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

6 months to
28 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 184 169 157
Rank change year-on-year -15 -12 +10
Contract jobs citing Network Security 858 558 582
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.58% 1.70% 1.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.97% 14.86% 12.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 556 334 377
10th Percentile £400 £380 £362
25th Percentile £463 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £533 £535
Median % change year-on-year +3.29% -0.47% -2.73%
75th Percentile £650 £630 £626
90th Percentile £728 £738 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +8.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 14 9
10th Percentile £27.00 £45.00 £31.70
25th Percentile £67.81 £55.00 £36.00
Median hourly rate £73.00 £70.16 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +4.05% +55.91% -35.02%
75th Percentile £74.00 £84.09 £58.75
90th Percentile £85.00 £95.50 £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 5,057 3,755 4,560
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.30% 11.44% 11.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,917 2,352 2,625
10th Percentile £234 £219 £226
25th Percentile £390 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £488
% change year-on-year +5.56% -7.69% +5.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 424 200 217
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.11 £23.80
Median hourly rate £32.75 £42.50 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.94% -15.84% -10.46%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £73.20 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -34.12% -25.89% -0.26%

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 28 September 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 28 September 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 28 September 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 -6 752 £550 +4.76% 599
UK excluding London -13 438 £540 +8.00% 326
London -2 322 £550 - 281
Work from Home +4 256 £540 -1.82% 264
North of England +19 203 £540 +10.32% 84
North West -14 108 £537 +13.05% 52
Yorkshire +16 90 £540 +8.87% 22
South East -34 88 £559 +24.22% 97
Midlands -57 51 £450 -14.29% 48
East of England +1 42 £525 +10.53% 32
West Midlands -68 38 £450 -14.29% 34
Scotland -19 27 £600 +33.33% 14
South West -44 26 £675 +8.87% 37
East Midlands -6 13 £500 - 14
Channel Islands +1 6 £600 -17.24% 1
North East - 4 £680 - 10
Northern Ireland +3 1 - - 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 20 (2.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 18 (2.10%) SharePoint
3 11 (1.28%) Confluence
4 4 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.35%) Apache
6 2 (0.23%) IIS
7 1 (0.12%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.12%) CMS
7 1 (0.12%) NetWeaver
7 1 (0.12%) nginx
Applications
1 17 (1.98%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (0.82%) MS Visio
3 5 (0.58%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
5 1 (0.12%) InfoPath
5 1 (0.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 6 (0.70%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 286 (33.33%) Azure
2 196 (22.84%) AWS
3 101 (11.77%) GCP
4 97 (11.31%) Entra ID
5 50 (5.83%) Microsoft 365
6 42 (4.90%) GitHub
7 39 (4.55%) Azure DevOps
8 31 (3.61%) Azure Monitor
9 27 (3.15%) Serverless
10 25 (2.91%) SaaS
11 23 (2.68%) Azure Sentinel
12 20 (2.33%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (2.10%) Azure AKS
13 18 (2.10%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 17 (1.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
14 17 (1.98%) OCI
15 16 (1.86%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 16 (1.86%) Amazon EKS
16 15 (1.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
17 14 (1.63%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 394 (45.92%) Firewall
2 200 (23.31%) VPN
3 191 (22.26%) WAN
4 135 (15.73%) DNS
5 134 (15.62%) LAN
6 101 (11.77%) Wireless
7 96 (11.19%) BGP
8 93 (10.84%) TCP/IP
9 80 (9.32%) SD-WAN
10 74 (8.62%) DHCP
11 68 (7.93%) OSPF
12 66 (7.69%) VLAN
13 60 (6.99%) SSL
14 51 (5.94%) MPLS
15 44 (5.13%) IPsec
15 44 (5.13%) Wi-Fi
16 42 (4.90%) Cisco ISE
17 38 (4.43%) Cisco ASA
17 38 (4.43%) Internet
18 31 (3.61%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (1.40%) SQL Server
2 7 (0.82%) BigQuery
3 6 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.47%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.47%) Neo4j
5 3 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
5 3 (0.35%) PostgreSQL
6 2 (0.23%) Data Lake
6 2 (0.23%) Delta Lake
6 2 (0.23%) Power BI
7 1 (0.12%) Data Mining
7 1 (0.12%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.12%) InfluxDB
7 1 (0.12%) Looker
7 1 (0.12%) Metadata
7 1 (0.12%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.12%) Qlik Sense
7 1 (0.12%) Snowflake Schema
7 1 (0.12%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 39 (4.55%) Git
2 30 (3.50%) GitLab
3 28 (3.26%) JIRA
4 27 (3.15%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.82%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (0.47%) MSBuild
6 4 (0.47%) SonarQube
6 4 (0.47%) Visual Studio
7 3 (0.35%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.35%) Browser DevTools
8 2 (0.23%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.23%) IBM UrbanCode
9 1 (0.12%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.12%) Postman
9 1 (0.12%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.12%) Subversion
General
1 242 (28.21%) Social Skills
2 156 (18.18%) Finance
3 93 (10.84%) Analytical Skills
4 65 (7.58%) Banking
5 43 (5.01%) Documentation Skills
6 42 (4.90%) Public Sector
7 29 (3.38%) Telecoms
8 27 (3.15%) Legal
9 18 (2.10%) Financial Institution
10 16 (1.86%) Influencing Skills
11 15 (1.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 14 (1.63%) Manufacturing
12 14 (1.63%) Retail
13 12 (1.40%) Organisational Skills
13 12 (1.40%) Presentation Skills
14 8 (0.93%) Local Government
15 7 (0.82%) Law
16 6 (0.70%) Automotive
16 6 (0.70%) Military
16 6 (0.70%) Police
Job Titles
1 246 (28.67%) Network Engineer
2 145 (16.90%) Architect
3 121 (14.10%) Security Engineer
4 105 (12.24%) Senior
5 78 (9.09%) Security Architect
6 73 (8.51%) Network Security Engineer
7 68 (7.93%) Consultant
8 54 (6.29%) Network Architect
9 50 (5.83%) Senior Network Engineer
10 45 (5.24%) Project Manager
11 44 (5.13%) Cloud Engineer
12 43 (5.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 37 (4.31%) Security Consultant
14 32 (3.73%) Lead
15 27 (3.15%) Analyst
15 27 (3.15%) Network Security Architect
15 27 (3.15%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
16 24 (2.80%) Network Manager
17 22 (2.56%) Azure Engineer
17 22 (2.56%) Network Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 135 (15.73%) Terraform
2 36 (4.20%) 802.1X
3 23 (2.68%) REST
4 16 (1.86%) SAML
5 15 (1.75%) ARM Templates
6 12 (1.40%) Kafka
7 8 (0.93%) JSON
7 8 (0.93%) NETCONF
8 6 (0.70%) gRPC
8 6 (0.70%) Keycloak
8 6 (0.70%) LDAP
8 6 (0.70%) OpenID
9 5 (0.58%) Azure Blueprints
9 5 (0.58%) SLSA
9 5 (0.58%) Software Packaging
9 5 (0.58%) XML
9 5 (0.58%) YAML
10 4 (0.47%) OAuth
10 4 (0.47%) Protocol Buffers
10 4 (0.47%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 115 (13.40%) Data Centre
2 87 (10.14%) Security Posture
3 51 (5.94%) Onboarding
4 47 (5.48%) Cloud Native
5 43 (5.01%) Hybrid Cloud
6 40 (4.66%) Management Information System
7 37 (4.31%) Operational Technology
8 32 (3.73%) Cyber Threat
9 27 (3.15%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 27 (3.15%) PKI
10 26 (3.03%) Self-Motivation
11 23 (2.68%) Security Operations Centre
12 20 (2.33%) Cloud Security Posture
13 19 (2.21%) Public Cloud
14 17 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
15 15 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
16 10 (1.17%) Replication
17 9 (1.05%) Linux Command Line
17 9 (1.05%) SCADA
17 9 (1.05%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 104 (12.12%) Windows
2 86 (10.02%) Linux
3 44 (5.13%) Windows Server
4 18 (2.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (1.40%) Unix
6 9 (1.05%) Windows 10
7 6 (0.70%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.58%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.35%) Check Point GAiA
10 2 (0.23%) Android
10 2 (0.23%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.23%) zOS
11 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.12%) Rocky
11 1 (0.12%) SUSE
11 1 (0.12%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
11 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 182 (21.21%) Cybersecurity
2 173 (20.16%) Cloud Security
3 153 (17.83%) Stakeholder Management
4 136 (15.85%) CI/CD
5 133 (15.50%) Zero Trust
6 126 (14.69%) Continuous Improvement
7 123 (14.34%) Incident Response
7 123 (14.34%) Infrastructure as Code
8 119 (13.87%) SIEM
9 117 (13.64%) Problem-Solving
10 115 (13.40%) Migration
11 112 (13.05%) DevOps
12 107 (12.47%) Change Management
13 106 (12.35%) Security Architecture
14 95 (11.07%) Identity Access Management
15 92 (10.72%) Data Protection
15 92 (10.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 87 (10.14%) Security Operations
16 87 (10.14%) Vulnerability Management
17 86 (10.02%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 160 (18.65%) Python
2 90 (10.49%) PowerShell
3 74 (8.62%) Bash
4 34 (3.96%) Bicep
5 22 (2.56%) SQL
6 14 (1.63%) Go
7 12 (1.40%) Java
8 7 (0.82%) Search Processing Language
9 6 (0.70%) Kusto Query Language
9 6 (0.70%) Shell Script
10 5 (0.58%) ActionScript
11 4 (0.47%) Rust
12 3 (0.35%) JavaScript
12 3 (0.35%) Perl
12 3 (0.35%) VBScript
13 1 (0.12%) C
13 1 (0.12%) C++
13 1 (0.12%) Ruby
13 1 (0.12%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 241 (28.09%) Security Cleared
2 175 (20.40%) Cisco Certification
3 172 (20.05%) SC Cleared
4 110 (12.82%) CISSP
5 97 (11.31%) CCNP
6 76 (8.86%) DV Cleared
7 64 (7.46%) Degree
8 53 (6.18%) CCSP
9 50 (5.83%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 48 (5.59%) CCNA
11 47 (5.48%) CISM
12 35 (4.08%) CCIE
13 30 (3.50%) Azure Certification
14 25 (2.91%) AWS Certification
15 17 (1.98%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (1.40%) GIAC
16 12 (1.40%) PMP
17 11 (1.28%) JNCIP
17 11 (1.28%) PMI Certification
18 10 (1.17%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 77 (8.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 72 (8.39%) NIST
3 32 (3.73%) GDPR
4 30 (3.50%) NCSC
5 27 (3.15%) PCI DSS
6 14 (1.63%) Cyber Essentials
7 13 (1.52%) GRC
8 12 (1.40%) QA
9 11 (1.28%) NIST 800
10 10 (1.17%) SLA
11 9 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
12 7 (0.82%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 6 (0.70%) Disclosure Scotland
14 5 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 4 (0.47%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 4 (0.47%) PMO
16 3 (0.35%) Data Quality
16 3 (0.35%) SOC 2
17 2 (0.23%) JSP 440
17 2 (0.23%) P3O
System Software
1 93 (10.84%) Active Directory
2 58 (6.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 34 (3.96%) Docker
4 18 (2.10%) Virtual Machines
5 16 (1.86%) VMware NSX
6 12 (1.40%) Hyper-V
7 11 (1.28%) vSphere
8 8 (0.93%) Virtual Desktop
8 8 (0.93%) VMware ESXi
9 6 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
10 5 (0.58%) Squid
11 4 (0.47%) FreeRADIUS
12 2 (0.23%) Firmware
12 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Virtual Server
12 2 (0.23%) NFS
12 2 (0.23%) OpenSSH
12 2 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.12%) ProxySG
13 1 (0.12%) Samba
13 1 (0.12%) Varnish
Systems Management
1 99 (11.54%) Ansible
2 79 (9.21%) Kubernetes
3 47 (5.48%) FortiGate
4 27 (3.15%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (2.91%) Grafana
6 17 (1.98%) Prometheus
7 16 (1.86%) Progress Chef
8 15 (1.75%) SCCM
9 13 (1.52%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (1.17%) CASB
11 9 (1.05%) QRadar
12 8 (0.93%) Nagios
13 7 (0.82%) Cisco CUCM
13 7 (0.82%) Puppet
14 5 (0.58%) Suricata
14 5 (0.58%) WSUS
15 4 (0.47%) Cisco Prime
15 4 (0.47%) Kustomize
15 4 (0.47%) Podman
15 4 (0.47%) VxRail
Vendors
1 262 (30.54%) Cisco
2 170 (19.81%) Palo Alto
3 168 (19.58%) Microsoft
4 97 (11.31%) Fortinet
5 80 (9.32%) F5
6 76 (8.86%) VMware
7 69 (8.04%) Zscaler
8 57 (6.64%) CheckPoint
9 48 (5.59%) Juniper
10 42 (4.90%) SolarWinds
11 39 (4.55%) Splunk
12 34 (3.96%) Aruba
13 31 (3.61%) Google
14 25 (2.91%) ServiceNow
15 20 (2.33%) Citrix
16 17 (1.98%) Meraki
17 14 (1.63%) Blue Coat
18 13 (1.52%) CyberArk
18 13 (1.52%) Tenable
19 12 (1.40%) AlgoSec