Network Security Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Network Security Engineer
UK > England

The median Network Security Engineer daily rate in England is £423, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 20 November 2025.

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

6 months to
20 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 477 426 524
Rank change year-on-year -51 +98 +128
Contract jobs requiring a Network Security Engineer 62 87 51
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.20% 0.28% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.30% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 38 65 37
10th Percentile £339 £300 £363
25th Percentile £380 £413 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £423 £450 £515
Median % change year-on-year -6.11% -12.62% -1.44%
75th Percentile £514 £550 £600
90th Percentile £574 £614 £673
UK median daily rate £423 £488 £525
% change year-on-year -13.33% -7.14% +2.44%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 27,794 28,871 36,520
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.21% 92.97% 93.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,815 17,661 25,211
10th Percentile £281 £300 £290
25th Percentile £404 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £525 £534
Median % change year-on-year -3.33% -1.69% -2.91%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,691 1,070 1,414
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £15.37
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.25 £19.99
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -12.82% +49.84%
75th Percentile £56.47 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £71.50 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.63 £45.00
% change year-on-year -29.40% -20.83% +55.17%

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 20 November 2025.

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 20 November 2025. 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 -3 34 £456 -8.75% 14
North of England -56 12 £476 +7.02%
South East -14 10 £400 -27.27% 7
North West -25 10 £476 -9.29%
Midlands -24 6 £380 -14.61%
West Midlands -31 6 £380 -14.61%
Yorkshire -44 2 - -
Network Security Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 20 November 2025, 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 55 (88.71%) Network Security
2 51 (82.26%) Firewall
3 34 (54.84%) Cisco
4 23 (37.10%) Palo Alto
5 19 (30.65%) WAN
6 17 (27.42%) AWS
6 17 (27.42%) CheckPoint
6 17 (27.42%) Incident Response
7 16 (25.81%) Cisco Certification
8 15 (24.19%) CCNP
8 15 (24.19%) Juniper
8 15 (24.19%) Zscaler
9 14 (22.58%) BGP
9 14 (22.58%) F5
9 14 (22.58%) OSPF
10 13 (20.97%) Azure
10 13 (20.97%) Fortinet
10 13 (20.97%) Security Cleared
10 13 (20.97%) SIEM
11 12 (19.35%) DNS
11 12 (19.35%) VPN
11 12 (19.35%) Wireless
12 11 (17.74%) SC Cleared
12 11 (17.74%) SSL
13 10 (16.13%) Cloud Security
13 10 (16.13%) Network Architecture
14 9 (14.52%) Cybersecurity
14 9 (14.52%) Intrusion Detection
15 8 (12.90%) Security Monitoring
15 8 (12.90%) SolarWinds

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 4 (6.45%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.61%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 17 (27.42%) AWS
2 13 (20.97%) Azure
3 7 (11.29%) GCP
4 2 (3.23%) Akamai
5 1 (1.61%) AWS Direct Connect
5 1 (1.61%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (1.61%) Cloudflare
5 1 (1.61%) Entra ID
5 1 (1.61%) Mimecast
5 1 (1.61%) OCI
5 1 (1.61%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 55 (88.71%) Network Security
2 51 (82.26%) Firewall
3 19 (30.65%) WAN
4 14 (22.58%) BGP
4 14 (22.58%) OSPF
5 12 (19.35%) DNS
5 12 (19.35%) VPN
5 12 (19.35%) Wireless
6 11 (17.74%) SSL
7 9 (14.52%) Intrusion Detection
8 7 (11.29%) DMVPN
8 7 (11.29%) SD-WAN
9 6 (9.68%) Internet
9 6 (9.68%) NGFW
9 6 (9.68%) VLAN
10 5 (8.06%) IPsec
10 5 (8.06%) LAN
10 5 (8.06%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (8.06%) Wireshark
11 4 (6.45%) Cisco ASA
Development Applications
1 2 (3.23%) JIRA
2 1 (1.61%) GitLab
General
1 12 (19.35%) Social Skills
2 6 (9.68%) Pharmaceutical
2 6 (9.68%) Public Sector
3 5 (8.06%) Telecoms
4 4 (6.45%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (6.45%) Finance
5 3 (4.84%) Spanish Language
6 2 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.61%) Banking
7 1 (1.61%) Financial Institution
7 1 (1.61%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (8.06%) 802.1X
2 4 (6.45%) SAML
3 1 (1.61%) OAuth
3 1 (1.61%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 12 (19.35%) Data Centre
2 4 (6.45%) Hybrid Cloud
2 4 (6.45%) Management Information System
2 4 (6.45%) Security Posture
3 3 (4.84%) Data Protection Act
3 3 (4.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
3 3 (4.84%) Life Science
3 3 (4.84%) Operational Technology
4 2 (3.23%) Driving Licence
5 1 (1.61%) Cloud Native
5 1 (1.61%) Clustering
5 1 (1.61%) CMDB
5 1 (1.61%) Insider Threat
5 1 (1.61%) PKI
5 1 (1.61%) Renewable Energy
5 1 (1.61%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 7 (11.29%) Linux
2 4 (6.45%) Windows
2 4 (6.45%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (27.42%) Incident Response
2 13 (20.97%) SIEM
3 10 (16.13%) Cloud Security
3 10 (16.13%) Network Architecture
4 9 (14.52%) Cybersecurity
5 8 (12.90%) Security Monitoring
6 7 (11.29%) Change Management
6 7 (11.29%) Incident Management
6 7 (11.29%) Kalman Filter
6 7 (11.29%) Problem-Solving
6 7 (11.29%) Zero Trust
7 6 (9.68%) Security Management
7 6 (9.68%) Security Operations
7 6 (9.68%) Vulnerability Assessment
8 5 (8.06%) Information Security Management
8 5 (8.06%) Infrastructure as Code
8 5 (8.06%) Infrastructure Automation
8 5 (8.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 5 (8.06%) Migration
8 5 (8.06%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 2 (3.23%) Python
2 1 (1.61%) Bash
2 1 (1.61%) PowerShell
2 1 (1.61%) SQL
Qualifications
1 16 (25.81%) Cisco Certification
2 15 (24.19%) CCNP
3 13 (20.97%) Security Cleared
4 11 (17.74%) SC Cleared
5 6 (9.68%) CISSP
6 4 (6.45%) CCSA
7 3 (4.84%) CEH
7 3 (4.84%) CompTIA Security+
7 3 (4.84%) Degree
8 2 (3.23%) CCNA
9 1 (1.61%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (1.61%) CCIE
9 1 (1.61%) CCIE Data Center
9 1 (1.61%) CCSE
9 1 (1.61%) CHECK Team Leader
9 1 (1.61%) CREST Certified
9 1 (1.61%) DV Cleared
9 1 (1.61%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (8.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (6.45%) NIST
3 3 (4.84%) GDPR
4 2 (3.23%) GRC
4 2 (3.23%) GxP
4 2 (3.23%) PCI DSS
4 2 (3.23%) SLA
4 2 (3.23%) SOC 2
5 1 (1.61%) Def Stans
5 1 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 5 (8.06%) Active Directory
1 5 (8.06%) Virtual Machines
2 3 (4.84%) Firmware
3 1 (1.61%) Docker
3 1 (1.61%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 6 (9.68%) Terraform
2 5 (8.06%) Ansible
2 5 (8.06%) FortiGate
3 4 (6.45%) CASB
3 4 (6.45%) SCCM
3 4 (6.45%) SCOrch
4 3 (4.84%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (3.23%) CA Spectrum
6 1 (1.61%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (1.61%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 34 (54.84%) Cisco
2 23 (37.10%) Palo Alto
3 17 (27.42%) CheckPoint
4 15 (24.19%) Juniper
4 15 (24.19%) Zscaler
5 14 (22.58%) F5
6 13 (20.97%) Fortinet
7 8 (12.90%) SolarWinds
8 6 (9.68%) Meraki
8 6 (9.68%) Microsoft
9 4 (6.45%) Blue Coat
9 4 (6.45%) Qualys
9 4 (6.45%) Tenable
10 3 (4.84%) Splunk
11 2 (3.23%) Infoblox
12 1 (1.61%) FireEye
12 1 (1.61%) Forcepoint
12 1 (1.61%) Imperva
12 1 (1.61%) Rockwell
12 1 (1.61%) ServiceNow