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 5 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 156 139 157
Rank change year-on-year -17 +18 +69
Contract jobs citing Network Security 670 489 571
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.73% 2.01% 1.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.69% 15.29% 10.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 458 317 404
10th Percentile £350 £370 £400
25th Percentile £425 £438 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £534 £550
Median % change year-on-year -6.28% -3.00% -1.12%
75th Percentile £595 £625 £650
90th Percentile £688 £693 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £550
% change year-on-year -3.85% -5.45% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 8 14
10th Percentile £37.23 £17.83 -
25th Percentile £42.13 £35.00 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.00 £80.68 £13.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.43% +497.59% -74.10%
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.54 £41.25
90th Percentile £82.00 £82.67 -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £45.00 £18.25
% change year-on-year +44.44% +146.58% -64.99%

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 3,787 3,199 5,211
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.78% 13.13% 13.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,416 2,000 3,167
10th Percentile £215 £220 £205
25th Percentile £400 £370 £350
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 £500 £488 £480
% change year-on-year +2.56% +1.67% -7.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 182 120 382
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £20.64 £17.70
Median hourly rate £42.38 £35.75 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +18.53% -5.92% +100.37%
75th Percentile £67.96 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.05 £69.86
UK median hourly rate £42.25 £35.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year +20.71% -6.67% +97.37%

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 5 April 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 5 April 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 5 April 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 -20 276 £515 -6.36% 73
North of England -18 134 £481 -3.88% 33
South East -19 104 £500 -3.85% 46
North West -2 85 £491 -1.90% 24
Midlands -25 70 £500 -13.04% 20
West Midlands -24 54 £500 -13.04% 14
Yorkshire -28 52 £343 -23.03% 8
East of England -23 33 £500 -11.11% 19
South West -25 31 £545 -0.91% 19
East Midlands -25 15 £638 +50.00% 6
North East -12 3 £550 -12.00% 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 12 (1.79%) Confluence
2 6 (0.90%) Apache
3 5 (0.75%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.60%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 22 (3.28%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.49%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (0.75%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 202 (30.15%) Azure
2 136 (20.30%) AWS
3 77 (11.49%) GCP
4 52 (7.76%) Entra ID
5 29 (4.33%) GitHub
6 27 (4.03%) GitHub Actions
7 26 (3.88%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (3.43%) Azure Sentinel
9 22 (3.28%) Azure Key Vault
10 16 (2.39%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 16 (2.39%) Microsoft 365
10 16 (2.39%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 15 (2.24%) Azure Monitor
12 14 (2.09%) AWS CloudFormation
13 13 (1.94%) Serverless
14 12 (1.79%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 11 (1.64%) Akamai
15 11 (1.64%) Azure AKS
15 11 (1.64%) Google Workspace
15 11 (1.64%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 330 (49.25%) Firewall
2 130 (19.40%) VPN
3 118 (17.61%) WAN
4 91 (13.58%) LAN
5 89 (13.28%) BGP
6 81 (12.09%) DNS
7 74 (11.04%) OSPF
8 66 (9.85%) VLAN
9 60 (8.96%) SD-WAN
10 53 (7.91%) TCP/IP
11 41 (6.12%) Wireless
12 39 (5.82%) MPLS
13 37 (5.52%) Cisco ASA
14 34 (5.07%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 33 (4.93%) DHCP
16 29 (4.33%) Wi-Fi
17 28 (4.18%) Internet
17 28 (4.18%) SSL
18 25 (3.73%) NGFW
19 24 (3.58%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
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 3 (0.45%) Amazon Athena
3 3 (0.45%) Data Lake
3 3 (0.45%) Power BI
4 2 (0.30%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.30%) SQL Server
4 2 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 25 (3.73%) JIRA
2 17 (2.54%) Jenkins
3 11 (1.64%) GitLab
4 9 (1.34%) Git
5 5 (0.75%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (0.60%) Snyk
6 4 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 173 (25.82%) Social Skills
2 95 (14.18%) Finance
3 84 (12.54%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (8.21%) Public Sector
5 34 (5.07%) Banking
6 25 (3.73%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (3.58%) Telecoms
8 20 (2.99%) Financial Institution
9 9 (1.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.04%) Legal
11 6 (0.90%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.75%) Investment Banking
12 5 (0.75%) Manufacturing
13 4 (0.60%) Electronics
13 4 (0.60%) Local Government
13 4 (0.60%) Military
13 4 (0.60%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.45%) Marketing
14 3 (0.45%) Police
Job Titles
1 149 (22.24%) Network Engineer
2 148 (22.09%) Architect
3 79 (11.79%) Security Engineer
4 74 (11.04%) Security Architect
5 55 (8.21%) Network Architect
6 52 (7.76%) Senior
7 36 (5.37%) Network Security Engineer
8 27 (4.03%) Analyst
9 25 (3.73%) Network Security Architect
10 21 (3.13%) Lead
11 20 (2.99%) Consultant
11 20 (2.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 19 (2.84%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 18 (2.69%) Cloud Architect
13 18 (2.69%) Cloud Engineer
14 17 (2.54%) Azure Architect
15 16 (2.39%) Project Manager
15 16 (2.39%) Security Specialist
15 16 (2.39%) Solutions Architect
16 15 (2.24%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (3.13%) 802.1X
2 13 (1.94%) LDAP
3 9 (1.34%) SAML
4 8 (1.19%) Node.js
5 6 (0.90%) .NET
6 5 (0.75%) .NET Core
6 5 (0.75%) AngularJS
6 5 (0.75%) PyTorch
6 5 (0.75%) RabbitMQ
6 5 (0.75%) React
6 5 (0.75%) TensorFlow
7 4 (0.60%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.60%) OAuth
7 4 (0.60%) OpenID
8 3 (0.45%) CSS
8 3 (0.45%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (0.45%) HTML
8 3 (0.45%) OAuth2
8 3 (0.45%) Plotly
8 3 (0.45%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 86 (12.84%) Data Centre
2 43 (6.42%) Hybrid Cloud
3 42 (6.27%) Security Posture
4 37 (5.52%) Cloud Native
5 24 (3.58%) PKI
6 22 (3.28%) Management Information System
6 22 (3.28%) Public Cloud
7 19 (2.84%) Cyber Threat
7 19 (2.84%) IoT
7 19 (2.84%) Onboarding
8 18 (2.69%) Operational Technology
8 18 (2.69%) Product Ownership
9 16 (2.39%) Security Operations Centre
10 15 (2.24%) Analytical Mindset
11 14 (2.09%) Data Protection Act
11 14 (2.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 11 (1.64%) Cyber Security Posture
13 10 (1.49%) Virtual Team
14 9 (1.34%) Clustering
15 8 (1.19%) CSOC
Operating Systems
1 76 (11.34%) Windows
2 64 (9.55%) Linux
3 26 (3.88%) Windows Server
4 10 (1.49%) Unix
5 9 (1.34%) VMS
6 8 (1.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 6 (0.90%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.90%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.45%) SUSE
9 2 (0.30%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.15%) Android
10 1 (0.15%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 150 (22.39%) Cybersecurity
2 104 (15.52%) Problem-Solving
3 101 (15.07%) Cloud Security
4 97 (14.48%) Zero Trust
5 95 (14.18%) Security Architecture
6 94 (14.03%) SIEM
7 88 (13.13%) DevOps
7 88 (13.13%) Migration
8 81 (12.09%) CI/CD
9 77 (11.49%) Infrastructure as Code
10 70 (10.45%) Continuous Improvement
11 67 (10.00%) Network Segmentation
12 65 (9.70%) Change Management
12 65 (9.70%) Security Operations
13 64 (9.55%) Incident Response
14 60 (8.96%) Threat Modelling
15 57 (8.51%) Stakeholder Management
16 56 (8.36%) Load Balancing
17 55 (8.21%) Agile
18 52 (7.76%) Identity Access Management
Programming Languages
1 88 (13.13%) Python
2 60 (8.96%) PowerShell
3 24 (3.58%) JavaScript
4 22 (3.28%) Bicep
4 22 (3.28%) SQL
5 20 (2.99%) Bash
6 14 (2.09%) Kusto Query Language
7 8 (1.19%) Shell Script
8 7 (1.04%) Go
8 7 (1.04%) Java
9 5 (0.75%) C#
10 4 (0.60%) C
10 4 (0.60%) PHP
11 3 (0.45%) C++
12 2 (0.30%) Ruby
13 1 (0.15%) ActionScript
13 1 (0.15%) C-shell
13 1 (0.15%) Korn
13 1 (0.15%) Perl
13 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 213 (31.79%) Security Cleared
2 147 (21.94%) SC Cleared
3 113 (16.87%) Cisco Certification
4 88 (13.13%) CCNP
5 82 (12.24%) CISSP
6 75 (11.19%) DV Cleared
7 43 (6.42%) CCNA
7 43 (6.42%) CISM
8 39 (5.82%) Degree
9 27 (4.03%) Azure Certification
10 26 (3.88%) GIAC
11 25 (3.73%) CCIE
12 22 (3.28%) CEH
13 18 (2.69%) AWS Certification
14 17 (2.54%) CompTIA Security+
15 16 (2.39%) CCSP
16 15 (2.24%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 10 (1.49%) BPSS Clearance
18 9 (1.34%) Microsoft Certification
18 9 (1.34%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (10.60%) NIST
2 62 (9.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 42 (6.27%) GDPR
4 30 (4.48%) PCI DSS
5 17 (2.54%) Cyber Essentials
6 16 (2.39%) NCSC
7 15 (2.24%) GRC
8 12 (1.79%) SLA
9 9 (1.34%) SOC 2
10 8 (1.19%) Actionable Recommendations
10 8 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 8 (1.19%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 6 (0.90%) QA
12 5 (0.75%) PMO
13 4 (0.60%) JSP 440
13 4 (0.60%) RMADS
14 3 (0.45%) ISA99
15 2 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 2 (0.30%) PSD2
System Software
1 49 (7.31%) VMware Infrastructure
2 43 (6.42%) Active Directory
3 20 (2.99%) Docker
4 19 (2.84%) VMware NSX
5 13 (1.94%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (1.49%) Hyper-V
6 10 (1.49%) VMware ESXi
7 9 (1.34%) vSphere
8 7 (1.04%) Firmware
9 4 (0.60%) ProxySG
10 3 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
11 2 (0.30%) NFS
11 2 (0.30%) Postfix
11 2 (0.30%) Sendmail
11 2 (0.30%) Varnish
12 1 (0.15%) KVM
12 1 (0.15%) RHEV
12 1 (0.15%) Xen
12 1 (0.15%) XenApp
12 1 (0.15%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 99 (14.78%) Terraform
2 57 (8.51%) Ansible
3 50 (7.46%) Kubernetes
4 26 (3.88%) FortiGate
5 14 (2.09%) Nagios
5 14 (2.09%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (1.79%) Kibana
7 11 (1.64%) Microsoft Intune
7 11 (1.64%) vCenter Server
8 9 (1.34%) Microsoft Clustering
9 8 (1.19%) Grafana
10 7 (1.04%) Prometheus
11 5 (0.75%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.75%) CASB
11 5 (0.75%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.60%) Puppet
13 3 (0.45%) Docker Swarm
13 3 (0.45%) Icinga
13 3 (0.45%) QRadar
13 3 (0.45%) SCOM
Vendors
1 183 (27.31%) Cisco
2 114 (17.01%) Microsoft
3 106 (15.82%) Palo Alto
4 71 (10.60%) F5
5 62 (9.25%) VMware
6 50 (7.46%) Juniper
7 47 (7.01%) Fortinet
8 43 (6.42%) CheckPoint
9 37 (5.52%) Zscaler
10 31 (4.63%) Splunk
11 29 (4.33%) ServiceNow
12 28 (4.18%) Google
13 18 (2.69%) SolarWinds
14 16 (2.39%) Tenable
15 15 (2.24%) Aruba
15 15 (2.24%) ForeScout
15 15 (2.24%) Meraki
16 14 (2.09%) Databricks
16 14 (2.09%) Okta
17 12 (1.79%) SAP