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

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 137 163
Rank change year-on-year -13 +26 +52
Contract jobs citing Network Security 678 495 535
As % of all contract jobs in England 1.72% 2.02% 1.44%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.95% 15.33% 10.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 467 309 376
10th Percentile £353 £370 £363
25th Percentile £425 £450 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £530 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.66% -3.64% -2.65%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £650
90th Percentile £700 £700 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £520 £563
% change year-on-year -3.85% -7.56% +2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 9 14
10th Percentile £31.20 £18.05 -
25th Percentile £42.13 £40.50 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.00 £80.68 £13.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.43% +497.59% -74.10%
75th Percentile £74.13 £81.35 £41.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.48 -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £62.84 £18.25
% change year-on-year +3.44% +244.32% -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 3,777 3,228 5,090
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.58% 13.18% 13.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,380 2,020 3,073
10th Percentile £231 £220 £205
25th Percentile £400 £364 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £481
Median % change year-on-year - +4.06% -8.46%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £488
% change year-on-year +2.56% - -5.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 191 121 397
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.82 £18.13 £17.69
Median hourly rate £48.72 £36.65 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +32.95% -8.39% +111.30%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.01 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £47.50 £37.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +26.67% -6.25% +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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -24 277 £520 -5.45% 71
North of England -5 137 £481 -3.88% 46
South East -8 107 £500 +2.04% 53
North West -2 85 £489 -2.20% 29
Midlands -23 71 £500 -9.09% 19
Yorkshire -24 54 £425 +6.25% 12
West Midlands -34 53 £500 -4.76% 15
East of England -24 35 £505 -10.22% 18
South West -28 29 £545 -0.91% 11
East Midlands -21 17 £638 -1.92% 4
North East -11 3 £550 -12.00% 5
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 (1.77%) Confluence
2 9 (1.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (0.88%) Apache
4 4 (0.59%) SharePoint
5 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 21 (3.10%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.47%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 5 (0.74%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 205 (30.24%) Azure
2 141 (20.80%) AWS
3 79 (11.65%) GCP
4 52 (7.67%) Entra ID
5 29 (4.28%) GitHub
6 26 (3.83%) Azure DevOps
6 26 (3.83%) GitHub Actions
7 24 (3.54%) Azure Sentinel
8 19 (2.80%) Azure Key Vault
9 17 (2.51%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 15 (2.21%) AWS CloudFormation
10 15 (2.21%) Microsoft 365
10 15 (2.21%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 14 (2.06%) Azure AKS
12 13 (1.92%) Azure Monitor
12 13 (1.92%) Serverless
13 12 (1.77%) Amazon S3
13 12 (1.77%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 11 (1.62%) Akamai
15 10 (1.47%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 333 (49.12%) Firewall
2 129 (19.03%) VPN
3 120 (17.70%) WAN
4 92 (13.57%) LAN
5 88 (12.98%) BGP
6 79 (11.65%) DNS
7 73 (10.77%) OSPF
8 67 (9.88%) VLAN
9 64 (9.44%) SD-WAN
10 52 (7.67%) TCP/IP
11 44 (6.49%) Wireless
12 40 (5.90%) MPLS
13 34 (5.01%) Cisco ASA
13 34 (5.01%) DHCP
14 33 (4.87%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 28 (4.13%) Cisco ISE
15 28 (4.13%) Internet
15 28 (4.13%) SSL
15 28 (4.13%) Wi-Fi
16 23 (3.39%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
1 6 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
2 5 (0.74%) InfluxDB
2 5 (0.74%) Relational Database
3 4 (0.59%) SQL Server
4 3 (0.44%) Amazon Athena
4 3 (0.44%) Data Lake
4 3 (0.44%) Power BI
5 2 (0.29%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 25 (3.69%) JIRA
2 18 (2.65%) Jenkins
3 12 (1.77%) GitLab
4 9 (1.33%) Git
5 5 (0.74%) Browser DevTools
6 4 (0.59%) Snyk
6 4 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.15%) Burp Suite
7 1 (0.15%) Postman
7 1 (0.15%) SoapUI
General
1 168 (24.78%) Social Skills
2 99 (14.60%) Finance
3 83 (12.24%) Analytical Skills
4 55 (8.11%) Public Sector
5 34 (5.01%) Banking
6 26 (3.83%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (3.54%) Telecoms
8 20 (2.95%) Financial Institution
9 8 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (0.88%) Legal
10 6 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (0.74%) Local Government
11 5 (0.74%) Manufacturing
11 5 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (0.59%) Electronics
12 4 (0.59%) Investment Banking
12 4 (0.59%) Military
13 3 (0.44%) Law
13 3 (0.44%) Retail
Job Titles
1 154 (22.71%) Network Engineer
2 147 (21.68%) Architect
3 80 (11.80%) Security Engineer
4 71 (10.47%) Security Architect
5 54 (7.96%) Network Architect
6 52 (7.67%) Senior
7 40 (5.90%) Network Security Engineer
8 25 (3.69%) Analyst
9 23 (3.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 23 (3.39%) Lead
9 23 (3.39%) Network Security Architect
10 21 (3.10%) Consultant
11 20 (2.95%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 18 (2.65%) Project Manager
13 17 (2.51%) Cloud Architect
13 17 (2.51%) Cloud Engineer
14 16 (2.36%) Azure Architect
14 16 (2.36%) Security Specialist
14 16 (2.36%) Solutions Architect
15 15 (2.21%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (2.95%) 802.1X
2 13 (1.92%) LDAP
3 10 (1.47%) SAML
4 8 (1.18%) Node.js
5 6 (0.88%) .NET
6 5 (0.74%) .NET Core
6 5 (0.74%) AngularJS
6 5 (0.74%) OAuth
6 5 (0.74%) PyTorch
6 5 (0.74%) RabbitMQ
6 5 (0.74%) React
6 5 (0.74%) TensorFlow
7 4 (0.59%) OpenID
8 3 (0.44%) ARM Templates
8 3 (0.44%) CSS
8 3 (0.44%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (0.44%) HTML
8 3 (0.44%) Lambda Expressions
8 3 (0.44%) Plotly
8 3 (0.44%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 87 (12.83%) Data Centre
2 41 (6.05%) Security Posture
3 39 (5.75%) Cloud Native
3 39 (5.75%) Hybrid Cloud
4 23 (3.39%) Public Cloud
5 22 (3.24%) Onboarding
5 22 (3.24%) PKI
6 21 (3.10%) IoT
6 21 (3.10%) Management Information System
7 18 (2.65%) Cyber Threat
7 18 (2.65%) Operational Technology
7 18 (2.65%) Product Ownership
8 15 (2.21%) Analytical Mindset
9 14 (2.06%) Data Protection Act
9 14 (2.06%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 14 (2.06%) Security Operations Centre
10 12 (1.77%) Cyber Security Posture
10 12 (1.77%) Virtual Team
11 9 (1.33%) Clustering
12 7 (1.03%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 75 (11.06%) Windows
2 61 (9.00%) Linux
3 29 (4.28%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.62%) Unix
5 8 (1.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.18%) VMS
6 6 (0.88%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.88%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.59%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.44%) SUSE
9 1 (0.15%) Android
9 1 (0.15%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 149 (21.98%) Cybersecurity
2 103 (15.19%) Cloud Security
2 103 (15.19%) Problem-Solving
3 99 (14.60%) Zero Trust
4 96 (14.16%) Security Architecture
5 89 (13.13%) Migration
5 89 (13.13%) SIEM
6 86 (12.68%) CI/CD
7 85 (12.54%) DevOps
8 77 (11.36%) Infrastructure as Code
9 74 (10.91%) Continuous Improvement
10 67 (9.88%) Network Segmentation
11 63 (9.29%) Change Management
12 62 (9.14%) Security Operations
13 61 (9.00%) Threat Modelling
14 60 (8.85%) Stakeholder Management
15 59 (8.70%) Incident Response
16 58 (8.55%) Agile
17 55 (8.11%) ITIL
18 54 (7.96%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 92 (13.57%) Python
2 62 (9.14%) PowerShell
3 24 (3.54%) JavaScript
4 23 (3.39%) Bash
5 22 (3.24%) SQL
6 20 (2.95%) Bicep
7 14 (2.06%) Kusto Query Language
8 8 (1.18%) Shell Script
9 7 (1.03%) Go
9 7 (1.03%) Java
10 5 (0.74%) C#
11 4 (0.59%) C
11 4 (0.59%) PHP
12 3 (0.44%) C++
13 2 (0.29%) Ruby
14 1 (0.15%) ActionScript
14 1 (0.15%) C-shell
14 1 (0.15%) Korn
14 1 (0.15%) Perl
14 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 212 (31.27%) Security Cleared
2 151 (22.27%) SC Cleared
3 117 (17.26%) Cisco Certification
4 87 (12.83%) CCNP
5 82 (12.09%) CISSP
6 71 (10.47%) DV Cleared
7 44 (6.49%) CCNA
8 43 (6.34%) CISM
8 43 (6.34%) Degree
9 30 (4.42%) Azure Certification
10 24 (3.54%) CCIE
10 24 (3.54%) GIAC
11 21 (3.10%) CCSP
11 21 (3.10%) CEH
12 20 (2.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 18 (2.65%) AWS Certification
14 16 (2.36%) CompTIA Security+
15 10 (1.47%) BPSS Clearance
15 10 (1.47%) PMP
16 8 (1.18%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (10.18%) NIST
2 60 (8.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 39 (5.75%) GDPR
4 28 (4.13%) PCI DSS
5 15 (2.21%) Cyber Essentials
5 15 (2.21%) GRC
5 15 (2.21%) NCSC
6 13 (1.92%) SLA
7 10 (1.47%) SOC 2
8 8 (1.18%) Actionable Recommendations
8 8 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 8 (1.18%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (0.88%) PMO
9 6 (0.88%) QA
10 5 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 4 (0.59%) RMADS
12 3 (0.44%) ISA99
12 3 (0.44%) JSP 440
13 2 (0.29%) PSD2
System Software
1 52 (7.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 43 (6.34%) Active Directory
3 21 (3.10%) Docker
4 18 (2.65%) VMware NSX
5 13 (1.92%) Virtual Machines
6 12 (1.77%) Hyper-V
7 10 (1.47%) VMware ESXi
8 9 (1.33%) vSphere
9 6 (0.88%) Firmware
10 4 (0.59%) ProxySG
10 4 (0.59%) Virtual Desktop
11 2 (0.29%) NFS
11 2 (0.29%) Postfix
11 2 (0.29%) Sendmail
11 2 (0.29%) Varnish
12 1 (0.15%) RHEV
12 1 (0.15%) Squid
12 1 (0.15%) Xen
12 1 (0.15%) XenApp
12 1 (0.15%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 100 (14.75%) Terraform
2 60 (8.85%) Ansible
3 54 (7.96%) Kubernetes
4 29 (4.28%) FortiGate
5 14 (2.06%) Nagios
5 14 (2.06%) Single Sign-On
6 12 (1.77%) Kibana
6 12 (1.77%) Microsoft Intune
7 11 (1.62%) vCenter Server
8 9 (1.33%) Microsoft Clustering
9 7 (1.03%) Grafana
10 6 (0.88%) Prometheus
11 5 (0.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.74%) CASB
11 5 (0.74%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.59%) Istio
12 4 (0.59%) Puppet
12 4 (0.59%) WSUS
13 3 (0.44%) Cisco Prime
13 3 (0.44%) SCOM
Vendors
1 189 (27.88%) Cisco
2 111 (16.37%) Microsoft
3 104 (15.34%) Palo Alto
4 69 (10.18%) F5
5 65 (9.59%) VMware
6 50 (7.37%) Juniper
7 48 (7.08%) Fortinet
8 45 (6.64%) CheckPoint
9 37 (5.46%) Zscaler
10 29 (4.28%) ServiceNow
11 27 (3.98%) Splunk
12 24 (3.54%) Google
13 19 (2.80%) SolarWinds
14 15 (2.21%) Aruba
14 15 (2.21%) ForeScout
14 15 (2.21%) Meraki
15 14 (2.06%) Citrix
15 14 (2.06%) Okta
15 14 (2.06%) Tenable
16 13 (1.92%) Databricks