ISEB Contract Job Trends

Information Systems Examinations Board (ISEB)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for ISEB qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 28 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 526 477 526
Rank change year-on-year -49 +49 0
Contract jobs citing ISEB 58 63 75
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.19% 0.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.47% 0.63% 0.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 31 69
10th Percentile £350 £162 £368
25th Percentile £384 £225 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £400 £510
Median % change year-on-year +29.38% -21.57% +13.33%
75th Percentile £706 £504 £603
90th Percentile £856 £550 £660
UK excluding London median daily rate £493 £413 £460
% change year-on-year +19.39% -10.32% +5.66%

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

ISEB falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 12,469 10,028 13,025
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.75% 29.89% 29.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,139 6,136 8,225
10th Percentile £313 £301 £300
25th Percentile £416 £417 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £631 £650
90th Percentile £725 £725 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £505 £540
% change year-on-year -0.99% -6.48% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 999 485 744
10th Percentile £16.30 £18.50 £16.26
25th Percentile £19.23 £23.60 £26.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £51.90
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -22.92% +15.32%
75th Percentile £52.54 £67.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.15 £80.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £51.44
% change year-on-year -40.82% -17.38% +18.26%

ISEB
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing ISEB relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

ISEB job vacancy trend in the UK

ISEB
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing ISEB.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing ISEB

ISEB
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISEB over the 6 months to 28 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for ISEB in the UK

ISEB
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing ISEB.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing ISEB

ISEB
Top 12 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing ISEB within the UK over the 6 months to 28 December 2025. 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 -37 53 £510 +27.50% 20
UK excluding London -65 31 £493 +19.39% 16
London -6 20 £513 +122.83% 6
Work from Home -2 19 £469 +5.63% 7
South East -30 15 £475 +10.14% 3
South West +9 12 £838 +67.50%
Scotland +4 2 £450 -5.26%
West Midlands -26 2 £359 -8.18%
Midlands -40 2 £359 -8.18% 6
North of England -40 2 £394 -17.11% 6
North West -24 1 £325 -31.58% 4
Yorkshire - 1 £463 -

ISEB
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 5 (8.62%) Confluence
2 3 (5.17%) WebLogic
3 1 (1.72%) CMS
3 1 (1.72%) IIS
3 1 (1.72%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (5.17%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (1.72%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.72%) Oracle EBS R12
1 1 (1.72%) Oracle ERP
1 1 (1.72%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
1 1 (1.72%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 8 (13.79%) Azure
2 6 (10.34%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (8.62%) Tricentis Tosca
4 2 (3.45%) PaaS
5 1 (1.72%) AWS
5 1 (1.72%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 1 (1.72%) Azure Pipelines
5 1 (1.72%) Figma
5 1 (1.72%) GCP
5 1 (1.72%) Google Ads
5 1 (1.72%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.72%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.45%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.72%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
2 1 (1.72%) MySQL
2 1 (1.72%) NoSQL
2 1 (1.72%) Power BI
2 1 (1.72%) Relational Database
2 1 (1.72%) SAP BW
2 1 (1.72%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 16 (27.59%) JIRA
2 4 (6.90%) Toad
3 3 (5.17%) Postman
3 3 (5.17%) Team Foundation Server
4 1 (1.72%) CircleCI
4 1 (1.72%) Cucumber
4 1 (1.72%) Cypress.io
4 1 (1.72%) NUnit
4 1 (1.72%) Selenium
4 1 (1.72%) SoapUI
4 1 (1.72%) WebDriver
General
1 23 (39.66%) Public Sector
2 17 (29.31%) Social Skills
3 11 (18.97%) Finance
4 8 (13.79%) Legal
5 6 (10.34%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (10.34%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (3.45%) Banking
6 2 (3.45%) Military
7 1 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.72%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 25 (43.10%) Architect
2 22 (37.93%) Enterprise Architect
3 20 (34.48%) Analyst
4 14 (24.14%) Lead
5 12 (20.69%) Business Analyst
5 12 (20.69%) Lead Architect
6 11 (18.97%) Lead Enterprise Architect
7 7 (12.07%) Senior
8 5 (8.62%) Test Analyst
9 4 (6.90%) Technical Analyst
9 4 (6.90%) Tester
10 3 (5.17%) Digital Architect
10 3 (5.17%) SAP Analyst
10 3 (5.17%) SAP Test Analyst
10 3 (5.17%) Senior Architect
10 3 (5.17%) Systems Analyst
11 2 (3.45%) Information Governance Officer
11 2 (3.45%) Information Officer
11 2 (3.45%) IT Analyst
11 2 (3.45%) Operations Business Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (10.34%) XML
2 4 (6.90%) .NET
3 3 (5.17%) Playwright
4 2 (3.45%) Oracle Fusion
4 2 (3.45%) REST
4 2 (3.45%) SOAP
5 1 (1.72%) CSS
5 1 (1.72%) Django
5 1 (1.72%) Gherkin
5 1 (1.72%) pytest
5 1 (1.72%) SAP Fiori
5 1 (1.72%) Web Services
5 1 (1.72%) XML Messaging
Miscellaneous
1 4 (6.90%) Product Ownership
2 3 (5.17%) Freedom of Information
2 3 (5.17%) Management Information System
3 2 (3.45%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (3.45%) Data Protection Act
3 2 (3.45%) Mobile App
3 2 (3.45%) NHS
3 2 (3.45%) Onboarding
3 2 (3.45%) Operational Technology
4 1 (1.72%) Hybrid Cloud
4 1 (1.72%) PMI
4 1 (1.72%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 4 (6.90%) Windows
2 1 (1.72%) Linux
2 1 (1.72%) Mac OS X
2 1 (1.72%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (48.28%) ITIL
2 25 (43.10%) IT4IT
3 18 (31.03%) Agile
4 14 (24.14%) Business Analysis
4 14 (24.14%) Customer Requirements
5 13 (22.41%) Roadmaps
6 12 (20.69%) Digital Strategy
6 12 (20.69%) TOGAF
7 11 (18.97%) Test Automation
8 10 (17.24%) Enterprise Architecture
8 10 (17.24%) Scrum
8 10 (17.24%) Strategic Roadmap
8 10 (17.24%) Test Scripting
9 9 (15.52%) DevOps
9 9 (15.52%) Stakeholder Management
10 8 (13.79%) Conflict Resolution
11 7 (12.07%) Architectural Design
11 7 (12.07%) Problem-Solving
11 7 (12.07%) Project Management
11 7 (12.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 11 (18.97%) SQL
2 7 (12.07%) Java
3 4 (6.90%) Python
4 1 (1.72%) C#
4 1 (1.72%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.72%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 30 (51.72%) Security Cleared
2 22 (37.93%) SC Cleared
3 19 (32.76%) ITIL Certification
4 15 (25.86%) Degree
5 11 (18.97%) ISTQB
6 6 (10.34%) CBAP
6 6 (10.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 5 (8.62%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (6.90%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (5.17%) IIBA
9 3 (5.17%) ISEB Practitioner
10 2 (3.45%) CISSP
11 1 (1.72%) CEH
11 1 (1.72%) Cisco Certification
11 1 (1.72%) CITP
11 1 (1.72%) HND
11 1 (1.72%) PMI Certification
11 1 (1.72%) PRINCE2 Certification
11 1 (1.72%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 1 (1.72%) SAP Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (43.10%) COBIT
2 9 (15.52%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 9 (15.52%) JSP 440
3 6 (10.34%) QA
4 5 (8.62%) GDPR
5 1 (1.72%) Accessibility
5 1 (1.72%) PSD2
5 1 (1.72%) WCAG
System Software
1 1 (1.72%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (1.72%) HP ALM
1 1 (1.72%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 6 (10.34%) Oracle
2 5 (8.62%) SAP
2 5 (8.62%) webMethods
3 3 (5.17%) Microsoft
4 2 (3.45%) HP
5 1 (1.72%) CheckPoint
5 1 (1.72%) Compaq
5 1 (1.72%) Salesforce
5 1 (1.72%) Terracotta
5 1 (1.72%) TOWER Software