NCSC Contracts

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring NCSC skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited NCSC over the 6 months leading up to 6 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 413 489 416
Rank change year-on-year +76 -73 +247
Contract jobs citing NCSC 135 96 282
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.42% 0.22% 0.50%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 2.60% 1.62% 3.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 65 178
10th Percentile £500 £475 £475
25th Percentile £555 £525 £600
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £650 £613 £675
Median % change year-on-year +6.12% -9.26% +8.00%
75th Percentile £700 £725 £792
90th Percentile £738 £743 £850
UK excluding London median daily rate £644 £575 £700
% change year-on-year +11.96% -17.86% +12.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 1 27
10th Percentile £60.75 - £59.73
25th Percentile £77.06 - £62.62
Median hourly rate £85.00 £80.00 £80.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% - +21.39%
75th Percentile £91.50 - £83.40
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.00 £80.00 £79.15
% change year-on-year +6.25% +1.07% +20.10%

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 5,193 5,937 7,740
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.30% 13.71% 13.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,326 3,673 5,290
10th Percentile £280 £281 £300
25th Percentile £400 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £612 £623 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £470 £475 £500
% change year-on-year -1.05% -5.00% +6.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 221 431 258
10th Percentile £14.78 £11.07 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £13.52 £19.50
Median hourly rate £30.00 £24.00 £37.75
Median % change year-on-year +25.00% -36.42% +39.81%
75th Percentile £62.25 £50.54 £62.50
90th Percentile £82.96 £70.00 £79.83
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.91 £23.00 £35.50
% change year-on-year +21.35% -35.21% +61.36%

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
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing NCSC.

Daily rate trend for NCSC in the UK

NCSC
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing NCSC over the 6 months to 6 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for NCSC in the UK

NCSC
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing NCSC.

Hourly rate trend for NCSC in the UK

NCSC
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing NCSC over the 6 months to 6 July 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for NCSC in the UK

NCSC
Top 15 Contract 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 6 July 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 +104 122 £650 +10.64% 166
UK excluding London +98 87 £644 +11.96% 147
Work from Home +22 45 £640 +2.40% 151
London +37 39 £650 -3.70% 26
South East +58 28 £675 +33.66% 31
South West +44 24 £645 +12.17% 29
Midlands +24 11 £650 -16.13% 21
West Midlands +18 11 £650 -16.13% 15
East of England +36 9 £88 - 25
North of England - 8 £625 - 32
Scotland +7 6 £500 -37.50% 8
Channel Islands - 5 £725 -
North West - 4 £581 - 14
North East - 2 £528 - 4
Yorkshire - 2 £700 - 14

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 3 (2.22%) Confluence
2 2 (1.48%) Camunda
3 1 (0.74%) Apache
3 1 (0.74%) IIS
3 1 (0.74%) nginx
3 1 (0.74%) Tomcat
Cloud Services
1 39 (28.89%) Azure
2 30 (22.22%) AWS
3 17 (12.59%) GCP
4 16 (11.85%) GitHub
5 11 (8.15%) Entra ID
6 5 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
6 5 (3.70%) Azure Monitor
7 4 (2.96%) PaaS
7 4 (2.96%) SaaS
8 3 (2.22%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 3 (2.22%) Amazon ECS
8 3 (2.22%) AWS CloudFormation
8 3 (2.22%) AWS Fargate
8 3 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
9 2 (1.48%) Amazon EKS
9 2 (1.48%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (1.48%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (1.48%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (1.48%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (1.48%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (11.85%) Firewall
2 15 (11.11%) Network Security
3 10 (7.41%) BGP
4 8 (5.93%) VPN
5 6 (4.44%) DNS
6 5 (3.70%) 5G
6 5 (3.70%) DHCP
7 4 (2.96%) Intrusion Detection
7 4 (2.96%) MQTT
7 4 (2.96%) TCP/IP
8 3 (2.22%) 4G
8 3 (2.22%) Ethernet
8 3 (2.22%) Internet
8 3 (2.22%) Modbus
8 3 (2.22%) SD-WAN
8 3 (2.22%) WAN
9 2 (1.48%) EIGRP
9 2 (1.48%) LoRaWAN
9 2 (1.48%) OSPF
9 2 (1.48%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (4.44%) Amazon RDS
2 2 (1.48%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.74%) Amazon Athena
3 1 (0.74%) Amazon Redshift
3 1 (0.74%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.74%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 10 (7.41%) Burp Suite
1 10 (7.41%) Metasploit
2 9 (6.67%) SonarQube
3 6 (4.44%) Jenkins
4 4 (2.96%) GitLab
5 3 (2.22%) Git
5 3 (2.22%) JIRA
6 2 (1.48%) Terragrunt
General
1 50 (37.04%) Public Sector
2 41 (30.37%) Social Skills
3 21 (15.56%) Military
4 11 (8.15%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (4.44%) Finance
5 6 (4.44%) Telecoms
6 4 (2.96%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (2.96%) Local Government
7 3 (2.22%) Electronics
7 3 (2.22%) Law
7 3 (2.22%) Manufacturing
7 3 (2.22%) Marketing
7 3 (2.22%) Pharmaceutical
7 3 (2.22%) Police
8 2 (1.48%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.48%) Fire and Rescue
8 2 (1.48%) Legal
9 1 (0.74%) Automotive
9 1 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 35 (25.93%) Architect
2 25 (18.52%) Security Engineer
3 20 (14.81%) Lead
3 20 (14.81%) Senior
4 16 (11.85%) Consultant
5 15 (11.11%) Security Architect
6 13 (9.63%) Cybersecurity Engineer
7 11 (8.15%) Security Consultant
8 6 (4.44%) Auditor
8 6 (4.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 6 (4.44%) Network Architect
8 6 (4.44%) Security Auditor
8 6 (4.44%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 5 (3.70%) Information Security Specialist
9 5 (3.70%) Information Specialist
9 5 (3.70%) Security Manager
9 5 (3.70%) Security Specialist
9 5 (3.70%) Senior Architect
9 5 (3.70%) Senior Network Architect
10 4 (2.96%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (3.70%) .NET
1 5 (3.70%) AngularJS
2 4 (2.96%) Middleware
3 3 (2.22%) .NET Core
3 3 (2.22%) .NET Framework
3 3 (2.22%) ActiveMQ
3 3 (2.22%) Ajax
3 3 (2.22%) CSS
3 3 (2.22%) Entity Framework
3 3 (2.22%) HTML
3 3 (2.22%) JMS
3 3 (2.22%) Kafka
3 3 (2.22%) Keycloak
3 3 (2.22%) RabbitMQ
4 2 (1.48%) Core Data
4 2 (1.48%) Elastic Stack
4 2 (1.48%) OpenID
4 2 (1.48%) OpenJDK
4 2 (1.48%) Spring Boot
4 2 (1.48%) UIKit
Miscellaneous
1 22 (16.30%) Management Information System
2 16 (11.85%) Operational Technology
3 11 (8.15%) PKI
4 8 (5.93%) Onboarding
4 8 (5.93%) SCADA
5 6 (4.44%) Cloud Native
6 5 (3.70%) Cyber Threat
6 5 (3.70%) Industrial Internet of Things
6 5 (3.70%) IoT
7 3 (2.22%) Cyber Defence
7 3 (2.22%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (2.22%) Legacy Systems
7 3 (2.22%) Security Posture
8 2 (1.48%) Cyberattack
8 2 (1.48%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.48%) Legacy Applications
8 2 (1.48%) Mobile App
8 2 (1.48%) NB-IoT
8 2 (1.48%) NHS
8 2 (1.48%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 11 (8.15%) Windows
2 10 (7.41%) Linux
3 9 (6.67%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.22%) AIX
4 3 (2.22%) Apple iOS
4 3 (2.22%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.74%) CentOS
5 1 (0.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.74%) Unix
5 1 (0.74%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (46.67%) Cybersecurity
2 29 (21.48%) Risk Management
3 28 (20.74%) Threat Modelling
3 28 (20.74%) Vulnerability Assessment
4 24 (17.78%) Decision-Making
5 23 (17.04%) DevSecOps
6 22 (16.30%) Agile
6 22 (16.30%) CI/CD
6 22 (16.30%) Cloud Security
6 22 (16.30%) Information Security
7 19 (14.07%) Information Assurance
7 19 (14.07%) Infrastructure as Code
7 19 (14.07%) Penetration Testing
7 19 (14.07%) Risk Assessment
7 19 (14.07%) Security Architecture
8 18 (13.33%) Security Testing
9 17 (12.59%) OWASP
10 16 (11.85%) Problem-Solving
10 16 (11.85%) Security Management
11 13 (9.63%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 16 (11.85%) Python
2 12 (8.89%) Bash
3 6 (4.44%) PowerShell
4 3 (2.22%) Java
4 3 (2.22%) JavaScript
4 3 (2.22%) PL/SQL
4 3 (2.22%) SQL
5 2 (1.48%) Objective-C
5 2 (1.48%) Swift
6 1 (0.74%) Bicep
6 1 (0.74%) C#
6 1 (0.74%) Go
6 1 (0.74%) VB
6 1 (0.74%) VB6
Qualifications
1 89 (65.93%) Security Cleared
2 58 (42.96%) SC Cleared
3 35 (25.93%) DV Cleared
4 24 (17.78%) CISSP
5 17 (12.59%) CISM
6 13 (9.63%) Degree
7 12 (8.89%) CREST Certified
8 11 (8.15%) OSCP
9 9 (6.67%) Tigerscheme
10 8 (5.93%) CHECK Team Member
10 8 (5.93%) Cisco Certification
11 6 (4.44%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 6 (4.44%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
12 5 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (2.96%) Azure Certification
13 4 (2.96%) CESG Certified Professional
13 4 (2.96%) CompTIA Security+
14 3 (2.22%) AWS Certification
14 3 (2.22%) Microsoft Certification
15 2 (1.48%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (27.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 30 (22.22%) NIST
3 12 (8.89%) Cyber Essentials
4 11 (8.15%) JSP 440
5 10 (7.41%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 10 (7.41%) NIST 800
6 7 (5.19%) GDPR
6 7 (5.19%) GRC
7 6 (4.44%) RMADS
8 5 (3.70%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (1.48%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (1.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 2 (1.48%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 1 (0.74%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.74%) COBIT
10 1 (0.74%) ISO 31000
10 1 (0.74%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.74%) SLA
System Software
1 11 (8.15%) Active Directory
2 6 (4.44%) Firmware
3 5 (3.70%) Docker
4 4 (2.96%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.74%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.74%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.74%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 14 (10.37%) Terraform
2 10 (7.41%) Nmap
3 8 (5.93%) Kubernetes
4 7 (5.19%) Microsoft Intune
5 6 (4.44%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (2.96%) Ansible
7 3 (2.22%) Check_MK
8 2 (1.48%) Grafana
8 2 (1.48%) Prometheus
8 2 (1.48%) SELinux
9 1 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 1 (0.74%) OPNET
9 1 (0.74%) Packer
9 1 (0.74%) Puppet
9 1 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 16 (11.85%) Microsoft
2 14 (10.37%) VMware
3 10 (7.41%) Veracode
4 5 (3.70%) Cisco
5 4 (2.96%) Google
5 4 (2.96%) Splunk
6 3 (2.22%) Fortinet
6 3 (2.22%) Juniper
6 3 (2.22%) Oracle
6 3 (2.22%) SAP
7 2 (1.48%) CrowdStrike
7 2 (1.48%) QAD
7 2 (1.48%) Saba
7 2 (1.48%) SolarWinds
8 1 (0.74%) Atlassian
8 1 (0.74%) Brio
8 1 (0.74%) Darktrace
8 1 (0.74%) Foundry
8 1 (0.74%) Okta
8 1 (0.74%) ServiceNow