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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 450 404 367
Rank change year-on-year -46 -37 +58
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 248 149 208
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.46% 0.55%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.33% 1.28% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 155 74 115
10th Percentile £418 £454 £493
25th Percentile £519 £488 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £568 £650
Median % change year-on-year +1.32% -12.69% +8.33%
75th Percentile £750 £700 £784
90th Percentile £800 £775 £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 18,695 11,683 11,559
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 34.23% 35.84% 30.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,200 7,152 6,961
10th Percentile £320 £293 £285
25th Percentile £425 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £519 £538
Median % change year-on-year +1.20% -3.49% -2.27%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £673
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 1,241 597 431
10th Percentile £14.04 £14.78 £15.34
25th Percentile £17.85 £18.87 £22.50
Median hourly rate £37.50 £29.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.31% -42.00% +11.73%
75th Percentile £67.50 £52.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £29.27 £57.35
% change year-on-year +30.68% -48.96% +14.70%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -39 228 £575 -1.29% 414
UK excluding London -27 158 £575 -0.86% 275
London -61 80 £588 +11.90% 167
Work from Home -40 66 £568 -2.16% 174
South East -41 44 £575 +9.79% 79
North of England -55 31 £581 +15.97% 58
East of England -14 30 £550 -15.38% 30
South West -36 26 £800 +6.67% 25
North West -39 23 £575 +14.72% 30
Midlands - 17 £750 - 42
West Midlands - 17 £750 - 23
Scotland -26 12 £800 +52.38% 31
Yorkshire - 8 £588 - 20
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 4 (1.61%) 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 52 (20.97%) 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 5 (2.02%) Big Data
1 5 (2.02%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.81%) Amazon QuickSight
3 1 (0.40%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.40%) MySQL
3 1 (0.40%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.40%) Power BI
3 1 (0.40%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.40%) Semantic Layer
3 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 58 (23.39%) Analytical Skills
3 36 (14.52%) Public Sector
4 29 (11.69%) 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%) Architect
5 21 (8.47%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (8.47%) Security Analyst
6 19 (7.66%) Security Architect
7 17 (6.85%) Security Manager
7 17 (6.85%) SOC Analyst
8 13 (5.24%) Cybersecurity Manager
9 12 (4.84%) Coordinator
9 12 (4.84%) Security Specialist
9 12 (4.84%) SOC Manager
10 11 (4.44%) Lead
11 10 (4.03%) Cybersecurity Analyst
11 10 (4.03%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 10 (4.03%) Operations Manager
12 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%) Management Information System
5 17 (6.85%) Operational Technology
6 9 (3.63%) Cyberattack
7 8 (3.23%) Analytical Mindset
7 8 (3.23%) CSOC
8 7 (2.82%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 6 (2.42%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 6 (2.42%) IoT
9 6 (2.42%) SCADA
10 5 (2.02%) Cloud Native
10 5 (2.02%) Industrial Internet of Things
11 4 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (1.61%) PKI
12 3 (1.21%) YARA
13 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
1 180 (72.58%) 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 62 (25.00%) Vulnerability Management
7 54 (21.77%) Stakeholder Management
8 52 (20.97%) Continuous Improvement
8 52 (20.97%) Cyber Intelligence
9 50 (20.16%) 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%) Problem-Solving
13 35 (14.11%) Security Monitoring
14 32 (12.90%) Incident Management
15 31 (12.50%) Cyber Resilience
16 29 (11.69%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 34 (13.71%) 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 25 (10.08%) 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 19650
10 4 (1.61%) ISO 22301
11 2 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.40%) Data Quality
12 1 (0.40%) Def Stans
12 1 (0.40%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.40%) ISO 31000
12 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 7 (2.82%) 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