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

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 552 467 519
Rank change year-on-year -85 +52 +26
Contract jobs citing ISEB 67 57 72
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.19% 0.16%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.44% 0.63% 0.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 40 36 61
10th Percentile £356 £307 £300
25th Percentile £400 £349 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £406 £500
Median % change year-on-year +29.37% -18.84% +11.11%
75th Percentile £705 £500 £600
90th Percentile £856 £541 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £406 £455
% change year-on-year +47.85% -10.81% +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 15,141 9,062 13,410
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.83% 30.79% 30.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,079 5,764 8,290
10th Percentile £344 £290 £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 £712 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £510 £530
% change year-on-year -1.96% -3.77% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,090 504 1,043
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.50 £13.69
25th Percentile £21.25 £22.66 £17.72
Median hourly rate £45.46 £42.75 £39.92
Median % change year-on-year +6.34% +7.09% -23.96%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.31 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.03 £80.89 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £46.30 £40.00
% change year-on-year -1.81% +15.75% -18.37%

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 18 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 18 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 -94 60 £550 +34.15% 4
UK excluding London -101 43 £600 +47.85% 4
South West -9 21 £705 +116.77% 1
Work from Home -32 19 £438 +9.38% 3
London -32 17 £525 +7.69% 1
South East -56 17 £600 +33.33% 1
West Midlands -64 3 £359 -20.97% 1
Midlands -66 3 £359 -20.97% 1
Scotland -2 2 £421 +5.13%
East of England -31 2 £278 -11.20%
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 (10.45%) Confluence
2 3 (4.48%) WebLogic
3 1 (1.49%) CMS
3 1 (1.49%) IIS
3 1 (1.49%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (1.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (2.99%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (2.99%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
2 1 (1.49%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (1.49%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 7 (10.45%) Azure
2 5 (7.46%) Tricentis Tosca
3 4 (5.97%) Azure DevOps
4 2 (2.99%) GCP
5 1 (1.49%) AWS
5 1 (1.49%) Azure Cosmos DB
5 1 (1.49%) Azure Pipelines
5 1 (1.49%) GitHub
5 1 (1.49%) Google Ads
5 1 (1.49%) PaaS
5 1 (1.49%) Power Platform
5 1 (1.49%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 2 (2.99%) FTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.49%) BigQuery
1 1 (1.49%) BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.49%) Geospatial Data
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 19 (28.36%) JIRA
2 4 (5.97%) Toad
3 2 (2.99%) Postman
4 1 (1.49%) Artifactory
4 1 (1.49%) CircleCI
4 1 (1.49%) Cucumber
4 1 (1.49%) Git
4 1 (1.49%) GitLab
4 1 (1.49%) IntelliJ
4 1 (1.49%) Jenkins
4 1 (1.49%) JMeter
4 1 (1.49%) JUnit
4 1 (1.49%) NUnit
4 1 (1.49%) Protractor
4 1 (1.49%) Selenium
4 1 (1.49%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (1.49%) Team Foundation Server
General
1 27 (40.30%) Public Sector
2 13 (19.40%) Social Skills
3 12 (17.91%) Finance
4 11 (16.42%) Legal
5 5 (7.46%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (7.46%) Military
6 3 (4.48%) Banking
6 3 (4.48%) Influencing Skills
6 3 (4.48%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.99%) Digital Health
7 2 (2.99%) Local Government
8 1 (1.49%) Automotive
8 1 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.49%) Law
8 1 (1.49%) Police
Job Titles
1 33 (49.25%) Architect
2 29 (43.28%) Enterprise Architect
3 17 (25.37%) Analyst
4 16 (23.88%) Lead
5 12 (17.91%) Lead Architect
6 11 (16.42%) Lead Enterprise Architect
7 10 (14.93%) Business Analyst
8 6 (8.96%) Test Analyst
9 5 (7.46%) Senior
10 4 (5.97%) Senior Architect
10 4 (5.97%) Test Leader
10 4 (5.97%) Tester
11 3 (4.48%) Digital Architect
11 3 (4.48%) Information Governance Officer
11 3 (4.48%) Information Officer
11 3 (4.48%) SAP Analyst
11 3 (4.48%) SAP Test Analyst
11 3 (4.48%) Test Manager
12 2 (2.99%) Integration Tester
12 2 (2.99%) Senior Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (8.96%) XML
2 2 (2.99%) Gherkin
2 2 (2.99%) Playwright
3 1 (1.49%) .NET
3 1 (1.49%) ADO
3 1 (1.49%) CSS
3 1 (1.49%) Django
3 1 (1.49%) ebXML
3 1 (1.49%) JSON
3 1 (1.49%) Node.js
3 1 (1.49%) pytest
3 1 (1.49%) REST
3 1 (1.49%) RESTful
3 1 (1.49%) SAP Fiori
3 1 (1.49%) SOAP
3 1 (1.49%) Web Services
3 1 (1.49%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 2 (2.99%) Analytical Mindset
1 2 (2.99%) Data Protection Act
1 2 (2.99%) Freedom of Information
1 2 (2.99%) NHS
2 1 (1.49%) Cloud Native
2 1 (1.49%) Onboarding
2 1 (1.49%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 3 (4.48%) Windows
2 1 (1.49%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (52.24%) ITIL
2 33 (49.25%) IT4IT
3 22 (32.84%) Roadmaps
4 20 (29.85%) TOGAF
5 19 (28.36%) Agile
6 16 (23.88%) Enterprise Architecture
6 16 (23.88%) Strategic Roadmap
7 14 (20.90%) Customer Requirements
8 12 (17.91%) Architectural Design
8 12 (17.91%) Conflict Resolution
8 12 (17.91%) Digital Strategy
8 12 (17.91%) Stakeholder Management
9 9 (13.43%) SDLC
9 9 (13.43%) Test Automation
9 9 (13.43%) Test Scripting
10 8 (11.94%) Decision-Making
10 8 (11.94%) DevOps
11 7 (10.45%) Acceptance Criteria
11 7 (10.45%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 7 (10.45%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 9 (13.43%) SQL
2 5 (7.46%) Java
3 2 (2.99%) JavaScript
3 2 (2.99%) Python
4 1 (1.49%) C#
4 1 (1.49%) Groovy
4 1 (1.49%) PL/SQL
4 1 (1.49%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 40 (59.70%) Security Cleared
2 32 (47.76%) SC Cleared
3 25 (37.31%) ITIL Certification
4 16 (23.88%) ISTQB
5 12 (17.91%) Degree
6 7 (10.45%) CBAP
6 7 (10.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 5 (7.46%) IIBA
8 4 (5.97%) BPSS Clearance
8 4 (5.97%) ISEB Practitioner
9 2 (2.99%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
10 1 (1.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (1.49%) APMP
10 1 (1.49%) CEH
10 1 (1.49%) CISM
10 1 (1.49%) CISSP
10 1 (1.49%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (1.49%) DV Cleared
10 1 (1.49%) Master's Degree
10 1 (1.49%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (49.25%) COBIT
2 9 (13.43%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 9 (13.43%) JSP 440
3 8 (11.94%) QA
4 5 (7.46%) GDPR
5 2 (2.99%) Accessibility
6 1 (1.49%) PMO
6 1 (1.49%) WCAG
System Software
1 1 (1.49%) Docker
1 1 (1.49%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 2 (2.99%) HP ALM
1 2 (2.99%) Kubernetes
2 1 (1.49%) Grafana
Vendors
1 5 (7.46%) Oracle
1 5 (7.46%) SAP
2 4 (5.97%) webMethods
3 3 (4.48%) ServiceNow
4 2 (2.99%) HP
4 2 (2.99%) Microsoft
5 1 (1.49%) Citrix
5 1 (1.49%) Dynatrace
5 1 (1.49%) Salesforce
5 1 (1.49%) Splunk
5 1 (1.49%) TOWER Software