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 contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
23 Nov 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 452 443 475
Rank change year-on-year -9 +32 +196
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 132 95 149
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.26% 0.32%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.10% 1.90% 2.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 50 103
10th Percentile £350 £324 £425
25th Percentile £453 £434 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £516 £550
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% -6.26% +10.00%
75th Percentile £649 £600 £650
90th Percentile £688 £643 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £515
% change year-on-year - -2.91% +14.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 2 11
10th Percentile £33.31 £70.24 -
25th Percentile - £72.40 £42.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £78.40 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -54.08% +76.18% +81.63%
75th Percentile £79.31 £82.00 £46.75
90th Percentile £94.38 £82.72 £49.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 - £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 6,298 4,999 6,687
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.63% 13.53% 14.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,040 2,909 4,472
10th Percentile £308 £270 £313
25th Percentile £404 £387 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £604 £625 £649
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 312 233 246
10th Percentile £13.60 £13.26 £14.41
25th Percentile £17.48 £15.73 £20.18
Median hourly rate £25.63 £26.50 £36.75
Median % change year-on-year -3.28% -27.89% +62.66%
75th Percentile £60.00 £54.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.99 £70.00 £83.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.14 £26.05 £44.50
% change year-on-year -15.01% -41.46% +111.90%

Cyber Essentials
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Cyber Essentials relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Cyber Essentials job vacancy trend 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 23 November 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Cyber Essentials over the 6 months to 23 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in the UK

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 23 November 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 +18 118 £550 +10.00% 140
UK excluding London -27 67 £500 - 141
London +37 53 £611 +11.09% 35
Work from Home +17 36 £513 -4.21% 64
South East -7 14 £528 -5.80% 47
Midlands -27 13 £463 +42.31% 32
North of England -30 13 £502 +0.37% 24
South West +6 9 £475 - 16
East of England -11 9 £553 +79.11% 4
East Midlands -8 8 £463 +42.31% 19
North West -18 6 £350 -31.71% 15
Yorkshire -29 6 £502 +0.37% 7
Scotland -17 5 £475 -13.64% 10
West Midlands -18 5 £465 +43.08% 13
Channel Islands - 2 £725 -
Wales - 2 £575 - 8
North East - 1 £650 - 2

Cyber Essentials
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 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.52%) Confluence
3 1 (0.76%) CMS
3 1 (0.76%) Headless CMS
3 1 (0.76%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (2.27%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.76%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 56 (42.42%) Azure
2 38 (28.79%) AWS
3 23 (17.42%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (12.12%) Azure Sentinel
4 16 (12.12%) Entra ID
5 10 (7.58%) GCP
5 10 (7.58%) SaaS
6 8 (6.06%) GitHub
7 7 (5.30%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 7 (5.30%) IaaS
7 7 (5.30%) PaaS
8 6 (4.55%) Microsoft Purview
9 4 (3.03%) Power Platform
10 3 (2.27%) Amazon EKS
10 3 (2.27%) AWS CloudFormation
10 3 (2.27%) AWS Control Tower
10 3 (2.27%) Azure AKS
11 2 (1.52%) Azure API Management
11 2 (1.52%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (1.52%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 14 (10.61%) Firewall
2 12 (9.09%) Network Security
3 9 (6.82%) DNS
4 8 (6.06%) DHCP
5 7 (5.30%) VLAN
5 7 (5.30%) VPN
6 6 (4.55%) TCP/IP
7 5 (3.79%) IP Telephony
8 2 (1.52%) Wireless
9 1 (0.76%) Cisco IPT
9 1 (0.76%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (0.76%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.27%) Power BI
2 1 (0.76%) DynamoDB
2 1 (0.76%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 9 (6.82%) SonarQube
2 8 (6.06%) Burp Suite
2 8 (6.06%) Metasploit
3 3 (2.27%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.52%) JIRA
5 1 (0.76%) GitLab
General
1 44 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 29 (21.97%) Public Sector
3 10 (7.58%) Legal
4 9 (6.82%) Local Government
5 8 (6.06%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (6.06%) Presentation Skills
6 7 (5.30%) Finance
7 5 (3.79%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (3.03%) Aviation
9 3 (2.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
10 2 (1.52%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.52%) Military
11 1 (0.76%) Electronics
11 1 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.76%) Law
11 1 (0.76%) Marketing
11 1 (0.76%) Police
11 1 (0.76%) Retail
11 1 (0.76%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 22 (16.67%) Analyst
2 16 (12.12%) Security Engineer
3 15 (11.36%) Architect
3 15 (11.36%) Security Manager
4 12 (9.09%) Senior
5 11 (8.33%) Lead
6 10 (7.58%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 10 (7.58%) Security Analyst
7 8 (6.06%) Consultant
8 7 (5.30%) Cybersecurity Manager
8 7 (5.30%) Security Architect
8 7 (5.30%) Solutions Architect
9 6 (4.55%) Project Manager
10 5 (3.79%) Cybersecurity Architect
10 5 (3.79%) DevSecOps Engineer
10 5 (3.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 5 (3.79%) Support Analyst
11 4 (3.03%) IAM Specialist
11 4 (3.03%) Security Project Manager
11 4 (3.03%) Security Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.55%) OpenID
1 6 (4.55%) SAML
2 5 (3.79%) OAuth
3 4 (3.03%) LDAP
4 3 (2.27%) AWS CDK
5 2 (1.52%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.52%) Middleware
5 2 (1.52%) Node.js
5 2 (1.52%) RESTful
6 1 (0.76%) ADO
6 1 (0.76%) Next.js
6 1 (0.76%) React
Miscellaneous
1 19 (14.39%) Security Posture
2 12 (9.09%) Cyber Threat
3 8 (6.06%) Onboarding
4 7 (5.30%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 5 (3.79%) Cloud Native
5 5 (3.79%) iPad
5 5 (3.79%) iPhone
5 5 (3.79%) NHS
5 5 (3.79%) Security Operations Centre
5 5 (3.79%) Video Conferencing
6 4 (3.03%) Cloud Security Posture
7 2 (1.52%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.52%) Low-Code
7 2 (1.52%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.52%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.52%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
8 1 (0.76%) PKI
8 1 (0.76%) SCADA
8 1 (0.76%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 13 (9.85%) Windows
2 7 (5.30%) Linux
3 6 (4.55%) Android
4 5 (3.79%) Mac OS
4 5 (3.79%) Windows 10
4 5 (3.79%) Windows 7
4 5 (3.79%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 71 (53.79%) Cybersecurity
2 35 (26.52%) Information Security
3 34 (25.76%) Cloud Security
4 27 (20.45%) Data Protection
4 27 (20.45%) Incident Response
5 25 (18.94%) Security Operations
6 22 (16.67%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 21 (15.91%) Threat Modelling
8 18 (13.64%) SIEM
9 17 (12.88%) Infrastructure as Code
9 17 (12.88%) Risk Management
10 16 (12.12%) Vulnerability Remediation
11 15 (11.36%) CI/CD
11 15 (11.36%) Stakeholder Management
12 14 (10.61%) Continuous Improvement
12 14 (10.61%) DevSecOps
13 13 (9.85%) Risk Register
13 13 (9.85%) Vulnerability Management
14 12 (9.09%) DevOps
14 12 (9.09%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 13 (9.85%) Python
2 10 (7.58%) Bash
2 10 (7.58%) PowerShell
3 4 (3.03%) Kusto Query Language
4 3 (2.27%) TypeScript
5 2 (1.52%) Bicep
6 1 (0.76%) Go
6 1 (0.76%) SQL
Qualifications
1 31 (23.48%) CISSP
2 28 (21.21%) Security Cleared
3 25 (18.94%) SC Cleared
4 21 (15.91%) CISM
5 12 (9.09%) Degree
6 8 (6.06%) CHECK Team Member
6 8 (6.06%) CompTIA Security+
6 8 (6.06%) CREST Certified
6 8 (6.06%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
6 8 (6.06%) OSCP
6 8 (6.06%) Tigerscheme
7 7 (5.30%) Azure Certification
7 7 (5.30%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (4.55%) CISA
9 5 (3.79%) CRISC
10 4 (3.03%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (3.03%) DV Cleared
10 4 (3.03%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (3.03%) PMI Certification
10 4 (3.03%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 83 (62.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 63 (47.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 49 (37.12%) NIST
4 48 (36.36%) GDPR
5 28 (21.21%) NCSC
6 11 (8.33%) GRC
7 7 (5.30%) PCI DSS
8 4 (3.03%) NIST 800
8 4 (3.03%) PMO
8 4 (3.03%) SOC 2
9 3 (2.27%) IASME
9 3 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 3 (2.27%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 3 (2.27%) QA
9 3 (2.27%) SLA
10 2 (1.52%) Accessibility
10 2 (1.52%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.76%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.76%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.76%) PERC
System Software
1 16 (12.12%) Active Directory
2 3 (2.27%) Virtual Machines
3 2 (1.52%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.76%) Docker
4 1 (0.76%) Firmware
4 1 (0.76%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.76%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 11 (8.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (6.82%) Single Sign-On
3 8 (6.06%) Kubernetes
3 8 (6.06%) Nmap
4 7 (5.30%) Terraform
5 5 (3.79%) SCCM
6 4 (3.03%) CSIRT
6 4 (3.03%) PingFederate
6 4 (3.03%) QRadar
7 3 (2.27%) Ansible
7 3 (2.27%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.76%) Argo
8 1 (0.76%) Grafana
8 1 (0.76%) Kustomize
8 1 (0.76%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.76%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.76%) WSUS
Vendors
1 52 (39.39%) Microsoft
2 13 (9.85%) Cisco
3 8 (6.06%) Fortinet
3 8 (6.06%) Veracode
4 7 (5.30%) Splunk
5 6 (4.55%) Ping Identity
6 5 (3.79%) CheckPoint
6 5 (3.79%) VMware
7 4 (3.03%) Tenable
8 3 (2.27%) Computacenter
8 3 (2.27%) CyberArk
8 3 (2.27%) Google
8 3 (2.27%) Zscaler
9 2 (1.52%) LogRhythm
9 2 (1.52%) Palo Alto
9 2 (1.52%) Proofpoint
9 2 (1.52%) Sophos
10 1 (0.76%) Cadence
10 1 (0.76%) Datto
10 1 (0.76%) Samsung
162 Cyber Essentials jobs Nationwide