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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 70 65
Rank change year-on-year -27 -5 +26
Contract jobs citing Network Security 29 20 24
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 1.48% 2.00% 1.98%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.79% 21.28% 15.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 22 9 20
10th Percentile £488 £301 £463
25th Percentile £513 £363 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £475 £583
Median % change year-on-year +15.79% -18.45% +5.91%
75th Percentile £576 £612 £741
90th Percentile £627 £690 £775
North West median daily rate £535 £475 £655
% change year-on-year +12.63% -27.48% +34.77%
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 163 94 153
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 8.31% 9.40% 12.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 53 119
10th Percentile £220 £220 £250
25th Percentile £374 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £450 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.78% -14.29% +16.67%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £813
90th Percentile £617 £648 £850
North West median daily rate £487 £446 £515
% change year-on-year +9.20% -13.40% +11.96%
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 £47.50
% change year-on-year -34.26% -43.16% +184.77%

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 6 August 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 6 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
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 (6.90%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 10 (34.48%) Azure
2 8 (27.59%) AWS
3 4 (13.79%) GCP
4 3 (10.34%) Azure Sentinel
4 3 (10.34%) SaaS
5 2 (6.90%) OCI
5 2 (6.90%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 1 (3.45%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (3.45%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (3.45%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (3.45%) Azure Key Vault
6 1 (3.45%) Entra ID
6 1 (3.45%) GitHub
6 1 (3.45%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 18 (62.07%) Firewall
2 7 (24.14%) BGP
2 7 (24.14%) VPN
3 6 (20.69%) OSPF
3 6 (20.69%) TCP/IP
4 4 (13.79%) WAN
5 3 (10.34%) NGFW
5 3 (10.34%) SD-WAN
6 2 (6.90%) DNS
6 2 (6.90%) Ethernet VPN
6 2 (6.90%) VXLAN
7 1 (3.45%) DHCP
7 1 (3.45%) EIGRP
7 1 (3.45%) Ethernet
7 1 (3.45%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (3.45%) LAN
7 1 (3.45%) MPLS
7 1 (3.45%) SSL
7 1 (3.45%) Wireless
7 1 (3.45%) WLAN
Development Applications
1 4 (13.79%) GitLab
2 3 (10.34%) Jenkins
3 2 (6.90%) JIRA
4 1 (3.45%) Git
4 1 (3.45%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 6 (20.69%) Social Skills
2 4 (13.79%) Finance
3 3 (10.34%) Banking
4 2 (6.90%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (6.90%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (3.45%) Games
5 1 (3.45%) Retail
Job Titles
1 10 (34.48%) Network Engineer
2 7 (24.14%) Network Manager
2 7 (24.14%) Network Project Manager
2 7 (24.14%) Network Security Manager
2 7 (24.14%) Project Manager
2 7 (24.14%) Security Manager
2 7 (24.14%) Security Project Manager
3 4 (13.79%) Architect
4 2 (6.90%) GCP Engineer
4 2 (6.90%) IT Technician
4 2 (6.90%) Network Security Engineer
4 2 (6.90%) Product Owner
4 2 (6.90%) Security Architect
4 2 (6.90%) Security Engineer
4 2 (6.90%) SIEM Engineer
4 2 (6.90%) Splunk Engineer
5 1 (3.45%) Automation Engineer
5 1 (3.45%) Lead
5 1 (3.45%) Senior
5 1 (3.45%) Vulnerability Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (6.90%) 802.1X
2 1 (3.45%) JSON
2 1 (3.45%) LDAP
2 1 (3.45%) REST
2 1 (3.45%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (34.48%) Security Posture
2 4 (13.79%) Data Centre
3 3 (10.34%) Hybrid Cloud
4 2 (6.90%) Cloud Native
4 2 (6.90%) Product Ownership
4 2 (6.90%) Social Media
5 1 (3.45%) Animation
5 1 (3.45%) Cloud Security Posture
5 1 (3.45%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (3.45%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 3 (10.34%) Windows
2 2 (6.90%) Linux
2 2 (6.90%) Unix
3 1 (3.45%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (41.38%) Network Segmentation
2 8 (27.59%) Cloud Security
3 7 (24.14%) SIEM
3 7 (24.14%) Zero Trust
4 6 (20.69%) CI/CD
4 6 (20.69%) Infrastructure as Code
4 6 (20.69%) Security Operations
5 5 (17.24%) Security Architecture
6 4 (13.79%) Agile
6 4 (13.79%) Incident Response
6 4 (13.79%) ITIL
6 4 (13.79%) Load Balancing
6 4 (13.79%) Network Architecture
6 4 (13.79%) Threat Intelligence
6 4 (13.79%) Vulnerability Assessment
7 3 (10.34%) DevSecOps
7 3 (10.34%) Project Delivery
7 3 (10.34%) Stakeholder Management
7 3 (10.34%) Technical Leadership
7 3 (10.34%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 7 (24.14%) Python
2 3 (10.34%) PowerShell
3 2 (6.90%) Kusto Query Language
3 2 (6.90%) Search Processing Language
3 2 (6.90%) SQL
4 1 (3.45%) Bash
4 1 (3.45%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 6 (20.69%) CCNP
1 6 (20.69%) Cisco Certification
2 4 (13.79%) CISSP
3 3 (10.34%) SC Cleared
3 3 (10.34%) Security Cleared
4 2 (6.90%) Degree
4 2 (6.90%) GCFA
4 2 (6.90%) GCIH
5 1 (3.45%) CCIE
5 1 (3.45%) CCNA
5 1 (3.45%) CompTIA Security+
5 1 (3.45%) MCSA
5 1 (3.45%) MCSE
5 1 (3.45%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (17.24%) PCI DSS
2 4 (13.79%) NIST
3 2 (6.90%) GDPR
3 2 (6.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (6.90%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 2 (6.90%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 2 (6.90%) SOC 2
4 1 (3.45%) SLA
System Software
1 2 (6.90%) Active Directory
2 1 (3.45%) Docker
2 1 (3.45%) VMware ESXi
2 1 (3.45%) VMware Infrastructure
2 1 (3.45%) VMware NSX
2 1 (3.45%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (20.69%) Ansible
2 5 (17.24%) CASB
3 3 (10.34%) Progress Chef
3 3 (10.34%) Terraform
4 1 (3.45%) Kubernetes
4 1 (3.45%) Nagios
4 1 (3.45%) Nessus
4 1 (3.45%) Puppet
4 1 (3.45%) vCenter Server
4 1 (3.45%) vMotion
Vendors
1 9 (31.03%) Microsoft
2 5 (17.24%) Cisco
3 4 (13.79%) Fortinet
3 4 (13.79%) Palo Alto
4 3 (10.34%) Aruba
4 3 (10.34%) Google
4 3 (10.34%) Juniper
4 3 (10.34%) Splunk
5 2 (6.90%) Cribl.io
5 2 (6.90%) F5
5 2 (6.90%) Okta
5 2 (6.90%) VMware
6 1 (3.45%) Arista
6 1 (3.45%) CheckPoint
6 1 (3.45%) CyberArk
6 1 (3.45%) Oracle
6 1 (3.45%) Remedy
6 1 (3.45%) SolarWinds
6 1 (3.45%) Tenable
6 1 (3.45%) Zscaler