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 8 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 60 66
Rank change year-on-year -24 +6 +27
Contract jobs citing Network Security 15 22 32
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 1.17% 2.10% 1.97%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.43% 17.05% 16.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 12 19 29
10th Percentile £494 £393 £425
25th Percentile £533 £413 £531
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £500 £650
Median % change year-on-year +15.00% -23.08% +24.40%
75th Percentile £650 £524 £700
90th Percentile £706 £566 £750
North West median daily rate £481 £500 £625
% change year-on-year -3.75% -20.00% +25.00%

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 70 129 196
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 5.46% 12.29% 12.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 88 150
10th Percentile £170 £193 £267
25th Percentile £301 £360 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £450 £433
Median % change year-on-year +15.56% +4.05% -14.99%
75th Percentile £625 £524 £584
90th Percentile £693 £591 £700
North West median daily rate £481 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +6.94% -10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 7
10th Percentile - - £15.43
25th Percentile £18.50 - £17.72
Median hourly rate £19.00 - £43.75
Median % change year-on-year - - +134.77%
75th Percentile £19.75 - £48.44
90th Percentile £19.90 - £70.00
North West median hourly rate £41.94 £24.76 £42.49
% change year-on-year +69.39% -41.73% +105.22%

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 8 February 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 8 February 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 -
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 (20.00%) Apache
Cloud Services
1 4 (26.67%) Azure
2 2 (13.33%) AWS
2 2 (13.33%) Azure AI
2 2 (13.33%) Azure Data Factory
2 2 (13.33%) Azure Key Vault
2 2 (13.33%) Azure Machine Learning
2 2 (13.33%) Azure Synapse Analytics
2 2 (13.33%) Power Platform
3 1 (6.67%) Amazon CloudWatch
3 1 (6.67%) Amazon EC2
3 1 (6.67%) Amazon ELB
3 1 (6.67%) Amazon S3
3 1 (6.67%) Microsoft Purview
3 1 (6.67%) OCI
3 1 (6.67%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 9 (60.00%) Firewall
2 3 (20.00%) HTTP
2 3 (20.00%) WAN
3 2 (13.33%) Ethernet VPN
3 2 (13.33%) Internet
3 2 (13.33%) MPLS
3 2 (13.33%) SD-WAN
3 2 (13.33%) VPN
4 1 (6.67%) Cisco Firepower
4 1 (6.67%) Cisco Nexus
4 1 (6.67%) DNS
4 1 (6.67%) SSL
4 1 (6.67%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (6.67%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 2 (13.33%) GitLab
1 2 (13.33%) Jenkins
2 1 (6.67%) Git
General
1 8 (53.33%) Social Skills
2 5 (33.33%) Finance
3 1 (6.67%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (6.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (6.67%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 6 (40.00%) Architect
2 4 (26.67%) Network Architect
2 4 (26.67%) Senior
3 2 (13.33%) Artificial Intelligence Architect
3 2 (13.33%) Azure Architect
3 2 (13.33%) Network Security Architect
3 2 (13.33%) Security Architect
3 2 (13.33%) Senior Architect
3 2 (13.33%) Senior Network Architect
4 1 (6.67%) Cybersecurity Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Cybersecurity Manager
4 1 (6.67%) Information Security Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Lead
4 1 (6.67%) Network Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Platform Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Security Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Security Manager
4 1 (6.67%) Senior Network Engineer
4 1 (6.67%) Senior Platform Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 3 (20.00%) Data Centre
2 2 (13.33%) Hybrid Cloud
2 2 (13.33%) Onboarding
3 1 (6.67%) Security Operations Centre
3 1 (6.67%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 4 (26.67%) Linux
2 3 (20.00%) Unix
3 2 (13.33%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 5 (33.33%) DevOps
1 5 (33.33%) Observability
2 4 (26.67%) Cybersecurity
2 4 (26.67%) Problem-Solving
3 3 (20.00%) Analytics
3 3 (20.00%) Mentoring
3 3 (20.00%) Network Segmentation
3 3 (20.00%) Use Case
4 2 (13.33%) AI
4 2 (13.33%) Architecture Roadmap
4 2 (13.33%) Infrastructure as Code
4 2 (13.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 2 (13.33%) Kalman Filter
4 2 (13.33%) Machine Learning
4 2 (13.33%) Microservices
4 2 (13.33%) Migration
4 2 (13.33%) Network Architecture
4 2 (13.33%) Performance Optimisation
4 2 (13.33%) Semantic Search
4 2 (13.33%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 2 (13.33%) Bash
1 2 (13.33%) Python
Qualifications
1 2 (13.33%) CCIE
1 2 (13.33%) Cisco Certification
1 2 (13.33%) Security Cleared
2 1 (6.67%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (13.33%) Cyber Essentials
2 1 (6.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 2 (13.33%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (20.00%) Terraform
2 1 (6.67%) Ansible
2 1 (6.67%) Kubernetes
2 1 (6.67%) Microsoft Intune
2 1 (6.67%) Nessus
Vendors
1 3 (20.00%) Microsoft
2 2 (13.33%) CheckPoint
2 2 (13.33%) Cisco
2 2 (13.33%) Databricks
2 2 (13.33%) F5
2 2 (13.33%) Foundry
2 2 (13.33%) OpenAI
2 2 (13.33%) Palo Alto
2 2 (13.33%) SAP
3 1 (6.67%) Apple
3 1 (6.67%) Oracle
3 1 (6.67%) Sophos
3 1 (6.67%) Zscaler