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

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 160 146 178
Rank change year-on-year -14 +32 -7
Contract jobs citing Network Security 772 542 469
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.69% 1.96% 1.41%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.98% 15.82% 11.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 531 327 328
10th Percentile £398 £375 £363
25th Percentile £453 £450 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -4.55% -1.79%
75th Percentile £650 £613 £669
90th Percentile £738 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £540 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 18 6
10th Percentile £26.00 £45.00 £20.75
25th Percentile £42.13 £58.79 £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 £83.53 £58.75
90th Percentile - £89.50 £88.81
UK median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £53.75
% change year-on-year -9.51% +50.09% -18.56%

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 4,294 3,427 4,186
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.42% 12.40% 12.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,596 2,130 2,572
10th Percentile £263 £250 £243
25th Percentile £400 £375 £369
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £500
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 335 165 282
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.48
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £28.00 £44.00 £54.94
Median % change year-on-year -36.36% -19.91% +5.87%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £86.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.07 £46.88 £49.50
% change year-on-year -44.38% -5.30% -3.24%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -13 344 £550 - 165
North of England -1 186 £528 +8.87% 57
South East -35 117 £557 +13.67% 82
North West -2 103 £536 +12.84% 34
Yorkshire +2 80 £500 +1.63% 19
Midlands -54 52 £463 -19.57% 38
East of England -15 36 £525 -4.55% 16
West Midlands -72 33 £406 -29.35% 22
East Midlands +6 18 £638 - 16
South West -56 16 £575 -4.17% 30
North East -41 2 £675 +8.00% 4
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 (2.07%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (1.42%) Confluence
2 11 (1.42%) SharePoint
3 3 (0.39%) Apache
4 1 (0.13%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.13%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.13%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 20 (2.59%) 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
1 269 (34.84%) Azure
2 183 (23.70%) AWS
3 103 (13.34%) GCP
4 87 (11.27%) Entra ID
5 36 (4.66%) Microsoft 365
6 33 (4.27%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (3.76%) Azure Sentinel
8 28 (3.63%) GitHub
9 27 (3.50%) SaaS
10 25 (3.24%) Azure Monitor
11 24 (3.11%) Serverless
12 20 (2.59%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 19 (2.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 18 (2.33%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 17 (2.20%) GitHub Actions
16 15 (1.94%) Azure AKS
16 15 (1.94%) OCI
17 14 (1.81%) Akamai
18 13 (1.68%) Amazon EKS
18 13 (1.68%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 352 (45.60%) Firewall
2 174 (22.54%) VPN
3 164 (21.24%) WAN
4 123 (15.93%) DNS
5 112 (14.51%) LAN
6 89 (11.53%) TCP/IP
7 88 (11.40%) Wireless
8 82 (10.62%) BGP
9 71 (9.20%) SD-WAN
10 69 (8.94%) VLAN
11 64 (8.29%) OSPF
12 63 (8.16%) DHCP
13 45 (5.83%) SSL
14 42 (5.44%) MPLS
15 39 (5.05%) IPsec
16 38 (4.92%) Cisco ISE
17 33 (4.27%) Cisco ASA
17 33 (4.27%) NGFW
18 32 (4.15%) Wi-Fi
19 30 (3.89%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.68%) SQL Server
2 6 (0.78%) Azure SQL Database
3 4 (0.52%) Amazon RDS
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%) BigQuery
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 (4.66%) Git
2 31 (4.02%) JIRA
3 24 (3.11%) GitLab
4 19 (2.46%) 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
1 193 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 139 (18.01%) Finance
3 67 (8.68%) Analytical Skills
4 57 (7.38%) Banking
5 47 (6.09%) Public Sector
6 33 (4.27%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (3.37%) Financial Institution
8 17 (2.20%) Telecoms
9 16 (2.07%) Legal
10 13 (1.68%) Retail
11 12 (1.55%) Manufacturing
12 11 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 11 (1.42%) 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%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 205 (26.55%) Network Engineer
2 155 (20.08%) Architect
3 95 (12.31%) Senior
4 93 (12.05%) Security Engineer
5 77 (9.97%) Security Architect
6 57 (7.38%) Network Architect
7 54 (6.99%) Network Security Engineer
8 49 (6.35%) Consultant
9 41 (5.31%) Project Manager
10 40 (5.18%) Senior Network Engineer
11 37 (4.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 37 (4.79%) Lead
12 31 (4.02%) Cloud Engineer
13 23 (2.98%) Analyst
14 22 (2.85%) Network Manager
14 22 (2.85%) Security Consultant
15 20 (2.59%) Network Security Architect
16 19 (2.46%) Senior Architect
16 19 (2.46%) Solutions Architect
17 18 (2.33%) DevSecOps Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (4.40%) 802.1X
2 15 (1.94%) SAML
3 11 (1.42%) ARM Templates
3 11 (1.42%) REST
4 9 (1.17%) Kafka
5 6 (0.78%) NETCONF
6 5 (0.65%) .NET
6 5 (0.65%) CSS
7 4 (0.52%) gRPC
7 4 (0.52%) HTML
7 4 (0.52%) JSON
7 4 (0.52%) Keycloak
7 4 (0.52%) OAuth
7 4 (0.52%) OpenID
7 4 (0.52%) Protocol Buffers
7 4 (0.52%) RESTful
7 4 (0.52%) SLSA
8 3 (0.39%) Azure Blueprints
8 3 (0.39%) ModSecurity
8 3 (0.39%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 82 (10.62%) Data Centre
2 69 (8.94%) Security Posture
3 47 (6.09%) Cloud Native
4 45 (5.83%) Hybrid Cloud
5 34 (4.40%) Onboarding
6 32 (4.15%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 30 (3.89%) Management Information System
8 26 (3.37%) Operational Technology
9 23 (2.98%) Cyber Threat
10 19 (2.46%) PKI
10 19 (2.46%) Public Cloud
11 17 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
11 17 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
12 16 (2.07%) Security Operations Centre
13 14 (1.81%) Cloud Security Posture
14 13 (1.68%) Linux Command Line
14 13 (1.68%) Product Ownership
15 12 (1.55%) Enterprise Software
16 9 (1.17%) Enterprise Cloud
16 9 (1.17%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 69 (8.94%) Windows
2 61 (7.90%) Linux
3 22 (2.85%) Windows Server
4 13 (1.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (1.17%) 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
1 153 (19.82%) Cybersecurity
2 151 (19.56%) Cloud Security
3 116 (15.03%) Zero Trust
4 115 (14.90%) CI/CD
5 109 (14.12%) Continuous Improvement
6 108 (13.99%) Stakeholder Management
7 106 (13.73%) DevOps
7 106 (13.73%) SIEM
8 101 (13.08%) Infrastructure as Code
9 97 (12.56%) Change Management
9 97 (12.56%) Migration
10 86 (11.14%) Security Architecture
11 85 (11.01%) Incident Response
11 85 (11.01%) Problem-Solving
12 83 (10.75%) Identity Access Management
13 79 (10.23%) Security Operations
14 77 (9.97%) ITIL
15 76 (9.84%) Agile
15 76 (9.84%) Data Protection
15 76 (9.84%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 102 (13.21%) Python
2 66 (8.55%) PowerShell
3 53 (6.87%) Bash
4 30 (3.89%) Bicep
5 25 (3.24%) SQL
6 15 (1.94%) JavaScript
7 7 (0.91%) Java
7 7 (0.91%) Shell Script
8 5 (0.65%) Go
8 5 (0.65%) Kusto Query Language
8 5 (0.65%) Search Processing Language
9 4 (0.52%) Rust
10 3 (0.39%) Perl
11 2 (0.26%) Ruby
11 2 (0.26%) VBScript
12 1 (0.13%) C
Qualifications
1 203 (26.30%) Security Cleared
2 138 (17.88%) SC Cleared
3 136 (17.62%) Cisco Certification
4 91 (11.79%) CISSP
5 79 (10.23%) CCNP
6 68 (8.81%) DV Cleared
7 65 (8.42%) Degree
8 52 (6.74%) CCNA
9 51 (6.61%) CISM
10 37 (4.79%) CCSP
11 36 (4.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 32 (4.15%) Azure Certification
13 20 (2.59%) CCIE
14 17 (2.20%) AWS Certification
15 15 (1.94%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (1.42%) CompTIA Security+
16 11 (1.42%) PMP
17 9 (1.17%) JNCIS
18 8 (1.04%) PMI Certification
19 7 (0.91%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 67 (8.68%) NIST
2 60 (7.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 38 (4.92%) GDPR
4 27 (3.50%) NCSC
5 26 (3.37%) PCI DSS
6 15 (1.94%) GRC
6 15 (1.94%) SLA
7 11 (1.42%) QA
7 11 (1.42%) 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 73 (9.46%) Active Directory
2 52 (6.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (2.98%) Docker
4 21 (2.72%) Virtual Machines
5 20 (2.59%) VMware NSX
6 11 (1.42%) vSphere
7 10 (1.30%) Hyper-V
8 7 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
8 7 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.78%) Firmware
10 5 (0.65%) Squid
11 3 (0.39%) NFS
12 2 (0.26%) FreeRADIUS
12 2 (0.26%) Postfix
12 2 (0.26%) Sendmail
12 2 (0.26%) Varnish
12 2 (0.26%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.13%) OpenSSH
13 1 (0.13%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.13%) Samba
Systems Management
1 104 (13.47%) Terraform
2 75 (9.72%) Ansible
3 67 (8.68%) Kubernetes
4 44 (5.70%) FortiGate
5 23 (2.98%) Microsoft Intune
6 20 (2.59%) Grafana
7 17 (2.20%) Single Sign-On
8 12 (1.55%) CASB
9 11 (1.42%) Prometheus
10 10 (1.30%) SCCM
11 8 (1.04%) Progress Chef
12 7 (0.91%) Puppet
12 7 (0.91%) QRadar
12 7 (0.91%) vCenter Server
13 6 (0.78%) Cisco CUCM
14 5 (0.65%) Suricata
14 5 (0.65%) WSUS
15 4 (0.52%) Kustomize
15 4 (0.52%) Podman
15 4 (0.52%) systemd
Vendors
1 218 (28.24%) Cisco
2 141 (18.26%) Microsoft
3 122 (15.80%) Palo Alto
4 69 (8.94%) Fortinet
5 65 (8.42%) VMware
6 62 (8.03%) F5
7 56 (7.25%) Zscaler
8 49 (6.35%) CheckPoint
9 48 (6.22%) Juniper
10 34 (4.40%) Splunk
11 32 (4.15%) ServiceNow
12 26 (3.37%) SolarWinds
13 22 (2.85%) Google
14 21 (2.72%) Citrix
15 19 (2.46%) Aruba
16 17 (2.20%) Tenable
17 13 (1.68%) Blue Coat
17 13 (1.68%) CyberArk
17 13 (1.68%) Infoblox
17 13 (1.68%) Meraki