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 25 November 2025.

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

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 227 221 258
Rank change year-on-year -6 +37 +14
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 447 414 437
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.25% 1.14% 0.95%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.37% 1.23% 1.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 263 294 294
10th Percentile £373 £400 £413
25th Percentile £418 £467 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -8.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £630 £633 £700
90th Percentile £700 £700 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £600
% change year-on-year -9.09% -8.33% +12.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 2 29
10th Percentile £70.13 £41.63 £68.20
25th Percentile £83.06 £42.19 -
Median hourly rate £90.50 £43.75 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +106.86% -47.54% +58.86%
75th Percentile £91.50 £44.69 -
90th Percentile - £44.88 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £90.50 - £83.40
% change year-on-year - - +58.86%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 32,581 33,702 43,115
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.00% 92.80% 93.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,628 20,343 29,147
10th Percentile £281 £300 £290
25th Percentile £402 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £740
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -3.94% -1.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,917 1,258 1,525
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.22 £15.19
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.50 £19.18
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +50.00%
75th Percentile £56.44 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.50 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £45.00
% change year-on-year -28.14% -22.22% +81.52%

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 25 November 2025.

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 25 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Engineer in the UK

Security Engineer
Top 17 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 25 November 2025. 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 -10 393 £525 -4.55% 299
London +23 218 £550 -4.35% 85
UK excluding London -12 188 £500 -9.09% 267
Work from Home -5 132 £500 -9.09% 79
North of England -45 50 £545 +1.30% 47
North West -14 39 £538 -2.27% 28
East of England +9 36 £488 +69.57% 26
South East -23 29 £500 -4.76% 82
South West +4 25 £525 -13.76% 53
Midlands -32 23 £415 -17.00% 30
Scotland +4 20 £525 -10.06% 22
West Midlands -25 18 £450 -5.26% 23
Yorkshire -37 10 £600 +34.83% 14
Northern Ireland -1 5 - - 3
East Midlands -9 5 £415 -49.39% 7
Wales +2 4 £600 +15.66% 8
North East -6 1 £400 -20.00% 5

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

For the 6 months to 25 November 2025, 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.

1 174 (38.93%) Azure
2 169 (37.81%) Cybersecurity
3 137 (30.65%) Firewall
4 124 (27.74%) Microsoft
5 121 (27.07%) AWS
5 121 (27.07%) SIEM
6 119 (26.62%) Cloud Security
7 110 (24.61%) Network Security
8 109 (24.38%) Security Cleared
9 98 (21.92%) Incident Response
10 97 (21.70%) NIST
11 85 (19.02%) SC Cleared
12 84 (18.79%) Python
13 82 (18.34%) Security Operations
14 81 (18.12%) Windows
15 73 (16.33%) Infrastructure as Code
16 72 (16.11%) PowerShell
17 67 (14.99%) CI/CD
18 66 (14.77%) CISSP
18 66 (14.77%) GCP
19 64 (14.32%) Active Directory
20 61 (13.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
20 61 (13.65%) Linux
21 59 (13.20%) Microsoft 365
22 54 (12.08%) Entra ID
23 53 (11.86%) Degree
24 52 (11.63%) Cisco
25 51 (11.41%) Azure Sentinel
26 50 (11.19%) DevOps
27 48 (10.74%) Splunk

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 20 (4.47%) SharePoint
2 18 (4.03%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.89%) Confluence
4 2 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 5 (1.12%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.22%) 1Password
Business Applications
1 2 (0.45%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 174 (38.93%) Azure
2 121 (27.07%) AWS
3 66 (14.77%) GCP
4 59 (13.20%) Microsoft 365
5 54 (12.08%) Entra ID
6 51 (11.41%) Azure Sentinel
7 36 (8.05%) Microsoft Purview
8 29 (6.49%) GitHub
9 18 (4.03%) OpenShift
10 16 (3.58%) AWS CloudFormation
11 15 (3.36%) Azure Monitor
12 13 (2.91%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 10 (2.24%) GitHub Actions
14 9 (2.01%) SaaS
15 8 (1.79%) AWS CloudTrail
16 7 (1.57%) Amazon EKS
16 7 (1.57%) Mimecast
17 6 (1.34%) Azure DevOps
17 6 (1.34%) Azure Logic Apps
17 6 (1.34%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 137 (30.65%) Firewall
2 110 (24.61%) Network Security
3 34 (7.61%) VPN
4 31 (6.94%) DNS
5 26 (5.82%) WAN
6 18 (4.03%) Intrusion Detection
6 18 (4.03%) SSL
7 17 (3.80%) Wireless
8 14 (3.13%) BGP
8 14 (3.13%) OSPF
9 10 (2.24%) DMVPN
9 10 (2.24%) TCP/IP
10 9 (2.01%) Internet
11 8 (1.79%) IPsec
11 8 (1.79%) SD-WAN
11 8 (1.79%) VLAN
11 8 (1.79%) Wi-Fi
12 7 (1.57%) Cisco ASA
12 7 (1.57%) Cisco IPT
12 7 (1.57%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.01%) Data Lake
2 8 (1.79%) BigQuery
3 7 (1.57%) Oracle Database
4 3 (0.67%) Big Data
4 3 (0.67%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.45%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.45%) Power BI
6 1 (0.22%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 16 (3.58%) GitLab
2 11 (2.46%) JIRA
2 11 (2.46%) SonarQube
3 10 (2.24%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.34%) ClearCase
5 5 (1.12%) Burp Suite
5 5 (1.12%) Metasploit
6 4 (0.89%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.89%) Snyk
7 2 (0.45%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.45%) Git
8 1 (0.22%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.22%) Postman
General
1 122 (27.29%) Social Skills
2 65 (14.54%) Finance
3 44 (9.84%) Public Sector
4 35 (7.83%) Analytical Skills
5 22 (4.92%) Military
6 15 (3.36%) Banking
6 15 (3.36%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (2.46%) Legal
8 10 (2.24%) Telecoms
9 8 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.34%) Pharmaceutical
10 6 (1.34%) Spanish Language
11 5 (1.12%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (0.89%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.67%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.67%) Law
14 2 (0.45%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.45%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (4.03%) REST
2 12 (2.68%) SAML
3 10 (2.24%) OAuth
4 8 (1.79%) 802.1X
5 6 (1.34%) OpenID
5 6 (1.34%) SailPoint
6 5 (1.12%) JSON
6 5 (1.12%) NestJS
6 5 (1.12%) Node.js
7 4 (0.89%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (0.89%) Regular Expression
8 3 (0.67%) LDAP
8 3 (0.67%) Smart Contracts
8 3 (0.67%) SOAP
8 3 (0.67%) YAML
9 2 (0.45%) Kafka
9 2 (0.45%) Microsoft Graph
9 2 (0.45%) Middleware
9 2 (0.45%) OAuth2
9 2 (0.45%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 50 (11.19%) Security Posture
2 31 (6.94%) Data Centre
3 25 (5.59%) Management Information System
4 24 (5.37%) Onboarding
5 18 (4.03%) Cyber Threat
6 17 (3.80%) Data Protection Act
7 16 (3.58%) Cloud Native
8 11 (2.46%) Cyber Defence
9 9 (2.01%) Cloud Security Posture
9 9 (2.01%) Operational Technology
10 8 (1.79%) Hybrid Cloud
11 7 (1.57%) Cyber Security Posture
11 7 (1.57%) Security Operations Centre
12 6 (1.34%) BYOD
13 5 (1.12%) Cyber Kill Chain
13 5 (1.12%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 5 (1.12%) Life Science
14 4 (0.89%) PKI
14 4 (0.89%) Renewable Energy
14 4 (0.89%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 81 (18.12%) Windows
2 61 (13.65%) Linux
3 16 (3.58%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.24%) Mac OS
5 7 (1.57%) Unix
6 5 (1.12%) Android
6 5 (1.12%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.67%) VMS
8 2 (0.45%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.22%) CentOS
9 1 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 1 (0.22%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.22%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (37.81%) Cybersecurity
2 121 (27.07%) SIEM
3 119 (26.62%) Cloud Security
4 98 (21.92%) Incident Response
5 82 (18.34%) Security Operations
6 73 (16.33%) Infrastructure as Code
7 67 (14.99%) CI/CD
8 50 (11.19%) DevOps
9 45 (10.07%) DevSecOps
10 44 (9.84%) Problem-Solving
10 44 (9.84%) Threat Modelling
11 42 (9.40%) Vulnerability Management
12 40 (8.95%) Data Protection
13 39 (8.72%) SOAR
14 38 (8.50%) Data Loss Prevention
15 37 (8.28%) Security Monitoring
15 37 (8.28%) Threat Detection
16 36 (8.05%) Information Security
17 34 (7.61%) Security Management
18 32 (7.16%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 84 (18.79%) Python
2 72 (16.11%) PowerShell
3 28 (6.26%) Kusto Query Language
4 23 (5.15%) Bash
5 17 (3.80%) Java
6 14 (3.13%) SQL
7 6 (1.34%) Bicep
7 6 (1.34%) C
8 5 (1.12%) JavaScript
8 5 (1.12%) Perl
8 5 (1.12%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.89%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.67%) BeanShell
10 3 (0.67%) C#
10 3 (0.67%) C++
10 3 (0.67%) Rust
11 2 (0.45%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.22%) Go
12 1 (0.22%) Scala
12 1 (0.22%) Swift
Qualifications
1 109 (24.38%) Security Cleared
2 85 (19.02%) SC Cleared
3 66 (14.77%) CISSP
4 53 (11.86%) Degree
5 31 (6.94%) Cisco Certification
5 31 (6.94%) CISM
6 24 (5.37%) DV Cleared
7 21 (4.70%) Azure Certification
8 19 (4.25%) Microsoft Certification
9 18 (4.03%) CCNP
10 16 (3.58%) CEH
11 14 (3.13%) CompTIA Security+
12 13 (2.91%) OSCP
13 11 (2.46%) SANS
14 10 (2.24%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 9 (2.01%) AWS Certification
16 8 (1.79%) CREST Certified
17 7 (1.57%) CCSP
17 7 (1.57%) GIAC
18 6 (1.34%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 97 (21.70%) NIST
2 61 (13.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (6.94%) GDPR
4 30 (6.71%) NCSC
5 21 (4.70%) NIST 800
6 17 (3.80%) HIPAA
6 17 (3.80%) JSP 440
7 11 (2.46%) Cyber Essentials
8 8 (1.79%) PCI DSS
9 6 (1.34%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 5 (1.12%) GRC
11 4 (0.89%) SOC 2
12 3 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.45%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.45%) EU AI Act
13 2 (0.45%) GxP
13 2 (0.45%) RMADS
13 2 (0.45%) SLA
14 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 64 (14.32%) Active Directory
2 18 (4.03%) Docker
3 17 (3.80%) Firmware
4 16 (3.58%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.57%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.45%) Snort
Systems Management
1 44 (9.84%) Terraform
2 32 (7.16%) Kubernetes
3 19 (4.25%) SCCM
4 13 (2.91%) Fluentd
5 12 (2.68%) Ansible
5 12 (2.68%) CASB
5 12 (2.68%) Microsoft Intune
6 9 (2.01%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (1.79%) QRadar
8 7 (1.57%) SCOrch
9 6 (1.34%) WSUS
10 5 (1.12%) FortiGate
10 5 (1.12%) logstash
10 5 (1.12%) Nmap
11 4 (0.89%) CSIRT
11 4 (0.89%) Kibana
11 4 (0.89%) Nessus
12 3 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.67%) Progress Chef
13 2 (0.45%) Argo
Vendors
1 124 (27.74%) Microsoft
2 52 (11.63%) Cisco
3 48 (10.74%) Splunk
4 44 (9.84%) Palo Alto
5 29 (6.49%) Zscaler
6 26 (5.82%) CrowdStrike
7 24 (5.37%) CheckPoint
7 24 (5.37%) F5
7 24 (5.37%) Tenable
8 22 (4.92%) Fortinet
9 21 (4.70%) Google
10 19 (4.25%) Juniper
11 13 (2.91%) Cribl.io
11 13 (2.91%) Qualys
11 13 (2.91%) ServiceNow
12 11 (2.46%) Oracle
12 11 (2.46%) SolarWinds
13 9 (2.01%) Forcepoint
13 9 (2.01%) Veracode
14 8 (1.79%) Blue Coat