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 24 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 106 80 94
Rank change year-on-year -26 +14 +8
Contract jobs citing VPN 79 85 118
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.76% 2.61% 2.23%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.95% 14.55% 9.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 48 44 60
10th Percentile £259 £213 £179
25th Percentile £400 £300 £202
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £525 £423
Median % change year-on-year -5.24% +24.26% -15.50%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £538
90th Percentile £658 £635 £624
England median daily rate £450 £475 £450
% change year-on-year -5.26% +5.56% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 3
10th Percentile - - £21.05
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.50 £22.25
Median hourly rate £19.00 £19.00 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year - -22.45% +8.89%
75th Percentile £19.50 £19.50 £24.88
90th Percentile - - £24.95
England median hourly rate £20.63 £27.00 £22.00
% change year-on-year -23.58% +22.73% +7.50%

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 610 584 1,261
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 13.61% 17.94% 23.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 446 315 669
10th Percentile £219 £237 £200
25th Percentile £350 £383 £294
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £463
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +8.11% -7.04%
75th Percentile £569 £600 £550
90th Percentile £650 £650 £645
England median daily rate £490 £500 £490
% change year-on-year -2.00% +2.04% -6.22%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 22 89
10th Percentile £17.78 £31.25 £16.25
25th Percentile £19.00 £35.00 £27.50
Median hourly rate £56.00 £59.13 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -5.29% -1.46% +33.33%
75th Percentile £73.00 £62.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £84.80 £66.82 £78.00
England median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £53.00
% change year-on-year -14.29% -33.96% +140.91%

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 24 January 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 24 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 -30 35 £400 -29.20% 25
Hampshire -2 29 £575 +9.52% 23
Berkshire -14 25 £438 +84.21% 18
Surrey -16 8 £400 -21.95% 7
Buckinghamshire -14 5 £274 -52.33% 4
Oxfordshire - 5 £225 - 3
West Sussex -16 3 £400 +110.53% 5
Kent - 3 £180 - 17
East Sussex - 1 - - 2
M4 Corridor - 1 £375 -
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 8 (10.13%) SharePoint
2 5 (6.33%) Microsoft Exchange
3 4 (5.06%) Exchange Server 2003
3 4 (5.06%) Exchange Server 2007
3 4 (5.06%) Exchange Server 2010
3 4 (5.06%) Exchange Server 2013
3 4 (5.06%) Office Communications Server
3 4 (5.06%) SharePoint Server
3 4 (5.06%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 10 (12.66%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (5.06%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.27%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 23 (29.11%) Azure
2 19 (24.05%) AWS
3 11 (13.92%) Microsoft 365
4 10 (12.66%) GCP
5 7 (8.86%) Entra ID
6 2 (2.53%) Nutanix
6 2 (2.53%) OneDrive
7 1 (1.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 31 (39.24%) Firewall
2 30 (37.97%) WAN
3 29 (36.71%) LAN
4 22 (27.85%) BGP
5 21 (26.58%) DNS
6 18 (22.78%) OSPF
7 17 (21.52%) MPLS
8 16 (20.25%) Network Security
9 15 (18.99%) SD-WAN
10 13 (16.46%) TCP/IP
11 10 (12.66%) VLAN
12 8 (10.13%) DHCP
13 7 (8.86%) IPv6
13 7 (8.86%) Junos
14 6 (7.59%) IPsec
15 4 (5.06%) DDNS
15 4 (5.06%) Intrusion Detection
15 4 (5.06%) IPv4
15 4 (5.06%) S/MIME
15 4 (5.06%) SAN
Development Applications
1 2 (2.53%) GitLab
1 2 (2.53%) JIRA
2 1 (1.27%) Jenkins
General
1 23 (29.11%) Social Skills
2 9 (11.39%) Telecoms
3 8 (10.13%) Public Sector
4 6 (7.59%) Documentation Skills
4 6 (7.59%) Finance
5 5 (6.33%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (3.80%) Electronics
6 3 (3.80%) Manufacturing
6 3 (3.80%) Marketing
6 3 (3.80%) Retail
7 2 (2.53%) Legal
Job Titles
1 19 (24.05%) Architect
1 19 (24.05%) Network Engineer
2 13 (16.46%) Lead
3 11 (13.92%) Senior
4 8 (10.13%) Infrastructure Architect
5 7 (8.86%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
6 6 (7.59%) Network Architect
7 5 (6.33%) Analyst
7 5 (6.33%) Design Engineer
7 5 (6.33%) Support Engineer
8 4 (5.06%) Exchange Engineer
8 4 (5.06%) Exchange Support
8 4 (5.06%) IP Engineer
8 4 (5.06%) Network Design Engineer
8 4 (5.06%) Senior Architect
9 3 (3.80%) Designer
9 3 (3.80%) Juniper Engineer
9 3 (3.80%) Juniper Specialist
9 3 (3.80%) Senior Designer
9 3 (3.80%) Senior Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.27%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 13 (16.46%) Data Centre
2 11 (13.92%) Cloud Native
3 8 (10.13%) Public Cloud
4 4 (5.06%) Algorithms
4 4 (5.06%) NHS
4 4 (5.06%) PKI
4 4 (5.06%) Replication
4 4 (5.06%) Smartcard
5 3 (3.80%) Hybrid Cloud
5 3 (3.80%) SCADA
5 3 (3.80%) Video Conferencing
5 3 (3.80%) Virtual Team
6 2 (2.53%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (2.53%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.27%) Driving Licence
7 1 (1.27%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.27%) Life Science
7 1 (1.27%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 12 (15.19%) Windows
2 6 (7.59%) Windows 10
3 4 (5.06%) Windows Server 2003
4 2 (2.53%) Linux
4 2 (2.53%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.27%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (26.58%) ITIL
2 15 (18.99%) ITSM
3 11 (13.92%) High Availability
4 10 (12.66%) Network Design
5 9 (11.39%) Cybersecurity
6 8 (10.13%) Continuous Improvement
6 8 (10.13%) Customer Service
6 8 (10.13%) Test Automation
7 7 (8.86%) Business Intelligence
7 7 (8.86%) Knowledge Transfer
7 7 (8.86%) Network Monitoring
8 6 (7.59%) Architectural Design
8 6 (7.59%) DevOps
8 6 (7.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 6 (7.59%) Zero Trust
9 5 (6.33%) Cloud Security
9 5 (6.33%) Network Optimisation
9 5 (6.33%) Network Segmentation
9 5 (6.33%) Problem-Solving
9 5 (6.33%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 7 (8.86%) Python
2 4 (5.06%) Bash
3 2 (2.53%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 35 (44.30%) Security Cleared
2 22 (27.85%) DV Cleared
3 20 (25.32%) Cisco Certification
4 19 (24.05%) CCNP
5 11 (13.92%) CCNA
5 11 (13.92%) JNCIS
6 10 (12.66%) SC Cleared
7 5 (6.33%) Network+ Certification
8 4 (5.06%) CISM
8 4 (5.06%) CISSP
8 4 (5.06%) GIAC
8 4 (5.06%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
8 4 (5.06%) JNCIA
8 4 (5.06%) JNCIP
9 3 (3.80%) CCIE
10 2 (2.53%) BPSS Clearance
11 1 (1.27%) CCDP
11 1 (1.27%) Computer Science Degree
11 1 (1.27%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (1.27%) NVQ Level 3
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (6.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 5 (6.33%) NIST
2 3 (3.80%) SLA
System Software
1 15 (18.99%) Active Directory
2 9 (11.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (10.13%) Hyper-V
4 4 (5.06%) Brightmail
4 4 (5.06%) ISA Server
5 3 (3.80%) VMware NSX
6 1 (1.27%) Docker
6 1 (1.27%) KVM
6 1 (1.27%) RHEV
6 1 (1.27%) Xen
Systems Management
1 10 (12.66%) Ansible
2 7 (8.86%) Nagios
3 5 (6.33%) Single Sign-On
4 4 (5.06%) Microsoft Clustering
4 4 (5.06%) Terraform
5 3 (3.80%) Endace
5 3 (3.80%) Iperf
5 3 (3.80%) Nmap
5 3 (3.80%) SCCM
6 2 (2.53%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (1.27%) FortiGate
7 1 (1.27%) Kubernetes
7 1 (1.27%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 31 (39.24%) Cisco
2 22 (27.85%) Juniper
3 17 (21.52%) Microsoft
4 13 (16.46%) VMware
5 11 (13.92%) Palo Alto
6 10 (12.66%) SolarWinds
7 8 (10.13%) Fortinet
8 5 (6.33%) F5
8 5 (6.33%) Zscaler
9 4 (5.06%) CheckPoint
9 4 (5.06%) SAP
9 4 (5.06%) Thales
10 3 (3.80%) McAfee
10 3 (3.80%) Nokia
10 3 (3.80%) ServiceNow
11 2 (2.53%) Mellanox
11 2 (2.53%) NVIDIA
12 1 (1.27%) Ariba
12 1 (1.27%) LogicMonitor
12 1 (1.27%) Meraki