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 22 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 76 60
Rank change year-on-year +1 -16 +67
Contract jobs citing Network Security 72 42 80
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.79% 1.99% 2.93%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.17% 12.43% 18.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 40 35 71
10th Percentile £354 £403 £463
25th Percentile £444 £421 £493
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £625
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -20.00% +20.19%
75th Percentile £541 £570 £672
90th Percentile £634 £603 £700
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £65.75 - -
Median hourly rate £66.50 - -
75th Percentile £67.25 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £66.00 £38.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +73.68% -5.00% +6.67%

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 357 338 434
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.82% 16.03% 15.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 182 313
10th Percentile £170 £201 £300
25th Percentile £346 £343 £398
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.33% -10.00% +1.42%
75th Percentile £550 £538 £613
90th Percentile £668 £600 £672
England median daily rate £488 £500 £493
% change year-on-year -2.50% +1.52% -5.29%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 5 10
10th Percentile £15.50 £20.74 £17.15
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.98 £17.72
Median hourly rate £41.94 £24.76 £42.49
Median % change year-on-year +69.39% -41.73% +4.72%
75th Percentile £67.25 £51.00 £46.88
90th Percentile £74.26 £51.90 £55.00
England median hourly rate £32.00 £35.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -8.57% -36.36% +150.00%

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 22 January 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
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 22 January 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 +1 27 £433 -35.93% 5
Manchester -16 13 £550 +10.00% 11
Merseyside - 13 - - 2
Cumbria -1 12 £475 +0.80% 1
Lancashire -5 7 £475 +7.04% 4
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 (5.56%) Apache
Cloud Services
1 5 (6.94%) Azure
2 2 (2.78%) AWS
3 1 (1.39%) Amazon CloudWatch
3 1 (1.39%) Amazon EC2
3 1 (1.39%) Amazon ELB
3 1 (1.39%) Amazon S3
3 1 (1.39%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 36 (50.00%) Firewall
2 21 (29.17%) DNS
3 20 (27.78%) DMZ
3 20 (27.78%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 20 (27.78%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 15 (20.83%) VLAN
5 8 (11.11%) WAN
6 6 (8.33%) BGP
6 6 (8.33%) Internet
7 5 (6.94%) LAN
7 5 (6.94%) TCP/IP
8 4 (5.56%) HTTP
8 4 (5.56%) WLAN
9 3 (4.17%) Cisco IOS
9 3 (4.17%) Intrusion Detection
9 3 (4.17%) NX-OS
9 3 (4.17%) SD-WAN
9 3 (4.17%) Software-Defined Networking
10 2 (2.78%) Cisco Nexus
10 2 (2.78%) MPLS
Development Applications
1 2 (2.78%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.39%) Git
2 1 (1.39%) GitLab
General
1 18 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 13 (18.06%) Analytical Skills
2 13 (18.06%) Banking
3 12 (16.67%) Investment Banking
4 9 (12.50%) Finance
5 3 (4.17%) Public Sector
6 2 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.78%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.39%) Aerospace
7 1 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 24 (33.33%) Network Engineer
2 12 (16.67%) Operations Engineer
3 11 (15.28%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 6 (8.33%) Architect
4 6 (8.33%) Network Architect
4 6 (8.33%) Server Engineer
5 5 (6.94%) Senior
6 4 (5.56%) Automation Engineer
6 4 (5.56%) Cisco Engineer
6 4 (5.56%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 3 (4.17%) Cybersecurity Specialist
7 3 (4.17%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 3 (4.17%) Network Security Architect
7 3 (4.17%) Network Security Engineer
7 3 (4.17%) Platform Engineer
7 3 (4.17%) Security Architect
7 3 (4.17%) Security Engineer
7 3 (4.17%) Senior Architect
7 3 (4.17%) Senior Network Architect
7 3 (4.17%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.78%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 15 (20.83%) Data Centre
2 14 (19.44%) Management Information System
3 6 (8.33%) Clustering
4 3 (4.17%) Analytical Mindset
4 3 (4.17%) Product Ownership
5 2 (2.78%) Hybrid Cloud
5 2 (2.78%) Onboarding
5 2 (2.78%) Security Posture
6 1 (1.39%) CMDB
6 1 (1.39%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 11 (15.28%) Windows
2 7 (9.72%) Linux
3 5 (6.94%) Windows Server
4 4 (5.56%) Unix
5 3 (4.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (29.17%) Load Balancing
2 16 (22.22%) Business Strategy
3 14 (19.44%) Problem-Solving
4 12 (16.67%) Cybersecurity
4 12 (16.67%) Design Patterns
4 12 (16.67%) Infrastructure Automation
5 10 (13.89%) Disaster Recovery
5 10 (13.89%) Network Monitoring
6 9 (12.50%) Project Delivery
7 8 (11.11%) Change Management
7 8 (11.11%) Incident Response
8 7 (9.72%) Zero Trust
9 6 (8.33%) Network Architecture
9 6 (8.33%) SIEM
10 5 (6.94%) High Availability
10 5 (6.94%) Task Automation
11 4 (5.56%) CI/CD
11 4 (5.56%) Containerisation
11 4 (5.56%) Observability
11 4 (5.56%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 10 (13.89%) PowerShell
2 6 (8.33%) Python
3 5 (6.94%) Bash
4 3 (4.17%) Perl
Qualifications
1 24 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
1 24 (33.33%) Security Cleared
2 21 (29.17%) CCNP
3 19 (26.39%) SC Cleared
4 11 (15.28%) CCNA
5 5 (6.94%) CISSP
6 4 (5.56%) CISM
6 4 (5.56%) Degree
6 4 (5.56%) DV Cleared
7 3 (4.17%) CCDP
7 3 (4.17%) CCIE
7 3 (4.17%) CCSA
7 3 (4.17%) CISA
7 3 (4.17%) GSEC
8 1 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
8 1 (1.39%) CCNA CyberOps
8 1 (1.39%) CCSE
8 1 (1.39%) Check Point Certification
8 1 (1.39%) CompTIA Security+
8 1 (1.39%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (4.17%) GDPR
1 3 (4.17%) HIPAA
1 3 (4.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (4.17%) NIST
1 3 (4.17%) PCI DSS
2 1 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 16 (22.22%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (8.33%) Active Directory
2 6 (8.33%) Hyper-V
3 4 (5.56%) Docker
3 4 (5.56%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (11.11%) Terraform
2 7 (9.72%) Ansible
3 6 (8.33%) Microsoft Clustering
3 6 (8.33%) Nagios
4 3 (4.17%) Kubernetes
4 3 (4.17%) QRadar
5 1 (1.39%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (1.39%) Nessus
Vendors
1 26 (36.11%) F5
2 24 (33.33%) Cisco
2 24 (33.33%) Palo Alto
3 20 (27.78%) VMware
4 9 (12.50%) SolarWinds
5 7 (9.72%) Meraki
6 6 (8.33%) Microsoft
6 6 (8.33%) Zscaler
7 4 (5.56%) Computacenter
8 3 (4.17%) ArcSight
8 3 (4.17%) CheckPoint
8 3 (4.17%) Red Hat
8 3 (4.17%) Splunk
9 2 (2.78%) SAP
10 1 (1.39%) Apple
10 1 (1.39%) McAfee
10 1 (1.39%) Sophos