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

6 months to
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 159 138 146
Rank change year-on-year -21 +8 +87
Contract jobs citing Network Security 607 492 630
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.68% 1.99% 1.65%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.74% 14.75% 11.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 408 305 439
10th Percentile £350 £363 £400
25th Percentile £420 £425 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.41% -1.82% -
75th Percentile £599 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £695 £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 3,625 3,336 5,363
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 10.02% 13.48% 14.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,337 2,038 3,222
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £363 £370 £338
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 £481 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -3.88% +5.26% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 161 112 379
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.01 £14.27
25th Percentile £20.50 £21.46 £19.71
Median hourly rate £40.54 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.83% -12.50% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £73.05
UK median hourly rate £40.54 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +15.83% -12.50% +110.53%

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 10 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 10 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 10 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 -19 260 £525 -4.55% 64
North of England -30 115 £475 -5.00% 40
South East -19 96 £500 -4.76% 43
North West -12 69 £489 -3.03% 35
Midlands -30 67 £500 -13.53% 28
West Midlands -27 55 £500 -13.53% 21
Yorkshire -30 53 £335 +5.85% 4
South West -29 29 £538 - 23
East of England -33 25 £475 -17.39% 25
East Midlands -28 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 (2.14%) Confluence
2 5 (0.82%) Apache
2 5 (0.82%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (2.97%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.65%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.16%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.16%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (0.82%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 174 (28.67%) Azure
2 120 (19.77%) AWS
3 68 (11.20%) GCP
4 45 (7.41%) Entra ID
5 27 (4.45%) GitHub
6 25 (4.12%) GitHub Actions
7 23 (3.79%) Azure DevOps
8 19 (3.13%) Azure Sentinel
8 19 (3.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 17 (2.80%) Azure Key Vault
10 15 (2.47%) Microsoft 365
11 14 (2.31%) AWS CloudFormation
12 13 (2.14%) Amazon S3
13 12 (1.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 12 (1.98%) Azure Monitor
13 12 (1.98%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 11 (1.81%) Azure AKS
14 11 (1.81%) Google Workspace
14 11 (1.81%) Power Platform
14 11 (1.81%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 295 (48.60%) Firewall
2 118 (19.44%) VPN
3 105 (17.30%) WAN
4 84 (13.84%) LAN
5 82 (13.51%) BGP
6 77 (12.69%) DNS
7 67 (11.04%) OSPF
8 58 (9.56%) VLAN
9 49 (8.07%) SD-WAN
10 48 (7.91%) TCP/IP
11 39 (6.43%) Wireless
12 35 (5.77%) MPLS
13 34 (5.60%) Cisco ASA
14 31 (5.11%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 30 (4.94%) SSL
16 27 (4.45%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
17 25 (4.12%) DMZ
18 23 (3.79%) DHCP
19 21 (3.46%) NGFW
19 21 (3.46%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.99%) Azure SQL Database
2 4 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
2 4 (0.66%) InfluxDB
2 4 (0.66%) Power BI
2 4 (0.66%) Relational Database
3 3 (0.49%) Amazon Athena
4 2 (0.33%) Data Lake
4 2 (0.33%) Oracle Database
4 2 (0.33%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 1 (0.16%) Redis
5 1 (0.16%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 20 (3.29%) JIRA
2 17 (2.80%) Jenkins
3 14 (2.31%) GitLab
4 10 (1.65%) Git
5 4 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.49%) Browser DevTools
6 3 (0.49%) Snyk
7 1 (0.16%) Metasploit
General
1 164 (27.02%) Social Skills
2 87 (14.33%) Finance
3 80 (13.18%) Analytical Skills
4 53 (8.73%) Public Sector
5 32 (5.27%) Banking
6 24 (3.95%) Documentation Skills
6 24 (3.95%) Telecoms
7 19 (3.13%) Financial Institution
8 11 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 9 (1.48%) Investment Banking
10 7 (1.15%) Legal
10 7 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.82%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (0.82%) Local Government
11 5 (0.82%) Manufacturing
11 5 (0.82%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.66%) Military
13 3 (0.49%) Electronics
13 3 (0.49%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 131 (21.58%) Network Engineer
2 125 (20.59%) Architect
3 79 (13.01%) Security Engineer
4 63 (10.38%) Security Architect
5 47 (7.74%) Network Architect
6 44 (7.25%) Senior
7 35 (5.77%) Network Security Engineer
8 30 (4.94%) Analyst
9 24 (3.95%) Network Security Architect
10 19 (3.13%) Lead
10 19 (3.13%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 18 (2.97%) Cloud Engineer
12 17 (2.80%) Administrator
12 17 (2.80%) Cloud Architect
12 17 (2.80%) Security Analyst
13 15 (2.47%) Azure Architect
13 15 (2.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 15 (2.47%) IT Support
14 14 (2.31%) Consultant
15 13 (2.14%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.79%) 802.1X
2 13 (2.14%) LDAP
3 8 (1.32%) .NET
3 8 (1.32%) Node.js
3 8 (1.32%) SAML
4 5 (0.82%) .NET Core
4 5 (0.82%) AngularJS
4 5 (0.82%) OAuth
4 5 (0.82%) OAuth2
4 5 (0.82%) OpenID
4 5 (0.82%) PyTorch
4 5 (0.82%) RabbitMQ
4 5 (0.82%) React
4 5 (0.82%) TensorFlow
5 4 (0.66%) ARM Templates
5 4 (0.66%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (0.49%) HTML
6 3 (0.49%) Lambda Expressions
6 3 (0.49%) Plotly
6 3 (0.49%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 81 (13.34%) Data Centre
2 38 (6.26%) Hybrid Cloud
3 36 (5.93%) Security Posture
4 28 (4.61%) Cloud Native
4 28 (4.61%) Management Information System
5 27 (4.45%) PKI
6 24 (3.95%) Public Cloud
7 18 (2.97%) Onboarding
8 17 (2.80%) Operational Technology
8 17 (2.80%) Product Ownership
9 16 (2.64%) Analytical Mindset
9 16 (2.64%) Cyber Threat
10 15 (2.47%) Security Operations Centre
11 13 (2.14%) IoT
12 12 (1.98%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 11 (1.81%) Cyber Security Posture
13 11 (1.81%) Data Protection Act
14 8 (1.32%) CSOC
14 8 (1.32%) Virtual Team
15 7 (1.15%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 72 (11.86%) Windows
2 56 (9.23%) Linux
3 26 (4.28%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.48%) Unix
5 7 (1.15%) Ubuntu
5 7 (1.15%) VMS
6 5 (0.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.66%) Mac OS
8 1 (0.16%) Android
8 1 (0.16%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.16%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (23.39%) Cybersecurity
2 100 (16.47%) Problem-Solving
3 95 (15.65%) SIEM
4 88 (14.50%) Cloud Security
5 86 (14.17%) CI/CD
6 84 (13.84%) Security Architecture
6 84 (13.84%) Zero Trust
7 81 (13.34%) Migration
8 78 (12.85%) DevOps
8 78 (12.85%) Infrastructure as Code
9 67 (11.04%) Incident Response
10 62 (10.21%) Change Management
11 59 (9.72%) Continuous Improvement
12 57 (9.39%) Security Operations
13 55 (9.06%) Identity Access Management
14 54 (8.90%) Agile
15 53 (8.73%) Network Segmentation
16 48 (7.91%) Vulnerability Management
17 47 (7.74%) Stakeholder Management
18 46 (7.58%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 91 (14.99%) Python
2 57 (9.39%) PowerShell
3 24 (3.95%) JavaScript
4 22 (3.62%) Bash
5 21 (3.46%) SQL
6 19 (3.13%) Bicep
7 14 (2.31%) Kusto Query Language
8 9 (1.48%) Java
9 7 (1.15%) Go
10 6 (0.99%) Shell Script
11 5 (0.82%) C#
12 4 (0.66%) C
12 4 (0.66%) PHP
13 3 (0.49%) C++
14 1 (0.16%) ActionScript
14 1 (0.16%) C-shell
14 1 (0.16%) Korn
14 1 (0.16%) Perl
14 1 (0.16%) Ruby
14 1 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 201 (33.11%) Security Cleared
2 139 (22.90%) SC Cleared
3 107 (17.63%) Cisco Certification
4 82 (13.51%) CCNP
5 76 (12.52%) CISSP
6 72 (11.86%) DV Cleared
7 43 (7.08%) Degree
8 38 (6.26%) CCNA
9 35 (5.77%) CISM
10 25 (4.12%) GIAC
11 24 (3.95%) CCIE
12 21 (3.46%) Azure Certification
13 20 (3.29%) CEH
14 18 (2.97%) CompTIA Security+
15 15 (2.47%) AWS Certification
15 15 (2.47%) CCSP
16 14 (2.31%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 12 (1.98%) Computer Science Degree
18 10 (1.65%) BPSS Clearance
18 10 (1.65%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 70 (11.53%) NIST
2 66 (10.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 41 (6.75%) GDPR
4 33 (5.44%) PCI DSS
5 20 (3.29%) Cyber Essentials
6 15 (2.47%) GRC
6 15 (2.47%) NCSC
7 13 (2.14%) SLA
8 9 (1.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 9 (1.48%) SOC 2
9 7 (1.15%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 6 (0.99%) Actionable Recommendations
10 6 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 5 (0.82%) QA
12 4 (0.66%) HIPAA
12 4 (0.66%) JSP 440
12 4 (0.66%) PMO
12 4 (0.66%) RMADS
13 2 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 2 (0.33%) PSD2
System Software
1 43 (7.08%) VMware Infrastructure
2 41 (6.75%) Active Directory
3 25 (4.12%) Docker
4 17 (2.80%) VMware NSX
5 9 (1.48%) Virtual Machines
6 8 (1.32%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.99%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.82%) Firmware
8 5 (0.82%) vSphere
9 4 (0.66%) ProxySG
10 2 (0.33%) 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 97 (15.98%) Terraform
2 57 (9.39%) Ansible
3 47 (7.74%) Kubernetes
4 25 (4.12%) FortiGate
5 14 (2.31%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (2.31%) Nagios
6 13 (2.14%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (1.98%) Kibana
8 8 (1.32%) Grafana
9 7 (1.15%) Prometheus
9 7 (1.15%) vCenter Server
10 6 (0.99%) Microsoft Clustering
11 5 (0.82%) CASB
12 4 (0.66%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (0.66%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.66%) Puppet
13 3 (0.49%) Icinga
13 3 (0.49%) QRadar
13 3 (0.49%) SCCM
13 3 (0.49%) SCOM
Vendors
1 175 (28.83%) Cisco
2 107 (17.63%) Microsoft
3 98 (16.14%) Palo Alto
4 71 (11.70%) F5
5 54 (8.90%) VMware
6 53 (8.73%) Juniper
7 45 (7.41%) CheckPoint
7 45 (7.41%) Fortinet
8 37 (6.10%) Zscaler
9 28 (4.61%) Google
9 28 (4.61%) Splunk
10 25 (4.12%) ServiceNow
11 18 (2.97%) SolarWinds
12 17 (2.80%) Meraki
13 14 (2.31%) Aruba
13 14 (2.31%) Databricks
13 14 (2.31%) Tenable
14 12 (1.98%) ForeScout
14 12 (1.98%) SAP
15 11 (1.81%) Okta