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 23 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 167 158 106
Rank change year-on-year -9 -52 +9
Contract jobs citing Information Security 681 519 940
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.68% 1.70% 2.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.93% 1.89% 2.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 379 294 630
10th Percentile £362 £357 £385
25th Percentile £450 £479 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £589 £575
Median % change year-on-year -9.13% +2.39% -4.17%
75th Percentile £648 £688 £667
90th Percentile £771 £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 20 54
10th Percentile £17.40 £16.23 £17.01
25th Percentile £20.71 £21.05 £19.25
Median hourly rate £28.00 £25.72 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.89% -42.21% -36.43%
75th Percentile £41.94 £44.06 £83.09
90th Percentile £80.08 £78.63 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £22.14 £44.50
% change year-on-year +26.47% -50.25% -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 35,244 27,423 38,727
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.69% 89.85% 87.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,345 16,931 25,318
10th Percentile £313 £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 £719 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -2.38% -1.40% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,112 856 2,183
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.94 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £32.91 £34.25
Median % change year-on-year -21.68% -3.93% -2.14%
75th Percentile £60.79 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.38 £72.26
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year -20.81% -9.26% -

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 23 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 23 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 23 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 -4 608 £535 -10.83% 302
UK excluding London -12 332 £500 -13.04% 233
London +5 279 £550 -8.33% 122
Work from Home +24 199 £540 +2.86% 156
South East -5 107 £550 -8.33% 92
North of England -37 68 £500 -6.37% 58
Midlands -30 51 £450 -29.27% 32
East of England -5 43 £530 -11.67% 18
North West -24 43 £500 -9.09% 40
South West -13 37 £500 -25.93% 27
West Midlands -46 33 £500 -35.28% 19
Yorkshire -46 21 £494 +9.72% 15
Scotland +11 20 £354 -26.10% 6
East Midlands -13 18 £450 +49.83% 13
Wales 0 6 £388 - 6
North East -18 4 £450 -18.18% 3

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 22 (3.23%) Confluence
2 20 (2.94%) SharePoint
3 13 (1.91%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.03%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.59%) Apache Spark
5 4 (0.59%) Mattermost
5 4 (0.59%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.15%) Apache
6 1 (0.15%) Apache Airflow
6 1 (0.15%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 49 (7.20%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (4.85%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (2.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.17%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.44%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.44%) Revit
6 2 (0.29%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.29%) ProjectWise
6 2 (0.29%) 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 12 (1.76%) Oracle EBS
2 9 (1.32%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.59%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
5 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 116 (17.03%) Azure
2 80 (11.75%) AWS
3 45 (6.61%) Microsoft 365
4 33 (4.85%) GCP
5 29 (4.26%) Entra ID
6 24 (3.52%) SaaS
7 21 (3.08%) Power Platform
8 15 (2.20%) OCI
9 13 (1.91%) Microsoft Purview
10 11 (1.62%) GitHub
11 9 (1.32%) Azure Sentinel
12 7 (1.03%) IaaS
12 7 (1.03%) OneDrive
12 7 (1.03%) PaaS
12 7 (1.03%) Power Automate
13 6 (0.88%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (0.88%) Microsoft Copilot
13 6 (0.88%) PowerApps
14 5 (0.73%) Amazon S3
14 5 (0.73%) Collibra
Communications & Networking
1 63 (9.25%) Firewall
2 28 (4.11%) Network Security
3 19 (2.79%) DNS
3 19 (2.79%) TCP/IP
4 13 (1.91%) SSH
4 13 (1.91%) Wireless
5 12 (1.76%) WAN
6 10 (1.47%) DHCP
6 10 (1.47%) HTTP
6 10 (1.47%) Internet
7 8 (1.17%) VPN
8 7 (1.03%) SMTP
8 7 (1.03%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.73%) FTP
9 5 (0.73%) SAN
9 5 (0.73%) SSL
10 4 (0.59%) Cisco IPT
10 4 (0.59%) Intrusion Detection
10 4 (0.59%) Skype
11 3 (0.44%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (2.64%) Power BI
2 10 (1.47%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.32%) Metadata
3 9 (1.32%) SQL Server
4 6 (0.88%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.59%) Big Data
5 4 (0.59%) GIS
5 4 (0.59%) Hadoop
5 4 (0.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 3 (0.44%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.44%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.44%) Tableau
7 2 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
7 2 (0.29%) BigQuery
7 2 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
7 2 (0.29%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.29%) Power Query
7 2 (0.29%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 26 (3.82%) JIRA
2 14 (2.06%) Burp Suite
3 11 (1.62%) Metasploit
4 10 (1.47%) Git
5 2 (0.29%) GitLab
6 1 (0.15%) AppScan
6 1 (0.15%) GCC
6 1 (0.15%) git-flow
6 1 (0.15%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.15%) MSI
6 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 235 (34.51%) Social Skills
2 125 (18.36%) Finance
3 102 (14.98%) Public Sector
4 85 (12.48%) Analytical Skills
5 59 (8.66%) Legal
6 40 (5.87%) Banking
7 33 (4.85%) Organisational Skills
8 20 (2.94%) Presentation Skills
9 18 (2.64%) Documentation Skills
10 15 (2.20%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (2.20%) Telecoms
11 12 (1.76%) Retail
12 11 (1.62%) Manufacturing
13 8 (1.17%) Law
13 8 (1.17%) Police
14 7 (1.03%) Marketing
15 6 (0.88%) Local Government
15 6 (0.88%) Spanish Language
16 5 (0.73%) Cyber-Physical System
17 4 (0.59%) Military
Job Titles
1 129 (18.94%) Analyst
2 64 (9.40%) Consultant
3 49 (7.20%) Architect
4 46 (6.75%) Security Engineer
4 46 (6.75%) Senior
5 44 (6.46%) Security Analyst
6 42 (6.17%) Lead
7 36 (5.29%) Security Manager
8 30 (4.41%) Security Architect
9 28 (4.11%) Security Consultant
10 27 (3.96%) Security Officer
11 24 (3.52%) Support Analyst
12 22 (3.23%) Security Specialist
13 19 (2.79%) Designer
13 19 (2.79%) Information Analyst
13 19 (2.79%) Information Security Analyst
13 19 (2.79%) Service Designer
14 18 (2.64%) Developer
15 17 (2.50%) Project Manager
16 15 (2.20%) Information Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.91%) Oracle Fusion
2 12 (1.76%) OAuth
3 10 (1.47%) Middleware
3 10 (1.47%) OpenID
3 10 (1.47%) SAML
4 9 (1.32%) LDAP
5 8 (1.17%) OAuth2
5 8 (1.17%) SailPoint
6 5 (0.73%) Node.js
7 4 (0.59%) .NET
7 4 (0.59%) Qt
7 4 (0.59%) Spring
7 4 (0.59%) Spring Boot
8 3 (0.44%) GraphQL
8 3 (0.44%) J2EE
8 3 (0.44%) JSP
8 3 (0.44%) JWT
8 3 (0.44%) Kafka
8 3 (0.44%) REST
8 3 (0.44%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 119 (17.47%) Management Information System
2 72 (10.57%) Security Posture
3 30 (4.41%) Onboarding
4 28 (4.11%) Operational Technology
5 26 (3.82%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (2.79%) Data Protection Act
6 19 (2.79%) PKI
7 16 (2.35%) Cloud Native
8 13 (1.91%) Data Centre
8 13 (1.91%) Insider Threat
8 13 (1.91%) Product Ownership
9 12 (1.76%) Security Operations Centre
10 11 (1.62%) Analytical Mindset
11 10 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (1.47%) Virtual Team
12 9 (1.32%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (1.17%) CSOC
13 8 (1.17%) Greenfield Project
13 8 (1.17%) Mobile App
13 8 (1.17%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 69 (10.13%) Windows
2 41 (6.02%) Linux
3 20 (2.94%) Windows Server
4 18 (2.64%) Unix
5 3 (0.44%) Kali Linux
5 3 (0.44%) Mac OS
5 3 (0.44%) zOS
6 1 (0.15%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.15%) VMS
6 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 239 (35.10%) Cybersecurity
2 177 (25.99%) Risk Management
3 114 (16.74%) Problem-Solving
4 109 (16.01%) Continuous Improvement
4 109 (16.01%) Data Protection
5 101 (14.83%) Stakeholder Management
6 80 (11.75%) Incident Response
7 78 (11.45%) Cloud Security
8 77 (11.31%) Security Management
9 61 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 60 (8.81%) Agile
10 60 (8.81%) Security Operations
11 58 (8.52%) Change Management
12 57 (8.37%) Information Security Management
12 57 (8.37%) ITIL
13 54 (7.93%) Computer Science
13 54 (7.93%) Roadmaps
14 53 (7.78%) SIEM
15 48 (7.05%) Regulatory Compliance
15 48 (7.05%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 58 (8.52%) Python
2 42 (6.17%) PowerShell
3 31 (4.55%) SQL
4 16 (2.35%) Java
5 11 (1.62%) Bash
6 5 (0.73%) Go
7 4 (0.59%) C#
7 4 (0.59%) C++
7 4 (0.59%) Kotlin
7 4 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
8 3 (0.44%) RPG
9 2 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.29%) JavaScript
9 2 (0.29%) R
9 2 (0.29%) Rust
9 2 (0.29%) Solidity
10 1 (0.15%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.15%) Lisp
10 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 207 (30.40%) Security Cleared
2 162 (23.79%) SC Cleared
3 130 (19.09%) Degree
4 107 (15.71%) CISSP
5 82 (12.04%) CISM
6 45 (6.61%) DV Cleared
7 42 (6.17%) Computer Science Degree
8 29 (4.26%) CISA
8 29 (4.26%) Master's Degree
9 25 (3.67%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
10 24 (3.52%) Cisco Certification
11 23 (3.38%) CRISC
12 19 (2.79%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 19 (2.79%) BPSS Clearance
13 18 (2.64%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 15 (2.20%) ITIL Certification
15 14 (2.06%) CEH
16 13 (1.91%) CREST Certified
16 13 (1.91%) Postgraduate
17 12 (1.76%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 219 (32.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 161 (23.64%) NIST
3 111 (16.30%) GDPR
4 75 (11.01%) GRC
5 41 (6.02%) PCI DSS
6 31 (4.55%) COBIT
7 28 (4.11%) NCSC
8 26 (3.82%) QA
9 24 (3.52%) PMO
10 23 (3.38%) Cyber Essentials
11 21 (3.08%) Accessibility
12 19 (2.79%) Data Quality
13 17 (2.50%) NIST 800
14 14 (2.06%) Def Stans
15 12 (1.76%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 11 (1.62%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 11 (1.62%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 11 (1.62%) JSP 440
16 11 (1.62%) RMADS
16 11 (1.62%) SOC 2
System Software
1 48 (7.05%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.62%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (1.03%) Docker
4 3 (0.44%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.15%) Microsoft App-V
5 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 20 (2.94%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.91%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.91%) SCCM
3 12 (1.76%) Nmap
4 9 (1.32%) HP SiteScope
4 9 (1.32%) SCOM
4 9 (1.32%) Terraform
5 7 (1.03%) Ansible
5 7 (1.03%) QRadar
6 6 (0.88%) CASB
6 6 (0.88%) SCOrch
7 5 (0.73%) Functional Safety
7 5 (0.73%) WSUS
8 4 (0.59%) FortiGate
8 4 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.29%) EnCase
9 2 (0.29%) FTK
9 2 (0.29%) Nessus
9 2 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
9 2 (0.29%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 119 (17.47%) Microsoft
2 30 (4.41%) ServiceNow
3 19 (2.79%) Oracle
4 18 (2.64%) Cisco
5 17 (2.50%) CyberArk
5 17 (2.50%) Google
6 16 (2.35%) Splunk
7 12 (1.76%) CrowdStrike
7 12 (1.76%) IBM
8 11 (1.62%) Remedy
9 9 (1.32%) Thales
10 8 (1.17%) Databricks
10 8 (1.17%) Fortinet
10 8 (1.17%) Gemalto
11 7 (1.03%) Palo Alto
11 7 (1.03%) Qualys
11 7 (1.03%) SAP
12 6 (0.88%) BeyondTrust
12 6 (0.88%) Sophos
13 5 (0.73%) Rapid7