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

6 months to
16 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 182 181 115
Rank change year-on-year -1 -66 -3
Contract jobs citing Information Security 691 459 863
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.50% 1.57% 1.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.77% 1.73% 2.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 407 281 548
10th Percentile £400 £313 £383
25th Percentile £457 £450 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - -4.17%
75th Percentile £675 £685 £681
90th Percentile £800 £825 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £555
% change year-on-year -4.55% -0.90% +0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 58 23 35
10th Percentile £16.84 £17.43 £14.01
25th Percentile £20.71 £22.14 £17.72
Median hourly rate £28.00 £24.66 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.54% +26.46% -73.10%
75th Percentile £65.44 £63.47 £47.50
90th Percentile £84.25 £81.28 £69.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £22.14 £19.50
% change year-on-year +26.47% +13.54% -74.00%

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 39,056 26,574 37,868
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.05% 90.71% 86.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,707 17,203 24,522
10th Percentile £316 £306 £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 £613 £635 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £488 £500
% change year-on-year - -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,310 1,024 2,401
10th Percentile £14.96 £14.93 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.54 £18.51 £15.89
Median hourly rate £37.16 £30.45 £33.55
Median % change year-on-year +22.04% -9.24% -7.45%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £57.83
90th Percentile £78.25 £75.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.25 £29.00 £33.07
% change year-on-year +31.90% -12.29% -8.47%

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 16 April 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 16 April 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 16 April 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 +12 620 £550 -4.35% 310
UK excluding London -2 332 £525 -4.55% 250
London +19 298 £590 +2.61% 126
Work from Home -18 185 £550 +4.76% 132
South East -2 118 £556 -7.29% 83
North of England -53 68 £500 -4.76% 56
Midlands -34 52 £500 +25.00% 37
East of England -7 43 £555 -7.50% 16
North West -22 41 £550 +2.33% 35
West Midlands -34 38 £520 +12.43% 28
South West -23 24 £500 -14.89% 34
Yorkshire -46 23 £475 +10.14% 18
Scotland +6 22 £358 -24.95% 21
East Midlands -24 14 £475 +58.33% 9
Wales -10 5 £338 +87.50% 7
North East -21 4 £450 -15.73% 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 17 (2.46%) Confluence
2 11 (1.59%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.01%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.58%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.14%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.14%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 36 (5.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 35 (5.07%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (2.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.45%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.29%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.29%) 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
Business Applications
1 12 (1.74%) Oracle EBS
2 4 (0.58%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.29%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.29%) SAP GRC
3 2 (0.29%) Temenos T24
4 1 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.14%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 131 (18.96%) Azure
2 97 (14.04%) AWS
3 44 (6.37%) Microsoft 365
4 37 (5.35%) GCP
5 31 (4.49%) SaaS
6 27 (3.91%) Entra ID
7 25 (3.62%) Power Platform
8 18 (2.60%) Microsoft Purview
9 17 (2.46%) GitHub
9 17 (2.46%) OCI
10 9 (1.30%) Azure Sentinel
11 8 (1.16%) IaaS
11 8 (1.16%) Microsoft Copilot
11 8 (1.16%) PaaS
11 8 (1.16%) Power Automate
12 6 (0.87%) Azure Data Factory
12 6 (0.87%) Azure DevOps
12 6 (0.87%) Azure Logic Apps
12 6 (0.87%) OneDrive
12 6 (0.87%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 51 (7.38%) Firewall
2 40 (5.79%) Network Security
3 16 (2.32%) DNS
3 16 (2.32%) Wireless
4 15 (2.17%) TCP/IP
5 13 (1.88%) HTTP
6 11 (1.59%) VPN
7 9 (1.30%) WAN
8 8 (1.16%) DHCP
9 7 (1.01%) Internet
9 7 (1.01%) SSH
10 6 (0.87%) SSL
11 5 (0.72%) Cisco IPT
11 5 (0.72%) FTP
11 5 (0.72%) SMTP
12 4 (0.58%) LAN
13 3 (0.43%) Intrusion Detection
13 3 (0.43%) OSPF
13 3 (0.43%) SAN
13 3 (0.43%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 23 (3.33%) Power BI
2 13 (1.88%) SQL Server
3 10 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (1.30%) Metadata
5 6 (0.87%) Data Lake
6 4 (0.58%) Big Data
6 4 (0.58%) Hadoop
6 4 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
6 4 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
7 3 (0.43%) DynamoDB
7 3 (0.43%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.43%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (0.43%) Tableau
8 2 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
8 2 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
8 2 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
8 2 (0.29%) MongoDB
8 2 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 2 (0.29%) Power Query
8 2 (0.29%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 22 (3.18%) JIRA
2 16 (2.32%) Burp Suite
3 12 (1.74%) Metasploit
4 10 (1.45%) Git
5 2 (0.29%) GitLab
6 1 (0.14%) AppScan
6 1 (0.14%) git-flow
6 1 (0.14%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.14%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.14%) SoapUI
6 1 (0.14%) SonarQube
General
1 215 (31.11%) Social Skills
2 137 (19.83%) Finance
3 100 (14.47%) Public Sector
4 89 (12.88%) Analytical Skills
5 69 (9.99%) Legal
6 55 (7.96%) Banking
7 25 (3.62%) Organisational Skills
8 23 (3.33%) Documentation Skills
9 17 (2.46%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (2.17%) Retail
11 13 (1.88%) Presentation Skills
12 10 (1.45%) Law
12 10 (1.45%) Telecoms
13 9 (1.30%) Local Government
14 8 (1.16%) Police
15 7 (1.01%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.87%) Marketing
17 5 (0.72%) Cyber-Physical System
18 4 (0.58%) Military
19 3 (0.43%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 105 (15.20%) Analyst
2 81 (11.72%) Consultant
3 60 (8.68%) Architect
4 52 (7.53%) Senior
5 50 (7.24%) Security Engineer
6 49 (7.09%) Security Consultant
7 46 (6.66%) Security Architect
8 44 (6.37%) Lead
9 43 (6.22%) Security Analyst
10 40 (5.79%) Security Manager
11 32 (4.63%) Security Officer
12 24 (3.47%) Developer
13 23 (3.33%) Project Manager
14 21 (3.04%) Business Analyst
15 20 (2.89%) Information Security Officer
15 20 (2.89%) Security Specialist
16 18 (2.60%) Information Analyst
16 18 (2.60%) Information Security Analyst
17 17 (2.46%) Cybersecurity Manager
18 15 (2.17%) Information Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (2.32%) OAuth
1 16 (2.32%) Oracle Fusion
2 10 (1.45%) LDAP
2 10 (1.45%) OAuth2
2 10 (1.45%) SAML
3 9 (1.30%) OpenID
4 7 (1.01%) J2EE
4 7 (1.01%) JSP
4 7 (1.01%) SailPoint
4 7 (1.01%) Spring
4 7 (1.01%) Spring Boot
5 6 (0.87%) Middleware
6 5 (0.72%) Node.js
7 4 (0.58%) .NET
7 4 (0.58%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (0.43%) ADO
8 3 (0.43%) JWT
8 3 (0.43%) Kafka
8 3 (0.43%) Lightning Web Components
8 3 (0.43%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 112 (16.21%) Management Information System
2 62 (8.97%) Security Posture
3 45 (6.51%) Onboarding
4 36 (5.21%) Operational Technology
5 19 (2.75%) Cyber Threat
5 19 (2.75%) Data Protection Act
6 16 (2.32%) Cloud Native
7 13 (1.88%) PKI
8 12 (1.74%) Data Centre
8 12 (1.74%) Insider Threat
8 12 (1.74%) Mobile App
8 12 (1.74%) Virtual Team
9 11 (1.59%) Analytical Mindset
9 11 (1.59%) BYOD
9 11 (1.59%) Product Ownership
9 11 (1.59%) Security Operations Centre
10 10 (1.45%) Enterprise Software
11 9 (1.30%) Legacy Systems
11 9 (1.30%) Public Cloud
12 8 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 66 (9.55%) Windows
2 39 (5.64%) Linux
3 26 (3.76%) Windows Server
4 12 (1.74%) Unix
5 5 (0.72%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.43%) Kali Linux
6 3 (0.43%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.43%) zOS
7 1 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.14%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 257 (37.19%) Cybersecurity
2 183 (26.48%) Risk Management
3 114 (16.50%) Problem-Solving
4 111 (16.06%) Continuous Improvement
5 108 (15.63%) Data Protection
6 104 (15.05%) Stakeholder Management
7 87 (12.59%) Cloud Security
8 81 (11.72%) Security Management
9 66 (9.55%) Agile
10 62 (8.97%) Incident Response
11 61 (8.83%) Information Security Management
12 59 (8.54%) Change Management
12 59 (8.54%) Security Operations
13 58 (8.39%) AI
13 58 (8.39%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 55 (7.96%) Threat Modelling
15 54 (7.81%) Risk Assessment
15 54 (7.81%) SIEM
16 53 (7.67%) Roadmaps
17 50 (7.24%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 62 (8.97%) Python
2 39 (5.64%) PowerShell
3 25 (3.62%) Java
4 19 (2.75%) SQL
5 18 (2.60%) Bash
6 7 (1.01%) Kotlin
7 6 (0.87%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.72%) Go
9 4 (0.58%) C#
10 3 (0.43%) RPG
11 2 (0.29%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.29%) JavaScript
11 2 (0.29%) Rust
11 2 (0.29%) Solidity
12 1 (0.14%) BeanShell
12 1 (0.14%) Bicep
12 1 (0.14%) Lisp
12 1 (0.14%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.14%) VBA
Qualifications
1 193 (27.93%) Security Cleared
2 145 (20.98%) SC Cleared
3 133 (19.25%) Degree
4 121 (17.51%) CISSP
5 82 (11.87%) CISM
6 51 (7.38%) DV Cleared
7 32 (4.63%) CISA
8 28 (4.05%) Cisco Certification
9 26 (3.76%) Computer Science Degree
10 23 (3.33%) CRISC
11 22 (3.18%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 20 (2.89%) CEH
13 18 (2.60%) Master's Degree
14 17 (2.46%) CREST Certified
15 16 (2.32%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 16 (2.32%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
16 15 (2.17%) Postgraduate
17 12 (1.74%) CompTIA Security+
17 12 (1.74%) CTC Cleared
18 11 (1.59%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 224 (32.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 161 (23.30%) NIST
3 121 (17.51%) GDPR
4 86 (12.45%) GRC
5 51 (7.38%) PCI DSS
6 31 (4.49%) COBIT
7 27 (3.91%) NCSC
7 27 (3.91%) PMO
8 26 (3.76%) QA
9 24 (3.47%) Cyber Essentials
10 22 (3.18%) Data Quality
11 19 (2.75%) NIST 800
12 18 (2.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (2.03%) SOC 2
14 12 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 11 (1.59%) Accessibility
16 10 (1.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
17 8 (1.16%) RMADS
18 7 (1.01%) Actionable Recommendations
18 7 (1.01%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 43 (6.22%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.30%) Docker
3 7 (1.01%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.72%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.58%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.29%) Squid
7 1 (0.14%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.14%) Ceph
7 1 (0.14%) Firmware
7 1 (0.14%) RACF
7 1 (0.14%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 18 (2.60%) Microsoft Intune
2 14 (2.03%) Kubernetes
3 13 (1.88%) Nmap
4 12 (1.74%) Terraform
5 11 (1.59%) SCCM
6 8 (1.16%) Ansible
7 6 (0.87%) QRadar
8 5 (0.72%) Functional Safety
8 5 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
9 4 (0.58%) WSUS
10 2 (0.29%) CASB
10 2 (0.29%) FortiGate
10 2 (0.29%) Nessus
10 2 (0.29%) Podman
10 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.29%) SCOrch
11 1 (0.14%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.14%) logstash
11 1 (0.14%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 105 (15.20%) Microsoft
2 34 (4.92%) ServiceNow
3 23 (3.33%) Oracle
4 17 (2.46%) CyberArk
5 15 (2.17%) Cisco
5 15 (2.17%) Google
6 12 (1.74%) BeyondTrust
7 10 (1.45%) CrowdStrike
8 7 (1.01%) IBM
8 7 (1.01%) VMware
9 6 (0.87%) Databricks
9 6 (0.87%) Palo Alto
9 6 (0.87%) Splunk
10 5 (0.72%) Qualys
10 5 (0.72%) Sophos
11 4 (0.58%) Ariba
11 4 (0.58%) NEC
11 4 (0.58%) Remedy
11 4 (0.58%) Salesforce
11 4 (0.58%) SAP