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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 467 391 357
Rank change year-on-year -76 -34 +120
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 215 165 212
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.50% 0.55%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.19% 1.42% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 136 86 123
10th Percentile £413 £449 £510
25th Percentile £496 £489 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £638
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -13.73% +7.46%
75th Percentile £750 £688 £788
90th Percentile £800 £759 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £568 £690
% change year-on-year +1.32% -17.75% +24.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 9 4
10th Percentile £60.76 £45.00 £42.25
25th Percentile - £47.00 £51.25
Median hourly rate £80.00 £65.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +23.08% +13.04% +17.35%
75th Percentile - £75.00 £65.38
90th Percentile £89.34 £81.81 £77.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £80.00 £65.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +23.08% +13.04% +17.35%

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 18,086 11,583 11,762
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.65% 35.41% 30.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,921 7,122 7,431
10th Percentile £323 £300 £300
25th Percentile £423 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% -5.45% -
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £750 £763 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 573 565
10th Percentile £14.68 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.25 £18.87 £18.35
Median hourly rate £40.96 £30.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +36.53% -29.41% -2.95%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.50 £68.75
90th Percentile £83.75 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year +46.53% -36.84% +3.60%

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 28 August 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 28 August 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 28 August 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 -49 200 £575 +4.55% 372
UK excluding London -42 145 £575 +1.32% 247
London -90 62 £570 +8.57% 166
Work from Home -62 52 £550 -4.35% 143
South East -34 43 £575 +12.47% 58
North of England -37 40 £588 +17.22% 55
North West -26 31 £600 +19.71% 29
South West -29 20 £800 +3.23% 32
East of England -21 19 £550 -15.38% 30
Midlands -36 14 £688 - 40
West Midlands -42 14 £688 - 23
Scotland -14 9 £800 +52.38% 24
Yorkshire - 9 £588 - 23
Wales - 4 £800 - 8

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 6 (2.79%) Confluence
2 5 (2.33%) Apache Spark
Business Applications
1 1 (0.47%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.47%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 53 (24.65%) Azure
2 30 (13.95%) AWS
3 24 (11.16%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (5.58%) GCP
4 12 (5.58%) SaaS
5 11 (5.12%) Datadog
5 11 (5.12%) Entra ID
6 8 (3.72%) PaaS
7 7 (3.26%) Azure Sentinel
7 7 (3.26%) IaaS
8 6 (2.79%) Microsoft Purview
9 5 (2.33%) Akamai
10 4 (1.86%) Amazon ECS
10 4 (1.86%) Power Platform
10 4 (1.86%) Serverless
11 2 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
11 2 (0.93%) Azure Functions
11 2 (0.93%) GitHub
12 1 (0.47%) Dynamics 365
12 1 (0.47%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 27 (12.56%) Network Security
2 13 (6.05%) Firewall
3 12 (5.58%) DNS
4 11 (5.12%) TCP/IP
5 10 (4.65%) HTTP
5 10 (4.65%) Intrusion Detection
6 9 (4.19%) SSL
7 6 (2.79%) SAN
8 5 (2.33%) DHCP
8 5 (2.33%) Intranet
8 5 (2.33%) VLAN
8 5 (2.33%) VPN
8 5 (2.33%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (1.40%) Broadband
9 3 (1.40%) DMZ
10 1 (0.47%) Internet
10 1 (0.47%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.26%) SQL Server
2 6 (2.79%) Big Data
3 1 (0.47%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.47%) MySQL
3 1 (0.47%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.47%) Power BI
3 1 (0.47%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.47%) Semantic Layer
3 1 (0.47%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (2.79%) Chocolatey
2 1 (0.47%) Git
2 1 (0.47%) JIRA
General
1 57 (26.51%) Social Skills
2 44 (20.47%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (13.02%) Finance
3 28 (13.02%) Public Sector
4 11 (5.12%) Banking
5 9 (4.19%) Aerospace
6 7 (3.26%) Legal
6 7 (3.26%) Military
7 5 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (1.86%) Law
8 4 (1.86%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (0.93%) Local Government
10 1 (0.47%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.47%) Games
10 1 (0.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.47%) Investment Banking
10 1 (0.47%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 60 (27.91%) Analyst
2 26 (12.09%) Cyber Threat Analyst
3 24 (11.16%) Architect
4 23 (10.70%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (9.77%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
6 19 (8.84%) Senior
7 16 (7.44%) Security Analyst
8 15 (6.98%) Lead
8 15 (6.98%) Security Engineer
8 15 (6.98%) SOC Analyst
9 14 (6.51%) Security Architect
10 12 (5.58%) Coordinator
11 11 (5.12%) Security Manager
12 10 (4.65%) Security Specialist
12 10 (4.65%) SOC Manager
13 9 (4.19%) Operations Manager
14 8 (3.72%) Cybersecurity Manager
14 8 (3.72%) Operational Security Manager
14 8 (3.72%) Security Operations Manager
14 8 (3.72%) SOC Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.72%) Elastic Stack
2 7 (3.26%) Terraform
3 5 (2.33%) Kafka
4 2 (0.93%) PySpark
4 2 (0.93%) REST
5 1 (0.47%) Django
5 1 (0.47%) JSON
5 1 (0.47%) JWT
5 1 (0.47%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 32 (14.88%) Security Operations Centre
2 23 (10.70%) Security Posture
3 17 (7.91%) Cyber Defence
3 17 (7.91%) Operational Technology
4 15 (6.98%) Onboarding
5 11 (5.12%) Management Information System
6 8 (3.72%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 7 (3.26%) Cloud Native
8 6 (2.79%) CSOC
8 6 (2.79%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 5 (2.33%) Private Cloud
10 4 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.86%) Cyberattack
10 4 (1.86%) Hybrid Cloud
11 3 (1.40%) Insider Threat
11 3 (1.40%) SCADA
12 2 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (0.93%) MISP
12 2 (0.93%) PKI
12 2 (0.93%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 20 (9.30%) Windows
2 17 (7.91%) Linux
3 3 (1.40%) Unix
4 2 (0.93%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.47%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (62.33%) Cybersecurity
2 107 (49.77%) Incident Response
3 87 (40.47%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 87 (40.47%) Threat Intelligence
4 80 (37.21%) Security Operations
5 67 (31.16%) SIEM
6 53 (24.65%) Vulnerability Management
7 47 (21.86%) Cyber Intelligence
8 42 (19.53%) Continuous Improvement
9 41 (19.07%) Risk Management
10 40 (18.60%) Stakeholder Management
11 36 (16.74%) MITRE ATT&CK
11 36 (16.74%) Threat Detection
12 31 (14.42%) Cloud Security
12 31 (14.42%) Security Monitoring
13 29 (13.49%) Problem-Solving
14 28 (13.02%) Cyber Resilience
15 26 (12.09%) Incident Management
15 26 (12.09%) Information Security
16 24 (11.16%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 23 (10.70%) Python
2 8 (3.72%) Kusto Query Language
3 7 (3.26%) Bash
3 7 (3.26%) PowerShell
4 4 (1.86%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.40%) C
5 3 (1.40%) Perl
6 2 (0.93%) C++
6 2 (0.93%) Embedded C
6 2 (0.93%) SQL
7 1 (0.47%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.47%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 96 (44.65%) Security Cleared
2 63 (29.30%) SC Cleared
3 31 (14.42%) CISSP
4 29 (13.49%) DV Cleared
5 27 (12.56%) CISM
6 20 (9.30%) Degree
7 9 (4.19%) Computer Science Degree
8 8 (3.72%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 8 (3.72%) Azure Certification
8 8 (3.72%) Cisco Certification
8 8 (3.72%) GIAC
9 6 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (2.79%) CEH
9 6 (2.79%) GCIH
9 6 (2.79%) SANS
10 5 (2.33%) AWS Certification
10 5 (2.33%) GCIA
11 4 (1.86%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (1.86%) GCFA
11 4 (1.86%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (16.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 33 (15.35%) NIST
3 22 (10.23%) GDPR
4 20 (9.30%) NCSC
5 9 (4.19%) Cyber Essentials
5 9 (4.19%) GRC
5 9 (4.19%) SLA
6 6 (2.79%) COBIT
6 6 (2.79%) PCI DSS
7 5 (2.33%) NIST 800
8 4 (1.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 4 (1.86%) ISO 22301
9 3 (1.40%) ISO 19650
10 2 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 1 (0.47%) Def Stans
11 1 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.47%) QA
System Software
1 14 (6.51%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.93%) Docker
3 2 (0.93%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 10 (4.65%) Microsoft Intune
2 8 (3.72%) SCCM
3 5 (2.33%) Ansible
3 5 (2.33%) Grafana
4 4 (1.86%) QRadar
5 3 (1.40%) Kubernetes
6 2 (0.93%) CASB
6 2 (0.93%) CSIRT
Vendors
1 44 (20.47%) Microsoft
2 18 (8.37%) Splunk
3 8 (3.72%) Databricks
3 8 (3.72%) Tanium
3 8 (3.72%) Tenable
4 6 (2.79%) AppDynamics
4 6 (2.79%) Dynatrace
4 6 (2.79%) VMware
5 5 (2.33%) Google
6 4 (1.86%) SolarWinds
7 3 (1.40%) Blue Coat
7 3 (1.40%) Clearswift
7 3 (1.40%) Netskope
7 3 (1.40%) Palo Alto
7 3 (1.40%) ServiceNow
7 3 (1.40%) Trend Micro
7 3 (1.40%) Tripwire
7 3 (1.40%) Zscaler
8 2 (0.93%) Cribl.io
8 2 (0.93%) LogRhythm