PCI DSS Contract Job Trends

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring PCI DSS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 380 398 345
Rank change year-on-year +18 -53 +228
Contract jobs citing PCI DSS 210 154 275
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 0.45% 0.63%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 3.30% 3.17% 4.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 143 102 130
10th Percentile £362 £438 £400
25th Percentile £413 £513 £478
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £600 £600
Median % change year-on-year -15.42% - +7.87%
75th Percentile £638 £679 £700
90th Percentile £745 £750 £875
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £600 £525
% change year-on-year -16.67% +14.29% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 0
10th Percentile £30.99 - -
25th Percentile £31.55 - -
Median hourly rate £60.12 £50.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +20.24% - -
75th Percentile £94.06 - -
90th Percentile £94.63 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.30 £50.00 -
% change year-on-year -35.41% - -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

PCI DSS 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 6,360 4,860 6,375
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.29% 14.13% 14.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,106 2,862 4,244
10th Percentile £313 £261 £313
25th Percentile £406 £379 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £600 £625 £646
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.63% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 317 189 230
10th Percentile £13.97 £14.72 £14.18
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.19 £19.31
Median hourly rate £25.15 £27.50 £35.25
Median % change year-on-year -8.55% -21.99% +56.03%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.24 £64.88
90th Percentile £73.75 £70.00 £83.12
UK excluding London median hourly rate £20.50 £27.00 £35.50
% change year-on-year -24.07% -23.94% +69.05%

PCI DSS
Job Vacancy Trend

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

PCI DSS job vacancy trend in the UK

PCI DSS
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing PCI DSS

PCI DSS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing PCI DSS over the 6 months to 17 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for PCI DSS in the UK

PCI DSS
Hourly Rate Trend

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

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing PCI DSS

PCI DSS
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing PCI DSS over the 6 months to 17 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for PCI DSS in the UK

PCI DSS
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 PCI DSS within the UK over the 6 months to 17 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 +3 185 £513 -14.58% 79
UK excluding London -4 124 £500 -16.67% 72
London -10 65 £530 -7.83% 21
Work from Home +14 52 £525 -12.50% 30
North of England -29 46 £499 -16.92% 18
South East +4 32 £525 -13.58% 26
Midlands -8 26 £495 -13.91% 11
Yorkshire -23 26 £520 -23.53% 9
West Midlands -16 20 £600 - 9
North West -27 20 £475 -14.07% 9
Scotland +12 8 £400 -46.67% 2
East of England -19 7 £575 -2.13% 5
East Midlands -18 6 £375 -31.82% 2
South West -7 4 £363 -46.69% 9
Wales - 2 £475 - 2

PCI DSS
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 7 (3.33%) Confluence
1 7 (3.33%) TPMS
2 3 (1.43%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (1.43%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.95%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.48%) IIS
Applications
1 11 (5.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (4.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (3.81%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.95%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 18 (8.57%) Payment Gateway
2 4 (1.90%) Dynamics CRM
3 2 (0.95%) BASE24
4 1 (0.48%) NetSuite
4 1 (0.48%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 90 (42.86%) AWS
2 81 (38.57%) Azure
3 52 (24.76%) GCP
4 18 (8.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 16 (7.62%) AWS CloudFormation
6 15 (7.14%) Entra ID
7 12 (5.71%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 10 (4.76%) Azure Sentinel
8 10 (4.76%) Microsoft 365
8 10 (4.76%) Serverless
9 8 (3.81%) AWS Lambda
10 7 (3.33%) Amazon EventBridge
11 6 (2.86%) Amazon Kinesis
11 6 (2.86%) GitHub
11 6 (2.86%) Microsoft Purview
12 5 (2.38%) Amazon EC2
12 5 (2.38%) Amazon ECS
12 5 (2.38%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 4 (1.90%) AWS KMS
13 4 (1.90%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 48 (22.86%) Firewall
2 34 (16.19%) Network Security
3 14 (6.67%) SSH
3 14 (6.67%) SSL
3 14 (6.67%) Wireless
4 11 (5.24%) SNMP
5 9 (4.29%) SD-WAN
5 9 (4.29%) VLAN
5 9 (4.29%) WAN
6 8 (3.81%) DNS
6 8 (3.81%) VPN
7 7 (3.33%) Cisco ASA
7 7 (3.33%) DHCP
7 7 (3.33%) LAN
7 7 (3.33%) MPLS
8 6 (2.86%) BGP
8 6 (2.86%) OSPF
8 6 (2.86%) WLAN
9 5 (2.38%) IPv4
9 5 (2.38%) IPv6
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (3.81%) DynamoDB
2 6 (2.86%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (1.43%) Amazon Athena
3 3 (1.43%) Data Lake
3 3 (1.43%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (1.43%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.95%) Amazon Aurora
4 2 (0.95%) Big Data
4 2 (0.95%) BigQuery
4 2 (0.95%) MariaDB
4 2 (0.95%) MySQL
4 2 (0.95%) NonStop SQL
4 2 (0.95%) OLTP
4 2 (0.95%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.48%) Amazon Redshift
5 1 (0.48%) Azure SQL Database
5 1 (0.48%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.48%) GIS
5 1 (0.48%) Oracle Exadata
Development Applications
1 15 (7.14%) JIRA
2 9 (4.29%) Burp Suite
2 9 (4.29%) Metasploit
3 8 (3.81%) Postman
4 6 (2.86%) Jenkins
4 6 (2.86%) SoapUI
5 5 (2.38%) GitLab
6 4 (1.90%) Git
7 2 (0.95%) Jaeger
7 2 (0.95%) PVCS
8 1 (0.48%) REST Assured
8 1 (0.48%) Snyk
8 1 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
8 1 (0.48%) TeamCity
General
1 79 (37.62%) Social Skills
2 77 (36.67%) Finance
3 49 (23.33%) Analytical Skills
4 25 (11.90%) Banking
5 21 (10.00%) Documentation Skills
6 19 (9.05%) Public Sector
7 15 (7.14%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (2.86%) Influencing Skills
8 6 (2.86%) Legal
9 5 (2.38%) Marketing
10 3 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.43%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.43%) Retail
11 2 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.48%) Billing
12 1 (0.48%) Electronics
12 1 (0.48%) Financial Institution
12 1 (0.48%) Investment Banking
12 1 (0.48%) Japanese Language
12 1 (0.48%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 52 (24.76%) Architect
2 32 (15.24%) Analyst
3 27 (12.86%) Security Architect
4 16 (7.62%) Solutions Architect
5 14 (6.67%) Consultant
6 12 (5.71%) Security Analyst
7 11 (5.24%) Lead
8 10 (4.76%) Business Analyst
9 9 (4.29%) AWS Architect
9 9 (4.29%) Cryptography Engineer
9 9 (4.29%) Security Engineer
9 9 (4.29%) Senior
9 9 (4.29%) Tester
10 8 (3.81%) Payments Analyst
10 8 (3.81%) Payments Business Analyst
10 8 (3.81%) Penetration Tester
10 8 (3.81%) Project Manager
11 6 (2.86%) Cloud Architect
12 5 (2.38%) AWS Security Architect
12 5 (2.38%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.24%) OAuth
2 10 (4.76%) Node.js
3 8 (3.81%) SAML
4 7 (3.33%) REST
5 6 (2.86%) OAuth2
6 5 (2.38%) .NET
6 5 (2.38%) LDAP
6 5 (2.38%) OpenID
6 5 (2.38%) Spring
7 4 (1.90%) SOAP
7 4 (1.90%) Spring Boot
8 3 (1.43%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (1.43%) JSON
8 3 (1.43%) JWT
8 3 (1.43%) React
8 3 (1.43%) Swagger
8 3 (1.43%) XML
9 2 (0.95%) Flash
9 2 (0.95%) Middleware
9 2 (0.95%) Smart Contracts
Miscellaneous
1 26 (12.38%) Security Posture
2 20 (9.52%) Cloud Native
3 18 (8.57%) Data Centre
4 13 (6.19%) PKI
5 12 (5.71%) Onboarding
6 11 (5.24%) Product Ownership
7 8 (3.81%) Cloud Security Posture
7 8 (3.81%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (3.81%) Management Information System
8 7 (3.33%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (2.86%) Algorithms
9 6 (2.86%) Distributed Systems
9 6 (2.86%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (2.86%) IVR
9 6 (2.86%) NHS
9 6 (2.86%) PMI
9 6 (2.86%) Public Cloud
10 3 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
10 3 (1.43%) Digital Wallet
10 3 (1.43%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 24 (11.43%) Windows
2 14 (6.67%) Linux
3 3 (1.43%) AIX
3 3 (1.43%) Solaris
4 2 (0.95%) Unix
4 2 (0.95%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.48%) CentOS
5 1 (0.48%) Kali Linux
5 1 (0.48%) Mac OS
5 1 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.48%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 67 (31.90%) Cloud Security
2 64 (30.48%) Cybersecurity
3 50 (23.81%) Stakeholder Management
4 47 (22.38%) CI/CD
4 47 (22.38%) Incident Response
5 46 (21.90%) Problem-Solving
6 45 (21.43%) Roadmaps
7 43 (20.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 41 (19.52%) Agile
8 41 (19.52%) Risk Management
8 41 (19.52%) SIEM
9 35 (16.67%) DevOps
9 35 (16.67%) Information Security
9 35 (16.67%) Regulatory Compliance
10 34 (16.19%) Zero Trust
11 29 (13.81%) Security Architecture
12 27 (12.86%) Identity Access Management
12 27 (12.86%) Infrastructure as Code
13 26 (12.38%) DevSecOps
13 26 (12.38%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 38 (18.10%) Python
2 18 (8.57%) PowerShell
3 16 (7.62%) Java
4 11 (5.24%) Bash
5 6 (2.86%) SQL
6 5 (2.38%) Kusto Query Language
7 3 (1.43%) TypeScript
8 2 (0.95%) C
8 2 (0.95%) COBOL
8 2 (0.95%) PHP
8 2 (0.95%) R
8 2 (0.95%) Rust
8 2 (0.95%) Solidity
9 1 (0.48%) BeanShell
9 1 (0.48%) Go
9 1 (0.48%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.48%) VB
Qualifications
1 68 (32.38%) CISSP
2 40 (19.05%) CISM
3 33 (15.71%) Degree
4 25 (11.90%) Cisco Certification
5 24 (11.43%) Security Cleared
6 20 (9.52%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 18 (8.57%) AWS Certification
8 16 (7.62%) CCSP
9 15 (7.14%) CEH
9 15 (7.14%) FFIEC
10 13 (6.19%) CISA
10 13 (6.19%) SC Cleared
11 12 (5.71%) Azure Certification
11 12 (5.71%) GIAC
12 11 (5.24%) PMI Certification
13 9 (4.29%) CRISC
14 8 (3.81%) CBAP
14 8 (3.81%) CHECK Team Member
14 8 (3.81%) OSCP
15 7 (3.33%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 106 (50.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 105 (50.00%) GDPR
3 102 (48.57%) NIST
4 23 (10.95%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 20 (9.52%) HIPAA
6 18 (8.57%) PSD2
7 17 (8.10%) GRC
8 16 (7.62%) QA
9 14 (6.67%) SOC 2
10 9 (4.29%) ISO 8583
11 8 (3.81%) PMO
12 7 (3.33%) Cyber Essentials
12 7 (3.33%) GLBA
13 6 (2.86%) FIPS 140-2
13 6 (2.86%) ISO 20022
14 5 (2.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (2.38%) NIST 800
15 4 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27005
15 4 (1.90%) SLA
16 3 (1.43%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 16 (7.62%) Docker
2 13 (6.19%) Active Directory
3 5 (2.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (1.90%) VMware NSX
5 3 (1.43%) Firmware
6 2 (0.95%) vSphere
7 1 (0.48%) Snort
Systems Management
1 29 (13.81%) Terraform
2 23 (10.95%) Kubernetes
3 14 (6.67%) Ansible
4 8 (3.81%) Nmap
5 7 (3.33%) QRadar
6 5 (2.38%) Grafana
6 5 (2.38%) Prometheus
6 5 (2.38%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.43%) RSA Archer
7 3 (1.43%) SCCM
8 2 (0.95%) Argo
8 2 (0.95%) FortiGate
8 2 (0.95%) Nessus
9 1 (0.48%) Avamar
9 1 (0.48%) EMC NetWorker
9 1 (0.48%) Istio
9 1 (0.48%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.48%) Progress Chef
9 1 (0.48%) Puppet
9 1 (0.48%) VxRail
Vendors
1 39 (18.57%) Microsoft
2 21 (10.00%) Splunk
3 17 (8.10%) Cisco
4 16 (7.62%) ServiceNow
5 14 (6.67%) Google
6 13 (6.19%) CyberArk
7 11 (5.24%) Palo Alto
8 9 (4.29%) BeyondTrust
8 9 (4.29%) Thales
9 8 (3.81%) Salesforce
10 7 (3.33%) F5
10 7 (3.33%) VMware
11 6 (2.86%) Meraki
11 6 (2.86%) SolarWinds
11 6 (2.86%) Tenable
11 6 (2.86%) Thycotic
12 5 (2.38%) Avaya
12 5 (2.38%) Fortinet
12 5 (2.38%) Genesys
12 5 (2.38%) Rapid7