SANS Contract Job Trends

SANS Institute
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for SANS qualifications. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered over the 6 months leading up to 20 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 603 496 530
Rank change year-on-year -107 +34 +69
Contract jobs citing SANS 22 33 54
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.046% 0.11% 0.13%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.14% 0.37% 0.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 12 41
10th Percentile £408 £483 -
25th Percentile £550 £597 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £680 £700 £675
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% +3.70% -3.57%
75th Percentile £825 £750 £770
90th Percentile - - £825
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £588 £500
% change year-on-year +10.64% +17.50% -28.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £51.25 - -
Median hourly rate £52.50 - -
75th Percentile £53.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 - -

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 requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications 15,227 9,041 12,797
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.63% 31.00% 30.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,134 5,692 7,977
10th Percentile £350 £281 £306
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £532
Median % change year-on-year - -1.32% -3.27%
75th Percentile £623 £619 £646
90th Percentile £725 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £530
% change year-on-year - -5.66% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,070 515 1,058
10th Percentile £16.35 £18.07 £13.69
25th Percentile £21.33 £21.57 £17.73
Median hourly rate £47.80 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.45% -6.25% -27.25%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £61.60
90th Percentile £85.03 £80.00 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £47.50 £36.65 £40.30
% change year-on-year +29.62% -9.07% -19.40%

SANS
Job Vacancy Trend

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

SANS job vacancy trend in the UK

SANS
Daily Rate Trend

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

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 20 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SANS in the UK

SANS
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

SANS
Top 8 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 20 May 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 -115 21 £680 -2.86% 23
London -62 10 £800 +14.29% 2
UK excluding London -87 9 £650 +10.64% 28
South East -61 6 £400 -27.27% 6
Work from Home -49 5 £415 -36.15% 3
South West - 2 £650 - 10
Yorkshire - 1 £675 -
North of England - 1 £675 - 4

SANS
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 2 (9.09%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 12 (54.55%) Azure
2 7 (31.82%) AWS
2 7 (31.82%) IaaS
2 7 (31.82%) PaaS
3 5 (22.73%) Entra ID
3 5 (22.73%) Microsoft 365
4 3 (13.64%) SaaS
5 2 (9.09%) Amazon ECS
5 2 (9.09%) AWS CloudFormation
5 2 (9.09%) GCP
5 2 (9.09%) GitHub
5 2 (9.09%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 2 (9.09%) Network Security
1 2 (9.09%) Reverse Proxy
2 1 (4.55%) Firewall
2 1 (4.55%) Modbus
2 1 (4.55%) TCP/IP
2 1 (4.55%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 2 (9.09%) Git
1 2 (9.09%) JIRA
2 1 (4.55%) Burp Suite
General
1 8 (36.36%) Social Skills
2 5 (22.73%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (18.18%) Presentation Skills
4 2 (9.09%) Banking
4 2 (9.09%) Finance
4 2 (9.09%) Military
4 2 (9.09%) Public Sector
4 2 (9.09%) Retail Banking
5 1 (4.55%) Influencing Skills
5 1 (4.55%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 10 (45.45%) Architect
1 10 (45.45%) Security Architect
2 8 (36.36%) Security Specialist
3 6 (27.27%) Cybersecurity Specialist
4 5 (22.73%) Information Architect
4 5 (22.73%) Information Security Architect
4 5 (22.73%) Security Technical Architect
4 5 (22.73%) Technical Architect
5 2 (9.09%) Cloud Engineer
5 2 (9.09%) Cloud Security Engineer
5 2 (9.09%) Information Security Specialist
5 2 (9.09%) Information Specialist
5 2 (9.09%) Network Architect
5 2 (9.09%) Network Security Architect
5 2 (9.09%) Security Engineer
6 1 (4.55%) Analyst
6 1 (4.55%) CISSP Architect
6 1 (4.55%) SOC Analyst
6 1 (4.55%) Tester
6 1 (4.55%) TOGAF Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (9.09%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 5 (22.73%) Operational Technology
2 4 (18.18%) Cyber Defence
2 4 (18.18%) SCADA
3 2 (9.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
3 2 (9.09%) Hedge funds
3 2 (9.09%) Mobile App
3 2 (9.09%) Security Posture
4 1 (4.55%) CAN bus
4 1 (4.55%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 6 (27.27%) Linux
2 5 (22.73%) Unix
2 5 (22.73%) Windows
3 2 (9.09%) Android
3 2 (9.09%) Apple iOS
4 1 (4.55%) Kali Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (68.18%) Security Architecture
2 13 (59.09%) Cybersecurity
3 9 (40.91%) Information Security
4 8 (36.36%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 8 (36.36%) OWASP
4 8 (36.36%) Risk Assessment
4 8 (36.36%) SABSA
4 8 (36.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 8 (36.36%) Threat Intelligence
5 7 (31.82%) CI/CD
5 7 (31.82%) SIEM
5 7 (31.82%) Threat Modelling
6 6 (27.27%) Architectural Patterns
6 6 (27.27%) Vulnerability Assessment
7 5 (22.73%) Change Control
7 5 (22.73%) Incident Management
7 5 (22.73%) ITSM
7 5 (22.73%) Service Delivery
7 5 (22.73%) TOGAF
7 5 (22.73%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 2 (9.09%) Java
1 2 (9.09%) Kotlin
1 2 (9.09%) Python
1 2 (9.09%) Swift
Qualifications
1 16 (72.73%) CISSP
2 9 (40.91%) Degree
3 8 (36.36%) CISM
4 7 (31.82%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 7 (31.82%) CISA
4 7 (31.82%) Cisco Certification
4 7 (31.82%) GIAC
4 7 (31.82%) OSCP
4 7 (31.82%) Security Cleared
5 6 (27.27%) CRISC
6 5 (22.73%) CESG Certified Professional
7 4 (18.18%) GSEC
7 4 (18.18%) SC Cleared
7 4 (18.18%) SSCP
8 3 (13.64%) CCSP
9 2 (9.09%) CEH
9 2 (9.09%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (9.09%) Master's Degree
10 1 (4.55%) CompTIA CySA+
10 1 (4.55%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (50.00%) NIST
2 7 (31.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (22.73%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (22.73%) GRC
3 5 (22.73%) ISO 31000
4 3 (13.64%) NCSC
5 2 (9.09%) GDPR
5 2 (9.09%) PCI DSS
6 1 (4.55%) RMADS
System Software
1 5 (22.73%) Active Directory
2 2 (9.09%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (9.09%) Kubernetes
1 2 (9.09%) Network Intrusion Detection System
1 2 (9.09%) Terraform
2 1 (4.55%) Nessus
2 1 (4.55%) Nmap
Vendors
1 5 (22.73%) Microsoft
2 2 (9.09%) BiZZdesign
2 2 (9.09%) Google
2 2 (9.09%) Rapid7
3 1 (4.55%) Siemens