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 24 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 161 174 119
Rank change year-on-year +13 -55 0
Contract jobs citing Information Security 694 464 848
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.58% 1.59% 1.92%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.84% 1.76% 2.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 401 280 554
10th Percentile £400 £321 £390
25th Percentile £463 £468 £476
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £589 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.58% +2.39% -4.17%
75th Percentile £653 £688 £688
90th Percentile £778 £825 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -8.70% +4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 69 30 39
10th Percentile £16.75 £16.23 £15.98
25th Percentile £20.31 £22.14 £18.00
Median hourly rate £25.50 £24.42 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.42% +6.17% -69.33%
75th Percentile £41.94 £44.69 £50.00
90th Percentile £85.08 £81.05 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.46 £22.14 £23.00
% change year-on-year +10.48% -3.74% -69.64%

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 37,633 26,370 38,295
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.88% 90.52% 86.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,862 17,096 24,871
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £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 £725 £743 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -1.28% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,214 936 2,338
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.20 £12.85
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.75 £16.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year - - -9.47%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £57.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.35 £71.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.61 £31.76 £31.25
% change year-on-year -6.77% +1.63% -13.19%

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 24 March 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 24 March 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 24 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 -5 617 £550 -8.33% 298
UK excluding London -2 338 £525 -8.70% 230
London +8 288 £568 -5.42% 103
Work from Home -3 200 £550 - 166
South East -4 117 £563 -7.79% 82
North of England -51 73 £500 -4.76% 61
North West -19 49 £526 -2.09% 35
Midlands -37 49 £545 +36.25% 29
East of England +1 48 £553 -7.83% 18
West Midlands -38 38 £550 +37.50% 21
South West -24 24 £500 -14.89% 22
Scotland +6 21 £358 -25.26% 12
Yorkshire -54 20 £488 +13.04% 19
East Midlands -25 11 £450 +50.00% 8
Wales -3 6 £338 +87.50% 6
North East -21 4 £450 -15.73% 7

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 (3.31%) Confluence
2 17 (2.45%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.30%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.01%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.58%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 38 (5.48%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (5.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.87%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (1.30%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.29%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.14%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.14%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.14%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.14%) Camtasia
6 1 (0.14%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.14%) Revit
Business Applications
1 12 (1.73%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (0.58%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
3 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
4 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 125 (18.01%) Azure
2 90 (12.97%) AWS
3 44 (6.34%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (4.90%) GCP
5 29 (4.18%) Entra ID
6 28 (4.03%) SaaS
7 25 (3.60%) Power Platform
8 18 (2.59%) Microsoft Purview
9 17 (2.45%) OCI
10 12 (1.73%) Azure Sentinel
10 12 (1.73%) GitHub
11 8 (1.15%) IaaS
11 8 (1.15%) Microsoft Copilot
11 8 (1.15%) PaaS
11 8 (1.15%) Power Automate
12 7 (1.01%) PowerApps
13 6 (0.86%) Azure Data Factory
14 5 (0.72%) Amazon S3
14 5 (0.72%) Azure DevOps
14 5 (0.72%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 60 (8.65%) Firewall
2 37 (5.33%) Network Security
3 17 (2.45%) DNS
4 15 (2.16%) TCP/IP
5 14 (2.02%) HTTP
5 14 (2.02%) Wireless
6 13 (1.87%) SSH
7 11 (1.59%) VPN
7 11 (1.59%) WAN
8 9 (1.30%) DHCP
9 8 (1.15%) Internet
10 6 (0.86%) SSL
11 5 (0.72%) Cisco IPT
11 5 (0.72%) FTP
11 5 (0.72%) SMTP
11 5 (0.72%) Wi-Fi
12 4 (0.58%) Intrusion Detection
12 4 (0.58%) LAN
12 4 (0.58%) SAN
13 3 (0.43%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (3.03%) Power BI
2 10 (1.44%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.30%) Metadata
3 9 (1.30%) SQL Server
4 8 (1.15%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.58%) Big Data
5 4 (0.58%) Hadoop
5 4 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 3 (0.43%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.43%) MongoDB
6 3 (0.43%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.43%) Tableau
7 2 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
7 2 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 2 (0.29%) Power Query
7 2 (0.29%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 29 (4.18%) JIRA
2 15 (2.16%) Burp Suite
3 12 (1.73%) Metasploit
4 9 (1.30%) Git
5 2 (0.29%) GitLab
6 1 (0.14%) AppScan
6 1 (0.14%) git-flow
6 1 (0.14%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.14%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
General
1 224 (32.28%) Social Skills
2 134 (19.31%) Finance
3 101 (14.55%) Public Sector
4 88 (12.68%) Analytical Skills
5 65 (9.37%) Legal
6 52 (7.49%) Banking
7 25 (3.60%) Organisational Skills
8 19 (2.74%) Documentation Skills
9 18 (2.59%) Presentation Skills
10 14 (2.02%) Retail
11 13 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
11 13 (1.87%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.30%) Law
12 9 (1.30%) Police
13 8 (1.15%) Local Government
13 8 (1.15%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.86%) Marketing
15 5 (0.72%) Cyber-Physical System
16 4 (0.58%) Military
16 4 (0.58%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 120 (17.29%) Analyst
2 80 (11.53%) Consultant
3 54 (7.78%) Architect
4 51 (7.35%) Senior
5 47 (6.77%) Security Analyst
6 46 (6.63%) Lead
6 46 (6.63%) Security Consultant
6 46 (6.63%) Security Engineer
7 39 (5.62%) Security Manager
8 38 (5.48%) Security Architect
9 30 (4.32%) Security Officer
10 23 (3.31%) Developer
11 20 (2.88%) Project Manager
11 20 (2.88%) Security Specialist
12 18 (2.59%) Business Analyst
12 18 (2.59%) Cybersecurity Manager
12 18 (2.59%) Information Analyst
12 18 (2.59%) Information Security Analyst
13 16 (2.31%) Information Security Consultant
14 15 (2.16%) Information Security Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (2.31%) Oracle Fusion
2 14 (2.02%) OAuth
3 10 (1.44%) OAuth2
4 9 (1.30%) OpenID
4 9 (1.30%) SAML
5 8 (1.15%) LDAP
6 7 (1.01%) Middleware
6 7 (1.01%) SailPoint
6 7 (1.01%) Spring
6 7 (1.01%) Spring Boot
7 5 (0.72%) J2EE
7 5 (0.72%) JSP
7 5 (0.72%) Node.js
8 4 (0.58%) .NET
9 3 (0.43%) GraphQL
9 3 (0.43%) JWT
9 3 (0.43%) Kafka
9 3 (0.43%) ModSecurity
9 3 (0.43%) REST
9 3 (0.43%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 117 (16.86%) Management Information System
2 66 (9.51%) Security Posture
3 37 (5.33%) Onboarding
4 32 (4.61%) Operational Technology
5 20 (2.88%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (2.74%) Data Protection Act
7 17 (2.45%) PKI
8 16 (2.31%) Cloud Native
9 14 (2.02%) Data Centre
9 14 (2.02%) Insider Threat
10 13 (1.87%) BYOD
10 13 (1.87%) Security Operations Centre
11 12 (1.73%) Virtual Team
12 11 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
12 11 (1.59%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.59%) Product Ownership
13 9 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
13 9 (1.30%) Public Cloud
14 8 (1.15%) CSOC
14 8 (1.15%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 64 (9.22%) Windows
2 31 (4.47%) Linux
3 21 (3.03%) Windows Server
4 15 (2.16%) Unix
5 3 (0.43%) Kali Linux
5 3 (0.43%) zOS
6 1 (0.14%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.14%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.14%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 261 (37.61%) Cybersecurity
2 176 (25.36%) Risk Management
3 117 (16.86%) Problem-Solving
4 112 (16.14%) Data Protection
5 109 (15.71%) Continuous Improvement
6 104 (14.99%) Stakeholder Management
7 88 (12.68%) Cloud Security
8 81 (11.67%) Security Management
9 68 (9.80%) Incident Response
10 67 (9.65%) Agile
11 66 (9.51%) Change Management
12 65 (9.37%) Security Operations
13 61 (8.79%) Information Security Management
13 61 (8.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 56 (8.07%) Threat Modelling
15 54 (7.78%) AI
16 50 (7.20%) Decision-Making
16 50 (7.20%) Regulatory Compliance
16 50 (7.20%) Risk Assessment
16 50 (7.20%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 56 (8.07%) Python
2 29 (4.18%) PowerShell
3 23 (3.31%) Java
4 21 (3.03%) SQL
5 12 (1.73%) Bash
6 7 (1.01%) Kotlin
7 6 (0.86%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.72%) Go
9 4 (0.58%) C#
10 3 (0.43%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.43%) RPG
11 2 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.29%) Rust
11 2 (0.29%) Solidity
12 1 (0.14%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.14%) BeanShell
12 1 (0.14%) Bicep
12 1 (0.14%) C++
12 1 (0.14%) R
12 1 (0.14%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 200 (28.82%) Security Cleared
2 148 (21.33%) SC Cleared
3 134 (19.31%) Degree
4 121 (17.44%) CISSP
5 90 (12.97%) CISM
6 53 (7.64%) DV Cleared
7 30 (4.32%) CISA
7 30 (4.32%) Computer Science Degree
8 27 (3.89%) Cisco Certification
9 22 (3.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (3.17%) CRISC
10 20 (2.88%) CEH
11 18 (2.59%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
11 18 (2.59%) Master's Degree
12 17 (2.45%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 16 (2.31%) CREST Certified
14 15 (2.16%) CTC Cleared
15 13 (1.87%) Postgraduate
16 12 (1.73%) CompTIA Security+
17 11 (1.59%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 225 (32.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 171 (24.64%) NIST
3 123 (17.72%) GDPR
4 74 (10.66%) GRC
5 52 (7.49%) PCI DSS
6 31 (4.47%) NCSC
7 29 (4.18%) COBIT
8 25 (3.60%) Cyber Essentials
8 25 (3.60%) PMO
8 25 (3.60%) QA
9 20 (2.88%) Data Quality
10 19 (2.74%) NIST 800
11 18 (2.59%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 13 (1.87%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 13 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 13 (1.87%) SOC 2
13 10 (1.44%) Accessibility
13 10 (1.44%) JSP 440
14 9 (1.30%) SLA
15 8 (1.15%) RMADS
System Software
1 38 (5.48%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.15%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.86%) Docker
4 4 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.29%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.14%) Ceph
6 1 (0.14%) RACF
6 1 (0.14%) Squid
6 1 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 20 (2.88%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.87%) Nmap
3 12 (1.73%) Kubernetes
4 10 (1.44%) SCCM
5 9 (1.30%) Terraform
6 8 (1.15%) QRadar
7 7 (1.01%) Ansible
8 5 (0.72%) Functional Safety
8 5 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.58%) CASB
9 4 (0.58%) SCOrch
9 4 (0.58%) WSUS
10 3 (0.43%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.29%) Nessus
11 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.14%) Cisco CUCM
12 1 (0.14%) logstash
12 1 (0.14%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.14%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 108 (15.56%) Microsoft
2 35 (5.04%) ServiceNow
3 22 (3.17%) Oracle
4 15 (2.16%) Google
5 14 (2.02%) Cisco
5 14 (2.02%) IBM
6 13 (1.87%) CyberArk
7 9 (1.30%) CrowdStrike
7 9 (1.30%) Thales
8 8 (1.15%) Databricks
8 8 (1.15%) Gemalto
9 7 (1.01%) Fortinet
9 7 (1.01%) Palo Alto
9 7 (1.01%) Splunk
10 6 (0.86%) BeyondTrust
10 6 (0.86%) Qualys
10 6 (0.86%) VMware
11 5 (0.72%) Sophos
12 4 (0.58%) Ariba
12 4 (0.58%) NEC