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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 437 401 367
Rank change year-on-year -36 -34 +75
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 248 152 211
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.46% 0.55%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.32% 1.29% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 155 76 117
10th Percentile £418 £449 £495
25th Percentile £519 £488 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £558 £650
Median % change year-on-year +3.14% -14.23% +8.33%
75th Percentile £750 £700 £788
90th Percentile £800 £773 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £580 £690
% change year-on-year -0.86% -15.94% +22.12%
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 18,746 11,804 11,695
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.17% 35.69% 30.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,222 7,232 7,078
10th Percentile £320 £294 £285
25th Percentile £425 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £538
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -3.26% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £750 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,233 599 447
10th Percentile £14.01 £15.10 £15.22
25th Percentile £17.85 £18.87 £22.50
Median hourly rate £37.50 £29.33 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.86% -41.34% +12.36%
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.34 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £30.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +27.50% -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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -24 228 £575 -0.43% 483
UK excluding London -25 158 £575 -0.86% 303
London -60 80 £588 +11.90% 212
Work from Home -32 65 £565 -2.54% 214
South East -43 44 £575 +9.79% 87
North of England -51 32 £588 +17.22% 68
East of England -21 30 £550 -15.38% 31
South West -36 26 £800 +6.67% 29
North West -33 23 £575 +14.72% 38
Midlands - 16 £688 - 45
West Midlands - 16 £688 - 26
Scotland -22 12 £800 +52.38% 34
Yorkshire - 9 £588 - 21
Wales - 4 £800 - 9

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 (2.82%) Confluence
1 7 (2.82%) IIS
2 5 (2.02%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.40%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (0.40%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.40%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.40%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 53 (21.37%) Azure
2 34 (13.71%) AWS
3 27 (10.89%) Microsoft 365
4 15 (6.05%) Entra ID
5 12 (4.84%) GCP
6 10 (4.03%) SaaS
7 9 (3.63%) Datadog
8 8 (3.23%) Azure Sentinel
9 6 (2.42%) Microsoft Purview
9 6 (2.42%) PaaS
10 5 (2.02%) Akamai
10 5 (2.02%) IaaS
10 5 (2.02%) Power Platform
11 4 (1.61%) Amazon ECS
11 4 (1.61%) Serverless
12 3 (1.21%) GitHub
12 3 (1.21%) GitHub Actions
13 2 (0.81%) AWS CodeBuild
13 2 (0.81%) AWS CodePipeline
13 2 (0.81%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 32 (12.90%) Network Security
2 20 (8.06%) HTTP
3 16 (6.45%) Firewall
4 14 (5.65%) DNS
5 13 (5.24%) SSL
6 11 (4.44%) TCP/IP
7 10 (4.03%) Intrusion Detection
8 8 (3.23%) VPN
9 5 (2.02%) Intranet
9 5 (2.02%) SMTP
10 4 (1.61%) Broadband
10 4 (1.61%) DHCP
10 4 (1.61%) SAN
10 4 (1.61%) VLAN
10 4 (1.61%) Wi-Fi
11 3 (1.21%) DMZ
11 3 (1.21%) FTP
12 1 (0.40%) DKIM
12 1 (0.40%) Internet
12 1 (0.40%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.42%) Big Data
2 5 (2.02%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.81%) Amazon QuickSight
4 1 (0.40%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.40%) MySQL
4 1 (0.40%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.40%) Power BI
4 1 (0.40%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
4 1 (0.40%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 4 (1.61%) Chocolatey
2 3 (1.21%) Git
3 2 (0.81%) JIRA
General
1 72 (29.03%) Social Skills
2 57 (22.98%) Analytical Skills
3 36 (14.52%) Public Sector
4 30 (12.10%) Finance
5 13 (5.24%) Banking
6 11 (4.44%) Aerospace
7 7 (2.82%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (2.82%) Manufacturing
7 7 (2.82%) Military
8 6 (2.42%) Back Office
8 6 (2.42%) Law
8 6 (2.42%) Legal
9 4 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.21%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.81%) Local Government
12 1 (0.40%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.40%) Games
12 1 (0.40%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.40%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 65 (26.21%) Analyst
2 27 (10.89%) Security Engineer
3 25 (10.08%) Cyber Threat Analyst
3 25 (10.08%) Senior
4 23 (9.27%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (8.47%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (8.47%) Security Analyst
6 20 (8.06%) Architect
7 18 (7.26%) Security Architect
8 17 (6.85%) Security Manager
8 17 (6.85%) SOC Analyst
9 13 (5.24%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 12 (4.84%) Coordinator
10 12 (4.84%) Security Specialist
10 12 (4.84%) SOC Manager
11 11 (4.44%) Lead
12 10 (4.03%) Cybersecurity Analyst
12 10 (4.03%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 10 (4.03%) Operations Manager
13 9 (3.63%) Security Operations Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (4.84%) Terraform
2 10 (4.03%) LDAP
3 9 (3.63%) JSON
4 8 (3.23%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (3.23%) Regular Expression
5 5 (2.02%) Kafka
6 3 (1.21%) REST
7 2 (0.81%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.81%) Django
7 2 (0.81%) PySpark
7 2 (0.81%) Web Services
7 2 (0.81%) XML
8 1 (0.40%) Ajax
8 1 (0.40%) CSS
8 1 (0.40%) HTML
8 1 (0.40%) JWT
8 1 (0.40%) RESTful
8 1 (0.40%) SOAP
8 1 (0.40%) XHTML
Miscellaneous
1 37 (14.92%) Security Operations Centre
2 31 (12.50%) Security Posture
3 23 (9.27%) Cyber Defence
4 18 (7.26%) Onboarding
5 17 (6.85%) Operational Technology
6 16 (6.45%) Management Information System
7 9 (3.63%) Cyberattack
8 8 (3.23%) Analytical Mindset
8 8 (3.23%) CSOC
9 7 (2.82%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 6 (2.42%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 6 (2.42%) IoT
10 6 (2.42%) SCADA
11 5 (2.02%) Cloud Native
11 5 (2.02%) Industrial Internet of Things
12 4 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
12 4 (1.61%) PKI
13 3 (1.21%) YARA
14 2 (0.81%) MISP
Operating Systems
1 27 (10.89%) Windows
2 17 (6.85%) Linux
3 4 (1.61%) Unix
4 2 (0.81%) Mac OS
4 2 (0.81%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (72.98%) Cybersecurity
2 124 (50.00%) Incident Response
3 102 (41.13%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 102 (41.13%) Threat Intelligence
4 99 (39.92%) Security Operations
5 79 (31.85%) SIEM
6 63 (25.40%) Vulnerability Management
7 54 (21.77%) Stakeholder Management
8 52 (20.97%) Continuous Improvement
8 52 (20.97%) Cyber Intelligence
9 51 (20.56%) Threat Detection
10 45 (18.15%) Risk Management
11 37 (14.92%) MITRE ATT&CK
12 36 (14.52%) Cloud Security
13 35 (14.11%) Information Security
13 35 (14.11%) Security Monitoring
14 34 (13.71%) Problem-Solving
15 32 (12.90%) Incident Management
16 31 (12.50%) Cyber Resilience
17 29 (11.69%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 35 (14.11%) Python
2 20 (8.06%) PowerShell
3 10 (4.03%) Bash
3 10 (4.03%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (1.61%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.21%) Perl
6 2 (0.81%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.81%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.81%) SQL
7 1 (0.40%) C
7 1 (0.40%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 121 (48.79%) Security Cleared
2 86 (34.68%) SC Cleared
3 41 (16.53%) CISSP
4 36 (14.52%) DV Cleared
5 34 (13.71%) CISM
6 24 (9.68%) Degree
7 10 (4.03%) Azure Certification
8 9 (3.63%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 9 (3.63%) Cisco Certification
8 9 (3.63%) Computer Science Degree
8 9 (3.63%) GIAC
9 8 (3.23%) AWS Certification
9 8 (3.23%) BPSS Clearance
10 7 (2.82%) GCIA
10 7 (2.82%) GCIH
11 6 (2.42%) CompTIA Security+
11 6 (2.42%) SANS
12 5 (2.02%) CEH
12 5 (2.02%) CRISC
12 5 (2.02%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (23.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 42 (16.94%) NIST
3 26 (10.48%) NCSC
4 25 (10.08%) GDPR
5 10 (4.03%) Cyber Essentials
6 9 (3.63%) PCI DSS
7 8 (3.23%) SLA
8 7 (2.82%) GRC
9 6 (2.42%) COBIT
9 6 (2.42%) NIST 800
10 4 (1.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 4 (1.61%) ISO 22301
11 3 (1.21%) ISO 19650
12 2 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 1 (0.40%) Data Quality
13 1 (0.40%) Def Stans
13 1 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
13 1 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.40%) ISO 31000
13 1 (0.40%) QA
System Software
1 20 (8.06%) Active Directory
2 9 (3.63%) Hyper-V
2 9 (3.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (2.82%) NFS
3 7 (2.82%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.61%) Docker
Systems Management
1 8 (3.23%) Ansible
1 8 (3.23%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (2.42%) SCCM
3 5 (2.02%) Grafana
3 5 (2.02%) QRadar
4 4 (1.61%) Kubernetes
5 3 (1.21%) Progress Chef
6 2 (0.81%) CASB
6 2 (0.81%) CSIRT
Vendors
1 49 (19.76%) Microsoft
2 23 (9.27%) Splunk
3 11 (4.44%) VMware
4 8 (3.23%) Databricks
5 6 (2.42%) ServiceNow
5 6 (2.42%) SolarWinds
5 6 (2.42%) Tenable
6 5 (2.02%) Google
7 4 (1.61%) AppDynamics
7 4 (1.61%) Dynatrace
8 3 (1.21%) Blue Coat
8 3 (1.21%) Clearswift
8 3 (1.21%) Netskope
8 3 (1.21%) Oracle
8 3 (1.21%) Palo Alto
8 3 (1.21%) Rapid7
8 3 (1.21%) Tanium
8 3 (1.21%) Trend Micro
8 3 (1.21%) Tripwire
8 3 (1.21%) Zscaler