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 14 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 163 147 180
Rank change year-on-year -16 +33 -10
Contract jobs citing Network Security 767 540 468
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.68% 1.95% 1.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.85% 15.91% 11.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 529 322 329
10th Percentile £399 £375 £363
25th Percentile £456 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £543 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +3.51% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £650 £613 £669
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £550 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 19 6
10th Percentile £26.00 £45.00 £20.75
25th Percentile £42.13 £60.38 £29.75
Median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year -9.51% +50.09% -12.96%
75th Percentile £74.00 £83.05 £58.75
90th Percentile - £88.00 £88.81
UK median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £50.00
% change year-on-year -9.51% +61.35% -24.24%

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 4,296 3,394 4,197
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.42% 12.28% 12.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,596 2,104 2,581
10th Percentile £263 £250 £243
25th Percentile £402 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £495 £500
Median % change year-on-year +0.97% -0.96% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 340 169 286
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.48
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £27.75 £44.00 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year -36.93% -19.82% -0.23%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.33 £85.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.14 £46.88 £49.00
% change year-on-year -44.23% -4.34% -9.26%

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 14 August 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 14 August 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 14 August 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 +1 340 £550 +0.92% 167
North of England +3 188 £525 +8.25% 46
South East -33 117 £557 +13.67% 82
North West -7 104 £535 +12.63% 29
Yorkshire +8 81 £500 +1.63% 14
Midlands -49 52 £463 -19.57% 39
East of England -14 36 £525 -4.55% 16
West Midlands -71 33 £406 -29.35% 24
East Midlands -4 18 £638 - 15
South West -66 15 £563 -9.27% 23
North East -42 2 £675 +8.00% 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 16 (2.09%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.56%) Confluence
3 11 (1.43%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.39%) Apache
5 1 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.13%) NetWeaver
5 1 (0.13%) nginx
Applications
1 20 (2.61%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.78%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.13%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.13%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.78%) Oracle ERP
1 6 (0.78%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 268 (34.94%) Azure
2 181 (23.60%) AWS
3 102 (13.30%) GCP
4 88 (11.47%) Entra ID
5 36 (4.69%) Microsoft 365
6 33 (4.30%) Azure DevOps
7 30 (3.91%) GitHub
8 26 (3.39%) Azure Monitor
8 26 (3.39%) Azure Sentinel
8 26 (3.39%) SaaS
9 25 (3.26%) Serverless
10 20 (2.61%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 20 (2.61%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 19 (2.48%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 18 (2.35%) GitHub Actions
13 15 (1.96%) Akamai
13 15 (1.96%) Azure AKS
13 15 (1.96%) OCI
14 13 (1.69%) Amazon EKS
14 13 (1.69%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 347 (45.24%) Firewall
2 171 (22.29%) VPN
3 163 (21.25%) WAN
4 121 (15.78%) DNS
5 110 (14.34%) LAN
6 90 (11.73%) Wireless
7 85 (11.08%) TCP/IP
8 80 (10.43%) BGP
9 71 (9.26%) SD-WAN
10 67 (8.74%) VLAN
11 62 (8.08%) DHCP
12 61 (7.95%) OSPF
13 44 (5.74%) SSL
14 42 (5.48%) MPLS
15 39 (5.08%) Cisco ISE
16 38 (4.95%) IPsec
17 33 (4.30%) Cisco ASA
17 33 (4.30%) NGFW
17 33 (4.30%) Wi-Fi
18 30 (3.91%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.69%) SQL Server
2 6 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
3 4 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (0.52%) BigQuery
3 4 (0.52%) Data Lake
3 4 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.52%) Neo4j
3 4 (0.52%) Power BI
4 3 (0.39%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.26%) Amazon Athena
5 2 (0.26%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.13%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.13%) Data Warehouse
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 36 (4.69%) Git
2 32 (4.17%) JIRA
3 25 (3.26%) GitLab
4 20 (2.61%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.78%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.52%) MSBuild
7 4 (0.52%) Snyk
7 4 (0.52%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.52%) Visual Studio
8 3 (0.39%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.26%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.13%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.13%) Postman
10 1 (0.13%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.13%) Subversion
General
1 194 (25.29%) Social Skills
2 138 (17.99%) Finance
3 68 (8.87%) Analytical Skills
4 57 (7.43%) Banking
5 46 (6.00%) Public Sector
6 32 (4.17%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.26%) Financial Institution
8 19 (2.48%) Telecoms
9 17 (2.22%) Legal
10 14 (1.83%) Retail
11 12 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (1.43%) Manufacturing
13 10 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
13 10 (1.30%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (1.04%) Police
15 6 (0.78%) Automotive
15 6 (0.78%) Law
15 6 (0.78%) Local Government
16 5 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
17 4 (0.52%) Military
Job Titles
1 203 (26.47%) Network Engineer
2 147 (19.17%) Architect
3 93 (12.13%) Senior
4 90 (11.73%) Security Engineer
5 73 (9.52%) Security Architect
6 55 (7.17%) Network Architect
7 51 (6.65%) Network Security Engineer
8 49 (6.39%) Consultant
9 42 (5.48%) Project Manager
10 40 (5.22%) Senior Network Engineer
11 37 (4.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 36 (4.69%) Lead
13 34 (4.43%) Cloud Engineer
14 24 (3.13%) Analyst
15 22 (2.87%) Network Manager
15 22 (2.87%) Security Consultant
16 19 (2.48%) Network Security Architect
16 19 (2.48%) Solutions Architect
17 18 (2.35%) DevSecOps Consultant
17 18 (2.35%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (4.82%) 802.1X
2 15 (1.96%) SAML
3 13 (1.69%) REST
4 11 (1.43%) ARM Templates
5 9 (1.17%) Kafka
6 6 (0.78%) NETCONF
7 5 (0.65%) .NET
7 5 (0.65%) JSON
7 5 (0.65%) OpenID
8 4 (0.52%) CSS
8 4 (0.52%) gRPC
8 4 (0.52%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.52%) OAuth
8 4 (0.52%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (0.52%) RESTful
8 4 (0.52%) SLSA
8 4 (0.52%) XML
9 3 (0.39%) ModSecurity
9 3 (0.39%) SailPoint
9 3 (0.39%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 78 (10.17%) Data Centre
2 68 (8.87%) Security Posture
3 46 (6.00%) Cloud Native
4 41 (5.35%) Hybrid Cloud
5 34 (4.43%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 34 (4.43%) Onboarding
6 30 (3.91%) Management Information System
7 25 (3.26%) Cyber Threat
8 24 (3.13%) Operational Technology
9 20 (2.61%) PKI
10 19 (2.48%) Public Cloud
11 18 (2.35%) Data Protection Act
11 18 (2.35%) Self-Motivation
12 17 (2.22%) Security Operations Centre
13 15 (1.96%) Cloud Security Posture
14 13 (1.69%) Linux Command Line
14 13 (1.69%) Product Ownership
15 12 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
16 9 (1.17%) Enterprise Cloud
16 9 (1.17%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 67 (8.74%) Windows
2 61 (7.95%) Linux
3 21 (2.74%) Windows Server
4 13 (1.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.04%) Unix
6 7 (0.91%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.78%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.78%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.39%) Android
8 3 (0.39%) Check Point GAiA
8 3 (0.39%) SUSE
8 3 (0.39%) VMS
9 2 (0.26%) zOS
10 1 (0.13%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.13%) Rocky
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 158 (20.60%) Cybersecurity
2 150 (19.56%) Cloud Security
3 116 (15.12%) CI/CD
4 114 (14.86%) Stakeholder Management
5 113 (14.73%) Zero Trust
6 110 (14.34%) Continuous Improvement
7 104 (13.56%) DevOps
8 103 (13.43%) SIEM
9 100 (13.04%) Infrastructure as Code
10 98 (12.78%) Change Management
10 98 (12.78%) Migration
11 88 (11.47%) Incident Response
12 86 (11.21%) Problem-Solving
13 83 (10.82%) Security Architecture
14 80 (10.43%) Identity Access Management
14 80 (10.43%) Security Operations
15 78 (10.17%) DevSecOps
16 77 (10.04%) ITIL
17 76 (9.91%) Agile
18 75 (9.78%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 106 (13.82%) Python
2 68 (8.87%) PowerShell
3 55 (7.17%) Bash
4 31 (4.04%) Bicep
5 25 (3.26%) SQL
6 14 (1.83%) JavaScript
7 7 (0.91%) Go
7 7 (0.91%) Java
7 7 (0.91%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.78%) Search Processing Language
9 5 (0.65%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (0.52%) Rust
11 3 (0.39%) Perl
12 2 (0.26%) Ruby
12 2 (0.26%) VBScript
13 1 (0.13%) C
Qualifications
1 200 (26.08%) Security Cleared
2 138 (17.99%) SC Cleared
3 134 (17.47%) Cisco Certification
4 89 (11.60%) CISSP
5 78 (10.17%) CCNP
6 66 (8.60%) Degree
7 64 (8.34%) DV Cleared
8 52 (6.78%) CISM
9 51 (6.65%) CCNA
10 37 (4.82%) CCSP
11 36 (4.69%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 32 (4.17%) Azure Certification
13 21 (2.74%) CCIE
14 17 (2.22%) AWS Certification
15 15 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (1.43%) PMP
17 9 (1.17%) CompTIA Security+
17 9 (1.17%) JNCIS
18 8 (1.04%) CEH
18 8 (1.04%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (8.87%) NIST
2 62 (8.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 38 (4.95%) GDPR
4 28 (3.65%) NCSC
5 26 (3.39%) PCI DSS
6 15 (1.96%) GRC
6 15 (1.96%) SLA
7 11 (1.43%) QA
7 11 (1.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 8 (1.04%) Cyber Essentials
8 8 (1.04%) NIST 800
9 5 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 5 (0.65%) SOC 2
10 4 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
10 4 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 3 (0.39%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.39%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 3 (0.39%) ISA99
11 3 (0.39%) PMO
12 2 (0.26%) JSP 440
System Software
1 71 (9.26%) Active Directory
2 53 (6.91%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (3.00%) Docker
4 20 (2.61%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (2.48%) VMware NSX
6 11 (1.43%) vSphere
7 10 (1.30%) Hyper-V
8 8 (1.04%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (0.78%) Firmware
11 5 (0.65%) Squid
12 3 (0.39%) NFS
13 2 (0.26%) FreeRADIUS
13 2 (0.26%) Postfix
13 2 (0.26%) Sendmail
13 2 (0.26%) Varnish
13 2 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
14 1 (0.13%) OpenSSH
14 1 (0.13%) ProxySG
14 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 106 (13.82%) Terraform
2 78 (10.17%) Ansible
3 66 (8.60%) Kubernetes
4 45 (5.87%) FortiGate
5 23 (3.00%) Microsoft Intune
6 20 (2.61%) Grafana
7 17 (2.22%) Single Sign-On
8 11 (1.43%) CASB
8 11 (1.43%) Prometheus
9 10 (1.30%) SCCM
10 9 (1.17%) Progress Chef
11 7 (0.91%) Puppet
11 7 (0.91%) vCenter Server
12 6 (0.78%) Cisco CUCM
12 6 (0.78%) QRadar
13 5 (0.65%) Suricata
13 5 (0.65%) WSUS
14 4 (0.52%) Kustomize
14 4 (0.52%) Podman
14 4 (0.52%) systemd
Vendors
1 219 (28.55%) Cisco
2 140 (18.25%) Microsoft
3 121 (15.78%) Palo Alto
4 70 (9.13%) Fortinet
5 66 (8.60%) VMware
6 63 (8.21%) F5
7 54 (7.04%) Zscaler
8 48 (6.26%) CheckPoint
8 48 (6.26%) Juniper
9 33 (4.30%) Splunk
10 32 (4.17%) ServiceNow
11 27 (3.52%) SolarWinds
12 24 (3.13%) Google
13 20 (2.61%) Aruba
13 20 (2.61%) Citrix
14 16 (2.09%) Tenable
15 14 (1.83%) ForeScout
16 13 (1.69%) Infoblox
16 13 (1.69%) Meraki
17 12 (1.56%) CyberArk