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 14 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
14 Oct 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 431 468 482
Rank change year-on-year +37 +14 +206
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 125 87 149
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.23% 0.31%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.15% 1.73% 2.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 93 45 112
10th Percentile £335 £368 £401
25th Percentile £456 £475 £472
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year +10.58% -0.95% +5.00%
75th Percentile £650 £600 £638
90th Percentile £688 £613 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £503 £510
% change year-on-year +4.48% -1.47% +13.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 2 11
10th Percentile £28.32 £70.24 -
25th Percentile £29.51 £72.40 £42.25
Median hourly rate £32.74 £78.40 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -58.25% +76.18% +81.63%
75th Percentile £93.75 £82.00 £46.75
90th Percentile £94.50 £82.72 £49.00
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 5,820 5,017 6,755
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.54% 13.39% 14.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,725 2,914 4,561
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £400 £398 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £612 £625 £650
90th Percentile £712 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £500
% change year-on-year - -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 282 238 253
10th Percentile £13.60 £13.44 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.61 £17.72 £20.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.67 £36.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.42% -23.14% +44.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.66 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.00 £79.96
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.08 £27.50 £38.75
% change year-on-year -8.82% -29.03% +72.22%

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 14 October 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 14 October 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 14 October 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 +41 106 £575 +15.00% 138
UK excluding London -4 65 £525 +4.48% 136
London +37 47 £624 +13.36% 23
Work from Home +39 38 £550 - 69
Midlands -3 13 £463 +50.41% 18
East of England +2 12 £553 +79.11% 13
South East +7 11 £530 +4.95% 29
North of England -26 9 £375 -25.00% 41
South West +25 8 £413 - 22
East Midlands 0 8 £463 +50.41% 6
Scotland -12 8 £500 -9.09% 9
North West -9 6 £325 -36.59% 23
West Midlands -14 5 £550 - 12
Channel Islands - 2 £725 -
Wales - 2 £575 - 3
North East - 2 £713 - 5
Yorkshire -27 1 £375 -25.00% 13

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 (2.40%) SharePoint
2 2 (1.60%) Confluence
3 1 (0.80%) CMS
3 1 (0.80%) Headless CMS
3 1 (0.80%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (2.40%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.80%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 43 (34.40%) Azure
2 32 (25.60%) AWS
3 17 (13.60%) Azure Sentinel
4 16 (12.80%) Microsoft 365
5 13 (10.40%) Entra ID
6 10 (8.00%) GCP
7 8 (6.40%) GitHub
8 7 (5.60%) SaaS
9 5 (4.00%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 5 (4.00%) IaaS
9 5 (4.00%) PaaS
10 4 (3.20%) Microsoft Purview
10 4 (3.20%) Power Platform
11 3 (2.40%) Amazon EKS
11 3 (2.40%) AWS Control Tower
11 3 (2.40%) Azure AKS
11 3 (2.40%) OneDrive
12 2 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
12 2 (1.60%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 2 (1.60%) Kong
Communications & Networking
1 9 (7.20%) Network Security
2 7 (5.60%) Firewall
3 6 (4.80%) TCP/IP
3 6 (4.80%) VLAN
4 5 (4.00%) DHCP
4 5 (4.00%) DNS
4 5 (4.00%) IP Telephony
5 4 (3.20%) VPN
6 1 (0.80%) Cisco IPT
6 1 (0.80%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (0.80%) LAN
6 1 (0.80%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.40%) Power BI
2 1 (0.80%) DynamoDB
2 1 (0.80%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 9 (7.20%) SonarQube
2 8 (6.40%) Burp Suite
2 8 (6.40%) Metasploit
3 2 (1.60%) JIRA
4 1 (0.80%) GitLab
4 1 (0.80%) Jenkins
General
1 46 (36.80%) Social Skills
2 31 (24.80%) Public Sector
3 9 (7.20%) Local Government
4 8 (6.40%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (6.40%) Presentation Skills
5 7 (5.60%) Finance
6 6 (4.80%) Legal
7 5 (4.00%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (3.20%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (2.40%) Aviation
9 3 (2.40%) Retail
10 2 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.60%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.60%) Military
11 1 (0.80%) Banking
11 1 (0.80%) Electronics
11 1 (0.80%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.80%) Law
11 1 (0.80%) Police
11 1 (0.80%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 19 (15.20%) Analyst
2 15 (12.00%) Security Engineer
3 14 (11.20%) Architect
3 14 (11.20%) Security Manager
4 12 (9.60%) Consultant
5 11 (8.80%) Cybersecurity Engineer
5 11 (8.80%) Lead
6 7 (5.60%) Security Architect
7 6 (4.80%) Security Analyst
7 6 (4.80%) Security Consultant
7 6 (4.80%) Senior
8 5 (4.00%) Cybersecurity Manager
8 5 (4.00%) DevSecOps Engineer
8 5 (4.00%) IAM Specialist
8 5 (4.00%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.00%) Support Analyst
9 4 (3.20%) Information Manager
9 4 (3.20%) Information Security Manager
9 4 (3.20%) Project Manager
10 3 (2.40%) Risk Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.80%) LDAP
1 6 (4.80%) OAuth
1 6 (4.80%) OpenID
1 6 (4.80%) SAML
2 3 (2.40%) X-Windows
3 2 (1.60%) Middleware
3 2 (1.60%) Node.js
3 2 (1.60%) RESTful
4 1 (0.80%) ADO
4 1 (0.80%) AWS CDK
4 1 (0.80%) Next.js
4 1 (0.80%) React
Miscellaneous
1 21 (16.80%) Security Posture
2 10 (8.00%) Cyber Threat
3 7 (5.60%) Cyber Kill Chain
3 7 (5.60%) Onboarding
3 7 (5.60%) Security Operations Centre
4 5 (4.00%) iPad
4 5 (4.00%) iPhone
4 5 (4.00%) Video Conferencing
5 4 (3.20%) Management Information System
6 3 (2.40%) Cloud Native
6 3 (2.40%) NHS
7 2 (1.60%) Cloud Security Posture
7 2 (1.60%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.60%) Low-Code
7 2 (1.60%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.80%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.80%) Cyber Security Posture
8 1 (0.80%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (0.80%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.80%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 17 (13.60%) Windows
2 8 (6.40%) Mac OS
2 8 (6.40%) Windows Server
3 7 (5.60%) Linux
4 6 (4.80%) Android
5 5 (4.00%) Windows 10
5 5 (4.00%) Windows 7
6 3 (2.40%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (50.40%) Cybersecurity
2 41 (32.80%) Information Security
3 32 (25.60%) Incident Response
4 31 (24.80%) Cloud Security
5 29 (23.20%) Data Protection
6 28 (22.40%) Security Operations
7 21 (16.80%) Threat Modelling
8 19 (15.20%) SIEM
9 18 (14.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 17 (13.60%) Vulnerability Management
11 15 (12.00%) Infrastructure as Code
12 14 (11.20%) DevSecOps
12 14 (11.20%) Risk Management
12 14 (11.20%) Risk Register
12 14 (11.20%) Roadmaps
13 13 (10.40%) CI/CD
13 13 (10.40%) Decision-Making
13 13 (10.40%) OWASP
13 13 (10.40%) Stakeholder Management
14 12 (9.60%) Penetration Testing
Programming Languages
1 13 (10.40%) Python
2 10 (8.00%) Bash
3 8 (6.40%) PowerShell
4 4 (3.20%) Kusto Query Language
5 3 (2.40%) Shell Script
5 3 (2.40%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.80%) Go
6 1 (0.80%) SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (24.00%) CISSP
2 26 (20.80%) Security Cleared
3 24 (19.20%) SC Cleared
4 23 (18.40%) CISM
5 11 (8.80%) Degree
5 11 (8.80%) OSCP
6 8 (6.40%) CHECK Team Member
6 8 (6.40%) CREST Certified
6 8 (6.40%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
6 8 (6.40%) Tigerscheme
7 7 (5.60%) CISA
8 6 (4.80%) CompTIA Security+
9 5 (4.00%) CRISC
9 5 (4.00%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
9 5 (4.00%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (3.20%) Azure Certification
10 4 (3.20%) PMI Certification
10 4 (3.20%) PMP
11 3 (2.40%) Cisco Certification
11 3 (2.40%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (64.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 60 (48.00%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 50 (40.00%) NIST
4 44 (35.20%) GDPR
5 26 (20.80%) NCSC
6 11 (8.80%) PCI DSS
7 10 (8.00%) GRC
8 6 (4.80%) SOC 2
9 4 (3.20%) NIST 800
9 4 (3.20%) PMO
10 3 (2.40%) COBIT
10 3 (2.40%) IASME
10 3 (2.40%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (2.40%) QA
10 3 (2.40%) SLA
11 2 (1.60%) Accessibility
11 2 (1.60%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.80%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.80%) ISO 22301
12 1 (0.80%) ISO 9001
System Software
1 16 (12.80%) Active Directory
2 4 (3.20%) Docker
2 4 (3.20%) Hyper-V
3 3 (2.40%) Virtual Servers
4 2 (1.60%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.80%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.80%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 9 (7.20%) Microsoft Intune
1 9 (7.20%) Single Sign-On
2 8 (6.40%) Nmap
3 7 (5.60%) Kubernetes
4 5 (4.00%) Terraform
5 4 (3.20%) CSIRT
5 4 (3.20%) QRadar
6 3 (2.40%) FortiGate
6 3 (2.40%) PingFederate
6 3 (2.40%) SCCM
7 2 (1.60%) Ansible
8 1 (0.80%) Argo
8 1 (0.80%) Grafana
8 1 (0.80%) Kustomize
8 1 (0.80%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.80%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.80%) WSUS
Vendors
1 49 (39.20%) Microsoft
2 12 (9.60%) Cisco
3 8 (6.40%) Veracode
4 7 (5.60%) Splunk
5 6 (4.80%) Ping Identity
6 5 (4.00%) Fortinet
6 5 (4.00%) VMware
7 3 (2.40%) Computacenter
7 3 (2.40%) Google
7 3 (2.40%) Zscaler
8 2 (1.60%) CheckPoint
8 2 (1.60%) CyberArk
8 2 (1.60%) Palo Alto
8 2 (1.60%) Proofpoint
8 2 (1.60%) Sophos
8 2 (1.60%) Tenable
9 1 (0.80%) Cadence
9 1 (0.80%) Citrix
9 1 (0.80%) Qualys
9 1 (0.80%) SAP
157 Cyber Essentials jobs Nationwide