SOC 2 Contract Job Trends

System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring SOC 2 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 557 483 580
Rank change year-on-year -74 +97 +94
Contract jobs citing SOC 2 69 41 17
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.14% 0.038%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.92% 0.92% 0.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 53 25 12
10th Percentile £413 £406 £453
25th Percentile £447 £513 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £627 £563
Median % change year-on-year -16.27% +11.47% +12.50%
75th Percentile £625 £875 £603
90th Percentile £671 £950 £695
UK excluding London median daily rate £562 £469 -
% change year-on-year +19.84% - -

All Quality Assurance and Compliance Skills
UK

SOC 2 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 7,483 4,475 6,452
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.34% 15.16% 14.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,822 2,841 4,129
10th Percentile £331 £261 £300
25th Percentile £413 £375 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £480
% change year-on-year +5.26% -1.04% +1.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 398 170 384
10th Percentile £15.31 £16.25 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.45 £22.04 £14.00
Median hourly rate £27.94 £31.88 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.36% +30.12% -34.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £45.44
90th Percentile £80.30 £79.13 £67.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.58 £32.00 £21.73
% change year-on-year -4.44% +47.26% -33.14%

SOC 2
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing SOC 2 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

SOC 2 job vacancy trend in the UK

SOC 2
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SOC 2.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SOC 2

SOC 2
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SOC 2 over the 6 months to 14 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SOC 2 in the UK

SOC 2
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SOC 2 within the UK over the 6 months to 14 March 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 -59 62 £525 -12.50% 51
Work from Home -12 30 £525 - 27
UK excluding London -56 30 £562 +19.84% 33
London -53 26 £525 -25.05% 30
North of England -61 12 £497 +20.39% 8
South East - 10 £625 - 18
Midlands - 7 £438 - 2
North West -30 5 £499 +61.05% 4
Yorkshire -56 5 £539 +30.58% 3
West Midlands - 4 - - 2
East Midlands - 3 £438 -
North East - 2 £466 - 1
Scotland - 1 £400 - 4

SOC 2
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 4 (5.80%) Confluence
2 2 (2.90%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (2.90%) SharePoint
3 1 (1.45%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 2 (2.90%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (2.90%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 30 (43.48%) Azure
2 21 (30.43%) AWS
3 16 (23.19%) GCP
4 14 (20.29%) Entra ID
5 7 (10.14%) Azure Sentinel
5 7 (10.14%) Microsoft 365
6 6 (8.70%) Amazon GuardDuty
6 6 (8.70%) AWS CloudFormation
6 6 (8.70%) GitHub
6 6 (8.70%) GitHub Actions
7 5 (7.25%) Power Platform
8 4 (5.80%) Azure DevOps
8 4 (5.80%) Azure Key Vault
8 4 (5.80%) Microsoft Purview
8 4 (5.80%) SaaS
9 3 (4.35%) AWS CloudTrail
9 3 (4.35%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 3 (4.35%) Google Workspace
10 2 (2.90%) Google Drive
10 2 (2.90%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 9 (13.04%) Network Security
2 5 (7.25%) Firewall
2 5 (7.25%) Reverse Proxy
3 2 (2.90%) Kerberos
3 2 (2.90%) NGFW
3 2 (2.90%) SSH
4 1 (1.45%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.45%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (1.45%) Data Lake
1 1 (1.45%) Data Vault
1 1 (1.45%) Looker
1 1 (1.45%) Power BI
1 1 (1.45%) Snowflake Schema
1 1 (1.45%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 2 (2.90%) GitLab
1 2 (2.90%) Jenkins
1 2 (2.90%) JIRA
2 1 (1.45%) Burp Suite
2 1 (1.45%) Git
2 1 (1.45%) Postman
General
1 22 (31.88%) Social Skills
2 16 (23.19%) Finance
3 7 (10.14%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (8.70%) Legal
5 4 (5.80%) Banking
5 4 (5.80%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (5.80%) Public Sector
6 2 (2.90%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (2.90%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (1.45%) Law
Job Titles
1 11 (15.94%) Project Manager
2 9 (13.04%) Senior
3 8 (11.59%) Analyst
3 8 (11.59%) Security Manager
3 8 (11.59%) Security Project Manager
4 6 (8.70%) Architect
4 6 (8.70%) Security Engineer
4 6 (8.70%) Security Specialist
5 5 (7.25%) Platform Engineer
6 4 (5.80%) Azure Engineer
6 4 (5.80%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 4 (5.80%) Project Manager - Cybersecurity
7 3 (4.35%) Cloud Engineer
7 3 (4.35%) Consultant
7 3 (4.35%) IT Manager
7 3 (4.35%) IT Project Manager
7 3 (4.35%) Security Architect
7 3 (4.35%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
7 3 (4.35%) Senior Security Specialist
7 3 (4.35%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (15.94%) SAML
2 10 (14.49%) OAuth
3 9 (13.04%) OpenID
4 6 (8.70%) Microsoft Graph
4 6 (8.70%) OAuth2
5 5 (7.25%) ARM Templates
5 5 (7.25%) RESTful
6 3 (4.35%) LDAP
6 3 (4.35%) Node.js
7 2 (2.90%) 802.1X
7 2 (2.90%) AWS CDK
7 2 (2.90%) Flash
7 2 (2.90%) GraphQL
7 2 (2.90%) JWT
7 2 (2.90%) Middleware
7 2 (2.90%) REST
7 2 (2.90%) Smart Contracts
8 1 (1.45%) JSON
8 1 (1.45%) Kafka
8 1 (1.45%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 10 (14.49%) Cloud Native
2 9 (13.04%) Security Posture
3 5 (7.25%) Management Information System
3 5 (7.25%) Onboarding
3 5 (7.25%) Operational Technology
3 5 (7.25%) Product Ownership
4 4 (5.80%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (4.35%) Distributed Systems
6 2 (2.90%) Blockchain
6 2 (2.90%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (2.90%) Data Centre
6 2 (2.90%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (2.90%) PMI
7 1 (1.45%) CMDB
7 1 (1.45%) Cyberattack
7 1 (1.45%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 1 (1.45%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (1.45%) NHS
7 1 (1.45%) PKI
7 1 (1.45%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 8 (11.59%) Windows
2 5 (7.25%) Linux
3 4 (5.80%) AIX
3 4 (5.80%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (43.48%) Cybersecurity
2 24 (34.78%) Risk Management
3 20 (28.99%) CI/CD
3 20 (28.99%) Stakeholder Management
4 18 (26.09%) Infrastructure as Code
5 17 (24.64%) Cloud Security
6 16 (23.19%) Data Protection
6 16 (23.19%) DevOps
7 15 (21.74%) Incident Response
8 13 (18.84%) AI
8 13 (18.84%) Zero Trust
9 12 (17.39%) Agile
9 12 (17.39%) Information Security
9 12 (17.39%) SIEM
10 11 (15.94%) DevSecOps
10 11 (15.94%) RBAC
10 11 (15.94%) Security Operations
11 10 (14.49%) Regulatory Compliance
12 9 (13.04%) Continuous Improvement
12 9 (13.04%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 16 (23.19%) Python
2 14 (20.29%) PowerShell
3 9 (13.04%) Bash
4 8 (11.59%) Bicep
5 3 (4.35%) Go
6 2 (2.90%) Java
6 2 (2.90%) Rust
6 2 (2.90%) Solidity
6 2 (2.90%) SQL
7 1 (1.45%) JavaScript
7 1 (1.45%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 16 (23.19%) CISSP
2 13 (18.84%) CISM
3 12 (17.39%) Degree
4 7 (10.14%) PMI Certification
4 7 (10.14%) PMP
5 6 (8.70%) AWS Certification
5 6 (8.70%) CISA
5 6 (8.70%) CRISC
6 5 (7.25%) Azure Certification
6 5 (7.25%) Security Cleared
7 4 (5.80%) Cisco Certification
7 4 (5.80%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
8 3 (4.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 3 (4.35%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (4.35%) Master's Degree
8 3 (4.35%) SC Cleared
9 2 (2.90%) CAPM
9 2 (2.90%) CBAP
9 2 (2.90%) CEH
9 2 (2.90%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 49 (71.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 34 (49.28%) NIST
3 32 (46.38%) GDPR
4 21 (30.43%) PCI DSS
5 12 (17.39%) GRC
6 9 (13.04%) HIPAA
7 5 (7.25%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 4 (5.80%) NIST 800
8 4 (5.80%) PMO
9 2 (2.90%) COBIT
9 2 (2.90%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (2.90%) EU AI Act
9 2 (2.90%) FedRAMP
9 2 (2.90%) ISO 22301
9 2 (2.90%) ISO 31000
9 2 (2.90%) SLA
10 1 (1.45%) Accessibility
10 1 (1.45%) Data Quality
10 1 (1.45%) NCSC
10 1 (1.45%) QA
System Software
1 8 (11.59%) Active Directory
2 2 (2.90%) Docker
Systems Management
1 17 (24.64%) Terraform
2 10 (14.49%) Single Sign-On
3 9 (13.04%) Kubernetes
4 2 (2.90%) CASB
4 2 (2.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (2.90%) QRadar
5 1 (1.45%) Argo
5 1 (1.45%) CSIRT
5 1 (1.45%) Fluentd
5 1 (1.45%) HP Fortify
5 1 (1.45%) Kustomize
5 1 (1.45%) logstash
Vendors
1 13 (18.84%) Microsoft
2 6 (8.70%) Google
2 6 (8.70%) Splunk
3 4 (5.80%) Databricks
3 4 (5.80%) Tenable
4 3 (4.35%) CrowdStrike
4 3 (4.35%) CyberArk
4 3 (4.35%) Okta
4 3 (4.35%) Qualys
5 2 (2.90%) BeyondTrust
5 2 (2.90%) Optimizely
5 2 (2.90%) Ping Identity
5 2 (2.90%) Rapid7
5 2 (2.90%) ServiceNow
6 1 (1.45%) Checkmarx
6 1 (1.45%) Cribl.io
6 1 (1.45%) ForgeRock
6 1 (1.45%) Intel
6 1 (1.45%) Talend
6 1 (1.45%) Veracode