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 4 September 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 261 234 209
Rank change year-on-year -27 -25 +28
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 534 369 462
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.00% 1.14% 1.21%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.08% 1.25% 1.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 336 219 348
10th Percentile £413 £360 £411
25th Percentile £463 £413 £435
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £533 £515 £550
Median % change year-on-year +3.50% -6.36% -4.35%
75th Percentile £608 £638 £638
90th Percentile £688 £738 £741
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 12 2
10th Percentile £72.63 £66.75 £64.25
25th Percentile £73.75 £83.06 £66.88
Median hourly rate £79.70 £90.50 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year -11.93% +24.83% -13.07%
75th Percentile £87.75 £91.50 £76.88
90th Percentile £92.11 - £78.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.40 £90.50 £72.50
% change year-on-year -5.64% +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 49,584 29,450 35,463
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.44% 91.15% 93.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,603 18,569 22,312
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% -1.69%
75th Percentile £625 £623 £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 3,590 1,537 1,792
10th Percentile £14.85 £13.60 £14.42
25th Percentile £20.48 £17.00 £20.21
Median hourly rate £42.13 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +67.50% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.84 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £70.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £45.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -44.11% +12.50%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -12 491 £525 +1.94% 867
UK excluding London -6 266 £525 +5.00% 489
London -52 223 £546 -0.68% 445
Work from Home +6 187 £540 +10.26% 271
North of England +11 141 £550 +14.58% 125
North West +31 118 £550 +15.18% 85
South East -42 53 £500 - 108
Midlands -16 52 £500 +22.70% 62
West Midlands -16 49 £500 +25.00% 40
East of England -23 29 £510 +2.00% 77
Yorkshire -28 21 £600 +11.11% 29
South West -46 15 £475 -7.32% 81
Scotland -24 10 £600 +14.29% 23
East Midlands -19 3 £338 -18.67% 21
Wales -16 2 £733 +22.08% 7
North East -38 1 - - 12

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

For the 6 months to 4 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.

1 179 (33.52%) Azure
2 165 (30.90%) Cloud Security
3 160 (29.96%) Cybersecurity
4 136 (25.47%) AWS
5 124 (23.22%) Microsoft
6 122 (22.85%) SIEM
7 106 (19.85%) Network Security
7 106 (19.85%) Python
8 102 (19.10%) Firewall
9 92 (17.23%) Security Cleared
10 88 (16.48%) PowerShell
11 84 (15.73%) Cisco
11 84 (15.73%) Incident Response
12 83 (15.54%) CI/CD
13 82 (15.36%) Terraform
14 79 (14.79%) SC Cleared
15 77 (14.42%) GCP
16 75 (14.04%) Security Operations
17 71 (13.30%) VPN
18 68 (12.73%) CISSP
18 68 (12.73%) Kubernetes
19 64 (11.99%) Threat Detection
20 63 (11.80%) DevSecOps
20 63 (11.80%) Infrastructure as Code
20 63 (11.80%) Windows
21 60 (11.24%) F5
22 59 (11.05%) DevOps
23 58 (10.86%) Palo Alto
23 58 (10.86%) Vulnerability Management
24 57 (10.67%) Bash

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 8 (1.50%) Confluence
2 6 (1.12%) IIS
3 3 (0.56%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.37%) nginx
5 1 (0.19%) Apache
5 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 1 (0.19%) Chatbot
1 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (0.19%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 1 (0.19%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 6 (1.12%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.37%) Maximo
3 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 179 (33.52%) Azure
2 136 (25.47%) AWS
3 77 (14.42%) GCP
4 44 (8.24%) Microsoft 365
5 40 (7.49%) Entra ID
5 40 (7.49%) Microsoft Purview
6 28 (5.24%) AWS CloudFormation
7 26 (4.87%) Azure Sentinel
8 18 (3.37%) SaaS
9 16 (3.00%) GitHub
9 16 (3.00%) Google Kubernetes Engine
10 15 (2.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 13 (2.43%) AWS CloudTrail
11 13 (2.43%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (2.43%) Serverless
12 11 (2.06%) Mimecast
13 10 (1.87%) Amazon ECS
13 10 (1.87%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 10 (1.87%) Power Platform
14 9 (1.69%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 106 (19.85%) Network Security
2 102 (19.10%) Firewall
3 71 (13.30%) VPN
4 50 (9.36%) DNS
5 38 (7.12%) BGP
6 31 (5.81%) SSL
7 30 (5.62%) DMZ
8 29 (5.43%) WAN
9 28 (5.24%) Multicast
10 21 (3.93%) TCP/IP
11 18 (3.37%) HTTP
11 18 (3.37%) SD-WAN
12 16 (3.00%) Internet
13 15 (2.81%) Cisco ISE
13 15 (2.81%) Wireless
14 13 (2.43%) Intrusion Detection
15 12 (2.25%) IPsec
16 9 (1.69%) DMVPN
16 9 (1.69%) OSPF
16 9 (1.69%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.50%) Power BI
2 5 (0.94%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.75%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.56%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.56%) Big Data
4 3 (0.56%) Data Lake
4 3 (0.56%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.37%) DynamoDB
5 2 (0.37%) SAP HANA
6 1 (0.19%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.19%) Db2
6 1 (0.19%) Delta Lake
6 1 (0.19%) Elasticsearch
6 1 (0.19%) Metadata
6 1 (0.19%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.19%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.19%) Redis
6 1 (0.19%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (1.87%) JIRA
2 9 (1.69%) GitLab
3 8 (1.50%) Jenkins
4 4 (0.75%) Burp Suite
4 4 (0.75%) Git
5 3 (0.56%) Claude Code
5 3 (0.56%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.37%) Browser DevTools
6 2 (0.37%) Snyk
7 1 (0.19%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.19%) Maven
7 1 (0.19%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.19%) SonarQube
7 1 (0.19%) sqlmap
7 1 (0.19%) TruffleHog
General
1 91 (17.04%) Social Skills
2 88 (16.48%) Finance
3 43 (8.05%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (6.93%) Banking
5 19 (3.56%) Documentation Skills
5 19 (3.56%) Investment Banking
5 19 (3.56%) Public Sector
6 8 (1.50%) Military
7 7 (1.31%) Marketing
7 7 (1.31%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (1.12%) Legal
8 6 (1.12%) Manufacturing
8 6 (1.12%) Telecoms
9 5 (0.94%) Back Office
9 5 (0.94%) Retail
10 4 (0.75%) Health Technology
11 3 (0.56%) Aerospace
11 3 (0.56%) Digital Health
11 3 (0.56%) Digital Healthcare
11 3 (0.56%) Law
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (15.36%) Terraform
2 11 (2.06%) 802.1X
3 9 (1.69%) JSON
4 8 (1.50%) SAML
5 6 (1.12%) LDAP
5 6 (1.12%) Regular Expression
5 6 (1.12%) REST
6 5 (0.94%) ARM Templates
6 5 (0.94%) JWT
7 4 (0.75%) Azure Blueprints
7 4 (0.75%) Elastic Stack
7 4 (0.75%) OAuth
7 4 (0.75%) OpenID
7 4 (0.75%) SLSA
8 3 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
8 3 (0.56%) OAuth2
8 3 (0.56%) SailPoint
9 2 (0.37%) Model Context Protocol
10 1 (0.19%) LangChain
10 1 (0.19%) Semantic Kernel
Miscellaneous
1 96 (17.98%) Security Posture
2 57 (10.67%) Cloud Native
3 38 (7.12%) Cloud Security Posture
3 38 (7.12%) Management Information System
4 22 (4.12%) Enterprise Cloud
5 20 (3.75%) Cyber Threat
6 19 (3.56%) Onboarding
7 15 (2.81%) AI Agents
8 14 (2.62%) Data Centre
8 14 (2.62%) Operational Technology
9 13 (2.43%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 9 (1.69%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.50%) Hybrid Cloud
11 8 (1.50%) Security Operations Centre
12 7 (1.31%) Cyber Defence
13 6 (1.12%) CCTV
13 6 (1.12%) PKI
13 6 (1.12%) SCADA
14 5 (0.94%) NHS
14 5 (0.94%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 63 (11.80%) Windows
2 43 (8.05%) Linux
3 18 (3.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 14 (2.62%) Windows Server
5 9 (1.69%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.31%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.94%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.75%) Android
9 2 (0.37%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.19%) Unix
10 1 (0.19%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 165 (30.90%) Cloud Security
2 160 (29.96%) Cybersecurity
3 122 (22.85%) SIEM
4 84 (15.73%) Incident Response
5 83 (15.54%) CI/CD
6 75 (14.04%) Security Operations
7 64 (11.99%) Threat Detection
8 63 (11.80%) DevSecOps
8 63 (11.80%) Infrastructure as Code
9 59 (11.05%) DevOps
10 58 (10.86%) Vulnerability Management
11 53 (9.93%) Security Architecture
12 52 (9.74%) Threat Modelling
12 52 (9.74%) Zero Trust
13 49 (9.18%) Load Balancing
14 46 (8.61%) Security Monitoring
14 46 (8.61%) Stakeholder Management
15 44 (8.24%) Application Security
16 43 (8.05%) Information Security
17 42 (7.87%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 106 (19.85%) Python
2 88 (16.48%) PowerShell
3 57 (10.67%) Bash
4 22 (4.12%) Java
5 21 (3.93%) Bicep
6 7 (1.31%) Kusto Query Language
7 6 (1.12%) SQL
8 5 (0.94%) Go
9 4 (0.75%) Search Processing Language
10 3 (0.56%) Perl
11 1 (0.19%) C
11 1 (0.19%) C#
11 1 (0.19%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.19%) Korn
11 1 (0.19%) PHP
11 1 (0.19%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.19%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 92 (17.23%) Security Cleared
2 79 (14.79%) SC Cleared
3 68 (12.73%) CISSP
4 41 (7.68%) Degree
5 34 (6.37%) Cisco Certification
6 31 (5.81%) AWS Certification
7 27 (5.06%) CISM
8 22 (4.12%) Azure Certification
8 22 (4.12%) DV Cleared
9 21 (3.93%) CCNP
10 17 (3.18%) CEH
11 15 (2.81%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 13 (2.43%) OSCP
13 11 (2.06%) GIAC
13 11 (2.06%) Microsoft Certification
14 10 (1.87%) CCIE
14 10 (1.87%) CCSP
15 9 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
16 7 (1.31%) CISA
16 7 (1.31%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 50 (9.36%) NIST
2 48 (8.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (3.93%) GDPR
4 18 (3.37%) PCI DSS
5 17 (3.18%) NCSC
6 16 (3.00%) Cyber Essentials
7 12 (2.25%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 6 (1.12%) HIPAA
8 6 (1.12%) NIST 800
9 5 (0.94%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 4 (0.75%) SLA
10 4 (0.75%) SOC 2
11 3 (0.56%) GRC
11 3 (0.56%) ISA99
12 2 (0.37%) COBIT
12 2 (0.37%) JSP 440
13 1 (0.19%) Data Quality
13 1 (0.19%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 27005
13 1 (0.19%) RMADS
System Software
1 39 (7.30%) Active Directory
2 21 (3.93%) Docker
3 11 (2.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (1.69%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.12%) Hyper-V
5 6 (1.12%) VMware NSX
5 6 (1.12%) vSphere
6 5 (0.94%) NFS
7 3 (0.56%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.37%) Firmware
8 2 (0.37%) Squid
8 2 (0.37%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.19%) ISA Server
9 1 (0.19%) RACF
Systems Management
1 68 (12.73%) Kubernetes
2 19 (3.56%) Ansible
3 16 (3.00%) Progress Chef
4 12 (2.25%) FortiGate
4 12 (2.25%) Microsoft Intune
5 10 (1.87%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (1.50%) Grafana
7 6 (1.12%) CASB
7 6 (1.12%) Istio
8 5 (0.94%) linkerd
8 5 (0.94%) QRadar
9 2 (0.37%) Prometheus
9 2 (0.37%) SCCM
10 1 (0.19%) Argo
10 1 (0.19%) CSIRT
10 1 (0.19%) Host Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.19%) HP Fortify
10 1 (0.19%) Network Intrusion Detection System
10 1 (0.19%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 124 (23.22%) Microsoft
2 84 (15.73%) Cisco
3 60 (11.24%) F5
4 58 (10.86%) Palo Alto
5 40 (7.49%) CrowdStrike
6 39 (7.30%) Zscaler
7 31 (5.81%) Fortinet
8 30 (5.62%) CheckPoint
9 27 (5.06%) Splunk
10 26 (4.87%) CyberArk
11 23 (4.31%) ServiceNow
12 19 (3.56%) Google
12 19 (3.56%) Red Hat
12 19 (3.56%) VMware
13 15 (2.81%) Blue Coat
14 13 (2.43%) BeyondTrust
14 13 (2.43%) Netskope
15 12 (2.25%) Juniper
15 12 (2.25%) Tenable
16 11 (2.06%) Qualys