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 4 March 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 221 271 309
Rank change year-on-year +50 +38 -80
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 483 271 315
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.15% 0.90% 0.71%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.25% 0.97% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 287 166 197
10th Percentile £400 £382 £413
25th Percentile £475 £416 £473
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £617 £638 £650
90th Percentile £680 £700 £743
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £525 £550
% change year-on-year +2.86% -4.55% +1.66%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 4 18
10th Percentile £84.28 £42.38 £45.96
25th Percentile - £44.06 £71.74
Median hourly rate £85.40 £59.16 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +44.37% -29.07% +0.11%
75th Percentile - £79.62 -
90th Percentile £91.08 £81.90 £83.41
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.40 £78.36 £83.40
% change year-on-year +8.98% -6.04% +0.11%

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 38,703 27,889 41,142
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.84% 92.83% 92.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,288 17,682 27,029
10th Percentile £310 £288 £275
25th Percentile £409 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.32% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,374 845 2,408
10th Percentile £14.64 £16.25 £13.05
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.46 £16.25
Median hourly rate £33.50 £34.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -1.47% - -16.05%
75th Percentile £64.00 £64.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.40 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £32.50 £35.00
% change year-on-year - -7.14% -10.88%

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 4 March 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 March 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 March 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 +34 425 £538 -2.27% 361
UK excluding London +16 223 £540 +2.86% 329
London +17 206 £525 -8.70% 91
Work from Home +34 153 £537 -2.36% 76
North of England -14 84 £575 +4.55% 77
North West +9 68 £575 +4.55% 45
South East -15 43 £481 +6.94% 97
Midlands -37 42 £488 -9.30% 49
West Midlands -37 36 £510 -5.12% 29
South West -8 30 £537 +2.29% 32
Scotland +24 25 £632 +14.91% 23
East of England -19 14 £575 +109.09% 40
Yorkshire -58 13 £540 +60.00% 26
East Midlands - 6 £450 - 19
Northern Ireland - 5 - - 3
North East -17 3 £400 -23.81% 6

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

For the 6 months to 4 March 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.

1 187 (38.72%) Azure
2 164 (33.95%) Cybersecurity
3 154 (31.88%) AWS
4 139 (28.78%) Cloud Security
5 123 (25.47%) SIEM
6 122 (25.26%) Firewall
7 116 (24.02%) Microsoft
8 106 (21.95%) Security Cleared
9 105 (21.74%) Python
10 98 (20.29%) CI/CD
11 89 (18.43%) Network Security
12 83 (17.18%) Incident Response
12 83 (17.18%) PowerShell
13 82 (16.98%) NIST
13 82 (16.98%) SC Cleared
13 82 (16.98%) Security Operations
14 78 (16.15%) CISSP
15 74 (15.32%) Infrastructure as Code
16 71 (14.70%) DevOps
17 68 (14.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
18 64 (13.25%) GCP
19 63 (13.04%) Vulnerability Management
20 58 (12.01%) Cisco
20 58 (12.01%) Degree
20 58 (12.01%) Threat Modelling
21 57 (11.80%) Kubernetes
22 55 (11.39%) VPN
23 53 (10.97%) DevSecOps
23 53 (10.97%) Linux
24 52 (10.77%) DNS

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 19 (3.93%) Confluence
2 10 (2.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.83%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.41%) Apache
4 2 (0.41%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.21%) SAP ERP
1 1 (0.21%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 187 (38.72%) Azure
2 154 (31.88%) AWS
3 64 (13.25%) GCP
4 52 (10.77%) Entra ID
5 51 (10.56%) Microsoft 365
6 45 (9.32%) Microsoft Purview
7 42 (8.70%) Azure Sentinel
8 27 (5.59%) GitHub
9 26 (5.38%) OpenShift
10 23 (4.76%) AWS CloudFormation
11 16 (3.31%) SaaS
12 14 (2.90%) Mimecast
13 12 (2.48%) Amazon ECS
13 12 (2.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 12 (2.48%) Azure Key Vault
13 12 (2.48%) GitHub Actions
13 12 (2.48%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 11 (2.28%) Azure Monitor
15 10 (2.07%) AWS KMS
15 10 (2.07%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 122 (25.26%) Firewall
2 89 (18.43%) Network Security
3 55 (11.39%) VPN
4 52 (10.77%) DNS
5 30 (6.21%) BGP
6 21 (4.35%) TCP/IP
7 18 (3.73%) WAN
8 16 (3.31%) DMZ
8 16 (3.31%) Multicast
9 14 (2.90%) Wireless
10 13 (2.69%) SSL
11 11 (2.28%) Cisco ASA
12 8 (1.66%) DHCP
12 8 (1.66%) HTTP
12 8 (1.66%) IPsec
12 8 (1.66%) OSPF
13 7 (1.45%) Cisco IOS
13 7 (1.45%) Intrusion Detection
13 7 (1.45%) NGFW
13 7 (1.45%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.69%) Data Lake
2 5 (1.04%) BigQuery
3 4 (0.83%) Amazon Athena
3 4 (0.83%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.83%) Power BI
4 3 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.62%) SQL Server
5 2 (0.41%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (0.41%) Mixpanel
5 2 (0.41%) OLAP
5 2 (0.41%) OLTP
5 2 (0.41%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.21%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.21%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.21%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.21%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.21%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.21%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 25 (5.18%) JIRA
2 20 (4.14%) GitLab
3 11 (2.28%) Jenkins
4 10 (2.07%) Snyk
5 7 (1.45%) Git
6 6 (1.24%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.83%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.41%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.21%) Travis CI
General
1 118 (24.43%) Social Skills
2 65 (13.46%) Finance
3 53 (10.97%) Public Sector
4 50 (10.35%) Analytical Skills
5 21 (4.35%) Banking
6 13 (2.69%) Documentation Skills
7 11 (2.28%) Investment Banking
8 8 (1.66%) Legal
8 8 (1.66%) Telecoms
9 6 (1.24%) Financial Institution
9 6 (1.24%) Spanish Language
10 5 (1.04%) Cyber-Physical System
10 5 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.04%) Military
10 5 (1.04%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (0.83%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.62%) Local Government
13 2 (0.41%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.41%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.14%) REST
2 13 (2.69%) SAML
3 12 (2.48%) Elastic Stack
4 10 (2.07%) LDAP
4 10 (2.07%) OAuth
5 7 (1.45%) NestJS
5 7 (1.45%) Node.js
5 7 (1.45%) OpenID
6 6 (1.24%) 802.1X
6 6 (1.24%) JSON
6 6 (1.24%) Kafka
6 6 (1.24%) LangChain
6 6 (1.24%) Microsoft Graph
6 6 (1.24%) PyTorch
6 6 (1.24%) scikit-learn
7 5 (1.04%) .NET
8 4 (0.83%) SailPoint
8 4 (0.83%) SLSA
8 4 (0.83%) SOAP
9 3 (0.62%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 62 (12.84%) Security Posture
2 40 (8.28%) Cloud Native
3 25 (5.18%) Data Centre
4 24 (4.97%) Management Information System
5 18 (3.73%) Onboarding
6 16 (3.31%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (2.48%) Cloud Security Posture
8 10 (2.07%) Hybrid Cloud
8 10 (2.07%) PKI
8 10 (2.07%) Security Operations Centre
9 9 (1.86%) Cyber Defence
9 9 (1.86%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 9 (1.86%) Operational Technology
10 8 (1.66%) BYOD
10 8 (1.66%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.45%) Cyber Security Posture
12 6 (1.24%) Cyber Threat
12 6 (1.24%) Linux Command Line
13 5 (1.04%) Greenfield Project
13 5 (1.04%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 53 (10.97%) Linux
2 51 (10.56%) Windows
3 12 (2.48%) Windows Server
4 9 (1.86%) Unix
5 8 (1.66%) Mac OS
6 7 (1.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (1.45%) Ubuntu
7 6 (1.24%) Android
8 5 (1.04%) Apple iOS
8 5 (1.04%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.83%) VMS
10 1 (0.21%) Rocky
10 1 (0.21%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 164 (33.95%) Cybersecurity
2 139 (28.78%) Cloud Security
3 123 (25.47%) SIEM
4 98 (20.29%) CI/CD
5 83 (17.18%) Incident Response
6 82 (16.98%) Security Operations
7 74 (15.32%) Infrastructure as Code
8 71 (14.70%) DevOps
9 63 (13.04%) Vulnerability Management
10 58 (12.01%) Threat Modelling
11 53 (10.97%) DevSecOps
12 51 (10.56%) Agile
13 46 (9.52%) Data Loss Prevention
13 46 (9.52%) Information Security
14 41 (8.49%) Problem-Solving
14 41 (8.49%) Security Architecture
15 40 (8.28%) Continuous Improvement
15 40 (8.28%) Threat Detection
16 35 (7.25%) Data Protection
16 35 (7.25%) Migration
Programming Languages
1 105 (21.74%) Python
2 83 (17.18%) PowerShell
3 31 (6.42%) Bash
4 20 (4.14%) Kusto Query Language
5 17 (3.52%) Java
6 8 (1.66%) SQL
7 7 (1.45%) Bicep
8 6 (1.24%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.83%) BeanShell
9 4 (0.83%) PHP
9 4 (0.83%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.62%) C#
11 2 (0.41%) Go
11 2 (0.41%) Ruby
11 2 (0.41%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.21%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.21%) Objective-C
12 1 (0.21%) Scala
12 1 (0.21%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.21%) Swift
Qualifications
1 106 (21.95%) Security Cleared
2 82 (16.98%) SC Cleared
3 78 (16.15%) CISSP
4 58 (12.01%) Degree
5 47 (9.73%) CISM
6 26 (5.38%) Cisco Certification
7 25 (5.18%) DV Cleared
8 21 (4.35%) Azure Certification
9 16 (3.31%) CompTIA Security+
10 15 (3.11%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 14 (2.90%) AWS Certification
11 14 (2.90%) CEH
12 12 (2.48%) GIAC
12 12 (2.48%) Microsoft Certification
13 11 (2.28%) SANS
14 9 (1.86%) CCNP
15 8 (1.66%) CCSP
16 6 (1.24%) Computer Science Degree
16 6 (1.24%) Network+ Certification
16 6 (1.24%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 82 (16.98%) NIST
2 68 (14.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 44 (9.11%) GDPR
4 23 (4.76%) Cyber Essentials
5 15 (3.11%) HIPAA
6 13 (2.69%) NCSC
7 12 (2.48%) PCI DSS
8 11 (2.28%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 10 (2.07%) GRC
10 8 (1.66%) NIST 800
11 7 (1.45%) RMADS
12 6 (1.24%) SOC 2
13 5 (1.04%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 5 (1.04%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.83%) Government Security Classifications
14 4 (0.83%) SLA
15 3 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
16 2 (0.41%) Data Quality
16 2 (0.41%) GxP
17 1 (0.21%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 38 (7.87%) Active Directory
2 29 (6.00%) Docker
3 16 (3.31%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (1.66%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.24%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (1.04%) Firmware
7 3 (0.62%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.21%) GPFS
9 1 (0.21%) Lustre
9 1 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 1 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 57 (11.80%) Kubernetes
2 50 (10.35%) Terraform
3 21 (4.35%) Microsoft Intune
4 17 (3.52%) SCCM
5 12 (2.48%) Fluentd
5 12 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (2.07%) Ansible
7 9 (1.86%) CASB
8 8 (1.66%) Nessus
9 7 (1.45%) WSUS
10 6 (1.24%) Kibana
10 6 (1.24%) logstash
10 6 (1.24%) SCOrch
10 6 (1.24%) vCenter Server
11 5 (1.04%) Functional Safety
11 5 (1.04%) Progress Chef
12 4 (0.83%) AirWatch
12 4 (0.83%) CSIRT
13 3 (0.62%) Argo
13 3 (0.62%) Icinga
Vendors
1 116 (24.02%) Microsoft
2 58 (12.01%) Cisco
3 40 (8.28%) Splunk
4 35 (7.25%) F5
5 30 (6.21%) Palo Alto
6 25 (5.18%) Tenable
7 24 (4.97%) Google
8 18 (3.73%) CheckPoint
8 18 (3.73%) CrowdStrike
8 18 (3.73%) Fortinet
9 17 (3.52%) ServiceNow
10 14 (2.90%) Zscaler
11 12 (2.48%) Cribl.io
11 12 (2.48%) Juniper
11 12 (2.48%) Qualys
12 11 (2.28%) CyberArk
13 9 (1.86%) VMware
14 8 (1.66%) Blue Coat
14 8 (1.66%) Ping Identity
15 7 (1.45%) Rapid7