F5 Contract Job Trends in the South East

F5
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East requiring knowledge or experience of F5 products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited F5 over the 6 months leading up to 29 April 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within F5 Networks, Inc.

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 143 126 127
Rank change year-on-year -17 +1 +56
Contract jobs citing F5 64 22 73
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.10% 0.74% 1.32%
As % of the Vendors category 2.58% 1.41% 2.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 30 13 39
10th Percentile £407 £411 £213
25th Percentile £500 £456 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -2.33% +7.50%
75th Percentile £560 £613 £623
90th Percentile £731 £625 £637
England median daily rate £495 £547 £500
% change year-on-year -9.55% +9.45% -5.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 1
10th Percentile £42.05 - -
25th Percentile £43.11 - £58.50
Median hourly rate £48.72 - £63.00
75th Percentile £62.29 - £67.50
90th Percentile £68.11 - -
England median hourly rate £48.72 - £23.80
% change year-on-year - - -66.00%

All Vendors
South East

F5 falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services in the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 2,485 1,556 2,610
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 42.70% 52.20% 47.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,729 1,042 1,591
10th Percentile £306 £247 £213
25th Percentile £413 £406 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £500
Median % change year-on-year - +2.50% -
75th Percentile £613 £613 £600
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% -3.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 163 91 180
10th Percentile £13.43 £14.20 £11.98
25th Percentile £20.50 £16.95 £17.09
Median hourly rate £47.54 £24.66 £48.75
Median % change year-on-year +92.78% -49.42% +8.33%
75th Percentile £85.63 £59.44 £61.30
90th Percentile £88.00 £71.25 £65.20
England median hourly rate £30.49 £27.50 £22.50
% change year-on-year +10.87% +22.22% -43.75%

F5
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing F5 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

F5 job vacancy trend in the South East

F5
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing F5.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing F5

F5
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing F5 in the South East over the 6 months to 29 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for F5 in the South East

F5
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing F5.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing F5

F5
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing F5 in the South East over the 6 months to 29 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for F5 in the South East

F5
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing F5 within the South East region over the 6 months to 29 April 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Thames Valley -5 46 £523 +5.56% 1
Berkshire +7 38 £475 -4.04% 1
Hampshire -29 14 £525 -2.33%
Buckinghamshire -25 8 £560 -
East Sussex - 2 £788 -
West Sussex - 1 £700 -
Home Counties - 1 - -
F5
England

F5
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 3 (4.69%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (14.06%) MS Visio
2 5 (7.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (6.25%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (6.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 7 (10.94%) Azure
2 4 (6.25%) AWS
3 3 (4.69%) Entra ID
3 3 (4.69%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (1.56%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 47 (73.44%) Firewall
2 39 (60.94%) WAN
3 38 (59.38%) LAN
4 36 (56.25%) BGP
5 34 (53.13%) BIG-IP
6 32 (50.00%) OSPF
7 31 (48.44%) DNS
8 28 (43.75%) DHCP
9 27 (42.19%) VXLAN
10 25 (39.06%) Ethernet VPN
11 24 (37.50%) Cisco ISE
11 24 (37.50%) Junos
12 12 (18.75%) Network Security
12 12 (18.75%) TCP/IP
13 11 (17.19%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 8 (12.50%) VPN
15 7 (10.94%) MPLS
16 6 (9.38%) Cisco Nexus
16 6 (9.38%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 6 (9.38%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.56%) SQL Server
General
1 13 (20.31%) Social Skills
2 6 (9.38%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (7.81%) Military
3 5 (7.81%) Public Sector
4 2 (3.13%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (3.13%) Telecoms
5 1 (1.56%) Billing
5 1 (1.56%) Finance
5 1 (1.56%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 22 (34.38%) Network Engineer
2 18 (28.13%) Senior
3 14 (21.88%) Firewall Specialist
3 14 (21.88%) Network Specialist
4 13 (20.31%) Senior Network Engineer
5 11 (17.19%) Architect
6 7 (10.94%) Network Architect
7 5 (7.81%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 5 (7.81%) Lead
8 4 (6.25%) Cisco Engineer
8 4 (6.25%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 4 (6.25%) IP Specialist
8 4 (6.25%) Lead Architect
9 3 (4.69%) Designer
9 3 (4.69%) Infrastructure Architect
9 3 (4.69%) Lead Infrastructure Architect
9 3 (4.69%) Network Designer
9 3 (4.69%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 3 (4.69%) Senior Designer
9 3 (4.69%) Senior Network Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (40.63%) 802.1X
2 4 (6.25%) NETCONF
2 4 (6.25%) OpenConfig
2 4 (6.25%) RESTCONF
2 4 (6.25%) YANG
3 2 (3.13%) YAML
4 1 (1.56%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 35 (54.69%) Data Centre
2 24 (37.50%) Clustering
2 24 (37.50%) PKI
3 5 (7.81%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (7.81%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (6.25%) Analytical Mindset
5 3 (4.69%) iSeries
6 1 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.56%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (1.56%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.56%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.56%) Renewable Energy
6 1 (1.56%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 29 (45.31%) Windows
2 4 (6.25%) Windows Server
3 3 (4.69%) Windows Server 2012
3 3 (4.69%) Windows Server 2016
3 3 (4.69%) Windows Server 2019
4 2 (3.13%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (51.56%) High Availability
1 33 (51.56%) Load Balancing
2 25 (39.06%) Identity Access Management
3 24 (37.50%) Observability
4 22 (34.38%) Problem-Solving
5 12 (18.75%) ITIL
6 11 (17.19%) Network Design
6 11 (17.19%) Service Management
7 10 (15.63%) ITSM
8 9 (14.06%) Availability Management
9 7 (10.94%) Migration
10 6 (9.38%) Network Virtualisation
10 6 (9.38%) Technical Leadership
11 5 (7.81%) IT Strategy
11 5 (7.81%) Security Operations
11 5 (7.81%) Stakeholder Management
11 5 (7.81%) Technology Strategy
11 5 (7.81%) Virtual Environments
12 4 (6.25%) Performance Testing
12 4 (6.25%) Risk Management
Programming Languages
1 7 (10.94%) Python
2 2 (3.13%) Bash
2 2 (3.13%) C++
2 2 (3.13%) SQL
3 1 (1.56%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 51 (79.69%) Security Cleared
2 31 (48.44%) Cisco Certification
3 25 (39.06%) DV Cleared
4 17 (26.56%) SC Cleared
5 11 (17.19%) JNCIS
6 8 (12.50%) JNCIA
7 7 (10.94%) CCNP
7 7 (10.94%) JNCIP
8 4 (6.25%) CCIE
8 4 (6.25%) CCNA
8 4 (6.25%) JNCIE
9 2 (3.13%) Degree
10 1 (1.56%) Computer Science Degree
10 1 (1.56%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (4.69%) JSP 440
2 2 (3.13%) NIST
3 1 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (1.56%) NCSC
3 1 (1.56%) QA
System Software
1 11 (17.19%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (7.81%) VMware NSX
3 4 (6.25%) Active Directory
4 3 (4.69%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (1.56%) KVM
5 1 (1.56%) RHEV
5 1 (1.56%) Virtual Servers
5 1 (1.56%) Xen
Systems Management
1 29 (45.31%) FortiGate
2 7 (10.94%) Ansible
3 4 (6.25%) Nagios
4 3 (4.69%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (4.69%) SCCM
4 3 (4.69%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.56%) Avamar
5 1 (1.56%) Backup Exec
5 1 (1.56%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (1.56%) Proxmox
5 1 (1.56%) SCOM
5 1 (1.56%) Terraform
5 1 (1.56%) WhatsUp Gold
5 1 (1.56%) WSUS
Vendors
1 53 (82.81%) Cisco
2 40 (62.50%) Juniper
3 28 (43.75%) SolarWinds
4 24 (37.50%) Splunk
5 22 (34.38%) Extreme Networks
6 13 (20.31%) VMware
7 10 (15.63%) Palo Alto
8 8 (12.50%) Microsoft
9 7 (10.94%) Fortinet
10 5 (7.81%) Meraki
11 3 (4.69%) Aruba
12 2 (3.13%) ServiceNow
13 1 (1.56%) Acronis
13 1 (1.56%) Arista
13 1 (1.56%) CheckPoint
13 1 (1.56%) Dell
13 1 (1.56%) Ekahau
13 1 (1.56%) NetScout
13 1 (1.56%) Nokia
13 1 (1.56%) Symantec