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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 16 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 158 166 170
Rank change year-on-year +8 +4 +68
Contract jobs citing Network Security 498 486 641
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 1.81% 1.49% 1.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.26% 12.45% 11.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 293 330 423
10th Percentile £375 £363 £413
25th Percentile £450 £463 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - +3.04%
75th Percentile £630 £650 £663
90th Percentile £738 £726 £749
UK median daily rate £528 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.09% - +3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 6 7
10th Percentile £45.00 £30.50 £38.90
25th Percentile £55.00 £44.38 £59.63
Median hourly rate £70.16 £53.75 £71.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.53% -24.30% +40.64%
75th Percentile £84.09 £58.75 £76.25
90th Percentile £95.50 £88.81 £77.75
UK median hourly rate £70.16 £50.00 £67.25
% change year-on-year +40.32% -25.65% +33.21%

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 3,264 3,905 5,653
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.85% 12.01% 13.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,036 2,283 3,637
10th Percentile £233 £248 £225
25th Percentile £363 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.92% +2.00% -0.99%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £619
90th Percentile £688 £689 £713
UK median daily rate £477 £505 £500
% change year-on-year -5.45% +0.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 164 220 281
10th Percentile £15.03 £14.53 £16.75
25th Percentile £24.75 £23.01 £23.09
Median hourly rate £41.48 £57.35 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -27.68% +1.52% +34.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £78.50 £75.00 £76.10
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £51.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -17.48% -8.83% +36.90%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Network Security as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Network Security 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 16 September 2025.

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 16 September 2025.

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 16 September 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 +42 212 £550 +4.46% 84
North of England -9 86 £490 -14.87% 44
Midlands -9 64 £525 -12.50% 41
South East -1 63 £450 -14.29% 96
North West +2 62 £475 -25.49% 20
West Midlands +4 60 £525 -19.23% 21
South West +33 34 £620 +7.83% 19
Yorkshire -15 30 £492 -1.60% 22
East of England +13 20 £475 +58.33% 49
East Midlands -15 4 - - 17
South Coast - 2 - -
Network Security
UK

Network Security
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (1.61%) Confluence
2 4 (0.80%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.20%) Apache
4 1 (0.20%) IIS
4 1 (0.20%) nginx
Applications
1 5 (1.00%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.40%) Chatbot
2 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.20%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 124 (24.90%) Azure
2 101 (20.28%) AWS
3 47 (9.44%) GCP
4 26 (5.22%) Microsoft 365
5 17 (3.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 16 (3.21%) Entra ID
7 15 (3.01%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 14 (2.81%) Amazon S3
8 14 (2.81%) Azure DevOps
9 13 (2.61%) Akamai
9 13 (2.61%) Amazon EC2
9 13 (2.61%) Amazon ELB
9 13 (2.61%) AWS CloudFormation
9 13 (2.61%) Azure Sentinel
10 11 (2.21%) GitHub
11 10 (2.01%) Azure Key Vault
11 10 (2.01%) GitHub Actions
12 9 (1.81%) IaaS
12 9 (1.81%) Serverless
13 8 (1.61%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 238 (47.79%) Firewall
2 120 (24.10%) VPN
3 92 (18.47%) DNS
4 84 (16.87%) WAN
5 72 (14.46%) BGP
6 67 (13.45%) TCP/IP
7 64 (12.85%) SSL
8 57 (11.45%) OSPF
9 50 (10.04%) LAN
10 47 (9.44%) SD-WAN
11 44 (8.84%) Wireless
12 39 (7.83%) VLAN
13 30 (6.02%) Cisco ISE
13 30 (6.02%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 25 (5.02%) DHCP
15 24 (4.82%) Intrusion Detection
16 23 (4.62%) IPsec
17 22 (4.42%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 20 (4.02%) Cisco ASA
19 19 (3.82%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.80%) GIS
2 3 (0.60%) Data Lake
3 2 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.40%) DynamoDB
3 2 (0.40%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.20%) Amazon Athena
4 1 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.20%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.20%) MySQL
4 1 (0.20%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 24 (4.82%) Jenkins
2 20 (4.02%) GitLab
3 18 (3.61%) Git
4 12 (2.41%) JIRA
5 5 (1.00%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.20%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.20%) Subversion
General
1 140 (28.11%) Social Skills
2 68 (13.65%) Analytical Skills
3 63 (12.65%) Finance
4 34 (6.83%) Banking
4 34 (6.83%) Public Sector
5 30 (6.02%) Telecoms
6 14 (2.81%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (2.21%) Law
8 10 (2.01%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.81%) Financial Institution
9 9 (1.81%) Legal
10 8 (1.61%) Investment Banking
10 8 (1.61%) Pharmaceutical
11 6 (1.20%) Military
12 4 (0.80%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.60%) French Language
13 3 (0.60%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.60%) Retail
14 2 (0.40%) Advertising
14 2 (0.40%) Games
Job Titles
1 106 (21.29%) Network Engineer
2 95 (19.08%) Security Engineer
3 86 (17.27%) Architect
4 58 (11.65%) Senior
5 52 (10.44%) Security Architect
6 49 (9.84%) Network Security Engineer
7 38 (7.63%) Network Architect
8 33 (6.63%) Analyst
9 25 (5.02%) Consultant
10 24 (4.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 20 (4.02%) Administrator
11 20 (4.02%) Network Security Architect
12 19 (3.82%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 19 (3.82%) Lead
13 17 (3.41%) SOC Analyst
14 16 (3.21%) Security Consultant
15 15 (3.01%) Senior Architect
16 13 (2.61%) Systems Manager
16 13 (2.61%) Wintel Administrator
16 13 (2.61%) Wintel Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (3.01%) 802.1X
2 14 (2.81%) LDAP
3 8 (1.61%) ARM Templates
4 7 (1.41%) YAML
5 6 (1.20%) ADO
6 4 (0.80%) Elastic Stack
6 4 (0.80%) SailPoint
6 4 (0.80%) SAML
7 2 (0.40%) OAuth
8 1 (0.20%) .NET
8 1 (0.20%) gRPC
8 1 (0.20%) HTML
8 1 (0.20%) JSON
8 1 (0.20%) Lambda Expressions
8 1 (0.20%) OpenTelemetry
8 1 (0.20%) Plotly
8 1 (0.20%) web3js
8 1 (0.20%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 46 (9.24%) Data Centre
1 46 (9.24%) Security Posture
2 34 (6.83%) Management Information System
3 22 (4.42%) Hybrid Cloud
3 22 (4.42%) PKI
4 21 (4.22%) Security Operations Centre
5 14 (2.81%) Cyber Threat
5 14 (2.81%) Operational Technology
6 13 (2.61%) Cloud Native
6 13 (2.61%) Onboarding
7 12 (2.41%) Analytical Mindset
7 12 (2.41%) Data Protection Act
8 11 (2.21%) Cyberattack
8 11 (2.21%) SCADA
9 10 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
10 8 (1.61%) Cloud Security Posture
10 8 (1.61%) CSOC
10 8 (1.61%) Product Ownership
11 7 (1.41%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (1.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 61 (12.25%) Windows
2 49 (9.84%) Linux
3 16 (3.21%) Windows Server
4 6 (1.20%) Check Point GAiA
5 5 (1.00%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (0.60%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.60%) Windows Server 2003
7 2 (0.40%) CentOS
7 2 (0.40%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.40%) Unix
7 2 (0.40%) VMS
8 1 (0.20%) CatOS
8 1 (0.20%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (23.49%) Cybersecurity
2 94 (18.88%) SIEM
3 77 (15.46%) Cloud Security
3 77 (15.46%) Incident Response
3 77 (15.46%) Problem-Solving
4 61 (12.25%) Infrastructure as Code
5 58 (11.65%) Security Operations
6 54 (10.84%) DevOps
7 51 (10.24%) Vulnerability Management
8 50 (10.04%) CI/CD
8 50 (10.04%) High Availability
9 45 (9.04%) Change Management
9 45 (9.04%) Information Security
9 45 (9.04%) Network Architecture
10 42 (8.43%) Agile
11 39 (7.83%) DevSecOps
12 38 (7.63%) Identity Access Management
12 38 (7.63%) Infrastructure Automation
12 38 (7.63%) Migration
13 37 (7.43%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 102 (20.48%) Python
2 58 (11.65%) PowerShell
3 35 (7.03%) Bash
4 12 (2.41%) Bicep
5 10 (2.01%) Kusto Query Language
6 9 (1.81%) Perl
7 7 (1.41%) SQL
8 2 (0.40%) C
8 2 (0.40%) C++
8 2 (0.40%) JavaScript
8 2 (0.40%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.20%) Java
9 1 (0.20%) PHP
9 1 (0.20%) Rust
9 1 (0.20%) T-SQL
9 1 (0.20%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 135 (27.11%) Security Cleared
2 99 (19.88%) Cisco Certification
3 93 (18.67%) SC Cleared
4 67 (13.45%) CCNP
5 50 (10.04%) CISSP
6 44 (8.84%) Degree
7 38 (7.63%) DV Cleared
8 31 (6.22%) CISM
9 29 (5.82%) CCIE
10 20 (4.02%) CCSA
11 19 (3.82%) CCSE
11 19 (3.82%) Computer Science Degree
12 15 (3.01%) CEH
13 14 (2.81%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 14 (2.81%) CCSP
14 13 (2.61%) CCNA
15 12 (2.41%) GIAC
16 9 (1.81%) CISA
16 9 (1.81%) JNCIE
17 8 (1.61%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 56 (11.24%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 53 (10.64%) NIST
3 34 (6.83%) GDPR
4 30 (6.02%) PCI DSS
5 15 (3.01%) HIPAA
6 13 (2.61%) GRC
7 12 (2.41%) NCSC
8 11 (2.21%) SLA
9 6 (1.20%) SOC 2
10 5 (1.00%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.60%) California Consumer Privacy Act
11 3 (0.60%) PSD2
12 2 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
12 2 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 2 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 2 (0.40%) QA
13 1 (0.20%) Def Stans
13 1 (0.20%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.20%) JSP 440
13 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 33 (6.63%) Active Directory
2 29 (5.82%) Docker
3 19 (3.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (1.81%) Firmware
5 8 (1.61%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.80%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (0.60%) VMware NSX
8 2 (0.40%) vSphere
9 1 (0.20%) KVM
Systems Management
1 59 (11.85%) Terraform
2 58 (11.65%) Ansible
3 22 (4.42%) FortiGate
4 18 (3.61%) Kubernetes
5 12 (2.41%) QRadar
6 9 (1.81%) Nessus
7 8 (1.61%) CASB
8 5 (1.00%) CA Spectrum
8 5 (1.00%) HP Fortify
9 4 (0.80%) OpenView
9 4 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.60%) Backup Exec
10 3 (0.60%) Grafana
10 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
10 3 (0.60%) Prometheus
10 3 (0.60%) vCenter Server
11 2 (0.40%) Kibana
11 2 (0.40%) Kustomize
11 2 (0.40%) Puppet
12 1 (0.20%) Cisco UCCX
Vendors
1 146 (29.32%) Cisco
2 87 (17.47%) Palo Alto
3 83 (16.67%) F5
4 77 (15.46%) Microsoft
5 69 (13.86%) CheckPoint
6 55 (11.04%) Fortinet
7 41 (8.23%) Juniper
8 40 (8.03%) Zscaler
9 33 (6.63%) VMware
10 31 (6.22%) SolarWinds
11 28 (5.62%) Splunk
12 23 (4.62%) CrowdStrike
12 23 (4.62%) Meraki
13 17 (3.41%) Google
14 15 (3.01%) Qualys
15 14 (2.81%) ServiceNow
16 11 (2.21%) Tenable
17 10 (2.01%) Forcepoint
18 8 (1.61%) ArcSight
19 7 (1.41%) CyberArk