Sarbanes-Oxley Contract Job Trends

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX, Sarbox)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Sarbanes-Oxley skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 543 386 434
Rank change year-on-year -157 +48 +33
Contract jobs citing Sarbanes-Oxley 146 174 123
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.27% 0.53% 0.33%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.51% 3.01% 2.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 92 111 77
10th Percentile £401 £350 £339
25th Percentile £425 £492 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - +6.80%
75th Percentile £641 £650 £625
90th Percentile £800 £713 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £550 £538
% change year-on-year -18.18% +2.33% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £50.00 £21.50 -
Median hourly rate £76.00 £35.25 £44.04
Median % change year-on-year +115.60% -19.96% +11.21%
75th Percentile £77.00 £52.69 -
90th Percentile £84.80 £55.28 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.00 £23.00 £44.04
% change year-on-year +173.91% -47.77% -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

Sarbanes-Oxley 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 9,698 5,773 5,055
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.77% 17.53% 13.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,067 3,693 2,938
10th Percentile £325 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £400 £399
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% - -4.76%
75th Percentile £610 £608 £625
90th Percentile £713 £706 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +1.16% - -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 688 282 240
10th Percentile £13.70 £13.60 £13.26
25th Percentile £16.56 £16.61 £17.18
Median hourly rate £30.27 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +0.90% +9.09% -22.82%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.00 £62.59
90th Percentile £74.25 £80.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £31.46 £25.08 £27.50
% change year-on-year +25.46% -8.82% -26.67%

Sarbanes-Oxley
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Sarbanes-Oxley job vacancy trend in the UK

Sarbanes-Oxley
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Sarbanes-Oxley.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Sarbanes-Oxley

Sarbanes-Oxley
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Sarbanes-Oxley over the 6 months to 12 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Sarbanes-Oxley in the UK

Sarbanes-Oxley
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Sarbanes-Oxley.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Sarbanes-Oxley

Sarbanes-Oxley
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Sarbanes-Oxley over the 6 months to 12 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Sarbanes-Oxley in the UK

Sarbanes-Oxley
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Sarbanes-Oxley within the UK over the 6 months to 12 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 -151 133 £493 -10.36% 145
London -99 71 £560 +1.82% 107
UK excluding London -111 63 £450 -18.18% 36
Work from Home -65 56 £475 -9.52% 47
North of England -50 38 £450 -21.33% 6
North West -36 20 £560 -1.58% 3
Yorkshire -25 18 £450 -21.74% 3
East of England -21 8 £525 -19.23% 5
South East -76 8 £475 -11.63% 7
Midlands -36 5 £650 +23.81% 3
Scotland -20 3 £600 +6.86% 7
West Midlands -44 3 £650 +23.81%
East Midlands -11 2 £550 +4.76% 3
South West -47 1 £600 +18.05% 6

Sarbanes-Oxley
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 5 (3.42%) IIS
2 4 (2.74%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.68%) Apache
3 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 4 (2.74%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.37%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 9 (6.16%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (4.11%) NetSuite
3 5 (3.42%) HFM
4 4 (2.74%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (2.05%) OpenText VIM for SAP
5 3 (2.05%) Oracle Payables
6 2 (1.37%) SAP MM
7 1 (0.68%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.68%) Oracle Cash Management
7 1 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.68%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.68%) SAP CO
7 1 (0.68%) SAP ECC
7 1 (0.68%) SAP FI
7 1 (0.68%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.68%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 47 (32.19%) Azure
2 38 (26.03%) AWS
3 19 (13.01%) SaaS
4 13 (8.90%) Entra ID
5 11 (7.53%) GCP
6 8 (5.48%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (4.11%) Power Platform
8 5 (3.42%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (3.42%) GitHub
8 5 (3.42%) Microsoft 365
9 3 (2.05%) Snowflake
10 2 (1.37%) Amazon OpenSearch
10 2 (1.37%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.37%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 2 (1.37%) Azure Machine Learning
10 2 (1.37%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.37%) Matillion
10 2 (1.37%) OCI
10 2 (1.37%) SuccessFactors
10 2 (1.37%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (6.16%) Firewall
2 7 (4.79%) Network Security
3 5 (3.42%) HTTPS
4 2 (1.37%) DNS
4 2 (1.37%) Kerberos
4 2 (1.37%) MPLS
4 2 (1.37%) SAN
4 2 (1.37%) SDH
4 2 (1.37%) TETRA
5 1 (0.68%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.79%) Relational Database
2 6 (4.11%) Power BI
3 5 (3.42%) NoSQL
4 4 (2.74%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (2.05%) Apache Cassandra
5 3 (2.05%) Data Lake
5 3 (2.05%) RDBMS
5 3 (2.05%) SQL Server
6 2 (1.37%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (1.37%) Flink
6 2 (1.37%) GIS
6 2 (1.37%) Metadata
7 1 (0.68%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.68%) Delta Lake
7 1 (0.68%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.68%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.68%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.68%) Spark SQL
7 1 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.68%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (5.48%) GitLab
2 6 (4.11%) Jenkins
3 3 (2.05%) JIRA
4 2 (1.37%) ER Studio
4 2 (1.37%) Git
5 1 (0.68%) Gradle
5 1 (0.68%) Maven
5 1 (0.68%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.68%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.68%) TestRail
General
1 74 (50.68%) Finance
2 54 (36.99%) Social Skills
3 27 (18.49%) Analytical Skills
4 10 (6.85%) Banking
4 10 (6.85%) Legal
5 7 (4.79%) Organisational Skills
5 7 (4.79%) Pharmaceutical
6 6 (4.11%) Presentation Skills
7 5 (3.42%) Telecoms
8 4 (2.74%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (2.05%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.37%) Billing
10 2 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
11 1 (0.68%) Back Office
11 1 (0.68%) Front Office
11 1 (0.68%) Legal Technology
11 1 (0.68%) Marketing
11 1 (0.68%) Public Sector
11 1 (0.68%) Retail
Job Titles
1 28 (19.18%) Architect
2 23 (15.75%) Lead
3 17 (11.64%) Author
3 17 (11.64%) Technical Author
4 16 (10.96%) Analyst
5 12 (8.22%) Consultant
6 9 (6.16%) Senior
7 8 (5.48%) Solutions Architect
8 7 (4.79%) Business Analyst
8 7 (4.79%) Compliance Analyst
8 7 (4.79%) Finance Business Analyst
8 7 (4.79%) Financial Analyst
8 7 (4.79%) Project Manager
8 7 (4.79%) SailPoint Architect
8 7 (4.79%) SOX Consultant
9 6 (4.11%) Audit Consultant
9 6 (4.11%) IT Audit Consultant
9 6 (4.11%) IT Consultant
10 5 (3.42%) Security Architect
10 5 (3.42%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (12.33%) REST
2 11 (7.53%) SailPoint
3 10 (6.85%) LDAP
4 9 (6.16%) JDBC
5 7 (4.79%) Oracle Fusion
5 7 (4.79%) SOAP
6 4 (2.74%) Kafka
6 4 (2.74%) Spring
6 4 (2.74%) Spring Boot
7 3 (2.05%) Jakarta EE
7 3 (2.05%) JSON
7 3 (2.05%) OAuth
7 3 (2.05%) OpenID
7 3 (2.05%) SAML
7 3 (2.05%) Terraform
8 2 (1.37%) AWS CDK
8 2 (1.37%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (1.37%) OpenTelemetry
8 2 (1.37%) pytest
8 2 (1.37%) Snowpark
Miscellaneous
1 11 (7.53%) Cloud Native
2 9 (6.16%) Enterprise Software
3 8 (5.48%) Onboarding
3 8 (5.48%) Product Ownership
4 7 (4.79%) Replication
5 6 (4.11%) Reinsurance
6 4 (2.74%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.74%) Virtual Team
7 3 (2.05%) Greenfield Project
7 3 (2.05%) Management Information System
7 3 (2.05%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.37%) Augmented Reality
8 2 (1.37%) Data Centre
8 2 (1.37%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 2 (1.37%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.37%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.37%) PKI
8 2 (1.37%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.68%) AI Agents
9 1 (0.68%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 9 (6.16%) Windows
2 2 (1.37%) Linux
3 1 (0.68%) macOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (25.34%) Stakeholder Management
2 29 (19.86%) Agile
3 25 (17.12%) ERP
4 23 (15.75%) RBAC
5 20 (13.70%) Migration
6 19 (13.01%) Roadmaps
7 18 (12.33%) DevOps
8 16 (10.96%) Identity Access Management
8 16 (10.96%) Problem-Solving
8 16 (10.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 15 (10.27%) Change Management
9 15 (10.27%) Continuous Improvement
10 14 (9.59%) AI
10 14 (9.59%) CI/CD
10 14 (9.59%) Data Modelling
11 13 (8.90%) Regulatory Compliance
11 13 (8.90%) Risk Management
12 12 (8.22%) Analytics
12 12 (8.22%) Cybersecurity
12 12 (8.22%) Process Improvement
Programming Languages
1 22 (15.07%) SQL
2 19 (13.01%) Java
3 16 (10.96%) Python
4 14 (9.59%) PowerShell
5 5 (3.42%) BeanShell
5 5 (3.42%) Kusto Query Language
5 5 (3.42%) Search Processing Language
6 2 (1.37%) R
7 1 (0.68%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.68%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 18 (12.33%) Degree
2 15 (10.27%) ACCA
3 14 (9.59%) CISSP
4 10 (6.85%) CIMA
5 9 (6.16%) CISM
6 8 (5.48%) PMI Certification
6 8 (5.48%) PMP
7 5 (3.42%) CISA
7 5 (3.42%) GCFA
7 5 (3.42%) GCIH
7 5 (3.42%) Security Cleared
8 3 (2.05%) CRISC
9 2 (1.37%) Azure Certification
9 2 (1.37%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.37%) SAFe Agilist
9 2 (1.37%) SAP Certification
10 1 (0.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.68%) CCSP
10 1 (0.68%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.68%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 46 (31.51%) GDPR
2 25 (17.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (13.01%) GRC
4 15 (10.27%) ITGC
5 13 (8.90%) GAAP
5 13 (8.90%) IFRS
5 13 (8.90%) NIST
6 12 (8.22%) PCI DSS
7 10 (6.85%) HIPAA
8 7 (4.79%) Data Quality
9 5 (3.42%) Solvency II
10 4 (2.74%) GxP
11 3 (2.05%) QA
12 2 (1.37%) SLA
13 1 (0.68%) Cyber Essentials
13 1 (0.68%) PMO
13 1 (0.68%) PSD2
System Software
1 18 (12.33%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.37%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 2 (1.37%) Docker
2 2 (1.37%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 6 (4.11%) Kubernetes
2 5 (3.42%) Ansible
2 5 (3.42%) CASB
2 5 (3.42%) Progress Chef
3 4 (2.74%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (1.37%) Grafana
4 2 (1.37%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.37%) systemd
Vendors
1 40 (27.40%) SAP
2 27 (18.49%) Microsoft
3 17 (11.64%) Oracle
4 14 (9.59%) ServiceNow
5 8 (5.48%) CyberArk
5 8 (5.48%) Salesforce
5 8 (5.48%) Splunk
6 5 (3.42%) Ariba
6 5 (3.42%) Cribl.io
6 5 (3.42%) Okta
6 5 (3.42%) Workday
7 4 (2.74%) Bloomberg
7 4 (2.74%) ForgeRock
7 4 (2.74%) Google
7 4 (2.74%) Hyperion
7 4 (2.74%) Refinitiv
7 4 (2.74%) Tagetik
8 3 (2.05%) Alteryx
8 3 (2.05%) Palo Alto
8 3 (2.05%) Zscaler