ISMS Contract Job Trends

Information Security Management System (ISMS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring ISMS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 551 517 560
Rank change year-on-year -34 +43 +110
Contract jobs citing ISMS 41 26 47
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.11% 0.077% 0.11%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.13% 0.087% 0.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 22 36
10th Percentile £313 £279 £400
25th Percentile £425 £453 £509
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -8.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £613 £609 £678
90th Percentile £965 £681 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £531 £550 £575
% change year-on-year -3.41% -4.35% -4.17%

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK

ISMS 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 32,672 29,808 38,411
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.28% 88.28% 88.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,566 18,179 25,645
10th Percentile £300 £307 £306
25th Percentile £406 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £528
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.47% -4.09%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £743 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £477 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.70% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,089 966 1,478
10th Percentile £14.60 £15.62 £14.50
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -25.97% +25.43%
75th Percentile £51.02 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £73.88 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.50 £31.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -25.40% -30.00% +40.63%

ISMS
Job Vacancy Trend

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

ISMS job vacancy trend in the UK

ISMS
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

ISMS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing ISMS over the 6 months to 23 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for ISMS in the UK

ISMS
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

ISMS
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 ISMS within the UK over the 6 months to 23 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 -20 36 £500 -6.10% 90
London +12 23 £500 +11.11% 16
UK excluding London -45 16 £531 -3.41% 83
Work from Home +1 9 £538 -4.87% 78
South East -14 6 £563 -8.54% 28
East Midlands -14 5 £350 - 1
Midlands -38 5 £350 -30.00% 8
North of England -44 2 £700 +21.74% 16
Wales - 2 £575 - 1
Scotland +2 1 £600 +9.09% 4
Yorkshire -41 1 - - 9
North West - 1 £700 - 6

ISMS
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 6 (14.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (2.44%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (2.44%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 20 (48.78%) Azure
2 6 (14.63%) Microsoft 365
3 3 (7.32%) AWS
3 3 (7.32%) Azure Sentinel
3 3 (7.32%) Microsoft Purview
3 3 (7.32%) PaaS
3 3 (7.32%) SaaS
4 1 (2.44%) Amazon GuardDuty
4 1 (2.44%) AWS Control Tower
4 1 (2.44%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 14 (34.15%) Firewall
2 6 (14.63%) WAN
2 6 (14.63%) Wi-Fi
3 4 (9.76%) Network Security
4 3 (7.32%) HTTP
5 2 (4.88%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (2.44%) LAN
6 1 (2.44%) Skype
6 1 (2.44%) Software-Defined Networking
6 1 (2.44%) WebEx
6 1 (2.44%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 1 (2.44%) JIRA
General
1 15 (36.59%) Social Skills
2 6 (14.63%) Spanish Language
3 5 (12.20%) Finance
3 5 (12.20%) Legal
4 4 (9.76%) Influencing Skills
5 3 (7.32%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (7.32%) Law
6 2 (4.88%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (4.88%) Presentation Skills
6 2 (4.88%) Public Sector
7 1 (2.44%) Back Office
7 1 (2.44%) Digital Health
7 1 (2.44%) Italian Language
7 1 (2.44%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 14 (34.15%) Analyst
2 10 (24.39%) Security Analyst
3 6 (14.63%) Consultant
3 6 (14.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 6 (14.63%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
3 6 (14.63%) Security Engineer
4 5 (12.20%) Architect
4 5 (12.20%) Information Analyst
4 5 (12.20%) Information Security Analyst
4 5 (12.20%) Security Architect
4 5 (12.20%) Security Consultant
5 3 (7.32%) Applications Engineer
5 3 (7.32%) Cybersecurity Architect
5 3 (7.32%) Network Engineer
5 3 (7.32%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
5 3 (7.32%) Network Security Engineer
5 3 (7.32%) SOC Analyst
6 2 (4.88%) Data Protection Officer
6 2 (4.88%) Head of Information Security
6 2 (4.88%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (7.32%) OpenID
1 3 (7.32%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 19 (46.34%) Management Information System
2 6 (14.63%) Data Centre
3 5 (12.20%) PKI
4 4 (9.76%) Operational Technology
5 3 (7.32%) BYOD
5 3 (7.32%) Cyber Defence
5 3 (7.32%) Cyber Threat
5 3 (7.32%) Private Cloud
6 2 (4.88%) Security Posture
7 1 (2.44%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (2.44%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (2.44%) Freedom of Information
7 1 (2.44%) Onboarding
7 1 (2.44%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 6 (14.63%) Linux
1 6 (14.63%) Windows
1 6 (14.63%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (80.49%) Information Security
2 27 (65.85%) Security Management
3 24 (58.54%) Information Security Management
4 22 (53.66%) Cybersecurity
5 15 (36.59%) Risk Management
6 12 (29.27%) Security Operations
7 9 (21.95%) Data Protection
7 9 (21.95%) Incident Management
8 8 (19.51%) Cloud Security
9 6 (14.63%) Architectural Design
9 6 (14.63%) Change Management
9 6 (14.63%) Information Governance
9 6 (14.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 6 (14.63%) ITIL
9 6 (14.63%) Security Monitoring
10 5 (12.20%) Problem-Solving
10 5 (12.20%) Regulatory Compliance
11 4 (9.76%) Data Privacy
11 4 (9.76%) Internal Audit
11 4 (9.76%) Risk Analysis
Qualifications
1 11 (26.83%) CISSP
2 10 (24.39%) CISM
3 7 (17.07%) Degree
4 5 (12.20%) CISA
4 5 (12.20%) GSEC
4 5 (12.20%) Security Cleared
5 3 (7.32%) CISMP
5 3 (7.32%) SSCP
6 2 (4.88%) GIAC
6 2 (4.88%) ISACA
6 2 (4.88%) SANS
7 1 (2.44%) Azure Certification
7 1 (2.44%) CompTIA CySA+
7 1 (2.44%) CompTIA Security+
7 1 (2.44%) FFIEC
7 1 (2.44%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 1 (2.44%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
7 1 (2.44%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 24 (58.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 15 (36.59%) GDPR
3 14 (34.15%) NIST
4 8 (19.51%) GRC
5 5 (12.20%) PCI DSS
5 5 (12.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 4 (9.76%) COBIT
7 1 (2.44%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 1 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (2.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (2.44%) IASME
7 1 (2.44%) ISO 9001
7 1 (2.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
7 1 (2.44%) NCSC
System Software
1 6 (14.63%) Active Directory
1 6 (14.63%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 6 (14.63%) CASB
1 6 (14.63%) SCCM
1 6 (14.63%) SCOrch
2 2 (4.88%) RSA Archer
3 1 (2.44%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 19 (46.34%) Microsoft
2 1 (2.44%) Atlassian
2 1 (2.44%) Google
2 1 (2.44%) Polycom