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 23 October 2025.

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

6 months to
23 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 227 208 247
Rank change year-on-year -19 +39 +32
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 422 449 478
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.26% 1.21% 1.01%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.39% 1.30% 1.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 248 320 334
10th Percentile £379 £400 £413
25th Percentile £416 £450 £486
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -4.35% +4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £635 £700
90th Percentile £700 £700 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £560
% change year-on-year -9.09% -1.79% +6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 4 28
10th Percentile £82.50 £42.38 £68.17
25th Percentile £84.75 £44.06 £83.09
Median hourly rate £91.00 £55.00 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +65.45% -34.05% +49.60%
75th Percentile £91.50 £70.63 -
90th Percentile - £76.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £91.00 £72.50 £83.40
% change year-on-year +25.52% -13.07% +30.31%

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 30,435 34,526 44,661
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.82% 92.91% 93.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,258 20,814 30,499
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £402 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -3.06% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,682 1,372 1,517
10th Percentile £13.80 £15.07 £14.77
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £40.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -37.13% -10.11% +64.25%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £40.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year -37.50% -9.09% +91.30%

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 23 October 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 23 October 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 23 October 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 -25 371 £525 -4.55% 359
London +25 212 £548 -4.78% 100
UK excluding London -32 173 £500 -9.09% 313
Work from Home -2 129 £500 -9.09% 116
North of England -38 44 £500 -9.09% 94
East of England +18 37 £500 +73.91% 37
North West -20 34 £480 -12.73% 59
South West +20 25 £537 -17.38% 48
South East -30 22 £500 -4.76% 74
Midlands -28 21 £390 -27.44% 38
Scotland +3 19 £525 -15.49% 20
West Midlands -17 17 £390 -22.00% 25
Yorkshire -31 9 £540 +21.35% 23
Northern Ireland -3 5 - - 5
Wales +1 4 £600 +1.27% 5
East Midlands -6 4 £395 -42.34% 13
North East -7 1 £400 -17.95% 12

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

For the 6 months to 23 October 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.

1 165 (39.10%) Azure
2 164 (38.86%) Cybersecurity
3 123 (29.15%) Firewall
4 121 (28.67%) Cloud Security
5 116 (27.49%) Security Cleared
6 115 (27.25%) SIEM
7 111 (26.30%) AWS
8 110 (26.07%) Microsoft
9 99 (23.46%) Network Security
10 96 (22.75%) SC Cleared
11 93 (22.04%) Python
12 88 (20.85%) NIST
13 86 (20.38%) Incident Response
14 79 (18.72%) Windows
15 73 (17.30%) Security Operations
16 72 (17.06%) Infrastructure as Code
17 67 (15.88%) CI/CD
18 66 (15.64%) PowerShell
19 62 (14.69%) GCP
20 57 (13.51%) Active Directory
20 57 (13.51%) Linux
21 54 (12.80%) Microsoft 365
22 53 (12.56%) CISSP
23 50 (11.85%) DevSecOps
24 49 (11.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
25 47 (11.14%) Cisco
25 47 (11.14%) Degree
25 47 (11.14%) Entra ID
26 44 (10.43%) Azure Sentinel
26 44 (10.43%) Data Protection

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 20 (4.74%) SharePoint
2 13 (3.08%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.95%) Confluence
4 2 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 5 (1.18%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.24%) 1Password
Business Applications
1 2 (0.47%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 165 (39.10%) Azure
2 111 (26.30%) AWS
3 62 (14.69%) GCP
4 54 (12.80%) Microsoft 365
5 47 (11.14%) Entra ID
6 44 (10.43%) Azure Sentinel
7 35 (8.29%) GitHub
8 29 (6.87%) Microsoft Purview
9 16 (3.79%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 14 (3.32%) AWS CloudFormation
11 12 (2.84%) Azure Monitor
12 11 (2.61%) AWS CloudTrail
12 11 (2.61%) OpenShift
13 10 (2.37%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (1.66%) Amazon EKS
14 7 (1.66%) Amazon Macie
14 7 (1.66%) AWS KMS
14 7 (1.66%) Mimecast
15 6 (1.42%) OneDrive
15 6 (1.42%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 123 (29.15%) Firewall
2 99 (23.46%) Network Security
3 30 (7.11%) DNS
4 28 (6.64%) VPN
5 22 (5.21%) WAN
6 20 (4.74%) SSL
7 18 (4.27%) Intrusion Detection
8 14 (3.32%) Wireless
9 11 (2.61%) TCP/IP
10 10 (2.37%) DMVPN
11 9 (2.13%) BGP
11 9 (2.13%) Internet
11 9 (2.13%) OSPF
12 8 (1.90%) IPsec
12 8 (1.90%) VLAN
13 7 (1.66%) Cisco IPT
13 7 (1.66%) DHCP
13 7 (1.66%) NGFW
14 6 (1.42%) SD-WAN
14 6 (1.42%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (2.13%) Data Lake
2 8 (1.90%) BigQuery
3 7 (1.66%) Oracle Database
4 3 (0.71%) Big Data
4 3 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
5 2 (0.47%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.47%) Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.47%) Power BI
6 1 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.24%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.24%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 17 (4.03%) SonarQube
2 14 (3.32%) Burp Suite
2 14 (3.32%) Metasploit
3 11 (2.61%) Jenkins
3 11 (2.61%) JIRA
4 10 (2.37%) GitLab
5 6 (1.42%) ClearCase
6 3 (0.71%) Bitbucket
6 3 (0.71%) Snyk
7 2 (0.47%) Git
8 1 (0.24%) Artifactory
8 1 (0.24%) Fiddler
8 1 (0.24%) Postman
General
1 118 (27.96%) Social Skills
2 59 (13.98%) Finance
3 51 (12.09%) Public Sector
4 26 (6.16%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (5.69%) Military
6 16 (3.79%) Banking
7 10 (2.37%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (2.37%) Telecoms
8 8 (1.90%) Legal
9 7 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 5 (1.18%) Manufacturing
11 4 (0.95%) Law
11 4 (0.95%) Organisational Skills
11 4 (0.95%) Pharmaceutical
11 4 (0.95%) Spanish Language
12 3 (0.71%) Aerospace
13 2 (0.47%) Financial Institution
13 2 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.47%) Retail
13 2 (0.47%) Social Housing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (2.61%) SAML
2 8 (1.90%) 802.1X
2 8 (1.90%) OAuth
2 8 (1.90%) REST
3 5 (1.18%) OpenID
4 4 (0.95%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (0.71%) LDAP
5 3 (0.71%) Middleware
5 3 (0.71%) React
5 3 (0.71%) SailPoint
5 3 (0.71%) Smart Contracts
5 3 (0.71%) YAML
6 2 (0.47%) Jinja
6 2 (0.47%) JSON
6 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Graph
6 2 (0.47%) NestJS
6 2 (0.47%) OAuth2
6 2 (0.47%) Oracle Fusion
6 2 (0.47%) Regular Expression
6 2 (0.47%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 42 (9.95%) Security Posture
2 29 (6.87%) Data Centre
3 24 (5.69%) Management Information System
4 22 (5.21%) Onboarding
5 17 (4.03%) Cloud Native
5 17 (4.03%) Cyber Threat
6 16 (3.79%) Data Protection Act
7 13 (3.08%) Cyber Defence
8 9 (2.13%) Operational Technology
9 8 (1.90%) Hybrid Cloud
10 7 (1.66%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 6 (1.42%) Cloud Security Posture
11 6 (1.42%) Cyber Security Posture
11 6 (1.42%) Product Ownership
11 6 (1.42%) Security Operations Centre
12 5 (1.18%) Cyber Kill Chain
12 5 (1.18%) Life Science
12 5 (1.18%) PKI
13 4 (0.95%) Renewable Energy
13 4 (0.95%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 79 (18.72%) Windows
2 57 (13.51%) Linux
3 13 (3.08%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.37%) Mac OS
5 7 (1.66%) Unix
6 3 (0.71%) Android
6 3 (0.71%) Apple iOS
7 2 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.47%) VMS
8 1 (0.24%) CentOS
8 1 (0.24%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 164 (38.86%) Cybersecurity
2 121 (28.67%) Cloud Security
3 115 (27.25%) SIEM
4 86 (20.38%) Incident Response
5 73 (17.30%) Security Operations
6 72 (17.06%) Infrastructure as Code
7 67 (15.88%) CI/CD
8 50 (11.85%) DevSecOps
9 44 (10.43%) Data Protection
10 43 (10.19%) DevOps
10 43 (10.19%) Vulnerability Management
11 41 (9.72%) Problem-Solving
12 38 (9.00%) Threat Modelling
13 37 (8.77%) Information Security
13 37 (8.77%) Penetration Testing
14 36 (8.53%) Data Loss Prevention
14 36 (8.53%) SOAR
15 35 (8.29%) Security Monitoring
15 35 (8.29%) Threat Detection
15 35 (8.29%) Vulnerability Assessment
Programming Languages
1 93 (22.04%) Python
2 66 (15.64%) PowerShell
3 30 (7.11%) Bash
4 24 (5.69%) Kusto Query Language
5 15 (3.55%) Java
5 15 (3.55%) SQL
6 6 (1.42%) C
6 6 (1.42%) Perl
6 6 (1.42%) Shell Script
7 5 (1.18%) JavaScript
8 4 (0.95%) Bicep
8 4 (0.95%) C#
8 4 (0.95%) C++
8 4 (0.95%) Kotlin
9 3 (0.71%) Rust
10 1 (0.24%) Go
10 1 (0.24%) Korn
10 1 (0.24%) Objective-C
10 1 (0.24%) Swift
10 1 (0.24%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 116 (27.49%) Security Cleared
2 96 (22.75%) SC Cleared
3 53 (12.56%) CISSP
4 47 (11.14%) Degree
5 29 (6.87%) Cisco Certification
6 22 (5.21%) OSCP
7 20 (4.74%) Microsoft Certification
8 19 (4.50%) Azure Certification
8 19 (4.50%) CREST Certified
8 19 (4.50%) DV Cleared
9 18 (4.27%) CISM
10 17 (4.03%) CCNP
11 13 (3.08%) Tigerscheme
12 12 (2.84%) CEH
12 12 (2.84%) SANS
13 10 (2.37%) CHECK Team Member
13 10 (2.37%) CompTIA Security+
14 9 (2.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 9 (2.13%) AWS Certification
15 6 (1.42%) CompTIA CySA+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 88 (20.85%) NIST
2 49 (11.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 36 (8.53%) NCSC
4 29 (6.87%) GDPR
5 21 (4.98%) NIST 800
6 17 (4.03%) HIPAA
6 17 (4.03%) JSP 440
7 15 (3.55%) Cyber Essentials
8 10 (2.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 7 (1.66%) PCI DSS
10 5 (1.18%) SOC 2
11 4 (0.95%) GRC
12 3 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.71%) ISO/IEC 42001
13 2 (0.47%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.47%) EU AI Act
13 2 (0.47%) GxP
13 2 (0.47%) SLA
14 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
14 1 (0.24%) QA
System Software
1 57 (13.51%) Active Directory
2 17 (4.03%) Firmware
3 15 (3.55%) Docker
4 13 (3.08%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.66%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.47%) Snort
8 1 (0.24%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 40 (9.48%) Terraform
2 24 (5.69%) Kubernetes
3 14 (3.32%) Nmap
3 14 (3.32%) SCCM
4 13 (3.08%) Ansible
5 12 (2.84%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (2.37%) CASB
6 10 (2.37%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.42%) QRadar
8 5 (1.18%) FortiGate
8 5 (1.18%) SCOrch
8 5 (1.18%) WSUS
9 4 (0.95%) CSIRT
9 4 (0.95%) Fluentd
9 4 (0.95%) Nessus
10 3 (0.71%) Kibana
10 3 (0.71%) logstash
10 3 (0.71%) Progress Chef
11 2 (0.47%) CA Spectrum
11 2 (0.47%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 110 (26.07%) Microsoft
2 47 (11.14%) Cisco
3 39 (9.24%) Palo Alto
4 37 (8.77%) Splunk
5 29 (6.87%) Zscaler
6 25 (5.92%) CrowdStrike
7 23 (5.45%) CheckPoint
7 23 (5.45%) F5
8 22 (5.21%) Fortinet
9 20 (4.74%) Tenable
10 19 (4.50%) Google
10 19 (4.50%) Juniper
11 17 (4.03%) Veracode
12 13 (3.08%) Qualys
13 11 (2.61%) Oracle
14 10 (2.37%) SolarWinds
15 9 (2.13%) Blue Coat
15 9 (2.13%) Forcepoint
16 8 (1.90%) ServiceNow
17 7 (1.66%) Darktrace