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

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 180 175 161
Rank change year-on-year -5 -14 -1
Contract jobs citing Network Security 874 547 576
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.60% 1.67% 1.53%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.30% 14.52% 12.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 569 324 369
10th Percentile £400 £380 £358
25th Percentile £463 £450 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% +2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £650 £638 £626
90th Percentile £735 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +10.00% -4.76% -1.87%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 16 9
10th Percentile £27.00 £45.00 £31.70
25th Percentile £67.81 £52.50 £36.00
Median hourly rate £72.75 £70.16 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +3.69% +55.91% -37.93%
75th Percentile £74.00 £85.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £97.50 £70.77
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.00 £70.16 £53.75
% change year-on-year +4.05% +30.53% -25.86%

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 5,051 3,768 4,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.24% 11.48% 11.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,910 2,381 2,585
10th Percentile £231 £219 £225
25th Percentile £389 £361 £368
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £606
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £453 £485
% change year-on-year +4.86% -6.60% +6.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 435 200 199
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £21.15 £23.80
Median hourly rate £32.50 £41.48 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -21.64% -17.05% -11.49%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.94 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.29 £42.50 £57.30
% change year-on-year -38.15% -25.83% -0.35%

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 6 October 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 6 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Top 18 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 6 October 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 -3 769 £550 +3.29% 743
UK excluding London -9 444 £550 +10.00% 400
London -6 332 £550 - 358
Work from Home +1 261 £540 -1.82% 280
North of England +9 206 £540 +10.83% 87
North West -6 111 £540 +13.68% 48
Yorkshire +17 91 £540 +9.76% 30
South East -27 90 £557 +23.78% 131
Midlands -55 51 £481 -8.33% 66
East of England -6 40 £525 +5.00% 39
West Midlands -69 39 £450 -14.29% 38
South West -38 29 £675 +5.47% 47
Scotland -13 27 £600 +26.32% 16
East Midlands 0 12 £500 - 28
Channel Islands -1 6 £600 -17.24%
North East - 3 £680 - 9
Northern Ireland +7 2 - - 11
Wales -17 1 £650 +30.00% 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 19 (2.17%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (2.06%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.26%) Confluence
4 4 (0.46%) Apache
4 4 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
5 2 (0.23%) Apache Spark
5 2 (0.23%) IIS
5 2 (0.23%) nginx
6 1 (0.11%) CMS
6 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 17 (1.95%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.80%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.57%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
4 2 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.11%) InfoPath
Business Applications
1 6 (0.69%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
2 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 295 (33.75%) Azure
2 208 (23.80%) AWS
3 107 (12.24%) GCP
4 98 (11.21%) Entra ID
5 51 (5.84%) Microsoft 365
6 48 (5.49%) GitHub
7 40 (4.58%) Azure DevOps
8 35 (4.00%) Azure Monitor
9 31 (3.55%) Serverless
10 27 (3.09%) SaaS
11 25 (2.86%) Azure Sentinel
12 21 (2.40%) GitHub Actions
13 20 (2.29%) Azure AKS
14 19 (2.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
15 18 (2.06%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 18 (2.06%) Amazon EKS
15 18 (2.06%) Google Kubernetes Engine
15 18 (2.06%) Virtual Private Cloud
16 17 (1.95%) OCI
17 16 (1.83%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 399 (45.65%) Firewall
2 203 (23.23%) VPN
3 191 (21.85%) WAN
4 142 (16.25%) DNS
5 134 (15.33%) LAN
6 103 (11.78%) Wireless
7 96 (10.98%) BGP
8 93 (10.64%) TCP/IP
9 79 (9.04%) SD-WAN
10 72 (8.24%) DHCP
11 67 (7.67%) OSPF
12 64 (7.32%) VLAN
13 58 (6.64%) SSL
14 51 (5.84%) MPLS
15 44 (5.03%) Wi-Fi
16 42 (4.81%) IPsec
17 41 (4.69%) Cisco ISE
18 39 (4.46%) Cisco ASA
19 38 (4.35%) Internet
20 34 (3.89%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.37%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.03%) Amazon RDS
3 7 (0.80%) BigQuery
4 5 (0.57%) Delta Lake
4 5 (0.57%) Elasticsearch
5 4 (0.46%) Neo4j
5 4 (0.46%) Power BI
6 3 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
6 3 (0.34%) Data Lake
6 3 (0.34%) PostgreSQL
7 2 (0.23%) InfluxDB
7 2 (0.23%) Looker
7 2 (0.23%) Relational Database
8 1 (0.11%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.11%) Big Data
8 1 (0.11%) DynamoDB
8 1 (0.11%) Qlik Sense
8 1 (0.11%) SAP Data Services
8 1 (0.11%) SAP HANA
8 1 (0.11%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 41 (4.69%) Git
2 33 (3.78%) Jenkins
3 32 (3.66%) GitLab
4 27 (3.09%) JIRA
5 7 (0.80%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.46%) Claude Code
6 4 (0.46%) MSBuild
6 4 (0.46%) SonarQube
6 4 (0.46%) Visual Studio
7 3 (0.34%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.23%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.11%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.11%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.11%) Cucumber
9 1 (0.11%) Postman
9 1 (0.11%) REST Assured
9 1 (0.11%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.11%) Subversion
General
1 249 (28.49%) Social Skills
2 166 (18.99%) Finance
3 91 (10.41%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (7.55%) Banking
5 46 (5.26%) Public Sector
6 44 (5.03%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (3.55%) Legal
8 30 (3.43%) Telecoms
9 18 (2.06%) Financial Institution
10 16 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
11 14 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 14 (1.60%) Retail
12 13 (1.49%) Manufacturing
12 13 (1.49%) Organisational Skills
13 12 (1.37%) Presentation Skills
14 8 (0.92%) Local Government
15 6 (0.69%) Automotive
15 6 (0.69%) Law
15 6 (0.69%) Military
15 6 (0.69%) Police
Job Titles
1 244 (27.92%) Network Engineer
2 150 (17.16%) Architect
3 118 (13.50%) Security Engineer
4 104 (11.90%) Senior
5 81 (9.27%) Security Architect
6 71 (8.12%) Network Security Engineer
7 68 (7.78%) Consultant
8 59 (6.75%) Network Architect
9 48 (5.49%) Senior Network Engineer
10 45 (5.15%) Project Manager
11 44 (5.03%) Cloud Engineer
11 44 (5.03%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 38 (4.35%) Security Consultant
13 33 (3.78%) Lead
14 30 (3.43%) Network Security Architect
15 29 (3.32%) Analyst
16 27 (3.09%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
17 24 (2.75%) Azure Engineer
17 24 (2.75%) Network Manager
18 22 (2.52%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 148 (16.93%) Terraform
2 38 (4.35%) 802.1X
3 24 (2.75%) REST
4 15 (1.72%) ARM Templates
5 14 (1.60%) Kafka
6 13 (1.49%) SAML
7 8 (0.92%) JSON
7 8 (0.92%) NETCONF
8 6 (0.69%) gRPC
8 6 (0.69%) Keycloak
8 6 (0.69%) LDAP
8 6 (0.69%) YAML
9 5 (0.57%) Azure Blueprints
9 5 (0.57%) OpenID
9 5 (0.57%) SLSA
9 5 (0.57%) Software Packaging
9 5 (0.57%) XML
10 4 (0.46%) .NET
10 4 (0.46%) CSS
10 4 (0.46%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 121 (13.84%) Data Centre
2 84 (9.61%) Security Posture
3 57 (6.52%) Onboarding
4 50 (5.72%) Cloud Native
5 42 (4.81%) Hybrid Cloud
5 42 (4.81%) Management Information System
6 36 (4.12%) Operational Technology
7 34 (3.89%) Cyber Threat
8 27 (3.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 27 (3.09%) PKI
9 26 (2.97%) Self-Motivation
10 24 (2.75%) Public Cloud
11 23 (2.63%) Security Operations Centre
12 19 (2.17%) Cloud Security Posture
12 19 (2.17%) Data Protection Act
13 15 (1.72%) Enterprise Software
14 11 (1.26%) Linux Command Line
14 11 (1.26%) Replication
15 10 (1.14%) Video Conferencing
16 9 (1.03%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 104 (11.90%) Windows
2 88 (10.07%) Linux
3 45 (5.15%) Windows Server
4 20 (2.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (1.37%) Unix
6 9 (1.03%) Windows 10
7 7 (0.80%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.34%) Check Point GAiA
8 3 (0.34%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.23%) Android
9 2 (0.23%) Oracle Linux
9 2 (0.23%) Rocky
9 2 (0.23%) SUSE
9 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
9 2 (0.23%) zOS
10 1 (0.11%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 187 (21.40%) Cybersecurity
2 181 (20.71%) Cloud Security
3 157 (17.96%) Stakeholder Management
4 148 (16.93%) CI/CD
5 141 (16.13%) Zero Trust
6 135 (15.45%) Infrastructure as Code
7 126 (14.42%) Continuous Improvement
8 125 (14.30%) Problem-Solving
9 124 (14.19%) Incident Response
10 121 (13.84%) Migration
11 120 (13.73%) SIEM
12 118 (13.50%) DevOps
13 109 (12.47%) Change Management
14 108 (12.36%) Security Architecture
15 97 (11.10%) Identity Access Management
16 95 (10.87%) Data Protection
16 95 (10.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 91 (10.41%) Agile
17 91 (10.41%) Load Balancing
18 88 (10.07%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 171 (19.57%) Python
2 92 (10.53%) PowerShell
3 77 (8.81%) Bash
4 35 (4.00%) Bicep
5 29 (3.32%) SQL
6 15 (1.72%) Go
7 14 (1.60%) Java
8 8 (0.92%) ActionScript
9 7 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
9 7 (0.80%) Search Processing Language
9 7 (0.80%) Shell Script
10 4 (0.46%) Rust
11 3 (0.34%) JavaScript
11 3 (0.34%) Perl
11 3 (0.34%) VBScript
12 1 (0.11%) C
12 1 (0.11%) C#
12 1 (0.11%) C++
12 1 (0.11%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 244 (27.92%) Security Cleared
2 177 (20.25%) Cisco Certification
3 173 (19.79%) SC Cleared
4 111 (12.70%) CISSP
5 100 (11.44%) CCNP
6 78 (8.92%) DV Cleared
7 65 (7.44%) Degree
8 52 (5.95%) CCSP
9 49 (5.61%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 49 (5.61%) CCNA
10 45 (5.15%) CISM
11 37 (4.23%) CCIE
12 30 (3.43%) Azure Certification
13 25 (2.86%) AWS Certification
14 18 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (1.37%) GIAC
15 12 (1.37%) PMI Certification
15 12 (1.37%) PMP
16 11 (1.26%) BPSS Clearance
16 11 (1.26%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (9.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 73 (8.35%) NIST
3 38 (4.35%) GDPR
4 31 (3.55%) NCSC
5 30 (3.43%) PCI DSS
6 16 (1.83%) Cyber Essentials
7 14 (1.60%) GRC
8 12 (1.37%) QA
9 11 (1.26%) NIST 800
10 10 (1.14%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 10 (1.14%) SLA
11 7 (0.80%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 6 (0.69%) Disclosure Scotland
13 5 (0.57%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 5 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 42001
14 4 (0.46%) California Consumer Privacy Act
14 4 (0.46%) Data Quality
14 4 (0.46%) PMO
15 3 (0.34%) SOC 2
16 2 (0.23%) P3O
System Software
1 90 (10.30%) Active Directory
2 59 (6.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 38 (4.35%) Docker
4 17 (1.95%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (1.83%) VMware NSX
6 13 (1.49%) vSphere
7 12 (1.37%) Hyper-V
8 8 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
8 8 (0.92%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
10 5 (0.57%) Squid
11 4 (0.46%) FreeRADIUS
12 2 (0.23%) Firmware
12 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 2 (0.23%) OpenSSH
12 2 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.11%) NFS
13 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.11%) Samba
Systems Management
1 102 (11.67%) Ansible
2 83 (9.50%) Kubernetes
3 47 (5.38%) FortiGate
4 31 (3.55%) Grafana
5 29 (3.32%) Microsoft Intune
6 22 (2.52%) Prometheus
7 18 (2.06%) Progress Chef
8 15 (1.72%) SCCM
9 11 (1.26%) CASB
9 11 (1.26%) Single Sign-On
10 9 (1.03%) Nagios
10 9 (1.03%) QRadar
11 7 (0.80%) Cisco CUCM
11 7 (0.80%) Puppet
12 5 (0.57%) Suricata
13 4 (0.46%) Kustomize
13 4 (0.46%) Podman
13 4 (0.46%) systemd
13 4 (0.46%) VxRail
13 4 (0.46%) WSUS
Vendors
1 266 (30.43%) Cisco
2 174 (19.91%) Palo Alto
3 173 (19.79%) Microsoft
4 100 (11.44%) Fortinet
5 84 (9.61%) F5
6 77 (8.81%) VMware
7 68 (7.78%) Zscaler
8 57 (6.52%) CheckPoint
9 47 (5.38%) Juniper
10 43 (4.92%) SolarWinds
11 40 (4.58%) Splunk
12 34 (3.89%) Aruba
12 34 (3.89%) Google
13 25 (2.86%) ServiceNow
14 18 (2.06%) Meraki
15 17 (1.95%) Citrix
16 14 (1.60%) Blue Coat
17 13 (1.49%) CyberArk
17 13 (1.49%) Tenable
18 12 (1.37%) AlgoSec