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 19 September 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

 6 months to
19 Sep 2025		 Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 231 201 239
Rank change year-on-year -30 +38 +52
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 385 467 515
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.17% 1.21% 1.04%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.28% 1.30% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 225 347 368
10th Percentile £377 £406 £418
25th Percentile £421 £445 £486
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £600
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% -8.33% +9.09%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £700
90th Percentile £725 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £550 £563
% change year-on-year -9.09% -2.22% +3.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 2 22
10th Percentile £66.75 £64.25 £67.98
25th Percentile £83.06 £66.88 £72.05
Median hourly rate £90.50 £72.50 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +24.83% -13.07% +46.96%
75th Percentile £91.50 £76.88 -
90th Percentile - £78.75 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £90.50 £72.50 £83.40
% change year-on-year +24.83% -13.07% +7.62%

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 30,009 35,817 46,695
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.07% 92.96% 94.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,949 22,029 31,957
10th Percentile £278 £300 £300
25th Percentile £400 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,585 1,680 1,499
10th Percentile £13.75 £14.73 £14.99
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.50 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +71.15%
75th Percentile £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £45.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year -44.11% +2.86% +98.86%

Security Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Security Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Security Engineer 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 19 September 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 19 September 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 19 September 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 -29 341 £525 -4.55% 480
London -6 185 £550 -4.35% 110
UK excluding London -19 161 £500 -9.09% 464
Work from Home -9 117 £492 -16.96% 120
North of England -32 45 £496 -7.81% 76
East of England +26 37 £500 +66.67% 63
North West -5 35 £486 -10.41% 43
South East -34 23 £500 +11.11% 117
Midlands -19 21 £403 -38.08% 79
West Midlands -13 18 £390 -40.00% 44
South West +16 17 £513 -21.15% 64
Scotland -6 15 £553 -11.07% 51
Yorkshire -24 9 £540 +8.00% 31
Wales +3 4 £600 +15.11% 9
East Midlands -4 3 £415 -39.42% 32
Northern Ireland -4 2 - - 11
North East -2 1 £400 -17.95% 2

Security Engineer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 19 September 2025, Security Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Security Engineer in the job title.

1 158 (41.04%) Azure
2 145 (37.66%) Cybersecurity
3 121 (31.43%) Firewall
4 110 (28.57%) Social Skills
4 110 (28.57%) Cloud Security
5 106 (27.53%) Network Security
6 103 (26.75%) SIEM
7 99 (25.71%) AWS
8 98 (25.45%) Security Cleared
8 98 (25.45%) Python
9 94 (24.42%) Microsoft
10 80 (20.78%) SC Cleared
11 76 (19.74%) Windows
11 76 (19.74%) Incident Response
11 76 (19.74%) NIST
12 61 (15.84%) Linux
13 60 (15.58%) Finance
13 60 (15.58%) PowerShell
13 60 (15.58%) GCP
13 60 (15.58%) Security Operations
14 57 (14.81%) CI/CD
15 52 (13.51%) Infrastructure as Code
16 49 (12.73%) DevSecOps
16 49 (12.73%) Cisco
16 49 (12.73%) Active Directory
17 48 (12.47%) Microsoft 365
18 45 (11.69%) CISSP
19 44 (11.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
20 43 (11.17%) Degree
21 42 (10.91%) Information Security

Security Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 20 (5.19%) SharePoint
2 11 (2.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 3 (0.78%) Confluence
4 2 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 5 (1.30%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (1.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.26%) 1Password
Business Applications
1 2 (0.52%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.26%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.26%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 158 (41.04%) Azure
2 99 (25.71%) AWS
3 60 (15.58%) GCP
4 48 (12.47%) Microsoft 365
5 39 (10.13%) Azure Sentinel
6 37 (9.61%) Entra ID
7 29 (7.53%) GitHub
8 20 (5.19%) Microsoft Purview
9 17 (4.42%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 11 (2.86%) AWS CloudTrail
11 7 (1.82%) Amazon Macie
11 7 (1.82%) AWS CloudFormation
11 7 (1.82%) GitHub Actions
12 6 (1.56%) Amazon EKS
12 6 (1.56%) OneDrive
12 6 (1.56%) OpenShift
13 5 (1.30%) Akamai
13 5 (1.30%) AWS KMS
13 5 (1.30%) Azure Monitor
13 5 (1.30%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 121 (31.43%) Firewall
2 106 (27.53%) Network Security
3 27 (7.01%) VPN
4 25 (6.49%) DNS
5 21 (5.45%) SSL
6 20 (5.19%) WAN
7 18 (4.68%) Intrusion Detection
8 10 (2.60%) BGP
8 10 (2.60%) OSPF
8 10 (2.60%) TCP/IP
8 10 (2.60%) Wireless
9 9 (2.34%) Cisco ASA
9 9 (2.34%) DMVPN
10 8 (2.08%) Internet
10 8 (2.08%) SD-WAN
10 8 (2.08%) VLAN
10 8 (2.08%) Wireshark
11 7 (1.82%) Cisco ISE
11 7 (1.82%) DHCP
11 7 (1.82%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (1.82%) Oracle Database
2 5 (1.30%) BigQuery
3 4 (1.04%) Elasticsearch
4 3 (0.78%) Big Data
5 2 (0.52%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
5 2 (0.52%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.26%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.26%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.26%) Sybase ASE
Development Applications
1 14 (3.64%) Burp Suite
1 14 (3.64%) Metasploit
1 14 (3.64%) SonarQube
2 10 (2.60%) GitLab
3 6 (1.56%) ClearCase
3 6 (1.56%) Jenkins
3 6 (1.56%) JIRA
4 1 (0.26%) Artifactory
4 1 (0.26%) Fiddler
4 1 (0.26%) Git
4 1 (0.26%) Postman
General
1 110 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 60 (15.58%) Finance
3 40 (10.39%) Public Sector
4 23 (5.97%) Military
5 22 (5.71%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (4.16%) Banking
7 9 (2.34%) Telecoms
8 7 (1.82%) Financial Institution
9 6 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (1.56%) Manufacturing
10 5 (1.30%) Legal
11 4 (1.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 4 (1.04%) Law
12 3 (0.78%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.78%) Pharmaceutical
12 3 (0.78%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.52%) Automotive
13 2 (0.52%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.52%) Social Housing
14 1 (0.26%) Fire and Rescue
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (2.08%) 802.1X
2 7 (1.82%) SAML
3 6 (1.56%) REST
4 5 (1.30%) Elastic Stack
5 4 (1.04%) OAuth
5 4 (1.04%) Smart Contracts
6 3 (0.78%) LDAP
6 3 (0.78%) Middleware
6 3 (0.78%) React
6 3 (0.78%) SailPoint
6 3 (0.78%) YAML
7 2 (0.52%) Jinja
7 2 (0.52%) JSON
7 2 (0.52%) OAuth2
7 2 (0.52%) OpenID
7 2 (0.52%) Oracle Fusion
7 2 (0.52%) Regular Expression
7 2 (0.52%) Web Services
8 1 (0.26%) Django
8 1 (0.26%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 39 (10.13%) Security Posture
2 26 (6.75%) Data Centre
2 26 (6.75%) Management Information System
3 23 (5.97%) Cyber Threat
4 16 (4.16%) Cloud Native
5 15 (3.90%) Onboarding
6 13 (3.38%) Data Protection Act
7 9 (2.34%) Operational Technology
8 8 (2.08%) Cyber Defence
8 8 (2.08%) Product Ownership
9 7 (1.82%) PKI
10 6 (1.56%) Cloud Security Posture
10 6 (1.56%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 5 (1.30%) Cyber Kill Chain
11 5 (1.30%) SCADA
12 4 (1.04%) Cyber Security Posture
12 4 (1.04%) Greenfield Project
12 4 (1.04%) Hybrid Cloud
12 4 (1.04%) Renewable Energy
13 3 (0.78%) YARA
Operating Systems
1 76 (19.74%) Windows
2 61 (15.84%) Linux
3 13 (3.38%) Windows Server
4 12 (3.12%) Mac OS
5 3 (0.78%) VMS
6 2 (0.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.52%) Unix
7 1 (0.26%) Android
7 1 (0.26%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.26%) CatOS
7 1 (0.26%) CentOS
7 1 (0.26%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (37.66%) Cybersecurity
2 110 (28.57%) Cloud Security
3 103 (26.75%) SIEM
4 76 (19.74%) Incident Response
5 60 (15.58%) Security Operations
6 57 (14.81%) CI/CD
7 52 (13.51%) Infrastructure as Code
8 49 (12.73%) DevSecOps
9 42 (10.91%) Information Security
9 42 (10.91%) Threat Modelling
10 41 (10.65%) Data Protection
11 39 (10.13%) Vulnerability Management
12 38 (9.87%) Problem-Solving
13 37 (9.61%) Data Loss Prevention
13 37 (9.61%) Penetration Testing
14 36 (9.35%) Vulnerability Assessment
15 35 (9.09%) Threat Detection
16 34 (8.83%) DevOps
17 31 (8.05%) SOAR
18 29 (7.53%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 98 (25.45%) Python
2 60 (15.58%) PowerShell
3 33 (8.57%) Bash
4 24 (6.23%) Kusto Query Language
5 18 (4.68%) Java
6 15 (3.90%) SQL
7 7 (1.82%) JavaScript
7 7 (1.82%) Perl
8 6 (1.56%) C
8 6 (1.56%) C++
8 6 (1.56%) Shell Script
9 5 (1.30%) Rust
10 4 (1.04%) C#
10 4 (1.04%) Kotlin
11 2 (0.52%) Go
12 1 (0.26%) Bicep
12 1 (0.26%) Korn
12 1 (0.26%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 98 (25.45%) Security Cleared
2 80 (20.78%) SC Cleared
3 45 (11.69%) CISSP
4 43 (11.17%) Degree
5 33 (8.57%) Cisco Certification
6 21 (5.45%) OSCP
7 19 (4.94%) CCNP
8 17 (4.42%) CREST Certified
9 15 (3.90%) Azure Certification
9 15 (3.90%) CISM
9 15 (3.90%) Microsoft Certification
10 14 (3.64%) DV Cleared
11 13 (3.38%) Tigerscheme
12 10 (2.60%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 10 (2.60%) CHECK Team Member
13 8 (2.08%) AWS Certification
13 8 (2.08%) CCSP
13 8 (2.08%) CEH
13 8 (2.08%) GCIH
14 7 (1.82%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 76 (19.74%) NIST
2 44 (11.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 31 (8.05%) NCSC
4 17 (4.42%) NIST 800
5 16 (4.16%) GDPR
5 16 (4.16%) JSP 440
6 13 (3.38%) Cyber Essentials
7 10 (2.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 9 (2.34%) HIPAA
9 7 (1.82%) PCI DSS
10 6 (1.56%) SLA
11 5 (1.30%) SOC 2
12 4 (1.04%) GRC
13 3 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
14 2 (0.52%) Accessibility
14 2 (0.52%) EU AI Act
14 2 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27005
14 2 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 42001
15 1 (0.26%) AUTOSAR
15 1 (0.26%) Def Stans
System Software
1 49 (12.73%) Active Directory
2 17 (4.42%) Firmware
3 11 (2.86%) Virtual Machines
4 9 (2.34%) Docker
5 7 (1.82%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.78%) VMware Infrastructure
7 2 (0.52%) Snort
8 1 (0.26%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 34 (8.83%) Terraform
2 20 (5.19%) Kubernetes
3 15 (3.90%) Ansible
4 14 (3.64%) Nmap
5 13 (3.38%) Microsoft Intune
6 10 (2.60%) SCCM
7 9 (2.34%) Single Sign-On
8 7 (1.82%) CASB
8 7 (1.82%) QRadar
9 5 (1.30%) FortiGate
9 5 (1.30%) WSUS
10 4 (1.04%) CSIRT
10 4 (1.04%) Fluentd
10 4 (1.04%) Kibana
10 4 (1.04%) logstash
10 4 (1.04%) Progress Chef
11 3 (0.78%) SCOrch
12 2 (0.52%) CA Spectrum
12 2 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
12 2 (0.52%) Nessus
Vendors
1 94 (24.42%) Microsoft
2 49 (12.73%) Cisco
3 39 (10.13%) Palo Alto
4 31 (8.05%) Splunk
5 29 (7.53%) Zscaler
6 28 (7.27%) CrowdStrike
7 23 (5.97%) CheckPoint
8 21 (5.45%) F5
8 21 (5.45%) Juniper
9 19 (4.94%) Fortinet
10 17 (4.42%) Google
10 17 (4.42%) Qualys
11 16 (4.16%) Tenable
12 14 (3.64%) Veracode
13 12 (3.12%) SolarWinds
14 11 (2.86%) Oracle
15 9 (2.34%) Forcepoint
16 8 (2.08%) Blue Coat
17 7 (1.82%) Darktrace
18 6 (1.56%) NetApp
578 Security Engineer jobs Nationwide