Security Engineer Contract Job Trends

Security Engineer
UK

The median Security Engineer daily rate in the UK is £537, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 18 January 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 228 248 280
Rank change year-on-year +20 +32 -5
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 454 317 361
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.22% 1.00% 0.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.34% 1.08% 0.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 193 232
10th Percentile £380 £400 £413
25th Percentile £463 £435 £488
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -2.32% -8.33% +5.73%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £700
90th Percentile £686 £700 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 3 24
10th Percentile - £42.00 £57.23
25th Percentile - £43.13 £78.69
Median hourly rate £85.40 £45.00 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +89.78% -46.04% +42.56%
75th Percentile £90.75 £61.68 -
90th Percentile £92.10 £71.69 £83.41
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.40 £73.31 £83.40
% change year-on-year +16.49% -12.10% +22.74%

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 33,942 29,468 40,286
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.41% 92.82% 93.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,457 18,028 26,771
10th Percentile £300 £296 £279
25th Percentile £405 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £480 £500
% change year-on-year -1.04% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,003 894 1,815
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.91 £14.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £18.00
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £40.69
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -20.13% +19.68%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.50 £64.45
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £75.16
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -23.53% +46.55%

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 18 January 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 18 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Security Engineer in the UK

Security Engineer
Top 17 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 18 January 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 +23 385 £538 -2.27% 394
London +27 203 £539 -6.30% 91
UK excluding London +7 190 £525 - 379
Work from Home +7 130 £536 -0.87% 132
North of England -41 46 £575 +9.52% 74
South East -15 42 £475 -9.52% 113
Midlands -30 31 £475 +12.43% 52
Scotland +21 30 £553 +0.45% 30
North West -18 30 £575 +4.55% 44
South West +17 28 £525 -12.50% 54
West Midlands -28 25 £543 +28.40% 19
East of England -3 17 £525 +90.91% 47
Yorkshire -47 13 £570 +42.50% 21
East Midlands - 6 £450 - 32
Northern Ireland 0 5 - - 3
North East -14 3 £400 -33.33% 9
Wales +1 2 £600 +34.83% 17

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

For the 6 months to 18 January 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.

1 174 (38.33%) Azure
2 171 (37.67%) Cybersecurity
3 123 (27.09%) AWS
4 121 (26.65%) SIEM
5 118 (25.99%) Microsoft
6 109 (24.01%) Cloud Security
6 109 (24.01%) Firewall
7 105 (23.13%) Security Cleared
8 91 (20.04%) Network Security
9 90 (19.82%) Python
10 89 (19.60%) Incident Response
11 82 (18.06%) NIST
11 82 (18.06%) SC Cleared
12 74 (16.30%) PowerShell
13 73 (16.08%) Security Operations
14 71 (15.64%) CI/CD
15 69 (15.20%) Infrastructure as Code
16 68 (14.98%) Windows
17 64 (14.10%) Linux
18 63 (13.88%) CISSP
19 59 (13.00%) DevOps
20 56 (12.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
21 55 (12.11%) Degree
21 55 (12.11%) GCP
22 54 (11.89%) Microsoft 365
23 53 (11.67%) Entra ID
24 50 (11.01%) Active Directory
25 49 (10.79%) Cisco
26 48 (10.57%) Threat Modelling
27 47 (10.35%) Problem-Solving

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 (2.42%) Microsoft Exchange
2 7 (1.54%) Confluence
3 6 (1.32%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.44%) Apache
4 2 (0.44%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 5 (1.10%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.88%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.88%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.44%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 174 (38.33%) Azure
2 123 (27.09%) AWS
3 55 (12.11%) GCP
4 54 (11.89%) Microsoft 365
5 53 (11.67%) Entra ID
6 44 (9.69%) Azure Sentinel
7 39 (8.59%) Microsoft Purview
8 32 (7.05%) GitHub
9 20 (4.41%) AWS CloudFormation
10 19 (4.19%) OpenShift
11 13 (2.86%) Azure Monitor
11 13 (2.86%) GitHub Actions
11 13 (2.86%) SaaS
12 12 (2.64%) Azure Key Vault
12 12 (2.64%) Mimecast
13 11 (2.42%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (2.20%) Azure DevOps
15 9 (1.98%) Amazon GuardDuty
16 8 (1.76%) Amazon EKS
16 8 (1.76%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 109 (24.01%) Firewall
2 91 (20.04%) Network Security
3 40 (8.81%) VPN
4 32 (7.05%) DNS
5 19 (4.19%) WAN
6 17 (3.74%) BGP
7 15 (3.30%) SSL
7 15 (3.30%) Wireless
8 14 (3.08%) TCP/IP
9 10 (2.20%) Intrusion Detection
9 10 (2.20%) IPsec
10 9 (1.98%) OSPF
11 8 (1.76%) Cisco IPT
11 8 (1.76%) DMVPN
12 7 (1.54%) Cisco ASA
12 7 (1.54%) DHCP
12 7 (1.54%) Wi-Fi
13 5 (1.10%) DMZ
13 5 (1.10%) Internet
13 5 (1.10%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.64%) Data Lake
2 7 (1.54%) BigQuery
2 7 (1.54%) Oracle Database
3 5 (1.10%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.88%) Amazon Athena
4 4 (0.88%) Power BI
5 3 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.44%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.44%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.44%) Mixpanel
6 2 (0.44%) OLAP
6 2 (0.44%) OLTP
7 1 (0.22%) Big Data
7 1 (0.22%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 19 (4.19%) GitLab
2 12 (2.64%) JIRA
3 10 (2.20%) Jenkins
4 8 (1.76%) Snyk
5 7 (1.54%) SonarQube
6 6 (1.32%) ClearCase
6 6 (1.32%) Git
7 4 (0.88%) Bitbucket
8 3 (0.66%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.22%) Travis CI
General
1 119 (26.21%) Social Skills
2 60 (13.22%) Finance
3 45 (9.91%) Public Sector
4 41 (9.03%) Analytical Skills
5 14 (3.08%) Banking
5 14 (3.08%) Documentation Skills
6 11 (2.42%) Telecoms
7 10 (2.20%) Military
8 9 (1.98%) Legal
9 8 (1.76%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.32%) Financial Institution
10 6 (1.32%) Spanish Language
11 5 (1.10%) Cyber-Physical System
11 5 (1.10%) Investment Banking
11 5 (1.10%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (0.88%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
13 3 (0.66%) Local Government
14 2 (0.44%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (4.85%) REST
2 11 (2.42%) Elastic Stack
2 11 (2.42%) SAML
3 8 (1.76%) 802.1X
3 8 (1.76%) OAuth
4 7 (1.54%) Node.js
4 7 (1.54%) SailPoint
5 6 (1.32%) JSON
5 6 (1.32%) Kafka
5 6 (1.32%) LDAP
5 6 (1.32%) NestJS
5 6 (1.32%) OpenID
6 5 (1.10%) Microsoft Graph
7 4 (0.88%) .NET
7 4 (0.88%) Regular Expression
7 4 (0.88%) SOAP
8 3 (0.66%) SLSA
9 2 (0.44%) ARM Templates
9 2 (0.44%) Great Expectations
9 2 (0.44%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 53 (11.67%) Security Posture
2 26 (5.73%) Data Centre
3 24 (5.29%) Cloud Native
4 23 (5.07%) Management Information System
5 21 (4.63%) Onboarding
6 13 (2.86%) Cyber Threat
7 12 (2.64%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (2.64%) Operational Technology
8 10 (2.20%) Cyber Defence
9 7 (1.54%) Cloud Security Posture
9 7 (1.54%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (1.54%) PKI
9 7 (1.54%) Security Operations Centre
10 6 (1.32%) BYOD
10 6 (1.32%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 6 (1.32%) Cyber Security Posture
10 6 (1.32%) Greenfield Project
11 5 (1.10%) Life Science
11 5 (1.10%) Mobile App
12 4 (0.88%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 68 (14.98%) Windows
2 64 (14.10%) Linux
3 13 (2.86%) Windows Server
4 11 (2.42%) Mac OS
5 7 (1.54%) Unix
6 6 (1.32%) Android
7 5 (1.10%) Apple iOS
8 4 (0.88%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.88%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.66%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.66%) VMS
10 1 (0.22%) Rocky
10 1 (0.22%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 171 (37.67%) Cybersecurity
2 121 (26.65%) SIEM
3 109 (24.01%) Cloud Security
4 89 (19.60%) Incident Response
5 73 (16.08%) Security Operations
6 71 (15.64%) CI/CD
7 69 (15.20%) Infrastructure as Code
8 59 (13.00%) DevOps
9 48 (10.57%) Threat Modelling
10 47 (10.35%) Problem-Solving
11 44 (9.69%) Vulnerability Management
12 43 (9.47%) Threat Detection
13 42 (9.25%) DevSecOps
13 42 (9.25%) Information Security
14 40 (8.81%) SOAR
15 38 (8.37%) Agile
16 37 (8.15%) Security Monitoring
17 36 (7.93%) Continuous Improvement
18 35 (7.71%) Data Protection
19 32 (7.05%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 90 (19.82%) Python
2 74 (16.30%) PowerShell
3 29 (6.39%) Kusto Query Language
4 27 (5.95%) Bash
5 20 (4.41%) Java
6 9 (1.98%) SQL
7 6 (1.32%) Bicep
7 6 (1.32%) C
8 5 (1.10%) JavaScript
8 5 (1.10%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.88%) BeanShell
10 3 (0.66%) C#
10 3 (0.66%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.66%) Perl
10 3 (0.66%) TypeScript
11 2 (0.44%) C++
11 2 (0.44%) Rust
12 1 (0.22%) Go
12 1 (0.22%) PHP
12 1 (0.22%) Scala
Qualifications
1 105 (23.13%) Security Cleared
2 82 (18.06%) SC Cleared
3 63 (13.88%) CISSP
4 55 (12.11%) Degree
5 35 (7.71%) CISM
6 26 (5.73%) Cisco Certification
7 23 (5.07%) DV Cleared
8 17 (3.74%) Azure Certification
9 14 (3.08%) CompTIA Security+
10 13 (2.86%) CEH
11 12 (2.64%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 12 (2.64%) AWS Certification
11 12 (2.64%) CCNP
12 11 (2.42%) SANS
13 9 (1.98%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (1.76%) CCSP
14 8 (1.76%) GIAC
15 6 (1.32%) CompTIA CySA+
15 6 (1.32%) Computer Science Degree
15 6 (1.32%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (18.06%) NIST
2 56 (12.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 33 (7.27%) GDPR
4 17 (3.74%) Cyber Essentials
4 17 (3.74%) NCSC
5 11 (2.42%) HIPAA
5 11 (2.42%) NIST 800
6 9 (1.98%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 9 (1.98%) GRC
6 9 (1.98%) PCI DSS
7 8 (1.76%) JSP 440
8 7 (1.54%) RMADS
9 5 (1.10%) SOC 2
10 3 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 2 (0.44%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.44%) EU AI Act
11 2 (0.44%) GxP
12 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.22%) SLA
System Software
1 50 (11.01%) Active Directory
2 18 (3.96%) Docker
2 18 (3.96%) Virtual Machines
3 8 (1.76%) Firmware
4 7 (1.54%) Hyper-V
5 5 (1.10%) VMware Infrastructure
6 3 (0.66%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.44%) Snort
7 2 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.22%) GPFS
8 1 (0.22%) Lustre
8 1 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 45 (9.91%) Terraform
2 41 (9.03%) Kubernetes
3 21 (4.63%) Microsoft Intune
4 19 (4.19%) SCCM
5 14 (3.08%) Single Sign-On
6 13 (2.86%) Fluentd
7 9 (1.98%) Ansible
8 8 (1.76%) CASB
9 7 (1.54%) logstash
9 7 (1.54%) WSUS
10 6 (1.32%) Kibana
10 6 (1.32%) SCOrch
11 5 (1.10%) Functional Safety
12 4 (0.88%) AirWatch
12 4 (0.88%) CSIRT
12 4 (0.88%) Nessus
13 3 (0.66%) FortiGate
13 3 (0.66%) Icinga
13 3 (0.66%) QRadar
13 3 (0.66%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 118 (25.99%) Microsoft
2 49 (10.79%) Cisco
3 44 (9.69%) Splunk
4 35 (7.71%) Palo Alto
5 30 (6.61%) CrowdStrike
6 27 (5.95%) F5
7 26 (5.73%) Tenable
8 21 (4.63%) CheckPoint
9 19 (4.19%) Google
10 18 (3.96%) Fortinet
11 16 (3.52%) Juniper
12 15 (3.30%) Qualys
13 13 (2.86%) Cribl.io
14 11 (2.42%) ServiceNow
14 11 (2.42%) Zscaler
15 9 (1.98%) Blue Coat
15 9 (1.98%) Oracle
16 8 (1.76%) CyberArk
17 7 (1.54%) Forcepoint
17 7 (1.54%) Ping Identity