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 12 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 165 137 149
Rank change year-on-year -28 +12 +63
Contract jobs citing Network Security 696 591 730
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.63% 2.01% 1.63%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.14% 15.05% 12.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 465 365 505
10th Percentile £350 £332 £400
25th Percentile £425 £419 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% -6.36% -
75th Percentile £600 £600 £650
90th Percentile £700 £675 £748
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £575
% change year-on-year - -13.04% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 13 19
10th Percentile £36.00 £21.80 -
25th Percentile £46.19 £36.00 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.00 £41.00 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +58.54% +78.26% -42.21%
75th Percentile £79.38 £81.01 £41.25
90th Percentile £93.75 £81.95 £65.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £80.68 £10.47
% change year-on-year -19.43% +670.90% -77.30%

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 4,311 3,928 6,017
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.10% 13.35% 13.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,792 2,407 3,622
10th Percentile £206 £208 £205
25th Percentile £364 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £487 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.60% +5.26% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £473 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +0.64% -1.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 178 141 398
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.33 £14.26
25th Percentile £20.04 £21.46 £18.93
Median hourly rate £38.50 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -12.50% +110.53%
75th Percentile £67.44 £63.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.65 £75.00 £72.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £33.75 £47.50
% change year-on-year +24.27% -28.95% +151.19%

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 12 March 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 12 March 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 12 March 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 -28 614 £500 -8.13% 225
UK excluding London -32 346 £500 - 170
London -20 263 £525 -4.55% 84
Work from Home -13 187 £525 +5.00% 101
North of England -27 116 £475 -5.00% 40
South East -16 99 £500 -6.10% 46
North West -14 70 £490 -1.95% 31
Midlands -26 65 £500 -14.02% 28
West Midlands -29 53 £500 -14.02% 21
Yorkshire -36 53 £335 +5.85% 7
South West -22 29 £538 -2.27% 22
Scotland +5 26 £543 +27.65% 6
East of England -28 26 £475 -13.64% 28
East Midlands -29 12 £638 +50.00% 7
Wales -17 3 £513 +73.73% 3
North East -13 2 £475 -24.00% 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £500 - 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 19 (2.73%) Confluence
2 5 (0.72%) Apache
2 5 (0.72%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.14%) nginx
4 1 (0.14%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (2.59%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.44%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.14%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 5 (0.72%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 209 (30.03%) Azure
2 144 (20.69%) AWS
3 80 (11.49%) GCP
4 51 (7.33%) Entra ID
5 34 (4.89%) GitHub
6 29 (4.17%) GitHub Actions
7 26 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (3.30%) Azure Sentinel
9 20 (2.87%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 18 (2.59%) Azure Key Vault
11 17 (2.44%) AWS CloudFormation
11 17 (2.44%) Microsoft 365
12 16 (2.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
13 15 (2.16%) Azure Monitor
14 14 (2.01%) Azure AKS
14 14 (2.01%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 13 (1.87%) Akamai
15 13 (1.87%) Amazon S3
16 12 (1.72%) Power Platform
17 11 (1.58%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 338 (48.56%) Firewall
2 132 (18.97%) VPN
3 119 (17.10%) WAN
4 99 (14.22%) LAN
5 94 (13.51%) BGP
6 81 (11.64%) DNS
7 78 (11.21%) OSPF
8 64 (9.20%) VLAN
9 60 (8.62%) SD-WAN
10 54 (7.76%) TCP/IP
11 47 (6.75%) Wireless
12 41 (5.89%) MPLS
13 38 (5.46%) Cisco ASA
14 37 (5.32%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 30 (4.31%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 29 (4.17%) DHCP
16 29 (4.17%) SSL
16 29 (4.17%) Wi-Fi
17 28 (4.02%) Internet
18 26 (3.74%) DMZ
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.29%) Azure SQL Database
2 5 (0.72%) Power BI
3 4 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
3 4 (0.57%) InfluxDB
3 4 (0.57%) Relational Database
4 3 (0.43%) Amazon Athena
4 3 (0.43%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.29%) Oracle Database
5 2 (0.29%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 1 (0.14%) Redis
6 1 (0.14%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 27 (3.88%) JIRA
2 22 (3.16%) Jenkins
3 18 (2.59%) GitLab
4 12 (1.72%) Git
5 7 (1.01%) Snyk
5 7 (1.01%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.43%) Browser DevTools
7 1 (0.14%) JUnit
7 1 (0.14%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.14%) Postman
7 1 (0.14%) Zephyr
General
1 185 (26.58%) Social Skills
2 96 (13.79%) Finance
3 86 (12.36%) Analytical Skills
4 58 (8.33%) Public Sector
5 34 (4.89%) Banking
6 30 (4.31%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.59%) Telecoms
8 20 (2.87%) Financial Institution
9 11 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.29%) Investment Banking
10 9 (1.29%) Legal
11 8 (1.15%) Manufacturing
12 7 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
13 6 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
14 5 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
14 5 (0.72%) Local Government
14 5 (0.72%) Pharmaceutical
15 4 (0.57%) Military
16 3 (0.43%) Electronics
16 3 (0.43%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 155 (22.27%) Network Engineer
2 149 (21.41%) Architect
3 86 (12.36%) Security Engineer
4 75 (10.78%) Security Architect
5 56 (8.05%) Network Architect
6 52 (7.47%) Senior
7 37 (5.32%) Network Security Engineer
8 31 (4.45%) Analyst
9 27 (3.88%) Network Security Architect
10 24 (3.45%) Lead
11 19 (2.73%) Cloud Architect
11 19 (2.73%) Cloud Engineer
11 19 (2.73%) Consultant
11 19 (2.73%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 18 (2.59%) Security Analyst
13 17 (2.44%) Administrator
13 17 (2.44%) Azure Architect
13 17 (2.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 16 (2.30%) Solutions Architect
15 15 (2.16%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (3.45%) 802.1X
2 13 (1.87%) LDAP
3 8 (1.15%) .NET
3 8 (1.15%) Node.js
3 8 (1.15%) SAML
4 6 (0.86%) ARM Templates
4 6 (0.86%) REST
5 5 (0.72%) .NET Core
5 5 (0.72%) AngularJS
5 5 (0.72%) OAuth
5 5 (0.72%) OAuth2
5 5 (0.72%) OpenID
5 5 (0.72%) PyTorch
5 5 (0.72%) RabbitMQ
5 5 (0.72%) React
5 5 (0.72%) TensorFlow
6 4 (0.57%) Elastic Stack
6 4 (0.57%) HTML
7 3 (0.43%) CSS
7 3 (0.43%) Lambda Expressions
Miscellaneous
1 95 (13.65%) Data Centre
2 39 (5.60%) Hybrid Cloud
3 38 (5.46%) Security Posture
4 36 (5.17%) Cloud Native
5 29 (4.17%) Management Information System
6 27 (3.88%) PKI
6 27 (3.88%) Public Cloud
7 22 (3.16%) Onboarding
7 22 (3.16%) Operational Technology
8 20 (2.87%) IoT
9 18 (2.59%) Data Protection Act
9 18 (2.59%) Product Ownership
10 16 (2.30%) Analytical Mindset
10 16 (2.30%) Cyber Threat
10 16 (2.30%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 15 (2.16%) Security Operations Centre
12 11 (1.58%) Cyber Security Posture
13 8 (1.15%) BYOD
13 8 (1.15%) CSOC
13 8 (1.15%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 78 (11.21%) Windows
2 61 (8.76%) Linux
3 27 (3.88%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.58%) Unix
5 8 (1.15%) VMS
6 7 (1.01%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.72%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.14%) Android
8 1 (0.14%) Data ONTAP
8 1 (0.14%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (23.13%) Cybersecurity
2 115 (16.52%) Problem-Solving
3 102 (14.66%) Cloud Security
3 102 (14.66%) SIEM
4 100 (14.37%) CI/CD
4 100 (14.37%) Migration
5 96 (13.79%) Security Architecture
5 96 (13.79%) Zero Trust
6 95 (13.65%) Infrastructure as Code
7 91 (13.07%) DevOps
8 76 (10.92%) Incident Response
9 65 (9.34%) Change Management
10 64 (9.20%) Identity Access Management
11 62 (8.91%) Continuous Improvement
12 61 (8.76%) Security Operations
13 60 (8.62%) Agile
13 60 (8.62%) Network Segmentation
14 59 (8.48%) Stakeholder Management
15 57 (8.19%) Threat Modelling
16 56 (8.05%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 108 (15.52%) Python
2 61 (8.76%) PowerShell
3 27 (3.88%) Bash
4 26 (3.74%) SQL
5 25 (3.59%) JavaScript
6 24 (3.45%) Bicep
7 15 (2.16%) Kusto Query Language
8 9 (1.29%) Go
8 9 (1.29%) Java
9 6 (0.86%) Shell Script
10 5 (0.72%) C#
11 4 (0.57%) C
11 4 (0.57%) PHP
12 3 (0.43%) C++
13 2 (0.29%) C-shell
13 2 (0.29%) Korn
14 1 (0.14%) ActionScript
14 1 (0.14%) AppleScript
14 1 (0.14%) Perl
14 1 (0.14%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 219 (31.47%) Security Cleared
2 156 (22.41%) SC Cleared
3 125 (17.96%) Cisco Certification
4 97 (13.94%) CCNP
5 87 (12.50%) CISSP
6 75 (10.78%) DV Cleared
7 50 (7.18%) Degree
8 44 (6.32%) CCNA
8 44 (6.32%) CISM
9 30 (4.31%) CCIE
10 26 (3.74%) GIAC
11 21 (3.02%) Azure Certification
11 21 (3.02%) CEH
12 18 (2.59%) CompTIA Security+
13 16 (2.30%) AWS Certification
13 16 (2.30%) CCSP
14 15 (2.16%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 13 (1.87%) Computer Science Degree
15 13 (1.87%) TOGAF Certification
16 12 (1.72%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 85 (12.21%) NIST
2 74 (10.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 45 (6.47%) GDPR
4 36 (5.17%) PCI DSS
5 20 (2.87%) Cyber Essentials
6 19 (2.73%) NCSC
7 15 (2.16%) GRC
8 14 (2.01%) SLA
9 10 (1.44%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 9 (1.29%) SOC 2
11 7 (1.01%) Actionable Recommendations
11 7 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 6 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 6 (0.86%) QA
13 4 (0.57%) HIPAA
13 4 (0.57%) JSP 440
13 4 (0.57%) PMO
13 4 (0.57%) RMADS
14 2 (0.29%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 2 (0.29%) PSD2
System Software
1 48 (6.90%) VMware Infrastructure
2 45 (6.47%) Active Directory
3 26 (3.74%) Docker
4 23 (3.30%) VMware NSX
5 9 (1.29%) vSphere
6 8 (1.15%) Hyper-V
6 8 (1.15%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.86%) Firmware
7 6 (0.86%) VMware ESXi
8 4 (0.57%) ProxySG
9 3 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.14%) KVM
10 1 (0.14%) NFS
10 1 (0.14%) Postfix
10 1 (0.14%) RHEV
10 1 (0.14%) Sendmail
10 1 (0.14%) Varnish
10 1 (0.14%) Xen
10 1 (0.14%) XenApp
10 1 (0.14%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 111 (15.95%) Terraform
2 69 (9.91%) Ansible
3 54 (7.76%) Kubernetes
4 26 (3.74%) FortiGate
5 15 (2.16%) Microsoft Intune
5 15 (2.16%) Single Sign-On
6 14 (2.01%) Nagios
7 12 (1.72%) Kibana
8 8 (1.15%) Grafana
9 7 (1.01%) Prometheus
9 7 (1.01%) vCenter Server
10 6 (0.86%) Microsoft Clustering
11 5 (0.72%) CASB
12 4 (0.57%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 4 (0.57%) Istio
12 4 (0.57%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.57%) Puppet
13 3 (0.43%) Icinga
13 3 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
13 3 (0.43%) SCCM
Vendors
1 195 (28.02%) Cisco
2 114 (16.38%) Palo Alto
3 113 (16.24%) Microsoft
4 77 (11.06%) F5
5 63 (9.05%) VMware
6 60 (8.62%) Juniper
7 54 (7.76%) Fortinet
8 50 (7.18%) CheckPoint
9 43 (6.18%) Zscaler
10 29 (4.17%) Google
10 29 (4.17%) Splunk
11 28 (4.02%) ServiceNow
12 18 (2.59%) Aruba
12 18 (2.59%) Meraki
12 18 (2.59%) SolarWinds
12 18 (2.59%) Tenable
13 15 (2.16%) Databricks
13 15 (2.16%) ForeScout
14 13 (1.87%) Okta
15 12 (1.72%) Arista