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 7 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 548 476 525
Rank change year-on-year -72 +49 +27
Contract jobs citing ISEB 70 52 75
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.18% 0.17%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.46% 0.58% 0.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 32 64
10th Percentile £356 £306 £311
25th Percentile £400 £311 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £401 £500
Median % change year-on-year +29.11% -19.84% +11.11%
75th Percentile £705 £509 £597
90th Percentile £853 £549 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £401 £455
% change year-on-year +27.24% -11.91% +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 15,128 8,964 13,464
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 33.18% 30.63% 30.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,027 5,716 8,341
10th Percentile £344 £300 £300
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £518 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -1.43% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,111 491 1,017
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.50 £13.69
25th Percentile £20.52 £23.25 £17.60
Median hourly rate £37.50 £45.00 £38.16
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% +17.94% -29.34%
75th Percentile £69.25 £67.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.00 £81.01 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.00 £47.81 £39.92
% change year-on-year -22.60% +19.75% -19.39%

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 7 April 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 11 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 7 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 -88 63 £538 +31.10% 8
UK excluding London -105 44 £510 +27.24% 9
South West -10 21 £705 +116.77% 1
Work from Home -21 21 £438 -7.89% 4
London -51 19 £483 +1.58%
South East -63 18 £510 +29.77% 1
West Midlands -60 3 £359 -20.97% 2
Midlands -69 3 £359 -20.97% 2
Scotland +5 2 £421 +17.54% 1
East of England -34 2 £278 -11.20% 2
Channel Islands - 2 £450 -

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 7 (10.00%) Confluence
2 3 (4.29%) WebLogic
3 1 (1.43%) CMS
3 1 (1.43%) IIS
3 1 (1.43%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (1.43%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.43%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.43%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (2.86%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (2.86%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (1.43%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 7 (10.00%) Azure
2 5 (7.14%) Tricentis Tosca
3 4 (5.71%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (2.86%) GCP
5 1 (1.43%) AWS
5 1 (1.43%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 1 (1.43%) Azure Pipelines
5 1 (1.43%) GitHub
5 1 (1.43%) Google Ads
5 1 (1.43%) PaaS
5 1 (1.43%) Power Platform
5 1 (1.43%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (2.86%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.43%) BigQuery
1 1 (1.43%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.43%) Geospatial Data
1 1 (1.43%) NoSQL
1 1 (1.43%) Power BI
1 1 (1.43%) Relational Database
1 1 (1.43%) SAP BW
1 1 (1.43%) SQL Server
1 1 (1.43%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 19 (27.14%) JIRA
2 4 (5.71%) Toad
3 2 (2.86%) Postman
4 1 (1.43%) Artifactory
4 1 (1.43%) CircleCI
4 1 (1.43%) Cucumber
4 1 (1.43%) Git
4 1 (1.43%) GitLab
4 1 (1.43%) IntelliJ
4 1 (1.43%) Jenkins
4 1 (1.43%) JMeter
4 1 (1.43%) JUnit
4 1 (1.43%) NUnit
4 1 (1.43%) Protractor
4 1 (1.43%) Selenium
4 1 (1.43%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (1.43%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 28 (40.00%) Public Sector
2 14 (20.00%) Social Skills
3 13 (18.57%) Finance
4 12 (17.14%) Legal
5 5 (7.14%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (7.14%) Military
6 3 (4.29%) Banking
6 3 (4.29%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (4.29%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.86%) Digital Health
7 2 (2.86%) Local Government
8 1 (1.43%) Automotive
8 1 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.43%) Law
8 1 (1.43%) Police
Job Titles
1 33 (47.14%) Architect
2 29 (41.43%) Enterprise Architect
3 20 (28.57%) Analyst
4 16 (22.86%) Lead
5 13 (18.57%) Business Analyst
6 12 (17.14%) Lead Architect
7 11 (15.71%) Lead Enterprise Architect
8 6 (8.57%) Test Analyst
9 5 (7.14%) Senior
10 4 (5.71%) Senior Architect
10 4 (5.71%) Test Leader
10 4 (5.71%) Tester
11 3 (4.29%) Digital Architect
11 3 (4.29%) Information Governance Officer
11 3 (4.29%) Information Officer
11 3 (4.29%) SAP Analyst
11 3 (4.29%) SAP Test Analyst
11 3 (4.29%) Test Manager
12 2 (2.86%) Programme Manager
12 2 (2.86%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (8.57%) XML
2 2 (2.86%) Gherkin
2 2 (2.86%) Playwright
3 1 (1.43%) .NET
3 1 (1.43%) ADO
3 1 (1.43%) CSS
3 1 (1.43%) Django
3 1 (1.43%) ebXML
3 1 (1.43%) JSON
3 1 (1.43%) Node.js
3 1 (1.43%) pytest
3 1 (1.43%) REST
3 1 (1.43%) RESTful
3 1 (1.43%) SAP Fiori
3 1 (1.43%) SOAP
3 1 (1.43%) Web Services
3 1 (1.43%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 2 (2.86%) Analytical Mindset
1 2 (2.86%) Data Protection Act
1 2 (2.86%) Freedom of Information
1 2 (2.86%) NHS
2 1 (1.43%) Cloud Native
2 1 (1.43%) Hybrid Cloud
2 1 (1.43%) Management Information System
2 1 (1.43%) Onboarding
2 1 (1.43%) Operational Technology
2 1 (1.43%) PMI
2 1 (1.43%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 3 (4.29%) Windows
2 1 (1.43%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (50.00%) ITIL
2 33 (47.14%) IT4IT
3 22 (31.43%) Roadmaps
4 20 (28.57%) TOGAF
5 19 (27.14%) Agile
6 16 (22.86%) Enterprise Architecture
6 16 (22.86%) Strategic Roadmap
7 14 (20.00%) Customer Requirements
8 12 (17.14%) Architectural Design
8 12 (17.14%) Conflict Resolution
8 12 (17.14%) Digital Strategy
8 12 (17.14%) Stakeholder Management
9 9 (12.86%) Business Analysis
9 9 (12.86%) SDLC
9 9 (12.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 9 (12.86%) Test Automation
9 9 (12.86%) Test Scripting
9 9 (12.86%) Workshop Facilitation
10 8 (11.43%) Decision-Making
10 8 (11.43%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 9 (12.86%) SQL
2 5 (7.14%) Java
3 2 (2.86%) JavaScript
3 2 (2.86%) Python
4 1 (1.43%) C#
4 1 (1.43%) Groovy
4 1 (1.43%) PL/SQL
4 1 (1.43%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 40 (57.14%) Security Cleared
2 32 (45.71%) SC Cleared
3 25 (35.71%) ITIL Certification
4 16 (22.86%) ISTQB
5 14 (20.00%) Degree
6 8 (11.43%) CBAP
7 7 (10.00%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 5 (7.14%) IIBA
9 4 (5.71%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (5.71%) ISEB Practitioner
10 2 (2.86%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
11 1 (1.43%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 1 (1.43%) CEH
11 1 (1.43%) CISM
11 1 (1.43%) CITP
11 1 (1.43%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (1.43%) DV Cleared
11 1 (1.43%) Master's Degree
11 1 (1.43%) PMI Certification
11 1 (1.43%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (47.14%) COBIT
2 9 (12.86%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 9 (12.86%) JSP 440
3 8 (11.43%) QA
4 5 (7.14%) GDPR
5 2 (2.86%) Accessibility
6 1 (1.43%) PMO
6 1 (1.43%) WCAG
System Software
1 1 (1.43%) Docker
1 1 (1.43%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 2 (2.86%) HP ALM
1 2 (2.86%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.43%) Grafana
Vendors
1 5 (7.14%) Oracle
1 5 (7.14%) SAP
2 4 (5.71%) webMethods
3 3 (4.29%) ServiceNow
4 2 (2.86%) HP
4 2 (2.86%) Microsoft
5 1 (1.43%) Citrix
5 1 (1.43%) Dynatrace
5 1 (1.43%) Salesforce
5 1 (1.43%) Splunk
5 1 (1.43%) TOWER Software