Network Security Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Network Security
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Network Security skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 254 151 207
Rank change year-on-year -103 +56 +2
Permanent jobs citing Network Security 296 675 466
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.71% 1.80% 1.52%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 3.86% 13.34% 9.29%
Number of salaries quoted 233 288 357
10th Percentile £31,400 £36,850 £36,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,017 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% - +8.58%
75th Percentile £65,000 £67,500 £67,070
90th Percentile £72,250 £80,000 £75,000
UK median annual salary £57,123 £64,600 £62,500
% change year-on-year -11.57% +3.36% +5.00%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

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 UK excluding London.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 7,665 5,060 5,018
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 18.27% 13.52% 16.38%
Number of salaries quoted 2,909 2,555 4,123
10th Percentile £25,087 £29,500 £25,750
25th Percentile £27,694 £35,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £34,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median % change year-on-year -32.00% +11.11% -
75th Percentile £52,500 £62,500 £60,000
90th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £72,433
UK median annual salary £38,500 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -28.70% +8.00% -4.76%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Network Security job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Network Security
Salary Trend in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Network Security.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Network Security

Network Security
Salary Histogram in the UK excluding London

Salary distribution for jobs citing Network Security in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Network Security in the UK excluding London

Network Security
Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Network Security within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 31 December 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
South West +15 64 £50,000 -25.93% 164
North of England -17 63 £50,000 -4.76% 288
South East -78 62 £52,500 -0.94% 302
East of England +34 48 £34,000 -51.43% 197
Midlands -117 35 £50,000 -2.91% 236
Yorkshire -2 34 £47,500 -13.64% 121
North West -1 23 £60,000 +20.00% 147
West Midlands -91 19 £55,500 +7.77% 127
East Midlands -50 16 £49,479 +41.37% 93
Scotland +1 12 £55,000 -12.00% 50
Wales -8 12 £50,500 +7.45% 40
North East +3 6 £50,000 +17.65% 21
Northern Ireland -5 1 £70,000 +16.67% 25
Network Security
UK

Network Security
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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 32 (10.81%) SharePoint
2 12 (4.05%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.68%) Confluence
Applications
1 11 (3.72%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (2.03%) MS Visio
3 3 (1.01%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 82 (27.70%) Azure
2 41 (13.85%) Entra ID
3 37 (12.50%) Microsoft 365
4 36 (12.16%) AWS
5 10 (3.38%) GCP
6 6 (2.03%) Azure Sentinel
6 6 (2.03%) SaaS
7 4 (1.35%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 4 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (1.35%) Cloud Computing
7 4 (1.35%) Google Workspace
7 4 (1.35%) SurveyMonkey
8 3 (1.01%) Dynamics 365
8 3 (1.01%) OCI
8 3 (1.01%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.68%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (0.68%) Nutanix
9 2 (0.68%) Power Platform
9 2 (0.68%) Serverless
9 2 (0.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 121 (40.88%) Firewall
2 72 (24.32%) WAN
3 63 (21.28%) VPN
4 62 (20.95%) LAN
5 52 (17.57%) TCP/IP
6 43 (14.53%) VLAN
7 38 (12.84%) DNS
8 34 (11.49%) DHCP
9 27 (9.12%) OSPF
10 25 (8.45%) Wi-Fi
11 23 (7.77%) BGP
12 22 (7.43%) SD-WAN
13 21 (7.09%) Intrusion Detection
14 17 (5.74%) Internet
15 16 (5.41%) Wireless
16 15 (5.07%) VoIP
17 14 (4.73%) Unified Communications
18 13 (4.39%) Wireshark
18 13 (4.39%) WLAN
19 11 (3.72%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (2.70%) SQL Server
2 3 (1.01%) GIS
3 2 (0.68%) Power BI
4 1 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
4 1 (0.34%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.34%) DTS
Development Applications
1 4 (1.35%) Burp Suite
1 4 (1.35%) Metasploit
2 2 (0.68%) Subversion
3 1 (0.34%) Bitbucket
3 1 (0.34%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.34%) JIRA
3 1 (0.34%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 111 (37.50%) Social Skills
2 53 (17.91%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (14.19%) Finance
4 37 (12.50%) Public Sector
5 36 (12.16%) Manufacturing
6 30 (10.14%) Telecoms
7 26 (8.78%) Electronics
8 25 (8.45%) Marketing
9 12 (4.05%) Legal
10 8 (2.70%) Aerospace
11 7 (2.36%) Law
12 6 (2.03%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (1.35%) Retail
15 2 (0.68%) Billing
15 2 (0.68%) Games
15 2 (0.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 2 (0.68%) Military
15 2 (0.68%) Police
16 1 (0.34%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 51 (17.23%) Senior
2 50 (16.89%) Network Engineer
3 45 (15.20%) Security Engineer
4 29 (9.80%) Consultant
5 27 (9.12%) Security Consultant
6 26 (8.78%) Cybersecurity Consultant
7 24 (8.11%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 23 (7.77%) Architect
9 19 (6.42%) IT Engineer
9 19 (6.42%) Senior Network Engineer
10 18 (6.08%) Analyst
11 17 (5.74%) IT Support
12 16 (5.41%) Cybersecurity Engineer
12 16 (5.41%) Infrastructure Security Engineer
12 16 (5.41%) Lead
13 14 (4.73%) Senior Security Engineer
14 11 (3.72%) Network Manager
14 11 (3.72%) Security Analyst
14 11 (3.72%) Support Engineer
15 10 (3.38%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (1.69%) 802.1X
2 4 (1.35%) LDAP
2 4 (1.35%) ModSecurity
3 2 (0.68%) HTML
4 1 (0.34%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 34 (11.49%) IoT
2 26 (8.78%) Driving Licence
3 25 (8.45%) Analytical Mindset
4 24 (8.11%) Data Centre
5 19 (6.42%) Operational Technology
6 17 (5.74%) Security Posture
7 16 (5.41%) Cyber Threat
7 16 (5.41%) Security Operations Centre
8 13 (4.39%) Cloud Native
9 10 (3.38%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 9 (3.04%) SCADA
11 8 (2.70%) Cyber Defence
12 7 (2.36%) Client/Server
12 7 (2.36%) Cloud Security Posture
12 7 (2.36%) PKI
13 6 (2.03%) iPad
13 6 (2.03%) Management Information System
13 6 (2.03%) Onboarding
13 6 (2.03%) PMI
14 5 (1.69%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 42 (14.19%) Windows
2 21 (7.09%) Windows Server
3 17 (5.74%) Linux
4 4 (1.35%) Android
4 4 (1.35%) Kali Linux
4 4 (1.35%) Ubuntu
4 4 (1.35%) Unix
5 2 (0.68%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.34%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.34%) VMS
6 1 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (38.18%) Cybersecurity
2 51 (17.23%) Mentoring
3 47 (15.88%) Problem-Solving
3 47 (15.88%) SIEM
4 39 (13.18%) Customer Service
4 39 (13.18%) Incident Response
5 36 (12.16%) Vulnerability Management
6 33 (11.15%) Security Operations
7 32 (10.81%) ITIL
8 31 (10.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 26 (8.78%) Programme Management
10 25 (8.45%) Business Intelligence
10 25 (8.45%) Digital Marketing
11 24 (8.11%) Cloud Security
12 23 (7.77%) Continuous Improvement
13 21 (7.09%) Network Design
14 19 (6.42%) Computer Science
14 19 (6.42%) Data Protection
14 19 (6.42%) Information Security
15 18 (6.08%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 17 (5.74%) SQL
2 14 (4.73%) Python
3 11 (3.72%) PowerShell
4 10 (3.38%) C++
5 8 (2.70%) Kusto Query Language
6 6 (2.03%) Bash
6 6 (2.03%) C
7 5 (1.69%) Bicep
8 4 (1.35%) Java
8 4 (1.35%) R
8 4 (1.35%) Rust
9 2 (0.68%) JavaScript
9 2 (0.68%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 81 (27.36%) Security Cleared
2 61 (20.61%) Cisco Certification
3 45 (15.20%) CCNP
3 45 (15.20%) CISSP
4 44 (14.86%) Degree
5 42 (14.19%) CompTIA Security+
6 39 (13.18%) SC Cleared
7 36 (12.16%) CCNA
8 24 (8.11%) CEH
9 21 (7.09%) DV Cleared
10 14 (4.73%) Computer Science Degree
11 13 (4.39%) CCIE
12 11 (3.72%) SANS
13 8 (2.70%) DBS Check
13 8 (2.70%) GCIA
13 8 (2.70%) Network+ Certification
14 7 (2.36%) CISM
14 7 (2.36%) HND
14 7 (2.36%) JNCIA
15 6 (2.03%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (20.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 50 (16.89%) NIST
3 29 (9.80%) PCI DSS
4 24 (8.11%) Cyber Essentials
5 17 (5.74%) GDPR
6 15 (5.07%) NCSC
7 7 (2.36%) GRC
8 5 (1.69%) ISO/IEC 42001
8 5 (1.69%) JSP 440
9 3 (1.01%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 2 (0.68%) PMO
10 2 (0.68%) SOC 2
11 1 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 1 (0.34%) QA
11 1 (0.34%) SLA
System Software
1 40 (13.51%) Active Directory
2 31 (10.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (6.42%) Hyper-V
4 10 (3.38%) Firmware
5 3 (1.01%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (0.68%) Docker
6 2 (0.68%) KVM
6 2 (0.68%) ProxySG
6 2 (0.68%) RHEV
6 2 (0.68%) Xen
7 1 (0.34%) iptables
7 1 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.34%) VMware Workstation
7 1 (0.34%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 33 (11.15%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (4.39%) Terraform
3 9 (3.04%) Nagios
4 7 (2.36%) Ansible
4 7 (2.36%) FortiGate
4 7 (2.36%) WSUS
5 4 (1.35%) Nessus
5 4 (1.35%) Nmap
6 3 (1.01%) Dell DRAC
7 2 (0.68%) Grafana
7 2 (0.68%) Kubernetes
7 2 (0.68%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.34%) CSIRT
8 1 (0.34%) Progress Chef
8 1 (0.34%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.34%) Puppet
8 1 (0.34%) SCCM
8 1 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
8 1 (0.34%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.34%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 78 (26.35%) Microsoft
2 74 (25.00%) Cisco
3 33 (11.15%) VMware
4 25 (8.45%) SAP
5 21 (7.09%) SolarWinds
6 18 (6.08%) Fortinet
7 17 (5.74%) CheckPoint
7 17 (5.74%) F5
7 17 (5.74%) Palo Alto
8 16 (5.41%) Meraki
9 12 (4.05%) Juniper
10 11 (3.72%) Splunk
11 7 (2.36%) HP
12 6 (2.03%) Apple
13 5 (1.69%) Blue Coat
13 5 (1.69%) Google
13 5 (1.69%) Mitel
14 4 (1.35%) Avaya
14 4 (1.35%) Dell
14 4 (1.35%) Red Hat