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 14 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 472 396 373
Rank change year-on-year -76 -23 +192
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 151 123 224
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.33% 0.42% 0.51%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.02% 1.24% 1.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 105 74 146
10th Percentile £378 £402 £457
25th Percentile £450 £466 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £570
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -7.89% -8.43%
75th Percentile £638 £629 £671
90th Percentile £750 £725 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £550 £568
% change year-on-year +4.55% -3.08% -3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 1
10th Percentile £41.94 - -
25th Percentile £47.99 £80.34 £81.75
Median hourly rate £60.25 £80.68 £83.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.32% -3.38% -
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.56 £85.25
90th Percentile £97.45 £81.88 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.25 £80.68 £83.50
% change year-on-year -25.32% -3.38% -

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 14,782 9,914 13,285
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.33% 33.86% 30.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,247 6,363 8,512
10th Percentile £300 £288 £263
25th Percentile £412 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £738 £775 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 707 382 901
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.95 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.41 £22.27 £15.17
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% +18.18% +22.30%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.52 £57.50
90th Percentile £85.70 £83.20 £67.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.54 £32.05 £25.50
% change year-on-year +48.33% +25.69% +15.91%

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 14 April 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 14 April 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 14 April 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 -72 134 £550 +2.09% 78
UK excluding London -60 97 £575 +4.55% 53
London -73 40 £500 -4.76% 45
North of England -45 34 £484 -2.42% 11
Work from Home -47 33 £588 +13.25% 31
South East -46 26 £575 +9.00% 25
North West -15 23 £476 -3.98% 7
West Midlands -52 13 £600 -12.73% 6
Midlands -59 13 £600 -12.73% 11
East of England -33 12 £212 -64.67% 3
Yorkshire - 11 £500 - 1
Scotland +2 10 £338 -28.95% 3
Wales -12 1 - - 1
South West -34 1 £525 -4.55%

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 3 (1.99%) Apache Spark
2 1 (0.66%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
Cloud Services
1 36 (23.84%) Azure
2 18 (11.92%) AWS
3 15 (9.93%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (5.96%) Entra ID
5 8 (5.30%) SaaS
6 7 (4.64%) Datadog
6 7 (4.64%) IaaS
6 7 (4.64%) PaaS
7 5 (3.31%) Azure Key Vault
7 5 (3.31%) Microsoft Purview
8 3 (1.99%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (1.32%) Amazon OpenSearch
9 2 (1.32%) Amazon S3
9 2 (1.32%) GCP
9 2 (1.32%) GitHub
9 2 (1.32%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.66%) Akamai
10 1 (0.66%) AWS Lambda
10 1 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.66%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 22 (14.57%) Firewall
2 19 (12.58%) Network Security
3 17 (11.26%) DNS
4 11 (7.28%) Wi-Fi
5 10 (6.62%) TCP/IP
6 9 (5.96%) SAN
7 8 (5.30%) VPN
8 7 (4.64%) SSL
9 6 (3.97%) DHCP
9 6 (3.97%) VLAN
10 5 (3.31%) FTP
10 5 (3.31%) HTTP
10 5 (3.31%) SMTP
11 3 (1.99%) Intrusion Detection
12 2 (1.32%) MIMO
12 2 (1.32%) Multicast
12 2 (1.32%) NAS
13 1 (0.66%) Intranet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.62%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.99%) Big Data
2 3 (1.99%) Redis
3 2 (1.32%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 7 (4.64%) Chocolatey
2 5 (3.31%) Git
3 2 (1.32%) GitLab
3 2 (1.32%) JIRA
4 1 (0.66%) Jenkins
General
1 30 (19.87%) Analytical Skills
2 28 (18.54%) Social Skills
3 16 (10.60%) Finance
4 14 (9.27%) Public Sector
5 11 (7.28%) Banking
6 7 (4.64%) Legal
7 5 (3.31%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.65%) Military
9 2 (1.32%) Law
9 2 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.66%) Financial Institution
10 1 (0.66%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.66%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 53 (35.10%) Analyst
2 35 (23.18%) Senior
3 22 (14.57%) SOC Analyst
4 17 (11.26%) Senior Analyst
5 15 (9.93%) Architect
6 14 (9.27%) Lead
6 14 (9.27%) Security Analyst
7 7 (4.64%) Azure Engineer
7 7 (4.64%) Lead Architect
7 7 (4.64%) Security Architect
8 6 (3.97%) Cloud Engineer
8 6 (3.97%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 6 (3.97%) Security Engineer
9 5 (3.31%) Network Analyst
9 5 (3.31%) Network Support
9 5 (3.31%) Network Support Analyst
9 5 (3.31%) Operations Analyst
9 5 (3.31%) Project Manager
9 5 (3.31%) Technical Manager
9 5 (3.31%) Trainer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.31%) LDAP
2 4 (2.65%) Loki
2 4 (2.65%) REST
3 3 (1.99%) Kafka
3 3 (1.99%) React
3 3 (1.99%) RESTful
3 3 (1.99%) WebSockets
4 1 (0.66%) AWS CDK
4 1 (0.66%) Django
4 1 (0.66%) WebCenter
Miscellaneous
1 17 (11.26%) Security Operations Centre
2 16 (10.60%) Cyberattack
3 15 (9.93%) Management Information System
4 13 (8.61%) Security Posture
5 8 (5.30%) CSOC
5 8 (5.30%) Onboarding
5 8 (5.30%) Operational Technology
6 7 (4.64%) Cyber Defence
7 5 (3.31%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (3.31%) Cloud Native
7 5 (3.31%) Private Cloud
7 5 (3.31%) Virtual Team
8 4 (2.65%) Enterprise Storage
9 3 (1.99%) Cybercrime
9 3 (1.99%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (1.99%) Derivative
9 3 (1.99%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 3 (1.99%) Energy Derivatives
9 3 (1.99%) MISP
9 3 (1.99%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 20 (13.25%) Linux
1 20 (13.25%) Windows
2 3 (1.99%) Windows Server
3 1 (0.66%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (52.32%) Cybersecurity
2 56 (37.09%) Incident Response
3 42 (27.81%) SIEM
4 32 (21.19%) Security Operations
5 27 (17.88%) Threat Detection
6 26 (17.22%) Threat Intelligence
7 24 (15.89%) Problem-Solving
8 23 (15.23%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
9 20 (13.25%) Threat Modelling
10 19 (12.58%) Information Security
11 17 (11.26%) Continuous Improvement
11 17 (11.26%) Risk Management
11 17 (11.26%) Vulnerability Management
12 15 (9.93%) Cloud Security
13 14 (9.27%) Cyber Intelligence
13 14 (9.27%) MITRE ATT&CK
14 13 (8.61%) Analytics
15 12 (7.95%) AI
15 12 (7.95%) Security Architecture
16 11 (7.28%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 29 (19.21%) Python
2 9 (5.96%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.99%) C
3 3 (1.99%) C++
3 3 (1.99%) Embedded C
3 3 (1.99%) JavaScript
3 3 (1.99%) Kusto Query Language
3 3 (1.99%) Rust
3 3 (1.99%) SQL
3 3 (1.99%) TypeScript
4 2 (1.32%) Bash
5 1 (0.66%) Go
5 1 (0.66%) Perl
5 1 (0.66%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 58 (38.41%) Security Cleared
2 48 (31.79%) SC Cleared
3 19 (12.58%) Degree
4 17 (11.26%) DV Cleared
5 14 (9.27%) CISSP
6 9 (5.96%) CISM
7 8 (5.30%) CompTIA Security+
8 6 (3.97%) BPSS Clearance
8 6 (3.97%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (3.97%) GCIH
8 6 (3.97%) GIAC
9 5 (3.31%) CEH
10 4 (2.65%) Master's Degree
11 3 (1.99%) CREST Certified
11 3 (1.99%) GCFA
12 2 (1.32%) AWS Certification
12 2 (1.32%) CRISC
12 2 (1.32%) GCIA
12 2 (1.32%) HND
12 2 (1.32%) Postgraduate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (12.58%) NIST
2 16 (10.60%) NCSC
3 14 (9.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (5.30%) GRC
5 7 (4.64%) SLA
6 4 (2.65%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (1.99%) GDPR
7 3 (1.99%) QA
8 2 (1.32%) PCI DSS
8 2 (1.32%) SOC 2
9 1 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 1 (0.66%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.66%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 1 (0.66%) ISO 19650
9 1 (0.66%) ITGC
9 1 (0.66%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.66%) NIST 800
9 1 (0.66%) PMO
System Software
1 15 (9.93%) Active Directory
2 7 (4.64%) Virtual Desktop
3 5 (3.31%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (1.32%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.66%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (4.64%) Microsoft Intune
1 7 (4.64%) SCCM
2 5 (3.31%) Prometheus
2 5 (3.31%) Terraform
3 3 (1.99%) Ansible
3 3 (1.99%) Grafana
4 2 (1.32%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.32%) QRadar
4 2 (1.32%) Red Hat Satellite
5 1 (0.66%) CASB
5 1 (0.66%) CSIRT
5 1 (0.66%) Host Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 33 (21.85%) Microsoft
2 16 (10.60%) Splunk
3 9 (5.96%) Tenable
4 7 (4.64%) AppDynamics
4 7 (4.64%) Dynatrace
4 7 (4.64%) VMware
5 6 (3.97%) CrowdStrike
6 5 (3.31%) CyberArk
6 5 (3.31%) Tanium
7 4 (2.65%) Google
7 4 (2.65%) Intel
8 3 (1.99%) Apple
8 3 (1.99%) Databricks
9 2 (1.32%) Citrix
9 2 (1.32%) Dell
9 2 (1.32%) F5
9 2 (1.32%) Red Hat
10 1 (0.66%) Oracle
10 1 (0.66%) Proofpoint
10 1 (0.66%) Salesforce