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

6 months to
22 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 452 401 349
Rank change year-on-year -51 -52 +149
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 169 123 232
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.35% 0.43% 0.55%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.09% 1.26% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 65 161
10th Percentile £400 £359 £488
25th Percentile £450 £475 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -8.70% -4.17%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £775
90th Percentile £750 £688 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £570
% change year-on-year - -3.51% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 1
10th Percentile £41.94 - -
25th Percentile £47.99 £80.34 £81.75
Median hourly rate £60.25 £80.68 £83.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.32% -3.38% -
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.56 £85.25
90th Percentile £97.45 £81.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.25 £80.68 £83.50
% change year-on-year -25.32% -3.38% -

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 15,451 9,800 12,904
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.98% 34.01% 30.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,580 6,253 8,319
10th Percentile £313 £300 £270
25th Percentile £413 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £745 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.53% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 735 382 900
10th Percentile £16.00 £16.17 £12.25
25th Percentile £19.70 £19.98 £15.17
Median hourly rate £41.94 £31.91 £31.50
Median % change year-on-year +31.45% +1.29% +41.51%
75th Percentile £70.00 £63.75 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.40 £83.13 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £31.49 £30.00
% change year-on-year +42.90% +4.97% +36.36%

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 22 May 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 22 May 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 22 May 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 -66 149 £550 +4.76% 82
UK excluding London -61 113 £550 - 63
London -55 43 £550 +4.76% 41
Work from Home -27 39 £550 +10.00% 49
North of England -43 37 £541 +10.01% 13
South East -46 30 £575 +10.52% 29
North West -25 28 £484 -1.63% 6
East of England -31 15 £550 -8.33% 4
Scotland +3 13 £350 -32.37% 5
West Midlands -49 9 £750 +25.00% 2
Midlands -63 9 £750 +25.00% 5
Yorkshire - 9 £550 - 6
South West -26 8 £640 +16.36% 7
Wales - 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 4 (2.37%) Apache Spark
2 3 (1.78%) Confluence
3 1 (0.59%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.59%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.59%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 41 (24.26%) Azure
2 21 (12.43%) AWS
3 19 (11.24%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (6.51%) SaaS
5 10 (5.92%) Datadog
6 9 (5.33%) Entra ID
6 9 (5.33%) PaaS
7 8 (4.73%) IaaS
8 6 (3.55%) Microsoft Purview
8 6 (3.55%) Power Platform
9 5 (2.96%) Azure Key Vault
10 4 (2.37%) Amazon ECS
11 3 (1.78%) Akamai
11 3 (1.78%) GitHub
12 2 (1.18%) Amazon OpenSearch
12 2 (1.18%) Amazon S3
12 2 (1.18%) Azure Sentinel
12 2 (1.18%) GCP
12 2 (1.18%) GitHub Actions
13 1 (0.59%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 23 (13.61%) Firewall
2 22 (13.02%) Network Security
3 19 (11.24%) DNS
4 16 (9.47%) TCP/IP
5 13 (7.69%) SSL
6 10 (5.92%) HTTP
7 9 (5.33%) SAN
8 8 (4.73%) VPN
9 7 (4.14%) Wi-Fi
10 6 (3.55%) DHCP
10 6 (3.55%) VLAN
11 5 (2.96%) FTP
11 5 (2.96%) Intrusion Detection
11 5 (2.96%) SMTP
12 2 (1.18%) DMZ
12 2 (1.18%) MIMO
12 2 (1.18%) Multicast
12 2 (1.18%) NAS
13 1 (0.59%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (6.51%) SQL Server
2 4 (2.37%) Big Data
3 3 (1.78%) Redis
4 2 (1.18%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.59%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.59%) MySQL
5 1 (0.59%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.59%) Power BI
5 1 (0.59%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.59%) Semantic Layer
5 1 (0.59%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (4.14%) Chocolatey
2 6 (3.55%) Git
3 2 (1.18%) GitLab
3 2 (1.18%) JIRA
4 1 (0.59%) Jenkins
General
1 44 (26.04%) Social Skills
2 39 (23.08%) Analytical Skills
3 22 (13.02%) Finance
4 21 (12.43%) Public Sector
5 12 (7.10%) Banking
6 6 (3.55%) Legal
7 5 (2.96%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.96%) Law
7 5 (2.96%) Military
8 2 (1.18%) Local Government
8 2 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.59%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.59%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 51 (30.18%) Analyst
2 33 (19.53%) Senior
3 23 (13.61%) SOC Analyst
4 17 (10.06%) Senior Analyst
5 16 (9.47%) Lead
6 15 (8.88%) Architect
7 11 (6.51%) Security Analyst
8 10 (5.92%) Security Engineer
9 9 (5.33%) SOC Engineer
10 7 (4.14%) Azure Engineer
10 7 (4.14%) Cybersecurity Analyst
10 7 (4.14%) Lead Architect
10 7 (4.14%) Security Architect
11 6 (3.55%) Cloud Engineer
11 6 (3.55%) Operations Analyst
11 6 (3.55%) Security Manager
11 6 (3.55%) Trainer
12 5 (2.96%) Consultant
12 5 (2.96%) IT Engineer
12 5 (2.96%) IT Trainer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.73%) Kafka
2 6 (3.55%) REST
3 5 (2.96%) LDAP
4 4 (2.37%) Elastic Stack
4 4 (2.37%) Loki
5 3 (1.78%) React
5 3 (1.78%) RESTful
5 3 (1.78%) WebSockets
6 1 (0.59%) AWS CDK
6 1 (0.59%) Django
6 1 (0.59%) JSON
6 1 (0.59%) JWT
6 1 (0.59%) WebCenter
6 1 (0.59%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 28 (16.57%) Security Operations Centre
2 16 (9.47%) Security Posture
3 15 (8.88%) Management Information System
4 13 (7.69%) Cyberattack
5 10 (5.92%) CSOC
5 10 (5.92%) Cyber Defence
6 9 (5.33%) Operational Technology
7 7 (4.14%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (3.55%) Cloud Native
8 6 (3.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 5 (2.96%) Onboarding
9 5 (2.96%) Private Cloud
10 4 (2.37%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 4 (2.37%) Enterprise Storage
10 4 (2.37%) MISP
11 3 (1.78%) Cybercrime
11 3 (1.78%) Derivative
11 3 (1.78%) Energy Derivatives
11 3 (1.78%) PKI
11 3 (1.78%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 22 (13.02%) Linux
1 22 (13.02%) Windows
2 5 (2.96%) Windows Server
3 3 (1.78%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 95 (56.21%) Cybersecurity
2 65 (38.46%) Incident Response
3 56 (33.14%) SIEM
4 45 (26.63%) Security Operations
5 40 (23.67%) Threat Intelligence
6 37 (21.89%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 34 (20.12%) Threat Detection
8 28 (16.57%) Problem-Solving
9 24 (14.20%) Continuous Improvement
10 21 (12.43%) Information Security
10 21 (12.43%) MITRE ATT&CK
10 21 (12.43%) Threat Modelling
10 21 (12.43%) Vulnerability Management
11 20 (11.83%) Analytics
12 18 (10.65%) Cyber Intelligence
13 17 (10.06%) Risk Management
13 17 (10.06%) Runbook
14 16 (9.47%) Use Case
15 15 (8.88%) AI
15 15 (8.88%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 33 (19.53%) Python
2 8 (4.73%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.55%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (2.37%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.78%) Bash
5 3 (1.78%) C
5 3 (1.78%) C++
5 3 (1.78%) Embedded C
5 3 (1.78%) JavaScript
5 3 (1.78%) Rust
5 3 (1.78%) TypeScript
6 2 (1.18%) SQL
7 1 (0.59%) Go
7 1 (0.59%) Perl
7 1 (0.59%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 66 (39.05%) Security Cleared
2 49 (28.99%) SC Cleared
3 23 (13.61%) DV Cleared
4 21 (12.43%) Degree
5 19 (11.24%) CISSP
6 12 (7.10%) CISM
7 8 (4.73%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (3.55%) CEH
8 6 (3.55%) CompTIA Security+
8 6 (3.55%) GIAC
9 5 (2.96%) GCIH
10 4 (2.37%) CREST Certified
11 3 (1.78%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (1.78%) Master's Degree
12 2 (1.18%) CRISC
12 2 (1.18%) GCFA
12 2 (1.18%) GCIA
12 2 (1.18%) HND
12 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (1.18%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (8.88%) NCSC
1 15 (8.88%) NIST
2 9 (5.33%) GRC
2 9 (5.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (5.33%) SLA
3 8 (4.73%) GDPR
4 4 (2.37%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (2.37%) QA
5 3 (1.78%) PCI DSS
6 2 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (1.18%) SOC 2
7 1 (0.59%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.59%) ISO 19650
7 1 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 1 (0.59%) ITGC
7 1 (0.59%) NIST 800
System Software
1 16 (9.47%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.14%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (2.96%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.18%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.18%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.59%) Docker
Systems Management
1 10 (5.92%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (5.33%) SCCM
2 9 (5.33%) Terraform
3 7 (4.14%) Ansible
4 6 (3.55%) Grafana
5 5 (2.96%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.78%) QRadar
7 2 (1.18%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (0.59%) CASB
8 1 (0.59%) CSIRT
8 1 (0.59%) Host Intrusion Detection System
8 1 (0.59%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 38 (22.49%) Microsoft
2 17 (10.06%) Splunk
3 9 (5.33%) Tenable
4 7 (4.14%) AppDynamics
4 7 (4.14%) Dynatrace
4 7 (4.14%) VMware
5 5 (2.96%) CrowdStrike
5 5 (2.96%) Tanium
6 4 (2.37%) Databricks
6 4 (2.37%) Google
6 4 (2.37%) Intel
7 3 (1.78%) Apple
8 2 (1.18%) ArcSight
8 2 (1.18%) Blue Coat
8 2 (1.18%) Citrix
8 2 (1.18%) Dell
8 2 (1.18%) Netskope
8 2 (1.18%) Oracle
8 2 (1.18%) Red Hat
8 2 (1.18%) ServiceNow