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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 200 165 108
Rank change year-on-year -35 -57 -9
Contract jobs citing Information Security 746 548 838
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.41% 1.67% 2.14%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.66% 1.84% 2.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 409 316 526
10th Percentile £350 £350 £388
25th Percentile £450 £420 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £532 £593
Median % change year-on-year +3.38% -10.21% -1.21%
75th Percentile £675 £688 £688
90th Percentile £808 £831 £794
UK excluding London median daily rate £503 £517 £600
% change year-on-year -2.80% -13.83% +9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 40 20
10th Percentile £16.38 £21.55 £12.75
25th Percentile £17.80 £22.14 £14.67
Median hourly rate £62.25 £24.66 £17.50
Median % change year-on-year +152.43% +40.91% -78.99%
75th Percentile £78.13 £75.00 £23.30
90th Percentile £80.00 £85.00 £28.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.25 £27.53 £15.73
% change year-on-year +126.12% +75.02% -81.12%

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 44,879 29,748 33,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.93% 90.41% 85.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,704 18,653 21,488
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,741 1,659 1,873
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.50 £17.30 £18.14
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £74.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.05 £40.94
% change year-on-year +90.72% -43.70% +3.38%

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 4 August 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 4 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Information Security in the UK

Information Security
Top 17 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 4 August 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 -32 681 £550 +4.76% 779
UK excluding London -11 385 £503 -2.80% 432
London -13 319 £600 +14.29% 411
Work from Home -41 190 £575 +15.00% 350
South East -16 125 £525 -16.00% 143
North of England -40 91 £470 -2.90% 114
North West -27 64 £458 -2.71% 63
Midlands -19 61 £450 +12.50% 53
West Midlands -19 47 £450 -5.26% 32
South West -25 44 £525 -10.26% 49
East of England -11 31 £525 -0.94% 34
Scotland -7 29 £475 +7.41% 26
Yorkshire -47 23 £540 +9.37% 41
East Midlands -13 14 £557 +39.19% 21
Wales -10 5 £645 +55.42% 7
North East -41 3 £450 -15.73% 10
Northern Ireland +4 1 £550 - 18

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 (3.75%) Confluence
2 24 (3.22%) SharePoint
3 6 (0.80%) Microsoft Exchange
4 5 (0.67%) IIS
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
6 1 (0.13%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 22 (2.95%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.88%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.07%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.54%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 10 (1.34%) Dynamics CRM
2 6 (0.80%) Remedy ITSM
3 2 (0.27%) NEC Housing
3 2 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
3 2 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
3 2 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Payables
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 1 (0.13%) Oracle Receivables
4 1 (0.13%) SAP MDG
4 1 (0.13%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 166 (22.25%) Azure
2 108 (14.48%) AWS
3 62 (8.31%) Entra ID
4 42 (5.63%) SaaS
5 38 (5.09%) Microsoft 365
6 32 (4.29%) GCP
7 23 (3.08%) GitHub
8 21 (2.82%) Microsoft Purview
9 20 (2.68%) Power Platform
10 19 (2.55%) Azure Sentinel
11 15 (2.01%) OCI
12 13 (1.74%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (1.74%) Power Automate
13 12 (1.61%) Serverless
14 11 (1.47%) Dynamics 365
15 8 (1.07%) Cloud Computing
15 8 (1.07%) IaaS
15 8 (1.07%) PaaS
16 7 (0.94%) Azure Key Vault
17 6 (0.80%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 44 (5.90%) Firewall
2 40 (5.36%) Network Security
3 15 (2.01%) WAN
4 14 (1.88%) LAN
5 13 (1.74%) SSH
6 12 (1.61%) Wireless
7 11 (1.47%) VPN
8 10 (1.34%) DNS
9 9 (1.21%) HTTP
9 9 (1.21%) TCP/IP
10 8 (1.07%) NGFW
11 7 (0.94%) DHCP
11 7 (0.94%) HTTPS
12 6 (0.80%) Internet
13 5 (0.67%) Structured Cabling
14 4 (0.54%) Intrusion Detection
15 3 (0.40%) Cisco IPT
16 2 (0.27%) BGP
16 2 (0.27%) Cisco ASA
16 2 (0.27%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (3.75%) SQL Server
2 17 (2.28%) Power BI
3 8 (1.07%) Metadata
4 6 (0.80%) Data Lake
4 6 (0.80%) Oracle Reports
5 5 (0.67%) NoSQL
6 4 (0.54%) MongoDB
7 3 (0.40%) Data Warehouse
8 2 (0.27%) Oracle BI Publisher
8 2 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
8 2 (0.27%) Relational Database
9 1 (0.13%) Big Data
9 1 (0.13%) DynamoDB
9 1 (0.13%) Hadoop
9 1 (0.13%) MariaDB
9 1 (0.13%) Neo4j
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.13%) RDBMS
9 1 (0.13%) SAP HANA
9 1 (0.13%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 30 (4.02%) JIRA
2 9 (1.21%) Cypress.io
2 9 (1.21%) Postman
2 9 (1.21%) Selenium
2 9 (1.21%) WebDriver
3 6 (0.80%) Cucumber
4 4 (0.54%) Git
5 3 (0.40%) Burp Suite
5 3 (0.40%) git-flow
5 3 (0.40%) Protractor
6 2 (0.27%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 2 (0.27%) Bitbucket
6 2 (0.27%) JMeter
6 2 (0.27%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.13%) Claude Code
7 1 (0.13%) Jenkins
7 1 (0.13%) LSMW
7 1 (0.13%) SoapUI
7 1 (0.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 253 (33.91%) Social Skills
2 160 (21.45%) Finance
3 134 (17.96%) Public Sector
4 84 (11.26%) Analytical Skills
5 60 (8.04%) Banking
6 53 (7.10%) Legal
7 45 (6.03%) Documentation Skills
8 26 (3.49%) Organisational Skills
9 23 (3.08%) Local Government
10 21 (2.82%) Influencing Skills
11 16 (2.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 16 (2.14%) Retail
12 15 (2.01%) Military
13 14 (1.88%) Aerospace
14 13 (1.74%) Billing
14 13 (1.74%) Presentation Skills
15 12 (1.61%) Law
16 10 (1.34%) Marketing
17 9 (1.21%) Police
18 8 (1.07%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 96 (12.87%) Analyst
2 82 (10.99%) Senior
3 76 (10.19%) Consultant
4 72 (9.65%) Architect
5 65 (8.71%) Lead
6 59 (7.91%) Security Consultant
7 52 (6.97%) Security Engineer
8 51 (6.84%) Security Architect
9 38 (5.09%) Security Analyst
9 38 (5.09%) Security Manager
10 25 (3.35%) IT Manager
11 21 (2.82%) Cybersecurity Manager
11 21 (2.82%) Project Manager
12 20 (2.68%) Security Officer
12 20 (2.68%) Senior Manager
13 19 (2.55%) Developer
14 18 (2.41%) Business Analyst
14 18 (2.41%) Information Officer
15 16 (2.14%) Information Manager
15 16 (2.14%) Information Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (3.35%) SailPoint
2 24 (3.22%) Oracle Fusion
3 23 (3.08%) OAuth
4 17 (2.28%) SAML
5 16 (2.14%) LDAP
5 16 (2.14%) OAuth2
5 16 (2.14%) OpenID
6 14 (1.88%) Web Services
7 11 (1.47%) REST
8 10 (1.34%) XML
9 9 (1.21%) Gherkin
10 6 (0.80%) .NET
10 6 (0.80%) JSON
11 4 (0.54%) ASP.NET
11 4 (0.54%) Jakarta EE
11 4 (0.54%) JSP
11 4 (0.54%) Kafka
11 4 (0.54%) Lightning Web Components
12 3 (0.40%) Elastic Stack
12 3 (0.40%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 132 (17.69%) Management Information System
2 85 (11.39%) Onboarding
3 58 (7.77%) Security Posture
4 35 (4.69%) Operational Technology
5 23 (3.08%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (2.55%) Security Operations Centre
7 18 (2.41%) Cloud Native
8 17 (2.28%) Data Centre
9 16 (2.14%) Data Protection Act
10 15 (2.01%) Enterprise Software
10 15 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.74%) PKI
12 11 (1.47%) BYOD
12 11 (1.47%) SCADA
12 11 (1.47%) Virtual Team
13 10 (1.34%) Legacy Systems
13 10 (1.34%) Product Ownership
13 10 (1.34%) Public Cloud
14 9 (1.21%) Analytical Mindset
14 9 (1.21%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 81 (10.86%) Windows
2 43 (5.76%) Linux
3 38 (5.09%) Windows Server
4 23 (3.08%) Unix
5 10 (1.34%) Android
6 9 (1.21%) Apple iOS
7 8 (1.07%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.67%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.67%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.27%) Alpine Linux
9 2 (0.27%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 274 (36.73%) Cybersecurity
2 212 (28.42%) Risk Management
3 156 (20.91%) Stakeholder Management
4 120 (16.09%) Continuous Improvement
5 119 (15.95%) Data Protection
6 108 (14.48%) Problem-Solving
7 97 (13.00%) Security Operations
8 91 (12.20%) Incident Response
9 89 (11.93%) Roadmaps
10 87 (11.66%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 84 (11.26%) Agile
12 79 (10.59%) Cloud Security
13 78 (10.46%) Vulnerability Management
14 76 (10.19%) Decision-Making
15 68 (9.12%) Change Management
16 66 (8.85%) Computer Science
17 63 (8.45%) AI
17 63 (8.45%) DevOps
17 63 (8.45%) Security Management
18 62 (8.31%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 79 (10.59%) Python
2 70 (9.38%) PowerShell
3 28 (3.75%) Bash
4 21 (2.82%) SQL
5 13 (1.74%) Java
6 12 (1.61%) C#
7 9 (1.21%) JavaScript
8 7 (0.94%) Bicep
9 5 (0.67%) PL/SQL
10 4 (0.54%) Apex Code
10 4 (0.54%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.40%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.13%) BeanShell
12 1 (0.13%) Go
12 1 (0.13%) Scala
12 1 (0.13%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 160 (21.45%) Security Cleared
2 139 (18.63%) Degree
3 135 (18.10%) CISSP
4 127 (17.02%) SC Cleared
5 92 (12.33%) CISM
6 38 (5.09%) DV Cleared
7 32 (4.29%) Cisco Certification
8 31 (4.16%) CISA
9 29 (3.89%) CRISC
10 26 (3.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 24 (3.22%) Microsoft Certification
12 20 (2.68%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 19 (2.55%) CEH
14 18 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
15 16 (2.14%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
16 14 (1.88%) AWS Certification
16 14 (1.88%) PMP
17 13 (1.74%) Master's Degree
17 13 (1.74%) PMI Certification
18 12 (1.61%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 221 (29.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 153 (20.51%) NIST
3 127 (17.02%) GDPR
4 105 (14.08%) GRC
5 48 (6.43%) PCI DSS
6 41 (5.50%) Cyber Essentials
7 35 (4.69%) NCSC
8 25 (3.35%) QA
9 23 (3.08%) Data Quality
10 22 (2.95%) Accessibility
11 19 (2.55%) NIST 800
12 18 (2.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 18 (2.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 18 (2.41%) SOC 2
13 16 (2.14%) COBIT
14 15 (2.01%) SLA
15 14 (1.88%) HIPAA
16 13 (1.74%) Government Security Classifications
17 10 (1.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
17 10 (1.34%) WCAG
System Software
1 81 (10.86%) Active Directory
2 9 (1.21%) Docker
3 7 (0.94%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.80%) Hyper-V
5 3 (0.40%) OpenAM
5 3 (0.40%) Squid
6 2 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.13%) BitLocker
7 1 (0.13%) Ceph
7 1 (0.13%) Firmware
7 1 (0.13%) RACF
Systems Management
1 22 (2.95%) Terraform
2 16 (2.14%) Kubernetes
2 16 (2.14%) Microsoft Intune
3 15 (2.01%) Single Sign-On
4 11 (1.47%) Ansible
5 7 (0.94%) SCCM
6 4 (0.54%) Podman
6 4 (0.54%) QRadar
7 3 (0.40%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 3 (0.40%) RSA Archer
8 2 (0.27%) Computer Incident Response Team
8 2 (0.27%) Nmap
9 1 (0.13%) CASB
9 1 (0.13%) Host Intrusion Detection System
9 1 (0.13%) Istio
9 1 (0.13%) WSUS
Vendors
1 150 (20.11%) Microsoft
2 46 (6.17%) Oracle
3 44 (5.90%) ServiceNow
4 26 (3.49%) CyberArk
5 23 (3.08%) BeyondTrust
6 19 (2.55%) Google
7 18 (2.41%) SAP
8 16 (2.14%) Cisco
8 16 (2.14%) Splunk
9 14 (1.88%) Apple
9 14 (1.88%) Palo Alto
10 12 (1.61%) Ariba
11 11 (1.47%) CrowdStrike
11 11 (1.47%) VMware
12 10 (1.34%) Zscaler
13 7 (0.94%) IBM
13 7 (0.94%) Remedy
14 6 (0.80%) Atlassian
14 6 (0.80%) Computacenter
14 6 (0.80%) Qualys