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 16 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 186 136 141
Rank change year-on-year -50 +5 +115
Contract jobs citing Network Security 585 621 729
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.57% 1.95% 1.71%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.01% 15.18% 12.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 355 386 504
10th Percentile £350 £350 £402
25th Percentile £413 £425 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £509 £560
Median % change year-on-year -1.72% -9.15% +1.82%
75th Percentile £580 £613 £650
90th Percentile £686 £694 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 12 7
10th Percentile £36.90 £20.15 £48.50
25th Percentile £48.94 £35.75 £58.75
Median hourly rate £65.50 £41.00 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.76% -43.45% +93.33%
75th Percentile £77.19 £47.50 £76.25
90th Percentile £92.75 £49.75 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £43.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year +51.16% -40.69% +93.33%

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 3,897 4,090 5,807
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.48% 12.84% 13.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,562 2,395 3,566
10th Percentile £205 £213 £210
25th Percentile £356 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £468 £475
% change year-on-year -3.74% -1.58% +2.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 160 138 334
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.15 £17.83
25th Percentile £18.78 £21.46 £23.72
Median hourly rate £30.00 £33.75 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% -40.25% +135.38%
75th Percentile £65.00 £53.44 £65.98
90th Percentile £74.33 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £59.75
% change year-on-year +29.05% -45.61% +185.48%

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 16 January 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 16 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Top 17 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 16 January 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 -36 523 £500 -4.76% 264
UK excluding London -38 283 £475 -5.00% 240
London -13 229 £540 -1.55% 83
Work from Home -45 153 £515 +3.00% 84
North of England -30 102 £474 -5.20% 53
South East -20 70 £430 -21.82% 77
North West +8 69 £476 -4.75% 33
Midlands -26 61 £488 -16.38% 29
West Midlands -9 55 £488 -16.38% 17
Yorkshire -47 45 £205 -59.00% 16
East of England -21 24 £475 -14.80% 24
South West -25 21 £533 +1.43% 33
Scotland +1 19 £475 +18.75% 18
East Midlands -34 6 £544 +79.75% 11
Northern Ireland - 3 £500 - 3
Wales -9 2 £700 +141.38% 7
North East -14 2 £475 -41.72% 4

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 10 (1.71%) Confluence
2 6 (1.03%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.68%) Apache
5 1 (0.17%) IIS
5 1 (0.17%) nginx
5 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (2.74%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.71%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.17%) Windchill
Cloud Services
1 177 (30.26%) Azure
2 137 (23.42%) AWS
3 56 (9.57%) GCP
4 33 (5.64%) Entra ID
5 28 (4.79%) GitHub
6 25 (4.27%) GitHub Actions
6 25 (4.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 24 (4.10%) Amazon S3
8 23 (3.93%) Microsoft 365
9 22 (3.76%) Azure DevOps
10 20 (3.42%) Amazon EC2
11 19 (3.25%) Azure Sentinel
12 16 (2.74%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 16 (2.74%) Amazon ELB
13 15 (2.56%) Azure Key Vault
14 13 (2.22%) Serverless
15 12 (2.05%) IaaS
16 11 (1.88%) Google Workspace
17 10 (1.71%) AWS CloudFormation
17 10 (1.71%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 287 (49.06%) Firewall
2 121 (20.68%) VPN
3 90 (15.38%) WAN
4 85 (14.53%) DNS
5 68 (11.62%) LAN
6 59 (10.09%) TCP/IP
7 57 (9.74%) BGP
8 52 (8.89%) SSL
8 52 (8.89%) VLAN
9 43 (7.35%) OSPF
10 38 (6.50%) SD-WAN
11 35 (5.98%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 32 (5.47%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 32 (5.47%) Wireless
13 31 (5.30%) DMZ
14 29 (4.96%) Internet
15 21 (3.59%) Intrusion Detection
16 17 (2.91%) IPsec
16 17 (2.91%) Wi-Fi
17 16 (2.74%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
1 4 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
1 4 (0.68%) InfluxDB
1 4 (0.68%) Relational Database
2 3 (0.51%) Amazon Athena
3 2 (0.34%) Data Lake
3 2 (0.34%) Power BI
3 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.17%) Redis
4 1 (0.17%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 33 (5.64%) Jenkins
2 24 (4.10%) GitLab
3 21 (3.59%) Git
4 9 (1.54%) JIRA
5 2 (0.34%) Snyk
6 1 (0.17%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.17%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.17%) Subversion
General
1 172 (29.40%) Social Skills
2 89 (15.21%) Analytical Skills
3 66 (11.28%) Finance
4 52 (8.89%) Public Sector
5 32 (5.47%) Banking
6 24 (4.10%) Telecoms
7 22 (3.76%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (2.56%) Investment Banking
9 13 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.54%) Manufacturing
10 9 (1.54%) Military
11 8 (1.37%) Pharmaceutical
12 7 (1.20%) Legal
12 7 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.85%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (0.68%) Local Government
14 4 (0.68%) Marketing
15 3 (0.51%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 124 (21.20%) Network Engineer
2 105 (17.95%) Architect
3 89 (15.21%) Security Engineer
4 67 (11.45%) Security Architect
5 49 (8.38%) Senior
6 45 (7.69%) Network Architect
7 38 (6.50%) Network Security Engineer
8 32 (5.47%) Analyst
9 23 (3.93%) Network Security Architect
10 21 (3.59%) Cybersecurity Engineer
10 21 (3.59%) Lead
11 19 (3.25%) Administrator
12 18 (3.08%) Cloud Engineer
12 18 (3.08%) Security Analyst
13 17 (2.91%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 16 (2.74%) Consultant
14 16 (2.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 16 (2.74%) Operations Engineer
15 15 (2.56%) Systems Administrator
15 15 (2.56%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (2.22%) 802.1X
2 10 (1.71%) LDAP
3 8 (1.37%) .NET
3 8 (1.37%) Node.js
4 7 (1.20%) SAML
5 5 (0.85%) .NET Core
5 5 (0.85%) AngularJS
5 5 (0.85%) ARM Templates
5 5 (0.85%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.85%) PyTorch
5 5 (0.85%) RabbitMQ
5 5 (0.85%) React
5 5 (0.85%) TensorFlow
6 3 (0.51%) HTML
6 3 (0.51%) Lambda Expressions
6 3 (0.51%) OAuth
6 3 (0.51%) OAuth2
6 3 (0.51%) OpenID
6 3 (0.51%) Plotly
7 2 (0.34%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 69 (11.79%) Data Centre
2 36 (6.15%) Management Information System
2 36 (6.15%) Security Posture
3 34 (5.81%) Hybrid Cloud
4 32 (5.47%) Cloud Native
5 28 (4.79%) PKI
6 20 (3.42%) Public Cloud
7 19 (3.25%) Cyber Threat
7 19 (3.25%) Onboarding
8 17 (2.91%) Operational Technology
9 16 (2.74%) Analytical Mindset
9 16 (2.74%) Security Operations Centre
10 14 (2.39%) Cyber Security Posture
11 11 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
11 11 (1.88%) IoT
12 10 (1.71%) Cloud Security Posture
12 10 (1.71%) CSOC
12 10 (1.71%) Virtual Team
13 8 (1.37%) Cyberattack
14 7 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 86 (14.70%) Windows
2 64 (10.94%) Linux
3 25 (4.27%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.88%) Unix
5 8 (1.37%) VMS
6 4 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.51%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.34%) Ubuntu
8 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 142 (24.27%) Cybersecurity
2 111 (18.97%) SIEM
3 110 (18.80%) Problem-Solving
4 97 (16.58%) Incident Response
5 92 (15.73%) Cloud Security
6 89 (15.21%) CI/CD
7 81 (13.85%) DevOps
8 78 (13.33%) Infrastructure as Code
9 73 (12.48%) Zero Trust
10 67 (11.45%) Migration
11 64 (10.94%) Security Architecture
12 61 (10.43%) Threat Modelling
13 59 (10.09%) Change Management
14 56 (9.57%) Identity Access Management
15 51 (8.72%) Network Architecture
16 49 (8.38%) Infrastructure Automation
17 48 (8.21%) Continuous Improvement
18 47 (8.03%) Load Balancing
18 47 (8.03%) Security Operations
19 46 (7.86%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 116 (19.83%) Python
2 71 (12.14%) PowerShell
3 37 (6.32%) Bash
4 19 (3.25%) SQL
5 15 (2.56%) Bicep
6 14 (2.39%) JavaScript
7 12 (2.05%) Kusto Query Language
8 10 (1.71%) Java
9 9 (1.54%) Go
10 5 (0.85%) C
10 5 (0.85%) C#
10 5 (0.85%) C++
11 4 (0.68%) Perl
11 4 (0.68%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.34%) C-shell
12 2 (0.34%) Korn
13 1 (0.17%) PHP
13 1 (0.17%) Rust
13 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 192 (32.82%) Security Cleared
2 143 (24.44%) SC Cleared
3 114 (19.49%) Cisco Certification
4 88 (15.04%) CCNP
5 79 (13.50%) CISSP
6 58 (9.91%) DV Cleared
7 43 (7.35%) Degree
8 38 (6.50%) CCNA
9 37 (6.32%) CISM
10 30 (5.13%) CCIE
11 25 (4.27%) GIAC
12 24 (4.10%) CEH
13 20 (3.42%) Azure Certification
14 17 (2.91%) CompTIA Security+
15 13 (2.22%) AWS Certification
15 13 (2.22%) CCSP
15 13 (2.22%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (2.05%) (ISC)2 CCSP
17 10 (1.71%) CCSE
18 9 (1.54%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 69 (11.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 69 (11.79%) NIST
2 41 (7.01%) GDPR
3 27 (4.62%) PCI DSS
4 17 (2.91%) Cyber Essentials
4 17 (2.91%) NCSC
5 7 (1.20%) GRC
5 7 (1.20%) HIPAA
6 6 (1.03%) SLA
6 6 (1.03%) SOC 2
7 5 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 5 (0.85%) JSP 440
7 5 (0.85%) PSD2
7 5 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.51%) PMO
8 3 (0.51%) RMADS
9 2 (0.34%) GxP
9 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 42 (7.18%) VMware Infrastructure
2 38 (6.50%) Active Directory
2 38 (6.50%) Docker
3 10 (1.71%) Hyper-V
3 10 (1.71%) VMware NSX
4 8 (1.37%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.85%) vSphere
6 4 (0.68%) Firmware
6 4 (0.68%) ProxySG
7 3 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.34%) KVM
8 2 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.17%) RACF
9 1 (0.17%) RHEV
9 1 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.17%) Xen
9 1 (0.17%) XenApp
9 1 (0.17%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 103 (17.61%) Terraform
2 65 (11.11%) Ansible
3 40 (6.84%) Kubernetes
4 21 (3.59%) FortiGate
5 13 (2.22%) Nagios
6 11 (1.88%) QRadar
7 10 (1.71%) Kibana
8 9 (1.54%) Microsoft Intune
9 7 (1.20%) Grafana
9 7 (1.20%) Prometheus
9 7 (1.20%) Single Sign-On
10 6 (1.03%) Microsoft Clustering
11 4 (0.68%) Progress Chef
12 3 (0.51%) CASB
12 3 (0.51%) Icinga
12 3 (0.51%) Puppet
12 3 (0.51%) SCCM
13 2 (0.34%) Docker Swarm
13 2 (0.34%) Istio
13 2 (0.34%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 151 (25.81%) Cisco
2 114 (19.49%) Palo Alto
3 93 (15.90%) Microsoft
4 82 (14.02%) F5
5 59 (10.09%) CheckPoint
6 49 (8.38%) VMware
7 44 (7.52%) Juniper
8 43 (7.35%) Fortinet
8 43 (7.35%) Zscaler
9 30 (5.13%) Splunk
10 27 (4.62%) Google
11 23 (3.93%) SolarWinds
12 21 (3.59%) Meraki
13 16 (2.74%) ServiceNow
14 14 (2.39%) CrowdStrike
14 14 (2.39%) Tenable
15 13 (2.22%) Aruba
15 13 (2.22%) Blue Coat
16 10 (1.71%) ArcSight
16 10 (1.71%) FireEye