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

6 months to
15 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 58 67
Rank change year-on-year -17 +9 +28
Contract jobs citing Network Security 23 24 32
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 1.55% 2.43% 2.04%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 22.77% 20.51% 16.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 18 18 29
10th Percentile £481 £363 £465
25th Percentile £503 £403 £550
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £559 £488 £675
Median % change year-on-year +14.62% -27.78% +28.57%
75th Percentile £618 £510 £750
90th Percentile £636 £554 £775
North West median daily rate £492 £500 £625
% change year-on-year -1.60% -20.00% +22.55%

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 101 117 192
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 6.81% 11.83% 12.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 73 83 153
10th Percentile £190 £193 £220
25th Percentile £375 £338 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £450 £432
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% +4.17% -15.29%
75th Percentile £617 £517 £584
90th Percentile £672 £598 £700
North West median daily rate £500 £450 £475
% change year-on-year +11.11% -5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 5
10th Percentile - - £14.29
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate £18.00 - £17.72
Median % change year-on-year - - -14.42%
75th Percentile £19.00 - £50.00
90th Percentile £19.60 - £80.00
North West median hourly rate £41.94 £24.59 £26.00
% change year-on-year +70.59% -5.44% +7.87%

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 15 March 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 15 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
Bolton - 2 £650 - 2
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 3 (13.04%) Apache
2 2 (8.70%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 7 (30.43%) Azure
2 3 (13.04%) Azure Key Vault
3 2 (8.70%) AWS
3 2 (8.70%) Azure AI
3 2 (8.70%) Azure Data Factory
3 2 (8.70%) Azure Machine Learning
3 2 (8.70%) Azure Synapse Analytics
3 2 (8.70%) GCP
3 2 (8.70%) Power Platform
3 2 (8.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 1 (4.35%) Azure Sentinel
4 1 (4.35%) Entra ID
4 1 (4.35%) Microsoft Purview
4 1 (4.35%) OCI
4 1 (4.35%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 16 (69.57%) Firewall
2 4 (17.39%) VPN
2 4 (17.39%) WAN
3 3 (13.04%) HTTP
3 3 (13.04%) SD-WAN
3 3 (13.04%) TCP/IP
4 2 (8.70%) BGP
4 2 (8.70%) Ethernet VPN
4 2 (8.70%) Internet
4 2 (8.70%) MPLS
4 2 (8.70%) NGFW
4 2 (8.70%) OSPF
5 1 (4.35%) Cisco Firepower
5 1 (4.35%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (4.35%) DNS
5 1 (4.35%) Intrusion Detection
5 1 (4.35%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (4.35%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 2 (8.70%) JIRA
2 1 (4.35%) GitLab
General
1 8 (34.78%) Social Skills
2 6 (26.09%) Finance
3 2 (8.70%) Banking
4 1 (4.35%) Analytical Skills
4 1 (4.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 1 (4.35%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 10 (43.48%) Architect
2 5 (21.74%) Network Architect
3 4 (17.39%) Network Engineer
3 4 (17.39%) Security Architect
4 3 (13.04%) Azure Architect
4 3 (13.04%) Security Engineer
4 3 (13.04%) Senior
5 2 (8.70%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
5 2 (8.70%) GCP Engineer
5 2 (8.70%) Network Security Architect
5 2 (8.70%) Network Security Engineer
5 2 (8.70%) Product Owner
5 2 (8.70%) Senior Architect
5 2 (8.70%) Senior Network Architect
6 1 (4.35%) Enterprise Security Architect
6 1 (4.35%) Enterprise Solutions Architect
6 1 (4.35%) Information Security Engineer
6 1 (4.35%) Platform Engineer
6 1 (4.35%) Security Manager
6 1 (4.35%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (8.70%) 802.1X
2 1 (4.35%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 6 (26.09%) Data Centre
2 4 (17.39%) Security Posture
3 3 (13.04%) Hybrid Cloud
4 2 (8.70%) Cloud Native
4 2 (8.70%) Onboarding
4 2 (8.70%) Product Ownership
5 1 (4.35%) Cloud Security Posture
5 1 (4.35%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 5 (21.74%) Linux
2 4 (17.39%) Unix
3 3 (13.04%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (26.09%) Cloud Security
1 6 (26.09%) Network Segmentation
1 6 (26.09%) SIEM
1 6 (26.09%) Zero Trust
2 5 (21.74%) Cybersecurity
2 5 (21.74%) Observability
2 5 (21.74%) Security Operations
2 5 (21.74%) Threat Modelling
3 4 (17.39%) DevOps
3 4 (17.39%) Problem-Solving
3 4 (17.39%) Security Architecture
4 3 (13.04%) Analytics
4 3 (13.04%) CI/CD
4 3 (13.04%) Infrastructure as Code
4 3 (13.04%) ITIL
4 3 (13.04%) Network Architecture
4 3 (13.04%) Performance Optimisation
4 3 (13.04%) Risk Management
4 3 (13.04%) Roadmaps
4 3 (13.04%) Use Case
Programming Languages
1 1 (4.35%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 4 (17.39%) Cisco Certification
2 2 (8.70%) CCIE
2 2 (8.70%) CCNP
2 2 (8.70%) CISSP
3 1 (4.35%) CompTIA Security+
3 1 (4.35%) MCSA
3 1 (4.35%) MCSE
3 1 (4.35%) Microsoft Certification
3 1 (4.35%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (17.39%) NIST
2 3 (13.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (13.04%) PCI DSS
3 2 (8.70%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (8.70%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 2 (8.70%) SOC 2
System Software
1 2 (8.70%) Active Directory
2 1 (4.35%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (13.04%) CASB
2 2 (8.70%) Nessus
2 2 (8.70%) Terraform
3 1 (4.35%) Kubernetes
3 1 (4.35%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 9 (39.13%) Microsoft
2 2 (8.70%) Cisco
2 2 (8.70%) Databricks
2 2 (8.70%) Foundry
2 2 (8.70%) Google
2 2 (8.70%) Okta
2 2 (8.70%) OpenAI
2 2 (8.70%) SAP
3 1 (4.35%) Apple
3 1 (4.35%) CyberArk
3 1 (4.35%) Oracle
3 1 (4.35%) Remedy
3 1 (4.35%) Sophos
3 1 (4.35%) Splunk
3 1 (4.35%) Tenable