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 21 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 448 413 359
Rank change year-on-year -35 -54 +80
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 243 152 212
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.47% 0.55%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.32% 1.30% 1.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 153 74 118
10th Percentile £416 £448 £496
25th Percentile £513 £486 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £655
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -16.03% +9.17%
75th Percentile £750 £697 £788
90th Percentile £800 £775 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £580 £690
% change year-on-year -0.86% -15.94% +23.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 25 9 3
10th Percentile £68.48 £44.39 £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 £75.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £92.11 £77.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £80.00 £65.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +23.08% +13.04% +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 18,412 11,661 11,699
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.88% 35.71% 30.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,041 7,132 7,141
10th Percentile £320 £295 £294
25th Percentile £425 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £540
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -4.63% -1.82%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £807
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,193 587 467
10th Percentile £14.00 £15.00 £14.46
25th Percentile £18.00 £18.87 £21.53
Median hourly rate £38.25 £29.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.66% -41.00% +12.36%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.13 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.05 £73.30 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £30.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +33.33% -47.69% +17.04%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -27 222 £575 +2.68% 554
UK excluding London -31 156 £575 -0.86% 331
London -63 76 £575 +9.52% 261
Work from Home -48 62 £565 -2.54% 230
South East -38 44 £575 +10.05% 91
North of England -48 31 £588 +17.22% 74
East of England -15 29 £550 -17.29% 39
South West -34 26 £800 +3.23% 30
North West -39 22 £600 +19.71% 44
Midlands - 16 £688 - 49
West Midlands - 16 £688 - 26
Scotland -26 12 £800 +52.38% 38
Yorkshire - 9 £588 - 25
Wales - 4 £800 - 11

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 (2.88%) Confluence
1 7 (2.88%) IIS
2 5 (2.06%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.41%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (0.41%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.41%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 52 (21.40%) Azure
2 35 (14.40%) AWS
3 27 (11.11%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (5.76%) Entra ID
5 12 (4.94%) GCP
6 11 (4.53%) SaaS
7 10 (4.12%) Datadog
8 7 (2.88%) Azure Sentinel
8 7 (2.88%) PaaS
9 6 (2.47%) IaaS
9 6 (2.47%) Microsoft Purview
10 5 (2.06%) Akamai
10 5 (2.06%) Power Platform
11 4 (1.65%) Amazon ECS
11 4 (1.65%) GitHub
11 4 (1.65%) Serverless
12 3 (1.23%) GitHub Actions
13 2 (0.82%) AWS CodeBuild
13 2 (0.82%) AWS CodePipeline
13 2 (0.82%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 31 (12.76%) Network Security
2 20 (8.23%) HTTP
3 16 (6.58%) Firewall
4 15 (6.17%) DNS
5 12 (4.94%) SSL
6 11 (4.53%) TCP/IP
7 10 (4.12%) Intrusion Detection
8 8 (3.29%) VPN
9 5 (2.06%) DHCP
9 5 (2.06%) Intranet
9 5 (2.06%) SAN
9 5 (2.06%) SMTP
9 5 (2.06%) VLAN
9 5 (2.06%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (1.23%) Broadband
10 3 (1.23%) DMZ
10 3 (1.23%) FTP
11 1 (0.41%) DKIM
11 1 (0.41%) DMARC
11 1 (0.41%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.47%) Big Data
1 6 (2.47%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.82%) Amazon QuickSight
3 1 (0.41%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.41%) MySQL
3 1 (0.41%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.41%) Power BI
3 1 (0.41%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.41%) Semantic Layer
3 1 (0.41%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 5 (2.06%) Chocolatey
2 3 (1.23%) Git
3 2 (0.82%) JIRA
General
1 68 (27.98%) Social Skills
2 57 (23.46%) Analytical Skills
3 37 (15.23%) Public Sector
4 29 (11.93%) Finance
5 12 (4.94%) Banking
6 11 (4.53%) Aerospace
7 7 (2.88%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (2.88%) Manufacturing
7 7 (2.88%) Military
8 6 (2.47%) Back Office
8 6 (2.47%) Law
8 6 (2.47%) Legal
9 4 (1.65%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.82%) Local Government
12 1 (0.41%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.41%) Games
12 1 (0.41%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.41%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 64 (26.34%) Analyst
2 26 (10.70%) Security Engineer
3 25 (10.29%) Cyber Threat Analyst
4 23 (9.47%) Senior
4 23 (9.47%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (8.64%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (8.64%) Security Analyst
6 19 (7.82%) Architect
7 17 (7.00%) Security Architect
7 17 (7.00%) SOC Analyst
8 16 (6.58%) Security Manager
9 13 (5.35%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 12 (4.94%) Coordinator
10 12 (4.94%) Security Specialist
10 12 (4.94%) SOC Manager
11 11 (4.53%) Lead
12 10 (4.12%) Cybersecurity Analyst
12 10 (4.12%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 10 (4.12%) Operations Manager
13 9 (3.70%) Operational Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (4.53%) Terraform
2 10 (4.12%) LDAP
3 9 (3.70%) JSON
4 8 (3.29%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (3.29%) Regular Expression
5 5 (2.06%) Kafka
6 3 (1.23%) Django
6 3 (1.23%) REST
7 2 (0.82%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.82%) PySpark
7 2 (0.82%) XML
8 1 (0.41%) Ajax
8 1 (0.41%) CSS
8 1 (0.41%) HTML
8 1 (0.41%) JWT
8 1 (0.41%) SOAP
8 1 (0.41%) Web Services
8 1 (0.41%) XHTML
Miscellaneous
1 36 (14.81%) Security Operations Centre
2 30 (12.35%) Security Posture
3 22 (9.05%) Cyber Defence
4 17 (7.00%) Onboarding
4 17 (7.00%) Operational Technology
5 14 (5.76%) Management Information System
6 8 (3.29%) Analytical Mindset
6 8 (3.29%) CSOC
6 8 (3.29%) Cyberattack
7 7 (2.88%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 6 (2.47%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 6 (2.47%) IoT
8 6 (2.47%) SCADA
9 5 (2.06%) Cloud Native
9 5 (2.06%) Industrial Internet of Things
10 4 (1.65%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
11 3 (1.23%) PKI
11 3 (1.23%) YARA
12 2 (0.82%) Insider Threat
Operating Systems
1 28 (11.52%) Windows
2 18 (7.41%) Linux
3 5 (2.06%) Unix
4 2 (0.82%) Mac OS
4 2 (0.82%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 174 (71.60%) Cybersecurity
2 121 (49.79%) Incident Response
3 99 (40.74%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 99 (40.74%) Threat Intelligence
4 97 (39.92%) Security Operations
5 78 (32.10%) SIEM
6 62 (25.51%) Vulnerability Management
7 52 (21.40%) Cyber Intelligence
8 51 (20.99%) Stakeholder Management
9 50 (20.58%) Continuous Improvement
10 49 (20.16%) Threat Detection
11 44 (18.11%) Risk Management
12 36 (14.81%) MITRE ATT&CK
13 35 (14.40%) Information Security
13 35 (14.40%) Problem-Solving
14 34 (13.99%) Cloud Security
14 34 (13.99%) Security Monitoring
15 31 (12.76%) Incident Management
16 30 (12.35%) Cyber Resilience
17 28 (11.52%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 34 (13.99%) Python
2 18 (7.41%) PowerShell
3 9 (3.70%) Bash
3 9 (3.70%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (1.65%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.23%) Perl
6 2 (0.82%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.82%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.82%) SQL
7 1 (0.41%) C
7 1 (0.41%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 120 (49.38%) Security Cleared
2 85 (34.98%) SC Cleared
3 39 (16.05%) CISSP
4 36 (14.81%) DV Cleared
5 33 (13.58%) CISM
6 24 (9.88%) Degree
7 9 (3.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 9 (3.70%) Azure Certification
7 9 (3.70%) Cisco Certification
7 9 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (3.70%) GIAC
8 8 (3.29%) AWS Certification
8 8 (3.29%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (2.47%) GCIA
9 6 (2.47%) GCIH
9 6 (2.47%) SANS
10 5 (2.06%) CEH
10 5 (2.06%) CompTIA Security+
10 5 (2.06%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (1.65%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (22.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 39 (16.05%) NIST
3 24 (9.88%) GDPR
3 24 (9.88%) NCSC
4 10 (4.12%) Cyber Essentials
5 9 (3.70%) SLA
6 7 (2.88%) GRC
6 7 (2.88%) PCI DSS
7 6 (2.47%) COBIT
7 6 (2.47%) NIST 800
8 4 (1.65%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 4 (1.65%) ISO 22301
9 3 (1.23%) ISO 19650
10 2 (0.82%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 1 (0.41%) Data Quality
11 1 (0.41%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.41%) ISO 31000
11 1 (0.41%) QA
System Software
1 20 (8.23%) Active Directory
2 10 (4.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (3.70%) Hyper-V
4 7 (2.88%) NFS
4 7 (2.88%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (2.06%) Docker
6 1 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 9 (3.70%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (2.88%) Ansible
2 7 (2.88%) SCCM
3 5 (2.06%) Grafana
3 5 (2.06%) QRadar
4 4 (1.65%) Kubernetes
5 2 (0.82%) CASB
5 2 (0.82%) CSIRT
5 2 (0.82%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 47 (19.34%) Microsoft
2 23 (9.47%) Splunk
3 12 (4.94%) VMware
4 8 (3.29%) Databricks
5 7 (2.88%) Tenable
6 5 (2.06%) AppDynamics
6 5 (2.06%) Dynatrace
6 5 (2.06%) Google
6 5 (2.06%) ServiceNow
6 5 (2.06%) SolarWinds
7 3 (1.23%) Blue Coat
7 3 (1.23%) Clearswift
7 3 (1.23%) Netskope
7 3 (1.23%) Oracle
7 3 (1.23%) Palo Alto
7 3 (1.23%) Tanium
7 3 (1.23%) Trend Micro
7 3 (1.23%) Tripwire
7 3 (1.23%) Zscaler
8 2 (0.82%) Rapid7