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 1 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 66 72
Rank change year-on-year -14 +6 +16
Contract jobs citing Network Security 114 63 51
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.89% 2.88% 2.11%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 22.98% 21.28% 17.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 77 33 43
10th Percentile £408 £363 £453
25th Percentile £472 £413 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £531 £475 £660
Median % change year-on-year +11.79% -28.03% +35.80%
75th Percentile £600 £575 £691
90th Percentile £638 £738 £775
England median daily rate £550 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 0
10th Percentile - £66.19 -
25th Percentile £16.50 £66.85 -
Median hourly rate £17.00 £68.33 -
Median % change year-on-year -75.12% - -
75th Percentile £17.50 £69.43 -
90th Percentile - £69.87 -
England median hourly rate £73.00 £70.16 £57.50
% change year-on-year +4.05% +22.02% -19.01%

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 496 296 298
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.58% 13.53% 12.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 316 174 191
10th Percentile £217 £147 £263
25th Percentile £350 £325 £397
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £434 £515
Median % change year-on-year +9.44% -15.78% +8.42%
75th Percentile £575 £537 £681
90th Percentile £626 £666 £850
England median daily rate £500 £490 £505
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.97% +1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 6 10
10th Percentile £13.89 £19.25 £25.43
25th Percentile £16.50 £21.50 £37.55
Median hourly rate £17.50 £46.75 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -62.57% -3.73% +191.13%
75th Percentile £20.88 £67.25 £51.91
90th Percentile £28.83 £68.71 £57.65
England median hourly rate £27.11 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -36.21% -25.89% +1.52%

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 1 September 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 1 September 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 47 £536 +12.78% 10
Manchester -27 29 £550 +15.79% 20
Cumbria - 22 £520 - 2
Merseyside -19 10 £600 +71.43% 3
Lancashire -10 6 £438 +16.67% 6
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 1 (0.88%) Confluence
1 1 (0.88%) NetWeaver
1 1 (0.88%) nginx
Applications
1 5 (4.39%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.75%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.88%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 32 (28.07%) Azure
2 25 (21.93%) AWS
3 9 (7.89%) Entra ID
4 8 (7.02%) Azure Sentinel
4 8 (7.02%) GCP
5 6 (5.26%) SaaS
6 5 (4.39%) Serverless
7 4 (3.51%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (2.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 3 (2.63%) Amazon ECS
8 3 (2.63%) Amazon EKS
8 3 (2.63%) AWS CloudFormation
8 3 (2.63%) AWS CloudTrail
8 3 (2.63%) AWS KMS
8 3 (2.63%) AWS Lambda
8 3 (2.63%) Azure AI
8 3 (2.63%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (2.63%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (2.63%) Google Kubernetes Engine
8 3 (2.63%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 74 (64.91%) Firewall
2 42 (36.84%) VPN
3 31 (27.19%) WAN
3 31 (27.19%) Wireless
4 22 (19.30%) LAN
5 14 (12.28%) DNS
6 13 (11.40%) Broadband
6 13 (11.40%) Converged Networks
7 11 (9.65%) BGP
8 10 (8.77%) OSPF
9 9 (7.89%) DMZ
10 8 (7.02%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 8 (7.02%) SD-WAN
11 7 (6.14%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 7 (6.14%) TCP/IP
12 6 (5.26%) Cisco ASA
12 6 (5.26%) Internet
12 6 (5.26%) Wi-Fi
13 4 (3.51%) Cisco ISE
13 4 (3.51%) VLAN
Development Applications
1 7 (6.14%) GitLab
2 6 (5.26%) Jenkins
3 4 (3.51%) JIRA
4 3 (2.63%) Git
5 1 (0.88%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 19 (16.67%) Social Skills
2 18 (15.79%) Finance
3 12 (10.53%) Banking
4 11 (9.65%) Analytical Skills
5 3 (2.63%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (2.63%) Financial Institution
5 3 (2.63%) Legal
5 3 (2.63%) Manufacturing
6 1 (0.88%) Automotive
6 1 (0.88%) Games
6 1 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (0.88%) Retail
Job Titles
1 50 (43.86%) Network Engineer
2 15 (13.16%) Architect
3 14 (12.28%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 11 (9.65%) Project Manager
4 11 (9.65%) Security Engineer
5 8 (7.02%) Security Architect
5 8 (7.02%) Senior
5 8 (7.02%) Senior Network Engineer
5 8 (7.02%) VMware Engineer
6 7 (6.14%) Network Manager
6 7 (6.14%) Network Project Manager
6 7 (6.14%) Network Security Manager
6 7 (6.14%) Security Manager
6 7 (6.14%) Security Project Manager
7 6 (5.26%) Network Architect
7 6 (5.26%) Network Security Engineer
8 5 (4.39%) SIEM Engineer
8 5 (4.39%) Splunk Engineer
9 4 (3.51%) Cloud Architect
9 4 (3.51%) Cloud Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (10.53%) Terraform
2 5 (4.39%) 802.1X
3 4 (3.51%) ARM Templates
3 4 (3.51%) Azure Blueprints
3 4 (3.51%) REST
4 3 (2.63%) JSON
5 2 (1.75%) Django
5 2 (1.75%) XML
6 1 (0.88%) JWT
6 1 (0.88%) ModSecurity
6 1 (0.88%) OpenID
6 1 (0.88%) SAP Basis
6 1 (0.88%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 12 (10.53%) Management Information System
2 11 (9.65%) Security Posture
3 9 (7.89%) Cloud Native
3 9 (7.89%) Data Centre
4 4 (3.51%) PKI
5 3 (2.63%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 3 (2.63%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (1.75%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.75%) Driving Licence
6 2 (1.75%) Operational Technology
6 2 (1.75%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.75%) Social Media
7 1 (0.88%) Animation
7 1 (0.88%) Cloud Security Posture
7 1 (0.88%) Distributed Systems
7 1 (0.88%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (0.88%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 7 (6.14%) Linux
2 6 (5.26%) Windows
3 3 (2.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 2 (1.75%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.88%) Unix
5 1 (0.88%) Windows Server 2003
5 1 (0.88%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (30.70%) Load Balancing
2 25 (21.93%) Network Segmentation
2 25 (21.93%) Zero Trust
3 24 (21.05%) Change Management
4 21 (18.42%) Project Delivery
5 18 (15.79%) Cloud Security
5 18 (15.79%) Infrastructure as Code
6 17 (14.91%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 17 (14.91%) Migration
7 14 (12.28%) CI/CD
8 13 (11.40%) Stakeholder Management
9 12 (10.53%) Configuration Management
9 12 (10.53%) Impact Assessments
9 12 (10.53%) Network Monitoring
9 12 (10.53%) Security Operations
9 12 (10.53%) Validation
10 10 (8.77%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (8.77%) High Availability
10 10 (8.77%) ITIL
10 10 (8.77%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 22 (19.30%) Python
2 15 (13.16%) PowerShell
3 7 (6.14%) Bash
3 7 (6.14%) Bicep
4 5 (4.39%) Kusto Query Language
4 5 (4.39%) Search Processing Language
4 5 (4.39%) SQL
5 3 (2.63%) Java
6 2 (1.75%) Perl
Qualifications
1 47 (41.23%) Cisco Certification
2 29 (25.44%) CCNP
3 28 (24.56%) CCNA
4 27 (23.68%) Security Cleared
5 25 (21.93%) SC Cleared
6 17 (14.91%) CISSP
7 11 (9.65%) Degree
8 8 (7.02%) AWS Certification
8 8 (7.02%) CCIE
9 7 (6.14%) GCIH
10 6 (5.26%) CCSP
11 5 (4.39%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 5 (4.39%) GCFA
12 4 (3.51%) Azure Certification
13 3 (2.63%) CCIE Security
13 3 (2.63%) CompTIA Security+
13 3 (2.63%) Microsoft Certification
13 3 (2.63%) Network+ Certification
14 2 (1.75%) CCSA
14 2 (1.75%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (7.02%) NIST
1 8 (7.02%) PCI DSS
2 6 (5.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 5 (4.39%) GDPR
4 3 (2.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.88%) GxP
5 1 (0.88%) SLA
System Software
1 8 (7.02%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (4.39%) Active Directory
3 4 (3.51%) Docker
4 1 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.88%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.88%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 20 (17.54%) Ansible
2 12 (10.53%) Progress Chef
3 7 (6.14%) CASB
3 7 (6.14%) Kubernetes
4 3 (2.63%) Cisco Prime
5 2 (1.75%) Single Sign-On
5 2 (1.75%) vCenter Server
6 1 (0.88%) Backup Exec
6 1 (0.88%) Istio
6 1 (0.88%) Nagios
6 1 (0.88%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.88%) Puppet
6 1 (0.88%) vMotion
Vendors
1 48 (42.11%) Cisco
2 19 (16.67%) Microsoft
3 15 (13.16%) Palo Alto
4 13 (11.40%) F5
5 11 (9.65%) Splunk
6 10 (8.77%) VMware
7 9 (7.89%) Fortinet
8 8 (7.02%) AlgoSec
9 7 (6.14%) ServiceNow
10 6 (5.26%) ForeScout
11 5 (4.39%) CheckPoint
11 5 (4.39%) Cribl.io
11 5 (4.39%) Google
11 5 (4.39%) Zscaler
12 4 (3.51%) Juniper
12 4 (3.51%) McAfee
12 4 (3.51%) Meraki
12 4 (3.51%) SolarWinds
13 3 (2.63%) Aruba
13 3 (2.63%) CyberArk