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 26 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 152 146 182
Rank change year-on-year -6 +36 +5
Contract jobs citing Network Security 704 463 466
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.70% 1.95% 1.28%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.85% 14.89% 9.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 489 281 323
10th Percentile £400 £382 £363
25th Percentile £446 £463 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £530 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.94% -3.64% -4.35%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £675
90th Percentile £703 £713 £775
UK median daily rate £525 £523 £550
% change year-on-year +0.48% -5.00% -4.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 7 15
10th Percentile £27.20 £55.60 -
25th Percentile £42.13 £80.34 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 £13.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.10% +502.59% -74.10%
75th Percentile £74.00 £81.73 £41.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.86 -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £81.01 £19.00
% change year-on-year -19.77% +326.38% -63.55%

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 3,944 3,109 4,801
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.50% 13.06% 13.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,448 1,942 2,891
10th Percentile £263 £219 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year - - -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £695
UK median daily rate £500 £485 £490
% change year-on-year +3.09% -1.02% -4.39%
Number of hourly rates quoted 250 117 386
10th Percentile £16.50 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.33 £15.44 £16.30
Median hourly rate £32.50 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% -6.25% +128.57%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £81.35 £70.33
UK median hourly rate £28.88 £38.41 £40.00
% change year-on-year -24.81% -3.98% +116.22%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 May 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 -15 302 £550 -4.35% 106
North of England 0 156 £498 -0.50% 55
South East -28 98 £500 +2.04% 70
North West +11 91 £493 -3.28% 35
Yorkshire -21 62 £500 +1.83% 16
Midlands -45 50 £475 -9.52% 17
East of England -26 35 £525 -6.67% 15
South West -24 33 £550 - 17
West Midlands -60 31 £435 -17.14% 11
East Midlands -14 18 £638 - 6
North East -20 3 £538 -14.00% 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 15 (2.13%) Confluence
2 11 (1.56%) Microsoft Exchange
3 5 (0.71%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.28%) Apache
Applications
1 13 (1.85%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.56%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (0.71%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 211 (29.97%) Azure
2 149 (21.16%) AWS
3 90 (12.78%) GCP
4 57 (8.10%) Entra ID
5 25 (3.55%) Azure Sentinel
6 24 (3.41%) GitHub
7 22 (3.13%) Azure DevOps
8 20 (2.84%) GitHub Actions
9 18 (2.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 17 (2.41%) Azure Key Vault
10 17 (2.41%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 16 (2.27%) Microsoft 365
12 15 (2.13%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 14 (1.99%) Akamai
14 13 (1.85%) Azure AKS
14 13 (1.85%) Azure Monitor
14 13 (1.85%) SaaS
15 12 (1.70%) AWS CloudFormation
15 12 (1.70%) Serverless
16 10 (1.42%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 322 (45.74%) Firewall
2 139 (19.74%) VPN
3 129 (18.32%) WAN
4 97 (13.78%) LAN
5 88 (12.50%) DNS
6 87 (12.36%) BGP
7 75 (10.65%) OSPF
8 71 (10.09%) VLAN
9 63 (8.95%) SD-WAN
10 62 (8.81%) TCP/IP
11 60 (8.52%) Wireless
12 45 (6.39%) MPLS
13 42 (5.97%) DHCP
14 35 (4.97%) SSL
15 32 (4.55%) Cisco ISE
16 28 (3.98%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 27 (3.84%) Cisco ASA
18 25 (3.55%) HTTP
18 25 (3.55%) IPsec
18 25 (3.55%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.71%) Azure SQL Database
1 5 (0.71%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.57%) Neo4j
3 3 (0.43%) Amazon Athena
3 3 (0.43%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.43%) Power BI
4 2 (0.28%) Data Lake
4 2 (0.28%) Elasticsearch
4 2 (0.28%) InfluxDB
4 2 (0.28%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.28%) Relational Database
4 2 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.14%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 31 (4.40%) JIRA
2 17 (2.41%) GitLab
3 16 (2.27%) Git
3 16 (2.27%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.71%) Browser DevTools
5 4 (0.57%) Snyk
5 4 (0.57%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.43%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.28%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.14%) Burp Suite
8 1 (0.14%) Postman
8 1 (0.14%) SoapUI
General
1 160 (22.73%) Social Skills
2 107 (15.20%) Finance
3 65 (9.23%) Analytical Skills
4 50 (7.10%) Public Sector
5 43 (6.11%) Banking
6 31 (4.40%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (3.41%) Telecoms
8 20 (2.84%) Financial Institution
9 10 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.28%) Legal
11 8 (1.14%) Retail
12 7 (0.99%) Manufacturing
13 6 (0.85%) Law
13 6 (0.85%) Military
14 5 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (0.71%) Local Government
14 5 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
14 5 (0.71%) Police
15 3 (0.43%) Electronics
15 3 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 172 (24.43%) Network Engineer
2 151 (21.45%) Architect
3 93 (13.21%) Security Engineer
4 71 (10.09%) Security Architect
5 64 (9.09%) Senior
6 54 (7.67%) Network Architect
7 47 (6.68%) Network Security Engineer
8 28 (3.98%) Consultant
8 28 (3.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 28 (3.98%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 27 (3.84%) Project Manager
10 25 (3.55%) Lead
11 24 (3.41%) Cloud Engineer
12 23 (3.27%) Network Security Architect
13 21 (2.98%) Analyst
14 20 (2.84%) Cloud Architect
15 19 (2.70%) Azure Architect
15 19 (2.70%) Solutions Architect
16 18 (2.56%) Senior Architect
17 17 (2.41%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 28 (3.98%) 802.1X
2 13 (1.85%) LDAP
3 11 (1.56%) SAML
4 7 (0.99%) Kafka
5 6 (0.85%) REST
6 5 (0.71%) OAuth
7 4 (0.57%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.57%) CSS
7 4 (0.57%) HTML
7 4 (0.57%) Node.js
7 4 (0.57%) OpenID
8 3 (0.43%) .NET
8 3 (0.43%) JSON
8 3 (0.43%) Lambda Expressions
8 3 (0.43%) OAuth2
8 3 (0.43%) Plotly
8 3 (0.43%) SLSA
9 2 (0.28%) AWS CDK
9 2 (0.28%) RabbitMQ
9 2 (0.28%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 98 (13.92%) Data Centre
2 45 (6.39%) Security Posture
3 39 (5.54%) Cloud Native
4 38 (5.40%) Hybrid Cloud
5 26 (3.69%) PKI
6 25 (3.55%) Onboarding
7 22 (3.13%) Cyber Threat
8 20 (2.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 20 (2.84%) IoT
9 19 (2.70%) Public Cloud
10 18 (2.56%) Operational Technology
11 17 (2.41%) Management Information System
12 16 (2.27%) Data Protection Act
12 16 (2.27%) Product Ownership
13 14 (1.99%) Security Operations Centre
14 12 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
15 11 (1.56%) Cyber Security Posture
16 10 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
16 10 (1.42%) Replication
17 9 (1.28%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 63 (8.95%) Windows
2 50 (7.10%) Linux
3 26 (3.69%) Windows Server
4 7 (0.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (0.99%) VMS
5 6 (0.85%) Ubuntu
5 6 (0.85%) Unix
6 5 (0.71%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.57%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.43%) SUSE
9 1 (0.14%) Android
9 1 (0.14%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (20.88%) Cybersecurity
2 116 (16.48%) Zero Trust
3 113 (16.05%) Cloud Security
4 96 (13.64%) Security Architecture
5 94 (13.35%) CI/CD
5 94 (13.35%) SIEM
6 91 (12.93%) Migration
7 88 (12.50%) DevOps
8 83 (11.79%) Infrastructure as Code
9 77 (10.94%) Continuous Improvement
9 77 (10.94%) Problem-Solving
10 71 (10.09%) Network Segmentation
11 64 (9.09%) Application Security
12 63 (8.95%) Agile
12 63 (8.95%) Threat Modelling
13 62 (8.81%) High Availability
13 62 (8.81%) Incident Response
14 61 (8.66%) Stakeholder Management
15 59 (8.38%) Change Management
16 58 (8.24%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 92 (13.07%) Python
2 58 (8.24%) PowerShell
3 28 (3.98%) Bash
4 21 (2.98%) Bicep
4 21 (2.98%) JavaScript
5 16 (2.27%) SQL
6 9 (1.28%) Kusto Query Language
7 7 (0.99%) Shell Script
8 5 (0.71%) Java
9 4 (0.57%) C
9 4 (0.57%) Go
9 4 (0.57%) PHP
10 3 (0.43%) C++
11 2 (0.28%) C#
11 2 (0.28%) Ruby
11 2 (0.28%) Rust
12 1 (0.14%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.14%) C-shell
12 1 (0.14%) Korn
12 1 (0.14%) Perl
Qualifications
1 219 (31.11%) Security Cleared
2 161 (22.87%) SC Cleared
3 135 (19.18%) Cisco Certification
4 91 (12.93%) CCNP
5 80 (11.36%) CISSP
6 70 (9.94%) DV Cleared
7 55 (7.81%) CCNA
8 48 (6.82%) Degree
9 44 (6.25%) CISM
10 28 (3.98%) CCSP
11 27 (3.84%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 27 (3.84%) Azure Certification
12 16 (2.27%) CCIE
12 16 (2.27%) GIAC
13 14 (1.99%) AWS Certification
14 13 (1.85%) CEH
15 12 (1.70%) CompTIA Security+
16 11 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
16 11 (1.56%) JNCIS
17 10 (1.42%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (9.52%) NIST
2 52 (7.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (4.40%) GDPR
4 23 (3.27%) PCI DSS
5 16 (2.27%) GRC
6 15 (2.13%) NCSC
7 13 (1.85%) Cyber Essentials
8 10 (1.42%) QA
8 10 (1.42%) SLA
9 8 (1.14%) Actionable Recommendations
9 8 (1.14%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 8 (1.14%) SOC 2
10 6 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 4 (0.57%) PMO
11 4 (0.57%) RMADS
12 3 (0.43%) ISA99
13 2 (0.28%) JSP 440
13 2 (0.28%) NIST 800
System Software
1 51 (7.24%) VMware Infrastructure
2 50 (7.10%) Active Directory
3 20 (2.84%) Virtual Machines
3 20 (2.84%) VMware NSX
4 18 (2.56%) Docker
5 14 (1.99%) Hyper-V
6 11 (1.56%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (1.28%) vSphere
8 5 (0.71%) Firmware
8 5 (0.71%) Squid
9 4 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.28%) NFS
10 2 (0.28%) Postfix
10 2 (0.28%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.28%) Sendmail
10 2 (0.28%) Varnish
10 2 (0.28%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.14%) KVM
11 1 (0.14%) RHEV
11 1 (0.14%) Xen
Systems Management
1 101 (14.35%) Terraform
2 66 (9.38%) Ansible
3 56 (7.95%) Kubernetes
4 36 (5.11%) FortiGate
5 16 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (1.99%) Nagios
7 13 (1.85%) Grafana
8 11 (1.56%) vCenter Server
9 10 (1.42%) Microsoft Intune
10 9 (1.28%) Microsoft Clustering
11 8 (1.14%) Kibana
12 6 (0.85%) QRadar
13 5 (0.71%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 5 (0.71%) CASB
13 5 (0.71%) Prometheus
13 5 (0.71%) Suricata
13 5 (0.71%) WSUS
14 4 (0.57%) Istio
14 4 (0.57%) Kustomize
14 4 (0.57%) Puppet
Vendors
1 203 (28.84%) Cisco
2 113 (16.05%) Palo Alto
3 100 (14.20%) Microsoft
4 65 (9.23%) VMware
5 64 (9.09%) F5
6 53 (7.53%) Fortinet
7 51 (7.24%) Juniper
8 46 (6.53%) CheckPoint
9 45 (6.39%) Zscaler
10 29 (4.12%) ServiceNow
11 25 (3.55%) Splunk
12 21 (2.98%) SolarWinds
13 19 (2.70%) ForeScout
13 19 (2.70%) Google
14 17 (2.41%) Aruba
15 16 (2.27%) Citrix
16 13 (1.85%) Tenable
17 11 (1.56%) Meraki
17 11 (1.56%) Okta
17 11 (1.56%) SAP