GRC Contract Job Trends

Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring GRC skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 345 366 473
Rank change year-on-year +21 +107 +74
Contract jobs citing GRC 281 152 129
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.64% 0.51% 0.29%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 3.70% 3.38% 2.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 191 93 96
10th Percentile £363 £360 £389
25th Percentile £450 £511 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £630 £575
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +9.57% -
75th Percentile £638 £713 £775
90th Percentile £735 £812 £913
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 0
Median hourly rate £36.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 - -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

GRC falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 7,597 4,496 6,342
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.36% 15.21% 14.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,902 2,884 4,039
10th Percentile £338 £263 £300
25th Percentile £413 £378 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £625
90th Percentile £700 £716 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £484
% change year-on-year +5.26% -1.86% +1.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 409 178 372
10th Percentile £15.30 £16.86 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.14 £13.33
Median hourly rate £28.55 £31.76 £22.01
Median % change year-on-year -10.11% +44.30% -44.98%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £45.00
90th Percentile £81.20 £78.54 £67.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.58 £31.76 £18.61
% change year-on-year -3.72% +70.66% -48.66%

GRC
Job Vacancy Trend

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

GRC job vacancy trend in the UK

GRC
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

GRC
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing GRC over the 6 months to 23 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for GRC in the UK

GRC
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

GRC
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 GRC within the UK over the 6 months to 23 March 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 +15 262 £525 -19.23% 112
London +13 138 £525 -22.22% 47
UK excluding London -16 125 £525 -4.55% 75
Work from Home +18 85 £525 -12.50% 68
South East -30 41 £525 -4.11% 24
North of England -38 32 £475 -9.52% 22
Midlands -50 24 £600 - 14
East of England -16 17 £575 -4.17% 5
East Midlands -21 17 £625 +108.33% 2
Yorkshire -47 17 £475 -9.52% 7
North West -14 15 £484 -2.49% 14
South West -17 8 £500 - 6
West Midlands -59 7 £575 -4.17% 12
Scotland -2 3 £331 -27.99% 5

GRC
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 15 (5.34%) Confluence
2 10 (3.56%) SharePoint
Applications
1 17 (6.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (2.14%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (1.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.07%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.07%) Trello
4 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (0.36%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 15 (5.34%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (4.27%) SAP GRC
3 1 (0.36%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.36%) SAP EWM
3 1 (0.36%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.36%) SAP HR
Cloud Services
1 38 (13.52%) Azure
2 32 (11.39%) AWS
3 20 (7.12%) GCP
4 14 (4.98%) Power Platform
5 9 (3.20%) GitHub
6 8 (2.85%) Entra ID
6 8 (2.85%) SaaS
6 8 (2.85%) SuccessFactors
7 7 (2.49%) Microsoft 365
8 6 (2.14%) Miro
9 5 (1.78%) Microsoft Purview
10 4 (1.42%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 4 (1.42%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 4 (1.42%) AWS CloudFormation
10 4 (1.42%) Azure DevOps
10 4 (1.42%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (1.07%) Asana
11 3 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
11 3 (1.07%) OneDrive
11 3 (1.07%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 15 (5.34%) Network Security
2 6 (2.14%) Firewall
3 3 (1.07%) NGFW
3 3 (1.07%) Reverse Proxy
4 2 (0.71%) VPN
5 1 (0.36%) BGP
5 1 (0.36%) Cisco ASA
5 1 (0.36%) DMZ
5 1 (0.36%) Fibre Channel
5 1 (0.36%) Internet
5 1 (0.36%) iSCSI
5 1 (0.36%) LAN
5 1 (0.36%) MPLS
5 1 (0.36%) NAS
5 1 (0.36%) OSPF
5 1 (0.36%) SAN
5 1 (0.36%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.36%) VLAN
5 1 (0.36%) WAN
5 1 (0.36%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (4.27%) Metadata
1 12 (4.27%) Power BI
2 4 (1.42%) SAP HANA
3 3 (1.07%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (1.07%) SAP BW
3 3 (1.07%) Tableau
4 1 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.36%) Data Vault
4 1 (0.36%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.36%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.36%) Oracle Exadata
4 1 (0.36%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.36%) Power Query
4 1 (0.36%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.36%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 15 (5.34%) JIRA
2 3 (1.07%) Jaeger
3 1 (0.36%) Flyway
3 1 (0.36%) Git
3 1 (0.36%) Liquibase
General
1 107 (38.08%) Social Skills
2 69 (24.56%) Finance
3 43 (15.30%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (12.46%) Public Sector
5 25 (8.90%) Banking
5 25 (8.90%) Legal
6 10 (3.56%) Telecoms
7 7 (2.49%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (2.49%) Law
8 5 (1.78%) Financial Institution
8 5 (1.78%) Marketing
8 5 (1.78%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (1.42%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (1.42%) Organisational Skills
10 3 (1.07%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.71%) Arabic Language
11 2 (0.71%) Military
11 2 (0.71%) Pharmaceutical
11 2 (0.71%) Police
Job Titles
1 59 (21.00%) Analyst
2 46 (16.37%) Consultant
3 32 (11.39%) Architect
4 26 (9.25%) Senior
5 24 (8.54%) Lead
6 19 (6.76%) Security Analyst
7 15 (5.34%) Risk Manager
8 14 (4.98%) Risk Analyst
8 14 (4.98%) Security Consultant
8 14 (4.98%) ServiceNow Architect
9 13 (4.63%) Business Analyst
10 12 (4.27%) Project Manager
11 11 (3.91%) Governance Manager
11 11 (3.91%) Security Manager
11 11 (3.91%) Security Specialist
11 11 (3.91%) Senior Consultant
11 11 (3.91%) Solutions Architect
12 10 (3.56%) Security Engineer
13 9 (3.20%) Information Analyst
13 9 (3.20%) Information Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (6.76%) REST
2 17 (6.05%) SOAP
3 6 (2.14%) SAP Fiori
4 4 (1.42%) .NET
5 3 (1.07%) Loki
5 3 (1.07%) OAuth
5 3 (1.07%) OAuth2
5 3 (1.07%) OpenID
5 3 (1.07%) OpenTelemetry
5 3 (1.07%) SAML
6 2 (0.71%) SailPoint
7 1 (0.36%) ADO
7 1 (0.36%) ARM Templates
7 1 (0.36%) IDoc
7 1 (0.36%) JSON
7 1 (0.36%) LDAP
7 1 (0.36%) Middleware
7 1 (0.36%) SAP PI
7 1 (0.36%) Spring
7 1 (0.36%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 22 (7.83%) Product Ownership
1 22 (7.83%) Security Posture
2 19 (6.76%) CMDB
2 19 (6.76%) Management Information System
3 12 (4.27%) Onboarding
4 11 (3.91%) Operational Technology
5 8 (2.85%) Taxonomies
5 8 (2.85%) Virtual Team
6 7 (2.49%) Data Protection Act
7 6 (2.14%) Cloud Native
7 6 (2.14%) Cyber Threat
8 5 (1.78%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.78%) IoT
8 5 (1.78%) Public Cloud
9 4 (1.42%) Data Centre
9 4 (1.42%) Distributed Systems
9 4 (1.42%) PropTech
10 3 (1.07%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (1.07%) Mainframe
10 3 (1.07%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 4 (1.42%) Linux
1 4 (1.42%) Windows
2 1 (0.36%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 111 (39.50%) Risk Management
2 83 (29.54%) Cybersecurity
3 74 (26.33%) Information Security
4 73 (25.98%) Stakeholder Management
5 54 (19.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 41 (14.59%) Continuous Improvement
6 41 (14.59%) Roadmaps
7 40 (14.23%) Problem-Solving
7 40 (14.23%) Security Operations
8 39 (13.88%) Agile
9 34 (12.10%) Risk Assessment
10 30 (10.68%) Risk Register
11 29 (10.32%) ITSM
12 27 (9.61%) Cloud Security
12 27 (9.61%) Data Protection
13 26 (9.25%) ITIL
13 26 (9.25%) Regulatory Compliance
14 22 (7.83%) Data Modelling
14 22 (7.83%) Identity Access Management
15 21 (7.47%) AI
Programming Languages
1 10 (3.56%) JavaScript
2 8 (2.85%) Python
3 6 (2.14%) Bash
3 6 (2.14%) SQL
4 5 (1.78%) PowerShell
5 3 (1.07%) Bicep
5 3 (1.07%) Go
6 2 (0.71%) Data Analysis Expressions
7 1 (0.36%) ABAP
7 1 (0.36%) Java
7 1 (0.36%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.36%) PL/SQL
Qualifications
1 61 (21.71%) Security Cleared
2 39 (13.88%) CISSP
3 35 (12.46%) SC Cleared
4 31 (11.03%) CISM
5 23 (8.19%) CRISC
5 23 (8.19%) Degree
6 21 (7.47%) DV Cleared
7 17 (6.05%) CISA
8 11 (3.91%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
8 11 (3.91%) PMI Certification
9 10 (3.56%) PMP
10 8 (2.85%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 6 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (1.78%) Cisco Certification
12 5 (1.78%) CISMP
12 5 (1.78%) CSSLP
12 5 (1.78%) Master's Degree
13 4 (1.42%) CEH
13 4 (1.42%) CGEIT
13 4 (1.42%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (28.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 71 (25.27%) NIST
3 37 (13.17%) GDPR
4 19 (6.76%) PCI DSS
5 13 (4.63%) SOC 2
6 12 (4.27%) COBIT
6 12 (4.27%) Cyber Essentials
7 11 (3.91%) QA
8 10 (3.56%) ISO/IEC 27005
8 10 (3.56%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 8 (2.85%) Actionable Recommendations
9 8 (2.85%) NCSC
10 7 (2.49%) SLA
11 6 (2.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 6 (2.14%) ISO 22301
11 6 (2.14%) ISO 31000
11 6 (2.14%) PMO
12 5 (1.78%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (1.42%) ITGC
13 4 (1.42%) NIST 800
System Software
1 7 (2.49%) Active Directory
2 2 (0.71%) Docker
3 1 (0.36%) IAG
3 1 (0.36%) Oracle RAC
3 1 (0.36%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 13 (4.63%) Terraform
2 9 (3.20%) Kubernetes
2 9 (3.20%) RSA Archer
2 9 (3.20%) Single Sign-On
3 3 (1.07%) Grafana
3 3 (1.07%) Istio
3 3 (1.07%) Prometheus
4 2 (0.71%) Ansible
4 2 (0.71%) QRadar
4 2 (0.71%) Rancher
5 1 (0.36%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.36%) Data Guard
5 1 (0.36%) Fluentd
5 1 (0.36%) Iperf
5 1 (0.36%) logstash
5 1 (0.36%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.36%) NetBackup
5 1 (0.36%) Nmap
5 1 (0.36%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 47 (16.73%) ServiceNow
2 24 (8.54%) Microsoft
3 22 (7.83%) SAP
4 7 (2.49%) Google
5 5 (1.78%) Ariba
5 5 (1.78%) Splunk
6 4 (1.42%) Fortinet
6 4 (1.42%) Palo Alto
6 4 (1.42%) Rapid7
7 3 (1.07%) IBM
8 2 (0.71%) CheckPoint
8 2 (0.71%) Commvault
8 2 (0.71%) CrowdStrike
8 2 (0.71%) CyberArk
8 2 (0.71%) Okta
8 2 (0.71%) OneTrust
8 2 (0.71%) Veeam
9 1 (0.36%) Cribl.io
9 1 (0.36%) OpenAI
9 1 (0.36%) Pure Storage