 (1.02%) DNS
5 1 (1.02%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.02%) MPLS
5 1 (1.02%) NGFW
5 1 (1.02%) SD-WAN
5 1 (1.02%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.06%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 1 (1.02%) GitLab
1 1 (1.02%) Jenkins
General
1 44 (44.90%) Social Skills
2 31 (31.63%) Finance
3 12 (12.24%) Banking
4 8 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (7.14%) Public Sector
6 6 (6.12%) Financial Institution
7 5 (5.10%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (5.10%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (4.08%) Police
8 4 (4.08%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (4.08%) Telecoms
9 2 (2.04%) Local Government
10 1 (1.02%) Aerospace
10 1 (1.02%) Law
10 1 (1.02%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 38 (38.78%) Architect
2 33 (33.67%) Security Architect
3 28 (28.57%) Consultant
4 19 (19.39%) DevSecOps Consultant
5 16 (16.33%) Security Engineer
6 12 (12.24%) Security Consultant
7 9 (9.18%) Cloud Architect
7 9 (9.18%) Lead
8 7 (7.14%) Analyst
8 7 (7.14%) Cybersecurity Architect
8 7 (7.14%) Senior
9 6 (6.12%) Cybersecurity Engineer
10 4 (4.08%) Cybersecurity Analyst
10 4 (4.08%) Security Analyst
10 4 (4.08%) Security Officer
11 3 (3.06%) Design Engineer
11 3 (3.06%) Information Architect
11 3 (3.06%) Information Security Engineer
11 3 (3.06%) SOC Analyst
11 3 (3.06%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (11.22%) Terraform
2 6 (6.12%) RESTful
3 5 (5.10%) SLSA
4 1 (1.02%) ARM Templates
4 1 (1.02%) Azure Blueprints
4 1 (1.02%) OAuth
4 1 (1.02%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (1.02%) SailPoint
4 1 (1.02%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (16.33%) Security Posture
2 13 (13.27%) Management Information System
3 12 (12.24%) Data Centre
4 11 (11.22%) Cloud Native
5 7 (7.14%) Private Cloud
5 7 (7.14%) Public Cloud
6 6 (6.12%) Onboarding
7 4 (4.08%) Cyber Threat
7 4 (4.08%) Embedded Systems
7 4 (4.08%) Mobile Payment
7 4 (4.08%) Operational Technology
7 4 (4.08%) Security Operations Centre
7 4 (4.08%) Smartcard
8 3 (3.06%) Cyber Defence
8 3 (3.06%) Cyber Security Posture
8 3 (3.06%) Data Fabric
8 3 (3.06%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.04%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 2 (2.04%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (2.04%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 8 (8.16%) Linux
2 7 (7.14%) Windows
3 4 (4.08%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.02%) Android
4 1 (1.02%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (68.37%) Cloud Security
2 57 (58.16%) Threat Modelling
3 51 (52.04%) Cybersecurity
4 42 (42.86%) Security Architecture
5 41 (41.84%) Vulnerability Management
6 36 (36.73%) DevSecOps
6 36 (36.73%) Stakeholder Management
7 31 (31.63%) CI/CD
8 30 (30.61%) Application Security
8 30 (30.61%) SIEM
9 29 (29.59%) Identity Access Management
10 26 (26.53%) Architectural Patterns
10 26 (26.53%) Roadmaps
10 26 (26.53%) Zero Trust
11 24 (24.49%) Cryptography
11 24 (24.49%) Data Protection
11 24 (24.49%) Incident Response
11 24 (24.49%) Risk Management
11 24 (24.49%) SABSA
12 21 (21.43%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 10 (10.20%) Python
2 7 (7.14%) PowerShell
3 6 (6.12%) Bash
4 5 (5.10%) Bicep
4 5 (5.10%) Search Processing Language
5 1 (1.02%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 98 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
2 96 (97.96%) CISSP
3 95 (96.94%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 55 (56.12%) CISM
5 31 (31.63%) Security Cleared
6 30 (30.61%) SC Cleared
7 14 (14.29%) Azure Certification
7 14 (14.29%) Degree
8 13 (13.27%) AWS Certification
9 10 (10.20%) CISA
10 9 (9.18%) CEH
10 9 (9.18%) CRISC
10 9 (9.18%) GCIH
10 9 (9.18%) OSCP
11 8 (8.16%) CompTIA Security+
12 7 (7.14%) CCSK
12 7 (7.14%) GCIA
12 7 (7.14%) Microsoft Certification
13 6 (6.12%) CompTIA CySA+
14 5 (5.10%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (50.00%) NIST
2 43 (43.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (18.37%) GDPR
4 15 (15.31%) PCI DSS
5 13 (13.27%) NCSC
6 12 (12.24%) GRC
7 7 (7.14%) COBIT
8 5 (5.10%) ISO 31000
9 4 (4.08%) ISO 9001
9 4 (4.08%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 3 (3.06%) NIST 800
11 2 (2.04%) Data Quality
11 2 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 2 (2.04%) SOC 2
12 1 (1.02%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (1.02%) Government Security Classifications
12 1 (1.02%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 7 (7.14%) Active Directory
2 4 (4.08%) ISA Server
3 3 (3.06%) Docker
3 3 (3.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (1.02%) Hyper-V
4 1 (1.02%) KVM
4 1 (1.02%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.02%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 28 (28.57%) Kubernetes
2 6 (6.12%) CASB
3 5 (5.10%) Ansible
4 1 (1.02%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.02%) Grafana
4 1 (1.02%) Istio
4 1 (1.02%) Progress Chef
4 1 (1.02%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 27 (27.55%) Microsoft
2 11 (11.22%) Splunk
3 9 (9.18%) Cisco
3 9 (9.18%) CrowdStrike
3 9 (9.18%) Google
4 5 (5.10%) F5
4 5 (5.10%) Palo Alto
5 4 (4.08%) Centrify
5 4 (4.08%) Qualys
5 4 (4.08%) Tripwire
6 3 (3.06%) AlgoSec
6 3 (3.06%) Databricks
6 3 (3.06%) VMware
7 2 (2.04%) CheckPoint
7 2 (2.04%) IBM
8 1 (1.02%) Apple
8 1 (1.02%) CyberArk
8 1 (1.02%) Red Hat
8 1 (1.02%) SAP
8 1 (1.02%) ServiceNow