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 9 March 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 463 415 381
Rank change year-on-year -48 -34 +194
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 150 107 231
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.36% 0.36% 0.52%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.07% 1.07% 1.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 88 64 144
10th Percentile £339 £437 £450
25th Percentile £450 £500 £517
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £552 £575 £570
Median % change year-on-year -4.09% +0.88% -5.00%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £649
90th Percentile £775 £725 £798
UK excluding London median daily rate £553 £575 £568
% change year-on-year -3.83% +1.32% -9.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 3 8
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £41.94 £80.34 £42.25
Median hourly rate £52.75 £80.68 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -34.61% +81.29% -31.80%
75th Percentile £64.69 £81.56 £46.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.75 £80.68 £44.50
% change year-on-year -34.61% +81.29% -31.80%

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 14,017 9,969 13,568
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.19% 33.50% 30.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,833 6,252 8,675
10th Percentile £285 £278 £255
25th Percentile £406 £409 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 652 347 883
10th Percentile £15.26 £16.95 £12.64
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.27 £15.89
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £29.72
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% +9.35% +32.18%
75th Percentile £66.06 £65.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £82.25 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.75 £31.76 £27.50
% change year-on-year +6.27% +15.49% +25.00%

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 9 March 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 9 March 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 9 March 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 -28 130 £553 -7.06% 47
UK excluding London -63 83 £553 -3.83% 85
London -23 48 £518 -12.29% 12
Work from Home -18 36 £588 +6.82% 64
South East -39 22 £595 +4.94% 17
East of England -29 17 £553 -7.83% 8
North of England -43 17 £450 -11.63% 8
Scotland +2 13 £350 -34.88% 33
West Midlands -45 12 £600 -12.73% 4
Midlands -53 12 £600 -12.73% 6
North West -18 11 £325 -36.18% 5
Yorkshire - 6 £475 - 1
South West -29 4 £600 +1.05% 3
Wales -6 1 - - 10

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 2 (1.33%) Confluence
1 2 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (1.33%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (2.00%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.67%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.67%) Trello
Business Applications
1 1 (0.67%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 32 (21.33%) Azure
2 21 (14.00%) AWS
3 18 (12.00%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (7.33%) Entra ID
5 7 (4.67%) SaaS
6 6 (4.00%) Datadog
6 6 (4.00%) IaaS
6 6 (4.00%) PaaS
7 5 (3.33%) Azure Key Vault
7 5 (3.33%) Microsoft Purview
8 4 (2.67%) Azure Sentinel
9 3 (2.00%) GCP
9 3 (2.00%) Power Platform
10 2 (1.33%) Amazon OpenSearch
10 2 (1.33%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.33%) Cloud Computing
11 1 (0.67%) Akamai
11 1 (0.67%) AWS Lambda
11 1 (0.67%) GitHub
11 1 (0.67%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 24 (16.00%) Firewall
2 16 (10.67%) DNS
2 16 (10.67%) Network Security
3 11 (7.33%) TCP/IP
4 10 (6.67%) Wi-Fi
5 8 (5.33%) SAN
6 7 (4.67%) SSL
6 7 (4.67%) VPN
7 5 (3.33%) DHCP
7 5 (3.33%) FTP
7 5 (3.33%) HTTP
7 5 (3.33%) SMTP
7 5 (3.33%) VLAN
8 3 (2.00%) Intrusion Detection
9 2 (1.33%) MIMO
9 2 (1.33%) Multicast
9 2 (1.33%) NAS
10 1 (0.67%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (6.00%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.00%) Redis
3 2 (1.33%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.67%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.67%) Power BI
4 1 (0.67%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 6 (4.00%) Chocolatey
2 5 (3.33%) Git
3 4 (2.67%) JIRA
4 2 (1.33%) GitLab
5 1 (0.67%) Burp Suite
5 1 (0.67%) Jenkins
5 1 (0.67%) Metasploit
General
1 37 (24.67%) Social Skills
2 32 (21.33%) Analytical Skills
3 15 (10.00%) Public Sector
4 11 (7.33%) Banking
4 11 (7.33%) Finance
5 6 (4.00%) Presentation Skills
6 5 (3.33%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (2.67%) Legal
7 4 (2.67%) Military
8 2 (1.33%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.33%) Law
9 1 (0.67%) Automotive
9 1 (0.67%) Electronics
9 1 (0.67%) Investment Banking
9 1 (0.67%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.67%) Marketing
9 1 (0.67%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 58 (38.67%) Analyst
2 41 (27.33%) Senior
3 23 (15.33%) SOC Analyst
4 22 (14.67%) Senior Analyst
5 16 (10.67%) Security Analyst
6 9 (6.00%) Cybersecurity Analyst
7 8 (5.33%) Lead
7 8 (5.33%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
8 7 (4.67%) Project Manager
9 6 (4.00%) Architect
9 6 (4.00%) Azure Engineer
9 6 (4.00%) Cloud Engineer
9 6 (4.00%) Cyber Threat Analyst
9 6 (4.00%) Operations Analyst
9 6 (4.00%) Security Engineer
9 6 (4.00%) Technical Manager
10 5 (3.33%) IT Engineer
10 5 (3.33%) Network Security Analyst
10 5 (3.33%) Senior Operations Analyst
10 5 (3.33%) Technical Operations Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.33%) LDAP
2 4 (2.67%) Loki
2 4 (2.67%) REST
3 3 (2.00%) Kafka
3 3 (2.00%) React
3 3 (2.00%) RESTful
3 3 (2.00%) WebSockets
4 2 (1.33%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (0.67%) AWS CDK
5 1 (0.67%) WebCenter
Miscellaneous
1 22 (14.67%) Security Operations Centre
2 16 (10.67%) Cyberattack
2 16 (10.67%) Management Information System
3 15 (10.00%) Security Posture
4 11 (7.33%) Onboarding
5 10 (6.67%) CSOC
5 10 (6.67%) Cyber Defence
6 9 (6.00%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 6 (4.00%) Virtual Team
8 5 (3.33%) Analytical Mindset
9 4 (2.67%) Enterprise Storage
10 3 (2.00%) Cybercrime
10 3 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
10 3 (2.00%) Derivative
10 3 (2.00%) Energy Derivatives
10 3 (2.00%) MISP
10 3 (2.00%) Product Ownership
11 2 (1.33%) Distributed Systems
11 2 (1.33%) STIX
11 2 (1.33%) TAXII
Operating Systems
1 20 (13.33%) Linux
1 20 (13.33%) Windows
2 4 (2.67%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.33%) Android
3 2 (1.33%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.67%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.67%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (62.67%) Cybersecurity
2 65 (43.33%) Incident Response
3 45 (30.00%) SIEM
4 43 (28.67%) Security Operations
5 39 (26.00%) Threat Intelligence
6 36 (24.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 33 (22.00%) Threat Detection
8 26 (17.33%) Cyber Intelligence
9 25 (16.67%) MITRE ATT&CK
10 24 (16.00%) Problem-Solving
11 23 (15.33%) Information Security
11 23 (15.33%) Threat Modelling
12 19 (12.67%) Vulnerability Management
13 17 (11.33%) Cloud Security
13 17 (11.33%) Continuous Improvement
13 17 (11.33%) Risk Management
14 14 (9.33%) Line Management
14 14 (9.33%) Threat Analysis
15 13 (8.67%) Actionable Insight
15 13 (8.67%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 31 (20.67%) Python
2 13 (8.67%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.67%) JavaScript
3 4 (2.67%) SQL
3 4 (2.67%) TypeScript
4 3 (2.00%) Java
4 3 (2.00%) Kusto Query Language
4 3 (2.00%) Perl
4 3 (2.00%) Rust
5 2 (1.33%) Bash
5 2 (1.33%) C
5 2 (1.33%) C++
5 2 (1.33%) Embedded C
6 1 (0.67%) Go
6 1 (0.67%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 68 (45.33%) Security Cleared
2 53 (35.33%) SC Cleared
3 23 (15.33%) CISSP
4 22 (14.67%) Degree
5 20 (13.33%) DV Cleared
6 18 (12.00%) CISM
7 11 (7.33%) CompTIA Security+
8 9 (6.00%) GIAC
9 7 (4.67%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (4.00%) CEH
10 6 (4.00%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (3.33%) CREST Certified
11 5 (3.33%) GCIH
11 5 (3.33%) Master's Degree
12 4 (2.67%) Azure Certification
12 4 (2.67%) CompTIA CySA+
13 3 (2.00%) AWS Certification
13 3 (2.00%) GCFA
13 3 (2.00%) GCIA
14 2 (1.33%) CISMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (18.00%) NIST
2 25 (16.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 18 (12.00%) NCSC
4 13 (8.67%) Cyber Essentials
5 11 (7.33%) GDPR
6 8 (5.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (4.00%) SLA
8 4 (2.67%) QA
9 3 (2.00%) GRC
9 3 (2.00%) JSP 440
10 2 (1.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (1.33%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.67%) Disclosure Scotland
11 1 (0.67%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.67%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.67%) ISO 9001
11 1 (0.67%) ITGC
11 1 (0.67%) NIST 800
11 1 (0.67%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.67%) PMO
System Software
1 16 (10.67%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.00%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (3.33%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (5.33%) Microsoft Intune
2 6 (4.00%) SCCM
3 5 (3.33%) Prometheus
3 5 (3.33%) Terraform
4 3 (2.00%) Ansible
4 3 (2.00%) Grafana
4 3 (2.00%) Kubernetes
5 2 (1.33%) Red Hat Satellite
6 1 (0.67%) CASB
6 1 (0.67%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
6 1 (0.67%) CSIRT
6 1 (0.67%) Host Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.67%) QRadar
6 1 (0.67%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 35 (23.33%) Microsoft
2 21 (14.00%) Splunk
3 9 (6.00%) CrowdStrike
3 9 (6.00%) Tenable
4 7 (4.67%) CyberArk
5 6 (4.00%) AppDynamics
5 6 (4.00%) Dynatrace
5 6 (4.00%) VMware
6 5 (3.33%) Google
7 4 (2.67%) Intel
8 3 (2.00%) Apple
8 3 (2.00%) Computacenter
8 3 (2.00%) LogRhythm
9 2 (1.33%) Citrix
9 2 (1.33%) Dell
9 2 (1.33%) F5
9 2 (1.33%) Oracle
9 2 (1.33%) Palo Alto
9 2 (1.33%) Red Hat
9 2 (1.33%) ServiceNow