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

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 483 408 350
Rank change year-on-year -75 -58 +141
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 171 126 246
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.41% 0.57%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.01% 1.19% 1.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 115 66 162
10th Percentile £412 £403 £501
25th Percentile £459 £486 £538
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £584
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -10.10% -0.34%
75th Percentile £638 £600 £734
90th Percentile £765 £694 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £523 £570
% change year-on-year +5.16% -8.25% +3.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 4 2
10th Percentile £41.94 £64.35 £58.80
25th Percentile £47.99 £74.63 £62.63
Median hourly rate £65.23 £80.68 £70.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.15% +14.43% -
75th Percentile £80.73 £81.28 £78.63
90th Percentile £111.15 £81.77 £82.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.23 £80.68 £70.50
% change year-on-year -19.15% +14.43% -

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 16,850 10,570 13,038
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.83% 34.54% 30.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,306 6,585 8,276
10th Percentile £313 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £539
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -2.64% -1.95%
75th Percentile £630 £650 £663
90th Percentile £750 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 860 488 927
10th Percentile £16.00 £15.54 £12.25
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.97 £15.32
Median hourly rate £42.15 £31.29 £35.65
Median % change year-on-year +34.73% -12.24% +58.44%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.52 £62.25
90th Percentile £86.34 £79.13 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.50 £35.58
% change year-on-year +44.13% -14.27% +58.11%

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 30 June 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 30 June 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 30 June 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 -64 154 £550 +4.76% 86
UK excluding London -47 113 £550 +5.16% 75
London -86 46 £570 +8.57% 28
Work from Home -39 42 £500 -3.61% 46
North of England -49 36 £533 +7.36% 20
South East -51 31 £563 +12.50% 22
North West -28 27 £476 -3.98% 10
South West -27 13 £613 +13.95% 12
West Midlands -45 13 £625 +4.17% 2
Midlands -52 13 £625 +4.17% 4
Scotland -11 11 £575 +9.52% 2
Yorkshire - 9 £588 - 6
East of England -33 8 £550 -12.00% 13
Wales - 4 £800 - 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 5 (2.92%) Apache Spark
2 3 (1.75%) Confluence
3 1 (0.58%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 1 (0.58%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.58%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 41 (23.98%) Azure
2 22 (12.87%) AWS
3 17 (9.94%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (7.02%) SaaS
5 10 (5.85%) Datadog
6 9 (5.26%) PaaS
7 8 (4.68%) IaaS
8 7 (4.09%) Entra ID
9 6 (3.51%) GCP
9 6 (3.51%) Microsoft Purview
10 4 (2.34%) Amazon ECS
10 4 (2.34%) Azure Key Vault
10 4 (2.34%) Power Platform
11 3 (1.75%) Akamai
11 3 (1.75%) Azure Sentinel
12 2 (1.17%) Amazon OpenSearch
12 2 (1.17%) Amazon S3
12 2 (1.17%) GitHub
12 2 (1.17%) Serverless
13 1 (0.58%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 21 (12.28%) Firewall
2 20 (11.70%) Network Security
3 12 (7.02%) TCP/IP
4 11 (6.43%) DNS
5 10 (5.85%) Intrusion Detection
6 9 (5.26%) SAN
7 8 (4.68%) SSL
8 7 (4.09%) HTTP
8 7 (4.09%) VPN
9 6 (3.51%) DHCP
9 6 (3.51%) VLAN
9 6 (3.51%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (1.75%) DMZ
11 2 (1.17%) Multicast
11 2 (1.17%) NAS
12 1 (0.58%) Internet
12 1 (0.58%) MIMO
12 1 (0.58%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.85%) SQL Server
2 5 (2.92%) Big Data
3 2 (1.17%) Elasticsearch
3 2 (1.17%) Redis
4 1 (0.58%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.58%) MySQL
4 1 (0.58%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.58%) Power BI
4 1 (0.58%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.58%) Semantic Layer
4 1 (0.58%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 7 (4.09%) Chocolatey
2 5 (2.92%) Git
3 2 (1.17%) GitLab
3 2 (1.17%) JIRA
4 1 (0.58%) Jenkins
General
1 44 (25.73%) Social Skills
2 36 (21.05%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (14.04%) Finance
4 20 (11.70%) Public Sector
5 12 (7.02%) Banking
6 6 (3.51%) Legal
7 5 (2.92%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.92%) Law
8 4 (2.34%) Military
9 3 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.17%) Local Government
11 1 (0.58%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.58%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.58%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 45 (26.32%) Analyst
2 25 (14.62%) Senior
3 23 (13.45%) Architect
4 15 (8.77%) Lead
4 15 (8.77%) SOC Analyst
5 13 (7.60%) Security Architect
6 12 (7.02%) Cyber Threat Analyst
6 12 (7.02%) Security Engineer
6 12 (7.02%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
7 10 (5.85%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
7 10 (5.85%) Senior Analyst
8 9 (5.26%) Security Analyst
8 9 (5.26%) SOC Engineer
9 7 (4.09%) Azure Engineer
9 7 (4.09%) Lead Architect
9 7 (4.09%) Security Manager
10 6 (3.51%) Trainer
11 5 (2.92%) IT Engineer
11 5 (2.92%) IT Trainer
11 5 (2.92%) Senior IT Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.68%) Elastic Stack
2 7 (4.09%) Kafka
3 5 (2.92%) REST
4 3 (1.75%) Loki
5 2 (1.17%) React
5 2 (1.17%) RESTful
5 2 (1.17%) WebSockets
6 1 (0.58%) Django
6 1 (0.58%) JSON
6 1 (0.58%) JWT
6 1 (0.58%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 22 (12.87%) Security Posture
2 20 (11.70%) Security Operations Centre
3 13 (7.60%) Cyber Defence
4 11 (6.43%) Management Information System
4 11 (6.43%) Operational Technology
5 6 (3.51%) Cloud Native
5 6 (3.51%) CSOC
5 6 (3.51%) Cyber Kill Chain
5 6 (3.51%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 5 (2.92%) Onboarding
6 5 (2.92%) Private Cloud
7 4 (2.34%) Cyberattack
7 4 (2.34%) MISP
8 3 (1.75%) Cybercrime
8 3 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (1.75%) Enterprise Storage
8 3 (1.75%) PKI
8 3 (1.75%) SCADA
9 2 (1.17%) Derivative
9 2 (1.17%) Energy Derivatives
Operating Systems
1 22 (12.87%) Linux
1 22 (12.87%) Windows
2 3 (1.75%) Unix
2 3 (1.75%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (51.46%) Cybersecurity
2 72 (42.11%) Incident Response
3 55 (32.16%) Threat Intelligence
4 52 (30.41%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 52 (30.41%) SIEM
5 42 (24.56%) Security Operations
6 32 (18.71%) Threat Detection
7 30 (17.54%) Continuous Improvement
8 27 (15.79%) MITRE ATT&CK
8 27 (15.79%) Problem-Solving
9 26 (15.20%) Cyber Intelligence
10 22 (12.87%) Vulnerability Management
11 19 (11.11%) Risk Management
12 18 (10.53%) Cloud Security
12 18 (10.53%) Security Monitoring
13 17 (9.94%) Threat Modelling
14 16 (9.36%) Analytics
14 16 (9.36%) Cyber Resilience
14 16 (9.36%) Information Security
14 16 (9.36%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 32 (18.71%) Python
2 9 (5.26%) Bash
2 9 (5.26%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.51%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (2.34%) Perl
4 4 (2.34%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.75%) C
5 3 (1.75%) C++
5 3 (1.75%) Embedded C
6 2 (1.17%) JavaScript
6 2 (1.17%) Rust
6 2 (1.17%) TypeScript
7 1 (0.58%) Go
7 1 (0.58%) SQL
Qualifications
1 67 (39.18%) Security Cleared
2 42 (24.56%) SC Cleared
3 23 (13.45%) Degree
4 22 (12.87%) DV Cleared
5 21 (12.28%) CISSP
6 15 (8.77%) CISM
7 8 (4.68%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (3.51%) GIAC
9 5 (2.92%) GCIH
9 5 (2.92%) Master's Degree
10 4 (2.34%) CEH
10 4 (2.34%) CREST Certified
11 3 (1.75%) CompTIA Security+
11 3 (1.75%) MCSE
11 3 (1.75%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (1.75%) SANS
12 2 (1.17%) CCSP
12 2 (1.17%) Cisco Certification
12 2 (1.17%) GCFA
12 2 (1.17%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (12.28%) NIST
2 17 (9.94%) NCSC
3 16 (9.36%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (5.26%) SLA
5 8 (4.68%) GDPR
5 8 (4.68%) GRC
6 4 (2.34%) PCI DSS
7 3 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (1.75%) ISO 19650
7 3 (1.75%) ISO 22301
7 3 (1.75%) QA
8 2 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.58%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 1 (0.58%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.58%) SOC 2
System Software
1 13 (7.60%) Active Directory
2 6 (3.51%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (2.34%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.17%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.17%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.58%) Docker
Systems Management
1 10 (5.85%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (5.26%) SCCM
3 7 (4.09%) Ansible
3 7 (4.09%) Terraform
4 5 (2.92%) Grafana
5 4 (2.34%) Prometheus
5 4 (2.34%) QRadar
6 3 (1.75%) Kubernetes
7 2 (1.17%) CASB
7 2 (1.17%) Red Hat Satellite
8 1 (0.58%) Host Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 38 (22.22%) Microsoft
2 14 (8.19%) Splunk
3 9 (5.26%) Tenable
4 8 (4.68%) Tanium
5 7 (4.09%) AppDynamics
5 7 (4.09%) Dynatrace
5 7 (4.09%) Google
5 7 (4.09%) VMware
6 5 (2.92%) CrowdStrike
6 5 (2.92%) Databricks
7 4 (2.34%) SolarWinds
7 4 (2.34%) Tripwire
8 3 (1.75%) Blue Coat
8 3 (1.75%) Clearswift
8 3 (1.75%) Intel
8 3 (1.75%) Netskope
8 3 (1.75%) Trend Micro
8 3 (1.75%) Zscaler
9 2 (1.17%) ArcSight
9 2 (1.17%) ServiceNow