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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 181 180 112
Rank change year-on-year -1 -68 -7
Contract jobs citing Information Security 681 455 845
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.43% 1.57% 1.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.69% 1.72% 2.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 416 281 527
10th Percentile £404 £313 £370
25th Percentile £463 £425 £483
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £590
Median % change year-on-year - -6.78% -1.67%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £688
90th Percentile £800 £825 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £535 £575
% change year-on-year -1.78% -7.04% +4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 25 25
10th Percentile £16.35 £22.06 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.57 £22.14 £16.71
Median hourly rate £35.50 £24.66 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +43.96% +26.46% -74.00%
75th Percentile £65.44 £78.36 £23.00
90th Percentile £85.40 £82.59 £33.06
UK excluding London median hourly rate £36.00 £25.15 £18.00
% change year-on-year +43.14% +39.72% -76.24%

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 40,228 26,443 36,791
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.35% 90.98% 86.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,265 17,000 23,677
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,380 1,081 2,436
10th Percentile £14.89 £14.42 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.38 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.75 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +47.83% -21.23% +0.29%
75th Percentile £67.31 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £26.50 £38.00
% change year-on-year +69.81% -30.26% +8.57%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -17 615 £550 - 349
UK excluding London +7 326 £525 -1.78% 261
London +1 298 £593 +12.86% 130
Work from Home -11 183 £550 +4.76% 177
South East -5 120 £550 -11.65% 86
North of England -45 67 £540 +30.91% 60
North West -14 48 £550 +37.50% 47
Midlands -37 46 £540 +35.00% 48
East of England -6 40 £575 -4.17% 24
West Midlands -39 35 £500 +25.00% 36
South West -16 31 £500 -14.89% 31
Scotland +3 21 £358 -25.26% 11
Yorkshire -53 16 £500 +21.21% 11
East Midlands -21 11 £591 - 12
Wales -5 3 £645 +258.33% 4
North East -24 3 £450 -15.73% 2

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 (3.38%) Confluence
2 16 (2.35%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.17%) Microsoft Exchange
4 6 (0.88%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.59%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.29%) IIS
7 1 (0.15%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 37 (5.43%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (5.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (2.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.62%) 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 (1.47%) Oracle EBS
2 6 (0.88%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.59%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
5 1 (0.15%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 147 (21.59%) Azure
2 104 (15.27%) AWS
3 46 (6.75%) Microsoft 365
4 38 (5.58%) Entra ID
5 35 (5.14%) SaaS
6 30 (4.41%) GCP
7 26 (3.82%) Power Platform
8 20 (2.94%) Microsoft Purview
9 17 (2.50%) GitHub
10 14 (2.06%) OCI
11 13 (1.91%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (1.32%) IaaS
13 8 (1.17%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (1.17%) Power Automate
14 7 (1.03%) PowerApps
15 6 (0.88%) Azure Data Factory
15 6 (0.88%) Azure Logic Apps
15 6 (0.88%) OneDrive
15 6 (0.88%) PaaS
16 5 (0.73%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 48 (7.05%) Firewall
2 42 (6.17%) Network Security
3 15 (2.20%) DNS
4 14 (2.06%) Wireless
5 13 (1.91%) HTTP
5 13 (1.91%) TCP/IP
6 12 (1.76%) VPN
7 9 (1.32%) SSH
8 6 (0.88%) DHCP
8 6 (0.88%) Internet
8 6 (0.88%) SSL
9 5 (0.73%) FTP
9 5 (0.73%) Intrusion Detection
9 5 (0.73%) SMTP
9 5 (0.73%) WAN
10 4 (0.59%) HTTPS
11 3 (0.44%) Cisco IPT
11 3 (0.44%) NGFW
11 3 (0.44%) SAN
12 2 (0.29%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.38%) Power BI
2 13 (1.91%) SQL Server
3 9 (1.32%) Metadata
4 8 (1.17%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (0.88%) Data Lake
6 4 (0.59%) Big Data
6 4 (0.59%) Hadoop
6 4 (0.59%) Oracle Reports
7 3 (0.44%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.44%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (0.44%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.44%) Tableau
8 2 (0.29%) DynamoDB
8 2 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.29%) MySQL
8 2 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
9 1 (0.15%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.15%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.15%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 24 (3.52%) JIRA
2 14 (2.06%) Burp Suite
3 12 (1.76%) Metasploit
4 9 (1.32%) Git
5 2 (0.29%) git-flow
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%) JMeter
6 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.15%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 215 (31.57%) Social Skills
2 140 (20.56%) Finance
3 100 (14.68%) Public Sector
4 89 (13.07%) Analytical Skills
5 66 (9.69%) Legal
6 55 (8.08%) Banking
7 28 (4.11%) Organisational Skills
8 24 (3.52%) Documentation Skills
9 20 (2.94%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (2.06%) Retail
11 13 (1.91%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (1.76%) Local Government
13 9 (1.32%) Telecoms
14 8 (1.17%) Law
14 8 (1.17%) Marketing
15 6 (0.88%) Investment Banking
15 6 (0.88%) Police
16 5 (0.73%) Cyber-Physical System
16 5 (0.73%) Military
16 5 (0.73%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 99 (14.54%) Analyst
2 72 (10.57%) Consultant
3 59 (8.66%) Security Engineer
4 51 (7.49%) Architect
4 51 (7.49%) Senior
5 48 (7.05%) Security Consultant
6 47 (6.90%) Lead
7 39 (5.73%) Security Analyst
7 39 (5.73%) Security Manager
8 37 (5.43%) Security Architect
9 34 (4.99%) Security Officer
10 26 (3.82%) Project Manager
11 24 (3.52%) Developer
12 22 (3.23%) Information Security Officer
13 21 (3.08%) IT Manager
14 19 (2.79%) Business Analyst
14 19 (2.79%) Cybersecurity Manager
15 17 (2.50%) Security Specialist
16 15 (2.20%) Information Analyst
16 15 (2.20%) Information Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.23%) OAuth
2 18 (2.64%) SailPoint
3 16 (2.35%) OAuth2
3 16 (2.35%) Oracle Fusion
4 15 (2.20%) LDAP
5 12 (1.76%) SAML
6 11 (1.62%) OpenID
7 8 (1.17%) Web Services
8 7 (1.03%) J2EE
8 7 (1.03%) JSP
8 7 (1.03%) Spring
8 7 (1.03%) Spring Boot
9 6 (0.88%) .NET
9 6 (0.88%) Middleware
10 5 (0.73%) REST
11 4 (0.59%) Elastic Stack
11 4 (0.59%) Kafka
11 4 (0.59%) Node.js
11 4 (0.59%) RESTful
11 4 (0.59%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 109 (16.01%) Management Information System
2 62 (9.10%) Security Posture
3 49 (7.20%) Onboarding
4 36 (5.29%) Operational Technology
5 21 (3.08%) Cyber Threat
6 18 (2.64%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (2.35%) Cloud Native
7 16 (2.35%) Security Operations Centre
8 13 (1.91%) Analytical Mindset
9 11 (1.62%) BYOD
9 11 (1.62%) Insider Threat
9 11 (1.62%) Mobile App
9 11 (1.62%) Virtual Team
10 10 (1.47%) CSOC
10 10 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
10 10 (1.47%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (1.47%) Product Ownership
10 10 (1.47%) SCADA
11 9 (1.32%) Data Centre
11 9 (1.32%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 77 (11.31%) Windows
2 40 (5.87%) Linux
3 30 (4.41%) Windows Server
4 15 (2.20%) Unix
5 8 (1.17%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.03%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.44%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.44%) zOS
8 1 (0.15%) Android
8 1 (0.15%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 246 (36.12%) Cybersecurity
2 176 (25.84%) Risk Management
3 119 (17.47%) Continuous Improvement
4 109 (16.01%) Data Protection
4 109 (16.01%) Stakeholder Management
5 107 (15.71%) Problem-Solving
6 84 (12.33%) Cloud Security
7 71 (10.43%) Security Management
7 71 (10.43%) Security Operations
8 70 (10.28%) Agile
9 67 (9.84%) Incident Response
10 62 (9.10%) Roadmaps
11 59 (8.66%) AI
11 59 (8.66%) Change Management
11 59 (8.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 58 (8.52%) SIEM
13 56 (8.22%) Computer Science
14 54 (7.93%) Information Security Management
15 53 (7.78%) Decision-Making
16 51 (7.49%) Risk Assessment
Programming Languages
1 80 (11.75%) Python
2 62 (9.10%) PowerShell
3 25 (3.67%) Java
4 23 (3.38%) Bash
5 17 (2.50%) SQL
6 7 (1.03%) Kotlin
7 6 (0.88%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.73%) C#
8 5 (0.73%) Go
9 3 (0.44%) RPG
10 2 (0.29%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.29%) Bicep
10 2 (0.29%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.15%) BeanShell
11 1 (0.15%) C++
11 1 (0.15%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 1 (0.15%) Lisp
11 1 (0.15%) R
11 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 189 (27.75%) Security Cleared
2 144 (21.15%) SC Cleared
3 138 (20.26%) Degree
4 121 (17.77%) CISSP
5 83 (12.19%) CISM
6 47 (6.90%) DV Cleared
7 33 (4.85%) CISA
8 29 (4.26%) Cisco Certification
9 28 (4.11%) CRISC
10 24 (3.52%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 24 (3.52%) Computer Science Degree
11 18 (2.64%) CEH
12 17 (2.50%) CREST Certified
13 16 (2.35%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
14 14 (2.06%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 14 (2.06%) Postgraduate
15 13 (1.91%) Master's Degree
15 13 (1.91%) PMP
16 12 (1.76%) GIAC
16 12 (1.76%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 223 (32.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 150 (22.03%) NIST
3 117 (17.18%) GDPR
4 89 (13.07%) GRC
5 51 (7.49%) PCI DSS
6 31 (4.55%) Cyber Essentials
7 29 (4.26%) COBIT
8 25 (3.67%) NCSC
8 25 (3.67%) PMO
8 25 (3.67%) QA
9 23 (3.38%) Data Quality
10 20 (2.94%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 18 (2.64%) NIST 800
12 14 (2.06%) SOC 2
13 13 (1.91%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 12 (1.76%) Accessibility
14 12 (1.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 9 (1.32%) HIPAA
16 7 (1.03%) Government Security Classifications
16 7 (1.03%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 53 (7.78%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.17%) Docker
3 6 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 5 (0.73%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.44%) Squid
6 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.15%) Ceph
6 1 (0.15%) Firmware
6 1 (0.15%) RACF
6 1 (0.15%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 17 (2.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.91%) Kubernetes
3 12 (1.76%) Terraform
4 11 (1.62%) Nmap
5 10 (1.47%) SCCM
6 9 (1.32%) Ansible
7 7 (1.03%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.73%) Functional Safety
8 5 (0.73%) QRadar
9 4 (0.59%) WSUS
10 3 (0.44%) Podman
11 2 (0.29%) CASB
11 2 (0.29%) Computer Incident Response Team
11 2 (0.29%) FortiGate
11 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.15%) HP Fortify
12 1 (0.15%) logstash
12 1 (0.15%) Progress Chef
12 1 (0.15%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 119 (17.47%) Microsoft
2 36 (5.29%) ServiceNow
3 23 (3.38%) Oracle
4 18 (2.64%) CyberArk
4 18 (2.64%) Google
5 15 (2.20%) BeyondTrust
5 15 (2.20%) Cisco
6 13 (1.91%) CrowdStrike
7 9 (1.32%) Palo Alto
7 9 (1.32%) Splunk
8 8 (1.17%) IBM
8 8 (1.17%) Remedy
9 7 (1.03%) VMware
10 5 (0.73%) Apple
10 5 (0.73%) Databricks
10 5 (0.73%) SAP
10 5 (0.73%) Sophos
11 4 (0.59%) Ariba
11 4 (0.59%) Fortinet
11 4 (0.59%) Red Hat