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

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 175 177 119
Rank change year-on-year +2 -58 -1
Contract jobs citing Information Security 688 450 856
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.56% 1.55% 1.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.82% 1.71% 2.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 397 276 558
10th Percentile £400 £320 £400
25th Percentile £463 £463 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £588 £575
Median % change year-on-year -6.38% +2.17% -4.17%
75th Percentile £663 £688 £688
90th Percentile £778 £819 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £570 £550
% change year-on-year -7.81% +3.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 68 28 39
10th Percentile £16.70 £16.19 £15.55
25th Percentile £19.96 £22.14 £17.86
Median hourly rate £25.97 £24.42 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.35% +6.17% -69.33%
75th Percentile £61.50 £38.39 £50.00
90th Percentile £85.12 £81.11 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.50 £22.14 £21.25
% change year-on-year +15.18% +4.19% -71.95%

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 37,825 26,281 38,283
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.77% 90.55% 86.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,952 17,099 24,858
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 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.51% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,225 950 2,347
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.20 £12.83
25th Percentile £18.75 £20.49 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -1.54% -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £57.91
90th Percentile £76.40 £77.22 £71.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.50 £31.64 £31.50
% change year-on-year -3.60% +0.44% -13.10%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -7 611 £550 -6.58% 316
UK excluding London -6 333 £525 -7.81% 249
London +4 287 £575 -4.17% 106
Work from Home -8 196 £550 - 169
South East -6 113 £563 -7.79% 91
North of England -50 70 £500 -4.76% 64
Midlands -33 51 £540 +35.00% 32
East of England -3 48 £553 -7.83% 19
North West -17 46 £540 +2.86% 37
West Midlands -32 40 £545 +36.25% 24
South West -18 24 £500 -14.89% 25
Scotland +3 21 £358 -25.26% 12
Yorkshire -48 20 £488 +13.04% 18
East Midlands -24 11 £450 +50.00% 8
Wales -4 6 £338 +87.50% 7
North East -16 4 £450 -15.73% 9

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 20 (2.91%) Confluence
2 14 (2.03%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.02%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.58%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.15%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 37 (5.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (5.09%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (1.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (1.31%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.29%) MS Visio
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%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.15%) Revit
Business Applications
1 12 (1.74%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (0.58%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
3 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
4 1 (0.15%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 123 (17.88%) Azure
2 91 (13.23%) AWS
3 43 (6.25%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (4.94%) GCP
5 28 (4.07%) SaaS
6 26 (3.78%) Entra ID
7 25 (3.63%) Power Platform
8 17 (2.47%) OCI
9 16 (2.33%) Microsoft Purview
10 14 (2.03%) GitHub
11 9 (1.31%) Azure Sentinel
12 8 (1.16%) IaaS
12 8 (1.16%) Microsoft Copilot
12 8 (1.16%) PaaS
12 8 (1.16%) Power Automate
13 7 (1.02%) PowerApps
14 6 (0.87%) Azure Data Factory
15 5 (0.73%) Amazon S3
15 5 (0.73%) Azure DevOps
15 5 (0.73%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 57 (8.28%) Firewall
2 35 (5.09%) Network Security
3 17 (2.47%) DNS
4 15 (2.18%) TCP/IP
4 15 (2.18%) Wireless
5 12 (1.74%) HTTP
6 11 (1.60%) VPN
7 10 (1.45%) SSH
7 10 (1.45%) WAN
8 9 (1.31%) DHCP
9 8 (1.16%) Internet
10 6 (0.87%) SSL
11 5 (0.73%) Cisco IPT
11 5 (0.73%) FTP
11 5 (0.73%) SMTP
12 4 (0.58%) LAN
12 4 (0.58%) SAN
12 4 (0.58%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (0.44%) OSPF
13 3 (0.44%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (3.05%) Power BI
2 10 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.31%) Metadata
3 9 (1.31%) SQL Server
4 8 (1.16%) 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%) MongoDB
6 3 (0.44%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.44%) 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 26 (3.78%) JIRA
2 15 (2.18%) 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%) git-flow
6 1 (0.15%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 218 (31.69%) Social Skills
2 135 (19.62%) Finance
3 99 (14.39%) Public Sector
4 90 (13.08%) Analytical Skills
5 66 (9.59%) Legal
6 52 (7.56%) Banking
7 25 (3.63%) Organisational Skills
8 19 (2.76%) Documentation Skills
9 18 (2.62%) Presentation Skills
10 14 (2.03%) Retail
11 12 (1.74%) Influencing Skills
11 12 (1.74%) Telecoms
12 10 (1.45%) Law
13 9 (1.31%) Police
14 8 (1.16%) Local Government
14 8 (1.16%) Manufacturing
15 6 (0.87%) Marketing
16 5 (0.73%) Cyber-Physical System
17 4 (0.58%) Aerospace
17 4 (0.58%) Military
Job Titles
1 115 (16.72%) Analyst
2 80 (11.63%) Consultant
3 56 (8.14%) Architect
4 52 (7.56%) Senior
5 46 (6.69%) Security Consultant
6 45 (6.54%) Lead
6 45 (6.54%) Security Engineer
7 44 (6.40%) Security Analyst
8 40 (5.81%) Security Architect
9 37 (5.38%) Security Manager
10 30 (4.36%) Security Officer
11 24 (3.49%) Developer
12 21 (3.05%) Security Specialist
13 20 (2.91%) Project Manager
14 18 (2.62%) Business Analyst
14 18 (2.62%) Information Analyst
14 18 (2.62%) Information Security Analyst
15 16 (2.33%) Cybersecurity Manager
15 16 (2.33%) Information Security Consultant
16 15 (2.18%) Information Security Officer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (2.33%) Oracle Fusion
2 14 (2.03%) OAuth
3 10 (1.45%) OAuth2
4 9 (1.31%) OpenID
4 9 (1.31%) SAML
5 8 (1.16%) LDAP
6 7 (1.02%) Middleware
6 7 (1.02%) SailPoint
6 7 (1.02%) Spring
6 7 (1.02%) Spring Boot
7 5 (0.73%) J2EE
7 5 (0.73%) JSP
7 5 (0.73%) Node.js
8 4 (0.58%) .NET
9 3 (0.44%) GraphQL
9 3 (0.44%) JWT
9 3 (0.44%) Kafka
9 3 (0.44%) ModSecurity
9 3 (0.44%) REST
9 3 (0.44%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 114 (16.57%) Management Information System
2 65 (9.45%) Security Posture
3 37 (5.38%) Onboarding
4 32 (4.65%) Operational Technology
5 21 (3.05%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (2.76%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (2.33%) Cloud Native
7 16 (2.33%) PKI
8 14 (2.03%) Insider Threat
9 13 (1.89%) Data Centre
9 13 (1.89%) Security Operations Centre
10 12 (1.74%) Analytical Mindset
10 12 (1.74%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.60%) BYOD
11 11 (1.60%) Mobile App
11 11 (1.60%) Product Ownership
12 9 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
12 9 (1.31%) Public Cloud
13 8 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (1.16%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 61 (8.87%) Windows
2 32 (4.65%) Linux
3 21 (3.05%) Windows Server
4 13 (1.89%) Unix
5 3 (0.44%) Kali Linux
5 3 (0.44%) zOS
6 2 (0.29%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 258 (37.50%) Cybersecurity
2 174 (25.29%) Risk Management
3 118 (17.15%) Problem-Solving
4 108 (15.70%) Continuous Improvement
5 107 (15.55%) Data Protection
6 101 (14.68%) Stakeholder Management
7 86 (12.50%) Cloud Security
8 79 (11.48%) Security Management
9 65 (9.45%) Agile
9 65 (9.45%) Incident Response
10 62 (9.01%) Security Operations
11 60 (8.72%) Change Management
11 60 (8.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 59 (8.58%) Information Security Management
13 56 (8.14%) Threat Modelling
14 54 (7.85%) AI
15 52 (7.56%) Decision-Making
16 51 (7.41%) Risk Assessment
17 49 (7.12%) Roadmaps
18 48 (6.98%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 55 (7.99%) Python
2 30 (4.36%) PowerShell
3 23 (3.34%) Java
4 21 (3.05%) SQL
5 13 (1.89%) Bash
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%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.44%) RPG
11 2 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.29%) Rust
11 2 (0.29%) Solidity
12 1 (0.15%) Apex Code
12 1 (0.15%) BeanShell
12 1 (0.15%) Bicep
12 1 (0.15%) Lisp
12 1 (0.15%) R
12 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 204 (29.65%) Security Cleared
2 152 (22.09%) SC Cleared
3 129 (18.75%) Degree
4 118 (17.15%) CISSP
5 86 (12.50%) CISM
6 54 (7.85%) DV Cleared
7 31 (4.51%) CISA
8 28 (4.07%) Cisco Certification
9 27 (3.92%) Computer Science Degree
10 23 (3.34%) CRISC
11 22 (3.20%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 20 (2.91%) CEH
13 18 (2.62%) Master's Degree
14 17 (2.47%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 16 (2.33%) CREST Certified
16 15 (2.18%) CTC Cleared
16 15 (2.18%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
17 13 (1.89%) Postgraduate
18 12 (1.74%) CompTIA Security+
19 11 (1.60%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 221 (32.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 167 (24.27%) NIST
3 120 (17.44%) GDPR
4 76 (11.05%) GRC
5 50 (7.27%) PCI DSS
6 30 (4.36%) NCSC
7 29 (4.22%) COBIT
8 26 (3.78%) Cyber Essentials
9 25 (3.63%) PMO
9 25 (3.63%) QA
10 22 (3.20%) Data Quality
11 18 (2.62%) NIST 800
12 16 (2.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (2.03%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 13 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 13 (1.89%) SOC 2
15 10 (1.45%) Accessibility
15 10 (1.45%) JSP 440
16 8 (1.16%) RMADS
16 8 (1.16%) SLA
System Software
1 35 (5.09%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.16%) Docker
3 7 (1.02%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.73%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.44%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.15%) Ceph
6 1 (0.15%) RACF
6 1 (0.15%) Squid
6 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 18 (2.62%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.89%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.89%) Nmap
3 10 (1.45%) SCCM
3 10 (1.45%) Terraform
4 8 (1.16%) Ansible
4 8 (1.16%) QRadar
5 5 (0.73%) Functional Safety
5 5 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (0.58%) WSUS
7 3 (0.44%) CASB
7 3 (0.44%) FortiGate
7 3 (0.44%) SCOrch
8 2 (0.29%) Nessus
8 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
8 2 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
9 1 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
9 1 (0.15%) Podman
9 1 (0.15%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.15%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 104 (15.12%) Microsoft
2 36 (5.23%) ServiceNow
3 22 (3.20%) Oracle
4 15 (2.18%) Cisco
4 15 (2.18%) Google
5 12 (1.74%) CyberArk
6 11 (1.60%) IBM
7 9 (1.31%) CrowdStrike
8 8 (1.16%) Databricks
9 7 (1.02%) Splunk
9 7 (1.02%) VMware
10 6 (0.87%) BeyondTrust
11 5 (0.73%) Fortinet
11 5 (0.73%) Gemalto
11 5 (0.73%) Palo Alto
11 5 (0.73%) Qualys
11 5 (0.73%) Sophos
11 5 (0.73%) Thales
12 4 (0.58%) NEC
12 4 (0.58%) UiPath