SANS Contract Job Trends

SANS Institute
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies citing SANS qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 28 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

	6 months to 28 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	671	544	552
Rank change year-on-year	-127	+8	-66
Contract jobs citing SANS	34	38	13
As % of all contract jobs in the UK	0.062%	0.11%	0.036%
As % of the Qualifications category	0.19%	0.35%	0.12%
Number of daily rates quoted	13	18	6
10^th Percentile	£566	£475	£225
25^th Percentile	£606	£510	£297
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£625	£539	£563
Median % change year-on-year	+16.06%	-4.27%	-13.46%
75^th Percentile	£731	£689	£619
90^th Percentile	£825	£898	£700
UK excluding London median daily rate	£620	£537	£600
% change year-on-year	+15.46%	-10.50%	-7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted	2	0	0
10^th Percentile	£51.03	-	-
25^th Percentile	£51.06	-	-
Median hourly rate	£51.75	-	-
75^th Percentile	£53.06	-	-
90^th Percentile	£53.48	-	-
UK excluding London median hourly rate	£51.75	-	-

All Academic and Professional Certifications
UK

SANS falls under the Academic Qualifications and Professional Certifications category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies citing academic qualifications or professional certifications.

	6 months to 28 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies citing academic qualifications or professional certifications	17,856	10,962	10,739
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK	32.58%	32.32%	29.34%
Number of daily rates quoted	11,729	6,934	6,528
10^th Percentile	£356	£286	£313
25^th Percentile	£448	£413	£425
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£536	£525	£525
Median % change year-on-year	+2.02%	-	-4.55%
75^th Percentile	£638	£625	£635
90^th Percentile	£715	£708	£725
UK excluding London median daily rate	£525	£500	£515
% change year-on-year	+5.00%	-2.91%	-3.74%
Number of hourly rates quoted	1,619	928	499
10^th Percentile	£16.33	£17.03	£18.13
25^th Percentile	£24.50	£18.87	£24.18
Median hourly rate	£43.96	£25.15	£46.18
Median % change year-on-year	+74.79%	-45.54%	-12.87%
75^th Percentile	£73.00	£40.00	£67.50
90^th Percentile	£89.21	£70.05	£75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate	£43.96	£25.15	£48.18
% change year-on-year	+74.79%	-47.80%	-7.15%

SANS Job Vacancy Trend

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

SANS Daily Rate Trend

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

SANS Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SANS over the 6 months to 28 October 2026.

SANS Hourly Rate Trend

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

SANS Top 11 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SANS within the UK over the 6 months to 28 October 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	Job Ads Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
England	-132	33	£625	+16.06%	5
UK excluding London	-86	19	£620	+15.46%	4
London	-87	14	£625	+1.01%	1
Work from Home	-80	9	£625	-	4
South West	-37	8	£620	+15.46%	1
South East	-54	7	-	-	2
West Midlands	-38	2	-	-
Midlands	-40	2	-	-
North of England	-	2	£425	-
North West	-	1	-	-
Yorkshire	-	1	£425	-

SANS Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 28 October 2026, contractor job vacancies citing SANS also mentioned the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads citing SANS.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Cybersecurity	73.5%	25
2	CISSP	58.8%	20
2	SIEM	58.8%	20
4	Azure	50.0%	17
4	Security Cleared	50.0%	17
6	Degree	47.1%	16
7	NIST	41.2%	14
8	Security Architecture	38.2%	13
9	CISM	35.3%	12
9	Incident Response	35.3%	12
9	Information Security	35.3%	12
9	Linux	35.3%	12
9	Microsoft	35.3%	12
9	Vulnerability Management	35.3%	12
15	Analytics	32.4%	11
15	Cyber Threat Intelligence	32.4%	11
15	ISO/IEC 27001	32.4%	11
15	Risk Management	32.4%	11
15	Threat Intelligence	32.4%	11
15	Use Case	32.4%	11
21	GIAC	29.4%	10
22	DV Cleared	26.5%	9
22	GCP	26.5%	9
22	Windows	26.5%	9
25	AWS	23.5%	8
25	Cloud Security	23.5%	8
25	CRISC	23.5%	8
25	Microsoft 365	23.5%	8
25	OSCP	23.5%	8
25	OWASP	23.5%	8

SANS Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.

Qualifications

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	CISSP	58.8%	20
2	Security Cleared	50.0%	17
3	Degree	47.1%	16
4	CISM	35.3%	12
5	GIAC	29.4%	10
6	DV Cleared	26.5%	9
7	CRISC	23.5%	8
7	OSCP	23.5%	8
9	(ISC)2 CCSP	17.6%	6
9	Cisco Certification	17.6%	6
9	GCIH	17.6%	6
12	CEH	14.7%	5
12	CESG Certified Professional	14.7%	5
12	GSEC	14.7%	5
12	SC Cleared	14.7%	5
16	CISA	11.8%	4
16	GCIA	11.8%	4
16	ISSAP	11.8%	4
16	SSCP	11.8%	4
20	Computer Science Degree	8.8%	3