CISSP Contracts

(ISC)² Certified Information Systems Security Professional (ISC2 CISSP)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for CISSP qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 16 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 219 225 219
Rank change year-on-year +6 -6 +102
Contract jobs citing CISSP 363 435 703
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.24% 1.02% 1.23%
As % of the Qualifications category 4.01% 3.39% 4.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 217 301 498
10th Percentile £406 £425 £463
25th Percentile £500 £500 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £600 £625
Median % change year-on-year - -4.00% +4.17%
75th Percentile £688 £700 £738
90th Percentile £760 £775 £823
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £575 £613
% change year-on-year +4.35% -6.12% +2.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 3 12
10th Percentile £50.70 - £52.10
25th Percentile £55.50 - £59.73
Median hourly rate £73.46 £23.00 £72.69
Median % change year-on-year +219.37% -68.36% +7.69%
75th Percentile £83.20 £53.21 £74.20
90th Percentile £89.48 £71.33 £79.48
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.91 £53.21 £72.69
% change year-on-year +37.03% -26.80% +7.69%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

CISSP 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 9,061 12,823 15,536
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.04% 30.13% 27.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,694 7,942 10,365
10th Percentile £283 £307 £330
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £532 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.36% -3.23% +4.76%
75th Percentile £620 £650 £650
90th Percentile £700 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £530 £525
% change year-on-year -5.66% +0.95% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 506 1,052 789
10th Percentile £18.13 £13.69 £15.25
25th Percentile £21.26 £17.72 £20.47
Median hourly rate £37.50 £40.00 £54.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.25% -25.93% +23.15%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.35 £67.50
90th Percentile £79.35 £76.15 £79.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £40.63 £49.94
% change year-on-year -7.71% -18.63% +42.68%

CISSP
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing CISSP as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for CISSP in the UK

CISSP
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing CISSP.

Daily rate trend for CISSP in the UK

CISSP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing CISSP over the 6 months to 16 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for CISSP in the UK

CISSP
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing CISSP.

Hourly rate trend for CISSP in the UK

CISSP
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing CISSP over the 6 months to 16 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for CISSP in the UK

CISSP
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing CISSP within the UK over the 6 months to 16 May 2025. 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 +31 294 £610 +1.67% 449
London -8 162 £645 +7.50% 234
UK excluding London +30 136 £600 +4.35% 285
Work from Home +22 133 £600 - 331
South East +75 50 £591 +9.61% 97
Midlands +30 26 £525 -17.97% 28
South West +19 25 £600 +9.09% 48
West Midlands +23 21 £525 -18.60% 17
Scotland -2 16 £493 -10.45% 32
North of England -4 13 £625 +8.70% 67
East of England +27 7 £519 -9.74% 11
North West -12 7 £680 +0.59% 38
Yorkshire +14 5 £600 +6.67% 18
East Midlands +13 5 - - 10
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 8
North East -3 1 £625 +19.05% 12

CISSP
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (2.20%) Confluence
2 2 (0.55%) TPMS
3 1 (0.28%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (1.93%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.10%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.28%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.28%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.28%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.28%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 107 (29.48%) Azure
2 73 (20.11%) AWS
3 47 (12.95%) GCP
4 25 (6.89%) Azure Sentinel
5 17 (4.68%) Entra ID
6 12 (3.31%) Microsoft Purview
7 10 (2.75%) SaaS
8 7 (1.93%) Cloud Computing
9 5 (1.38%) Akamai
9 5 (1.38%) AWS CloudFormation
9 5 (1.38%) Microsoft 365
9 5 (1.38%) Power Platform
10 4 (1.10%) Azure Key Vault
10 4 (1.10%) Cloudflare
11 3 (0.83%) OCI
12 2 (0.55%) Azure Monitor
12 2 (0.55%) Google Workspace
13 1 (0.28%) AWS Lambda
13 1 (0.28%) OneDrive
13 1 (0.28%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 59 (16.25%) Firewall
2 57 (15.70%) Network Security
3 12 (3.31%) Intrusion Detection
4 10 (2.75%) DNS
5 9 (2.48%) VPN
6 6 (1.65%) HTTP
6 6 (1.65%) SSL
7 5 (1.38%) DHCP
7 5 (1.38%) NGFW
7 5 (1.38%) TCP/IP
8 4 (1.10%) Wireless
9 3 (0.83%) Cisco Firepower
10 2 (0.55%) FTP
10 2 (0.55%) HTTPS
10 2 (0.55%) Kerberos
10 2 (0.55%) SAN
10 2 (0.55%) SMTP
10 2 (0.55%) VSAN
11 1 (0.28%) DMZ
11 1 (0.28%) PPP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.10%) Power BI
2 3 (0.83%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (0.55%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.28%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.28%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 12 (3.31%) JIRA
2 6 (1.65%) Jenkins
3 5 (1.38%) GitLab
4 4 (1.10%) Git
5 3 (0.83%) JMeter
5 3 (0.83%) Postman
5 3 (0.83%) REST Assured
5 3 (0.83%) Selenium
5 3 (0.83%) TestNG
5 3 (0.83%) Travis CI
6 1 (0.28%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.28%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.28%) SonarQube
General
1 155 (42.70%) Social Skills
2 79 (21.76%) Finance
3 73 (20.11%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (9.37%) Public Sector
5 26 (7.16%) Legal
6 21 (5.79%) Banking
7 16 (4.41%) Presentation Skills
8 11 (3.03%) Telecoms
9 9 (2.48%) Manufacturing
10 8 (2.20%) Military
11 7 (1.93%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.65%) Financial Institution
12 6 (1.65%) Retail
13 5 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (1.10%) Law
15 3 (0.83%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.83%) French Language
15 3 (0.83%) Pharmaceutical
15 3 (0.83%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 101 (27.82%) Architect
2 82 (22.59%) Security Architect
3 42 (11.57%) Consultant
4 41 (11.29%) Security Engineer
5 36 (9.92%) Security Consultant
6 35 (9.64%) Analyst
6 35 (9.64%) Senior
7 28 (7.71%) Lead
7 28 (7.71%) Security Manager
8 16 (4.41%) Security Analyst
9 15 (4.13%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 15 (4.13%) Solutions Architect
10 13 (3.58%) Cybersecurity Engineer
10 13 (3.58%) Information Manager
10 13 (3.58%) Security Specialist
11 12 (3.31%) IT Manager
11 12 (3.31%) Senior Architect
11 12 (3.31%) Senior Security Architect
12 11 (3.03%) Cybersecurity Architect
13 10 (2.75%) Enterprise Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (3.31%) SAML
2 10 (2.75%) Web Services
3 9 (2.48%) SailPoint
4 7 (1.93%) OAuth
5 6 (1.65%) LDAP
6 4 (1.10%) OpenID
7 3 (0.83%) Apache Axis
7 3 (0.83%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (0.55%) .NET
8 2 (0.55%) Kafka
8 2 (0.55%) React
9 1 (0.28%) JBoss Seam
9 1 (0.28%) Node.js
9 1 (0.28%) OLE
9 1 (0.28%) REST
9 1 (0.28%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 56 (15.43%) Management Information System
2 52 (14.33%) Security Posture
3 23 (6.34%) Operational Technology
4 18 (4.96%) Cyber Threat
5 13 (3.58%) Data Centre
5 13 (3.58%) Insider Threat
6 12 (3.31%) Security Operations Centre
7 11 (3.03%) Hybrid Cloud
8 10 (2.75%) Onboarding
8 10 (2.75%) Product Ownership
8 10 (2.75%) Self-Motivation
9 9 (2.48%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (2.20%) Cloud Native
11 6 (1.65%) Mainframe
11 6 (1.65%) PKI
12 5 (1.38%) Algorithms
12 5 (1.38%) Cyber Defence
12 5 (1.38%) Cyberattack
12 5 (1.38%) Private Cloud
13 4 (1.10%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 38 (10.47%) Windows
2 25 (6.89%) Linux
3 14 (3.86%) Windows Server
4 6 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (1.65%) zOS
5 5 (1.38%) Mac OS
6 4 (1.10%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (0.55%) AIX
7 2 (0.55%) Solaris
8 1 (0.28%) Android
8 1 (0.28%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.28%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (49.86%) Cybersecurity
2 114 (31.40%) Risk Management
3 107 (29.48%) Incident Response
3 107 (29.48%) Information Security
4 98 (27.00%) Problem-Solving
5 80 (22.04%) Cloud Security
6 73 (20.11%) SIEM
7 70 (19.28%) Security Architecture
8 66 (18.18%) Vulnerability Management
9 57 (15.70%) Security Operations
10 52 (14.33%) Computer Science
11 48 (13.22%) Stakeholder Management
12 46 (12.67%) Continuous Improvement
13 43 (11.85%) Identity Access Management
13 43 (11.85%) Risk Assessment
14 42 (11.57%) Roadmaps
15 41 (11.29%) TOGAF
16 40 (11.02%) Agile
16 40 (11.02%) DevSecOps
17 33 (9.09%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 52 (14.33%) Python
2 45 (12.40%) PowerShell
3 16 (4.41%) Bash
4 10 (2.75%) Java
5 9 (2.48%) SQL
6 4 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
7 3 (0.83%) C#
7 3 (0.83%) PHP
7 3 (0.83%) Ruby
8 2 (0.55%) C++
8 2 (0.55%) Perl
8 2 (0.55%) TypeScript
9 1 (0.28%) Groovy
9 1 (0.28%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.28%) Search Processing Language
9 1 (0.28%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 195 (53.72%) CISM
2 97 (26.72%) Degree
3 84 (23.14%) Security Cleared
4 68 (18.73%) SC Cleared
5 66 (18.18%) CISA
6 59 (16.25%) CEH
7 57 (15.70%) CRISC
8 39 (10.74%) Cisco Certification
9 36 (9.92%) GIAC
10 33 (9.09%) CompTIA Security+
11 31 (8.54%) Computer Science Degree
12 27 (7.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 27 (7.44%) SANS
13 23 (6.34%) Azure Certification
14 22 (6.06%) DV Cleared
15 21 (5.79%) GCIH
15 21 (5.79%) Microsoft Certification
16 17 (4.68%) OSCP
17 16 (4.41%) CCSP
18 14 (3.86%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 147 (40.50%) NIST
2 142 (39.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 76 (20.94%) GDPR
4 47 (12.95%) PCI DSS
5 44 (12.12%) HIPAA
6 29 (7.99%) GRC
7 22 (6.06%) SOC 2
8 17 (4.68%) NIST 800
9 15 (4.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 14 (3.86%) Cyber Essentials
10 14 (3.86%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 11 (3.03%) NCSC
12 9 (2.48%) SLA
13 8 (2.20%) COBIT
14 7 (1.93%) JSP 440
15 6 (1.65%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 6 (1.65%) QA
16 5 (1.38%) RMADS
17 4 (1.10%) Actionable Recommendations
17 4 (1.10%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 26 (7.16%) Active Directory
2 7 (1.93%) Docker
3 6 (1.65%) RACF
3 6 (1.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.83%) Hyper-V
5 2 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.28%) IAG
6 1 (0.28%) NFS
6 1 (0.28%) Samba
Systems Management
1 12 (3.31%) Kubernetes
2 11 (3.03%) CASB
3 10 (2.75%) Single Sign-On
4 8 (2.20%) Terraform
5 6 (1.65%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 6 (1.65%) QRadar
6 3 (0.83%) Ansible
6 3 (0.83%) CSIRT
6 3 (0.83%) FortiGate
6 3 (0.83%) Kibana
6 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Intune
6 3 (0.83%) Nagios
6 3 (0.83%) Nessus
7 2 (0.55%) SCCM
7 2 (0.55%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.28%) Grafana
8 1 (0.28%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.28%) Puppet
8 1 (0.28%) SELinux
8 1 (0.28%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 66 (18.18%) Microsoft
2 17 (4.68%) CyberArk
2 17 (4.68%) Qualys
3 15 (4.13%) ServiceNow
4 13 (3.58%) Splunk
5 12 (3.31%) Google
6 11 (3.03%) Palo Alto
7 10 (2.75%) Okta
8 9 (2.48%) Cisco
9 8 (2.20%) IBM
9 8 (2.20%) Tenable
9 8 (2.20%) VMware
10 6 (1.65%) CrowdStrike
10 6 (1.65%) F5
10 6 (1.65%) SolarWinds
10 6 (1.65%) Zscaler
11 5 (1.38%) Ariba
11 5 (1.38%) Ping Identity
11 5 (1.38%) SAP
12 4 (1.10%) Oracle