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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 157 154 180
Rank change year-on-year -3 +26 -15
Contract jobs citing Network Security 901 599 561
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.71% 1.84% 1.36%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.05% 15.10% 10.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 607 363 375
10th Percentile £400 £375 £363
25th Percentile £453 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £650 £615 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £537 £500 £575
% change year-on-year +7.40% -13.04% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 17 13
10th Percentile £25.05 £45.00 -
25th Percentile £40.53 £55.00 £7.43
Median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.51% +250.76% -65.15%
75th Percentile £74.00 £84.00 £41.25
90th Percentile £74.03 £91.00 £58.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £13.50
% change year-on-year -9.51% +497.59% -28.95%

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 4,993 3,967 5,141
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 12.16% 12.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,011 2,422 3,069
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.25% -2.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £589 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.05% -5.00% +9.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 324 193 383
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.90
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £17.66
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% +15.63% -16.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.80 £73.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -16.91%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -9 779 £540 +2.86% 261
UK excluding London -15 451 £537 +7.40% 179
London -4 336 £550 - 114
Work from Home +7 269 £540 +2.37% 117
North of England +2 188 £533 +8.78% 43
South East -12 128 £560 +14.29% 68
North West -3 101 £537 +13.05% 29
Yorkshire +6 85 £500 +1.63% 13
Midlands -53 51 £475 -17.39% 25
Scotland -4 35 £600 +33.33% 18
East of England -19 32 £525 -4.55% 16
West Midlands -72 31 £413 -28.26% 11
South West -48 22 £550 -8.33% 14
East Midlands +5 19 £638 - 14
Wales -20 3 £600 +61.62% 2
North East -35 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 16 (1.78%) Confluence
2 15 (1.66%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (1.11%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.22%) Apache
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.11%) IIS
5 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 20 (2.22%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.78%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.11%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.67%) Oracle ERP
1 6 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 291 (32.30%) Azure
2 204 (22.64%) AWS
3 120 (13.32%) GCP
4 90 (9.99%) Entra ID
5 36 (4.00%) GitHub
6 32 (3.55%) Azure DevOps
7 31 (3.44%) Azure Sentinel
8 30 (3.33%) Microsoft 365
9 28 (3.11%) Azure Monitor
10 25 (2.77%) GitHub Actions
10 25 (2.77%) Serverless
11 23 (2.55%) SaaS
12 20 (2.22%) Azure AKS
12 20 (2.22%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 20 (2.22%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 20 (2.22%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 17 (1.89%) Azure Key Vault
13 17 (1.89%) OCI
14 16 (1.78%) Akamai
15 14 (1.55%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 410 (45.50%) Firewall
2 203 (22.53%) VPN
3 182 (20.20%) WAN
4 134 (14.87%) LAN
5 126 (13.98%) DNS
6 108 (11.99%) BGP
7 97 (10.77%) Wireless
8 92 (10.21%) TCP/IP
9 87 (9.66%) SD-WAN
10 86 (9.54%) OSPF
11 75 (8.32%) VLAN
12 67 (7.44%) DHCP
13 57 (6.33%) MPLS
14 54 (5.99%) IPsec
15 51 (5.66%) SSL
16 47 (5.22%) Wi-Fi
17 44 (4.88%) Cisco ISE
18 43 (4.77%) Cisco ASA
19 40 (4.44%) NGFW
20 38 (4.22%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.33%) SQL Server
2 8 (0.89%) Azure SQL Database
3 5 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.44%) Data Lake
4 4 (0.44%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.44%) Neo4j
4 4 (0.44%) Power BI
5 3 (0.33%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (0.33%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.22%) BigQuery
6 2 (0.22%) InfluxDB
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database
7 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.11%) DataStage
7 1 (0.11%) Looker
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.11%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 41 (4.55%) JIRA
2 36 (4.00%) Git
3 24 (2.66%) GitLab
4 19 (2.11%) Jenkins
5 9 (1.00%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.67%) Browser DevTools
7 5 (0.55%) Snyk
8 4 (0.44%) MSBuild
8 4 (0.44%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.44%) Visual Studio
9 3 (0.33%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.22%) Postman
11 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
11 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
11 1 (0.11%) IBM UrbanCode
11 1 (0.11%) JUnit
11 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
11 1 (0.11%) Subversion
11 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 212 (23.53%) Social Skills
2 142 (15.76%) Finance
3 70 (7.77%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (6.99%) Public Sector
5 62 (6.88%) Banking
6 44 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (2.89%) Telecoms
8 25 (2.77%) Financial Institution
9 18 (2.00%) Legal
10 14 (1.55%) Manufacturing
11 13 (1.44%) Retail
12 12 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (1.33%) Organisational Skills
13 10 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
14 8 (0.89%) Police
15 6 (0.67%) Law
16 5 (0.55%) Local Government
16 5 (0.55%) Military
17 4 (0.44%) Automotive
17 4 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 250 (27.75%) Network Engineer
2 194 (21.53%) Architect
3 115 (12.76%) Security Engineer
4 99 (10.99%) Security Architect
4 99 (10.99%) Senior
5 69 (7.66%) Network Architect
5 69 (7.66%) Network Security Engineer
6 50 (5.55%) Consultant
7 41 (4.55%) Project Manager
7 41 (4.55%) Senior Network Engineer
8 40 (4.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 37 (4.11%) Lead
10 30 (3.33%) Cloud Engineer
11 28 (3.11%) Network Security Architect
12 26 (2.89%) Network Manager
13 23 (2.55%) Solutions Architect
14 22 (2.44%) Analyst
14 22 (2.44%) Security Consultant
15 21 (2.33%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
16 20 (2.22%) Azure Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (4.33%) 802.1X
2 17 (1.89%) SAML
3 16 (1.78%) REST
4 14 (1.55%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.11%) Kafka
6 6 (0.67%) JSON
7 5 (0.55%) .NET
7 5 (0.55%) CSS
7 5 (0.55%) HTML
7 5 (0.55%) LDAP
7 5 (0.55%) OAuth
7 5 (0.55%) OpenID
8 4 (0.44%) gRPC
8 4 (0.44%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.44%) NETCONF
8 4 (0.44%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (0.44%) RESTful
8 4 (0.44%) SLSA
8 4 (0.44%) XML
9 3 (0.33%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 114 (12.65%) Data Centre
2 68 (7.55%) Security Posture
3 49 (5.44%) Cloud Native
4 48 (5.33%) Hybrid Cloud
5 38 (4.22%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 35 (3.88%) Onboarding
7 28 (3.11%) Management Information System
7 28 (3.11%) Operational Technology
8 24 (2.66%) Data Protection Act
9 23 (2.55%) PKI
9 23 (2.55%) Public Cloud
10 21 (2.33%) Cyber Threat
11 18 (2.00%) Product Ownership
11 18 (2.00%) Security Operations Centre
11 18 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
12 14 (1.55%) IoT
12 14 (1.55%) Linux Command Line
13 13 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
14 10 (1.11%) Replication
14 10 (1.11%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 77 (8.55%) Linux
2 75 (8.32%) Windows
3 23 (2.55%) Windows Server
4 14 (1.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (1.00%) Unix
6 7 (0.78%) Mac OS
6 7 (0.78%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.55%) VMS
7 5 (0.55%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.33%) Android
8 3 (0.33%) Check Point GAiA
8 3 (0.33%) SUSE
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.11%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (19.20%) Cybersecurity
2 165 (18.31%) Cloud Security
3 138 (15.32%) Zero Trust
4 123 (13.65%) CI/CD
5 120 (13.32%) DevOps
6 119 (13.21%) Infrastructure as Code
6 119 (13.21%) SIEM
7 116 (12.87%) Continuous Improvement
8 114 (12.65%) Migration
9 107 (11.88%) Stakeholder Management
10 104 (11.54%) Security Architecture
11 101 (11.21%) Change Management
12 99 (10.99%) Problem-Solving
13 97 (10.77%) High Availability
14 95 (10.54%) Incident Response
15 94 (10.43%) Identity Access Management
16 88 (9.77%) Agile
17 87 (9.66%) Data Protection
17 87 (9.66%) Load Balancing
17 87 (9.66%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 117 (12.99%) Python
2 63 (6.99%) PowerShell
3 55 (6.10%) Bash
4 38 (4.22%) Bicep
5 22 (2.44%) SQL
6 18 (2.00%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.89%) Java
7 8 (0.89%) Shell Script
8 4 (0.44%) Perl
8 4 (0.44%) Rust
9 3 (0.33%) Go
9 3 (0.33%) PHP
10 2 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
10 2 (0.22%) Ruby
11 1 (0.11%) ActionScript
11 1 (0.11%) AppleScript
11 1 (0.11%) C
11 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
11 1 (0.11%) VBA
Qualifications
1 241 (26.75%) Security Cleared
2 168 (18.65%) SC Cleared
3 160 (17.76%) Cisco Certification
4 102 (11.32%) CISSP
5 96 (10.65%) CCNP
6 80 (8.88%) DV Cleared
7 66 (7.33%) Degree
8 60 (6.66%) CISM
9 58 (6.44%) CCNA
10 40 (4.44%) CCSP
11 39 (4.33%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 34 (3.77%) Azure Certification
13 24 (2.66%) CCIE
14 22 (2.44%) AWS Certification
15 15 (1.66%) CompTIA Security+
16 13 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
16 13 (1.44%) GIAC
17 11 (1.22%) BPSS Clearance
17 11 (1.22%) JNCIS
17 11 (1.22%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (9.32%) NIST
2 75 (8.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 41 (4.55%) GDPR
4 32 (3.55%) NCSC
5 26 (2.89%) PCI DSS
6 19 (2.11%) QA
7 18 (2.00%) GRC
7 18 (2.00%) SLA
8 13 (1.44%) Cyber Essentials
9 9 (1.00%) Disclosure Scotland
9 9 (1.00%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 8 (0.89%) NIST 800
11 7 (0.78%) Actionable Recommendations
12 6 (0.67%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 6 (0.67%) SOC 2
13 4 (0.44%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 3 (0.33%) ISA99
14 3 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 3 (0.33%) PMO
System Software
1 77 (8.55%) Active Directory
2 55 (6.10%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (3.22%) Docker
4 24 (2.66%) VMware NSX
5 22 (2.44%) Virtual Machines
6 11 (1.22%) vSphere
7 10 (1.11%) Hyper-V
7 10 (1.11%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.67%) Firmware
9 5 (0.55%) Squid
9 5 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.33%) NFS
11 2 (0.22%) OpenSSH
11 2 (0.22%) Postfix
11 2 (0.22%) Sendmail
11 2 (0.22%) Varnish
11 2 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.22%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.11%) Samba
Systems Management
1 124 (13.76%) Terraform
2 86 (9.54%) Ansible
3 73 (8.10%) Kubernetes
4 43 (4.77%) FortiGate
5 20 (2.22%) Grafana
6 19 (2.11%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (2.00%) Microsoft Intune
8 12 (1.33%) Prometheus
9 10 (1.11%) vCenter Server
10 9 (1.00%) SCCM
11 8 (0.89%) CASB
12 7 (0.78%) Puppet
12 7 (0.78%) QRadar
13 6 (0.67%) Cisco CUCM
14 5 (0.55%) Cisco Prime
14 5 (0.55%) Suricata
14 5 (0.55%) WSUS
15 4 (0.44%) Istio
15 4 (0.44%) Kustomize
15 4 (0.44%) SCOM
Vendors
1 257 (28.52%) Cisco
2 151 (16.76%) Palo Alto
3 140 (15.54%) Microsoft
4 82 (9.10%) F5
4 82 (9.10%) Fortinet
5 70 (7.77%) VMware
6 64 (7.10%) CheckPoint
7 62 (6.88%) Zscaler
8 59 (6.55%) Juniper
9 38 (4.22%) Splunk
10 34 (3.77%) ServiceNow
11 31 (3.44%) SolarWinds
12 26 (2.89%) Aruba
13 25 (2.77%) Citrix
13 25 (2.77%) Google
14 19 (2.11%) ForeScout
14 19 (2.11%) Tenable
15 15 (1.66%) Infoblox
16 14 (1.55%) CyberArk
17 13 (1.44%) Meraki