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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 158 151 181
Rank change year-on-year -7 +30 -19
Contract jobs citing Network Security 904 600 561
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.71% 1.84% 1.36%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.07% 15.20% 10.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 606 365 375
10th Percentile £398 £375 £363
25th Percentile £450 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £645 £613 £650
90th Percentile £725 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £534 £500 £575
% change year-on-year +6.86% -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 5,003 3,948 5,144
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.49% 12.11% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,016 2,403 3,070
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £592 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.89% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 326 195 384
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.91
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.08 £17.67
Median hourly rate £26.22 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.31% +15.63% -16.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -17.27%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -7 781 £539 +2.62% 255
UK excluding London -17 457 £534 +6.86% 171
London -4 335 £550 - 112
Work from Home -3 268 £540 +1.89% 107
North of England +15 191 £531 +8.37% 41
South East -20 127 £559 +13.98% 62
North West -1 103 £537 +13.05% 31
Yorkshire +1 86 £500 +1.63% 10
Midlands -45 52 £450 -21.74% 25
Scotland -2 37 £569 +28.17% 17
East of England -21 32 £525 -4.55% 16
West Midlands -70 31 £413 -28.26% 12
South West -47 23 £550 -8.33% 14
East Midlands +6 20 £638 - 13
Wales -20 3 £600 +106.90% 2
North East -41 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 16 (1.77%) Confluence
2 14 (1.55%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (1.00%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.22%) Apache
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.11%) IIS
5 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 19 (2.10%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.77%) 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 (0.66%) Oracle ERP
1 6 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 286 (31.64%) Azure
2 202 (22.35%) AWS
3 121 (13.38%) GCP
4 90 (9.96%) Entra ID
5 35 (3.87%) GitHub
6 31 (3.43%) Azure DevOps
6 31 (3.43%) Azure Sentinel
7 29 (3.21%) Microsoft 365
8 28 (3.10%) Azure Monitor
9 25 (2.77%) Serverless
10 24 (2.65%) GitHub Actions
11 23 (2.54%) SaaS
12 20 (2.21%) Azure AKS
12 20 (2.21%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 20 (2.21%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 19 (2.10%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 17 (1.88%) Akamai
14 17 (1.88%) Azure Key Vault
15 16 (1.77%) OCI
16 15 (1.66%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 414 (45.80%) Firewall
2 202 (22.35%) VPN
3 181 (20.02%) WAN
4 134 (14.82%) LAN
5 126 (13.94%) DNS
6 109 (12.06%) BGP
7 98 (10.84%) Wireless
8 90 (9.96%) TCP/IP
9 88 (9.73%) OSPF
10 87 (9.62%) SD-WAN
11 75 (8.30%) VLAN
12 65 (7.19%) DHCP
13 56 (6.19%) MPLS
14 55 (6.08%) IPsec
15 51 (5.64%) SSL
16 48 (5.31%) Wi-Fi
17 44 (4.87%) Cisco ASA
17 44 (4.87%) Cisco ISE
18 41 (4.54%) NGFW
19 38 (4.20%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (1.22%) SQL Server
2 8 (0.88%) 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%) Delta Lake
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 (4.54%) JIRA
2 34 (3.76%) Git
3 22 (2.43%) GitLab
4 18 (1.99%) Jenkins
5 10 (1.11%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.66%) 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%) JUnit
11 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
11 1 (0.11%) Subversion
11 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 213 (23.56%) Social Skills
2 143 (15.82%) Finance
3 69 (7.63%) Analytical Skills
4 64 (7.08%) Public Sector
5 62 (6.86%) Banking
6 45 (4.98%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (2.77%) Financial Institution
7 25 (2.77%) Telecoms
8 18 (1.99%) Legal
9 13 (1.44%) Manufacturing
9 13 (1.44%) Retail
10 12 (1.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 12 (1.33%) Organisational Skills
11 10 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
12 8 (0.88%) Police
13 6 (0.66%) Law
14 5 (0.55%) Local Government
14 5 (0.55%) Military
15 4 (0.44%) Presentation Skills
16 3 (0.33%) Billing
Job Titles
1 250 (27.65%) Network Engineer
2 192 (21.24%) Architect
3 116 (12.83%) Security Engineer
4 97 (10.73%) Security Architect
4 97 (10.73%) Senior
5 70 (7.74%) Network Security Engineer
6 67 (7.41%) Network Architect
7 50 (5.53%) Consultant
8 41 (4.54%) Project Manager
9 39 (4.31%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 39 (4.31%) Senior Network Engineer
10 36 (3.98%) Lead
11 30 (3.32%) Cloud Engineer
12 27 (2.99%) Network Security Architect
13 26 (2.88%) Network Manager
14 24 (2.65%) Solutions Architect
15 22 (2.43%) Analyst
15 22 (2.43%) Security Consultant
16 20 (2.21%) Azure Architect
16 20 (2.21%) Firewall Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 39 (4.31%) 802.1X
2 18 (1.99%) SAML
3 15 (1.66%) REST
4 14 (1.55%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.11%) Kafka
6 6 (0.66%) OAuth
6 6 (0.66%) OpenID
7 5 (0.55%) .NET
7 5 (0.55%) CSS
7 5 (0.55%) HTML
7 5 (0.55%) JSON
7 5 (0.55%) LDAP
8 4 (0.44%) gRPC
8 4 (0.44%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.44%) NETCONF
8 4 (0.44%) OAuth2
8 4 (0.44%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (0.44%) RESTful
8 4 (0.44%) SLSA
8 4 (0.44%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 116 (12.83%) Data Centre
2 69 (7.63%) Security Posture
3 50 (5.53%) Cloud Native
4 45 (4.98%) Hybrid Cloud
5 38 (4.20%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 34 (3.76%) Onboarding
7 28 (3.10%) Management Information System
7 28 (3.10%) Operational Technology
8 24 (2.65%) Data Protection Act
9 22 (2.43%) PKI
9 22 (2.43%) Public Cloud
10 21 (2.32%) Cyber Threat
11 19 (2.10%) Product Ownership
12 18 (1.99%) Security Operations Centre
13 17 (1.88%) Self-Motivation
14 15 (1.66%) IoT
15 13 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
15 13 (1.44%) Linux Command Line
16 10 (1.11%) Replication
16 10 (1.11%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 75 (8.30%) Linux
2 74 (8.19%) Windows
3 21 (2.32%) Windows Server
4 14 (1.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.88%) Unix
6 7 (0.77%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.66%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.55%) VMS
8 5 (0.55%) 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
1 176 (19.47%) Cybersecurity
2 163 (18.03%) Cloud Security
3 137 (15.15%) Zero Trust
4 126 (13.94%) CI/CD
5 120 (13.27%) Infrastructure as Code
5 120 (13.27%) SIEM
6 118 (13.05%) Continuous Improvement
6 118 (13.05%) DevOps
7 113 (12.50%) Migration
8 107 (11.84%) Stakeholder Management
9 106 (11.73%) Security Architecture
10 101 (11.17%) Change Management
11 99 (10.95%) Problem-Solving
12 96 (10.62%) High Availability
13 94 (10.40%) Incident Response
14 92 (10.18%) Identity Access Management
15 88 (9.73%) Agile
16 87 (9.62%) Data Protection
16 87 (9.62%) Load Balancing
17 86 (9.51%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 118 (13.05%) Python
2 62 (6.86%) PowerShell
3 53 (5.86%) Bash
4 39 (4.31%) Bicep
5 22 (2.43%) SQL
6 18 (1.99%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.88%) Java
7 8 (0.88%) 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
1 239 (26.44%) Security Cleared
2 166 (18.36%) SC Cleared
3 160 (17.70%) Cisco Certification
4 101 (11.17%) CISSP
5 96 (10.62%) CCNP
6 80 (8.85%) DV Cleared
7 66 (7.30%) Degree
8 59 (6.53%) CISM
9 58 (6.42%) CCNA
10 40 (4.42%) CCSP
11 39 (4.31%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 33 (3.65%) Azure Certification
13 23 (2.54%) CCIE
14 22 (2.43%) AWS Certification
15 15 (1.66%) CompTIA Security+
16 13 (1.44%) Computer Science Degree
16 13 (1.44%) GIAC
17 12 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
18 10 (1.11%) CEH
18 10 (1.11%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 84 (9.29%) NIST
2 74 (8.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 42 (4.65%) GDPR
4 31 (3.43%) NCSC
5 27 (2.99%) PCI DSS
6 19 (2.10%) GRC
6 19 (2.10%) QA
7 17 (1.88%) SLA
8 13 (1.44%) Cyber Essentials
9 9 (1.00%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.88%) NIST 800
10 8 (0.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (0.77%) Actionable Recommendations
11 7 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 7 (0.77%) SOC 2
12 6 (0.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
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 76 (8.41%) Active Directory
2 54 (5.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (3.10%) Docker
4 25 (2.77%) VMware NSX
5 22 (2.43%) Virtual Machines
6 12 (1.33%) vSphere
7 10 (1.11%) Hyper-V
7 10 (1.11%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.66%) 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 (13.72%) Terraform
2 86 (9.51%) Ansible
3 73 (8.08%) Kubernetes
4 44 (4.87%) FortiGate
5 20 (2.21%) Grafana
5 20 (2.21%) Single Sign-On
6 17 (1.88%) Microsoft Intune
7 12 (1.33%) Prometheus
8 10 (1.11%) vCenter Server
9 9 (1.00%) SCCM
10 8 (0.88%) CASB
11 7 (0.77%) QRadar
12 6 (0.66%) Cisco CUCM
12 6 (0.66%) Puppet
13 5 (0.55%) Cisco Prime
13 5 (0.55%) Suricata
13 5 (0.55%) WSUS
14 4 (0.44%) Istio
14 4 (0.44%) Kustomize
14 4 (0.44%) Podman
Vendors
1 258 (28.54%) Cisco
2 152 (16.81%) Palo Alto
3 137 (15.15%) Microsoft
4 83 (9.18%) F5
4 83 (9.18%) Fortinet
5 70 (7.74%) VMware
6 64 (7.08%) CheckPoint
7 60 (6.64%) Juniper
7 60 (6.64%) Zscaler
8 38 (4.20%) Splunk
9 34 (3.76%) ServiceNow
10 31 (3.43%) SolarWinds
11 26 (2.88%) Aruba
11 26 (2.88%) Google
12 25 (2.77%) Citrix
13 20 (2.21%) ForeScout
14 19 (2.10%) Tenable
15 15 (1.66%) Infoblox
16 14 (1.55%) Arista
16 14 (1.55%) CyberArk