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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 493 378 471
Rank change year-on-year -115 +93 +23
Contract jobs citing Sarbanes-Oxley 182 169 86
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.34% 0.51% 0.22%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 1.97% 3.02% 1.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 102 63
10th Percentile £417 £402 £344
25th Percentile £425 £515 £399
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £563 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -2.17% - +15.00%
75th Percentile £600 £674 £651
90th Percentile £738 £725 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £550 £525
% change year-on-year -4.55% +4.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 6 1
10th Percentile £50.00 £21.50 -
25th Percentile £55.63 £27.06 -
Median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £44.04
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +47.59% +11.21%
75th Percentile £76.50 £91.56 -
90th Percentile £81.20 £92.50 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.25 £23.00 £44.04
% change year-on-year +170.65% -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 9,231 5,596 5,200
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.24% 17.02% 13.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,901 3,579 3,217
10th Percentile £325 £281 £294
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £606 £625
90th Percentile £700 £715 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +3.58% -1.04% -4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 572 266 312
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.60 £11.11
25th Percentile £18.05 £17.48 £14.44
Median hourly rate £36.07 £28.18 £26.16
Median % change year-on-year +28.00% +7.71% -25.25%
75th Percentile £70.00 £61.99 £55.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £86.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £25.08 £25.77
% change year-on-year +54.42% -2.68% -25.86%

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 August 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 August 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 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 -120 159 £548 -3.78% 133
UK excluding London -87 79 £525 -4.55% 59
London -71 78 £596 -1.16% 88
Work from Home -41 69 £506 -12.09% 51
North of England -56 47 £450 -20.91% 9
North West -34 27 £569 -0.52% 7
Yorkshire -34 20 £450 -18.18% 1
South East -74 13 £563 +4.65% 19
East of England -21 8 £525 -16.00% 4
Midlands -49 7 £625 +19.05% 9
West Midlands -44 4 £650 +15.25% 6
Scotland -13 3 £600 - 2
East Midlands -17 3 £550 +24.29% 3
South West -45 1 £600 +18.81% 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 7 (3.85%) Apache Spark
2 5 (2.75%) Apache
2 5 (2.75%) IIS
3 1 (0.55%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.55%) IBM HTTP Server
3 1 (0.55%) WebSphere
3 1 (0.55%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 13 (7.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.55%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.55%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 22 (12.09%) SAP S/4HANA
2 6 (3.30%) NetSuite
3 4 (2.20%) HFM
3 4 (2.20%) OpenText VIM for SAP
3 4 (2.20%) Oracle Payables
3 4 (2.20%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 2 (1.10%) Oracle ERP
4 2 (1.10%) Oracle Receivables
4 2 (1.10%) SAP CO
4 2 (1.10%) SAP FI
4 2 (1.10%) SAP FI/CO
5 1 (0.55%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.55%) Oracle Assets
5 1 (0.55%) Oracle Cash Management
5 1 (0.55%) SAP CS
5 1 (0.55%) SAP ECC
5 1 (0.55%) SAP GRC
5 1 (0.55%) SAP GTS
5 1 (0.55%) SAP LE
5 1 (0.55%) SAP SD
Cloud Services
1 62 (34.07%) Azure
2 57 (31.32%) AWS
3 20 (10.99%) Entra ID
4 16 (8.79%) SaaS
5 13 (7.14%) Azure DevOps
5 13 (7.14%) GCP
6 6 (3.30%) Azure Sentinel
6 6 (3.30%) Power Platform
7 5 (2.75%) Microsoft 365
8 4 (2.20%) GitHub
8 4 (2.20%) Snowflake
9 3 (1.65%) IaaS
9 3 (1.65%) SuccessFactors
10 2 (1.10%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.10%) Azure Cosmos DB
10 2 (1.10%) Azure Machine Learning
10 2 (1.10%) Cloud Computing
10 2 (1.10%) Matillion
11 1 (0.55%) AWS Lambda
11 1 (0.55%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 14 (7.69%) Network Security
2 9 (4.95%) Firewall
3 7 (3.85%) HTTP
4 5 (2.75%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.55%) DNS
5 1 (0.55%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (0.55%) Kerberos
5 1 (0.55%) SAN
5 1 (0.55%) Structured Cabling
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (4.40%) Relational Database
2 7 (3.85%) SQL Server
3 6 (3.30%) Power BI
4 5 (2.75%) NoSQL
5 4 (2.20%) PostgreSQL
6 3 (1.65%) Apache Cassandra
6 3 (1.65%) Data Lake
6 3 (1.65%) RDBMS
6 3 (1.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 2 (1.10%) GIS
8 1 (0.55%) BigQuery
8 1 (0.55%) Delta Lake
8 1 (0.55%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
8 1 (0.55%) Metadata
8 1 (0.55%) MongoDB
8 1 (0.55%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.55%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.55%) Spark SQL
8 1 (0.55%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 8 (4.40%) GitLab
2 6 (3.30%) JIRA
3 5 (2.75%) Git
3 5 (2.75%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.10%) ER Studio
5 1 (0.55%) Artifactory
5 1 (0.55%) Gradle
5 1 (0.55%) Introscope
5 1 (0.55%) Maven
5 1 (0.55%) SonarQube
5 1 (0.55%) TestRail
General
1 93 (51.10%) Finance
2 71 (39.01%) Social Skills
3 40 (21.98%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (9.89%) Legal
5 14 (7.69%) Banking
6 12 (6.59%) Influencing Skills
7 9 (4.95%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (4.95%) Pharmaceutical
8 8 (4.40%) Documentation Skills
9 5 (2.75%) Billing
9 5 (2.75%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (2.20%) Manufacturing
11 3 (1.65%) Telecoms
12 2 (1.10%) Public Sector
12 2 (1.10%) Retail
13 1 (0.55%) Financial Institution
13 1 (0.55%) Legal Technology
Job Titles
1 31 (17.03%) Architect
1 31 (17.03%) Lead
2 23 (12.64%) Analyst
3 17 (9.34%) Author
3 17 (9.34%) Technical Author
4 16 (8.79%) Consultant
5 11 (6.04%) SOX Analyst
6 9 (4.95%) Project Manager
7 8 (4.40%) Business Analyst
7 8 (4.40%) IT Analyst
7 8 (4.40%) Senior
8 7 (3.85%) Finance Business Analyst
8 7 (3.85%) Financial Analyst
8 7 (3.85%) Java Engineer
9 6 (3.30%) Data Engineer
10 5 (2.75%) Compliance Analyst
10 5 (2.75%) Java Software Engineer
10 5 (2.75%) SailPoint Architect
10 5 (2.75%) SIEM Engineer
10 5 (2.75%) Splunk Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (10.44%) REST
2 14 (7.69%) LDAP
3 11 (6.04%) SailPoint
4 9 (4.95%) JDBC
4 9 (4.95%) SOAP
5 7 (3.85%) Spring
5 7 (3.85%) Spring Boot
6 6 (3.30%) OAuth
6 6 (3.30%) OpenID
6 6 (3.30%) SAML
7 5 (2.75%) AWS CDK
7 5 (2.75%) Jakarta EE
7 5 (2.75%) JSON
7 5 (2.75%) Oracle Fusion
8 4 (2.20%) Node.js
9 3 (1.65%) Middleware
10 2 (1.10%) pytest
10 2 (1.10%) SAP Fiori
10 2 (1.10%) Snowpark
11 1 (0.55%) React
Miscellaneous
1 12 (6.59%) Cloud Native
1 12 (6.59%) Management Information System
2 10 (5.49%) Onboarding
3 9 (4.95%) Product Ownership
4 8 (4.40%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (3.85%) BYOD
6 6 (3.30%) Replication
7 5 (2.75%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (2.75%) Reinsurance
8 4 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
8 4 (2.20%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.65%) Augmented Reality
9 3 (1.65%) Greenfield Project
9 3 (1.65%) Life Science
9 3 (1.65%) Operational Technology
10 2 (1.10%) Data Centre
10 2 (1.10%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
10 2 (1.10%) PKI
10 2 (1.10%) Team-Oriented Environment
11 1 (0.55%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 16 (8.79%) Windows
2 9 (4.95%) Linux
3 4 (2.20%) Unix
4 1 (0.55%) AIX
4 1 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (28.02%) Stakeholder Management
2 44 (24.18%) Agile
3 34 (18.68%) ERP
4 29 (15.93%) Continuous Improvement
4 29 (15.93%) DevOps
5 28 (15.38%) Problem-Solving
6 27 (14.84%) Change Management
6 27 (14.84%) RBAC
7 25 (13.74%) Cybersecurity
8 24 (13.19%) Migration
9 23 (12.64%) Roadmaps
10 22 (12.09%) Identity Access Management
11 21 (11.54%) Procure-to-Pay
12 20 (10.99%) CI/CD
13 18 (9.89%) AI
13 18 (9.89%) Information Security
13 18 (9.89%) User Acceptance Testing
14 17 (9.34%) Order to Cash
14 17 (9.34%) Risk Management
14 17 (9.34%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 28 (15.38%) SQL
2 26 (14.29%) Python
3 22 (12.09%) Java
4 17 (9.34%) PowerShell
5 5 (2.75%) Kusto Query Language
5 5 (2.75%) Search Processing Language
6 4 (2.20%) Bash
6 4 (2.20%) TypeScript
7 3 (1.65%) BeanShell
8 1 (0.55%) JavaScript
8 1 (0.55%) Jython
8 1 (0.55%) R
8 1 (0.55%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 30 (16.48%) Degree
2 27 (14.84%) CISSP
3 17 (9.34%) CISM
4 15 (8.24%) ACCA
5 12 (6.59%) PMI Certification
6 11 (6.04%) PMP
7 10 (5.49%) CIMA
8 6 (3.30%) CISA
8 6 (3.30%) Security Cleared
9 5 (2.75%) GCFA
9 5 (2.75%) GCIH
10 4 (2.20%) CRISC
11 3 (1.65%) Azure Certification
12 2 (1.10%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (1.10%) SAFe Agilist
13 1 (0.55%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
13 1 (0.55%) ISTQB
13 1 (0.55%) Master's Degree
13 1 (0.55%) Oracle Certification
13 1 (0.55%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 64 (35.16%) GDPR
2 39 (21.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (12.64%) NIST
4 19 (10.44%) ITGC
4 19 (10.44%) PCI DSS
5 16 (8.79%) HIPAA
6 15 (8.24%) GRC
7 13 (7.14%) GAAP
7 13 (7.14%) IFRS
8 9 (4.95%) Data Quality
9 5 (2.75%) COBIT
9 5 (2.75%) GxP
9 5 (2.75%) Solvency II
10 4 (2.20%) QA
11 3 (1.65%) NIST 800
12 2 (1.10%) PMO
12 2 (1.10%) SLA
13 1 (0.55%) PSD2
13 1 (0.55%) SOC 1
System Software
1 22 (12.09%) Active Directory
2 5 (2.75%) Docker
3 1 (0.55%) Apache ZooKeeper
Systems Management
1 10 (5.49%) Kubernetes
1 10 (5.49%) Single Sign-On
2 5 (2.75%) Ansible
2 5 (2.75%) CASB
2 5 (2.75%) Progress Chef
3 2 (1.10%) Terraform
4 1 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
4 1 (0.55%) CA Wily
4 1 (0.55%) Grafana
4 1 (0.55%) Prometheus
4 1 (0.55%) Puppet
4 1 (0.55%) systemd
Vendors
1 57 (31.32%) SAP
2 32 (17.58%) Microsoft
3 22 (12.09%) ServiceNow
4 17 (9.34%) Oracle
5 15 (8.24%) CyberArk
6 13 (7.14%) Workday
7 9 (4.95%) Splunk
8 7 (3.85%) Ariba
9 6 (3.30%) Salesforce
10 5 (2.75%) Cribl.io
10 5 (2.75%) Okta
11 4 (2.20%) Google
11 4 (2.20%) Hyperion
11 4 (2.20%) Tagetik
12 3 (1.65%) Alteryx
12 3 (1.65%) BeyondTrust
12 3 (1.65%) Bloomberg
12 3 (1.65%) Databricks
12 3 (1.65%) Palo Alto
12 3 (1.65%) Zscaler