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

6 months to
10 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 556 465 562
Rank change year-on-year -91 +97 +107
Contract jobs citing SOC 2 73 44 15
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.15% 0.034%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.92% 0.98% 0.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 55 27 9
10th Percentile £413 £406 £465
25th Percentile £449 £525 £481
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £574 £650 £575
Median % change year-on-year -11.77% +13.04% +9.52%
75th Percentile £644 £875 £650
90th Percentile £725 £950 £760
UK excluding London median daily rate £600 £525 -
% change year-on-year +14.29% - -

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 7,892 4,479 6,292
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 17.21% 15.33% 14.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,118 2,893 4,018
10th Percentile £337 £263 £300
25th Percentile £413 £399 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £623 £630
90th Percentile £700 £720 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 434 175 374
10th Percentile £14.32 £17.69 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.14 £13.18
Median hourly rate £31.25 £31.76 £20.55
Median % change year-on-year -1.61% +54.53% -48.62%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £43.75
90th Percentile £82.18 £82.88 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.50 £32.00 £17.86
% change year-on-year +10.94% +79.17% -52.37%

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 10 April 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 10 April 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 -66 67 £577 -7.72% 54
UK excluding London -78 40 £600 +14.29% 31
Work from Home -17 34 £600 +14.29% 24
London -66 23 £540 -25.52% 29
South East - 21 £650 - 19
North of England -71 11 £527 +27.82% 6
Midlands - 7 £438 - 2
Yorkshire -54 5 £539 +30.58% 2
North West - 5 £499 - 4
West Midlands - 4 - - 2
East Midlands - 3 £438 -
North East - 1 £466 -
Scotland - 1 £400 - 1

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 (5.48%) Confluence
2 3 (4.11%) SharePoint
3 2 (2.74%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (4.11%) MS Visio
2 2 (2.74%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 24 (32.88%) Azure
2 17 (23.29%) AWS
3 15 (20.55%) GCP
4 12 (16.44%) Entra ID
5 6 (8.22%) GitHub
5 6 (8.22%) GitHub Actions
5 6 (8.22%) Microsoft 365
6 5 (6.85%) AWS CloudFormation
6 5 (6.85%) Azure Sentinel
7 4 (5.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 4 (5.48%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (5.48%) Power Platform
7 4 (5.48%) SaaS
8 3 (4.11%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (4.11%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 3 (4.11%) Google Workspace
8 3 (4.11%) OneDrive
9 2 (2.74%) AWS CloudTrail
9 2 (2.74%) Google Drive
9 2 (2.74%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 9 (12.33%) Network Security
2 5 (6.85%) Reverse Proxy
3 4 (5.48%) Firewall
4 2 (2.74%) Kerberos
4 2 (2.74%) NGFW
4 2 (2.74%) SSH
5 1 (1.37%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.37%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.37%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (1.37%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 2 (2.74%) GitLab
1 2 (2.74%) Jenkins
1 2 (2.74%) JIRA
2 1 (1.37%) Burp Suite
2 1 (1.37%) Git
2 1 (1.37%) Postman
General
1 25 (34.25%) Social Skills
2 19 (26.03%) Finance
3 9 (12.33%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (9.59%) Legal
5 4 (5.48%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (4.11%) Banking
6 3 (4.11%) Public Sector
7 2 (2.74%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (2.74%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (1.37%) Law
8 1 (1.37%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 20 (27.40%) Project Manager
2 15 (20.55%) Security Manager
2 15 (20.55%) Security Project Manager
3 9 (12.33%) Analyst
3 9 (12.33%) Senior
4 7 (9.59%) Cybersecurity Manager
4 7 (9.59%) Project Manager - Cybersecurity
5 6 (8.22%) Security Specialist
6 5 (6.85%) Architect
6 5 (6.85%) Platform Engineer
6 5 (6.85%) Project Assurance Manager
7 4 (5.48%) Business Analyst
7 4 (5.48%) IT Manager
7 4 (5.48%) IT Project Manager
7 4 (5.48%) Security Assurance Manager
7 4 (5.48%) Security Engineer
7 4 (5.48%) SOC Manager
8 3 (4.11%) Consultant
8 3 (4.11%) Senior Project Manager
8 3 (4.11%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (13.70%) SAML
2 9 (12.33%) OAuth
3 8 (10.96%) OpenID
4 6 (8.22%) OAuth2
5 5 (6.85%) ARM Templates
6 4 (5.48%) Microsoft Graph
6 4 (5.48%) RESTful
7 3 (4.11%) LDAP
7 3 (4.11%) Node.js
8 2 (2.74%) 802.1X
8 2 (2.74%) AWS CDK
8 2 (2.74%) Flash
8 2 (2.74%) JWT
8 2 (2.74%) Middleware
8 2 (2.74%) REST
8 2 (2.74%) Smart Contracts
9 1 (1.37%) GraphQL
9 1 (1.37%) JSON
9 1 (1.37%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 9 (12.33%) Cloud Native
2 8 (10.96%) Security Posture
3 7 (9.59%) Onboarding
3 7 (9.59%) Operational Technology
4 6 (8.22%) Management Information System
4 6 (8.22%) Product Ownership
5 4 (5.48%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (5.48%) Virtual Team
6 3 (4.11%) Distributed Systems
7 2 (2.74%) Blockchain
7 2 (2.74%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (2.74%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (2.74%) PMI
7 2 (2.74%) Security Operations Centre
8 1 (1.37%) CMDB
8 1 (1.37%) Cyberattack
8 1 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (1.37%) NHS
8 1 (1.37%) PKI
8 1 (1.37%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 8 (10.96%) Windows
2 5 (6.85%) Linux
3 4 (5.48%) AIX
3 4 (5.48%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (54.79%) Cybersecurity
2 28 (38.36%) Risk Management
3 27 (36.99%) Stakeholder Management
4 18 (24.66%) Change Management
4 18 (24.66%) CI/CD
5 17 (23.29%) Data Protection
5 17 (23.29%) Infrastructure as Code
6 16 (21.92%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 15 (20.55%) SIEM
8 14 (19.18%) AI
8 14 (19.18%) DevOps
8 14 (19.18%) Incident Response
8 14 (19.18%) Information Security
8 14 (19.18%) Security Operations
8 14 (19.18%) Zero Trust
9 13 (17.81%) Cloud Security
10 12 (16.44%) Agile
10 12 (16.44%) Regulatory Compliance
11 11 (15.07%) RBAC
11 11 (15.07%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 15 (20.55%) Python
2 12 (16.44%) PowerShell
3 9 (12.33%) Bash
4 8 (10.96%) Bicep
5 3 (4.11%) Go
6 2 (2.74%) Java
6 2 (2.74%) Rust
6 2 (2.74%) Solidity
7 1 (1.37%) JavaScript
7 1 (1.37%) SQL
7 1 (1.37%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 18 (24.66%) CISSP
2 15 (20.55%) CISM
3 11 (15.07%) Degree
3 11 (15.07%) PMI Certification
3 11 (15.07%) PMP
4 6 (8.22%) CISA
4 6 (8.22%) CRISC
5 5 (6.85%) Security Cleared
6 4 (5.48%) AWS Certification
6 4 (5.48%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 3 (4.11%) Azure Certification
7 3 (4.11%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (4.11%) Master's Degree
7 3 (4.11%) SC Cleared
8 2 (2.74%) CAPM
8 2 (2.74%) CCSK
8 2 (2.74%) CEH
8 2 (2.74%) Cisco Certification
8 2 (2.74%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 2 (2.74%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 60 (82.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 43 (58.90%) NIST
3 37 (50.68%) GDPR
4 20 (27.40%) PCI DSS
5 14 (19.18%) GRC
6 6 (8.22%) HIPAA
7 5 (6.85%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 5 (6.85%) PMO
8 4 (5.48%) NIST 800
9 2 (2.74%) COBIT
9 2 (2.74%) EU AI Act
9 2 (2.74%) ISO 31000
9 2 (2.74%) SLA
10 1 (1.37%) Accessibility
10 1 (1.37%) Cyber Essentials
10 1 (1.37%) FedRAMP
10 1 (1.37%) ISO 9001
10 1 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (1.37%) NCSC
10 1 (1.37%) QA
System Software
1 6 (8.22%) Active Directory
2 2 (2.74%) Docker
Systems Management
1 16 (21.92%) Terraform
2 11 (15.07%) Single Sign-On
3 9 (12.33%) Kubernetes
4 2 (2.74%) CASB
4 2 (2.74%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (2.74%) QRadar
5 1 (1.37%) Argo
5 1 (1.37%) CSIRT
5 1 (1.37%) Fluentd
5 1 (1.37%) HP Fortify
5 1 (1.37%) Kustomize
5 1 (1.37%) logstash
5 1 (1.37%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 11 (15.07%) Microsoft
2 6 (8.22%) Google
2 6 (8.22%) Splunk
3 4 (5.48%) Databricks
4 3 (4.11%) CyberArk
4 3 (4.11%) Okta
4 3 (4.11%) Qualys
4 3 (4.11%) ServiceNow
4 3 (4.11%) Tenable
5 2 (2.74%) BeyondTrust
5 2 (2.74%) CrowdStrike
5 2 (2.74%) Ping Identity
5 2 (2.74%) Rapid7
6 1 (1.37%) Checkmarx
6 1 (1.37%) ForgeRock
6 1 (1.37%) Intel
6 1 (1.37%) OneTrust
6 1 (1.37%) Optimizely
6 1 (1.37%) Remedy
6 1 (1.37%) Veracode