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

6 months to
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 174 138 151
Rank change year-on-year -36 +13 +92
Contract jobs citing Network Security 637 593 730
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.60% 1.93% 1.63%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.44% 14.66% 12.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 410 373 492
10th Percentile £350 £314 £400
25th Percentile £425 £425 £468
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -6.82% -
75th Percentile £598 £620 £649
90th Percentile £688 £675 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £550
% change year-on-year - -9.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 9 20
10th Percentile £34.30 £18.05 -
25th Percentile £51.44 £35.00 £7.43
Median hourly rate £65.50 £41.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.76% +2.50% -0.62%
75th Percentile £81.56 £41.50 £56.88
90th Percentile £93.88 £45.50 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £30.00 £10.47
% change year-on-year +116.67% +186.67% -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 4,125 4,044 6,002
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.34% 13.18% 13.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,708 2,390 3,584
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £356 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £483
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +3.63% -7.21%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £681 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 166 126 401
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.85 £14.36
25th Percentile £18.59 £21.46 £20.82
Median hourly rate £28.38 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.68% -31.58% +138.93%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.09 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £26.00 £52.21
% change year-on-year +55.92% -50.20% +161.03%

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 February 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 February 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 February 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 -24 565 £500 -8.84% 259
UK excluding London -44 305 £500 - 212
London -21 252 £525 -4.55% 90
Work from Home -32 168 £504 +0.75% 118
North of England -35 105 £476 -4.75% 43
South East -16 78 £460 -13.62% 63
North West -10 63 £481 -4.47% 28
Midlands -28 60 £500 -14.02% 39
West Midlands -15 53 £500 -14.02% 32
Yorkshire -41 51 £350 -16.96% 11
South West -26 31 £535 +2.39% 31
East of England -16 25 £475 -19.15% 19
Scotland +8 23 £543 +27.65% 14
East Midlands -27 7 £442 +92.28% 7
North East -11 2 £475 - 4
Wales -15 2 £600 +106.90% 7
Northern Ireland - 2 £500 - 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 18 (2.83%) Confluence
2 5 (0.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 5 (0.78%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.63%) Apache
4 2 (0.31%) nginx
5 1 (0.16%) IIS
5 1 (0.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (2.83%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.73%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.31%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.16%) Windchill
Cloud Services
1 185 (29.04%) Azure
2 138 (21.66%) AWS
3 67 (10.52%) GCP
4 34 (5.34%) Entra ID
4 34 (5.34%) GitHub
5 30 (4.71%) GitHub Actions
6 24 (3.77%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 23 (3.61%) Azure DevOps
8 21 (3.30%) Amazon S3
8 21 (3.30%) Azure Sentinel
9 17 (2.67%) AWS CloudFormation
9 17 (2.67%) Azure Key Vault
10 15 (2.35%) Amazon EC2
10 15 (2.35%) Microsoft 365
11 14 (2.20%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 14 (2.20%) Serverless
12 12 (1.88%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 12 (1.88%) Azure Monitor
13 11 (1.73%) AWS Direct Connect
13 11 (1.73%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 322 (50.55%) Firewall
2 141 (22.14%) VPN
3 101 (15.86%) WAN
4 86 (13.50%) DNS
5 82 (12.87%) LAN
6 78 (12.24%) BGP
7 62 (9.73%) OSPF
7 62 (9.73%) TCP/IP
8 60 (9.42%) VLAN
9 44 (6.91%) SD-WAN
10 41 (6.44%) SSL
11 40 (6.28%) Wireless
12 34 (5.34%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 32 (5.02%) MPLS
14 31 (4.87%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 29 (4.55%) Cisco ASA
15 29 (4.55%) Internet
16 27 (4.24%) DMZ
17 25 (3.92%) DHCP
18 23 (3.61%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.63%) Amazon RDS
1 4 (0.63%) Azure SQL Database
1 4 (0.63%) InfluxDB
1 4 (0.63%) Relational Database
2 3 (0.47%) Amazon Athena
3 2 (0.31%) Data Lake
3 2 (0.31%) Oracle Database
3 2 (0.31%) Power BI
3 2 (0.31%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.16%) Redis
4 1 (0.16%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.16%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 30 (4.71%) Jenkins
2 25 (3.92%) GitLab
3 20 (3.14%) JIRA
4 18 (2.83%) Git
5 6 (0.94%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.47%) Snyk
7 1 (0.16%) JUnit
7 1 (0.16%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.16%) Postman
7 1 (0.16%) Zephyr
General
1 186 (29.20%) Social Skills
2 80 (12.56%) Analytical Skills
3 77 (12.09%) Finance
4 56 (8.79%) Public Sector
5 34 (5.34%) Banking
6 26 (4.08%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (3.92%) Telecoms
8 13 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 12 (1.88%) Investment Banking
10 10 (1.57%) Financial Institution
11 9 (1.41%) Manufacturing
12 8 (1.26%) Legal
13 7 (1.10%) Military
13 7 (1.10%) Pharmaceutical
13 7 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
14 6 (0.94%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.78%) Organisational Skills
16 4 (0.63%) Local Government
16 4 (0.63%) Marketing
17 3 (0.47%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 144 (22.61%) Network Engineer
2 135 (21.19%) Architect
3 93 (14.60%) Security Engineer
4 72 (11.30%) Security Architect
5 56 (8.79%) Network Architect
6 51 (8.01%) Senior
7 44 (6.91%) Network Security Engineer
8 30 (4.71%) Network Security Architect
9 28 (4.40%) Analyst
10 21 (3.30%) Administrator
11 20 (3.14%) Lead
12 19 (2.98%) Cloud Engineer
12 19 (2.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 18 (2.83%) Security Analyst
14 17 (2.67%) Cloud Architect
14 17 (2.67%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
15 16 (2.51%) Azure Architect
15 16 (2.51%) DevOps Engineer
16 15 (2.35%) IT Engineer
16 15 (2.35%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (2.98%) 802.1X
2 14 (2.20%) LDAP
3 9 (1.41%) SAML
4 8 (1.26%) Node.js
5 7 (1.10%) .NET
6 6 (0.94%) ARM Templates
6 6 (0.94%) REST
7 5 (0.78%) .NET Core
7 5 (0.78%) AngularJS
7 5 (0.78%) OAuth
7 5 (0.78%) OAuth2
7 5 (0.78%) OpenID
7 5 (0.78%) PyTorch
7 5 (0.78%) RabbitMQ
7 5 (0.78%) React
7 5 (0.78%) TensorFlow
8 4 (0.63%) Elastic Stack
8 4 (0.63%) HTML
9 3 (0.47%) CSS
9 3 (0.47%) Lambda Expressions
Miscellaneous
1 89 (13.97%) Data Centre
2 36 (5.65%) Security Posture
3 35 (5.49%) Hybrid Cloud
4 34 (5.34%) Cloud Native
5 30 (4.71%) PKI
6 27 (4.24%) Management Information System
7 22 (3.45%) Operational Technology
8 20 (3.14%) Onboarding
8 20 (3.14%) Public Cloud
9 19 (2.98%) IoT
10 16 (2.51%) Security Operations Centre
11 14 (2.20%) Analytical Mindset
11 14 (2.20%) Cyber Threat
12 13 (2.04%) Data Protection Act
12 13 (2.04%) Product Ownership
13 12 (1.88%) Cyber Security Posture
14 8 (1.26%) CSOC
14 8 (1.26%) SCADA
14 8 (1.26%) Virtual Team
15 7 (1.10%) Clustering
Operating Systems
1 84 (13.19%) Windows
2 68 (10.68%) Linux
3 32 (5.02%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.41%) Unix
5 8 (1.26%) VMS
6 7 (1.10%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.63%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.31%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.16%) Data ONTAP
10 1 (0.16%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.16%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (23.08%) Cybersecurity
2 115 (18.05%) Problem-Solving
3 101 (15.86%) CI/CD
4 97 (15.23%) Infrastructure as Code
4 97 (15.23%) Zero Trust
5 95 (14.91%) DevOps
6 93 (14.60%) SIEM
7 91 (14.29%) Cloud Security
8 84 (13.19%) Security Architecture
9 82 (12.87%) Incident Response
10 80 (12.56%) Migration
11 61 (9.58%) Change Management
12 60 (9.42%) Network Segmentation
13 59 (9.26%) Continuous Improvement
14 57 (8.95%) Identity Access Management
15 56 (8.79%) Network Architecture
15 56 (8.79%) Threat Modelling
16 53 (8.32%) Agile
17 50 (7.85%) Infrastructure Automation
18 49 (7.69%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 117 (18.37%) Python
2 63 (9.89%) PowerShell
3 36 (5.65%) Bash
4 20 (3.14%) Bicep
4 20 (3.14%) SQL
5 15 (2.35%) JavaScript
5 15 (2.35%) Kusto Query Language
6 9 (1.41%) Go
6 9 (1.41%) Java
7 5 (0.78%) C#
7 5 (0.78%) Shell Script
8 4 (0.63%) PHP
9 3 (0.47%) C
9 3 (0.47%) C++
10 2 (0.31%) C-shell
10 2 (0.31%) Korn
11 1 (0.16%) ActionScript
11 1 (0.16%) AppleScript
11 1 (0.16%) Perl
11 1 (0.16%) VBA
Qualifications
1 213 (33.44%) Security Cleared
2 154 (24.18%) SC Cleared
3 119 (18.68%) Cisco Certification
4 94 (14.76%) CCNP
5 81 (12.72%) CISSP
6 70 (10.99%) DV Cleared
7 46 (7.22%) Degree
8 40 (6.28%) CCNA
9 38 (5.97%) CISM
10 30 (4.71%) CCIE
11 28 (4.40%) GIAC
12 24 (3.77%) CEH
13 21 (3.30%) CompTIA Security+
14 19 (2.98%) Azure Certification
15 17 (2.67%) AWS Certification
16 15 (2.35%) Computer Science Degree
17 13 (2.04%) JNCIS
17 13 (2.04%) TOGAF Certification
18 12 (1.88%) CCSP
19 11 (1.73%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (11.93%) NIST
2 71 (11.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 38 (5.97%) GDPR
4 26 (4.08%) PCI DSS
5 23 (3.61%) Cyber Essentials
6 17 (2.67%) NCSC
7 12 (1.88%) GRC
8 8 (1.26%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 8 (1.26%) SOC 2
9 6 (0.94%) Actionable Recommendations
9 6 (0.94%) SLA
10 5 (0.78%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.63%) HIPAA
11 4 (0.63%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.63%) RMADS
12 3 (0.47%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.47%) PMO
13 2 (0.31%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 2 (0.31%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.31%) PSD2
System Software
1 48 (7.54%) VMware Infrastructure
2 38 (5.97%) Active Directory
3 33 (5.18%) Docker
4 20 (3.14%) VMware NSX
5 10 (1.57%) Hyper-V
5 10 (1.57%) Virtual Machines
6 8 (1.26%) vSphere
7 6 (0.94%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.78%) Firmware
9 4 (0.63%) ProxySG
10 3 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.47%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.16%) KVM
11 1 (0.16%) RACF
11 1 (0.16%) RHEV
11 1 (0.16%) Xen
11 1 (0.16%) XenApp
11 1 (0.16%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 120 (18.84%) Terraform
2 73 (11.46%) Ansible
3 50 (7.85%) Kubernetes
4 21 (3.30%) FortiGate
5 13 (2.04%) Kibana
5 13 (2.04%) Nagios
6 11 (1.73%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (1.73%) Single Sign-On
7 7 (1.10%) vCenter Server
8 6 (0.94%) Grafana
8 6 (0.94%) Microsoft Clustering
8 6 (0.94%) Prometheus
9 4 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (0.63%) Istio
9 4 (0.63%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.63%) Puppet
9 4 (0.63%) QRadar
10 3 (0.47%) CASB
10 3 (0.47%) SCCM
10 3 (0.47%) SCOM
Vendors
1 171 (26.84%) Cisco
2 123 (19.31%) Palo Alto
3 99 (15.54%) Microsoft
4 77 (12.09%) F5
5 63 (9.89%) CheckPoint
6 60 (9.42%) VMware
7 54 (8.48%) Juniper
8 53 (8.32%) Fortinet
9 42 (6.59%) Zscaler
10 26 (4.08%) Google
10 26 (4.08%) Splunk
11 21 (3.30%) SolarWinds
12 18 (2.83%) ServiceNow
13 16 (2.51%) Meraki
13 16 (2.51%) Tenable
14 15 (2.35%) Databricks
15 14 (2.20%) Aruba
16 13 (2.04%) FireEye
16 13 (2.04%) Tanium
17 12 (1.88%) ForeScout