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 19 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
19 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 447 443 476
Rank change year-on-year -4 +33 +163
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 137 101 129
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.30% 0.29%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.16% 2.09% 2.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 98 55 86
10th Percentile £350 £318 £413
25th Percentile £452 £425 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £543 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.33% -5.45% +10.00%
75th Percentile £631 £613 £638
90th Percentile £658 £638 £769
UK excluding London median daily rate £502 £511 £525
% change year-on-year -1.82% -2.63% +16.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 3 10
10th Percentile £34.92 £71.68 -
25th Percentile - £76.00 £42.25
Median hourly rate £36.00 £83.20 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -56.73% +86.97% -
75th Percentile £87.50 - £46.75
90th Percentile £94.00 - £49.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 - £44.50

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 6,357 4,834 6,418
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.26% 14.14% 14.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,103 2,845 4,280
10th Percentile £313 £263 £313
25th Percentile £405 £378 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £623 £645
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £486 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.32% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 318 187 233
10th Percentile £13.98 £15.00 £14.20
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.75 £19.47
Median hourly rate £25.63 £27.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.80% -21.43% +55.87%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £64.50
90th Percentile £73.75 £70.00 £82.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.60 £27.35 £35.25
% change year-on-year -24.70% -22.41% +70.95%

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 19 December 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 19 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in the UK

Cyber Essentials
Top 16 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 19 December 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 +10 124 £550 +9.45% 158
UK excluding London -26 76 £502 -1.82% 155
London +9 52 £575 +9.52% 34
Work from Home -1 38 £525 -4.55% 71
South East -25 22 £525 -12.32% 31
East of England -15 12 £553 +10.60% 10
Midlands -39 12 £463 +42.31% 31
North of England -44 12 £504 +0.74% 32
South West +1 9 £475 - 35
East Midlands -16 7 £463 +54.17% 13
Yorkshire -39 6 £502 +0.37% 4
Scotland -8 5 £475 -13.64% 8
North West -24 5 £438 -14.63% 24
West Midlands -33 5 £465 +43.08% 18
Wales - 4 £575 - 9
North East - 1 £650 - 4

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 4 (2.92%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.46%) Confluence
3 1 (0.73%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (2.19%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.73%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 53 (38.69%) Azure
2 39 (28.47%) AWS
3 25 (18.25%) Microsoft 365
4 24 (17.52%) Entra ID
5 17 (12.41%) Azure Sentinel
6 13 (9.49%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 10 (7.30%) SaaS
8 9 (6.57%) AWS CloudFormation
8 9 (6.57%) AWS Control Tower
9 7 (5.11%) AWS CloudTrail
9 7 (5.11%) IaaS
9 7 (5.11%) Microsoft Purview
9 7 (5.11%) PaaS
10 6 (4.38%) AWS KMS
10 6 (4.38%) GCP
10 6 (4.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (3.65%) Power Platform
12 3 (2.19%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (2.19%) Azure AKS
12 3 (2.19%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 18 (13.14%) Firewall
2 14 (10.22%) Network Security
3 12 (8.76%) VPN
4 10 (7.30%) DNS
5 9 (6.57%) DHCP
6 7 (5.11%) VLAN
7 4 (2.92%) LAN
7 4 (2.92%) TCP/IP
8 3 (2.19%) IP Telephony
8 3 (2.19%) WAN
9 2 (1.46%) VSAN
9 2 (1.46%) Wi-Fi
9 2 (1.46%) Wireless
10 1 (0.73%) Cisco IPT
10 1 (0.73%) HTTP
10 1 (0.73%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.19%) Power BI
2 2 (1.46%) DynamoDB
2 2 (1.46%) MariaDB
3 1 (0.73%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.73%) Metadata
3 1 (0.73%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.73%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (2.92%) JIRA
1 4 (2.92%) SonarQube
2 3 (2.19%) Burp Suite
2 3 (2.19%) Jenkins
2 3 (2.19%) Metasploit
3 1 (0.73%) GitLab
General
1 43 (31.39%) Social Skills
2 28 (20.44%) Public Sector
3 14 (10.22%) Finance
4 10 (7.30%) Legal
5 9 (6.57%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (5.84%) Presentation Skills
7 6 (4.38%) Local Government
7 6 (4.38%) Organisational Skills
8 4 (2.92%) Aviation
8 4 (2.92%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (2.19%) Aerospace
9 3 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.46%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.73%) Digital Health
11 1 (0.73%) Law
11 1 (0.73%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.73%) Marketing
11 1 (0.73%) Military
11 1 (0.73%) Police
11 1 (0.73%) Retail
Job Titles
1 21 (15.33%) Architect
2 20 (14.60%) Analyst
3 16 (11.68%) Senior
4 15 (10.95%) Lead
5 12 (8.76%) Security Engineer
5 12 (8.76%) Security Manager
6 11 (8.03%) Security Analyst
7 8 (5.84%) Cloud Architect
7 8 (5.84%) Consultant
8 7 (5.11%) Security Architect
8 7 (5.11%) Solutions Architect
9 6 (4.38%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 6 (4.38%) Cybersecurity Manager
9 6 (4.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 6 (4.38%) Project Manager
10 5 (3.65%) Cybersecurity Architect
10 5 (3.65%) DevSecOps Engineer
10 5 (3.65%) Information Analyst
10 5 (3.65%) Lead Architect
10 5 (3.65%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (4.38%) LDAP
2 4 (2.92%) OpenID
2 4 (2.92%) SAML
3 3 (2.19%) AWS CDK
3 3 (2.19%) OAuth
4 2 (1.46%) ARM Templates
4 2 (1.46%) Middleware
4 2 (1.46%) Node.js
4 2 (1.46%) Oracle Fusion
4 2 (1.46%) RESTful
5 1 (0.73%) .NET
5 1 (0.73%) React
5 1 (0.73%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 19 (13.87%) Security Posture
2 13 (9.49%) Cyber Threat
3 10 (7.30%) Onboarding
4 7 (5.11%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 6 (4.38%) Operational Technology
5 6 (4.38%) Security Operations Centre
6 5 (3.65%) Cloud Native
7 4 (2.92%) Cloud Security Posture
7 4 (2.92%) Cyber Defence
7 4 (2.92%) Data Centre
7 4 (2.92%) NHS
8 3 (2.19%) iPad
8 3 (2.19%) iPhone
8 3 (2.19%) SCADA
8 3 (2.19%) Video Conferencing
9 2 (1.46%) Driving Licence
9 2 (1.46%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.46%) Product Ownership
10 1 (0.73%) Analytical Mindset
10 1 (0.73%) Cyber Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 17 (12.41%) Windows
2 12 (8.76%) Linux
3 7 (5.11%) Windows Server
4 5 (3.65%) Windows 10
5 4 (2.92%) Android
6 3 (2.19%) Mac OS
6 3 (2.19%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.73%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 68 (49.64%) Cybersecurity
2 31 (22.63%) Information Security
3 30 (21.90%) Cloud Security
4 27 (19.71%) Incident Response
5 24 (17.52%) Security Operations
5 24 (17.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 21 (15.33%) Data Protection
6 21 (15.33%) SIEM
7 18 (13.14%) Risk Management
8 17 (12.41%) Roadmaps
8 17 (12.41%) Threat Detection
8 17 (12.41%) Threat Modelling
9 16 (11.68%) ITIL
9 16 (11.68%) Migration
9 16 (11.68%) Stakeholder Management
10 15 (10.95%) Continuous Improvement
11 12 (8.76%) Decision-Making
11 12 (8.76%) Risk Register
11 12 (8.76%) Vulnerability Management
11 12 (8.76%) Vulnerability Remediation
Programming Languages
1 13 (9.49%) PowerShell
2 9 (6.57%) Python
3 6 (4.38%) Bash
4 4 (2.92%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (2.92%) SQL
5 2 (1.46%) Bicep
5 2 (1.46%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.73%) C#
6 1 (0.73%) Go
6 1 (0.73%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 31 (22.63%) Security Cleared
2 30 (21.90%) CISSP
3 26 (18.98%) SC Cleared
4 20 (14.60%) CISM
5 12 (8.76%) Degree
6 9 (6.57%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 8 (5.84%) AWS Certification
8 7 (5.11%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (4.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 6 (4.38%) CISA
9 6 (4.38%) CompTIA Security+
10 5 (3.65%) Azure Certification
10 5 (3.65%) DV Cleared
11 4 (2.92%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 4 (2.92%) PMI Certification
11 4 (2.92%) PMP
12 3 (2.19%) CHECK Team Member
12 3 (2.19%) CREST Certified
12 3 (2.19%) Master's Degree
12 3 (2.19%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (63.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 62 (45.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 49 (35.77%) NIST
4 45 (32.85%) GDPR
5 29 (21.17%) NCSC
6 10 (7.30%) GRC
7 7 (5.11%) PCI DSS
8 4 (2.92%) NIST 800
8 4 (2.92%) SLA
9 3 (2.19%) IASME
9 3 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 3 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 3 (2.19%) PMO
9 3 (2.19%) QA
9 3 (2.19%) SOC 2
10 2 (1.46%) Def Stans
10 2 (1.46%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.73%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.73%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.73%) RMADS
System Software
1 18 (13.14%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.38%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (2.92%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (2.19%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (1.46%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.46%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.73%) Docker
6 1 (0.73%) Firmware
6 1 (0.73%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 14 (10.22%) Microsoft Intune
1 14 (10.22%) Terraform
2 8 (5.84%) Kubernetes
3 7 (5.11%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (3.65%) SCCM
5 4 (2.92%) CSIRT
5 4 (2.92%) PingFederate
5 4 (2.92%) QRadar
6 3 (2.19%) Ansible
6 3 (2.19%) FortiGate
6 3 (2.19%) Nmap
6 3 (2.19%) vCenter Server
6 3 (2.19%) WSUS
7 2 (1.46%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.46%) Grafana
7 2 (1.46%) Nessus
8 1 (0.73%) Argo
8 1 (0.73%) CASB
8 1 (0.73%) Kustomize
8 1 (0.73%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 50 (36.50%) Microsoft
2 15 (10.95%) Cisco
3 10 (7.30%) Fortinet
3 10 (7.30%) VMware
4 9 (6.57%) Splunk
5 7 (5.11%) Citrix
6 6 (4.38%) CloudEndure
6 6 (4.38%) Palo Alto
6 6 (4.38%) Tenable
7 5 (3.65%) CheckPoint
8 4 (2.92%) Ping Identity
9 3 (2.19%) Computacenter
9 3 (2.19%) CyberArk
9 3 (2.19%) ServiceNow
9 3 (2.19%) Veracode
9 3 (2.19%) Zscaler
10 2 (1.46%) Google
10 2 (1.46%) Oracle
10 2 (1.46%) Red Hat
10 2 (1.46%) Sophos
182 Cyber Essentials jobs Nationwide