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 12 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 377 374 457
Rank change year-on-year -3 +83 +120
Contract jobs citing GRC 201 153 142
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.55% 0.49% 0.33%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 3.23% 3.40% 2.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 88 101
10th Percentile £393 £346 £340
25th Percentile £450 £500 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £600 £573
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +4.80% -4.58%
75th Percentile £588 £714 £775
90th Percentile £675 £900 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £575 £575
% change year-on-year -8.70% - -4.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £33.50 - -
75th Percentile £35.38 - -
90th Percentile £36.00 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.50 - -

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 6,225 4,505 6,199
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.17% 14.30% 14.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,017 2,637 4,114
10th Percentile £313 £258 £313
25th Percentile £408 £375 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £644
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 300 174 245
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.00 £13.07
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.01 £17.14
Median hourly rate £26.11 £29.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -9.97% -10.77% +36.74%
75th Percentile £63.40 £64.73 £60.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £79.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.75 £29.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year -28.45% -3.33% +41.18%

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 12 January 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 12 January 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 -16 184 £525 -12.50% 127
London +12 97 £520 -25.71% 42
UK excluding London -24 86 £525 -8.70% 111
Work from Home -8 44 £500 -13.04% 49
South East -17 28 £538 -1.83% 36
North of England -35 18 £438 -31.64% 28
South West -1 17 £525 -34.38% 11
Midlands -40 14 £575 -4.17% 15
Yorkshire - 10 £450 - 11
East Midlands -17 8 £450 -25.00% 7
North West -28 8 £425 -33.59% 15
East of England -23 6 £650 +8.33% 13
West Midlands -33 6 £575 +4.55% 8
Scotland -1 3 £331 -17.19% 1

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 10 (4.98%) Confluence
2 3 (1.49%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (4.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.99%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (1.49%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.49%) Trello
4 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 13 (6.47%) SAP S/4HANA
2 12 (5.97%) SAP GRC
3 1 (0.50%) SAP BPC
3 1 (0.50%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.50%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.50%) SAP FI/CO
Cloud Services
1 26 (12.94%) Azure
2 17 (8.46%) AWS
3 13 (6.47%) Power Platform
4 10 (4.98%) GCP
4 10 (4.98%) Miro
5 5 (2.49%) GitHub
5 5 (2.49%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (2.49%) SaaS
6 4 (1.99%) Microsoft Purview
7 3 (1.49%) Asana
7 3 (1.49%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (1.00%) Entra ID
8 2 (1.00%) IaaS
8 2 (1.00%) OneDrive
8 2 (1.00%) PaaS
8 2 (1.00%) SuccessFactors
9 1 (0.50%) Amazon EKS
9 1 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.50%) AWS Fargate
9 1 (0.50%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 9 (4.48%) Firewall
2 5 (2.49%) Network Security
3 1 (0.50%) DMZ
3 1 (0.50%) Internet
3 1 (0.50%) Intrusion Detection
3 1 (0.50%) LAN
3 1 (0.50%) SD-WAN
3 1 (0.50%) VPN
3 1 (0.50%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.47%) Power BI
2 4 (1.99%) Tableau
3 3 (1.49%) Metadata
3 3 (1.49%) SAP BW
3 3 (1.49%) SAP HANA
4 1 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
4 1 (0.50%) Data Vault
4 1 (0.50%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.50%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 12 (5.97%) JIRA
2 1 (0.50%) Burp Suite
2 1 (0.50%) Git
General
1 84 (41.79%) Social Skills
2 48 (23.88%) Finance
3 29 (14.43%) Analytical Skills
4 28 (13.93%) Public Sector
5 22 (10.95%) Banking
6 11 (5.47%) Legal
7 10 (4.98%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (4.98%) Presentation Skills
8 8 (3.98%) Influencing Skills
8 8 (3.98%) Telecoms
9 5 (2.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.99%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.99%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.99%) Law
11 2 (1.00%) Investment Banking
11 2 (1.00%) Police
12 1 (0.50%) Billing
12 1 (0.50%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.50%) Marketing
12 1 (0.50%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 53 (26.37%) Analyst
2 38 (18.91%) Consultant
3 21 (10.45%) Architect
4 19 (9.45%) Security Analyst
5 15 (7.46%) Lead
6 12 (5.97%) Business Analyst
6 12 (5.97%) Risk Analyst
7 11 (5.47%) Security Consultant
7 11 (5.47%) Senior
8 10 (4.98%) Information Security Advisor
8 10 (4.98%) Security Advisor
8 10 (4.98%) ServiceNow Architect
9 8 (3.98%) Information Analyst
9 8 (3.98%) Information Security Analyst
9 8 (3.98%) Project Manager
9 8 (3.98%) Security Engineer
10 7 (3.48%) Solutions Architect
11 6 (2.99%) IT Analyst
11 6 (2.99%) SAP Consultant
12 5 (2.49%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (5.97%) REST
2 11 (5.47%) SOAP
3 5 (2.49%) SAP Fiori
4 2 (1.00%) Web Services
5 1 (0.50%) .NET
5 1 (0.50%) IDoc
5 1 (0.50%) SailPoint
5 1 (0.50%) SAP Basis
5 1 (0.50%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 24 (11.94%) Security Posture
2 22 (10.95%) Management Information System
3 17 (8.46%) Product Ownership
4 12 (5.97%) CMDB
5 7 (3.48%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.49%) Cyber Threat
6 3 (1.49%) Hedge funds
6 3 (1.49%) PMI
6 3 (1.49%) Taxonomies
6 3 (1.49%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.00%) Credit Risk
7 2 (1.00%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.00%) Enterprise Software
7 2 (1.00%) Market Risk
7 2 (1.00%) NHS
7 2 (1.00%) Onboarding
8 1 (0.50%) Cloud Security Posture
8 1 (0.50%) Data Fabric
8 1 (0.50%) PropTech
Processes & Methodologies
1 92 (45.77%) Risk Management
2 57 (28.36%) Information Security
3 55 (27.36%) Stakeholder Management
4 49 (24.38%) Cybersecurity
5 41 (20.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 35 (17.41%) Agile
7 29 (14.43%) Problem-Solving
8 26 (12.94%) Roadmaps
9 24 (11.94%) Continuous Improvement
10 23 (11.44%) Cloud Security
11 22 (10.95%) Risk Assessment
12 21 (10.45%) ITSM
13 20 (9.95%) ITIL
13 20 (9.95%) Security Operations
14 17 (8.46%) Risk Register
15 16 (7.96%) Translating Business Requirements
16 15 (7.46%) Computer Science
16 15 (7.46%) Decision-Making
16 15 (7.46%) Project Management
17 14 (6.97%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 10 (4.98%) JavaScript
2 3 (1.49%) SQL
3 1 (0.50%) Java
3 1 (0.50%) Kusto Query Language
3 1 (0.50%) Python
Qualifications
1 44 (21.89%) Security Cleared
2 29 (14.43%) SC Cleared
3 25 (12.44%) CISM
3 25 (12.44%) Degree
4 22 (10.95%) CISSP
5 15 (7.46%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (7.46%) Master's Degree
6 14 (6.97%) CISA
6 14 (6.97%) CRISC
7 13 (6.47%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 11 (5.47%) DV Cleared
9 10 (4.98%) Computer Science Degree
9 10 (4.98%) PMI Certification
10 8 (3.98%) PMP
11 7 (3.48%) FFIEC
12 4 (1.99%) CISMP
12 4 (1.99%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 4 (1.99%) SAP Certification
13 2 (1.00%) CEH
13 2 (1.00%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 65 (32.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 48 (23.88%) NIST
3 19 (9.45%) GDPR
3 19 (9.45%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 13 (6.47%) PCI DSS
5 10 (4.98%) COBIT
5 10 (4.98%) Def Stans
6 8 (3.98%) Cyber Essentials
6 8 (3.98%) NCSC
7 5 (2.49%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 5 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 5 (2.49%) QA
8 3 (1.49%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (1.49%) ITGC
8 3 (1.49%) P3O
8 3 (1.49%) PMO
8 3 (1.49%) SLA
8 3 (1.49%) SOC 2
9 2 (1.00%) HIPAA
9 2 (1.00%) MiFID
System Software
1 2 (1.00%) Virtual Machines
2 1 (0.50%) Docker
2 1 (0.50%) IAG
Systems Management
1 9 (4.48%) RSA Archer
2 5 (2.49%) Terraform
3 1 (0.50%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.50%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.50%) Nexpose
Vendors
1 39 (19.40%) ServiceNow
2 21 (10.45%) SAP
3 15 (7.46%) Microsoft
4 7 (3.48%) Google
5 4 (1.99%) Ariba
6 2 (1.00%) Oracle
6 2 (1.00%) Rapid7
6 2 (1.00%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.50%) CheckPoint
7 1 (0.50%) Commvault
7 1 (0.50%) Concur
7 1 (0.50%) CrowdStrike
7 1 (0.50%) CyberArk
7 1 (0.50%) IBM
7 1 (0.50%) OneTrust
7 1 (0.50%) OpenAI
7 1 (0.50%) Progress
7 1 (0.50%) Rockwell
7 1 (0.50%) Snow
7 1 (0.50%) Tenable