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 1 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 187 179 112
Rank change year-on-year -8 -67 -6
Contract jobs citing Information Security 688 460 862
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.46% 1.57% 1.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.72% 1.73% 2.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 414 283 541
10th Percentile £400 £313 £375
25th Percentile £459 £428 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year - -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £688
90th Percentile £800 £825 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £543 £573
% change year-on-year -3.23% -5.24% +4.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 26 26
10th Percentile £16.49 £19.13 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.79 £22.14 £16.96
Median hourly rate £35.00 £24.66 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +41.93% +26.46% -74.00%
75th Percentile £66.00 £70.91 £23.89
90th Percentile £85.07 £82.38 £38.43
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £23.65 £18.75
% change year-on-year +52.25% +26.11% -75.49%

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 39,989 26,597 37,605
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.62% 90.89% 86.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,206 17,155 24,229
10th Percentile £319 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £485 £500
% change year-on-year +0.62% -3.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,387 1,068 2,445
10th Percentile £14.99 £14.65 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.96 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £29.00 £35.65
Median % change year-on-year +43.29% -18.65% -4.42%
75th Percentile £66.00 £60.84 £59.95
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.69 £27.76 £37.18
% change year-on-year +57.38% -25.34% +3.28%

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 1 May 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 1 May 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 1 May 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 -9 620 £550 - 343
UK excluding London +3 332 £525 -3.23% 238
London +6 298 £595 +10.70% 146
Work from Home -15 183 £550 +4.76% 192
South East -3 120 £550 -8.33% 82
North of England -49 64 £500 +5.69% 58
Midlands -46 49 £500 +25.00% 40
North West -23 44 £550 +17.82% 38
East of England +2 43 £535 -10.83% 22
West Midlands -38 38 £500 +8.11% 27
South West -17 30 £500 -14.89% 26
Scotland -4 22 £358 -24.95% 12
Yorkshire -48 17 £463 +12.12% 16
East Midlands -24 11 £541 +80.17% 12
Wales -5 4 £475 +163.89%
North East -24 3 £450 -15.73% 4

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 19 (2.76%) Confluence
2 12 (1.74%) SharePoint
3 9 (1.31%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.87%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.58%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.29%) IIS
7 1 (0.15%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 36 (5.23%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (5.09%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (2.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.45%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.29%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.15%) Adobe After Effects
6 1 (0.15%) Adobe Illustrator
6 1 (0.15%) Adobe Premiere
6 1 (0.15%) Camtasia
6 1 (0.15%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 10 (1.45%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (0.58%) NEC Housing
2 4 (0.58%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
3 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 141 (20.49%) Azure
2 98 (14.24%) AWS
3 51 (7.41%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (4.94%) Entra ID
5 33 (4.80%) SaaS
6 32 (4.65%) GCP
7 27 (3.92%) Power Platform
8 20 (2.91%) Microsoft Purview
9 18 (2.62%) GitHub
10 14 (2.03%) OCI
11 12 (1.74%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (1.31%) IaaS
12 9 (1.31%) Power Automate
13 8 (1.16%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (1.16%) PaaS
13 8 (1.16%) PowerApps
14 6 (0.87%) Azure Data Factory
14 6 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (0.87%) Azure Logic Apps
14 6 (0.87%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 49 (7.12%) Firewall
2 40 (5.81%) Network Security
3 16 (2.33%) DNS
4 15 (2.18%) TCP/IP
4 15 (2.18%) Wireless
5 13 (1.89%) HTTP
5 13 (1.89%) VPN
6 7 (1.02%) DHCP
6 7 (1.02%) SSH
6 7 (1.02%) WAN
7 6 (0.87%) SSL
8 5 (0.73%) FTP
8 5 (0.73%) Internet
8 5 (0.73%) SMTP
9 4 (0.58%) Cisco IPT
9 4 (0.58%) HTTPS
10 3 (0.44%) Intrusion Detection
10 3 (0.44%) SAN
10 3 (0.44%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.29%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (3.49%) Power BI
2 13 (1.89%) SQL Server
3 9 (1.31%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.31%) Metadata
4 6 (0.87%) 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 (0.44%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.44%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.44%) Tableau
7 2 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.29%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.29%) MySQL
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 1 (0.15%) DB2
8 1 (0.15%) GIS
8 1 (0.15%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 22 (3.20%) JIRA
2 14 (2.03%) Burp Suite
3 12 (1.74%) Metasploit
4 9 (1.31%) Git
5 2 (0.29%) GitLab
6 1 (0.15%) AppScan
6 1 (0.15%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.15%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.15%) git-flow
6 1 (0.15%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.15%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 214 (31.10%) Social Skills
2 141 (20.49%) Finance
3 100 (14.53%) Public Sector
4 91 (13.23%) Analytical Skills
5 67 (9.74%) Legal
6 56 (8.14%) Banking
7 26 (3.78%) Organisational Skills
8 24 (3.49%) Documentation Skills
9 21 (3.05%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (2.03%) Retail
11 13 (1.89%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (1.74%) Local Government
13 10 (1.45%) Law
13 10 (1.45%) Telecoms
14 7 (1.02%) Marketing
14 7 (1.02%) Police
15 6 (0.87%) Manufacturing
16 5 (0.73%) Cyber-Physical System
16 5 (0.73%) Military
17 4 (0.58%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 104 (15.12%) Analyst
2 79 (11.48%) Consultant
3 57 (8.28%) Security Engineer
4 53 (7.70%) Architect
4 53 (7.70%) Security Consultant
5 51 (7.41%) Senior
6 44 (6.40%) Lead
7 42 (6.10%) Security Analyst
8 40 (5.81%) Security Manager
9 39 (5.67%) Security Architect
10 34 (4.94%) Security Officer
11 27 (3.92%) Project Manager
12 25 (3.63%) Developer
13 22 (3.20%) Information Security Officer
14 21 (3.05%) Business Analyst
15 20 (2.91%) Security Specialist
16 18 (2.62%) IT Manager
17 17 (2.47%) Cybersecurity Manager
17 17 (2.47%) Information Analyst
17 17 (2.47%) Information Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.05%) OAuth
2 15 (2.18%) LDAP
2 15 (2.18%) OAuth2
3 14 (2.03%) Oracle Fusion
3 14 (2.03%) SAML
4 13 (1.89%) OpenID
5 12 (1.74%) SailPoint
6 7 (1.02%) J2EE
6 7 (1.02%) JSP
6 7 (1.02%) Spring
6 7 (1.02%) Spring Boot
7 6 (0.87%) Middleware
7 6 (0.87%) Web Services
8 5 (0.73%) Node.js
8 5 (0.73%) REST
9 4 (0.58%) .NET
9 4 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
9 4 (0.58%) Kafka
10 3 (0.44%) ADO
10 3 (0.44%) JWT
Miscellaneous
1 112 (16.28%) Management Information System
2 63 (9.16%) Security Posture
3 49 (7.12%) Onboarding
4 38 (5.52%) Operational Technology
5 20 (2.91%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (2.76%) Data Protection Act
7 14 (2.03%) Cloud Native
8 13 (1.89%) Analytical Mindset
9 12 (1.74%) Virtual Team
10 11 (1.60%) BYOD
10 11 (1.60%) Insider Threat
10 11 (1.60%) Mobile App
10 11 (1.60%) PKI
10 11 (1.60%) Product Ownership
10 11 (1.60%) Security Operations Centre
11 10 (1.45%) Data Centre
12 9 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
12 9 (1.31%) Public Cloud
12 9 (1.31%) SCADA
13 8 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 74 (10.76%) Windows
2 41 (5.96%) Linux
3 28 (4.07%) Windows Server
4 13 (1.89%) Unix
5 6 (0.87%) Apple iOS
6 4 (0.58%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.44%) zOS
8 2 (0.29%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.15%) Android
9 1 (0.15%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 255 (37.06%) Cybersecurity
2 182 (26.45%) Risk Management
3 116 (16.86%) Continuous Improvement
4 113 (16.42%) Problem-Solving
5 109 (15.84%) Data Protection
6 108 (15.70%) Stakeholder Management
7 82 (11.92%) Cloud Security
8 74 (10.76%) Security Management
9 66 (9.59%) Agile
9 66 (9.59%) Incident Response
10 64 (9.30%) Security Operations
11 62 (9.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 61 (8.87%) Change Management
13 58 (8.43%) AI
13 58 (8.43%) Roadmaps
14 56 (8.14%) Information Security Management
15 54 (7.85%) Computer Science
15 54 (7.85%) SIEM
16 52 (7.56%) Decision-Making
16 52 (7.56%) Risk Assessment
Programming Languages
1 75 (10.90%) Python
2 54 (7.85%) PowerShell
3 24 (3.49%) Java
4 21 (3.05%) Bash
5 18 (2.62%) SQL
6 7 (1.02%) Kotlin
7 6 (0.87%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.73%) Go
9 4 (0.58%) C#
10 3 (0.44%) RPG
11 2 (0.29%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.29%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.15%) BeanShell
12 1 (0.15%) Bicep
12 1 (0.15%) C++
12 1 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.15%) Lisp
12 1 (0.15%) R
12 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 188 (27.33%) Security Cleared
2 143 (20.78%) SC Cleared
3 142 (20.64%) Degree
4 119 (17.30%) CISSP
5 82 (11.92%) CISM
6 46 (6.69%) DV Cleared
7 31 (4.51%) CISA
8 27 (3.92%) Cisco Certification
9 25 (3.63%) Computer Science Degree
9 25 (3.63%) CRISC
10 22 (3.20%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 18 (2.62%) CEH
12 17 (2.47%) CREST Certified
12 17 (2.47%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 15 (2.18%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 15 (2.18%) Postgraduate
14 14 (2.03%) Master's Degree
15 12 (1.74%) CompTIA Security+
16 11 (1.60%) CHECK Team Member
16 11 (1.60%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 228 (33.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 155 (22.53%) NIST
3 118 (17.15%) GDPR
4 90 (13.08%) GRC
5 50 (7.27%) PCI DSS
6 30 (4.36%) COBIT
7 28 (4.07%) Cyber Essentials
8 26 (3.78%) PMO
9 25 (3.63%) QA
10 24 (3.49%) Data Quality
10 24 (3.49%) NCSC
11 20 (2.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 18 (2.62%) NIST 800
13 13 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 13 (1.89%) SOC 2
14 12 (1.74%) Accessibility
15 10 (1.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 8 (1.16%) HIPAA
16 8 (1.16%) RMADS
17 7 (1.02%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 51 (7.41%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.16%) Docker
3 7 (1.02%) Virtual Machines
4 6 (0.87%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.73%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.44%) Squid
7 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.15%) Ceph
7 1 (0.15%) Firmware
7 1 (0.15%) RACF
Systems Management
1 19 (2.76%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (2.03%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.89%) Terraform
4 11 (1.60%) Nmap
4 11 (1.60%) SCCM
5 10 (1.45%) Ansible
6 7 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.73%) Functional Safety
7 5 (0.73%) QRadar
8 4 (0.58%) WSUS
9 3 (0.44%) CASB
9 3 (0.44%) Podman
10 2 (0.29%) Computer Incident Response Team
10 2 (0.29%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.29%) SCOrch
11 1 (0.15%) Host Intrusion Detection System
11 1 (0.15%) HP Fortify
11 1 (0.15%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 119 (17.30%) Microsoft
2 35 (5.09%) ServiceNow
3 21 (3.05%) Oracle
4 18 (2.62%) CyberArk
5 15 (2.18%) Google
6 14 (2.03%) Cisco
7 13 (1.89%) BeyondTrust
8 11 (1.60%) CrowdStrike
9 7 (1.02%) Palo Alto
9 7 (1.02%) Splunk
9 7 (1.02%) VMware
10 6 (0.87%) IBM
10 6 (0.87%) Remedy
11 5 (0.73%) Databricks
11 5 (0.73%) Sophos
12 4 (0.58%) Apple
12 4 (0.58%) Atlassian
12 4 (0.58%) Fortinet
12 4 (0.58%) NEC
12 4 (0.58%) Qualys