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 4 May 2026.

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

6 months to
4 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 220 280 277
Rank change year-on-year +60 -3 -48
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 519 263 354
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.10% 0.90% 0.82%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.19% 0.97% 0.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 323 163 243
10th Percentile £413 £382 £413
25th Percentile £478 £411 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £540 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% -8.70% -
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £675 £738 £767
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £500 £550
% change year-on-year +10.00% -9.09% +4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 3 4
10th Percentile £79.43 £65.65 -
25th Percentile £84.35 £66.63 £30.70
Median hourly rate £85.40 £73.31 £55.90
Median % change year-on-year +16.49% +31.14% -32.94%
75th Percentile - £80.89 £80.85
90th Percentile £87.53 £82.40 £82.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.40 £73.31 £55.90
% change year-on-year +16.49% +31.14% -32.90%

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 43,538 27,092 40,027
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.28% 92.49% 92.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,804 17,695 26,061
10th Percentile £315 £300 £280
25th Percentile £413 £406 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.31% -1.90% -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £490
% change year-on-year +3.58% -3.06% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,808 1,048 2,666
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.18 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.30
Median hourly rate £44.00 £29.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.72% -20.55% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.06 £62.50 £61.29
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.46 £28.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +62.36% -30.00% -5.35%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 +29 462 £538 +2.38% 361
UK excluding London +16 245 £550 +10.00% 296
London +32 215 £525 -4.55% 106
Work from Home +27 175 £540 +2.86% 73
North of England -2 105 £575 +9.52% 69
North West +20 83 £563 +7.14% 48
Midlands -31 54 £540 +5.37% 36
South East -33 54 £500 +11.11% 107
West Midlands -24 51 £570 +11.22% 17
South West -25 23 £525 +6.33% 34
Scotland +8 22 £675 +22.73% 15
East of England -25 18 £518 +56.82% 29
Yorkshire -37 18 £600 +24.68% 13
North East -24 4 £400 -23.81% 8
East Midlands - 3 £406 - 19
Wales - 2 £733 - 7

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

For the 6 months to 4 May 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.

1 184 (35.45%) Azure
2 160 (30.83%) Cybersecurity
3 147 (28.32%) AWS
4 130 (25.05%) Cloud Security
5 122 (23.51%) Python
6 118 (22.74%) SIEM
7 113 (21.77%) Microsoft
8 106 (20.42%) Firewall
9 101 (19.46%) CI/CD
10 98 (18.88%) Network Security
11 97 (18.69%) Security Cleared
12 84 (16.18%) PowerShell
13 82 (15.80%) Cisco
13 82 (15.80%) Incident Response
14 73 (14.07%) SC Cleared
15 68 (13.10%) Vulnerability Management
16 65 (12.52%) VPN
17 64 (12.33%) DevOps
18 61 (11.75%) DNS
18 61 (11.75%) NIST
18 61 (11.75%) Security Operations
18 61 (11.75%) Threat Modelling
19 60 (11.56%) Data Loss Prevention
20 59 (11.37%) CISSP
20 59 (11.37%) Information Security
20 59 (11.37%) Terraform
21 58 (11.18%) GCP
22 56 (10.79%) DevSecOps
22 56 (10.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
23 54 (10.40%) Infrastructure as Code

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 (3.66%) Confluence
2 4 (0.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.58%) Apache Spark
4 2 (0.39%) Apache
5 1 (0.19%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 4 (0.77%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.19%) Maximo
2 1 (0.19%) SAP ERP
2 1 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 184 (35.45%) Azure
2 147 (28.32%) AWS
3 58 (11.18%) GCP
4 48 (9.25%) Microsoft 365
4 48 (9.25%) Microsoft Purview
5 39 (7.51%) Entra ID
6 28 (5.39%) Azure Sentinel
7 26 (5.01%) GitHub
8 23 (4.43%) SaaS
9 22 (4.24%) AWS CloudFormation
10 15 (2.89%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 13 (2.50%) Serverless
11 13 (2.50%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 12 (2.31%) Amazon ECS
12 12 (2.31%) Azure DevOps
12 12 (2.31%) Mimecast
13 11 (2.12%) OpenShift
14 10 (1.93%) AWS CloudTrail
14 10 (1.93%) AWS KMS
14 10 (1.93%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 106 (20.42%) Firewall
2 98 (18.88%) Network Security
3 65 (12.52%) VPN
4 61 (11.75%) DNS
5 46 (8.86%) BGP
6 31 (5.97%) Multicast
7 30 (5.78%) DMZ
8 22 (4.24%) TCP/IP
9 19 (3.66%) SSL
9 19 (3.66%) WAN
10 13 (2.50%) SD-WAN
11 12 (2.31%) HTTP
11 12 (2.31%) Wireless
12 11 (2.12%) Internet
13 9 (1.73%) Cisco ASA
13 9 (1.73%) DHCP
13 9 (1.73%) IPsec
13 9 (1.73%) OSPF
13 9 (1.73%) TACACS
14 8 (1.54%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.35%) Data Lake
2 6 (1.16%) Power BI
3 5 (0.96%) SQL Server
4 4 (0.77%) Amazon Athena
4 4 (0.77%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.77%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.77%) PostgreSQL
5 3 (0.58%) MongoDB
6 2 (0.39%) Amazon Redshift
6 2 (0.39%) Apache Cassandra
6 2 (0.39%) BigQuery
6 2 (0.39%) Mixpanel
6 2 (0.39%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.39%) OLAP
6 2 (0.39%) OLTP
6 2 (0.39%) RDBMS
6 2 (0.39%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.19%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.19%) DB2
7 1 (0.19%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 23 (4.43%) JIRA
2 11 (2.12%) GitLab
3 7 (1.35%) Jenkins
4 6 (1.16%) Git
4 6 (1.16%) Snyk
5 3 (0.58%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.39%) Artifactory
6 2 (0.39%) Browser DevTools
6 2 (0.39%) Burp Suite
6 2 (0.39%) Claude Code
6 2 (0.39%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.19%) Atlassian Bamboo
7 1 (0.19%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.19%) Metasploit
7 1 (0.19%) sqlmap
7 1 (0.19%) Travis CI
7 1 (0.19%) TruffleHog
General
1 109 (21.00%) Social Skills
2 72 (13.87%) Finance
3 49 (9.44%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (6.94%) Banking
5 33 (6.36%) Public Sector
6 19 (3.66%) Investment Banking
7 13 (2.50%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.12%) Legal
9 8 (1.54%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.35%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (0.96%) Cyber-Physical System
11 5 (0.96%) Financial Institution
12 4 (0.77%) Health Technology
12 4 (0.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.58%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.58%) Local Government
13 3 (0.58%) Manufacturing
14 2 (0.39%) Marketing
14 2 (0.39%) Military
14 2 (0.39%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.89%) REST
2 14 (2.70%) Elastic Stack
3 10 (1.93%) LDAP
4 7 (1.35%) Node.js
4 7 (1.35%) SAML
5 6 (1.16%) 802.1X
5 6 (1.16%) JSON
5 6 (1.16%) Kafka
5 6 (1.16%) LangChain
5 6 (1.16%) OAuth
5 6 (1.16%) PyTorch
5 6 (1.16%) scikit-learn
6 5 (0.96%) .NET
6 5 (0.96%) Microsoft Graph
6 5 (0.96%) NestJS
6 5 (0.96%) SailPoint
6 5 (0.96%) SLSA
7 3 (0.58%) ADO
7 3 (0.58%) Regular Expression
7 3 (0.58%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 67 (12.91%) Security Posture
2 45 (8.67%) Cloud Native
3 24 (4.62%) Management Information System
4 21 (4.05%) Cloud Security Posture
5 20 (3.85%) Data Centre
6 14 (2.70%) Operational Technology
7 12 (2.31%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 12 (2.31%) Onboarding
8 11 (2.12%) Data Protection Act
8 11 (2.12%) PKI
9 10 (1.93%) Hybrid Cloud
10 8 (1.54%) Public Cloud
11 7 (1.35%) Cyber Defence
12 6 (1.16%) AI Agents
12 6 (1.16%) Linux Command Line
13 5 (0.96%) BYOD
13 5 (0.96%) Cyber Kill Chain
13 5 (0.96%) Cyber Threat
13 5 (0.96%) Greenfield Project
14 4 (0.77%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 54 (10.40%) Windows
2 53 (10.21%) Linux
3 13 (2.50%) Windows Server
4 10 (1.93%) Mac OS
5 8 (1.54%) Apple iOS
6 7 (1.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (1.35%) Ubuntu
7 5 (0.96%) Android
7 5 (0.96%) Windows 10
8 4 (0.77%) Unix
9 2 (0.39%) VMS
10 1 (0.19%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 160 (30.83%) Cybersecurity
2 130 (25.05%) Cloud Security
3 118 (22.74%) SIEM
4 101 (19.46%) CI/CD
5 82 (15.80%) Incident Response
6 68 (13.10%) Vulnerability Management
7 64 (12.33%) DevOps
8 61 (11.75%) Security Operations
8 61 (11.75%) Threat Modelling
9 60 (11.56%) Data Loss Prevention
10 59 (11.37%) Information Security
11 56 (10.79%) DevSecOps
12 54 (10.40%) Infrastructure as Code
13 49 (9.44%) Security Architecture
14 45 (8.67%) Continuous Improvement
14 45 (8.67%) Load Balancing
15 42 (8.09%) AI
16 40 (7.71%) SDLC
17 39 (7.51%) Threat Detection
17 39 (7.51%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 122 (23.51%) Python
2 84 (16.18%) PowerShell
3 44 (8.48%) Bash
4 19 (3.66%) Java
5 18 (3.47%) Kusto Query Language
6 11 (2.12%) SQL
7 5 (0.96%) JavaScript
7 5 (0.96%) PHP
8 4 (0.77%) Bicep
9 3 (0.58%) BeanShell
9 3 (0.58%) C#
9 3 (0.58%) Go
9 3 (0.58%) Shell Script
9 3 (0.58%) TypeScript
10 2 (0.39%) Ruby
11 1 (0.19%) C
11 1 (0.19%) Scala
11 1 (0.19%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 97 (18.69%) Security Cleared
2 73 (14.07%) SC Cleared
3 59 (11.37%) CISSP
4 52 (10.02%) Degree
5 33 (6.36%) CISM
6 29 (5.59%) Cisco Certification
7 22 (4.24%) DV Cleared
8 20 (3.85%) AWS Certification
9 17 (3.28%) Azure Certification
10 14 (2.70%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 14 (2.70%) CCNP
10 14 (2.70%) CompTIA Security+
11 11 (2.12%) GIAC
11 11 (2.12%) Microsoft Certification
12 10 (1.93%) CEH
12 10 (1.93%) Computer Science Degree
13 6 (1.16%) CCSP
13 6 (1.16%) CESG Certified Professional
14 5 (0.96%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
14 5 (0.96%) ISO 27001 Lead Implementer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (11.75%) NIST
2 56 (10.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 37 (7.13%) GDPR
4 27 (5.20%) Cyber Essentials
5 23 (4.43%) PCI DSS
6 15 (2.89%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 11 (2.12%) NCSC
8 10 (1.93%) GRC
9 9 (1.73%) SLA
10 7 (1.35%) HIPAA
10 7 (1.35%) RMADS
11 6 (1.16%) California Consumer Privacy Act
12 5 (0.96%) NIST 800
13 4 (0.77%) Government Security Classifications
13 4 (0.77%) SOC 2
14 3 (0.58%) Actionable Recommendations
14 3 (0.58%) ISA99
14 3 (0.58%) JSP 440
15 2 (0.39%) Data Quality
15 2 (0.39%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
System Software
1 26 (5.01%) Active Directory
2 23 (4.43%) Docker
3 11 (2.12%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (1.93%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.35%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.96%) VMware NSX
6 5 (0.96%) vSphere
7 4 (0.77%) Firmware
8 3 (0.58%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.39%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.39%) Squid
9 2 (0.39%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.19%) GPFS
10 1 (0.19%) Lustre
10 1 (0.19%) RACF
10 1 (0.19%) Slurm Workload Manager
Systems Management
1 59 (11.37%) Terraform
2 52 (10.02%) Kubernetes
3 19 (3.66%) Microsoft Intune
4 15 (2.89%) Ansible
5 9 (1.73%) Single Sign-On
6 8 (1.54%) SCCM
7 7 (1.35%) CASB
7 7 (1.35%) vCenter Server
8 6 (1.16%) FortiGate
8 6 (1.16%) Kibana
8 6 (1.16%) logstash
8 6 (1.16%) Nessus
9 5 (0.96%) Functional Safety
10 4 (0.77%) AirWatch
10 4 (0.77%) Progress Chef
10 4 (0.77%) QRadar
10 4 (0.77%) WSUS
11 3 (0.58%) Icinga
11 3 (0.58%) SCOM
12 2 (0.39%) Fluentd
Vendors
1 113 (21.77%) Microsoft
2 82 (15.80%) Cisco
3 52 (10.02%) F5
4 32 (6.17%) Palo Alto
5 31 (5.97%) CrowdStrike
6 28 (5.39%) Fortinet
7 22 (4.24%) Google
8 21 (4.05%) ServiceNow
9 20 (3.85%) Splunk
10 19 (3.66%) Tenable
11 18 (3.47%) VMware
11 18 (3.47%) Zscaler
12 17 (3.28%) CheckPoint
12 17 (3.28%) CyberArk
13 15 (2.89%) Qualys
14 12 (2.31%) Netskope
15 11 (2.12%) Juniper
16 9 (1.73%) Rapid7
17 8 (1.54%) Blue Coat
17 8 (1.54%) Oracle