Network Security Job Trends in the South West

Network Security
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Network Security skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 27 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 186 102 144
Rank change year-on-year -84 +42 -17
Permanent jobs citing Network Security 63 65 87
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 0.61% 1.83% 1.20%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.35% 11.25% 11.24%
Number of salaries quoted 40 55 58
10th Percentile £31,250 £31,000 £34,821
25th Percentile £41,750 £47,500 £51,563
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £50,000 £80,000
Median % change year-on-year +15.00% -37.50% +38.53%
75th Percentile £78,250 £54,157 £97,250
90th Percentile £110,000 £63,750 -
England median annual salary £65,000 £60,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year +8.33% -4.00% +4.17%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South West

Network Security falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in the South West.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 674 578 774
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the South West 6.48% 16.23% 10.70%
Number of salaries quoted 371 363 453
10th Percentile £26,750 £26,165 £30,000
25th Percentile £31,250 £30,000 £33,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £34,500 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +23.19% -31.00% +5.26%
75th Percentile £63,750 £52,500 £68,750
90th Percentile £75,000 £63,600 £82,250
England median annual salary £49,500 £40,250 £50,000
% change year-on-year +22.98% -19.50% -4.76%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Network Security relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Network Security job vacancy trend in the South West

Network Security
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Network Security.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Network Security

Network Security
Salary Histogram in the South West

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Security in the South West over the 6 months to 27 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Network Security in the South West

Network Security
Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Security within the South West region over the 6 months to 27 September 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Gloucestershire -47 22 £88,000 +67.62% 12
Wiltshire -14 13 £57,500 +33.72% 9
Somerset -21 11 £50,000 -10.91% 3
Bristol -68 7 £65,000 +30.00% 7
Devon -26 6 £32,500 -37.17% 3
Network Security
England

Network Security
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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 8 (12.70%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (6.35%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 32 (50.79%) Azure
2 23 (36.51%) Entra ID
3 18 (28.57%) AWS
4 16 (25.40%) Microsoft 365
5 9 (14.29%) Azure AKS
5 9 (14.29%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (9.52%) Azure DevOps
6 6 (9.52%) OCI
7 5 (7.94%) GCP
8 3 (4.76%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 3 (4.76%) Amazon ECS
8 3 (4.76%) SaaS
9 2 (3.17%) IaaS
9 2 (3.17%) PaaS
10 1 (1.59%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 40 (63.49%) Firewall
2 21 (33.33%) VLAN
3 20 (31.75%) VPN
4 14 (22.22%) WAN
5 11 (17.46%) DHCP
5 11 (17.46%) DNS
6 9 (14.29%) BGP
6 9 (14.29%) SD-WAN
6 9 (14.29%) Software-Defined Networking
7 8 (12.70%) LAN
8 7 (11.11%) TCP/IP
9 6 (9.52%) DMZ
9 6 (9.52%) Ethernet VPN
10 5 (7.94%) SNMP
10 5 (7.94%) VoIP
10 5 (7.94%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (7.94%) Wireless
11 4 (6.35%) OSPF
11 4 (6.35%) VXLAN
11 4 (6.35%) Wireshark
Development Applications
1 6 (9.52%) JIRA
2 3 (4.76%) GitLab
3 1 (1.59%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 16 (25.40%) Finance
2 15 (23.81%) Social Skills
3 9 (14.29%) Aerospace
4 6 (9.52%) Automotive
4 6 (9.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 3 (4.76%) Public Sector
6 2 (3.17%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (3.17%) Retail
Job Titles
1 18 (28.57%) Support Engineer
2 16 (25.40%) IT Support
3 14 (22.22%) Architect
3 14 (22.22%) IT Engineer
3 14 (22.22%) IT Support Engineer
4 12 (19.05%) Network Engineer
5 9 (14.29%) Azure Architect
5 9 (14.29%) Technical Architect
6 6 (9.52%) Azure Engineer
6 6 (9.52%) Infrastructure Support
6 6 (9.52%) Microsoft 365 Engineer
6 6 (9.52%) Server Engineer
6 6 (9.52%) Server Support
7 5 (7.94%) Cloud Engineer
7 5 (7.94%) Cybersecurity Specialist
7 5 (7.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 5 (7.94%) Network Architect
7 5 (7.94%) Security Specialist
8 4 (6.35%) Technical Engineer
8 4 (6.35%) Technical Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (28.57%) Terraform
2 1 (1.59%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 12 (19.05%) Hybrid Cloud
2 4 (6.35%) Cyber Threat
2 4 (6.35%) Driving Licence
3 3 (4.76%) Cloud Native
4 2 (3.17%) Blog
4 2 (3.17%) Cloud Security Posture
4 2 (3.17%) Cyber Kill Chain
4 2 (3.17%) Data Centre
4 2 (3.17%) PKI
4 2 (3.17%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.59%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 16 (25.40%) Windows
2 12 (19.05%) Windows Server
3 6 (9.52%) Linux
4 4 (6.35%) Windows Server 2012
4 4 (6.35%) Windows Server 2016
4 4 (6.35%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (31.75%) Cybersecurity
2 18 (28.57%) Infrastructure as Code
3 15 (23.81%) Network Virtualisation
4 14 (22.22%) Containerisation
5 13 (20.63%) Cloud Security
6 12 (19.05%) CI/CD
7 11 (17.46%) Disaster Recovery
7 11 (17.46%) Network Monitoring
8 10 (15.87%) Agile
8 10 (15.87%) Collaborative Working
8 10 (15.87%) Problem-Solving
8 10 (15.87%) Zero Trust
9 9 (14.29%) Business Continuity
9 9 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
9 9 (14.29%) DevOps
9 9 (14.29%) DevSecOps
9 9 (14.29%) GitOps
9 9 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 9 (14.29%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 8 (12.70%) Network Architecture
Programming Languages
1 9 (14.29%) Bicep
2 6 (9.52%) Python
3 2 (3.17%) Bash
3 2 (3.17%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 26 (41.27%) Security Cleared
2 17 (26.98%) DV Cleared
3 13 (20.63%) SC Cleared
4 8 (12.70%) Cisco Certification
5 5 (7.94%) Microsoft Certification
6 4 (6.35%) AWS Certification
6 4 (6.35%) Azure Certification
6 4 (6.35%) CCNA
6 4 (6.35%) CCNP
6 4 (6.35%) MCSA
6 4 (6.35%) Microsoft Certified Professional
6 4 (6.35%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 3 (4.76%) CCIE
8 2 (3.17%) CISSP
9 1 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (1.59%) CISM
9 1 (1.59%) CompTIA Security+
9 1 (1.59%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (1.59%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (22.22%) Cyber Essentials
2 10 (15.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (14.29%) NIST
4 7 (11.11%) GRC
5 4 (6.35%) GDPR
6 3 (4.76%) PCI DSS
7 2 (3.17%) ISO/IEC 42001
7 2 (3.17%) JSP 440
7 2 (3.17%) NCSC
System Software
1 25 (39.68%) Active Directory
2 19 (30.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (15.87%) Hyper-V
4 9 (14.29%) Docker
5 3 (4.76%) VMware NSX
6 2 (3.17%) Firmware
6 2 (3.17%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (1.59%) KVM
7 1 (1.59%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (1.59%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 14 (22.22%) Kubernetes
2 8 (12.70%) Ansible
3 4 (6.35%) Iperf
4 3 (4.76%) Grafana
4 3 (4.76%) Prometheus
5 2 (3.17%) FortiGate
6 1 (1.59%) Proxmox
6 1 (1.59%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (1.59%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 32 (50.79%) Microsoft
2 19 (30.16%) VMware
3 12 (19.05%) Cisco
4 8 (12.70%) Fortinet
5 5 (7.94%) SonicWALL
6 4 (6.35%) Oracle
6 4 (6.35%) Ruckus Wireless
6 4 (6.35%) Veeam
7 3 (4.76%) Aruba
7 3 (4.76%) Palo Alto
8 1 (1.59%) Arista
8 1 (1.59%) CheckPoint
8 1 (1.59%) Google
8 1 (1.59%) Juniper
8 1 (1.59%) SolarWinds
8 1 (1.59%) Sophos
8 1 (1.59%) WatchGuard