Network Security Contracts

Network Security
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for Network Security skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Network Security over the 6 months to 9 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
9 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 178 190 234
Rank change year-on-year +12 +44 +20
Contract jobs citing Network Security 577 822 1,100
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 1.34% 1.42% 1.26%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.53% 11.48% 11.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 397 514 722
10th Percentile £362 £408 £363
25th Percentile £463 £471 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £575 £540
Median % change year-on-year - +6.48% +13.68%
75th Percentile £666 £700 £638
90th Percentile £755 £750 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £525 £500
% change year-on-year +9.52% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 16 22
10th Percentile - £21.16 £26.50
25th Percentile £7.43 £37.67 £44.41
Median hourly rate £19.00 £53.57 £52.60
Median % change year-on-year -64.53% +1.83% +18.87%
75th Percentile £41.25 £66.00 £63.61
90th Percentile - £70.88 £69.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £7.43 £49.12 £50.77
% change year-on-year -84.87% -3.25% +128.18%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

Network Security is in the Communications and Computer Networking category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,482 7,160 9,518
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.73% 12.34% 10.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,283 4,630 6,209
10th Percentile £205 £240 £230
25th Percentile £350 £400 £385
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £518 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.49% +3.65% +11.11%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £606
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £440
% change year-on-year - +7.95% +10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 419 472 358
10th Percentile £13.50 £9.80 £15.25
25th Percentile £16.58 £10.63 £17.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £18.50 £28.41
Median % change year-on-year +116.22% -34.88% +5.22%
75th Percentile £63.75 £60.00 £50.77
90th Percentile £70.00 £74.95 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £46.14 £18.50 £21.50
% change year-on-year +149.38% -13.95% -10.42%

Network Security
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Network Security as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Network Security.

Daily rate trend for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Security over the 6 months to 9 May 2024.

Daily rate histogram for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Network Security.

Hourly rate trend for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Security over the 6 months to 9 May 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Security in the UK

Network Security
Top 17 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Security within the UK over the 6 months to 9 May 2024. 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 +16 492 £575 - 267
UK excluding London +25 306 £575 +9.52% 169
Work from Home -6 194 £590 -1.67% 112
London -38 181 £538 -10.42% 105
South East +19 95 £540 -8.11% 50
South West +47 70 £575 -8.00% 19
North of England +6 60 £625 +19.05% 40
Midlands +29 53 £600 +14.29% 31
West Midlands +26 50 £615 +6.96% 20
North West +7 44 £663 +36.42% 23
Yorkshire +3 14 £500 -20.00% 12
East of England -2 13 £475 -5.00% 19
Scotland +30 10 £575 +12.20% 11
Wales +11 4 £313 -26.47% 7
East Midlands +10 3 £588 +12.60% 11
North East +14 2 £450 -5.26% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 - -

Network Security
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 10 (1.73%) IIS
2 5 (0.87%) SharePoint
3 4 (0.69%) Apache
3 4 (0.69%) MQSeries
4 3 (0.52%) Apache Airflow
4 3 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
5 2 (0.35%) nginx
6 1 (0.17%) EPiServer
6 1 (0.17%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.17%) Tomcat
6 1 (0.17%) WebSphere
Applications
1 8 (1.39%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (0.87%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.17%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 5 (0.87%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 122 (21.14%) Azure
2 95 (16.46%) AWS
3 26 (4.51%) Microsoft 365
4 23 (3.99%) Azure DevOps
4 23 (3.99%) Entra ID
5 22 (3.81%) Amazon EC2
5 22 (3.81%) Amazon S3
5 22 (3.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 20 (3.47%) GCP
7 19 (3.29%) Azure Sentinel
8 14 (2.43%) Amazon EKS
9 13 (2.25%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 12 (2.08%) Route 53
10 12 (2.08%) SaaS
11 10 (1.73%) Serverless
12 9 (1.56%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (1.56%) Cloud Computing
13 8 (1.39%) Azure Monitor
13 8 (1.39%) IaaS
14 7 (1.21%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 236 (40.90%) Firewall
2 92 (15.94%) VPN
3 75 (13.00%) WAN
4 71 (12.31%) DNS
5 50 (8.67%) LAN
6 48 (8.32%) BGP
6 48 (8.32%) Cisco ISE
7 42 (7.28%) Wireless
8 40 (6.93%) TCP/IP
9 39 (6.76%) OSPF
10 35 (6.07%) SD-WAN
11 34 (5.89%) Cisco ASA
12 29 (5.03%) Intrusion Detection
12 29 (5.03%) MPLS
13 22 (3.81%) SSL
14 21 (3.64%) 5G
14 21 (3.64%) DHCP
14 21 (3.64%) Internet
15 19 (3.29%) IPsec
16 15 (2.60%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 19 (3.29%) Amazon RDS
2 15 (2.60%) Big Data
3 7 (1.21%) Relational Database
4 6 (1.04%) InfluxDB
5 5 (0.87%) SQL Server
6 4 (0.69%) Apache Cassandra
7 3 (0.52%) GIS
7 3 (0.52%) NoSQL
7 3 (0.52%) QGIS
8 2 (0.35%) Azure SQL Database
8 2 (0.35%) Oracle Database
9 1 (0.17%) Amazon Redshift
9 1 (0.17%) Bigtable
9 1 (0.17%) Couchbase
9 1 (0.17%) CouchDB
9 1 (0.17%) MongoDB
9 1 (0.17%) MySQL
9 1 (0.17%) NonStop SQL
9 1 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
9 1 (0.17%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 31 (5.37%) Git
2 26 (4.51%) Jenkins
3 7 (1.21%) Sonatype Nexus
4 4 (0.69%) TeamCity
5 3 (0.52%) Visual Studio
6 1 (0.17%) Artifactory
6 1 (0.17%) Atlassian Bamboo
6 1 (0.17%) Burp Suite
6 1 (0.17%) GitLab
General
1 108 (18.72%) Social Skills
2 92 (15.94%) Analytical Skills
3 51 (8.84%) Public Sector
4 49 (8.49%) Finance
5 21 (3.64%) Banking
6 20 (3.47%) Manufacturing
7 17 (2.95%) Military
8 16 (2.77%) Telecoms
9 12 (2.08%) Retail
10 11 (1.91%) Documentation Skills
10 11 (1.91%) Presentation Skills
11 8 (1.39%) Financial Institution
11 8 (1.39%) Marketing
11 8 (1.39%) Organisational Skills
12 6 (1.04%) Legal
13 5 (0.87%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 4 (0.69%) Electronics
14 4 (0.69%) Law
15 2 (0.35%) Aerospace
15 2 (0.35%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 156 (27.04%) Network Engineer
2 110 (19.06%) Architect
3 79 (13.69%) Security Architect
4 78 (13.52%) Security Engineer
5 69 (11.96%) Senior
6 49 (8.49%) Network Security Engineer
7 40 (6.93%) Analyst
8 34 (5.89%) Consultant
9 31 (5.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 29 (5.03%) Project Manager
11 25 (4.33%) Cybersecurity Architect
12 24 (4.16%) Senior Network Engineer
13 23 (3.99%) Network Architect
13 23 (3.99%) Security Analyst
13 23 (3.99%) Security Consultant
14 20 (3.47%) Lead
15 19 (3.29%) DevOps Engineer
16 16 (2.77%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
17 14 (2.43%) Network Consultant
18 13 (2.25%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (2.60%) Apache NiFi
2 13 (2.25%) .NET
2 13 (2.25%) LDAP
3 12 (2.08%) SAML
4 10 (1.73%) JSON
5 9 (1.56%) NETCONF
5 9 (1.56%) XML
5 9 (1.56%) YANG
6 8 (1.39%) OAuth
7 7 (1.21%) ARM Templates
8 6 (1.04%) Web Services
9 5 (0.87%) ASP.NET
9 5 (0.87%) OAuth2
9 5 (0.87%) RabbitMQ
10 4 (0.69%) Middleware
10 4 (0.69%) Regular Expression
11 3 (0.52%) Jinja
11 3 (0.52%) OpenID
11 3 (0.52%) RESTful
11 3 (0.52%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 58 (10.05%) Data Centre
2 45 (7.80%) Management Information System
3 28 (4.85%) Security Operations Centre
4 27 (4.68%) Cyber Defence
5 24 (4.16%) Cyber Threat
5 24 (4.16%) PKI
5 24 (4.16%) Security Posture
6 16 (2.77%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 15 (2.60%) Distributed Applications
8 14 (2.43%) Operational Technology
9 11 (1.91%) Linux Command Line
10 9 (1.56%) Cloud Native
11 7 (1.21%) Data Protection Act
11 7 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
11 7 (1.21%) Public Cloud
12 5 (0.87%) Clustering
12 5 (0.87%) NHS
12 5 (0.87%) Self-Motivation
12 5 (0.87%) Social Media
12 5 (0.87%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 80 (13.86%) Windows
2 56 (9.71%) Linux
3 20 (3.47%) Unix
4 13 (2.25%) Android
4 13 (2.25%) Apple iOS
5 12 (2.08%) Windows Server
6 6 (1.04%) VMS
6 6 (1.04%) Windows 10
7 5 (0.87%) Windows Server 2019
8 4 (0.69%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.52%) Windows 7
9 3 (0.52%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.17%) AIX
10 1 (0.17%) Mac OS
10 1 (0.17%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.17%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.17%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (25.13%) Cybersecurity
2 117 (20.28%) Information Security
3 104 (18.02%) Problem-Solving
4 90 (15.60%) Security Architecture
5 73 (12.65%) Cloud Security
5 73 (12.65%) SIEM
6 68 (11.79%) DevOps
7 58 (10.05%) Migration
8 55 (9.53%) Risk Management
9 54 (9.36%) Identity Access Management
10 51 (8.84%) Security Operations
11 42 (7.28%) CI/CD
12 40 (6.93%) Computer Science
13 39 (6.76%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 39 (6.76%) Network Design
14 38 (6.59%) ITIL
14 38 (6.59%) Penetration Testing
15 37 (6.41%) Mentoring
16 36 (6.24%) Incident Response
16 36 (6.24%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 64 (11.09%) Python
2 32 (5.55%) Java
3 29 (5.03%) PowerShell
4 20 (3.47%) SQL
5 10 (1.73%) Bash
6 9 (1.56%) Go
6 9 (1.56%) Kusto Query Language
7 7 (1.21%) Shell Script
8 6 (1.04%) VB
9 5 (0.87%) C
9 5 (0.87%) C#
10 3 (0.52%) PHP
10 3 (0.52%) Ruby
11 2 (0.35%) Bicep
11 2 (0.35%) JavaScript
12 1 (0.17%) C++
12 1 (0.17%) Korn
12 1 (0.17%) Scala
12 1 (0.17%) tcsh
Qualifications
1 185 (32.06%) Security Cleared
2 111 (19.24%) Cisco Certification
3 91 (15.77%) DV Cleared
4 87 (15.08%) SC Cleared
5 86 (14.90%) CCNP
6 71 (12.31%) CISSP
7 53 (9.19%) Degree
8 51 (8.84%) CISM
9 40 (6.93%) CCNA
10 34 (5.89%) Computer Science Degree
11 25 (4.33%) CCIE
12 20 (3.47%) CISA
13 19 (3.29%) Azure Certification
14 17 (2.95%) AWS Certification
15 14 (2.43%) Microsoft Certification
16 11 (1.91%) CompTIA Security+
17 10 (1.73%) CEH
17 10 (1.73%) CREST Certified
18 9 (1.56%) JNCIA
19 8 (1.39%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 61 (10.57%) NIST
2 51 (8.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (3.99%) NCSC
4 21 (3.64%) GDPR
5 15 (2.60%) Actionable Recommendations
5 15 (2.60%) COBIT
6 13 (2.25%) PCI DSS
7 11 (1.91%) NIST 800
8 7 (1.21%) SLA
9 5 (0.87%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 4 (0.69%) Cyber Essentials
10 4 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 3 (0.52%) GPG13
11 3 (0.52%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.52%) ISA99
11 3 (0.52%) QA
12 2 (0.35%) GRC
12 2 (0.35%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.17%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.17%) Def Stans
System Software
1 42 (7.28%) Active Directory
2 38 (6.59%) Docker
3 21 (3.64%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (2.43%) VMware NSX
5 11 (1.91%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (1.56%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.69%) Samba
8 2 (0.35%) Squid
8 2 (0.35%) XenApp
9 1 (0.17%) NFS
9 1 (0.17%) Terminal Services
9 1 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 49 (8.49%) Terraform
2 36 (6.24%) Kubernetes
3 29 (5.03%) Ansible
4 22 (3.81%) FortiGate
5 20 (3.47%) Grafana
6 19 (3.29%) Nessus
7 18 (3.12%) Prometheus
8 7 (1.21%) Progress Chef
9 5 (0.87%) Docker Swarm
9 5 (0.87%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (0.87%) SCCM
10 4 (0.69%) CASB
10 4 (0.69%) Kibana
10 4 (0.69%) Puppet
11 3 (0.52%) Nmap
11 3 (0.52%) QRadar
11 3 (0.52%) Single Sign-On
12 2 (0.35%) CSIRT
12 2 (0.35%) Host Intrusion Detection System
12 2 (0.35%) Nagios
Vendors
1 160 (27.73%) Cisco
2 100 (17.33%) Palo Alto
3 72 (12.48%) Microsoft
4 54 (9.36%) Juniper
5 43 (7.45%) CheckPoint
5 43 (7.45%) Fortinet
6 35 (6.07%) F5
7 32 (5.55%) VMware
8 28 (4.85%) Zscaler
9 15 (2.60%) Red Hat
10 14 (2.43%) Aruba
11 13 (2.25%) Splunk
12 12 (2.08%) Arista
12 12 (2.08%) Dell
12 12 (2.08%) Meraki
12 12 (2.08%) ScienceLogic
13 11 (1.91%) SolarWinds
14 9 (1.56%) Google
14 9 (1.56%) Oracle
15 8 (1.39%) Citrix