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 16 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 230 217
Rank change year-on-year -58 -13 -10
Permanent jobs citing Network Security 422 411 878
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK excluding London 0.59% 1.22% 1.20%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.35% 7.34% 9.70%
Number of salaries quoted 319 348 665
10th Percentile £31,250 £25,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £46,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - - +4.76%
75th Percentile £73,125 £73,750 £68,750
90th Percentile £92,000 £85,000 £82,500
UK median annual salary £65,576 £61,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +7.50% +1.67% +4.35%

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 5,056 5,603 9,056
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 7.06% 16.58% 12.37%
Number of salaries quoted 3,437 3,042 6,603
10th Percentile £27,500 £25,087 £25,875
25th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £31,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £42,500 £39,000 £44,000
Median % change year-on-year +8.97% -11.36% -2.22%
75th Percentile £62,500 £57,500 £58,750
90th Percentile £75,000 £71,622 £70,000
UK median annual salary £47,500 £45,000 £47,500
% change year-on-year +5.56% -5.26% -7.50%

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 16 July 2026.

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 16 July 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
North of England -6 110 £57,500 - 45
South East -9 105 £52,500 -0.94% 57
North West +56 80 £52,500 -12.50% 32
South West -65 74 £54,498 -0.91% 16
Midlands -14 62 £62,500 +28.21% 23
West Midlands -26 43 £65,000 +32.65% 10
Scotland +24 30 £60,000 -30.14% 21
East of England -10 23 £50,580 +1.67% 16
Yorkshire -59 20 £62,500 +2.04% 13
East Midlands -34 18 £47,500 +3.26% 13
Wales -67 18 £45,000 -40.00% 3
North East -61 10 £80,288 +49.37% 1
Northern Ireland -58 7 £50,000 -34.29% 4
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 38 (9.00%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (4.50%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.95%) Skype for Business
4 2 (0.47%) Apache
5 1 (0.24%) Confluence
Applications
1 9 (2.13%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.95%) MS Visio
3 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 4 (0.95%) Line 50
2 1 (0.24%) Oracle Payables
Cloud Services
1 129 (30.57%) Azure
2 80 (18.96%) AWS
3 76 (18.01%) Microsoft 365
4 51 (12.09%) Entra ID
5 25 (5.92%) GCP
6 13 (3.08%) Mimecast
6 13 (3.08%) Serverless
7 10 (2.37%) Azure DevOps
8 8 (1.90%) Azure Sentinel
8 8 (1.90%) SaaS
9 7 (1.66%) Azure AKS
9 7 (1.66%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 6 (1.42%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 6 (1.42%) Amazon S3
10 6 (1.42%) AWS Lambda
10 6 (1.42%) Dynamics 365
11 5 (1.18%) Google Workspace
11 5 (1.18%) OCI
11 5 (1.18%) Virtual Private Cloud
12 4 (0.95%) Microsoft Purview
Communications & Networking
1 233 (55.21%) Firewall
2 123 (29.15%) WAN
3 106 (25.12%) VPN
4 105 (24.88%) LAN
5 102 (24.17%) VLAN
6 64 (15.17%) DNS
6 64 (15.17%) SD-WAN
7 61 (14.45%) Wireless
8 59 (13.98%) DHCP
9 56 (13.27%) Wi-Fi
10 51 (12.09%) TCP/IP
11 40 (9.48%) BGP
12 27 (6.40%) WLAN
13 26 (6.16%) OSPF
13 26 (6.16%) VoIP
14 24 (5.69%) MPLS
15 21 (4.98%) Cisco Nexus
15 21 (4.98%) SSL
16 20 (4.74%) IPsec
17 19 (4.50%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (1.42%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
2 4 (0.95%) FileMaker
2 4 (0.95%) GIS
2 4 (0.95%) MySQL
2 4 (0.95%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (0.71%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.24%) MariaDB
4 1 (0.24%) RDBMS
4 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (2.37%) JIRA
2 5 (1.18%) Git
3 4 (0.95%) GitLab
4 3 (0.71%) Bitbucket
4 3 (0.71%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.71%) SonarQube
5 2 (0.47%) Subversion
6 1 (0.24%) Claude Code
General
1 121 (28.67%) Social Skills
2 39 (9.24%) Finance
3 28 (6.64%) Public Sector
4 27 (6.40%) Analytical Skills
5 18 (4.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 14 (3.32%) Aerospace
6 14 (3.32%) Organisational Skills
6 14 (3.32%) Telecoms
7 12 (2.84%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (2.61%) Presentation Skills
9 9 (2.13%) Automotive
9 9 (2.13%) Manufacturing
10 8 (1.90%) Retail
11 7 (1.66%) Banking
12 5 (1.18%) Local Government
13 4 (0.95%) Advertising
13 4 (0.95%) Legal
13 4 (0.95%) Marketing
14 3 (0.71%) Aviation
14 3 (0.71%) Law
Job Titles
1 109 (25.83%) Network Engineer
2 76 (18.01%) Senior
3 54 (12.80%) Architect
4 45 (10.66%) IT Support
5 40 (9.48%) Security Engineer
6 39 (9.24%) Analyst
7 32 (7.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 30 (7.11%) IT Engineer
8 30 (7.11%) Senior Network Engineer
9 28 (6.64%) Network Analyst
9 28 (6.64%) Security Analyst
9 28 (6.64%) Security Architect
10 27 (6.40%) Support Engineer
11 26 (6.16%) Network Security Analyst
12 25 (5.92%) Consultant
13 22 (5.21%) IT Technician
13 22 (5.21%) Network Architect
13 22 (5.21%) Senior Security Engineer
14 20 (4.74%) IT Support Engineer
15 18 (4.27%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (2.61%) OAuth
2 10 (2.37%) SAML
3 6 (1.42%) HTML
4 4 (0.95%) 802.1X
4 4 (0.95%) CSS
4 4 (0.95%) Microsoft Graph
4 4 (0.95%) REST
5 3 (0.71%) gRPC
5 3 (0.71%) Kafka
5 3 (0.71%) Keycloak
5 3 (0.71%) Protocol Buffers
6 1 (0.24%) .NET
6 1 (0.24%) .NET Framework
6 1 (0.24%) ADO
6 1 (0.24%) AngularJS
6 1 (0.24%) ASP.NET
6 1 (0.24%) ASP.NET Web API
6 1 (0.24%) OAuth2
6 1 (0.24%) React
6 1 (0.24%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 41 (9.72%) Data Centre
2 36 (8.53%) Driving Licence
3 35 (8.29%) Security Posture
4 23 (5.45%) Hybrid Cloud
5 17 (4.03%) Self-Motivation
6 16 (3.79%) Cloud Native
7 15 (3.55%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 15 (3.55%) Management Information System
8 13 (3.08%) PKI
9 9 (2.13%) CCTV
9 9 (2.13%) Cloud Security Posture
9 9 (2.13%) Cyber Threat
10 8 (1.90%) Clustering
11 6 (1.42%) Cyber Security Posture
11 6 (1.42%) Onboarding
11 6 (1.42%) Security Operations Centre
12 5 (1.18%) Blog
12 5 (1.18%) Enterprise Cloud
13 4 (0.95%) Private Cloud
13 4 (0.95%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 80 (18.96%) Windows
2 53 (12.56%) Linux
3 42 (9.95%) Windows Server
4 10 (2.37%) Windows Server 2016
5 9 (2.13%) Windows 10
6 8 (1.90%) Mac OS
7 6 (1.42%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.18%) Windows Server 2012
9 4 (0.95%) CentOS
9 4 (0.95%) Unix
10 3 (0.71%) Android
10 3 (0.71%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.47%) Debian
11 2 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.24%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 144 (34.12%) Cybersecurity
2 99 (23.46%) Problem-Solving
3 55 (13.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 54 (12.80%) Continuous Improvement
4 54 (12.80%) Disaster Recovery
5 51 (12.09%) Business Continuity
6 47 (11.14%) Cloud Security
7 46 (10.90%) Incident Response
8 44 (10.43%) Project Delivery
8 44 (10.43%) Security Operations
9 41 (9.72%) Decision-Making
9 41 (9.72%) Vulnerability Management
10 40 (9.48%) Network Architecture
10 40 (9.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 38 (9.00%) ITIL
11 38 (9.00%) Mentoring
11 38 (9.00%) SIEM
12 37 (8.77%) Security Architecture
13 33 (7.82%) High Availability
13 33 (7.82%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 35 (8.29%) Python
2 22 (5.21%) PowerShell
3 13 (3.08%) SQL
4 12 (2.84%) Rust
5 11 (2.61%) Bash
6 7 (1.66%) Bicep
7 4 (0.95%) C
7 4 (0.95%) PHP
7 4 (0.95%) Ruby
8 3 (0.71%) JavaScript
8 3 (0.71%) Kusto Query Language
8 3 (0.71%) Shell Script
8 3 (0.71%) TypeScript
9 2 (0.47%) C++
10 1 (0.24%) C#
10 1 (0.24%) Java
10 1 (0.24%) PL/SQL
10 1 (0.24%) Search Processing Language
10 1 (0.24%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 102 (24.17%) Cisco Certification
2 80 (18.96%) Security Cleared
3 75 (17.77%) CCNP
4 51 (12.09%) SC Cleared
5 45 (10.66%) CCNA
6 43 (10.19%) Degree
7 35 (8.29%) DV Cleared
8 24 (5.69%) CISSP
9 19 (4.50%) DBS Check
10 17 (4.03%) Azure Certification
10 17 (4.03%) CCIE
11 16 (3.79%) Computer Science Degree
12 15 (3.55%) Microsoft Certification
13 14 (3.32%) CISM
14 13 (3.08%) Network+ Certification
15 12 (2.84%) AWS Certification
16 7 (1.66%) (ISC)2 CCSP
16 7 (1.66%) CCSP
17 6 (1.42%) CompTIA Security+
17 6 (1.42%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 62 (14.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 42 (9.95%) NIST
3 26 (6.16%) Cyber Essentials
4 17 (4.03%) GDPR
5 14 (3.32%) PCI DSS
6 13 (3.08%) SLA
7 12 (2.84%) GRC
8 9 (2.13%) NCSC
9 7 (1.66%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 6 (1.42%) ISO 9001
10 6 (1.42%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 5 (1.18%) ISO 14001
11 5 (1.18%) JSP 440
12 4 (0.95%) PMO
12 4 (0.95%) SOC 2
13 2 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
13 2 (0.47%) QA
System Software
1 82 (19.43%) Active Directory
2 51 (12.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (6.64%) Hyper-V
4 26 (6.16%) Docker
5 11 (2.61%) VMware NSX
6 7 (1.66%) vSphere
7 4 (0.95%) Firmware
7 4 (0.95%) ProxySG
7 4 (0.95%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.95%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.71%) iptables
9 2 (0.47%) Citrix Hypervisor
9 2 (0.47%) Samba
10 1 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.24%) XenApp
10 1 (0.24%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 41 (9.72%) FortiGate
2 33 (7.82%) Terraform
3 22 (5.21%) Kubernetes
4 16 (3.79%) Ansible
5 10 (2.37%) CASB
6 8 (1.90%) Microsoft Intune
6 8 (1.90%) Puppet
7 7 (1.66%) Grafana
7 7 (1.66%) Prometheus
8 5 (1.18%) Progress Chef
9 4 (0.95%) Iperf
9 4 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
10 3 (0.71%) Podman
11 2 (0.47%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 2 (0.47%) Dell DRAC
11 2 (0.47%) Kibana
11 2 (0.47%) Proxmox
11 2 (0.47%) SCCM
12 1 (0.24%) Nagios
12 1 (0.24%) WSUS
Vendors
1 147 (34.83%) Microsoft
2 137 (32.46%) Cisco
3 79 (18.72%) Fortinet
4 66 (15.64%) VMware
5 40 (9.48%) Palo Alto
6 35 (8.29%) Aruba
7 24 (5.69%) SonicWALL
8 22 (5.21%) Juniper
9 17 (4.03%) Google
10 16 (3.79%) Sophos
11 15 (3.55%) Meraki
12 14 (3.32%) HP
12 14 (3.32%) Veeam
13 12 (2.84%) CheckPoint
14 9 (2.13%) F5
15 8 (1.90%) Dell
16 7 (1.66%) ServiceNow
17 6 (1.42%) Ruckus Wireless
17 6 (1.42%) SolarWinds
18 5 (1.18%) Infoblox