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 9 December 2025.

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

6 months to
9 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 222 233 262
Rank change year-on-year +11 +29 +3
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 443 386 421
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.22% 1.08% 0.93%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.34% 1.17% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 265 268 278
10th Percentile £374 £400 £421
25th Percentile £420 £475 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -8.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £700
90th Percentile £700 £700 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £550 £600
% change year-on-year -6.82% -8.33% +15.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 3 28
10th Percentile £81.80 £42.00 £68.17
25th Percentile £87.19 £43.13 £83.09
Median hourly rate £91.00 £45.00 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +102.22% -46.04% +43.79%
75th Percentile £91.50 £61.68 -
90th Percentile - £71.69 £83.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £91.00 £73.31 £83.40
% change year-on-year +24.13% -12.10% +58.86%

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 32,988 33,120 42,501
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.93% 92.74% 93.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,924 20,243 28,641
10th Percentile £285 £300 £294
25th Percentile £403 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £645
90th Percentile £725 £738 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -4.04% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,924 1,136 1,517
10th Percentile £14.22 £15.36 £15.16
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.75 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £34.75 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.63% -21.02% +40.98%
75th Percentile £56.81 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.75 £73.66 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.97% +78.00%

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 9 December 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 9 December 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 9 December 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 +6 391 £537 -2.36% 525
London +23 220 £545 -5.22% 108
UK excluding London -13 181 £513 -6.82% 488
Work from Home -9 127 £500 -9.09% 253
North of England -36 50 £545 -0.91% 104
North West -7 38 £550 - 56
East of England +10 32 £500 +81.82% 66
Midlands -28 26 £463 +0.54% 77
South East -33 26 £500 -4.76% 126
South West -3 24 £531 -12.77% 65
West Midlands -27 21 £510 +10.87% 49
Scotland +11 20 £525 -11.39% 34
Yorkshire -45 10 £600 +34.83% 35
Northern Ireland -3 5 - - 8
East Midlands - 5 £415 - 26
Wales +1 2 £600 +15.66% 15
North East -2 2 £425 -15.00% 13

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

For the 6 months to 9 December 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.

1 166 (37.47%) Azure
2 161 (36.34%) Cybersecurity
3 131 (29.57%) Firewall
4 124 (27.99%) AWS
5 121 (27.31%) SIEM
6 120 (27.09%) Cloud Security
7 119 (26.86%) Microsoft
8 109 (24.60%) Security Cleared
9 107 (24.15%) Network Security
10 96 (21.67%) Incident Response
11 92 (20.77%) NIST
12 85 (19.19%) SC Cleared
13 83 (18.74%) Python
14 79 (17.83%) Security Operations
15 72 (16.25%) Infrastructure as Code
16 70 (15.80%) Windows
17 68 (15.35%) CI/CD
17 68 (15.35%) GCP
18 67 (15.12%) PowerShell
19 63 (14.22%) CISSP
20 61 (13.77%) Linux
21 59 (13.32%) Active Directory
21 59 (13.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
22 52 (11.74%) Microsoft 365
23 51 (11.51%) Cisco
24 50 (11.29%) DevOps
24 50 (11.29%) Entra ID
25 49 (11.06%) Degree
26 47 (10.61%) Azure Sentinel
26 47 (10.61%) DevSecOps

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 16 (3.61%) SharePoint
2 15 (3.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.90%) Confluence
4 2 (0.45%) Apache Airflow
5 1 (0.23%) Apache
5 1 (0.23%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 5 (1.13%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.90%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.45%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 166 (37.47%) Azure
2 124 (27.99%) AWS
3 68 (15.35%) GCP
4 52 (11.74%) Microsoft 365
5 50 (11.29%) Entra ID
6 47 (10.61%) Azure Sentinel
7 33 (7.45%) Microsoft Purview
8 29 (6.55%) GitHub
9 17 (3.84%) AWS CloudFormation
9 17 (3.84%) OpenShift
10 15 (3.39%) Azure Monitor
11 13 (2.93%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 10 (2.26%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (2.03%) SaaS
14 8 (1.81%) AWS CloudTrail
15 7 (1.58%) Mimecast
16 6 (1.35%) Amazon EKS
16 6 (1.35%) Azure Logic Apps
17 5 (1.13%) Amazon ECS
17 5 (1.13%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 131 (29.57%) Firewall
2 107 (24.15%) Network Security
3 35 (7.90%) VPN
4 33 (7.45%) DNS
5 27 (6.09%) WAN
6 19 (4.29%) Wireless
7 18 (4.06%) SSL
8 16 (3.61%) Intrusion Detection
9 14 (3.16%) BGP
9 14 (3.16%) OSPF
10 12 (2.71%) TCP/IP
11 11 (2.48%) DMVPN
12 9 (2.03%) Internet
12 9 (2.03%) IPsec
13 8 (1.81%) Cisco IPT
13 8 (1.81%) DHCP
13 8 (1.81%) SD-WAN
13 8 (1.81%) VLAN
13 8 (1.81%) Wi-Fi
14 7 (1.58%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.26%) Data Lake
2 9 (2.03%) BigQuery
3 7 (1.58%) Oracle Database
4 5 (1.13%) Elasticsearch
5 3 (0.68%) Big Data
5 3 (0.68%) Power BI
6 2 (0.45%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
6 2 (0.45%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.23%) Amazon Athena
7 1 (0.23%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.23%) Mixpanel
7 1 (0.23%) OLAP
7 1 (0.23%) OLTP
Development Applications
1 15 (3.39%) GitLab
2 11 (2.48%) JIRA
2 11 (2.48%) SonarQube
3 8 (1.81%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.35%) ClearCase
5 5 (1.13%) Burp Suite
5 5 (1.13%) Metasploit
6 4 (0.90%) Bitbucket
6 4 (0.90%) Snyk
7 2 (0.45%) Artifactory
7 2 (0.45%) Git
8 1 (0.23%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.23%) Postman
General
1 116 (26.19%) Social Skills
2 58 (13.09%) Finance
3 44 (9.93%) Public Sector
4 33 (7.45%) Analytical Skills
5 20 (4.51%) Military
6 15 (3.39%) Documentation Skills
7 12 (2.71%) Banking
7 12 (2.71%) Telecoms
8 9 (2.03%) Legal
9 7 (1.58%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 6 (1.35%) Pharmaceutical
10 6 (1.35%) Spanish Language
11 5 (1.13%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.90%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.90%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.45%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.45%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.45%) Retail
13 2 (0.45%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.29%) REST
2 12 (2.71%) SAML
3 9 (2.03%) 802.1X
3 9 (2.03%) OAuth
4 7 (1.58%) OpenID
4 7 (1.58%) SailPoint
5 6 (1.35%) Elastic Stack
5 6 (1.35%) JSON
6 5 (1.13%) NestJS
6 5 (1.13%) Node.js
7 4 (0.90%) Regular Expression
7 4 (0.90%) SOAP
8 3 (0.68%) Kafka
8 3 (0.68%) LDAP
8 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Graph
8 3 (0.68%) Smart Contracts
8 3 (0.68%) YAML
9 2 (0.45%) ARM Templates
9 2 (0.45%) Jinja
9 2 (0.45%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 52 (11.74%) Security Posture
2 32 (7.22%) Data Centre
3 25 (5.64%) Onboarding
4 23 (5.19%) Management Information System
5 17 (3.84%) Cloud Native
6 16 (3.61%) Data Protection Act
7 15 (3.39%) Cyber Threat
8 11 (2.48%) Cyber Defence
9 10 (2.26%) Cloud Security Posture
10 9 (2.03%) Operational Technology
11 8 (1.81%) Hybrid Cloud
12 7 (1.58%) Security Operations Centre
13 6 (1.35%) BYOD
13 6 (1.35%) Cyber Security Posture
14 5 (1.13%) Cyber Kill Chain
14 5 (1.13%) Life Science
14 5 (1.13%) Mobile App
15 4 (0.90%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
15 4 (0.90%) Enterprise Software
15 4 (0.90%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 70 (15.80%) Windows
2 61 (13.77%) Linux
3 14 (3.16%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.26%) Mac OS
5 7 (1.58%) Unix
6 6 (1.35%) Android
6 6 (1.35%) Apple iOS
7 3 (0.68%) VMS
8 2 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 2 (0.45%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.23%) CentOS
9 1 (0.23%) Rocky
9 1 (0.23%) Windows 10
9 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 161 (36.34%) Cybersecurity
2 121 (27.31%) SIEM
3 120 (27.09%) Cloud Security
4 96 (21.67%) Incident Response
5 79 (17.83%) Security Operations
6 72 (16.25%) Infrastructure as Code
7 68 (15.35%) CI/CD
8 50 (11.29%) DevOps
9 47 (10.61%) DevSecOps
10 46 (10.38%) Threat Modelling
11 42 (9.48%) Problem-Solving
11 42 (9.48%) Vulnerability Management
12 39 (8.80%) SOAR
12 39 (8.80%) Threat Detection
13 38 (8.58%) Data Protection
14 35 (7.90%) Security Monitoring
15 34 (7.67%) Information Security
16 33 (7.45%) Analytics
16 33 (7.45%) Vulnerability Assessment
17 31 (7.00%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 83 (18.74%) Python
2 67 (15.12%) PowerShell
3 28 (6.32%) Kusto Query Language
4 24 (5.42%) Bash
5 17 (3.84%) Java
6 14 (3.16%) SQL
7 6 (1.35%) Bicep
7 6 (1.35%) C
8 5 (1.13%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.90%) BeanShell
9 4 (0.90%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.90%) Kotlin
10 3 (0.68%) C#
10 3 (0.68%) C++
10 3 (0.68%) Perl
10 3 (0.68%) Rust
11 2 (0.45%) TypeScript
12 1 (0.23%) Korn
12 1 (0.23%) Objective-C
12 1 (0.23%) Swift
Qualifications
1 109 (24.60%) Security Cleared
2 85 (19.19%) SC Cleared
3 63 (14.22%) CISSP
4 49 (11.06%) Degree
5 32 (7.22%) CISM
6 31 (7.00%) Cisco Certification
7 25 (5.64%) DV Cleared
8 20 (4.51%) Azure Certification
9 19 (4.29%) CCNP
10 16 (3.61%) Microsoft Certification
11 15 (3.39%) CEH
12 14 (3.16%) CompTIA Security+
13 11 (2.48%) OSCP
14 9 (2.03%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 9 (2.03%) AWS Certification
14 9 (2.03%) SANS
15 8 (1.81%) CREST Certified
16 7 (1.58%) GIAC
17 6 (1.35%) CCSP
17 6 (1.35%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 92 (20.77%) NIST
2 59 (13.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 29 (6.55%) GDPR
4 28 (6.32%) NCSC
5 19 (4.29%) NIST 800
6 15 (3.39%) HIPAA
6 15 (3.39%) JSP 440
7 10 (2.26%) Cyber Essentials
8 9 (2.03%) GRC
8 9 (2.03%) PCI DSS
9 6 (1.35%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 5 (1.13%) SOC 2
11 3 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 3 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 2 (0.45%) EU AI Act
12 2 (0.45%) GxP
12 2 (0.45%) RMADS
12 2 (0.45%) SLA
13 1 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
13 1 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 59 (13.32%) Active Directory
2 18 (4.06%) Virtual Machines
3 17 (3.84%) Firmware
4 16 (3.61%) Docker
5 6 (1.35%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.45%) Snort
8 1 (0.23%) GPFS
8 1 (0.23%) Lustre
8 1 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 44 (9.93%) Terraform
2 31 (7.00%) Kubernetes
3 19 (4.29%) SCCM
4 13 (2.93%) Fluentd
5 12 (2.71%) Microsoft Intune
6 11 (2.48%) CASB
7 10 (2.26%) Ansible
7 10 (2.26%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (1.58%) logstash
8 7 (1.58%) SCOrch
9 6 (1.35%) Kibana
9 6 (1.35%) Nmap
9 6 (1.35%) QRadar
9 6 (1.35%) WSUS
10 5 (1.13%) FortiGate
11 4 (0.90%) CSIRT
11 4 (0.90%) Nessus
12 3 (0.68%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 3 (0.68%) Progress Chef
13 2 (0.45%) CA Spectrum
Vendors
1 119 (26.86%) Microsoft
2 51 (11.51%) Cisco
3 47 (10.61%) Splunk
4 41 (9.26%) Palo Alto
5 26 (5.87%) CrowdStrike
5 26 (5.87%) Zscaler
6 25 (5.64%) F5
6 25 (5.64%) Tenable
7 24 (5.42%) CheckPoint
8 22 (4.97%) Google
9 20 (4.51%) Fortinet
9 20 (4.51%) Juniper
10 14 (3.16%) ServiceNow
11 13 (2.93%) Cribl.io
12 12 (2.71%) Qualys
13 11 (2.48%) Oracle
14 9 (2.03%) Blue Coat
14 9 (2.03%) Forcepoint
14 9 (2.03%) SolarWinds
14 9 (2.03%) Veracode