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 31 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 421 417 420
Rank change year-on-year -4 +3 +169
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 171 123 188
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.44% 0.39% 0.42%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.30% 1.20% 1.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 94 69 128
10th Percentile £365 £463 £429
25th Percentile £463 £513 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £583 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.79% - -
75th Percentile £681 £668 £725
90th Percentile £788 £748 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £593 £606 £570
% change year-on-year -2.14% +6.36% +3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 1 10
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £41.94 £36.25 £42.25
Median hourly rate £47.00 £37.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year +25.33% -15.73% -31.54%
75th Percentile £63.38 £38.75 £46.75
90th Percentile £75.00 - £49.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.50 £37.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year +48.00% -15.73% -31.54%

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 13,195 10,232 13,771
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.06% 32.54% 30.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,334 6,079 8,979
10th Percentile £275 £263 £253
25th Percentile £405 £407 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.82%
75th Percentile £625 £656 £650
90th Percentile £738 £769 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 624 312 773
10th Percentile £15.00 £19.25 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.27 £23.60 £17.25
Median hourly rate £28.50 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.56% - +56.18%
75th Percentile £63.03 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £35.65
% change year-on-year -15.38% -8.84% +70.33%

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 31 January 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 31 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cyber Threat in the UK

Cyber Threat
Top 13 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 31 January 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 -4 151 £595 -0.83% 126
UK excluding London -43 88 £593 -2.14% 142
London -16 62 £545 -7.63% 60
Work from Home +12 49 £600 - 136
North of England -43 19 £500 -28.57% 15
South East -19 18 £595 -0.83% 42
East of England -6 15 £553 -7.83% 14
South West -13 15 £688 +7.84% 24
North West -25 13 £515 -26.40% 13
Scotland -2 12 £450 -21.74% 27
West Midlands -40 12 £600 -22.58% 5
Midlands -43 12 £600 -22.58% 13
Yorkshire - 6 £475 -

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 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.17%) Confluence
2 2 (1.17%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.58%) Trello
Business Applications
1 1 (0.58%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 26 (15.20%) Azure
2 21 (12.28%) AWS
3 14 (8.19%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (6.43%) Entra ID
5 6 (3.51%) Azure Sentinel
6 5 (2.92%) Azure Key Vault
6 5 (2.92%) GCP
6 5 (2.92%) Microsoft Purview
7 3 (1.75%) Power Platform
8 2 (1.17%) Amazon OpenSearch
8 2 (1.17%) Amazon S3
8 2 (1.17%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.58%) Akamai
9 1 (0.58%) Asana
9 1 (0.58%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.58%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.58%) GitHub
9 1 (0.58%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.58%) OpenDNS
9 1 (0.58%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (13.45%) Firewall
2 14 (8.19%) Network Security
3 11 (6.43%) DNS
3 11 (6.43%) TCP/IP
4 6 (3.51%) Internet
4 6 (3.51%) SSL
5 5 (2.92%) FTP
5 5 (2.92%) HTTP
5 5 (2.92%) Intrusion Detection
5 5 (2.92%) SMTP
5 5 (2.92%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (1.75%) VPN
7 2 (1.17%) MIMO
7 2 (1.17%) Multicast
7 2 (1.17%) NAS
7 2 (1.17%) SAN
8 1 (0.58%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.17%) Elasticsearch
1 2 (1.17%) Redis
1 2 (1.17%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.58%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.58%) Power BI
2 1 (0.58%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 4 (2.34%) Git
1 4 (2.34%) JIRA
2 2 (1.17%) GitLab
3 1 (0.58%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.58%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.58%) Metasploit
General
1 37 (21.64%) Analytical Skills
2 35 (20.47%) Social Skills
3 22 (12.87%) Public Sector
4 20 (11.70%) Finance
5 10 (5.85%) Banking
6 9 (5.26%) Telecoms
7 7 (4.09%) Back Office
8 6 (3.51%) Military
8 6 (3.51%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (2.92%) Organisational Skills
10 4 (2.34%) Electronics
10 4 (2.34%) Law
10 4 (2.34%) Legal
10 4 (2.34%) Manufacturing
10 4 (2.34%) Marketing
11 2 (1.17%) Automotive
11 2 (1.17%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.58%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.58%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 63 (36.84%) Analyst
2 36 (21.05%) Senior
3 23 (13.45%) Security Analyst
3 23 (13.45%) SOC Analyst
4 21 (12.28%) Senior Analyst
5 16 (9.36%) Architect
6 15 (8.77%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 8 (4.68%) Lead
7 8 (4.68%) Security Architect
7 8 (4.68%) Security Specialist
8 7 (4.09%) Consultant
8 7 (4.09%) Operations Analyst
8 7 (4.09%) Project Manager
8 7 (4.09%) SOC Architect
8 7 (4.09%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
9 6 (3.51%) Security Engineer
9 6 (3.51%) Technical Manager
10 5 (2.92%) Network Support
10 5 (2.92%) Senior Technical Analyst
10 5 (2.92%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.92%) LDAP
2 3 (1.75%) Loki
2 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Graph
2 3 (1.75%) REST
2 3 (1.75%) SailPoint
3 2 (1.17%) Kafka
3 2 (1.17%) React
3 2 (1.17%) RESTful
3 2 (1.17%) WebSockets
4 1 (0.58%) AWS CDK
4 1 (0.58%) WebCenter
Miscellaneous
1 22 (12.87%) Security Operations Centre
2 18 (10.53%) Management Information System
2 18 (10.53%) Security Posture
3 15 (8.77%) Cyber Defence
4 14 (8.19%) Cyberattack
5 12 (7.02%) Onboarding
6 10 (5.85%) CSOC
7 8 (4.68%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 7 (4.09%) Cybercrime
9 6 (3.51%) Virtual Team
10 5 (2.92%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.75%) Enterprise Storage
11 3 (1.75%) Mobile App
11 3 (1.75%) Operational Technology
11 3 (1.75%) Product Ownership
12 2 (1.17%) Derivative
12 2 (1.17%) Energy Derivatives
12 2 (1.17%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (1.17%) Hybrid Cloud
12 2 (1.17%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 17 (9.94%) Linux
2 14 (8.19%) Windows
3 4 (2.34%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.75%) Android
4 3 (1.75%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.58%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.58%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
2 70 (40.94%) Incident Response
3 54 (31.58%) SIEM
4 49 (28.65%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 49 (28.65%) Threat Intelligence
5 48 (28.07%) Security Operations
6 36 (21.05%) Cyber Intelligence
7 32 (18.71%) Threat Detection
8 29 (16.96%) Information Security
9 27 (15.79%) MITRE ATT&CK
10 24 (14.04%) Threat Modelling
10 24 (14.04%) Vulnerability Management
11 19 (11.11%) Problem-Solving
11 19 (11.11%) Risk Management
12 18 (10.53%) Actionable Insight
13 17 (9.94%) Cloud Security
13 17 (9.94%) Stakeholder Management
14 16 (9.36%) Continuous Improvement
14 16 (9.36%) Critical Thinking
15 15 (8.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 30 (17.54%) Python
2 17 (9.94%) PowerShell
3 5 (2.92%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (2.34%) Java
4 4 (2.34%) Perl
4 4 (2.34%) SQL
5 3 (1.75%) Bash
5 3 (1.75%) JavaScript
5 3 (1.75%) TypeScript
6 2 (1.17%) Rust
7 1 (0.58%) Go
7 1 (0.58%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 80 (46.78%) Security Cleared
2 59 (34.50%) SC Cleared
3 28 (16.37%) CISSP
4 23 (13.45%) CISM
4 23 (13.45%) DV Cleared
5 17 (9.94%) Degree
5 17 (9.94%) GIAC
6 14 (8.19%) CEH
7 12 (7.02%) CompTIA Security+
8 10 (5.85%) CompTIA CySA+
9 7 (4.09%) OSCP
10 6 (3.51%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (3.51%) GREM
11 5 (2.92%) CREST Certified
11 5 (2.92%) GCIH
12 4 (2.34%) AWS Certification
12 4 (2.34%) Azure Certification
12 4 (2.34%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (2.34%) Master's Degree
13 3 (1.75%) GCFA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (23.98%) NIST
2 31 (18.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (14.04%) NCSC
4 13 (7.60%) Cyber Essentials
5 12 (7.02%) GDPR
6 8 (4.68%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (3.51%) JSP 440
7 6 (3.51%) QA
8 3 (1.75%) Accessibility
8 3 (1.75%) GRC
9 2 (1.17%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (1.17%) ISO 9001
9 2 (1.17%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.58%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.58%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.58%) ITGC
10 1 (0.58%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.58%) PMO
System Software
1 10 (5.85%) Active Directory
2 5 (2.92%) Virtual Desktop
2 5 (2.92%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.58%) Docker
3 1 (0.58%) Snort
3 1 (0.58%) Squid
Systems Management
1 4 (2.34%) Kubernetes
1 4 (2.34%) Nessus
1 4 (2.34%) Prometheus
1 4 (2.34%) Terraform
2 3 (1.75%) Ansible
2 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 3 (1.75%) Nexpose
3 2 (1.17%) Grafana
3 2 (1.17%) QRadar
3 2 (1.17%) Red Hat Satellite
4 1 (0.58%) CASB
4 1 (0.58%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
4 1 (0.58%) CSIRT
4 1 (0.58%) Host Intrusion Detection System
4 1 (0.58%) RSA Archer
4 1 (0.58%) Suricata
Vendors
1 34 (19.88%) Microsoft
2 22 (12.87%) Splunk
3 8 (4.68%) CrowdStrike
4 7 (4.09%) CyberArk
5 5 (2.92%) Google
6 4 (2.34%) Intel
6 4 (2.34%) SAP
6 4 (2.34%) Tenable
7 3 (1.75%) Computacenter
7 3 (1.75%) LogRhythm
7 3 (1.75%) Palo Alto
8 2 (1.17%) Apple
8 2 (1.17%) Cisco
8 2 (1.17%) F5
8 2 (1.17%) Proofpoint
8 2 (1.17%) QAD
8 2 (1.17%) Qualys
8 2 (1.17%) Rapid7
8 2 (1.17%) Red Hat
8 2 (1.17%) ServiceNow