Security Engineer Contract Job Trends

Security Engineer
UK

The median Security Engineer daily rate in the UK is £538, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 11 March 2026.

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

6 months to
11 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 237 277 307
Rank change year-on-year +40 +30 -91
Contract jobs requiring a Security Engineer 494 273 325
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.16% 0.93% 0.73%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.26% 1.00% 0.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 291 169 203
10th Percentile £400 £371 £408
25th Percentile £475 £413 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £675 £700 £723
UK excluding London median daily rate £540 £525 £525
% change year-on-year +2.86% - -0.94%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 4 16
10th Percentile £84.00 £42.38 £49.48
25th Percentile - £44.06 £78.69
Median hourly rate £85.40 £59.16 £83.40
Median % change year-on-year +44.37% -29.07% +0.11%
75th Percentile - £79.62 -
90th Percentile £89.66 £81.90 £83.41
UK excluding London median hourly rate £85.40 £78.36 £83.40
% change year-on-year +8.98% -6.04% +0.11%

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 39,127 27,402 41,559
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.94% 92.96% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,467 17,684 27,246
10th Percentile £312 £293 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,427 859 2,507
10th Percentile £14.93 £15.62 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.40 £32.69
Median % change year-on-year +4.79% +2.17% -22.84%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.16 £76.44 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.95 £32.50 £32.70
% change year-on-year +7.52% -0.60% -18.26%

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 11 March 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 11 March 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 11 March 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 +29 433 £538 +1.65% 276
UK excluding London +11 224 £540 +2.86% 239
London +31 212 £525 -4.55% 81
Work from Home +18 155 £538 +0.94% 75
North of England -20 86 £575 +4.55% 53
North West +13 70 £575 +4.55% 34
South East -28 45 £481 +6.94% 74
Midlands -38 43 £500 -2.44% 27
West Midlands -34 38 £510 -0.49% 16
South West +3 31 £531 +1.14% 27
Scotland +33 24 £657 +19.45% 22
Yorkshire -64 13 £540 +60.00% 15
East of England -25 11 £625 +127.27% 30
East Midlands - 5 £463 - 11
Northern Ireland - 5 - - 4
North East -17 3 £400 -23.81% 4

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

For the 6 months to 11 March 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.

1 182 (36.84%) Azure
2 167 (33.81%) Cybersecurity
3 153 (30.97%) AWS
4 138 (27.94%) Cloud Security
5 124 (25.10%) Microsoft
6 121 (24.49%) SIEM
7 116 (23.48%) Firewall
8 105 (21.26%) Security Cleared
9 101 (20.45%) Python
10 99 (20.04%) CI/CD
11 87 (17.61%) Network Security
12 85 (17.21%) Incident Response
13 82 (16.60%) PowerShell
14 80 (16.19%) SC Cleared
15 78 (15.79%) NIST
15 78 (15.79%) Security Operations
16 76 (15.38%) CISSP
17 69 (13.97%) Infrastructure as Code
17 69 (13.97%) Vulnerability Management
18 66 (13.36%) DevOps
19 64 (12.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
20 60 (12.15%) Cisco
20 60 (12.15%) Degree
20 60 (12.15%) GCP
20 60 (12.15%) Threat Modelling
21 56 (11.34%) DevSecOps
22 54 (10.93%) Kubernetes
22 54 (10.93%) Microsoft 365
23 53 (10.73%) Entra ID
24 51 (10.32%) DNS

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 (3.85%) Confluence
2 11 (2.23%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (0.81%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.40%) Apache
4 2 (0.40%) Apache Spark
Applications
1 3 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (0.20%) SAP ERP
1 1 (0.20%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 182 (36.84%) Azure
2 153 (30.97%) AWS
3 60 (12.15%) GCP
4 54 (10.93%) Microsoft 365
5 53 (10.73%) Entra ID
6 50 (10.12%) Microsoft Purview
7 43 (8.70%) Azure Sentinel
8 27 (5.47%) GitHub
9 24 (4.86%) AWS CloudFormation
10 23 (4.66%) OpenShift
11 16 (3.24%) SaaS
12 14 (2.83%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 14 (2.83%) Mimecast
13 13 (2.63%) Virtual Private Cloud
14 12 (2.43%) Amazon ECS
14 12 (2.43%) Azure Key Vault
14 12 (2.43%) GitHub Actions
15 11 (2.23%) AWS KMS
15 11 (2.23%) Azure Monitor
16 10 (2.02%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 116 (23.48%) Firewall
2 87 (17.61%) Network Security
3 51 (10.32%) DNS
3 51 (10.32%) VPN
4 29 (5.87%) BGP
5 18 (3.64%) DMZ
5 18 (3.64%) Multicast
5 18 (3.64%) WAN
6 15 (3.04%) TCP/IP
7 14 (2.83%) Wireless
8 11 (2.23%) SSL
9 10 (2.02%) Cisco ASA
10 9 (1.82%) HTTP
11 8 (1.62%) DHCP
11 8 (1.62%) IPsec
12 7 (1.42%) Cisco IOS
12 7 (1.42%) NGFW
12 7 (1.42%) Wi-Fi
13 6 (1.21%) Cisco IPT
13 6 (1.21%) DMVPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.63%) Data Lake
2 5 (1.01%) BigQuery
3 4 (0.81%) Amazon Athena
3 4 (0.81%) Elasticsearch
3 4 (0.81%) Power BI
4 3 (0.61%) Amazon RDS
4 3 (0.61%) SQL Server
5 2 (0.40%) Amazon Redshift
5 2 (0.40%) Mixpanel
5 2 (0.40%) OLAP
5 2 (0.40%) OLTP
5 2 (0.40%) PostgreSQL
6 1 (0.20%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.20%) Data Warehouse
6 1 (0.20%) DynamoDB
6 1 (0.20%) Metadata
6 1 (0.20%) MongoDB
6 1 (0.20%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.20%) RDBMS
6 1 (0.20%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 24 (4.86%) JIRA
2 18 (3.64%) GitLab
3 12 (2.43%) Jenkins
4 10 (2.02%) Snyk
5 7 (1.42%) Git
6 6 (1.21%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.81%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.40%) Artifactory
9 1 (0.20%) Browser DevTools
9 1 (0.20%) Burp Suite
9 1 (0.20%) Travis CI
General
1 112 (22.67%) Social Skills
2 65 (13.16%) Finance
3 51 (10.32%) Public Sector
4 49 (9.92%) Analytical Skills
5 23 (4.66%) Banking
6 14 (2.83%) Documentation Skills
7 12 (2.43%) Investment Banking
8 9 (1.82%) Legal
9 8 (1.62%) Telecoms
10 7 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.21%) Financial Institution
11 6 (1.21%) Spanish Language
12 5 (1.01%) Cyber-Physical System
12 5 (1.01%) Military
12 5 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (0.81%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.61%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.61%) Local Government
14 3 (0.61%) Manufacturing
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.05%) REST
2 12 (2.43%) Elastic Stack
3 9 (1.82%) LDAP
3 9 (1.82%) OAuth
3 9 (1.82%) SAML
4 7 (1.42%) Microsoft Graph
4 7 (1.42%) NestJS
4 7 (1.42%) Node.js
5 6 (1.21%) 802.1X
5 6 (1.21%) JSON
5 6 (1.21%) Kafka
5 6 (1.21%) LangChain
5 6 (1.21%) OpenID
5 6 (1.21%) PyTorch
5 6 (1.21%) scikit-learn
6 5 (1.01%) .NET
7 4 (0.81%) SailPoint
7 4 (0.81%) SLSA
7 4 (0.81%) SOAP
8 3 (0.61%) AWS CDK
Miscellaneous
1 63 (12.75%) Security Posture
2 39 (7.89%) Cloud Native
3 25 (5.06%) Data Centre
3 25 (5.06%) Management Information System
4 17 (3.44%) Data Protection Act
4 17 (3.44%) Onboarding
5 13 (2.63%) Cloud Security Posture
5 13 (2.63%) Hybrid Cloud
6 11 (2.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 10 (2.02%) Cyber Defence
8 9 (1.82%) Operational Technology
8 9 (1.82%) PKI
8 9 (1.82%) Security Operations Centre
9 8 (1.62%) BYOD
9 8 (1.62%) Public Cloud
10 7 (1.42%) Cyber Security Posture
11 6 (1.21%) Cyber Threat
11 6 (1.21%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
12 5 (1.01%) Mobile App
Operating Systems
1 51 (10.32%) Linux
1 51 (10.32%) Windows
2 13 (2.63%) Windows Server
3 9 (1.82%) Unix
4 7 (1.42%) Mac OS
4 7 (1.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 7 (1.42%) Ubuntu
5 6 (1.21%) Android
6 5 (1.01%) Apple iOS
6 5 (1.01%) Windows 10
7 2 (0.40%) VMS
8 1 (0.20%) Rocky
8 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 167 (33.81%) Cybersecurity
2 138 (27.94%) Cloud Security
3 121 (24.49%) SIEM
4 99 (20.04%) CI/CD
5 85 (17.21%) Incident Response
6 78 (15.79%) Security Operations
7 69 (13.97%) Infrastructure as Code
7 69 (13.97%) Vulnerability Management
8 66 (13.36%) DevOps
9 60 (12.15%) Threat Modelling
10 56 (11.34%) DevSecOps
11 50 (10.12%) Data Loss Prevention
12 48 (9.72%) Information Security
13 46 (9.31%) Agile
14 43 (8.70%) Security Architecture
15 41 (8.30%) Continuous Improvement
16 39 (7.89%) Data Protection
16 39 (7.89%) Threat Detection
17 38 (7.69%) SDLC
18 37 (7.49%) AI
Programming Languages
1 101 (20.45%) Python
2 82 (16.60%) PowerShell
3 29 (5.87%) Bash
4 20 (4.05%) Kusto Query Language
5 17 (3.44%) Java
6 8 (1.62%) SQL
7 6 (1.21%) Bicep
8 5 (1.01%) JavaScript
9 4 (0.81%) BeanShell
9 4 (0.81%) PHP
9 4 (0.81%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.61%) C#
11 2 (0.40%) Go
11 2 (0.40%) Ruby
11 2 (0.40%) Shell Script
12 1 (0.20%) Kotlin
12 1 (0.20%) Objective-C
12 1 (0.20%) Scala
12 1 (0.20%) Search Processing Language
12 1 (0.20%) Swift
Qualifications
1 105 (21.26%) Security Cleared
2 80 (16.19%) SC Cleared
3 76 (15.38%) CISSP
4 60 (12.15%) Degree
5 44 (8.91%) CISM
6 27 (5.47%) Cisco Certification
7 25 (5.06%) DV Cleared
8 20 (4.05%) Azure Certification
9 17 (3.44%) CompTIA Security+
10 16 (3.24%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 15 (3.04%) AWS Certification
12 14 (2.83%) CEH
12 14 (2.83%) Microsoft Certification
13 12 (2.43%) GIAC
14 11 (2.23%) SANS
15 9 (1.82%) CCNP
16 8 (1.62%) CCSP
17 6 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
17 6 (1.21%) Network+ Certification
17 6 (1.21%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 78 (15.79%) NIST
2 64 (12.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 45 (9.11%) GDPR
4 24 (4.86%) Cyber Essentials
5 15 (3.04%) PCI DSS
6 14 (2.83%) HIPAA
7 13 (2.63%) NCSC
8 12 (2.43%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 10 (2.02%) GRC
10 9 (1.82%) NIST 800
11 7 (1.42%) RMADS
11 7 (1.42%) SLA
12 6 (1.21%) SOC 2
13 5 (1.01%) California Consumer Privacy Act
13 5 (1.01%) JSP 440
14 4 (0.81%) Government Security Classifications
15 3 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
16 2 (0.40%) Data Quality
16 2 (0.40%) GxP
17 1 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 37 (7.49%) Active Directory
2 30 (6.07%) Docker
3 13 (2.63%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (1.42%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (1.21%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (1.01%) Firmware
7 2 (0.40%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.40%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.20%) GPFS
8 1 (0.20%) Lustre
8 1 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 1 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 54 (10.93%) Kubernetes
2 49 (9.92%) Terraform
3 21 (4.25%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (3.24%) SCCM
5 9 (1.82%) Ansible
5 9 (1.82%) CASB
5 9 (1.82%) Fluentd
6 8 (1.62%) Nessus
6 8 (1.62%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (1.21%) Kibana
7 6 (1.21%) logstash
7 6 (1.21%) SCOrch
7 6 (1.21%) vCenter Server
7 6 (1.21%) WSUS
8 5 (1.01%) Functional Safety
8 5 (1.01%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.81%) AirWatch
10 3 (0.61%) Argo
10 3 (0.61%) CSIRT
10 3 (0.61%) Icinga
Vendors
1 124 (25.10%) Microsoft
2 60 (12.15%) Cisco
3 37 (7.49%) F5
4 33 (6.68%) Splunk
5 27 (5.47%) Palo Alto
6 25 (5.06%) Google
6 25 (5.06%) Tenable
7 18 (3.64%) CrowdStrike
8 17 (3.44%) CheckPoint
8 17 (3.44%) Fortinet
9 16 (3.24%) ServiceNow
10 13 (2.63%) Qualys
11 12 (2.43%) CyberArk
11 12 (2.43%) Juniper
12 11 (2.23%) Zscaler
13 9 (1.82%) Cribl.io
14 8 (1.62%) Checkmarx
14 8 (1.62%) Ping Identity
14 8 (1.62%) Rapid7
14 8 (1.62%) VMware