GCIA Contract Job Trends

GIAC Certified Intrusion Analyst (GCIA)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for GCIA qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 22 October 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 532 551 618
Rank change year-on-year +19 +67 +218
Contract jobs citing GCIA 32 7 12
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.096% 0.019% 0.025%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.30% 0.064% 0.089%
Number of daily rates quoted 20 6 7
10th Percentile £469 £225 £461
25th Percentile £481 £275 £496
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £550
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -18.18% -12.00%
75th Percentile £623 £644 £628
90th Percentile £760 £813 £637
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 - £550

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GCIA falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 10,803 10,915 13,504
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.25% 29.29% 28.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,797 6,630 8,694
10th Percentile £290 £311 £313
25th Percentile £413 £420 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £636 £650
90th Percentile £709 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £515 £538
% change year-on-year -2.91% -4.19% +2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 905 539 744
10th Percentile £17.08 £18.13 £16.63
25th Percentile £18.87 £24.34 £26.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £47.50 £53.67
Median % change year-on-year -47.05% -11.49% +19.26%
75th Percentile £39.50 £67.63 £68.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £79.93
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £51.90
% change year-on-year -49.70% -3.65% +15.32%

GCIA
Job Vacancy Trend

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

GCIA job vacancy trend in the UK

GCIA
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing GCIA

GCIA
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing GCIA over the 6 months to 22 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for GCIA in the UK

GCIA
Top 9 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing GCIA within the UK over the 6 months to 22 October 2025. 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 +20 22 £506 +12.50% 9
UK excluding London - 22 £500 - 10
South East - 12 £500 - 5
Work from Home +33 8 £800 +77.78% 7
Scotland - 6 £493 -
London +14 5 £500 +11.11% 1
North of England - 4 £520 -
Yorkshire - 2 £520 -
North West - 2 - -

GCIA
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:

Cloud Services
1 11 (34.38%) Azure
2 10 (31.25%) Azure Sentinel
3 6 (18.75%) GCP
4 5 (15.63%) AWS
5 2 (6.25%) Azure Logic Apps
5 2 (6.25%) Google Kubernetes Engine
5 2 (6.25%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (6.25%) OCI
5 2 (6.25%) SaaS
6 1 (3.13%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 4 (12.50%) Firewall
2 3 (9.38%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (6.25%) BigQuery
General
1 11 (34.38%) Analytical Skills
2 7 (21.88%) Finance
3 6 (18.75%) Legal
3 6 (18.75%) Social Skills
4 5 (15.63%) Public Sector
5 1 (3.13%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 22 (68.75%) Analyst
2 14 (43.75%) SOC Analyst
3 9 (28.13%) Security Analyst
4 6 (18.75%) Cybersecurity Analyst
5 3 (9.38%) Security Engineer
5 3 (9.38%) SOC Manager
6 2 (6.25%) Developer
6 2 (6.25%) Operations Analyst
6 2 (6.25%) Security Operations Analyst
6 2 (6.25%) SIEM Engineer
7 1 (3.13%) Consultant
7 1 (3.13%) Microsoft Specialist
7 1 (3.13%) Operational Security Manager
7 1 (3.13%) Operations Manager
7 1 (3.13%) Security Manager
7 1 (3.13%) Security Operations Manager
7 1 (3.13%) Security Specialist
7 1 (3.13%) Senior Security Engineer
7 1 (3.13%) SOC Consultant
7 1 (3.13%) SOC Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (6.25%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (31.25%) Security Operations Centre
2 8 (25.00%) Cyber Threat
3 7 (21.88%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 5 (15.63%) Management Information System
4 5 (15.63%) Security Posture
5 4 (12.50%) Cloud Native
5 4 (12.50%) Driving Licence
5 4 (12.50%) YARA
6 2 (6.25%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (6.25%) Onboarding
6 2 (6.25%) STIX
7 1 (3.13%) CSOC
Operating Systems
1 17 (53.13%) Windows
2 15 (46.88%) Linux
3 2 (6.25%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (100.00%) SIEM
2 28 (87.50%) Incident Response
3 25 (78.13%) Cybersecurity
4 21 (65.63%) Security Operations
5 19 (59.38%) Threat Intelligence
6 16 (50.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
7 13 (40.63%) Threat Detection
8 12 (37.50%) SOAR
9 10 (31.25%) Problem-Solving
10 9 (28.13%) Malware Analysis
10 9 (28.13%) MITRE ATT&CK
10 9 (28.13%) Use Case
11 8 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
11 8 (25.00%) Forensic Analysis
12 7 (21.88%) Risk Management
12 7 (21.88%) Root Cause Analysis
12 7 (21.88%) Vulnerability Management
13 6 (18.75%) Data Privacy
13 6 (18.75%) Kalman Filter
13 6 (18.75%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 16 (50.00%) Python
2 12 (37.50%) PowerShell
3 8 (25.00%) Kusto Query Language
4 2 (6.25%) Bash
4 2 (6.25%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 28 (87.50%) GCIH
2 23 (71.88%) CISSP
3 12 (37.50%) Degree
3 12 (37.50%) GCFA
4 10 (31.25%) Security Cleared
5 8 (25.00%) GIAC
6 7 (21.88%) CFCE
6 7 (21.88%) CompTIA CySA+
6 7 (21.88%) SC Cleared
7 6 (18.75%) CEH
7 6 (18.75%) CompTIA Security+
8 4 (12.50%) CASP
8 4 (12.50%) CISM
8 4 (12.50%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (12.50%) DV Cleared
9 2 (6.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 2 (6.25%) Cisco Certification
9 2 (6.25%) ECSA
9 2 (6.25%) SSCP
10 1 (3.13%) GCED
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (46.88%) NIST
2 13 (40.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 10 (31.25%) GDPR
4 5 (15.63%) HIPAA
5 4 (12.50%) PCI DSS
6 2 (6.25%) GRC
6 2 (6.25%) NIST 800
6 2 (6.25%) SOC 2
System Software
1 2 (6.25%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (12.50%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
2 2 (6.25%) Kubernetes
2 2 (6.25%) QRadar
2 2 (6.25%) Terraform
3 1 (3.13%) Nessus
Vendors
1 19 (59.38%) Splunk
2 17 (53.13%) Microsoft
3 12 (37.50%) ArcSight
4 10 (31.25%) CrowdStrike
5 6 (18.75%) LogRhythm
6 4 (12.50%) Qualys
7 3 (9.38%) Google
8 2 (6.25%) IBM
8 2 (6.25%) Rapid7
9 1 (3.13%) Intel