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

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 156 143 151
Rank change year-on-year -13 +8 +81
Contract jobs citing Network Security 633 492 620
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.72% 1.99% 1.63%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.09% 14.70% 11.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 430 303 433
10th Percentile £350 £363 £400
25th Percentile £425 £425 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% -1.82% -2.65%
75th Percentile £598 £626 £650
90th Percentile £700 £700 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £515 £550
% change year-on-year -2.91% -6.36% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 9 17
10th Percentile £36.00 £18.05 -
25th Percentile £46.19 £35.00 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.00 £80.68 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.43% +250.76% -42.21%
75th Percentile £79.38 £81.35 £41.25
90th Percentile £93.75 £82.48 £68.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £41.00 £23.00
% change year-on-year +58.54% +78.26% -42.21%

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 3,704 3,346 5,332
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.06% 13.54% 14.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,378 2,048 3,209
10th Percentile £206 £210 £205
25th Percentile £375 £366 £336
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 £487 £496 £475
% change year-on-year -1.86% +4.46% -8.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 170 112 372
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £14.03
25th Percentile £20.21 £21.46 £18.93
Median hourly rate £38.50 £35.75 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% +2.14% +84.21%
75th Percentile £65.75 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £77.70 £75.00 £70.66
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +12.86% +7.69% +71.05%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 -25 271 £525 -4.55% 74
North of England -26 125 £481 -3.88% 41
South East -16 101 £500 -6.10% 44
North West -1 79 £492 -1.60% 33
Midlands -21 65 £500 -14.02% 22
Yorkshire -29 53 £335 +5.85% 7
West Midlands -31 53 £500 -14.02% 15
South West -28 29 £538 -2.27% 20
East of England -30 26 £475 -13.64% 27
East Midlands -27 12 £638 +50.00% 7
North East -13 2 £475 -24.00% 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 13 (2.05%) Confluence
2 5 (0.79%) Apache
2 5 (0.79%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.63%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 19 (3.00%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.58%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.32%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.16%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (0.79%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 192 (30.33%) Azure
2 133 (21.01%) AWS
3 74 (11.69%) GCP
4 50 (7.90%) Entra ID
5 29 (4.58%) GitHub
6 26 (4.11%) GitHub Actions
7 24 (3.79%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (3.63%) Azure Sentinel
9 21 (3.32%) Azure Key Vault
10 20 (3.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 16 (2.53%) Microsoft 365
12 14 (2.21%) Amazon S3
12 14 (2.21%) AWS CloudFormation
13 12 (1.90%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 12 (1.90%) Azure Monitor
13 12 (1.90%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 12 (1.90%) Power Platform
13 12 (1.90%) Serverless
14 11 (1.74%) Azure AKS
14 11 (1.74%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 311 (49.13%) Firewall
2 122 (19.27%) VPN
3 112 (17.69%) WAN
4 88 (13.90%) LAN
5 87 (13.74%) BGP
6 76 (12.01%) DNS
7 72 (11.37%) OSPF
8 59 (9.32%) VLAN
9 54 (8.53%) SD-WAN
10 51 (8.06%) TCP/IP
11 41 (6.48%) Wireless
12 37 (5.85%) Cisco ASA
12 37 (5.85%) MPLS
13 34 (5.37%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 28 (4.42%) SSL
15 27 (4.27%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 25 (3.95%) DMZ
17 24 (3.79%) DHCP
17 24 (3.79%) NGFW
18 23 (3.63%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.95%) Azure SQL Database
2 5 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
2 5 (0.79%) Power BI
3 4 (0.63%) InfluxDB
3 4 (0.63%) Relational Database
4 3 (0.47%) Amazon Athena
4 3 (0.47%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.32%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.16%) Redis
6 1 (0.16%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 20 (3.16%) JIRA
2 18 (2.84%) Jenkins
3 15 (2.37%) GitLab
4 10 (1.58%) Git
5 4 (0.63%) Snyk
5 4 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.47%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.16%) Metasploit
General
1 171 (27.01%) Social Skills
2 94 (14.85%) Finance
3 83 (13.11%) Analytical Skills
4 53 (8.37%) Public Sector
5 34 (5.37%) Banking
6 26 (4.11%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (3.63%) Telecoms
8 21 (3.32%) Financial Institution
9 11 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.42%) Investment Banking
11 7 (1.11%) Legal
11 7 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
12 5 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
12 5 (0.79%) Local Government
12 5 (0.79%) Manufacturing
12 5 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (0.79%) Pharmaceutical
13 4 (0.63%) Military
14 3 (0.47%) Electronics
14 3 (0.47%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 140 (22.12%) Architect
2 136 (21.48%) Network Engineer
3 77 (12.16%) Security Engineer
4 70 (11.06%) Security Architect
5 51 (8.06%) Network Architect
6 48 (7.58%) Senior
7 34 (5.37%) Network Security Engineer
8 30 (4.74%) Analyst
9 24 (3.79%) Network Security Architect
10 21 (3.32%) Lead
11 19 (3.00%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 18 (2.84%) Azure Architect
12 18 (2.84%) Cloud Engineer
13 17 (2.69%) Administrator
13 17 (2.69%) Cloud Architect
13 17 (2.69%) Security Analyst
14 15 (2.37%) Consultant
14 15 (2.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 15 (2.37%) IT Support
15 14 (2.21%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (3.48%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.05%) LDAP
3 8 (1.26%) .NET
3 8 (1.26%) Node.js
3 8 (1.26%) SAML
4 5 (0.79%) .NET Core
4 5 (0.79%) AngularJS
4 5 (0.79%) OAuth
4 5 (0.79%) OAuth2
4 5 (0.79%) OpenID
4 5 (0.79%) PyTorch
4 5 (0.79%) RabbitMQ
4 5 (0.79%) React
4 5 (0.79%) TensorFlow
5 4 (0.63%) ARM Templates
5 4 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (0.47%) CSS
6 3 (0.47%) Lambda Expressions
6 3 (0.47%) Plotly
6 3 (0.47%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 80 (12.64%) Data Centre
2 42 (6.64%) Security Posture
3 39 (6.16%) Hybrid Cloud
4 37 (5.85%) Cloud Native
5 28 (4.42%) Management Information System
6 27 (4.27%) PKI
7 24 (3.79%) Public Cloud
8 18 (2.84%) Onboarding
8 18 (2.84%) Operational Technology
8 18 (2.84%) Product Ownership
9 16 (2.53%) Analytical Mindset
9 16 (2.53%) Cyber Threat
10 15 (2.37%) IoT
10 15 (2.37%) Security Operations Centre
11 12 (1.90%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 11 (1.74%) Cyber Security Posture
12 11 (1.74%) Data Protection Act
13 8 (1.26%) CSOC
13 8 (1.26%) Virtual Team
14 7 (1.11%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 72 (11.37%) Windows
2 56 (8.85%) Linux
3 26 (4.11%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.42%) Unix
5 7 (1.11%) Ubuntu
6 6 (0.95%) VMS
7 5 (0.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.63%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.16%) Android
9 1 (0.16%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.16%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 148 (23.38%) Cybersecurity
2 103 (16.27%) Problem-Solving
3 98 (15.48%) SIEM
4 97 (15.32%) Cloud Security
5 93 (14.69%) Zero Trust
6 92 (14.53%) Security Architecture
7 87 (13.74%) CI/CD
8 83 (13.11%) Migration
9 81 (12.80%) DevOps
10 80 (12.64%) Infrastructure as Code
11 69 (10.90%) Continuous Improvement
12 68 (10.74%) Incident Response
13 63 (9.95%) Network Segmentation
14 62 (9.79%) Change Management
15 60 (9.48%) Security Operations
16 56 (8.85%) Identity Access Management
17 54 (8.53%) Agile
17 54 (8.53%) Threat Modelling
18 52 (8.21%) Load Balancing
19 51 (8.06%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 93 (14.69%) Python
2 58 (9.16%) PowerShell
3 24 (3.79%) JavaScript
4 22 (3.48%) Bash
4 22 (3.48%) Bicep
4 22 (3.48%) SQL
5 14 (2.21%) Kusto Query Language
6 9 (1.42%) Java
7 7 (1.11%) Go
8 6 (0.95%) Shell Script
9 5 (0.79%) C#
10 4 (0.63%) C
10 4 (0.63%) PHP
11 3 (0.47%) C++
12 1 (0.16%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.16%) C-shell
12 1 (0.16%) Korn
12 1 (0.16%) Perl
12 1 (0.16%) Ruby
12 1 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 203 (32.07%) Security Cleared
2 140 (22.12%) SC Cleared
3 112 (17.69%) Cisco Certification
4 86 (13.59%) CCNP
5 82 (12.95%) CISSP
6 74 (11.69%) DV Cleared
7 42 (6.64%) Degree
8 41 (6.48%) CCNA
8 41 (6.48%) CISM
9 25 (3.95%) CCIE
9 25 (3.95%) GIAC
10 21 (3.32%) Azure Certification
11 20 (3.16%) CEH
12 18 (2.84%) CompTIA Security+
13 16 (2.53%) AWS Certification
13 16 (2.53%) CCSP
14 15 (2.37%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 12 (1.90%) Computer Science Degree
16 10 (1.58%) BPSS Clearance
16 10 (1.58%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (11.53%) NIST
2 66 (10.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 47 (7.42%) GDPR
4 34 (5.37%) PCI DSS
5 20 (3.16%) Cyber Essentials
6 15 (2.37%) GRC
6 15 (2.37%) NCSC
7 13 (2.05%) SLA
8 9 (1.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 9 (1.42%) SOC 2
9 7 (1.11%) Actionable Recommendations
9 7 (1.11%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 6 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 5 (0.79%) PMO
11 5 (0.79%) QA
12 4 (0.63%) HIPAA
12 4 (0.63%) JSP 440
12 4 (0.63%) RMADS
13 2 (0.32%) GxP
13 2 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27005
System Software
1 45 (7.11%) VMware Infrastructure
2 42 (6.64%) Active Directory
3 26 (4.11%) Docker
4 19 (3.00%) VMware NSX
5 8 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (1.11%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.95%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (0.95%) vSphere
8 5 (0.79%) Firmware
9 4 (0.63%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.32%) Virtual Desktop
11 1 (0.16%) KVM
11 1 (0.16%) NFS
11 1 (0.16%) Postfix
11 1 (0.16%) RHEV
11 1 (0.16%) Sendmail
11 1 (0.16%) Varnish
11 1 (0.16%) Xen
11 1 (0.16%) XenApp
11 1 (0.16%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 102 (16.11%) Terraform
2 59 (9.32%) Ansible
3 49 (7.74%) Kubernetes
4 26 (4.11%) FortiGate
5 14 (2.21%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (2.21%) Nagios
5 14 (2.21%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (1.90%) Kibana
7 8 (1.26%) Grafana
8 7 (1.11%) Prometheus
8 7 (1.11%) vCenter Server
9 6 (0.95%) Microsoft Clustering
10 5 (0.79%) CASB
11 4 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 4 (0.63%) Progress Chef
11 4 (0.63%) Puppet
12 3 (0.47%) Icinga
12 3 (0.47%) QRadar
12 3 (0.47%) SCCM
12 3 (0.47%) SCOM
Vendors
1 178 (28.12%) Cisco
2 112 (17.69%) Microsoft
3 104 (16.43%) Palo Alto
4 72 (11.37%) F5
5 58 (9.16%) VMware
6 51 (8.06%) Juniper
7 45 (7.11%) CheckPoint
7 45 (7.11%) Fortinet
8 37 (5.85%) Zscaler
9 29 (4.58%) Splunk
10 28 (4.42%) Google
11 27 (4.27%) ServiceNow
12 18 (2.84%) SolarWinds
13 17 (2.69%) Meraki
14 15 (2.37%) Tenable
15 14 (2.21%) Aruba
15 14 (2.21%) Databricks
16 12 (1.90%) ForeScout
16 12 (1.90%) Okta
16 12 (1.90%) SAP