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 13 January 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
13 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 156 104 157
Rank change year-on-year -52 +53 +29
Contract jobs citing F5 26 60 41
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.60% 1.80% 0.82%
As % of the Vendors category 1.20% 3.60% 1.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 32 19
10th Percentile £469 £428 £363
25th Percentile £475 £475 £490
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £519 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.61% +3.75% -9.09%
75th Percentile £560 £575 £588
90th Percentile - £611 £625
England median daily rate £500 £513 £500
% change year-on-year -2.44% +2.50% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £44.86 - £58.50
Median hourly rate £48.72 - £63.00
75th Percentile £52.58 - £67.50
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £57.61 - £72.50
% change year-on-year - - +271.79%

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 2,166 1,668 2,581
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 49.86% 50.11% 51.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,563 1,089 1,656
10th Percentile £242 £239 £205
25th Percentile £406 £400 £365
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £511
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% +0.39% +2.10%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £613
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 48 131
10th Percentile £13.31 £19.99 £15.71
25th Percentile £16.50 £24.18 £24.00
Median hourly rate £22.25 £40.25 £55.80
Median % change year-on-year -44.72% -27.87% +71.69%
75th Percentile £64.06 £64.06 £67.26
90th Percentile £89.63 £72.34 £78.00
England median hourly rate £23.75 £30.00 £43.84
% change year-on-year -20.83% -31.57% +51.16%

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 13 January 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
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 13 January 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 -13 14 £560 +12.00% 4
Berkshire -8 11 £400 - 3
Hampshire -36 8 £500 -9.09% 2
Surrey -26 4 £494 -2.47% 1
Buckinghamshire -2 3 £560 - 1
West Sussex -9 1 £700 +55.56% 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 6 (23.08%) OpenStack
2 1 (3.85%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (23.08%) MS Visio
2 2 (7.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (7.69%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (7.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 6 (23.08%) AWS
1 6 (23.08%) OpenShift
2 1 (3.85%) Azure
2 1 (3.85%) Entra ID
2 1 (3.85%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 14 (53.85%) Firewall
2 11 (42.31%) WAN
3 9 (34.62%) MPLS
3 9 (34.62%) SNMP
4 8 (30.77%) BGP
4 8 (30.77%) LAN
4 8 (30.77%) TACACS
5 7 (26.92%) Wireless
6 6 (23.08%) Network Security
6 6 (23.08%) OSPF
6 6 (23.08%) TCP/IP
7 5 (19.23%) VPN
8 4 (15.38%) IPv4
8 4 (15.38%) IPv6
8 4 (15.38%) VLAN
9 3 (11.54%) DNS
10 2 (7.69%) DHCP
10 2 (7.69%) DWDM
10 2 (7.69%) NGFW
10 2 (7.69%) SDH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (3.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (7.69%) Rational DOORS
General
1 15 (57.69%) Social Skills
2 6 (23.08%) Documentation Skills
3 3 (11.54%) Public Sector
3 3 (11.54%) Telecoms
4 2 (7.69%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (3.85%) Finance
5 1 (3.85%) Military
5 1 (3.85%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 9 (34.62%) Designer
2 8 (30.77%) Network Engineer
3 6 (23.08%) IP Designer
4 4 (15.38%) Senior
5 3 (11.54%) Analyst
5 3 (11.54%) Architect
5 3 (11.54%) Cisco Engineer
5 3 (11.54%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 3 (11.54%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
5 3 (11.54%) Network Designer
5 3 (11.54%) Security Analyst
5 3 (11.54%) Senior Designer
5 3 (11.54%) Senior Network Designer
6 2 (7.69%) IP Specialist
6 2 (7.69%) Security Engineer
6 2 (7.69%) Solutions Architect
6 2 (7.69%) Telecoms Architect
7 1 (3.85%) Lead
7 1 (3.85%) Lead Infrastructure Architect
7 1 (3.85%) Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (7.69%) NETCONF
1 2 (7.69%) OpenConfig
1 2 (7.69%) RESTCONF
1 2 (7.69%) YANG
2 1 (3.85%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 16 (61.54%) Data Centre
2 8 (30.77%) Hybrid Cloud
3 2 (7.69%) Analytical Mindset
3 2 (7.69%) Data Protection Act
3 2 (7.69%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 2 (7.69%) Windows
1 2 (7.69%) Windows Server
2 1 (3.85%) Windows Server 2012
2 1 (3.85%) Windows Server 2016
2 1 (3.85%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 7 (26.92%) Incident Response
2 6 (23.08%) Network Design
2 6 (23.08%) Network Virtualisation
2 6 (23.08%) Validation
3 4 (15.38%) Performance Testing
4 3 (11.54%) Continuous Improvement
4 3 (11.54%) Cybersecurity
4 3 (11.54%) Decision-Making
4 3 (11.54%) Enterprise Architecture
4 3 (11.54%) Incident Management
4 3 (11.54%) ITIL
4 3 (11.54%) Network Load Balancing
4 3 (11.54%) Problem-Solving
4 3 (11.54%) Roadmaps
4 3 (11.54%) Runbook
4 3 (11.54%) Strategic Roadmap
4 3 (11.54%) Test Automation
4 3 (11.54%) Zero Trust
5 2 (7.69%) Architecture Governance
5 2 (7.69%) Customer Requirements
Programming Languages
1 8 (30.77%) Python
2 1 (3.85%) SQL
Qualifications
1 12 (46.15%) Cisco Certification
1 12 (46.15%) Security Cleared
2 8 (30.77%) CCIE
2 8 (30.77%) JNCIE
3 6 (23.08%) AWS Certification
3 6 (23.08%) SC Cleared
4 5 (19.23%) DV Cleared
5 4 (15.38%) CCNA
5 4 (15.38%) CCNP
5 4 (15.38%) JNCIS
6 1 (3.85%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (3.85%) JSP 440
System Software
1 9 (34.62%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (26.92%) VMware NSX
3 2 (7.69%) Active Directory
4 1 (3.85%) KVM
4 1 (3.85%) RHEV
4 1 (3.85%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (3.85%) Xen
Systems Management
1 8 (30.77%) Ansible
2 6 (23.08%) Terraform
3 4 (15.38%) Nagios
4 1 (3.85%) Backup Exec
4 1 (3.85%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (3.85%) Norton AntiVirus
4 1 (3.85%) Proxmox
4 1 (3.85%) SCCM
4 1 (3.85%) SCOM
4 1 (3.85%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (3.85%) WhatsUp Gold
4 1 (3.85%) WSUS
Vendors
1 21 (80.77%) Cisco
2 15 (57.69%) Juniper
3 10 (38.46%) VMware
4 8 (30.77%) Fortinet
5 7 (26.92%) Palo Alto
6 4 (15.38%) Microsoft
6 4 (15.38%) SolarWinds
7 3 (11.54%) Aruba
7 3 (11.54%) CrowdStrike
7 3 (11.54%) Meraki
8 2 (7.69%) Blue Coat
8 2 (7.69%) CheckPoint
8 2 (7.69%) IBM
8 2 (7.69%) McAfee
8 2 (7.69%) Nokia
9 1 (3.85%) Acronis
9 1 (3.85%) Qualys
9 1 (3.85%) Symantec