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 4 October 2026.

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

6 months to
4 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 259 212 198
Rank change year-on-year -47 -14 +50
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 570 411 462
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.04% 1.24% 1.22%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.13% 1.36% 1.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 358 239 336
10th Percentile £413 £380 £400
25th Percentile £460 £419 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% -4.35%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £636
90th Percentile £700 £703 £731
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +5.00% -9.09% -1.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 22 11 4
10th Percentile - £82.50 £42.38
25th Percentile £73.75 £84.75 £44.06
Median hourly rate £83.45 £91.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.30% +65.45% -34.05%
75th Percentile £89.68 £91.50 £70.63
90th Percentile £92.11 - £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.48 £91.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year -6.07% +25.52% -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 50,330 30,144 35,336
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.12% 90.83% 93.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,591 19,030 21,429
10th Percentile £325 £278 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £636 £623 £638
90th Percentile £736 £725 £741
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -4.04% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,999 1,630 1,541
10th Percentile £14.42 £13.75 £14.99
25th Percentile £19.77 £17.30 £20.75
Median hourly rate £41.74 £25.15 £42.91
Median % change year-on-year +65.94% -41.39% -3.57%
75th Percentile £67.50 £51.19 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.28 £74.87
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.74 £25.08 £43.00
% change year-on-year +66.44% -41.69% -2.82%

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 October 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 October 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 October 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 -21 530 £525 - 1,281
UK excluding London -19 275 £525 +5.00% 746
London -52 253 £525 -4.55% 612
Work from Home -21 184 £540 +8.22% 460
North of England +17 139 £540 +8.00% 178
North West +26 117 £533 +7.46% 113
South East -23 58 £500 - 188
Midlands -10 53 £500 +24.22% 92
West Midlands -12 50 £500 +28.21% 58
East of England -26 31 £525 +5.00% 79
Yorkshire -30 19 £600 +11.11% 34
South West -36 13 £469 -8.54% 93
Scotland -35 8 £618 +17.62% 77
East Midlands -9 3 - - 34
Wales -15 2 £733 +22.08% 15
North East -38 2 - - 31

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

For the 6 months to 4 October 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.

1 195 (34.21%) Azure
2 182 (31.93%) Cloud Security
3 172 (30.18%) Cybersecurity
4 153 (26.84%) AWS
5 146 (25.61%) Microsoft
6 127 (22.28%) SIEM
7 118 (20.70%) Network Security
7 118 (20.70%) Python
8 111 (19.47%) Firewall
9 104 (18.25%) Terraform
10 99 (17.37%) Security Cleared
11 97 (17.02%) PowerShell
12 94 (16.49%) Incident Response
13 93 (16.32%) Security Operations
14 90 (15.79%) GCP
15 87 (15.26%) Cisco
15 87 (15.26%) SC Cleared
16 84 (14.74%) CI/CD
17 80 (14.04%) Kubernetes
18 76 (13.33%) CISSP
19 73 (12.81%) Infrastructure as Code
20 72 (12.63%) Palo Alto
21 68 (11.93%) Threat Detection
21 68 (11.93%) VPN
21 68 (11.93%) Windows
22 66 (11.58%) DevSecOps
23 65 (11.40%) DevOps
24 62 (10.88%) Vulnerability Management
25 61 (10.70%) NIST
25 61 (10.70%) Security Architecture

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 12 (2.11%) IIS
2 7 (1.23%) Confluence
3 2 (0.35%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.35%) nginx
4 1 (0.18%) Apache
4 1 (0.18%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 1 (0.18%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.18%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.18%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.18%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (0.88%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.35%) Maximo
3 1 (0.18%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 195 (34.21%) Azure
2 153 (26.84%) AWS
3 90 (15.79%) GCP
4 55 (9.65%) Entra ID
5 44 (7.72%) Microsoft 365
6 37 (6.49%) Azure Sentinel
7 36 (6.32%) Microsoft Purview
8 29 (5.09%) AWS CloudFormation
9 21 (3.68%) GitHub
10 16 (2.81%) Google Kubernetes Engine
11 13 (2.28%) Azure DevOps
11 13 (2.28%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 12 (2.11%) Power Platform
12 12 (2.11%) SaaS
12 12 (2.11%) Serverless
13 11 (1.93%) Akamai
14 10 (1.75%) Amazon ECS
14 10 (1.75%) AWS CloudTrail
14 10 (1.75%) Azure AKS
14 10 (1.75%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 118 (20.70%) Network Security
2 111 (19.47%) Firewall
3 68 (11.93%) VPN
4 45 (7.89%) DNS
5 35 (6.14%) BGP
6 28 (4.91%) SSL
7 27 (4.74%) WAN
8 24 (4.21%) DMZ
9 22 (3.86%) Multicast
10 20 (3.51%) HTTP
10 20 (3.51%) TCP/IP
11 16 (2.81%) Cisco ISE
11 16 (2.81%) Internet
11 16 (2.81%) Wireless
12 15 (2.63%) Intrusion Detection
13 14 (2.46%) SD-WAN
14 12 (2.11%) IPsec
14 12 (2.11%) OSPF
15 9 (1.58%) Cisco ASA
15 9 (1.58%) DMVPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.40%) Power BI
2 4 (0.70%) SQL Server
3 3 (0.53%) MongoDB
3 3 (0.53%) PostgreSQL
4 2 (0.35%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.35%) Big Data
4 2 (0.35%) DynamoDB
4 2 (0.35%) SAP HANA
5 1 (0.18%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (0.18%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.18%) Data Lake
5 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (0.18%) Delta Lake
5 1 (0.18%) Elasticsearch
5 1 (0.18%) Metadata
5 1 (0.18%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.18%) RDBMS
5 1 (0.18%) Redis
5 1 (0.18%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 9 (1.58%) Git
2 7 (1.23%) JIRA
3 6 (1.05%) GitLab
3 6 (1.05%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.53%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.35%) JUnit
5 2 (0.35%) Snyk
5 2 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.18%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.18%) Claude Code
6 1 (0.18%) Maven
General
1 102 (17.89%) Social Skills
2 98 (17.19%) Finance
3 48 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (7.37%) Banking
5 20 (3.51%) Public Sector
6 16 (2.81%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (2.81%) Investment Banking
7 10 (1.75%) Presentation Skills
8 9 (1.58%) Military
9 7 (1.23%) Back Office
9 7 (1.23%) Manufacturing
9 7 (1.23%) Marketing
10 6 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (1.05%) Legal
10 6 (1.05%) Retail
11 5 (0.88%) Telecoms
12 4 (0.70%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.70%) Health Technology
13 3 (0.53%) Digital Health
13 3 (0.53%) Digital Healthcare
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 104 (18.25%) Terraform
2 17 (2.98%) JSON
3 14 (2.46%) REST
4 11 (1.93%) 802.1X
5 8 (1.40%) JWT
5 8 (1.40%) OAuth
5 8 (1.40%) OpenID
5 8 (1.40%) Regular Expression
5 8 (1.40%) SAML
6 7 (1.23%) LDAP
7 6 (1.05%) OAuth2
8 5 (0.88%) ARM Templates
9 4 (0.70%) Azure Blueprints
9 4 (0.70%) Microsoft Graph
9 4 (0.70%) Model Context Protocol
10 3 (0.53%) pytest
10 3 (0.53%) SLSA
10 3 (0.53%) SOAP
11 2 (0.35%) AWS CDK
11 2 (0.35%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 98 (17.19%) Security Posture
2 64 (11.23%) Cloud Native
3 41 (7.19%) Management Information System
4 33 (5.79%) Cloud Security Posture
5 32 (5.61%) Onboarding
6 26 (4.56%) Cyber Threat
7 23 (4.04%) Enterprise Cloud
8 19 (3.33%) Data Centre
9 18 (3.16%) AI Agents
10 16 (2.81%) Cyber Defence
11 13 (2.28%) Operational Technology
12 12 (2.11%) PKI
12 12 (2.11%) Security Operations Centre
13 11 (1.93%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
14 10 (1.75%) Hybrid Cloud
15 9 (1.58%) Public Cloud
16 8 (1.40%) CCTV
16 8 (1.40%) Data Protection Act
16 8 (1.40%) Mobile App
17 5 (0.88%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 68 (11.93%) Windows
2 47 (8.25%) Linux
3 19 (3.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 18 (3.16%) Windows Server
5 12 (2.11%) Apple iOS
6 8 (1.40%) Android
7 5 (0.88%) Mac OS
7 5 (0.88%) Windows 10
8 3 (0.53%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.18%) Unix
9 1 (0.18%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 182 (31.93%) Cloud Security
2 172 (30.18%) Cybersecurity
3 127 (22.28%) SIEM
4 94 (16.49%) Incident Response
5 93 (16.32%) Security Operations
6 84 (14.74%) CI/CD
7 73 (12.81%) Infrastructure as Code
8 68 (11.93%) Threat Detection
9 66 (11.58%) DevSecOps
10 65 (11.40%) DevOps
11 62 (10.88%) Vulnerability Management
12 61 (10.70%) Security Architecture
13 60 (10.53%) Zero Trust
14 57 (10.00%) AI
15 56 (9.82%) Security Monitoring
16 54 (9.47%) Identity Access Management
16 54 (9.47%) Threat Modelling
17 52 (9.12%) Continuous Improvement
17 52 (9.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 49 (8.60%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 118 (20.70%) Python
2 97 (17.02%) PowerShell
3 57 (10.00%) Bash
4 25 (4.39%) Java
5 20 (3.51%) Bicep
6 8 (1.40%) Go
6 8 (1.40%) SQL
7 7 (1.23%) Kusto Query Language
8 4 (0.70%) Search Processing Language
9 3 (0.53%) Perl
10 2 (0.35%) C#
11 1 (0.18%) JavaScript
11 1 (0.18%) Korn
11 1 (0.18%) PHP
11 1 (0.18%) Shell Script
11 1 (0.18%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 99 (17.37%) Security Cleared
2 87 (15.26%) SC Cleared
3 76 (13.33%) CISSP
4 48 (8.42%) Degree
5 43 (7.54%) Cisco Certification
6 31 (5.44%) AWS Certification
7 27 (4.74%) CISM
8 24 (4.21%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 22 (3.86%) DV Cleared
10 21 (3.68%) Azure Certification
11 19 (3.33%) CCNP
12 18 (3.16%) CCSP
13 16 (2.81%) CEH
14 14 (2.46%) OSCP
15 13 (2.28%) GIAC
16 12 (2.11%) Microsoft Certification
17 11 (1.93%) CISA
18 9 (1.58%) CompTIA Security+
19 8 (1.40%) CCIE
20 7 (1.23%) GSEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (10.70%) NIST
2 56 (9.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 28 (4.91%) PCI DSS
4 18 (3.16%) GDPR
5 13 (2.28%) Cyber Essentials
5 13 (2.28%) NCSC
6 10 (1.75%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 9 (1.58%) GRC
8 6 (1.05%) HIPAA
9 5 (0.88%) ISO 31000
9 5 (0.88%) ISO 9001
9 5 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 27005
9 5 (0.88%) NIST 800
10 3 (0.53%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.53%) QA
10 3 (0.53%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.35%) COBIT
11 2 (0.35%) JSP 440
12 1 (0.18%) RMADS
12 1 (0.18%) SLA
System Software
1 48 (8.42%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.04%) Docker
3 11 (1.93%) Virtual Machines
4 10 (1.75%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.23%) Hyper-V
5 7 (1.23%) NFS
6 5 (0.88%) ISA Server
7 4 (0.70%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (0.70%) vSphere
8 3 (0.53%) Firmware
8 3 (0.53%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.35%) Squid
9 2 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 80 (14.04%) Kubernetes
2 27 (4.74%) Ansible
3 19 (3.33%) Progress Chef
4 14 (2.46%) Microsoft Intune
5 12 (2.11%) FortiGate
6 9 (1.58%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (1.40%) Grafana
8 7 (1.23%) Istio
9 6 (1.05%) CASB
10 5 (0.88%) linkerd
11 4 (0.70%) QRadar
12 2 (0.35%) Prometheus
12 2 (0.35%) SCCM
13 1 (0.18%) Argo
13 1 (0.18%) CSIRT
13 1 (0.18%) Host Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.18%) McAfee ePO
13 1 (0.18%) Nessus
13 1 (0.18%) Network Intrusion Detection System
13 1 (0.18%) VxRail
Vendors
1 146 (25.61%) Microsoft
2 87 (15.26%) Cisco
3 72 (12.63%) Palo Alto
4 52 (9.12%) F5
5 47 (8.25%) Zscaler
6 39 (6.84%) CrowdStrike
6 39 (6.84%) Splunk
7 35 (6.14%) CheckPoint
8 29 (5.09%) Fortinet
9 27 (4.74%) Google
10 22 (3.86%) CyberArk
11 20 (3.51%) Red Hat
12 19 (3.33%) ServiceNow
13 16 (2.81%) Blue Coat
13 16 (2.81%) VMware
14 14 (2.46%) Qualys
15 13 (2.28%) Juniper
16 10 (1.75%) AlgoSec
16 10 (1.75%) BeyondTrust
16 10 (1.75%) Netskope