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

6 months to
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 179 181 118
Rank change year-on-year +2 -63 -3
Contract jobs citing Information Security 687 446 855
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.54% 1.54% 1.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.80% 1.70% 2.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 399 275 553
10th Percentile £400 £331 £400
25th Percentile £463 £463 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £585 £575
Median % change year-on-year -5.98% +1.74% -4.17%
75th Percentile £658 £688 £688
90th Percentile £780 £820 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £557 £550
% change year-on-year -5.75% +1.27% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 65 26 37
10th Percentile £16.63 £16.16 £15.21
25th Percentile £20.31 £22.14 £17.72
Median hourly rate £26.44 £24.66 £19.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.22% +26.46% -73.10%
75th Percentile £60.75 £45.18 £50.00
90th Percentile £84.50 £81.18 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.50 £22.14 £19.50
% change year-on-year +15.18% +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 38,255 26,278 38,264
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.62% 90.49% 86.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,265 17,064 24,859
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 £613 £636 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £485 £500
% change year-on-year - -3.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,246 966 2,352
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.00 £12.84
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.26 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £32.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.94% -1.54% -11.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.72 £70.64
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.07 £31.50 £31.65
% change year-on-year +8.14% -0.47% -12.69%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +2 611 £550 -6.38% 316
UK excluding London 0 333 £525 -5.75% 249
London -1 287 £575 -4.17% 106
Work from Home -9 194 £550 - 169
South East -2 114 £563 -6.25% 91
North of England -49 71 £500 -4.76% 64
Midlands -38 50 £540 +35.00% 32
East of England +3 48 £553 -7.83% 19
North West -25 46 £540 +2.86% 37
West Midlands -32 39 £545 +36.25% 24
South West -22 23 £500 -14.89% 25
Scotland +11 21 £358 -25.26% 12
Yorkshire -46 21 £482 +16.91% 18
East Midlands -25 11 £450 +50.00% 8
Wales -5 6 £338 +87.50% 7
North East -16 4 £450 -15.73% 9

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 20 (2.91%) Confluence
2 13 (1.89%) SharePoint
3 8 (1.16%) Microsoft Exchange
4 7 (1.02%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
5 4 (0.58%) Apache Spark
6 1 (0.15%) WebSphere
6 1 (0.15%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 37 (5.39%) Microsoft Excel
2 33 (4.80%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (2.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 10 (1.46%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.29%) MS Visio
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%) 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%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.15%) Remedy ITSM
4 1 (0.15%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 123 (17.90%) Azure
2 90 (13.10%) AWS
3 41 (5.97%) Microsoft 365
4 33 (4.80%) GCP
5 28 (4.08%) SaaS
6 25 (3.64%) Entra ID
6 25 (3.64%) Power Platform
7 17 (2.47%) OCI
8 15 (2.18%) Microsoft Purview
9 14 (2.04%) GitHub
10 9 (1.31%) Azure Sentinel
11 8 (1.16%) IaaS
11 8 (1.16%) PaaS
11 8 (1.16%) Power Automate
12 7 (1.02%) Microsoft Copilot
13 6 (0.87%) Azure Data Factory
13 6 (0.87%) Azure Logic Apps
13 6 (0.87%) PowerApps
14 5 (0.73%) Azure DevOps
14 5 (0.73%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 56 (8.15%) Firewall
2 35 (5.09%) Network Security
3 17 (2.47%) DNS
4 15 (2.18%) TCP/IP
4 15 (2.18%) Wireless
5 12 (1.75%) HTTP
5 12 (1.75%) VPN
6 10 (1.46%) WAN
7 9 (1.31%) DHCP
7 9 (1.31%) SSH
8 8 (1.16%) Internet
9 6 (0.87%) SSL
10 5 (0.73%) Cisco IPT
10 5 (0.73%) FTP
10 5 (0.73%) SMTP
11 4 (0.58%) LAN
11 4 (0.58%) SAN
11 4 (0.58%) Wi-Fi
12 3 (0.44%) OSPF
12 3 (0.44%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 22 (3.20%) Power BI
2 10 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
3 9 (1.31%) Metadata
3 9 (1.31%) SQL Server
4 8 (1.16%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.58%) Big Data
5 4 (0.58%) Hadoop
5 4 (0.58%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (0.58%) SQL Server Reporting Services
6 3 (0.44%) DynamoDB
6 3 (0.44%) NoSQL
6 3 (0.44%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (0.44%) Tableau
7 2 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
7 2 (0.29%) Elasticsearch
7 2 (0.29%) Electronic Patient Records
7 2 (0.29%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.29%) Oracle BI Publisher
7 2 (0.29%) Power Query
7 2 (0.29%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 26 (3.78%) JIRA
2 15 (2.18%) Burp Suite
3 12 (1.75%) Metasploit
4 9 (1.31%) Git
5 2 (0.29%) GitLab
6 1 (0.15%) AppScan
6 1 (0.15%) git-flow
6 1 (0.15%) Jenkins
6 1 (0.15%) ScriptRunner
6 1 (0.15%) SonarQube
General
1 219 (31.88%) Social Skills
2 135 (19.65%) Finance
3 98 (14.26%) Public Sector
4 89 (12.95%) Analytical Skills
5 66 (9.61%) Legal
6 51 (7.42%) Banking
7 28 (4.08%) Organisational Skills
8 17 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
9 16 (2.33%) Presentation Skills
10 15 (2.18%) Retail
11 13 (1.89%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (1.60%) Telecoms
13 10 (1.46%) Law
14 9 (1.31%) Police
15 8 (1.16%) Local Government
15 8 (1.16%) Manufacturing
16 6 (0.87%) Marketing
17 5 (0.73%) Cyber-Physical System
18 4 (0.58%) Aerospace
19 3 (0.44%) Military
Job Titles
1 114 (16.59%) Analyst
2 80 (11.64%) Consultant
3 56 (8.15%) Architect
4 52 (7.57%) Senior
5 46 (6.70%) Security Consultant
6 45 (6.55%) Lead
6 45 (6.55%) Security Engineer
7 44 (6.40%) Security Analyst
8 40 (5.82%) Security Architect
9 37 (5.39%) Security Manager
10 31 (4.51%) Security Officer
11 23 (3.35%) Developer
12 21 (3.06%) Project Manager
12 21 (3.06%) Security Specialist
13 18 (2.62%) Business Analyst
13 18 (2.62%) Information Analyst
13 18 (2.62%) Information Security Analyst
14 17 (2.47%) Information Security Officer
15 15 (2.18%) Cybersecurity Manager
15 15 (2.18%) Information Security Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (2.33%) Oracle Fusion
2 15 (2.18%) OAuth
3 10 (1.46%) OAuth2
4 9 (1.31%) OpenID
4 9 (1.31%) SAML
5 8 (1.16%) LDAP
6 7 (1.02%) Middleware
6 7 (1.02%) SailPoint
6 7 (1.02%) Spring
6 7 (1.02%) Spring Boot
7 5 (0.73%) J2EE
7 5 (0.73%) JSP
7 5 (0.73%) Node.js
8 4 (0.58%) .NET
9 3 (0.44%) GraphQL
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 (16.30%) Management Information System
2 65 (9.46%) Security Posture
3 37 (5.39%) Onboarding
4 32 (4.66%) Operational Technology
5 22 (3.20%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (2.77%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (2.33%) Cloud Native
7 16 (2.33%) PKI
8 14 (2.04%) Data Centre
9 13 (1.89%) Insider Threat
9 13 (1.89%) Security Operations Centre
10 12 (1.75%) Virtual Team
11 11 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
11 11 (1.60%) BYOD
11 11 (1.60%) Mobile App
11 11 (1.60%) Product Ownership
12 9 (1.31%) Legacy Systems
12 9 (1.31%) Public Cloud
13 8 (1.16%) Enterprise Software
13 8 (1.16%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 62 (9.02%) Windows
2 32 (4.66%) Linux
3 22 (3.20%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.60%) Unix
5 3 (0.44%) Apple iOS
5 3 (0.44%) Kali Linux
5 3 (0.44%) zOS
6 2 (0.29%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 260 (37.85%) Cybersecurity
2 176 (25.62%) Risk Management
3 115 (16.74%) Problem-Solving
4 109 (15.87%) Continuous Improvement
5 107 (15.57%) Data Protection
6 99 (14.41%) Stakeholder Management
7 85 (12.37%) Cloud Security
8 80 (11.64%) Security Management
9 64 (9.32%) Agile
10 63 (9.17%) Incident Response
11 62 (9.02%) Security Operations
12 61 (8.88%) Change Management
13 60 (8.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 59 (8.59%) Information Security Management
15 57 (8.30%) Threat Modelling
16 54 (7.86%) AI
17 53 (7.71%) Decision-Making
18 52 (7.57%) Risk Assessment
19 50 (7.28%) Roadmaps
20 47 (6.84%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 54 (7.86%) Python
2 31 (4.51%) PowerShell
3 23 (3.35%) Java
4 20 (2.91%) SQL
5 13 (1.89%) Bash
6 7 (1.02%) Kotlin
7 6 (0.87%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.73%) Go
9 4 (0.58%) C#
10 3 (0.44%) RPG
11 2 (0.29%) Data Analysis Expressions
11 2 (0.29%) JavaScript
11 2 (0.29%) Rust
11 2 (0.29%) Solidity
12 1 (0.15%) BeanShell
12 1 (0.15%) Bicep
12 1 (0.15%) C++
12 1 (0.15%) R
12 1 (0.15%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 201 (29.26%) Security Cleared
2 150 (21.83%) SC Cleared
3 127 (18.49%) Degree
4 121 (17.61%) CISSP
5 87 (12.66%) CISM
6 53 (7.71%) DV Cleared
7 31 (4.51%) CISA
8 28 (4.08%) Cisco Certification
9 26 (3.78%) Computer Science Degree
10 23 (3.35%) CRISC
11 22 (3.20%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 20 (2.91%) CEH
13 19 (2.77%) Master's Degree
14 17 (2.47%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 16 (2.33%) CREST Certified
16 15 (2.18%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
16 15 (2.18%) Postgraduate
17 14 (2.04%) CTC Cleared
18 12 (1.75%) CompTIA Security+
19 11 (1.60%) Cyber Scheme
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 222 (32.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 166 (24.16%) NIST
3 119 (17.32%) GDPR
4 78 (11.35%) GRC
5 50 (7.28%) PCI DSS
6 30 (4.37%) NCSC
7 29 (4.22%) COBIT
8 26 (3.78%) PMO
9 25 (3.64%) Cyber Essentials
9 25 (3.64%) QA
10 22 (3.20%) Data Quality
11 18 (2.62%) NIST 800
12 16 (2.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 14 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 13 (1.89%) SOC 2
15 12 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
16 10 (1.46%) Accessibility
16 10 (1.46%) JSP 440
17 8 (1.16%) RMADS
18 7 (1.02%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 36 (5.24%) Active Directory
2 8 (1.16%) Docker
3 7 (1.02%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.73%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.44%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.15%) Ceph
6 1 (0.15%) RACF
6 1 (0.15%) Squid
6 1 (0.15%) VMware Workstation
Systems Management
1 19 (2.77%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (1.89%) Nmap
3 12 (1.75%) Kubernetes
4 10 (1.46%) SCCM
4 10 (1.46%) Terraform
5 8 (1.16%) Ansible
5 8 (1.16%) QRadar
6 5 (0.73%) Functional Safety
6 5 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.58%) WSUS
8 3 (0.44%) CASB
8 3 (0.44%) FortiGate
8 3 (0.44%) SCOrch
9 2 (0.29%) Nessus
9 2 (0.29%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.29%) Red Hat Satellite
10 1 (0.15%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.15%) logstash
10 1 (0.15%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.15%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 103 (14.99%) Microsoft
2 35 (5.09%) ServiceNow
3 21 (3.06%) Oracle
4 15 (2.18%) Google
5 14 (2.04%) Cisco
6 12 (1.75%) CyberArk
7 10 (1.46%) IBM
8 9 (1.31%) CrowdStrike
9 8 (1.16%) Databricks
10 7 (1.02%) BeyondTrust
10 7 (1.02%) Splunk
10 7 (1.02%) VMware
11 5 (0.73%) Fortinet
11 5 (0.73%) Qualys
11 5 (0.73%) Sophos
12 4 (0.58%) Ariba
12 4 (0.58%) Gemalto
12 4 (0.58%) NEC
12 4 (0.58%) Palo Alto
12 4 (0.58%) SAP