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 18 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 151 149 184
Rank change year-on-year -2 +35 -15
Contract jobs citing Network Security 784 514 497
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.74% 1.89% 1.38%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.28% 15.02% 10.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 541 315 332
10th Percentile £393 £375 £364
25th Percentile £446 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% -4.55% -1.79%
75th Percentile £650 £619 £663
90th Percentile £730 £713 £738
UK median daily rate £537 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +2.29% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 16 16
10th Percentile £25.05 £50.00 -
25th Percentile £40.53 £66.37 £7.43
Median hourly rate £73.00 £81.01 £16.25
Median % change year-on-year -9.89% +398.54% -73.68%
75th Percentile £74.00 £84.25 £41.25
90th Percentile £74.03 £92.50 £50.00
UK median hourly rate £73.00 £81.01 £19.00
% change year-on-year -9.89% +326.38% -71.21%

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 4,290 3,421 4,673
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.53% 12.57% 12.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,633 2,120 2,792
10th Percentile £250 £238 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.97% -0.96% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 314 158 367
10th Percentile £16.04 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.63 £25.04 £17.24
Median hourly rate £26.72 £44.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -39.96% +11.25% +14.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.18 £87.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.22 £48.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year -46.22% +21.88% +14.29%

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 18 July 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 18 July 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 18 July 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 +3 335 £550 - 68
North of England +8 189 £530 +8.17% 41
South East -9 128 £542 +10.57% 53
North West -10 100 £536 +12.84% 29
Yorkshire +13 87 £500 +2.04% 12
Midlands -52 51 £475 -17.39% 22
East of England -17 31 £525 -2.78% 13
West Midlands -76 30 £416 -27.61% 9
South West -41 29 £550 -8.33% 13
East Midlands +6 20 £638 - 13
North East -32 2 £675 +8.00% 1
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 15 (1.91%) Confluence
2 12 (1.53%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.15%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.26%) Apache
5 1 (0.13%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 17 (2.17%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.02%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.13%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.77%) Oracle ERP
1 6 (0.77%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 236 (30.10%) Azure
2 175 (22.32%) AWS
3 102 (13.01%) GCP
4 77 (9.82%) Entra ID
5 29 (3.70%) GitHub
6 27 (3.44%) Azure DevOps
7 26 (3.32%) Microsoft 365
8 24 (3.06%) Azure Sentinel
8 24 (3.06%) SaaS
8 24 (3.06%) Serverless
9 22 (2.81%) Azure Monitor
10 21 (2.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 20 (2.55%) GitHub Actions
12 18 (2.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 17 (2.17%) OCI
14 16 (2.04%) Azure Key Vault
14 16 (2.04%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 14 (1.79%) Amazon EKS
15 14 (1.79%) AWS CloudFormation
15 14 (1.79%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 363 (46.30%) Firewall
2 176 (22.45%) VPN
3 164 (20.92%) WAN
4 118 (15.05%) DNS
5 111 (14.16%) LAN
6 94 (11.99%) BGP
7 90 (11.48%) Wireless
8 80 (10.20%) TCP/IP
9 75 (9.57%) SD-WAN
10 74 (9.44%) OSPF
11 69 (8.80%) VLAN
12 58 (7.40%) DHCP
13 45 (5.74%) MPLS
14 44 (5.61%) SSL
15 41 (5.23%) Cisco ISE
16 40 (5.10%) Cisco ASA
17 39 (4.97%) IPsec
18 36 (4.59%) NGFW
19 31 (3.95%) Wi-Fi
20 30 (3.83%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.15%) SQL Server
2 6 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
3 4 (0.51%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (0.51%) Data Lake
3 4 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.51%) Neo4j
3 4 (0.51%) Power BI
4 3 (0.38%) Amazon Athena
4 3 (0.38%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.26%) Oracle Database
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 37 (4.72%) JIRA
2 32 (4.08%) Git
3 21 (2.68%) GitLab
4 15 (1.91%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.77%) Browser DevTools
5 6 (0.77%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.51%) MSBuild
6 4 (0.51%) Snyk
6 4 (0.51%) SonarQube
6 4 (0.51%) Visual Studio
7 3 (0.38%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.13%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.13%) Postman
8 1 (0.13%) SoapUI
8 1 (0.13%) Subversion
General
1 192 (24.49%) Social Skills
2 134 (17.09%) Finance
3 68 (8.67%) Analytical Skills
4 61 (7.78%) Banking
5 56 (7.14%) Public Sector
6 34 (4.34%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.19%) Financial Institution
8 17 (2.17%) Telecoms
9 13 (1.66%) Legal
9 13 (1.66%) Retail
10 11 (1.40%) Manufacturing
11 10 (1.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 10 (1.28%) Influencing Skills
11 10 (1.28%) Organisational Skills
12 8 (1.02%) Police
13 6 (0.77%) Law
14 5 (0.64%) Local Government
14 5 (0.64%) Military
15 3 (0.38%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.38%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 206 (26.28%) Network Engineer
2 169 (21.56%) Architect
3 105 (13.39%) Security Engineer
4 87 (11.10%) Senior
5 78 (9.95%) Security Architect
6 64 (8.16%) Network Security Engineer
7 61 (7.78%) Network Architect
8 43 (5.48%) Consultant
9 40 (5.10%) Project Manager
10 35 (4.46%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 33 (4.21%) Lead
11 33 (4.21%) Senior Network Engineer
12 27 (3.44%) Cloud Engineer
13 22 (2.81%) Network Manager
13 22 (2.81%) Network Security Architect
14 21 (2.68%) Solutions Architect
15 20 (2.55%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
16 19 (2.42%) Security Consultant
16 19 (2.42%) Senior Architect
17 18 (2.30%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (4.72%) 802.1X
2 17 (2.17%) SAML
3 11 (1.40%) REST
4 9 (1.15%) ARM Templates
4 9 (1.15%) Kafka
5 6 (0.77%) OAuth
5 6 (0.77%) OpenID
6 5 (0.64%) .NET
6 5 (0.64%) CSS
6 5 (0.64%) LDAP
7 4 (0.51%) gRPC
7 4 (0.51%) HTML
7 4 (0.51%) JSON
7 4 (0.51%) Keycloak
7 4 (0.51%) NETCONF
7 4 (0.51%) OAuth2
7 4 (0.51%) Protocol Buffers
7 4 (0.51%) RESTful
8 3 (0.38%) ModSecurity
8 3 (0.38%) Plotly
Miscellaneous
1 95 (12.12%) Data Centre
2 65 (8.29%) Security Posture
3 46 (5.87%) Cloud Native
4 42 (5.36%) Hybrid Cloud
5 31 (3.95%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 25 (3.19%) Onboarding
6 25 (3.19%) Operational Technology
7 21 (2.68%) Management Information System
8 20 (2.55%) Cyber Threat
9 19 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
9 19 (2.42%) PKI
9 19 (2.42%) Public Cloud
10 18 (2.30%) Product Ownership
11 17 (2.17%) Security Operations Centre
12 15 (1.91%) IoT
12 15 (1.91%) Self-Motivation
13 12 (1.53%) Enterprise Software
13 12 (1.53%) Linux Command Line
14 9 (1.15%) Enterprise Cloud
14 9 (1.15%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 67 (8.55%) Linux
2 62 (7.91%) Windows
3 20 (2.55%) Windows Server
4 12 (1.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.02%) Unix
6 6 (0.77%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.77%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.64%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.38%) Android
8 3 (0.38%) Check Point GAiA
8 3 (0.38%) SUSE
8 3 (0.38%) VMS
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (20.54%) Cybersecurity
2 136 (17.35%) Cloud Security
3 122 (15.56%) Zero Trust
4 112 (14.29%) CI/CD
5 107 (13.65%) SIEM
6 104 (13.27%) DevOps
7 103 (13.14%) Continuous Improvement
8 100 (12.76%) Infrastructure as Code
9 98 (12.50%) Security Architecture
10 96 (12.24%) Migration
11 95 (12.12%) Stakeholder Management
12 89 (11.35%) Problem-Solving
13 87 (11.10%) Change Management
14 79 (10.08%) Agile
15 76 (9.69%) Security Operations
16 75 (9.57%) High Availability
16 75 (9.57%) Identity Access Management
17 74 (9.44%) Application Security
18 73 (9.31%) Data Protection
18 73 (9.31%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 98 (12.50%) Python
2 58 (7.40%) PowerShell
3 45 (5.74%) Bash
4 29 (3.70%) Bicep
5 20 (2.55%) SQL
6 17 (2.17%) JavaScript
7 8 (1.02%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.77%) Java
9 4 (0.51%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.51%) Perl
9 4 (0.51%) Rust
10 3 (0.38%) PHP
11 2 (0.26%) Go
11 2 (0.26%) Ruby
12 1 (0.13%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.13%) C
12 1 (0.13%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.13%) VBA
Qualifications
1 225 (28.70%) Security Cleared
2 153 (19.52%) SC Cleared
3 136 (17.35%) Cisco Certification
4 89 (11.35%) CISSP
5 80 (10.20%) CCNP
5 80 (10.20%) DV Cleared
6 61 (7.78%) Degree
7 52 (6.63%) CCNA
7 52 (6.63%) CISM
8 37 (4.72%) CCSP
9 36 (4.59%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 29 (3.70%) Azure Certification
11 20 (2.55%) AWS Certification
12 19 (2.42%) CCIE
13 14 (1.79%) CompTIA Security+
13 14 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
14 13 (1.66%) GIAC
15 11 (1.40%) BPSS Clearance
15 11 (1.40%) CEH
16 10 (1.28%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (9.31%) NIST
2 61 (7.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (4.21%) GDPR
4 25 (3.19%) NCSC
4 25 (3.19%) PCI DSS
5 17 (2.17%) GRC
6 13 (1.66%) Cyber Essentials
7 11 (1.40%) QA
7 11 (1.40%) SLA
8 8 (1.02%) NIST 800
9 7 (0.89%) Actionable Recommendations
9 7 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 6 (0.77%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 6 (0.77%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 6 (0.77%) SOC 2
11 3 (0.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 3 (0.38%) ISA99
11 3 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 3 (0.38%) PMO
12 2 (0.26%) JSP 440
System Software
1 68 (8.67%) Active Directory
2 55 (7.02%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (3.19%) VMware NSX
4 24 (3.06%) Docker
5 21 (2.68%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (1.28%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (1.28%) vSphere
7 9 (1.15%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.77%) Firmware
9 5 (0.64%) Squid
10 4 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.38%) NFS
12 2 (0.26%) Postfix
12 2 (0.26%) Sendmail
12 2 (0.26%) Varnish
12 2 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.13%) OpenSSH
13 1 (0.13%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.13%) Samba
13 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 106 (13.52%) Terraform
2 73 (9.31%) Ansible
3 65 (8.29%) Kubernetes
4 40 (5.10%) FortiGate
5 18 (2.30%) Grafana
5 18 (2.30%) Single Sign-On
6 13 (1.66%) Microsoft Intune
7 11 (1.40%) Prometheus
8 10 (1.28%) vCenter Server
9 8 (1.02%) CASB
10 7 (0.89%) Puppet
11 6 (0.77%) Cisco CUCM
11 6 (0.77%) QRadar
11 6 (0.77%) SCCM
12 5 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (0.64%) Suricata
12 5 (0.64%) WSUS
13 4 (0.51%) Kustomize
13 4 (0.51%) Podman
14 3 (0.38%) VxRail
Vendors
1 226 (28.83%) Cisco
2 121 (15.43%) Palo Alto
3 120 (15.31%) Microsoft
4 70 (8.93%) Fortinet
5 69 (8.80%) F5
6 67 (8.55%) VMware
7 58 (7.40%) CheckPoint
8 52 (6.63%) Juniper
8 52 (6.63%) Zscaler
9 33 (4.21%) ServiceNow
10 30 (3.83%) Splunk
11 26 (3.32%) SolarWinds
12 24 (3.06%) Citrix
13 21 (2.68%) Google
14 19 (2.42%) ForeScout
15 17 (2.17%) Aruba
15 17 (2.17%) Tenable
16 14 (1.79%) Infoblox
17 13 (1.66%) Blue Coat
18 12 (1.53%) CyberArk