Security Engineer Contract Job Trends

Security Engineer
UK

The median Security Engineer daily rate in the UK is £533, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 September 2026.

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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 255 238 215
Rank change year-on-year -17 -23 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 534 378 468
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.15% 1.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.08% 1.27% 1.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 335 225 351
10th Percentile £413 £368 £406
25th Percentile £463 £419 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +3.50% -6.36% -4.35%
75th Percentile £610 £638 £638
90th Percentile £688 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £529 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.80% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 12 2
10th Percentile £69.25 £66.75 £64.25
25th Percentile £73.75 £83.06 £66.88
Median hourly rate £77.50 £90.50 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year -14.36% +24.83% -13.07%
75th Percentile £85.40 £91.50 £76.88
90th Percentile £87.50 - £78.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £84.50 £90.50 £72.50
% change year-on-year -6.63% +24.83% -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 49,606 29,880 35,937
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.46% 91.25% 93.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,580 18,873 22,662
10th Percentile £325 £281 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,581 1,559 1,838
10th Percentile £14.96 £13.69 £14.16
25th Percentile £20.53 £17.04 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.33 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.95
% change year-on-year +68.99% -42.78% +11.13%

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 September 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 September 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 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 -19 489 £525 +0.96% 907
UK excluding London -13 257 £529 +5.80% 480
London -45 230 £539 -0.08% 486
Work from Home +12 192 £540 +8.00% 275
North of England +18 141 £550 +11.79% 114
North West +15 118 £550 +14.58% 80
Midlands -20 53 £500 +22.70% 63
South East -33 53 £500 - 99
West Midlands -17 50 £500 +25.00% 41
East of England -34 22 £510 +2.00% 85
Yorkshire -23 21 £600 +11.11% 27
South West -40 14 £481 -6.10% 91
Scotland -23 10 £600 +14.29% 20
East Midlands -12 3 £338 -18.67% 21
Wales -16 2 £733 +22.08% 6
North East -46 1 - - 8

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

For the 6 months to 1 September 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.

1 180 (33.71%) Azure
2 167 (31.27%) Cloud Security
3 156 (29.21%) Cybersecurity
4 139 (26.03%) AWS
5 128 (23.97%) Microsoft
6 118 (22.10%) SIEM
7 104 (19.48%) Network Security
8 102 (19.10%) Firewall
9 99 (18.54%) Python
10 88 (16.48%) Security Cleared
11 85 (15.92%) Cisco
11 85 (15.92%) Incident Response
12 83 (15.54%) CI/CD
13 82 (15.36%) PowerShell
13 82 (15.36%) Terraform
14 76 (14.23%) GCP
15 75 (14.04%) SC Cleared
16 73 (13.67%) VPN
17 72 (13.48%) Security Operations
18 66 (12.36%) Kubernetes
19 65 (12.17%) CISSP
20 62 (11.61%) DevSecOps
20 62 (11.61%) F5
20 62 (11.61%) Infrastructure as Code
21 59 (11.05%) Threat Detection
22 58 (10.86%) Vulnerability Management
23 57 (10.67%) Palo Alto
24 56 (10.49%) Windows
25 55 (10.30%) DevOps
25 55 (10.30%) Security Architecture

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 8 (1.50%) Confluence
2 3 (0.56%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.37%) nginx
4 1 (0.19%) Apache
4 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
1 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (1.12%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.37%) Maximo
3 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 180 (33.71%) Azure
2 139 (26.03%) AWS
3 76 (14.23%) GCP
4 45 (8.43%) Microsoft 365
5 43 (8.05%) Microsoft Purview
6 40 (7.49%) Entra ID
7 28 (5.24%) AWS CloudFormation
7 28 (5.24%) Azure Sentinel
8 18 (3.37%) SaaS
9 16 (3.00%) GitHub
10 15 (2.81%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 15 (2.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 14 (2.62%) Serverless
12 12 (2.25%) AWS CloudTrail
12 12 (2.25%) Azure DevOps
13 11 (2.06%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 11 (2.06%) Mimecast
14 10 (1.87%) Akamai
14 10 (1.87%) Power Platform
15 9 (1.69%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 104 (19.48%) Network Security
2 102 (19.10%) Firewall
3 73 (13.67%) VPN
4 52 (9.74%) DNS
5 40 (7.49%) BGP
6 32 (5.99%) DMZ
7 31 (5.81%) SSL
8 30 (5.62%) Multicast
9 29 (5.43%) WAN
10 21 (3.93%) TCP/IP
11 18 (3.37%) SD-WAN
12 16 (3.00%) Internet
13 15 (2.81%) Cisco ISE
13 15 (2.81%) Wireless
14 13 (2.43%) HTTP
14 13 (2.43%) Intrusion Detection
15 12 (2.25%) IPsec
16 9 (1.69%) DMVPN
16 9 (1.69%) OSPF
16 9 (1.69%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.50%) Power BI
2 5 (0.94%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.75%) Data Lake
3 4 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.56%) Big Data
4 3 (0.56%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.37%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.37%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.37%) Metadata
5 2 (0.37%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.19%) Db2
6 1 (0.19%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.19%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.19%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.19%) Redis
6 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (1.87%) JIRA
2 9 (1.69%) GitLab
3 8 (1.50%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.75%) Burp Suite
4 4 (0.75%) Git
5 3 (0.56%) Claude Code
5 3 (0.56%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
6 2 (0.37%) Snyk
7 1 (0.19%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.19%) Maven
7 1 (0.19%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.19%) sqlmap
7 1 (0.19%) TruffleHog
General
1 92 (17.23%) Social Skills
2 87 (16.29%) Finance
3 43 (8.05%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (7.30%) Banking
5 20 (3.75%) Documentation Skills
5 20 (3.75%) Investment Banking
6 19 (3.56%) Public Sector
7 8 (1.50%) Military
8 7 (1.31%) Manufacturing
8 7 (1.31%) Marketing
9 6 (1.12%) Legal
9 6 (1.12%) Presentation Skills
9 6 (1.12%) Telecoms
10 5 (0.94%) Retail
11 4 (0.75%) Health Technology
12 3 (0.56%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.56%) Digital Health
12 3 (0.56%) Digital Healthcare
12 3 (0.56%) Italian Language
13 2 (0.37%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (15.36%) Terraform
2 11 (2.06%) 802.1X
3 8 (1.50%) SAML
4 5 (0.94%) JWT
4 5 (0.94%) REST
5 4 (0.75%) ARM Templates
5 4 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
5 4 (0.75%) JSON
5 4 (0.75%) Microsoft Graph
5 4 (0.75%) OAuth
5 4 (0.75%) OpenID
5 4 (0.75%) SLSA
6 3 (0.56%) Azure Blueprints
6 3 (0.56%) OAuth2
6 3 (0.56%) SailPoint
7 2 (0.37%) Model Context Protocol
8 1 (0.19%) Playwright
8 1 (0.19%) Pulumi
8 1 (0.19%) Redux
8 1 (0.19%) Tailwind CSS
Miscellaneous
1 94 (17.60%) Security Posture
2 57 (10.67%) Cloud Native
3 38 (7.12%) Cloud Security Posture
4 36 (6.74%) Management Information System
5 22 (4.12%) Enterprise Cloud
6 19 (3.56%) Onboarding
7 17 (3.18%) AI Agents
8 15 (2.81%) Cyber Threat
9 14 (2.62%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 13 (2.43%) Data Centre
10 13 (2.43%) Operational Technology
11 11 (2.06%) Hybrid Cloud
12 9 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
13 8 (1.50%) Cyber Defence
14 7 (1.31%) Security Operations Centre
15 6 (1.12%) PKI
15 6 (1.12%) SCADA
16 5 (0.94%) CCTV
16 5 (0.94%) NHS
17 4 (0.75%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 56 (10.49%) Windows
2 41 (7.68%) Linux
3 16 (3.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (2.43%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.31%) Apple iOS
5 7 (1.31%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.94%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.37%) Android
7 2 (0.37%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.19%) Unix
8 1 (0.19%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (31.27%) Cloud Security
2 156 (29.21%) Cybersecurity
3 118 (22.10%) SIEM
4 85 (15.92%) Incident Response
5 83 (15.54%) CI/CD
6 72 (13.48%) Security Operations
7 62 (11.61%) DevSecOps
7 62 (11.61%) Infrastructure as Code
8 59 (11.05%) Threat Detection
9 58 (10.86%) Vulnerability Management
10 55 (10.30%) DevOps
10 55 (10.30%) Security Architecture
11 54 (10.11%) Zero Trust
12 51 (9.55%) Load Balancing
13 50 (9.36%) Threat Modelling
14 45 (8.43%) Data Loss Prevention
14 45 (8.43%) Stakeholder Management
15 44 (8.24%) Security Monitoring
16 42 (7.87%) Information Security
17 41 (7.68%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 99 (18.54%) Python
2 82 (15.36%) PowerShell
3 54 (10.11%) Bash
4 20 (3.75%) Bicep
4 20 (3.75%) Java
5 8 (1.50%) Kusto Query Language
6 6 (1.12%) SQL
7 5 (0.94%) Go
8 4 (0.75%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (0.56%) Perl
10 1 (0.19%) C
10 1 (0.19%) C#
10 1 (0.19%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.19%) Korn
10 1 (0.19%) PHP
10 1 (0.19%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 88 (16.48%) Security Cleared
2 75 (14.04%) SC Cleared
3 65 (12.17%) CISSP
4 41 (7.68%) Degree
5 33 (6.18%) Cisco Certification
6 30 (5.62%) AWS Certification
7 26 (4.87%) CISM
8 21 (3.93%) CCNP
9 20 (3.75%) Azure Certification
10 18 (3.37%) DV Cleared
11 17 (3.18%) CEH
12 14 (2.62%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 13 (2.43%) OSCP
14 12 (2.25%) Microsoft Certification
15 11 (2.06%) GIAC
16 10 (1.87%) CCIE
17 9 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
18 8 (1.50%) CCSP
18 8 (1.50%) CompTIA Security+
19 6 (1.12%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (9.55%) NIST
2 48 (8.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (3.93%) GDPR
4 19 (3.56%) PCI DSS
5 17 (3.18%) NCSC
6 16 (3.00%) Cyber Essentials
7 12 (2.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 7 (1.31%) NIST 800
9 6 (1.12%) HIPAA
10 5 (0.94%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 5 (0.94%) SLA
11 4 (0.75%) SOC 2
12 3 (0.56%) ISA99
13 2 (0.37%) COBIT
13 2 (0.37%) GRC
13 2 (0.37%) JSP 440
14 1 (0.19%) Data Quality
14 1 (0.19%) Disclosure Scotland
14 1 (0.19%) ISO 22301
14 1 (0.19%) QA
System Software
1 34 (6.37%) Active Directory
2 19 (3.56%) Docker
3 6 (1.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.12%) VMware NSX
3 6 (1.12%) vSphere
4 4 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.56%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.37%) Firmware
6 2 (0.37%) Squid
6 2 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.19%) RACF
Systems Management
1 66 (12.36%) Kubernetes
2 18 (3.37%) Ansible
3 15 (2.81%) Progress Chef
4 12 (2.25%) FortiGate
4 12 (2.25%) Microsoft Intune
5 10 (1.87%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (1.50%) Grafana
7 6 (1.12%) Istio
8 5 (0.94%) CASB
8 5 (0.94%) linkerd
8 5 (0.94%) QRadar
9 2 (0.37%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.37%) SCCM
10 1 (0.19%) Argo
10 1 (0.19%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.19%) Host Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.19%) HP Fortify
10 1 (0.19%) Network Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 128 (23.97%) Microsoft
2 85 (15.92%) Cisco
3 62 (11.61%) F5
4 57 (10.67%) Palo Alto
5 39 (7.30%) CrowdStrike
6 38 (7.12%) Zscaler
7 30 (5.62%) Fortinet
8 29 (5.43%) CheckPoint
9 26 (4.87%) CyberArk
9 26 (4.87%) Splunk
10 23 (4.31%) ServiceNow
11 18 (3.37%) Google
12 17 (3.18%) Red Hat
13 15 (2.81%) Blue Coat
14 14 (2.62%) VMware
15 13 (2.43%) BeyondTrust
15 13 (2.43%) Netskope
16 12 (2.25%) Juniper
16 12 (2.25%) Tenable
17 10 (1.87%) Qualys