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 2 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 77 83
Rank change year-on-year -4 +6 -4
Contract jobs citing Network Security 99 49 54
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 2.76% 2.38% 1.94%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.71% 15.96% 16.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 33 46
10th Percentile £409 £363 £463
25th Percentile £470 £450 £517
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £478 £655
Median % change year-on-year +10.89% -27.10% +34.77%
75th Percentile £576 £588 £693
90th Percentile £645 £696 £775
England median daily rate £535 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +1.90% -4.55% -2.44%
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% -69.66%

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 478 307 332
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.32% 14.93% 11.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 308 182 231
10th Percentile £290 £186 £210
25th Percentile £375 £350 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £484 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.62% -10.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £669
90th Percentile £631 £638 £825
England median daily rate £500 £493 £500
% change year-on-year +1.42% -1.40% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 2 14
10th Percentile £15.40 £27.70 £21.28
25th Percentile £16.88 £34.78 £26.06
Median hourly rate £18.00 £47.37 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -62.00% +3.25% +66.84%
75th Percentile £39.55 £59.17 £50.44
90th Percentile £74.26 £65.76 £51.91
England median hourly rate £26.72 £41.23 £45.88
% change year-on-year -35.18% -10.15% +121.59%

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 2 July 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 2 July 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 2 July 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 +18 37 £494 +4.05% 6
Manchester -35 31 £550 +12.82% 24
Cumbria +4 19 £525 -16.00% 1
Lancashire -2 9 £413 +10.00% 5
Merseyside -14 3 - - 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 2 (2.02%) Confluence
2 1 (1.01%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 5 (5.05%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.02%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.01%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 18 (18.18%) Azure
2 8 (8.08%) AWS
3 5 (5.05%) Azure Key Vault
3 5 (5.05%) Entra ID
4 3 (3.03%) Azure Sentinel
4 3 (3.03%) GCP
4 3 (3.03%) Smartsheet
5 2 (2.02%) Azure AI
5 2 (2.02%) Azure AKS
5 2 (2.02%) Azure Data Factory
5 2 (2.02%) Azure Machine Learning
5 2 (2.02%) Azure Synapse Analytics
5 2 (2.02%) OCI
5 2 (2.02%) Power Platform
5 2 (2.02%) SaaS
5 2 (2.02%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 1 (1.01%) IaaS
6 1 (1.01%) Microsoft Purview
6 1 (1.01%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 59 (59.60%) Firewall
2 30 (30.30%) VPN
3 27 (27.27%) WAN
4 25 (25.25%) Wireless
5 17 (17.17%) LAN
6 13 (13.13%) Broadband
6 13 (13.13%) Converged Networks
6 13 (13.13%) DNS
7 9 (9.09%) BGP
8 8 (8.08%) SD-WAN
9 7 (7.07%) DMZ
9 7 (7.07%) OSPF
9 7 (7.07%) TCP/IP
10 6 (6.06%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 6 (6.06%) Internet
10 6 (6.06%) VLAN
11 5 (5.05%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 4 (4.04%) MPLS
12 4 (4.04%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (3.03%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.01%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 5 (5.05%) JIRA
2 2 (2.02%) Git
2 2 (2.02%) GitLab
General
1 11 (11.11%) Social Skills
2 7 (7.07%) Finance
3 6 (6.06%) Banking
4 2 (2.02%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (2.02%) Legal
4 2 (2.02%) Manufacturing
5 1 (1.01%) Advertising
5 1 (1.01%) Aerospace
5 1 (1.01%) Automotive
5 1 (1.01%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
5 1 (1.01%) Public Sector
5 1 (1.01%) Retail
Job Titles
1 42 (42.42%) Network Engineer
2 16 (16.16%) Architect
3 11 (11.11%) Project Manager
4 10 (10.10%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 8 (8.08%) Security Manager
6 7 (7.07%) Network Manager
6 7 (7.07%) Network Project Manager
6 7 (7.07%) Network Security Manager
6 7 (7.07%) Security Project Manager
7 6 (6.06%) Network Architect
7 6 (6.06%) Security Architect
7 6 (6.06%) Senior
8 5 (5.05%) Azure Architect
9 4 (4.04%) Security Engineer
9 4 (4.04%) Senior Network Engineer
9 4 (4.04%) VMware Engineer
10 3 (3.03%) Lead
10 3 (3.03%) Network Security Engineer
10 3 (3.03%) Product Owner
11 2 (2.02%) GCP Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (8.08%) 802.1X
2 2 (2.02%) Django
2 2 (2.02%) JSON
2 2 (2.02%) REST
2 2 (2.02%) XML
3 1 (1.01%) ARM Templates
3 1 (1.01%) Azure Blueprints
3 1 (1.01%) LDAP
3 1 (1.01%) ModSecurity
3 1 (1.01%) SAP Basis
Miscellaneous
1 14 (14.14%) Data Centre
2 12 (12.12%) Security Posture
3 5 (5.05%) Product Ownership
4 4 (4.04%) Cloud Native
4 4 (4.04%) Hybrid Cloud
4 4 (4.04%) Management Information System
5 3 (3.03%) PKI
6 2 (2.02%) Operational Technology
6 2 (2.02%) Social Media
7 1 (1.01%) Cloud Security Posture
7 1 (1.01%) Data Protection Act
7 1 (1.01%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.01%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.01%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 6 (6.06%) Linux
2 5 (5.05%) Windows
3 2 (2.02%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (1.01%) Unix
4 1 (1.01%) Windows Server 2003
4 1 (1.01%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (25.25%) Load Balancing
2 21 (21.21%) Network Segmentation
3 16 (16.16%) Change Management
4 14 (14.14%) Zero Trust
5 12 (12.12%) Impact Assessments
5 12 (12.12%) Project Delivery
6 11 (11.11%) ITIL
6 11 (11.11%) Migration
6 11 (11.11%) Network Monitoring
7 10 (10.10%) Continuous Improvement
7 10 (10.10%) Validation
8 9 (9.09%) Cloud Security
8 9 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 9 (9.09%) Security Architecture
9 8 (8.08%) Agile
9 8 (8.08%) Capacity Planning
9 8 (8.08%) CI/CD
9 8 (8.08%) High Availability
9 8 (8.08%) Operational Stability
9 8 (8.08%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 8 (8.08%) Python
2 4 (4.04%) Bicep
2 4 (4.04%) PowerShell
3 3 (3.03%) Perl
4 1 (1.01%) Bash
Qualifications
1 40 (40.40%) Cisco Certification
2 30 (30.30%) CCNA
3 26 (26.26%) Security Cleared
4 24 (24.24%) CCNP
5 20 (20.20%) SC Cleared
6 7 (7.07%) Degree
7 6 (6.06%) CCIE
8 4 (4.04%) CompTIA Security+
9 3 (3.03%) DV Cleared
9 3 (3.03%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (2.02%) CISSP
10 2 (2.02%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (1.01%) Azure Certification
11 1 (1.01%) CCDP
11 1 (1.01%) MCSA
11 1 (1.01%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (9.09%) NIST
2 3 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (3.03%) PCI DSS
2 3 (3.03%) SLA
3 2 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 2 (2.02%) SOC 2
4 1 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials
System Software
1 4 (4.04%) Active Directory
1 4 (4.04%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (2.02%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.01%) Docker
3 1 (1.01%) VMware ESXi
3 1 (1.01%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 9 (9.09%) Ansible
2 5 (5.05%) Terraform
3 4 (4.04%) CASB
3 4 (4.04%) Kubernetes
4 3 (3.03%) Cisco Prime
5 2 (2.02%) Nessus
5 2 (2.02%) vCenter Server
6 1 (1.01%) Backup Exec
6 1 (1.01%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.01%) vMotion
Vendors
1 41 (41.41%) Cisco
2 11 (11.11%) Microsoft
3 9 (9.09%) ServiceNow
3 9 (9.09%) Splunk
4 8 (8.08%) VMware
5 7 (7.07%) ForeScout
5 7 (7.07%) Fortinet
6 6 (6.06%) F5
6 6 (6.06%) Palo Alto
7 5 (5.05%) Zscaler
8 4 (4.04%) CyberArk
9 3 (3.03%) Broadcom
10 2 (2.02%) Computacenter
10 2 (2.02%) Foundry
10 2 (2.02%) Google
10 2 (2.02%) Juniper
10 2 (2.02%) McAfee
10 2 (2.02%) Meraki
10 2 (2.02%) Okta
10 2 (2.02%) SAP