Security Engineer Contract Job Trends

Security Engineer
UK

The median Security Engineer daily rate in the UK is £525, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 October 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 249 228 203
Rank change year-on-year -21 -25 +42
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 578 406 463
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.05% 1.23% 1.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.14% 1.35% 1.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 361 236 338
10th Percentile £413 £380 £400
25th Percentile £460 £424 £442
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -5.58%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £691 £708 £741
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 11 4
10th Percentile - £82.50 £42.38
25th Percentile £73.75 £84.75 £44.06
Median hourly rate £83.45 £91.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.30% +65.45% -34.05%
75th Percentile £89.68 £91.50 £70.63
90th Percentile £92.11 - £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.48 £91.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year -6.07% +25.52% -13.07%

All Contract IT Job Roles
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 50,623 30,078 35,169
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.20% 90.98% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,851 19,013 21,316
10th Percentile £325 £276 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £623 £638
90th Percentile £734 £725 £749
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,956 1,609 1,552
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.86
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.30 £20.94
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.51% -2.82%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.31 £74.86
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.87 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.97% -41.69% -2.05%

Security Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Security Engineer' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Security Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Security Engineer
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Security Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Security Engineer
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Security Engineer over the 6 months to 1 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Security Engineer in the UK

Security Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Security Engineer job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Security Engineer job vacancies in the UK

Security Engineer
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Security Engineer over the 6 months to 1 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Engineer in the UK

Security Engineer
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 Security Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 1 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 -13 538 £525 - 1,203
UK excluding London -14 280 £525 +5.00% 703
London -36 254 £530 -3.67% 538
Work from Home -9 186 £540 +8.00% 425
North of England +19 143 £550 +10.00% 182
North West +20 118 £537 +7.30% 124
South East -23 58 £500 - 166
Midlands -15 54 £500 +24.22% 89
West Midlands -4 51 £500 +28.21% 52
East of England -32 31 £525 +5.00% 83
Yorkshire -26 22 £600 +11.11% 32
South West -39 13 £469 -8.54% 96
Scotland -32 8 £618 +17.62% 57
East Midlands -15 3 - - 37
Wales -16 2 £733 +22.08% 10
North East -36 2 - - 26

Security Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 October 2026, Security Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Security Engineer in the job title.

1 199 (34.43%) Azure
2 184 (31.83%) Cloud Security
3 174 (30.10%) Cybersecurity
4 155 (26.82%) AWS
5 144 (24.91%) Microsoft
6 130 (22.49%) SIEM
7 122 (21.11%) Python
8 120 (20.76%) Network Security
9 114 (19.72%) Firewall
10 104 (17.99%) Terraform
11 101 (17.47%) Security Cleared
12 97 (16.78%) PowerShell
13 94 (16.26%) Incident Response
14 93 (16.09%) Security Operations
15 92 (15.92%) GCP
16 89 (15.40%) SC Cleared
17 88 (15.22%) Cisco
18 87 (15.05%) CI/CD
19 80 (13.84%) Kubernetes
20 78 (13.49%) CISSP
21 73 (12.63%) Infrastructure as Code
21 73 (12.63%) Palo Alto
22 70 (12.11%) Threat Detection
22 70 (12.11%) VPN
23 69 (11.94%) Windows
24 67 (11.59%) DevOps
24 67 (11.59%) DevSecOps
25 66 (11.42%) Vulnerability Management
26 63 (10.90%) Security Architecture
27 62 (10.73%) NIST

Security Engineer Skill Set
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 12 (2.08%) IIS
2 8 (1.38%) Confluence
3 3 (0.52%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.35%) nginx
5 1 (0.17%) Apache
5 1 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.17%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.17%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (0.87%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.35%) Maximo
3 1 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 199 (34.43%) Azure
2 155 (26.82%) AWS
3 92 (15.92%) GCP
4 54 (9.34%) Entra ID
5 45 (7.79%) Microsoft 365
6 37 (6.40%) Azure Sentinel
7 36 (6.23%) Microsoft Purview
8 29 (5.02%) AWS CloudFormation
9 23 (3.98%) GitHub
10 16 (2.77%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 15 (2.60%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (2.25%) SaaS
12 13 (2.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 12 (2.08%) Power Platform
13 12 (2.08%) Serverless
14 11 (1.90%) Akamai
15 10 (1.73%) Amazon ECS
15 10 (1.73%) AWS CloudTrail
15 10 (1.73%) Azure Monitor
15 10 (1.73%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 120 (20.76%) Network Security
2 114 (19.72%) Firewall
3 70 (12.11%) VPN
4 46 (7.96%) DNS
5 35 (6.06%) BGP
6 30 (5.19%) SSL
7 29 (5.02%) WAN
8 24 (4.15%) DMZ
9 22 (3.81%) Multicast
10 21 (3.63%) TCP/IP
11 20 (3.46%) HTTP
12 17 (2.94%) Internet
13 16 (2.77%) Cisco ISE
13 16 (2.77%) Wireless
14 15 (2.60%) Intrusion Detection
14 15 (2.60%) SD-WAN
15 13 (2.25%) IPsec
16 12 (2.08%) OSPF
17 10 (1.73%) DMVPN
18 9 (1.56%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.38%) Power BI
2 5 (0.87%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.69%) MongoDB
3 4 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.52%) Big Data
5 2 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.35%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.35%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.17%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.17%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.17%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.17%) Db2
6 1 (0.17%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.17%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.17%) Metadata
6 1 (0.17%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.17%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.17%) Redis
6 1 (0.17%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 9 (1.56%) Git
1 9 (1.56%) JIRA
2 6 (1.04%) GitLab
2 6 (1.04%) Jenkins
3 3 (0.52%) Burp Suite
4 2 (0.35%) JUnit
4 2 (0.35%) Snyk
4 2 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
5 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
5 1 (0.17%) Browser DevTools
5 1 (0.17%) Claude Code
5 1 (0.17%) Maven
General
1 105 (18.17%) Social Skills
2 98 (16.96%) Finance
3 49 (8.48%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (7.44%) Banking
5 20 (3.46%) Public Sector
6 16 (2.77%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (2.77%) Investment Banking
7 10 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
8 9 (1.56%) Military
9 7 (1.21%) Back Office
9 7 (1.21%) Legal
9 7 (1.21%) Manufacturing
9 7 (1.21%) Marketing
10 6 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (1.04%) Retail
10 6 (1.04%) Telecoms
11 4 (0.69%) Financial Institution
11 4 (0.69%) Health Technology
12 3 (0.52%) Digital Health
12 3 (0.52%) Digital Healthcare
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (17.99%) Terraform
2 17 (2.94%) JSON
3 13 (2.25%) REST
4 11 (1.90%) 802.1X
5 9 (1.56%) SAML
6 8 (1.38%) JWT
6 8 (1.38%) OAuth
6 8 (1.38%) OpenID
6 8 (1.38%) Regular Expression
7 7 (1.21%) LDAP
8 6 (1.04%) OAuth2
9 5 (0.87%) ARM Templates
10 4 (0.69%) Azure Blueprints
10 4 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
10 4 (0.69%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (0.69%) Model Context Protocol
11 3 (0.52%) pytest
11 3 (0.52%) SailPoint
11 3 (0.52%) SLSA
11 3 (0.52%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 100 (17.30%) Security Posture
2 66 (11.42%) Cloud Native
3 41 (7.09%) Management Information System
4 33 (5.71%) Cloud Security Posture
5 31 (5.36%) Onboarding
6 27 (4.67%) Cyber Threat
7 23 (3.98%) Enterprise Cloud
8 20 (3.46%) Data Centre
9 19 (3.29%) AI Agents
10 17 (2.94%) Cyber Defence
11 14 (2.42%) Operational Technology
12 12 (2.08%) Security Operations Centre
13 11 (1.90%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
14 10 (1.73%) Hybrid Cloud
14 10 (1.73%) PKI
14 10 (1.73%) Public Cloud
15 8 (1.38%) CCTV
15 8 (1.38%) Data Protection Act
15 8 (1.38%) Mobile App
16 5 (0.87%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 69 (11.94%) Windows
2 46 (7.96%) Linux
3 19 (3.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 18 (3.11%) Windows Server
5 12 (2.08%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.38%) Android
7 6 (1.04%) Mac OS
8 5 (0.87%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.52%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.35%) Unix
11 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 184 (31.83%) Cloud Security
2 174 (30.10%) Cybersecurity
3 130 (22.49%) SIEM
4 94 (16.26%) Incident Response
5 93 (16.09%) Security Operations
6 87 (15.05%) CI/CD
7 73 (12.63%) Infrastructure as Code
8 70 (12.11%) Threat Detection
9 67 (11.59%) DevOps
9 67 (11.59%) DevSecOps
10 66 (11.42%) Vulnerability Management
11 63 (10.90%) Security Architecture
12 60 (10.38%) Zero Trust
13 58 (10.03%) AI
14 57 (9.86%) Threat Modelling
15 56 (9.69%) Security Monitoring
16 53 (9.17%) Continuous Improvement
16 53 (9.17%) Identity Access Management
17 52 (9.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 51 (8.82%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 122 (21.11%) Python
2 97 (16.78%) PowerShell
3 59 (10.21%) Bash
4 26 (4.50%) Java
5 20 (3.46%) Bicep
6 9 (1.56%) SQL
7 8 (1.38%) Go
8 7 (1.21%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.69%) Search Processing Language
10 3 (0.52%) Perl
11 2 (0.35%) C#
12 1 (0.17%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.17%) Korn
12 1 (0.17%) PHP
12 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 101 (17.47%) Security Cleared
2 89 (15.40%) SC Cleared
3 78 (13.49%) CISSP
4 50 (8.65%) Degree
5 43 (7.44%) Cisco Certification
6 32 (5.54%) AWS Certification
7 29 (5.02%) CISM
8 24 (4.15%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (3.81%) Azure Certification
9 22 (3.81%) DV Cleared
10 19 (3.29%) CCNP
11 18 (3.11%) CCSP
12 16 (2.77%) CEH
13 14 (2.42%) OSCP
14 13 (2.25%) GIAC
15 12 (2.08%) CISA
15 12 (2.08%) Microsoft Certification
16 9 (1.56%) CompTIA Security+
16 9 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
17 8 (1.38%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (10.73%) NIST
2 56 (9.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (4.84%) PCI DSS
4 19 (3.29%) GDPR
5 13 (2.25%) Cyber Essentials
5 13 (2.25%) NCSC
6 10 (1.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 9 (1.56%) GRC
8 6 (1.04%) HIPAA
8 6 (1.04%) NIST 800
9 5 (0.87%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.87%) ISO 9001
9 5 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 3 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.52%) QA
10 3 (0.52%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.35%) COBIT
11 2 (0.35%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.17%) Data Quality
12 1 (0.17%) RMADS
System Software
1 47 (8.13%) Active Directory
2 23 (3.98%) Docker
3 11 (1.90%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.21%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.21%) NFS
6 5 (0.87%) ISA Server
7 4 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (0.69%) vSphere
8 3 (0.52%) Firmware
8 3 (0.52%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.35%) Squid
9 2 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.17%) RACF
Systems Management
1 80 (13.84%) Kubernetes
2 27 (4.67%) Ansible
3 19 (3.29%) Progress Chef
4 13 (2.25%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (2.08%) FortiGate
6 10 (1.73%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (1.38%) Grafana
8 7 (1.21%) Istio
9 6 (1.04%) CASB
10 5 (0.87%) linkerd
11 4 (0.69%) QRadar
12 2 (0.35%) Prometheus
12 2 (0.35%) SCCM
13 1 (0.17%) Argo
13 1 (0.17%) CSIRT
13 1 (0.17%) Host Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.17%) McAfee ePO
13 1 (0.17%) Nessus
13 1 (0.17%) Network Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.17%) VxRail
Vendors
1 144 (24.91%) Microsoft
2 88 (15.22%) Cisco
3 73 (12.63%) Palo Alto
4 54 (9.34%) F5
5 48 (8.30%) Zscaler
6 39 (6.75%) CrowdStrike
6 39 (6.75%) Splunk
7 36 (6.23%) CheckPoint
8 30 (5.19%) Fortinet
9 27 (4.67%) Google
10 23 (3.98%) CyberArk
11 20 (3.46%) Red Hat
11 20 (3.46%) ServiceNow
12 16 (2.77%) Blue Coat
12 16 (2.77%) VMware
13 14 (2.42%) Juniper
13 14 (2.42%) Qualys
14 11 (1.90%) BeyondTrust
15 10 (1.73%) AlgoSec
15 10 (1.73%) Netskope