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

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 184 177 115
Rank change year-on-year -7 -62 -10
Contract jobs citing Information Security 692 462 848
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.45% 1.58% 1.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.72% 1.73% 2.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 419 285 532
10th Percentile £400 £313 £375
25th Percentile £463 £425 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £582
Median % change year-on-year - -5.50% -3.00%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £688
90th Percentile £800 £825 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £543 £575
% change year-on-year -3.23% -5.65% +4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 26 25
10th Percentile £16.35 £19.13 £12.75
25th Percentile £21.35 £22.14 £16.71
Median hourly rate £36.00 £24.66 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +45.99% +26.46% -74.00%
75th Percentile £67.38 £70.91 £23.00
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.38 £33.06
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £23.65 £18.00
% change year-on-year +52.25% +31.36% -76.47%

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 40,206 26,654 37,276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.43% 90.92% 86.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,270 17,186 24,018
10th Percentile £320 £307 £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 £745 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £482 £500
% change year-on-year +1.09% -3.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,411 1,084 2,441
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.64 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.88 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £29.00 £35.95
Median % change year-on-year +43.29% -19.33% +0.42%
75th Percentile £67.25 £61.69 £60.00
90th Percentile £79.50 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.00 £27.70 £37.50
% change year-on-year +58.84% -26.13% +7.14%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -10 623 £550 - 430
UK excluding London 0 333 £525 -3.23% 322
London +14 300 £585 +11.43% 157
Work from Home -14 187 £550 +4.76% 196
South East -1 117 £550 -8.33% 94
North of England -40 68 £518 +15.14% 74
Midlands -41 49 £520 +15.56% 62
North West -23 46 £550 +25.71% 42
East of England -5 43 £535 -10.83% 36
West Midlands -33 38 £481 -3.75% 38
South West -20 31 £500 -14.89% 38
Scotland +1 22 £358 -25.26% 15
Yorkshire -51 19 £476 +15.39% 25
East Midlands -23 11 £591 +96.83% 23
Wales -12 4 £475 +163.89% 4
North East -24 3 £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 20 (2.89%) Confluence
2 13 (1.88%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.87%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.58%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.29%) IIS
7 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 36 (5.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (5.06%) Microsoft Office
3 15 (2.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.59%) Microsoft Project
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%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 10 (1.45%) Oracle EBS
2 5 (0.72%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.58%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 144 (20.81%) Azure
2 101 (14.60%) AWS
3 52 (7.51%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (4.91%) Entra ID
4 34 (4.91%) SaaS
5 32 (4.62%) GCP
6 28 (4.05%) Power Platform
7 20 (2.89%) Microsoft Purview
8 18 (2.60%) GitHub
9 14 (2.02%) OCI
10 13 (1.88%) Azure Sentinel
11 9 (1.30%) IaaS
11 9 (1.30%) Power Automate
12 8 (1.16%) Microsoft Copilot
12 8 (1.16%) PaaS
12 8 (1.16%) PowerApps
13 6 (0.87%) Azure Data Factory
13 6 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (0.87%) Azure Logic Apps
13 6 (0.87%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 50 (7.23%) Firewall
2 42 (6.07%) Network Security
3 16 (2.31%) DNS
4 15 (2.17%) TCP/IP
4 15 (2.17%) Wireless
5 13 (1.88%) HTTP
5 13 (1.88%) VPN
6 7 (1.01%) DHCP
6 7 (1.01%) SSH
7 6 (0.87%) SSL
7 6 (0.87%) WAN
8 5 (0.72%) FTP
8 5 (0.72%) Internet
8 5 (0.72%) SMTP
9 4 (0.58%) HTTPS
10 3 (0.43%) Cisco IPT
10 3 (0.43%) Intrusion Detection
10 3 (0.43%) SAN
10 3 (0.43%) SD-WAN
11 2 (0.29%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (3.61%) Power BI
2 13 (1.88%) SQL Server
3 9 (1.30%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.30%) 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 (0.43%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.43%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.43%) 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 (0.14%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.14%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.14%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 22 (3.18%) JIRA
2 14 (2.02%) 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%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.14%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.14%) git-flow
6 1 (0.14%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.14%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.14%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
General
1 219 (31.65%) Social Skills
2 142 (20.52%) Finance
3 100 (14.45%) Public Sector
4 91 (13.15%) Analytical Skills
5 66 (9.54%) Legal
6 56 (8.09%) Banking
7 27 (3.90%) Organisational Skills
8 24 (3.47%) Documentation Skills
9 21 (3.03%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (2.02%) Retail
11 13 (1.88%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (1.73%) Local Government
13 10 (1.45%) Law
14 9 (1.30%) Telecoms
15 7 (1.01%) Marketing
15 7 (1.01%) Police
16 5 (0.72%) Cyber-Physical System
16 5 (0.72%) Investment Banking
16 5 (0.72%) Military
17 4 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 103 (14.88%) Analyst
2 76 (10.98%) Consultant
3 58 (8.38%) Security Engineer
4 53 (7.66%) Architect
5 51 (7.37%) Security Consultant
5 51 (7.37%) Senior
6 45 (6.50%) Lead
7 42 (6.07%) Security Analyst
8 40 (5.78%) Security Manager
9 39 (5.64%) Security Architect
10 34 (4.91%) Security Officer
11 26 (3.76%) Project Manager
12 25 (3.61%) Developer
13 22 (3.18%) Information Security Officer
14 21 (3.03%) Business Analyst
15 20 (2.89%) Security Specialist
16 19 (2.75%) IT Manager
17 18 (2.60%) Cybersecurity Manager
18 15 (2.17%) Information Analyst
18 15 (2.17%) Information Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.03%) OAuth
2 15 (2.17%) LDAP
2 15 (2.17%) OAuth2
2 15 (2.17%) Oracle Fusion
3 14 (2.02%) SailPoint
3 14 (2.02%) SAML
4 13 (1.88%) OpenID
5 7 (1.01%) J2EE
5 7 (1.01%) JSP
5 7 (1.01%) Spring
5 7 (1.01%) Spring Boot
6 6 (0.87%) Middleware
6 6 (0.87%) Web Services
7 5 (0.72%) Node.js
7 5 (0.72%) REST
8 4 (0.58%) .NET
8 4 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
8 4 (0.58%) Kafka
9 3 (0.43%) ADO
9 3 (0.43%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 110 (15.90%) Management Information System
2 62 (8.96%) Security Posture
3 50 (7.23%) Onboarding
4 37 (5.35%) Operational Technology
5 20 (2.89%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (2.75%) Data Protection Act
7 15 (2.17%) Cloud Native
8 13 (1.88%) Analytical Mindset
9 12 (1.73%) Security Operations Centre
9 12 (1.73%) Virtual Team
10 11 (1.59%) BYOD
10 11 (1.59%) Insider Threat
10 11 (1.59%) Mobile App
10 11 (1.59%) PKI
10 11 (1.59%) Product Ownership
11 10 (1.45%) SCADA
12 9 (1.30%) Data Centre
12 9 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
12 9 (1.30%) Public Cloud
13 8 (1.16%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 74 (10.69%) Windows
2 40 (5.78%) Linux
3 28 (4.05%) Windows Server
4 13 (1.88%) Unix
5 7 (1.01%) Apple iOS
6 5 (0.72%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.43%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.43%) zOS
8 1 (0.14%) Android
8 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 255 (36.85%) Cybersecurity
2 185 (26.73%) Risk Management
3 116 (16.76%) Continuous Improvement
4 111 (16.04%) Problem-Solving
5 110 (15.90%) Stakeholder Management
6 106 (15.32%) Data Protection
7 83 (11.99%) Cloud Security
8 72 (10.40%) Security Management
9 68 (9.83%) Agile
10 66 (9.54%) Incident Response
10 66 (9.54%) Security Operations
11 62 (8.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 59 (8.53%) AI
12 59 (8.53%) Change Management
12 59 (8.53%) Roadmaps
13 57 (8.24%) SIEM
14 54 (7.80%) Computer Science
15 53 (7.66%) Information Security Management
16 52 (7.51%) Decision-Making
16 52 (7.51%) Risk Assessment
Programming Languages
1 76 (10.98%) Python
2 56 (8.09%) PowerShell
3 24 (3.47%) Java
4 21 (3.03%) Bash
5 18 (2.60%) SQL
6 7 (1.01%) Kotlin
7 6 (0.87%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.72%) Go
9 4 (0.58%) C#
10 3 (0.43%) RPG
11 2 (0.29%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.29%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.14%) BeanShell
12 1 (0.14%) Bicep
12 1 (0.14%) C++
12 1 (0.14%) Data Analysis Expressions
12 1 (0.14%) Lisp
12 1 (0.14%) R
12 1 (0.14%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 191 (27.60%) Security Cleared
2 145 (20.95%) SC Cleared
3 139 (20.09%) Degree
4 122 (17.63%) CISSP
5 83 (11.99%) CISM
6 47 (6.79%) DV Cleared
7 32 (4.62%) CISA
8 28 (4.05%) Cisco Certification
9 26 (3.76%) CRISC
10 24 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
11 23 (3.32%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 18 (2.60%) CEH
13 17 (2.46%) CREST Certified
13 17 (2.46%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 15 (2.17%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 14 (2.02%) Postgraduate
16 13 (1.88%) Master's Degree
17 12 (1.73%) GIAC
17 12 (1.73%) PMP
18 11 (1.59%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 228 (32.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 154 (22.25%) NIST
3 116 (16.76%) GDPR
4 91 (13.15%) GRC
5 50 (7.23%) PCI DSS
6 31 (4.48%) Cyber Essentials
7 30 (4.34%) COBIT
8 26 (3.76%) PMO
9 25 (3.61%) QA
10 24 (3.47%) Data Quality
11 23 (3.32%) NCSC
12 20 (2.89%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 17 (2.46%) NIST 800
14 13 (1.88%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 13 (1.88%) SOC 2
15 12 (1.73%) Accessibility
15 12 (1.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 8 (1.16%) HIPAA
17 7 (1.01%) HMG Security Policy Framework
17 7 (1.01%) RMADS
System Software
1 50 (7.23%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.16%) Docker
3 6 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.87%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.72%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.43%) Squid
6 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.14%) Ceph
6 1 (0.14%) Firmware
6 1 (0.14%) RACF
Systems Management
1 19 (2.75%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (2.02%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.88%) Terraform
4 11 (1.59%) Nmap
5 10 (1.45%) Ansible
5 10 (1.45%) SCCM
6 7 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.72%) Functional Safety
7 5 (0.72%) QRadar
8 4 (0.58%) WSUS
9 3 (0.43%) Podman
10 2 (0.29%) CASB
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
11 1 (0.14%) logstash
11 1 (0.14%) Nessus
11 1 (0.14%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.14%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 120 (17.34%) Microsoft
2 36 (5.20%) ServiceNow
3 22 (3.18%) Oracle
4 19 (2.75%) CyberArk
5 16 (2.31%) Google
6 15 (2.17%) Cisco
7 14 (2.02%) BeyondTrust
8 12 (1.73%) CrowdStrike
9 8 (1.16%) Splunk
10 7 (1.01%) Palo Alto
10 7 (1.01%) Remedy
10 7 (1.01%) VMware
11 6 (0.87%) IBM
12 5 (0.72%) Databricks
12 5 (0.72%) Sophos
13 4 (0.58%) Atlassian
13 4 (0.58%) Fortinet
13 4 (0.58%) NEC
13 4 (0.58%) Qualys
13 4 (0.58%) UiPath