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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 71 69 83
Rank change year-on-year -2 +14 +62
Contract jobs citing Network Security 63 49 59
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 2.88% 2.05% 2.11%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.88% 16.84% 13.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 40 40
10th Percentile £363 £446 £409
25th Percentile £416 £490 £449
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £638 £525
Median % change year-on-year -25.49% +21.43% +5.00%
75th Percentile £612 £678 £638
90th Percentile £748 £739 £669
England median daily rate £525 £539 £550
% change year-on-year -2.60% -2.00% +2.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile £66.19 - -
25th Percentile £66.85 - -
Median hourly rate £68.33 - -
75th Percentile £69.43 - -
90th Percentile £69.87 - -
England median hourly rate £70.16 £53.75 £71.00
% change year-on-year +30.53% -24.30% +40.64%

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 288 291 428
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.19% 12.17% 15.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 171 167 284
10th Percentile £147 £269 £313
25th Percentile £333 £409 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £486
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +8.02% +2.32%
75th Percentile £541 £688 £588
90th Percentile £680 £825 £638
England median daily rate £488 £508 £500
% change year-on-year -3.94% +1.50% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 10 10
10th Percentile £15.50 £25.43 £15.72
25th Percentile £17.75 £37.55 £15.75
Median hourly rate £20.00 £48.56 £16.68
Median % change year-on-year -58.81% +191.13% -44.93%
75th Percentile £48.27 £51.91 £46.88
90th Percentile £67.25 £57.65 £49.35
England median hourly rate £41.72 £57.35 £56.49
% change year-on-year -27.25% +1.52% +34.02%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing Network Security as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for Network Security 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 18 September 2025.

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 18 September 2025. 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 30 £475 -38.71% 6
Manchester -2 18 £594 +6.70% 8
Merseyside - 10 £350 - 1
Lancashire +3 5 £375 -15.49% 7
Network Security
England

Network Security
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (3.17%) Microsoft Exchange
Cloud Services
1 13 (20.63%) Azure
2 8 (12.70%) AWS
3 6 (9.52%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (6.35%) GCP
5 2 (3.17%) Entra ID
5 2 (3.17%) IaaS
6 1 (1.59%) Akamai
6 1 (1.59%) Amazon CloudWatch
6 1 (1.59%) Amazon EC2
6 1 (1.59%) Amazon ELB
6 1 (1.59%) Amazon S3
6 1 (1.59%) Microsoft Purview
6 1 (1.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 27 (42.86%) Firewall
2 16 (25.40%) DNS
3 14 (22.22%) DMZ
3 14 (22.22%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 14 (22.22%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
4 10 (15.87%) Intrusion Detection
5 9 (14.29%) LAN
6 7 (11.11%) BGP
6 7 (11.11%) Internet
6 7 (11.11%) VPN
6 7 (11.11%) WLAN
7 6 (9.52%) TCP/IP
7 6 (9.52%) WAN
8 5 (7.94%) MPLS
9 4 (6.35%) OSPF
9 4 (6.35%) VLAN
10 3 (4.76%) Cisco IOS
10 3 (4.76%) NX-OS
10 3 (4.76%) SAN
11 2 (3.17%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.17%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (3.17%) Jenkins
2 1 (1.59%) Git
2 1 (1.59%) GitLab
2 1 (1.59%) JIRA
General
1 14 (22.22%) Social Skills
2 11 (17.46%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (15.87%) Finance
4 9 (14.29%) Banking
5 7 (11.11%) Investment Banking
6 4 (6.35%) Pharmaceutical
7 2 (3.17%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (3.17%) Legal
7 2 (3.17%) Telecoms
8 1 (1.59%) Public Sector
8 1 (1.59%) Retail
Job Titles
1 21 (33.33%) Network Engineer
2 14 (22.22%) Security Engineer
3 10 (15.87%) Network Security Engineer
4 7 (11.11%) Operations Engineer
5 6 (9.52%) Analyst
5 6 (9.52%) Cybersecurity Engineer
6 4 (6.35%) Designer
6 4 (6.35%) Lead
6 4 (6.35%) Network Designer
6 4 (6.35%) Senior
6 4 (6.35%) SOC Analyst
6 4 (6.35%) Solutions Designer
7 3 (4.76%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 3 (4.76%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
7 3 (4.76%) Architect
7 3 (4.76%) Cybersecurity Specialist
7 3 (4.76%) Industrial Engineer
7 3 (4.76%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 3 (4.76%) Security Architect
7 3 (4.76%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.59%) 802.1X
1 1 (1.59%) LDAP
1 1 (1.59%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 12 (19.05%) Management Information System
2 4 (6.35%) Hybrid Cloud
3 3 (4.76%) Cyber Threat
4 2 (3.17%) CMDB
4 2 (3.17%) Security Operations Centre
4 2 (3.17%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.59%) Cloud Security Posture
5 1 (1.59%) Data Centre
5 1 (1.59%) FMCG
5 1 (1.59%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.59%) Product Ownership
5 1 (1.59%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 12 (19.05%) Windows
2 8 (12.70%) Linux
3 5 (7.94%) Windows Server
4 3 (4.76%) Windows Server 2003
4 3 (4.76%) Windows Server 2019
5 1 (1.59%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (26.98%) Incident Response
2 16 (25.40%) Cybersecurity
3 14 (22.22%) Load Balancing
4 12 (19.05%) Business Strategy
4 12 (19.05%) SIEM
5 11 (17.46%) Network Design
6 9 (14.29%) Infrastructure Automation
6 9 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
7 8 (12.70%) Disaster Recovery
7 8 (12.70%) Network Architecture
7 8 (12.70%) Roadmaps
7 8 (12.70%) Strategic Roadmap
8 7 (11.11%) Change Management
8 7 (11.11%) Design Patterns
8 7 (11.11%) High Availability
8 7 (11.11%) ITSM
9 6 (9.52%) Computer Science
9 6 (9.52%) Data Management
9 6 (9.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 6 (9.52%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 8 (12.70%) Python
2 5 (7.94%) PowerShell
3 3 (4.76%) Kusto Query Language
3 3 (4.76%) Perl
4 2 (3.17%) Bash
Qualifications
1 18 (28.57%) Cisco Certification
2 17 (26.98%) CCNP
3 11 (17.46%) Degree
4 8 (12.70%) CISSP
5 6 (9.52%) CISM
5 6 (9.52%) Microsoft Certification
6 5 (7.94%) CCSA
6 5 (7.94%) Computer Science Degree
7 4 (6.35%) CCIE
7 4 (6.35%) JNCIE
7 4 (6.35%) Master's Degree
7 4 (6.35%) SC Cleared
7 4 (6.35%) Security Cleared
8 3 (4.76%) CCDP
8 3 (4.76%) CISA
8 3 (4.76%) GSEC
9 2 (3.17%) Azure Certification
9 2 (3.17%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (1.59%) CCNA CyberOps
10 1 (1.59%) CRISC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (11.11%) GDPR
2 4 (6.35%) HIPAA
2 4 (6.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (6.35%) NIST
2 4 (6.35%) PCI DSS
3 1 (1.59%) California Consumer Privacy Act
3 1 (1.59%) Cyber Essentials
3 1 (1.59%) GRC
System Software
1 14 (22.22%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (9.52%) Active Directory
3 2 (3.17%) VMware NSX
3 2 (3.17%) vSphere
4 1 (1.59%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (4.76%) Backup Exec
1 3 (4.76%) QRadar
1 3 (4.76%) vCenter Server
2 2 (3.17%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (3.17%) Terraform
3 1 (1.59%) Ansible
3 1 (1.59%) CASB
3 1 (1.59%) Nessus
Vendors
1 25 (39.68%) F5
2 22 (34.92%) Cisco
3 19 (30.16%) VMware
4 18 (28.57%) Palo Alto
5 16 (25.40%) Microsoft
6 13 (20.63%) Zscaler
7 4 (6.35%) CheckPoint
7 4 (6.35%) Fortinet
7 4 (6.35%) Meraki
7 4 (6.35%) Splunk
8 3 (4.76%) ArcSight
8 3 (4.76%) SolarWinds
8 3 (4.76%) Symantec
8 3 (4.76%) Thycotic
8 3 (4.76%) Veeam
9 2 (3.17%) Computacenter
9 2 (3.17%) CyberArk
10 1 (1.59%) Google
10 1 (1.59%) Imperva
10 1 (1.59%) WatchGuard