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

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 406 388 421
Rank change year-on-year -18 +33 +179
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 170 136 178
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.47% 0.43% 0.41%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.37% 1.34% 1.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 89 76 116
10th Percentile £400 £463 £441
25th Percentile £463 £523 £524
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £580 £606 £613
Median % change year-on-year -4.33% -1.02% +2.08%
75th Percentile £700 £691 £725
90th Percentile £788 £780 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £586 £613 £569
% change year-on-year -4.37% +7.69% +5.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 2 10
10th Percentile - £38.25 -
25th Percentile £41.94 £41.25 £42.25
Median hourly rate £47.00 £47.50 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.05% +6.74% -32.06%
75th Percentile £60.75 £53.75 £46.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £56.75 £49.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £47.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -5.26% +6.74% -31.80%

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 12,412 10,148 13,310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.24% 32.20% 30.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,795 6,030 8,796
10th Percentile £281 £263 £263
25th Percentile £406 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £535 £545
Median % change year-on-year -6.45% -1.83% -0.91%
75th Percentile £626 £663 £660
90th Percentile £738 £775 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 611 312 555
10th Percentile £14.25 £18.13 £15.50
25th Percentile £18.25 £23.30 £18.94
Median hourly rate £27.50 £33.77 £37.75
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% -10.54% +51.00%
75th Percentile £61.25 £64.56 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.75 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -15.38% -23.53% +102.38%

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 12 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 12 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 12 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 -21 148 £590 -5.60% 170
UK excluding London -29 90 £586 -4.37% 162
London -3 64 £493 -19.59% 79
Work from Home +2 49 £600 - 153
North of England -39 19 £500 -28.32% 32
East of England -9 17 £602 +0.25% 14
South West -9 17 £775 +14.70% 19
South East -11 17 £570 -5.00% 58
Scotland -3 14 £550 -2.22% 23
North West -27 14 £508 -27.14% 28
West Midlands -35 9 £600 -22.58% 4
Midlands -46 9 £600 -22.58% 12
Yorkshire - 5 £450 - 2

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 (1.76%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.18%) Confluence
3 1 (0.59%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (1.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.59%) Trello
Business Applications
1 1 (0.59%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 24 (14.12%) Azure
2 16 (9.41%) AWS
3 13 (7.65%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (5.29%) Entra ID
5 7 (4.12%) Azure Sentinel
6 5 (2.94%) GCP
7 3 (1.76%) Power Platform
8 2 (1.18%) Azure Key Vault
8 2 (1.18%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Purview
8 2 (1.18%) SaaS
9 1 (0.59%) Akamai
9 1 (0.59%) Asana
9 1 (0.59%) AWS CodePipeline
9 1 (0.59%) AWS Lambda
9 1 (0.59%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.59%) GitHub
9 1 (0.59%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.59%) OpenDNS
9 1 (0.59%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 22 (12.94%) Firewall
2 18 (10.59%) Network Security
3 13 (7.65%) DNS
4 9 (5.29%) SSL
5 8 (4.71%) FTP
5 8 (4.71%) HTTP
5 8 (4.71%) SMTP
5 8 (4.71%) TCP/IP
6 6 (3.53%) Internet
7 5 (2.94%) Wi-Fi
8 3 (1.76%) VPN
9 2 (1.18%) Intrusion Detection
9 2 (1.18%) MIMO
10 1 (0.59%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.18%) Redis
2 1 (0.59%) MongoDB
2 1 (0.59%) Power BI
2 1 (0.59%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (1.18%) Git
1 2 (1.18%) JIRA
2 1 (0.59%) Burp Suite
2 1 (0.59%) Metasploit
General
1 43 (25.29%) Social Skills
2 42 (24.71%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (11.76%) Public Sector
4 18 (10.59%) Finance
5 9 (5.29%) Banking
5 9 (5.29%) Telecoms
6 7 (4.12%) Back Office
7 6 (3.53%) Presentation Skills
8 5 (2.94%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (2.94%) Legal
8 5 (2.94%) Military
8 5 (2.94%) Organisational Skills
9 4 (2.35%) Electronics
9 4 (2.35%) Law
9 4 (2.35%) Manufacturing
9 4 (2.35%) Marketing
10 2 (1.18%) Automotive
11 1 (0.59%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.59%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 62 (36.47%) Analyst
2 32 (18.82%) Senior
3 25 (14.71%) SOC Analyst
4 23 (13.53%) Security Analyst
5 18 (10.59%) Senior Analyst
6 16 (9.41%) Architect
6 16 (9.41%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 12 (7.06%) Security Engineer
8 9 (5.29%) Lead
9 8 (4.71%) Security Architect
9 8 (4.71%) Security Specialist
10 7 (4.12%) Consultant
10 7 (4.12%) Operations Analyst
10 7 (4.12%) Project Manager
10 7 (4.12%) SOC Architect
11 6 (3.53%) Technical Manager
11 6 (3.53%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
12 5 (2.94%) Network Analyst
12 5 (2.94%) Network Security Analyst
12 5 (2.94%) Technical Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.71%) LDAP
2 3 (1.76%) Microsoft Graph
2 3 (1.76%) SailPoint
3 2 (1.18%) Kafka
3 2 (1.18%) Loki
3 2 (1.18%) React
3 2 (1.18%) REST
3 2 (1.18%) RESTful
3 2 (1.18%) WebSockets
4 1 (0.59%) AWS CDK
4 1 (0.59%) WebCenter
Miscellaneous
1 30 (17.65%) Security Operations Centre
2 22 (12.94%) Management Information System
3 16 (9.41%) Cyber Defence
3 16 (9.41%) Cyberattack
4 14 (8.24%) CSOC
4 14 (8.24%) Security Posture
5 12 (7.06%) Onboarding
6 10 (5.88%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 8 (4.71%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (3.53%) Cybercrime
8 6 (3.53%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.76%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.76%) Operational Technology
9 3 (1.76%) Product Ownership
10 2 (1.18%) Cloud Native
10 2 (1.18%) Derivative
10 2 (1.18%) Driving Licence
10 2 (1.18%) Energy Derivatives
10 2 (1.18%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (1.18%) Insider Threat
Operating Systems
1 17 (10.00%) Windows
2 15 (8.82%) Linux
3 4 (2.35%) Windows Server
4 3 (1.76%) Android
4 3 (1.76%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.59%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.59%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (71.18%) Cybersecurity
2 75 (44.12%) Incident Response
3 65 (38.24%) SIEM
4 54 (31.76%) Security Operations
5 45 (26.47%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
5 45 (26.47%) Threat Intelligence
6 37 (21.76%) Threat Detection
7 34 (20.00%) Cyber Intelligence
8 31 (18.24%) Information Security
9 30 (17.65%) Threat Modelling
10 26 (15.29%) MITRE ATT&CK
11 24 (14.12%) Vulnerability Management
12 21 (12.35%) Risk Management
13 19 (11.18%) Continuous Improvement
14 18 (10.59%) Problem-Solving
15 17 (10.00%) Actionable Insight
16 16 (9.41%) SOAR
16 16 (9.41%) Stakeholder Management
17 15 (8.82%) Cloud Security
17 15 (8.82%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 27 (15.88%) Python
2 18 (10.59%) PowerShell
3 9 (5.29%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (2.35%) Java
5 3 (1.76%) JavaScript
5 3 (1.76%) Perl
5 3 (1.76%) SQL
5 3 (1.76%) TypeScript
6 2 (1.18%) Rust
7 1 (0.59%) Bash
7 1 (0.59%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 86 (50.59%) Security Cleared
2 65 (38.24%) SC Cleared
3 30 (17.65%) CISSP
3 30 (17.65%) DV Cleared
4 23 (13.53%) CISM
5 17 (10.00%) Degree
6 16 (9.41%) GIAC
7 15 (8.82%) CEH
8 12 (7.06%) CompTIA Security+
9 11 (6.47%) CompTIA CySA+
10 7 (4.12%) OSCP
11 6 (3.53%) BPSS Clearance
11 6 (3.53%) GREM
12 5 (2.94%) GCIH
13 4 (2.35%) AWS Certification
13 4 (2.35%) Azure Certification
13 4 (2.35%) CISA
14 3 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
14 3 (1.76%) CREST Certified
14 3 (1.76%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (25.88%) NIST
2 34 (20.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (13.53%) NCSC
4 14 (8.24%) GDPR
5 13 (7.65%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (4.71%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (3.53%) JSP 440
7 6 (3.53%) QA
8 3 (1.76%) Accessibility
8 3 (1.76%) GRC
8 3 (1.76%) SLA
9 2 (1.18%) COBIT
9 2 (1.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (1.18%) ISO 9001
10 1 (0.59%) Disclosure Scotland
10 1 (0.59%) Government Security Classifications
10 1 (0.59%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.59%) ITGC
10 1 (0.59%) PMO
10 1 (0.59%) SOC 2
System Software
1 11 (6.47%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (0.59%) Docker
3 1 (0.59%) Snort
3 1 (0.59%) Squid
Systems Management
1 5 (2.94%) Nessus
2 4 (2.35%) Kubernetes
2 4 (2.35%) Terraform
3 3 (1.76%) Microsoft Intune
3 3 (1.76%) Nexpose
4 2 (1.18%) Grafana
4 2 (1.18%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.18%) QRadar
5 1 (0.59%) CASB
5 1 (0.59%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
5 1 (0.59%) CSIRT
5 1 (0.59%) RSA Archer
5 1 (0.59%) Suricata
Vendors
1 36 (21.18%) Microsoft
2 20 (11.76%) Splunk
3 7 (4.12%) CyberArk
4 6 (3.53%) CrowdStrike
4 6 (3.53%) Google
5 4 (2.35%) SAP
6 3 (1.76%) Computacenter
6 3 (1.76%) LogRhythm
6 3 (1.76%) Palo Alto
6 3 (1.76%) Qualys
6 3 (1.76%) Tenable
7 2 (1.18%) Apple
7 2 (1.18%) ArcSight
7 2 (1.18%) Cisco
7 2 (1.18%) Intel
7 2 (1.18%) Oracle
7 2 (1.18%) QAD
7 2 (1.18%) Rapid7
7 2 (1.18%) ServiceNow
7 2 (1.18%) Tanium