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 16 February 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 542 473 516
Rank change year-on-year -69 +43 +48
Contract jobs citing ISEB 67 55 77
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.17% 0.18% 0.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.50% 0.61% 0.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 39 25 72
10th Percentile £355 £216 £365
25th Percentile £369 £300 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £400 £505
Median % change year-on-year +37.50% -20.79% +12.22%
75th Percentile £705 £500 £601
90th Percentile £856 £545 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £690 £400 £455
% change year-on-year +72.50% -12.09% +7.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £24.19 - -
75th Percentile £24.60 - -
90th Percentile £24.84 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.60 - -

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 13,506 9,089 13,559
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.86% 29.63% 30.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,911 5,532 8,375
10th Percentile £325 £294 £295
25th Percentile £418 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -2.42% -2.18%
75th Percentile £619 £630 £650
90th Percentile £723 £715 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £530
% change year-on-year -0.05% -5.61% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 989 425 953
10th Percentile £15.75 £19.89 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.00 £24.18 £21.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £39.00 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -35.51% -15.00% -0.26%
75th Percentile £63.75 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £76.58 £80.06 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £42.50 £46.18
% change year-on-year -40.82% -7.97% +2.62%

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 16 February 2026.

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 16 February 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 -46 64 £538 +41.73% 14
UK excluding London -77 38 £690 +72.50% 12
London -25 22 £513 +122.83% 2
Work from Home -10 19 £444 +10.94% 5
South West -6 17 £772 +54.35% 2
South East -46 17 £510 +34.48% 2
West Midlands -47 3 £359 -10.55% 3
Midlands -52 3 £359 -10.55% 3
East of England -21 2 £278 -11.20% 1
Scotland +7 1 - -
North of England -61 1 £463 -2.63% 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 (7.46%) Confluence
2 3 (4.48%) WebLogic
3 2 (2.99%) SharePoint
4 1 (1.49%) CMS
4 1 (1.49%) IIS
Applications
1 1 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (1.49%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (2.99%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (2.99%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (1.49%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (1.49%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 7 (10.45%) Azure
2 5 (7.46%) Azure DevOps
2 5 (7.46%) Tricentis Tosca
3 2 (2.99%) PaaS
4 1 (1.49%) AWS
4 1 (1.49%) Azure Cosmos DB
4 1 (1.49%) Azure Pipelines
4 1 (1.49%) GCP
4 1 (1.49%) Google Ads
4 1 (1.49%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.49%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.49%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.49%) MySQL
1 1 (1.49%) NoSQL
1 1 (1.49%) Power BI
1 1 (1.49%) Relational Database
1 1 (1.49%) SAP BW
1 1 (1.49%) SQL Server
1 1 (1.49%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 22 (32.84%) JIRA
2 4 (5.97%) Toad
3 3 (4.48%) Postman
3 3 (4.48%) Team Foundation Server
4 1 (1.49%) CircleCI
4 1 (1.49%) Cucumber
4 1 (1.49%) Cypress.io
4 1 (1.49%) NUnit
4 1 (1.49%) Selenium
4 1 (1.49%) WebDriver
General
1 27 (40.30%) Public Sector
2 18 (26.87%) Social Skills
3 12 (17.91%) Finance
4 10 (14.93%) Legal
5 5 (7.46%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (7.46%) Influencing Skills
6 4 (5.97%) Military
7 3 (4.48%) Manufacturing
8 2 (2.99%) Digital Health
9 1 (1.49%) Automotive
9 1 (1.49%) Banking
9 1 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (1.49%) Law
9 1 (1.49%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 30 (44.78%) Architect
2 26 (38.81%) Enterprise Architect
3 20 (29.85%) Analyst
4 14 (20.90%) Lead
5 12 (17.91%) Lead Architect
6 11 (16.42%) Business Analyst
6 11 (16.42%) Lead Enterprise Architect
7 7 (10.45%) Senior
7 7 (10.45%) Test Analyst
8 5 (7.46%) Tester
9 4 (5.97%) Information Governance Officer
9 4 (5.97%) Information Officer
9 4 (5.97%) Senior Architect
10 3 (4.48%) Digital Architect
10 3 (4.48%) SAP Analyst
10 3 (4.48%) SAP Test Analyst
10 3 (4.48%) Technical Analyst
11 2 (2.99%) QA Tester
11 2 (2.99%) Senior Technical Architect
11 2 (2.99%) Systems Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (7.46%) XML
2 3 (4.48%) .NET
2 3 (4.48%) Playwright
3 2 (2.99%) Oracle Fusion
3 2 (2.99%) REST
4 1 (1.49%) CSS
4 1 (1.49%) Django
4 1 (1.49%) Gherkin
4 1 (1.49%) pytest
4 1 (1.49%) SAP Fiori
4 1 (1.49%) SOAP
4 1 (1.49%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 3 (4.48%) Analytical Mindset
1 3 (4.48%) NHS
1 3 (4.48%) Product Ownership
2 2 (2.99%) Data Protection Act
2 2 (2.99%) Freedom of Information
3 1 (1.49%) Hybrid Cloud
3 1 (1.49%) Management Information System
3 1 (1.49%) Mobile App
3 1 (1.49%) Operational Technology
3 1 (1.49%) PMI
Operating Systems
1 4 (5.97%) Windows
2 1 (1.49%) Linux
2 1 (1.49%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (49.25%) ITIL
2 30 (44.78%) IT4IT
3 20 (29.85%) Agile
4 18 (26.87%) Roadmaps
5 17 (25.37%) TOGAF
6 14 (20.90%) Customer Requirements
7 13 (19.40%) Enterprise Architecture
7 13 (19.40%) Strategic Roadmap
8 12 (17.91%) Digital Strategy
8 12 (17.91%) Stakeholder Management
8 12 (17.91%) Test Scripting
9 11 (16.42%) Test Automation
10 10 (14.93%) Architectural Design
10 10 (14.93%) Business Analysis
10 10 (14.93%) Conflict Resolution
11 9 (13.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 8 (11.94%) DevOps
12 8 (11.94%) Scrum
12 8 (11.94%) SDLC
13 7 (10.45%) Waterfall
Programming Languages
1 9 (13.43%) SQL
2 6 (8.96%) Java
3 3 (4.48%) Python
4 1 (1.49%) C#
4 1 (1.49%) JavaScript
4 1 (1.49%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 37 (55.22%) Security Cleared
2 29 (43.28%) SC Cleared
3 23 (34.33%) ITIL Certification
4 16 (23.88%) ISTQB
5 15 (22.39%) Degree
6 8 (11.94%) CBAP
7 6 (8.96%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 5 (7.46%) IIBA
8 5 (7.46%) ISEB Practitioner
9 4 (5.97%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (4.48%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (2.99%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
12 1 (1.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 1 (1.49%) APMP
12 1 (1.49%) CEH
12 1 (1.49%) CISM
12 1 (1.49%) CITP
12 1 (1.49%) DV Cleared
12 1 (1.49%) Master's Degree
12 1 (1.49%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (44.78%) COBIT
2 9 (13.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 9 (13.43%) JSP 440
2 9 (13.43%) QA
3 5 (7.46%) GDPR
4 1 (1.49%) Accessibility
4 1 (1.49%) WCAG
System Software
1 1 (1.49%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (2.99%) HP ALM
2 1 (1.49%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 7 (10.45%) Oracle
2 5 (7.46%) SAP
3 4 (5.97%) webMethods
4 2 (2.99%) HP
4 2 (2.99%) Microsoft
4 2 (2.99%) ServiceNow
5 1 (1.49%) CheckPoint
5 1 (1.49%) Salesforce
5 1 (1.49%) TOWER Software