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 21 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

	6 months to 21 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Rank	660	519	543
Rank change year-on-year	-141	+24	-30
Contract jobs citing SANS	33	38	12
As % of all contract jobs in the UK	0.060%	0.11%	0.032%
As % of the Qualifications category	0.19%	0.35%	0.11%
Number of daily rates quoted	12	16	6
10^th Percentile	£561	£503	£225
25^th Percentile	£606	£512	£297
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£623	£576	£563
Median % change year-on-year	+8.03%	+2.44%	-16.01%
75^th Percentile	£663	£708	£619
90^th Percentile	£816	£913	£700
UK excluding London median daily rate	£620	£537	£600
% change year-on-year	+15.46%	-10.50%	-10.81%
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 requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications.

	6 months to 21 Oct 2026	Same period 2025	Same period 2024
Contract vacancies requiring academic qualifications or professional certifications	17,739	10,744	10,852
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK	32.18%	32.11%	29.29%
Number of daily rates quoted	11,672	6,741	6,579
10^th Percentile	£355	£288	£313
25^th Percentile	£447	£413	£420
Median daily rate (50^th Percentile)	£535	£525	£525
Median % change year-on-year	+1.90%	-	-4.55%
75^th Percentile	£634	£625	£637
90^th Percentile	£713	£710	£725
UK excluding London median daily rate	£525	£500	£515
% change year-on-year	+5.00%	-2.91%	-4.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted	1,569	906	538
10^th Percentile	£16.46	£17.08	£18.13
25^th Percentile	£24.50	£18.87	£24.26
Median hourly rate	£43.96	£25.15	£47.50
Median % change year-on-year	+74.79%	-47.05%	-11.35%
75^th Percentile	£72.54	£39.88	£67.69
90^th Percentile	£89.08	£70.08	£75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate	£43.96	£25.15	£50.00
% change year-on-year	+74.79%	-49.70%	-3.64%

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 21 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 21 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	Matching Contract IT Job Ads	Median Daily Rate Past 6 Months	Median Daily Rate % Change on Same Period Last Year	Live Jobs
England	-125	32	£623	+8.03%	4
UK excluding London	-101	19	£620	+15.46%	3
London	-97	13	£625	-	2
South West	-33	8	£620	+15.46%
Work from Home	-76	8	£625	-	4
South East	-47	7	-	-	2
Midlands	-40	2	-	-
West Midlands	-41	2	-	-
North of England	-	2	£425	-
North West	-	1	-	-
Yorkshire	-	1	£425	-

SANS Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 21 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 with a requirement for SANS.

Rank	Skill	Share	Job Ads
1	Cybersecurity	72.7%	24
2	SIEM	60.6%	20
3	CISSP	57.6%	19
4	Azure	51.5%	17
4	Security Cleared	51.5%	17
6	Degree	48.5%	16
7	NIST	39.4%	13
7	Security Architecture	39.4%	13
9	CISM	36.4%	12
9	Incident Response	36.4%	12
9	Information Security	36.4%	12
9	Linux	36.4%	12
9	Microsoft	36.4%	12
9	Vulnerability Management	36.4%	12
15	Analytics	33.3%	11
15	Cyber Threat Intelligence	33.3%	11
15	Threat Intelligence	33.3%	11
15	Use Case	33.3%	11
19	ISO/IEC 27001	30.3%	10
19	Risk Management	30.3%	10
21	DV Cleared	27.3%	9
21	GCP	27.3%	9
21	GIAC	27.3%	9
21	Windows	27.3%	9
25	AWS	24.2%	8
25	Cloud Security	24.2%	8
25	CRISC	24.2%	8
25	Microsoft 365	24.2%	8
25	OSCP	24.2%	8
25	OWASP	24.2%	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	57.6%	19
2	Security Cleared	51.5%	17
3	Degree	48.5%	16
4	CISM	36.4%	12
5	DV Cleared	27.3%	9
5	GIAC	27.3%	9
7	CRISC	24.2%	8
7	OSCP	24.2%	8
9	(ISC)2 CCSP	18.2%	6
9	Cisco Certification	18.2%	6
9	GCIH	18.2%	6
12	CEH	15.2%	5
12	CESG Certified Professional	15.2%	5
12	GSEC	15.2%	5
12	SC Cleared	15.2%	5
16	CISA	12.1%	4
16	GCIA	12.1%	4
16	ISSAP	12.1%	4
16	SSCP	12.1%	4
20	Computer Science Degree	9.1%	3