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 March 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 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 144 127 142
Rank change year-on-year -17 +15 +47
Contract jobs citing F5 57 28 70
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.04% 0.94% 1.24%
As % of the Vendors category 2.29% 1.80% 2.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 25 18 34
10th Percentile £482 £383 £213
25th Percentile £500 £425 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £494 £500
Median % change year-on-year +6.33% -1.25% -
75th Percentile £560 £600 £582
90th Percentile £685 £625 £634
England median daily rate £500 £550 £488
% change year-on-year -9.09% +12.82% -8.67%
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 - £63.00
% change year-on-year - - -10.00%

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 2,486 1,558 2,714
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 45.32% 52.30% 48.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,754 1,046 1,654
10th Percentile £305 £244 £213
25th Percentile £413 £403 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% +5.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £610 £615 £600
90th Percentile £700 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -4.76% +1.94% -4.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 168 87 173
10th Percentile £13.39 £14.20 £12.70
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.85 £18.00
Median hourly rate £37.06 £25.00 £45.21
Median % change year-on-year +48.24% -44.70% +0.47%
75th Percentile £85.44 £62.50 £61.60
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.88 £67.40
England median hourly rate £25.40 £29.07 £24.00
% change year-on-year -12.63% +21.13% -31.97%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 -7 40 £525 +6.06% 5
Berkshire -5 32 £510 +3.03% 3
Hampshire -31 13 £513 -6.82% 2
Buckinghamshire -13 8 £560 - 2
East Sussex - 2 £788 -
West Sussex -12 1 £700 +55.56%
Surrey -14 1 £500 +17.65%
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 (5.26%) SharePoint
Applications
1 9 (15.79%) MS Visio
2 5 (8.77%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (7.02%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (7.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 7 (12.28%) Azure
2 4 (7.02%) AWS
3 3 (5.26%) Entra ID
3 3 (5.26%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (1.75%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 40 (70.18%) Firewall
2 33 (57.89%) WAN
3 32 (56.14%) LAN
4 31 (54.39%) BGP
5 29 (50.88%) BIG-IP
6 27 (47.37%) DNS
6 27 (47.37%) OSPF
7 25 (43.86%) DHCP
8 22 (38.60%) VXLAN
9 21 (36.84%) Cisco ISE
9 21 (36.84%) Ethernet VPN
9 21 (36.84%) Junos
10 12 (21.05%) TCP/IP
11 10 (17.54%) Network Security
12 7 (12.28%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 5 (8.77%) Cisco ASA
13 5 (8.77%) Cisco Firepower
13 5 (8.77%) IPv6
13 5 (8.77%) SNMP
13 5 (8.77%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.75%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (3.51%) Rational DOORS
General
1 12 (21.05%) Social Skills
2 7 (12.28%) Public Sector
3 5 (8.77%) Analytical Skills
3 5 (8.77%) Military
4 2 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
4 2 (3.51%) Finance
4 2 (3.51%) Telecoms
5 1 (1.75%) Billing
5 1 (1.75%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 20 (35.09%) Network Engineer
2 16 (28.07%) Senior
3 12 (21.05%) Architect
3 12 (21.05%) Senior Network Engineer
4 11 (19.30%) Firewall Specialist
4 11 (19.30%) Network Specialist
5 6 (10.53%) Network Architect
6 5 (8.77%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
6 5 (8.77%) Lead
7 4 (7.02%) Cisco Engineer
7 4 (7.02%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 4 (7.02%) IP Specialist
7 4 (7.02%) Lead Architect
8 3 (5.26%) Designer
8 3 (5.26%) Infrastructure Architect
8 3 (5.26%) Lead Infrastructure Architect
8 3 (5.26%) Network Designer
8 3 (5.26%) Senior Designer
8 3 (5.26%) Senior Network Designer
9 2 (3.51%) Telecoms Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (36.84%) 802.1X
2 4 (7.02%) NETCONF
2 4 (7.02%) OpenConfig
2 4 (7.02%) RESTCONF
2 4 (7.02%) YANG
3 2 (3.51%) YAML
4 1 (1.75%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 31 (54.39%) Data Centre
2 21 (36.84%) Clustering
2 21 (36.84%) PKI
3 5 (8.77%) Self-Motivation
4 4 (7.02%) Analytical Mindset
4 4 (7.02%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (5.26%) iSeries
6 1 (1.75%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.75%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 26 (45.61%) Windows
2 4 (7.02%) Windows Server
3 3 (5.26%) Windows Server 2012
3 3 (5.26%) Windows Server 2016
3 3 (5.26%) Windows Server 2019
4 2 (3.51%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (52.63%) Load Balancing
2 29 (50.88%) High Availability
3 22 (38.60%) Identity Access Management
4 21 (36.84%) Observability
4 21 (36.84%) Problem-Solving
5 14 (24.56%) ITIL
6 11 (19.30%) Service Management
7 10 (17.54%) ITSM
7 10 (17.54%) Network Design
8 9 (15.79%) Availability Management
9 6 (10.53%) Network Virtualisation
10 5 (8.77%) Enterprise Architecture
10 5 (8.77%) IT Strategy
10 5 (8.77%) Migration
10 5 (8.77%) Roadmaps
10 5 (8.77%) Security Operations
10 5 (8.77%) Stakeholder Management
10 5 (8.77%) Strategic Roadmap
10 5 (8.77%) Technology Strategy
10 5 (8.77%) Virtual Environments
Programming Languages
1 7 (12.28%) Python
2 2 (3.51%) Bash
2 2 (3.51%) C++
2 2 (3.51%) SQL
3 1 (1.75%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 44 (77.19%) Security Cleared
2 25 (43.86%) Cisco Certification
3 24 (42.11%) DV Cleared
4 13 (22.81%) SC Cleared
5 11 (19.30%) JNCIS
6 8 (14.04%) JNCIA
7 7 (12.28%) JNCIP
8 4 (7.02%) CCIE
8 4 (7.02%) CCNA
8 4 (7.02%) CCNP
8 4 (7.02%) JNCIE
9 1 (1.75%) Degree
9 1 (1.75%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (5.26%) JSP 440
2 1 (1.75%) NCSC
2 1 (1.75%) NIST
System Software
1 10 (17.54%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (7.02%) Active Directory
2 4 (7.02%) VMware NSX
3 3 (5.26%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (1.75%) KVM
4 1 (1.75%) RHEV
4 1 (1.75%) Xen
Systems Management
1 24 (42.11%) FortiGate
2 7 (12.28%) Ansible
3 4 (7.02%) Nagios
4 3 (5.26%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (5.26%) SCCM
4 3 (5.26%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.75%) Backup Exec
5 1 (1.75%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (1.75%) Proxmox
5 1 (1.75%) SCOM
5 1 (1.75%) Terraform
5 1 (1.75%) WhatsUp Gold
5 1 (1.75%) WSUS
Vendors
1 47 (82.46%) Cisco
2 37 (64.91%) Juniper
3 25 (43.86%) SolarWinds
4 21 (36.84%) Splunk
5 19 (33.33%) Extreme Networks
6 12 (21.05%) VMware
7 11 (19.30%) Palo Alto
8 8 (14.04%) Microsoft
9 5 (8.77%) Fortinet
10 4 (7.02%) Meraki
11 3 (5.26%) Aruba
12 2 (3.51%) IBM
12 2 (3.51%) McAfee
12 2 (3.51%) Nokia
12 2 (3.51%) ServiceNow
13 1 (1.75%) Blue Coat
13 1 (1.75%) CheckPoint
13 1 (1.75%) Forcepoint
13 1 (1.75%) NetScout
13 1 (1.75%) Symantec