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 11 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 352 414 500
Rank change year-on-year +62 +86 -82
Contract jobs citing NCSC 345 139 90
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.65% 0.43% 0.21%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 3.83% 2.60% 1.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 254 92 60
10th Percentile £450 £500 £475
25th Percentile £513 £558 £523
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £620 £645 £613
Median % change year-on-year -3.88% +5.31% -9.26%
75th Percentile £700 £700 £738
90th Percentile £800 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £641 £575
% change year-on-year -6.43% +11.52% -17.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 13 1
10th Percentile £73.75 £60.75 -
25th Percentile £80.48 £82.50 -
Median hourly rate £83.65 £85.00 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.59% +6.25% -3.97%
75th Percentile £85.40 £91.50 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.40 £85.00 £80.00
% change year-on-year +0.47% +6.25% -3.97%

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 8,999 5,348 5,907
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.01% 16.48% 13.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,771 3,432 3,641
10th Percentile £338 £280 £281
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £610 £622
90th Percentile £700 £719 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £471 £475
% change year-on-year +6.15% -0.83% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 551 231 422
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.63 £11.66
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.17 £13.60
Median hourly rate £36.07 £30.00 £24.18
Median % change year-on-year +20.23% +24.07% -38.66%
75th Percentile £68.32 £62.25 £50.00
90th Percentile £81.90 £83.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £27.44 £24.18
% change year-on-year +41.11% +13.48% -33.75%

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 11 July 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 11 July 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 11 July 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 +43 299 £608 -5.81% 68
UK excluding London -19 177 £600 -6.43% 50
Work from Home +35 136 £625 -2.34% 36
London +20 113 £625 -3.85% 27
South East +2 91 £639 -5.37% 22
South West -20 40 £553 -14.34% 10
North of England -62 20 £668 +8.98% 8
North West -38 17 £668 +14.84% 6
Midlands -53 16 £492 -24.31% 1
West Midlands -60 16 £492 -24.31%
Scotland -5 8 £663 +32.50% 4
Wales - 4 £800 - 2
East of England -33 3 £450 +167.46% 2
Yorkshire -50 3 £600 -7.69% 2

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 15 (4.35%) Confluence
2 3 (0.87%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.58%) WebLogic
3 2 (0.58%) WebSphere
4 1 (0.29%) SharePoint 2010
4 1 (0.29%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 2 (0.58%) PlantUML
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (2.61%) Oracle ERP
2 3 (0.87%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
3 2 (0.58%) SAP GRC
3 2 (0.58%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 123 (35.65%) Azure
2 87 (25.22%) AWS
3 33 (9.57%) Entra ID
4 28 (8.12%) GCP
5 22 (6.38%) Microsoft 365
5 22 (6.38%) SaaS
6 17 (4.93%) Azure DevOps
6 17 (4.93%) OpenShift
7 9 (2.61%) IaaS
7 9 (2.61%) OCI
7 9 (2.61%) PaaS
8 8 (2.32%) Amazon EKS
9 7 (2.03%) Azure AKS
9 7 (2.03%) Azure Monitor
9 7 (2.03%) GitHub
9 7 (2.03%) Serverless
10 6 (1.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 5 (1.45%) AWS CloudFormation
11 5 (1.45%) AWS Lambda
11 5 (1.45%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 34 (9.86%) Firewall
2 32 (9.28%) Network Security
3 18 (5.22%) VPN
4 16 (4.64%) DNS
5 13 (3.77%) BGP
6 12 (3.48%) IPsec
6 12 (3.48%) OSPF
6 12 (3.48%) TCP/IP
6 12 (3.48%) WAN
7 11 (3.19%) MPLS
7 11 (3.19%) SD-WAN
8 10 (2.90%) LAN
8 10 (2.90%) VLAN
9 6 (1.74%) Cisco ASA
9 6 (1.74%) Cisco Nexus
9 6 (1.74%) VSAN
10 5 (1.45%) BIG-IP
10 5 (1.45%) Cisco Firepower
10 5 (1.45%) DHCP
10 5 (1.45%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.90%) Geospatial Data
2 6 (1.74%) Azure SQL Database
3 3 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.87%) Oracle Reports
3 3 (0.87%) Power BI
4 2 (0.58%) DynamoDB
5 1 (0.29%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.29%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.29%) Metadata
5 1 (0.29%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.29%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.29%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 18 (5.22%) JIRA
2 13 (3.77%) Jenkins
3 12 (3.48%) Git
4 8 (2.32%) MSI
5 3 (0.87%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.58%) GitLab
General
1 102 (29.57%) Public Sector
2 96 (27.83%) Social Skills
3 34 (9.86%) Finance
4 22 (6.38%) Influencing Skills
5 20 (5.80%) Telecoms
6 19 (5.51%) Documentation Skills
7 17 (4.93%) Analytical Skills
8 13 (3.77%) Military
9 9 (2.61%) Law
10 8 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 7 (2.03%) Local Government
11 7 (2.03%) Police
12 6 (1.74%) Legal
13 5 (1.45%) Aerospace
13 5 (1.45%) Manufacturing
14 4 (1.16%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.58%) Aviation
15 2 (0.58%) Banking
16 1 (0.29%) Marketing
16 1 (0.29%) Retail
Job Titles
1 128 (37.10%) Architect
2 56 (16.23%) Security Architect
3 39 (11.30%) Lead
4 34 (9.86%) Technical Architect
5 29 (8.41%) Consultant
6 28 (8.12%) Senior
7 19 (5.51%) Security Consultant
8 18 (5.22%) Security Manager
9 16 (4.64%) Solutions Architect
10 15 (4.35%) Analyst
10 15 (4.35%) Lead Architect
11 14 (4.06%) Technical Leader
12 13 (3.77%) Cybersecurity Manager
13 12 (3.48%) Developer
13 12 (3.48%) Tester
14 11 (3.19%) CyberArk Architect
14 11 (3.19%) Network Architect
14 11 (3.19%) Penetration Tester
14 11 (3.19%) Security Engineer
15 10 (2.90%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (5.80%) OpenID
1 20 (5.80%) SAML
2 19 (5.51%) LDAP
3 14 (4.06%) .NET
4 13 (3.77%) REST
5 10 (2.90%) GeoJSON
5 10 (2.90%) RESTful
6 9 (2.61%) .NET Framework
7 8 (2.32%) .NET Core
7 8 (2.32%) ATL
7 8 (2.32%) COM
7 8 (2.32%) CSS
7 8 (2.32%) CSS3
7 8 (2.32%) HTML
7 8 (2.32%) HTML5
7 8 (2.32%) MFC
7 8 (2.32%) OAuth
7 8 (2.32%) WPF
8 5 (1.45%) SailPoint
9 4 (1.16%) SAP CAF
Miscellaneous
1 43 (12.46%) Cloud Native
2 38 (11.01%) Onboarding
3 23 (6.67%) Management Information System
3 23 (6.67%) Security Operations Centre
4 21 (6.09%) Cyber Threat
5 20 (5.80%) Operational Technology
6 18 (5.22%) Security Posture
7 17 (4.93%) Data Centre
7 17 (4.93%) PKI
8 14 (4.06%) CSOC
8 14 (4.06%) Legacy Systems
8 14 (4.06%) Public Cloud
9 13 (3.77%) Hybrid Cloud
9 13 (3.77%) SCADA
10 12 (3.48%) Private Cloud
11 10 (2.90%) Product Ownership
12 6 (1.74%) Enterprise Software
13 5 (1.45%) Data Protection Act
13 5 (1.45%) NHS
14 4 (1.16%) CESG
Operating Systems
1 26 (7.54%) Windows
2 25 (7.25%) Linux
3 7 (2.03%) Mac OS
4 6 (1.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 6 (1.74%) Windows Server
5 4 (1.16%) Windows 10
6 3 (0.87%) VMS
7 2 (0.58%) Android
7 2 (0.58%) CentOS
7 2 (0.58%) Ubuntu
7 2 (0.58%) Unix
8 1 (0.29%) Apple iOS
8 1 (0.29%) Rocky
8 1 (0.29%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 160 (46.38%) Cybersecurity
2 85 (24.64%) CI/CD
3 77 (22.32%) Cloud Security
4 74 (21.45%) Agile
4 74 (21.45%) Infrastructure as Code
5 68 (19.71%) DevOps
6 62 (17.97%) Incident Response
7 59 (17.10%) Stakeholder Management
8 58 (16.81%) Security Architecture
9 56 (16.23%) Risk Management
9 56 (16.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 55 (15.94%) SIEM
11 51 (14.78%) Continuous Improvement
12 50 (14.49%) Threat Modelling
13 45 (13.04%) TOGAF
13 45 (13.04%) Zero Trust
14 42 (12.17%) Vulnerability Management
15 41 (11.88%) DevSecOps
16 38 (11.01%) Containerisation
17 37 (10.72%) Architectural Patterns
Programming Languages
1 23 (6.67%) Python
2 22 (6.38%) Bicep
3 11 (3.19%) SQL
4 10 (2.90%) PowerShell
5 9 (2.61%) C#
6 8 (2.32%) JavaScript
6 8 (2.32%) TypeScript
7 7 (2.03%) Java
8 3 (0.87%) Bash
9 2 (0.58%) Groovy
9 2 (0.58%) Kusto Query Language
9 2 (0.58%) Objective-C
9 2 (0.58%) Search Processing Language
10 1 (0.29%) C
Qualifications
1 253 (73.33%) Security Cleared
2 205 (59.42%) SC Cleared
3 76 (22.03%) DV Cleared
4 44 (12.75%) CISSP
5 40 (11.59%) CISM
6 33 (9.57%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (6.38%) Degree
8 17 (4.93%) CCNP
9 14 (4.06%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 13 (3.77%) Azure Certification
11 12 (3.48%) AWS Certification
11 12 (3.48%) CHECK Team Leader
11 12 (3.48%) GIAC
12 10 (2.90%) CESG Certified Professional
12 10 (2.90%) CHECK Team Member
13 9 (2.61%) CCIE
14 8 (2.32%) BPSS Clearance
14 8 (2.32%) CCSP
14 8 (2.32%) CEH
14 8 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 117 (33.91%) NIST
2 95 (27.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 45 (13.04%) GDPR
4 34 (9.86%) Cyber Essentials
5 28 (8.12%) NIST 800
6 23 (6.67%) JSP 440
7 18 (5.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 16 (4.64%) GRC
9 15 (4.35%) Government Security Classifications
9 15 (4.35%) RMADS
10 12 (3.48%) Accessibility
10 12 (3.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 10 (2.90%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 9 (2.61%) COBIT
13 8 (2.32%) PCI DSS
13 8 (2.32%) WCAG
14 7 (2.03%) ISO/IEC 20000
14 7 (2.03%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 7 (2.03%) QA
15 6 (1.74%) Data Quality
System Software
1 31 (8.99%) Active Directory
2 18 (5.22%) Docker
3 15 (4.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (4.06%) VMware NSX
5 5 (1.45%) Hyper-V
6 4 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.87%) vSphere
8 2 (0.58%) KVM
9 1 (0.29%) GPFS
9 1 (0.29%) Lustre
9 1 (0.29%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.29%) UAG
Systems Management
1 53 (15.36%) Kubernetes
2 44 (12.75%) Terraform
3 11 (3.19%) Ansible
4 7 (2.03%) Jamf Pro
5 6 (1.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 3 (0.87%) Istio
6 3 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
7 2 (0.58%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.58%) CSIRT
7 2 (0.58%) Grafana
7 2 (0.58%) Iperf
7 2 (0.58%) Nmap
7 2 (0.58%) Prometheus
7 2 (0.58%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.29%) Argo
8 1 (0.29%) CASB
8 1 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.29%) McAfee ePO
8 1 (0.29%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.29%) VxRail
Vendors
1 73 (21.16%) Microsoft
2 27 (7.83%) VMware
3 20 (5.80%) Cisco
4 17 (4.93%) Splunk
5 16 (4.64%) Palo Alto
6 13 (3.77%) CyberArk
7 12 (3.48%) ServiceNow
8 9 (2.61%) Oracle
9 8 (2.32%) Fortinet
10 7 (2.03%) Google
10 7 (2.03%) SAP
10 7 (2.03%) SolarWinds
11 6 (1.74%) F5
12 5 (1.45%) Apple
12 5 (1.45%) CheckPoint
12 5 (1.45%) Zscaler
13 4 (1.16%) Juniper
14 3 (0.87%) BiZZdesign
14 3 (0.87%) Citrix
14 3 (0.87%) Red Hat