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 21 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 529 388 458
Rank change year-on-year -141 +70 +14
Contract jobs citing Sarbanes-Oxley 152 178 108
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.55% 0.28%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.60% 3.17% 2.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 98 113 69
10th Percentile £400 £400 £355
25th Percentile £425 £507 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.09% - +6.80%
75th Percentile £603 £653 £625
90th Percentile £800 £725 £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 4 6 1
10th Percentile - £21.50 -
25th Percentile £50.00 £27.06 -
Median hourly rate £63.00 £65.00 £44.04
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% +47.59% +11.21%
75th Percentile £76.25 £91.56 -
90th Percentile £76.70 £92.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £23.00 £44.04
% change year-on-year +117.39% -47.77% +11.21%

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 9,526 5,616 5,155
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.53% 17.20% 13.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,005 3,600 3,054
10th Percentile £325 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £600 £610 £630
90th Percentile £700 £712 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £479
% change year-on-year +2.63% -0.73% -4.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 626 266 255
10th Percentile £13.93 £13.60 £12.39
25th Percentile £16.64 £16.61 £15.22
Median hourly rate £32.50 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +9.09% -22.54%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £59.38
90th Percentile £76.00 £81.38 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £27.02 £27.50
% change year-on-year +22.15% -1.76% -28.66%

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 21 September 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 21 September 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 21 September 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 -140 135 £500 -9.09% 229
London -89 73 £560 +1.82% 152
UK excluding London -116 63 £450 -18.18% 87
Work from Home -69 62 £500 -6.89% 88
North of England -58 37 £450 -22.65% 15
Yorkshire -34 20 £450 -23.53% 5
North West -45 17 £545 -4.22% 9
South East -67 9 £475 -11.63% 27
East of England -28 8 £525 -19.23% 5
Midlands -47 5 £650 +23.81% 14
Scotland -25 3 £600 - 13
West Midlands -47 3 £650 +23.81% 6
East Midlands -14 2 £550 +13.70% 8
South West -50 1 £600 +19.40% 10

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 (3.29%) IIS
2 4 (2.63%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.66%) Apache
Applications
1 8 (5.26%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.32%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 10 (6.58%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (3.95%) NetSuite
3 5 (3.29%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (2.63%) HFM
4 4 (2.63%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (1.97%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (1.32%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 2 (1.32%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (1.32%) SAP CO
6 2 (1.32%) SAP FI
6 2 (1.32%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.66%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.66%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.66%) Oracle Cash Management
7 1 (0.66%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 53 (34.87%) Azure
2 39 (25.66%) AWS
3 17 (11.18%) SaaS
4 14 (9.21%) Entra ID
4 14 (9.21%) GCP
5 10 (6.58%) Azure DevOps
6 6 (3.95%) Azure Sentinel
6 6 (3.95%) Power Platform
7 5 (3.29%) Microsoft 365
8 4 (2.63%) GitHub
9 3 (1.97%) Snowflake
9 3 (1.97%) SuccessFactors
10 2 (1.32%) Amazon OpenSearch
10 2 (1.32%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.32%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 2 (1.32%) Azure Machine Learning
10 2 (1.32%) IaaS
10 2 (1.32%) Matillion
10 2 (1.32%) Microsoft Purview
10 2 (1.32%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 8 (5.26%) Firewall
1 8 (5.26%) Network Security
2 5 (3.29%) HTTPS
3 2 (1.32%) DNS
3 2 (1.32%) Kerberos
3 2 (1.32%) SAN
4 1 (0.66%) Broadband
4 1 (0.66%) HTTP
4 1 (0.66%) MPLS
4 1 (0.66%) SDH
4 1 (0.66%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.61%) Relational Database
2 6 (3.95%) Power BI
3 5 (3.29%) NoSQL
4 4 (2.63%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (1.97%) Apache Cassandra
5 3 (1.97%) Data Lake
5 3 (1.97%) RDBMS
5 3 (1.97%) SQL Server
6 2 (1.32%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (1.32%) Flink
6 2 (1.32%) GIS
6 2 (1.32%) Metadata
7 1 (0.66%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.66%) Delta Lake
7 1 (0.66%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.66%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.66%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.66%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.66%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (5.26%) GitLab
2 5 (3.29%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.97%) JIRA
4 2 (1.32%) ER Studio
4 2 (1.32%) Git
5 1 (0.66%) Gradle
5 1 (0.66%) Maven
5 1 (0.66%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.66%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.66%) TestRail
General
1 76 (50.00%) Finance
2 56 (36.84%) Social Skills
3 31 (20.39%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (9.21%) Legal
5 12 (7.89%) Banking
6 8 (5.26%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (5.26%) Pharmaceutical
7 7 (4.61%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (3.95%) Presentation Skills
9 4 (2.63%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.97%) Billing
10 3 (1.97%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.97%) Telecoms
11 2 (1.32%) Retail
12 1 (0.66%) Back Office
12 1 (0.66%) Front Office
12 1 (0.66%) Legal Technology
12 1 (0.66%) Marketing
12 1 (0.66%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 29 (19.08%) Architect
2 26 (17.11%) Lead
3 20 (13.16%) Analyst
4 17 (11.18%) Author
4 17 (11.18%) Technical Author
5 12 (7.89%) Consultant
6 9 (5.92%) Senior
7 8 (5.26%) Project Manager
7 8 (5.26%) SOX Analyst
8 7 (4.61%) Business Analyst
8 7 (4.61%) Compliance Analyst
8 7 (4.61%) Finance Business Analyst
8 7 (4.61%) Financial Analyst
8 7 (4.61%) IT Analyst
8 7 (4.61%) SailPoint Architect
9 6 (3.95%) Solutions Architect
9 6 (3.95%) SOX Consultant
10 5 (3.29%) Audit Consultant
10 5 (3.29%) Data Engineer
10 5 (3.29%) SIEM Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (11.84%) REST
2 12 (7.89%) LDAP
3 9 (5.92%) JDBC
4 8 (5.26%) SailPoint
5 7 (4.61%) SOAP
6 6 (3.95%) Oracle Fusion
7 4 (2.63%) Spring
7 4 (2.63%) Spring Boot
8 3 (1.97%) Jakarta EE
8 3 (1.97%) JSON
8 3 (1.97%) OAuth
8 3 (1.97%) OpenID
8 3 (1.97%) SAML
8 3 (1.97%) Terraform
9 2 (1.32%) AWS CDK
9 2 (1.32%) Elastic Stack
9 2 (1.32%) JMX
9 2 (1.32%) Kafka
9 2 (1.32%) Middleware
9 2 (1.32%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 11 (7.24%) Cloud Native
1 11 (7.24%) Onboarding
2 9 (5.92%) Enterprise Software
2 9 (5.92%) Product Ownership
3 7 (4.61%) Replication
4 6 (3.95%) Reinsurance
5 4 (2.63%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.63%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.97%) Augmented Reality
6 3 (1.97%) Greenfield Project
6 3 (1.97%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.97%) Virtual Team
7 2 (1.32%) Data Centre
7 2 (1.32%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 2 (1.32%) Life Science
7 2 (1.32%) Linux Command Line
7 2 (1.32%) PKI
7 2 (1.32%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.66%) FMCG
8 1 (0.66%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 15 (9.87%) Windows
2 8 (5.26%) Linux
3 3 (1.97%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (25.66%) Stakeholder Management
2 31 (20.39%) Agile
3 28 (18.42%) ERP
4 23 (15.13%) DevOps
5 22 (14.47%) RBAC
6 20 (13.16%) Continuous Improvement
6 20 (13.16%) Problem-Solving
7 18 (11.84%) Change Management
7 18 (11.84%) Roadmaps
8 17 (11.18%) Cybersecurity
8 17 (11.18%) Identity Access Management
8 17 (11.18%) Migration
9 15 (9.87%) AI
9 15 (9.87%) Data Modelling
9 15 (9.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 14 (9.21%) Information Security
10 14 (9.21%) Procure-to-Pay
10 14 (9.21%) Risk Management
11 13 (8.55%) Analytics
11 13 (8.55%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 22 (14.47%) SQL
2 18 (11.84%) Python
3 17 (11.18%) Java
4 15 (9.87%) PowerShell
5 5 (3.29%) BeanShell
5 5 (3.29%) Kusto Query Language
5 5 (3.29%) Search Processing Language
6 3 (1.97%) Bash
7 2 (1.32%) R
8 1 (0.66%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.66%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 22 (14.47%) Degree
2 17 (11.18%) CISSP
3 15 (9.87%) ACCA
4 10 (6.58%) CIMA
4 10 (6.58%) CISM
5 9 (5.92%) PMI Certification
5 9 (5.92%) PMP
6 7 (4.61%) CISA
7 5 (3.29%) CRISC
7 5 (3.29%) GCFA
7 5 (3.29%) GCIH
7 5 (3.29%) Security Cleared
8 3 (1.97%) Azure Certification
9 2 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.32%) SAFe Agilist
10 1 (0.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.66%) CCSP
10 1 (0.66%) Cisco Certification
10 1 (0.66%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.66%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (28.95%) GDPR
2 31 (20.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (12.50%) NIST
4 18 (11.84%) GRC
5 17 (11.18%) ITGC
6 13 (8.55%) GAAP
6 13 (8.55%) HIPAA
6 13 (8.55%) IFRS
7 12 (7.89%) PCI DSS
8 6 (3.95%) Data Quality
9 5 (3.29%) GxP
9 5 (3.29%) Solvency II
10 3 (1.97%) NIST 800
10 3 (1.97%) QA
11 2 (1.32%) COBIT
11 2 (1.32%) SLA
12 1 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials
12 1 (0.66%) PMO
12 1 (0.66%) PSD2
System Software
1 19 (12.50%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.32%) Apache ZooKeeper
2 2 (1.32%) Docker
3 1 (0.66%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 6 (3.95%) Kubernetes
1 6 (3.95%) Single Sign-On
2 5 (3.29%) Ansible
2 5 (3.29%) CASB
2 5 (3.29%) Progress Chef
3 2 (1.32%) Grafana
3 2 (1.32%) Prometheus
3 2 (1.32%) systemd
Vendors
1 42 (27.63%) SAP
2 28 (18.42%) Microsoft
3 17 (11.18%) Oracle
3 17 (11.18%) ServiceNow
4 13 (8.55%) CyberArk
5 9 (5.92%) Splunk
5 9 (5.92%) Workday
6 8 (5.26%) Salesforce
7 5 (3.29%) Ariba
7 5 (3.29%) Cribl.io
8 4 (2.63%) Bloomberg
8 4 (2.63%) ForgeRock
8 4 (2.63%) Google
8 4 (2.63%) Hyperion
8 4 (2.63%) Okta
8 4 (2.63%) Refinitiv
8 4 (2.63%) Tagetik
9 3 (1.97%) Alteryx
9 3 (1.97%) Palo Alto
9 3 (1.97%) Zscaler