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 20 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 186 179 114
Rank change year-on-year -7 -65 -6
Contract jobs citing Information Security 702 466 855
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.39% 1.56% 1.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.63% 1.71% 2.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 411 265 520
10th Percentile £373 £305 £374
25th Percentile £450 £413 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £582
Median % change year-on-year - -5.50% -3.00%
75th Percentile £675 £688 £688
90th Percentile £800 £838 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £534 £584
% change year-on-year -1.69% -8.56% +6.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 28 24
10th Percentile £16.35 - £12.75
25th Percentile £17.27 £22.14 £17.29
Median hourly rate £25.50 £24.66 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.41% +26.46% -74.26%
75th Percentile £63.38 £56.68 £23.30
90th Percentile £82.00 £84.56 £34.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.50 £22.14 £19.50
% change year-on-year +15.18% +13.54% -75.60%

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 42,996 27,186 37,276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.90% 91.05% 84.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,808 17,251 23,716
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £502 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.19% -4.48% -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,575 1,262 2,618
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £12.73
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.82 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +72.39% -32.00% +7.05%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.19 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.25 £73.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +78.93% -34.02% +17.29%

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 20 June 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 20 June 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 20 June 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 -7 640 £550 +3.00% 308
UK excluding London -7 365 £525 -1.69% 242
London -5 295 £588 +11.90% 114
Work from Home -39 171 £550 +4.76% 139
South East -10 128 £525 -15.66% 68
North of England -56 79 £525 +23.53% 73
North West -19 55 £518 +25.61% 35
Midlands -31 53 £540 +35.00% 39
South West -3 46 £500 -14.53% 28
West Midlands -29 39 £540 +20.00% 25
Scotland +6 31 £387 -13.10% 9
East of England -25 27 £575 +1.77% 16
Yorkshire -61 21 £540 +30.91% 31
East Midlands -20 14 £557 +39.19% 14
Wales -12 3 £645 +55.42% 4
North East -39 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 28 (3.99%) Confluence
2 22 (3.13%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.00%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.71%) IIS
5 4 (0.57%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.43%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
7 1 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.14%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 32 (4.56%) Microsoft Office
2 28 (3.99%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.57%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.28%) 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 6 (0.85%) Remedy ITSM
2 5 (0.71%) Oracle EBS
3 4 (0.57%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.28%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.14%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 148 (21.08%) Azure
2 104 (14.81%) AWS
3 47 (6.70%) Entra ID
4 38 (5.41%) Microsoft 365
5 37 (5.27%) SaaS
6 33 (4.70%) GCP
7 23 (3.28%) Microsoft Purview
8 22 (3.13%) Power Platform
9 17 (2.42%) GitHub
10 16 (2.28%) Azure Sentinel
11 14 (1.99%) OCI
12 9 (1.28%) IaaS
12 9 (1.28%) Microsoft Copilot
12 9 (1.28%) PaaS
13 8 (1.14%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (1.00%) Power Automate
15 6 (0.85%) Azure Key Vault
15 6 (0.85%) Azure Logic Apps
15 6 (0.85%) OneDrive
16 5 (0.71%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 38 (5.41%) Firewall
2 36 (5.13%) Network Security
3 11 (1.57%) SSH
3 11 (1.57%) VPN
3 11 (1.57%) Wireless
4 9 (1.28%) DNS
4 9 (1.28%) HTTP
4 9 (1.28%) TCP/IP
5 7 (1.00%) HTTPS
6 6 (0.85%) DHCP
6 6 (0.85%) Internet
7 5 (0.71%) Intrusion Detection
8 3 (0.43%) Cisco IPT
8 3 (0.43%) NGFW
8 3 (0.43%) WAN
9 2 (0.28%) LAN
9 2 (0.28%) NAS
9 2 (0.28%) Reverse Proxy
9 2 (0.28%) SAN
9 2 (0.28%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (2.71%) Power BI
2 15 (2.14%) SQL Server
3 10 (1.42%) Metadata
4 5 (0.71%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.57%) Big Data
5 4 (0.57%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.57%) Hadoop
6 3 (0.43%) MongoDB
6 3 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.28%) DynamoDB
7 2 (0.28%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.28%) MySQL
7 2 (0.28%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.28%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 1 (0.14%) MariaDB
8 1 (0.14%) Neo4j
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Database
8 1 (0.14%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.14%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.14%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 30 (4.27%) JIRA
2 10 (1.42%) Git
3 9 (1.28%) Burp Suite
4 7 (1.00%) Metasploit
5 3 (0.43%) git-flow
6 2 (0.28%) Cypress.io
6 2 (0.28%) GitLab
6 2 (0.28%) JMeter
6 2 (0.28%) Postman
6 2 (0.28%) Selenium
6 2 (0.28%) WebDriver
7 1 (0.14%) AppScan
7 1 (0.14%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.14%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.14%) Cucumber
7 1 (0.14%) Protractor
7 1 (0.14%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.14%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
General
1 236 (33.62%) Social Skills
2 163 (23.22%) Finance
3 110 (15.67%) Public Sector
4 78 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (8.55%) Banking
6 59 (8.40%) Legal
7 37 (5.27%) Documentation Skills
8 24 (3.42%) Organisational Skills
9 18 (2.56%) Influencing Skills
10 17 (2.42%) Local Government
11 13 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (1.71%) Retail
13 10 (1.42%) Marketing
14 8 (1.14%) Aviation
14 8 (1.14%) Billing
15 7 (1.00%) Military
15 7 (1.00%) Pharmaceutical
15 7 (1.00%) Police
16 6 (0.85%) Investment Banking
16 6 (0.85%) Law
Job Titles
1 98 (13.96%) Analyst
2 74 (10.54%) Consultant
3 63 (8.97%) Senior
4 57 (8.12%) Security Consultant
5 53 (7.55%) Architect
6 52 (7.41%) Security Engineer
7 51 (7.26%) Lead
8 39 (5.56%) Security Analyst
9 37 (5.27%) Security Architect
10 36 (5.13%) Security Manager
11 28 (3.99%) Project Manager
11 28 (3.99%) Security Officer
12 27 (3.85%) IT Manager
13 22 (3.13%) Senior Manager
14 19 (2.71%) Cybersecurity Manager
14 19 (2.71%) Information Security Officer
15 18 (2.56%) Business Analyst
15 18 (2.56%) Information Officer
16 15 (2.14%) Cybersecurity Consultant
16 15 (2.14%) Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (2.99%) Oracle Fusion
2 20 (2.85%) OAuth
3 19 (2.71%) SailPoint
4 15 (2.14%) OAuth2
5 14 (1.99%) SAML
6 13 (1.85%) OpenID
7 11 (1.57%) LDAP
8 10 (1.42%) Web Services
9 8 (1.14%) REST
10 7 (1.00%) .NET
10 7 (1.00%) J2EE
10 7 (1.00%) JSP
10 7 (1.00%) XML
11 5 (0.71%) Middleware
11 5 (0.71%) Node.js
11 5 (0.71%) RESTful
12 4 (0.57%) Kafka
12 4 (0.57%) Lightning Web Components
13 3 (0.43%) ASP.NET Core
13 3 (0.43%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 117 (16.67%) Management Information System
2 66 (9.40%) Onboarding
3 58 (8.26%) Security Posture
4 38 (5.41%) Operational Technology
5 18 (2.56%) Cloud Native
5 18 (2.56%) Data Protection Act
6 17 (2.42%) Cyber Threat
7 16 (2.28%) Security Operations Centre
8 14 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
9 13 (1.85%) Data Centre
9 13 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
9 13 (1.85%) PKI
10 12 (1.71%) SCADA
10 12 (1.71%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.57%) BYOD
11 11 (1.57%) Legacy Systems
12 10 (1.42%) Product Ownership
12 10 (1.42%) Public Cloud
13 8 (1.14%) Insider Threat
13 8 (1.14%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 81 (11.54%) Windows
2 46 (6.55%) Linux
3 32 (4.56%) Windows Server
4 19 (2.71%) Unix
5 9 (1.28%) Android
5 9 (1.28%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.00%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.57%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.43%) zOS
9 2 (0.28%) Alpine Linux
9 2 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.28%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 248 (35.33%) Cybersecurity
2 193 (27.49%) Risk Management
3 123 (17.52%) Continuous Improvement
3 123 (17.52%) Data Protection
4 111 (15.81%) Stakeholder Management
5 105 (14.96%) Problem-Solving
6 83 (11.82%) Cloud Security
7 80 (11.40%) Agile
8 75 (10.68%) Security Operations
9 73 (10.40%) Change Management
9 73 (10.40%) Incident Response
9 73 (10.40%) Roadmaps
10 69 (9.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 67 (9.54%) Decision-Making
12 64 (9.12%) Computer Science
13 60 (8.55%) Security Management
14 56 (7.98%) AI
14 56 (7.98%) SIEM
15 55 (7.83%) Risk Assessment
16 50 (7.12%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 79 (11.25%) Python
2 62 (8.83%) PowerShell
3 22 (3.13%) Java
4 18 (2.56%) Bash
5 14 (1.99%) SQL
6 7 (1.00%) C#
7 6 (0.85%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.71%) Bicep
9 4 (0.57%) JavaScript
10 3 (0.43%) Apex Code
10 3 (0.43%) Go
10 3 (0.43%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.43%) RPG
11 1 (0.14%) BeanShell
11 1 (0.14%) C++
11 1 (0.14%) Lisp
11 1 (0.14%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 168 (23.93%) Security Cleared
2 152 (21.65%) Degree
3 129 (18.38%) CISSP
4 126 (17.95%) SC Cleared
5 88 (12.54%) CISM
6 42 (5.98%) DV Cleared
7 36 (5.13%) CISA
8 32 (4.56%) Cisco Certification
9 31 (4.42%) CRISC
10 27 (3.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 22 (3.13%) Computer Science Degree
12 18 (2.56%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 17 (2.42%) CEH
14 15 (2.14%) Master's Degree
15 14 (1.99%) AWS Certification
15 14 (1.99%) PMP
16 13 (1.85%) CREST Certified
16 13 (1.85%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
16 13 (1.85%) Microsoft Certification
16 13 (1.85%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 217 (30.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 155 (22.08%) NIST
3 115 (16.38%) GDPR
4 100 (14.25%) GRC
5 56 (7.98%) PCI DSS
6 30 (4.27%) Cyber Essentials
7 27 (3.85%) NCSC
8 24 (3.42%) COBIT
9 22 (3.13%) Data Quality
9 22 (3.13%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 20 (2.85%) PMO
10 20 (2.85%) QA
11 18 (2.56%) NIST 800
12 17 (2.42%) SOC 2
13 14 (1.99%) HIPAA
14 13 (1.85%) Accessibility
14 13 (1.85%) SLA
15 12 (1.71%) ISO/IEC 27005
16 10 (1.42%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
17 8 (1.14%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 65 (9.26%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.28%) Docker
3 5 (0.71%) Hyper-V
3 5 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.43%) Squid
5 2 (0.28%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.14%) Ceph
6 1 (0.14%) Firmware
6 1 (0.14%) OpenAM
6 1 (0.14%) RACF
Systems Management
1 15 (2.14%) Terraform
2 14 (1.99%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (1.71%) Ansible
3 12 (1.71%) Kubernetes
4 9 (1.28%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (1.00%) SCCM
6 6 (0.85%) Nmap
7 4 (0.57%) Functional Safety
8 3 (0.43%) Podman
8 3 (0.43%) QRadar
8 3 (0.43%) RSA Archer
9 2 (0.28%) Computer Incident Response Team
9 2 (0.28%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.28%) Red Hat Satellite
10 1 (0.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 1 (0.14%) CASB
10 1 (0.14%) FortiGate
10 1 (0.14%) HP Fortify
10 1 (0.14%) logstash
10 1 (0.14%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 134 (19.09%) Microsoft
2 43 (6.13%) ServiceNow
3 35 (4.99%) Oracle
4 21 (2.99%) CyberArk
5 20 (2.85%) Google
6 19 (2.71%) BeyondTrust
7 15 (2.14%) Cisco
7 15 (2.14%) SAP
8 12 (1.71%) Apple
8 12 (1.71%) Ariba
8 12 (1.71%) CrowdStrike
8 12 (1.71%) Splunk
9 7 (1.00%) IBM
9 7 (1.00%) Palo Alto
9 7 (1.00%) Remedy
10 6 (0.85%) VMware
11 5 (0.71%) Computacenter
11 5 (0.71%) Okta
11 5 (0.71%) Rapid7
11 5 (0.71%) Thales