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

6 months to
8 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 172 156 155
Rank change year-on-year -16 -1 +85
Contract jobs citing Network Security 501 513 667
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.68% 1.65% 1.67%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.76% 13.57% 11.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 304 335 451
10th Percentile £350 £363 £406
25th Percentile £413 £450 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.20% -2.18% +2.14%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £649
90th Percentile £713 £733 £700
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -1.90% -4.55% +3.04%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 6 6
10th Percentile £45.00 £38.75 £40.50
25th Percentile £52.50 £44.38 £64.06
Median hourly rate £70.16 £53.75 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +30.53% -25.86% +61.11%
75th Percentile £87.19 £58.75 £76.25
90th Percentile £97.50 £88.81 -
UK median hourly rate £70.16 £47.50 £72.50
% change year-on-year +47.71% -34.48% +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 3,395 3,780 5,691
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.41% 12.13% 14.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,189 2,197 3,544
10th Percentile £213 £230 £213
25th Percentile £363 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £688 £687 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 184 128 329
10th Percentile £15.50 £20.00 £17.74
25th Percentile £20.00 £27.00 £23.00
Median hourly rate £31.39 £53.75 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -41.61% -4.85% +28.39%
75th Percentile £65.00 £70.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.25
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £47.50 £55.00
% change year-on-year -28.42% -13.64% +33.28%

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 November 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 November 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 November 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 +2 215 £538 +0.47% 186
North of England -14 101 £485 -3.72% 55
Midlands -18 67 £500 -9.09% 39
North West -2 63 £525 -4.55% 28
West Midlands -9 63 £500 -21.26% 23
South East -24 59 £438 -20.45% 217
Yorkshire -22 51 £485 -3.00% 16
South West +4 30 £620 +6.35% 44
East of England -6 22 £488 +77.27% 36
East Midlands -27 4 - - 12
South Coast - 2 - -
North East -11 1 £550 -32.52% 11
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 5 (1.00%) Confluence
2 4 (0.80%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.20%) IIS
4 1 (0.20%) nginx
4 1 (0.20%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 11 (2.20%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.80%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.40%) Chatbot
3 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.40%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.40%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.20%) Windchill
Cloud Services
1 130 (25.95%) Azure
2 106 (21.16%) AWS
3 42 (8.38%) GCP
4 28 (5.59%) Microsoft 365
5 25 (4.99%) Entra ID
6 22 (4.39%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 21 (4.19%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (3.59%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 18 (3.59%) Amazon S3
9 16 (3.19%) Amazon EC2
9 16 (3.19%) Amazon ELB
10 15 (2.99%) Azure Key Vault
11 14 (2.79%) Azure Sentinel
11 14 (2.79%) GitHub
12 12 (2.40%) Azure Monitor
12 12 (2.40%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (2.00%) Azure Logic Apps
13 10 (2.00%) IaaS
14 9 (1.80%) AWS CloudFormation
14 9 (1.80%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 242 (48.30%) Firewall
2 102 (20.36%) VPN
3 100 (19.96%) DNS
4 78 (15.57%) WAN
5 61 (12.18%) SSL
6 58 (11.58%) BGP
7 57 (11.38%) TCP/IP
8 47 (9.38%) SD-WAN
9 46 (9.18%) LAN
10 41 (8.18%) OSPF
11 38 (7.58%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 38 (7.58%) Wireless
12 36 (7.19%) VLAN
13 31 (6.19%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 27 (5.39%) DMZ
15 24 (4.79%) Cisco ISE
15 24 (4.79%) Intrusion Detection
16 22 (4.39%) DHCP
17 20 (3.99%) IPsec
17 20 (3.99%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.40%) Amazon RDS
1 2 (0.40%) DynamoDB
1 2 (0.40%) GIS
1 2 (0.40%) Power BI
2 1 (0.20%) Amazon Athena
2 1 (0.20%) Azure SQL Database
2 1 (0.20%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.20%) MySQL
2 1 (0.20%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (0.20%) Redis
2 1 (0.20%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.20%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 25 (4.99%) Jenkins
2 24 (4.79%) GitLab
3 22 (4.39%) Git
4 11 (2.20%) JIRA
5 3 (0.60%) SonarQube
6 1 (0.20%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.20%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.20%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.20%) Subversion
General
1 151 (30.14%) Social Skills
2 76 (15.17%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (8.98%) Finance
4 36 (7.19%) Public Sector
5 32 (6.39%) Banking
6 22 (4.39%) Telecoms
7 19 (3.79%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (2.99%) Investment Banking
9 13 (2.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 10 (2.00%) Law
11 9 (1.80%) Pharmaceutical
12 8 (1.60%) Legal
13 6 (1.20%) Military
13 6 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
14 5 (1.00%) Manufacturing
15 4 (0.80%) Aerospace
15 4 (0.80%) Financial Institution
15 4 (0.80%) Influencing Skills
16 3 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
17 2 (0.40%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 106 (21.16%) Network Engineer
2 97 (19.36%) Security Engineer
3 84 (16.77%) Architect
4 53 (10.58%) Network Security Engineer
5 51 (10.18%) Security Architect
6 50 (9.98%) Senior
7 35 (6.99%) Analyst
7 35 (6.99%) Network Architect
8 25 (4.99%) Consultant
9 19 (3.79%) Administrator
10 18 (3.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 18 (3.59%) Network Security Architect
10 18 (3.59%) SOC Analyst
11 17 (3.39%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 15 (2.99%) Azure Engineer
12 15 (2.99%) Lead
13 14 (2.79%) Operations Engineer
13 14 (2.79%) Platform Manager
13 14 (2.79%) Wintel Administrator
13 14 (2.79%) Wintel Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.59%) LDAP
2 12 (2.40%) 802.1X
3 11 (2.20%) ARM Templates
4 7 (1.40%) YAML
5 6 (1.20%) ADO
5 6 (1.20%) SAML
6 5 (1.00%) .NET
7 4 (0.80%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (0.60%) SailPoint
9 2 (0.40%) .NET Core
9 2 (0.40%) AngularJS
9 2 (0.40%) Node.js
9 2 (0.40%) OAuth
9 2 (0.40%) OAuth2
9 2 (0.40%) OpenID
9 2 (0.40%) PyTorch
9 2 (0.40%) React
9 2 (0.40%) TensorFlow
10 1 (0.20%) Azure Blueprints
10 1 (0.20%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 42 (8.38%) Management Information System
2 41 (8.18%) Security Posture
3 34 (6.79%) Data Centre
4 30 (5.99%) Hybrid Cloud
5 21 (4.19%) Security Operations Centre
6 20 (3.99%) PKI
7 19 (3.79%) Cloud Native
8 16 (3.19%) Operational Technology
9 15 (2.99%) Analytical Mindset
9 15 (2.99%) Onboarding
10 13 (2.59%) Cyber Threat
11 11 (2.20%) Cloud Security Posture
12 10 (2.00%) CSOC
12 10 (2.00%) Cyberattack
12 10 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
13 9 (1.80%) Public Cloud
13 9 (1.80%) SCADA
14 8 (1.60%) Product Ownership
14 8 (1.60%) Virtual Team
15 7 (1.40%) Cyber Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 73 (14.57%) Windows
2 53 (10.58%) Linux
3 18 (3.59%) Windows Server
4 5 (1.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (0.80%) VMS
6 3 (0.60%) Mac OS
7 2 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.20%) CentOS
8 1 (0.20%) Check Point GAiA
8 1 (0.20%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.20%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.20%) Unix
8 1 (0.20%) Windows 10
8 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (23.95%) Cybersecurity
2 97 (19.36%) SIEM
3 96 (19.16%) Incident Response
4 92 (18.36%) Problem-Solving
5 77 (15.37%) Cloud Security
6 69 (13.77%) Infrastructure as Code
7 67 (13.37%) DevOps
8 61 (12.18%) CI/CD
9 53 (10.58%) Vulnerability Management
10 52 (10.38%) Change Management
11 51 (10.18%) Identity Access Management
12 49 (9.78%) Security Operations
13 48 (9.58%) Security Architecture
14 45 (8.98%) Agile
14 45 (8.98%) Infrastructure Automation
15 44 (8.78%) Load Balancing
16 43 (8.58%) DevSecOps
16 43 (8.58%) Network Architecture
17 42 (8.38%) Migration
18 41 (8.18%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 104 (20.76%) Python
2 66 (13.17%) PowerShell
3 40 (7.98%) Bash
4 19 (3.79%) Bicep
5 11 (2.20%) Kusto Query Language
6 7 (1.40%) SQL
7 6 (1.20%) Perl
8 4 (0.80%) JavaScript
9 3 (0.60%) Java
10 2 (0.40%) C
10 2 (0.40%) C#
10 2 (0.40%) C++
10 2 (0.40%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.20%) Rust
11 1 (0.20%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.20%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 137 (27.35%) Security Cleared
2 94 (18.76%) SC Cleared
3 84 (16.77%) Cisco Certification
4 69 (13.77%) CISSP
5 62 (12.38%) CCNP
6 45 (8.98%) Degree
7 41 (8.18%) CISM
8 38 (7.58%) DV Cleared
9 27 (5.39%) CCIE
10 21 (4.19%) GIAC
11 19 (3.79%) CEH
12 18 (3.59%) Computer Science Degree
13 15 (2.99%) CompTIA Security+
14 14 (2.79%) CCSA
15 13 (2.59%) CCSP
16 12 (2.40%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 12 (2.40%) Azure Certification
16 12 (2.40%) CCNA
17 11 (2.20%) AWS Certification
18 9 (1.80%) CCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (13.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 61 (12.18%) NIST
3 48 (9.58%) GDPR
4 30 (5.99%) PCI DSS
5 15 (2.99%) HIPAA
6 14 (2.79%) NCSC
7 12 (2.40%) GRC
8 10 (2.00%) Cyber Essentials
9 9 (1.80%) SOC 2
10 7 (1.40%) SLA
11 5 (1.00%) PSD2
11 5 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 3 (0.60%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 3 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.40%) GxP
13 2 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 2 (0.40%) JSP 440
13 2 (0.40%) QA
14 1 (0.20%) Def Stans
System Software
1 38 (7.58%) Docker
2 35 (6.99%) Active Directory
3 32 (6.39%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (1.80%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (1.60%) Firmware
6 5 (1.00%) VMware NSX
7 4 (0.80%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.60%) ProxySG
8 3 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (0.60%) vSphere
9 1 (0.20%) KVM
Systems Management
1 65 (12.97%) Terraform
2 49 (9.78%) Ansible
3 28 (5.59%) Kubernetes
4 19 (3.79%) FortiGate
5 11 (2.20%) QRadar
6 7 (1.40%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (1.20%) CASB
7 6 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (1.00%) Grafana
8 5 (1.00%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.80%) CA Spectrum
9 4 (0.80%) Kibana
9 4 (0.80%) Nessus
9 4 (0.80%) OpenView
10 3 (0.60%) HP Fortify
10 3 (0.60%) Puppet
10 3 (0.60%) SCCM
11 2 (0.40%) Jamf Pro
11 2 (0.40%) Kustomize
12 1 (0.20%) VxRail
Vendors
1 127 (25.35%) Cisco
2 96 (19.16%) F5
3 90 (17.96%) Palo Alto
4 89 (17.76%) Microsoft
5 58 (11.58%) CheckPoint
6 45 (8.98%) Zscaler
7 44 (8.78%) Fortinet
8 42 (8.38%) VMware
9 40 (7.98%) Juniper
10 34 (6.79%) Splunk
11 24 (4.79%) CrowdStrike
11 24 (4.79%) SolarWinds
12 22 (4.39%) Meraki
13 18 (3.59%) Google
14 13 (2.59%) Qualys
14 13 (2.59%) Tenable
15 12 (2.40%) ServiceNow
16 11 (2.20%) Blue Coat
16 11 (2.20%) Forcepoint
17 9 (1.80%) ArcSight