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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 458 388 353
Rank change year-on-year -70 -35 +100
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 215 166 219
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.51% 0.56%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.19% 1.44% 1.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 89 128
10th Percentile £413 £443 £510
25th Percentile £482 £492 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £644
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -14.56% +7.90%
75th Percentile £750 £688 £788
90th Percentile £800 £770 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £560 £690
% change year-on-year +2.68% -18.84% +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 18,013 11,540 11,771
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.58% 35.25% 30.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,894 7,092 7,463
10th Percentile £322 £300 £300
25th Percentile £422 £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 1,067 577 570
10th Percentile £14.76 £15.13 £12.30
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.87 £18.39
Median hourly rate £42.00 £30.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.00% -33.33% +2.66%
75th Percentile £68.75 £57.50 £69.45
90th Percentile £84.00 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £30.00 £49.00
% change year-on-year +46.53% -38.78% +7.91%

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 25 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 25 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 25 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 -54 200 £575 +4.55% 200
UK excluding London -38 147 £575 +2.68% 197
London -71 60 £575 +9.52% 43
Work from Home -63 51 £550 -4.35% 52
South East -46 44 £575 +10.05% 50
North of England -37 40 £588 +17.22% 38
North West -19 31 £600 +19.71% 16
East of England -22 20 £550 -15.38% 21
South West -40 20 £800 +3.23% 28
West Midlands -33 14 £688 - 19
Midlands -50 14 £688 - 33
Scotland -14 9 £800 +52.38% 18
Yorkshire - 9 £588 - 19
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 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 52 (24.19%) Azure
2 28 (13.02%) AWS
3 25 (11.63%) Microsoft 365
4 13 (6.05%) SaaS
5 12 (5.58%) Datadog
6 11 (5.12%) Entra ID
6 11 (5.12%) GCP
7 9 (4.19%) PaaS
8 8 (3.72%) IaaS
9 7 (3.26%) Azure Sentinel
10 6 (2.79%) Microsoft Purview
11 5 (2.33%) Akamai
12 4 (1.86%) Amazon ECS
12 4 (1.86%) Power Platform
12 4 (1.86%) Serverless
13 2 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
13 2 (0.93%) Azure Functions
13 2 (0.93%) GitHub
14 1 (0.47%) Dynamics 365
14 1 (0.47%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 25 (11.63%) Network Security
2 15 (6.98%) Firewall
3 13 (6.05%) DNS
4 11 (5.12%) TCP/IP
5 10 (4.65%) HTTP
5 10 (4.65%) Intrusion Detection
6 9 (4.19%) SSL
7 7 (3.26%) SAN
8 6 (2.79%) DHCP
8 6 (2.79%) VLAN
8 6 (2.79%) VPN
8 6 (2.79%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (2.33%) Intranet
10 3 (1.40%) Broadband
10 3 (1.40%) DMZ
11 1 (0.47%) Internet
11 1 (0.47%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (3.72%) 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 7 (3.26%) Chocolatey
2 1 (0.47%) Git
2 1 (0.47%) JIRA
General
1 56 (26.05%) Social Skills
2 42 (19.53%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (13.02%) Finance
4 27 (12.56%) Public Sector
5 12 (5.58%) Banking
6 9 (4.19%) Aerospace
7 7 (3.26%) Legal
7 7 (3.26%) Military
8 5 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.33%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (1.86%) Law
9 4 (1.86%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (0.93%) Local Government
11 1 (0.47%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.47%) Games
11 1 (0.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 1 (0.47%) Investment Banking
11 1 (0.47%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 57 (26.51%) Analyst
2 26 (12.09%) Cyber Threat Analyst
3 24 (11.16%) Architect
4 22 (10.23%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (9.77%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
6 19 (8.84%) Senior
7 16 (7.44%) Lead
8 15 (6.98%) Security Analyst
9 14 (6.51%) Security Architect
9 14 (6.51%) Security Engineer
9 14 (6.51%) SOC Analyst
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
13 9 (4.19%) SOC Engineer
14 8 (3.72%) Cybersecurity Manager
14 8 (3.72%) Operational Security Manager
14 8 (3.72%) Security Operations Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (3.72%) Elastic Stack
2 6 (2.79%) 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 13 (6.05%) 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
9 5 (2.33%) 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%) Data Protection Act
12 2 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (0.93%) PKI
12 2 (0.93%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 21 (9.77%) Windows
2 18 (8.37%) Linux
3 3 (1.40%) Unix
4 2 (0.93%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.47%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (60.93%) Cybersecurity
2 106 (49.30%) Incident Response
3 85 (39.53%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 85 (39.53%) Threat Intelligence
4 80 (37.21%) Security Operations
5 65 (30.23%) SIEM
6 51 (23.72%) Vulnerability Management
7 47 (21.86%) Cyber Intelligence
8 40 (18.60%) Continuous Improvement
9 39 (18.14%) Risk Management
9 39 (18.14%) Stakeholder Management
10 35 (16.28%) MITRE ATT&CK
11 34 (15.81%) Threat Detection
12 30 (13.95%) Security Monitoring
13 29 (13.49%) Cloud Security
14 27 (12.56%) Cyber Resilience
14 27 (12.56%) Problem-Solving
15 26 (12.09%) Incident Management
16 25 (11.63%) Information Security
17 22 (10.23%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 24 (11.16%) Python
2 8 (3.72%) Kusto Query Language
3 7 (3.26%) Bash
3 7 (3.26%) PowerShell
4 4 (1.86%) C
4 4 (1.86%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.40%) C++
5 3 (1.40%) Embedded C
5 3 (1.40%) Perl
6 2 (0.93%) SQL
7 1 (0.47%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.47%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 95 (44.19%) Security Cleared
2 61 (28.37%) SC Cleared
3 31 (14.42%) DV Cleared
4 29 (13.49%) CISSP
5 27 (12.56%) CISM
6 20 (9.30%) Degree
7 9 (4.19%) Computer Science Degree
8 7 (3.26%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 7 (3.26%) Azure Certification
8 7 (3.26%) Cisco Certification
9 6 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
9 6 (2.79%) GCIH
9 6 (2.79%) GIAC
10 5 (2.33%) CEH
10 5 (2.33%) GCIA
10 5 (2.33%) SANS
11 4 (1.86%) AWS Certification
11 4 (1.86%) GCFA
12 3 (1.40%) MCSE
12 3 (1.40%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (16.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (14.88%) NIST
3 22 (10.23%) GDPR
4 20 (9.30%) NCSC
5 10 (4.65%) SLA
6 9 (4.19%) Cyber Essentials
6 9 (4.19%) GRC
7 6 (2.79%) COBIT
7 6 (2.79%) PCI DSS
8 5 (2.33%) NIST 800
9 4 (1.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (1.86%) ISO 22301
10 3 (1.40%) ISO 19650
11 2 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.47%) Def Stans
12 1 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.47%) QA
System Software
1 15 (6.98%) Active Directory
2 4 (1.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.93%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.93%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.47%) Docker
Systems Management
1 11 (5.12%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (4.19%) SCCM
3 5 (2.33%) Ansible
3 5 (2.33%) Grafana
4 4 (1.86%) QRadar
5 2 (0.93%) CASB
5 2 (0.93%) CSIRT
5 2 (0.93%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 44 (20.47%) Microsoft
2 15 (6.98%) Splunk
3 9 (4.19%) Tenable
4 8 (3.72%) Databricks
4 8 (3.72%) Tanium
5 7 (3.26%) AppDynamics
5 7 (3.26%) Dynatrace
5 7 (3.26%) VMware
6 5 (2.33%) Google
7 4 (1.86%) SolarWinds
8 3 (1.40%) Blue Coat
8 3 (1.40%) Clearswift
8 3 (1.40%) Netskope
8 3 (1.40%) Palo Alto
8 3 (1.40%) ServiceNow
8 3 (1.40%) Trend Micro
8 3 (1.40%) Tripwire
8 3 (1.40%) Zscaler
9 2 (0.93%) ArcSight
9 2 (0.93%) Qualys