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 15 November 2025.

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

6 months to
15 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 216 206 258
Rank change year-on-year -10 +52 +19
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 451 423 451
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.27% 1.15% 0.96%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.40% 1.24% 1.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 302 310
10th Percentile £374 £400 £413
25th Percentile £420 £463 £491
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -8.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £700
90th Percentile £700 £700 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £600
% change year-on-year -9.09% -8.33% +12.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 3 28
10th Percentile £70.13 £42.00 £68.17
25th Percentile £83.06 £43.13 £83.09
Median hourly rate £90.50 £45.00 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +101.11% -46.04% +49.60%
75th Percentile £91.50 £56.25 -
90th Percentile - £63.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £90.50 £65.00 £83.40
% change year-on-year +39.23% -22.06% +71.08%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
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 32,290 34,016 43,872
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.93% 92.86% 93.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,492 20,527 29,813
10th Percentile £278 £300 £294
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,873 1,272 1,545
10th Percentile £14.14 £15.11 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.45 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -30.14% -19.10% +58.28%
75th Percentile £53.99 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £73.75 £77.47
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +85.26%

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025.

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 15 November 2025. 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 -4 398 £535 -2.73% 381
London +23 224 £550 - 124
UK excluding London -25 186 £500 -9.09% 299
Work from Home -3 132 £500 -9.09% 96
North of England -40 51 £540 +0.37% 51
North West -14 39 £538 -2.27% 33
East of England +5 37 £500 +73.91% 29
South East -23 27 £463 -11.90% 92
South West +6 25 £525 -13.76% 61
Midlands -29 22 £403 -19.50% 37
Scotland 0 19 £525 -11.39% 25
West Midlands -31 17 £390 -17.89% 27
Yorkshire -36 11 £570 +28.09% 15
Northern Ireland 0 5 - - 2
East Midlands -8 5 £415 -49.39% 9
Wales +2 4 £600 +1.27% 6
North East -11 1 £400 -17.95% 3

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

For the 6 months to 15 November 2025, 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.

1 183 (40.58%) Azure
2 173 (38.36%) Cybersecurity
3 137 (30.38%) Firewall
4 129 (28.60%) Cloud Security
5 128 (28.38%) AWS
6 123 (27.27%) Microsoft
7 122 (27.05%) SIEM
8 120 (26.61%) Security Cleared
9 107 (23.73%) Network Security
10 98 (21.73%) Incident Response
10 98 (21.73%) NIST
11 97 (21.51%) SC Cleared
12 94 (20.84%) Python
13 81 (17.96%) Security Operations
14 80 (17.74%) Infrastructure as Code
15 78 (17.29%) CI/CD
15 78 (17.29%) Windows
16 73 (16.19%) PowerShell
17 72 (15.96%) GCP
18 65 (14.41%) CISSP
19 63 (13.97%) Active Directory
20 61 (13.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
21 60 (13.30%) Microsoft 365
22 59 (13.08%) Linux
23 54 (11.97%) DevOps
23 54 (11.97%) DevSecOps
23 54 (11.97%) Entra ID
24 52 (11.53%) Cisco
24 52 (11.53%) Degree
25 50 (11.09%) Azure Sentinel

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 20 (4.43%) SharePoint
2 17 (3.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.89%) Confluence
4 2 (0.44%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 5 (1.11%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.89%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.89%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.22%) 1Password
Business Applications
1 2 (0.44%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.22%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 183 (40.58%) Azure
2 128 (28.38%) AWS
3 72 (15.96%) GCP
4 60 (13.30%) Microsoft 365
5 54 (11.97%) Entra ID
6 50 (11.09%) Azure Sentinel
7 38 (8.43%) GitHub
8 33 (7.32%) Microsoft Purview
9 18 (3.99%) OpenShift
10 16 (3.55%) AWS CloudFormation
11 15 (3.33%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 15 (3.33%) Azure Monitor
12 11 (2.44%) GitHub Actions
13 10 (2.22%) AWS CloudTrail
14 8 (1.77%) SaaS
15 7 (1.55%) Amazon EKS
15 7 (1.55%) Azure Logic Apps
15 7 (1.55%) Mimecast
16 6 (1.33%) Amazon Macie
16 6 (1.33%) AWS KMS
Communications & Networking
1 137 (30.38%) Firewall
2 107 (23.73%) Network Security
3 34 (7.54%) VPN
4 31 (6.87%) DNS
5 25 (5.54%) WAN
6 20 (4.43%) SSL
7 18 (3.99%) Intrusion Detection
8 17 (3.77%) Wireless
9 14 (3.10%) BGP
9 14 (3.10%) OSPF
10 11 (2.44%) TCP/IP
11 10 (2.22%) DMVPN
12 9 (2.00%) Internet
13 8 (1.77%) IPsec
13 8 (1.77%) SD-WAN
13 8 (1.77%) VLAN
14 7 (1.55%) Cisco IPT
14 7 (1.55%) DHCP
14 7 (1.55%) NGFW
14 7 (1.55%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.00%) Data Lake
2 8 (1.77%) BigQuery
3 7 (1.55%) Oracle Database
4 3 (0.67%) Big Data
4 3 (0.67%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.44%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.44%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.44%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.44%) Power BI
6 1 (0.22%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 19 (4.21%) SonarQube
2 17 (3.77%) GitLab
3 14 (3.10%) Burp Suite
3 14 (3.10%) Metasploit
4 11 (2.44%) Jenkins
4 11 (2.44%) JIRA
5 6 (1.33%) ClearCase
6 4 (0.89%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.89%) Snyk
7 2 (0.44%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.44%) Git
8 1 (0.22%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.22%) Postman
General
1 126 (27.94%) Social Skills
2 63 (13.97%) Finance
3 53 (11.75%) Public Sector
4 34 (7.54%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (5.10%) Military
6 15 (3.33%) Banking
7 14 (3.10%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.44%) Legal
9 10 (2.22%) Telecoms
10 8 (1.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
12 5 (1.11%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.11%) Spanish Language
13 4 (0.89%) Financial Institution
13 4 (0.89%) Law
13 4 (0.89%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.67%) Aerospace
15 2 (0.44%) Influencing Skills
15 2 (0.44%) Retail
15 2 (0.44%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (3.33%) REST
2 12 (2.66%) SAML
3 10 (2.22%) OAuth
4 8 (1.77%) 802.1X
5 6 (1.33%) OpenID
6 5 (1.11%) NestJS
6 5 (1.11%) SailPoint
7 4 (0.89%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (0.89%) JSON
7 4 (0.89%) Node.js
8 3 (0.67%) LDAP
8 3 (0.67%) Regular Expression
8 3 (0.67%) Smart Contracts
8 3 (0.67%) YAML
9 2 (0.44%) Jinja
9 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
9 2 (0.44%) OAuth2
9 2 (0.44%) Oracle Fusion
9 2 (0.44%) React
9 2 (0.44%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 49 (10.86%) Security Posture
2 29 (6.43%) Data Centre
3 27 (5.99%) Management Information System
4 24 (5.32%) Onboarding
5 19 (4.21%) Cyber Threat
6 17 (3.77%) Cloud Native
7 15 (3.33%) Data Protection Act
8 12 (2.66%) Cyber Defence
9 9 (2.00%) Operational Technology
10 8 (1.77%) Cloud Security Posture
10 8 (1.77%) Hybrid Cloud
11 7 (1.55%) Cyber Security Posture
11 7 (1.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 7 (1.55%) Security Operations Centre
12 6 (1.33%) BYOD
13 5 (1.11%) Cyber Kill Chain
13 5 (1.11%) Life Science
13 5 (1.11%) PKI
14 4 (0.89%) Greenfield Project
14 4 (0.89%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 78 (17.29%) Windows
2 59 (13.08%) Linux
3 15 (3.33%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.22%) Mac OS
5 7 (1.55%) Unix
6 4 (0.89%) Android
6 4 (0.89%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.67%) VMS
8 2 (0.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.22%) CentOS
9 1 (0.22%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.22%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (38.36%) Cybersecurity
2 129 (28.60%) Cloud Security
3 122 (27.05%) SIEM
4 98 (21.73%) Incident Response
5 81 (17.96%) Security Operations
6 80 (17.74%) Infrastructure as Code
7 78 (17.29%) CI/CD
8 54 (11.97%) DevOps
8 54 (11.97%) DevSecOps
9 47 (10.42%) Threat Modelling
10 43 (9.53%) Problem-Solving
10 43 (9.53%) Vulnerability Management
11 42 (9.31%) Data Protection
12 41 (9.09%) Vulnerability Assessment
13 40 (8.87%) SOAR
13 40 (8.87%) Threat Detection
14 38 (8.43%) Data Loss Prevention
15 36 (7.98%) Penetration Testing
15 36 (7.98%) Security Monitoring
16 34 (7.54%) Information Security
Programming Languages
1 94 (20.84%) Python
2 73 (16.19%) PowerShell
3 30 (6.65%) Bash
4 29 (6.43%) Kusto Query Language
5 15 (3.33%) Java
6 14 (3.10%) SQL
7 6 (1.33%) Bicep
7 6 (1.33%) C
7 6 (1.33%) Shell Script
8 5 (1.11%) Perl
9 4 (0.89%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.89%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.67%) C#
10 3 (0.67%) C++
10 3 (0.67%) Rust
11 2 (0.44%) BeanShell
11 2 (0.44%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.22%) Go
12 1 (0.22%) Korn
12 1 (0.22%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 120 (26.61%) Security Cleared
2 97 (21.51%) SC Cleared
3 65 (14.41%) CISSP
4 52 (11.53%) Degree
5 30 (6.65%) Cisco Certification
6 29 (6.43%) CISM
7 23 (5.10%) DV Cleared
8 21 (4.66%) Azure Certification
8 21 (4.66%) OSCP
9 19 (4.21%) Microsoft Certification
10 18 (3.99%) CCNP
10 18 (3.99%) CREST Certified
11 15 (3.33%) CEH
12 13 (2.88%) CompTIA Security+
12 13 (2.88%) Tigerscheme
13 12 (2.66%) SANS
14 10 (2.22%) AWS Certification
14 10 (2.22%) CHECK Team Member
15 9 (2.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 7 (1.55%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 98 (21.73%) NIST
2 61 (13.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (8.20%) NCSC
4 31 (6.87%) GDPR
5 21 (4.66%) NIST 800
6 17 (3.77%) HIPAA
6 17 (3.77%) JSP 440
7 16 (3.55%) Cyber Essentials
8 11 (2.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 7 (1.55%) PCI DSS
10 5 (1.11%) SOC 2
11 4 (0.89%) GRC
12 3 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.44%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.44%) EU AI Act
13 2 (0.44%) GxP
13 2 (0.44%) RMADS
13 2 (0.44%) SLA
14 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 63 (13.97%) Active Directory
2 18 (3.99%) Docker
3 17 (3.77%) Firmware
4 15 (3.33%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.55%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.44%) Snort
Systems Management
1 44 (9.76%) Terraform
2 32 (7.10%) Kubernetes
3 16 (3.55%) SCCM
4 14 (3.10%) Ansible
4 14 (3.10%) Nmap
5 12 (2.66%) Fluentd
5 12 (2.66%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (2.44%) CASB
7 10 (2.22%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (1.55%) QRadar
9 6 (1.33%) SCOrch
9 6 (1.33%) WSUS
10 5 (1.11%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.89%) CSIRT
11 4 (0.89%) Kibana
11 4 (0.89%) logstash
11 4 (0.89%) Nessus
12 3 (0.67%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.67%) Progress Chef
13 2 (0.44%) CA Spectrum
Vendors
1 123 (27.27%) Microsoft
2 52 (11.53%) Cisco
3 47 (10.42%) Splunk
4 43 (9.53%) Palo Alto
5 29 (6.43%) Zscaler
6 25 (5.54%) CrowdStrike
7 24 (5.32%) F5
8 23 (5.10%) CheckPoint
8 23 (5.10%) Tenable
9 22 (4.88%) Fortinet
10 19 (4.21%) Google
10 19 (4.21%) Juniper
11 18 (3.99%) Veracode
12 13 (2.88%) Cribl.io
13 12 (2.66%) Qualys
14 11 (2.44%) Oracle
14 11 (2.44%) ServiceNow
15 10 (2.22%) SolarWinds
16 9 (2.00%) Forcepoint
17 8 (1.77%) Blue Coat