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 28 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 157 137 155
Rank change year-on-year -20 +18 +70
Contract jobs citing Network Security 668 473 599
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.76% 1.95% 1.59%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.76% 14.70% 11.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 454 304 418
10th Percentile £350 £368 £393
25th Percentile £425 £431 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £537 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.85% -2.41% -
75th Percentile £595 £625 £650
90th Percentile £688 £700 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £550
% change year-on-year -3.85% -5.45% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 8 16
10th Percentile £24.10 £17.83 -
25th Percentile £42.13 £35.00 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.00 £80.68 £18.25
Median % change year-on-year -19.43% +342.05% -64.99%
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.54 £41.25
90th Percentile £90.75 £82.67 £51.88
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £45.00 £23.00
% change year-on-year +44.44% +95.65% -55.88%

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 3,762 3,218 5,254
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.91% 13.27% 13.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,409 2,010 3,174
10th Percentile £213 £213 £205
25th Percentile £385 £363 £346
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £495 £488 £475
% change year-on-year +1.54% +2.63% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 182 120 378
10th Percentile £15.62 £14.91 £13.50
25th Percentile £19.09 £21.31 £17.72
Median hourly rate £40.02 £35.75 £39.25
Median % change year-on-year +11.94% -8.92% +106.58%
75th Percentile £66.94 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.05 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £38.50 £35.00 £38.00
% change year-on-year +10.00% -7.89% +96.89%

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 28 March 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 28 March 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 28 March 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 -15 283 £520 -5.45% 73
North of England -16 132 £478 -4.50% 33
South East -20 105 £500 -4.76% 46
North West +3 85 £491 -1.90% 24
Midlands -37 67 £500 -14.02% 20
West Midlands -25 53 £500 -14.02% 14
Yorkshire -28 52 £335 -31.63% 8
East of England -24 31 £488 -15.22% 19
South West -24 30 £540 -1.82% 19
East Midlands -27 13 £638 +50.00% 6
North East -10 2 £475 -24.00% 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 13 (1.95%) Confluence
2 5 (0.75%) Apache
3 4 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.60%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 22 (3.29%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.50%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.15%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (0.75%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 201 (30.09%) Azure
2 140 (20.96%) AWS
3 77 (11.53%) GCP
4 49 (7.34%) Entra ID
5 30 (4.49%) GitHub
6 27 (4.04%) GitHub Actions
7 24 (3.59%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (3.44%) Azure Sentinel
9 21 (3.14%) Azure Key Vault
10 19 (2.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 15 (2.25%) Amazon S3
11 15 (2.25%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 15 (2.25%) Azure Monitor
11 15 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
12 14 (2.10%) AWS CloudFormation
13 13 (1.95%) Serverless
14 12 (1.80%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 12 (1.80%) Power Platform
15 11 (1.65%) Azure AKS
15 11 (1.65%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 327 (48.95%) Firewall
2 132 (19.76%) VPN
3 116 (17.37%) WAN
4 90 (13.47%) BGP
5 89 (13.32%) LAN
6 79 (11.83%) DNS
7 75 (11.23%) OSPF
8 66 (9.88%) VLAN
9 58 (8.68%) SD-WAN
10 55 (8.23%) TCP/IP
11 43 (6.44%) Wireless
12 39 (5.84%) MPLS
13 38 (5.69%) Cisco ASA
14 34 (5.09%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 29 (4.34%) DHCP
16 28 (4.19%) Wi-Fi
17 27 (4.04%) SSL
18 25 (3.74%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 25 (3.74%) Internet
18 25 (3.74%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
1 6 (0.90%) Azure SQL Database
2 5 (0.75%) InfluxDB
2 5 (0.75%) Relational Database
3 4 (0.60%) Power BI
4 3 (0.45%) Amazon Athena
4 3 (0.45%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.30%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.30%) SQL Server
5 2 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.15%) Redis
Development Applications
1 24 (3.59%) JIRA
2 20 (2.99%) Jenkins
3 16 (2.40%) GitLab
4 11 (1.65%) Git
5 4 (0.60%) Snyk
5 4 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.45%) Browser DevTools
General
1 174 (26.05%) Social Skills
2 95 (14.22%) Finance
3 84 (12.57%) Analytical Skills
4 56 (8.38%) Public Sector
5 34 (5.09%) Banking
6 26 (3.89%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.74%) Telecoms
8 21 (3.14%) Financial Institution
9 10 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.05%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.05%) Legal
10 7 (1.05%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (0.75%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.60%) Local Government
12 4 (0.60%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.60%) Military
13 3 (0.45%) Electronics
13 3 (0.45%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 149 (22.31%) Architect
2 148 (22.16%) Network Engineer
3 78 (11.68%) Security Engineer
4 76 (11.38%) Security Architect
5 55 (8.23%) Network Architect
6 52 (7.78%) Senior
7 36 (5.39%) Network Security Engineer
8 29 (4.34%) Analyst
9 25 (3.74%) Network Security Architect
10 21 (3.14%) Lead
11 19 (2.84%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 18 (2.69%) Azure Architect
12 18 (2.69%) Cloud Architect
12 18 (2.69%) Consultant
13 17 (2.54%) Cloud Engineer
13 17 (2.54%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 17 (2.54%) Solutions Architect
14 16 (2.40%) Administrator
14 16 (2.40%) Security Analyst
15 15 (2.25%) Security Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.14%) 802.1X
2 13 (1.95%) LDAP
3 8 (1.20%) Node.js
4 6 (0.90%) .NET
4 6 (0.90%) RabbitMQ
4 6 (0.90%) SAML
5 5 (0.75%) .NET Core
5 5 (0.75%) AngularJS
5 5 (0.75%) PyTorch
5 5 (0.75%) React
5 5 (0.75%) TensorFlow
6 4 (0.60%) ARM Templates
6 4 (0.60%) Elastic Stack
6 4 (0.60%) OAuth
7 3 (0.45%) CSS
7 3 (0.45%) HTML
7 3 (0.45%) Lambda Expressions
7 3 (0.45%) OAuth2
7 3 (0.45%) OpenID
7 3 (0.45%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 85 (12.72%) Data Centre
2 43 (6.44%) Hybrid Cloud
3 41 (6.14%) Security Posture
4 37 (5.54%) Cloud Native
5 26 (3.89%) PKI
6 24 (3.59%) Management Information System
7 23 (3.44%) Public Cloud
8 19 (2.84%) Onboarding
9 18 (2.69%) Cyber Threat
9 18 (2.69%) Operational Technology
9 18 (2.69%) Product Ownership
10 17 (2.54%) IoT
11 16 (2.40%) Analytical Mindset
11 16 (2.40%) Security Operations Centre
12 13 (1.95%) Data Protection Act
12 13 (1.95%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 11 (1.65%) Cyber Security Posture
14 9 (1.35%) Clustering
14 9 (1.35%) Virtual Team
15 8 (1.20%) CSOC
Operating Systems
1 75 (11.23%) Windows
2 61 (9.13%) Linux
3 26 (3.89%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.35%) Unix
4 9 (1.35%) VMS
5 7 (1.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (1.05%) Ubuntu
6 4 (0.60%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.45%) SUSE
8 2 (0.30%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.15%) Android
9 1 (0.15%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (22.60%) Cybersecurity
2 105 (15.72%) Problem-Solving
3 102 (15.27%) Cloud Security
4 97 (14.52%) Security Architecture
4 97 (14.52%) Zero Trust
5 96 (14.37%) SIEM
6 87 (13.02%) DevOps
6 87 (13.02%) Migration
7 84 (12.57%) CI/CD
8 81 (12.13%) Infrastructure as Code
9 70 (10.48%) Incident Response
10 69 (10.33%) Continuous Improvement
11 67 (10.03%) Network Segmentation
12 66 (9.88%) Change Management
13 65 (9.73%) Security Operations
14 59 (8.83%) Threat Modelling
15 56 (8.38%) Agile
15 56 (8.38%) Identity Access Management
16 54 (8.08%) Load Balancing
16 54 (8.08%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 92 (13.77%) Python
2 61 (9.13%) PowerShell
3 24 (3.59%) JavaScript
4 23 (3.44%) SQL
5 22 (3.29%) Bash
5 22 (3.29%) Bicep
6 14 (2.10%) Kusto Query Language
7 7 (1.05%) Go
7 7 (1.05%) Java
7 7 (1.05%) Shell Script
8 5 (0.75%) C#
9 4 (0.60%) C
9 4 (0.60%) PHP
10 3 (0.45%) C++
11 1 (0.15%) ActionScript
11 1 (0.15%) C-shell
11 1 (0.15%) Korn
11 1 (0.15%) Perl
11 1 (0.15%) Ruby
11 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 214 (32.04%) Security Cleared
2 146 (21.86%) SC Cleared
3 114 (17.07%) Cisco Certification
4 90 (13.47%) CCNP
5 84 (12.57%) CISSP
6 76 (11.38%) DV Cleared
7 44 (6.59%) CCNA
8 42 (6.29%) CISM
8 42 (6.29%) Degree
9 26 (3.89%) GIAC
10 25 (3.74%) Azure Certification
10 25 (3.74%) CCIE
11 21 (3.14%) CEH
12 19 (2.84%) CompTIA Security+
13 18 (2.69%) AWS Certification
14 15 (2.25%) CCSP
15 14 (2.10%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 11 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
17 10 (1.50%) JNCIS
18 9 (1.35%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 72 (10.78%) NIST
2 64 (9.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 44 (6.59%) GDPR
4 32 (4.79%) PCI DSS
5 19 (2.84%) Cyber Essentials
6 16 (2.40%) NCSC
7 15 (2.25%) GRC
8 13 (1.95%) SLA
9 9 (1.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 9 (1.35%) SOC 2
10 8 (1.20%) Actionable Recommendations
10 8 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 7 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.90%) QA
13 5 (0.75%) PMO
14 4 (0.60%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.60%) RMADS
15 2 (0.30%) GxP
15 2 (0.30%) HIPAA
15 2 (0.30%) PSD2
System Software
1 48 (7.19%) VMware Infrastructure
2 41 (6.14%) Active Directory
3 24 (3.59%) Docker
4 19 (2.84%) VMware NSX
5 12 (1.80%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (1.50%) Hyper-V
6 10 (1.50%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (1.35%) vSphere
8 8 (1.20%) Firmware
9 4 (0.60%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.15%) KVM
11 1 (0.15%) NFS
11 1 (0.15%) Postfix
11 1 (0.15%) RHEV
11 1 (0.15%) Sendmail
11 1 (0.15%) Varnish
11 1 (0.15%) Xen
11 1 (0.15%) XenApp
11 1 (0.15%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 103 (15.42%) Terraform
2 61 (9.13%) Ansible
3 50 (7.49%) Kubernetes
4 26 (3.89%) FortiGate
5 14 (2.10%) Nagios
6 12 (1.80%) Kibana
6 12 (1.80%) Microsoft Intune
6 12 (1.80%) Single Sign-On
7 11 (1.65%) vCenter Server
8 9 (1.35%) Grafana
8 9 (1.35%) Microsoft Clustering
9 8 (1.20%) Prometheus
10 5 (0.75%) CASB
10 5 (0.75%) Progress Chef
11 4 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (0.60%) Puppet
11 4 (0.60%) VxRail
12 3 (0.45%) Cisco Prime
12 3 (0.45%) Istio
12 3 (0.45%) SCOM
Vendors
1 183 (27.40%) Cisco
2 116 (17.37%) Microsoft
3 106 (15.87%) Palo Alto
4 73 (10.93%) F5
5 61 (9.13%) VMware
6 51 (7.63%) Juniper
7 47 (7.04%) Fortinet
8 44 (6.59%) CheckPoint
9 36 (5.39%) Zscaler
10 33 (4.94%) Splunk
11 29 (4.34%) ServiceNow
12 28 (4.19%) Google
13 18 (2.69%) SolarWinds
14 16 (2.40%) Tenable
15 15 (2.25%) Aruba
15 15 (2.25%) ForeScout
15 15 (2.25%) Meraki
16 14 (2.10%) Databricks
16 14 (2.10%) Okta
17 12 (1.80%) SAP