NCSC Contract Job Trends

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring NCSC skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 341 397 485
Rank change year-on-year +56 +88 -107
Contract jobs citing NCSC 376 166 72
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.69% 0.50% 0.19%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 3.92% 2.93% 1.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 261 118 42
10th Percentile £456 £493 £476
25th Percentile £525 £543 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £600 £645 £560
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +15.18% -17.04%
75th Percentile £688 £700 £713
90th Percentile £775 £738 £771
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £650 £536
% change year-on-year -7.69% +21.36% -23.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 14 3
10th Percentile £71.00 £50.13 -
25th Percentile £77.75 £82.69 £60.75
Median hourly rate £87.50 £88.75 £61.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.41% +44.32% -26.26%
75th Percentile £96.00 £91.50 £71.12
90th Percentile - - £76.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £90.00 £90.00 £61.50
% change year-on-year - +46.35% -26.26%

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

NCSC falls under the Quality Assurance and Compliance category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring quality assurance or compliance skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for quality assurance or compliance skills 9,585 5,663 5,176
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.56% 17.21% 13.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,041 3,635 3,066
10th Percentile £325 £300 £281
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £600 £607 £625
90th Percentile £700 £706 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +2.63% -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 629 265 259
10th Percentile £13.87 £13.60 £12.42
25th Percentile £16.60 £16.92 £15.18
Median hourly rate £32.40 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.98% +9.09% -22.82%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £59.38
90th Percentile £76.00 £81.65 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £27.53 £27.50
% change year-on-year +19.87% +0.11% -30.56%

NCSC
Job Vacancy Trend

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

NCSC job vacancy trend in the UK

NCSC
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

NCSC
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NCSC over the 6 months to 20 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for NCSC in the UK

NCSC
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

NCSC
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing NCSC over the 6 months to 20 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for NCSC in the UK

NCSC
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing NCSC within the UK over the 6 months to 20 September 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 +22 311 £586 -9.85% 235
UK excluding London -28 193 £600 -7.69% 166
Work from Home +12 141 £585 -9.30% 152
London -2 124 £585 -10.00% 90
South East -8 70 £650 -3.70% 36
South West -25 55 £600 -11.11% 25
North of England -35 37 £567 +3.09% 40
North West -14 36 £566 +41.50% 27
West Midlands -42 20 £585 -16.43% 18
Midlands -45 20 £585 -16.43% 22
Scotland -11 17 £800 +60.00% 17
Wales -8 5 £800 +236.13% 7
East of England -40 4 £510 +104.82% 13
North East - 1 £675 - 9

NCSC
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 21 (5.59%) Confluence
2 5 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.80%) Apache
3 3 (0.80%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.27%) nginx
4 1 (0.27%) SharePoint 2010
4 1 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
4 1 (0.27%) Traefik
Applications
1 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (0.53%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 10 (2.66%) Oracle ERP
2 4 (1.06%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 2 (0.53%) SAP GRC
3 2 (0.53%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 120 (31.91%) Azure
2 94 (25.00%) AWS
3 29 (7.71%) GCP
4 28 (7.45%) Entra ID
5 23 (6.12%) SaaS
6 20 (5.32%) Azure DevOps
7 16 (4.26%) Microsoft 365
8 12 (3.19%) GitHub
9 11 (2.93%) IaaS
10 10 (2.66%) OCI
10 10 (2.66%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 9 (2.39%) PaaS
12 8 (2.13%) Amazon EKS
12 8 (2.13%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (2.13%) GitHub Actions
13 7 (1.86%) Azure Sentinel
14 6 (1.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 6 (1.60%) Amazon ECS
15 5 (1.33%) Azure AKS
15 5 (1.33%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 29 (7.71%) Network Security
2 28 (7.45%) Firewall
3 17 (4.52%) DNS
4 16 (4.26%) VPN
5 10 (2.66%) TCP/IP
6 8 (2.13%) WAN
7 7 (1.86%) LAN
8 6 (1.60%) DHCP
8 6 (1.60%) SD-WAN
8 6 (1.60%) VLAN
9 5 (1.33%) Cisco Firepower
9 5 (1.33%) Cisco Nexus
9 5 (1.33%) X.509
10 4 (1.06%) 4G
10 4 (1.06%) BGP
10 4 (1.06%) BIG-IP
10 4 (1.06%) Cisco ASA
10 4 (1.06%) IPsec
10 4 (1.06%) MPLS
10 4 (1.06%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (3.46%) Geospatial Data
2 7 (1.86%) Metadata
3 5 (1.33%) Data Lake
4 3 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.80%) Oracle Reports
5 2 (0.53%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (0.53%) Azure SQL Database
5 2 (0.53%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.53%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.53%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.53%) Parquet
6 1 (0.27%) Big Data
6 1 (0.27%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.27%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.27%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.27%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.27%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 24 (6.38%) JIRA
2 14 (3.72%) Git
3 11 (2.93%) GitLab
3 11 (2.93%) Jenkins
3 11 (2.93%) MSI
4 2 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 119 (31.65%) Public Sector
2 100 (26.60%) Social Skills
3 27 (7.18%) Analytical Skills
4 24 (6.38%) Finance
4 24 (6.38%) Military
5 18 (4.79%) Telecoms
6 16 (4.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 16 (4.26%) Local Government
7 15 (3.99%) Influencing Skills
8 13 (3.46%) Aerospace
9 11 (2.93%) Law
10 10 (2.66%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (2.39%) Police
12 6 (1.60%) Manufacturing
12 6 (1.60%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (1.06%) Back Office
13 4 (1.06%) Legal
14 2 (0.53%) Presentation Skills
15 1 (0.27%) Pharmaceutical
15 1 (0.27%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 125 (33.24%) Architect
2 65 (17.29%) Security Architect
3 51 (13.56%) Lead
4 42 (11.17%) Consultant
5 31 (8.24%) Senior
6 28 (7.45%) Security Manager
7 27 (7.18%) Technical Architect
8 25 (6.65%) Security Consultant
9 21 (5.59%) Cybersecurity Manager
10 18 (4.79%) Cybersecurity Consultant
11 15 (3.99%) Lead Architect
12 14 (3.72%) Tester
13 13 (3.46%) Analyst
13 13 (3.46%) Developer
13 13 (3.46%) Penetration Tester
13 13 (3.46%) Security Engineer
13 13 (3.46%) Senior Architect
14 12 (3.19%) Solutions Architect
15 11 (2.93%) Information Manager
15 11 (2.93%) Information Security Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (14.36%) Terraform
2 17 (4.52%) .NET
2 17 (4.52%) REST
2 17 (4.52%) RESTful
3 13 (3.46%) GeoJSON
4 12 (3.19%) .NET Framework
5 11 (2.93%) .NET Core
5 11 (2.93%) ATL
5 11 (2.93%) COM
5 11 (2.93%) CSS
5 11 (2.93%) CSS3
5 11 (2.93%) HTML
5 11 (2.93%) HTML5
5 11 (2.93%) MFC
5 11 (2.93%) OAuth
5 11 (2.93%) SAML
5 11 (2.93%) WPF
6 10 (2.66%) OpenID
7 8 (2.13%) LDAP
8 6 (1.60%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 38 (10.11%) Onboarding
2 35 (9.31%) Cloud Native
3 34 (9.04%) Security Operations Centre
4 33 (8.78%) Management Information System
5 28 (7.45%) Security Posture
6 25 (6.65%) Cyber Threat
7 22 (5.85%) PKI
8 21 (5.59%) Legacy Systems
9 20 (5.32%) CSOC
10 19 (5.05%) Operational Technology
11 13 (3.46%) Hybrid Cloud
11 13 (3.46%) SCADA
12 11 (2.93%) Private Cloud
13 10 (2.66%) Public Cloud
14 9 (2.39%) Data Centre
15 6 (1.60%) Enterprise Software
16 5 (1.33%) Analytical Mindset
16 5 (1.33%) Cyber Defence
16 5 (1.33%) Distributed Systems
16 5 (1.33%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 28 (7.45%) Windows
2 16 (4.26%) Linux
3 9 (2.39%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.86%) Mac OS
5 6 (1.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (1.06%) Windows 10
7 3 (0.80%) Unix
8 2 (0.53%) Android
8 2 (0.53%) CentOS
8 2 (0.53%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.27%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 193 (51.33%) Cybersecurity
2 91 (24.20%) Incident Response
3 84 (22.34%) Risk Management
4 82 (21.81%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 81 (21.54%) Security Architecture
6 79 (21.01%) Vulnerability Management
7 78 (20.74%) Stakeholder Management
8 77 (20.48%) Continuous Improvement
9 76 (20.21%) Cloud Security
10 74 (19.68%) CI/CD
11 72 (19.15%) Agile
12 62 (16.49%) Infrastructure as Code
13 58 (15.43%) Security Operations
14 56 (14.89%) Zero Trust
15 55 (14.63%) DevOps
16 54 (14.36%) SIEM
17 52 (13.83%) Decision-Making
17 52 (13.83%) Incident Management
18 51 (13.56%) Technical Leadership
18 51 (13.56%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 29 (7.71%) Bicep
1 29 (7.71%) Python
2 15 (3.99%) PowerShell
3 12 (3.19%) C#
4 11 (2.93%) JavaScript
4 11 (2.93%) TypeScript
5 8 (2.13%) Bash
6 5 (1.33%) Java
7 4 (1.06%) SQL
8 3 (0.80%) Go
8 3 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (0.53%) Groovy
9 2 (0.53%) Objective-C
9 2 (0.53%) Search Processing Language
10 1 (0.27%) C
Qualifications
1 300 (79.79%) Security Cleared
2 236 (62.77%) SC Cleared
3 91 (24.20%) DV Cleared
4 63 (16.76%) CISSP
5 54 (14.36%) CISM
6 31 (8.24%) Cisco Certification
7 24 (6.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 19 (5.05%) Degree
9 16 (4.26%) AWS Certification
10 15 (3.99%) Azure Certification
10 15 (3.99%) CRISC
11 13 (3.46%) CHECK Team Leader
12 12 (3.19%) CCSP
12 12 (3.19%) CHECK Team Member
13 11 (2.93%) CompTIA Security+
14 10 (2.66%) CEH
15 9 (2.39%) GIAC
15 9 (2.39%) TOGAF Certification
16 8 (2.13%) CISA
16 8 (2.13%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 129 (34.31%) NIST
2 120 (31.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 49 (13.03%) GDPR
4 39 (10.37%) GRC
5 35 (9.31%) Cyber Essentials
6 31 (8.24%) JSP 440
7 29 (7.71%) NIST 800
8 22 (5.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 21 (5.59%) Data Quality
10 12 (3.19%) Accessibility
11 11 (2.93%) WCAG
12 10 (2.66%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 8 (2.13%) PCI DSS
14 7 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 7 (1.86%) QA
15 6 (1.60%) COBIT
15 6 (1.60%) Def Stans
15 6 (1.60%) Government Security Classifications
15 6 (1.60%) SLA
16 4 (1.06%) IASME
System Software
1 29 (7.71%) Active Directory
2 21 (5.59%) Docker
3 13 (3.46%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.66%) VMware NSX
5 5 (1.33%) Hyper-V
6 4 (1.06%) Firmware
6 4 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.53%) KVM
7 2 (0.53%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (0.53%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.53%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.53%) vSphere
8 1 (0.27%) UAG
Systems Management
1 53 (14.10%) Kubernetes
2 10 (2.66%) Ansible
3 8 (2.13%) Jamf Pro
4 7 (1.86%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 6 (1.60%) Prometheus
6 5 (1.33%) Grafana
7 4 (1.06%) Microsoft Intune
8 3 (0.80%) Istio
8 3 (0.80%) QRadar
8 3 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (0.53%) CSIRT
9 2 (0.53%) SCCM
10 1 (0.27%) CloudForms
10 1 (0.27%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
10 1 (0.27%) Consul
10 1 (0.27%) linkerd
10 1 (0.27%) McAfee ePO
10 1 (0.27%) Rancher
10 1 (0.27%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.27%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 88 (23.40%) Microsoft
2 21 (5.59%) VMware
3 18 (4.79%) ServiceNow
4 13 (3.46%) Oracle
5 10 (2.66%) Google
6 9 (2.39%) Palo Alto
6 9 (2.39%) Splunk
7 8 (2.13%) Cisco
8 6 (1.60%) Apple
8 6 (1.60%) SAP
9 4 (1.06%) F5
9 4 (1.06%) OneLogin
9 4 (1.06%) SolarWinds
9 4 (1.06%) Sparx
10 3 (0.80%) Cribl.io
10 3 (0.80%) Northgate
11 2 (0.53%) CrowdStrike
11 2 (0.53%) Qualys
11 2 (0.53%) Red Hat
11 2 (0.53%) Zscaler