GCIH Contract Job Trends

GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for GCIH qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 8 September 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 501 548 646
Rank change year-on-year +47 +98 +194
Contract jobs citing GCIH 51 13 8
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.16% 0.034% 0.016%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.50% 0.12% 0.056%
Number of daily rates quoted 36 9 6
10th Percentile £353 £225 £491
25th Percentile £472 £400 £566
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £713
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -36.84% +18.75%
75th Percentile £741 £738 £820
90th Percentile £850 £775 £823
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £425 £438
% change year-on-year +17.65% -2.86% -23.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile £46.45 - -
25th Percentile £47.50 - -
Median hourly rate £56.00 - -
75th Percentile £63.00 - -
90th Percentile £63.15 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GCIH 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 10,139 11,208 14,179
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.24% 29.41% 27.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,286 6,994 9,210
10th Percentile £300 £313 £325
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £700 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - +2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 800 677 710
10th Percentile £18.00 £16.85 £16.25
25th Percentile £18.87 £24.18 £26.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £50.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -49.70% -9.09% +22.22%
75th Percentile £48.72 £67.81 £68.75
90th Percentile £71.27 £75.24 £78.17
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £53.50 £51.89
% change year-on-year -52.99% +3.10% +16.06%

GCIH
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing GCIH as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for GCIH in the UK

GCIH
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

GCIH
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing GCIH over the 6 months to 8 September 2025.

Daily rate histogram for GCIH in the UK

GCIH
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing GCIH

GCIH
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing GCIH within the UK over the 6 months to 8 September 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 +35 38 £506 +12.50% 14
UK excluding London +30 30 £500 +17.65% 14
London +29 16 £650 +44.44% 8
Work from Home +40 15 £511 +13.61% 9
South East - 15 £506 - 8
Scotland +10 8 £493 +15.88% 2
North of England - 3 £473 - 1
West Midlands - 2 £750 -
Midlands - 2 £750 -
North West - 2 - -
Wales - 1 £500 - 2
South West - 1 £350 - 1
Yorkshire - 1 £473 - 1

GCIH
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (3.92%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (3.92%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 24 (47.06%) Azure
2 21 (41.18%) Azure Sentinel
3 5 (9.80%) AWS
3 5 (9.80%) GCP
4 4 (7.84%) Microsoft 365
5 3 (5.88%) Azure Logic Apps
5 3 (5.88%) Google Workspace
6 2 (3.92%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 2 (3.92%) SaaS
7 1 (1.96%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 10 (19.61%) Network Security
2 9 (17.65%) Firewall
3 2 (3.92%) DNS
3 2 (3.92%) HTTP
3 2 (3.92%) Intrusion Detection
3 2 (3.92%) SMTP
3 2 (3.92%) TCP/IP
4 1 (1.96%) NGFW
4 1 (1.96%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.92%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 2 (3.92%) Git
1 2 (3.92%) JIRA
General
1 14 (27.45%) Finance
2 13 (25.49%) Social Skills
3 11 (21.57%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (11.76%) Legal
5 5 (9.80%) Public Sector
6 4 (7.84%) Financial Institution
7 2 (3.92%) Banking
7 2 (3.92%) French Language
7 2 (3.92%) Retail Banking
8 1 (1.96%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 26 (50.98%) Analyst
2 17 (33.33%) SOC Analyst
3 9 (17.65%) Security Analyst
4 8 (15.69%) Security Engineer
5 7 (13.73%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 6 (11.76%) Senior
7 5 (9.80%) Security Manager
8 4 (7.84%) Consultant
8 4 (7.84%) IT Engineer
8 4 (7.84%) IT Security Engineer
9 3 (5.88%) Lead
9 3 (5.88%) Security Specialist
9 3 (5.88%) SOC Manager
10 2 (3.92%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 2 (3.92%) Forensic Consultant
10 2 (3.92%) IT Security Manager
10 2 (3.92%) Operational Security Manager
10 2 (3.92%) Security Operations Manager
10 2 (3.92%) Senior Security Engineer
10 2 (3.92%) SIEM Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (3.92%) JSON
1 2 (3.92%) REST
1 2 (3.92%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 16 (31.37%) Security Operations Centre
2 12 (23.53%) Security Posture
3 11 (21.57%) Cyber Threat
4 10 (19.61%) Management Information System
5 8 (15.69%) Cyber Kill Chain
6 4 (7.84%) Cloud Native
6 4 (7.84%) Driving Licence
6 4 (7.84%) YARA
7 3 (5.88%) Onboarding
7 3 (5.88%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (3.92%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (3.92%) IoT
8 2 (3.92%) STIX
9 1 (1.96%) Cyber Defence
9 1 (1.96%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (1.96%) Life Science
9 1 (1.96%) MISP
9 1 (1.96%) Operational Technology
9 1 (1.96%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 21 (41.18%) Windows
2 17 (33.33%) Linux
3 3 (5.88%) Mac OS
4 2 (3.92%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (80.39%) SIEM
2 36 (70.59%) Incident Response
3 34 (66.67%) Cybersecurity
3 34 (66.67%) Security Operations
4 26 (50.98%) Threat Intelligence
5 21 (41.18%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
6 20 (39.22%) SOAR
7 19 (37.25%) Threat Detection
8 17 (33.33%) MITRE ATT&CK
9 16 (31.37%) Problem-Solving
9 16 (31.37%) Vulnerability Management
10 12 (23.53%) Cloud Security
11 11 (21.57%) Data Loss Prevention
11 11 (21.57%) Threat and Vulnerability Management
12 10 (19.61%) Risk Management
13 9 (17.65%) Computer Science
13 9 (17.65%) Digital Forensics
13 9 (17.65%) Penetration Testing
13 9 (17.65%) Use Case
14 8 (15.69%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 23 (45.10%) Python
2 19 (37.25%) PowerShell
3 13 (25.49%) Kusto Query Language
4 6 (11.76%) Bash
5 2 (3.92%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 42 (82.35%) CISSP
2 26 (50.98%) GCIA
3 19 (37.25%) Degree
4 17 (33.33%) Security Cleared
5 16 (31.37%) GCFA
6 14 (27.45%) SC Cleared
7 13 (25.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 13 (25.49%) Cisco Certification
8 12 (23.53%) CompTIA CySA+
9 10 (19.61%) CCSP
9 10 (19.61%) GIAC
10 9 (17.65%) CEH
11 8 (15.69%) CISM
12 7 (13.73%) CompTIA Security+
13 6 (11.76%) CASP
13 6 (11.76%) Computer Science Degree
13 6 (11.76%) DV Cleared
14 5 (9.80%) CFCE
15 4 (7.84%) OSCP
16 2 (3.92%) GREM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (39.22%) NIST
2 16 (31.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (15.69%) GDPR
3 8 (15.69%) SLA
4 3 (5.88%) HIPAA
4 3 (5.88%) PCI DSS
4 3 (5.88%) SOC 2
5 2 (3.92%) GRC
6 1 (1.96%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (1.96%) COBIT
6 1 (1.96%) NIST 800
System Software
1 2 (3.92%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 3 (5.88%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
1 3 (5.88%) QRadar
2 2 (3.92%) CSIRT
2 2 (3.92%) EnCase
2 2 (3.92%) FTK
2 2 (3.92%) Kubernetes
2 2 (3.92%) Terraform
Vendors
1 28 (54.90%) Microsoft
2 17 (33.33%) Splunk
3 15 (29.41%) CrowdStrike
4 12 (23.53%) ArcSight
5 7 (13.73%) Google
6 6 (11.76%) Darktrace
6 6 (11.76%) LogRhythm
7 4 (7.84%) IBM
8 3 (5.88%) Qualys
8 3 (5.88%) ServiceNow
9 1 (1.96%) Fortinet
9 1 (1.96%) Intel
9 1 (1.96%) Palo Alto
9 1 (1.96%) VirusTotal
9 1 (1.96%) Zscaler