Network Security Engineer Contract Job Trends in England

Network Security Engineer
UK > England

The median Network Security Engineer daily rate in England is £488, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 28 April 2026.

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

6 months to
28 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 503 433 486
Rank change year-on-year -70 +53 +96
Contract jobs requiring a Network Security Engineer 81 53 49
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.20% 0.22% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.23% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 34 33 21
10th Percentile £375 £325 £413
25th Percentile £414 £382 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £450 £513
Median % change year-on-year +8.33% -12.20% -2.38%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £556
90th Percentile £662 £568 £675
UK median daily rate £488 £450 £506
% change year-on-year +8.33% -11.11% -3.34%

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 37,090 22,661 34,277
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.36% 92.65% 92.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,200 15,114 22,756
10th Percentile £313 £300 £275
25th Percentile £413 £409 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £640
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -3.00% -1.82% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,526 899 2,410
10th Percentile £15.77 £14.20 £12.92
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.51 £16.30
Median hourly rate £45.59 £31.76 £35.65
Median % change year-on-year +43.53% -10.91% -20.78%
75th Percentile £67.25 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.54
UK median hourly rate £43.39 £29.25 £35.83
% change year-on-year +48.35% -18.36% -20.38%

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 28 April 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 28 April 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
North of England -45 35 £500 -4.76% 7
Midlands - 33 £375 - 4
West Midlands - 33 £375 - 3
North West -6 32 £500 -4.76% 5
London -69 26 £550 +4.76% 13
South West -38 4 £538 +30.30% 1
South East -66 4 £400 -3.61% 9
Yorkshire - 2 - - 1
East of England -32 1 £475 +43.94% 3
North East - 1 - - 1
Network Security Engineer
UK

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

For the 6 months to 28 April 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 56 (69.14%) Cisco
2 46 (56.79%) VPN
3 45 (55.56%) Network Security
4 44 (54.32%) F5
5 40 (49.38%) Firewall
6 39 (48.15%) BGP
7 38 (46.91%) DNS
8 35 (43.21%) Load Balancing
9 29 (35.80%) Multicast
10 28 (34.57%) DMZ
11 27 (33.33%) Palo Alto
12 19 (23.46%) Fortinet
13 13 (16.05%) Azure
13 13 (16.05%) WAN
14 12 (14.81%) SD-WAN
15 11 (13.58%) SC Cleared
15 11 (13.58%) Security Cleared
15 11 (13.58%) Zero Trust
16 10 (12.35%) CCNP
16 10 (12.35%) Cisco Certification
17 9 (11.11%) AWS
17 9 (11.11%) CheckPoint
17 9 (11.11%) OSPF
17 9 (11.11%) Python
18 8 (9.88%) NGFW
18 8 (9.88%) Validation
18 8 (9.88%) Wireless
18 8 (9.88%) Zscaler
19 7 (8.64%) Juniper
19 7 (8.64%) SSL

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:

Applications
1 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 13 (16.05%) Azure
2 9 (11.11%) AWS
3 4 (4.94%) GCP
4 3 (3.70%) Entra ID
5 2 (2.47%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (2.47%) Mimecast
5 2 (2.47%) OCI
5 2 (2.47%) SaaS
6 1 (1.23%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 46 (56.79%) VPN
2 45 (55.56%) Network Security
3 40 (49.38%) Firewall
4 39 (48.15%) BGP
5 38 (46.91%) DNS
6 29 (35.80%) Multicast
7 28 (34.57%) DMZ
8 13 (16.05%) WAN
9 12 (14.81%) SD-WAN
10 9 (11.11%) OSPF
11 8 (9.88%) NGFW
11 8 (9.88%) Wireless
12 7 (8.64%) SSL
12 7 (8.64%) TCP/IP
12 7 (8.64%) VLAN
13 5 (6.17%) Cisco ISE
13 5 (6.17%) LAN
14 4 (4.94%) Cisco Nexus
14 4 (4.94%) DHCP
14 4 (4.94%) IPsec
Development Applications
1 2 (2.47%) JIRA
2 1 (1.23%) Browser DevTools
General
1 17 (20.99%) Banking
2 16 (19.75%) Investment Banking
3 9 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (9.88%) Social Skills
5 6 (7.41%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (6.17%) Finance
7 2 (2.47%) Pharmaceutical
7 2 (2.47%) Public Sector
7 2 (2.47%) Telecoms
8 1 (1.23%) Financial Institution
8 1 (1.23%) Legal
8 1 (1.23%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (3.70%) 802.1X
2 2 (2.47%) LDAP
3 1 (1.23%) CSS
3 1 (1.23%) HTML
3 1 (1.23%) JSON
3 1 (1.23%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (12.35%) Data Centre
2 4 (4.94%) Hybrid Cloud
2 4 (4.94%) Security Posture
3 3 (3.70%) Operational Technology
4 1 (1.23%) Cloud Security Posture
4 1 (1.23%) Data Protection Act
4 1 (1.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 1 (1.23%) Enterprise Software
4 1 (1.23%) Management Information System
4 1 (1.23%) PKI
4 1 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 2 (2.47%) Linux
1 2 (2.47%) Windows
2 1 (1.23%) Mac OS
2 1 (1.23%) Ubuntu
2 1 (1.23%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (43.21%) Load Balancing
2 11 (13.58%) Zero Trust
3 8 (9.88%) Validation
4 7 (8.64%) Stakeholder Management
5 6 (7.41%) Cloud Security
5 6 (7.41%) Incident Management
5 6 (7.41%) SIEM
6 5 (6.17%) Migration
6 5 (6.17%) Network Segmentation
7 4 (4.94%) Change Management
7 4 (4.94%) Continuous Improvement
7 4 (4.94%) ITSM
7 4 (4.94%) Problem-Solving
7 4 (4.94%) Project Delivery
7 4 (4.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 3 (3.70%) Cybersecurity
8 3 (3.70%) Kalman Filter
8 3 (3.70%) Root Cause Analysis
8 3 (3.70%) Security Hardening
8 3 (3.70%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 9 (11.11%) Python
2 3 (3.70%) Bash
2 3 (3.70%) PowerShell
3 1 (1.23%) JavaScript
3 1 (1.23%) PHP
Qualifications
1 11 (13.58%) SC Cleared
1 11 (13.58%) Security Cleared
2 10 (12.35%) CCNP
2 10 (12.35%) Cisco Certification
3 3 (3.70%) CCIE
4 2 (2.47%) CompTIA Security+
4 2 (2.47%) DV Cleared
5 1 (1.23%) APMG
5 1 (1.23%) Azure Certification
5 1 (1.23%) CCIE Data Center
5 1 (1.23%) CCNA
5 1 (1.23%) CISSP
5 1 (1.23%) Degree
5 1 (1.23%) GIAC
5 1 (1.23%) MCSA
5 1 (1.23%) MCSE
5 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Certification
5 1 (1.23%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (6.17%) NIST
2 4 (4.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (4.94%) PCI DSS
3 3 (3.70%) Actionable Recommendations
3 3 (3.70%) GDPR
3 3 (3.70%) GRC
4 1 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (1.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (1.23%) HMG Security Policy Framework
4 1 (1.23%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (3.70%) Active Directory
2 2 (2.47%) Virtual Machines
2 2 (2.47%) Virtual Servers
3 1 (1.23%) Firmware
3 1 (1.23%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.23%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.23%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 5 (6.17%) FortiGate
1 5 (6.17%) Terraform
2 4 (4.94%) Ansible
3 2 (2.47%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (1.23%) CASB
4 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (1.23%) Nessus
4 1 (1.23%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 56 (69.14%) Cisco
2 44 (54.32%) F5
3 27 (33.33%) Palo Alto
4 19 (23.46%) Fortinet
5 9 (11.11%) CheckPoint
6 8 (9.88%) Zscaler
7 7 (8.64%) Juniper
8 6 (7.41%) Meraki
9 5 (6.17%) Blue Coat
10 4 (4.94%) Microsoft
11 3 (3.70%) Infoblox
12 2 (2.47%) Tenable
12 2 (2.47%) VMware
13 1 (1.23%) CyberArk
13 1 (1.23%) Dell
13 1 (1.23%) Ekahau
13 1 (1.23%) LogicMonitor
13 1 (1.23%) Netskope
13 1 (1.23%) ServiceNow
13 1 (1.23%) Splunk