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 10 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

 6 months to
10 Feb 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 455 443 497
Rank change year-on-year -12 +54 +75
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 132 89 103
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.34% 0.29% 0.23%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.94% 2.00% 1.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 94 43 63
10th Percentile £341 £325 £400
25th Percentile £456 £425 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.95% -4.55% +7.21%
75th Percentile £596 £620 £638
90th Percentile £649 £636 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £560 £525
% change year-on-year -6.25% +6.67% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 5 10
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £36.00 £68.80 £42.25
Median hourly rate £58.00 £83.20 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.29% +86.97% -
75th Percentile £89.06 - £46.75
90th Percentile £94.13 - £49.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £83.20 £44.50
% change year-on-year -56.73% +86.97% -

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 6,797 4,455 6,475
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.27% 14.51% 14.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,372 2,621 4,266
10th Percentile £325 £260 £300
25th Percentile £413 £375 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £634
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +3.58% -2.56% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 355 168 341
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.00 £12.25
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.00 £14.50
Median hourly rate £26.11 £29.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.97% +16.00% -12.28%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £50.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £76.01 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.19 £29.00 £24.75
% change year-on-year -16.59% +17.17% -10.00%

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 10 February 2026.

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 10 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cyber Essentials in the UK

Cyber Essentials
Top 15 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 10 February 2026. 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 -25 122 £530 +0.95% 147
UK excluding London -44 76 £525 -6.25% 136
London -16 49 £550 +20.55% 31
Work from Home -19 36 £545 -0.91% 59
East of England -4 19 £553 +10.60% 12
South East -25 18 £480 -22.27% 40
North of England -51 14 £540 -10.00% 35
South West -10 9 £519 -13.54% 25
Midlands -59 9 £463 +42.31% 23
North West -22 7 £540 -10.00% 23
Yorkshire -49 7 £504 - 7
West Midlands -48 6 £540 +66.15% 13
Scotland +2 4 £500 -9.09% 4
East Midlands -34 3 £463 +42.31% 10
Wales - 3 £575 - 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 6 (4.55%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (3.79%) SharePoint
3 2 (1.52%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (3.79%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.76%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 1 (0.76%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 54 (40.91%) Azure
2 34 (25.76%) AWS
3 30 (22.73%) Microsoft 365
4 28 (21.21%) Entra ID
5 19 (14.39%) Microsoft Purview
6 16 (12.12%) Azure Sentinel
7 15 (11.36%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 11 (8.33%) AWS Control Tower
9 10 (7.58%) SaaS
10 8 (6.06%) AWS CloudFormation
10 8 (6.06%) IaaS
10 8 (6.06%) Mimecast
10 8 (6.06%) PaaS
11 7 (5.30%) AWS CloudTrail
12 6 (4.55%) AWS KMS
12 6 (4.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 5 (3.79%) Amazon EKS
13 5 (3.79%) Azure AKS
14 3 (2.27%) OCI
15 2 (1.52%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 26 (19.70%) Firewall
2 23 (17.42%) Network Security
3 18 (13.64%) VPN
4 8 (6.06%) DNS
5 7 (5.30%) DHCP
6 4 (3.03%) BGP
6 4 (3.03%) Cisco ASA
6 4 (3.03%) Cisco IOS
6 4 (3.03%) LAN
6 4 (3.03%) MPLS
6 4 (3.03%) TACACS
7 3 (2.27%) VLAN
7 3 (2.27%) WAN
8 2 (1.52%) VSAN
8 2 (1.52%) Wi-Fi
8 2 (1.52%) Wireless
9 1 (0.76%) Cisco IPT
9 1 (0.76%) HTTP
9 1 (0.76%) Intrusion Detection
9 1 (0.76%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.52%) DynamoDB
1 2 (1.52%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
2 1 (0.76%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.76%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 4 (3.03%) JIRA
2 2 (1.52%) Jenkins
General
1 45 (34.09%) Social Skills
2 21 (15.91%) Public Sector
3 18 (13.64%) Finance
4 8 (6.06%) Presentation Skills
5 6 (4.55%) Aerospace
5 6 (4.55%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (4.55%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (3.79%) Legal
7 4 (3.03%) Aviation
7 4 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (2.27%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.52%) Local Government
10 1 (0.76%) Digital Health
10 1 (0.76%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (0.76%) Electronics
10 1 (0.76%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.76%) Marketing
10 1 (0.76%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 22 (16.67%) Security Engineer
2 21 (15.91%) Architect
3 20 (15.15%) Senior
4 15 (11.36%) Analyst
5 10 (7.58%) Lead
6 9 (6.82%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 9 (6.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 9 (6.82%) Security Analyst
6 9 (6.82%) Security Manager
7 8 (6.06%) Security Architect
8 7 (5.30%) Consultant
9 6 (4.55%) Cloud Architect
9 6 (4.55%) Cybersecurity Architect
9 6 (4.55%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 6 (4.55%) Solutions Architect
10 5 (3.79%) 3rd Line Support
10 5 (3.79%) Information Analyst
10 5 (3.79%) Information Security Analyst
10 5 (3.79%) Security Solutions Architect
10 5 (3.79%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (7.58%) LDAP
2 5 (3.79%) OAuth
3 4 (3.03%) OpenID
3 4 (3.03%) SAML
4 3 (2.27%) AWS CDK
4 3 (2.27%) Oracle Fusion
5 2 (1.52%) ARM Templates
5 2 (1.52%) Node.js
6 1 (0.76%) .NET
6 1 (0.76%) React
6 1 (0.76%) Software Packaging
6 1 (0.76%) STL
6 1 (0.76%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 15 (11.36%) Security Posture
2 13 (9.85%) Cyber Threat
3 12 (9.09%) Onboarding
4 9 (6.82%) Operational Technology
5 7 (5.30%) Cloud Native
5 7 (5.30%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 7 (5.30%) NHS
5 7 (5.30%) Security Operations Centre
6 6 (4.55%) SCADA
7 5 (3.79%) PKI
8 4 (3.03%) Cloud Security Posture
8 4 (3.03%) Cyber Defence
8 4 (3.03%) Driving Licence
9 2 (1.52%) Cybercrime
9 2 (1.52%) Data Centre
9 2 (1.52%) Mobile App
10 1 (0.76%) Data Protection Act
10 1 (0.76%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 1 (0.76%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.76%) FMCG
Operating Systems
1 19 (14.39%) Linux
2 16 (12.12%) Windows
3 9 (6.82%) Windows Server
4 4 (3.03%) Ubuntu
5 2 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.52%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.76%) Android
6 1 (0.76%) VMS
6 1 (0.76%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (50.00%) Cybersecurity
2 28 (21.21%) Cloud Security
3 26 (19.70%) Data Loss Prevention
4 24 (18.18%) Information Security
5 23 (17.42%) Incident Response
6 21 (15.91%) Security Operations
7 20 (15.15%) SIEM
8 19 (14.39%) ITIL
8 19 (14.39%) Migration
9 18 (13.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 17 (12.88%) Threat Detection
10 17 (12.88%) Zero Trust
11 16 (12.12%) Roadmaps
12 13 (9.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 13 (9.85%) ITSM
12 13 (9.85%) Risk Management
12 13 (9.85%) Threat Modelling
12 13 (9.85%) TOGAF
13 12 (9.09%) Network Segmentation
13 12 (9.09%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 14 (10.61%) PowerShell
2 11 (8.33%) Python
3 9 (6.82%) Kusto Query Language
4 5 (3.79%) SQL
5 4 (3.03%) PHP
6 2 (1.52%) Bash
6 2 (1.52%) Bicep
6 2 (1.52%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.76%) C#
7 1 (0.76%) Go
7 1 (0.76%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 38 (28.79%) Security Cleared
2 32 (24.24%) SC Cleared
3 24 (18.18%) CISSP
4 17 (12.88%) Degree
5 16 (12.12%) CISM
6 9 (6.82%) CompTIA Security+
7 8 (6.06%) DV Cleared
8 7 (5.30%) AWS Certification
8 7 (5.30%) Microsoft Certification
9 6 (4.55%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (3.03%) APMG
10 4 (3.03%) Azure Certification
10 4 (3.03%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (3.03%) GIAC
10 4 (3.03%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
10 4 (3.03%) SSCP
11 3 (2.27%) CISA
11 3 (2.27%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (2.27%) GSEC
11 3 (2.27%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (60.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 59 (44.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 45 (34.09%) NIST
4 35 (26.52%) GDPR
5 23 (17.42%) NCSC
6 9 (6.82%) PCI DSS
7 8 (6.06%) GRC
8 5 (3.79%) Def Stans
9 3 (2.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (2.27%) SOC 2
10 2 (1.52%) IASME
10 2 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 2 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 2 (1.52%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.76%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.76%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.76%) PERC
11 1 (0.76%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (12.12%) Active Directory
2 9 (6.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (5.30%) VMware ESXi
4 6 (4.55%) Virtual Desktop
5 4 (3.03%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (2.27%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.76%) Firmware
7 1 (0.76%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 18 (13.64%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (8.33%) Terraform
3 9 (6.82%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (5.30%) Kubernetes
5 6 (4.55%) vCenter Server
6 5 (3.79%) AirWatch
7 4 (3.03%) PingFederate
7 4 (3.03%) SCCM
8 3 (2.27%) SCOM
8 3 (2.27%) WSUS
9 2 (1.52%) Ansible
9 2 (1.52%) Check_MK
9 2 (1.52%) CSIRT
9 2 (1.52%) Nessus
9 2 (1.52%) QRadar
10 1 (0.76%) Argo
10 1 (0.76%) CASB
10 1 (0.76%) Grafana
10 1 (0.76%) Kustomize
Vendors
1 54 (40.91%) Microsoft
2 22 (16.67%) Cisco
3 19 (14.39%) VMware
4 9 (6.82%) CrowdStrike
4 9 (6.82%) Palo Alto
5 8 (6.06%) CyberArk
6 7 (5.30%) Fortinet
7 6 (4.55%) Citrix
7 6 (4.55%) CloudEndure
7 6 (4.55%) Netskope
7 6 (4.55%) ServiceNow
7 6 (4.55%) Splunk
8 5 (3.79%) Barracuda Networks
8 5 (3.79%) Tenable
9 4 (3.03%) CheckPoint
9 4 (3.03%) Ping Identity
10 3 (2.27%) Computacenter
10 3 (2.27%) Oracle
11 2 (1.52%) Google
11 2 (1.52%) Red Hat
158 Cyber Essentials jobs Nationwide