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 19 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 169 215 307
Rank change year-on-year +46 +92 +184
Contract jobs citing Incident Response 541 479 442
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.65% 1.14% 0.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.82% 1.33% 0.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 321 341 340
10th Percentile £375 £375 £412
25th Percentile £456 £451 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year - -8.33% +5.45%
75th Percentile £649 £675 £728
90th Percentile £750 £788 £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £550 £593
% change year-on-year -4.95% -7.29% +6.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 7 0
10th Percentile £30.17 £36.05 -
25th Percentile £45.75 - -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £40.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +62.50% - -
75th Percentile £82.10 - -
90th Percentile £85.30 £47.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £40.00 -
% change year-on-year +62.50% - -

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 29,656 35,918 49,614
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.33% 85.38% 89.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,620 23,009 34,128
10th Percentile £300 £305 £325
25th Percentile £405 £413 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,566 2,286 1,643
10th Percentile £14.20 £13.00 £13.91
25th Percentile £17.30 £16.71 £18.31
Median hourly rate £25.15 £38.12 £41.81
Median % change year-on-year -34.02% -8.83% +58.73%
75th Percentile £51.10 £62.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.38 £77.49
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £38.12 £40.58
% change year-on-year -37.04% -6.05% +88.72%

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 19 July 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 19 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Incident Response in the UK

Incident Response
Top 17 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 19 July 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 +34 453 £550 - 544
UK excluding London -15 240 £523 -4.95% 381
London +119 219 £568 +5.09% 241
Work from Home +66 192 £550 +5.77% 324
South East 0 62 £513 +2.50% 109
North of England +1 55 £569 +8.38% 94
East of England +28 42 £500 +10.50% 33
North West +5 32 £569 +13.80% 55
Midlands -22 28 £538 -15.35% 57
South West -33 27 £600 -7.69% 31
West Midlands -12 24 £550 -13.73% 41
Yorkshire -3 22 £550 -8.86% 26
Scotland -5 20 £500 -4.63% 38
Wales +9 5 £425 +73.47% 19
East Midlands +1 4 £450 -15.65% 13
Northern Ireland - 3 £633 - 9
North East - 1 £625 - 14

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 9 (1.66%) NetWeaver
2 3 (0.55%) CMS
2 3 (0.55%) Confluence
2 3 (0.55%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.37%) TPMS
4 1 (0.18%) Apache
4 1 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.18%) JBoss
Applications
1 2 (0.37%) Chatbot
1 2 (0.37%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 9 (1.66%) SAP IBP
2 3 (0.55%) Shopify
3 2 (0.37%) Dynamics GP
3 2 (0.37%) Oracle CRM
3 2 (0.37%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 163 (30.13%) Azure
2 99 (18.30%) AWS
3 56 (10.35%) GCP
4 52 (9.61%) Azure Sentinel
5 30 (5.55%) Microsoft 365
6 16 (2.96%) SaaS
7 14 (2.59%) Entra ID
8 12 (2.22%) Azure DevOps
8 12 (2.22%) GitHub
9 11 (2.03%) AWS CloudFormation
9 11 (2.03%) Azure Logic Apps
9 11 (2.03%) Azure Monitor
9 11 (2.03%) GitHub Actions
10 10 (1.85%) Microsoft Purview
10 10 (1.85%) Serverless
11 9 (1.66%) Datadog
12 8 (1.48%) Akamai
13 7 (1.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 7 (1.29%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 7 (1.29%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 103 (19.04%) Firewall
2 68 (12.57%) Network Security
3 26 (4.81%) DNS
4 23 (4.25%) Intrusion Detection
5 22 (4.07%) HTTP
6 19 (3.51%) VPN
7 18 (3.33%) SMTP
7 18 (3.33%) SSL
8 14 (2.59%) FTP
9 13 (2.40%) TCP/IP
10 10 (1.85%) WAN
11 7 (1.29%) SD-WAN
12 6 (1.11%) HTTPS
13 5 (0.92%) Wireless
14 4 (0.74%) BGP
14 4 (0.74%) Internet
14 4 (0.74%) SSH
15 3 (0.55%) Cisco Nexus
15 3 (0.55%) IPsec
15 3 (0.55%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.66%) SAP BW
1 9 (1.66%) SAP HANA
2 8 (1.48%) Data Lake
3 4 (0.74%) BigQuery
4 3 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.55%) DynamoDB
4 3 (0.55%) MySQL
5 2 (0.37%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.37%) Power BI
5 2 (0.37%) Relational Database
5 2 (0.37%) SQL Server
6 1 (0.18%) ClickHouse
6 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.18%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.18%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.18%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 20 (3.70%) JIRA
2 13 (2.40%) Git
2 13 (2.40%) GitLab
3 12 (2.22%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.55%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.37%) Postman
5 2 (0.37%) PROIV
6 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.18%) CircleCI
6 1 (0.18%) Jaeger
6 1 (0.18%) Snyk
6 1 (0.18%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.18%) TeamCity
General
1 146 (26.99%) Social Skills
2 105 (19.41%) Finance
3 100 (18.48%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (7.58%) Legal
5 27 (4.99%) Public Sector
6 26 (4.81%) Banking
7 13 (2.40%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (2.40%) Telecoms
8 10 (1.85%) Military
9 9 (1.66%) Law
10 7 (1.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.29%) Presentation Skills
11 6 (1.11%) Investment Banking
11 6 (1.11%) Manufacturing
11 6 (1.11%) Retail
11 6 (1.11%) Social Housing
12 4 (0.74%) Police
13 3 (0.55%) Fire and Rescue
13 3 (0.55%) Local Government
13 3 (0.55%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 121 (22.37%) Analyst
2 71 (13.12%) Consultant
3 60 (11.09%) Security Engineer
4 56 (10.35%) Security Analyst
5 53 (9.80%) SOC Analyst
6 45 (8.32%) Architect
7 37 (6.84%) Lead
8 33 (6.10%) Security Architect
9 29 (5.36%) Cybersecurity Analyst
9 29 (5.36%) Senior
10 23 (4.25%) Security Consultant
11 17 (3.14%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 17 (3.14%) Management Consultant
12 15 (2.77%) Security Manager
13 13 (2.40%) Incident Manager
14 12 (2.22%) DevOps Engineer
14 12 (2.22%) Network Engineer
14 12 (2.22%) Security Specialist
15 11 (2.03%) Operations Analyst
15 11 (2.03%) Site Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.40%) LDAP
2 11 (2.03%) JSON
3 9 (1.66%) SAP Basis
3 9 (1.66%) SAP Fiori
4 8 (1.48%) REST
5 6 (1.11%) OpenTelemetry
6 5 (0.92%) Elastic Stack
6 5 (0.92%) SailPoint
7 4 (0.74%) .NET
7 4 (0.74%) OAuth
7 4 (0.74%) RESTful
8 3 (0.55%) ARM Templates
8 3 (0.55%) JAX
8 3 (0.55%) Kafka
8 3 (0.55%) scikit-learn
8 3 (0.55%) Spring Boot
8 3 (0.55%) TensorFlow
8 3 (0.55%) VML
8 3 (0.55%) Web Services
8 3 (0.55%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 90 (16.64%) Security Posture
2 79 (14.60%) Cyber Threat
3 60 (11.09%) Security Operations Centre
4 37 (6.84%) Management Information System
5 25 (4.62%) Cloud Native
6 20 (3.70%) Analytical Mindset
7 18 (3.33%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 18 (3.33%) Onboarding
8 17 (3.14%) CSOC
9 15 (2.77%) Data Centre
10 14 (2.59%) Cyber Defence
11 12 (2.22%) Cyberattack
12 10 (1.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 9 (1.66%) PKI
14 7 (1.29%) Distributed Systems
14 7 (1.29%) Operational Technology
15 5 (0.92%) Driving Licence
15 5 (0.92%) Hybrid Cloud
15 5 (0.92%) Insider Threat
15 5 (0.92%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 73 (13.49%) Windows
2 58 (10.72%) Linux
3 21 (3.88%) Windows Server
4 15 (2.77%) Unix
5 5 (0.92%) Mac OS
5 5 (0.92%) zOS
6 3 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.18%) CentOS
7 1 (0.18%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.18%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 220 (40.67%) Cybersecurity
2 187 (34.57%) Security Operations
3 186 (34.38%) SIEM
4 109 (20.15%) Threat Intelligence
5 108 (19.96%) Problem-Solving
6 105 (19.41%) Vulnerability Management
7 100 (18.48%) Cloud Security
8 92 (17.01%) Threat Detection
9 85 (15.71%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
10 82 (15.16%) Information Security
11 77 (14.23%) Risk Management
12 69 (12.75%) Continuous Improvement
13 64 (11.83%) MITRE ATT&CK
14 63 (11.65%) SOAR
15 61 (11.28%) Security Monitoring
16 60 (11.09%) DevOps
17 54 (9.98%) Incident Management
18 49 (9.06%) CI/CD
19 47 (8.69%) Root Cause Analysis
20 44 (8.13%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 118 (21.81%) Python
2 92 (17.01%) PowerShell
3 45 (8.32%) Kusto Query Language
4 40 (7.39%) Bash
5 10 (1.85%) JavaScript
6 9 (1.66%) Java
7 8 (1.48%) SQL
8 7 (1.29%) Go
9 6 (1.11%) Bicep
9 6 (1.11%) Shell Script
10 5 (0.92%) C++
11 4 (0.74%) C
11 4 (0.74%) C#
12 3 (0.55%) Perl
12 3 (0.55%) R
13 2 (0.37%) Korn
13 2 (0.37%) Ruby
14 1 (0.18%) JCL
14 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 122 (22.55%) CISSP
2 105 (19.41%) Security Cleared
3 90 (16.64%) SC Cleared
4 55 (10.17%) CISM
4 55 (10.17%) Degree
5 35 (6.47%) CEH
6 34 (6.28%) GCIH
7 33 (6.10%) GIAC
8 32 (5.91%) CompTIA Security+
9 28 (5.18%) GCIA
10 25 (4.62%) DV Cleared
11 22 (4.07%) Computer Science Degree
12 19 (3.51%) SANS
13 18 (3.33%) Cisco Certification
14 16 (2.96%) Microsoft Certification
15 14 (2.59%) AWS Certification
15 14 (2.59%) CRISC
16 13 (2.40%) GCFA
16 13 (2.40%) OSCP
17 12 (2.22%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 129 (23.84%) NIST
2 114 (21.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 81 (14.97%) GDPR
4 49 (9.06%) PCI DSS
5 40 (7.39%) HIPAA
6 27 (4.99%) GRC
7 19 (3.51%) SOC 2
8 17 (3.14%) Cyber Essentials
9 16 (2.96%) NCSC
10 12 (2.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 11 (2.03%) NIST 800
12 9 (1.66%) SLA
13 8 (1.48%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 7 (1.29%) California Consumer Privacy Act
15 6 (1.11%) Data Quality
15 6 (1.11%) ISO/IEC 20000
16 5 (0.92%) EU AI Act
16 5 (0.92%) QA
17 4 (0.74%) Actionable Recommendations
17 4 (0.74%) JSP 440
System Software
1 33 (6.10%) Active Directory
2 27 (4.99%) Docker
3 14 (2.59%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.92%) Firmware
4 5 (0.92%) RACF
5 3 (0.55%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.55%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.18%) Snort
6 1 (0.18%) Squid
6 1 (0.18%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 44 (8.13%) Kubernetes
2 40 (7.39%) Terraform
3 22 (4.07%) Ansible
4 20 (3.70%) Grafana
5 16 (2.96%) Prometheus
5 16 (2.96%) SCCM
6 14 (2.59%) QRadar
7 13 (2.40%) Microsoft Intune
8 7 (1.29%) CSIRT
8 7 (1.29%) Nessus
9 6 (1.11%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 5 (0.92%) Puppet
11 4 (0.74%) WSUS
12 3 (0.55%) Argo
12 3 (0.55%) CASB
12 3 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (0.37%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.37%) Kustomize
13 2 (0.37%) Podman
14 1 (0.18%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 137 (25.32%) Microsoft
2 75 (13.86%) Splunk
3 40 (7.39%) ServiceNow
4 34 (6.28%) Palo Alto
5 28 (5.18%) IBM
6 26 (4.81%) CrowdStrike
7 21 (3.88%) Google
8 20 (3.70%) Cisco
9 18 (3.33%) SAP
10 17 (3.14%) Qualys
11 13 (2.40%) ArcSight
12 12 (2.22%) Oracle
12 12 (2.22%) VMware
13 11 (2.03%) LogRhythm
14 10 (1.85%) CyberArk
14 10 (1.85%) Tenable
15 8 (1.48%) Darktrace
15 8 (1.48%) Salesforce
16 7 (1.29%) Fortinet
16 7 (1.29%) Zscaler