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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 161 157 185
Rank change year-on-year -4 +28 -24
Contract jobs citing Network Security 882 608 547
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.68% 1.85% 1.37%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.87% 15.40% 11.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 594 367 376
10th Percentile £400 £375 £363
25th Percentile £456 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £539 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.62% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £650 £613 £650
90th Percentile £734 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £530 £500 £575
% change year-on-year +5.90% -13.04% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 18 6
10th Percentile £26.00 £45.00 £20.75
25th Percentile £42.13 £58.79 £23.00
Median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £40.25
Median % change year-on-year -9.51% +100.43% -39.02%
75th Percentile £74.00 £83.53 £58.75
90th Percentile - £89.50 £88.81
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.00 £80.68 £40.25
% change year-on-year -9.51% +100.43% +111.84%

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 4,935 3,947 4,876
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.39% 12.03% 12.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,949 2,411 2,952
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 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 338 196 342
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.01
Median hourly rate £26.22 £48.75 £45.44
Median % change year-on-year -46.22% +7.28% -9.12%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.50 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £44.00 £51.50
% change year-on-year -39.41% -14.56% -10.30%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -11 766 £539 +2.62% 246
UK excluding London -26 435 £530 +5.90% 169
London -6 337 £550 - 116
Work from Home -4 264 £540 +1.89% 104
North of England +9 182 £530 +8.17% 35
South East -26 121 £542 +10.57% 66
North West -6 99 £537 +13.05% 22
Yorkshire +6 81 £500 +1.63% 11
Midlands -54 52 £475 -17.39% 26
East of England -16 33 £525 -4.55% 15
West Midlands -71 33 £413 -28.26% 13
Scotland -10 31 £600 +26.32% 13
East Midlands +4 18 £638 - 13
South West -54 18 £550 -8.33% 14
Wales -17 3 £600 +61.62% 3
North East -45 2 £675 +8.00% 2

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 (1.81%) Microsoft Exchange
2 15 (1.70%) 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
Applications
1 20 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (0.68%) 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
1 295 (33.45%) Azure
2 204 (23.13%) AWS
3 115 (13.04%) GCP
4 92 (10.43%) Entra ID
5 33 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
5 33 (3.74%) GitHub
6 32 (3.63%) Microsoft 365
7 30 (3.40%) Azure Sentinel
8 28 (3.17%) Azure Monitor
9 24 (2.72%) Serverless
10 23 (2.61%) SaaS
11 21 (2.38%) GitHub Actions
12 20 (2.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 20 (2.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 19 (2.15%) Azure AKS
14 18 (2.04%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 16 (1.81%) Akamai
16 15 (1.70%) Azure Key Vault
16 15 (1.70%) OCI
17 13 (1.47%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 396 (44.90%) Firewall
2 198 (22.45%) VPN
3 182 (20.63%) WAN
4 133 (15.08%) LAN
5 123 (13.95%) DNS
6 100 (11.34%) BGP
7 95 (10.77%) Wireless
8 91 (10.32%) TCP/IP
9 85 (9.64%) SD-WAN
10 79 (8.96%) OSPF
11 73 (8.28%) VLAN
12 64 (7.26%) DHCP
13 54 (6.12%) IPsec
14 51 (5.78%) SSL
15 50 (5.67%) MPLS
16 45 (5.10%) Wi-Fi
17 43 (4.88%) Cisco ISE
18 40 (4.54%) NGFW
19 38 (4.31%) Cisco ASA
20 37 (4.20%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.47%) SQL Server
2 8 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
3 5 (0.57%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.45%) Data Lake
4 4 (0.45%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.45%) Neo4j
4 4 (0.45%) Power BI
5 3 (0.34%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.23%) BigQuery
6 2 (0.23%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.23%) InfluxDB
7 1 (0.11%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.11%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.11%) DataStage
7 1 (0.11%) Looker
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 39 (4.42%) JIRA
2 36 (4.08%) Git
3 21 (2.38%) GitLab
4 16 (1.81%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.79%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.45%) MSBuild
7 4 (0.45%) Snyk
7 4 (0.45%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.45%) Visual Studio
8 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.23%) Postman
10 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.11%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.11%) JUnit
10 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.11%) Subversion
10 1 (0.11%) Zephyr
General
1 207 (23.47%) Social Skills
2 141 (15.99%) Finance
3 72 (8.16%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (7.03%) Banking
5 57 (6.46%) Public Sector
6 44 (4.99%) Documentation Skills
7 27 (3.06%) Telecoms
8 24 (2.72%) Financial Institution
9 19 (2.15%) Legal
10 14 (1.59%) Manufacturing
11 13 (1.47%) Retail
12 12 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 12 (1.36%) Organisational Skills
13 11 (1.25%) Influencing Skills
14 8 (0.91%) Police
15 6 (0.68%) Law
15 6 (0.68%) Local Government
16 5 (0.57%) Automotive
16 5 (0.57%) Military
17 4 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 244 (27.66%) Network Engineer
2 188 (21.32%) Architect
3 109 (12.36%) Security Engineer
4 99 (11.22%) Security Architect
4 99 (11.22%) Senior
5 71 (8.05%) Network Architect
6 67 (7.60%) Network Security Engineer
7 52 (5.90%) Consultant
8 43 (4.88%) Project Manager
8 43 (4.88%) Senior Network Engineer
9 37 (4.20%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 37 (4.20%) Lead
10 30 (3.40%) Cloud Engineer
10 30 (3.40%) Network Security Architect
11 25 (2.83%) Network Manager
12 23 (2.61%) Analyst
13 22 (2.49%) Security Consultant
13 22 (2.49%) Solutions Architect
14 21 (2.38%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
15 20 (2.27%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (4.20%) 802.1X
2 16 (1.81%) SAML
3 14 (1.59%) ARM Templates
3 14 (1.59%) REST
4 10 (1.13%) Kafka
5 6 (0.68%) JSON
6 5 (0.57%) .NET
6 5 (0.57%) CSS
6 5 (0.57%) HTML
6 5 (0.57%) NETCONF
7 4 (0.45%) gRPC
7 4 (0.45%) Keycloak
7 4 (0.45%) OAuth
7 4 (0.45%) OpenID
7 4 (0.45%) Protocol Buffers
7 4 (0.45%) RESTful
7 4 (0.45%) XML
8 3 (0.34%) Azure Blueprints
8 3 (0.34%) Plotly
8 3 (0.34%) SLSA
Miscellaneous
1 110 (12.47%) Data Centre
2 69 (7.82%) Security Posture
3 47 (5.33%) Cloud Native
3 47 (5.33%) Hybrid Cloud
4 39 (4.42%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 38 (4.31%) Onboarding
6 30 (3.40%) Management Information System
7 29 (3.29%) Operational Technology
8 23 (2.61%) Data Protection Act
9 22 (2.49%) Cyber Threat
10 21 (2.38%) PKI
11 19 (2.15%) Public Cloud
12 18 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
13 16 (1.81%) Product Ownership
13 16 (1.81%) Security Operations Centre
14 14 (1.59%) Linux Command Line
15 13 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
16 12 (1.36%) IoT
17 10 (1.13%) Cloud Security Posture
17 10 (1.13%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 76 (8.62%) Windows
2 73 (8.28%) Linux
3 24 (2.72%) Windows Server
4 14 (1.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (1.02%) Unix
6 6 (0.68%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.57%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.57%) VMS
7 5 (0.57%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.34%) Android
8 3 (0.34%) Check Point GAiA
8 3 (0.34%) SUSE
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.11%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 166 (18.82%) Cloud Security
1 166 (18.82%) Cybersecurity
2 136 (15.42%) Zero Trust
3 118 (13.38%) CI/CD
4 116 (13.15%) Continuous Improvement
4 116 (13.15%) SIEM
5 113 (12.81%) DevOps
6 112 (12.70%) Infrastructure as Code
6 112 (12.70%) Stakeholder Management
7 111 (12.59%) Migration
8 103 (11.68%) Security Architecture
9 101 (11.45%) Change Management
10 95 (10.77%) High Availability
10 95 (10.77%) Identity Access Management
10 95 (10.77%) Incident Response
11 93 (10.54%) Problem-Solving
12 88 (9.98%) Threat Modelling
13 87 (9.86%) Data Protection
14 86 (9.75%) Agile
15 85 (9.64%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 106 (12.02%) Python
2 64 (7.26%) PowerShell
3 55 (6.24%) Bash
4 38 (4.31%) Bicep
5 21 (2.38%) SQL
6 18 (2.04%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.91%) Java
7 8 (0.91%) Shell Script
8 4 (0.45%) Perl
8 4 (0.45%) Rust
9 3 (0.34%) Go
10 2 (0.23%) Kusto Query Language
10 2 (0.23%) Ruby
11 1 (0.11%) ActionScript
11 1 (0.11%) AppleScript
11 1 (0.11%) C
11 1 (0.11%) PHP
11 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
11 1 (0.11%) VBA
Qualifications
1 233 (26.42%) Security Cleared
2 165 (18.71%) SC Cleared
3 156 (17.69%) Cisco Certification
4 101 (11.45%) CISSP
5 92 (10.43%) CCNP
6 74 (8.39%) DV Cleared
7 64 (7.26%) Degree
8 58 (6.58%) CISM
9 57 (6.46%) CCNA
10 40 (4.54%) CCSP
11 39 (4.42%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 36 (4.08%) Azure Certification
13 22 (2.49%) AWS Certification
13 22 (2.49%) CCIE
14 13 (1.47%) CompTIA Security+
15 12 (1.36%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (1.36%) PMP
16 10 (1.13%) CEH
16 10 (1.13%) GIAC
17 9 (1.02%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 81 (9.18%) NIST
2 72 (8.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 42 (4.76%) GDPR
4 31 (3.51%) NCSC
5 25 (2.83%) PCI DSS
6 19 (2.15%) QA
6 19 (2.15%) SLA
7 17 (1.93%) GRC
8 9 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
8 9 (1.02%) Disclosure Scotland
8 9 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 8 (0.91%) NIST 800
10 6 (0.68%) Actionable Recommendations
11 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 5 (0.57%) SOC 2
12 4 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 4 (0.45%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 3 (0.34%) ISA99
13 3 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 3 (0.34%) PMO
System Software
1 79 (8.96%) Active Directory
2 53 (6.01%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (3.06%) Docker
4 22 (2.49%) VMware NSX
5 21 (2.38%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (1.13%) Hyper-V
6 10 (1.13%) vSphere
7 8 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (0.68%) Firmware
9 5 (0.57%) Squid
9 5 (0.57%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.34%) NFS
11 2 (0.23%) OpenSSH
11 2 (0.23%) Postfix
11 2 (0.23%) Sendmail
11 2 (0.23%) Varnish
11 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.11%) FreeRADIUS
12 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 120 (13.61%) Terraform
2 80 (9.07%) Ansible
3 69 (7.82%) Kubernetes
4 43 (4.88%) FortiGate
5 21 (2.38%) Grafana
5 21 (2.38%) Microsoft Intune
6 18 (2.04%) Single Sign-On
7 12 (1.36%) Prometheus
8 9 (1.02%) SCCM
9 8 (0.91%) CASB
9 8 (0.91%) vCenter Server
10 7 (0.79%) Puppet
10 7 (0.79%) QRadar
11 6 (0.68%) Cisco CUCM
11 6 (0.68%) Cisco Prime
12 5 (0.57%) Suricata
12 5 (0.57%) WSUS
13 4 (0.45%) Kustomize
13 4 (0.45%) Podman
13 4 (0.45%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 246 (27.89%) Cisco
2 146 (16.55%) Palo Alto
3 140 (15.87%) Microsoft
4 81 (9.18%) Fortinet
5 79 (8.96%) F5
6 67 (7.60%) VMware
7 64 (7.26%) Zscaler
8 58 (6.58%) CheckPoint
9 53 (6.01%) Juniper
10 37 (4.20%) Splunk
11 35 (3.97%) ServiceNow
12 32 (3.63%) SolarWinds
13 28 (3.17%) Aruba
14 24 (2.72%) Citrix
15 22 (2.49%) Google
16 18 (2.04%) Tenable
17 17 (1.93%) ForeScout
18 15 (1.70%) Infoblox
19 14 (1.59%) CyberArk
19 14 (1.59%) Meraki