Incident Response Contracts

Incident Response
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Incident Response skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Incident Response over the 6 months leading up to 30 April 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Apr 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 213 241 373
Rank change year-on-year +28 +132 +166
Contract jobs citing Incident Response 375 438 381
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.28% 1.00% 0.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.41% 1.16% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 230 315 287
10th Percentile £374 £419 £395
25th Percentile £472 £463 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £567 £575
Median % change year-on-year +1.41% -1.39% +4.55%
75th Percentile £662 £675 £731
90th Percentile £768 £725 £798
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £550 £550
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 6 0
10th Percentile £48.50 £35.06 -
25th Percentile £51.25 - -
Median hourly rate £67.59 £40.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +68.97% - -
75th Percentile £81.01 - -
90th Percentile £81.56 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £80.68 £40.00 -
% change year-on-year +101.69% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

Incident Response falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 26,551 37,621 53,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.82% 86.30% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,137 24,254 37,244
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £521 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.86% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £744 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.80% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,437 1,746
10th Percentile £14.70 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.50 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.31% -4.83% +49.20%
75th Percentile £62.00 £59.95 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.94 £36.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -23.45% +1.39% +80.00%

Incident Response
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Job vacancy trend for Incident Response in the UK

Incident Response
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

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

Daily rate trend for Incident Response in the UK

Incident Response
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Incident Response over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Incident Response in the UK

Incident Response
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

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

Hourly rate trend for Incident Response in the UK

Incident Response
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Incident Response over the 6 months to 30 April 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Incident Response in the UK

Incident Response
Top 16 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Incident Response within the UK over the 6 months to 30 April 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 +25 327 £575 +4.55% 513
London +106 178 £600 +9.09% 233
UK excluding London -35 142 £550 - 332
Work from Home +48 134 £544 +6.62% 310
South East +33 56 £539 +11.72% 72
Midlands +2 20 £525 -16.00% 50
North of England -1 20 £563 +7.14% 100
East of England +27 19 £525 -12.50% 25
West Midlands -5 18 £525 -16.67% 36
South West -37 16 £600 +4.35% 35
Scotland +7 11 £463 -7.50% 40
Yorkshire 0 10 £556 -4.42% 30
North West -6 7 £525 - 63
North East - 3 £625 - 7
East Midlands +9 2 - - 14
Northern Ireland - 2 - - 3

Incident Response
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 6 (1.60%) NetWeaver
2 5 (1.33%) CMS
2 5 (1.33%) Confluence
3 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.53%) TPMS
4 1 (0.27%) Apache
4 1 (0.27%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.27%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (1.07%) MS Visio
2 3 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.27%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (1.60%) SAP IBP
2 1 (0.27%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 118 (31.47%) Azure
2 67 (17.87%) AWS
3 35 (9.33%) Azure Sentinel
3 35 (9.33%) GCP
4 14 (3.73%) Microsoft 365
5 11 (2.93%) Azure DevOps
6 10 (2.67%) Datadog
6 10 (2.67%) Entra ID
6 10 (2.67%) SaaS
7 9 (2.40%) Azure Monitor
8 8 (2.13%) AWS CloudFormation
8 8 (2.13%) Serverless
9 7 (1.87%) Akamai
9 7 (1.87%) Microsoft Purview
10 6 (1.60%) Azure AKS
10 6 (1.60%) GitHub
10 6 (1.60%) GitHub Actions
11 4 (1.07%) Cloud Computing
11 4 (1.07%) IaaS
11 4 (1.07%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 67 (17.87%) Firewall
2 47 (12.53%) Network Security
3 23 (6.13%) DNS
4 21 (5.60%) HTTP
5 18 (4.80%) TCP/IP
6 17 (4.53%) SMTP
7 14 (3.73%) SSL
8 13 (3.47%) VPN
9 12 (3.20%) Intrusion Detection
10 11 (2.93%) FTP
11 7 (1.87%) SD-WAN
11 7 (1.87%) WAN
12 6 (1.60%) DHCP
12 6 (1.60%) Wireless
13 3 (0.80%) Cisco ISE
13 3 (0.80%) IPsec
14 2 (0.53%) Cisco Nexus
14 2 (0.53%) HTTPS
15 1 (0.27%) Kerberos
15 1 (0.27%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.40%) Data Lake
2 6 (1.60%) SAP BW
2 6 (1.60%) SAP HANA
3 3 (0.80%) MySQL
3 3 (0.80%) NoSQL
3 3 (0.80%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.53%) Power BI
5 1 (0.27%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.27%) ClickHouse
5 1 (0.27%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.27%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.27%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.27%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 9 (2.40%) GitLab
2 8 (2.13%) Jenkins
3 7 (1.87%) JIRA
4 2 (0.53%) Git
4 2 (0.53%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.27%) Jaeger
5 1 (0.27%) Postman
General
1 132 (35.20%) Social Skills
2 72 (19.20%) Analytical Skills
3 70 (18.67%) Finance
4 32 (8.53%) Public Sector
5 29 (7.73%) Legal
6 18 (4.80%) Banking
7 9 (2.40%) Telecoms
8 8 (2.13%) Manufacturing
9 7 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (1.87%) Investment Banking
10 6 (1.60%) Law
10 6 (1.60%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 5 (1.33%) Military
12 4 (1.07%) Electronics
12 4 (1.07%) Marketing
13 2 (0.53%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.53%) Front Office
13 2 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
13 2 (0.53%) Retail
Job Titles
1 82 (21.87%) Analyst
2 49 (13.07%) Consultant
3 37 (9.87%) Architect
4 34 (9.07%) Security Analyst
5 33 (8.80%) Security Engineer
6 32 (8.53%) SOC Analyst
7 28 (7.47%) Security Architect
8 26 (6.93%) Lead
9 22 (5.87%) Senior
10 20 (5.33%) Security Consultant
11 17 (4.53%) Cybersecurity Analyst
12 13 (3.47%) Security Manager
13 11 (2.93%) Operations Analyst
13 11 (2.93%) Site Engineer
13 11 (2.93%) Site Reliability Engineer
14 10 (2.67%) Cloud Architect
14 10 (2.67%) Cybersecurity Engineer
15 9 (2.40%) Automation Engineer
15 9 (2.40%) Operations Engineer
15 9 (2.40%) Security Operations Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (3.20%) LDAP
2 9 (2.40%) JSON
3 7 (1.87%) REST
4 6 (1.60%) OpenTelemetry
4 6 (1.60%) SAP Basis
4 6 (1.60%) SAP Fiori
5 4 (1.07%) .NET
5 4 (1.07%) OAuth
5 4 (1.07%) Web Services
5 4 (1.07%) YAML
6 3 (0.80%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (0.80%) Kafka
6 3 (0.80%) OpenID
6 3 (0.80%) RESTful
6 3 (0.80%) SAML
7 2 (0.53%) 802.1X
7 2 (0.53%) ARM Templates
7 2 (0.53%) Flask
7 2 (0.53%) SailPoint
7 2 (0.53%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 67 (17.87%) Security Posture
2 54 (14.40%) Cyber Threat
3 50 (13.33%) Security Operations Centre
4 31 (8.27%) Management Information System
5 16 (4.27%) Cloud Native
6 15 (4.00%) Cyberattack
7 12 (3.20%) CSOC
8 11 (2.93%) Analytical Mindset
8 11 (2.93%) Cyber Defence
8 11 (2.93%) Onboarding
9 9 (2.40%) Operational Technology
10 8 (2.13%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 7 (1.87%) Insider Threat
12 6 (1.60%) Cyber Kill Chain
12 6 (1.60%) Data Centre
13 5 (1.33%) Distributed Systems
13 5 (1.33%) Hybrid Cloud
13 5 (1.33%) Mainframe
13 5 (1.33%) Public Cloud
14 4 (1.07%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 39 (10.40%) Linux
2 38 (10.13%) Windows
3 12 (3.20%) Unix
4 8 (2.13%) Windows Server
5 5 (1.33%) zOS
6 4 (1.07%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.53%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (44.53%) Cybersecurity
2 138 (36.80%) SIEM
3 134 (35.73%) Security Operations
4 91 (24.27%) Problem-Solving
4 91 (24.27%) Vulnerability Management
5 71 (18.93%) Cloud Security
6 61 (16.27%) Risk Management
7 59 (15.73%) Threat Intelligence
8 56 (14.93%) Threat Detection
9 53 (14.13%) Incident Management
10 52 (13.87%) Continuous Improvement
11 46 (12.27%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
11 46 (12.27%) Information Security
12 40 (10.67%) Security Monitoring
13 34 (9.07%) DevOps
14 33 (8.80%) Infrastructure as Code
15 31 (8.27%) Agile
15 31 (8.27%) CI/CD
15 31 (8.27%) ITIL
15 31 (8.27%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 68 (18.13%) Python
2 52 (13.87%) PowerShell
3 23 (6.13%) Kusto Query Language
4 20 (5.33%) Bash
5 11 (2.93%) SQL
6 7 (1.87%) JavaScript
7 5 (1.33%) Bicep
7 5 (1.33%) Go
7 5 (1.33%) Java
8 3 (0.80%) C
8 3 (0.80%) C#
9 2 (0.53%) Ruby
9 2 (0.53%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.27%) C++
Qualifications
1 102 (27.20%) CISSP
2 83 (22.13%) Security Cleared
3 67 (17.87%) SC Cleared
4 58 (15.47%) CISM
5 45 (12.00%) Degree
6 31 (8.27%) CompTIA Security+
7 30 (8.00%) CEH
8 25 (6.67%) DV Cleared
9 23 (6.13%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (5.87%) GIAC
11 16 (4.27%) CRISC
12 15 (4.00%) CISA
13 14 (3.73%) Azure Certification
13 14 (3.73%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (3.73%) GCIH
14 12 (3.20%) AWS Certification
14 12 (3.20%) Cisco Certification
15 10 (2.67%) CCNA
15 10 (2.67%) GCIA
16 9 (2.40%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (22.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 84 (22.40%) NIST
2 57 (15.20%) GDPR
3 32 (8.53%) HIPAA
4 27 (7.20%) PCI DSS
5 16 (4.27%) GRC
6 14 (3.73%) SOC 2
7 9 (2.40%) Cyber Essentials
7 9 (2.40%) NIST 800
8 7 (1.87%) California Consumer Privacy Act
8 7 (1.87%) Data Quality
9 6 (1.60%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (1.60%) NCSC
10 5 (1.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 5 (1.33%) QA
10 5 (1.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 20000
12 3 (0.80%) SLA
13 2 (0.53%) EU AI Act
13 2 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 15 (4.00%) Active Directory
1 15 (4.00%) Docker
2 14 (3.73%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (1.33%) RACF
4 3 (0.80%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.53%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.27%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.27%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 30 (8.00%) Terraform
2 24 (6.40%) Kubernetes
3 17 (4.53%) Grafana
4 16 (4.27%) Ansible
5 14 (3.73%) Prometheus
6 9 (2.40%) QRadar
6 9 (2.40%) SCCM
7 6 (1.60%) CSIRT
7 6 (1.60%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (1.07%) CASB
8 4 (1.07%) Puppet
8 4 (1.07%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.53%) FortiGate
9 2 (0.53%) Podman
9 2 (0.53%) ZABBIX
10 1 (0.27%) Argo
10 1 (0.27%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 1 (0.27%) Istio
10 1 (0.27%) Kubeflow
10 1 (0.27%) linkerd
Vendors
1 88 (23.47%) Microsoft
2 46 (12.27%) Splunk
3 26 (6.93%) ServiceNow
4 22 (5.87%) Palo Alto
5 19 (5.07%) Google
6 13 (3.47%) CrowdStrike
7 11 (2.93%) Cisco
7 11 (2.93%) SAP
8 9 (2.40%) IBM
8 9 (2.40%) LogRhythm
9 8 (2.13%) VMware
10 7 (1.87%) Darktrace
10 7 (1.87%) Qualys
10 7 (1.87%) SolarWinds
10 7 (1.87%) Symantec
11 6 (1.60%) Tenable
12 5 (1.33%) CyberArk
12 5 (1.33%) FireEye
13 4 (1.07%) Imperva
13 4 (1.07%) Rapid7