Network Security Contract Job Trends in the North West

Network Security
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Network Security skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 84 81
Rank change year-on-year 0 -3 +34
Contract jobs citing Network Security 85 39 58
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.67% 2.01% 2.11%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.68% 12.00% 15.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 63 30 52
10th Percentile £364 £366 £476
25th Percentile £456 £417 £527
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £500 £649
Median % change year-on-year -2.20% -22.93% +27.21%
75th Percentile £550 £582 £678
90th Percentile £625 £604 £773
England median daily rate £500 £528 £560
% change year-on-year -5.21% -5.80% -0.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile £22.28 - -
25th Percentile £30.94 - -
Median hourly rate £45.63 - -
75th Percentile £60.07 - -
90th Percentile £68.58 - -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £80.68 £13.50
% change year-on-year -19.43% +497.59% -74.10%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North West

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 the North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 392 325 374
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.32% 16.76% 13.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 199 266
10th Percentile £315 £178 £195
25th Percentile £405 £300 £320
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £497
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -9.37% -0.70%
75th Percentile £588 £531 £650
90th Percentile £643 £604 £825
England median daily rate £500 £500 £488
% change year-on-year - +2.56% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 3 14
10th Percentile £17.49 £20.00 £17.72
25th Percentile £22.12 £21.12 £18.48
Median hourly rate £58.10 £24.59 £33.62
Median % change year-on-year +136.32% -26.86% +7.57%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.47 £45.88
90th Percentile - £25.90 £85.00
England median hourly rate £48.72 £36.65 £40.00
% change year-on-year +32.95% -8.39% +111.30%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Network Security job vacancy trend in the North West

Network Security
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Network Security.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Network Security

Network Security
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Security in the North West over the 6 months to 20 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Security in the North West

Network Security
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Network Security.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing Network Security

Network Security
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Security in the North West over the 6 months to 20 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Security in the North West

Network Security
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 North West region over the 6 months to 20 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
Cheshire +11 34 £472 -0.63% 11
Manchester -16 25 £550 +15.79% 12
Cumbria +6 12 £475 -17.39% 1
Lancashire -5 9 £475 - 9
Merseyside - 5 - - 1
Network Security
England

Network Security
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 4 (4.71%) Apache
2 2 (2.35%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (3.53%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 15 (17.65%) Azure
2 7 (8.24%) AWS
3 5 (5.88%) Azure Key Vault
4 3 (3.53%) Azure Sentinel
4 3 (3.53%) Entra ID
4 3 (3.53%) GCP
4 3 (3.53%) Smartsheet
5 2 (2.35%) Azure AI
5 2 (2.35%) Azure Data Factory
5 2 (2.35%) Azure Machine Learning
5 2 (2.35%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 2 (2.35%) Power Platform
5 2 (2.35%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 1 (1.18%) Azure AKS
6 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Purview
6 1 (1.18%) OCI
6 1 (1.18%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 51 (60.00%) Firewall
2 16 (18.82%) VLAN
3 11 (12.94%) VPN
4 10 (11.76%) DNS
5 8 (9.41%) DMZ
5 8 (9.41%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 8 (9.41%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 8 (9.41%) WAN
6 7 (8.24%) SD-WAN
7 6 (7.06%) BGP
8 5 (5.88%) Internet
9 4 (4.71%) HTTP
10 3 (3.53%) MPLS
10 3 (3.53%) Software-Defined Networking
10 3 (3.53%) TCP/IP
10 3 (3.53%) Wireless
11 2 (2.35%) Cisco Nexus
11 2 (2.35%) Ethernet VPN
11 2 (2.35%) NGFW
11 2 (2.35%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.18%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 5 (5.88%) JIRA
2 1 (1.18%) GitLab
General
1 15 (17.65%) Social Skills
2 9 (10.59%) Finance
3 8 (9.41%) Banking
4 4 (4.71%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (4.71%) Investment Banking
5 3 (3.53%) Public Sector
6 1 (1.18%) Advertising
6 1 (1.18%) Aerospace
6 1 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.18%) Legal
6 1 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 24 (28.24%) Network Engineer
2 18 (21.18%) Architect
3 9 (10.59%) Network Architect
3 9 (10.59%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 6 (7.06%) Security Architect
4 6 (7.06%) Server Engineer
5 5 (5.88%) Azure Architect
5 5 (5.88%) Platform Engineer
6 4 (4.71%) Automation Engineer
6 4 (4.71%) Cisco Engineer
6 4 (4.71%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 4 (4.71%) Operations Engineer
6 4 (4.71%) Security Engineer
6 4 (4.71%) Senior
6 4 (4.71%) Software Engineer
7 3 (3.53%) Network Security Engineer
7 3 (3.53%) Product Owner
7 3 (3.53%) Project Manager
7 3 (3.53%) Senior Architect
7 3 (3.53%) Senior Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (4.71%) 802.1X
2 1 (1.18%) LDAP
Miscellaneous
1 19 (22.35%) Data Centre
2 7 (8.24%) Product Ownership
3 6 (7.06%) Clustering
4 5 (5.88%) Security Posture
5 4 (4.71%) Cloud Native
5 4 (4.71%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (4.71%) Management Information System
6 3 (3.53%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (2.35%) Onboarding
8 1 (1.18%) Cloud Security Posture
8 1 (1.18%) Enterprise Cloud
8 1 (1.18%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (1.18%) Security Operations Centre
8 1 (1.18%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 14 (16.47%) Windows
2 10 (11.76%) Linux
3 6 (7.06%) Windows Server
4 5 (5.88%) Unix
5 4 (4.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 15 (17.65%) Network Segmentation
2 14 (16.47%) Change Management
2 14 (16.47%) Network Monitoring
3 13 (15.29%) Load Balancing
3 13 (15.29%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (14.12%) Cybersecurity
5 11 (12.94%) Project Delivery
5 11 (12.94%) Zero Trust
6 9 (10.59%) Continuous Improvement
6 9 (10.59%) High Availability
6 9 (10.59%) ITIL
7 8 (9.41%) Capacity Planning
7 8 (9.41%) Cloud Security
7 8 (9.41%) Operational Stability
7 8 (9.41%) Performance Optimisation
7 8 (9.41%) Service Management
7 8 (9.41%) Validation
8 7 (8.24%) CI/CD
8 7 (8.24%) SIEM
8 7 (8.24%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 11 (12.94%) PowerShell
2 4 (4.71%) Bash
3 3 (3.53%) Bicep
4 1 (1.18%) Perl
4 1 (1.18%) Python
Qualifications
1 27 (31.76%) Cisco Certification
2 25 (29.41%) CCNP
3 24 (28.24%) Security Cleared
4 19 (22.35%) CCNA
5 18 (21.18%) SC Cleared
6 5 (5.88%) Degree
7 4 (4.71%) CCIE
7 4 (4.71%) DV Cleared
8 2 (2.35%) CISSP
9 1 (1.18%) Azure Certification
9 1 (1.18%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (1.18%) CCDP
9 1 (1.18%) CompTIA Security+
9 1 (1.18%) MCSA
9 1 (1.18%) MCSE
9 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (10.59%) NIST
2 3 (3.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (3.53%) PCI DSS
2 3 (3.53%) SLA
3 2 (2.35%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 2 (2.35%) SOC 2
System Software
1 9 (10.59%) Active Directory
2 6 (7.06%) Hyper-V
3 5 (5.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (4.71%) Docker
4 4 (4.71%) VMware NSX
5 1 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (1.18%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 10 (11.76%) Terraform
2 9 (10.59%) Ansible
3 6 (7.06%) Kubernetes
3 6 (7.06%) Microsoft Clustering
3 6 (7.06%) Nagios
4 3 (3.53%) CASB
4 3 (3.53%) Cisco Prime
5 2 (2.35%) Nessus
6 1 (1.18%) Microsoft Intune
6 1 (1.18%) vCenter Server
6 1 (1.18%) vMotion
Vendors
1 25 (29.41%) Cisco
2 13 (15.29%) Palo Alto
3 12 (14.12%) Microsoft
4 10 (11.76%) VMware
5 8 (9.41%) F5
6 7 (8.24%) Splunk
7 6 (7.06%) ServiceNow
7 6 (7.06%) SolarWinds
8 4 (4.71%) Computacenter
8 4 (4.71%) CyberArk
8 4 (4.71%) ForeScout
8 4 (4.71%) Red Hat
9 3 (3.53%) Broadcom
9 3 (3.53%) Meraki
9 3 (3.53%) Zscaler
10 2 (2.35%) Databricks
10 2 (2.35%) Fortinet
10 2 (2.35%) Google
10 2 (2.35%) Okta
10 2 (2.35%) SAP