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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 393 491 371
Rank change year-on-year +98 -120 +271
Contract jobs citing NCSC 166 71 277
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.50% 0.18% 0.56%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.94% 1.37% 3.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 41 174
10th Percentile £493 £475 £469
25th Percentile £543 £500 £586
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £645 £560 £681
Median % change year-on-year +15.18% -17.80% +4.81%
75th Percentile £700 £725 £800
90th Percentile £738 £775 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £536 £700
% change year-on-year +21.36% -23.49% +10.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 2 28
10th Percentile £50.13 £62.67 £58.31
25th Percentile £82.69 £65.56 £71.36
Median hourly rate £88.75 £70.75 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +25.45% -15.17% +13.07%
75th Percentile £91.50 £75.56 -
90th Percentile - £78.22 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £90.00 £70.75 £83.40
% change year-on-year +27.21% -15.17% +13.07%

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 5,645 5,170 7,035
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.13% 13.42% 14.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,621 3,067 4,762
10th Percentile £300 £281 £313
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -
75th Percentile £608 £630 £650
90th Percentile £713 £749 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 267 259 257
10th Percentile £13.60 £12.42 £14.02
25th Percentile £16.92 £15.18 £18.70
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.50 £35.63
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -22.82% +54.91%
75th Percentile £60.00 £59.38 £63.75
90th Percentile £81.10 £70.00 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.54 £27.09 £38.55
% change year-on-year +1.66% -29.73% +83.57%

NCSC
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing NCSC as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for NCSC 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 19 September 2025.

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 19 September 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for NCSC in the UK

NCSC
Top 15 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 19 September 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 +94 148 £650 +16.07% 55
UK excluding London +86 105 £650 +21.36% 50
Work from Home +57 58 £645 +7.50% 31
London +17 47 £650 +1.96% 16
South West +56 45 £675 +8.00% 20
East of England +16 17 £249 - 3
South East +24 16 £675 +33.66% 4
West Midlands +5 14 £700 +3.70% 4
Midlands -2 14 £700 +3.70% 5
Scotland -3 6 £500 -37.50% 2
North of England -25 6 £550 +9.56% 7
Channel Islands - 5 £725 -
North West -10 3 £400 -20.32% 4
Yorkshire - 3 £650 - 2
Wales - 2 £238 - 6

NCSC
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 4 (2.41%) Confluence
2 3 (1.81%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.60%) Apache
3 1 (0.60%) IIS
3 1 (0.60%) nginx
3 1 (0.60%) Tomcat
Applications
1 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 52 (31.33%) Azure
2 41 (24.70%) AWS
3 25 (15.06%) GitHub
4 17 (10.24%) GCP
5 14 (8.43%) Entra ID
6 12 (7.23%) AWS CloudFormation
7 8 (4.82%) Azure DevOps
8 7 (4.22%) AWS Fargate
8 7 (4.22%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 6 (3.61%) Amazon ECS
10 4 (2.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 4 (2.41%) Amazon EKS
10 4 (2.41%) Amazon S3
10 4 (2.41%) AWS Lambda
10 4 (2.41%) Azure Monitor
10 4 (2.41%) GitHub Actions
10 4 (2.41%) Microsoft 365
10 4 (2.41%) Serverless
11 3 (1.81%) Amazon EC2
11 3 (1.81%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 16 (9.64%) Network Security
2 11 (6.63%) Firewall
3 10 (6.02%) BGP
4 9 (5.42%) DNS
5 7 (4.22%) VPN
6 5 (3.01%) 5G
7 4 (2.41%) DHCP
7 4 (2.41%) VSAN
8 3 (1.81%) 4G
8 3 (1.81%) Modbus
8 3 (1.81%) SD-WAN
8 3 (1.81%) Skype
8 3 (1.81%) TCP/IP
8 3 (1.81%) WAN
9 2 (1.20%) EIGRP
9 2 (1.20%) LoRaWAN
9 2 (1.20%) MQTT
9 2 (1.20%) OSPF
9 2 (1.20%) SNMP
10 1 (0.60%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.82%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (3.01%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.60%) Amazon Athena
3 1 (0.60%) Amazon Redshift
3 1 (0.60%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 17 (10.24%) SonarQube
2 11 (6.63%) GitLab
2 11 (6.63%) Jenkins
3 10 (6.02%) Burp Suite
3 10 (6.02%) Metasploit
4 5 (3.01%) Git
5 4 (2.41%) JIRA
6 2 (1.20%) Terragrunt
General
1 67 (40.36%) Public Sector
2 45 (27.11%) Social Skills
3 26 (15.66%) Military
4 13 (7.83%) Finance
5 9 (5.42%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (5.42%) Telecoms
6 8 (4.82%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (4.82%) Electronics
6 8 (4.82%) Manufacturing
6 8 (4.82%) Marketing
7 7 (4.22%) Back Office
8 5 (3.01%) Law
8 5 (3.01%) Local Government
8 5 (3.01%) Police
9 4 (2.41%) Aerospace
10 3 (1.81%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.60%) Automotive
11 1 (0.60%) Legal
11 1 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.60%) Retail
Job Titles
1 51 (30.72%) Architect
2 33 (19.88%) Lead
3 31 (18.67%) Security Engineer
4 21 (12.65%) Security Architect
5 17 (10.24%) Senior
6 16 (9.64%) Consultant
7 13 (7.83%) Security Consultant
8 12 (7.23%) Cybersecurity Engineer
9 8 (4.82%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 8 (4.82%) Solutions Architect
10 7 (4.22%) Analyst
10 7 (4.22%) SOC Architect
11 6 (3.61%) Network Architect
11 6 (3.61%) Security Manager
12 5 (3.01%) DevOps Engineer
12 5 (3.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 5 (3.01%) Security Analyst
12 5 (3.01%) Senior Architect
12 5 (3.01%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 5 (3.01%) Senior Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.22%) YAML
2 6 (3.61%) .NET
3 5 (3.01%) cloud-init
3 5 (3.01%) Kafka
3 5 (3.01%) Keycloak
4 4 (2.41%) Middleware
5 3 (1.81%) .NET Core
5 3 (1.81%) .NET Framework
5 3 (1.81%) ActiveMQ
5 3 (1.81%) Ajax
5 3 (1.81%) AngularJS
5 3 (1.81%) CSS
5 3 (1.81%) Entity Framework
5 3 (1.81%) HTML
5 3 (1.81%) JMS
5 3 (1.81%) ModSecurity
5 3 (1.81%) RabbitMQ
6 2 (1.20%) AWS CDK
6 2 (1.20%) RESTful
6 2 (1.20%) UIKit
Miscellaneous
1 19 (11.45%) Management Information System
2 16 (9.64%) PKI
3 10 (6.02%) Cloud Native
3 10 (6.02%) Cyber Threat
3 10 (6.02%) Onboarding
4 9 (5.42%) Operational Technology
5 8 (4.82%) Cyber Defence
6 7 (4.22%) Security Posture
7 5 (3.01%) Legacy Applications
7 5 (3.01%) NHS
7 5 (3.01%) SCADA
8 4 (2.41%) Security Operations Centre
9 3 (1.81%) CSOC
9 3 (1.81%) Data Centre
9 3 (1.81%) Hybrid Cloud
9 3 (1.81%) Industrial Internet of Things
9 3 (1.81%) IoT
9 3 (1.81%) Legacy Systems
9 3 (1.81%) Private Cloud
10 2 (1.20%) Enterprise Cloud
Operating Systems
1 16 (9.64%) Linux
2 12 (7.23%) Windows
3 9 (5.42%) Windows Server
4 5 (3.01%) CentOS
4 5 (3.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 5 (3.01%) Unix
5 4 (2.41%) Windows 10
6 3 (1.81%) AIX
6 3 (1.81%) Mac OS
6 3 (1.81%) Windows Server 2008
7 2 (1.20%) Apple iOS
7 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (38.55%) Cybersecurity
2 35 (21.08%) CI/CD
3 31 (18.67%) Cloud Security
3 31 (18.67%) Infrastructure as Code
4 30 (18.07%) DevSecOps
5 27 (16.27%) Information Assurance
5 27 (16.27%) Risk Management
6 26 (15.66%) DevOps
7 25 (15.06%) Threat Modelling
8 21 (12.65%) Vulnerability Assessment
9 20 (12.05%) Incident Response
10 19 (11.45%) OWASP
10 19 (11.45%) Security Architecture
10 19 (11.45%) Security Management
11 18 (10.84%) Agile
11 18 (10.84%) Incident Management
11 18 (10.84%) SIEM
11 18 (10.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 17 (10.24%) Containerisation
12 17 (10.24%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 21 (12.65%) Python
2 18 (10.84%) Bash
3 8 (4.82%) PowerShell
4 6 (3.61%) SQL
5 5 (3.01%) Go
6 3 (1.81%) Bicep
6 3 (1.81%) JavaScript
6 3 (1.81%) PL/SQL
6 3 (1.81%) Shell Script
7 2 (1.20%) C#
7 2 (1.20%) Objective-C
7 2 (1.20%) Swift
8 1 (0.60%) Java
8 1 (0.60%) VB
8 1 (0.60%) VB6
Qualifications
1 114 (68.67%) Security Cleared
2 76 (45.78%) SC Cleared
3 40 (24.10%) DV Cleared
4 29 (17.47%) CISSP
5 19 (11.45%) CISM
6 14 (8.43%) Degree
7 12 (7.23%) CREST Certified
8 11 (6.63%) OSCP
9 9 (5.42%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
9 9 (5.42%) Tigerscheme
10 8 (4.82%) CHECK Team Member
11 7 (4.22%) Cisco Certification
12 6 (3.61%) CESG Certified Professional
13 5 (3.01%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (2.41%) Azure Certification
14 4 (2.41%) CompTIA Security+
14 4 (2.41%) Microsoft Certification
15 3 (1.81%) Computer Science Degree
15 3 (1.81%) GIAC
16 2 (1.20%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (30.12%) NIST
2 47 (28.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 25 (15.06%) JSP 440
4 20 (12.05%) Cyber Essentials
5 19 (11.45%) NIST 800
6 15 (9.04%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 11 (6.63%) GDPR
8 9 (5.42%) RMADS
9 4 (2.41%) Government Security Classifications
9 4 (2.41%) GRC
10 2 (1.20%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 2 (1.20%) IASME
10 2 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 1 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
11 1 (0.60%) COBIT
11 1 (0.60%) ISO 22301
11 1 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 1 (0.60%) PCI DSS
11 1 (0.60%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (8.43%) Firmware
2 12 (7.23%) Docker
3 11 (6.63%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.41%) VMware ESXi
4 4 (2.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (1.81%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.60%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 24 (14.46%) Terraform
2 15 (9.04%) Kubernetes
3 10 (6.02%) Jamf Pro
3 10 (6.02%) Nmap
4 7 (4.22%) Ansible
4 7 (4.22%) Grafana
4 7 (4.22%) Prometheus
5 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (3.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 5 (3.01%) Packer
7 4 (2.41%) OPNET
8 3 (1.81%) Check_MK
8 3 (1.81%) vCenter Server
9 2 (1.20%) SELinux
10 1 (0.60%) Puppet
10 1 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 21 (12.65%) Microsoft
2 17 (10.24%) VMware
3 10 (6.02%) Veracode
4 9 (5.42%) Splunk
5 8 (4.82%) SAP
6 6 (3.61%) Cisco
6 6 (3.61%) Okta
7 4 (2.41%) Google
8 3 (1.81%) Fortinet
8 3 (1.81%) Juniper
8 3 (1.81%) Oracle
9 2 (1.20%) Brio
9 2 (1.20%) CrowdStrike
9 2 (1.20%) Dynatrace
9 2 (1.20%) Foundry
9 2 (1.20%) QAD
9 2 (1.20%) Saba
9 2 (1.20%) SolarWinds
10 1 (0.60%) Atlassian
10 1 (0.60%) LogRhythm