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 26 September 2026.

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

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 249 226 202
Rank change year-on-year -23 -24 +49
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 570 396 472
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.04% 1.20% 1.23%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.13% 1.32% 1.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 354 231 346
10th Percentile £413 £380 £406
25th Percentile £460 £420 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £697 £716 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 12 4
10th Percentile - £66.75 £42.38
25th Percentile £73.75 £83.06 £44.06
Median hourly rate £81.90 £90.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -9.50% +64.55% -34.05%
75th Percentile £90.00 £91.50 £70.63
90th Percentile £92.11 - £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £87.74 £90.50 £72.50
% change year-on-year -3.05% +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 50,596 30,108 35,619
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.21% 91.02% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,877 19,013 21,671
10th Percentile £325 £275 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.62%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,928 1,616 1,603
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.84
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.75
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -2.27%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.68 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £69.20 £74.97
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -0.38%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -15 530 £525 - 1,270
UK excluding London -11 277 £525 +5.00% 722
London -39 249 £525 -4.11% 593
Work from Home +1 188 £525 +5.00% 446
North of England +17 146 £550 +10.00% 195
North West +29 122 £537 +7.30% 132
Midlands -10 55 £475 +18.01% 87
South East -38 55 £500 - 172
West Midlands -10 52 £475 +21.79% 56
East of England -42 30 £525 +5.00% 88
Yorkshire -28 21 £613 +13.43% 37
South West -43 12 £475 -7.32% 98
Scotland -34 8 £618 +17.62% 58
East Midlands -15 3 - - 31
Wales -12 2 £733 +22.08% 7
North East -38 2 - - 26

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

For the 6 months to 26 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.

1 196 (34.39%) Azure
2 181 (31.75%) Cloud Security
3 171 (30.00%) Cybersecurity
4 152 (26.67%) AWS
5 138 (24.21%) Microsoft
6 128 (22.46%) SIEM
7 120 (21.05%) Python
8 119 (20.88%) Network Security
9 112 (19.65%) Firewall
10 102 (17.89%) Terraform
11 97 (17.02%) PowerShell
11 97 (17.02%) Security Cleared
12 94 (16.49%) Incident Response
13 92 (16.14%) Security Operations
14 88 (15.44%) CI/CD
15 87 (15.26%) Cisco
15 87 (15.26%) GCP
16 84 (14.74%) SC Cleared
17 81 (14.21%) Kubernetes
18 78 (13.68%) CISSP
19 72 (12.63%) VPN
20 71 (12.46%) Infrastructure as Code
20 71 (12.46%) Palo Alto
21 69 (12.11%) Threat Detection
22 67 (11.75%) Windows
23 64 (11.23%) DevOps
23 64 (11.23%) DevSecOps
23 64 (11.23%) Vulnerability Management
24 63 (11.05%) Security Architecture
25 60 (10.53%) Zero Trust

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 11 (1.93%) IIS
2 8 (1.40%) Confluence
3 3 (0.53%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.35%) nginx
5 1 (0.18%) Apache
5 1 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.18%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.05%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.35%) Maximo
3 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 196 (34.39%) Azure
2 152 (26.67%) AWS
3 87 (15.26%) GCP
4 53 (9.30%) Entra ID
5 45 (7.89%) Microsoft 365
6 36 (6.32%) Azure Sentinel
7 34 (5.96%) Microsoft Purview
8 29 (5.09%) AWS CloudFormation
9 22 (3.86%) GitHub
10 16 (2.81%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 14 (2.46%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (2.28%) Power Platform
12 13 (2.28%) SaaS
12 13 (2.28%) Virtual Private Cloud
13 12 (2.11%) Serverless
14 11 (1.93%) Akamai
15 10 (1.75%) Amazon ECS
15 10 (1.75%) AWS CloudTrail
15 10 (1.75%) Azure AKS
16 9 (1.58%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 119 (20.88%) Network Security
2 112 (19.65%) Firewall
3 72 (12.63%) VPN
4 46 (8.07%) DNS
5 37 (6.49%) BGP
6 30 (5.26%) SSL
7 29 (5.09%) WAN
8 26 (4.56%) DMZ
9 24 (4.21%) Multicast
10 20 (3.51%) HTTP
10 20 (3.51%) TCP/IP
11 17 (2.98%) Internet
12 16 (2.81%) Cisco ISE
12 16 (2.81%) Wireless
13 15 (2.63%) Intrusion Detection
13 15 (2.63%) SD-WAN
14 13 (2.28%) IPsec
15 12 (2.11%) OSPF
16 10 (1.75%) DMVPN
17 9 (1.58%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.58%) Power BI
2 5 (0.88%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.70%) MongoDB
3 4 (0.70%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.53%) Big Data
4 3 (0.53%) Data Lake
5 2 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.35%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.35%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.18%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.18%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.18%) Db2
6 1 (0.18%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.18%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.18%) Metadata
6 1 (0.18%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.18%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.18%) Redis
6 1 (0.18%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 9 (1.58%) JIRA
2 8 (1.40%) Git
3 6 (1.05%) GitLab
3 6 (1.05%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.53%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.35%) JUnit
5 2 (0.35%) Snyk
5 2 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.18%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.18%) Browser DevTools
6 1 (0.18%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.18%) Maven
General
1 105 (18.42%) Social Skills
2 97 (17.02%) Finance
3 50 (8.77%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (7.19%) Banking
5 19 (3.33%) Public Sector
6 17 (2.98%) Investment Banking
7 16 (2.81%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
9 9 (1.58%) Military
10 7 (1.23%) Back Office
10 7 (1.23%) Manufacturing
10 7 (1.23%) Marketing
11 6 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (1.05%) Legal
11 6 (1.05%) Retail
11 6 (1.05%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.70%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.70%) Health Technology
13 3 (0.53%) Italian Language
13 3 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (17.89%) Terraform
2 17 (2.98%) JSON
3 12 (2.11%) REST
4 11 (1.93%) 802.1X
5 9 (1.58%) SAML
6 8 (1.40%) JWT
6 8 (1.40%) OpenID
6 8 (1.40%) Regular Expression
7 7 (1.23%) LDAP
7 7 (1.23%) OAuth
8 6 (1.05%) OAuth2
9 5 (0.88%) ARM Templates
10 4 (0.70%) Azure Blueprints
10 4 (0.70%) Elastic Stack
10 4 (0.70%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (0.70%) Model Context Protocol
11 3 (0.53%) pytest
11 3 (0.53%) SailPoint
11 3 (0.53%) SLSA
11 3 (0.53%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 99 (17.37%) Security Posture
2 66 (11.58%) Cloud Native
3 40 (7.02%) Management Information System
4 33 (5.79%) Cloud Security Posture
5 31 (5.44%) Onboarding
6 27 (4.74%) Cyber Threat
7 23 (4.04%) Enterprise Cloud
8 19 (3.33%) Data Centre
9 18 (3.16%) AI Agents
10 16 (2.81%) Cyber Defence
11 14 (2.46%) Operational Technology
12 11 (1.93%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 9 (1.58%) Hybrid Cloud
13 9 (1.58%) PKI
13 9 (1.58%) Public Cloud
13 9 (1.58%) Security Operations Centre
14 8 (1.40%) CCTV
14 8 (1.40%) Data Protection Act
15 5 (0.88%) Mobile App
15 5 (0.88%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 67 (11.75%) Windows
2 46 (8.07%) Linux
3 19 (3.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 17 (2.98%) Windows Server
5 10 (1.75%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.23%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.88%) Android
7 5 (0.88%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.53%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.35%) Unix
10 1 (0.18%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 181 (31.75%) Cloud Security
2 171 (30.00%) Cybersecurity
3 128 (22.46%) SIEM
4 94 (16.49%) Incident Response
5 92 (16.14%) Security Operations
6 88 (15.44%) CI/CD
7 71 (12.46%) Infrastructure as Code
8 69 (12.11%) Threat Detection
9 64 (11.23%) DevOps
9 64 (11.23%) DevSecOps
9 64 (11.23%) Vulnerability Management
10 63 (11.05%) Security Architecture
11 60 (10.53%) Zero Trust
12 57 (10.00%) Security Monitoring
13 54 (9.47%) AI
14 53 (9.30%) Continuous Improvement
14 53 (9.30%) Identity Access Management
14 53 (9.30%) Threat Modelling
15 51 (8.95%) Problem-Solving
15 51 (8.95%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 120 (21.05%) Python
2 97 (17.02%) PowerShell
3 58 (10.18%) Bash
4 26 (4.56%) Java
5 20 (3.51%) Bicep
6 9 (1.58%) SQL
7 8 (1.40%) Go
8 7 (1.23%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.70%) Search Processing Language
10 3 (0.53%) Perl
11 2 (0.35%) C#
12 1 (0.18%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.18%) Korn
12 1 (0.18%) PHP
12 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 97 (17.02%) Security Cleared
2 84 (14.74%) SC Cleared
3 78 (13.68%) CISSP
4 49 (8.60%) Degree
5 42 (7.37%) Cisco Certification
6 32 (5.61%) AWS Certification
7 29 (5.09%) CISM
8 23 (4.04%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 23 (4.04%) DV Cleared
9 22 (3.86%) Azure Certification
10 19 (3.33%) CCNP
11 17 (2.98%) CCSP
11 17 (2.98%) CEH
12 14 (2.46%) OSCP
13 12 (2.11%) GIAC
13 12 (2.11%) Microsoft Certification
14 11 (1.93%) CISA
15 9 (1.58%) Computer Science Degree
16 8 (1.40%) CCIE
16 8 (1.40%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 58 (10.18%) NIST
2 54 (9.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 25 (4.39%) PCI DSS
4 20 (3.51%) GDPR
5 13 (2.28%) Cyber Essentials
5 13 (2.28%) NCSC
6 10 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 8 (1.40%) GRC
8 6 (1.05%) HIPAA
8 6 (1.05%) NIST 800
9 4 (0.70%) ISO 31000
9 4 (0.70%) ISO 9001
9 4 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 3 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.53%) QA
10 3 (0.53%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.35%) COBIT
11 2 (0.35%) JSP 440
11 2 (0.35%) SLA
12 1 (0.18%) Data Quality
System Software
1 44 (7.72%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.04%) Docker
3 11 (1.93%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (1.75%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.23%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.23%) NFS
6 5 (0.88%) vSphere
7 4 (0.70%) ISA Server
7 4 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (0.70%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.53%) Firmware
9 2 (0.35%) Squid
9 2 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.18%) RACF
Systems Management
1 81 (14.21%) Kubernetes
2 27 (4.74%) Ansible
3 19 (3.33%) Progress Chef
4 13 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (2.11%) FortiGate
6 10 (1.75%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (1.40%) Grafana
8 6 (1.05%) Istio
9 5 (0.88%) CASB
9 5 (0.88%) linkerd
10 3 (0.53%) QRadar
11 2 (0.35%) Prometheus
11 2 (0.35%) SCCM
12 1 (0.18%) Argo
12 1 (0.18%) CSIRT
12 1 (0.18%) Host Intrusion Detection System
12 1 (0.18%) McAfee ePO
12 1 (0.18%) Nessus
12 1 (0.18%) Network Intrusion Detection System
12 1 (0.18%) VxRail
Vendors
1 138 (24.21%) Microsoft
2 87 (15.26%) Cisco
3 71 (12.46%) Palo Alto
4 55 (9.65%) F5
5 48 (8.42%) Zscaler
6 39 (6.84%) CrowdStrike
7 36 (6.32%) CheckPoint
7 36 (6.32%) Splunk
8 30 (5.26%) Fortinet
9 24 (4.21%) Google
10 23 (4.04%) CyberArk
11 20 (3.51%) Red Hat
12 18 (3.16%) ServiceNow
13 17 (2.98%) VMware
14 16 (2.81%) Blue Coat
15 14 (2.46%) Juniper
16 13 (2.28%) Qualys
17 12 (2.11%) BeyondTrust
18 10 (1.75%) AlgoSec
18 10 (1.75%) Netskope