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

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 449 393 384
Rank change year-on-year -56 -9 +189
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 165 123 223
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.42% 0.50%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.13% 1.25% 1.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 106 73 142
10th Percentile £382 £434 £450
25th Percentile £450 £495 £519
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £570
Median % change year-on-year - -3.51% -8.43%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £755 £720 £845
UK excluding London median daily rate £564 £550 £568
% change year-on-year +2.55% -3.08% -9.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £41.94 £80.34 £81.75
Median hourly rate £55.50 £80.68 £83.50
Median % change year-on-year -31.21% -3.38% +27.97%
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.56 £85.25
90th Percentile £97.45 £81.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.50 £80.68 £83.50
% change year-on-year -31.21% -3.38% +27.97%

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 14,617 9,829 13,418
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.83% 33.81% 30.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,187 6,301 8,593
10th Percentile £300 £296 £259
25th Percentile £410 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £535
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.87% -2.73%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 688 377 889
10th Percentile £15.72 £16.95 £12.26
25th Percentile £19.33 £22.50 £15.39
Median hourly rate £42.60 £32.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.08% +18.18% +22.30%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £85.43 £83.20 £67.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £32.50 £25.50
% change year-on-year +39.88% +27.45% +15.91%

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 March 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 March 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 31 March 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 -65 146 £550 - 52
UK excluding London -61 101 £564 +2.55% 41
London -61 47 £535 +1.90% 22
Work from Home -35 34 £575 +4.55% 23
North of England -39 33 £476 -6.48% 11
South East -48 26 £585 +10.90% 18
North West -11 25 £476 -6.48% 5
East of England -35 16 £553 -7.83% 5
West Midlands -45 15 £600 - 2
Midlands -57 15 £600 - 6
Scotland +5 12 £350 -30.00% 2
Yorkshire - 8 £475 - 3
Wales -10 1 - -
South West -30 1 £525 -4.55% 1

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 2 (1.21%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.61%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.61%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (1.82%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.61%) Trello
Business Applications
1 1 (0.61%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 34 (20.61%) Azure
2 20 (12.12%) AWS
3 15 (9.09%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (5.45%) Entra ID
5 8 (4.85%) SaaS
6 7 (4.24%) Datadog
6 7 (4.24%) IaaS
6 7 (4.24%) PaaS
7 5 (3.03%) Azure Key Vault
7 5 (3.03%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (1.82%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (1.82%) Power Platform
9 2 (1.21%) Amazon OpenSearch
9 2 (1.21%) Amazon S3
9 2 (1.21%) GCP
9 2 (1.21%) GitHub
10 1 (0.61%) Akamai
10 1 (0.61%) Asana
10 1 (0.61%) AWS Lambda
10 1 (0.61%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 21 (12.73%) Firewall
2 18 (10.91%) Network Security
3 17 (10.30%) DNS
4 11 (6.67%) Wi-Fi
5 10 (6.06%) TCP/IP
6 9 (5.45%) SAN
7 8 (4.85%) VPN
8 7 (4.24%) SSL
9 6 (3.64%) DHCP
9 6 (3.64%) VLAN
10 5 (3.03%) FTP
10 5 (3.03%) HTTP
10 5 (3.03%) SMTP
11 3 (1.82%) Intrusion Detection
12 2 (1.21%) MIMO
12 2 (1.21%) Multicast
12 2 (1.21%) NAS
13 1 (0.61%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.06%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.82%) Redis
3 2 (1.21%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.61%) Big Data
4 1 (0.61%) Power BI
4 1 (0.61%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (4.24%) Chocolatey
2 5 (3.03%) Git
3 3 (1.82%) JIRA
4 2 (1.21%) GitLab
5 1 (0.61%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.61%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.61%) Metasploit
General
1 40 (24.24%) Social Skills
2 34 (20.61%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (9.70%) Finance
3 16 (9.70%) Public Sector
4 14 (8.48%) Banking
5 6 (3.64%) Organisational Skills
6 5 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (3.03%) Legal
6 5 (3.03%) Military
6 5 (3.03%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (1.21%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.21%) Law
8 1 (0.61%) Electronics
8 1 (0.61%) Local Government
8 1 (0.61%) Manufacturing
8 1 (0.61%) Marketing
8 1 (0.61%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 58 (35.15%) Analyst
2 40 (24.24%) Senior
3 23 (13.94%) SOC Analyst
4 21 (12.73%) Senior Analyst
5 16 (9.70%) Security Analyst
6 15 (9.09%) Architect
7 13 (7.88%) Lead
8 9 (5.45%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 8 (4.85%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
10 7 (4.24%) Azure Engineer
10 7 (4.24%) Lead Architect
10 7 (4.24%) Project Manager
10 7 (4.24%) Security Architect
11 6 (3.64%) Cloud Engineer
11 6 (3.64%) Cyber Threat Analyst
11 6 (3.64%) Technical Manager
12 5 (3.03%) IT Engineer
12 5 (3.03%) Network Analyst
12 5 (3.03%) Network Security Analyst
12 5 (3.03%) Senior IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.03%) LDAP
2 4 (2.42%) Loki
2 4 (2.42%) REST
3 3 (1.82%) Kafka
3 3 (1.82%) React
3 3 (1.82%) RESTful
3 3 (1.82%) WebSockets
4 1 (0.61%) AWS CDK
4 1 (0.61%) Django
4 1 (0.61%) WebCenter
Miscellaneous
1 20 (12.12%) Security Operations Centre
2 16 (9.70%) Cyberattack
2 16 (9.70%) Security Posture
3 14 (8.48%) Management Information System
4 11 (6.67%) Cyber Defence
5 10 (6.06%) CSOC
6 8 (4.85%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 8 (4.85%) Onboarding
6 8 (4.85%) Operational Technology
7 5 (3.03%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (3.03%) Cloud Native
7 5 (3.03%) Private Cloud
7 5 (3.03%) Virtual Team
8 4 (2.42%) Enterprise Storage
9 3 (1.82%) Cybercrime
9 3 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (1.82%) Derivative
9 3 (1.82%) Energy Derivatives
9 3 (1.82%) MISP
9 3 (1.82%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 20 (12.12%) Linux
2 19 (11.52%) Windows
3 3 (1.82%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.61%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.61%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (57.58%) Cybersecurity
2 66 (40.00%) Incident Response
3 47 (28.48%) SIEM
4 41 (24.85%) Security Operations
5 37 (22.42%) Threat Intelligence
6 36 (21.82%) Threat Detection
7 34 (20.61%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
8 27 (16.36%) Problem-Solving
9 26 (15.76%) Threat Modelling
10 25 (15.15%) MITRE ATT&CK
11 24 (14.55%) Cyber Intelligence
12 22 (13.33%) Information Security
13 19 (11.52%) Vulnerability Management
14 18 (10.91%) Continuous Improvement
14 18 (10.91%) Risk Management
15 15 (9.09%) Threat Analysis
16 14 (8.48%) Analytics
16 14 (8.48%) Cloud Security
17 13 (7.88%) Line Management
18 12 (7.27%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 27 (16.36%) Python
2 9 (5.45%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.82%) C
3 3 (1.82%) C++
3 3 (1.82%) Embedded C
3 3 (1.82%) JavaScript
3 3 (1.82%) Kusto Query Language
3 3 (1.82%) Rust
3 3 (1.82%) SQL
3 3 (1.82%) TypeScript
4 2 (1.21%) Bash
5 1 (0.61%) Go
5 1 (0.61%) Perl
5 1 (0.61%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 72 (43.64%) Security Cleared
2 58 (35.15%) SC Cleared
3 23 (13.94%) Degree
4 21 (12.73%) DV Cleared
5 19 (11.52%) CISSP
6 14 (8.48%) CISM
7 10 (6.06%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (5.45%) GIAC
9 7 (4.24%) BPSS Clearance
9 7 (4.24%) CEH
10 6 (3.64%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (3.03%) CREST Certified
11 5 (3.03%) GCIH
11 5 (3.03%) Master's Degree
12 3 (1.82%) Azure Certification
12 3 (1.82%) CompTIA CySA+
12 3 (1.82%) GCFA
13 2 (1.21%) CRISC
13 2 (1.21%) GCIA
13 2 (1.21%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (16.97%) NIST
2 21 (12.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 21 (12.73%) NCSC
3 11 (6.67%) Cyber Essentials
4 9 (5.45%) GDPR
5 8 (4.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 7 (4.24%) GRC
6 7 (4.24%) SLA
7 3 (1.82%) JSP 440
7 3 (1.82%) QA
8 2 (1.21%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 2 (1.21%) PCI DSS
8 2 (1.21%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.61%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.61%) ITGC
9 1 (0.61%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.61%) PMO
System Software
1 15 (9.09%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.24%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (3.03%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.21%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.61%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (4.24%) Microsoft Intune
1 7 (4.24%) SCCM
2 5 (3.03%) Prometheus
2 5 (3.03%) Terraform
3 3 (1.82%) Ansible
3 3 (1.82%) Grafana
4 2 (1.21%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.21%) QRadar
4 2 (1.21%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (0.61%) CASB
5 1 (0.61%) CSIRT
5 1 (0.61%) Host Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.61%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 35 (21.21%) Microsoft
2 20 (12.12%) Splunk
3 10 (6.06%) Tenable
4 7 (4.24%) AppDynamics
4 7 (4.24%) CrowdStrike
4 7 (4.24%) Dynatrace
4 7 (4.24%) VMware
5 6 (3.64%) CyberArk
6 5 (3.03%) Tanium
7 4 (2.42%) Google
7 4 (2.42%) Intel
8 3 (1.82%) Apple
8 3 (1.82%) Computacenter
9 2 (1.21%) Citrix
9 2 (1.21%) Dell
9 2 (1.21%) F5
9 2 (1.21%) Red Hat
10 1 (0.61%) Oracle
10 1 (0.61%) Proofpoint
10 1 (0.61%) SAP