Social Engineering Contract Job Trends

Social Engineering
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Social Engineering skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 567 512 584
Rank change year-on-year -55 +72 +167
Contract jobs citing Social Engineering 7 12 15
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.019% 0.038% 0.035%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.022% 0.043% 0.040%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 2 5
10th Percentile - £446 -
25th Percentile £406 £476 £560
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £413 £540 £570
Median % change year-on-year -23.61% -5.26% -19.15%
75th Percentile £423 £591 £588
90th Percentile - £615 £685
UK excluding London median daily rate £413 £630 £570
% change year-on-year -34.52% +10.53% +6.05%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Social Engineering falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 31,821 27,941 37,669
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.79% 88.66% 87.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,057 16,962 24,992
10th Percentile £304 £306 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £744 £742
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,969 885 1,593
10th Percentile £14.60 £15.62 £14.18
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.48 £18.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.25 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.00% -20.38% +16.41%
75th Percentile £56.00 £61.76 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.49 £74.82 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.11 £43.90
% change year-on-year -20.86% -31.42% +59.64%

Social Engineering
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Social Engineering job vacancy trend in the UK

Social Engineering
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Social Engineering.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Social Engineering

Social Engineering
Top 5 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Social Engineering within the UK over the 6 months to 12 January 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 -68 7 £413 -23.61% 6
South East -14 4 £413 -34.52% 5
UK excluding London -43 4 £413 -34.52% 6
Work from Home -9 3 £415 - 2
London -21 2 £415 -7.78%

Social Engineering
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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (14.29%) AWS
1 1 (14.29%) Azure
1 1 (14.29%) GCP
1 1 (14.29%) OCI
1 1 (14.29%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 4 (57.14%) Internet
1 4 (57.14%) Intranet
1 4 (57.14%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 2 (28.57%) Burp Suite
2 1 (14.29%) Metasploit
General
1 2 (28.57%) Presentation Skills
1 2 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 1 (14.29%) Documentation Skills
2 1 (14.29%) Finance
2 1 (14.29%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 4 (57.14%) Penetration Tester
1 4 (57.14%) Tester
2 2 (28.57%) Information Security Specialist
2 2 (28.57%) Information Specialist
2 2 (28.57%) Security Specialist
3 1 (14.29%) Analyst
Miscellaneous
1 1 (14.29%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 2 (28.57%) Kali Linux
1 2 (28.57%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (71.43%) Penetration Testing
2 4 (57.14%) Cybersecurity
2 4 (57.14%) Information Security
3 3 (42.86%) Test Automation
4 2 (28.57%) Agile
4 2 (28.57%) Behavioural Change
4 2 (28.57%) Cyber Threat Intelligence
4 2 (28.57%) Generative AI
4 2 (28.57%) Manual Testing
4 2 (28.57%) OSINT
4 2 (28.57%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (28.57%) Red Team
4 2 (28.57%) SDLC
4 2 (28.57%) Software Testing
4 2 (28.57%) Stakeholder Engagement
4 2 (28.57%) Threat Intelligence
4 2 (28.57%) Vulnerability Assessment
5 1 (14.29%) Malware Reverse Engineering
5 1 (14.29%) Security Operations
5 1 (14.29%) Threat Detection
Programming Languages
1 1 (14.29%) Python
Qualifications
1 4 (57.14%) CISSP
2 3 (42.86%) SANS
3 2 (28.57%) CISA
3 2 (28.57%) CISM
3 2 (28.57%) OSCP
4 1 (14.29%) (ISC)2 CCSP
4 1 (14.29%) CCSP
4 1 (14.29%) CEH
4 1 (14.29%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (14.29%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (14.29%) Degree
4 1 (14.29%) GIAC
4 1 (14.29%) Master's Degree
4 1 (14.29%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (42.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (42.86%) NIST
2 1 (14.29%) PCI DSS
Systems Management
1 3 (42.86%) Nessus
2 1 (14.29%) Nmap
2 1 (14.29%) QRadar
Vendors
1 1 (14.29%) Qualys
1 1 (14.29%) Splunk