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 30 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 155 155 183
Rank change year-on-year 0 +28 -13
Contract jobs citing Network Security 890 559 562
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.73% 1.83% 1.30%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.25% 14.83% 10.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 607 341 373
10th Percentile £400 £370 £365
25th Percentile £450 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £520 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -5.45% -
75th Percentile £625 £613 £660
90th Percentile £705 £725 £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 16 11 18
10th Percentile £21.25 £70.16 -
25th Percentile £33.81 £75.25 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.10% +287.38% -67.19%
75th Percentile £74.00 £83.05 £41.25
90th Percentile - £100.00 £45.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £81.35 £7.43
% change year-on-year -17.03% +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 4,877 3,770 5,390
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.50% 12.32% 12.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,980 2,297 3,176
10th Percentile £250 £225 £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 £481 £473 £490
% change year-on-year +1.72% -3.57% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 179 432
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.87
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.99 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.69 £45.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.69% - +113.17%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £80.20 £73.21
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.44 £36.57 £47.50
% change year-on-year -27.71% -23.01% +114.64%

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 30 June 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 30 June 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 30 June 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 +3 773 £534 +1.64% 192
UK excluding London -16 441 £525 +7.14% 166
London +2 336 £550 -3.68% 61
Work from Home +9 267 £540 +2.86% 91
North of England +11 184 £525 +6.92% 42
South East -26 110 £525 +7.14% 59
North West -1 97 £527 +10.29% 27
Yorkshire +7 85 £500 +1.83% 14
Midlands -51 55 £500 -13.98% 19
Scotland +2 36 £600 +41.18% 12
West Midlands -64 34 £435 -25.16% 8
East of England -15 32 £525 -0.94% 17
South West -28 30 £550 -8.33% 18
East Midlands +1 20 £569 - 11
Wales -21 3 £600 +106.90% 3
North East -33 2 £675 +8.00% 1

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 (2.58%) Confluence
2 13 (1.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.01%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.22%) Apache
5 1 (0.11%) IIS
5 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
5 1 (0.11%) nginx
Applications
1 17 (1.91%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.24%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.45%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.11%) InfoPath
5 1 (0.11%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (0.67%) SAP S/4HANA
2 5 (0.56%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 276 (31.01%) Azure
2 198 (22.25%) AWS
3 122 (13.71%) GCP
4 79 (8.88%) Entra ID
5 38 (4.27%) GitHub
6 30 (3.37%) Azure DevOps
6 30 (3.37%) Azure Sentinel
6 30 (3.37%) GitHub Actions
7 24 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
7 24 (2.70%) SaaS
8 23 (2.58%) Serverless
9 22 (2.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 20 (2.25%) Azure AKS
10 20 (2.25%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 18 (2.02%) Azure Key Vault
11 18 (2.02%) Azure Monitor
12 17 (1.91%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 16 (1.80%) Akamai
13 16 (1.80%) OCI
14 15 (1.69%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 396 (44.49%) Firewall
2 184 (20.67%) VPN
3 165 (18.54%) WAN
4 126 (14.16%) LAN
5 112 (12.58%) DNS
6 106 (11.91%) BGP
7 91 (10.22%) SD-WAN
8 90 (10.11%) Wireless
9 86 (9.66%) OSPF
10 79 (8.88%) TCP/IP
11 73 (8.20%) VLAN
12 56 (6.29%) DHCP
13 55 (6.18%) MPLS
14 49 (5.51%) IPsec
15 45 (5.06%) SSL
16 43 (4.83%) Wi-Fi
17 40 (4.49%) Cisco ISE
18 37 (4.16%) Internet
18 37 (4.16%) NGFW
19 35 (3.93%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
2 8 (0.90%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.45%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (0.45%) Data Lake
3 4 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.45%) Neo4j
3 4 (0.45%) Power BI
4 3 (0.34%) Amazon Athena
4 3 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
5 2 (0.22%) BigQuery
5 2 (0.22%) InfluxDB
5 2 (0.22%) Oracle Database
6 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
6 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.11%) DataStage
6 1 (0.11%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.11%) Snowflake Schema
6 1 (0.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 45 (5.06%) JIRA
2 27 (3.03%) Git
3 25 (2.81%) GitLab
4 24 (2.70%) Jenkins
5 10 (1.12%) Sonatype Nexus
6 7 (0.79%) Snyk
7 5 (0.56%) Browser DevTools
8 4 (0.45%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
9 3 (0.34%) MSBuild
9 3 (0.34%) 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%) Zephyr
General
1 207 (23.26%) Social Skills
2 146 (16.40%) Finance
3 71 (7.98%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (7.64%) Public Sector
5 60 (6.74%) Banking
6 38 (4.27%) Documentation Skills
7 24 (2.70%) Financial Institution
8 23 (2.58%) Telecoms
9 15 (1.69%) Legal
10 12 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
10 12 (1.35%) Retail
11 11 (1.24%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
12 9 (1.01%) Police
13 8 (0.90%) Manufacturing
14 7 (0.79%) Local Government
15 6 (0.67%) Law
16 5 (0.56%) Military
17 3 (0.34%) Billing
17 3 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 235 (26.40%) Network Engineer
2 196 (22.02%) Architect
3 115 (12.92%) Security Engineer
4 96 (10.79%) Security Architect
5 86 (9.66%) Senior
6 69 (7.75%) Network Architect
7 62 (6.97%) Network Security Engineer
8 43 (4.83%) Consultant
9 40 (4.49%) Project Manager
10 34 (3.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 33 (3.71%) Lead
12 29 (3.26%) Cloud Engineer
12 29 (3.26%) Network Security Architect
12 29 (3.26%) Senior Network Engineer
13 25 (2.81%) Network Manager
14 23 (2.58%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 23 (2.58%) Solutions Architect
15 22 (2.47%) Azure Architect
15 22 (2.47%) Cloud Architect
16 21 (2.36%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (4.27%) 802.1X
2 15 (1.69%) SAML
3 13 (1.46%) REST
4 10 (1.12%) ARM Templates
4 10 (1.12%) Kafka
5 8 (0.90%) LDAP
6 7 (0.79%) OAuth
6 7 (0.79%) 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%) Keycloak
9 4 (0.45%) Protocol Buffers
9 4 (0.45%) RESTful
10 3 (0.34%) JSON
10 3 (0.34%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 115 (12.92%) Data Centre
2 66 (7.42%) Security Posture
3 52 (5.84%) Cloud Native
4 44 (4.94%) Hybrid Cloud
5 37 (4.16%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 28 (3.15%) Onboarding
7 26 (2.92%) Data Protection Act
7 26 (2.92%) PKI
8 25 (2.81%) Operational Technology
9 23 (2.58%) Management Information System
9 23 (2.58%) Public Cloud
10 20 (2.25%) Cyber Threat
10 20 (2.25%) Product Ownership
11 19 (2.13%) IoT
12 16 (1.80%) Security Operations Centre
13 15 (1.69%) Self-Motivation
14 10 (1.12%) Replication
14 10 (1.12%) Virtual Team
15 9 (1.01%) Enterprise Cloud
15 9 (1.01%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 70 (7.87%) Linux
2 67 (7.53%) Windows
3 23 (2.58%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.90%) Unix
6 7 (0.79%) Ubuntu
6 7 (0.79%) VMS
7 6 (0.67%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.56%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.34%) Android
9 3 (0.34%) Check Point GAiA
9 3 (0.34%) SUSE
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 180 (20.22%) Cybersecurity
2 155 (17.42%) Cloud Security
3 140 (15.73%) Zero Trust
4 129 (14.49%) CI/CD
5 118 (13.26%) DevOps
6 117 (13.15%) Infrastructure as Code
6 117 (13.15%) Migration
6 117 (13.15%) Security Architecture
6 117 (13.15%) SIEM
7 109 (12.25%) Continuous Improvement
8 98 (11.01%) High Availability
8 98 (11.01%) Stakeholder Management
9 96 (10.79%) Problem-Solving
10 89 (10.00%) Application Security
11 88 (9.89%) Threat Modelling
12 86 (9.66%) Data Protection
12 86 (9.66%) Incident Response
12 86 (9.66%) Load Balancing
12 86 (9.66%) Network Segmentation
13 85 (9.55%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 118 (13.26%) Python
2 52 (5.84%) PowerShell
3 41 (4.61%) Bash
4 33 (3.71%) Bicep
5 23 (2.58%) SQL
6 19 (2.13%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.90%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.67%) Java
9 5 (0.56%) Kusto Query Language
10 4 (0.45%) Perl
10 4 (0.45%) PHP
10 4 (0.45%) Rust
11 3 (0.34%) C
12 2 (0.22%) C++
12 2 (0.22%) Ruby
13 1 (0.11%) ActionScript
13 1 (0.11%) AppleScript
13 1 (0.11%) Go
13 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
13 1 (0.11%) VBA
Qualifications
1 243 (27.30%) Security Cleared
2 176 (19.78%) SC Cleared
3 168 (18.88%) Cisco Certification
4 102 (11.46%) CISSP
5 100 (11.24%) CCNP
6 75 (8.43%) DV Cleared
7 69 (7.75%) Degree
8 64 (7.19%) CCNA
9 61 (6.85%) CISM
10 40 (4.49%) CCSP
11 39 (4.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 31 (3.48%) Azure Certification
13 25 (2.81%) CCIE
14 21 (2.36%) AWS Certification
15 16 (1.80%) Computer Science Degree
16 15 (1.69%) BPSS Clearance
16 15 (1.69%) CompTIA Security+
17 13 (1.46%) GIAC
18 10 (1.12%) JNCIS
18 10 (1.12%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 93 (10.45%) NIST
2 74 (8.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 41 (4.61%) GDPR
4 29 (3.26%) NCSC
5 28 (3.15%) PCI DSS
6 19 (2.13%) GRC
6 19 (2.13%) QA
7 14 (1.57%) Cyber Essentials
7 14 (1.57%) SLA
8 8 (0.90%) Actionable Recommendations
8 8 (0.90%) Disclosure Scotland
8 8 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 8 (0.90%) NIST 800
8 8 (0.90%) SOC 2
9 7 (0.79%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 5 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.45%) PMO
12 3 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.34%) ISA99
12 3 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 66 (7.42%) Active Directory
2 52 (5.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 25 (2.81%) Docker
4 23 (2.58%) Virtual Machines
4 23 (2.58%) VMware NSX
5 11 (1.24%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (1.12%) vSphere
7 8 (0.90%) Hyper-V
8 6 (0.67%) Firmware
9 5 (0.56%) Squid
10 4 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
11 2 (0.22%) NFS
11 2 (0.22%) Postfix
11 2 (0.22%) Sendmail
11 2 (0.22%) Varnish
11 2 (0.22%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.11%) OpenSSH
12 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 119 (13.37%) Terraform
2 79 (8.88%) Ansible
3 77 (8.65%) Kubernetes
4 42 (4.72%) FortiGate
5 20 (2.25%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (2.13%) Grafana
7 12 (1.35%) Microsoft Intune
8 11 (1.24%) Prometheus
8 11 (1.24%) vCenter Server
9 8 (0.90%) CASB
10 6 (0.67%) Istio
10 6 (0.67%) QRadar
11 5 (0.56%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (0.56%) Puppet
11 5 (0.56%) Suricata
11 5 (0.56%) WSUS
12 4 (0.45%) Kustomize
12 4 (0.45%) Podman
13 3 (0.34%) Network Intrusion Detection System
13 3 (0.34%) VxRail
Vendors
1 245 (27.53%) Cisco
2 139 (15.62%) Palo Alto
3 128 (14.38%) Microsoft
4 77 (8.65%) F5
5 74 (8.31%) Fortinet
6 66 (7.42%) VMware
7 60 (6.74%) CheckPoint
8 55 (6.18%) Juniper
8 55 (6.18%) Zscaler
9 36 (4.04%) ServiceNow
10 33 (3.71%) Splunk
11 26 (2.92%) Google
12 23 (2.58%) Aruba
13 22 (2.47%) SolarWinds
14 21 (2.36%) Citrix
14 21 (2.36%) ForeScout
15 18 (2.02%) Tenable
16 14 (1.57%) Arista
16 14 (1.57%) Infoblox
17 13 (1.46%) Okta