Cyber Threat Contract Job Trends

Cyber Threats
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Cyber Threat in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Cyber Threat over the 6 months leading up to 1 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 454 390 376
Rank change year-on-year -64 -14 +89
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 218 167 212
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.51% 0.55%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.21% 1.44% 1.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 86 121
10th Percentile £413 £449 £500
25th Percentile £500 £489 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £638
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -13.73% +6.25%
75th Percentile £750 £688 £788
90th Percentile £800 £759 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £575 £690
% change year-on-year - -16.67% +23.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 9 4
10th Percentile £60.76 £45.00 £42.25
25th Percentile - £47.00 £51.25
Median hourly rate £80.00 £65.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% +13.04% +17.35%
75th Percentile - £75.00 £65.38
90th Percentile £89.34 £81.81 £77.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £80.00 £65.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +23.08% +13.04% +17.35%

All Generic Skills
UK

Cyber Threat falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 18,068 11,593 11,710
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.68% 35.40% 30.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,896 7,141 7,338
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £424 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £518 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.45% -5.91% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,083 569 545
10th Percentile £14.52 £15.13 £13.24
25th Percentile £18.88 £18.87 £19.38
Median hourly rate £38.72 £29.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +31.25% -34.44% +3.75%
75th Percentile £67.89 £57.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £52.50
% change year-on-year +46.53% -42.86% +15.61%

Cyber Threat
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Cyber Threat job vacancy trend in the UK

Cyber Threat
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Threat.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Threat

Cyber Threat
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cyber Threat over the 6 months to 1 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cyber Threat in the UK

Cyber Threat
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Threat.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cyber Threat

Cyber Threat
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Cyber Threat over the 6 months to 1 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cyber Threat in the UK

Cyber Threat
Top 14 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 Threat within the UK over the 6 months to 1 September 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 -61 202 £575 +4.55% 396
UK excluding London -37 146 £575 - 248
London -76 63 £573 +9.05% 186
Work from Home -52 52 £550 -4.35% 157
South East -37 43 £575 +12.47% 61
North of England -40 40 £588 +17.22% 54
North West -36 31 £600 +19.71% 29
South West -38 21 £800 +6.67% 31
East of England -24 19 £550 -15.38% 30
West Midlands -37 14 £688 - 25
Midlands -42 14 £688 - 43
Scotland -23 9 £800 +52.38% 19
Yorkshire - 9 £588 - 21
Wales - 4 £800 - 7

Cyber Threat
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 (2.75%) Confluence
2 5 (2.29%) Apache Spark
Business Applications
1 1 (0.46%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.46%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 53 (24.31%) Azure
2 32 (14.68%) AWS
3 25 (11.47%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (5.50%) GCP
4 12 (5.50%) SaaS
5 11 (5.05%) Datadog
6 10 (4.59%) Entra ID
7 8 (3.67%) PaaS
8 7 (3.21%) Azure Sentinel
8 7 (3.21%) IaaS
9 6 (2.75%) Microsoft Purview
10 5 (2.29%) Akamai
11 4 (1.83%) Amazon ECS
11 4 (1.83%) Power Platform
11 4 (1.83%) Serverless
12 2 (0.92%) Azure DevOps
12 2 (0.92%) Azure Functions
12 2 (0.92%) GitHub
13 1 (0.46%) Dynamics 365
13 1 (0.46%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (12.39%) Network Security
2 13 (5.96%) Firewall
3 12 (5.50%) DNS
4 11 (5.05%) TCP/IP
5 10 (4.59%) HTTP
5 10 (4.59%) Intrusion Detection
6 9 (4.13%) SSL
7 6 (2.75%) SAN
8 5 (2.29%) DHCP
8 5 (2.29%) Intranet
8 5 (2.29%) VLAN
8 5 (2.29%) VPN
8 5 (2.29%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (1.38%) Broadband
9 3 (1.38%) DMZ
10 1 (0.46%) Internet
10 1 (0.46%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.21%) SQL Server
2 6 (2.75%) Big Data
3 1 (0.46%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.46%) MySQL
3 1 (0.46%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.46%) Power BI
3 1 (0.46%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.46%) Semantic Layer
3 1 (0.46%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (2.75%) Chocolatey
2 1 (0.46%) Git
2 1 (0.46%) JIRA
General
1 59 (27.06%) Social Skills
2 46 (21.10%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (13.76%) Public Sector
4 28 (12.84%) Finance
5 11 (5.05%) Banking
6 9 (4.13%) Aerospace
7 7 (3.21%) Legal
7 7 (3.21%) Military
8 5 (2.29%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (1.83%) Law
9 4 (1.83%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.38%) Local Government
11 1 (0.46%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.46%) Games
11 1 (0.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.46%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.46%) Manufacturing
11 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 60 (27.52%) Analyst
2 25 (11.47%) Cyber Threat Analyst
3 23 (10.55%) Architect
3 23 (10.55%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
4 21 (9.63%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 19 (8.72%) Senior
6 17 (7.80%) Security Analyst
7 15 (6.88%) Security Engineer
7 15 (6.88%) SOC Analyst
8 14 (6.42%) Lead
8 14 (6.42%) Security Architect
9 12 (5.50%) Coordinator
9 12 (5.50%) SOC Manager
10 11 (5.05%) Security Manager
11 10 (4.59%) Security Specialist
12 9 (4.13%) Operations Manager
13 8 (3.67%) Cybersecurity Manager
13 8 (3.67%) Operational Security Manager
13 8 (3.67%) Security Operations Manager
13 8 (3.67%) SOC Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.67%) Elastic Stack
2 7 (3.21%) Terraform
3 5 (2.29%) Kafka
4 2 (0.92%) PySpark
4 2 (0.92%) REST
5 1 (0.46%) Django
5 1 (0.46%) JSON
5 1 (0.46%) JWT
5 1 (0.46%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 34 (15.60%) Security Operations Centre
2 23 (10.55%) Security Posture
3 18 (8.26%) Cyber Defence
3 18 (8.26%) Operational Technology
4 16 (7.34%) Onboarding
5 12 (5.50%) Management Information System
6 8 (3.67%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 7 (3.21%) Cloud Native
8 6 (2.75%) CSOC
8 6 (2.75%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 5 (2.29%) Analytical Mindset
9 5 (2.29%) Private Cloud
10 4 (1.83%) Cyberattack
10 4 (1.83%) Hybrid Cloud
11 3 (1.38%) Insider Threat
11 3 (1.38%) SCADA
12 2 (0.92%) Data Protection Act
12 2 (0.92%) MISP
12 2 (0.92%) PKI
12 2 (0.92%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 20 (9.17%) Windows
2 17 (7.80%) Linux
3 3 (1.38%) Unix
4 2 (0.92%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.46%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 135 (61.93%) Cybersecurity
2 110 (50.46%) Incident Response
3 89 (40.83%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 89 (40.83%) Threat Intelligence
4 82 (37.61%) Security Operations
5 68 (31.19%) SIEM
6 54 (24.77%) Vulnerability Management
7 48 (22.02%) Cyber Intelligence
8 42 (19.27%) Continuous Improvement
9 41 (18.81%) Risk Management
9 41 (18.81%) Stakeholder Management
10 36 (16.51%) MITRE ATT&CK
10 36 (16.51%) Threat Detection
11 32 (14.68%) Security Monitoring
12 31 (14.22%) Cloud Security
13 30 (13.76%) Problem-Solving
14 29 (13.30%) Cyber Resilience
15 27 (12.39%) Incident Management
15 27 (12.39%) Information Security
16 24 (11.01%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 23 (10.55%) Python
2 9 (4.13%) Kusto Query Language
3 7 (3.21%) Bash
3 7 (3.21%) PowerShell
4 4 (1.83%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.38%) C
5 3 (1.38%) Perl
6 2 (0.92%) C++
6 2 (0.92%) Embedded C
6 2 (0.92%) SQL
7 1 (0.46%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.46%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 99 (45.41%) Security Cleared
2 66 (30.28%) SC Cleared
3 32 (14.68%) CISSP
4 29 (13.30%) DV Cleared
5 28 (12.84%) CISM
6 20 (9.17%) Degree
7 9 (4.13%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (3.67%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 8 (3.67%) Azure Certification
8 8 (3.67%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (3.67%) GIAC
9 6 (2.75%) AWS Certification
9 6 (2.75%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (2.75%) CEH
9 6 (2.75%) GCIH
9 6 (2.75%) SANS
10 5 (2.29%) GCIA
11 4 (1.83%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (1.83%) GCFA
11 4 (1.83%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (16.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 33 (15.14%) NIST
3 22 (10.09%) GDPR
4 19 (8.72%) NCSC
5 9 (4.13%) Cyber Essentials
5 9 (4.13%) GRC
5 9 (4.13%) SLA
6 6 (2.75%) COBIT
6 6 (2.75%) PCI DSS
7 5 (2.29%) NIST 800
8 4 (1.83%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 4 (1.83%) ISO 22301
9 3 (1.38%) ISO 19650
10 2 (0.92%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 1 (0.46%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.46%) QA
System Software
1 13 (5.96%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.92%) Docker
3 2 (0.92%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 10 (4.59%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (3.67%) SCCM
3 5 (2.29%) Ansible
3 5 (2.29%) Grafana
4 4 (1.83%) QRadar
5 3 (1.38%) Kubernetes
6 2 (0.92%) CASB
6 2 (0.92%) CSIRT
Vendors
1 44 (20.18%) Microsoft
2 19 (8.72%) Splunk
3 8 (3.67%) Databricks
3 8 (3.67%) Tanium
3 8 (3.67%) Tenable
4 6 (2.75%) AppDynamics
4 6 (2.75%) Dynatrace
4 6 (2.75%) VMware
5 5 (2.29%) Google
6 4 (1.83%) SolarWinds
7 3 (1.38%) Blue Coat
7 3 (1.38%) Clearswift
7 3 (1.38%) Netskope
7 3 (1.38%) Palo Alto
7 3 (1.38%) ServiceNow
7 3 (1.38%) Trend Micro
7 3 (1.38%) Tripwire
7 3 (1.38%) Zscaler
8 2 (0.92%) Cribl.io
8 2 (0.92%) LogRhythm