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 8 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 169 142 148
Rank change year-on-year -27 +6 +110
Contract jobs citing Network Security 500 550 669
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.61% 1.81% 1.74%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.78% 14.50% 12.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 304 348 461
10th Percentile £340 £363 £406
25th Percentile £410 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £582 £628 £649
90th Percentile £685 £729 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 9 5
10th Percentile £39.60 £18.05 £65.00
25th Percentile £45.00 £35.00 £68.75
Median hourly rate £66.50 £45.00 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +47.78% -37.93% +61.11%
75th Percentile £85.00 £58.75 £76.25
90th Percentile £94.50 £70.77 -
UK median hourly rate £66.50 £41.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year +62.20% -43.45% +61.11%

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 3,382 3,792 5,441
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.92% 12.51% 14.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,184 2,204 3,383
10th Percentile £206 £223 £210
25th Percentile £358 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.45% - -
75th Percentile £588 £608 £611
90th Percentile £677 £688 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 175 129 330
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.35 £18.51
25th Percentile £20.09 £23.00 £23.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £48.56 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -38.22% -14.04% +25.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £67.50 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £33.39 £41.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -18.57% -25.45% +25.00%

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 8 December 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 8 December 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 8 December 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 -11 229 £515 -6.36% 82
North of England -33 97 £466 -6.75% 60
Midlands -21 70 £500 -14.13% 37
North West +9 66 £492 +0.92% 39
West Midlands 0 66 £500 -20.32% 19
South East -41 57 £425 -20.19% 118
Yorkshire -39 45 £205 -59.00% 19
South West -18 22 £575 +9.52% 35
East of England -13 21 £488 +44.44% 32
East Midlands -29 4 £650 +73.33% 17
South Coast - 2 - -
North East -5 1 £550 -32.52% 3
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 6 (1.20%) Confluence
2 5 (1.00%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.80%) Apache
4 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.20%) IIS
5 1 (0.20%) nginx
5 1 (0.20%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 15 (3.00%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (1.00%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.20%) Windchill
Cloud Services
1 126 (25.20%) Azure
2 108 (21.60%) AWS
3 44 (8.80%) GCP
4 25 (5.00%) Entra ID
4 25 (5.00%) Microsoft 365
5 22 (4.40%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 21 (4.20%) Amazon S3
7 19 (3.80%) Amazon EC2
8 17 (3.40%) Azure DevOps
9 16 (3.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 16 (3.20%) Amazon ELB
10 15 (3.00%) GitHub
11 13 (2.60%) GitHub Actions
12 12 (2.40%) Azure Key Vault
12 12 (2.40%) Azure Monitor
12 12 (2.40%) Serverless
13 11 (2.20%) Google Workspace
14 10 (2.00%) Azure Sentinel
14 10 (2.00%) IaaS
15 9 (1.80%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 244 (48.80%) Firewall
2 100 (20.00%) VPN
3 99 (19.80%) DNS
4 80 (16.00%) WAN
5 60 (12.00%) SSL
6 56 (11.20%) BGP
7 54 (10.80%) TCP/IP
8 52 (10.40%) LAN
9 48 (9.60%) SD-WAN
10 42 (8.40%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 41 (8.20%) OSPF
12 36 (7.20%) Wireless
13 35 (7.00%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 35 (7.00%) VLAN
14 33 (6.60%) DMZ
15 23 (4.60%) HTTP
16 22 (4.40%) Internet
16 22 (4.40%) Intrusion Detection
17 20 (4.00%) IPsec
18 19 (3.80%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
1 3 (0.60%) InfluxDB
1 3 (0.60%) Relational Database
2 2 (0.40%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (0.40%) Data Lake
2 2 (0.40%) Power BI
3 1 (0.20%) Amazon Athena
3 1 (0.20%) GIS
3 1 (0.20%) MySQL
3 1 (0.20%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.20%) Redis
3 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 24 (4.80%) Jenkins
2 22 (4.40%) Git
2 22 (4.40%) GitLab
3 6 (1.20%) JIRA
4 1 (0.20%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.20%) Metasploit
4 1 (0.20%) SonarQube
4 1 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.20%) Subversion
General
1 159 (31.80%) Social Skills
2 85 (17.00%) Analytical Skills
3 52 (10.40%) Finance
4 39 (7.80%) Public Sector
5 35 (7.00%) Banking
6 21 (4.20%) Telecoms
7 17 (3.40%) Documentation Skills
8 16 (3.20%) Investment Banking
9 11 (2.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 10 (2.00%) Pharmaceutical
11 7 (1.40%) Legal
11 7 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.20%) Financial Institution
12 6 (1.20%) Manufacturing
12 6 (1.20%) Military
13 5 (1.00%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (1.00%) Law
14 4 (0.80%) Organisational Skills
15 3 (0.60%) Aerospace
15 3 (0.60%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 108 (21.60%) Network Engineer
2 100 (20.00%) Security Engineer
3 79 (15.80%) Architect
4 55 (11.00%) Network Security Engineer
5 49 (9.80%) Security Architect
6 44 (8.80%) Senior
7 40 (8.00%) Analyst
8 33 (6.60%) Network Architect
9 22 (4.40%) Consultant
10 20 (4.00%) Administrator
11 18 (3.60%) Cybersecurity Engineer
11 18 (3.60%) Network Security Architect
11 18 (3.60%) Security Analyst
11 18 (3.60%) SOC Analyst
12 16 (3.20%) Lead
12 16 (3.20%) Operations Engineer
13 15 (3.00%) IT Engineer
14 14 (2.80%) Support Engineer
15 13 (2.60%) Systems Administrator
15 13 (2.60%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.80%) LDAP
2 12 (2.40%) 802.1X
3 8 (1.60%) .NET
4 6 (1.20%) ARM Templates
4 6 (1.20%) Node.js
4 6 (1.20%) SAML
5 5 (1.00%) .NET Core
5 5 (1.00%) AngularJS
5 5 (1.00%) PyTorch
5 5 (1.00%) React
5 5 (1.00%) TensorFlow
6 4 (0.80%) RabbitMQ
7 3 (0.60%) Elastic Stack
8 2 (0.40%) ADO
8 2 (0.40%) OAuth
8 2 (0.40%) OAuth2
8 2 (0.40%) OpenID
8 2 (0.40%) SailPoint
8 2 (0.40%) YAML
9 1 (0.20%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (8.00%) Management Information System
2 38 (7.60%) Data Centre
2 38 (7.60%) Security Posture
3 27 (5.40%) Hybrid Cloud
4 22 (4.40%) Cloud Native
5 18 (3.60%) Security Operations Centre
6 17 (3.40%) Cyber Threat
6 17 (3.40%) PKI
7 16 (3.20%) Analytical Mindset
7 16 (3.20%) Operational Technology
8 15 (3.00%) Onboarding
9 12 (2.40%) Public Cloud
10 11 (2.20%) Cloud Security Posture
10 11 (2.20%) Cyberattack
10 11 (2.20%) Virtual Team
11 10 (2.00%) CSOC
11 10 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
12 9 (1.80%) SCADA
13 8 (1.60%) Cyber Security Posture
14 7 (1.40%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 76 (15.20%) Windows
2 62 (12.40%) Linux
3 17 (3.40%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.40%) Unix
5 5 (1.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.80%) VMS
7 3 (0.60%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.20%) CentOS
9 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.20%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.20%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (23.60%) Cybersecurity
2 99 (19.80%) Problem-Solving
3 98 (19.60%) Incident Response
4 92 (18.40%) SIEM
5 77 (15.40%) Cloud Security
6 65 (13.00%) DevOps
6 65 (13.00%) Infrastructure as Code
7 64 (12.80%) CI/CD
8 60 (12.00%) Change Management
9 48 (9.60%) Security Operations
10 47 (9.40%) Identity Access Management
10 47 (9.40%) Load Balancing
11 46 (9.20%) Migration
12 45 (9.00%) Security Architecture
13 44 (8.80%) Network Architecture
14 43 (8.60%) Zero Trust
15 41 (8.20%) Vulnerability Management
16 40 (8.00%) Continuous Improvement
16 40 (8.00%) Infrastructure Automation
16 40 (8.00%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 104 (20.80%) Python
2 59 (11.80%) PowerShell
3 36 (7.20%) Bash
4 16 (3.20%) Bicep
5 15 (3.00%) SQL
6 10 (2.00%) Kusto Query Language
7 8 (1.60%) JavaScript
8 6 (1.20%) Java
9 5 (1.00%) C#
9 5 (1.00%) Go
10 4 (0.80%) Perl
11 3 (0.60%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.40%) C
12 2 (0.40%) C++
13 1 (0.20%) C-shell
13 1 (0.20%) Korn
13 1 (0.20%) Rust
13 1 (0.20%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.20%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 131 (26.20%) Security Cleared
2 87 (17.40%) SC Cleared
3 84 (16.80%) Cisco Certification
4 68 (13.60%) CISSP
5 64 (12.80%) CCNP
6 41 (8.20%) DV Cleared
7 37 (7.40%) Degree
8 32 (6.40%) CISM
9 23 (4.60%) CCIE
10 22 (4.40%) GIAC
11 21 (4.20%) CEH
12 18 (3.60%) CompTIA Security+
13 14 (2.80%) CCNA
14 13 (2.60%) CCSA
14 13 (2.60%) CCSP
14 13 (2.60%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (2.40%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 12 (2.40%) AWS Certification
15 12 (2.40%) Azure Certification
16 8 (1.60%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (11.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 54 (10.80%) NIST
3 44 (8.80%) GDPR
4 31 (6.20%) PCI DSS
5 12 (2.40%) Cyber Essentials
6 11 (2.20%) GRC
6 11 (2.20%) NCSC
7 10 (2.00%) HIPAA
8 6 (1.20%) SLA
9 5 (1.00%) PSD2
9 5 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 5 (1.00%) SOC 2
10 4 (0.80%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.60%) JSP 440
12 2 (0.40%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 2 (0.40%) GxP
12 2 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.40%) PMO
12 2 (0.40%) QA
13 1 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 37 (7.40%) Docker
2 34 (6.80%) Active Directory
2 34 (6.80%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (1.80%) Firmware
4 7 (1.40%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.20%) VMware NSX
6 4 (0.80%) Hyper-V
6 4 (0.80%) ProxySG
7 3 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (0.60%) vSphere
8 1 (0.20%) KVM
8 1 (0.20%) XenApp
8 1 (0.20%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 77 (15.40%) Terraform
2 47 (9.40%) Ansible
3 28 (5.60%) Kubernetes
4 22 (4.40%) FortiGate
5 8 (1.60%) QRadar
6 7 (1.40%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (1.20%) CASB
7 6 (1.20%) Grafana
7 6 (1.20%) Prometheus
7 6 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (1.00%) Kibana
9 4 (0.80%) CA Spectrum
10 3 (0.60%) Progress Chef
10 3 (0.60%) SCCM
11 2 (0.40%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.40%) Nessus
11 2 (0.40%) Puppet
12 1 (0.20%) HP Fortify
12 1 (0.20%) Icinga
12 1 (0.20%) WSUS
Vendors
1 118 (23.60%) Cisco
2 98 (19.60%) Palo Alto
3 90 (18.00%) F5
4 87 (17.40%) Microsoft
5 56 (11.20%) CheckPoint
6 46 (9.20%) Juniper
7 42 (8.40%) Fortinet
7 42 (8.40%) VMware
7 42 (8.40%) Zscaler
8 27 (5.40%) Splunk
9 25 (5.00%) Meraki
10 21 (4.20%) Google
11 20 (4.00%) CrowdStrike
12 19 (3.80%) SolarWinds
13 14 (2.80%) Tenable
14 12 (2.40%) Blue Coat
15 11 (2.20%) Forcepoint
15 11 (2.20%) ServiceNow
16 10 (2.00%) Qualys
17 9 (1.80%) ArcSight