Network Security Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Network Security Engineer
UK > England

The median Network Security Engineer daily rate in England is £470, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 February 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 500 438 515
Rank change year-on-year -62 +77 +107
Contract jobs requiring a Network Security Engineer 62 47 46
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.18% 0.18% 0.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.19% 0.20% 0.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 28 20
10th Percentile £374 £275 £411
25th Percentile £400 £347 £467
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £420 £513
Median % change year-on-year +11.90% -18.05% -1.91%
75th Percentile £550 £556 £600
90th Percentile £575 £595 £678
UK median daily rate £470 £425 £500
% change year-on-year +10.59% -15.00% -4.31%

All Contract IT Job Roles
England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in England. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in England with a recognized job title 31,876 23,857 35,159
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.89% 92.97% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,202 15,057 23,560
10th Percentile £305 £300 £272
25th Percentile £410 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £745
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,049 719 2,153
10th Percentile £15.00 £16.25 £13.23
25th Percentile £18.87 £22.00 £16.54
Median hourly rate £33.17 £36.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -7.86% +2.86% -12.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £74.68 £75.30 £71.87
UK median hourly rate £31.76 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -9.27% - -12.01%

Network Security Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Network Security Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Network Security Engineer job vacancy trend in England

Network Security Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Security Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Network Security Engineer job vacancies in England

Network Security Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Security Engineer in England over the 6 months to 23 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Security Engineer in England

Network Security Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Security Engineer job vacancies in England.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Network Security Engineer job vacancies in England

Network Security Engineer
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Security Engineer within the England region over the 6 months to 23 February 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
London -37 25 £550 - 8
North of England -43 19 £500 +48.15% 12
West Midlands - 19 £383 - 6
Midlands - 19 £383 - 9
North West -19 17 £500 -4.76% 7
South East -27 7 £400 -4.76% 4
South West -20 3 £525 +15.77% 6
Yorkshire -59 2 - - 4
East of England -32 1 £475 +72.73% 4
Network Security Engineer
UK

Network Security Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England

For the 6 months to 23 February 2026, Network Security Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the England region featuring Network Security Engineer in the job title.

1 42 (67.74%) Network Security
2 37 (59.68%) Firewall
3 36 (58.06%) Cisco
4 28 (45.16%) DNS
5 27 (43.55%) VPN
6 24 (38.71%) F5
7 23 (37.10%) BGP
8 17 (27.42%) Palo Alto
9 16 (25.81%) Load Balancing
10 14 (22.58%) DMZ
10 14 (22.58%) Fortinet
10 14 (22.58%) Multicast
11 11 (17.74%) Azure
11 11 (17.74%) CheckPoint
11 11 (17.74%) SC Cleared
11 11 (17.74%) Security Cleared
12 10 (16.13%) AWS
12 10 (16.13%) WAN
13 9 (14.52%) Cloud Security
13 9 (14.52%) TCP/IP
13 9 (14.52%) Wireless
13 9 (14.52%) Zscaler
14 8 (12.90%) Cybersecurity
14 8 (12.90%) Linux
14 8 (12.90%) OSPF
14 8 (12.90%) SSL
15 7 (11.29%) Change Management
15 7 (11.29%) Incident Management
15 7 (11.29%) Juniper
15 7 (11.29%) NGFW

Network Security Engineer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 3 (4.84%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 11 (17.74%) Azure
2 10 (16.13%) AWS
3 5 (8.06%) GCP
4 2 (3.23%) Entra ID
4 2 (3.23%) Mimecast
5 1 (1.61%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (1.61%) OCI
5 1 (1.61%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (67.74%) Network Security
2 37 (59.68%) Firewall
3 28 (45.16%) DNS
4 27 (43.55%) VPN
5 23 (37.10%) BGP
6 14 (22.58%) DMZ
6 14 (22.58%) Multicast
7 10 (16.13%) WAN
8 9 (14.52%) TCP/IP
8 9 (14.52%) Wireless
9 8 (12.90%) OSPF
9 8 (12.90%) SSL
10 7 (11.29%) NGFW
11 6 (9.68%) Cisco ASA
12 4 (6.45%) IPsec
12 4 (6.45%) LAN
12 4 (6.45%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (4.84%) Cisco IPT
13 3 (4.84%) DMVPN
13 3 (4.84%) Wireshark
Development Applications
1 1 (1.61%) JIRA
General
1 10 (16.13%) Social Skills
2 9 (14.52%) Banking
3 8 (12.90%) Investment Banking
4 7 (11.29%) Analytical Skills
4 7 (11.29%) Finance
5 5 (8.06%) Public Sector
6 4 (6.45%) Pharmaceutical
7 3 (4.84%) Spanish Language
8 2 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (1.61%) Financial Institution
9 1 (1.61%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (4.84%) 802.1X
1 3 (4.84%) SAML
2 2 (3.23%) LDAP
3 1 (1.61%) CSS
3 1 (1.61%) HTML
3 1 (1.61%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 12 (19.35%) Data Centre
2 5 (8.06%) Security Posture
3 4 (6.45%) Hybrid Cloud
3 4 (6.45%) Operational Technology
4 2 (3.23%) Driving Licence
4 2 (3.23%) Life Science
4 2 (3.23%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.61%) Cloud Security Posture
5 1 (1.61%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.61%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 1 (1.61%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 8 (12.90%) Linux
2 4 (6.45%) Windows
3 3 (4.84%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.61%) Ubuntu
4 1 (1.61%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (25.81%) Load Balancing
2 9 (14.52%) Cloud Security
3 8 (12.90%) Cybersecurity
4 7 (11.29%) Change Management
4 7 (11.29%) Incident Management
4 7 (11.29%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (11.29%) Security Operations
4 7 (11.29%) SIEM
4 7 (11.29%) Stakeholder Management
4 7 (11.29%) Zero Trust
5 6 (9.68%) Network Segmentation
5 6 (9.68%) Security Monitoring
6 5 (8.06%) Continuous Improvement
6 5 (8.06%) Incident Response
6 5 (8.06%) Migration
6 5 (8.06%) Network Architecture
6 5 (8.06%) Security Management
7 4 (6.45%) ISMS
7 4 (6.45%) Penetration Testing
7 4 (6.45%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 4 (6.45%) Python
2 2 (3.23%) Bash
3 1 (1.61%) JavaScript
3 1 (1.61%) PHP
3 1 (1.61%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 11 (17.74%) SC Cleared
1 11 (17.74%) Security Cleared
2 5 (8.06%) CCNP
2 5 (8.06%) Cisco Certification
3 4 (6.45%) CISSP
3 4 (6.45%) CompTIA Security+
4 2 (3.23%) CCIE
5 1 (1.61%) APMG
5 1 (1.61%) CCIE Data Center
5 1 (1.61%) CCNA
5 1 (1.61%) CHECK Team Leader
5 1 (1.61%) CREST Certified
5 1 (1.61%) Degree
5 1 (1.61%) DV Cleared
5 1 (1.61%) GIAC
5 1 (1.61%) MCSA
5 1 (1.61%) MCSE
5 1 (1.61%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (1.61%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (11.29%) NIST
2 6 (9.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (8.06%) GDPR
4 4 (6.45%) PCI DSS
5 3 (4.84%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (4.84%) GRC
6 2 (3.23%) GxP
7 1 (1.61%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (1.61%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 1 (1.61%) HMG Security Policy Framework
7 1 (1.61%) SLA
7 1 (1.61%) SOC 2
System Software
1 5 (8.06%) Active Directory
2 3 (4.84%) Virtual Machines
3 1 (1.61%) Firmware
3 1 (1.61%) Virtual Servers
3 1 (1.61%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.61%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (6.45%) CASB
1 4 (6.45%) Single Sign-On
2 3 (4.84%) SCCM
2 3 (4.84%) SCOrch
3 2 (3.23%) Ansible
3 2 (3.23%) FortiGate
3 2 (3.23%) Terraform
4 1 (1.61%) Nessus
4 1 (1.61%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 36 (58.06%) Cisco
2 24 (38.71%) F5
3 17 (27.42%) Palo Alto
4 14 (22.58%) Fortinet
5 11 (17.74%) CheckPoint
6 9 (14.52%) Zscaler
7 7 (11.29%) Juniper
8 6 (9.68%) Microsoft
9 5 (8.06%) Blue Coat
10 4 (6.45%) Splunk
11 3 (4.84%) Meraki
11 3 (4.84%) SolarWinds
12 2 (3.23%) ServiceNow
12 2 (3.23%) Tenable
13 1 (1.61%) CrowdStrike
13 1 (1.61%) CyberArk
13 1 (1.61%) Infoblox
13 1 (1.61%) Netskope
13 1 (1.61%) Remedy
13 1 (1.61%) Symantec