GIAC Contracts

Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for GIAC qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 30 June 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 473 546 553
Rank change year-on-year +73 +7 +221
Contract jobs citing GIAC 61 39 132
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.20% 0.090% 0.24%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.64% 0.30% 0.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 28 29 81
10th Percentile £381 £305 £463
25th Percentile £472 £419 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £564 £550 £675
Median % change year-on-year +2.45% -18.52% +5.88%
75th Percentile £689 £650 £750
90th Percentile £824 £738 £838
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £600 £625
% change year-on-year -12.83% -4.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £100.50 - -
Median hourly rate £103.00 - -
75th Percentile £105.50 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £103.00 - -

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

GIAC 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 9,498 12,868 14,954
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 30.99% 29.81% 26.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,860 7,945 9,899
10th Percentile £275 £313 £350
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.90% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £621 £638 £650
90th Percentile £701 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £530 £525
% change year-on-year -5.66% +0.95% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 635 1,115 731
10th Percentile £17.87 £14.00 £15.25
25th Percentile £20.19 £20.00 £22.50
Median hourly rate £28.15 £40.94 £55.33
Median % change year-on-year -31.24% -26.00% +24.33%
75th Percentile £60.00 £65.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.24 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.13 £43.00 £53.67
% change year-on-year -36.92% -19.87% +53.33%

GIAC
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for GIAC in the UK

GIAC
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing GIAC.

Daily rate trend for GIAC in the UK

GIAC
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing GIAC over the 6 months to 30 June 2025.

Daily rate histogram for GIAC in the UK

GIAC
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing GIAC.

Hourly rate trend for GIAC in the UK

GIAC
Top 10 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing GIAC within the UK over the 6 months to 30 June 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 +60 40 £570 +3.59% 156
Work from Home +59 26 £638 +6.25% 76
London +50 23 £613 +40.00% 84
UK excluding London +44 16 £523 -12.83% 84
South East - 8 £517 - 20
Midlands +16 6 £1,234 +105.58% 17
West Midlands +11 5 £1,234 +105.58% 11
East Midlands - 1 - - 5
East of England - 1 - - 12
Scotland - 1 £410 - 9

GIAC
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:

Applications
1 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.64%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 1 (1.64%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 27 (44.26%) Azure
2 22 (36.07%) GCP
3 20 (32.79%) AWS
4 5 (8.20%) Azure Sentinel
5 2 (3.28%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 1 (1.64%) AWS KMS
6 1 (1.64%) Azure Key Vault
6 1 (1.64%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (1.64%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (1.64%) GitHub
6 1 (1.64%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 17 (27.87%) Firewall
2 12 (19.67%) Network Security
3 3 (4.92%) Cisco Firepower
3 3 (4.92%) SSL
4 2 (3.28%) DHCP
4 2 (3.28%) DNS
4 2 (3.28%) VPN
5 1 (1.64%) Cisco ASA
5 1 (1.64%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.64%) LAN
5 1 (1.64%) SD-WAN
5 1 (1.64%) TCP/IP
5 1 (1.64%) WAN
5 1 (1.64%) Wi-Fi
5 1 (1.64%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (8.20%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 2 (3.28%) GitLab
1 2 (3.28%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.64%) CircleCI
2 1 (1.64%) JIRA
2 1 (1.64%) Snyk
2 1 (1.64%) SonarQube
General
1 17 (27.87%) Analytical Skills
1 17 (27.87%) Social Skills
2 6 (9.84%) Finance
3 3 (4.92%) Documentation Skills
3 3 (4.92%) Legal
3 3 (4.92%) Public Sector
4 2 (3.28%) Banking
4 2 (3.28%) Manufacturing
5 1 (1.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 11 (18.03%) Architect
1 11 (18.03%) Security Architect
2 6 (9.84%) Analyst
2 6 (9.84%) Consultant
2 6 (9.84%) Senior
3 5 (8.20%) SIEM Engineer
3 5 (8.20%) SOC Analyst
4 4 (6.56%) Security Manager
4 4 (6.56%) Senior Architect
4 4 (6.56%) Senior Security Architect
5 3 (4.92%) Delivery Manager
5 3 (4.92%) Service Delivery Manager
5 3 (4.92%) Service Manager
6 2 (3.28%) Lead
6 2 (3.28%) QA Leader
6 2 (3.28%) Security Consultant
7 1 (1.64%) DevSecOps Engineer
7 1 (1.64%) Technology Consultant
7 1 (1.64%) Threat Intelligence Consultant
7 1 (1.64%) Vulnerability Management Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (8.20%) JSON
1 5 (8.20%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 10 (16.39%) Cyber Threat
2 8 (13.11%) Security Posture
3 7 (11.48%) Security Operations Centre
4 6 (9.84%) Onboarding
5 5 (8.20%) CSOC
5 5 (8.20%) Management Information System
6 4 (6.56%) PKI
7 3 (4.92%) Algorithms
7 3 (4.92%) Cloud Native
7 3 (4.92%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 3 (4.92%) Operational Technology
8 2 (3.28%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (3.28%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (3.28%) Low-Code
8 2 (3.28%) MISP
9 1 (1.64%) Cyber Security Posture
9 1 (1.64%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (1.64%) Industry 4.0
9 1 (1.64%) Product Ownership
9 1 (1.64%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 4 (6.56%) Linux
1 4 (6.56%) Windows
2 1 (1.64%) Windows 10
2 1 (1.64%) Windows Server
2 1 (1.64%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (49.18%) Security Operations
2 29 (47.54%) Incident Response
3 25 (40.98%) Cloud Security
3 25 (40.98%) Cybersecurity
3 25 (40.98%) SIEM
4 22 (36.07%) MITRE ATT&CK
5 21 (34.43%) Vulnerability Management
6 16 (26.23%) Problem-Solving
7 12 (19.67%) Threat Intelligence
8 11 (18.03%) Risk Management
9 10 (16.39%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
9 10 (16.39%) Information Security
9 10 (16.39%) Security Architecture
10 9 (14.75%) SABSA
11 8 (13.11%) Threat Detection
11 8 (13.11%) Threat Modelling
12 7 (11.48%) DevOps
13 6 (9.84%) Agile
13 6 (9.84%) CI/CD
13 6 (9.84%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 18 (29.51%) Python
2 17 (27.87%) PowerShell
3 2 (3.28%) Go
4 1 (1.64%) Bash
4 1 (1.64%) Java
4 1 (1.64%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.64%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 46 (75.41%) CISSP
2 27 (44.26%) SANS
3 17 (27.87%) CISM
4 15 (24.59%) CISA
5 11 (18.03%) CRISC
6 9 (14.75%) CEH
6 9 (14.75%) Cisco Certification
6 9 (14.75%) GCIH
6 9 (14.75%) Security Cleared
7 8 (13.11%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 8 (13.11%) SC Cleared
8 6 (9.84%) CCSK
8 6 (9.84%) CompTIA Security+
8 6 (9.84%) Degree
8 6 (9.84%) GCIA
8 6 (9.84%) OSCP
9 5 (8.20%) Computer Science Degree
9 5 (8.20%) CREST Certified
10 4 (6.56%) CSSLP
10 4 (6.56%) PCI QSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (54.10%) NIST
2 22 (36.07%) PCI DSS
3 21 (34.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 13 (21.31%) HIPAA
5 9 (14.75%) NIST 800
6 7 (11.48%) GDPR
6 7 (11.48%) QA
7 5 (8.20%) Data Quality
8 3 (4.92%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (4.92%) SOC 2
9 2 (3.28%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (3.28%) NCSC
10 1 (1.64%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (1.64%) GRC
10 1 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 3 (4.92%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 4 (6.56%) QRadar
2 3 (4.92%) FortiGate
3 2 (3.28%) Kubernetes
3 2 (3.28%) SELinux
3 2 (3.28%) Terraform
4 1 (1.64%) CASB
4 1 (1.64%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
4 1 (1.64%) Nessus
Vendors
1 14 (22.95%) Palo Alto
2 8 (13.11%) Microsoft
3 7 (11.48%) Splunk
4 5 (8.20%) Cisco
4 5 (8.20%) Tenable
5 3 (4.92%) Google
5 3 (4.92%) LogRhythm
6 1 (1.64%) BMC
6 1 (1.64%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (1.64%) CyberArk
6 1 (1.64%) Forcepoint
6 1 (1.64%) Fortinet
6 1 (1.64%) Gemalto
6 1 (1.64%) Proofpoint
6 1 (1.64%) Rapid7
6 1 (1.64%) Remedy
6 1 (1.64%) ServiceNow
6 1 (1.64%) Thales
6 1 (1.64%) VirusTotal
6 1 (1.64%) Zscaler