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

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 168 134 153
Rank change year-on-year -34 +19 +112
Contract jobs citing Network Security 526 538 618
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.66% 1.91% 1.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.51% 14.92% 12.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 343 440
10th Percentile £340 £358 £413
25th Percentile £413 £450 £477
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £575 £626 £650
90th Percentile £676 £725 £743
UK median daily rate £500 £516 £555
% change year-on-year -3.15% -6.98% +0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 8 5
10th Percentile £42.30 £17.83 £65.00
25th Percentile £46.31 £30.88 £68.75
Median hourly rate £65.00 £43.00 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.16% -40.69% +93.33%
75th Percentile £81.56 £52.19 £76.25
90th Percentile £87.63 £76.78 -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £41.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year +58.54% -43.45% +93.33%

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 3,391 3,607 5,113
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.72% 12.78% 13.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,194 2,119 3,173
10th Percentile £205 £220 £206
25th Percentile £356 £375 £360
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% - -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £682 £700
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 171 103 310
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.04 £18.51
25th Percentile £20.34 £20.30 £23.22
Median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -38.04% +48.66%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.25 £76.12
UK median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -2.86% -38.04% +61.40%

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 30 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 30 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 30 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 -19 232 £525 -2.37% 152
North of England -36 103 £460 -8.00% 247
North West +6 72 £476 +0.26% 126
South East -15 72 £430 -21.82% 278
Midlands -29 59 £500 -14.24% 216
West Midlands -2 54 £500 -19.35% 120
Yorkshire -43 44 £205 -59.00% 104
East of England -17 27 £475 -14.80% 178
South West -9 23 £533 +1.43% 153
East Midlands -29 5 £650 +73.33% 81
North East -7 2 £475 -41.72% 18
South Coast - 2 - -
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 (1.14%) Confluence
2 5 (0.95%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.76%) Apache
3 4 (0.76%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.19%) IIS
4 1 (0.19%) nginx
4 1 (0.19%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (3.04%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.52%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.38%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.19%) Windchill
Cloud Services
1 148 (28.14%) Azure
2 114 (21.67%) AWS
3 45 (8.56%) GCP
4 28 (5.32%) Entra ID
5 25 (4.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 24 (4.56%) Microsoft 365
7 22 (4.18%) Amazon S3
8 21 (3.99%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (3.80%) Amazon EC2
10 17 (3.23%) GitHub
11 16 (3.04%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 16 (3.04%) Amazon ELB
12 15 (2.85%) GitHub Actions
13 13 (2.47%) Azure Key Vault
13 13 (2.47%) Azure Sentinel
13 13 (2.47%) Serverless
14 12 (2.28%) Azure Monitor
15 11 (2.09%) Google Workspace
16 10 (1.90%) IaaS
17 8 (1.52%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 262 (49.81%) Firewall
2 111 (21.10%) VPN
3 99 (18.82%) DNS
4 89 (16.92%) WAN
5 62 (11.79%) SSL
6 60 (11.41%) LAN
7 58 (11.03%) TCP/IP
8 55 (10.46%) BGP
9 45 (8.56%) SD-WAN
10 44 (8.37%) VLAN
11 41 (7.79%) OSPF
12 38 (7.22%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 36 (6.84%) DMZ
14 35 (6.65%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 30 (5.70%) Wireless
16 24 (4.56%) HTTP
17 21 (3.99%) Internet
18 19 (3.61%) Intrusion Detection
18 19 (3.61%) Wi-Fi
19 18 (3.42%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.76%) Amazon RDS
1 4 (0.76%) InfluxDB
1 4 (0.76%) Relational Database
2 2 (0.38%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (0.38%) Data Lake
2 2 (0.38%) Power BI
3 1 (0.19%) Amazon Athena
3 1 (0.19%) Redis
3 1 (0.19%) SQL Server
3 1 (0.19%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.19%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 26 (4.94%) Jenkins
2 22 (4.18%) GitLab
3 21 (3.99%) Git
4 6 (1.14%) JIRA
5 1 (0.19%) Metasploit
5 1 (0.19%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.19%) Subversion
General
1 168 (31.94%) Social Skills
2 95 (18.06%) Analytical Skills
3 53 (10.08%) Finance
4 46 (8.75%) Public Sector
5 35 (6.65%) Banking
6 20 (3.80%) Telecoms
7 18 (3.42%) Documentation Skills
8 16 (3.04%) Investment Banking
9 13 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 8 (1.52%) Pharmaceutical
11 7 (1.33%) Legal
11 7 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (1.14%) Manufacturing
12 6 (1.14%) Military
13 5 (0.95%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.95%) Influencing Skills
14 4 (0.76%) Aerospace
14 4 (0.76%) Law
14 4 (0.76%) Marketing
14 4 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 111 (21.10%) Network Engineer
2 89 (16.92%) Security Engineer
3 84 (15.97%) Architect
4 53 (10.08%) Security Architect
5 44 (8.37%) Analyst
5 44 (8.37%) Senior
6 42 (7.98%) Network Security Engineer
7 41 (7.79%) Network Architect
8 22 (4.18%) Network Security Architect
9 21 (3.99%) Security Analyst
10 20 (3.80%) Administrator
10 20 (3.80%) SOC Analyst
11 19 (3.61%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 17 (3.23%) Operations Engineer
13 16 (3.04%) Consultant
14 15 (2.85%) Platform Manager
14 15 (2.85%) Systems Administrator
14 15 (2.85%) Systems Manager
14 15 (2.85%) Wintel Administrator
14 15 (2.85%) Wintel Systems Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (3.42%) LDAP
2 12 (2.28%) 802.1X
3 8 (1.52%) .NET
3 8 (1.52%) Node.js
4 6 (1.14%) SAML
5 5 (0.95%) .NET Core
5 5 (0.95%) AngularJS
5 5 (0.95%) ARM Templates
5 5 (0.95%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.95%) PyTorch
5 5 (0.95%) RabbitMQ
5 5 (0.95%) React
5 5 (0.95%) TensorFlow
6 2 (0.38%) HTML
6 2 (0.38%) OAuth
6 2 (0.38%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.38%) OpenID
7 1 (0.19%) .NET Framework
7 1 (0.19%) JSON
7 1 (0.19%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 56 (10.65%) Data Centre
2 45 (8.56%) Management Information System
3 34 (6.46%) Security Posture
4 33 (6.27%) Hybrid Cloud
5 25 (4.75%) Cloud Native
6 23 (4.37%) Security Operations Centre
7 22 (4.18%) Analytical Mindset
7 22 (4.18%) Cyber Threat
8 21 (3.99%) PKI
9 16 (3.04%) CSOC
9 16 (3.04%) Cyberattack
9 16 (3.04%) Onboarding
10 15 (2.85%) Operational Technology
10 15 (2.85%) Public Cloud
11 12 (2.28%) Cyber Security Posture
12 10 (1.90%) Cloud Security Posture
12 10 (1.90%) Virtual Team
13 7 (1.33%) Clustering
13 7 (1.33%) Data Protection Act
13 7 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 83 (15.78%) Windows
2 61 (11.60%) Linux
3 21 (3.99%) Windows Server
4 7 (1.33%) Unix
5 6 (1.14%) VMS
6 4 (0.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.57%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.38%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.19%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.19%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.19%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 133 (25.29%) Cybersecurity
2 105 (19.96%) SIEM
3 103 (19.58%) Problem-Solving
4 97 (18.44%) Incident Response
5 80 (15.21%) Cloud Security
6 71 (13.50%) CI/CD
7 70 (13.31%) DevOps
8 68 (12.93%) Infrastructure as Code
9 60 (11.41%) Change Management
10 57 (10.84%) Zero Trust
11 53 (10.08%) Security Operations
12 52 (9.89%) Migration
13 51 (9.70%) Security Architecture
14 48 (9.13%) Load Balancing
15 46 (8.75%) Continuous Improvement
15 46 (8.75%) Identity Access Management
16 44 (8.37%) Infrastructure Automation
16 44 (8.37%) Network Architecture
16 44 (8.37%) Threat Modelling
17 41 (7.79%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 112 (21.29%) Python
2 75 (14.26%) PowerShell
3 35 (6.65%) Bash
4 16 (3.04%) SQL
5 14 (2.66%) Bicep
6 12 (2.28%) Kusto Query Language
7 11 (2.09%) JavaScript
8 8 (1.52%) Java
9 7 (1.33%) Go
10 5 (0.95%) C#
11 4 (0.76%) Perl
11 4 (0.76%) Shell Script
12 3 (0.57%) C
12 3 (0.57%) C++
13 1 (0.19%) C-shell
13 1 (0.19%) Korn
13 1 (0.19%) Rust
13 1 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 165 (31.37%) Security Cleared
2 119 (22.62%) SC Cleared
3 91 (17.30%) Cisco Certification
4 71 (13.50%) CISSP
5 69 (13.12%) CCNP
6 52 (9.89%) DV Cleared
7 39 (7.41%) Degree
8 29 (5.51%) CISM
9 24 (4.56%) CCIE
10 23 (4.37%) CCNA
10 23 (4.37%) CEH
10 23 (4.37%) GIAC
11 18 (3.42%) Azure Certification
11 18 (3.42%) CompTIA Security+
12 14 (2.66%) Computer Science Degree
13 13 (2.47%) AWS Certification
13 13 (2.47%) CCSP
14 12 (2.28%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 8 (1.52%) JNCIP
15 8 (1.52%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (11.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 55 (10.46%) NIST
3 42 (7.98%) GDPR
4 27 (5.13%) PCI DSS
5 15 (2.85%) Cyber Essentials
6 12 (2.28%) NCSC
7 10 (1.90%) GRC
8 8 (1.52%) HIPAA
9 6 (1.14%) SLA
10 5 (0.95%) PSD2
10 5 (0.95%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.95%) SOC 2
11 4 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.76%) JSP 440
12 2 (0.38%) GxP
12 2 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 27005
12 2 (0.38%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 2 (0.38%) PMO
13 1 (0.19%) Actionable Recommendations
13 1 (0.19%) NIST 800
System Software
1 39 (7.41%) Active Directory
2 38 (7.22%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (7.03%) Docker
4 10 (1.90%) VMware NSX
5 9 (1.71%) Hyper-V
6 8 (1.52%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (1.14%) Firmware
8 4 (0.76%) ProxySG
8 4 (0.76%) vSphere
9 3 (0.57%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.38%) KVM
11 1 (0.19%) RHEV
11 1 (0.19%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.19%) Xen
11 1 (0.19%) XenApp
11 1 (0.19%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 90 (17.11%) Terraform
2 59 (11.22%) Ansible
3 31 (5.89%) Kubernetes
4 21 (3.99%) FortiGate
5 12 (2.28%) Nagios
6 10 (1.90%) Kibana
7 9 (1.71%) QRadar
8 8 (1.52%) Microsoft Intune
9 7 (1.33%) Grafana
9 7 (1.33%) Prometheus
10 6 (1.14%) Microsoft Clustering
10 6 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (0.95%) CASB
12 4 (0.76%) Progress Chef
13 3 (0.57%) Icinga
13 3 (0.57%) Puppet
13 3 (0.57%) SCCM
14 2 (0.38%) Docker Swarm
14 2 (0.38%) Jamf Pro
15 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 127 (24.14%) Cisco
2 105 (19.96%) Palo Alto
3 90 (17.11%) Microsoft
4 84 (15.97%) F5
5 54 (10.27%) CheckPoint
6 48 (9.13%) VMware
7 46 (8.75%) Juniper
8 43 (8.17%) Fortinet
9 37 (7.03%) Zscaler
10 29 (5.51%) Splunk
11 22 (4.18%) SolarWinds
12 21 (3.99%) Google
12 21 (3.99%) Meraki
13 19 (3.61%) CrowdStrike
14 16 (3.04%) Tenable
15 15 (2.85%) ServiceNow
16 12 (2.28%) Blue Coat
16 12 (2.28%) Qualys
17 11 (2.09%) Forcepoint
18 10 (1.90%) FireEye