Contractor demand booming in cybersecurity market

The growing number of cyber threats and changes to privacy laws are pushing up demand and salaries for cybersecurity specialists, but the candidate pool remains static, according to recruiters in the market.

Shortlist asked specialists to share their thoughts on the current demand, opportunities and challenges in the increasingly busy cybersecurity recruitment space.

David Smith, General Manager ACT, Peoplebank commented that "It was a little quiet in Canberra until about three months ago, but it's picking up. The market is government demand-driven, and since the privacy changes earlier in the year, the government is doing a lot around digital. We're seeing strong demand for contract roles across a range of skillsets in cyber, not just cybersecurity specialists.

Demand outweighs supply across the board. We're also supplying people on the autism spectrum to government clients and other firms that are implementing Autism at Work programs, including DXC's Dandelion program, and cybersecurity is one of the niche areas that we supply to them."

When discussing salaries and contract rates, Smith stated "Rates are high. Your average cybersecurity specialist with three-to-five years' experience is getting $1,000 a day; cyber architects are $1,300-plus a day. On the perm side, salaries for cybersecurity specialists are around $120–150k, and architects are well over the $200k mark. They're in hot demand in Canberra because they need to have national security clearances."

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