Network Security Contract Job Trends in England

Network Security
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Network Security skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 156 149 185
Rank change year-on-year -7 +36 -8
Contract jobs citing Network Security 741 469 487
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.73% 1.90% 1.30%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.30% 14.70% 10.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 517 289 334
10th Percentile £400 £375 £363
25th Percentile £447 £458 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £561
Median % change year-on-year - -6.46% -0.22%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £674
90th Percentile £725 £725 £771
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 8 16
10th Percentile £21.25 £77.28 -
25th Percentile £33.81 £80.34 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 £16.25
Median % change year-on-year -20.10% +400.62% -68.83%
75th Percentile £74.00 £82.58 £41.25
90th Percentile - £88.80 -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 £21.00
% change year-on-year -20.10% +287.38% -61.82%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
England

Network Security falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 4,050 3,191 4,805
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.43% 12.90% 12.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,505 1,986 2,858
10th Percentile £253 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £691
UK median daily rate £500 £481 £500
% change year-on-year +3.95% -3.80% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 274 130 393
10th Percentile £16.50 £14.64 £13.57
25th Percentile £21.33 £16.30 £17.69
Median hourly rate £29.52 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.28% -6.25% +117.75%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £81.43 £72.82
UK median hourly rate £27.88 £42.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year -34.78% +6.88% +110.53%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend in England

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

Network Security job vacancy trend in England

Network Security
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Security.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Security

Network Security
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Security in England over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Security in England

Network Security
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Security.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Security

Network Security
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Security in England over the 6 months to 17 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Security in England

Network Security
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 within the England region over the 6 months to 17 June 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 +8 328 £550 -4.35% 95
North of England +9 172 £500 - 69
South East -25 100 £523 +6.63% 76
North West +2 94 £508 +1.50% 46
Yorkshire -7 76 £500 +2.04% 21
Midlands -49 49 £450 -22.58% 35
East of England -21 32 £525 -8.70% 28
South West -27 30 £550 -6.38% 33
West Midlands -62 29 £420 -27.74% 19
East Midlands -5 19 £638 - 16
North East -31 2 £675 +8.00% 5
Network Security
UK

Network Security
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 17 (2.29%) Confluence
2 13 (1.75%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (1.08%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.27%) Apache
5 1 (0.13%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 16 (2.16%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (1.62%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.13%) InfoPath
5 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.81%) SAP S/4HANA
2 4 (0.54%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 218 (29.42%) Azure
2 163 (22.00%) AWS
3 96 (12.96%) GCP
4 66 (8.91%) Entra ID
5 28 (3.78%) GitHub
6 24 (3.24%) GitHub Actions
7 23 (3.10%) Azure DevOps
7 23 (3.10%) Azure Sentinel
8 21 (2.83%) Microsoft 365
9 20 (2.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 19 (2.56%) Serverless
11 18 (2.43%) SaaS
12 17 (2.29%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 16 (2.16%) Azure Key Vault
14 15 (2.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 14 (1.89%) Akamai
16 13 (1.75%) Amazon EKS
16 13 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
16 13 (1.75%) Azure AKS
16 13 (1.75%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 342 (46.15%) Firewall
2 145 (19.57%) VPN
3 137 (18.49%) WAN
4 104 (14.04%) LAN
5 95 (12.82%) DNS
6 87 (11.74%) BGP
7 74 (9.99%) Wireless
8 72 (9.72%) OSPF
9 71 (9.58%) VLAN
10 67 (9.04%) SD-WAN
11 61 (8.23%) TCP/IP
12 47 (6.34%) DHCP
12 47 (6.34%) MPLS
13 38 (5.13%) SSL
14 37 (4.99%) Cisco ISE
15 33 (4.45%) IPsec
16 30 (4.05%) Cisco ASA
17 28 (3.78%) HTTP
17 28 (3.78%) NGFW
17 28 (3.78%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.81%) Azure SQL Database
2 5 (0.67%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (0.54%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.54%) Neo4j
3 4 (0.54%) Power BI
4 3 (0.40%) Amazon Athena
4 3 (0.40%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.27%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.13%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.13%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.13%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.13%) InfluxDB
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.13%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.13%) Snowflake Schema
6 1 (0.13%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 34 (4.59%) JIRA
2 21 (2.83%) Git
2 21 (2.83%) GitLab
3 17 (2.29%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.67%) Browser DevTools
5 4 (0.54%) Snyk
5 4 (0.54%) SonarQube
6 3 (0.40%) Artifactory
6 3 (0.40%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.13%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.13%) Postman
7 1 (0.13%) SoapUI
General
1 171 (23.08%) Social Skills
2 122 (16.46%) Finance
3 56 (7.56%) Analytical Skills
4 53 (7.15%) Public Sector
5 48 (6.48%) Banking
6 30 (4.05%) Documentation Skills
7 21 (2.83%) Financial Institution
7 21 (2.83%) Telecoms
8 11 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 11 (1.48%) Legal
8 11 (1.48%) Retail
9 9 (1.21%) Police
10 7 (0.94%) Local Government
11 6 (0.81%) Law
11 6 (0.81%) Manufacturing
11 6 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (0.67%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.67%) Military
13 3 (0.40%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.27%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 185 (24.97%) Network Engineer
2 158 (21.32%) Architect
3 101 (13.63%) Security Engineer
4 73 (9.85%) Security Architect
5 72 (9.72%) Senior
6 53 (7.15%) Network Architect
6 53 (7.15%) Network Security Engineer
7 37 (4.99%) Project Manager
8 34 (4.59%) Consultant
9 30 (4.05%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 28 (3.78%) Lead
11 27 (3.64%) Cloud Engineer
12 26 (3.51%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 23 (3.10%) Network Security Architect
14 22 (2.97%) Senior Network Engineer
15 21 (2.83%) Network Manager
15 21 (2.83%) Solutions Architect
16 19 (2.56%) Cloud Architect
16 19 (2.56%) Senior Architect
17 18 (2.43%) Azure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (4.86%) 802.1X
2 13 (1.75%) SAML
3 9 (1.21%) Kafka
3 9 (1.21%) REST
4 8 (1.08%) LDAP
5 7 (0.94%) OAuth
6 6 (0.81%) ARM Templates
6 6 (0.81%) CSS
6 6 (0.81%) OpenID
7 5 (0.67%) HTML
7 5 (0.67%) OAuth2
8 4 (0.54%) gRPC
8 4 (0.54%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.54%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (0.54%) RESTful
9 3 (0.40%) Lambda Expressions
9 3 (0.40%) Plotly
9 3 (0.40%) SailPoint
9 3 (0.40%) SLSA
10 2 (0.27%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 93 (12.55%) Data Centre
2 59 (7.96%) Security Posture
3 44 (5.94%) Cloud Native
4 39 (5.26%) Hybrid Cloud
5 29 (3.91%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 27 (3.64%) PKI
7 24 (3.24%) Onboarding
8 22 (2.97%) Operational Technology
9 21 (2.83%) Public Cloud
10 19 (2.56%) Product Ownership
11 18 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
12 17 (2.29%) Cyber Threat
12 17 (2.29%) IoT
13 15 (2.02%) Management Information System
13 15 (2.02%) Security Operations Centre
14 12 (1.62%) Self-Motivation
15 9 (1.21%) Replication
16 8 (1.08%) Enterprise Cloud
16 8 (1.08%) Virtual Team
17 7 (0.94%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 57 (7.69%) Linux
1 57 (7.69%) Windows
2 24 (3.24%) Windows Server
3 8 (1.08%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (0.94%) VMS
5 6 (0.81%) Ubuntu
5 6 (0.81%) Unix
6 5 (0.67%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.54%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.40%) SUSE
9 2 (0.27%) Android
10 1 (0.13%) Check Point GAiA
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 153 (20.65%) Cybersecurity
2 126 (17.00%) Cloud Security
3 125 (16.87%) Zero Trust
4 108 (14.57%) CI/CD
5 101 (13.63%) DevOps
5 101 (13.63%) Security Architecture
6 99 (13.36%) SIEM
7 97 (13.09%) Migration
8 94 (12.69%) Infrastructure as Code
9 90 (12.15%) Continuous Improvement
10 79 (10.66%) Stakeholder Management
11 76 (10.26%) Network Segmentation
11 76 (10.26%) Problem-Solving
12 74 (9.99%) Application Security
13 71 (9.58%) High Availability
14 70 (9.45%) Agile
15 68 (9.18%) Data Protection
16 66 (8.91%) Incident Response
16 66 (8.91%) Load Balancing
16 66 (8.91%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 85 (11.47%) Python
2 43 (5.80%) PowerShell
3 31 (4.18%) Bash
4 23 (3.10%) Bicep
5 18 (2.43%) JavaScript
5 18 (2.43%) SQL
6 8 (1.08%) Shell Script
7 6 (0.81%) Java
8 4 (0.54%) C
8 4 (0.54%) Kusto Query Language
8 4 (0.54%) PHP
8 4 (0.54%) Rust
9 3 (0.40%) C++
9 3 (0.40%) Perl
10 2 (0.27%) Ruby
11 1 (0.13%) ActionScript
11 1 (0.13%) Search Processing Language
11 1 (0.13%) VBA
Qualifications
1 223 (30.09%) Security Cleared
2 162 (21.86%) SC Cleared
3 142 (19.16%) Cisco Certification
4 86 (11.61%) CCNP
5 85 (11.47%) CISSP
6 72 (9.72%) DV Cleared
7 59 (7.96%) CCNA
8 56 (7.56%) Degree
9 51 (6.88%) CISM
10 35 (4.72%) CCSP
11 34 (4.59%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 28 (3.78%) Azure Certification
13 19 (2.56%) AWS Certification
13 19 (2.56%) CCIE
14 14 (1.89%) CompTIA Security+
15 13 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (1.62%) BPSS Clearance
16 12 (1.62%) GIAC
17 9 (1.21%) JNCIS
18 8 (1.08%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (10.12%) NIST
2 59 (7.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (4.45%) GDPR
4 25 (3.37%) PCI DSS
5 20 (2.70%) NCSC
6 18 (2.43%) GRC
7 15 (2.02%) Cyber Essentials
8 11 (1.48%) QA
9 9 (1.21%) SLA
10 8 (1.08%) Actionable Recommendations
10 8 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 8 (1.08%) SOC 2
11 6 (0.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 5 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.67%) NIST 800
13 4 (0.54%) PMO
13 4 (0.54%) RMADS
14 3 (0.40%) ISA99
14 3 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 2 (0.27%) JSP 440
System Software
1 57 (7.69%) Active Directory
2 51 (6.88%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (2.83%) Docker
3 21 (2.83%) Virtual Machines
4 20 (2.70%) VMware NSX
5 11 (1.48%) VMware ESXi
6 8 (1.08%) Hyper-V
6 8 (1.08%) vSphere
7 6 (0.81%) Firmware
8 5 (0.67%) Squid
9 4 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.27%) NFS
10 2 (0.27%) Postfix
10 2 (0.27%) Sendmail
10 2 (0.27%) Varnish
10 2 (0.27%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.13%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 102 (13.77%) Terraform
2 65 (8.77%) Kubernetes
3 64 (8.64%) Ansible
4 39 (5.26%) FortiGate
5 18 (2.43%) Grafana
6 16 (2.16%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (1.48%) vCenter Server
8 10 (1.35%) Microsoft Intune
8 10 (1.35%) Prometheus
9 6 (0.81%) QRadar
10 5 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 5 (0.67%) CASB
10 5 (0.67%) Puppet
10 5 (0.67%) Suricata
10 5 (0.67%) WSUS
11 4 (0.54%) Istio
11 4 (0.54%) Kustomize
11 4 (0.54%) Podman
12 3 (0.40%) Microsoft Clustering
12 3 (0.40%) VxRail
Vendors
1 213 (28.74%) Cisco
2 117 (15.79%) Palo Alto
3 109 (14.71%) Microsoft
4 63 (8.50%) VMware
5 61 (8.23%) F5
5 61 (8.23%) Fortinet
6 50 (6.75%) Zscaler
7 48 (6.48%) CheckPoint
8 45 (6.07%) Juniper
9 33 (4.45%) ServiceNow
10 28 (3.78%) Splunk
11 21 (2.83%) Google
12 20 (2.70%) Citrix
12 20 (2.70%) SolarWinds
13 19 (2.56%) Aruba
14 18 (2.43%) ForeScout
15 14 (1.89%) Tenable
16 12 (1.62%) Arista
17 11 (1.48%) CyberArk
17 11 (1.48%) Okta