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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 178 182 114
Rank change year-on-year +4 -68 -9
Contract jobs citing Information Security 685 465 841
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.43% 1.58% 1.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.69% 1.74% 2.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 416 293 520
10th Percentile £404 £313 £363
25th Percentile £463 £425 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 £588
Median % change year-on-year - -6.38% -2.08%
75th Percentile £675 £675 £688
90th Percentile £800 £820 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £564 £575
% change year-on-year -6.91% -1.91% +4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 50 25 25
10th Percentile £16.35 £22.06 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.25 £22.14 £16.71
Median hourly rate £31.50 £24.66 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +27.74% +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 £28.00 £25.15 £18.00
% change year-on-year +11.33% +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 40,423 26,734 36,712
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.29% 90.97% 86.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,371 17,185 23,631
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 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £493 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.68% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,395 1,096 2,442
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.35 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.72 £18.22 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.18 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year +50.82% -21.77% +1.04%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.23 £37.50
% change year-on-year +78.39% -32.73% +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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -1 618 £550 - 366
UK excluding London -2 331 £525 -6.91% 277
London +3 297 £595 +13.33% 130
Work from Home -20 181 £550 +4.76% 189
South East -14 119 £525 -16.00% 89
North of England -57 68 £540 +27.06% 67
North West -19 49 £550 +37.50% 48
Midlands -33 46 £540 +35.00% 54
East of England -3 40 £575 -4.17% 23
South West -5 35 £500 -14.89% 37
West Midlands -34 35 £500 +25.00% 41
Scotland +3 22 £358 -25.26% 9
Yorkshire -55 16 £500 +21.21% 16
East Midlands -20 11 £591 - 13
Wales -10 3 £645 +55.42% 4
North East -25 3 £450 -15.73% 3

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 (3.36%) Confluence
2 16 (2.34%) SharePoint
3 7 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.73%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.58%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.44%) IIS
7 1 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 1 (0.15%) WebSphere
7 1 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 37 (5.40%) Microsoft Office
2 36 (5.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (2.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (1.61%) 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 8 (1.17%) Oracle EBS
2 6 (0.88%) Remedy ITSM
3 4 (0.58%) NEC Housing
4 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
4 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
5 1 (0.15%) Oracle Applications
Cloud Services
1 147 (21.46%) Azure
2 105 (15.33%) AWS
3 43 (6.28%) Microsoft 365
4 38 (5.55%) Entra ID
5 34 (4.96%) SaaS
6 29 (4.23%) GCP
7 26 (3.80%) Power Platform
8 19 (2.77%) Microsoft Purview
9 18 (2.63%) GitHub
10 13 (1.90%) Azure Sentinel
11 12 (1.75%) OCI
12 9 (1.31%) IaaS
13 8 (1.17%) Microsoft Copilot
13 8 (1.17%) Power Automate
14 7 (1.02%) PowerApps
15 6 (0.88%) Azure Data Factory
15 6 (0.88%) Azure Key Vault
15 6 (0.88%) Azure Logic Apps
15 6 (0.88%) OneDrive
15 6 (0.88%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 48 (7.01%) Firewall
2 41 (5.99%) Network Security
3 15 (2.19%) DNS
4 14 (2.04%) Wireless
5 13 (1.90%) HTTP
5 13 (1.90%) TCP/IP
6 12 (1.75%) VPN
7 9 (1.31%) 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%) HTTPS
9 5 (0.73%) Intrusion Detection
9 5 (0.73%) SMTP
10 4 (0.58%) WAN
11 3 (0.44%) Cisco IPT
11 3 (0.44%) NGFW
12 2 (0.29%) Reverse Proxy
12 2 (0.29%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.36%) Power BI
2 13 (1.90%) SQL Server
3 9 (1.31%) Metadata
4 8 (1.17%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (0.88%) Data Lake
6 4 (0.58%) Big Data
6 4 (0.58%) Hadoop
6 4 (0.58%) MongoDB
6 4 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
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 (3.50%) JIRA
2 14 (2.04%) Burp Suite
3 12 (1.75%) Metasploit
4 9 (1.31%) Git
5 3 (0.44%) git-flow
6 2 (0.29%) GitLab
6 2 (0.29%) JMeter
7 1 (0.15%) AppScan
7 1 (0.15%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.15%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
7 1 (0.15%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 218 (31.82%) Social Skills
2 141 (20.58%) Finance
3 100 (14.60%) Public Sector
4 90 (13.14%) Analytical Skills
5 66 (9.64%) Legal
6 56 (8.18%) Banking
7 28 (4.09%) Organisational Skills
8 26 (3.80%) Documentation Skills
9 21 (3.07%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (2.04%) Retail
11 13 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
12 12 (1.75%) Local Government
13 10 (1.46%) Marketing
14 9 (1.31%) Telecoms
15 8 (1.17%) Law
16 6 (0.88%) Investment Banking
16 6 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
16 6 (0.88%) Police
17 5 (0.73%) Cyber-Physical System
17 5 (0.73%) Military
Job Titles
1 97 (14.16%) Analyst
2 72 (10.51%) Consultant
3 60 (8.76%) Security Engineer
4 51 (7.45%) Architect
4 51 (7.45%) Senior
5 49 (7.15%) Security Consultant
6 46 (6.72%) Lead
7 39 (5.69%) Security Manager
8 37 (5.40%) Security Analyst
9 36 (5.26%) Security Architect
10 34 (4.96%) Security Officer
11 27 (3.94%) Project Manager
12 23 (3.36%) Developer
13 22 (3.21%) Information Security Officer
14 20 (2.92%) Cybersecurity Manager
14 20 (2.92%) IT Manager
15 19 (2.77%) Business Analyst
16 17 (2.48%) Security Specialist
17 14 (2.04%) Cybersecurity Consultant
17 14 (2.04%) Information Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.36%) OAuth
2 18 (2.63%) SailPoint
3 17 (2.48%) OAuth2
4 15 (2.19%) LDAP
5 14 (2.04%) Oracle Fusion
6 12 (1.75%) OpenID
6 12 (1.75%) SAML
7 8 (1.17%) Web Services
8 7 (1.02%) .NET
8 7 (1.02%) J2EE
8 7 (1.02%) JSP
8 7 (1.02%) Spring
8 7 (1.02%) Spring Boot
9 6 (0.88%) Middleware
9 6 (0.88%) REST
10 5 (0.73%) Node.js
10 5 (0.73%) RESTful
10 5 (0.73%) XML
11 4 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
11 4 (0.58%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 109 (15.91%) Management Information System
2 61 (8.91%) Security Posture
3 51 (7.45%) Onboarding
4 37 (5.40%) Operational Technology
5 21 (3.07%) Cyber Threat
6 18 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
7 17 (2.48%) Security Operations Centre
8 15 (2.19%) Cloud Native
9 13 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
10 11 (1.61%) BYOD
10 11 (1.61%) CSOC
10 11 (1.61%) Insider Threat
10 11 (1.61%) Mobile App
10 11 (1.61%) Virtual Team
11 10 (1.46%) Enterprise Software
11 10 (1.46%) Legacy Systems
11 10 (1.46%) Product Ownership
11 10 (1.46%) SCADA
12 9 (1.31%) Data Centre
12 9 (1.31%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 80 (11.68%) Windows
2 40 (5.84%) Linux
3 31 (4.53%) Windows Server
4 16 (2.34%) Unix
5 8 (1.17%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.02%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.58%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.44%) zOS
9 2 (0.29%) Android
10 1 (0.15%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 249 (36.35%) Cybersecurity
2 175 (25.55%) Risk Management
3 121 (17.66%) Continuous Improvement
4 112 (16.35%) Data Protection
5 107 (15.62%) Problem-Solving
6 106 (15.47%) Stakeholder Management
7 83 (12.12%) Cloud Security
8 73 (10.66%) Agile
9 72 (10.51%) Security Operations
10 69 (10.07%) Security Management
11 68 (9.93%) Incident Response
12 64 (9.34%) Roadmaps
13 60 (8.76%) Change Management
14 59 (8.61%) AI
14 59 (8.61%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 58 (8.47%) SIEM
16 57 (8.32%) Computer Science
17 54 (7.88%) Decision-Making
18 52 (7.59%) Analytics
18 52 (7.59%) Information Security Management
Programming Languages
1 82 (11.97%) Python
2 64 (9.34%) PowerShell
3 26 (3.80%) Java
4 23 (3.36%) Bash
5 18 (2.63%) SQL
6 7 (1.02%) Kotlin
7 6 (0.88%) C#
7 6 (0.88%) Kusto Query Language
8 4 (0.58%) Go
9 3 (0.44%) Bicep
9 3 (0.44%) JavaScript
9 3 (0.44%) RPG
10 2 (0.29%) Apex Code
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
1 191 (27.88%) Security Cleared
2 145 (21.17%) SC Cleared
3 141 (20.58%) Degree
4 119 (17.37%) CISSP
5 82 (11.97%) CISM
6 48 (7.01%) DV Cleared
7 33 (4.82%) CISA
8 29 (4.23%) Cisco Certification
9 27 (3.94%) CRISC
10 24 (3.50%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 24 (3.50%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (2.48%) CEH
11 17 (2.48%) CREST Certified
12 15 (2.19%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 14 (2.04%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 14 (2.04%) PMP
13 14 (2.04%) Postgraduate
14 13 (1.90%) Master's Degree
14 13 (1.90%) PMI Certification
15 12 (1.75%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 220 (32.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 147 (21.46%) NIST
3 119 (17.37%) GDPR
4 88 (12.85%) GRC
5 52 (7.59%) PCI DSS
6 29 (4.23%) Cyber Essentials
7 27 (3.94%) COBIT
8 25 (3.65%) NCSC
8 25 (3.65%) PMO
8 25 (3.65%) QA
9 23 (3.36%) Data Quality
10 21 (3.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 17 (2.48%) NIST 800
12 14 (2.04%) SOC 2
13 12 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 11 (1.61%) Accessibility
15 10 (1.46%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
15 10 (1.46%) HIPAA
16 7 (1.02%) Government Security Classifications
16 7 (1.02%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 54 (7.88%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.31%) Docker
3 6 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.73%) Hyper-V
4 5 (0.73%) VMware Infrastructure
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 16 (2.34%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.90%) Terraform
3 12 (1.75%) Kubernetes
4 11 (1.61%) Nmap
5 10 (1.46%) SCCM
6 9 (1.31%) Ansible
7 7 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.73%) Functional Safety
8 5 (0.73%) QRadar
9 4 (0.58%) 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
1 118 (17.23%) Microsoft
2 35 (5.11%) ServiceNow
3 21 (3.07%) Oracle
4 19 (2.77%) CyberArk
5 18 (2.63%) Google
6 16 (2.34%) BeyondTrust
7 15 (2.19%) Cisco
8 13 (1.90%) CrowdStrike
9 9 (1.31%) Palo Alto
9 9 (1.31%) Splunk
10 8 (1.17%) IBM
10 8 (1.17%) Remedy
11 6 (0.88%) VMware
12 5 (0.73%) Apple
12 5 (0.73%) Databricks
12 5 (0.73%) SAP
12 5 (0.73%) Sophos
13 4 (0.58%) Atlassian
13 4 (0.58%) Fortinet
13 4 (0.58%) Qualys