Security Engineer Contract Job Trends

Security Engineer
UK

The median Security Engineer daily rate in the UK is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 24 July 2026.

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

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 247 255 241
Rank change year-on-year +8 -14 -25
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 547 341 428
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.04% 1.04% 1.05%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.12% 1.14% 1.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 357 222 330
10th Percentile £413 £376 £406
25th Percentile £475 £413 £442
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% -4.55% -1.79%
75th Percentile £605 £650 £638
90th Percentile £688 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +8.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 10 2
10th Percentile £70.38 £64.25 £64.25
25th Percentile £73.75 £82.69 £66.88
Median hourly rate £77.50 £87.50 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.43% +20.69% -13.07%
75th Percentile £85.05 £91.50 £76.88
90th Percentile £86.03 - £78.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £84.00 £87.50 £72.50
% change year-on-year -4.00% +20.69% -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 48,872 29,931 38,007
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.61% 91.58% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,492 19,056 24,610
10th Percentile £328 £283 £298
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.02%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £638
90th Percentile £725 £727 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,302 1,437 2,371
10th Percentile £15.81 £13.75 £13.60
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.30 £18.17
Median hourly rate £43.55 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +73.17% -38.57% -6.42%
75th Percentile £67.89 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.92 £73.75 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.91
% change year-on-year +78.93% -41.39% +7.28%

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 24 July 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 24 July 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 24 July 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 +2 506 £536 +3.09% 476
UK excluding London -12 262 £540 +8.00% 323
London -7 243 £525 -4.55% 177
Work from Home +10 206 £540 +8.00% 145
North of England +17 138 £583 +16.50% 98
North West +23 115 £569 +13.69% 60
Midlands -9 59 £500 - 43
West Midlands -18 58 £500 - 25
South East -42 51 £500 - 89
Yorkshire -29 22 £600 +20.00% 30
South West -39 18 £525 +7.69% 46
East of England -32 17 £510 +2.00% 33
Scotland -2 11 £600 - 13
Wales -15 2 £733 +46.50% 4
East Midlands -11 1 £338 -18.67% 18
North East -38 1 - - 8

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

For the 6 months to 24 July 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.

1 187 (34.19%) Azure
2 170 (31.08%) Cybersecurity
3 166 (30.35%) Cloud Security
4 148 (27.06%) AWS
5 131 (23.95%) SIEM
6 128 (23.40%) Firewall
7 127 (23.22%) Microsoft
8 119 (21.76%) Python
9 113 (20.66%) Network Security
10 99 (18.10%) CI/CD
11 94 (17.18%) Cisco
12 88 (16.09%) PowerShell
13 86 (15.72%) Security Cleared
14 85 (15.54%) Incident Response
15 75 (13.71%) SC Cleared
15 75 (13.71%) Security Operations
15 75 (13.71%) VPN
16 74 (13.53%) Terraform
17 69 (12.61%) GCP
18 67 (12.25%) Security Architecture
19 66 (12.07%) CISSP
20 64 (11.70%) Vulnerability Management
21 63 (11.52%) DNS
22 62 (11.33%) Windows
23 61 (11.15%) DevSecOps
24 60 (10.97%) Data Loss Prevention
24 60 (10.97%) F5
24 60 (10.97%) Threat Modelling
25 56 (10.24%) DevOps
25 56 (10.24%) Load Balancing

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 17 (3.11%) Confluence
2 3 (0.55%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (0.55%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (1.10%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.37%) Maximo
2 2 (0.37%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.18%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 187 (34.19%) Azure
2 148 (27.06%) AWS
3 69 (12.61%) GCP
4 51 (9.32%) Microsoft Purview
5 48 (8.78%) Microsoft 365
6 37 (6.76%) Entra ID
7 23 (4.20%) AWS CloudFormation
8 22 (4.02%) Azure Sentinel
8 22 (4.02%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 20 (3.66%) SaaS
10 18 (3.29%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 15 (2.74%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 13 (2.38%) Akamai
13 12 (2.19%) AWS CloudTrail
14 11 (2.01%) GitHub
14 11 (2.01%) Mimecast
14 11 (2.01%) Serverless
15 9 (1.65%) AWS KMS
15 9 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
16 8 (1.46%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 128 (23.40%) Firewall
2 113 (20.66%) Network Security
3 75 (13.71%) VPN
4 63 (11.52%) DNS
5 45 (8.23%) BGP
6 34 (6.22%) DMZ
7 32 (5.85%) Multicast
8 28 (5.12%) SSL
9 26 (4.75%) TCP/IP
9 26 (4.75%) WAN
10 19 (3.47%) SD-WAN
11 16 (2.93%) HTTP
12 15 (2.74%) Internet
13 14 (2.56%) Cisco ISE
14 13 (2.38%) Wireless
15 11 (2.01%) VLAN
16 10 (1.83%) Intrusion Detection
17 9 (1.65%) IPsec
17 9 (1.65%) OSPF
17 9 (1.65%) TACACS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.46%) Power BI
1 8 (1.46%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
3 4 (0.73%) MongoDB
4 3 (0.55%) Big Data
4 3 (0.55%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.37%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.37%) Apache Cassandra
5 2 (0.37%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.37%) Metadata
5 2 (0.37%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.37%) RDBMS
5 2 (0.37%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.18%) Db2
6 1 (0.18%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 21 (3.84%) JIRA
2 7 (1.28%) GitLab
3 5 (0.91%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.73%) Burp Suite
5 3 (0.55%) Git
5 3 (0.55%) Snyk
6 2 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
6 2 (0.37%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.37%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.18%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.18%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.18%) sqlmap
7 1 (0.18%) TruffleHog
General
1 108 (19.74%) Social Skills
2 88 (16.09%) Finance
3 44 (8.04%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (7.50%) Banking
5 25 (4.57%) Public Sector
6 22 (4.02%) Investment Banking
7 21 (3.84%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.46%) Telecoms
9 7 (1.28%) Legal
9 7 (1.28%) Marketing
10 6 (1.10%) Manufacturing
11 5 (0.91%) Retail
12 4 (0.73%) Health Technology
12 4 (0.73%) Military
12 4 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.55%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.55%) Financial Institution
14 2 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 2 (0.37%) Law
15 1 (0.18%) Italian Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.65%) SAML
2 8 (1.46%) 802.1X
3 7 (1.28%) LangChain
4 6 (1.10%) Elastic Stack
4 6 (1.10%) PyTorch
4 6 (1.10%) scikit-learn
5 5 (0.91%) LDAP
6 4 (0.73%) Microsoft Graph
6 4 (0.73%) REST
6 4 (0.73%) SLSA
7 3 (0.55%) ARM Templates
7 3 (0.55%) AWS CDK
8 2 (0.37%) Azure Blueprints
8 2 (0.37%) JSON
8 2 (0.37%) OAuth
8 2 (0.37%) SailPoint
9 1 (0.18%) HTML
9 1 (0.18%) Java SE
9 1 (0.18%) JCE
9 1 (0.18%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 94 (17.18%) Security Posture
2 57 (10.42%) Cloud Native
3 39 (7.13%) Management Information System
4 35 (6.40%) Cloud Security Posture
5 18 (3.29%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 17 (3.11%) Data Centre
6 17 (3.11%) Enterprise Cloud
7 16 (2.93%) Onboarding
8 15 (2.74%) AI Agents
8 15 (2.74%) Operational Technology
9 12 (2.19%) Cyber Threat
9 12 (2.19%) Hybrid Cloud
10 11 (2.01%) Data Protection Act
11 10 (1.83%) Public Cloud
12 9 (1.65%) Security Operations Centre
13 8 (1.46%) Cyber Defence
14 6 (1.10%) Linux Command Line
14 6 (1.10%) PKI
14 6 (1.10%) SCADA
15 4 (0.73%) BYOD
Operating Systems
1 62 (11.33%) Windows
2 52 (9.51%) Linux
3 15 (2.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 14 (2.56%) Windows Server
5 9 (1.65%) Mac OS
6 7 (1.28%) Apple iOS
7 6 (1.10%) Windows 10
8 5 (0.91%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.55%) Unix
10 2 (0.37%) Android
10 2 (0.37%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (31.08%) Cybersecurity
2 166 (30.35%) Cloud Security
3 131 (23.95%) SIEM
4 99 (18.10%) CI/CD
5 85 (15.54%) Incident Response
6 75 (13.71%) Security Operations
7 67 (12.25%) Security Architecture
8 64 (11.70%) Vulnerability Management
9 61 (11.15%) DevSecOps
10 60 (10.97%) Data Loss Prevention
10 60 (10.97%) Threat Modelling
11 56 (10.24%) DevOps
11 56 (10.24%) Load Balancing
12 53 (9.69%) Information Security
13 52 (9.51%) Infrastructure as Code
14 49 (8.96%) Agile
15 46 (8.41%) Zero Trust
16 45 (8.23%) Continuous Improvement
17 43 (7.86%) Threat Detection
18 42 (7.68%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 119 (21.76%) Python
2 88 (16.09%) PowerShell
3 54 (9.87%) Bash
4 17 (3.11%) Java
5 16 (2.93%) Bicep
6 10 (1.83%) Kusto Query Language
7 9 (1.65%) SQL
8 4 (0.73%) PHP
8 4 (0.73%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (0.55%) Perl
9 3 (0.55%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.37%) JavaScript
10 2 (0.37%) Ruby
11 1 (0.18%) C
11 1 (0.18%) C#
11 1 (0.18%) Go
11 1 (0.18%) Korn
11 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 86 (15.72%) Security Cleared
2 75 (13.71%) SC Cleared
3 66 (12.07%) CISSP
4 43 (7.86%) Degree
5 35 (6.40%) Cisco Certification
6 29 (5.30%) AWS Certification
6 29 (5.30%) CISM
7 22 (4.02%) Azure Certification
8 17 (3.11%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 17 (3.11%) CCNP
8 17 (3.11%) DV Cleared
9 15 (2.74%) CEH
10 12 (2.19%) Microsoft Certification
11 11 (2.01%) CompTIA Security+
11 11 (2.01%) Computer Science Degree
11 11 (2.01%) GIAC
12 8 (1.46%) CCIE
13 7 (1.28%) OSCP
14 6 (1.10%) CCSP
14 6 (1.10%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 54 (9.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 52 (9.51%) NIST
3 29 (5.30%) GDPR
4 22 (4.02%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (3.29%) PCI DSS
6 13 (2.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 13 (2.38%) NCSC
7 10 (1.83%) HIPAA
8 8 (1.46%) SLA
9 6 (1.10%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 6 (1.10%) NIST 800
10 5 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 4 (0.73%) Government Security Classifications
11 4 (0.73%) GRC
11 4 (0.73%) SOC 2
12 3 (0.55%) ISA99
12 3 (0.55%) JSP 440
13 2 (0.37%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.37%) COBIT
14 1 (0.18%) QA
System Software
1 32 (5.85%) Active Directory
2 24 (4.39%) Docker
3 9 (1.65%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (1.10%) VMware NSX
4 6 (1.10%) vSphere
5 5 (0.91%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.91%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.37%) Squid
8 1 (0.18%) Firmware
8 1 (0.18%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.18%) RACF
Systems Management
1 74 (13.53%) Terraform
2 51 (9.32%) Kubernetes
3 18 (3.29%) Ansible
4 13 (2.38%) Progress Chef
5 12 (2.19%) FortiGate
5 12 (2.19%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (2.01%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.10%) CASB
8 4 (0.73%) Grafana
8 4 (0.73%) Nessus
8 4 (0.73%) vCenter Server
9 2 (0.37%) Kibana
9 2 (0.37%) logstash
9 2 (0.37%) QRadar
9 2 (0.37%) SCOM
10 1 (0.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 1 (0.18%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.18%) Host Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.18%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 127 (23.22%) Microsoft
2 94 (17.18%) Cisco
3 60 (10.97%) F5
4 47 (8.59%) Palo Alto
5 38 (6.95%) CrowdStrike
6 35 (6.40%) Zscaler
7 33 (6.03%) Fortinet
8 28 (5.12%) CyberArk
9 27 (4.94%) ServiceNow
10 25 (4.57%) CheckPoint
11 24 (4.39%) Google
12 20 (3.66%) Splunk
13 17 (3.11%) VMware
14 16 (2.93%) Red Hat
15 14 (2.56%) BeyondTrust
15 14 (2.56%) Blue Coat
15 14 (2.56%) Netskope
15 14 (2.56%) Tenable
16 11 (2.01%) Oracle
16 11 (2.01%) Qualys