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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 170 169 113
Rank change year-on-year -1 -56 +5
Contract jobs citing Information Security 685 494 882
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.59% 1.68% 1.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.84% 1.86% 2.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 390 294 580
10th Percentile £400 £357 £400
25th Percentile £450 £479 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £600 £575
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £650 £702 £675
90th Percentile £775 £837 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -8.70% +4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 71 30 43
10th Percentile £16.85 £16.23 £16.34
25th Percentile £20.71 £22.14 £19.09
Median hourly rate £25.50 £24.42 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.42% -2.32% -66.67%
75th Percentile £41.94 £44.69 £50.00
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.05 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.46 £22.14 £44.50
% change year-on-year +10.48% -50.25% -41.25%

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 37,130 26,538 38,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.00% 90.38% 86.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,530 17,031 25,049
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £610 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £745 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,210 919 2,337
10th Percentile £14.89 £15.25 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.62 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.76 £31.50
% change year-on-year -13.41% +0.83% -10.07%

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 17 March 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 17 March 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 17 March 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 -11 609 £550 -8.33% 301
UK excluding London -11 335 £525 -8.70% 229
London +3 283 £565 -5.83% 113
Work from Home +6 198 £550 - 149
South East +5 118 £563 -7.79% 90
North of England -53 73 £500 -6.37% 52
Midlands -31 50 £481 -17.91% 26
North West -19 49 £540 -1.82% 32
East of England -3 46 £535 -10.83% 20
West Midlands -49 36 £545 -29.45% 17
Scotland +10 21 £354 -25.79% 9
South West -22 21 £500 -23.08% 27
Yorkshire -48 20 £488 +13.04% 15
East Midlands -22 14 £450 +49.83% 9
Wales -5 6 £338 +87.50% 7
North East -16 4 £450 -16.97% 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 23 (3.36%) Confluence
2 16 (2.34%) SharePoint
3 12 (1.75%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.02%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.58%) 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 38 (5.55%) Microsoft Office
2 35 (5.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.17%) 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
6 1 (0.15%) Navisworks
6 1 (0.15%) Revit
Business Applications
1 12 (1.75%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (0.58%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
3 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
4 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 121 (17.66%) Azure
2 87 (12.70%) AWS
3 42 (6.13%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (4.96%) GCP
5 30 (4.38%) Entra ID
6 26 (3.80%) Power Platform
6 26 (3.80%) SaaS
7 18 (2.63%) Microsoft Purview
8 15 (2.19%) OCI
9 12 (1.75%) GitHub
10 8 (1.17%) Azure Sentinel
10 8 (1.17%) Microsoft Copilot
10 8 (1.17%) Power Automate
11 7 (1.02%) IaaS
11 7 (1.02%) PaaS
11 7 (1.02%) PowerApps
12 6 (0.88%) Azure Data Factory
13 5 (0.73%) Amazon S3
13 5 (0.73%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.73%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 65 (9.49%) Firewall
2 36 (5.26%) Network Security
3 18 (2.63%) DNS
4 16 (2.34%) HTTP
4 16 (2.34%) TCP/IP
5 14 (2.04%) Wireless
6 12 (1.75%) SSH
6 12 (1.75%) WAN
7 11 (1.61%) VPN
8 10 (1.46%) Internet
9 9 (1.31%) DHCP
10 7 (1.02%) SMTP
10 7 (1.02%) Wi-Fi
11 5 (0.73%) Cisco IPT
11 5 (0.73%) FTP
11 5 (0.73%) SAN
11 5 (0.73%) SSL
12 4 (0.58%) Intrusion Detection
13 3 (0.44%) OSPF
13 3 (0.44%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (3.21%) Power BI
2 11 (1.61%) Data Warehouse
3 10 (1.46%) Metadata
4 9 (1.31%) SQL Server
5 7 (1.02%) Data Lake
6 4 (0.58%) Big Data
6 4 (0.58%) Hadoop
6 4 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 4 (0.58%) Tableau
7 3 (0.44%) DynamoDB
7 3 (0.44%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.44%) Oracle Reports
8 2 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.29%) DB2
8 2 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.29%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.29%) MySQL
8 2 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 2 (0.29%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.29%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 30 (4.38%) JIRA
2 15 (2.19%) Burp Suite
3 12 (1.75%) Metasploit
4 10 (1.46%) Git
5 2 (0.29%) GitLab
6 1 (0.15%) AppScan
6 1 (0.15%) GCC
6 1 (0.15%) git-flow
6 1 (0.15%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.15%) MSI
6 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 222 (32.41%) Social Skills
2 132 (19.27%) Finance
3 98 (14.31%) Public Sector
4 89 (12.99%) Analytical Skills
5 61 (8.91%) Legal
6 50 (7.30%) Banking
7 24 (3.50%) Organisational Skills
8 20 (2.92%) Presentation Skills
9 19 (2.77%) Documentation Skills
10 15 (2.19%) Influencing Skills
11 14 (2.04%) Retail
11 14 (2.04%) Telecoms
12 9 (1.31%) Law
12 9 (1.31%) Police
13 8 (1.17%) Manufacturing
14 6 (0.88%) Local Government
14 6 (0.88%) Marketing
14 6 (0.88%) Spanish Language
15 5 (0.73%) Cyber-Physical System
16 4 (0.58%) Military
Job Titles
1 115 (16.79%) Analyst
2 79 (11.53%) Consultant
3 54 (7.88%) Senior
4 50 (7.30%) Architect
5 48 (7.01%) Security Engineer
6 45 (6.57%) Security Consultant
7 44 (6.42%) Lead
8 43 (6.28%) Security Analyst
9 39 (5.69%) Security Manager
10 35 (5.11%) Security Architect
11 29 (4.23%) Security Officer
12 22 (3.21%) Developer
13 20 (2.92%) Security Specialist
14 19 (2.77%) Project Manager
15 18 (2.63%) Information Analyst
15 18 (2.63%) Information Security Analyst
16 17 (2.48%) Business Analyst
16 17 (2.48%) Cybersecurity Manager
17 16 (2.34%) Information Security Consultant
18 14 (2.04%) Information Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.19%) OAuth
2 14 (2.04%) Oracle Fusion
3 11 (1.61%) OAuth2
4 10 (1.46%) OpenID
4 10 (1.46%) SAML
5 9 (1.31%) LDAP
5 9 (1.31%) SailPoint
6 7 (1.02%) Middleware
6 7 (1.02%) Spring
6 7 (1.02%) Spring Boot
7 5 (0.73%) Node.js
8 4 (0.58%) .NET
9 3 (0.44%) GraphQL
9 3 (0.44%) J2EE
9 3 (0.44%) JSP
9 3 (0.44%) JWT
9 3 (0.44%) Kafka
9 3 (0.44%) ModSecurity
9 3 (0.44%) REST
9 3 (0.44%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 112 (16.35%) Management Information System
2 64 (9.34%) Security Posture
3 35 (5.11%) Onboarding
4 32 (4.67%) Operational Technology
5 22 (3.21%) Cyber Threat
6 20 (2.92%) Data Protection Act
7 18 (2.63%) PKI
8 17 (2.48%) Data Centre
9 16 (2.34%) Cloud Native
10 14 (2.04%) Insider Threat
11 13 (1.90%) BYOD
11 13 (1.90%) Product Ownership
12 12 (1.75%) Security Operations Centre
13 11 (1.61%) Analytical Mindset
13 11 (1.61%) Mobile App
13 11 (1.61%) Virtual Team
14 10 (1.46%) Legacy Systems
15 9 (1.31%) Public Cloud
16 8 (1.17%) Greenfield Project
16 8 (1.17%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 68 (9.93%) Windows
2 33 (4.82%) Linux
3 24 (3.50%) Windows Server
4 15 (2.19%) Unix
5 3 (0.44%) Kali Linux
5 3 (0.44%) zOS
6 1 (0.15%) Apple iOS
6 1 (0.15%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (37.52%) Cybersecurity
2 171 (24.96%) Risk Management
3 121 (17.66%) Problem-Solving
4 115 (16.79%) Data Protection
5 111 (16.20%) Continuous Improvement
6 102 (14.89%) Stakeholder Management
7 89 (12.99%) Cloud Security
8 82 (11.97%) Security Management
9 70 (10.22%) Incident Response
10 68 (9.93%) Agile
11 67 (9.78%) Change Management
12 63 (9.20%) Security Operations
13 62 (9.05%) Information Security Management
14 54 (7.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 51 (7.45%) AI
15 51 (7.45%) Threat Modelling
16 50 (7.30%) Regulatory Compliance
16 50 (7.30%) Roadmaps
17 49 (7.15%) Decision-Making
18 48 (7.01%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 59 (8.61%) Python
2 33 (4.82%) PowerShell
3 22 (3.21%) SQL
4 20 (2.92%) Java
5 11 (1.61%) Bash
6 7 (1.02%) Kotlin
7 5 (0.73%) Go
8 4 (0.58%) C#
9 3 (0.44%) Kusto Query Language
9 3 (0.44%) RPG
10 2 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
10 2 (0.29%) JavaScript
10 2 (0.29%) R
10 2 (0.29%) Rust
10 2 (0.29%) Solidity
11 1 (0.15%) Apex Code
11 1 (0.15%) BeanShell
11 1 (0.15%) C++
11 1 (0.15%) Lisp
11 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 195 (28.47%) Security Cleared
2 146 (21.31%) SC Cleared
3 131 (19.12%) Degree
4 121 (17.66%) CISSP
5 92 (13.43%) CISM
6 51 (7.45%) DV Cleared
7 31 (4.53%) Computer Science Degree
8 29 (4.23%) CISA
9 28 (4.09%) Cisco Certification
10 22 (3.21%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 21 (3.07%) CRISC
12 20 (2.92%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
13 19 (2.77%) CEH
14 18 (2.63%) Master's Degree
15 17 (2.48%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
16 16 (2.34%) CREST Certified
17 14 (2.04%) CTC Cleared
18 13 (1.90%) Postgraduate
19 12 (1.75%) CompTIA Security+
20 11 (1.61%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 227 (33.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 175 (25.55%) NIST
3 127 (18.54%) GDPR
4 70 (10.22%) GRC
5 51 (7.45%) PCI DSS
6 31 (4.53%) COBIT
7 29 (4.23%) NCSC
8 26 (3.80%) Cyber Essentials
8 26 (3.80%) QA
9 24 (3.50%) PMO
10 20 (2.92%) Data Quality
10 20 (2.92%) NIST 800
11 18 (2.63%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 13 (1.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 12 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 12 (1.75%) SOC 2
14 10 (1.46%) Accessibility
14 10 (1.46%) JSP 440
15 9 (1.31%) SLA
16 8 (1.17%) RMADS
System Software
1 43 (6.28%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.31%) Virtual Machines
3 6 (0.88%) Docker
4 4 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.15%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.15%) Microsoft App-V
5 1 (0.15%) RACF
5 1 (0.15%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 22 (3.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.90%) Kubernetes
2 13 (1.90%) Nmap
3 11 (1.61%) SCCM
4 9 (1.31%) Terraform
5 7 (1.02%) Ansible
5 7 (1.02%) QRadar
6 6 (0.88%) CASB
6 6 (0.88%) SCOrch
7 5 (0.73%) Functional Safety
7 5 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.58%) FortiGate
9 3 (0.44%) WSUS
10 2 (0.29%) Nessus
10 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.29%) RSA Archer
11 1 (0.15%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 1 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.15%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 106 (15.47%) Microsoft
2 34 (4.96%) ServiceNow
3 20 (2.92%) Oracle
4 16 (2.34%) CyberArk
5 15 (2.19%) Google
6 13 (1.90%) Cisco
6 13 (1.90%) IBM
7 9 (1.31%) CrowdStrike
7 9 (1.31%) Thales
8 8 (1.17%) Databricks
8 8 (1.17%) Fortinet
8 8 (1.17%) Gemalto
9 7 (1.02%) Palo Alto
10 6 (0.88%) BeyondTrust
10 6 (0.88%) Qualys
10 6 (0.88%) Splunk
10 6 (0.88%) VMware
11 5 (0.73%) Ariba
11 5 (0.73%) Rapid7
11 5 (0.73%) SAP