Network Security Contract Job Trends

Network Security
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Network Security skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 150 152 184
Rank change year-on-year +2 +32 -14
Contract jobs citing Network Security 896 567 570
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.74% 1.81% 1.31%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.23% 14.76% 10.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 606 346 380
10th Percentile £400 £368 £363
25th Percentile £450 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £523 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.34% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £625 £613 £653
90th Percentile £706 £719 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £490 £575
% change year-on-year +7.14% -14.78% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 11 18
10th Percentile £22.20 £70.16 -
25th Percentile £35.75 £75.25 £7.43
Median hourly rate £67.50 £81.35 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -17.03% +287.38% -67.19%
75th Percentile £74.00 £83.05 £41.25
90th Percentile - £100.00 £45.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £70.25 £81.35 £7.43
% change year-on-year -13.64% +994.89% -66.62%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 4,914 3,841 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.54% 12.28% 12.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,989 2,342 3,208
10th Percentile £240 £230 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -1.19%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +2.77% -4.08% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 305 182 428
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.50 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £44.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.58% -1.11% +114.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £73.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £35.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -25.09% -26.32% +115.91%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Security relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Network Security job vacancy trend in the UK

Network Security
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Security.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Security

Network Security
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Security over the 6 months to 3 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Security.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Security

Network Security
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Security over the 6 months to 3 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 3 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
England +2 776 £535 +1.90% 252
UK excluding London -10 448 £525 +7.14% 205
London +7 337 £550 - 93
Work from Home +14 270 £540 +2.86% 121
North of England +11 187 £527 +7.47% 47
South East -19 111 £525 +7.14% 68
North West +3 100 £530 +11.18% 33
Yorkshire +6 85 £500 +1.83% 13
Midlands -51 56 £500 -13.98% 27
Scotland +11 39 £600 +41.18% 22
West Midlands -70 35 £435 -25.16% 13
East of England -11 32 £525 -0.94% 15
South West -26 30 £550 -8.33% 26
East Midlands +3 20 £569 - 14
Wales -26 3 £600 +106.90% 3
North East -36 2 £675 +8.00% 2

Network Security
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 23 (2.57%) Confluence
2 12 (1.34%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.00%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.22%) Apache
5 1 (0.11%) IIS
5 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
5 1 (0.11%) nginx
Applications
1 17 (1.90%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.23%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.11%) InfoPath
5 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.67%) Oracle ERP
1 6 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 275 (30.69%) Azure
2 198 (22.10%) AWS
3 123 (13.73%) GCP
4 78 (8.71%) Entra ID
5 39 (4.35%) GitHub
6 30 (3.35%) Azure Sentinel
6 30 (3.35%) GitHub Actions
7 29 (3.24%) Azure DevOps
8 25 (2.79%) SaaS
9 24 (2.68%) Microsoft 365
10 23 (2.57%) Serverless
11 22 (2.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 20 (2.23%) Azure AKS
12 20 (2.23%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 19 (2.12%) Azure Monitor
14 17 (1.90%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 17 (1.90%) Azure Key Vault
14 17 (1.90%) OCI
15 16 (1.79%) Akamai
16 15 (1.67%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 396 (44.20%) Firewall
2 186 (20.76%) VPN
3 171 (19.08%) WAN
4 129 (14.40%) LAN
5 115 (12.83%) DNS
6 109 (12.17%) BGP
7 94 (10.49%) Wireless
8 92 (10.27%) SD-WAN
9 88 (9.82%) OSPF
10 80 (8.93%) TCP/IP
11 72 (8.04%) VLAN
12 58 (6.47%) DHCP
13 57 (6.36%) MPLS
14 49 (5.47%) IPsec
15 45 (5.02%) SSL
16 44 (4.91%) Wi-Fi
17 39 (4.35%) Cisco ISE
18 37 (4.13%) Cisco ASA
18 37 (4.13%) Internet
18 37 (4.13%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (0.89%) Azure SQL Database
1 8 (0.89%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
2 4 (0.45%) Data Lake
2 4 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
2 4 (0.45%) Neo4j
2 4 (0.45%) Power BI
3 3 (0.33%) Amazon Athena
3 3 (0.33%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.22%) BigQuery
4 2 (0.22%) InfluxDB
4 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database
5 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
5 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.11%) DataStage
5 1 (0.11%) Delta Lake
5 1 (0.11%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.11%) Snowflake Schema
5 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 45 (5.02%) JIRA
2 29 (3.24%) Git
3 25 (2.79%) GitLab
4 24 (2.68%) Jenkins
5 10 (1.12%) Sonatype Nexus
6 7 (0.78%) Snyk
7 5 (0.56%) Browser DevTools
8 4 (0.45%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.33%) Artifactory
9 3 (0.33%) MSBuild
9 3 (0.33%) Visual Studio
10 2 (0.22%) Postman
11 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
11 1 (0.11%) JUnit
11 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
11 1 (0.11%) Subversion
11 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 210 (23.44%) Social Skills
2 145 (16.18%) Finance
3 72 (8.04%) Analytical Skills
4 69 (7.70%) Public Sector
5 61 (6.81%) Banking
6 39 (4.35%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (2.68%) Financial Institution
8 22 (2.46%) Telecoms
9 16 (1.79%) Legal
10 12 (1.34%) Organisational Skills
10 12 (1.34%) Retail
11 11 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 10 (1.12%) Manufacturing
13 9 (1.00%) Influencing Skills
13 9 (1.00%) Police
14 6 (0.67%) Law
14 6 (0.67%) Local Government
15 5 (0.56%) Military
16 3 (0.33%) Billing
16 3 (0.33%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 238 (26.56%) Network Engineer
2 195 (21.76%) Architect
3 113 (12.61%) Security Engineer
4 96 (10.71%) Security Architect
5 86 (9.60%) Senior
6 68 (7.59%) Network Architect
7 62 (6.92%) Network Security Engineer
8 43 (4.80%) Consultant
9 41 (4.58%) Project Manager
10 36 (4.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 34 (3.79%) Lead
12 29 (3.24%) Senior Network Engineer
13 28 (3.13%) Cloud Engineer
13 28 (3.13%) Network Security Architect
14 25 (2.79%) Network Manager
15 23 (2.57%) Solutions Architect
16 22 (2.46%) Azure Architect
17 21 (2.34%) Cloud Architect
17 21 (2.34%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
17 21 (2.34%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (4.24%) 802.1X
2 15 (1.67%) SAML
3 13 (1.45%) REST
4 10 (1.12%) ARM Templates
4 10 (1.12%) Kafka
5 8 (0.89%) LDAP
6 7 (0.78%) OAuth
6 7 (0.78%) OpenID
7 6 (0.67%) CSS
7 6 (0.67%) HTML
7 6 (0.67%) SLSA
8 5 (0.56%) OAuth2
9 4 (0.45%) .NET
9 4 (0.45%) AWS CDK
9 4 (0.45%) gRPC
9 4 (0.45%) JSON
9 4 (0.45%) Keycloak
9 4 (0.45%) Protocol Buffers
9 4 (0.45%) RESTful
10 3 (0.33%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 114 (12.72%) Data Centre
2 67 (7.48%) Security Posture
3 52 (5.80%) Cloud Native
4 43 (4.80%) Hybrid Cloud
5 37 (4.13%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 28 (3.13%) Onboarding
7 26 (2.90%) Data Protection Act
7 26 (2.90%) Operational Technology
8 25 (2.79%) PKI
9 24 (2.68%) Management Information System
10 23 (2.57%) Public Cloud
11 20 (2.23%) Cyber Threat
11 20 (2.23%) Product Ownership
12 18 (2.01%) IoT
12 18 (2.01%) Security Operations Centre
13 15 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
14 10 (1.12%) Replication
14 10 (1.12%) Virtual Team
15 9 (1.00%) Enterprise Cloud
15 9 (1.00%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 75 (8.37%) Linux
2 69 (7.70%) Windows
3 22 (2.46%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.89%) Unix
6 7 (0.78%) Ubuntu
6 7 (0.78%) VMS
7 6 (0.67%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.56%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.33%) Android
9 3 (0.33%) Check Point GAiA
9 3 (0.33%) SUSE
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 183 (20.42%) Cybersecurity
2 156 (17.41%) Cloud Security
3 138 (15.40%) Zero Trust
4 130 (14.51%) CI/CD
5 120 (13.39%) Infrastructure as Code
6 119 (13.28%) SIEM
7 117 (13.06%) DevOps
7 117 (13.06%) Migration
7 117 (13.06%) Security Architecture
8 112 (12.50%) Continuous Improvement
9 100 (11.16%) Stakeholder Management
10 98 (10.94%) High Availability
11 97 (10.83%) Problem-Solving
12 91 (10.16%) Application Security
13 89 (9.93%) Data Protection
14 88 (9.82%) Incident Response
14 88 (9.82%) Load Balancing
14 88 (9.82%) Threat Modelling
15 85 (9.49%) Identity Access Management
15 85 (9.49%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 121 (13.50%) Python
2 55 (6.14%) PowerShell
3 46 (5.13%) Bash
4 34 (3.79%) Bicep
5 22 (2.46%) SQL
6 19 (2.12%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.89%) Shell Script
8 7 (0.78%) Java
9 5 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (0.45%) Perl
10 4 (0.45%) PHP
10 4 (0.45%) Rust
11 2 (0.22%) C
11 2 (0.22%) Ruby
12 1 (0.11%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.11%) AppleScript
12 1 (0.11%) C++
12 1 (0.11%) Go
12 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.11%) VBA
Qualifications
1 247 (27.57%) Security Cleared
2 179 (19.98%) SC Cleared
3 167 (18.64%) Cisco Certification
4 103 (11.50%) CISSP
5 99 (11.05%) CCNP
6 78 (8.71%) DV Cleared
7 69 (7.70%) Degree
8 63 (7.03%) CCNA
8 63 (7.03%) CISM
9 40 (4.46%) CCSP
10 39 (4.35%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 30 (3.35%) Azure Certification
12 25 (2.79%) CCIE
13 21 (2.34%) AWS Certification
14 16 (1.79%) CompTIA Security+
14 16 (1.79%) Computer Science Degree
15 15 (1.67%) BPSS Clearance
16 14 (1.56%) GIAC
17 10 (1.12%) CEH
17 10 (1.12%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (10.38%) NIST
2 75 (8.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 42 (4.69%) GDPR
4 30 (3.35%) NCSC
5 29 (3.24%) PCI DSS
6 19 (2.12%) GRC
6 19 (2.12%) QA
7 14 (1.56%) Cyber Essentials
7 14 (1.56%) SLA
8 9 (1.00%) Disclosure Scotland
9 8 (0.89%) Actionable Recommendations
9 8 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 8 (0.89%) NIST 800
9 8 (0.89%) SOC 2
10 7 (0.78%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 6 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 4 (0.45%) PMO
13 3 (0.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.33%) JSP 440
13 3 (0.33%) RMADS
System Software
1 68 (7.59%) Active Directory
2 55 (6.14%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (2.90%) Docker
4 23 (2.57%) Virtual Machines
4 23 (2.57%) VMware NSX
5 13 (1.45%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (1.12%) Hyper-V
6 10 (1.12%) vSphere
7 6 (0.67%) Firmware
8 5 (0.56%) Squid
9 3 (0.33%) NFS
9 3 (0.33%) Virtual Desktop
10 2 (0.22%) OpenSSH
10 2 (0.22%) Postfix
10 2 (0.22%) Sendmail
10 2 (0.22%) Varnish
10 2 (0.22%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.11%) Samba
11 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 122 (13.62%) Terraform
2 83 (9.26%) Ansible
3 79 (8.82%) Kubernetes
4 43 (4.80%) FortiGate
5 20 (2.23%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (2.12%) Grafana
7 13 (1.45%) vCenter Server
8 12 (1.34%) Microsoft Intune
8 12 (1.34%) Prometheus
9 8 (0.89%) CASB
10 7 (0.78%) Puppet
11 6 (0.67%) Istio
11 6 (0.67%) QRadar
12 5 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (0.56%) SCCM
12 5 (0.56%) SCOM
12 5 (0.56%) Suricata
12 5 (0.56%) WSUS
13 4 (0.45%) Kustomize
13 4 (0.45%) Podman
Vendors
1 246 (27.46%) Cisco
2 138 (15.40%) Palo Alto
3 128 (14.29%) Microsoft
4 80 (8.93%) F5
5 77 (8.59%) Fortinet
6 69 (7.70%) VMware
7 60 (6.70%) CheckPoint
8 56 (6.25%) Juniper
9 55 (6.14%) Zscaler
10 36 (4.02%) ServiceNow
10 36 (4.02%) Splunk
11 28 (3.13%) SolarWinds
12 26 (2.90%) Google
13 25 (2.79%) Aruba
14 23 (2.57%) Citrix
15 21 (2.34%) Tenable
16 20 (2.23%) ForeScout
17 14 (1.56%) Arista
17 14 (1.56%) Infoblox
18 13 (1.45%) CyberArk