Data Security Contract Job Trends

Data Security
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Data Security skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 382 245 294
Rank change year-on-year -137 +49 +14
Contract jobs citing Data Security 326 368 302
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 1.11% 0.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.71% 1.23% 0.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 223 244 181
10th Percentile £375 £360 £338
25th Percentile £450 £425 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +5.77% -5.45% -
75th Percentile £656 £603 £685
90th Percentile £700 £724 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +5.26% -9.52% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 10 0
10th Percentile £13.60 £12.31 -
25th Percentile £14.25 £12.51 -
Median hourly rate £16.80 £13.60 -
Median % change year-on-year +23.53% - -
75th Percentile £26.40 £17.84 -
90th Percentile £69.50 £25.60 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £13.60 -
% change year-on-year +76.47% - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Data Security falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 46,102 30,004 32,672
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.59% 90.46% 86.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,718 18,629 19,703
10th Percentile £325 £294 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £638 £623 £638
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,326 1,885 1,303
10th Percentile £13.58 £14.33 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.00 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +49.11% -37.13% -8.31%
75th Percentile £65.00 £43.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.52 £65.00 £73.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.50 £22.27 £41.25
% change year-on-year +68.43% -46.02% -2.94%

Data Security
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Security relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Data Security job vacancy trend in the UK

Data Security
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Security.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Security

Data Security
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Security over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Data Security in the UK

Data Security
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Security.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Data Security

Data Security
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Data Security over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Data Security in the UK

Data Security
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Security within the UK over the 6 months to 9 October 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 -116 292 £550 +4.76% 534
London -91 146 £563 +2.27% 321
UK excluding London -129 141 £500 +5.26% 227
Work from Home -80 98 £535 -2.73% 197
North of England -68 55 £550 +15.79% 65
Midlands -47 39 £540 +9.81% 39
West Midlands -45 32 £580 +10.48% 24
Yorkshire -42 28 £528 +11.16% 26
South West -28 18 £563 - 26
North West -54 18 £582 +23.17% 30
South East -71 17 £600 +15.38% 50
East of England -24 11 £450 -5.26% 30
North East -32 9 £463 +19.35% 10
East Midlands -21 7 £304 -32.22% 15
Scotland -49 4 £525 +16.67% 15
Wales -11 2 £400 +18.96% 4

Data Security
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 18 (5.52%) Apache Airflow
2 17 (5.21%) SharePoint
3 15 (4.60%) Apache Spark
4 7 (2.15%) Apache
5 6 (1.84%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (1.23%) Confluence
6 4 (1.23%) SAS
7 2 (0.61%) Apache Pig
7 2 (0.61%) CICS
7 2 (0.61%) CMS
8 1 (0.31%) nginx
8 1 (0.31%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 6 (1.84%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.53%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.61%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.61%) Spreadsheet
4 1 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.31%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.31%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.23%) Oracle ERP
2 3 (0.92%) Oracle Payables
2 3 (0.92%) Unit4 Business World
2 3 (0.92%) Workday HCM
3 2 (0.61%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.31%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.31%) Oracle Assets
4 1 (0.31%) Oracle Payroll
4 1 (0.31%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 123 (37.73%) Azure
2 95 (29.14%) AWS
3 46 (14.11%) Power Platform
4 41 (12.58%) GCP
5 30 (9.20%) Microsoft 365
6 27 (8.28%) Azure Data Factory
7 25 (7.67%) Entra ID
8 23 (7.06%) Snowflake
9 22 (6.75%) Microsoft Purview
10 21 (6.44%) dbt
11 18 (5.52%) Serverless
12 17 (5.21%) Azure Synapse Analytics
13 15 (4.60%) Azure DevOps
14 13 (3.99%) Amazon S3
15 9 (2.76%) Microsoft Copilot
16 8 (2.45%) AWS Lambda
16 8 (2.45%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 8 (2.45%) SaaS
17 7 (2.15%) Azure Key Vault
17 7 (2.15%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 24 (7.36%) Network Security
2 11 (3.37%) Firewall
3 6 (1.84%) DNS
4 5 (1.53%) Intrusion Detection
5 4 (1.23%) WAN
6 1 (0.31%) Cisco IPT
6 1 (0.31%) DHCP
6 1 (0.31%) Internet
6 1 (0.31%) Kerberos
6 1 (0.31%) Reverse Proxy
6 1 (0.31%) SSH
6 1 (0.31%) SSL
6 1 (0.31%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.31%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 43 (13.19%) Power BI
2 40 (12.27%) Metadata
3 33 (10.12%) Data Warehouse
4 26 (7.98%) Data Lake
5 18 (5.52%) SQL Server
6 15 (4.60%) PostgreSQL
7 14 (4.29%) BigQuery
8 13 (3.99%) Big Data
9 11 (3.37%) Relational Database
10 10 (3.07%) Amazon Redshift
10 10 (3.07%) Azure SQL Database
11 9 (2.76%) Delta Lake
12 8 (2.45%) Elasticsearch
13 7 (2.15%) Hadoop
13 7 (2.15%) SQL Server Integration Services
14 6 (1.84%) NoSQL
14 6 (1.84%) Tableau
15 5 (1.53%) Amazon Athena
15 5 (1.53%) RDBMS
15 5 (1.53%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 16 (4.91%) Git
2 11 (3.37%) JIRA
3 2 (0.61%) ER Studio
4 1 (0.31%) Gemini Tracker
4 1 (0.31%) GitLab
4 1 (0.31%) MLflow
General
1 127 (38.96%) Social Skills
2 77 (23.62%) Finance
3 65 (19.94%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (12.88%) Public Sector
5 21 (6.44%) Banking
6 18 (5.52%) Legal
7 12 (3.68%) Influencing Skills
8 11 (3.37%) Organisational Skills
8 11 (3.37%) Retail
9 10 (3.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.84%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.84%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
12 3 (0.92%) Financial Institution
12 3 (0.92%) General Ledger
12 3 (0.92%) Japanese Language
12 3 (0.92%) Marketing
12 3 (0.92%) Military
13 2 (0.61%) Local Government
13 2 (0.61%) Police
Job Titles
1 84 (25.77%) Architect
2 69 (21.17%) Data Engineer
3 47 (14.42%) Lead
4 32 (9.82%) Data Architect
5 28 (8.59%) Security Architect
6 23 (7.06%) Senior
7 21 (6.44%) Analyst
8 14 (4.29%) Developer
8 14 (4.29%) Lead Data Engineer
8 14 (4.29%) Security Engineer
9 12 (3.68%) Consultant
10 11 (3.37%) Data Analyst
10 11 (3.37%) Solutions Architect
11 9 (2.76%) Project Manager
11 9 (2.76%) Security Consultant
11 9 (2.76%) Technical Architect
12 7 (2.15%) Administrator
13 6 (1.84%) Data Migration Engineer
13 6 (1.84%) Migration Engineer
13 6 (1.84%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (5.83%) Terraform
2 15 (4.60%) Kafka
2 15 (4.60%) PySpark
3 12 (3.68%) REST
4 7 (2.15%) Oracle Fusion
5 6 (1.84%) Middleware
5 6 (1.84%) OAuth
6 5 (1.53%) XGBoost
7 4 (1.23%) Apache NiFi
7 4 (1.23%) Keycloak
7 4 (1.23%) LangChain
8 3 (0.92%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (0.92%) LDAP
8 3 (0.92%) OAuth2
8 3 (0.92%) OpenID
8 3 (0.92%) PyTorch
8 3 (0.92%) RESTful
8 3 (0.92%) SAML
8 3 (0.92%) scikit-learn
8 3 (0.92%) Spark Streaming
Miscellaneous
1 31 (9.51%) Cloud Native
2 24 (7.36%) Legacy Systems
3 21 (6.44%) Management Information System
3 21 (6.44%) Onboarding
4 14 (4.29%) Security Posture
5 11 (3.37%) AI Agents
6 10 (3.07%) Algorithms
6 10 (3.07%) Data Structures
7 9 (2.76%) Data Protection Act
7 9 (2.76%) Hybrid Cloud
8 8 (2.45%) Replication
9 7 (2.15%) Enterprise Cloud
10 6 (1.84%) Credit Risk
10 6 (1.84%) Mainframe
10 6 (1.84%) Operational Technology
11 5 (1.53%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.53%) Clustering
11 5 (1.53%) NHS
11 5 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
12 4 (1.23%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 8 (2.45%) Windows
2 7 (2.15%) Unix
3 4 (1.23%) Linux
4 2 (0.61%) zOS
5 1 (0.31%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (30.06%) Analytics
2 87 (26.69%) Data Modelling
3 78 (23.93%) Data Governance
4 77 (23.62%) AI
5 75 (23.01%) Migration
6 69 (21.17%) Cybersecurity
7 66 (20.25%) Data Pipeline
7 66 (20.25%) Stakeholder Management
8 65 (19.94%) Data Protection
9 64 (19.63%) CI/CD
10 62 (19.02%) Roadmaps
11 59 (18.10%) DevOps
12 57 (17.48%) ETL
13 56 (17.18%) Agile
14 51 (15.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 50 (15.34%) Data Engineering
16 48 (14.72%) Technical Leadership
17 46 (14.11%) Problem-Solving
18 44 (13.50%) Business Intelligence
19 41 (12.58%) Data Architecture
Programming Languages
1 81 (24.85%) SQL
2 77 (23.62%) Python
3 17 (5.21%) PowerShell
4 14 (4.29%) Java
5 6 (1.84%) JavaScript
5 6 (1.84%) R
5 6 (1.84%) Shell Script
6 5 (1.53%) Bash
6 5 (1.53%) C#
7 4 (1.23%) Bicep
7 4 (1.23%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 4 (1.23%) Go
7 4 (1.23%) Scala
8 3 (0.92%) T-SQL
8 3 (0.92%) TypeScript
9 2 (0.61%) COBOL
9 2 (0.61%) Korn
9 2 (0.61%) PL/SQL
9 2 (0.61%) REXX
9 2 (0.61%) SOQL
Qualifications
1 93 (28.53%) Security Cleared
2 74 (22.70%) SC Cleared
3 45 (13.80%) Degree
4 38 (11.66%) CISSP
5 29 (8.90%) CISM
6 19 (5.83%) Azure Certification
7 18 (5.52%) DV Cleared
8 17 (5.21%) Computer Science Degree
9 14 (4.29%) BPSS Clearance
10 10 (3.07%) Master's Degree
11 9 (2.76%) AWS Certification
11 9 (2.76%) Cisco Certification
11 9 (2.76%) TOGAF Certification
12 8 (2.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 8 (2.45%) Microsoft Certification
13 6 (1.84%) CCSP
13 6 (1.84%) CEH
14 5 (1.53%) PMP
14 5 (1.53%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
15 4 (1.23%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (24.23%) Data Quality
2 68 (20.86%) GDPR
3 31 (9.51%) NIST
4 26 (7.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 15 (4.60%) PCI DSS
6 12 (3.68%) QA
7 8 (2.45%) HIPAA
8 7 (2.15%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 7 (2.15%) ISO 19650
9 5 (1.53%) Basel III
9 5 (1.53%) GRC
9 5 (1.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 5 (1.53%) SLA
10 4 (1.23%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.92%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 3 (0.92%) NCSC
11 3 (0.92%) PMO
12 2 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
12 2 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.61%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 14 (4.29%) Active Directory
2 7 (2.15%) Docker
3 4 (1.23%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (1.23%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.61%) Apache Flume
4 2 (0.61%) HDFS
4 2 (0.61%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 12 (3.68%) Kubernetes
2 9 (2.76%) Microsoft Intune
3 5 (1.53%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (1.23%) Ansible
4 4 (1.23%) Grafana
4 4 (1.23%) Prometheus
5 2 (0.61%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (0.61%) Control-M
5 2 (0.61%) Failover Clustering
5 2 (0.61%) Progress Chef
6 1 (0.31%) Puppet
6 1 (0.31%) SCCM
Vendors
1 83 (25.46%) Microsoft
2 38 (11.66%) Databricks
3 26 (7.98%) Google
4 21 (6.44%) Oracle
5 11 (3.37%) Zscaler
6 8 (2.45%) Salesforce
7 6 (1.84%) CyberArk
7 6 (1.84%) Workday
8 4 (1.23%) Delphix
8 4 (1.23%) Dynatrace
8 4 (1.23%) SAP
8 4 (1.23%) Splunk
8 4 (1.23%) Symantec
9 3 (0.92%) Foundry
9 3 (0.92%) MuleSoft
10 2 (0.61%) Alteryx
10 2 (0.61%) IBM
10 2 (0.61%) OpenText
10 2 (0.61%) ServiceNow
10 2 (0.61%) Varonis