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 5 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 633 515 528
Rank change year-on-year -118 +13 +31
Contract jobs citing SANS 30 36 44
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.056% 0.11% 0.11%
As % of the Qualifications category 0.18% 0.35% 0.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 11 32
10th Percentile £611 £450 -
25th Percentile £626 £525 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £675 £625 £500
Median % change year-on-year +8.00% +25.00% -28.57%
75th Percentile £825 £697 £688
90th Percentile - £750 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £640 £525 £500
% change year-on-year +21.90% +5.00% -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 16,695 10,238 11,730
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 31.39% 31.11% 29.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,175 6,323 7,429
10th Percentile £350 £282 £313
25th Percentile £431 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £638
90th Percentile £715 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,244 786 855
10th Percentile £17.87 £17.87 £14.48
25th Percentile £25.77 £19.38 £21.25
Median hourly rate £52.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.75% -41.51% -23.21%
75th Percentile £74.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £87.00 £74.38 £77.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +98.81% -44.11% -16.15%

SANS
Job Vacancy Trend

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

SANS 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 5 August 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 5 August 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 -117 28 £694 +11.00% 9
UK excluding London -94 17 £640 +21.90% 7
London -53 11 £800 +24.27% 5
South West - 9 £630 - 1
South East -64 7 - - 1
Work from Home -71 7 £625 -3.85% 5
Yorkshire - 1 £675 -
North of England - 1 £675 - 3

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 (6.67%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (3.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (3.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (3.33%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 16 (53.33%) Azure
2 9 (30.00%) AWS
3 8 (26.67%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (23.33%) GCP
5 5 (16.67%) Entra ID
5 5 (16.67%) IaaS
5 5 (16.67%) PaaS
6 1 (3.33%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (3.33%) Google Kubernetes Engine
6 1 (3.33%) Microsoft Copilot
6 1 (3.33%) Microsoft Purview
6 1 (3.33%) Power Platform
6 1 (3.33%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (13.33%) Network Security
2 2 (6.67%) Broadband
2 2 (6.67%) Reverse Proxy
2 2 (6.67%) TCP/IP
3 1 (3.33%) DNS
3 1 (3.33%) Firewall
3 1 (3.33%) HTTP
3 1 (3.33%) Internet
3 1 (3.33%) Modbus
3 1 (3.33%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (3.33%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 3 (10.00%) JIRA
General
1 12 (40.00%) Social Skills
2 6 (20.00%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (10.00%) Military
4 2 (6.67%) Banking
4 2 (6.67%) Finance
4 2 (6.67%) Influencing Skills
4 2 (6.67%) Legal
4 2 (6.67%) Presentation Skills
4 2 (6.67%) Public Sector
4 2 (6.67%) Retail Banking
5 1 (3.33%) Organisational Skills
5 1 (3.33%) Retail
Job Titles
1 11 (36.67%) Architect
1 11 (36.67%) Security Architect
2 8 (26.67%) Analyst
3 6 (20.00%) Cybersecurity Specialist
3 6 (20.00%) Security Specialist
4 5 (16.67%) Cybersecurity Analyst
4 5 (16.67%) Information Architect
4 5 (16.67%) Information Security Architect
4 5 (16.67%) Security Analyst
4 5 (16.67%) Security Technical Architect
4 5 (16.67%) Technical Architect
5 4 (13.33%) SOC Analyst
6 2 (6.67%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
6 2 (6.67%) Cybersecurity Architect
6 2 (6.67%) Network Architect
6 2 (6.67%) Network Security Architect
6 2 (6.67%) Security Manager
6 2 (6.67%) Senior
6 2 (6.67%) Threat Hunter
7 1 (3.33%) TOGAF Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (6.67%) PySpark
2 1 (3.33%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 8 (26.67%) Cyber Defence
2 5 (16.67%) Cyber Threat
2 5 (16.67%) Operational Technology
3 4 (13.33%) Cloud Native
3 4 (13.33%) SCADA
4 3 (10.00%) Analytical Mindset
4 3 (10.00%) Security Posture
5 2 (6.67%) AI Agents
5 2 (6.67%) Cyberattack
5 2 (6.67%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 2 (6.67%) Hedge funds
5 2 (6.67%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (6.67%) Social Media
6 1 (3.33%) CAN bus
6 1 (3.33%) Insider Threat
6 1 (3.33%) Onboarding
Operating Systems
1 7 (23.33%) Linux
2 6 (20.00%) Windows
3 5 (16.67%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (73.33%) Cybersecurity
2 16 (53.33%) Security Architecture
2 16 (53.33%) SIEM
3 10 (33.33%) Risk Assessment
3 10 (33.33%) SABSA
4 9 (30.00%) Analytics
4 9 (30.00%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 9 (30.00%) Threat Intelligence
5 8 (26.67%) Architectural Patterns
5 8 (26.67%) OWASP
5 8 (26.67%) Vulnerability Management
6 7 (23.33%) Information Security
6 7 (23.33%) Risk Management
6 7 (23.33%) Use Case
7 6 (20.00%) CI/CD
7 6 (20.00%) Incident Management
7 6 (20.00%) Incident Response
7 6 (20.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 6 (20.00%) Technical Leadership
7 6 (20.00%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 3 (10.00%) Python
2 2 (6.67%) Kusto Query Language
2 2 (6.67%) SQL
Qualifications
1 17 (56.67%) CISSP
2 13 (43.33%) Degree
3 12 (40.00%) Security Cleared
4 10 (33.33%) GIAC
5 9 (30.00%) CISM
5 9 (30.00%) OSCP
6 8 (26.67%) CRISC
7 6 (20.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 6 (20.00%) CISA
7 6 (20.00%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (20.00%) DV Cleared
8 5 (16.67%) CESG Certified Professional
8 5 (16.67%) GSEC
9 4 (13.33%) GCIA
9 4 (13.33%) GCIH
9 4 (13.33%) SC Cleared
9 4 (13.33%) SSCP
10 3 (10.00%) CEH
10 3 (10.00%) GCFA
11 2 (6.67%) ISSAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (36.67%) NIST
2 10 (33.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (16.67%) Cyber Essentials
3 5 (16.67%) GRC
3 5 (16.67%) ISO 31000
4 4 (13.33%) GDPR
5 3 (10.00%) PCI DSS
6 2 (6.67%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 1 (3.33%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 1 (3.33%) NCSC
7 1 (3.33%) RMADS
System Software
1 6 (20.00%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 2 (6.67%) Network Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 10 (33.33%) Microsoft
2 5 (16.67%) ArcSight
3 2 (6.67%) BiZZdesign
3 2 (6.67%) Databricks
4 1 (3.33%) BMC
4 1 (3.33%) Google
4 1 (3.33%) NEC
4 1 (3.33%) Siemens
4 1 (3.33%) Splunk