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

6 months to
26 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 587 484 553
Rank change year-on-year -103 +69 +42
Contract jobs citing SOC 2 78 68 27
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.21% 0.067%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.86% 1.23% 0.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 55 44 11
10th Percentile £425 £372 £500
25th Percentile £494 £459 £569
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £580 £700 £650
Median % change year-on-year -17.14% +7.69% +4.00%
75th Percentile £650 £850 £700
90th Percentile £725 £950 -
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £513 £613
% change year-on-year +17.07% -16.33% +36.11%

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 9,072 5,544 5,562
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.09% 16.84% 13.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,813 3,578 3,441
10th Percentile £338 £281 £296
25th Percentile £413 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £604 £623
90th Percentile £700 £715 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +6.50% -1.16% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 552 248 353
10th Percentile £14.00 £13.57 £11.07
25th Percentile £19.49 £17.47 £14.41
Median hourly rate £38.86 £27.59 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.87% +10.34% -34.21%
75th Percentile £69.81 £60.56 £53.75
90th Percentile £82.25 £83.96 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.86 £25.04 £25.00
% change year-on-year +55.21% +0.15% -28.57%

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 26 July 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 26 July 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 -90 72 £593 +1.28% 68
London -61 43 £545 -24.83% 52
Work from Home -39 42 £600 +14.29% 32
UK excluding London -90 30 £600 +17.07% 25
South East -58 19 £650 - 11
Midlands -47 4 £450 - 1
North of England -82 4 £574 +39.03% 7
North West -45 3 £574 - 6
West Midlands -51 3 £463 -
East of England -26 2 £503 -4.29% 1
Yorkshire -53 1 - - 1
East Midlands - 1 £438 - 1
Scotland - 1 £400 - 5

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 (5.13%) Confluence
2 1 (1.28%) Apache Airflow
2 1 (1.28%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (3.85%) MS Visio
2 2 (2.56%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (3.85%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 26 (33.33%) Azure
2 20 (25.64%) AWS
3 15 (19.23%) GCP
4 10 (12.82%) Azure Sentinel
4 10 (12.82%) Entra ID
5 7 (8.97%) SaaS
6 5 (6.41%) Azure Key Vault
6 5 (6.41%) OCI
7 3 (3.85%) Azure AKS
7 3 (3.85%) Azure Monitor
7 3 (3.85%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (3.85%) GitHub
7 3 (3.85%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (3.85%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (3.85%) Power Automate
7 3 (3.85%) Power Platform
7 3 (3.85%) PowerApps
8 2 (2.56%) AWS KMS
8 2 (2.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (2.56%) Lucidchart
Communications & Networking
1 6 (7.69%) Network Security
2 4 (5.13%) Firewall
3 2 (2.56%) DHCP
3 2 (2.56%) DNS
3 2 (2.56%) Internet
3 2 (2.56%) NGFW
3 2 (2.56%) VPN
3 2 (2.56%) X.509
4 1 (1.28%) Cisco IPT
4 1 (1.28%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (1.28%) Kerberos
4 1 (1.28%) Reverse Proxy
4 1 (1.28%) SMS
4 1 (1.28%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (2.56%) SQL Server
2 1 (1.28%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (1.28%) Data Lake
2 1 (1.28%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 3 (3.85%) JIRA
2 2 (2.56%) Git
2 2 (2.56%) GitLab
2 2 (2.56%) Jenkins
3 1 (1.28%) Burp Suite
3 1 (1.28%) Postman
General
1 31 (39.74%) Finance
2 23 (29.49%) Social Skills
3 8 (10.26%) Legal
4 6 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (5.13%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (3.85%) Banking
6 3 (3.85%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.56%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.28%) Health Technology
8 1 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 20 (25.64%) Project Manager
2 18 (23.08%) Security Manager
3 17 (21.79%) Security Project Manager
4 10 (12.82%) Analyst
4 10 (12.82%) Senior
5 8 (10.26%) Consultant
6 7 (8.97%) Cybersecurity Manager
6 7 (8.97%) Project Manager - Cybersecurity
7 6 (7.69%) Architect
7 6 (7.69%) Security Specialist
8 5 (6.41%) Lead
8 5 (6.41%) Project Assurance Manager
9 4 (5.13%) Business Analyst
9 4 (5.13%) Security Assurance Manager
9 4 (5.13%) Security Engineer
9 4 (5.13%) SOC Manager
10 3 (3.85%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
10 3 (3.85%) Senior Manager
10 3 (3.85%) Senior Project Manager
10 3 (3.85%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.85%) OpenID
1 3 (3.85%) REST
1 3 (3.85%) SailPoint
1 3 (3.85%) SAML
2 2 (2.56%) 802.1X
2 2 (2.56%) Azure Blueprints
2 2 (2.56%) JSON
2 2 (2.56%) LDAP
2 2 (2.56%) OAuth
2 2 (2.56%) OAuth2
3 1 (1.28%) ARM Templates
3 1 (1.28%) AWS CDK
3 1 (1.28%) Django
3 1 (1.28%) FastAPI
3 1 (1.28%) FIDO
3 1 (1.28%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (1.28%) Node.js
3 1 (1.28%) RESTful
3 1 (1.28%) WebAuthn
3 1 (1.28%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (14.10%) Security Posture
2 10 (12.82%) Cloud Native
3 9 (11.54%) Onboarding
4 7 (8.97%) Operational Technology
5 5 (6.41%) Management Information System
6 4 (5.13%) Product Ownership
6 4 (5.13%) Virtual Team
7 3 (3.85%) CMDB
8 2 (2.56%) Algorithms
8 2 (2.56%) PKI
8 2 (2.56%) PMI
9 1 (1.28%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (1.28%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 1 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (1.28%) Hybrid Cloud
9 1 (1.28%) Linux Command Line
9 1 (1.28%) NHS
9 1 (1.28%) Security Operations Centre
9 1 (1.28%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 10 (12.82%) Linux
1 10 (12.82%) Windows
2 5 (6.41%) Windows Server
3 4 (5.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 3 (3.85%) Ubuntu
5 2 (2.56%) AIX
5 2 (2.56%) Alpine Linux
5 2 (2.56%) Solaris
6 1 (1.28%) CentOS
6 1 (1.28%) CoreOS
6 1 (1.28%) Unix
6 1 (1.28%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (52.56%) Cybersecurity
2 32 (41.03%) Stakeholder Management
3 31 (39.74%) Risk Management
4 23 (29.49%) Change Management
5 18 (23.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 17 (21.79%) Information Security
6 17 (21.79%) Zero Trust
7 16 (20.51%) Data Protection
7 16 (20.51%) Security Operations
8 15 (19.23%) Infrastructure as Code
9 14 (17.95%) CI/CD
9 14 (17.95%) Matrix Organization
10 13 (16.67%) Budget Management
10 13 (16.67%) Regulatory Compliance
11 12 (15.38%) SIEM
11 12 (15.38%) Vulnerability Management
12 11 (14.10%) Cloud Security
12 11 (14.10%) DevOps
12 11 (14.10%) Identity Access Management
12 11 (14.10%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 11 (14.10%) PowerShell
1 11 (14.10%) Python
2 7 (8.97%) Bash
3 4 (5.13%) Bicep
3 4 (5.13%) JavaScript
4 3 (3.85%) C#
5 1 (1.28%) Go
5 1 (1.28%) Java
5 1 (1.28%) SQL
Qualifications
1 24 (30.77%) CISSP
2 19 (24.36%) CISM
3 13 (16.67%) PMI Certification
3 13 (16.67%) PMP
4 8 (10.26%) CRISC
4 8 (10.26%) Degree
5 6 (7.69%) CISA
6 4 (5.13%) AWS Certification
6 4 (5.13%) Azure Certification
6 4 (5.13%) CompTIA Security+
6 4 (5.13%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 3 (3.85%) CCSP
7 3 (3.85%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (3.85%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
7 3 (3.85%) Security Cleared
8 2 (2.56%) ISSAP
8 2 (2.56%) Master's Degree
8 2 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (2.56%) SC Cleared
8 2 (2.56%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (85.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 55 (70.51%) NIST
3 37 (47.44%) GDPR
4 17 (21.79%) GRC
5 16 (20.51%) PCI DSS
6 9 (11.54%) NIST 800
7 5 (6.41%) HIPAA
7 5 (6.41%) ISO 22301
7 5 (6.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 5 (6.41%) PMO
7 5 (6.41%) SOC 1
8 3 (3.85%) QA
9 2 (2.56%) Actionable Recommendations
9 2 (2.56%) COBIT
9 2 (2.56%) ISO 31000
9 2 (2.56%) SLA
10 1 (1.28%) Data Quality
10 1 (1.28%) ISO 9001
10 1 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (1.28%) NCSC
System Software
1 5 (6.41%) Active Directory
2 4 (5.13%) Docker
3 2 (2.56%) Virtual Servers
4 1 (1.28%) Ceph
4 1 (1.28%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 9 (11.54%) Terraform
2 6 (7.69%) Kubernetes
3 5 (6.41%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (5.13%) Ansible
5 2 (2.56%) CASB
5 2 (2.56%) Nexpose
5 2 (2.56%) Puppet
6 1 (1.28%) Argo
6 1 (1.28%) Fluentd
6 1 (1.28%) FreeIPA
6 1 (1.28%) Grafana
6 1 (1.28%) HP Fortify
6 1 (1.28%) logstash
6 1 (1.28%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (1.28%) Prometheus
6 1 (1.28%) QRadar
6 1 (1.28%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 15 (19.23%) Microsoft
2 6 (7.69%) Splunk
3 5 (6.41%) Qualys
3 5 (6.41%) Tenable
4 4 (5.13%) CrowdStrike
4 4 (5.13%) CyberArk
4 4 (5.13%) Okta
5 3 (3.85%) Google
5 3 (3.85%) Rapid7
5 3 (3.85%) ServiceNow
6 2 (2.56%) TOWER Software
7 1 (1.28%) Commvault
7 1 (1.28%) Databricks
7 1 (1.28%) ForgeRock
7 1 (1.28%) Palo Alto
7 1 (1.28%) Red Hat
7 1 (1.28%) Remedy
7 1 (1.28%) Veeam
7 1 (1.28%) Veracode
7 1 (1.28%) VMware