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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 591 528 548
Rank change year-on-year -63 +20 +13
Contract jobs citing CCSP 94 25 15
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.17% 0.076% 0.039%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.55% 0.24% 0.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 16 6
10th Percentile £476 £486 £356
25th Percentile £513 £650 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £738 £575
Median % change year-on-year -22.03% +28.26% -8.29%
75th Percentile £688 £778 £638
90th Percentile £718 £850 £681
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 17,170 10,225 11,193
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.52% 31.23% 29.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,500 6,338 6,929
10th Percentile £350 £300 £313
25th Percentile £438 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £627 £623 £638
90th Percentile £715 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,295 820 672
10th Percentile £17.25 £17.98 £16.87
25th Percentile £25.77 £18.87 £24.18
Median hourly rate £47.54 £25.15 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +89.03% -49.70% -9.09%
75th Percentile £72.54 £48.13 £67.77
90th Percentile £87.96 £71.27 £75.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £53.00
% change year-on-year +88.87% -52.55% +2.12%

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 9 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 9 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 -62 77 £600 -17.24% 112
UK excluding London -67 49 £600 -20.00% 45
North of England - 34 £663 - 15
Work from Home -51 32 £550 -15.38% 54
London -75 27 £600 -7.69% 75
Yorkshire - 24 £675 - 3
North West - 9 £600 - 11
South East -68 7 £550 -26.67% 11
East of England -20 4 £505 - 2
South West -46 2 £520 -28.28% 5
West Midlands - 1 £450 - 4
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 1
Midlands - 1 £450 - 4

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 (2.13%) IIS
Applications
1 1 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 61 (64.89%) Azure
2 57 (60.64%) AWS
3 30 (31.91%) GCP
4 13 (13.83%) Azure Sentinel
4 13 (13.83%) Entra ID
5 10 (10.64%) SaaS
6 7 (7.45%) Microsoft 365
7 4 (4.26%) Azure Key Vault
7 4 (4.26%) IaaS
7 4 (4.26%) PaaS
8 3 (3.19%) Azure AI
8 3 (3.19%) Azure AKS
8 3 (3.19%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 3 (3.19%) Azure Synapse Analytics
8 3 (3.19%) Serverless
9 2 (2.13%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (2.13%) GitHub
9 2 (2.13%) Microsoft Purview
9 2 (2.13%) OpenShift
10 1 (1.06%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 49 (52.13%) Network Security
2 10 (10.64%) Firewall
3 3 (3.19%) VPN
4 2 (2.13%) LAN
4 2 (2.13%) Software-Defined Networking
4 2 (2.13%) WAN
5 1 (1.06%) 4G
5 1 (1.06%) 5G
5 1 (1.06%) Calico
5 1 (1.06%) Cisco ASA
5 1 (1.06%) Cisco Firepower
5 1 (1.06%) DNS
5 1 (1.06%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.06%) MPLS
5 1 (1.06%) NGFW
5 1 (1.06%) SD-WAN
5 1 (1.06%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.19%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 1 (1.06%) GitLab
1 1 (1.06%) Jenkins
1 1 (1.06%) JIRA
1 1 (1.06%) Snyk
General
1 43 (45.74%) Social Skills
2 32 (34.04%) Finance
3 13 (13.83%) Banking
4 8 (8.51%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (7.45%) Financial Institution
5 7 (7.45%) Public Sector
6 5 (5.32%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (4.26%) Police
7 4 (4.26%) Telecoms
8 3 (3.19%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (2.13%) Local Government
9 2 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (1.06%) Aerospace
10 1 (1.06%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 36 (38.30%) Architect
2 31 (32.98%) Security Architect
3 29 (30.85%) Consultant
4 19 (20.21%) DevSecOps Consultant
5 13 (13.83%) Security Consultant
6 11 (11.70%) Security Engineer
7 9 (9.57%) Cloud Architect
7 9 (9.57%) Lead
8 7 (7.45%) Cybersecurity Architect
8 7 (7.45%) Senior
9 5 (5.32%) Analyst
10 4 (4.26%) Cybersecurity Engineer
10 4 (4.26%) Solutions Architect
11 3 (3.19%) Azure Architect
11 3 (3.19%) Cybersecurity Consultant
11 3 (3.19%) Information Architect
11 3 (3.19%) Information Security Architect
11 3 (3.19%) Security Officer
11 3 (3.19%) SOC Analyst
11 3 (3.19%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (9.57%) Terraform
2 8 (8.51%) RESTful
3 5 (5.32%) SLSA
4 1 (1.06%) ARM Templates
4 1 (1.06%) Azure Blueprints
4 1 (1.06%) OAuth
4 1 (1.06%) OpenTelemetry
4 1 (1.06%) SailPoint
4 1 (1.06%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (17.02%) Security Posture
2 11 (11.70%) Management Information System
3 10 (10.64%) Cloud Native
4 9 (9.57%) Data Centre
4 9 (9.57%) Private Cloud
5 6 (6.38%) Onboarding
6 5 (5.32%) Public Cloud
7 4 (4.26%) Security Operations Centre
8 3 (3.19%) Cyber Defence
8 3 (3.19%) Cyber Security Posture
8 3 (3.19%) Cyber Threat
8 3 (3.19%) Data Fabric
8 3 (3.19%) Hybrid Cloud
9 2 (2.13%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 2 (2.13%) Embedded Systems
9 2 (2.13%) Legacy Systems
9 2 (2.13%) Mobile Payment
9 2 (2.13%) Operational Technology
9 2 (2.13%) Smartcard
10 1 (1.06%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 6 (6.38%) Linux
1 6 (6.38%) Windows
2 2 (2.13%) Windows Server
3 1 (1.06%) Android
3 1 (1.06%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (67.02%) Cloud Security
2 57 (60.64%) Threat Modelling
3 47 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
4 36 (38.30%) Stakeholder Management
4 36 (38.30%) Vulnerability Management
5 35 (37.23%) DevSecOps
5 35 (37.23%) Security Architecture
6 30 (31.91%) Application Security
6 30 (31.91%) CI/CD
7 28 (29.79%) Identity Access Management
7 28 (29.79%) SIEM
8 26 (27.66%) Architectural Patterns
8 26 (27.66%) Zero Trust
9 25 (26.60%) Cryptography
9 25 (26.60%) Roadmaps
10 24 (25.53%) Incident Response
11 22 (23.40%) SABSA
12 21 (22.34%) GAP Analysis
12 21 (22.34%) Risk Management
12 21 (22.34%) SBOM
Programming Languages
1 9 (9.57%) Python
2 7 (7.45%) PowerShell
3 6 (6.38%) Bash
4 5 (5.32%) Bicep
4 5 (5.32%) Search Processing Language
5 1 (1.06%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 94 (100.00%) Cisco Certification
2 93 (98.94%) CISSP
3 92 (97.87%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 54 (57.45%) CISM
5 26 (27.66%) Security Cleared
6 25 (26.60%) SC Cleared
7 13 (13.83%) Azure Certification
8 12 (12.77%) AWS Certification
8 12 (12.77%) CEH
9 11 (11.70%) OSCP
10 10 (10.64%) Degree
10 10 (10.64%) GCIH
11 8 (8.51%) CISA
11 8 (8.51%) CRISC
12 7 (7.45%) CCSK
12 7 (7.45%) CompTIA Security+
12 7 (7.45%) GCIA
13 6 (6.38%) CompTIA CySA+
13 6 (6.38%) Microsoft Certification
14 5 (5.32%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 48 (51.06%) NIST
2 40 (42.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 16 (17.02%) GDPR
4 15 (15.96%) PCI DSS
5 11 (11.70%) GRC
5 11 (11.70%) NCSC
6 9 (9.57%) COBIT
7 3 (3.19%) ISO 31000
8 2 (2.13%) Data Quality
8 2 (2.13%) ISO 9001
8 2 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 2 (2.13%) NIST 800
8 2 (2.13%) SOC 2
9 1 (1.06%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
9 1 (1.06%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (1.06%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 1 (1.06%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 6 (6.38%) Active Directory
2 2 (2.13%) Docker
2 2 (2.13%) ISA Server
2 2 (2.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.06%) Hyper-V
3 1 (1.06%) KVM
3 1 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.06%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 26 (27.66%) Kubernetes
2 4 (4.26%) Ansible
2 4 (4.26%) CASB
3 1 (1.06%) Grafana
3 1 (1.06%) Istio
3 1 (1.06%) Progress Chef
3 1 (1.06%) Prometheus
3 1 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 24 (25.53%) Microsoft
2 9 (9.57%) Splunk
3 7 (7.45%) CrowdStrike
4 6 (6.38%) Cisco
4 6 (6.38%) Google
5 4 (4.26%) Palo Alto
6 3 (3.19%) AlgoSec
6 3 (3.19%) Databricks
6 3 (3.19%) IBM
6 3 (3.19%) Qualys
7 2 (2.13%) Centrify
7 2 (2.13%) CheckPoint
7 2 (2.13%) F5
7 2 (2.13%) ServiceNow
7 2 (2.13%) Tripwire
7 2 (2.13%) VMware
8 1 (1.06%) Netlify
8 1 (1.06%) Okta
8 1 (1.06%) OpenAI
8 1 (1.06%) Tenable