Cyber Essentials Contract Job Trends

Cyber Essentials
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Cyber Essentials skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
14 Sep 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 458 481 510
Rank change year-on-year +23 +29 +228
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 96 82 149
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.29% 0.21% 0.30%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.71% 1.59% 2.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 71 45 111
10th Percentile £325 £220 £400
25th Percentile £434 £475 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £511 £525
Median % change year-on-year +12.48% -2.63% +5.00%
75th Percentile £650 £588 £675
90th Percentile £688 £608 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £494 £503 £510
% change year-on-year -1.74% -1.47% +13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 5
10th Percentile £27.93 - £35.35
25th Percentile £28.52 - £42.25
Median hourly rate £31.49 - £44.50
75th Percentile £34.16 - £49.00
90th Percentile £34.58 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.49 - £44.50
% change year-on-year - - +81.63%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

Cyber Essentials falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 5,600 5,146 7,100
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.13% 13.40% 14.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,584 3,077 4,815
10th Percentile £300 £282 £313
25th Percentile £400 £400 £414
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £509 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.67% -3.14% -
75th Percentile £606 £625 £650
90th Percentile £713 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 262 249
10th Percentile £13.60 £12.37 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.92 £15.00 £18.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.09 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.74% -22.60% +41.64%
75th Percentile £58.13 £58.44 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.83 £70.00 £78.52
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.54 £26.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year +3.91% -24.29% +66.47%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Cyber Essentials in the UK

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Essentials.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Essentials over the 6 months to 14 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in the UK

Cyber Essentials
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Essentials.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Essentials

Cyber Essentials
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Cyber Essentials within the UK over the 6 months to 14 September 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 +27 81 £575 +15.00% 178
UK excluding London +1 50 £494 -1.74% 173
London +21 37 £624 +18.76% 29
Work from Home +18 32 £500 -9.09% 111
South East +13 10 £600 +19.40% 37
Midlands -3 10 £506 +64.63% 44
North of England -12 8 £450 -10.00% 45
East Midlands +5 7 £463 +50.41% 11
South West +26 6 £350 -39.13% 23
East of England +10 6 £249 +111.91% 15
Scotland -9 6 £450 -18.18% 8
North West -9 5 £300 -41.46% 17
West Midlands -13 3 £550 - 30
Wales - 2 £575 - 5
North East - 2 £713 - 6
Channel Islands - 2 £725 -
Yorkshire -18 1 £550 +10.00% 22

Cyber Essentials
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 4 (4.17%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.04%) CMS
2 1 (1.04%) Confluence
2 1 (1.04%) Headless CMS
2 1 (1.04%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (3.13%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 32 (33.33%) Azure
2 22 (22.92%) AWS
3 14 (14.58%) Microsoft 365
4 13 (13.54%) Azure Sentinel
5 8 (8.33%) GCP
5 8 (8.33%) GitHub
6 7 (7.29%) Entra ID
7 4 (4.17%) OneDrive
7 4 (4.17%) Power Platform
8 3 (3.13%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (3.13%) SaaS
9 2 (2.08%) Azure API Management
9 2 (2.08%) Azure DevOps
9 2 (2.08%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (2.08%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (2.08%) IaaS
9 2 (2.08%) Kong
9 2 (2.08%) PaaS
10 1 (1.04%) Azure Data Factory
10 1 (1.04%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 6 (6.25%) TCP/IP
1 6 (6.25%) VLAN
2 5 (5.21%) DHCP
2 5 (5.21%) DNS
2 5 (5.21%) IP Telephony
2 5 (5.21%) Network Security
3 4 (4.17%) Firewall
4 3 (3.13%) VPN
5 1 (1.04%) Cisco IPT
5 1 (1.04%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.04%) NAS
5 1 (1.04%) SAN
5 1 (1.04%) SD-WAN
5 1 (1.04%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.13%) Power BI
2 1 (1.04%) InfluxDB
2 1 (1.04%) Metadata
2 1 (1.04%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 9 (9.38%) SonarQube
2 8 (8.33%) Burp Suite
2 8 (8.33%) Metasploit
3 2 (2.08%) Jenkins
4 1 (1.04%) GitLab
4 1 (1.04%) JIRA
General
1 34 (35.42%) Social Skills
2 27 (28.13%) Public Sector
3 9 (9.38%) Local Government
4 7 (7.29%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (7.29%) Legal
5 6 (6.25%) Finance
6 5 (5.21%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (3.13%) Military
7 3 (3.13%) Retail
8 2 (2.08%) Manufacturing
9 1 (1.04%) Banking
9 1 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (1.04%) Law
9 1 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (1.04%) Police
Job Titles
1 14 (14.58%) Security Manager
2 13 (13.54%) Security Engineer
3 12 (12.50%) Analyst
4 11 (11.46%) Cybersecurity Engineer
4 11 (11.46%) Lead
5 10 (10.42%) Architect
6 7 (7.29%) Consultant
7 6 (6.25%) Cybersecurity Manager
7 6 (6.25%) Security Consultant
8 5 (5.21%) IT Engineer
8 5 (5.21%) Support Analyst
9 4 (4.17%) Administrator
9 4 (4.17%) Network Engineer
9 4 (4.17%) Security Architect
10 3 (3.13%) Cisco Engineer
10 3 (3.13%) Information Manager
10 3 (3.13%) Information Security Consultant
10 3 (3.13%) Information Security Manager
10 3 (3.13%) Infrastructure Manager
10 3 (3.13%) Risk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.13%) LDAP
1 3 (3.13%) OAuth
1 3 (3.13%) OpenID
1 3 (3.13%) SAML
1 3 (3.13%) X-Windows
2 2 (2.08%) Middleware
2 2 (2.08%) RESTful
3 1 (1.04%) ADO
3 1 (1.04%) Next.js
3 1 (1.04%) Node.js
3 1 (1.04%) React
3 1 (1.04%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 13 (13.54%) Security Posture
2 6 (6.25%) Security Operations Centre
3 5 (5.21%) iPad
3 5 (5.21%) iPhone
3 5 (5.21%) Management Information System
3 5 (5.21%) Video Conferencing
4 2 (2.08%) Cloud Native
4 2 (2.08%) Data Centre
4 2 (2.08%) Low-Code
4 2 (2.08%) NHS
4 2 (2.08%) Product Ownership
5 1 (1.04%) Cloud Security Posture
5 1 (1.04%) Cyber Security Posture
5 1 (1.04%) Cyber Threat
5 1 (1.04%) EPoS
5 1 (1.04%) FMCG
5 1 (1.04%) Linux Command Line
5 1 (1.04%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.04%) Operational Technology
5 1 (1.04%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 18 (18.75%) Windows
2 8 (8.33%) Mac OS
3 7 (7.29%) Windows Server
4 6 (6.25%) Android
5 5 (5.21%) Windows 10
5 5 (5.21%) Windows 7
6 4 (4.17%) Linux
6 4 (4.17%) Unix
7 1 (1.04%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (1.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 45 (46.88%) Cybersecurity
2 35 (36.46%) Information Security
3 28 (29.17%) Data Protection
4 26 (27.08%) Incident Response
5 20 (20.83%) Cloud Security
6 18 (18.75%) Security Operations
7 15 (15.63%) Infrastructure as Code
7 15 (15.63%) Risk Management
7 15 (15.63%) SIEM
7 15 (15.63%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 14 (14.58%) Roadmaps
8 14 (14.58%) Vulnerability Management
9 13 (13.54%) OWASP
10 12 (12.50%) CI/CD
10 12 (12.50%) Threat Modelling
10 12 (12.50%) Vulnerability Remediation
11 11 (11.46%) Agile
12 10 (10.42%) Penetration Testing
12 10 (10.42%) Risk Register
12 10 (10.42%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 11 (11.46%) Python
2 10 (10.42%) Bash
3 7 (7.29%) PowerShell
4 4 (4.17%) Shell Script
5 1 (1.04%) Perl
5 1 (1.04%) SQL
5 1 (1.04%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 22 (22.92%) CISSP
2 17 (17.71%) CISM
3 15 (15.63%) Security Cleared
4 13 (13.54%) SC Cleared
5 11 (11.46%) OSCP
6 8 (8.33%) CHECK Team Member
6 8 (8.33%) CREST Certified
6 8 (8.33%) Tigerscheme
7 7 (7.29%) Degree
7 7 (7.29%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
8 6 (6.25%) CISA
9 5 (5.21%) CRISC
9 5 (5.21%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (4.17%) CompTIA Security+
10 4 (4.17%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (4.17%) PMI Certification
10 4 (4.17%) PMP
11 3 (3.13%) Azure Certification
11 3 (3.13%) DV Cleared
11 3 (3.13%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (55.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 44 (45.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 31 (32.29%) NIST
4 30 (31.25%) GDPR
5 19 (19.79%) NCSC
6 8 (8.33%) GRC
6 8 (8.33%) PCI DSS
7 4 (4.17%) PMO
7 4 (4.17%) SOC 2
8 3 (3.13%) COBIT
8 3 (3.13%) QA
8 3 (3.13%) SLA
9 2 (2.08%) Accessibility
9 2 (2.08%) NIST 800
10 1 (1.04%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (1.04%) IASME
10 1 (1.04%) ISO 22301
10 1 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 1 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (1.04%) PERC
System Software
1 14 (14.58%) Active Directory
2 4 (4.17%) Docker
2 4 (4.17%) Hyper-V
3 3 (3.13%) Virtual Servers
4 1 (1.04%) KVM
4 1 (1.04%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.04%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 11 (11.46%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (8.33%) Nmap
3 4 (4.17%) CSIRT
3 4 (4.17%) QRadar
3 4 (4.17%) Terraform
4 3 (3.13%) FortiGate
4 3 (3.13%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.13%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (2.08%) Ansible
5 2 (2.08%) Grafana
6 1 (1.04%) HAProxy
6 1 (1.04%) Nagios
6 1 (1.04%) Prometheus
6 1 (1.04%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (1.04%) SCCM
6 1 (1.04%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 40 (41.67%) Microsoft
2 10 (10.42%) Cisco
3 8 (8.33%) Veracode
4 5 (5.21%) Fortinet
4 5 (5.21%) Splunk
5 4 (4.17%) VMware
6 3 (3.13%) Ping Identity
6 3 (3.13%) Zscaler
7 2 (2.08%) Palo Alto
7 2 (2.08%) Proofpoint
7 2 (2.08%) Sophos
8 1 (1.04%) CheckPoint
8 1 (1.04%) Commvault
8 1 (1.04%) Dell
8 1 (1.04%) EMC
8 1 (1.04%) Google
8 1 (1.04%) NetApp
8 1 (1.04%) Qualys
8 1 (1.04%) Red Hat
8 1 (1.04%) SonicWALL
202 Cyber Essentials jobs Nationwide