Information Security Contract Job Trends

Information Security (InfoSec)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Information Security skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 164 160 105
Rank change year-on-year -4 -55 +13
Contract jobs citing Information Security 670 519 952
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.67% 1.70% 2.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.92% 1.90% 2.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 370 293 640
10th Percentile £358 £327 £385
25th Percentile £450 £475 £473
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -10.86% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £647 £685 £673
90th Percentile £756 £800 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -13.04% +4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 79 17 55
10th Percentile £17.40 £16.18 £17.11
25th Percentile £20.71 £20.19 £19.25
Median hourly rate £28.00 £24.18 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.80% -45.66% -34.32%
75th Percentile £41.94 £36.75 £82.79
90th Percentile £80.08 £46.43 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £22.09 £44.50
% change year-on-year +26.75% -50.36% -36.43%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Information Security 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 34,951 27,281 38,890
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.91% 89.56% 87.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,148 16,723 25,428
10th Percentile £310 £306 £300
25th Percentile £410 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -2.59% -1.45% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,114 833 2,148
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £13.25
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.05 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -4.41% -2.86%
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £60.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.12
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.78 £35.00
% change year-on-year -18.29% -12.06% +7.63%

Information Security
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Information Security job vacancy trend in the UK

Information Security
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Information Security

Information Security
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Information Security over the 6 months to 17 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Information Security in the UK

Information Security
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Information Security

Information Security
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Information Security over the 6 months to 17 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Information Security in the UK

Information Security
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Information Security within the UK over the 6 months to 17 February 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 -8 596 £535 -10.83% 323
UK excluding London -22 335 £500 -13.04% 244
London -2 267 £550 -8.33% 130
Work from Home -4 199 £538 +2.38% 164
South East -10 107 £550 -8.33% 90
North of England -42 68 £500 -4.76% 65
Midlands -37 49 £450 -19.64% 34
East of England +3 43 £530 -11.67% 21
North West -22 43 £500 -4.76% 45
South West -14 40 £500 -25.93% 32
West Midlands -41 32 £500 -21.41% 21
Scotland +8 22 £358 -24.95% 4
Yorkshire -38 21 £494 +9.72% 15
East Midlands -11 17 £425 +41.50% 13
Wales +1 6 £388 - 8
North East -13 4 £450 -18.18% 5

Information Security
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 23 (3.43%) SharePoint
2 22 (3.28%) Confluence
3 14 (2.09%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.04%) Mattermost
4 7 (1.04%) Skype for Business
5 6 (0.90%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
6 4 (0.60%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.15%) Apache
7 1 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
7 1 (0.15%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 55 (8.21%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (4.78%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (2.09%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (1.34%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.45%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.45%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.45%) Revit
6 2 (0.30%) ProjectWise
6 2 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.15%) Adobe After Effects
7 1 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
7 1 (0.15%) Adobe Premiere
7 1 (0.15%) Camtasia
Business Applications
1 15 (2.24%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (1.64%) Oracle EBS
3 4 (0.60%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.30%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.30%) Temenos T24
5 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 113 (16.87%) Azure
2 79 (11.79%) AWS
3 43 (6.42%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (4.63%) GCP
5 29 (4.33%) Entra ID
6 22 (3.28%) SaaS
7 20 (2.99%) Power Platform
8 14 (2.09%) OCI
9 12 (1.79%) Microsoft Purview
10 10 (1.49%) Azure Sentinel
10 10 (1.49%) GitHub
10 10 (1.49%) OneDrive
11 7 (1.04%) IaaS
11 7 (1.04%) PaaS
11 7 (1.04%) Power Automate
12 6 (0.90%) Azure DevOps
12 6 (0.90%) PowerApps
13 5 (0.75%) Amazon S3
13 5 (0.75%) Collibra
13 5 (0.75%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 62 (9.25%) Firewall
2 27 (4.03%) Network Security
3 19 (2.84%) DNS
3 19 (2.84%) TCP/IP
4 13 (1.94%) SSH
5 12 (1.79%) WAN
5 12 (1.79%) Wireless
6 10 (1.49%) DHCP
6 10 (1.49%) HTTP
6 10 (1.49%) Internet
7 8 (1.19%) VPN
8 7 (1.04%) Skype
8 7 (1.04%) SMTP
8 7 (1.04%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.75%) FTP
9 5 (0.75%) SAN
9 5 (0.75%) SSL
10 4 (0.60%) Intrusion Detection
11 3 (0.45%) Cisco IPT
11 3 (0.45%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (2.54%) Power BI
2 10 (1.49%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.34%) Metadata
3 9 (1.34%) SQL Server
4 5 (0.75%) Big Data
4 5 (0.75%) Data Lake
4 5 (0.75%) GIS
5 4 (0.60%) Hadoop
5 4 (0.60%) NoSQL
5 4 (0.60%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 3 (0.45%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.45%) Tableau
7 2 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
7 2 (0.30%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.30%) DB2
7 2 (0.30%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.30%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.30%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.30%) Power Query
7 2 (0.30%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 26 (3.88%) JIRA
2 14 (2.09%) Burp Suite
3 11 (1.64%) Git
3 11 (1.64%) Metasploit
4 3 (0.45%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.30%) Artifactory
5 2 (0.30%) GitLab
6 1 (0.15%) AppScan
6 1 (0.15%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.15%) GCC
6 1 (0.15%) git-flow
6 1 (0.15%) MSI
6 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 241 (35.97%) Social Skills
2 131 (19.55%) Finance
3 96 (14.33%) Public Sector
4 82 (12.24%) Analytical Skills
5 58 (8.66%) Legal
6 40 (5.97%) Banking
7 33 (4.93%) Organisational Skills
8 20 (2.99%) Presentation Skills
9 17 (2.54%) Documentation Skills
10 16 (2.39%) Telecoms
11 14 (2.09%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (1.64%) Manufacturing
13 9 (1.34%) Retail
14 7 (1.04%) Law
14 7 (1.04%) Local Government
14 7 (1.04%) Marketing
14 7 (1.04%) Police
15 6 (0.90%) Investment Banking
15 6 (0.90%) Military
15 6 (0.90%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 135 (20.15%) Analyst
2 59 (8.81%) Consultant
3 49 (7.31%) Senior
4 48 (7.16%) Architect
5 46 (6.87%) Security Engineer
6 43 (6.42%) Security Analyst
7 39 (5.82%) Lead
8 36 (5.37%) Security Manager
9 30 (4.48%) Support Analyst
10 29 (4.33%) Security Architect
11 27 (4.03%) Security Officer
12 24 (3.58%) Security Consultant
13 23 (3.43%) Security Specialist
14 20 (2.99%) Information Analyst
14 20 (2.99%) Information Security Analyst
15 17 (2.54%) Developer
15 17 (2.54%) Project Manager
16 15 (2.24%) Designer
16 15 (2.24%) Information Security Manager
16 15 (2.24%) Security Advisor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.94%) OAuth
2 12 (1.79%) Oracle Fusion
3 10 (1.49%) Middleware
3 10 (1.49%) OpenID
3 10 (1.49%) SAML
4 9 (1.34%) LDAP
4 9 (1.34%) OAuth2
4 9 (1.34%) SailPoint
5 5 (0.75%) Node.js
5 5 (0.75%) Qt
6 4 (0.60%) .NET
6 4 (0.60%) Kafka
6 4 (0.60%) RESTful
6 4 (0.60%) Spring
6 4 (0.60%) Spring Boot
7 3 (0.45%) ADO
7 3 (0.45%) GraphQL
7 3 (0.45%) J2EE
7 3 (0.45%) JSP
7 3 (0.45%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 120 (17.91%) Management Information System
2 69 (10.30%) Security Posture
3 29 (4.33%) Cyber Threat
3 29 (4.33%) Onboarding
4 24 (3.58%) Operational Technology
5 19 (2.84%) PKI
6 18 (2.69%) Data Protection Act
7 15 (2.24%) Cloud Native
8 13 (1.94%) Data Centre
8 13 (1.94%) Insider Threat
8 13 (1.94%) Product Ownership
9 12 (1.79%) Security Operations Centre
10 10 (1.49%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (1.49%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.34%) Enterprise Software
11 9 (1.34%) Greenfield Project
12 8 (1.19%) CSOC
12 8 (1.19%) NHS
12 8 (1.19%) Tandem
Operating Systems
1 71 (10.60%) Windows
2 45 (6.72%) Linux
3 20 (2.99%) Windows Server
4 18 (2.69%) Unix
5 4 (0.60%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.45%) Kali Linux
6 3 (0.45%) zOS
7 2 (0.30%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 229 (34.18%) Cybersecurity
2 171 (25.52%) Risk Management
3 108 (16.12%) Problem-Solving
4 105 (15.67%) Continuous Improvement
4 105 (15.67%) Data Protection
5 100 (14.93%) Stakeholder Management
6 78 (11.64%) Incident Response
7 76 (11.34%) Cloud Security
8 75 (11.19%) Security Management
9 63 (9.40%) ITIL
10 61 (9.10%) Agile
11 59 (8.81%) Security Operations
11 59 (8.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 56 (8.36%) Change Management
13 55 (8.21%) Information Security Management
14 54 (8.06%) Computer Science
15 53 (7.91%) SIEM
16 48 (7.16%) Regulatory Compliance
16 48 (7.16%) Threat Modelling
17 46 (6.87%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 59 (8.81%) Python
2 50 (7.46%) PowerShell
3 37 (5.52%) SQL
4 15 (2.24%) Java
5 11 (1.64%) Bash
6 5 (0.75%) C++
6 5 (0.75%) Go
7 4 (0.60%) C#
7 4 (0.60%) Kotlin
7 4 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
8 3 (0.45%) RPG
9 2 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.30%) R
9 2 (0.30%) Rust
9 2 (0.30%) Solidity
10 1 (0.15%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.15%) Bicep
10 1 (0.15%) Lisp
10 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 201 (30.00%) Security Cleared
2 155 (23.13%) SC Cleared
3 127 (18.96%) Degree
4 104 (15.52%) CISSP
5 81 (12.09%) CISM
6 46 (6.87%) DV Cleared
7 41 (6.12%) Computer Science Degree
8 30 (4.48%) Master's Degree
9 27 (4.03%) CISA
10 23 (3.43%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
11 22 (3.28%) Cisco Certification
12 21 (3.13%) CRISC
12 21 (3.13%) ITIL Certification
13 19 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
14 18 (2.69%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 17 (2.54%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 13 (1.94%) CREST Certified
16 13 (1.94%) Postgraduate
17 12 (1.79%) CEH
17 12 (1.79%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 216 (32.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 153 (22.84%) NIST
3 107 (15.97%) GDPR
4 71 (10.60%) GRC
5 38 (5.67%) PCI DSS
6 28 (4.18%) COBIT
6 28 (4.18%) NCSC
7 25 (3.73%) PMO
7 25 (3.73%) QA
8 22 (3.28%) Cyber Essentials
9 19 (2.84%) Data Quality
10 17 (2.54%) Accessibility
11 15 (2.24%) NIST 800
12 14 (2.09%) Def Stans
13 12 (1.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 11 (1.64%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 11 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 11 (1.64%) JSP 440
14 11 (1.64%) RMADS
14 11 (1.64%) SOC 2
System Software
1 54 (8.06%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.64%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (1.04%) Docker
4 3 (0.45%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.15%) Microsoft App-V
5 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 20 (2.99%) Microsoft Intune
2 15 (2.24%) HP SiteScope
2 15 (2.24%) SCOM
3 13 (1.94%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.94%) SCCM
4 12 (1.79%) Nmap
5 10 (1.49%) Terraform
6 8 (1.19%) Ansible
6 8 (1.19%) QRadar
7 6 (0.90%) CASB
7 6 (0.90%) SCOrch
8 5 (0.75%) Functional Safety
8 5 (0.75%) WSUS
9 4 (0.60%) FortiGate
10 3 (0.45%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.45%) Single Sign-On
11 2 (0.30%) EnCase
11 2 (0.30%) FTK
11 2 (0.30%) Grafana
11 2 (0.30%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 126 (18.81%) Microsoft
2 28 (4.18%) ServiceNow
3 23 (3.43%) Splunk
4 21 (3.13%) Cisco
5 18 (2.69%) Oracle
6 17 (2.54%) CyberArk
6 17 (2.54%) Remedy
7 16 (2.39%) Google
8 12 (1.79%) IBM
9 11 (1.64%) CrowdStrike
10 9 (1.34%) Fortinet
10 9 (1.34%) Thales
11 8 (1.19%) Databricks
11 8 (1.19%) Gemalto
12 7 (1.04%) Palo Alto
12 7 (1.04%) SAP
13 6 (0.90%) BeyondTrust
13 6 (0.90%) Qualys
13 6 (0.90%) Sophos
14 5 (0.75%) Rapid7