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 17 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 78 88
Rank change year-on-year +2 +10 +3
Contract jobs citing Network Security 94 47 52
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.69% 2.36% 1.85%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.61% 15.16% 15.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 76 33 44
10th Percentile £410 £363 £466
25th Percentile £464 £463 £527
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £508 £500 £666
Median % change year-on-year +1.50% -24.92% +37.04%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £738
90th Percentile £632 £648 £775
England median daily rate £525 £525 £561
% change year-on-year - -6.46% -0.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £16.50 - -
Median hourly rate £17.00 £70.16 -
Median % change year-on-year -75.77% - -
75th Percentile £45.88 - -
90th Percentile £62.91 - -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 £16.25
% change year-on-year -20.10% +400.62% -68.83%

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 435 310 331
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.44% 15.57% 11.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 279 185 226
10th Percentile £307 £191 £210
25th Percentile £375 £350 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £483 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.33% -10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £669
90th Percentile £638 £638 £825
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 2 12
10th Percentile £14.80 £27.70 £20.93
25th Percentile £16.50 £34.78 £25.13
Median hourly rate £22.50 £47.37 £40.44
Median % change year-on-year -52.50% +17.14% +29.41%
75th Percentile £41.94 £59.17 £46.60
90th Percentile £74.26 £65.76 £50.78
England median hourly rate £29.52 £37.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -21.28% -6.25% +117.75%

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 17 June 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 17 June 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 17 June 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 +14 32 £487 +2.53% 14
Manchester -39 29 £550 +10.00% 37
Cumbria +11 25 £481 -16.30% 4
Lancashire -4 8 £413 +10.00% 16
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 2 (2.13%) Confluence
2 1 (1.06%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 5 (5.32%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.13%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.06%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 17 (18.09%) Azure
2 8 (8.51%) AWS
3 5 (5.32%) Azure Key Vault
4 4 (4.26%) Entra ID
5 3 (3.19%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (3.19%) GCP
5 3 (3.19%) Smartsheet
6 2 (2.13%) Azure AI
6 2 (2.13%) Azure AKS
6 2 (2.13%) Azure Data Factory
6 2 (2.13%) Azure Machine Learning
6 2 (2.13%) Azure Synapse Analytics
6 2 (2.13%) OCI
6 2 (2.13%) Power Platform
6 2 (2.13%) SaaS
6 2 (2.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 1 (1.06%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (1.06%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 61 (64.89%) Firewall
2 24 (25.53%) VPN
3 21 (22.34%) WAN
4 19 (20.21%) Wireless
5 15 (15.96%) VLAN
6 13 (13.83%) LAN
7 11 (11.70%) DNS
8 10 (10.64%) Broadband
8 10 (10.64%) Converged Networks
9 7 (7.45%) BGP
10 6 (6.38%) OSPF
10 6 (6.38%) SD-WAN
11 5 (5.32%) DMZ
11 5 (5.32%) Internet
12 4 (4.26%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 4 (4.26%) MPLS
13 3 (3.19%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 3 (3.19%) SSL
13 3 (3.19%) TCP/IP
13 3 (3.19%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.06%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 5 (5.32%) JIRA
2 2 (2.13%) GitLab
General
1 10 (10.64%) Social Skills
2 5 (5.32%) Finance
3 4 (4.26%) Banking
4 2 (2.13%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (2.13%) Legal
5 1 (1.06%) Advertising
5 1 (1.06%) Aerospace
5 1 (1.06%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (1.06%) Public Sector
5 1 (1.06%) Retail
Job Titles
1 44 (46.81%) Network Engineer
2 16 (17.02%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
3 15 (15.96%) Architect
4 10 (10.64%) Project Manager
5 8 (8.51%) Security Manager
6 7 (7.45%) Network Manager
6 7 (7.45%) Network Project Manager
6 7 (7.45%) Network Security Manager
6 7 (7.45%) Security Project Manager
7 6 (6.38%) Network Architect
8 5 (5.32%) Azure Architect
8 5 (5.32%) Cisco Engineer
8 5 (5.32%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 5 (5.32%) Security Architect
8 5 (5.32%) Senior
9 4 (4.26%) Security Engineer
10 3 (3.19%) Automation Engineer
10 3 (3.19%) Network Security Engineer
10 3 (3.19%) Product Owner
10 3 (3.19%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (8.51%) 802.1X
2 1 (1.06%) ARM Templates
2 1 (1.06%) Azure Blueprints
2 1 (1.06%) LDAP
2 1 (1.06%) ModSecurity
2 1 (1.06%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 22 (23.40%) Data Centre
2 12 (12.77%) Security Posture
3 5 (5.32%) Product Ownership
4 4 (4.26%) Cloud Native
4 4 (4.26%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (3.19%) PKI
6 2 (2.13%) Social Media
7 1 (1.06%) Cloud Security Posture
7 1 (1.06%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.06%) Management Information System
7 1 (1.06%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.06%) Operational Technology
7 1 (1.06%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 5 (5.32%) Windows
2 4 (4.26%) Linux
3 2 (2.13%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (1.06%) Unix
4 1 (1.06%) Windows Server 2003
4 1 (1.06%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (22.34%) Network Segmentation
2 20 (21.28%) Load Balancing
3 18 (19.15%) Network Monitoring
4 17 (18.09%) Project Delivery
5 16 (17.02%) Change Management
6 14 (14.89%) Zero Trust
7 11 (11.70%) ITIL
8 10 (10.64%) High Availability
8 10 (10.64%) Impact Assessments
9 9 (9.57%) Continuous Improvement
9 9 (9.57%) Validation
10 8 (8.51%) Agile
10 8 (8.51%) Capacity Planning
10 8 (8.51%) Cloud Security
10 8 (8.51%) Operational Stability
10 8 (8.51%) Security Architecture
11 7 (7.45%) DevOps
11 7 (7.45%) SIEM
12 6 (6.38%) Cybersecurity
12 6 (6.38%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 4 (4.26%) Bicep
1 4 (4.26%) PowerShell
1 4 (4.26%) Python
2 3 (3.19%) Perl
3 1 (1.06%) Bash
Qualifications
1 43 (45.74%) Cisco Certification
2 34 (36.17%) CCNA
3 32 (34.04%) Security Cleared
4 30 (31.91%) CCNP
5 27 (28.72%) SC Cleared
6 7 (7.45%) Degree
7 6 (6.38%) CCIE
8 4 (4.26%) CompTIA Security+
9 3 (3.19%) DV Cleared
9 3 (3.19%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (2.13%) CISSP
10 2 (2.13%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (1.06%) Azure Certification
11 1 (1.06%) CCDP
11 1 (1.06%) MCSA
11 1 (1.06%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (9.57%) NIST
2 3 (3.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (3.19%) PCI DSS
2 3 (3.19%) SLA
3 2 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 2 (2.13%) SOC 2
4 1 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 4 (4.26%) Active Directory
2 3 (3.19%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.06%) Docker
3 1 (1.06%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.06%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (1.06%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 6 (6.38%) Ansible
2 5 (5.32%) Terraform
3 4 (4.26%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.19%) CASB
4 3 (3.19%) Cisco Prime
5 2 (2.13%) Nessus
5 2 (2.13%) vCenter Server
6 1 (1.06%) Backup Exec
6 1 (1.06%) vMotion
Vendors
1 41 (43.62%) Cisco
2 15 (15.96%) Palo Alto
3 11 (11.70%) Microsoft
4 9 (9.57%) Splunk
5 7 (7.45%) ForeScout
5 7 (7.45%) ServiceNow
6 6 (6.38%) VMware
7 5 (5.32%) Fortinet
8 4 (4.26%) CyberArk
8 4 (4.26%) F5
9 3 (3.19%) Broadcom
9 3 (3.19%) Computacenter
9 3 (3.19%) Zscaler
10 2 (2.13%) Databricks
10 2 (2.13%) Foundry
10 2 (2.13%) Google
10 2 (2.13%) McAfee
10 2 (2.13%) Okta
10 2 (2.13%) OpenAI
10 2 (2.13%) SAP