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 19 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 114 74 113
Rank change year-on-year -40 +39 -9
Contract jobs citing VPN 79 104 98
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.81% 2.77% 1.95%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.72% 15.01% 8.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 60 49
10th Percentile £175 £215 £158
25th Percentile £400 £397 £213
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £538 £450
Median % change year-on-year -6.98% +19.44% -14.29%
75th Percentile £600 £599 £550
90th Percentile £655 £656 £639
England median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +9.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 2 3
10th Percentile £25.64 £17.71 £21.05
25th Percentile £42.33 £17.84 £22.25
Median hourly rate £83.32 £18.38 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year +353.41% -25.00% +8.89%
75th Percentile £89.63 £19.09 £24.88
90th Percentile - £19.34 £24.95
England median hourly rate £25.47 £35.00 £21.00
% change year-on-year -27.23% +66.67% -4.55%

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 621 693 1,138
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 14.21% 18.47% 22.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 449 396 618
10th Percentile £204 £223 £200
25th Percentile £331 £398 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £566
90th Percentile £638 £650 £650
England median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 24 71
10th Percentile £18.50 £31.25 £21.00
25th Percentile £32.77 £35.00 £28.75
Median hourly rate £70.16 £61.50 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.08% +2.50% +33.33%
75th Percentile £86.00 £65.51 £73.57
90th Percentile £89.63 £70.88 £78.00
England median hourly rate £34.00 £41.00 £55.70
% change year-on-year -17.07% -26.39% +23.78%

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 19 December 2025.

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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing VPN in the South East over the 6 months to 19 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for VPN in the South East

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 19 December 2025. 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 -31 34 £430 -24.56% 41
Hampshire -12 29 £600 +11.63% 33
Berkshire -27 18 £438 -18.60% 19
Oxfordshire -3 11 £525 -16.00% 13
Kent +7 6 £155 - 18
Surrey -12 6 £463 -9.76% 18
Buckinghamshire -10 5 £274 -51.59% 9
West Sussex -12 3 £400 +110.53% 8
M4 Corridor - 1 £375 -
East Sussex - 1 - - 4
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 15 (18.99%) SharePoint
2 8 (10.13%) Exchange Server 2003
2 8 (10.13%) Exchange Server 2007
2 8 (10.13%) Exchange Server 2010
2 8 (10.13%) Exchange Server 2013
2 8 (10.13%) Microsoft Exchange
2 8 (10.13%) Office Communications Server
2 8 (10.13%) SharePoint Server
2 8 (10.13%) Skype for Business
3 1 (1.27%) IIS
3 1 (1.27%) Tomcat
Applications
1 18 (22.78%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.53%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.27%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 17 (21.52%) Azure
2 16 (20.25%) Microsoft 365
3 11 (13.92%) AWS
4 8 (10.13%) Entra ID
5 3 (3.80%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 3 (3.80%) Azure Sentinel
5 3 (3.80%) GCP
6 2 (2.53%) SaaS
7 1 (1.27%) Azure AKS
7 1 (1.27%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (1.27%) Azure Key Vault
7 1 (1.27%) Azure Monitor
7 1 (1.27%) GitHub
7 1 (1.27%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.27%) IaaS
7 1 (1.27%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (1.27%) Nutanix
7 1 (1.27%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 42 (53.16%) Firewall
2 29 (36.71%) DNS
3 26 (32.91%) BGP
4 23 (29.11%) TCP/IP
5 22 (27.85%) OSPF
5 22 (27.85%) WAN
6 20 (25.32%) LAN
7 17 (21.52%) MPLS
7 17 (21.52%) Network Security
8 16 (20.25%) DHCP
9 12 (15.19%) VLAN
10 8 (10.13%) DDNS
10 8 (10.13%) IPsec
10 8 (10.13%) SAN
10 8 (10.13%) SD-WAN
11 7 (8.86%) Junos
11 7 (8.86%) Wireless
12 6 (7.59%) Remote Desktop
13 5 (6.33%) IPv6
14 4 (5.06%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.27%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 6 (7.59%) JIRA
2 2 (2.53%) GitLab
3 1 (1.27%) Jenkins
General
1 26 (32.91%) Social Skills
2 11 (13.92%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (11.39%) Public Sector
3 9 (11.39%) Telecoms
4 8 (10.13%) Legal
5 6 (7.59%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (7.59%) Finance
6 5 (6.33%) Law
7 4 (5.06%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (3.80%) Aerospace
8 3 (3.80%) Electronics
8 3 (3.80%) Manufacturing
8 3 (3.80%) Marketing
8 3 (3.80%) Retail
9 2 (2.53%) Advertising
10 1 (1.27%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 24 (30.38%) Network Engineer
2 11 (13.92%) Architect
2 11 (13.92%) Support Engineer
3 8 (10.13%) Exchange Engineer
3 8 (10.13%) Exchange Support
4 7 (8.86%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
4 7 (8.86%) Senior
5 6 (7.59%) IT Support
5 6 (7.59%) Lead
5 6 (7.59%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 6 (7.59%) Support Officer
6 5 (6.33%) Design Engineer
6 5 (6.33%) Help Desk Officer
6 5 (6.33%) Help Desk Support
6 5 (6.33%) Service Desk Officer
6 5 (6.33%) Service Desk Support
7 4 (5.06%) Analyst
7 4 (5.06%) IP Engineer
7 4 (5.06%) Network Architect
7 4 (5.06%) Network Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (1.27%) 802.1X
1 1 (1.27%) Azure Blueprints
1 1 (1.27%) JSON
1 1 (1.27%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 11 (13.92%) Data Centre
2 8 (10.13%) Replication
3 5 (6.33%) Cloud Native
4 4 (5.06%) Hybrid Cloud
4 4 (5.06%) NHS
5 3 (3.80%) Onboarding
5 3 (3.80%) SCADA
5 3 (3.80%) Video Conferencing
5 3 (3.80%) Virtual Team
6 2 (2.53%) Algorithms
6 2 (2.53%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (2.53%) PKI
6 2 (2.53%) Smartcard
7 1 (1.27%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (1.27%) Driving Licence
7 1 (1.27%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.27%) Life Science
7 1 (1.27%) Management Information System
7 1 (1.27%) Public Cloud
7 1 (1.27%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 26 (32.91%) Windows
2 11 (13.92%) Windows 10
3 8 (10.13%) Windows Server
3 8 (10.13%) Windows Server 2003
4 7 (8.86%) Mac OS
5 5 (6.33%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (6.33%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (2.53%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (35.44%) ITIL
2 19 (24.05%) Problem-Solving
3 17 (21.52%) High Availability
4 12 (15.19%) Cybersecurity
5 11 (13.92%) Business Intelligence
5 11 (13.92%) ITSM
6 10 (12.66%) Architectural Design
6 10 (12.66%) Migration
7 8 (10.13%) Content Management
7 8 (10.13%) Customer Service
7 8 (10.13%) Enterprise Content Management
7 8 (10.13%) Enterprise Search
7 8 (10.13%) Network Design
8 7 (8.86%) Knowledge Transfer
8 7 (8.86%) Network Monitoring
8 7 (8.86%) Network Segmentation
8 7 (8.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 6 (7.59%) Continuous Improvement
9 6 (7.59%) SIEM
9 6 (7.59%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 7 (8.86%) Python
2 4 (5.06%) Bash
3 3 (3.80%) PowerShell
4 1 (1.27%) Bicep
4 1 (1.27%) Java
Qualifications
1 40 (50.63%) Security Cleared
2 22 (27.85%) Cisco Certification
3 20 (25.32%) DV Cleared
4 19 (24.05%) CCNP
5 17 (21.52%) SC Cleared
6 9 (11.39%) CCNA
6 9 (11.39%) JNCIS
7 6 (7.59%) Degree
7 6 (7.59%) Network+ Certification
8 5 (6.33%) A+ Certification
8 5 (6.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (5.06%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
9 4 (5.06%) JNCIA
9 4 (5.06%) JNCIP
10 3 (3.80%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (3.80%) CCIE
11 2 (2.53%) CISM
11 2 (2.53%) CISSP
11 2 (2.53%) GIAC
12 1 (1.27%) CCDP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (11.39%) GDPR
2 6 (7.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (3.80%) NIST
3 3 (3.80%) SLA
4 2 (2.53%) Cyber Essentials
4 2 (2.53%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (1.27%) Government Security Classifications
5 1 (1.27%) JSP 440
5 1 (1.27%) NCSC
System Software
1 25 (31.65%) Active Directory
2 8 (10.13%) Brightmail
2 8 (10.13%) ISA Server
3 7 (8.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (7.59%) Hyper-V
5 5 (6.33%) Terminal Services
6 3 (3.80%) VMware NSX
7 2 (2.53%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (1.27%) Docker
8 1 (1.27%) KVM
8 1 (1.27%) RHEV
8 1 (1.27%) Xen
Systems Management
1 10 (12.66%) Ansible
2 8 (10.13%) Microsoft Clustering
3 5 (6.33%) FortiGate
3 5 (6.33%) Nagios
3 5 (6.33%) Terraform
4 4 (5.06%) Single Sign-On
5 3 (3.80%) Iperf
5 3 (3.80%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (3.80%) Nmap
5 3 (3.80%) SCCM
6 2 (2.53%) Kubernetes
6 2 (2.53%) vCenter Server
7 1 (1.27%) Endace
7 1 (1.27%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 36 (45.57%) Cisco
2 29 (36.71%) Microsoft
3 18 (22.78%) Juniper
3 18 (22.78%) Palo Alto
4 12 (15.19%) VMware
5 11 (13.92%) Fortinet
6 8 (10.13%) CheckPoint
6 8 (10.13%) SolarWinds
7 6 (7.59%) Citrix
7 6 (7.59%) ServiceNow
8 5 (6.33%) Zscaler
9 4 (5.06%) SAP
10 3 (3.80%) F5
10 3 (3.80%) McAfee
10 3 (3.80%) Nokia
11 2 (2.53%) Mellanox
11 2 (2.53%) NVIDIA
11 2 (2.53%) Sophos
11 2 (2.53%) Thales
12 1 (1.27%) LogicMonitor