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 16 August 2026.

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

6 months to
16 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 259 225 203
Rank change year-on-year -34 -22 +20
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 532 386 461
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.17% 1.19%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.07% 1.28% 1.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 349 231 354
10th Percentile £413 £363 £413
25th Percentile £463 £413 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +4.37% -6.36% -2.65%
75th Percentile £610 £644 £638
90th Percentile £688 £738 £746
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +8.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 13 2
10th Percentile £70.38 £68.50 £64.25
25th Percentile £73.75 £83.25 £66.88
Median hourly rate £77.50 £90.00 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year -13.89% +24.14% -13.07%
75th Percentile £85.05 £91.50 £76.88
90th Percentile £86.03 - £78.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £84.00 £90.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year -6.67% +24.14% -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 49,690 30,209 36,033
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.54% 91.30% 92.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,849 19,090 23,214
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 £621 £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 3,486 1,544 2,018
10th Percentile £15.00 £13.60 £14.23
25th Percentile £20.62 £17.29 £20.12
Median hourly rate £41.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.84% -41.51% +2.38%
75th Percentile £67.96 £53.89 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +21.62%

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 16 August 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 16 August 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 16 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 -28 489 £533 +3.50% 727
UK excluding London -5 261 £540 +8.00% 416
London -48 228 £525 -1.50% 353
Work from Home +2 202 £538 +7.50% 218
North of England +13 147 £583 +18.39% 107
North West +33 125 £569 +17.03% 77
Midlands -12 53 £500 +25.00% 46
West Midlands -16 52 £500 +28.21% 26
South East -48 50 £500 -2.44% 112
Yorkshire -29 20 £600 +14.29% 23
East of England -38 20 £510 +2.00% 48
South West -50 12 £481 -2.53% 79
Scotland -13 11 £600 +14.29% 20
Wales -14 2 £733 +46.50% 6
East Midlands -17 1 £338 -18.67% 20
North East -42 1 - - 7

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

For the 6 months to 16 August 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.

1 193 (36.28%) Azure
2 177 (33.27%) Cloud Security
3 154 (28.95%) Cybersecurity
4 150 (28.20%) AWS
5 131 (24.62%) SIEM
6 128 (24.06%) Microsoft
7 116 (21.80%) Python
8 108 (20.30%) Firewall
9 99 (18.61%) Network Security
10 96 (18.05%) CI/CD
11 88 (16.54%) PowerShell
12 86 (16.17%) Cisco
13 84 (15.79%) Incident Response
14 81 (15.23%) Terraform
15 78 (14.66%) GCP
16 76 (14.29%) Security Cleared
17 71 (13.35%) VPN
18 68 (12.78%) CISSP
19 67 (12.59%) DevSecOps
20 66 (12.41%) Kubernetes
20 66 (12.41%) Security Architecture
21 65 (12.22%) Security Operations
22 63 (11.84%) SC Cleared
23 62 (11.65%) Vulnerability Management
24 61 (11.47%) F5
25 60 (11.28%) Windows
26 59 (11.09%) DevOps
26 59 (11.09%) Infrastructure as Code
27 58 (10.90%) Bash
27 58 (10.90%) DNS

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 16 (3.01%) Confluence
2 3 (0.56%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.38%) 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 (1.13%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.38%) Maximo
3 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 193 (36.28%) Azure
2 150 (28.20%) AWS
3 78 (14.66%) GCP
4 48 (9.02%) Microsoft Purview
5 46 (8.65%) Microsoft 365
6 40 (7.52%) Entra ID
7 26 (4.89%) AWS CloudFormation
7 26 (4.89%) Azure Sentinel
8 20 (3.76%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 19 (3.57%) SaaS
10 18 (3.38%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 15 (2.82%) GitHub
12 14 (2.63%) Akamai
13 13 (2.44%) Serverless
14 11 (2.07%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 11 (2.07%) AWS CloudTrail
14 11 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
14 11 (2.07%) Mimecast
15 9 (1.69%) Power Platform
16 8 (1.50%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 108 (20.30%) Firewall
2 99 (18.61%) Network Security
3 71 (13.35%) VPN
4 58 (10.90%) DNS
5 42 (7.89%) BGP
6 34 (6.39%) DMZ
7 32 (6.02%) Multicast
8 28 (5.26%) SSL
9 27 (5.08%) WAN
10 24 (4.51%) TCP/IP
11 19 (3.57%) SD-WAN
12 17 (3.20%) HTTP
13 15 (2.82%) Cisco ISE
13 15 (2.82%) Internet
14 12 (2.26%) Intrusion Detection
14 12 (2.26%) Wireless
15 9 (1.69%) IPsec
15 9 (1.69%) OSPF
15 9 (1.69%) VLAN
16 6 (1.13%) DMVPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.50%) Power BI
2 7 (1.32%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.13%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.75%) Data Lake
4 4 (0.75%) MongoDB
5 3 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (0.56%) Big Data
6 2 (0.38%) Apache Cassandra
6 2 (0.38%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.38%) Metadata
6 2 (0.38%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.38%) RDBMS
6 2 (0.38%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.19%) Db2
7 1 (0.19%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
7 1 (0.19%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 19 (3.57%) JIRA
2 9 (1.69%) GitLab
3 7 (1.32%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.75%) Burp Suite
5 3 (0.56%) Claude Code
5 3 (0.56%) Git
6 2 (0.38%) Browser DevTools
6 2 (0.38%) Snyk
6 2 (0.38%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.19%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.19%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.19%) sqlmap
7 1 (0.19%) TruffleHog
General
1 93 (17.48%) Social Skills
2 90 (16.92%) Finance
3 46 (8.65%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (7.52%) Banking
5 21 (3.95%) Documentation Skills
5 21 (3.95%) Investment Banking
6 16 (3.01%) Public Sector
7 7 (1.32%) Legal
7 7 (1.32%) Marketing
8 6 (1.13%) Manufacturing
8 6 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (1.13%) Telecoms
9 5 (0.94%) Retail
10 4 (0.75%) Health Technology
10 4 (0.75%) Military
11 3 (0.56%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.56%) Financial Institution
11 3 (0.56%) Italian Language
12 2 (0.38%) Digital Health
12 2 (0.38%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (1.69%) SAML
2 8 (1.50%) 802.1X
3 7 (1.32%) LangChain
4 6 (1.13%) PyTorch
4 6 (1.13%) scikit-learn
5 4 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
5 4 (0.75%) Microsoft Graph
5 4 (0.75%) SLSA
6 3 (0.56%) ARM Templates
6 3 (0.56%) JWT
6 3 (0.56%) OAuth
6 3 (0.56%) OpenID
6 3 (0.56%) REST
6 3 (0.56%) SailPoint
7 2 (0.38%) Azure Blueprints
8 1 (0.19%) JSON Web Signature
8 1 (0.19%) Kafka
8 1 (0.19%) OAuth2
8 1 (0.19%) Regular Expression
8 1 (0.19%) SAP Fiori
Miscellaneous
1 101 (18.98%) Security Posture
2 67 (12.59%) Cloud Native
3 40 (7.52%) Cloud Security Posture
4 38 (7.14%) Management Information System
5 22 (4.14%) Enterprise Cloud
6 18 (3.38%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 16 (3.01%) AI Agents
8 15 (2.82%) Onboarding
9 14 (2.63%) Cyber Threat
10 13 (2.44%) Operational Technology
11 12 (2.26%) Data Centre
11 12 (2.26%) Hybrid Cloud
12 10 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
13 8 (1.50%) Cyber Defence
14 7 (1.32%) Security Operations Centre
15 6 (1.13%) Linux Command Line
15 6 (1.13%) PKI
15 6 (1.13%) Public Cloud
15 6 (1.13%) SCADA
16 4 (0.75%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 60 (11.28%) Windows
2 49 (9.21%) Linux
3 17 (3.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 13 (2.44%) Windows Server
5 9 (1.69%) Mac OS
6 7 (1.32%) Apple iOS
7 5 (0.94%) Windows 10
8 2 (0.38%) Android
8 2 (0.38%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.19%) Unix
9 1 (0.19%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 177 (33.27%) Cloud Security
2 154 (28.95%) Cybersecurity
3 131 (24.62%) SIEM
4 96 (18.05%) CI/CD
5 84 (15.79%) Incident Response
6 67 (12.59%) DevSecOps
7 66 (12.41%) Security Architecture
8 65 (12.22%) Security Operations
9 62 (11.65%) Vulnerability Management
10 59 (11.09%) DevOps
10 59 (11.09%) Infrastructure as Code
11 57 (10.71%) Load Balancing
12 56 (10.53%) Data Loss Prevention
13 54 (10.15%) Threat Modelling
13 54 (10.15%) Zero Trust
14 52 (9.77%) Threat Detection
15 46 (8.65%) Agile
16 43 (8.08%) Information Security
17 42 (7.89%) AI
17 42 (7.89%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 116 (21.80%) Python
2 88 (16.54%) PowerShell
3 58 (10.90%) Bash
4 19 (3.57%) Bicep
5 18 (3.38%) Java
6 10 (1.88%) SQL
7 9 (1.69%) Kusto Query Language
8 4 (0.75%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (0.56%) Go
9 3 (0.56%) Perl
9 3 (0.56%) Shell Script
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
Qualifications
1 76 (14.29%) Security Cleared
2 68 (12.78%) CISSP
3 63 (11.84%) SC Cleared
4 43 (8.08%) Degree
5 31 (5.83%) AWS Certification
5 31 (5.83%) Cisco Certification
6 30 (5.64%) CISM
7 22 (4.14%) Azure Certification
8 18 (3.38%) CEH
9 17 (3.20%) CCNP
10 16 (3.01%) DV Cleared
11 14 (2.63%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 12 (2.26%) Microsoft Certification
12 12 (2.26%) OSCP
13 10 (1.88%) Computer Science Degree
14 9 (1.69%) CCIE
14 9 (1.69%) GIAC
15 7 (1.32%) CompTIA Security+
16 6 (1.13%) CCSP
16 6 (1.13%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 47 (8.83%) NIST
2 45 (8.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (5.26%) GDPR
4 16 (3.01%) PCI DSS
5 15 (2.82%) Cyber Essentials
5 15 (2.82%) NCSC
6 11 (2.07%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 11 (2.07%) HIPAA
7 6 (1.13%) California Consumer Privacy Act
7 6 (1.13%) NIST 800
7 6 (1.13%) SLA
8 5 (0.94%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 5 (0.94%) SOC 2
9 3 (0.56%) ISA99
10 2 (0.38%) COBIT
10 2 (0.38%) GRC
10 2 (0.38%) JSP 440
11 1 (0.19%) Government Security Classifications
11 1 (0.19%) QA
11 1 (0.19%) RMADS
System Software
1 31 (5.83%) Active Directory
2 26 (4.89%) Docker
3 6 (1.13%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.13%) VMware NSX
3 6 (1.13%) vSphere
4 4 (0.75%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.56%) Virtual Servers
6 2 (0.38%) Squid
6 2 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.19%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.19%) RACF
Systems Management
1 81 (15.23%) Terraform
2 66 (12.41%) Kubernetes
3 16 (3.01%) Ansible
4 15 (2.82%) Progress Chef
5 12 (2.26%) FortiGate
6 11 (2.07%) Microsoft Intune
7 10 (1.88%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (1.32%) Grafana
9 5 (0.94%) CASB
9 5 (0.94%) Istio
10 4 (0.75%) linkerd
10 4 (0.75%) QRadar
11 2 (0.38%) Prometheus
12 1 (0.19%) Argo
12 1 (0.19%) CSIRT
12 1 (0.19%) Host Intrusion Detection System
12 1 (0.19%) HP Fortify
12 1 (0.19%) Network Intrusion Detection System
12 1 (0.19%) SCCM
12 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 128 (24.06%) Microsoft
2 86 (16.17%) Cisco
3 61 (11.47%) F5
4 45 (8.46%) Palo Alto
5 39 (7.33%) CrowdStrike
6 32 (6.02%) Zscaler
7 29 (5.45%) Fortinet
8 28 (5.26%) CyberArk
9 25 (4.70%) Google
10 24 (4.51%) CheckPoint
10 24 (4.51%) ServiceNow
11 21 (3.95%) Splunk
12 18 (3.38%) Red Hat
13 14 (2.63%) VMware
14 13 (2.44%) BeyondTrust
14 13 (2.44%) Blue Coat
14 13 (2.44%) Netskope
15 12 (2.26%) Tenable
16 10 (1.88%) Oracle
16 10 (1.88%) Qualys