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 9 September 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 263 236 202
Rank change year-on-year -27 -34 +39
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 548 374 460
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.01% 1.14% 1.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.09% 1.25% 1.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 337 220 345
10th Percentile £413 £361 £413
25th Percentile £463 £413 £439
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 £726 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £529 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.80% -9.09% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 12 2
10th Percentile - £66.75 £64.25
25th Percentile £73.75 £83.06 £66.88
Median hourly rate £81.90 £90.50 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year -9.50% +24.83% -13.07%
75th Percentile £88.74 £91.50 £76.88
90th Percentile £92.11 - £78.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.44 £90.50 £72.50
% change year-on-year -5.59% +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 50,326 29,813 35,459
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.39% 91.05% 93.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,971 18,780 22,045
10th Percentile £325 £280 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
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 3,688 1,551 1,736
10th Percentile £14.82 £13.65 £14.73
25th Percentile £20.31 £17.00 £20.50
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.91 £53.13 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.16 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +11.35%

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 9 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 9 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 9 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 -10 505 £525 +0.96% 820
UK excluding London -16 269 £529 +5.80% 460
London -45 233 £539 -2.08% 415
Work from Home -7 186 £533 +8.73% 264
North of England +16 142 £550 +14.58% 111
North West +26 119 £550 +15.18% 79
Midlands -17 53 £500 +25.00% 54
South East -38 53 £500 - 120
West Midlands -14 50 £500 +25.00% 37
East of England -25 31 £510 +2.00% 69
Yorkshire -21 21 £600 +11.11% 20
South West -49 14 £481 -6.10% 73
Scotland -29 10 £600 +14.29% 27
East Midlands -14 3 £338 -10.30% 17
Wales -18 2 £733 +22.08% 5
North East -47 1 - - 12

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

For the 6 months to 9 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.

1 185 (33.76%) Azure
2 170 (31.02%) Cloud Security
3 165 (30.11%) Cybersecurity
4 141 (25.73%) AWS
5 128 (23.36%) Microsoft
6 126 (22.99%) SIEM
7 110 (20.07%) Network Security
8 109 (19.89%) Python
9 106 (19.34%) Firewall
10 94 (17.15%) Security Cleared
11 90 (16.42%) PowerShell
12 87 (15.88%) Cisco
13 86 (15.69%) Incident Response
13 86 (15.69%) Terraform
14 82 (14.96%) GCP
15 81 (14.78%) CI/CD
15 81 (14.78%) SC Cleared
16 79 (14.42%) Security Operations
17 73 (13.32%) VPN
18 69 (12.59%) CISSP
18 69 (12.59%) Kubernetes
19 67 (12.23%) Threat Detection
20 66 (12.04%) Windows
21 65 (11.86%) Infrastructure as Code
22 64 (11.68%) DevSecOps
23 62 (11.31%) F5
23 62 (11.31%) Palo Alto
24 60 (10.95%) DevOps
25 57 (10.40%) Bash
25 57 (10.40%) Vulnerability Management

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 9 (1.64%) IIS
2 8 (1.46%) Confluence
3 3 (0.55%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.36%) nginx
5 1 (0.18%) Apache
5 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
1 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (1.09%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.36%) Maximo
3 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 185 (33.76%) Azure
2 141 (25.73%) AWS
3 82 (14.96%) GCP
4 45 (8.21%) Microsoft 365
5 40 (7.30%) Entra ID
5 40 (7.30%) Microsoft Purview
6 30 (5.47%) Azure Sentinel
7 28 (5.11%) AWS CloudFormation
8 18 (3.28%) SaaS
9 17 (3.10%) GitHub
10 16 (2.92%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 15 (2.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 13 (2.37%) AWS CloudTrail
12 13 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
12 13 (2.37%) Serverless
13 11 (2.01%) Mimecast
14 10 (1.82%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (1.82%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 10 (1.82%) Power Platform
15 9 (1.64%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 110 (20.07%) Network Security
2 106 (19.34%) Firewall
3 73 (13.32%) VPN
4 51 (9.31%) DNS
5 39 (7.12%) BGP
6 33 (6.02%) SSL
7 30 (5.47%) DMZ
7 30 (5.47%) WAN
8 28 (5.11%) Multicast
9 21 (3.83%) TCP/IP
10 20 (3.65%) HTTP
11 18 (3.28%) Internet
11 18 (3.28%) SD-WAN
12 16 (2.92%) Cisco ISE
12 16 (2.92%) Wireless
13 13 (2.37%) Intrusion Detection
13 13 (2.37%) IPsec
14 10 (1.82%) DMVPN
14 10 (1.82%) OSPF
15 9 (1.64%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.46%) Power BI
2 5 (0.91%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.73%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.55%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.55%) Big Data
4 3 (0.55%) Data Lake
4 3 (0.55%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.36%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.36%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.18%) Apache Cassandra
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 10 (1.82%) JIRA
2 9 (1.64%) GitLab
3 8 (1.46%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.91%) Git
5 4 (0.73%) Burp Suite
6 3 (0.55%) Claude Code
6 3 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
7 2 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
7 2 (0.36%) Snyk
8 1 (0.18%) Atlassian Bamboo
8 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
8 1 (0.18%) Maven
8 1 (0.18%) Metasploit
8 1 (0.18%) SonarQube
8 1 (0.18%) sqlmap
8 1 (0.18%) TruffleHog
General
1 90 (16.42%) Social Skills
2 87 (15.88%) Finance
3 45 (8.21%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (6.75%) Banking
5 19 (3.47%) Documentation Skills
5 19 (3.47%) Investment Banking
5 19 (3.47%) Public Sector
6 8 (1.46%) Military
7 7 (1.28%) Back Office
7 7 (1.28%) Legal
7 7 (1.28%) Marketing
7 7 (1.28%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (1.09%) Manufacturing
8 6 (1.09%) Telecoms
9 5 (0.91%) Retail
10 4 (0.73%) Health Technology
11 3 (0.55%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.55%) Digital Health
11 3 (0.55%) Digital Healthcare
11 3 (0.55%) Italian Language
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (15.69%) Terraform
2 13 (2.37%) JSON
3 12 (2.19%) 802.1X
4 8 (1.46%) LDAP
4 8 (1.46%) Regular Expression
4 8 (1.46%) SAML
5 6 (1.09%) JWT
5 6 (1.09%) REST
6 5 (0.91%) ARM Templates
6 5 (0.91%) OAuth
6 5 (0.91%) OpenID
7 4 (0.73%) Azure Blueprints
7 4 (0.73%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (0.73%) OAuth2
7 4 (0.73%) SLSA
8 3 (0.55%) Microsoft Graph
8 3 (0.55%) SailPoint
9 2 (0.36%) Model Context Protocol
10 1 (0.18%) AWS CDK
10 1 (0.18%) LangChain
Miscellaneous
1 97 (17.70%) Security Posture
2 58 (10.58%) Cloud Native
3 38 (6.93%) Cloud Security Posture
3 38 (6.93%) Management Information System
4 22 (4.01%) Cyber Threat
4 22 (4.01%) Enterprise Cloud
5 19 (3.47%) Onboarding
6 16 (2.92%) Data Centre
7 15 (2.74%) AI Agents
8 14 (2.55%) Operational Technology
9 13 (2.37%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 9 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
10 9 (1.64%) Hybrid Cloud
10 9 (1.64%) Security Operations Centre
11 8 (1.46%) Cyber Defence
12 6 (1.09%) CCTV
12 6 (1.09%) PKI
12 6 (1.09%) Public Cloud
12 6 (1.09%) SCADA
13 5 (0.91%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 66 (12.04%) Windows
2 43 (7.85%) Linux
3 18 (3.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 15 (2.74%) Windows Server
5 10 (1.82%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.28%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.91%) Android
7 5 (0.91%) Windows 10
8 2 (0.36%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.18%) Unix
9 1 (0.18%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (31.02%) Cloud Security
2 165 (30.11%) Cybersecurity
3 126 (22.99%) SIEM
4 86 (15.69%) Incident Response
5 81 (14.78%) CI/CD
6 79 (14.42%) Security Operations
7 67 (12.23%) Threat Detection
8 65 (11.86%) Infrastructure as Code
9 64 (11.68%) DevSecOps
10 60 (10.95%) DevOps
11 57 (10.40%) Vulnerability Management
12 53 (9.67%) Security Architecture
13 52 (9.49%) Zero Trust
14 50 (9.12%) Threat Modelling
15 49 (8.94%) Load Balancing
15 49 (8.94%) Security Monitoring
16 45 (8.21%) AI
16 45 (8.21%) Stakeholder Management
17 43 (7.85%) Continuous Improvement
17 43 (7.85%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 109 (19.89%) Python
2 90 (16.42%) PowerShell
3 57 (10.40%) Bash
4 23 (4.20%) Java
5 21 (3.83%) Bicep
6 7 (1.28%) Kusto Query Language
6 7 (1.28%) SQL
7 5 (0.91%) Go
8 4 (0.73%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (0.55%) Perl
10 1 (0.18%) C
10 1 (0.18%) C#
10 1 (0.18%) JavaScript
10 1 (0.18%) Korn
10 1 (0.18%) PHP
10 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 94 (17.15%) Security Cleared
2 81 (14.78%) SC Cleared
3 69 (12.59%) CISSP
4 42 (7.66%) Degree
5 35 (6.39%) Cisco Certification
6 31 (5.66%) AWS Certification
7 28 (5.11%) CISM
8 23 (4.20%) DV Cleared
9 22 (4.01%) Azure Certification
10 21 (3.83%) CCNP
11 17 (3.10%) CEH
12 16 (2.92%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 13 (2.37%) OSCP
14 11 (2.01%) CCSP
14 11 (2.01%) GIAC
14 11 (2.01%) Microsoft Certification
15 10 (1.82%) CCIE
16 9 (1.64%) Computer Science Degree
17 8 (1.46%) CISA
18 7 (1.28%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (9.31%) NIST
2 49 (8.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 22 (4.01%) GDPR
4 19 (3.47%) PCI DSS
5 16 (2.92%) Cyber Essentials
5 16 (2.92%) NCSC
6 12 (2.19%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (1.09%) HIPAA
7 6 (1.09%) NIST 800
8 5 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
9 4 (0.73%) GRC
9 4 (0.73%) SOC 2
10 3 (0.55%) ISA99
11 2 (0.36%) COBIT
11 2 (0.36%) ISO 31000
11 2 (0.36%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 2 (0.36%) JSP 440
11 2 (0.36%) SLA
12 1 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 41 (7.48%) Active Directory
2 21 (3.83%) Docker
3 13 (2.37%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (2.01%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (1.46%) Hyper-V
6 7 (1.28%) NFS
7 6 (1.09%) VMware NSX
7 6 (1.09%) vSphere
8 3 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.36%) Firmware
9 2 (0.36%) ISA Server
9 2 (0.36%) Squid
9 2 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.18%) RACF
Systems Management
1 69 (12.59%) Kubernetes
2 20 (3.65%) Ansible
3 16 (2.92%) Progress Chef
4 12 (2.19%) FortiGate
4 12 (2.19%) Microsoft Intune
5 10 (1.82%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (1.46%) Grafana
7 7 (1.28%) CASB
8 6 (1.09%) Istio
9 5 (0.91%) linkerd
9 5 (0.91%) QRadar
10 2 (0.36%) Prometheus
10 2 (0.36%) SCCM
11 1 (0.18%) Argo
11 1 (0.18%) CSIRT
11 1 (0.18%) Host Intrusion Detection System
11 1 (0.18%) HP Fortify
11 1 (0.18%) Network Intrusion Detection System
11 1 (0.18%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 128 (23.36%) Microsoft
2 87 (15.88%) Cisco
3 62 (11.31%) F5
3 62 (11.31%) Palo Alto
4 45 (8.21%) Zscaler
5 42 (7.66%) CrowdStrike
6 31 (5.66%) CheckPoint
6 31 (5.66%) Fortinet
6 31 (5.66%) Splunk
7 26 (4.74%) CyberArk
8 23 (4.20%) ServiceNow
9 21 (3.83%) VMware
10 20 (3.65%) Google
11 19 (3.47%) Red Hat
12 16 (2.92%) Blue Coat
13 13 (2.37%) BeyondTrust
13 13 (2.37%) Juniper
13 13 (2.37%) Netskope
14 12 (2.19%) Qualys
14 12 (2.19%) Tenable