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 5 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 156 150 179
Rank change year-on-year -6 +29 -15
Contract jobs citing Network Security 881 608 548
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.66% 1.85% 1.40%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.73% 15.38% 11.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 597 363 377
10th Percentile £400 £375 £363
25th Percentile £463 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £650 £618 £660
90th Percentile £735 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £500 £575
% change year-on-year +5.90% -13.04% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 18 6
10th Percentile £26.20 £45.00 £20.75
25th Percentile £42.13 £58.79 £23.00
Median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -9.51% +100.43% -39.02%
75th Percentile £74.00 £83.53 £58.75
90th Percentile - £89.50 £88.81
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £40.25
% change year-on-year -9.51% +100.43% +111.84%

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 4,970 3,953 4,763
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.34% 12.01% 12.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,953 2,417 2,892
10th Percentile £250 £235 £220
25th Percentile £400 £373 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 353 195 327
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.27
Median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.68% +5.26% -5.79%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £45.00 £53.69
% change year-on-year -40.76% -16.18% -6.49%

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 5 August 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 5 August 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 5 August 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 -25 766 £540 +2.86% 364
UK excluding London -27 430 £530 +5.90% 230
London -4 341 £550 - 167
Work from Home +3 268 £540 +1.50% 185
North of England +14 183 £528 +8.87% 56
South East -28 119 £557 +13.67% 82
North West -5 102 £533 +12.21% 33
Yorkshire +1 78 £507 +3.05% 20
Midlands -54 52 £450 -21.74% 30
East of England -11 34 £525 -4.55% 16
West Midlands -72 33 £413 -28.26% 15
Scotland -4 29 £600 +26.32% 16
East Midlands +7 18 £638 - 15
South West -64 17 £550 -8.33% 23
Wales -14 2 £538 +44.78% 6
North East -38 2 £675 +8.00% 3

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 (1.82%) Microsoft Exchange
2 14 (1.59%) Confluence
3 11 (1.25%) SharePoint
4 3 (0.34%) Apache
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.11%) IIS
5 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 21 (2.38%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.79%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.11%) InfoPath
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
1 6 (0.68%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 298 (33.83%) Azure
2 207 (23.50%) AWS
3 113 (12.83%) GCP
4 94 (10.67%) Entra ID
5 34 (3.86%) GitHub
5 34 (3.86%) Microsoft 365
6 33 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (3.63%) Azure Sentinel
8 28 (3.18%) Azure Monitor
9 26 (2.95%) SaaS
10 24 (2.72%) Serverless
11 21 (2.38%) GitHub Actions
11 21 (2.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 20 (2.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 19 (2.16%) Azure AKS
14 18 (2.04%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 16 (1.82%) Akamai
16 15 (1.70%) Azure Key Vault
16 15 (1.70%) OCI
17 13 (1.48%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 392 (44.49%) Firewall
2 197 (22.36%) VPN
3 184 (20.89%) WAN
4 135 (15.32%) LAN
5 127 (14.42%) DNS
6 98 (11.12%) BGP
7 95 (10.78%) Wireless
8 94 (10.67%) TCP/IP
9 87 (9.88%) SD-WAN
10 77 (8.74%) OSPF
11 73 (8.29%) VLAN
12 65 (7.38%) DHCP
13 54 (6.13%) IPsec
14 51 (5.79%) MPLS
14 51 (5.79%) SSL
15 44 (4.99%) Wi-Fi
16 41 (4.65%) Cisco ISE
17 39 (4.43%) Cisco ASA
17 39 (4.43%) NGFW
18 38 (4.31%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.48%) SQL Server
2 8 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.45%) Data Lake
4 4 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.45%) Neo4j
4 4 (0.45%) Power BI
5 3 (0.34%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.23%) BigQuery
6 2 (0.23%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.23%) InfluxDB
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 39 (4.43%) Git
2 36 (4.09%) JIRA
3 24 (2.72%) GitLab
4 20 (2.27%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.45%) MSBuild
7 4 (0.45%) Snyk
7 4 (0.45%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.45%) Visual Studio
8 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.23%) Postman
10 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.11%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.11%) JUnit
10 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.11%) Subversion
10 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 210 (23.84%) Social Skills
2 146 (16.57%) Finance
3 71 (8.06%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (6.81%) Banking
5 56 (6.36%) Public Sector
6 45 (5.11%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (2.84%) Financial Institution
7 25 (2.84%) Telecoms
8 21 (2.38%) Legal
9 14 (1.59%) Manufacturing
10 13 (1.48%) Retail
11 12 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 12 (1.36%) Organisational Skills
12 11 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
13 8 (0.91%) Police
14 6 (0.68%) Automotive
14 6 (0.68%) Law
14 6 (0.68%) Local Government
14 6 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
15 4 (0.45%) Military
Job Titles
1 243 (27.58%) Network Engineer
2 182 (20.66%) Architect
3 103 (11.69%) Security Engineer
4 99 (11.24%) Security Architect
4 99 (11.24%) Senior
5 65 (7.38%) Network Architect
6 63 (7.15%) Network Security Engineer
7 55 (6.24%) Consultant
8 44 (4.99%) Senior Network Engineer
9 42 (4.77%) Project Manager
10 38 (4.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 37 (4.20%) Lead
12 31 (3.52%) Cloud Engineer
13 27 (3.06%) Network Security Architect
14 25 (2.84%) Network Manager
14 25 (2.84%) Security Consultant
15 24 (2.72%) Analyst
16 21 (2.38%) Solutions Architect
17 19 (2.16%) DevOps Engineer
17 19 (2.16%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (4.20%) 802.1X
2 16 (1.82%) SAML
3 13 (1.48%) REST
4 12 (1.36%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.14%) Kafka
6 6 (0.68%) NETCONF
7 5 (0.57%) .NET
7 5 (0.57%) CSS
7 5 (0.57%) HTML
7 5 (0.57%) JSON
8 4 (0.45%) gRPC
8 4 (0.45%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.45%) OAuth
8 4 (0.45%) OpenID
8 4 (0.45%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (0.45%) RESTful
8 4 (0.45%) XML
9 3 (0.34%) Azure Blueprints
9 3 (0.34%) Plotly
9 3 (0.34%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 104 (11.80%) Data Centre
2 70 (7.95%) Security Posture
3 50 (5.68%) Cloud Native
4 48 (5.45%) Hybrid Cloud
5 39 (4.43%) Onboarding
6 38 (4.31%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 32 (3.63%) Management Information System
8 29 (3.29%) Operational Technology
9 22 (2.50%) Cyber Threat
9 22 (2.50%) PKI
10 21 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
11 20 (2.27%) Public Cloud
11 20 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
12 18 (2.04%) Security Operations Centre
13 15 (1.70%) Linux Command Line
14 14 (1.59%) Product Ownership
15 13 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
16 11 (1.25%) Cloud Security Posture
16 11 (1.25%) IoT
17 10 (1.14%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 79 (8.97%) Windows
2 75 (8.51%) Linux
3 24 (2.72%) Windows Server
4 15 (1.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (1.02%) Unix
6 7 (0.79%) Ubuntu
7 6 (0.68%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.68%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.57%) VMS
9 3 (0.34%) Android
9 3 (0.34%) Check Point GAiA
9 3 (0.34%) SUSE
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.11%) Rocky
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.11%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (19.30%) Cloud Security
2 168 (19.07%) Cybersecurity
3 131 (14.87%) Zero Trust
4 120 (13.62%) CI/CD
5 118 (13.39%) SIEM
6 116 (13.17%) Continuous Improvement
7 112 (12.71%) DevOps
8 111 (12.60%) Infrastructure as Code
9 110 (12.49%) Migration
9 110 (12.49%) Stakeholder Management
10 106 (12.03%) Security Architecture
11 103 (11.69%) Change Management
12 98 (11.12%) Incident Response
13 95 (10.78%) High Availability
13 95 (10.78%) Identity Access Management
13 95 (10.78%) Problem-Solving
14 89 (10.10%) Data Protection
15 88 (9.99%) Threat Modelling
16 84 (9.53%) Load Balancing
17 83 (9.42%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 110 (12.49%) Python
2 70 (7.95%) PowerShell
3 56 (6.36%) Bash
4 36 (4.09%) Bicep
5 25 (2.84%) SQL
6 17 (1.93%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.91%) Java
8 7 (0.79%) Shell Script
9 5 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (0.45%) Perl
10 4 (0.45%) Rust
10 4 (0.45%) Search Processing Language
11 3 (0.34%) Go
12 2 (0.23%) Ruby
13 1 (0.11%) AppleScript
13 1 (0.11%) C
13 1 (0.11%) PHP
13 1 (0.11%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 231 (26.22%) Security Cleared
2 162 (18.39%) SC Cleared
3 158 (17.93%) Cisco Certification
4 103 (11.69%) CISSP
5 92 (10.44%) CCNP
6 74 (8.40%) DV Cleared
7 69 (7.83%) Degree
8 58 (6.58%) CCNA
9 56 (6.36%) CISM
10 41 (4.65%) CCSP
11 40 (4.54%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 36 (4.09%) Azure Certification
13 22 (2.50%) AWS Certification
13 22 (2.50%) CCIE
14 14 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (1.48%) CompTIA Security+
16 12 (1.36%) PMP
17 10 (1.14%) CEH
17 10 (1.14%) GIAC
18 9 (1.02%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (9.31%) NIST
2 73 (8.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 45 (5.11%) GDPR
4 32 (3.63%) NCSC
5 28 (3.18%) PCI DSS
6 19 (2.16%) QA
6 19 (2.16%) SLA
7 15 (1.70%) GRC
8 12 (1.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 9 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
10 8 (0.91%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.91%) NIST 800
11 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 5 (0.57%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
12 4 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 4 (0.45%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.34%) ISA99
13 3 (0.34%) PMO
System Software
1 83 (9.42%) Active Directory
2 55 (6.24%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (3.18%) Docker
4 22 (2.50%) VMware NSX
5 21 (2.38%) Virtual Machines
6 11 (1.25%) Hyper-V
7 10 (1.14%) vSphere
8 8 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.68%) Firmware
10 5 (0.57%) Squid
10 5 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.34%) NFS
12 2 (0.23%) OpenSSH
12 2 (0.23%) Postfix
12 2 (0.23%) Sendmail
12 2 (0.23%) Varnish
12 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.11%) Samba
Systems Management
1 119 (13.51%) Terraform
2 83 (9.42%) Ansible
3 70 (7.95%) Kubernetes
4 45 (5.11%) FortiGate
5 22 (2.50%) Grafana
5 22 (2.50%) Microsoft Intune
6 18 (2.04%) Single Sign-On
7 13 (1.48%) Prometheus
8 11 (1.25%) CASB
8 11 (1.25%) SCCM
9 8 (0.91%) vCenter Server
10 7 (0.79%) Progress Chef
10 7 (0.79%) Puppet
10 7 (0.79%) QRadar
11 6 (0.68%) Cisco CUCM
11 6 (0.68%) Cisco Prime
12 5 (0.57%) Suricata
12 5 (0.57%) WSUS
13 4 (0.45%) Kustomize
13 4 (0.45%) Podman
Vendors
1 246 (27.92%) Cisco
2 144 (16.35%) Palo Alto
3 143 (16.23%) Microsoft
4 80 (9.08%) Fortinet
5 79 (8.97%) F5
6 70 (7.95%) VMware
7 64 (7.26%) Zscaler
8 57 (6.47%) CheckPoint
9 53 (6.02%) Juniper
10 41 (4.65%) Splunk
11 35 (3.97%) ServiceNow
12 33 (3.75%) SolarWinds
13 29 (3.29%) Aruba
14 24 (2.72%) Citrix
15 21 (2.38%) Google
16 18 (2.04%) Tenable
17 16 (1.82%) ForeScout
18 15 (1.70%) CyberArk
19 14 (1.59%) Infoblox
19 14 (1.59%) Meraki