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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 183 136 149
Rank change year-on-year -47 +13 +104
Contract jobs citing Network Security 586 612 732
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.58% 1.93% 1.69%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.05% 14.97% 12.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 359 382 508
10th Percentile £348 £350 £406
25th Percentile £413 £425 £475
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £509 £555
Median % change year-on-year -1.72% -8.33% +0.91%
75th Percentile £580 £613 £650
90th Percentile £687 £699 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 12 7
10th Percentile £36.90 £20.15 £48.50
25th Percentile £48.94 £35.75 £58.75
Median hourly rate £65.50 £41.00 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +59.76% -43.45% +93.33%
75th Percentile £77.19 £47.50 £76.25
90th Percentile £92.75 £49.75 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £43.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year +51.16% -40.69% +93.33%

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 3,894 4,087 5,896
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.49% 12.87% 13.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,562 2,383 3,621
10th Percentile £204 £213 £210
25th Percentile £356 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 160 140 347
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £17.72
25th Percentile £18.78 £21.46 £23.00
Median hourly rate £32.00 £35.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% -38.04% +132.95%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.81 £65.49
90th Percentile £74.33 £70.00 £74.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £57.99
% change year-on-year +29.05% -43.96% +177.07%

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 18 January 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 18 January 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 18 January 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 -33 526 £500 -4.76% 358
UK excluding London -36 283 £475 -5.00% 339
London -14 230 £539 -1.78% 84
Work from Home -33 154 £519 +3.75% 112
North of England -30 104 £474 -5.20% 66
North West 0 70 £475 -5.00% 34
South East -17 68 £430 -21.10% 107
Midlands -25 62 £500 -14.24% 43
West Midlands -6 56 £500 -14.24% 19
Yorkshire -43 46 £205 -59.00% 25
East of England -14 25 £475 -14.80% 43
South West -15 21 £533 +1.43% 49
Scotland +2 17 £543 +35.63% 20
East Midlands -29 6 £544 +79.75% 23
Northern Ireland - 3 £500 - 5
Wales -9 2 £700 +141.38% 13
North East -14 2 £475 -41.72% 7

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 10 (1.71%) Confluence
2 6 (1.02%) SharePoint
3 5 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
4 4 (0.68%) Apache
5 1 (0.17%) IIS
5 1 (0.17%) nginx
5 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 17 (2.90%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (1.88%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.34%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.17%) Windchill
Cloud Services
1 176 (30.03%) Azure
2 135 (23.04%) AWS
3 55 (9.39%) GCP
4 33 (5.63%) Entra ID
5 28 (4.78%) GitHub
6 25 (4.27%) GitHub Actions
6 25 (4.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 24 (4.10%) Amazon S3
8 23 (3.92%) Microsoft 365
9 22 (3.75%) Azure DevOps
10 20 (3.41%) Amazon EC2
11 19 (3.24%) Azure Sentinel
12 16 (2.73%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 16 (2.73%) Amazon ELB
13 15 (2.56%) Azure Key Vault
14 13 (2.22%) Serverless
15 12 (2.05%) IaaS
16 11 (1.88%) Google Workspace
17 10 (1.71%) AWS CloudFormation
17 10 (1.71%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 286 (48.81%) Firewall
2 124 (21.16%) VPN
3 89 (15.19%) WAN
4 87 (14.85%) DNS
5 68 (11.60%) LAN
6 58 (9.90%) TCP/IP
7 56 (9.56%) BGP
8 51 (8.70%) SSL
9 50 (8.53%) VLAN
10 40 (6.83%) OSPF
11 37 (6.31%) SD-WAN
12 35 (5.97%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 32 (5.46%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 32 (5.46%) Wireless
14 31 (5.29%) DMZ
15 29 (4.95%) Internet
16 21 (3.58%) Intrusion Detection
17 18 (3.07%) Cisco ASA
18 17 (2.90%) MPLS
18 17 (2.90%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
1 4 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
1 4 (0.68%) InfluxDB
1 4 (0.68%) Relational Database
2 3 (0.51%) Amazon Athena
3 2 (0.34%) Data Lake
3 2 (0.34%) Power BI
3 2 (0.34%) SQL Server Integration Services
4 1 (0.17%) Redis
4 1 (0.17%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.17%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 33 (5.63%) Jenkins
2 24 (4.10%) GitLab
3 21 (3.58%) Git
4 9 (1.54%) JIRA
5 2 (0.34%) Snyk
5 2 (0.34%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.17%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.17%) Subversion
General
1 172 (29.35%) Social Skills
2 87 (14.85%) Analytical Skills
3 66 (11.26%) Finance
4 52 (8.87%) Public Sector
5 32 (5.46%) Banking
6 24 (4.10%) Telecoms
7 22 (3.75%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (2.56%) Investment Banking
9 13 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.54%) Military
11 8 (1.37%) Manufacturing
11 8 (1.37%) Pharmaceutical
12 7 (1.19%) Legal
12 7 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (0.85%) Financial Institution
13 5 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (0.68%) Local Government
14 4 (0.68%) Marketing
15 3 (0.51%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 127 (21.67%) Network Engineer
2 103 (17.58%) Architect
3 91 (15.53%) Security Engineer
4 67 (11.43%) Security Architect
5 49 (8.36%) Senior
6 43 (7.34%) Network Architect
7 38 (6.48%) Network Security Engineer
8 32 (5.46%) Analyst
9 23 (3.92%) Network Security Architect
10 21 (3.58%) Cybersecurity Engineer
10 21 (3.58%) Lead
11 19 (3.24%) Administrator
12 18 (3.07%) Cloud Engineer
12 18 (3.07%) Security Analyst
13 17 (2.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 17 (2.90%) Operations Engineer
13 17 (2.90%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 16 (2.73%) Consultant
15 15 (2.56%) Systems Administrator
15 15 (2.56%) Systems Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (2.39%) 802.1X
2 12 (2.05%) LDAP
3 8 (1.37%) .NET
3 8 (1.37%) Node.js
4 7 (1.19%) SAML
5 5 (0.85%) .NET Core
5 5 (0.85%) AngularJS
5 5 (0.85%) ARM Templates
5 5 (0.85%) Elastic Stack
5 5 (0.85%) PyTorch
5 5 (0.85%) RabbitMQ
5 5 (0.85%) React
5 5 (0.85%) TensorFlow
6 3 (0.51%) HTML
6 3 (0.51%) Lambda Expressions
6 3 (0.51%) OAuth
6 3 (0.51%) OAuth2
6 3 (0.51%) OpenID
6 3 (0.51%) Plotly
7 2 (0.34%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 67 (11.43%) Data Centre
2 36 (6.14%) Management Information System
2 36 (6.14%) Security Posture
3 32 (5.46%) Hybrid Cloud
4 30 (5.12%) Cloud Native
4 30 (5.12%) PKI
5 20 (3.41%) Public Cloud
6 19 (3.24%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (3.24%) Onboarding
7 17 (2.90%) Operational Technology
8 16 (2.73%) Analytical Mindset
8 16 (2.73%) Security Operations Centre
9 14 (2.39%) Cyber Security Posture
10 11 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
10 11 (1.88%) IoT
11 10 (1.71%) Cloud Security Posture
11 10 (1.71%) CSOC
11 10 (1.71%) Virtual Team
12 8 (1.37%) Cyberattack
13 7 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 87 (14.85%) Windows
2 65 (11.09%) Linux
3 26 (4.44%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.88%) Unix
5 8 (1.37%) VMS
6 4 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.68%) Ubuntu
7 3 (0.51%) Mac OS
8 2 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.17%) Data ONTAP
9 1 (0.17%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (24.74%) Cybersecurity
2 112 (19.11%) SIEM
3 109 (18.60%) Problem-Solving
4 98 (16.72%) Incident Response
5 93 (15.87%) Cloud Security
6 90 (15.36%) CI/CD
7 82 (13.99%) DevOps
8 79 (13.48%) Infrastructure as Code
9 73 (12.46%) Zero Trust
10 65 (11.09%) Migration
11 64 (10.92%) Security Architecture
12 61 (10.41%) Threat Modelling
13 59 (10.07%) Change Management
14 56 (9.56%) Identity Access Management
15 49 (8.36%) Infrastructure Automation
16 48 (8.19%) Continuous Improvement
16 48 (8.19%) Load Balancing
16 48 (8.19%) Network Architecture
17 47 (8.02%) Security Operations
18 46 (7.85%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 117 (19.97%) Python
2 71 (12.12%) PowerShell
3 38 (6.48%) Bash
4 19 (3.24%) SQL
5 15 (2.56%) Bicep
6 14 (2.39%) JavaScript
7 12 (2.05%) Kusto Query Language
8 10 (1.71%) Java
9 9 (1.54%) Go
10 5 (0.85%) C
10 5 (0.85%) C#
10 5 (0.85%) C++
11 4 (0.68%) Perl
11 4 (0.68%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.34%) C-shell
12 2 (0.34%) Korn
13 1 (0.17%) PHP
13 1 (0.17%) Rust
13 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 195 (33.28%) Security Cleared
2 145 (24.74%) SC Cleared
3 115 (19.62%) Cisco Certification
4 89 (15.19%) CCNP
5 79 (13.48%) CISSP
6 59 (10.07%) DV Cleared
7 44 (7.51%) Degree
8 39 (6.66%) CCNA
9 37 (6.31%) CISM
10 30 (5.12%) CCIE
11 25 (4.27%) GIAC
12 24 (4.10%) CEH
13 20 (3.41%) Azure Certification
14 17 (2.90%) CompTIA Security+
15 14 (2.39%) Computer Science Degree
16 13 (2.22%) AWS Certification
16 13 (2.22%) CCSP
17 12 (2.05%) (ISC)2 CCSP
18 10 (1.71%) CCSE
19 9 (1.54%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 71 (12.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 71 (12.12%) NIST
2 41 (7.00%) GDPR
3 27 (4.61%) PCI DSS
4 17 (2.90%) Cyber Essentials
4 17 (2.90%) NCSC
5 7 (1.19%) GRC
5 7 (1.19%) HIPAA
6 6 (1.02%) SLA
6 6 (1.02%) SOC 2
7 5 (0.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 5 (0.85%) JSP 440
7 5 (0.85%) PSD2
7 5 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.51%) PMO
8 3 (0.51%) RMADS
9 2 (0.34%) GxP
9 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 2 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 44 (7.51%) VMware Infrastructure
2 39 (6.66%) Active Directory
3 38 (6.48%) Docker
4 10 (1.71%) Hyper-V
4 10 (1.71%) VMware NSX
5 9 (1.54%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (0.85%) vSphere
7 4 (0.68%) Firmware
7 4 (0.68%) ProxySG
8 3 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
8 3 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.34%) KVM
9 2 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.17%) RACF
10 1 (0.17%) RHEV
10 1 (0.17%) Xen
10 1 (0.17%) XenApp
10 1 (0.17%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 105 (17.92%) Terraform
2 66 (11.26%) Ansible
3 40 (6.83%) Kubernetes
4 20 (3.41%) FortiGate
5 13 (2.22%) Nagios
6 11 (1.88%) QRadar
7 10 (1.71%) Kibana
7 10 (1.71%) Microsoft Intune
8 7 (1.19%) Grafana
8 7 (1.19%) Prometheus
8 7 (1.19%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (1.02%) Microsoft Clustering
10 4 (0.68%) Progress Chef
10 4 (0.68%) vCenter Server
11 3 (0.51%) CASB
11 3 (0.51%) Icinga
11 3 (0.51%) Puppet
11 3 (0.51%) SCCM
12 2 (0.34%) Docker Swarm
12 2 (0.34%) Istio
Vendors
1 154 (26.28%) Cisco
2 115 (19.62%) Palo Alto
3 95 (16.21%) Microsoft
4 82 (13.99%) F5
5 60 (10.24%) CheckPoint
6 51 (8.70%) VMware
7 44 (7.51%) Juniper
8 43 (7.34%) Zscaler
9 41 (7.00%) Fortinet
10 30 (5.12%) Splunk
11 27 (4.61%) Google
12 23 (3.92%) SolarWinds
13 22 (3.75%) Meraki
14 16 (2.73%) ServiceNow
15 14 (2.39%) Tenable
16 13 (2.22%) Aruba
16 13 (2.22%) Blue Coat
16 13 (2.22%) CrowdStrike
17 10 (1.71%) ArcSight
17 10 (1.71%) FireEye