Network Security Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Network Security
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring Network Security skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 59 65
Rank change year-on-year -39 +6 +35
Contract jobs citing Network Security 27 20 25
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 1.37% 2.02% 2.01%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.46% 21.51% 15.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 20 9 21
10th Percentile £485 £301 £463
25th Percentile £519 £363 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £475 £590
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -19.49% +7.27%
75th Percentile £579 £612 £738
90th Percentile £632 £690 £775
North West median daily rate £536 £475 £650
% change year-on-year +12.84% -26.92% +33.74%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £16.50 - -
Median hourly rate £17.00 - -
75th Percentile £17.50 - -
90th Percentile - - -
North West median hourly rate £17.00 £70.16 -
% change year-on-year -75.77% - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Manchester

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 Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 164 93 161
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 8.35% 9.40% 12.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 51 125
10th Percentile £250 £213 £255
25th Percentile £374 £360 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -14.29% +13.51%
75th Percentile £575 £544 £775
90th Percentile £623 £650 £850
North West median daily rate £483 £450 £515
% change year-on-year +7.33% -12.62% +8.42%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 1 3
10th Percentile £12.98 - £37.25
25th Percentile £15.25 - £40.63
Median hourly rate £17.06 £20.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.70% -57.89% +187.88%
75th Percentile £18.06 - £76.38
90th Percentile £22.06 - £92.95
North West median hourly rate £17.75 £27.00 £46.69
% change year-on-year -34.26% -42.17% +179.92%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Security relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

Network Security job vacancy trend in Manchester

Network Security
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Network Security.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Network Security

Network Security
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Security in Manchester over the 6 months to 31 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Security in Manchester

Network Security
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Network Security.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Network Security

Network Security
Contract Job Locations in Manchester

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 Manchester region over the 6 months to 31 July 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
Salford - 1 - -
Network Security
North West

Network Security
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 2 (7.41%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 8 (29.63%) Azure
2 6 (22.22%) AWS
3 4 (14.81%) GCP
4 2 (7.41%) OCI
4 2 (7.41%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 1 (3.70%) AWS Direct Connect
5 1 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (3.70%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (3.70%) Azure Key Vault
5 1 (3.70%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (3.70%) Entra ID
5 1 (3.70%) GitHub
5 1 (3.70%) GitHub Actions
5 1 (3.70%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (59.26%) Firewall
2 7 (25.93%) BGP
2 7 (25.93%) VPN
3 6 (22.22%) OSPF
3 6 (22.22%) TCP/IP
4 4 (14.81%) WAN
5 3 (11.11%) NGFW
5 3 (11.11%) SD-WAN
6 2 (7.41%) DNS
6 2 (7.41%) Ethernet VPN
6 2 (7.41%) VXLAN
7 1 (3.70%) BIG-IP
7 1 (3.70%) Cisco ASA
7 1 (3.70%) Cisco IOS
7 1 (3.70%) EIGRP
7 1 (3.70%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (3.70%) MPLS
7 1 (3.70%) SSL
7 1 (3.70%) VLAN
7 1 (3.70%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 2 (7.41%) GitLab
1 2 (7.41%) JIRA
2 1 (3.70%) Git
2 1 (3.70%) Jenkins
2 1 (3.70%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 4 (14.81%) Social Skills
2 3 (11.11%) Banking
3 2 (7.41%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (7.41%) Finance
4 1 (3.70%) Games
4 1 (3.70%) Retail
Job Titles
1 10 (37.04%) Network Engineer
2 7 (25.93%) Network Manager
2 7 (25.93%) Network Project Manager
2 7 (25.93%) Network Security Manager
2 7 (25.93%) Project Manager
2 7 (25.93%) Security Manager
2 7 (25.93%) Security Project Manager
3 4 (14.81%) Architect
4 2 (7.41%) GCP Engineer
4 2 (7.41%) IT Technician
4 2 (7.41%) Network Security Engineer
4 2 (7.41%) Product Owner
4 2 (7.41%) Security Architect
4 2 (7.41%) Security Engineer
5 1 (3.70%) Azure Architect
5 1 (3.70%) Lead
5 1 (3.70%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 1 (3.70%) Senior
5 1 (3.70%) Technical Product Owner
5 1 (3.70%) Vulnerability Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (7.41%) 802.1X
2 1 (3.70%) JSON
2 1 (3.70%) LDAP
2 1 (3.70%) REST
2 1 (3.70%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (37.04%) Security Posture
2 4 (14.81%) Data Centre
3 3 (11.11%) Hybrid Cloud
4 2 (7.41%) Cloud Native
4 2 (7.41%) Product Ownership
4 2 (7.41%) Social Media
5 1 (3.70%) Animation
5 1 (3.70%) Cloud Security Posture
5 1 (3.70%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (3.70%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 3 (11.11%) Windows
2 2 (7.41%) Linux
2 2 (7.41%) Unix
3 1 (3.70%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (44.44%) Network Segmentation
2 7 (25.93%) Zero Trust
3 6 (22.22%) Cloud Security
4 5 (18.52%) Security Architecture
4 5 (18.52%) SIEM
5 4 (14.81%) Agile
5 4 (14.81%) CI/CD
5 4 (14.81%) Infrastructure as Code
5 4 (14.81%) ITIL
5 4 (14.81%) Load Balancing
5 4 (14.81%) Security Operations
6 3 (11.11%) Continuous Improvement
6 3 (11.11%) DevSecOps
6 3 (11.11%) Kanban
6 3 (11.11%) Project Delivery
6 3 (11.11%) Root Cause Analysis
6 3 (11.11%) Scrum
6 3 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
6 3 (11.11%) Technical Leadership
6 3 (11.11%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 5 (18.52%) Python
2 1 (3.70%) Bash
2 1 (3.70%) Bicep
2 1 (3.70%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 6 (22.22%) CCNP
1 6 (22.22%) Cisco Certification
2 3 (11.11%) SC Cleared
2 3 (11.11%) Security Cleared
3 2 (7.41%) CISSP
4 1 (3.70%) CCIE
4 1 (3.70%) CCNA
4 1 (3.70%) CompTIA Security+
4 1 (3.70%) MCSA
4 1 (3.70%) MCSE
4 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (14.81%) NIST
2 3 (11.11%) PCI DSS
3 2 (7.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (7.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 2 (7.41%) SOC 2
4 1 (3.70%) SLA
System Software
1 2 (7.41%) Active Directory
2 1 (3.70%) Docker
2 1 (3.70%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (3.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (3.70%) VMware NSX
2 1 (3.70%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 4 (14.81%) Ansible
2 3 (11.11%) CASB
2 3 (11.11%) Terraform
3 1 (3.70%) Kubernetes
3 1 (3.70%) Nagios
3 1 (3.70%) Nessus
3 1 (3.70%) Progress Chef
3 1 (3.70%) Puppet
3 1 (3.70%) vCenter Server
3 1 (3.70%) vMotion
Vendors
1 7 (25.93%) Microsoft
2 5 (18.52%) Cisco
3 4 (14.81%) Fortinet
3 4 (14.81%) Palo Alto
4 3 (11.11%) Aruba
4 3 (11.11%) Google
4 3 (11.11%) Juniper
5 2 (7.41%) F5
5 2 (7.41%) Okta
5 2 (7.41%) VMware
6 1 (3.70%) Arista
6 1 (3.70%) CheckPoint
6 1 (3.70%) CyberArk
6 1 (3.70%) Oracle
6 1 (3.70%) Perforce
6 1 (3.70%) Remedy
6 1 (3.70%) SolarWinds
6 1 (3.70%) Splunk
6 1 (3.70%) Tenable
6 1 (3.70%) Zscaler