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

 6 months to
6 Dec 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 467 447 461
Rank change year-on-year -20 +14 +187
Contract jobs citing Cyber Essentials 127 101 141
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.28% 0.31%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.00% 2.03% 2.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 52 97
10th Percentile £350 £325 £408
25th Percentile £436 £453 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £542
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -3.05% +8.30%
75th Percentile £638 £613 £638
90th Percentile £675 £638 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £518 £518
% change year-on-year -3.49% +0.11% +15.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 3 10
10th Percentile £34.38 £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% +81.63%
75th Percentile £87.19 - £46.75
90th Percentile £94.13 - £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 6,364 4,987 6,529
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.46% 13.86% 14.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,101 2,924 4,365
10th Percentile £313 £263 £313
25th Percentile £405 £381 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £603 £623 £640
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 312 212 240
10th Percentile £13.60 £14.45 £14.51
25th Percentile £17.69 £18.38 £19.87
Median hourly rate £25.15 £27.18 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.45% -23.45% +55.41%
75th Percentile £57.13 £55.82 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.88 £70.00 £83.12
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.83 £26.50 £35.50
% change year-on-year -21.40% -25.35% +69.05%

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 6 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 6 December 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 6 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 +14 113 £550 +7.59% 236
UK excluding London -43 71 £500 -3.49% 231
London +15 47 £575 +9.52% 43
Work from Home -6 34 £513 -6.82% 67
South East -10 20 £530 -11.48% 61
Midlands -32 13 £463 +42.31% 52
North of England -43 11 £502 +0.37% 47
South West +6 9 £475 - 26
East of England -9 8 £553 +79.11% 20
East Midlands -12 8 £463 +54.17% 26
Yorkshire -34 6 £502 +0.37% 12
Scotland -8 5 £475 -13.64% 18
West Midlands -25 5 £465 +43.08% 25
North West -23 4 £350 -31.71% 30
Wales - 3 £575 - 9
Channel Islands - 2 £725 -
North East - 1 £650 - 5

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 (3.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.57%) Confluence
3 1 (0.79%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (2.36%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 52 (40.94%) Azure
2 36 (28.35%) AWS
3 24 (18.90%) Microsoft 365
4 21 (16.54%) Entra ID
5 16 (12.60%) Azure Sentinel
6 12 (9.45%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 10 (7.87%) SaaS
8 8 (6.30%) AWS CloudFormation
8 8 (6.30%) AWS Control Tower
9 7 (5.51%) IaaS
9 7 (5.51%) PaaS
10 6 (4.72%) GCP
10 6 (4.72%) Microsoft Purview
11 5 (3.94%) AWS CloudTrail
11 5 (3.94%) AWS KMS
11 5 (3.94%) Power Platform
11 5 (3.94%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 3 (2.36%) Amazon EKS
12 3 (2.36%) Azure AKS
12 3 (2.36%) GitHub
Communications & Networking
1 15 (11.81%) Firewall
2 12 (9.45%) Network Security
3 10 (7.87%) DNS
4 9 (7.09%) DHCP
5 8 (6.30%) VPN
6 7 (5.51%) VLAN
7 5 (3.94%) TCP/IP
8 4 (3.15%) IP Telephony
9 2 (1.57%) LAN
9 2 (1.57%) Wireless
10 1 (0.79%) Cisco IPT
10 1 (0.79%) Intrusion Detection
10 1 (0.79%) VSAN
10 1 (0.79%) WAN
10 1 (0.79%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.36%) Power BI
2 1 (0.79%) DynamoDB
2 1 (0.79%) MariaDB
2 1 (0.79%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 4 (3.15%) SonarQube
2 3 (2.36%) Burp Suite
2 3 (2.36%) Jenkins
2 3 (2.36%) JIRA
2 3 (2.36%) Metasploit
3 1 (0.79%) GitLab
General
1 39 (30.71%) Social Skills
2 29 (22.83%) Public Sector
3 10 (7.87%) Finance
3 10 (7.87%) Legal
4 9 (7.09%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (7.09%) Local Government
5 8 (6.30%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (3.94%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (3.15%) Aviation
8 2 (1.57%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.57%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.79%) Electronics
9 1 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.79%) Law
9 1 (0.79%) Marketing
9 1 (0.79%) Military
9 1 (0.79%) Police
9 1 (0.79%) Retail
9 1 (0.79%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 21 (16.54%) Analyst
2 20 (15.75%) Architect
3 13 (10.24%) Lead
3 13 (10.24%) Security Manager
3 13 (10.24%) Senior
4 11 (8.66%) Security Analyst
4 11 (8.66%) Security Engineer
5 8 (6.30%) Consultant
6 7 (5.51%) Cloud Architect
6 7 (5.51%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 7 (5.51%) Security Architect
6 7 (5.51%) Solutions Architect
7 5 (3.94%) Cybersecurity Architect
7 5 (3.94%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 5 (3.94%) DevSecOps Engineer
7 5 (3.94%) Information Analyst
7 5 (3.94%) Information Security Analyst
7 5 (3.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 5 (3.94%) Project Manager
8 4 (3.15%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.94%) LDAP
2 4 (3.15%) OpenID
2 4 (3.15%) SAML
3 3 (2.36%) AWS CDK
3 3 (2.36%) OAuth
4 2 (1.57%) ARM Templates
4 2 (1.57%) Middleware
4 2 (1.57%) RESTful
5 1 (0.79%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 18 (14.17%) Security Posture
2 12 (9.45%) Cyber Threat
3 9 (7.09%) Onboarding
4 7 (5.51%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 5 (3.94%) Cloud Native
5 5 (3.94%) NHS
5 5 (3.94%) Security Operations Centre
6 4 (3.15%) Cloud Security Posture
6 4 (3.15%) iPad
6 4 (3.15%) iPhone
6 4 (3.15%) Video Conferencing
7 3 (2.36%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.57%) Cyber Defence
8 2 (1.57%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.57%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.57%) Product Ownership
9 1 (0.79%) Data Protection Act
9 1 (0.79%) PKI
9 1 (0.79%) SCADA
9 1 (0.79%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 14 (11.02%) Windows
2 8 (6.30%) Linux
3 5 (3.94%) Android
3 5 (3.94%) Windows 10
3 5 (3.94%) Windows Server
4 4 (3.15%) Mac OS
4 4 (3.15%) Windows 7
5 1 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 65 (51.18%) Cybersecurity
2 31 (24.41%) Information Security
3 29 (22.83%) Cloud Security
4 26 (20.47%) Incident Response
5 22 (17.32%) Data Protection
5 22 (17.32%) Security Operations
5 22 (17.32%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 18 (14.17%) SIEM
7 17 (13.39%) Threat Modelling
8 16 (12.60%) Risk Management
9 15 (11.81%) ITIL
9 15 (11.81%) Migration
9 15 (11.81%) Stakeholder Management
9 15 (11.81%) Threat Detection
10 14 (11.02%) Continuous Improvement
10 14 (11.02%) Roadmaps
11 12 (9.45%) Risk Register
11 12 (9.45%) Vulnerability Management
11 12 (9.45%) Vulnerability Remediation
12 11 (8.66%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 12 (9.45%) PowerShell
2 8 (6.30%) Python
3 5 (3.94%) Bash
4 4 (3.15%) Kusto Query Language
5 2 (1.57%) Bicep
5 2 (1.57%) SQL
5 2 (1.57%) TypeScript
6 1 (0.79%) Go
Qualifications
1 29 (22.83%) CISSP
2 25 (19.69%) Security Cleared
3 21 (16.54%) SC Cleared
4 19 (14.96%) CISM
5 12 (9.45%) Degree
6 8 (6.30%) CompTIA Security+
6 8 (6.30%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
6 8 (6.30%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (5.51%) AWS Certification
7 7 (5.51%) Azure Certification
8 6 (4.72%) CISA
9 5 (3.94%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 4 (3.15%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (3.15%) DV Cleared
10 4 (3.15%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 4 (3.15%) PMI Certification
10 4 (3.15%) PMP
11 3 (2.36%) CCNP
11 3 (2.36%) CRISC
11 3 (2.36%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (62.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 57 (44.88%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 46 (36.22%) GDPR
4 45 (35.43%) NIST
5 28 (22.05%) NCSC
6 9 (7.09%) GRC
7 7 (5.51%) PCI DSS
8 4 (3.15%) NIST 800
9 3 (2.36%) IASME
9 3 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 3 (2.36%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 3 (2.36%) PMO
9 3 (2.36%) QA
9 3 (2.36%) SLA
9 3 (2.36%) SOC 2
10 2 (1.57%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.79%) Accessibility
11 1 (0.79%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.79%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.79%) RMADS
System Software
1 17 (13.39%) Active Directory
2 5 (3.94%) Virtual Desktop
3 3 (2.36%) Virtual Machines
3 3 (2.36%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.79%) Docker
4 1 (0.79%) Firmware
4 1 (0.79%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.79%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.79%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 13 (10.24%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (9.45%) Terraform
3 8 (6.30%) Kubernetes
4 7 (5.51%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (3.94%) SCCM
6 4 (3.15%) CSIRT
6 4 (3.15%) PingFederate
6 4 (3.15%) QRadar
7 3 (2.36%) Ansible
7 3 (2.36%) FortiGate
7 3 (2.36%) Nmap
8 2 (1.57%) vCenter Server
8 2 (1.57%) WSUS
9 1 (0.79%) Argo
9 1 (0.79%) Check_MK
9 1 (0.79%) Grafana
9 1 (0.79%) Kustomize
9 1 (0.79%) Nessus
9 1 (0.79%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 52 (40.94%) Microsoft
2 14 (11.02%) Cisco
3 9 (7.09%) Fortinet
4 8 (6.30%) Splunk
5 6 (4.72%) Citrix
5 6 (4.72%) VMware
6 5 (3.94%) CheckPoint
6 5 (3.94%) CloudEndure
6 5 (3.94%) Tenable
7 4 (3.15%) Ping Identity
8 3 (2.36%) Computacenter
8 3 (2.36%) CyberArk
8 3 (2.36%) Palo Alto
8 3 (2.36%) Veracode
8 3 (2.36%) Zscaler
9 2 (1.57%) Google
9 2 (1.57%) LogRhythm
9 2 (1.57%) Sophos
10 1 (0.79%) Cadence
10 1 (0.79%) Qualys
267 Cyber Essentials jobs Nationwide