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

6 months to
28 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 568 468 560
Rank change year-on-year -100 +92 +43
Contract jobs citing SOC 2 78 64 27
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.21% 0.062%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.91% 1.28% 0.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 45 13
10th Percentile £425 £406 £481
25th Percentile £463 £463 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £580 £650 £650
Median % change year-on-year -10.77% - +4.00%
75th Percentile £650 £838 £700
90th Percentile £725 £950 £730
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 8,596 5,000 5,957
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.85% 16.37% 13.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,498 3,209 3,697
10th Percentile £340 £278 £282
25th Percentile £413 £400 £401
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year - -1.96% -2.86%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +6.38% -1.05% -4.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 522 207 432
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.78 £11.07
25th Percentile £19.24 £18.50 £13.50
Median hourly rate £36.07 £31.49 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +14.54% +32.31% -36.53%
75th Percentile £67.50 £64.38 £50.00
90th Percentile £82.22 £84.15 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £39.00 £28.59 £20.47
% change year-on-year +36.41% +39.70% -45.43%

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 28 June 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 28 June 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 -102 72 £593 +2.16% 47
Work from Home -37 41 £600 +14.29% 28
London -67 37 £563 -22.41% 35
UK excluding London -86 35 £600 +17.07% 19
South East -41 19 £650 - 10
North of England -69 7 £512 +24.06% 2
Midlands - 6 £442 - 4
North West -45 4 £574 - 2
Yorkshire -52 3 £450 +9.09%
East Midlands - 3 £438 -
West Midlands - 3 £463 - 4
East of England -27 2 £503 -4.29% 1
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 (5.13%) Confluence
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 17 (21.79%) GCP
4 13 (16.67%) Entra ID
5 10 (12.82%) Azure Sentinel
6 7 (8.97%) SaaS
7 4 (5.13%) GitHub
7 4 (5.13%) GitHub Actions
7 4 (5.13%) Power Platform
8 3 (3.85%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 3 (3.85%) AWS CloudFormation
8 3 (3.85%) Azure AKS
8 3 (3.85%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (3.85%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (3.85%) Dynamics 365
8 3 (3.85%) Microsoft 365
8 3 (3.85%) Power Automate
8 3 (3.85%) PowerApps
9 2 (2.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (2.56%) Cloud Run
Communications & Networking
1 8 (10.26%) Network Security
2 5 (6.41%) Reverse Proxy
3 4 (5.13%) Firewall
4 2 (2.56%) DHCP
4 2 (2.56%) DNS
4 2 (2.56%) Internet
4 2 (2.56%) NGFW
4 2 (2.56%) VPN
4 2 (2.56%) X.509
5 1 (1.28%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (1.28%) Kerberos
5 1 (1.28%) SMS
5 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 30 (38.46%) Finance
2 25 (32.05%) Social Skills
3 6 (7.69%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (7.69%) Documentation Skills
3 6 (7.69%) Legal
4 4 (5.13%) Banking
5 3 (3.85%) Manufacturing
6 2 (2.56%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.28%) Health Technology
7 1 (1.28%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 20 (25.64%) Project Manager
2 18 (23.08%) Security Manager
3 17 (21.79%) Security Project Manager
4 9 (11.54%) Analyst
4 9 (11.54%) Senior
5 7 (8.97%) Consultant
5 7 (8.97%) Cybersecurity Manager
5 7 (8.97%) Project Manager - Cybersecurity
6 6 (7.69%) Architect
6 6 (7.69%) Security Specialist
7 5 (6.41%) Lead
7 5 (6.41%) Project Assurance Manager
7 5 (6.41%) Security Architect
8 4 (5.13%) Business Analyst
8 4 (5.13%) Security Assurance Manager
8 4 (5.13%) SOC Manager
9 3 (3.85%) Cybersecurity Architect
9 3 (3.85%) Security Engineer
9 3 (3.85%) Senior Manager
9 3 (3.85%) Senior Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (8.97%) OpenID
1 7 (8.97%) SAML
2 6 (7.69%) OAuth
2 6 (7.69%) OAuth2
3 3 (3.85%) Node.js
3 3 (3.85%) REST
3 3 (3.85%) RESTful
4 2 (2.56%) 802.1X
4 2 (2.56%) ARM Templates
4 2 (2.56%) Azure Blueprints
4 2 (2.56%) JSON
4 2 (2.56%) JWT
4 2 (2.56%) LDAP
4 2 (2.56%) Middleware
4 2 (2.56%) SailPoint
5 1 (1.28%) AWS CDK
5 1 (1.28%) FastAPI
5 1 (1.28%) FIDO
5 1 (1.28%) Microsoft Graph
5 1 (1.28%) WebAuthn
Miscellaneous
1 13 (16.67%) Cloud Native
2 11 (14.10%) Security Posture
3 7 (8.97%) Onboarding
3 7 (8.97%) Operational Technology
4 6 (7.69%) Product Ownership
5 5 (6.41%) Management Information System
6 4 (5.13%) Virtual Team
7 3 (3.85%) CMDB
7 3 (3.85%) Distributed Systems
8 2 (2.56%) Hybrid Cloud
8 2 (2.56%) PKI
8 2 (2.56%) PMI
9 1 (1.28%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (1.28%) Cyber Threat
9 1 (1.28%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 1 (1.28%) Enterprise Software
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 42 (53.85%) Cybersecurity
2 32 (41.03%) Stakeholder Management
3 31 (39.74%) Risk Management
4 23 (29.49%) Change Management
5 19 (24.36%) Data Protection
5 19 (24.36%) Infrastructure as Code
6 18 (23.08%) Information Security
6 18 (23.08%) Security Operations
6 18 (23.08%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 17 (21.79%) CI/CD
8 16 (20.51%) Zero Trust
9 15 (19.23%) DevOps
9 15 (19.23%) SIEM
10 14 (17.95%) Cloud Security
10 14 (17.95%) Matrix Organization
10 14 (17.95%) Regulatory Compliance
10 14 (17.95%) Vulnerability Management
11 13 (16.67%) Budget Management
11 13 (16.67%) Runbook
12 12 (15.38%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 15 (19.23%) Python
2 12 (15.38%) PowerShell
3 8 (10.26%) Bash
4 7 (8.97%) Bicep
5 4 (5.13%) Go
5 4 (5.13%) JavaScript
6 3 (3.85%) C#
6 3 (3.85%) Java
7 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 11 (14.10%) Degree
5 9 (11.54%) CRISC
6 6 (7.69%) CISA
7 4 (5.13%) AWS Certification
7 4 (5.13%) Azure Certification
7 4 (5.13%) CompTIA Security+
7 4 (5.13%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
7 4 (5.13%) Security Cleared
8 3 (3.85%) CCSP
8 3 (3.85%) Cisco Certification
8 3 (3.85%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (3.85%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
8 3 (3.85%) Master's Degree
9 2 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (2.56%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 66 (84.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 55 (70.51%) NIST
3 36 (46.15%) GDPR
4 17 (21.79%) GRC
4 17 (21.79%) PCI DSS
5 9 (11.54%) NIST 800
6 5 (6.41%) HIPAA
6 5 (6.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 5 (6.41%) PMO
6 5 (6.41%) SOC 1
7 3 (3.85%) ISO 22301
7 3 (3.85%) QA
8 2 (2.56%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (2.56%) COBIT
8 2 (2.56%) ISO 31000
8 2 (2.56%) SLA
9 1 (1.28%) Accessibility
9 1 (1.28%) Data Quality
9 1 (1.28%) ISO/IEC 20000
9 1 (1.28%) NCSC
System Software
1 4 (5.13%) Active Directory
1 4 (5.13%) Docker
2 2 (2.56%) Virtual Servers
3 1 (1.28%) Ceph
3 1 (1.28%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.28%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 14 (17.95%) Terraform
2 11 (14.10%) Kubernetes
3 7 (8.97%) 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 16 (20.51%) Microsoft
2 8 (10.26%) Splunk
3 6 (7.69%) Okta
4 5 (6.41%) Google
4 5 (6.41%) Qualys
4 5 (6.41%) ServiceNow
4 5 (6.41%) Tenable
5 4 (5.13%) CrowdStrike
6 3 (3.85%) CyberArk
6 3 (3.85%) Ping Identity
6 3 (3.85%) Rapid7
7 2 (2.56%) TOWER Software
8 1 (1.28%) Commvault
8 1 (1.28%) ForgeRock
8 1 (1.28%) Palo Alto
8 1 (1.28%) Red Hat
8 1 (1.28%) Remedy
8 1 (1.28%) Veeam
8 1 (1.28%) Veracode
8 1 (1.28%) VMware