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 21 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 124 66 87
Rank change year-on-year -58 +21 +50
Contract jobs citing VPN 107 98 118
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.63% 2.88% 2.20%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.31% 16.55% 10.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 76 70 57
10th Percentile £231 £323 £184
25th Percentile £379 £450 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £575
90th Percentile £661 £600 £709
England median daily rate £500 £463 £450
% change year-on-year +8.11% +2.78% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 5 9
10th Percentile - £48.06 £17.93
25th Percentile - £71.00 £18.00
Median hourly rate - £89.63 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year - +371.74% -5.52%
75th Percentile - - £22.50
90th Percentile - - £22.53
England median hourly rate £16.00 £50.00 £16.25
% change year-on-year -68.00% +207.69% -22.62%

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 804 592 1,076
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.23% 17.38% 20.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 493 391 543
10th Percentile £280 £205 £254
25th Percentile £413 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% -2.00% +6.84%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £674 £625 £650
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 76 32 125
10th Percentile £17.56 £14.20 £17.69
25th Percentile £22.50 £23.81 £36.75
Median hourly rate £42.25 £54.94 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -23.09% -4.21% -0.26%
75th Percentile £56.21 £64.42 £70.00
90th Percentile £60.00 £89.63 £85.49
England median hourly rate £26.72 £44.00 £44.00
% change year-on-year -39.27% - -2.22%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -11 69 £450 - 16
Berkshire -22 35 £413 -8.33% 5
Buckinghamshire - 25 £615 - 2
Hampshire -56 20 £550 -2.22% 18
Surrey -17 12 £475 -2.56% 8
Oxfordshire -22 9 £238 -60.42% 9
Kent -6 2 £188 -48.28% 4
Middlesex - 2 - - 1
West Sussex - 1 £105 - 2
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 14 (13.08%) SharePoint
2 4 (3.74%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 3 (2.80%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.87%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 2 (1.87%) Houdini
2 2 (1.87%) NUKE
3 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.93%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.93%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 52 (48.60%) Azure
2 25 (23.36%) Entra ID
3 19 (17.76%) Microsoft 365
4 18 (16.82%) AWS
5 13 (12.15%) OneDrive
6 10 (9.35%) Azure Monitor
7 8 (7.48%) GCP
8 7 (6.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 7 (6.54%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (3.74%) Azure AKS
9 4 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (3.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 3 (2.80%) AWS CloudFormation
10 3 (2.80%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (2.80%) Azure Key Vault
11 2 (1.87%) Google Workspace
11 2 (1.87%) IaaS
11 2 (1.87%) PaaS
11 2 (1.87%) Power Platform
12 1 (0.93%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 68 (63.55%) Firewall
2 48 (44.86%) DNS
3 43 (40.19%) LAN
3 43 (40.19%) WAN
4 33 (30.84%) DHCP
5 32 (29.91%) Network Security
6 29 (27.10%) TCP/IP
7 24 (22.43%) BGP
7 24 (22.43%) SD-WAN
8 22 (20.56%) VLAN
9 21 (19.63%) OSPF
10 19 (17.76%) MPLS
11 17 (15.89%) SSL
12 16 (14.95%) IPsec
12 16 (14.95%) Wi-Fi
13 14 (13.08%) Cisco ASA
14 12 (11.21%) Cisco Firepower
15 10 (9.35%) Wireless
16 8 (7.48%) NGFW
16 8 (7.48%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.87%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.93%) Power BI
2 1 (0.93%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 4 (3.74%) Sonatype Nexus
2 3 (2.80%) JIRA
3 2 (1.87%) Git
3 2 (1.87%) GitLab
4 1 (0.93%) Browser DevTools
4 1 (0.93%) Jenkins
General
1 38 (35.51%) Social Skills
2 12 (11.21%) Analytical Skills
2 12 (11.21%) Telecoms
3 11 (10.28%) Finance
4 7 (6.54%) Public Sector
5 5 (4.67%) Legal
5 5 (4.67%) Retail
6 4 (3.74%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (2.80%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (2.80%) Military
8 2 (1.87%) Aviation
8 2 (1.87%) Financial Institution
8 2 (1.87%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.93%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.93%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.93%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.93%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 26 (24.30%) Network Engineer
2 23 (21.50%) Senior
3 21 (19.63%) Architect
4 13 (12.15%) Network Architect
5 12 (11.21%) Senior Network Engineer
6 11 (10.28%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 8 (7.48%) Support Engineer
8 7 (6.54%) Azure Engineer
8 7 (6.54%) IT Engineer
8 7 (6.54%) IT Support
8 7 (6.54%) IT Support Engineer
9 5 (4.67%) Cloud Engineer
9 5 (4.67%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 5 (4.67%) Head of Infrastructure
9 5 (4.67%) Lead
9 5 (4.67%) Network Manager
9 5 (4.67%) Platform Engineer
9 5 (4.67%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 5 (4.67%) Security Engineer
9 5 (4.67%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (8.41%) 802.1X
2 6 (5.61%) ARM Templates
3 2 (1.87%) ModSecurity
3 2 (1.87%) Unreal Engine
4 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.93%) SAML
4 1 (0.93%) Software Packaging
4 1 (0.93%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (27.10%) Data Centre
2 17 (15.89%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (10.28%) Onboarding
4 8 (7.48%) Public Cloud
5 7 (6.54%) Cloud Native
5 7 (6.54%) Management Information System
5 7 (6.54%) PKI
6 5 (4.67%) Private Cloud
7 4 (3.74%) ARM Cortex
7 4 (3.74%) Fibre Optics
8 3 (2.80%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 2 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
9 2 (1.87%) Enterprise Software
9 2 (1.87%) Motion Graphics
9 2 (1.87%) Operational Technology
9 2 (1.87%) Replication
9 2 (1.87%) SCADA
9 2 (1.87%) Social Media
10 1 (0.93%) iPad
10 1 (0.93%) iPhone
Operating Systems
1 39 (36.45%) Windows
2 18 (16.82%) Linux
3 13 (12.15%) Windows Server
4 5 (4.67%) Windows 10
5 3 (2.80%) Mac OS
6 2 (1.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.93%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.93%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (22.43%) ITIL
2 16 (14.95%) Analytics
2 16 (14.95%) CI/CD
2 16 (14.95%) Network Virtualisation
2 16 (14.95%) Project Delivery
3 15 (14.02%) Cybersecurity
3 15 (14.02%) Network Architecture
4 14 (13.08%) Infrastructure as Code
4 14 (13.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 14 (13.08%) Migration
5 13 (12.15%) Change Management
5 13 (12.15%) DevOps
5 13 (12.15%) High Availability
6 12 (11.21%) Stakeholder Management
6 12 (11.21%) Technical Leadership
6 12 (11.21%) Validation
6 12 (11.21%) Zero Trust
7 10 (9.35%) Budget Management
7 10 (9.35%) RBAC
7 10 (9.35%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 17 (15.89%) PowerShell
2 11 (10.28%) Bicep
3 8 (7.48%) Bash
4 7 (6.54%) Python
5 1 (0.93%) SQL
Qualifications
1 60 (56.07%) Security Cleared
2 34 (31.78%) DV Cleared
3 33 (30.84%) SC Cleared
4 18 (16.82%) CCNP
4 18 (16.82%) Cisco Certification
5 11 (10.28%) Microsoft Certification
6 8 (7.48%) Degree
7 5 (4.67%) CCIE
8 4 (3.74%) AWS Certification
8 4 (3.74%) Azure Certification
8 4 (3.74%) PMP
8 4 (3.74%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 2 (1.87%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 2 (1.87%) BC Cleared
9 2 (1.87%) CCIP
9 2 (1.87%) ISTQB
9 2 (1.87%) Network+ Certification
10 1 (0.93%) CCDA
10 1 (0.93%) CCDP
10 1 (0.93%) CCNA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (11.21%) NCSC
2 9 (8.41%) NIST
3 6 (5.61%) JSP 440
4 5 (4.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 4 (3.74%) GDPR
5 4 (3.74%) RMADS
6 2 (1.87%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (1.87%) NIST 800
6 2 (1.87%) QA
6 2 (1.87%) SLA
7 1 (0.93%) GRC
System Software
1 37 (34.58%) Active Directory
2 27 (25.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (16.82%) VMware NSX
4 6 (5.61%) Hyper-V
4 6 (5.61%) vSphere
5 5 (4.67%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (3.74%) Docker
7 3 (2.80%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (1.87%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (1.87%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.93%) BitLocker
Systems Management
1 23 (21.50%) Microsoft Intune
2 22 (20.56%) Terraform
3 16 (14.95%) Ansible
4 7 (6.54%) Kubernetes
4 7 (6.54%) SCCM
5 5 (4.67%) Cisco CUCM
6 4 (3.74%) Grafana
7 3 (2.80%) Prometheus
7 3 (2.80%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (1.87%) Cisco Prime
8 2 (1.87%) Endace
8 2 (1.87%) FortiGate
8 2 (1.87%) Iperf
8 2 (1.87%) Nagios
8 2 (1.87%) Nmap
9 1 (0.93%) CASB
9 1 (0.93%) Jamf Pro
9 1 (0.93%) Rancher
Vendors
1 39 (36.45%) Microsoft
2 38 (35.51%) Cisco
3 34 (31.78%) VMware
4 21 (19.63%) Palo Alto
4 21 (19.63%) SolarWinds
5 14 (13.08%) F5
6 12 (11.21%) CheckPoint
6 12 (11.21%) Fortinet
6 12 (11.21%) Juniper
7 7 (6.54%) ServiceNow
8 6 (5.61%) Google
8 6 (5.61%) Veeam
8 6 (5.61%) Zscaler
9 5 (4.67%) Arista
9 5 (4.67%) BT
9 5 (4.67%) CrowdStrike
9 5 (4.67%) Meraki
10 4 (3.74%) Becrypt
10 4 (3.74%) Commvault
10 4 (3.74%) Xerox