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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 553 467 569
Rank change year-on-year -86 +102 +61
Contract jobs citing SOC 2 72 52 18
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.18% 0.042%
As % of the Quality Assurance & Compliance category 0.91% 1.14% 0.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 32 10
10th Percentile £416 £410 £473
25th Percentile £458 £525 £492
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £639 £650
Median % change year-on-year -13.86% -1.77% +5.69%
75th Percentile £647 £875 £700
90th Percentile £725 £950 £730
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 7,908 4,579 6,110
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 16.58% 15.75% 14.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,102 2,941 3,883
10th Percentile £341 £265 £285
25th Percentile £413 £400 £402
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year - -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £620 £625
90th Percentile £700 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £482
% change year-on-year +5.26% -1.35% +0.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 458 173 381
10th Percentile £14.02 £17.86 £10.95
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.14 £13.18
Median hourly rate £36.00 £35.00 £21.12
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% +65.76% -39.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.62 £45.00
90th Percentile £82.08 £82.92 £68.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £50.00 £18.27
% change year-on-year -20.00% +173.67% -47.80%

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 15 May 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 15 May 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 -98 65 £577 -7.72% 43
UK excluding London -68 38 £600 +14.29% 21
Work from Home -6 36 £600 +14.29% 26
London -71 27 £525 -23.64% 28
South East -38 21 £650 - 7
North of England -60 8 £550 +33.33% 5
Midlands - 6 £442 - 2
Yorkshire -58 4 £500 +21.21% 1
North West - 4 £574 - 3
East Midlands - 3 £438 -
West Midlands - 3 £463 - 2
East of England -33 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 (5.56%) Confluence
2 3 (4.17%) SharePoint
3 2 (2.78%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (4.17%) MS Visio
2 2 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 3 (4.17%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 22 (30.56%) Azure
2 14 (19.44%) AWS
3 13 (18.06%) Entra ID
3 13 (18.06%) GCP
4 7 (9.72%) Azure Sentinel
4 7 (9.72%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (8.33%) SaaS
6 4 (5.56%) Power Platform
7 3 (4.17%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 3 (4.17%) AWS CloudFormation
7 3 (4.17%) Azure AKS
7 3 (4.17%) Azure Key Vault
7 3 (4.17%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (4.17%) GitHub
7 3 (4.17%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (4.17%) Google Workspace
7 3 (4.17%) OneDrive
7 3 (4.17%) Power Automate
7 3 (4.17%) PowerApps
8 2 (2.78%) Google Kubernetes Engine
Communications & Networking
1 8 (11.11%) Network Security
2 5 (6.94%) Firewall
2 5 (6.94%) Reverse Proxy
3 2 (2.78%) NGFW
3 2 (2.78%) VPN
4 1 (1.39%) DHCP
4 1 (1.39%) DNS
4 1 (1.39%) Intrusion Detection
4 1 (1.39%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.39%) Azure SQL Database
1 1 (1.39%) Data Lake
1 1 (1.39%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (2.78%) GitLab
1 2 (2.78%) Jenkins
1 2 (2.78%) JIRA
2 1 (1.39%) Burp Suite
2 1 (1.39%) Git
2 1 (1.39%) Postman
General
1 25 (34.72%) Finance
1 25 (34.72%) Social Skills
2 6 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
2 6 (8.33%) Legal
3 5 (6.94%) Documentation Skills
4 4 (5.56%) Banking
5 2 (2.78%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.39%) Law
6 1 (1.39%) Manufacturing
6 1 (1.39%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 20 (27.78%) Project Manager
2 15 (20.83%) Security Manager
2 15 (20.83%) Security Project Manager
3 9 (12.50%) Analyst
4 8 (11.11%) Senior
5 7 (9.72%) Cybersecurity Manager
5 7 (9.72%) Project Manager - Cybersecurity
6 6 (8.33%) Security Specialist
7 5 (6.94%) Consultant
7 5 (6.94%) Project Assurance Manager
7 5 (6.94%) Security Engineer
8 4 (5.56%) Architect
8 4 (5.56%) Business Analyst
8 4 (5.56%) IT Manager
8 4 (5.56%) IT Project Manager
8 4 (5.56%) Security Assurance Manager
8 4 (5.56%) SOC Manager
9 3 (4.17%) IAM Project Manager
9 3 (4.17%) Senior Manager
9 3 (4.17%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (9.72%) OpenID
1 7 (9.72%) SAML
2 6 (8.33%) OAuth
3 5 (6.94%) OAuth2
4 4 (5.56%) Microsoft Graph
5 3 (4.17%) Node.js
5 3 (4.17%) RESTful
6 2 (2.78%) 802.1X
6 2 (2.78%) ARM Templates
6 2 (2.78%) JWT
6 2 (2.78%) Middleware
6 2 (2.78%) REST
7 1 (1.39%) AWS CDK
7 1 (1.39%) JSON
7 1 (1.39%) LDAP
7 1 (1.39%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 9 (12.50%) Cloud Native
1 9 (12.50%) Security Posture
2 7 (9.72%) Onboarding
2 7 (9.72%) Operational Technology
3 6 (8.33%) Product Ownership
4 4 (5.56%) Management Information System
4 4 (5.56%) Virtual Team
5 3 (4.17%) Distributed Systems
6 2 (2.78%) Cyber Threat
6 2 (2.78%) PMI
6 2 (2.78%) Security Operations Centre
7 1 (1.39%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (1.39%) CMDB
7 1 (1.39%) Cyberattack
7 1 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (1.39%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (1.39%) Linux Command Line
7 1 (1.39%) NHS
7 1 (1.39%) PKI
7 1 (1.39%) Taxonomies
Operating Systems
1 8 (11.11%) Windows
2 5 (6.94%) Linux
3 2 (2.78%) AIX
3 2 (2.78%) Solaris
4 1 (1.39%) CoreOS
4 1 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (1.39%) VMS
4 1 (1.39%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (56.94%) Cybersecurity
2 26 (36.11%) Risk Management
2 26 (36.11%) Stakeholder Management
3 21 (29.17%) Change Management
4 19 (26.39%) Data Protection
5 16 (22.22%) CI/CD
5 16 (22.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 15 (20.83%) Security Operations
7 14 (19.44%) Information Security
7 14 (19.44%) SIEM
8 13 (18.06%) Infrastructure as Code
8 13 (18.06%) Zero Trust
9 12 (16.67%) Agile
9 12 (16.67%) DevOps
9 12 (16.67%) Incident Response
9 12 (16.67%) Matrix Organization
10 11 (15.28%) Cloud Security
10 11 (15.28%) Regulatory Compliance
10 11 (15.28%) Runbook
10 11 (15.28%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 12 (16.67%) Python
2 10 (13.89%) PowerShell
3 7 (9.72%) Bash
4 5 (6.94%) Bicep
5 4 (5.56%) Go
5 4 (5.56%) JavaScript
6 3 (4.17%) C#
6 3 (4.17%) Java
7 1 (1.39%) SQL
Qualifications
1 18 (25.00%) CISSP
2 14 (19.44%) CISM
3 12 (16.67%) Degree
4 11 (15.28%) PMI Certification
4 11 (15.28%) PMP
5 7 (9.72%) CRISC
6 4 (5.56%) Azure Certification
6 4 (5.56%) CISA
6 4 (5.56%) Cisco Certification
6 4 (5.56%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
6 4 (5.56%) Security Cleared
7 3 (4.17%) CCSP
7 3 (4.17%) CompTIA Security+
7 3 (4.17%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (4.17%) Master's Degree
8 2 (2.78%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 2 (2.78%) AWS Certification
8 2 (2.78%) BPSS Clearance
8 2 (2.78%) CBAP
8 2 (2.78%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 59 (81.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 44 (61.11%) NIST
3 34 (47.22%) GDPR
4 16 (22.22%) PCI DSS
5 14 (19.44%) GRC
6 8 (11.11%) NIST 800
7 5 (6.94%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
7 5 (6.94%) PMO
8 4 (5.56%) HIPAA
8 4 (5.56%) SOC 1
9 3 (4.17%) ISO 22301
10 2 (2.78%) Actionable Recommendations
10 2 (2.78%) COBIT
10 2 (2.78%) EU AI Act
10 2 (2.78%) ISO 31000
10 2 (2.78%) SLA
11 1 (1.39%) ISO 9001
11 1 (1.39%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (1.39%) NCSC
11 1 (1.39%) QA
System Software
1 5 (6.94%) Active Directory
2 2 (2.78%) Docker
3 1 (1.39%) Ceph
3 1 (1.39%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.39%) Virtual Servers
3 1 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 11 (15.28%) Terraform
2 10 (13.89%) Single Sign-On
3 9 (12.50%) Kubernetes
4 2 (2.78%) CASB
4 2 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.39%) Ansible
5 1 (1.39%) Argo
5 1 (1.39%) CSIRT
5 1 (1.39%) Fluentd
5 1 (1.39%) Grafana
5 1 (1.39%) HP Fortify
5 1 (1.39%) logstash
5 1 (1.39%) Nexpose
5 1 (1.39%) Prometheus
5 1 (1.39%) Puppet
5 1 (1.39%) QRadar
5 1 (1.39%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 15 (20.83%) Microsoft
2 5 (6.94%) Google
2 5 (6.94%) Splunk
3 3 (4.17%) Okta
3 3 (4.17%) Qualys
3 3 (4.17%) ServiceNow
3 3 (4.17%) Tenable
4 2 (2.78%) CrowdStrike
4 2 (2.78%) Ping Identity
4 2 (2.78%) Rapid7
5 1 (1.39%) Commvault
5 1 (1.39%) CyberArk
5 1 (1.39%) Databricks
5 1 (1.39%) ForgeRock
5 1 (1.39%) Intel
5 1 (1.39%) Palo Alto
5 1 (1.39%) Red Hat
5 1 (1.39%) Remedy
5 1 (1.39%) Veeam
5 1 (1.39%) Veracode