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 29 September 2026.

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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 232 201
Rank change year-on-year -20 -31 +45
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 577 392 463
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.06% 1.20% 1.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.15% 1.32% 1.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 361 228 338
10th Percentile £413 £380 £404
25th Percentile £462 £421 £442
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £638
90th Percentile £691 £705 £741
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 11 4
10th Percentile - £82.50 £42.38
25th Percentile £73.75 £84.75 £44.06
Median hourly rate £83.45 £91.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.30% +65.45% -34.05%
75th Percentile £89.68 £91.50 £70.63
90th Percentile £92.11 - £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.48 £91.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year -6.07% +25.52% -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 50,372 29,667 35,213
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.22% 91.00% 92.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,736 18,751 21,351
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% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £623 £638
90th Percentile £731 £725 £749
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,923 1,598 1,565
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.85
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.50
Median hourly rate £41.92 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +66.68% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.25 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.61 £74.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.00 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.50% -41.69% -2.82%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -19 537 £525 - 1,148
UK excluding London -6 282 £525 +5.00% 653
London -38 251 £530 -2.79% 526
Work from Home -2 187 £540 +8.00% 390
North of England +10 146 £550 +10.00% 177
North West +23 121 £540 +8.00% 118
South East -33 57 £500 - 145
Midlands -6 56 £500 +24.22% 84
West Midlands -8 53 £500 +28.21% 50
East of England -32 32 £525 +5.00% 79
Yorkshire -26 22 £600 +11.11% 32
South West -43 12 £475 -7.32% 90
Scotland -36 8 £618 +17.62% 56
East Midlands -17 3 - - 34
Wales -15 2 £733 +22.08% 9
North East -39 2 - - 27

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

For the 6 months to 29 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.

1 198 (34.32%) Azure
2 184 (31.89%) Cloud Security
3 174 (30.16%) Cybersecurity
4 156 (27.04%) AWS
5 142 (24.61%) Microsoft
6 130 (22.53%) SIEM
7 121 (20.97%) Network Security
7 121 (20.97%) Python
8 114 (19.76%) Firewall
9 103 (17.85%) Terraform
10 99 (17.16%) Security Cleared
11 97 (16.81%) PowerShell
12 95 (16.46%) Incident Response
13 93 (16.12%) Security Operations
14 91 (15.77%) GCP
15 90 (15.60%) Cisco
16 87 (15.08%) CI/CD
17 86 (14.90%) SC Cleared
18 80 (13.86%) CISSP
18 80 (13.86%) Kubernetes
19 73 (12.65%) Infrastructure as Code
19 73 (12.65%) Palo Alto
20 72 (12.48%) VPN
21 70 (12.13%) Windows
22 69 (11.96%) Threat Detection
23 67 (11.61%) Vulnerability Management
24 66 (11.44%) DevOps
25 65 (11.27%) DevSecOps
25 65 (11.27%) Security Architecture
26 63 (10.92%) NIST

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 12 (2.08%) IIS
2 8 (1.39%) Confluence
3 3 (0.52%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.35%) nginx
5 1 (0.17%) Apache
5 1 (0.17%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.17%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (1.04%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.35%) Maximo
3 1 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 198 (34.32%) Azure
2 156 (27.04%) AWS
3 91 (15.77%) GCP
4 53 (9.19%) Entra ID
5 45 (7.80%) Microsoft 365
6 36 (6.24%) Azure Sentinel
6 36 (6.24%) Microsoft Purview
7 29 (5.03%) AWS CloudFormation
8 22 (3.81%) GitHub
9 16 (2.77%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 14 (2.43%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (2.25%) Power Platform
11 13 (2.25%) SaaS
11 13 (2.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 12 (2.08%) Serverless
13 11 (1.91%) Akamai
14 10 (1.73%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (1.73%) AWS CloudTrail
14 10 (1.73%) Azure AKS
15 9 (1.56%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 121 (20.97%) Network Security
2 114 (19.76%) Firewall
3 72 (12.48%) VPN
4 46 (7.97%) DNS
5 37 (6.41%) BGP
6 30 (5.20%) SSL
7 29 (5.03%) WAN
8 26 (4.51%) DMZ
9 24 (4.16%) Multicast
10 20 (3.47%) HTTP
10 20 (3.47%) TCP/IP
11 17 (2.95%) Internet
12 16 (2.77%) Cisco ISE
12 16 (2.77%) Wireless
13 15 (2.60%) Intrusion Detection
13 15 (2.60%) SD-WAN
14 13 (2.25%) IPsec
15 12 (2.08%) OSPF
16 10 (1.73%) DMVPN
17 9 (1.56%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (1.56%) Power BI
2 5 (0.87%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.69%) MongoDB
3 4 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.52%) Big Data
5 2 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.35%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.35%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.17%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.17%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.17%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.17%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.17%) Db2
6 1 (0.17%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.17%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.17%) Metadata
6 1 (0.17%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.17%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.17%) Redis
6 1 (0.17%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 9 (1.56%) JIRA
2 8 (1.39%) Git
3 6 (1.04%) GitLab
3 6 (1.04%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.52%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.35%) JUnit
5 2 (0.35%) Snyk
5 2 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.17%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.17%) Browser DevTools
6 1 (0.17%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.17%) Maven
General
1 106 (18.37%) Social Skills
2 97 (16.81%) Finance
3 50 (8.67%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (7.28%) Banking
5 19 (3.29%) Public Sector
6 17 (2.95%) Investment Banking
7 16 (2.77%) Documentation Skills
8 10 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
9 9 (1.56%) Military
10 7 (1.21%) Back Office
10 7 (1.21%) Legal
10 7 (1.21%) Manufacturing
10 7 (1.21%) Marketing
11 6 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (1.04%) Retail
11 6 (1.04%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.69%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.69%) Health Technology
13 3 (0.52%) Italian Language
13 3 (0.52%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (17.85%) Terraform
2 17 (2.95%) JSON
3 12 (2.08%) REST
4 11 (1.91%) 802.1X
5 9 (1.56%) SAML
6 8 (1.39%) JWT
6 8 (1.39%) OAuth
6 8 (1.39%) OpenID
6 8 (1.39%) Regular Expression
7 7 (1.21%) LDAP
8 6 (1.04%) OAuth2
9 5 (0.87%) ARM Templates
10 4 (0.69%) Azure Blueprints
10 4 (0.69%) Elastic Stack
10 4 (0.69%) Microsoft Graph
10 4 (0.69%) Model Context Protocol
11 3 (0.52%) pytest
11 3 (0.52%) SailPoint
11 3 (0.52%) SLSA
11 3 (0.52%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 97 (16.81%) Security Posture
2 66 (11.44%) Cloud Native
3 41 (7.11%) Management Information System
4 33 (5.72%) Cloud Security Posture
5 31 (5.37%) Onboarding
6 27 (4.68%) Cyber Threat
7 23 (3.99%) Enterprise Cloud
8 20 (3.47%) Data Centre
9 18 (3.12%) AI Agents
10 16 (2.77%) Cyber Defence
11 14 (2.43%) Operational Technology
12 11 (1.91%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 11 (1.91%) Security Operations Centre
13 10 (1.73%) Hybrid Cloud
13 10 (1.73%) PKI
13 10 (1.73%) Public Cloud
14 8 (1.39%) CCTV
14 8 (1.39%) Data Protection Act
15 5 (0.87%) Embedded Systems
15 5 (0.87%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 70 (12.13%) Windows
2 47 (8.15%) Linux
3 19 (3.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 18 (3.12%) Windows Server
5 10 (1.73%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.21%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.87%) Android
7 5 (0.87%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.52%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.35%) Unix
10 1 (0.17%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 184 (31.89%) Cloud Security
2 174 (30.16%) Cybersecurity
3 130 (22.53%) SIEM
4 95 (16.46%) Incident Response
5 93 (16.12%) Security Operations
6 87 (15.08%) CI/CD
7 73 (12.65%) Infrastructure as Code
8 69 (11.96%) Threat Detection
9 67 (11.61%) Vulnerability Management
10 66 (11.44%) DevOps
11 65 (11.27%) DevSecOps
11 65 (11.27%) Security Architecture
12 60 (10.40%) Zero Trust
13 56 (9.71%) AI
13 56 (9.71%) Security Monitoring
14 55 (9.53%) Threat Modelling
15 53 (9.19%) Continuous Improvement
15 53 (9.19%) Identity Access Management
16 52 (9.01%) Information Security
17 51 (8.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 121 (20.97%) Python
2 97 (16.81%) PowerShell
3 59 (10.23%) Bash
4 26 (4.51%) Java
5 20 (3.47%) Bicep
6 9 (1.56%) SQL
7 8 (1.39%) Go
8 7 (1.21%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.69%) Search Processing Language
10 3 (0.52%) Perl
11 2 (0.35%) C#
12 1 (0.17%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.17%) Korn
12 1 (0.17%) PHP
12 1 (0.17%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.17%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 99 (17.16%) Security Cleared
2 86 (14.90%) SC Cleared
3 80 (13.86%) CISSP
4 50 (8.67%) Degree
5 43 (7.45%) Cisco Certification
6 33 (5.72%) AWS Certification
7 30 (5.20%) CISM
8 24 (4.16%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 23 (3.99%) DV Cleared
10 22 (3.81%) Azure Certification
11 19 (3.29%) CCNP
12 18 (3.12%) CCSP
13 17 (2.95%) CEH
14 14 (2.43%) OSCP
15 13 (2.25%) GIAC
16 12 (2.08%) CISA
16 12 (2.08%) Microsoft Certification
17 9 (1.56%) CompTIA Security+
17 9 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
18 8 (1.39%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 63 (10.92%) NIST
2 57 (9.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (4.85%) PCI DSS
4 19 (3.29%) GDPR
5 13 (2.25%) Cyber Essentials
5 13 (2.25%) NCSC
6 10 (1.73%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 9 (1.56%) GRC
8 6 (1.04%) HIPAA
8 6 (1.04%) NIST 800
9 5 (0.87%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.87%) ISO 9001
9 5 (0.87%) ISO/IEC 27005
10 3 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.52%) QA
10 3 (0.52%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.35%) COBIT
11 2 (0.35%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.17%) Data Quality
12 1 (0.17%) SLA
System Software
1 46 (7.97%) Active Directory
2 23 (3.99%) Docker
3 11 (1.91%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (1.73%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.21%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.21%) NFS
6 5 (0.87%) ISA Server
6 5 (0.87%) vSphere
7 4 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (0.69%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.52%) Firmware
9 2 (0.35%) Squid
9 2 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.17%) RACF
Systems Management
1 80 (13.86%) Kubernetes
2 27 (4.68%) Ansible
3 19 (3.29%) Progress Chef
4 13 (2.25%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (2.08%) FortiGate
6 10 (1.73%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (1.39%) Grafana
8 7 (1.21%) Istio
9 6 (1.04%) CASB
10 5 (0.87%) linkerd
11 3 (0.52%) QRadar
12 2 (0.35%) Prometheus
12 2 (0.35%) SCCM
13 1 (0.17%) Argo
13 1 (0.17%) CSIRT
13 1 (0.17%) Host Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.17%) McAfee ePO
13 1 (0.17%) Nessus
13 1 (0.17%) Network Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.17%) VxRail
Vendors
1 142 (24.61%) Microsoft
2 90 (15.60%) Cisco
3 73 (12.65%) Palo Alto
4 56 (9.71%) F5
5 48 (8.32%) Zscaler
6 40 (6.93%) CrowdStrike
7 39 (6.76%) Splunk
8 36 (6.24%) CheckPoint
9 30 (5.20%) Fortinet
10 26 (4.51%) Google
11 23 (3.99%) CyberArk
12 20 (3.47%) Red Hat
12 20 (3.47%) ServiceNow
13 17 (2.95%) VMware
14 16 (2.77%) Blue Coat
15 14 (2.43%) Juniper
15 14 (2.43%) Qualys
16 12 (2.08%) BeyondTrust
17 10 (1.73%) AlgoSec
17 10 (1.73%) Netskope