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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 176 131 145
Rank change year-on-year -45 +14 +78
Contract jobs citing Network Security 662 604 734
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.59% 1.98% 1.64%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.68% 15.07% 12.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 439 375 503
10th Percentile £350 £316 £400
25th Percentile £421 £419 £464
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -7.27% -
75th Percentile £599 £624 £649
90th Percentile £700 £675 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £575
% change year-on-year - -13.04% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 11 19
10th Percentile £34.30 £18.50 -
25th Percentile £51.44 £35.50 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.50 £41.00 £23.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.76% +78.26% -42.86%
75th Percentile £81.56 £46.25 £41.25
90th Percentile £93.88 £81.01 £65.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £43.00 £10.47
% change year-on-year +51.16% +310.89% -74.97%

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 4,221 4,008 6,009
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.17% 13.17% 13.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,753 2,414 3,601
10th Percentile £204 £208 £205
25th Percentile £363 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £500 £480
Median % change year-on-year -3.75% +4.17% -7.43%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -0.21% -1.05% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 174 132 390
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.52 £14.27
25th Percentile £19.25 £21.46 £19.99
Median hourly rate £35.50 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.43% -12.50% +105.13%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.88 £74.10
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £31.79 £50.00
% change year-on-year +31.93% -36.42% +163.16%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -27 584 £500 -7.41% 268
UK excluding London -42 326 £500 - 226
London -30 252 £525 -4.55% 92
Work from Home -21 176 £515 +3.00% 104
North of England -32 111 £475 -5.00% 49
South East -17 86 £500 -7.41% 61
North West -17 68 £490 -1.95% 31
Midlands -18 66 £500 -14.02% 41
West Midlands -13 58 £500 -14.02% 30
Yorkshire -46 50 £338 -9.15% 15
South West -33 28 £538 +2.38% 31
Scotland +12 25 £543 +27.65% 14
East of England -27 25 £475 -20.83% 23
East Midlands -27 8 £447 +5.18% 11
Wales -20 3 £513 +76.72% 10
North East -11 2 £475 - 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £500 - 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 18 (2.72%) Confluence
2 5 (0.76%) Apache
2 5 (0.76%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.15%) nginx
4 1 (0.15%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (2.72%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.51%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.60%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.15%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.15%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 1 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 195 (29.46%) Azure
2 146 (22.05%) AWS
3 75 (11.33%) GCP
4 43 (6.50%) Entra ID
5 33 (4.98%) GitHub
6 29 (4.38%) GitHub Actions
7 24 (3.63%) Azure Sentinel
7 24 (3.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 23 (3.47%) Azure DevOps
9 20 (3.02%) Amazon S3
10 17 (2.57%) AWS CloudFormation
10 17 (2.57%) Azure Key Vault
11 16 (2.42%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 14 (2.11%) Amazon EC2
13 13 (1.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 13 (1.96%) Microsoft 365
14 12 (1.81%) Azure Monitor
15 11 (1.66%) AWS Direct Connect
15 11 (1.66%) Google Workspace
15 11 (1.66%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 332 (50.15%) Firewall
2 146 (22.05%) VPN
3 105 (15.86%) WAN
4 88 (13.29%) DNS
5 86 (12.99%) LAN
6 84 (12.69%) BGP
7 68 (10.27%) OSPF
8 63 (9.52%) VLAN
9 60 (9.06%) TCP/IP
10 49 (7.40%) SD-WAN
11 44 (6.65%) Wireless
12 39 (5.89%) SSL
13 36 (5.44%) MPLS
14 33 (4.98%) Cisco ASA
15 32 (4.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 29 (4.38%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
17 27 (4.08%) DHCP
18 25 (3.78%) DMZ
18 25 (3.78%) Internet
18 25 (3.78%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
1 4 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
1 4 (0.60%) InfluxDB
1 4 (0.60%) Relational Database
2 3 (0.45%) Amazon Athena
2 3 (0.45%) Power BI
3 2 (0.30%) Data Lake
3 2 (0.30%) Oracle Database
3 2 (0.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.15%) Redis
4 1 (0.15%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 29 (4.38%) Jenkins
2 24 (3.63%) GitLab
3 21 (3.17%) JIRA
4 18 (2.72%) Git
5 6 (0.91%) Snyk
5 6 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.15%) Browser DevTools
6 1 (0.15%) JUnit
6 1 (0.15%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.15%) Postman
6 1 (0.15%) Zephyr
General
1 186 (28.10%) Social Skills
2 90 (13.60%) Finance
3 76 (11.48%) Analytical Skills
4 54 (8.16%) Public Sector
5 35 (5.29%) Banking
6 28 (4.23%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.78%) Telecoms
8 17 (2.57%) Financial Institution
9 10 (1.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (1.51%) Investment Banking
10 9 (1.36%) Legal
11 7 (1.06%) Manufacturing
11 7 (1.06%) Military
11 7 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.76%) Pharmaceutical
14 4 (0.60%) Local Government
15 3 (0.45%) Electronics
15 3 (0.45%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 151 (22.81%) Network Engineer
2 140 (21.15%) Architect
3 88 (13.29%) Security Engineer
4 75 (11.33%) Security Architect
5 54 (8.16%) Network Architect
6 52 (7.85%) Senior
7 41 (6.19%) Network Security Engineer
8 29 (4.38%) Network Security Architect
9 28 (4.23%) Analyst
10 20 (3.02%) Cloud Engineer
11 19 (2.87%) Cloud Architect
12 18 (2.72%) Administrator
12 18 (2.72%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 18 (2.72%) Security Analyst
13 17 (2.57%) Lead
13 17 (2.57%) Solutions Architect
14 16 (2.42%) Azure Architect
14 16 (2.42%) Consultant
14 16 (2.42%) DevOps Engineer
14 16 (2.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (3.47%) 802.1X
2 13 (1.96%) LDAP
3 10 (1.51%) SAML
4 8 (1.21%) Node.js
5 7 (1.06%) .NET
6 6 (0.91%) ARM Templates
6 6 (0.91%) REST
7 5 (0.76%) .NET Core
7 5 (0.76%) AngularJS
7 5 (0.76%) OAuth
7 5 (0.76%) OAuth2
7 5 (0.76%) OpenID
7 5 (0.76%) PyTorch
7 5 (0.76%) RabbitMQ
7 5 (0.76%) React
7 5 (0.76%) TensorFlow
8 4 (0.60%) Elastic Stack
8 4 (0.60%) HTML
9 3 (0.45%) CSS
9 3 (0.45%) Lambda Expressions
Miscellaneous
1 90 (13.60%) Data Centre
2 37 (5.59%) Security Posture
3 36 (5.44%) Hybrid Cloud
4 35 (5.29%) Cloud Native
5 28 (4.23%) PKI
6 27 (4.08%) Management Information System
7 23 (3.47%) Public Cloud
8 21 (3.17%) Operational Technology
9 20 (3.02%) Onboarding
10 18 (2.72%) IoT
11 17 (2.57%) Product Ownership
12 16 (2.42%) Cyber Threat
13 15 (2.27%) Security Operations Centre
14 13 (1.96%) Analytical Mindset
14 13 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
15 11 (1.66%) Cyber Security Posture
16 9 (1.36%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
17 8 (1.21%) CSOC
17 8 (1.21%) Virtual Team
18 7 (1.06%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 75 (11.33%) Windows
2 65 (9.82%) Linux
3 26 (3.93%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.66%) Unix
5 8 (1.21%) VMS
6 7 (1.06%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.76%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.60%) Mac OS
9 1 (0.15%) Android
9 1 (0.15%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.15%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 146 (22.05%) Cybersecurity
2 114 (17.22%) Problem-Solving
3 101 (15.26%) CI/CD
4 100 (15.11%) SIEM
5 96 (14.50%) Infrastructure as Code
6 95 (14.35%) Zero Trust
7 94 (14.20%) Cloud Security
7 94 (14.20%) DevOps
8 93 (14.05%) Security Architecture
9 88 (13.29%) Migration
10 82 (12.39%) Incident Response
11 64 (9.67%) Change Management
12 60 (9.06%) Continuous Improvement
13 59 (8.91%) Agile
14 58 (8.76%) Identity Access Management
14 58 (8.76%) Network Segmentation
15 55 (8.31%) Threat Modelling
16 51 (7.70%) Network Architecture
17 50 (7.55%) Security Operations
17 50 (7.55%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 114 (17.22%) Python
2 59 (8.91%) PowerShell
3 36 (5.44%) Bash
4 20 (3.02%) Bicep
5 19 (2.87%) JavaScript
6 18 (2.72%) SQL
7 14 (2.11%) Kusto Query Language
8 9 (1.36%) Go
8 9 (1.36%) Java
9 6 (0.91%) Shell Script
10 5 (0.76%) C#
11 4 (0.60%) PHP
12 3 (0.45%) C
12 3 (0.45%) C++
13 2 (0.30%) C-shell
13 2 (0.30%) Korn
14 1 (0.15%) ActionScript
14 1 (0.15%) AppleScript
14 1 (0.15%) Ruby
14 1 (0.15%) VBA
Qualifications
1 218 (32.93%) Security Cleared
2 156 (23.56%) SC Cleared
3 125 (18.88%) Cisco Certification
4 98 (14.80%) CCNP
5 85 (12.84%) CISSP
6 70 (10.57%) DV Cleared
7 48 (7.25%) Degree
8 43 (6.50%) CCNA
9 42 (6.34%) CISM
10 31 (4.68%) CCIE
11 26 (3.93%) GIAC
12 21 (3.17%) CEH
13 18 (2.72%) CompTIA Security+
14 17 (2.57%) Azure Certification
15 16 (2.42%) AWS Certification
16 15 (2.27%) CCSP
17 14 (2.11%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 13 (1.96%) Computer Science Degree
18 13 (1.96%) JNCIS
18 13 (1.96%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (12.39%) NIST
2 72 (10.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 39 (5.89%) GDPR
4 31 (4.68%) PCI DSS
5 21 (3.17%) Cyber Essentials
6 17 (2.57%) NCSC
7 13 (1.96%) GRC
8 10 (1.51%) SOC 2
9 9 (1.36%) SLA
10 8 (1.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 7 (1.06%) Actionable Recommendations
11 7 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.60%) HIPAA
13 4 (0.60%) JSP 440
13 4 (0.60%) PMO
13 4 (0.60%) RMADS
14 2 (0.30%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 2 (0.30%) PSD2
14 2 (0.30%) QA
System Software
1 44 (6.65%) VMware Infrastructure
2 36 (5.44%) Active Directory
3 32 (4.83%) Docker
4 20 (3.02%) VMware NSX
5 10 (1.51%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (1.36%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.21%) vSphere
8 6 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (0.76%) Firmware
10 4 (0.60%) ProxySG
11 3 (0.45%) Virtual Desktop
12 1 (0.15%) KVM
12 1 (0.15%) Postfix
12 1 (0.15%) RACF
12 1 (0.15%) RHEV
12 1 (0.15%) Sendmail
12 1 (0.15%) Varnish
12 1 (0.15%) Xen
12 1 (0.15%) XenApp
12 1 (0.15%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 114 (17.22%) Terraform
2 74 (11.18%) Ansible
3 52 (7.85%) Kubernetes
4 27 (4.08%) FortiGate
5 14 (2.11%) Microsoft Intune
5 14 (2.11%) Nagios
6 12 (1.81%) Kibana
6 12 (1.81%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (1.06%) Grafana
7 7 (1.06%) Prometheus
7 7 (1.06%) vCenter Server
8 6 (0.91%) Microsoft Clustering
9 4 (0.60%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (0.60%) CASB
9 4 (0.60%) Istio
9 4 (0.60%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.60%) Puppet
10 3 (0.45%) Network Intrusion Detection System
10 3 (0.45%) SCCM
10 3 (0.45%) SCOM
Vendors
1 187 (28.25%) Cisco
2 120 (18.13%) Palo Alto
3 101 (15.26%) Microsoft
4 81 (12.24%) F5
5 61 (9.21%) CheckPoint
6 57 (8.61%) Juniper
7 56 (8.46%) VMware
8 51 (7.70%) Fortinet
9 43 (6.50%) Zscaler
10 31 (4.68%) Splunk
11 27 (4.08%) Google
12 22 (3.32%) ServiceNow
13 18 (2.72%) Meraki
13 18 (2.72%) SolarWinds
14 17 (2.57%) Tenable
15 16 (2.42%) Aruba
16 15 (2.27%) Databricks
17 14 (2.11%) ForeScout
18 12 (1.81%) Arista
18 12 (1.81%) Okta