VPN Contract Job Trends in the South East

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring VPN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 113 70 78
Rank change year-on-year -43 +8 +48
Contract jobs citing VPN 107 88 121
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.83% 2.93% 2.18%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.32% 16.92% 9.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 60 58
10th Percentile £229 £284 £184
25th Percentile £400 £435 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £403
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% +21.74% -19.50%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £534
90th Percentile £615 £602 £580
England median daily rate £475 £468 £440
% change year-on-year +1.60% +6.37% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 8
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - £18.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate - £19.00 £20.75
Median % change year-on-year - -8.43% -2.21%
75th Percentile - £19.50 £22.54
90th Percentile - - £23.23
England median hourly rate £14.63 £19.00 £17.00
% change year-on-year -22.99% +11.76% -22.73%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South East

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 the South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 747 520 1,234
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.74% 17.32% 22.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 490 331 611
10th Percentile £281 £210 £205
25th Percentile £409 £325 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £475 £490
Median % change year-on-year +7.37% -3.06% +0.77%
75th Percentile £594 £588 £588
90th Percentile £688 £625 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £490
% change year-on-year - +2.04% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 29 131
10th Percentile £16.73 £14.20 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.83 £20.85 £27.50
Median hourly rate £48.72 £54.88 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -11.22% -4.32% +9.24%
75th Percentile £56.11 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £60.90 £66.25 £85.65
England median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year +29.05% -18.75% +116.22%

VPN
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

VPN job vacancy trend in the South East

VPN
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

VPN
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing VPN in the South East over the 6 months to 3 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for VPN in the South East

VPN
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

VPN
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 VPN within the South East region over the 6 months to 3 May 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 -28 57 £424 -5.83% 18
Berkshire -20 40 £425 -5.56% 4
Hampshire -32 30 £550 +2.33% 26
Surrey -9 12 £400 +10.34% 4
Buckinghamshire -29 9 £554 -2.04% 4
Oxfordshire -15 8 £238 +11.76% 10
Kent - 4 £180 - 7
West Sussex -16 3 £253 +32.89% 5
Home Counties - 1 - -
VPN
England

VPN
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 10 (9.35%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 4 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
1 4 (3.74%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 46 (42.99%) Azure
2 25 (23.36%) AWS
3 17 (15.89%) Entra ID
4 15 (14.02%) GCP
5 14 (13.08%) Microsoft 365
6 8 (7.48%) OneDrive
7 4 (3.74%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 3 (2.80%) Azure AKS
8 3 (2.80%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (2.80%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (2.80%) Nutanix
9 2 (1.87%) AWS CloudFormation
9 2 (1.87%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (1.87%) IaaS
9 2 (1.87%) PaaS
9 2 (1.87%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.93%) Amazon EKS
10 1 (0.93%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.93%) SaaS
10 1 (0.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 50 (46.73%) Firewall
2 48 (44.86%) LAN
2 48 (44.86%) WAN
3 30 (28.04%) BGP
4 27 (25.23%) OSPF
4 27 (25.23%) SD-WAN
5 24 (22.43%) Network Security
6 22 (20.56%) DNS
7 21 (19.63%) MPLS
8 17 (15.89%) TCP/IP
9 15 (14.02%) VLAN
10 12 (11.21%) Wi-Fi
11 10 (9.35%) DHCP
12 8 (7.48%) IPsec
13 7 (6.54%) Ethernet VPN
13 7 (6.54%) Junos
13 7 (6.54%) WLAN
14 6 (5.61%) Wireless
15 5 (4.67%) IPv6
15 5 (4.67%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.93%) Power BI
1 1 (0.93%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 5 (4.67%) JIRA
2 2 (1.87%) GitLab
2 2 (1.87%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.93%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (0.93%) Git
General
1 35 (32.71%) Social Skills
2 11 (10.28%) Finance
3 10 (9.35%) Public Sector
4 9 (8.41%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (7.48%) Documentation Skills
5 8 (7.48%) Retail
5 8 (7.48%) Telecoms
6 6 (5.61%) Legal
7 2 (1.87%) Aviation
7 2 (1.87%) Electronics
7 2 (1.87%) Financial Institution
7 2 (1.87%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.87%) Marketing
8 1 (0.93%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.93%) Military
8 1 (0.93%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 30 (28.04%) Network Engineer
2 28 (26.17%) Architect
3 19 (17.76%) Senior
4 14 (13.08%) Lead
5 11 (10.28%) Infrastructure Architect
5 11 (10.28%) Network Architect
6 7 (6.54%) Senior Network Engineer
7 6 (5.61%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 6 (5.61%) Senior Architect
7 6 (5.61%) Senior Network Architect
7 6 (5.61%) Support Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) Head of Infrastructure
8 5 (4.67%) IT Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) IT Support
8 5 (4.67%) IT Support Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) Network Manager
8 5 (4.67%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 4 (3.74%) Design Engineer
9 4 (3.74%) Head of IT
9 4 (3.74%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (3.74%) 802.1X
2 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Graph
2 1 (0.93%) SAML
2 1 (0.93%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (27.10%) Data Centre
2 13 (12.15%) Public Cloud
3 12 (11.21%) Cloud Native
4 7 (6.54%) Onboarding
5 5 (4.67%) Hybrid Cloud
5 5 (4.67%) PKI
6 4 (3.74%) Algorithms
6 4 (3.74%) Smartcard
7 3 (2.80%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.87%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.87%) NHS
9 1 (0.93%) Analytical Mindset
9 1 (0.93%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 1 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
9 1 (0.93%) Life Science
9 1 (0.93%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.93%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 19 (17.76%) Windows
2 6 (5.61%) Linux
3 5 (4.67%) Mac OS
3 5 (4.67%) Windows 10
4 4 (3.74%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.93%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (18.69%) ITIL
2 14 (13.08%) High Availability
3 13 (12.15%) Network Design
4 12 (11.21%) DevOps
4 12 (11.21%) ITSM
5 11 (10.28%) Continuous Improvement
5 11 (10.28%) Cybersecurity
6 10 (9.35%) Problem-Solving
7 9 (8.41%) Analytics
7 9 (8.41%) Customer Service
7 9 (8.41%) Identity Access Management
7 9 (8.41%) Migration
7 9 (8.41%) Network Monitoring
7 9 (8.41%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 9 (8.41%) Technical Leadership
7 9 (8.41%) Zero Trust
8 8 (7.48%) Agile
8 8 (7.48%) Change Management
8 8 (7.48%) Network Architecture
8 8 (7.48%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 7 (6.54%) PowerShell
2 6 (5.61%) Python
3 3 (2.80%) Bicep
4 2 (1.87%) Bash
5 1 (0.93%) SQL
Qualifications
1 50 (46.73%) Security Cleared
2 27 (25.23%) SC Cleared
3 26 (24.30%) CCNP
3 26 (24.30%) Cisco Certification
3 26 (24.30%) DV Cleared
4 10 (9.35%) CCNA
4 10 (9.35%) JNCIS
5 7 (6.54%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (5.61%) Network+ Certification
7 4 (3.74%) CISM
7 4 (3.74%) CISSP
7 4 (3.74%) GIAC
7 4 (3.74%) PMP
8 3 (2.80%) CCIE
8 3 (2.80%) JNCIA
9 2 (1.87%) BC Cleared
9 2 (1.87%) CCIP
9 2 (1.87%) Degree
9 2 (1.87%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.87%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (8.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (6.54%) NIST
3 5 (4.67%) NCSC
4 4 (3.74%) GDPR
5 3 (2.80%) SLA
6 2 (1.87%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (1.87%) QA
7 1 (0.93%) GRC
System Software
1 20 (18.69%) Active Directory
2 18 (16.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (10.28%) Hyper-V
4 10 (9.35%) VMware NSX
5 3 (2.80%) Docker
6 1 (0.93%) BitLocker
6 1 (0.93%) KVM
6 1 (0.93%) RHEV
6 1 (0.93%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.93%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.93%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.93%) vSphere
6 1 (0.93%) Xen
Systems Management
1 13 (12.15%) Ansible
1 13 (12.15%) Microsoft Intune
1 13 (12.15%) Terraform
2 9 (8.41%) Nagios
3 8 (7.48%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (4.67%) Endace
5 4 (3.74%) Kubernetes
6 3 (2.80%) SCCM
7 2 (1.87%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (1.87%) FortiGate
7 2 (1.87%) Iperf
7 2 (1.87%) Nmap
8 1 (0.93%) CASB
8 1 (0.93%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.93%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.93%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 39 (36.45%) Cisco
2 26 (24.30%) Juniper
3 24 (22.43%) VMware
4 19 (17.76%) Microsoft
5 14 (13.08%) SolarWinds
6 12 (11.21%) Palo Alto
7 10 (9.35%) Fortinet
8 9 (8.41%) Zscaler
9 8 (7.48%) F5
10 6 (5.61%) CheckPoint
10 6 (5.61%) ServiceNow
11 4 (3.74%) Mellanox
11 4 (3.74%) NVIDIA
11 4 (3.74%) Thales
12 3 (2.80%) HP
12 3 (2.80%) Meraki
12 3 (2.80%) Virgin Media
13 2 (1.87%) Aruba
13 2 (1.87%) Google
13 2 (1.87%) Tufin