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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 524 379 457
Rank change year-on-year -145 +78 0
Contract jobs citing Sarbanes-Oxley 162 180 105
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.55% 0.27%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.69% 3.19% 2.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 104 112 69
10th Percentile £402 £401 £355
25th Percentile £425 £509 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - +6.80%
75th Percentile £604 £655 £625
90th Percentile £793 £725 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £550 £538
% change year-on-year -15.91% +2.33% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 6 1
10th Percentile - £21.50 -
25th Percentile £50.00 £27.06 -
Median hourly rate £76.00 £65.00 £44.04
Median % change year-on-year +16.92% +47.59% +11.21%
75th Percentile £77.00 £91.56 -
90th Percentile £83.30 £92.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.00 £23.00 £44.04
% change year-on-year +173.91% -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 9,576 5,645 5,170
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.60% 17.13% 13.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,036 3,621 3,067
10th Percentile £325 £300 £281
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +0.17% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £608 £630
90th Percentile £700 £713 £749
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +2.63% -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 625 267 259
10th Percentile £13.93 £13.60 £12.42
25th Percentile £16.75 £16.92 £15.18
Median hourly rate £32.50 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% +9.09% -22.82%
75th Percentile £67.50 £60.00 £59.38
90th Percentile £76.00 £81.10 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £27.54 £27.09
% change year-on-year +19.83% +1.66% -29.73%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -119 145 £525 -4.55% 178
London -75 78 £560 +1.82% 111
UK excluding London -117 68 £463 -15.91% 78
Work from Home -66 65 £500 -6.89% 71
North of England -50 42 £450 -22.65% 15
North West -40 22 £565 -0.79% 9
Yorkshire -32 20 £450 -23.53% 5
South East -66 9 £475 -11.63% 25
East of England -30 8 £525 -19.23% 5
Midlands -47 5 £650 +23.81% 13
Scotland -20 3 £600 - 10
West Midlands -45 3 £650 +23.81% 6
East Midlands -15 2 £550 +13.70% 7
South West -46 1 £600 +19.40% 5

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 (3.09%) IIS
2 4 (2.47%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.62%) Apache
Applications
1 8 (4.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.23%) Spreadsheet
3 1 (0.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 14 (8.64%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (3.70%) NetSuite
3 5 (3.09%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (2.47%) HFM
4 4 (2.47%) Oracle Payables
5 3 (1.85%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (1.23%) OpenText VIM for SAP
6 2 (1.23%) Oracle Receivables
6 2 (1.23%) SAP CO
6 2 (1.23%) SAP FI
6 2 (1.23%) SAP FI/CO
7 1 (0.62%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.62%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.62%) Oracle Cash Management
7 1 (0.62%) SAP ECC
7 1 (0.62%) SAP GRC
Cloud Services
1 57 (35.19%) Azure
2 47 (29.01%) AWS
3 18 (11.11%) Entra ID
4 17 (10.49%) SaaS
5 14 (8.64%) GCP
6 11 (6.79%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (3.70%) Azure Sentinel
7 6 (3.70%) Power Platform
8 5 (3.09%) Microsoft 365
9 4 (2.47%) GitHub
10 3 (1.85%) Snowflake
10 3 (1.85%) SuccessFactors
11 2 (1.23%) Amazon OpenSearch
11 2 (1.23%) Azure Cosmos DB
11 2 (1.23%) Azure Machine Learning
11 2 (1.23%) Cloud Computing
11 2 (1.23%) IaaS
11 2 (1.23%) Matillion
11 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Purview
11 2 (1.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 8 (4.94%) Firewall
1 8 (4.94%) Network Security
2 5 (3.09%) HTTPS
3 2 (1.23%) DNS
3 2 (1.23%) Kerberos
3 2 (1.23%) SAN
4 1 (0.62%) Broadband
4 1 (0.62%) HTTP
4 1 (0.62%) MPLS
4 1 (0.62%) SDH
4 1 (0.62%) TETRA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (4.32%) Relational Database
2 6 (3.70%) Power BI
3 5 (3.09%) NoSQL
4 4 (2.47%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (2.47%) SQL Server
5 3 (1.85%) Apache Cassandra
5 3 (1.85%) Data Lake
5 3 (1.85%) RDBMS
6 2 (1.23%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (1.23%) Flink
6 2 (1.23%) GIS
6 2 (1.23%) Metadata
7 1 (0.62%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.62%) Delta Lake
7 1 (0.62%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.62%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.62%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.62%) Spark SQL
7 1 (0.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 1 (0.62%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (4.94%) GitLab
2 5 (3.09%) Jenkins
3 4 (2.47%) JIRA
4 2 (1.23%) ER Studio
4 2 (1.23%) Git
5 1 (0.62%) Gradle
5 1 (0.62%) Maven
5 1 (0.62%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.62%) Team Foundation Server
5 1 (0.62%) TestRail
General
1 78 (48.15%) Finance
2 61 (37.65%) Social Skills
3 33 (20.37%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (8.64%) Legal
5 12 (7.41%) Banking
6 8 (4.94%) Influencing Skills
6 8 (4.94%) Pharmaceutical
7 7 (4.32%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (3.70%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (3.09%) Documentation Skills
10 3 (1.85%) Billing
10 3 (1.85%) Manufacturing
10 3 (1.85%) Telecoms
11 2 (1.23%) Retail
12 1 (0.62%) Back Office
12 1 (0.62%) Front Office
12 1 (0.62%) Legal Technology
12 1 (0.62%) Marketing
12 1 (0.62%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 32 (19.75%) Architect
2 26 (16.05%) Lead
3 21 (12.96%) Analyst
4 17 (10.49%) Author
4 17 (10.49%) Technical Author
5 12 (7.41%) Consultant
6 9 (5.56%) Senior
6 9 (5.56%) SOX Analyst
7 8 (4.94%) IT Analyst
7 8 (4.94%) Project Manager
8 7 (4.32%) Business Analyst
8 7 (4.32%) Compliance Analyst
8 7 (4.32%) Finance Business Analyst
8 7 (4.32%) Financial Analyst
8 7 (4.32%) SailPoint Architect
9 6 (3.70%) Solutions Architect
9 6 (3.70%) SOX Consultant
10 5 (3.09%) IT Audit Consultant
10 5 (3.09%) Risk Analyst
10 5 (3.09%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (12.96%) REST
2 14 (8.64%) LDAP
3 12 (7.41%) JDBC
4 10 (6.17%) SOAP
5 9 (5.56%) SailPoint
6 6 (3.70%) Oracle Fusion
7 5 (3.09%) Jakarta EE
7 5 (3.09%) JSON
7 5 (3.09%) OAuth
7 5 (3.09%) OpenID
7 5 (3.09%) SAML
8 4 (2.47%) Spring
8 4 (2.47%) Spring Boot
9 3 (1.85%) Terraform
10 2 (1.23%) AWS CDK
10 2 (1.23%) Elastic Stack
10 2 (1.23%) Middleware
10 2 (1.23%) OpenTelemetry
10 2 (1.23%) pytest
10 2 (1.23%) Snowpark
Miscellaneous
1 14 (8.64%) Onboarding
2 12 (7.41%) Cloud Native
3 11 (6.79%) Enterprise Software
4 9 (5.56%) Product Ownership
5 7 (4.32%) Replication
6 6 (3.70%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.70%) Reinsurance
7 4 (2.47%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (2.47%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (2.47%) Virtual Team
8 3 (1.85%) Augmented Reality
8 3 (1.85%) Greenfield Project
8 3 (1.85%) Operational Technology
9 2 (1.23%) Data Centre
9 2 (1.23%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 2 (1.23%) Life Science
9 2 (1.23%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.23%) PKI
9 2 (1.23%) Security Posture
10 1 (0.62%) Reference Data
Operating Systems
1 15 (9.26%) Windows
2 8 (4.94%) Linux
3 3 (1.85%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (24.69%) Stakeholder Management
2 33 (20.37%) Agile
3 28 (17.28%) ERP
4 26 (16.05%) RBAC
5 24 (14.81%) DevOps
6 23 (14.20%) Problem-Solving
7 22 (13.58%) Roadmaps
8 21 (12.96%) Continuous Improvement
8 21 (12.96%) Identity Access Management
8 21 (12.96%) Migration
9 19 (11.73%) Change Management
9 19 (11.73%) Cybersecurity
10 17 (10.49%) AI
11 16 (9.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 15 (9.26%) Data Modelling
12 15 (9.26%) Risk Management
12 15 (9.26%) Zero Trust
13 14 (8.64%) CI/CD
13 14 (8.64%) Information Security
13 14 (8.64%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 25 (15.43%) SQL
2 20 (12.35%) Java
2 20 (12.35%) Python
3 17 (10.49%) PowerShell
4 5 (3.09%) BeanShell
4 5 (3.09%) Kusto Query Language
4 5 (3.09%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (1.85%) Bash
6 2 (1.23%) R
7 1 (0.62%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.62%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 23 (14.20%) Degree
2 21 (12.96%) CISSP
3 15 (9.26%) ACCA
4 13 (8.02%) CISM
5 10 (6.17%) CIMA
6 9 (5.56%) PMI Certification
6 9 (5.56%) PMP
7 8 (4.94%) CISA
8 6 (3.70%) CRISC
9 5 (3.09%) GCFA
9 5 (3.09%) GCIH
9 5 (3.09%) Security Cleared
10 3 (1.85%) Azure Certification
11 2 (1.23%) Computer Science Degree
11 2 (1.23%) SAFe Agilist
12 1 (0.62%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 1 (0.62%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.62%) ISTQB
12 1 (0.62%) Master's Degree
12 1 (0.62%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 53 (32.72%) GDPR
2 32 (19.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (12.96%) NIST
4 18 (11.11%) GRC
4 18 (11.11%) ITGC
5 16 (9.88%) HIPAA
6 13 (8.02%) GAAP
6 13 (8.02%) IFRS
7 12 (7.41%) PCI DSS
8 7 (4.32%) Data Quality
9 5 (3.09%) GxP
9 5 (3.09%) Solvency II
10 4 (2.47%) QA
11 3 (1.85%) COBIT
11 3 (1.85%) NIST 800
12 2 (1.23%) SLA
13 1 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
13 1 (0.62%) PMO
13 1 (0.62%) PSD2
System Software
1 20 (12.35%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.85%) Docker
3 2 (1.23%) Apache ZooKeeper
4 1 (0.62%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 7 (4.32%) Kubernetes
1 7 (4.32%) Single Sign-On
2 5 (3.09%) Ansible
2 5 (3.09%) CASB
2 5 (3.09%) Progress Chef
3 2 (1.23%) Grafana
3 2 (1.23%) Prometheus
3 2 (1.23%) systemd
Vendors
1 50 (30.86%) SAP
2 29 (17.90%) Microsoft
3 20 (12.35%) ServiceNow
4 17 (10.49%) Oracle
5 14 (8.64%) CyberArk
6 12 (7.41%) Workday
7 9 (5.56%) Splunk
8 8 (4.94%) Salesforce
9 5 (3.09%) Ariba
9 5 (3.09%) Cribl.io
10 4 (2.47%) Bloomberg
10 4 (2.47%) ForgeRock
10 4 (2.47%) Google
10 4 (2.47%) Hyperion
10 4 (2.47%) Okta
10 4 (2.47%) Refinitiv
10 4 (2.47%) Tagetik
11 3 (1.85%) Alteryx
11 3 (1.85%) Palo Alto
11 3 (1.85%) Zscaler