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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 451 402 357
Rank change year-on-year -49 -45 +68
Contract jobs citing Cyber Threat 246 157 211
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.48% 0.55%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 1.32% 1.34% 1.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 156 77 117
10th Percentile £413 £449 £495
25th Percentile £511 £488 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £650
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% -15.38% +8.33%
75th Percentile £750 £688 £788
90th Percentile £800 £772 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £578 £690
% change year-on-year -0.43% -16.30% +23.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 9 4
10th Percentile £60.80 £44.39 £42.25
25th Percentile - £45.00 £51.25
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 £65.38
90th Percentile £92.11 £77.00 £77.30
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 18,641 11,749 11,752
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.98% 35.66% 30.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,190 7,189 7,185
10th Percentile £320 £298 £294
25th Percentile £425 £406 £414
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £540
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -4.63% -1.82%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £675
90th Percentile £749 £750 £807
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,200 585 474
10th Percentile £14.04 £15.13 £14.43
25th Percentile £17.99 £18.87 £21.25
Median hourly rate £37.88 £30.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +26.25% -40.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.43 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.36 £30.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +31.20% -47.69% +18.58%

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 19 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 19 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 19 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 -34 225 £575 +3.14% 454
UK excluding London -37 159 £575 -0.43% 293
London -61 76 £575 +9.52% 193
Work from Home -51 62 £565 -2.54% 186
South East -33 46 £575 +12.47% 75
North of England -53 32 £588 +17.22% 70
East of England -14 28 £550 -17.29% 37
South West -31 26 £800 +6.67% 21
North West -45 23 £575 +14.72% 38
Midlands - 17 £688 - 44
West Midlands - 17 £688 - 22
Scotland -17 12 £800 +52.38% 35
Yorkshire - 9 £588 - 24
Wales - 4 £800 - 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 7 (2.85%) Confluence
1 7 (2.85%) IIS
2 5 (2.03%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.41%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (0.41%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.41%) Dynamics GP
1 1 (0.41%) Dynamics NAV
Cloud Services
1 52 (21.14%) Azure
2 35 (14.23%) AWS
3 27 (10.98%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (5.69%) Entra ID
5 12 (4.88%) GCP
6 11 (4.47%) SaaS
7 10 (4.07%) Datadog
8 7 (2.85%) Azure Sentinel
8 7 (2.85%) PaaS
9 6 (2.44%) IaaS
9 6 (2.44%) Microsoft Purview
10 5 (2.03%) Akamai
10 5 (2.03%) Power Platform
11 4 (1.63%) Amazon ECS
11 4 (1.63%) GitHub
11 4 (1.63%) Serverless
12 3 (1.22%) GitHub Actions
13 2 (0.81%) AWS CodeBuild
13 2 (0.81%) Azure DevOps
13 2 (0.81%) Sentry
Communications & Networking
1 32 (13.01%) Network Security
2 20 (8.13%) HTTP
3 17 (6.91%) Firewall
4 15 (6.10%) DNS
5 12 (4.88%) SSL
6 11 (4.47%) TCP/IP
7 10 (4.07%) Intrusion Detection
8 8 (3.25%) VPN
9 5 (2.03%) DHCP
9 5 (2.03%) Intranet
9 5 (2.03%) SAN
9 5 (2.03%) SMTP
9 5 (2.03%) VLAN
9 5 (2.03%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (1.22%) Broadband
10 3 (1.22%) DMZ
10 3 (1.22%) FTP
11 1 (0.41%) DKIM
11 1 (0.41%) DMARC
11 1 (0.41%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.44%) Big Data
1 6 (2.44%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.81%) Amazon QuickSight
3 1 (0.41%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.41%) MySQL
3 1 (0.41%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.41%) Power BI
3 1 (0.41%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.41%) Semantic Layer
3 1 (0.41%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 5 (2.03%) Chocolatey
2 3 (1.22%) Git
3 2 (0.81%) JIRA
General
1 68 (27.64%) Social Skills
2 58 (23.58%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (15.45%) Public Sector
4 30 (12.20%) Finance
5 12 (4.88%) Banking
6 11 (4.47%) Aerospace
7 7 (2.85%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (2.85%) Manufacturing
7 7 (2.85%) Military
8 6 (2.44%) Back Office
8 6 (2.44%) Law
8 6 (2.44%) Legal
9 4 (1.63%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.22%) Local Government
10 3 (1.22%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.41%) Documentation Skills
12 1 (0.41%) Games
12 1 (0.41%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.41%) Public Speaking
Job Titles
1 66 (26.83%) Analyst
2 26 (10.57%) Security Engineer
3 25 (10.16%) Cyber Threat Analyst
4 23 (9.35%) Senior
4 23 (9.35%) Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (8.54%) Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst
5 21 (8.54%) Security Analyst
6 19 (7.72%) Architect
7 18 (7.32%) Security Manager
7 18 (7.32%) SOC Analyst
8 17 (6.91%) Security Architect
9 14 (5.69%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 12 (4.88%) Coordinator
10 12 (4.88%) Security Specialist
10 12 (4.88%) SOC Manager
11 11 (4.47%) Lead
11 11 (4.47%) Operations Manager
12 10 (4.07%) Cybersecurity Analyst
12 10 (4.07%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 10 (4.07%) Security Operations Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (4.47%) Terraform
2 10 (4.07%) LDAP
3 9 (3.66%) JSON
4 8 (3.25%) Elastic Stack
4 8 (3.25%) Regular Expression
5 5 (2.03%) Kafka
6 3 (1.22%) Django
6 3 (1.22%) REST
7 2 (0.81%) AWS CDK
7 2 (0.81%) PySpark
7 2 (0.81%) XML
8 1 (0.41%) Ajax
8 1 (0.41%) CSS
8 1 (0.41%) HTML
8 1 (0.41%) JWT
8 1 (0.41%) SOAP
8 1 (0.41%) Web Services
8 1 (0.41%) XHTML
Miscellaneous
1 36 (14.63%) Security Operations Centre
2 30 (12.20%) Security Posture
3 23 (9.35%) Cyber Defence
4 17 (6.91%) Onboarding
4 17 (6.91%) Operational Technology
5 15 (6.10%) Management Information System
6 8 (3.25%) Analytical Mindset
6 8 (3.25%) CSOC
6 8 (3.25%) Cyberattack
7 7 (2.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 6 (2.44%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 6 (2.44%) IoT
8 6 (2.44%) SCADA
9 5 (2.03%) Cloud Native
9 5 (2.03%) Industrial Internet of Things
10 4 (1.63%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.63%) Hybrid Cloud
11 3 (1.22%) PKI
11 3 (1.22%) YARA
12 2 (0.81%) MISP
Operating Systems
1 29 (11.79%) Windows
2 19 (7.72%) Linux
3 5 (2.03%) Unix
4 2 (0.81%) Mac OS
4 2 (0.81%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (71.54%) Cybersecurity
2 123 (50.00%) Incident Response
3 99 (40.24%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
3 99 (40.24%) Security Operations
3 99 (40.24%) Threat Intelligence
4 79 (32.11%) SIEM
5 64 (26.02%) Vulnerability Management
6 52 (21.14%) Cyber Intelligence
7 51 (20.73%) Stakeholder Management
8 50 (20.33%) Continuous Improvement
9 49 (19.92%) Threat Detection
10 47 (19.11%) Risk Management
11 38 (15.45%) MITRE ATT&CK
12 36 (14.63%) Information Security
12 36 (14.63%) Problem-Solving
13 34 (13.82%) Cloud Security
13 34 (13.82%) Security Monitoring
14 31 (12.60%) Incident Management
15 30 (12.20%) Cyber Resilience
16 28 (11.38%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 34 (13.82%) Python
2 18 (7.32%) PowerShell
3 9 (3.66%) Bash
3 9 (3.66%) Kusto Query Language
4 4 (1.63%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.22%) Perl
6 2 (0.81%) JavaScript
6 2 (0.81%) Shell Script
6 2 (0.81%) SQL
7 1 (0.41%) C
7 1 (0.41%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 122 (49.59%) Security Cleared
2 87 (35.37%) SC Cleared
3 39 (15.85%) CISSP
4 36 (14.63%) DV Cleared
5 33 (13.41%) CISM
6 25 (10.16%) Degree
7 10 (4.07%) GIAC
8 9 (3.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 9 (3.66%) Azure Certification
8 9 (3.66%) Cisco Certification
8 9 (3.66%) Computer Science Degree
9 8 (3.25%) AWS Certification
9 8 (3.25%) BPSS Clearance
10 6 (2.44%) CEH
10 6 (2.44%) CompTIA Security+
10 6 (2.44%) GCIA
10 6 (2.44%) GCIH
10 6 (2.44%) SANS
11 5 (2.03%) CRISC
11 5 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (22.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 42 (17.07%) NIST
3 25 (10.16%) NCSC
4 24 (9.76%) GDPR
5 10 (4.07%) Cyber Essentials
6 9 (3.66%) GRC
6 9 (3.66%) SLA
7 8 (3.25%) PCI DSS
8 6 (2.44%) COBIT
8 6 (2.44%) NIST 800
9 4 (1.63%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (1.63%) ISO 22301
10 3 (1.22%) ISO 19650
11 2 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 1 (0.41%) Data Quality
12 1 (0.41%) Def Stans
12 1 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
12 1 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.41%) ISO 31000
12 1 (0.41%) QA
System Software
1 20 (8.13%) Active Directory
2 10 (4.07%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (3.66%) Hyper-V
4 7 (2.85%) NFS
4 7 (2.85%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (2.03%) Docker
6 1 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 9 (3.66%) Microsoft Intune
2 7 (2.85%) Ansible
2 7 (2.85%) SCCM
3 6 (2.44%) QRadar
4 5 (2.03%) Grafana
5 4 (1.63%) Kubernetes
6 2 (0.81%) CASB
6 2 (0.81%) CSIRT
6 2 (0.81%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 49 (19.92%) Microsoft
2 24 (9.76%) Splunk
3 12 (4.88%) VMware
4 8 (3.25%) Databricks
5 7 (2.85%) Tenable
6 5 (2.03%) AppDynamics
6 5 (2.03%) Dynatrace
6 5 (2.03%) Google
6 5 (2.03%) ServiceNow
6 5 (2.03%) SolarWinds
7 3 (1.22%) Blue Coat
7 3 (1.22%) Clearswift
7 3 (1.22%) Netskope
7 3 (1.22%) Oracle
7 3 (1.22%) Palo Alto
7 3 (1.22%) Tanium
7 3 (1.22%) Trend Micro
7 3 (1.22%) Tripwire
7 3 (1.22%) Zscaler
8 2 (0.81%) Cribl.io