Security Engineer Contract Job Trends

Security Engineer
UK

The median Security Engineer daily rate in the UK is £540, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 13 June 2026.

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

6 months to
13 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 227 269 255
Rank change year-on-year +42 -14 -36
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 554 287 401
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 0.97% 0.92%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.20% 1.05% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 345 170 292
10th Percentile £413 £398 £413
25th Percentile £475 £414 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £525 £555
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -5.41% -1.77%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £686 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £545 £500 £537
% change year-on-year +9.00% -6.80% +0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 6 4
10th Percentile - £61.25 -
25th Percentile £73.75 £69.38 £30.70
Median hourly rate £85.40 £83.96 £48.40
Median % change year-on-year +1.72% +73.46% -41.97%
75th Percentile - £87.06 £70.63
90th Percentile - £89.50 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.40 £83.96 £48.40
% change year-on-year +1.72% +73.46% -41.97%

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 46,221 27,241 40,562
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.39% 92.30% 92.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,120 17,531 26,073
10th Percentile £325 £290 £280
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.80% -4.76% -2.42%
75th Percentile £623 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,085 1,148 2,936
10th Percentile £15.24 £14.00 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £17.79 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £27.70 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +54.10% -26.13% -16.67%
75th Percentile £67.50 £57.50 £61.81
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +76.94% -37.13% -4.94%

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 13 June 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 13 June 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 13 June 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 +21 499 £535 +1.83% 332
UK excluding London +6 262 £545 +9.00% 301
London +30 241 £525 -4.55% 98
Work from Home +4 206 £550 +4.76% 102
North of England +9 122 £569 +13.64% 78
North West +28 99 £558 +8.73% 44
Midlands -15 56 £519 -4.60% 33
West Midlands -14 53 £539 -0.92% 21
South East -39 52 £494 +3.95% 92
Scotland +5 24 £650 +18.18% 31
South West -14 22 £525 +7.69% 37
Yorkshire -38 22 £600 +14.29% 23
East of England -25 19 £525 -2.33% 26
East Midlands - 3 £406 - 12
Wales -13 2 £733 +46.50% 5
North East -42 1 - - 11

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

For the 6 months to 13 June 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.

1 202 (36.46%) Azure
2 170 (30.69%) Cybersecurity
3 153 (27.62%) AWS
4 148 (26.71%) Cloud Security
5 131 (23.65%) Python
6 122 (22.02%) Microsoft
6 122 (22.02%) SIEM
7 114 (20.58%) Firewall
8 111 (20.04%) Network Security
9 103 (18.59%) CI/CD
10 93 (16.79%) Security Cleared
11 90 (16.25%) PowerShell
12 88 (15.88%) Cisco
13 84 (15.16%) Incident Response
14 72 (13.00%) SC Cleared
14 72 (13.00%) VPN
15 68 (12.27%) Vulnerability Management
16 67 (12.09%) Data Loss Prevention
17 65 (11.73%) DevOps
17 65 (11.73%) GCP
17 65 (11.73%) Windows
18 64 (11.55%) Terraform
19 62 (11.19%) DNS
19 62 (11.19%) NIST
20 61 (11.01%) CISSP
21 60 (10.83%) Security Architecture
22 59 (10.65%) Security Operations
22 59 (10.65%) Threat Modelling
23 57 (10.29%) Information Security
24 56 (10.11%) F5

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 22 (3.97%) Confluence
2 3 (0.54%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.18%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 6 (1.08%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.36%) Maximo
2 2 (0.36%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.18%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 202 (36.46%) Azure
2 153 (27.62%) AWS
3 65 (11.73%) GCP
4 56 (10.11%) Microsoft Purview
5 51 (9.21%) Microsoft 365
6 39 (7.04%) Entra ID
7 23 (4.15%) SaaS
8 22 (3.97%) GitHub
9 21 (3.79%) Azure Sentinel
10 20 (3.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 17 (3.07%) AWS CloudFormation
11 17 (3.07%) Mimecast
12 15 (2.71%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 14 (2.53%) Google Kubernetes Engine
14 11 (1.99%) OpenShift
15 10 (1.81%) Akamai
15 10 (1.81%) AWS CloudTrail
15 10 (1.81%) AWS KMS
15 10 (1.81%) Azure Key Vault
16 9 (1.62%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 114 (20.58%) Firewall
2 111 (20.04%) Network Security
3 72 (13.00%) VPN
4 62 (11.19%) DNS
5 46 (8.30%) BGP
6 35 (6.32%) DMZ
7 33 (5.96%) Multicast
8 26 (4.69%) SSL
9 24 (4.33%) TCP/IP
10 21 (3.79%) WAN
11 18 (3.25%) HTTP
11 18 (3.25%) SD-WAN
12 12 (2.17%) TACACS
13 11 (1.99%) Internet
13 11 (1.99%) VLAN
14 10 (1.81%) Cisco ISE
14 10 (1.81%) MPLS
14 10 (1.81%) Wireless
15 9 (1.62%) NGFW
16 8 (1.44%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.26%) Power BI
2 5 (0.90%) Data Lake
2 5 (0.90%) SQL Server
3 4 (0.72%) MongoDB
3 4 (0.72%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.54%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.54%) Big Data
5 2 (0.36%) Apache Cassandra
5 2 (0.36%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.36%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.36%) RDBMS
5 2 (0.36%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.18%) Amazon Athena
6 1 (0.18%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.18%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.18%) Db2
6 1 (0.18%) Metadata
6 1 (0.18%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 25 (4.51%) JIRA
2 11 (1.99%) GitLab
3 8 (1.44%) Git
3 8 (1.44%) Jenkins
4 5 (0.90%) Snyk
5 2 (0.36%) Browser DevTools
5 2 (0.36%) Burp Suite
5 2 (0.36%) Claude Code
5 2 (0.36%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.18%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.18%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.18%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.18%) Metasploit
6 1 (0.18%) sqlmap
6 1 (0.18%) TruffleHog
General
1 110 (19.86%) Social Skills
2 88 (15.88%) Finance
3 49 (8.84%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (7.58%) Banking
5 33 (5.96%) Public Sector
6 24 (4.33%) Investment Banking
7 16 (2.89%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (1.44%) Legal
9 7 (1.26%) Marketing
9 7 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
10 6 (1.08%) Telecoms
11 5 (0.90%) Cyber-Physical System
12 4 (0.72%) Health Technology
12 4 (0.72%) Local Government
12 4 (0.72%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.54%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.54%) Financial Institution
13 3 (0.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.54%) Military
14 2 (0.36%) Retail
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (1.81%) LDAP
2 9 (1.62%) Elastic Stack
3 8 (1.44%) SAML
4 6 (1.08%) LangChain
4 6 (1.08%) PyTorch
4 6 (1.08%) REST
4 6 (1.08%) scikit-learn
5 5 (0.90%) 802.1X
5 5 (0.90%) Microsoft Graph
5 5 (0.90%) SLSA
6 4 (0.72%) .NET
6 4 (0.72%) OAuth
7 3 (0.54%) ADO
7 3 (0.54%) AWS CDK
7 3 (0.54%) JSON
8 2 (0.36%) GraphQL
8 2 (0.36%) NestJS
8 2 (0.36%) SailPoint
8 2 (0.36%) Web Services
9 1 (0.18%) CSS
Miscellaneous
1 79 (14.26%) Security Posture
2 56 (10.11%) Cloud Native
3 34 (6.14%) Management Information System
4 27 (4.87%) Cloud Security Posture
5 20 (3.61%) Data Centre
6 17 (3.07%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 17 (3.07%) Operational Technology
7 12 (2.17%) Cyber Threat
7 12 (2.17%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (2.17%) Hybrid Cloud
7 12 (2.17%) Onboarding
7 12 (2.17%) PKI
8 10 (1.81%) AI Agents
8 10 (1.81%) Public Cloud
9 8 (1.44%) Security Operations Centre
10 7 (1.26%) Enterprise Cloud
11 6 (1.08%) Cyber Defence
11 6 (1.08%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (0.90%) Greenfield Project
12 5 (0.90%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 65 (11.73%) Windows
2 52 (9.39%) Linux
3 12 (2.17%) Mac OS
3 12 (2.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 12 (2.17%) Windows Server
4 8 (1.44%) Windows 10
5 7 (1.26%) Apple iOS
6 6 (1.08%) Ubuntu
7 4 (0.72%) Unix
8 2 (0.36%) Android
9 1 (0.18%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (30.69%) Cybersecurity
2 148 (26.71%) Cloud Security
3 122 (22.02%) SIEM
4 103 (18.59%) CI/CD
5 84 (15.16%) Incident Response
6 68 (12.27%) Vulnerability Management
7 67 (12.09%) Data Loss Prevention
8 65 (11.73%) DevOps
9 60 (10.83%) Security Architecture
10 59 (10.65%) Security Operations
10 59 (10.65%) Threat Modelling
11 57 (10.29%) Information Security
12 53 (9.57%) Load Balancing
13 51 (9.21%) DevSecOps
14 48 (8.66%) Infrastructure as Code
15 47 (8.48%) Continuous Improvement
16 46 (8.30%) Agile
16 46 (8.30%) Zero Trust
17 41 (7.40%) Migration
17 41 (7.40%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 131 (23.65%) Python
2 90 (16.25%) PowerShell
3 51 (9.21%) Bash
4 20 (3.61%) Java
5 17 (3.07%) Kusto Query Language
6 9 (1.62%) SQL
7 5 (0.90%) PHP
7 5 (0.90%) Search Processing Language
8 3 (0.54%) Bicep
8 3 (0.54%) Perl
8 3 (0.54%) Shell Script
9 2 (0.36%) Go
9 2 (0.36%) JavaScript
9 2 (0.36%) Ruby
9 2 (0.36%) TypeScript
10 1 (0.18%) C
10 1 (0.18%) C#
Qualifications
1 93 (16.79%) Security Cleared
2 72 (13.00%) SC Cleared
3 61 (11.01%) CISSP
4 53 (9.57%) Degree
5 32 (5.78%) Cisco Certification
6 27 (4.87%) CISM
7 26 (4.69%) AWS Certification
8 20 (3.61%) Azure Certification
9 19 (3.43%) DV Cleared
10 16 (2.89%) CCNP
11 15 (2.71%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 13 (2.35%) Computer Science Degree
13 11 (1.99%) CompTIA Security+
13 11 (1.99%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (1.44%) CCSP
14 8 (1.44%) CEH
15 7 (1.26%) GIAC
16 5 (0.90%) CCIE
16 5 (0.90%) CESG Certified Professional
16 5 (0.90%) SSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (11.19%) NIST
2 52 (9.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (5.60%) GDPR
4 29 (5.23%) Cyber Essentials
5 23 (4.15%) PCI DSS
6 16 (2.89%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 10 (1.81%) NCSC
8 8 (1.44%) SLA
9 6 (1.08%) California Consumer Privacy Act
9 6 (1.08%) GRC
9 6 (1.08%) HIPAA
9 6 (1.08%) NIST 800
9 6 (1.08%) RMADS
10 5 (0.90%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.72%) SOC 2
12 3 (0.54%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.54%) Government Security Classifications
12 3 (0.54%) ISA99
13 2 (0.36%) COBIT
13 2 (0.36%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 29 (5.23%) Active Directory
2 26 (4.69%) Docker
3 12 (2.17%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (1.44%) VMware ESXi
5 6 (1.08%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.08%) VMware NSX
5 6 (1.08%) vSphere
6 3 (0.54%) Firmware
6 3 (0.54%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.36%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.36%) Squid
7 2 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.18%) RACF
Systems Management
1 64 (11.55%) Terraform
2 55 (9.93%) Kubernetes
3 18 (3.25%) Ansible
4 17 (3.07%) Microsoft Intune
5 13 (2.35%) Single Sign-On
6 10 (1.81%) Progress Chef
7 9 (1.62%) FortiGate
8 7 (1.26%) vCenter Server
9 6 (1.08%) CASB
9 6 (1.08%) Nessus
10 5 (0.90%) Functional Safety
11 4 (0.72%) AirWatch
12 3 (0.54%) Grafana
12 3 (0.54%) Kibana
12 3 (0.54%) SCOM
13 2 (0.36%) logstash
13 2 (0.36%) QRadar
14 1 (0.18%) CSIRT
14 1 (0.18%) Host Intrusion Detection System
14 1 (0.18%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 122 (22.02%) Microsoft
2 88 (15.88%) Cisco
3 56 (10.11%) F5
4 43 (7.76%) Palo Alto
5 39 (7.04%) CrowdStrike
6 33 (5.96%) Fortinet
7 29 (5.23%) Zscaler
8 26 (4.69%) CyberArk
9 25 (4.51%) Google
10 21 (3.79%) Splunk
11 20 (3.61%) ServiceNow
12 19 (3.43%) CheckPoint
12 19 (3.43%) VMware
13 18 (3.25%) Netskope
13 18 (3.25%) Tenable
14 12 (2.17%) BeyondTrust
14 12 (2.17%) Qualys
14 12 (2.17%) Red Hat
15 11 (1.99%) Blue Coat
16 8 (1.44%) Rapid7