VPN Contract Job Trends in Birmingham

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
West Midlands > Birmingham

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Birmingham requiring VPN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 37 46 48
Rank change year-on-year +9 +2 +7
Contract jobs citing VPN 47 5 23
As % of all contract jobs in Birmingham 5.48% 0.96% 3.02%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 37.01% 10.20% 14.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 24 4 12
10th Percentile £150 £301 £190
25th Percentile £247 £341 £198
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £416 £275
Median % change year-on-year -3.90% +51.36% -40.54%
75th Percentile £518 £490 £569
90th Percentile £525 £541 £958
West Midlands median daily rate £350 £243 £375
% change year-on-year +44.33% -35.33% -15.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 2
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £70.97
Median hourly rate - - £71.93
75th Percentile - - £72.90
90th Percentile - - -
West Midlands median hourly rate - £18.13 £71.93
% change year-on-year - -74.79% +379.53%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Birmingham

VPN falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in Birmingham.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 127 49 163
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham 14.82% 9.44% 21.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 30 98
10th Percentile £200 £156 £200
25th Percentile £263 £363 £288
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £523 £350
Median % change year-on-year -18.70% +49.36% -22.22%
75th Percentile £525 £598 £488
90th Percentile £600 £700 £611
West Midlands median daily rate £400 £475 £400
% change year-on-year -15.79% +18.75% -11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 12
10th Percentile - - £13.33
25th Percentile - - £14.00
Median hourly rate - - £28.50
Median % change year-on-year - - +90.00%
75th Percentile - - £67.50
90th Percentile - - £72.36
West Midlands median hourly rate £58.00 £18.13 £22.50
% change year-on-year +219.91% -19.42% +4.37%

VPN
Job Vacancy Trend in Birmingham

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing VPN relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Birmingham.

VPN job vacancy trend in Birmingham

VPN
Daily Rate Trend in Birmingham

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Birmingham citing VPN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Birmingham citing VPN

VPN
Daily Rate Histogram in Birmingham

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing VPN in Birmingham over the 6 months to 13 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for VPN in Birmingham

VPN
Hourly Rate Trend in Birmingham

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Birmingham citing VPN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Birmingham citing VPN

VPN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Birmingham 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 1 (2.13%) Confluence
1 1 (2.13%) SharePoint
Applications
1 2 (4.26%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 9 (19.15%) Azure
2 7 (14.89%) AWS
3 6 (12.77%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (4.26%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 1 (2.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
5 1 (2.13%) Amazon EC2
5 1 (2.13%) Amazon ELB
5 1 (2.13%) Amazon S3
5 1 (2.13%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (2.13%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (2.13%) Azure Monitor
5 1 (2.13%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (2.13%) Entra ID
5 1 (2.13%) Microsoft Copilot
5 1 (2.13%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 31 (65.96%) BGP
2 29 (61.70%) DNS
3 20 (42.55%) DMZ
3 20 (42.55%) Multicast
4 11 (23.40%) Firewall
4 11 (23.40%) MPLS
4 11 (23.40%) WAN
5 9 (19.15%) IPsec
6 6 (12.77%) DHCP
6 6 (12.77%) Network Security
7 5 (10.64%) TCP/IP
8 2 (4.26%) LAN
8 2 (4.26%) OSPF
8 2 (4.26%) VLAN
9 1 (2.13%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.13%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 2 (4.26%) Git
1 2 (4.26%) JIRA
2 1 (2.13%) GitLab
2 1 (2.13%) Jenkins
General
1 14 (29.79%) Social Skills
2 11 (23.40%) Banking
2 11 (23.40%) Investment Banking
3 3 (6.38%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (4.26%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (4.26%) Legal
4 2 (4.26%) Public Sector
4 2 (4.26%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 27 (57.45%) Network Engineer
2 20 (42.55%) Cisco Engineer
2 20 (42.55%) Cisco Network Engineer
2 20 (42.55%) Cisco Security Engineer
2 20 (42.55%) Data Engineer
2 20 (42.55%) Data Network Engineer
2 20 (42.55%) Network Security Engineer
2 20 (42.55%) Security Engineer
3 9 (19.15%) Web Engineer
4 8 (17.02%) Support Engineer
5 5 (10.64%) 2nd Line Engineer
5 5 (10.64%) WAN Engineer
6 4 (8.51%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 4 (8.51%) 3rd Line Support
6 4 (8.51%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
6 4 (8.51%) Analyst
6 4 (8.51%) IT Support
7 2 (4.26%) 1st Line Support
7 2 (4.26%) Support Analyst
7 2 (4.26%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (4.26%) RFC 2544
2 1 (2.13%) Azure Blueprints
Miscellaneous
1 9 (19.15%) PKI
2 3 (6.38%) Security Posture
3 2 (4.26%) Data Centre
3 2 (4.26%) Enterprise Software
3 2 (4.26%) Fibre Optics
3 2 (4.26%) Onboarding
3 2 (4.26%) Self-Motivation
3 2 (4.26%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 13 (27.66%) Windows
2 7 (14.89%) Windows Server
3 4 (8.51%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (55.32%) Load Balancing
2 6 (12.77%) Knowledge Transfer
3 5 (10.64%) Cloud Security
3 5 (10.64%) High Availability
3 5 (10.64%) Vulnerability Management
3 5 (10.64%) Vulnerability Remediation
4 4 (8.51%) Customer Service
4 4 (8.51%) Network Design
4 4 (8.51%) Network Optimisation
4 4 (8.51%) Problem-Solving
4 4 (8.51%) Service Management
5 3 (6.38%) Continuous Improvement
5 3 (6.38%) ITIL
5 3 (6.38%) Service Delivery
6 2 (4.26%) Change Control
6 2 (4.26%) Defect Management
6 2 (4.26%) Mobile Device Management
6 2 (4.26%) Performance Optimisation
6 2 (4.26%) Problem Management
6 2 (4.26%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 3 (6.38%) Python
2 2 (4.26%) Bash
3 1 (2.13%) Java
3 1 (2.13%) Kotlin
3 1 (2.13%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 16 (34.04%) Security Cleared
2 15 (31.91%) SC Cleared
3 3 (6.38%) Microsoft Certification
4 2 (4.26%) CCNA
4 2 (4.26%) CCNP
4 2 (4.26%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (4.26%) ISTQB
4 2 (4.26%) MCDST
4 2 (4.26%) Microsoft Certified Professional
5 1 (2.13%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (6.38%) NCSC
2 1 (2.13%) Data Quality
2 1 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
System Software
1 7 (14.89%) Active Directory
2 1 (2.13%) Docker
Systems Management
1 7 (14.89%) Microsoft Intune
2 2 (4.26%) SCCM
2 2 (4.26%) Terraform
3 1 (2.13%) Ansible
Vendors
1 27 (57.45%) Cisco
2 21 (44.68%) F5
3 12 (25.53%) Microsoft
4 9 (19.15%) Juniper
5 2 (4.26%) iManage
5 2 (4.26%) Mitel
5 2 (4.26%) ServiceNow
6 1 (2.13%) CheckPoint
6 1 (2.13%) Palo Alto
6 1 (2.13%) Zscaler