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

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 166 146 173
Rank change year-on-year -20 +27 -7
Contract jobs citing Network Security 877 619 540
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.64% 1.88% 1.39%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.48% 15.87% 11.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 591 370 373
10th Percentile £400 £375 £363
25th Percentile £463 £450 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £649 £613 £663
90th Percentile £730 £714 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £563
% change year-on-year +5.00% -11.11% +7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 19 7
10th Percentile £26.00 £45.00 £21.20
25th Percentile £42.13 £60.38 £32.75
Median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.51% +61.35% -24.24%
75th Percentile £74.00 £83.05 £58.75
90th Percentile - £88.00 £82.79
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £50.00
% change year-on-year -9.51% +61.35% +163.16%

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 5,018 3,900 4,752
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.40% 11.85% 12.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,969 2,381 2,887
10th Percentile £250 £250 £220
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 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +9.36%
Number of hourly rates quoted 365 202 321
10th Percentile £15.21 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.14 £46.88 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.23% -4.34% -9.26%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.03 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.00% -3.58%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -16 767 £543 +3.51% 358
UK excluding London -31 431 £525 +5.00% 213
London +1 340 £550 +0.92% 169
Work from Home +8 275 £550 - 158
North of England +3 188 £525 +8.25% 46
South East -33 117 £557 +13.67% 82
North West -7 104 £535 +12.63% 29
Yorkshire +8 81 £500 +1.63% 14
Midlands -49 52 £463 -19.57% 39
East of England -14 36 £525 -4.55% 16
West Midlands -71 33 £406 -29.35% 24
Scotland -3 28 £600 +29.73% 11
East Midlands -4 18 £638 - 15
South West -66 15 £563 -9.27% 22
Wales -19 2 £538 +7.50% 3
North East -42 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 12 (1.37%) 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
5 1 (0.11%) nginx
Applications
1 20 (2.28%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.80%) 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
1 302 (34.44%) Azure
2 204 (23.26%) AWS
3 113 (12.88%) GCP
4 96 (10.95%) Entra ID
5 36 (4.10%) Microsoft 365
6 35 (3.99%) Azure DevOps
7 33 (3.76%) GitHub
8 29 (3.31%) Azure Monitor
8 29 (3.31%) Azure Sentinel
9 27 (3.08%) SaaS
10 25 (2.85%) Serverless
11 22 (2.51%) Google Kubernetes Engine
12 21 (2.39%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 20 (2.28%) Azure AKS
13 20 (2.28%) GitHub Actions
13 20 (2.28%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 17 (1.94%) Akamai
15 15 (1.71%) Azure Key Vault
15 15 (1.71%) OCI
16 14 (1.60%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 386 (44.01%) Firewall
2 195 (22.23%) VPN
3 184 (20.98%) WAN
4 133 (15.17%) LAN
5 127 (14.48%) DNS
6 97 (11.06%) Wireless
7 92 (10.49%) BGP
8 91 (10.38%) TCP/IP
9 88 (10.03%) SD-WAN
10 72 (8.21%) OSPF
11 70 (7.98%) VLAN
12 66 (7.53%) DHCP
13 50 (5.70%) MPLS
14 49 (5.59%) IPsec
14 49 (5.59%) SSL
15 45 (5.13%) Wi-Fi
16 42 (4.79%) Cisco ISE
17 40 (4.56%) Internet
18 37 (4.22%) Cisco ASA
18 37 (4.22%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.48%) SQL Server
2 8 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
4 5 (0.57%) BigQuery
5 4 (0.46%) Data Lake
5 4 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.46%) Neo4j
5 4 (0.46%) Power BI
6 3 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
7 2 (0.23%) Delta Lake
7 2 (0.23%) InfluxDB
8 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
8 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
8 1 (0.11%) DataStage
8 1 (0.11%) Looker
8 1 (0.11%) Oracle Reports
8 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.11%) Snowflake Schema
8 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 37 (4.22%) Git
2 33 (3.76%) JIRA
3 26 (2.96%) GitLab
4 22 (2.51%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.46%) MSBuild
7 4 (0.46%) Snyk
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%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.11%) Subversion
General
1 215 (24.52%) Social Skills
2 150 (17.10%) Finance
3 74 (8.44%) Analytical Skills
4 59 (6.73%) Banking
5 54 (6.16%) Public Sector
6 43 (4.90%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (2.85%) Financial Institution
7 25 (2.85%) Telecoms
8 22 (2.51%) Legal
9 14 (1.60%) Retail
10 13 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 13 (1.48%) Manufacturing
11 12 (1.37%) Organisational Skills
12 10 (1.14%) 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 (0.46%) Military
Job Titles
1 239 (27.25%) Network Engineer
2 169 (19.27%) Architect
3 100 (11.40%) Security Engineer
3 100 (11.40%) Senior
4 91 (10.38%) Security Architect
5 59 (6.73%) Network Architect
6 58 (6.61%) Network Security Engineer
7 56 (6.39%) Consultant
8 46 (5.25%) Senior Network Engineer
9 43 (4.90%) Project Manager
10 40 (4.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 39 (4.45%) Lead
12 35 (3.99%) Cloud Engineer
13 28 (3.19%) Analyst
14 27 (3.08%) Security Consultant
15 24 (2.74%) Network Manager
16 22 (2.51%) Network Security Architect
17 21 (2.39%) Azure Engineer
17 21 (2.39%) Solutions Architect
18 19 (2.17%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (4.33%) 802.1X
2 16 (1.82%) SAML
3 14 (1.60%) REST
4 12 (1.37%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.14%) Kafka
6 6 (0.68%) JSON
6 6 (0.68%) NETCONF
7 5 (0.57%) .NET
7 5 (0.57%) OpenID
7 5 (0.57%) XML
8 4 (0.46%) CSS
8 4 (0.46%) gRPC
8 4 (0.46%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.46%) OAuth
8 4 (0.46%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (0.46%) RESTful
8 4 (0.46%) SLSA
9 3 (0.34%) Azure Blueprints
9 3 (0.34%) ModSecurity
9 3 (0.34%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 97 (11.06%) Data Centre
2 74 (8.44%) Security Posture
3 49 (5.59%) Cloud Native
4 45 (5.13%) Hybrid Cloud
5 40 (4.56%) Onboarding
6 38 (4.33%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 35 (3.99%) Management Information System
8 27 (3.08%) Operational Technology
9 25 (2.85%) Cyber Threat
10 23 (2.62%) Data Protection Act
10 23 (2.62%) PKI
11 21 (2.39%) Public Cloud
11 21 (2.39%) Self-Motivation
12 20 (2.28%) Security Operations Centre
13 15 (1.71%) Cloud Security Posture
14 13 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
14 13 (1.48%) Linux Command Line
14 13 (1.48%) Product Ownership
15 10 (1.14%) Replication
16 9 (1.03%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 79 (9.01%) Windows
2 73 (8.32%) Linux
3 22 (2.51%) Windows Server
4 14 (1.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.91%) Unix
6 7 (0.80%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.68%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.68%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.57%) VMS
9 3 (0.34%) Android
9 3 (0.34%) Check Point GAiA
9 3 (0.34%) SUSE
10 2 (0.23%) zOS
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.11%) Rocky
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (20.07%) Cloud Security
2 174 (19.84%) Cybersecurity
3 125 (14.25%) Zero Trust
4 123 (14.03%) CI/CD
4 123 (14.03%) Stakeholder Management
5 120 (13.68%) Continuous Improvement
6 115 (13.11%) SIEM
7 114 (13.00%) Infrastructure as Code
8 112 (12.77%) DevOps
9 108 (12.31%) Migration
10 106 (12.09%) Change Management
11 105 (11.97%) Incident Response
12 101 (11.52%) Security Architecture
13 100 (11.40%) Problem-Solving
14 95 (10.83%) Identity Access Management
15 92 (10.49%) High Availability
16 91 (10.38%) Data Protection
17 87 (9.92%) Security Operations
17 87 (9.92%) Threat Modelling
18 85 (9.69%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 121 (13.80%) Python
2 73 (8.32%) PowerShell
3 61 (6.96%) Bash
4 36 (4.10%) Bicep
5 27 (3.08%) SQL
6 15 (1.71%) JavaScript
7 9 (1.03%) Java
8 8 (0.91%) Go
9 7 (0.80%) Shell Script
10 6 (0.68%) Search Processing Language
11 5 (0.57%) Kusto Query Language
12 4 (0.46%) Rust
13 3 (0.34%) Perl
14 2 (0.23%) C
14 2 (0.23%) Ruby
14 2 (0.23%) VBScript
15 1 (0.11%) C++
Qualifications
1 223 (25.43%) Security Cleared
2 158 (18.02%) SC Cleared
3 152 (17.33%) Cisco Certification
4 100 (11.40%) CISSP
5 88 (10.03%) CCNP
6 67 (7.64%) Degree
6 67 (7.64%) DV Cleared
7 57 (6.50%) CCNA
7 57 (6.50%) CISM
8 40 (4.56%) CCSP
9 39 (4.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 36 (4.10%) Azure Certification
11 24 (2.74%) CCIE
12 19 (2.17%) AWS Certification
13 15 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
14 11 (1.25%) PMP
15 10 (1.14%) BPSS Clearance
15 10 (1.14%) CompTIA Security+
15 10 (1.14%) GIAC
16 9 (1.03%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (8.89%) NIST
2 75 (8.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 47 (5.36%) GDPR
4 33 (3.76%) NCSC
5 29 (3.31%) PCI DSS
6 19 (2.17%) QA
6 19 (2.17%) SLA
7 15 (1.71%) GRC
8 13 (1.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 8 (0.91%) Cyber Essentials
9 8 (0.91%) Disclosure Scotland
9 8 (0.91%) NIST 800
10 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 5 (0.57%) SOC 2
11 4 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
11 4 (0.46%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 3 (0.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 3 (0.34%) ISA99
12 3 (0.34%) PMO
System Software
1 80 (9.12%) Active Directory
2 55 (6.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (3.08%) Docker
4 21 (2.39%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (2.17%) VMware NSX
6 12 (1.37%) Hyper-V
7 11 (1.25%) vSphere
8 8 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
9 7 (0.80%) Virtual Desktop
10 6 (0.68%) Firmware
11 5 (0.57%) Squid
12 3 (0.34%) NFS
13 2 (0.23%) FreeRADIUS
13 2 (0.23%) OpenSSH
13 2 (0.23%) Postfix
13 2 (0.23%) Sendmail
13 2 (0.23%) Varnish
13 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
13 2 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
14 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 122 (13.91%) Terraform
2 86 (9.81%) Ansible
3 73 (8.32%) Kubernetes
4 49 (5.59%) FortiGate
5 23 (2.62%) Microsoft Intune
6 22 (2.51%) Grafana
7 18 (2.05%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (1.48%) Prometheus
9 12 (1.37%) SCCM
10 11 (1.25%) CASB
11 9 (1.03%) Progress Chef
12 7 (0.80%) Cisco Prime
12 7 (0.80%) Puppet
12 7 (0.80%) QRadar
12 7 (0.80%) vCenter Server
13 6 (0.68%) Cisco CUCM
14 5 (0.57%) Suricata
14 5 (0.57%) WSUS
15 4 (0.46%) Kustomize
15 4 (0.46%) Podman
Vendors
1 246 (28.05%) Cisco
2 152 (17.33%) Microsoft
3 142 (16.19%) Palo Alto
4 84 (9.58%) Fortinet
5 80 (9.12%) F5
6 71 (8.10%) VMware
7 59 (6.73%) Zscaler
8 54 (6.16%) CheckPoint
9 49 (5.59%) Juniper
10 43 (4.90%) Splunk
11 35 (3.99%) SolarWinds
12 34 (3.88%) ServiceNow
13 32 (3.65%) Aruba
14 26 (2.96%) Google
15 22 (2.51%) Citrix
16 17 (1.94%) Tenable
17 15 (1.71%) ForeScout
17 15 (1.71%) Meraki
18 14 (1.60%) CyberArk
18 14 (1.60%) Infoblox