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 5 June 2026.

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

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 226 266 269
Rank change year-on-year +40 +3 -46
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 560 280 377
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.14% 0.97% 0.88%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.24% 1.05% 0.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 346 168 269
10th Percentile £410 £400 £406
25th Percentile £475 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.38% -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £686 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +8.00% -4.76% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 4 4
10th Percentile £73.75 £59.75 -
25th Percentile £84.00 £63.13 £30.70
Median hourly rate £85.40 £74.21 £48.40
Median % change year-on-year +15.09% +53.32% -41.97%
75th Percentile - £84.43 £70.63
90th Percentile - £86.27 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.40 £74.21 £48.40
% change year-on-year +15.09% +53.32% -41.97%

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 45,342 26,733 39,846
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.33% 92.39% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,608 17,258 25,745
10th Percentile £325 £287 £280
25th Percentile £413 £404 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £501 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.40% -4.67% -2.78%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,029 1,088 2,850
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.87 £16.30
Median hourly rate £43.69 £28.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +56.04% -25.33% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £58.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +78.93% -37.13% -5.88%

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 5 June 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 5 June 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 5 June 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 +36 502 £535 +1.83% 397
UK excluding London +7 266 £540 +8.00% 331
London +25 238 £525 -4.55% 132
Work from Home +37 205 £550 +4.76% 113
North of England -1 121 £560 +6.67% 75
North West +31 96 £558 +6.19% 41
South East -39 58 £500 +11.11% 97
Midlands -8 56 £519 -4.60% 40
West Midlands -15 53 £539 -0.92% 27
Scotland +12 24 £650 +18.18% 42
South West -20 24 £525 +6.33% 39
Yorkshire -36 22 £600 +14.29% 27
East of England -24 18 £525 -2.33% 34
North East -33 3 £400 -23.81% 7
East Midlands - 3 £406 - 13
Wales -18 2 £733 +46.50% 4

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

For the 6 months to 5 June 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.

1 205 (36.61%) Azure
2 169 (30.18%) Cybersecurity
3 155 (27.68%) AWS
4 146 (26.07%) Cloud Security
5 138 (24.64%) Python
6 127 (22.68%) SIEM
7 123 (21.96%) Microsoft
8 113 (20.18%) Firewall
9 109 (19.46%) CI/CD
9 109 (19.46%) Network Security
10 94 (16.79%) PowerShell
10 94 (16.79%) Security Cleared
11 86 (15.36%) Incident Response
12 85 (15.18%) Cisco
13 73 (13.04%) SC Cleared
14 72 (12.86%) VPN
15 69 (12.32%) DevOps
16 67 (11.96%) Data Loss Prevention
16 67 (11.96%) Terraform
16 67 (11.96%) Windows
17 66 (11.79%) GCP
17 66 (11.79%) Vulnerability Management
18 63 (11.25%) DNS
19 62 (11.07%) NIST
20 61 (10.89%) CISSP
20 61 (10.89%) Security Architecture
20 61 (10.89%) Security Operations
21 59 (10.54%) Information Security
21 59 (10.54%) Threat Modelling
22 55 (9.82%) F5

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 22 (3.93%) Confluence
2 4 (0.71%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.18%) Apache
4 1 (0.18%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (1.07%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.36%) Maximo
2 2 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.18%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 205 (36.61%) Azure
2 155 (27.68%) AWS
3 66 (11.79%) GCP
4 54 (9.64%) Microsoft Purview
5 52 (9.29%) Microsoft 365
6 38 (6.79%) Entra ID
7 23 (4.11%) Azure Sentinel
7 23 (4.11%) GitHub
8 22 (3.93%) SaaS
9 21 (3.75%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 19 (3.39%) AWS CloudFormation
11 18 (3.21%) Mimecast
12 16 (2.86%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 14 (2.50%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 11 (1.96%) AWS CloudTrail
14 11 (1.96%) OpenShift
15 10 (1.79%) Akamai
15 10 (1.79%) AWS KMS
15 10 (1.79%) Azure DevOps
15 10 (1.79%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 113 (20.18%) Firewall
2 109 (19.46%) Network Security
3 72 (12.86%) VPN
4 63 (11.25%) DNS
5 46 (8.21%) BGP
6 35 (6.25%) DMZ
7 33 (5.89%) Multicast
8 26 (4.64%) SSL
8 26 (4.64%) TCP/IP
9 21 (3.75%) WAN
10 18 (3.21%) HTTP
10 18 (3.21%) SD-WAN
11 11 (1.96%) Internet
12 10 (1.79%) MPLS
12 10 (1.79%) TACACS
12 10 (1.79%) Wireless
13 9 (1.61%) NGFW
13 9 (1.61%) VLAN
14 8 (1.43%) Cisco IOS
14 8 (1.43%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.43%) Power BI
2 6 (1.07%) Data Lake
3 5 (0.89%) SQL Server
4 4 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.71%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (0.54%) Amazon Athena
5 3 (0.54%) Big Data
6 2 (0.36%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.36%) Apache Cassandra
6 2 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (0.36%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.36%) RDBMS
6 2 (0.36%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.18%) BigQuery
7 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.18%) Db2
7 1 (0.18%) OLAP
7 1 (0.18%) OLTP
7 1 (0.18%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 25 (4.46%) JIRA
2 11 (1.96%) GitLab
3 8 (1.43%) Git
3 8 (1.43%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.07%) Snyk
5 2 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
5 2 (0.36%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.36%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.36%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.18%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.18%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.18%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.18%) sqlmap
6 1 (0.18%) Travis CI
6 1 (0.18%) TruffleHog
General
1 107 (19.11%) Social Skills
2 87 (15.54%) Finance
3 50 (8.93%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (7.50%) Banking
5 34 (6.07%) Public Sector
6 23 (4.11%) Investment Banking
7 15 (2.68%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.43%) Legal
9 7 (1.25%) Marketing
9 7 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (1.07%) Telecoms
11 5 (0.89%) Cyber-Physical System
12 4 (0.71%) Health Technology
12 4 (0.71%) Local Government
12 4 (0.71%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.54%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.54%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.54%) Military
14 1 (0.18%) Back Office
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (2.14%) Elastic Stack
2 10 (1.79%) LDAP
3 7 (1.25%) REST
3 7 (1.25%) SAML
4 6 (1.07%) LangChain
4 6 (1.07%) PyTorch
4 6 (1.07%) scikit-learn
5 5 (0.89%) 802.1X
5 5 (0.89%) Microsoft Graph
5 5 (0.89%) SLSA
6 4 (0.71%) .NET
6 4 (0.71%) OAuth
7 3 (0.54%) ADO
7 3 (0.54%) AWS CDK
7 3 (0.54%) JSON
7 3 (0.54%) Kafka
8 2 (0.36%) GraphQL
8 2 (0.36%) Node.js
8 2 (0.36%) SailPoint
8 2 (0.36%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 78 (13.93%) Security Posture
2 56 (10.00%) Cloud Native
3 33 (5.89%) Management Information System
4 26 (4.64%) Cloud Security Posture
5 20 (3.57%) Data Centre
6 17 (3.04%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 17 (3.04%) Operational Technology
7 13 (2.32%) Onboarding
8 12 (2.14%) Cyber Threat
8 12 (2.14%) Hybrid Cloud
8 12 (2.14%) PKI
9 11 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
10 10 (1.79%) AI Agents
10 10 (1.79%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.25%) Security Operations Centre
12 6 (1.07%) Cyber Defence
12 6 (1.07%) Enterprise Cloud
12 6 (1.07%) Linux Command Line
13 5 (0.89%) Cyber Kill Chain
13 5 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 67 (11.96%) Windows
2 55 (9.82%) Linux
3 13 (2.32%) Windows Server
4 12 (2.14%) Mac OS
4 12 (2.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 8 (1.43%) Windows 10
6 7 (1.25%) Apple iOS
7 6 (1.07%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.71%) Unix
9 2 (0.36%) Android
10 1 (0.18%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (30.18%) Cybersecurity
2 146 (26.07%) Cloud Security
3 127 (22.68%) SIEM
4 109 (19.46%) CI/CD
5 86 (15.36%) Incident Response
6 69 (12.32%) DevOps
7 67 (11.96%) Data Loss Prevention
8 66 (11.79%) Vulnerability Management
9 61 (10.89%) Security Architecture
9 61 (10.89%) Security Operations
10 59 (10.54%) Information Security
10 59 (10.54%) Threat Modelling
11 53 (9.46%) Load Balancing
12 52 (9.29%) DevSecOps
13 51 (9.11%) Infrastructure as Code
14 48 (8.57%) Continuous Improvement
15 47 (8.39%) Zero Trust
16 46 (8.21%) Agile
17 41 (7.32%) AI
18 40 (7.14%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 138 (24.64%) Python
2 94 (16.79%) PowerShell
3 53 (9.46%) Bash
4 21 (3.75%) Java
5 18 (3.21%) Kusto Query Language
6 10 (1.79%) SQL
7 5 (0.89%) PHP
8 4 (0.71%) JavaScript
9 3 (0.54%) Go
9 3 (0.54%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (0.54%) Shell Script
10 2 (0.36%) Bicep
10 2 (0.36%) C#
10 2 (0.36%) Perl
10 2 (0.36%) Ruby
10 2 (0.36%) TypeScript
11 1 (0.18%) C
Qualifications
1 94 (16.79%) Security Cleared
2 73 (13.04%) SC Cleared
3 61 (10.89%) CISSP
4 54 (9.64%) Degree
5 31 (5.54%) Cisco Certification
6 27 (4.82%) AWS Certification
6 27 (4.82%) CISM
7 21 (3.75%) Azure Certification
8 19 (3.39%) DV Cleared
9 15 (2.68%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 15 (2.68%) CCNP
10 12 (2.14%) Computer Science Degree
11 11 (1.96%) CompTIA Security+
12 10 (1.79%) Microsoft Certification
13 8 (1.43%) CEH
14 7 (1.25%) CCSP
14 7 (1.25%) GIAC
15 5 (0.89%) CCIE
15 5 (0.89%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
15 5 (0.89%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (11.07%) NIST
2 53 (9.46%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (5.89%) GDPR
4 30 (5.36%) Cyber Essentials
5 22 (3.93%) PCI DSS
6 17 (3.04%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 10 (1.79%) NCSC
8 8 (1.43%) SLA
9 7 (1.25%) GRC
10 6 (1.07%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 6 (1.07%) HIPAA
10 6 (1.07%) NIST 800
10 6 (1.07%) RMADS
11 5 (0.89%) JSP 440
12 4 (0.71%) SOC 2
13 3 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
13 3 (0.54%) Government Security Classifications
13 3 (0.54%) ISA99
14 2 (0.36%) COBIT
14 2 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 28 (5.00%) Active Directory
2 26 (4.64%) Docker
3 12 (2.14%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (1.43%) VMware ESXi
5 7 (1.25%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (1.07%) VMware NSX
6 6 (1.07%) vSphere
7 3 (0.54%) Firmware
7 3 (0.54%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.36%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.36%) Squid
8 2 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.18%) RACF
Systems Management
1 67 (11.96%) Terraform
2 54 (9.64%) Kubernetes
3 18 (3.21%) Ansible
3 18 (3.21%) Microsoft Intune
4 12 (2.14%) Single Sign-On
5 10 (1.79%) Progress Chef
6 7 (1.25%) FortiGate
6 7 (1.25%) vCenter Server
7 6 (1.07%) CASB
7 6 (1.07%) Nessus
8 5 (0.89%) Functional Safety
9 4 (0.71%) AirWatch
10 3 (0.54%) Grafana
10 3 (0.54%) Kibana
10 3 (0.54%) SCOM
11 2 (0.36%) Icinga
11 2 (0.36%) logstash
11 2 (0.36%) QRadar
11 2 (0.36%) SCCM
12 1 (0.18%) Host Intrusion Detection System
Vendors
1 123 (21.96%) Microsoft
2 85 (15.18%) Cisco
3 55 (9.82%) F5
4 41 (7.32%) Palo Alto
5 39 (6.96%) CrowdStrike
6 31 (5.54%) Fortinet
7 28 (5.00%) Zscaler
8 26 (4.64%) Google
9 25 (4.46%) CyberArk
10 20 (3.57%) ServiceNow
11 19 (3.39%) Netskope
11 19 (3.39%) Splunk
11 19 (3.39%) VMware
12 18 (3.21%) Tenable
13 17 (3.04%) CheckPoint
14 14 (2.50%) Qualys
15 12 (2.14%) BeyondTrust
15 12 (2.14%) Red Hat
16 10 (1.79%) Blue Coat
17 9 (1.61%) Juniper