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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 175 150 178
Rank change year-on-year -25 +28 -10
Contract jobs citing Network Security 875 609 527
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.63% 1.86% 1.36%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.27% 15.69% 11.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 580 360 360
10th Percentile £400 £375 £363
25th Percentile £463 £440 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £618 £666
90th Percentile £725 £725 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £528 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.60% -9.09% +3.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 17 7
10th Percentile £26.20 £45.00 £21.20
25th Percentile £42.13 £55.00 £32.75
Median hourly rate £73.00 £70.16 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.05% +40.32% -24.24%
75th Percentile £74.00 £84.00 £58.75
90th Percentile - £91.00 £82.79
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.00 £70.16 £50.00
% change year-on-year +4.05% +40.32% +163.16%

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 5,067 3,881 4,678
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.44% 11.85% 12.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,990 2,366 2,802
10th Percentile £250 £242 £220
25th Percentile £400 £367 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +0.21% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 371 201 301
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.22% -10.00% -11.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.01 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.77 £43.25 £54.94
% change year-on-year -40.42% -21.27% -4.46%

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 27 August 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 27 August 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 27 August 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 -19 768 £547 +4.14% 195
UK excluding London -31 426 £528 +5.60% 147
London -9 342 £550 - 65
Work from Home +4 270 £539 +1.65% 92
North of England +14 201 £528 +7.87% 31
North West -7 114 £533 +12.21% 19
South East -33 103 £554 +17.93% 42
Yorkshire +6 84 £507 +3.05% 10
Midlands -61 47 £500 -4.76% 23
East of England -9 39 £525 -2.78% 15
West Midlands -73 28 £406 -22.62% 14
Scotland -9 27 £600 +33.33% 9
East Midlands -1 18 £638 - 9
South West -60 15 £563 -12.11% 28
Wales -17 2 £538 +7.50%
North East -40 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 17 (1.94%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (1.37%) Confluence
2 12 (1.37%) SharePoint
3 2 (0.23%) Apache
3 2 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.11%) IIS
4 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
4 1 (0.11%) nginx
Applications
1 21 (2.40%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.80%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.11%) InfoPath
5 1 (0.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (0.69%) Oracle ERP
1 6 (0.69%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 308 (35.20%) Azure
2 204 (23.31%) AWS
3 108 (12.34%) GCP
4 93 (10.63%) Entra ID
5 42 (4.80%) Microsoft 365
6 39 (4.46%) Azure DevOps
7 33 (3.77%) GitHub
8 32 (3.66%) Azure Monitor
9 28 (3.20%) SaaS
10 27 (3.09%) Azure Sentinel
11 26 (2.97%) Serverless
12 21 (2.40%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 20 (2.29%) Azure AKS
13 20 (2.29%) GitHub Actions
14 19 (2.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 19 (2.17%) Virtual Private Cloud
15 16 (1.83%) OCI
16 15 (1.71%) Amazon EKS
17 14 (1.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 14 (1.60%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 400 (45.71%) Firewall
2 198 (22.63%) VPN
3 192 (21.94%) WAN
4 134 (15.31%) LAN
5 128 (14.63%) DNS
6 101 (11.54%) BGP
6 101 (11.54%) Wireless
7 92 (10.51%) TCP/IP
8 87 (9.94%) SD-WAN
9 74 (8.46%) OSPF
10 73 (8.34%) DHCP
11 72 (8.23%) VLAN
12 51 (5.83%) MPLS
13 50 (5.71%) IPsec
13 50 (5.71%) Wi-Fi
14 49 (5.60%) SSL
15 46 (5.26%) Cisco ISE
16 40 (4.57%) Cisco ASA
17 39 (4.46%) Internet
18 37 (4.23%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.49%) SQL Server
2 8 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
3 6 (0.69%) BigQuery
4 4 (0.46%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.46%) Neo4j
4 4 (0.46%) Power BI
5 3 (0.34%) Data Lake
5 3 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
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%) Looker
7 1 (0.11%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.11%) Qlik Sense
7 1 (0.11%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.11%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.11%) Star Schema
7 1 (0.11%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 36 (4.11%) Git
2 33 (3.77%) JIRA
3 31 (3.54%) GitLab
4 25 (2.86%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (0.57%) Browser DevTools
7 4 (0.46%) MSBuild
7 4 (0.46%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.46%) Visual Studio
8 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.23%) IBM UrbanCode
10 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
10 1 (0.11%) Claude Code
10 1 (0.11%) Postman
10 1 (0.11%) Snyk
10 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
10 1 (0.11%) Subversion
General
1 221 (25.26%) Social Skills
2 150 (17.14%) Finance
3 81 (9.26%) Analytical Skills
4 61 (6.97%) Banking
5 52 (5.94%) Public Sector
6 44 (5.03%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (2.97%) Telecoms
8 23 (2.63%) Legal
9 20 (2.29%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.71%) Retail
11 14 (1.60%) Manufacturing
12 13 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
13 11 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (0.91%) Police
15 7 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
16 6 (0.69%) Automotive
16 6 (0.69%) Local Government
16 6 (0.69%) Military
17 5 (0.57%) Law
Job Titles
1 244 (27.89%) Network Engineer
2 159 (18.17%) Architect
3 111 (12.69%) Senior
4 104 (11.89%) Security Engineer
5 84 (9.60%) Security Architect
6 63 (7.20%) Consultant
7 60 (6.86%) Network Security Engineer
8 55 (6.29%) Network Architect
9 53 (6.06%) Senior Network Engineer
10 44 (5.03%) Project Manager
11 42 (4.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 38 (4.34%) Cloud Engineer
12 38 (4.34%) Lead
13 34 (3.89%) Security Consultant
14 29 (3.31%) Analyst
15 25 (2.86%) Network Manager
16 22 (2.51%) Azure Engineer
17 21 (2.40%) DevOps Engineer
17 21 (2.40%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
18 20 (2.29%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 127 (14.51%) Terraform
2 36 (4.11%) 802.1X
3 15 (1.71%) REST
3 15 (1.71%) SAML
4 14 (1.60%) ARM Templates
5 11 (1.26%) Kafka
6 6 (0.69%) JSON
6 6 (0.69%) NETCONF
7 5 (0.57%) .NET
7 5 (0.57%) Keycloak
7 5 (0.57%) OpenID
7 5 (0.57%) SLSA
7 5 (0.57%) XML
8 4 (0.46%) Azure Blueprints
8 4 (0.46%) CSS
8 4 (0.46%) gRPC
8 4 (0.46%) OAuth
8 4 (0.46%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (0.46%) RESTful
9 3 (0.34%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 106 (12.11%) Data Centre
2 79 (9.03%) Security Posture
3 51 (5.83%) Cloud Native
4 47 (5.37%) Hybrid Cloud
5 42 (4.80%) Onboarding
6 40 (4.57%) Management Information System
7 35 (4.00%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 28 (3.20%) Operational Technology
9 26 (2.97%) Cyber Threat
9 26 (2.97%) PKI
10 21 (2.40%) Data Protection Act
10 21 (2.40%) Security Operations Centre
10 21 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
11 19 (2.17%) Public Cloud
12 17 (1.94%) Cloud Security Posture
13 13 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (1.49%) Linux Command Line
14 11 (1.26%) Product Ownership
14 11 (1.26%) Replication
15 9 (1.03%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 92 (10.51%) Windows
2 78 (8.91%) Linux
3 31 (3.54%) Windows Server
4 15 (1.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.91%) Windows 10
6 6 (0.69%) Mac OS
6 6 (0.69%) Ubuntu
6 6 (0.69%) Unix
7 5 (0.57%) VMS
8 3 (0.34%) Check Point GAiA
8 3 (0.34%) SUSE
9 2 (0.23%) Android
9 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.23%) zOS
10 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.11%) Rocky
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 180 (20.57%) Cloud Security
2 176 (20.11%) Cybersecurity
3 136 (15.54%) Stakeholder Management
3 136 (15.54%) Zero Trust
4 126 (14.40%) Continuous Improvement
5 125 (14.29%) CI/CD
6 120 (13.71%) Infrastructure as Code
7 112 (12.80%) DevOps
7 112 (12.80%) Migration
8 111 (12.69%) Incident Response
9 110 (12.57%) Change Management
10 107 (12.23%) SIEM
11 102 (11.66%) Problem-Solving
12 100 (11.43%) High Availability
12 100 (11.43%) Security Architecture
13 95 (10.86%) Identity Access Management
14 94 (10.74%) Data Protection
15 90 (10.29%) Load Balancing
16 89 (10.17%) Security Operations
16 89 (10.17%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 132 (15.09%) Python
2 81 (9.26%) PowerShell
3 68 (7.77%) Bash
4 39 (4.46%) Bicep
5 29 (3.31%) SQL
6 12 (1.37%) Go
7 10 (1.14%) Java
8 9 (1.03%) JavaScript
9 7 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (0.80%) Search Processing Language
10 6 (0.69%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.46%) Rust
12 3 (0.34%) Perl
12 3 (0.34%) VBScript
13 2 (0.23%) C
14 1 (0.11%) C++
14 1 (0.11%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 221 (25.26%) Security Cleared
2 159 (18.17%) Cisco Certification
2 159 (18.17%) SC Cleared
3 102 (11.66%) CISSP
4 93 (10.63%) CCNP
5 66 (7.54%) Degree
5 66 (7.54%) DV Cleared
6 54 (6.17%) CCNA
7 51 (5.83%) CISM
8 43 (4.91%) CCSP
9 41 (4.69%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 38 (4.34%) Azure Certification
11 26 (2.97%) AWS Certification
12 25 (2.86%) CCIE
13 16 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
14 11 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
14 11 (1.26%) GIAC
15 10 (1.14%) CompTIA Security+
15 10 (1.14%) PMP
16 9 (1.03%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (8.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 74 (8.46%) NIST
3 45 (5.14%) GDPR
4 32 (3.66%) NCSC
5 27 (3.09%) PCI DSS
6 19 (2.17%) QA
7 17 (1.94%) SLA
8 15 (1.71%) GRC
9 11 (1.26%) Cyber Essentials
9 11 (1.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 8 (0.91%) Disclosure Scotland
10 8 (0.91%) NIST 800
11 6 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 4 (0.46%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 4 (0.46%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 4 (0.46%) SOC 2
14 3 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.34%) ISA99
15 2 (0.23%) PMO
System Software
1 86 (9.83%) Active Directory
2 58 (6.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (3.54%) Docker
4 21 (2.40%) Virtual Machines
5 19 (2.17%) VMware NSX
6 14 (1.60%) Hyper-V
7 11 (1.26%) vSphere
8 8 (0.91%) Virtual Desktop
8 8 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.69%) Firmware
10 5 (0.57%) Squid
11 2 (0.23%) FreeRADIUS
11 2 (0.23%) NFS
11 2 (0.23%) OpenSSH
11 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
11 2 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
12 1 (0.11%) Postfix
12 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
12 1 (0.11%) Samba
12 1 (0.11%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 91 (10.40%) Ansible
2 77 (8.80%) Kubernetes
3 44 (5.03%) FortiGate
4 23 (2.63%) Grafana
4 23 (2.63%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (1.94%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (1.71%) Prometheus
7 14 (1.60%) SCCM
8 13 (1.49%) Progress Chef
9 11 (1.26%) CASB
10 7 (0.80%) Cisco Prime
10 7 (0.80%) Puppet
10 7 (0.80%) QRadar
10 7 (0.80%) vCenter Server
11 6 (0.69%) Cisco CUCM
12 5 (0.57%) Suricata
12 5 (0.57%) WSUS
13 4 (0.46%) Kustomize
13 4 (0.46%) Podman
13 4 (0.46%) systemd
Vendors
1 251 (28.69%) Cisco
2 166 (18.97%) Microsoft
3 149 (17.03%) Palo Alto
4 87 (9.94%) Fortinet
5 80 (9.14%) F5
6 79 (9.03%) VMware
7 58 (6.63%) Zscaler
8 55 (6.29%) CheckPoint
9 43 (4.91%) Juniper
10 41 (4.69%) Splunk
11 36 (4.11%) SolarWinds
12 32 (3.66%) ServiceNow
13 31 (3.54%) Aruba
14 27 (3.09%) Google
15 22 (2.51%) Citrix
16 16 (1.83%) Meraki
17 14 (1.60%) CyberArk
17 14 (1.60%) ForeScout
17 14 (1.60%) Tenable
18 12 (1.37%) Infoblox