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 15 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 63 84
Rank change year-on-year -38 +21 +39
Contract jobs citing VPN 107 88 120
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.82% 2.97% 2.19%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.34% 17.32% 10.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 68 60 55
10th Percentile £229 £323 £184
25th Percentile £400 £450 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £420
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +19.05% -16.00%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £538
90th Percentile £611 £602 £589
England median daily rate £475 £475 £430
% change year-on-year - +10.47% -7.03%
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% +3.18%
75th Percentile - £19.50 £22.54
90th Percentile - - £23.23
England median hourly rate £12.56 £19.00 £16.86
% change year-on-year -33.89% +12.69% -20.55%

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 746 508 1,200
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.66% 17.12% 21.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 480 333 591
10th Percentile £287 £206 £205
25th Percentile £410 £325 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £475 £484
Median % change year-on-year +7.37% -1.86% +0.72%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £588
90th Percentile £675 £629 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £495
% change year-on-year - +1.01% -5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 51 27 129
10th Percentile £17.63 £14.20 £16.25
25th Percentile £22.50 £19.68 £27.50
Median hourly rate £47.50 £50.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -12.82% +9.24%
75th Percentile £56.11 £60.81 £63.75
90th Percentile £60.90 £64.25 £85.65
England median hourly rate £41.94 £29.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +44.62% -27.50% +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 15 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 15 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 -39 54 £425 -5.56% 24
Berkshire -23 37 £428 -5.00% 8
Hampshire -32 29 £550 +2.33% 22
Surrey -4 17 £444 +4.41% 7
Buckinghamshire -35 9 £554 -3.53% 7
Oxfordshire -11 8 £238 +11.76% 9
Kent -5 4 £180 -52.00% 5
West Sussex -16 2 £105 -
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 48 (44.86%) Azure
2 25 (23.36%) AWS
3 18 (16.82%) Entra ID
4 15 (14.02%) GCP
5 14 (13.08%) Microsoft 365
6 8 (7.48%) OneDrive
7 4 (3.74%) Azure AKS
7 4 (3.74%) Azure DevOps
7 4 (3.74%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 4 (3.74%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (2.80%) Azure Key Vault
8 3 (2.80%) Nutanix
9 2 (1.87%) AWS CloudFormation
9 2 (1.87%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (1.87%) IaaS
9 2 (1.87%) PaaS
9 2 (1.87%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.93%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.93%) SaaS
10 1 (0.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 51 (47.66%) Firewall
2 50 (46.73%) LAN
2 50 (46.73%) WAN
3 29 (27.10%) SD-WAN
4 27 (25.23%) BGP
5 26 (24.30%) DNS
6 25 (23.36%) OSPF
7 24 (22.43%) Network Security
8 18 (16.82%) MPLS
8 18 (16.82%) VLAN
9 17 (15.89%) TCP/IP
10 15 (14.02%) Wi-Fi
11 13 (12.15%) DHCP
12 7 (6.54%) Ethernet VPN
12 7 (6.54%) IPsec
12 7 (6.54%) WLAN
13 6 (5.61%) Wireless
14 5 (4.67%) IPv6
14 5 (4.67%) SSL
14 5 (4.67%) Wireshark
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 3 (2.80%) GitLab
3 2 (1.87%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.93%) Browser DevTools
4 1 (0.93%) Git
4 1 (0.93%) Jenkins
General
1 34 (31.78%) Social Skills
2 10 (9.35%) Analytical Skills
2 10 (9.35%) Finance
3 8 (7.48%) Public Sector
4 7 (6.54%) Documentation Skills
5 6 (5.61%) Legal
5 6 (5.61%) Retail
5 6 (5.61%) Telecoms
6 2 (1.87%) Aviation
6 2 (1.87%) Financial Institution
7 1 (0.93%) Aerospace
7 1 (0.93%) Electronics
7 1 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (0.93%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.93%) Marketing
7 1 (0.93%) Military
7 1 (0.93%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 28 (26.17%) Architect
1 28 (26.17%) Network Engineer
2 18 (16.82%) Senior
3 12 (11.21%) Lead
4 11 (10.28%) Infrastructure Architect
4 11 (10.28%) Network Architect
5 7 (6.54%) Senior Network Engineer
6 6 (5.61%) Senior Architect
6 6 (5.61%) Senior Network Architect
6 6 (5.61%) Support Engineer
7 5 (4.67%) Head of Infrastructure
7 5 (4.67%) IT Engineer
7 5 (4.67%) IT Support
7 5 (4.67%) IT Support Engineer
7 5 (4.67%) Network Manager
7 5 (4.67%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 4 (3.74%) Azure Engineer
8 4 (3.74%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 4 (3.74%) Head of IT Infrastructure
8 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 31 (28.97%) Data Centre
2 13 (12.15%) Public Cloud
3 11 (10.28%) Cloud Native
4 7 (6.54%) Onboarding
5 5 (4.67%) PKI
6 4 (3.74%) Algorithms
6 4 (3.74%) Smartcard
7 3 (2.80%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (2.80%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.87%) Management Information System
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%) NHS
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 13 (12.15%) DevOps
2 13 (12.15%) High Availability
3 12 (11.21%) ITSM
3 12 (11.21%) Network Design
4 11 (10.28%) Migration
5 9 (8.41%) Analytics
5 9 (8.41%) Customer Service
5 9 (8.41%) Cybersecurity
5 9 (8.41%) Identity Access Management
5 9 (8.41%) Problem-Solving
5 9 (8.41%) Technical Leadership
6 8 (7.48%) Budget Management
6 8 (7.48%) Change Management
6 8 (7.48%) CI/CD
6 8 (7.48%) Continuous Improvement
6 8 (7.48%) Infrastructure as Code
6 8 (7.48%) Infrastructure Automation
6 8 (7.48%) Network Architecture
6 8 (7.48%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 8 (7.48%) PowerShell
2 5 (4.67%) Python
3 4 (3.74%) Bicep
4 2 (1.87%) Bash
5 1 (0.93%) SQL
Qualifications
1 48 (44.86%) Security Cleared
2 28 (26.17%) SC Cleared
3 25 (23.36%) CCNP
3 25 (23.36%) Cisco Certification
3 25 (23.36%) DV Cleared
4 9 (8.41%) CCNA
5 8 (7.48%) JNCIS
6 7 (6.54%) Microsoft Certification
7 6 (5.61%) Network+ Certification
8 4 (3.74%) CISM
8 4 (3.74%) CISSP
8 4 (3.74%) GIAC
8 4 (3.74%) PMP
9 3 (2.80%) CCIE
10 2 (1.87%) Azure Certification
10 2 (1.87%) BC Cleared
10 2 (1.87%) CCIP
10 2 (1.87%) Degree
10 2 (1.87%) ISTQB
10 2 (1.87%) JNCIA
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 2 (1.87%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.87%) QA
5 2 (1.87%) SLA
6 1 (0.93%) GRC
6 1 (0.93%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.93%) RMADS
System Software
1 21 (19.63%) Active Directory
1 21 (19.63%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (10.28%) Hyper-V
3 8 (7.48%) VMware NSX
4 5 (4.67%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (3.74%) Docker
5 4 (3.74%) vSphere
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 Servers
6 1 (0.93%) Xen
Systems Management
1 14 (13.08%) Terraform
2 13 (12.15%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (11.21%) Ansible
4 9 (8.41%) Nagios
5 6 (5.61%) Single Sign-On
6 5 (4.67%) Endace
7 4 (3.74%) Kubernetes
8 3 (2.80%) SCCM
9 2 (1.87%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (1.87%) FortiGate
9 2 (1.87%) Iperf
9 2 (1.87%) Nmap
10 1 (0.93%) CASB
10 1 (0.93%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.93%) Grafana
10 1 (0.93%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.93%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 38 (35.51%) Cisco
2 25 (23.36%) VMware
3 23 (21.50%) Juniper
4 22 (20.56%) Microsoft
5 17 (15.89%) SolarWinds
6 9 (8.41%) CheckPoint
6 9 (8.41%) Fortinet
6 9 (8.41%) Palo Alto
7 8 (7.48%) F5
8 7 (6.54%) Zscaler
9 6 (5.61%) Meraki
9 6 (5.61%) ServiceNow
10 5 (4.67%) BT
11 4 (3.74%) Commvault
11 4 (3.74%) Mellanox
11 4 (3.74%) NetApp
11 4 (3.74%) NVIDIA
11 4 (3.74%) Thales
11 4 (3.74%) Veeam
11 4 (3.74%) Xerox