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

6 months to
2 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 171 153 183
Rank change year-on-year -18 +30 -15
Contract jobs citing Network Security 871 595 539
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.63% 1.83% 1.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.11% 15.54% 11.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 576 352 372
10th Percentile £400 £375 £363
25th Percentile £463 £440 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £625 £665
90th Percentile £728 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £534 £492 £550
% change year-on-year +8.60% -10.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 17 6
10th Percentile £26.20 £45.00 £30.50
25th Percentile £42.13 £55.00 £44.38
Median hourly rate £73.00 £70.16 £53.75
Median % change year-on-year +4.05% +30.53% -20.07%
75th Percentile £74.00 £84.00 £58.75
90th Percentile - £91.00 £88.81
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.00 £70.16 £53.75
% change year-on-year +4.05% +30.53% +17.49%

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 5,090 3,828 4,616
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.50% 11.77% 11.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,008 2,343 2,743
10th Percentile £235 £238 £230
25th Percentile £398 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £481 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.95% -3.80% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £677 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £469 £500
% change year-on-year +1.41% -6.13% +10.19%
Number of hourly rates quoted 377 200 288
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.22% -10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £65.22 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.10 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.84 £42.50 £55.75
% change year-on-year -39.20% -23.76% -1.32%

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 2 September 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 2 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Top 17 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 2 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
England -14 765 £550 +4.76% 619
UK excluding London -33 426 £534 +8.60% 349
London -4 339 £550 - 329
Work from Home +14 270 £531 -3.55% 228
North of England +9 201 £531 +8.48% 73
North West -7 114 £531 +11.79% 42
South East -34 105 £550 +17.18% 106
Yorkshire +14 84 £526 +6.00% 25
Midlands -69 44 £463 -11.90% 51
East of England -10 39 £525 -2.78% 30
West Midlands -72 29 £406 -22.62% 31
Scotland -16 26 £600 +33.33% 23
South West -57 17 £588 -8.20% 51
East Midlands -5 14 £500 - 20
North East - 2 £675 - 6
Northern Ireland +3 1 - - 13
Wales -18 1 £650 +30.00% 6

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 17 (1.95%) Microsoft Exchange
2 13 (1.49%) SharePoint
3 10 (1.15%) Confluence
4 3 (0.34%) Apache
4 3 (0.34%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.11%) IIS
5 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
5 1 (0.11%) nginx
Applications
1 21 (2.41%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.80%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.46%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.11%) InfoPath
5 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (0.69%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.23%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 308 (35.36%) Azure
2 210 (24.11%) AWS
3 112 (12.86%) GCP
4 90 (10.33%) Entra ID
5 41 (4.71%) Azure DevOps
5 41 (4.71%) Microsoft 365
6 34 (3.90%) GitHub
7 31 (3.56%) Azure Monitor
8 28 (3.21%) Serverless
9 27 (3.10%) Azure Sentinel
10 26 (2.99%) SaaS
11 22 (2.53%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 20 (2.30%) GitHub Actions
13 19 (2.18%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 17 (1.95%) Amazon EKS
14 17 (1.95%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 16 (1.84%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 16 (1.84%) Azure AKS
16 15 (1.72%) OCI
17 14 (1.61%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 394 (45.24%) Firewall
2 203 (23.31%) VPN
3 194 (22.27%) WAN
4 131 (15.04%) LAN
5 129 (14.81%) DNS
6 105 (12.06%) Wireless
7 100 (11.48%) BGP
8 90 (10.33%) TCP/IP
9 89 (10.22%) SD-WAN
10 73 (8.38%) DHCP
10 73 (8.38%) OSPF
10 73 (8.38%) VLAN
11 53 (6.08%) MPLS
11 53 (6.08%) SSL
12 52 (5.97%) IPsec
13 50 (5.74%) Wi-Fi
14 48 (5.51%) Cisco ISE
15 40 (4.59%) Cisco ASA
15 40 (4.59%) Internet
16 35 (4.02%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.49%) SQL Server
2 6 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
2 6 (0.69%) BigQuery
3 4 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.46%) Neo4j
4 3 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
4 3 (0.34%) Data Lake
4 3 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.34%) Power BI
5 2 (0.23%) Delta Lake
5 2 (0.23%) InfluxDB
6 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.11%) Looker
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.11%) Qlik Sense
6 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.11%) Snowflake Schema
6 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
6 1 (0.11%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 35 (4.02%) Git
2 31 (3.56%) GitLab
3 29 (3.33%) JIRA
4 25 (2.87%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.80%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.57%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.46%) MSBuild
7 4 (0.46%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.46%) Visual Studio
8 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.23%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.11%) Postman
10 1 (0.11%) Snyk
10 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.11%) Subversion
General
1 224 (25.72%) Social Skills
2 153 (17.57%) Finance
3 82 (9.41%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (6.66%) Banking
5 49 (5.63%) Public Sector
6 44 (5.05%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (3.33%) Telecoms
8 24 (2.76%) Legal
9 19 (2.18%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.72%) Retail
11 14 (1.61%) Manufacturing
12 12 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (1.38%) Organisational Skills
13 11 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
14 8 (0.92%) Police
15 7 (0.80%) Local Government
15 7 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
16 6 (0.69%) Automotive
16 6 (0.69%) Military
17 5 (0.57%) Law
Job Titles
1 242 (27.78%) Network Engineer
2 161 (18.48%) Architect
3 109 (12.51%) Senior
4 106 (12.17%) Security Engineer
5 88 (10.10%) Security Architect
6 63 (7.23%) Consultant
7 61 (7.00%) Network Security Engineer
8 56 (6.43%) Network Architect
9 52 (5.97%) Senior Network Engineer
10 45 (5.17%) Project Manager
11 40 (4.59%) Cloud Engineer
11 40 (4.59%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 33 (3.79%) Lead
12 33 (3.79%) Security Consultant
13 25 (2.87%) Analyst
13 25 (2.87%) Network Manager
14 24 (2.76%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
15 22 (2.53%) Azure Engineer
15 22 (2.53%) Solutions Architect
16 21 (2.41%) DevOps Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 124 (14.24%) Terraform
2 35 (4.02%) 802.1X
3 17 (1.95%) REST
4 15 (1.72%) ARM Templates
4 15 (1.72%) SAML
5 11 (1.26%) Kafka
6 8 (0.92%) NETCONF
7 6 (0.69%) gRPC
7 6 (0.69%) JSON
8 5 (0.57%) Azure Blueprints
8 5 (0.57%) Keycloak
8 5 (0.57%) OpenID
8 5 (0.57%) SLSA
8 5 (0.57%) XML
9 4 (0.46%) .NET
9 4 (0.46%) CSS
9 4 (0.46%) OAuth
9 4 (0.46%) Protocol Buffers
9 4 (0.46%) RESTful
10 3 (0.34%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 108 (12.40%) Data Centre
2 81 (9.30%) Security Posture
3 53 (6.08%) Cloud Native
4 46 (5.28%) Onboarding
5 43 (4.94%) Hybrid Cloud
6 41 (4.71%) Management Information System
7 36 (4.13%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 29 (3.33%) Operational Technology
9 27 (3.10%) Cyber Threat
10 26 (2.99%) PKI
11 22 (2.53%) Security Operations Centre
12 21 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
13 19 (2.18%) Cloud Security Posture
14 17 (1.95%) Data Protection Act
15 15 (1.72%) Public Cloud
16 13 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
16 13 (1.49%) Linux Command Line
17 11 (1.26%) Replication
18 9 (1.03%) IoT
18 9 (1.03%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 93 (10.68%) Windows
2 78 (8.96%) Linux
3 32 (3.67%) Windows Server
4 16 (1.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.92%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.69%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.69%) Ubuntu
6 6 (0.69%) Unix
7 3 (0.34%) Check Point GAiA
7 3 (0.34%) SUSE
7 3 (0.34%) VMS
8 2 (0.23%) Android
8 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
8 2 (0.23%) zOS
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.11%) Rocky
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 179 (20.55%) Cloud Security
2 173 (19.86%) Cybersecurity
3 138 (15.84%) Stakeholder Management
4 132 (15.15%) Zero Trust
5 127 (14.58%) Continuous Improvement
6 123 (14.12%) CI/CD
7 116 (13.32%) Incident Response
8 114 (13.09%) DevOps
8 114 (13.09%) Infrastructure as Code
8 114 (13.09%) Migration
9 111 (12.74%) Change Management
10 108 (12.40%) SIEM
11 104 (11.94%) Security Architecture
12 103 (11.83%) Problem-Solving
13 97 (11.14%) High Availability
14 93 (10.68%) Threat Modelling
15 92 (10.56%) Identity Access Management
15 92 (10.56%) Load Balancing
16 91 (10.45%) Data Protection
17 87 (9.99%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 137 (15.73%) Python
2 81 (9.30%) PowerShell
3 69 (7.92%) Bash
4 36 (4.13%) Bicep
5 24 (2.76%) SQL
6 12 (1.38%) Go
7 11 (1.26%) Java
8 9 (1.03%) JavaScript
9 7 (0.80%) Search Processing Language
10 6 (0.69%) Kusto Query Language
10 6 (0.69%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.46%) Rust
12 3 (0.34%) Perl
12 3 (0.34%) VBScript
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) C++
13 1 (0.11%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 228 (26.18%) Security Cleared
2 166 (19.06%) SC Cleared
3 165 (18.94%) Cisco Certification
4 108 (12.40%) CISSP
5 95 (10.91%) CCNP
6 66 (7.58%) DV Cleared
7 63 (7.23%) Degree
8 54 (6.20%) CISM
9 52 (5.97%) CCNA
10 47 (5.40%) CCSP
11 45 (5.17%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 37 (4.25%) Azure Certification
13 29 (3.33%) AWS Certification
13 29 (3.33%) CCIE
14 16 (1.84%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (1.38%) PMP
16 11 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
16 11 (1.26%) GIAC
16 11 (1.26%) PMI Certification
17 10 (1.15%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 73 (8.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 68 (7.81%) NIST
3 41 (4.71%) GDPR
4 28 (3.21%) NCSC
5 24 (2.76%) PCI DSS
6 14 (1.61%) QA
7 13 (1.49%) GRC
8 12 (1.38%) SLA
9 11 (1.26%) Cyber Essentials
10 10 (1.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 8 (0.92%) NIST 800
12 7 (0.80%) Disclosure Scotland
13 6 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 4 (0.46%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 3 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
16 3 (0.34%) ISA99
16 3 (0.34%) PMO
16 3 (0.34%) SOC 2
17 2 (0.23%) Data Quality
System Software
1 78 (8.96%) Active Directory
2 56 (6.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (3.56%) Docker
4 21 (2.41%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (2.18%) VMware NSX
6 13 (1.49%) Hyper-V
7 11 (1.26%) vSphere
8 8 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
8 8 (0.92%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (0.57%) Firmware
9 5 (0.57%) Squid
10 2 (0.23%) FreeRADIUS
10 2 (0.23%) NFS
10 2 (0.23%) OpenSSH
10 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
10 2 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
11 1 (0.11%) Postfix
11 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
11 1 (0.11%) Samba
11 1 (0.11%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 94 (10.79%) Ansible
2 78 (8.96%) Kubernetes
3 45 (5.17%) FortiGate
4 22 (2.53%) Grafana
4 22 (2.53%) Microsoft Intune
5 16 (1.84%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (1.72%) Prometheus
7 14 (1.61%) Progress Chef
7 14 (1.61%) SCCM
8 10 (1.15%) CASB
9 7 (0.80%) Cisco Prime
9 7 (0.80%) Puppet
9 7 (0.80%) QRadar
9 7 (0.80%) vCenter Server
10 6 (0.69%) Cisco CUCM
11 5 (0.57%) Suricata
11 5 (0.57%) WSUS
12 4 (0.46%) Kustomize
12 4 (0.46%) Nagios
12 4 (0.46%) Podman
Vendors
1 248 (28.47%) Cisco
2 158 (18.14%) Microsoft
3 152 (17.45%) Palo Alto
4 87 (9.99%) Fortinet
5 82 (9.41%) F5
6 77 (8.84%) VMware
7 55 (6.31%) CheckPoint
7 55 (6.31%) Zscaler
8 44 (5.05%) Juniper
9 37 (4.25%) Splunk
10 36 (4.13%) SolarWinds
11 31 (3.56%) Aruba
12 28 (3.21%) Google
13 27 (3.10%) ServiceNow
14 22 (2.53%) Citrix
15 16 (1.84%) Meraki
16 14 (1.61%) CyberArk
16 14 (1.61%) Tenable
17 12 (1.38%) Blue Coat
17 12 (1.38%) ForeScout