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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 165 155 107
Rank change year-on-year -10 -48 +11
Contract jobs citing Information Security 676 527 943
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.67% 1.72% 2.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.92% 1.92% 2.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 376 301 635
10th Percentile £358 £350 £385
25th Percentile £450 £475 £474
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £532 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -11.28% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £648 £688 £671
90th Percentile £756 £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 17 55
10th Percentile £17.40 £16.18 £17.11
25th Percentile £20.71 £20.19 £19.25
Median hourly rate £28.00 £24.18 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.80% -45.66% -36.43%
75th Percentile £41.94 £36.75 £82.79
90th Percentile £80.08 £46.43 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £22.09 £44.50
% change year-on-year +26.75% -50.36% -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 35,252 27,502 38,622
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.92% 89.66% 87.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,364 16,881 25,241
10th Percentile £310 £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 £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,119 838 2,150
10th Percentile £14.53 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.05 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% -
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £60.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.08 £72.97
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.78 £35.00
% change year-on-year -18.29% -12.06% +6.22%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -10 602 £535 -10.83% 319
UK excluding London -11 336 £500 -13.04% 247
London -11 272 £550 -8.33% 122
Work from Home +4 197 £538 +2.38% 164
South East -11 107 £550 -8.33% 94
North of England -38 68 £500 -4.76% 64
Midlands -37 49 £450 -19.64% 35
East of England +2 44 £525 -12.50% 22
North West -22 43 £500 -4.76% 45
South West -13 40 £500 -25.93% 31
West Midlands -41 32 £500 -21.41% 22
Scotland +12 22 £358 -24.95% 5
Yorkshire -39 21 £494 +9.72% 14
East Midlands -11 17 £425 +41.50% 13
Wales +2 6 £388 - 6
North East -13 4 £450 -18.18% 5

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 (3.25%) Confluence
1 22 (3.25%) SharePoint
2 14 (2.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.89%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
4 5 (0.74%) Mattermost
4 5 (0.74%) Skype for Business
5 4 (0.59%) Apache Spark
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 52 (7.69%) Microsoft Office
2 32 (4.73%) Microsoft Excel
3 14 (2.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (1.33%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.44%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.44%) Navisworks
5 3 (0.44%) Revit
6 2 (0.30%) ProjectWise
6 2 (0.30%) 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 (1.78%) Remedy ITSM
2 11 (1.63%) Oracle EBS
3 4 (0.59%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.30%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.30%) Temenos T24
5 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 116 (17.16%) Azure
2 80 (11.83%) AWS
3 44 (6.51%) Microsoft 365
4 32 (4.73%) GCP
5 31 (4.59%) Entra ID
6 23 (3.40%) SaaS
7 21 (3.11%) Power Platform
8 14 (2.07%) OCI
9 13 (1.92%) Microsoft Purview
10 11 (1.63%) GitHub
11 10 (1.48%) Azure Sentinel
12 9 (1.33%) OneDrive
13 7 (1.04%) IaaS
13 7 (1.04%) PaaS
13 7 (1.04%) Power Automate
14 6 (0.89%) Azure DevOps
14 6 (0.89%) Microsoft Copilot
14 6 (0.89%) PowerApps
15 5 (0.74%) Amazon S3
15 5 (0.74%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 63 (9.32%) Firewall
2 28 (4.14%) Network Security
3 19 (2.81%) DNS
3 19 (2.81%) TCP/IP
4 13 (1.92%) SSH
5 12 (1.78%) WAN
5 12 (1.78%) Wireless
6 10 (1.48%) DHCP
6 10 (1.48%) HTTP
6 10 (1.48%) Internet
7 8 (1.18%) VPN
8 7 (1.04%) SMTP
8 7 (1.04%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.74%) FTP
9 5 (0.74%) SAN
9 5 (0.74%) Skype
9 5 (0.74%) SSL
10 4 (0.59%) Intrusion Detection
11 3 (0.44%) Cisco IPT
11 3 (0.44%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (2.66%) Power BI
2 10 (1.48%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.33%) Metadata
3 9 (1.33%) SQL Server
4 6 (0.89%) Data Lake
5 5 (0.74%) Big Data
5 5 (0.74%) GIS
6 4 (0.59%) Hadoop
6 4 (0.59%) NoSQL
6 4 (0.59%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.44%) DynamoDB
7 3 (0.44%) Tableau
8 2 (0.30%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.30%) BigQuery
8 2 (0.30%) DB2
8 2 (0.30%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.30%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.30%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.30%) Power Query
8 2 (0.30%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 26 (3.85%) JIRA
2 14 (2.07%) Burp Suite
3 11 (1.63%) Git
3 11 (1.63%) Metasploit
4 3 (0.44%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.30%) Artifactory
5 2 (0.30%) GitLab
6 1 (0.15%) AppScan
6 1 (0.15%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.15%) GCC
6 1 (0.15%) git-flow
6 1 (0.15%) MSI
6 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 241 (35.65%) Social Skills
2 130 (19.23%) Finance
3 97 (14.35%) Public Sector
4 85 (12.57%) Analytical Skills
5 58 (8.58%) Legal
6 41 (6.07%) Banking
7 33 (4.88%) Organisational Skills
8 20 (2.96%) Presentation Skills
9 18 (2.66%) Documentation Skills
10 16 (2.37%) Telecoms
11 15 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (1.63%) Manufacturing
13 10 (1.48%) Retail
14 7 (1.04%) Law
14 7 (1.04%) Local Government
14 7 (1.04%) Marketing
14 7 (1.04%) Police
15 6 (0.89%) Investment Banking
15 6 (0.89%) Military
15 6 (0.89%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 133 (19.67%) Analyst
2 64 (9.47%) Consultant
3 50 (7.40%) Senior
4 48 (7.10%) Architect
5 46 (6.80%) Security Engineer
6 44 (6.51%) Security Analyst
7 39 (5.77%) Lead
8 36 (5.33%) Security Manager
9 29 (4.29%) Security Architect
10 28 (4.14%) Security Consultant
11 27 (3.99%) Security Officer
11 27 (3.99%) Support Analyst
12 23 (3.40%) Security Specialist
13 20 (2.96%) Information Analyst
13 20 (2.96%) Information Security Analyst
14 17 (2.51%) Developer
14 17 (2.51%) Project Manager
15 15 (2.22%) Designer
15 15 (2.22%) Information Security Manager
15 15 (2.22%) Security Advisor
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (1.92%) OAuth
2 12 (1.78%) Oracle Fusion
3 11 (1.63%) Middleware
4 10 (1.48%) OpenID
4 10 (1.48%) SAML
5 9 (1.33%) LDAP
5 9 (1.33%) OAuth2
5 9 (1.33%) SailPoint
6 5 (0.74%) Node.js
6 5 (0.74%) Qt
7 4 (0.59%) .NET
7 4 (0.59%) Kafka
7 4 (0.59%) RESTful
7 4 (0.59%) Spring
7 4 (0.59%) Spring Boot
8 3 (0.44%) ADO
8 3 (0.44%) GraphQL
8 3 (0.44%) J2EE
8 3 (0.44%) JSP
8 3 (0.44%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 120 (17.75%) Management Information System
2 71 (10.50%) Security Posture
3 29 (4.29%) Cyber Threat
3 29 (4.29%) Onboarding
4 27 (3.99%) Operational Technology
5 19 (2.81%) PKI
6 18 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (2.37%) Cloud Native
8 13 (1.92%) Data Centre
8 13 (1.92%) Insider Threat
8 13 (1.92%) Product Ownership
9 12 (1.78%) Security Operations Centre
10 10 (1.48%) Analytical Mindset
10 10 (1.48%) Legacy Systems
10 10 (1.48%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
11 9 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
12 8 (1.18%) CSOC
12 8 (1.18%) Mobile App
12 8 (1.18%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 71 (10.50%) Windows
2 43 (6.36%) Linux
3 20 (2.96%) Windows Server
4 18 (2.66%) Unix
5 4 (0.59%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.44%) Kali Linux
6 3 (0.44%) zOS
7 2 (0.30%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.15%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 238 (35.21%) Cybersecurity
2 174 (25.74%) Risk Management
3 110 (16.27%) Problem-Solving
4 106 (15.68%) Data Protection
5 105 (15.53%) Continuous Improvement
6 100 (14.79%) Stakeholder Management
7 79 (11.69%) Incident Response
8 77 (11.39%) Cloud Security
9 75 (11.09%) Security Management
10 62 (9.17%) ITIL
11 61 (9.02%) Agile
12 60 (8.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 59 (8.73%) Security Operations
14 56 (8.28%) Change Management
14 56 (8.28%) Computer Science
15 55 (8.14%) Information Security Management
16 54 (7.99%) SIEM
17 49 (7.25%) Threat Modelling
18 48 (7.10%) Regulatory Compliance
19 46 (6.80%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 59 (8.73%) Python
2 47 (6.95%) PowerShell
3 35 (5.18%) SQL
4 15 (2.22%) Java
5 11 (1.63%) Bash
6 5 (0.74%) C++
6 5 (0.74%) Go
7 4 (0.59%) C#
7 4 (0.59%) Kotlin
7 4 (0.59%) Kusto Query Language
8 3 (0.44%) RPG
9 2 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
9 2 (0.30%) R
9 2 (0.30%) Rust
9 2 (0.30%) Solidity
10 1 (0.15%) Apex Code
10 1 (0.15%) Bicep
10 1 (0.15%) Lisp
10 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.15%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 203 (30.03%) Security Cleared
2 157 (23.22%) SC Cleared
3 130 (19.23%) Degree
4 108 (15.98%) CISSP
5 85 (12.57%) CISM
6 46 (6.80%) DV Cleared
7 42 (6.21%) Computer Science Degree
8 30 (4.44%) Master's Degree
9 28 (4.14%) CISA
10 24 (3.55%) CRISC
11 23 (3.40%) Cisco Certification
11 23 (3.40%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
12 19 (2.81%) BPSS Clearance
13 18 (2.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 18 (2.66%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 18 (2.66%) ITIL Certification
14 13 (1.92%) CEH
14 13 (1.92%) CREST Certified
14 13 (1.92%) Postgraduate
15 12 (1.78%) CTC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 219 (32.40%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 158 (23.37%) NIST
3 108 (15.98%) GDPR
4 73 (10.80%) GRC
5 40 (5.92%) PCI DSS
6 30 (4.44%) COBIT
7 28 (4.14%) NCSC
8 25 (3.70%) PMO
8 25 (3.70%) QA
9 22 (3.25%) Cyber Essentials
10 19 (2.81%) Data Quality
11 17 (2.51%) Accessibility
12 16 (2.37%) NIST 800
13 14 (2.07%) Def Stans
14 12 (1.78%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 11 (1.63%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 11 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 11 (1.63%) JSP 440
15 11 (1.63%) RMADS
15 11 (1.63%) SOC 2
System Software
1 52 (7.69%) Active Directory
2 11 (1.63%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (1.04%) Docker
4 3 (0.44%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.15%) BitLocker
5 1 (0.15%) Microsoft App-V
5 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 20 (2.96%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (2.07%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.92%) SCCM
4 12 (1.78%) HP SiteScope
4 12 (1.78%) Nmap
4 12 (1.78%) SCOM
5 10 (1.48%) Terraform
6 8 (1.18%) Ansible
6 8 (1.18%) QRadar
7 6 (0.89%) CASB
7 6 (0.89%) SCOrch
8 5 (0.74%) Functional Safety
8 5 (0.74%) WSUS
9 4 (0.59%) FortiGate
9 4 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.44%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.30%) EnCase
11 2 (0.30%) FTK
11 2 (0.30%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.30%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 124 (18.34%) Microsoft
2 29 (4.29%) ServiceNow
3 20 (2.96%) Splunk
4 19 (2.81%) Cisco
5 18 (2.66%) Oracle
6 17 (2.51%) CyberArk
6 17 (2.51%) Google
7 14 (2.07%) Remedy
8 12 (1.78%) IBM
9 11 (1.63%) CrowdStrike
10 9 (1.33%) Fortinet
10 9 (1.33%) Thales
11 8 (1.18%) Databricks
11 8 (1.18%) Gemalto
12 7 (1.04%) Palo Alto
12 7 (1.04%) SAP
13 6 (0.89%) BeyondTrust
13 6 (0.89%) Qualys
13 6 (0.89%) Sophos
14 5 (0.74%) Rapid7