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 9 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 440 397 360
Rank change year-on-year -43 -37 +64
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 255 162 207
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.49% 0.55%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.35% 1.35% 1.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 156 76 111
10th Percentile £425 £463 £488
25th Percentile £525 £498 £545
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £594 £578 £650
Median % change year-on-year +2.81% -11.15% +8.33%
75th Percentile £750 £691 £775
90th Percentile £800 £773 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £588 £590 £675
% change year-on-year -0.42% -12.64% +20.60%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 10 3
10th Percentile £60.80 £41.94 £40.25
25th Percentile - £45.00 £46.25
Median hourly rate £80.00 £47.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +70.21% -18.26% +29.21%
75th Percentile £85.00 £74.38 £58.75
90th Percentile £92.11 £76.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £80.00 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +45.45% -4.35% +29.21%

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 18,832 11,957 11,618
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.55% 36.05% 30.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,247 7,331 6,955
10th Percentile £323 £294 £275
25th Percentile £425 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £668
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,304 622 414
10th Percentile £13.91 £14.69 £15.65
25th Percentile £17.50 £18.51 £22.50
Median hourly rate £36.00 £27.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.91% -42.11% +6.15%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.44 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.03 £72.40 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.11 £27.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year +27.67% -50.00% +8.46%

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 9 October 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 9 October 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 9 October 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 -23 235 £588 +0.43% 437
UK excluding London -28 161 £588 -0.42% 257
London -63 84 £600 +12.15% 203
Work from Home -45 68 £575 -1.29% 195
South East -32 48 £575 +9.79% 65
East of England -17 31 £550 -15.38% 30
North of England -49 28 £575 +14.72% 62
South West -26 27 £800 +6.67% 29
North West -40 23 £575 +14.72% 34
Midlands -29 17 £750 +25.00% 33
West Midlands -31 17 £750 +25.00% 22
Scotland -27 12 £800 +45.45% 27
Yorkshire - 5 £501 - 19
Wales - 4 £800 - 12

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 7 (2.75%) Confluence
1 7 (2.75%) IIS
2 2 (0.78%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.39%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.39%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.39%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.39%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 51 (20.00%) Azure
2 33 (12.94%) AWS
3 29 (11.37%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (6.27%) Entra ID
5 12 (4.71%) GCP
6 11 (4.31%) SaaS
7 9 (3.53%) Azure Sentinel
7 9 (3.53%) Datadog
8 6 (2.35%) Microsoft Purview
8 6 (2.35%) PaaS
9 5 (1.96%) Akamai
9 5 (1.96%) IaaS
9 5 (1.96%) Power Platform
10 4 (1.57%) Amazon ECS
10 4 (1.57%) Serverless
11 3 (1.18%) Azure DevOps
11 3 (1.18%) GitHub
11 3 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (0.78%) AWS CodePipeline
12 2 (0.78%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 34 (13.33%) Network Security
2 20 (7.84%) HTTP
3 17 (6.67%) Firewall
4 14 (5.49%) DNS
5 13 (5.10%) SSL
6 11 (4.31%) Intrusion Detection
6 11 (4.31%) TCP/IP
7 8 (3.14%) VPN
8 5 (1.96%) Intranet
8 5 (1.96%) SMTP
9 4 (1.57%) Broadband
9 4 (1.57%) DHCP
9 4 (1.57%) SAN
9 4 (1.57%) VLAN
9 4 (1.57%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (1.18%) DMZ
10 3 (1.18%) FTP
11 1 (0.39%) Internet
11 1 (0.39%) SSH
11 1 (0.39%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.96%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.18%) Big Data
3 2 (0.78%) Amazon QuickSight
4 1 (0.39%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.39%) MySQL
4 1 (0.39%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.39%) Power BI
4 1 (0.39%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.39%) Semantic Layer
4 1 (0.39%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 4 (1.57%) Chocolatey
2 3 (1.18%) Git
3 2 (0.78%) JIRA
General
1 73 (28.63%) Social Skills
2 61 (23.92%) Analytical Skills
3 35 (13.73%) Public Sector
4 27 (10.59%) Finance
5 13 (5.10%) Banking
6 11 (4.31%) Aerospace
7 7 (2.75%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (2.75%) Manufacturing
7 7 (2.75%) Military
8 6 (2.35%) Back Office
8 6 (2.35%) Law
9 4 (1.57%) Legal
9 4 (1.57%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (1.57%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.78%) Local Government
11 1 (0.39%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.39%) Games
11 1 (0.39%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.39%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 70 (27.45%) Analyst
2 28 (10.98%) Cyber Threat Analyst
3 27 (10.59%) Security Engineer
4 26 (10.20%) Senior
5 25 (9.80%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
6 22 (8.63%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
7 21 (8.24%) Architect
8 20 (7.84%) Security Analyst
8 20 (7.84%) SOC Analyst
9 19 (7.45%) Security Architect
10 18 (7.06%) Security Manager
11 13 (5.10%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 12 (4.71%) Coordinator
12 12 (4.71%) Security Specialist
12 12 (4.71%) SOC Manager
13 10 (3.92%) Cybersecurity Analyst
13 10 (3.92%) Lead
13 10 (3.92%) Operations Manager
14 9 (3.53%) Operational Security Manager
14 9 (3.53%) Security Operations Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (5.10%) Terraform
2 10 (3.92%) LDAP
3 9 (3.53%) JSON
4 8 (3.14%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (3.14%) Regular Expression
5 5 (1.96%) Kafka
6 3 (1.18%) REST
7 2 (0.78%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.78%) Django
7 2 (0.78%) PySpark
7 2 (0.78%) Web Services
7 2 (0.78%) XML
8 1 (0.39%) Ajax
8 1 (0.39%) CSS
8 1 (0.39%) HTML
8 1 (0.39%) JWT
8 1 (0.39%) RESTful
8 1 (0.39%) SOAP
8 1 (0.39%) XHTML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (14.51%) Security Operations Centre
2 32 (12.55%) Security Posture
3 22 (8.63%) Cyber Defence
4 20 (7.84%) Onboarding
5 19 (7.45%) Management Information System
6 18 (7.06%) Operational Technology
7 12 (4.71%) Cyberattack
8 8 (3.14%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (3.14%) CSOC
9 6 (2.35%) Cloud Native
9 6 (2.35%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 6 (2.35%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 6 (2.35%) IoT
9 6 (2.35%) SCADA
10 5 (1.96%) Industrial Internet of Things
11 4 (1.57%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (1.57%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (1.57%) PKI
12 3 (1.18%) YARA
13 2 (0.78%) MISP
Operating Systems
1 28 (10.98%) Windows
2 17 (6.67%) Linux
3 4 (1.57%) Unix
4 2 (0.78%) Mac OS
4 2 (0.78%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.39%) Windows 10
5 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.39%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 186 (72.94%) Cybersecurity
2 131 (51.37%) Incident Response
3 108 (42.35%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 108 (42.35%) Threat Intelligence
4 107 (41.96%) Security Operations
5 80 (31.37%) SIEM
6 66 (25.88%) Vulnerability Management
7 55 (21.57%) Continuous Improvement
7 55 (21.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 54 (21.18%) Cyber Intelligence
9 49 (19.22%) Threat Detection
10 47 (18.43%) Risk Management
11 41 (16.08%) MITRE ATT&CK
12 40 (15.69%) Security Monitoring
13 37 (14.51%) Problem-Solving
14 36 (14.12%) Cloud Security
15 35 (13.73%) Information Security
16 34 (13.33%) Incident Management
17 33 (12.94%) Cyber Resilience
18 29 (11.37%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 32 (12.55%) Python
2 22 (8.63%) PowerShell
3 11 (4.31%) Kusto Query Language
4 10 (3.92%) Bash
5 4 (1.57%) Search Processing Language
6 3 (1.18%) Perl
7 2 (0.78%) JavaScript
7 2 (0.78%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.78%) SQL
8 1 (0.39%) Bicep
8 1 (0.39%) C
8 1 (0.39%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 127 (49.80%) Security Cleared
2 90 (35.29%) SC Cleared
3 43 (16.86%) CISSP
4 39 (15.29%) DV Cleared
5 36 (14.12%) CISM
6 25 (9.80%) Degree
7 10 (3.92%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 10 (3.92%) Azure Certification
7 10 (3.92%) Cisco Certification
7 10 (3.92%) GIAC
8 9 (3.53%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (3.14%) AWS Certification
9 8 (3.14%) BPSS Clearance
9 8 (3.14%) GCIA
10 7 (2.75%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (2.35%) CRISC
11 6 (2.35%) GCIH
11 6 (2.35%) SANS
12 5 (1.96%) CEH
12 5 (1.96%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 60 (23.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 43 (16.86%) NIST
3 29 (11.37%) NCSC
4 26 (10.20%) GDPR
5 11 (4.31%) Cyber Essentials
6 10 (3.92%) PCI DSS
7 8 (3.14%) SLA
8 7 (2.75%) NIST 800
9 6 (2.35%) COBIT
9 6 (2.35%) GRC
10 4 (1.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (1.57%) ISO 19650
10 4 (1.57%) ISO 22301
11 2 (0.78%) Def Stans
11 2 (0.78%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 2 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.39%) Actionable Recommendations
12 1 (0.39%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.39%) ISO 31000
12 1 (0.39%) QA
System Software
1 21 (8.24%) Active Directory
2 9 (3.53%) Hyper-V
2 9 (3.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (3.14%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (2.75%) NFS
5 4 (1.57%) Docker
Systems Management
1 9 (3.53%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (3.14%) Ansible
3 6 (2.35%) QRadar
3 6 (2.35%) SCCM
4 5 (1.96%) Grafana
4 5 (1.96%) Kubernetes
5 3 (1.18%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.78%) CASB
6 2 (0.78%) CSIRT
Vendors
1 55 (21.57%) Microsoft
2 24 (9.41%) Splunk
3 11 (4.31%) VMware
4 7 (2.75%) ServiceNow
4 7 (2.75%) SolarWinds
5 6 (2.35%) Tenable
6 5 (1.96%) Databricks
6 5 (1.96%) Google
7 4 (1.57%) AppDynamics
7 4 (1.57%) Dynatrace
7 4 (1.57%) LogRhythm
7 4 (1.57%) Rapid7
8 3 (1.18%) Blue Coat
8 3 (1.18%) Netskope
8 3 (1.18%) Palo Alto
8 3 (1.18%) Sophos
8 3 (1.18%) Tanium
8 3 (1.18%) Trend Micro
8 3 (1.18%) Tripwire
8 3 (1.18%) Zscaler