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

6 months to
26 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 171 156 182
Rank change year-on-year -15 +26 -17
Contract jobs citing Network Security 876 599 532
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.63% 1.83% 1.37%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.28% 15.46% 11.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 584 354 361
10th Percentile £400 £375 £363
25th Percentile £463 £446 £460
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.76% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £638 £616 £666
90th Percentile £725 £713 £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 5,068 3,874 4,665
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.45% 11.84% 12.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,992 2,362 2,803
10th Percentile £250 £241 £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 £677 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £472 £500
% change year-on-year +0.58% -5.55% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 371 201 302
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% -7.50% -11.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.35 £74.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.77 £44.50 £54.94
% change year-on-year -42.09% -19.00% -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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -11 768 £550 +4.76% 408
UK excluding London -22 428 £528 +5.60% 241
London -10 340 £550 - 208
Work from Home +10 269 £540 +2.37% 188
North of England +10 202 £528 +8.36% 43
North West -8 115 £535 +12.63% 27
South East -40 103 £554 +16.53% 64
Yorkshire +16 84 £507 +3.05% 14
Midlands -59 48 £500 -4.76% 40
East of England -11 39 £525 -2.78% 26
West Midlands -80 29 £413 -21.43% 23
Scotland -11 27 £600 +33.33% 22
East Midlands 0 18 £638 - 17
South West -61 15 £563 -12.11% 37
Wales -18 2 £538 +7.50% 2
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 3 (0.34%) Apache
4 2 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.11%) Apache Spark
5 1 (0.11%) IIS
5 1 (0.11%) NetWeaver
5 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 (0.68%) Oracle ERP
1 6 (0.68%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 311 (35.50%) Azure
2 206 (23.52%) AWS
3 109 (12.44%) GCP
4 93 (10.62%) Entra ID
5 42 (4.79%) Microsoft 365
6 38 (4.34%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (3.65%) Azure Monitor
7 32 (3.65%) GitHub
8 28 (3.20%) SaaS
9 27 (3.08%) Azure Sentinel
10 26 (2.97%) Serverless
11 20 (2.28%) Azure AKS
11 20 (2.28%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 20 (2.28%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 19 (2.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 19 (2.17%) GitHub Actions
13 16 (1.83%) OCI
14 15 (1.71%) Amazon EKS
15 14 (1.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 14 (1.60%) Azure Key Vault
Communications & Networking
1 403 (46.00%) Firewall
2 200 (22.83%) VPN
3 191 (21.80%) WAN
4 134 (15.30%) LAN
5 130 (14.84%) DNS
6 101 (11.53%) BGP
6 101 (11.53%) Wireless
7 93 (10.62%) TCP/IP
8 87 (9.93%) SD-WAN
9 75 (8.56%) OSPF
10 73 (8.33%) DHCP
10 73 (8.33%) VLAN
11 51 (5.82%) MPLS
12 50 (5.71%) IPsec
12 50 (5.71%) Wi-Fi
13 49 (5.59%) SSL
14 46 (5.25%) Cisco ISE
15 41 (4.68%) Cisco ASA
16 39 (4.45%) Internet
17 37 (4.22%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.48%) SQL Server
2 8 (0.91%) Azure SQL Database
3 6 (0.68%) Amazon RDS
3 6 (0.68%) 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 37 (4.22%) Git
2 33 (3.77%) JIRA
3 29 (3.31%) GitLab
4 24 (2.74%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
6 6 (0.68%) 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
1 220 (25.11%) Social Skills
2 149 (17.01%) Finance
3 81 (9.25%) Analytical Skills
4 61 (6.96%) Banking
5 54 (6.16%) Public Sector
6 45 (5.14%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (2.97%) Telecoms
8 23 (2.63%) Legal
9 20 (2.28%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.71%) Retail
11 14 (1.60%) Manufacturing
12 13 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 11 (1.26%) Influencing Skills
13 11 (1.26%) Organisational Skills
14 8 (0.91%) Police
15 6 (0.68%) Automotive
15 6 (0.68%) Local Government
15 6 (0.68%) Military
15 6 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
16 5 (0.57%) Law
Job Titles
1 245 (27.97%) Network Engineer
2 161 (18.38%) Architect
3 108 (12.33%) Senior
4 104 (11.87%) Security Engineer
5 85 (9.70%) Security Architect
6 63 (7.19%) Consultant
7 60 (6.85%) Network Security Engineer
8 56 (6.39%) Network Architect
9 52 (5.94%) Senior Network Engineer
10 43 (4.91%) Project Manager
11 42 (4.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 38 (4.34%) Lead
13 37 (4.22%) Cloud Engineer
14 34 (3.88%) Security Consultant
15 28 (3.20%) Analyst
16 25 (2.85%) Network Manager
17 22 (2.51%) Azure Engineer
18 21 (2.40%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
19 20 (2.28%) DevOps Engineer
19 20 (2.28%) Network Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (14.38%) Terraform
2 36 (4.11%) 802.1X
3 15 (1.71%) REST
3 15 (1.71%) SAML
4 14 (1.60%) ARM Templates
5 10 (1.14%) Kafka
6 6 (0.68%) JSON
6 6 (0.68%) NETCONF
7 5 (0.57%) .NET
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%) Keycloak
8 4 (0.46%) OAuth
8 4 (0.46%) Protocol Buffers
8 4 (0.46%) RESTful
9 3 (0.34%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 105 (11.99%) Data Centre
2 78 (8.90%) Security Posture
3 51 (5.82%) Cloud Native
4 46 (5.25%) Hybrid Cloud
5 42 (4.79%) Onboarding
6 40 (4.57%) Management Information System
7 35 (4.00%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 28 (3.20%) Operational Technology
9 25 (2.85%) Cyber Threat
9 25 (2.85%) PKI
10 21 (2.40%) Data Protection Act
10 21 (2.40%) Security Operations Centre
10 21 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
11 20 (2.28%) Public Cloud
12 17 (1.94%) Cloud Security Posture
13 13 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
13 13 (1.48%) Linux Command Line
14 12 (1.37%) Product Ownership
15 10 (1.14%) Replication
16 9 (1.03%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 90 (10.27%) Windows
2 77 (8.79%) Linux
3 30 (3.42%) Windows Server
4 15 (1.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (0.91%) Windows 10
6 7 (0.80%) Unix
7 6 (0.68%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.68%) Ubuntu
8 5 (0.57%) VMS
9 3 (0.34%) Check Point GAiA
9 3 (0.34%) SUSE
10 2 (0.23%) Android
10 2 (0.23%) zOS
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Linux
11 1 (0.11%) Rocky
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2003
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 179 (20.43%) Cloud Security
2 176 (20.09%) Cybersecurity
3 136 (15.53%) Zero Trust
4 133 (15.18%) Stakeholder Management
5 124 (14.16%) Continuous Improvement
6 123 (14.04%) CI/CD
7 119 (13.58%) Infrastructure as Code
8 112 (12.79%) Migration
9 111 (12.67%) DevOps
10 110 (12.56%) Incident Response
11 109 (12.44%) Change Management
12 108 (12.33%) SIEM
13 102 (11.64%) Problem-Solving
14 99 (11.30%) High Availability
14 99 (11.30%) Security Architecture
15 95 (10.84%) Identity Access Management
16 94 (10.73%) Data Protection
17 91 (10.39%) Load Balancing
18 89 (10.16%) ITIL
18 89 (10.16%) Security Operations
Programming Languages
1 132 (15.07%) Python
2 81 (9.25%) PowerShell
3 68 (7.76%) Bash
4 39 (4.45%) Bicep
5 29 (3.31%) SQL
6 10 (1.14%) Go
6 10 (1.14%) Java
7 9 (1.03%) JavaScript
8 7 (0.80%) Kusto Query Language
8 7 (0.80%) Search Processing Language
8 7 (0.80%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.46%) Rust
10 3 (0.34%) Perl
10 3 (0.34%) VBScript
11 2 (0.23%) C
11 2 (0.23%) Ruby
12 1 (0.11%) C++
Qualifications
1 221 (25.23%) Security Cleared
2 162 (18.49%) Cisco Certification
3 159 (18.15%) SC Cleared
4 103 (11.76%) CISSP
5 96 (10.96%) CCNP
6 67 (7.65%) Degree
7 65 (7.42%) DV Cleared
8 56 (6.39%) CCNA
9 51 (5.82%) CISM
10 43 (4.91%) CCSP
11 41 (4.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 38 (4.34%) Azure Certification
13 26 (2.97%) CCIE
14 25 (2.85%) AWS Certification
15 16 (1.83%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (1.26%) GIAC
17 10 (1.14%) BPSS Clearance
17 10 (1.14%) CompTIA Security+
18 9 (1.03%) CEH
18 9 (1.03%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 75 (8.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 73 (8.33%) NIST
3 45 (5.14%) GDPR
4 32 (3.65%) NCSC
5 27 (3.08%) 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 (0.68%) 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 (9.82%) Active Directory
2 58 (6.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 29 (3.31%) 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 (0.68%) Firmware
10 5 (0.57%) Squid
11 3 (0.34%) NFS
12 2 (0.23%) FreeRADIUS
12 2 (0.23%) OpenSSH
12 2 (0.23%) Postfix
12 2 (0.23%) Sendmail
12 2 (0.23%) Varnish
12 2 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
12 2 (0.23%) VMware Workstation
13 1 (0.11%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 91 (10.39%) Ansible
2 75 (8.56%) Kubernetes
3 46 (5.25%) FortiGate
4 23 (2.63%) Microsoft Intune
5 22 (2.51%) Grafana
6 17 (1.94%) Single Sign-On
7 14 (1.60%) SCCM
8 13 (1.48%) Progress Chef
8 13 (1.48%) Prometheus
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 (0.68%) 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
1 252 (28.77%) Cisco
2 165 (18.84%) Microsoft
3 149 (17.01%) Palo Alto
4 89 (10.16%) Fortinet
5 80 (9.13%) F5
6 78 (8.90%) VMware
7 59 (6.74%) Zscaler
8 55 (6.28%) CheckPoint
9 43 (4.91%) Juniper
10 41 (4.68%) Splunk
11 36 (4.11%) SolarWinds
12 33 (3.77%) ServiceNow
13 31 (3.54%) Aruba
14 27 (3.08%) Google
15 22 (2.51%) Citrix
16 16 (1.83%) Meraki
17 15 (1.71%) ForeScout
18 14 (1.60%) CyberArk
18 14 (1.60%) Tenable
19 13 (1.48%) Infoblox