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

6 months to
24 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 76 71
Rank change year-on-year -21 -5 +43
Contract jobs citing VPN 97 84 143
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.00% 2.71% 2.60%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.31% 15.27% 10.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 41 63
10th Percentile £225 £206 £184
25th Percentile £368 £300 £203
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £405
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +23.46% -19.00%
75th Percentile £550 £588 £550
90th Percentile £650 £630 £618
England median daily rate £450 £475 £428
% change year-on-year -5.26% +11.11% -1.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 8
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.50 £18.00
Median hourly rate £19.00 £19.00 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year - -11.63% -8.51%
75th Percentile £19.50 £19.50 £23.08
90th Percentile - - £24.83
England median hourly rate £16.71 £35.00 £20.00
% change year-on-year -52.27% +75.00% +5.65%

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 678 550 1,319
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 14.01% 17.75% 23.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 481 310 651
10th Percentile £219 £220 £203
25th Percentile £363 £366 £328
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £551
90th Percentile £650 £639 £638
England median daily rate £495 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -1.00% +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 19 101
10th Percentile £18.32 £29.93 £13.00
25th Percentile £23.02 £35.00 £24.00
Median hourly rate £48.72 £62.50 £57.99
Median % change year-on-year -22.05% +7.78% +28.87%
75th Percentile £60.90 £63.13 £71.90
90th Percentile £81.20 £72.00 £85.65
England median hourly rate £28.38 £35.00 £45.88
% change year-on-year -18.91% -23.71% +130.78%

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 24 February 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 February 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 -20 51 £400 -23.81% 22
Berkshire -16 32 £434 +0.29% 11
Hampshire -20 29 £550 +7.32% 15
Buckinghamshire -15 10 £274 -52.33% 7
Oxfordshire -6 9 £238 +11.76% 4
Surrey -13 9 £400 -20.00% 9
Kent - 4 £180 - 8
West Sussex -16 3 £400 +110.53% 3
M4 Corridor - 1 £375 -
East Sussex - 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 (10.31%) SharePoint
2 1 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 7 (7.22%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (4.12%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.03%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 36 (37.11%) Azure
2 23 (23.71%) AWS
3 17 (17.53%) Entra ID
3 17 (17.53%) Microsoft 365
4 13 (13.40%) GCP
5 7 (7.22%) OneDrive
6 4 (4.12%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 3 (3.09%) Nutanix
8 2 (2.06%) Azure Monitor
8 2 (2.06%) IaaS
9 1 (1.03%) AWS Direct Connect
9 1 (1.03%) Azure AI
9 1 (1.03%) Azure AKS
9 1 (1.03%) Azure Key Vault
9 1 (1.03%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (1.03%) PaaS
9 1 (1.03%) Power Platform
9 1 (1.03%) SaaS
9 1 (1.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 42 (43.30%) Firewall
2 38 (39.18%) LAN
3 37 (38.14%) WAN
4 30 (30.93%) BGP
5 27 (27.84%) OSPF
6 23 (23.71%) Network Security
7 22 (22.68%) MPLS
8 20 (20.62%) DNS
9 18 (18.56%) SD-WAN
10 16 (16.49%) TCP/IP
11 13 (13.40%) VLAN
12 9 (9.28%) Wi-Fi
13 8 (8.25%) IPsec
14 7 (7.22%) DHCP
14 7 (7.22%) Ethernet VPN
14 7 (7.22%) IPv6
14 7 (7.22%) Junos
14 7 (7.22%) Wireless
15 6 (6.19%) Multicast
16 5 (5.15%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.03%) Power BI
1 1 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 3 (3.09%) GitLab
1 3 (3.09%) JIRA
2 2 (2.06%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (1.03%) Jenkins
General
1 30 (30.93%) Social Skills
2 12 (12.37%) Telecoms
3 8 (8.25%) Documentation Skills
4 6 (6.19%) Finance
5 5 (5.15%) Analytical Skills
5 5 (5.15%) Public Sector
6 3 (3.09%) Electronics
6 3 (3.09%) Legal
6 3 (3.09%) Manufacturing
6 3 (3.09%) Marketing
6 3 (3.09%) Retail
7 2 (2.06%) Aviation
8 1 (1.03%) Aerospace
8 1 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (1.03%) Military
8 1 (1.03%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 26 (26.80%) Architect
2 25 (25.77%) Network Engineer
3 13 (13.40%) Lead
3 13 (13.40%) Senior
4 10 (10.31%) Network Architect
5 9 (9.28%) Infrastructure Architect
6 7 (7.22%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 6 (6.19%) Support Engineer
8 5 (5.15%) Analyst
8 5 (5.15%) Design Engineer
8 5 (5.15%) IP Engineer
8 5 (5.15%) IT Engineer
8 5 (5.15%) IT Support
8 5 (5.15%) IT Support Engineer
8 5 (5.15%) Senior Architect
9 4 (4.12%) Desktop Support
9 4 (4.12%) IP Network Engineer
9 4 (4.12%) Network Design Engineer
9 4 (4.12%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 4 (4.12%) Senior Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (2.06%) 802.1X
2 1 (1.03%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 18 (18.56%) Data Centre
2 11 (11.34%) Cloud Native
2 11 (11.34%) Public Cloud
3 6 (6.19%) Onboarding
4 4 (4.12%) Algorithms
4 4 (4.12%) Hybrid Cloud
4 4 (4.12%) NHS
4 4 (4.12%) PKI
4 4 (4.12%) Smartcard
5 3 (3.09%) Linux Command Line
5 3 (3.09%) Video Conferencing
5 3 (3.09%) Virtual Team
6 2 (2.06%) Management Information System
6 2 (2.06%) SCADA
7 1 (1.03%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 1 (1.03%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.03%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (1.03%) Life Science
7 1 (1.03%) Security Posture
7 1 (1.03%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 15 (15.46%) Windows
2 8 (8.25%) Windows 10
3 5 (5.15%) Linux
4 3 (3.09%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.03%) VMS
5 1 (1.03%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (18.56%) ITIL
2 16 (16.49%) ITSM
3 13 (13.40%) Customer Service
4 12 (12.37%) Network Design
5 10 (10.31%) Continuous Improvement
5 10 (10.31%) Test Automation
5 10 (10.31%) Validation
6 8 (8.25%) Cybersecurity
6 8 (8.25%) High Availability
6 8 (8.25%) Network Architecture
6 8 (8.25%) Network Monitoring
6 8 (8.25%) Zero Trust
7 7 (7.22%) Cloud Security
7 7 (7.22%) DevOps
7 7 (7.22%) Knowledge Transfer
7 7 (7.22%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 6 (6.19%) Migration
8 6 (6.19%) Problem-Solving
8 6 (6.19%) SIEM
8 6 (6.19%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 9 (9.28%) Python
2 7 (7.22%) PowerShell
3 5 (5.15%) Bash
4 1 (1.03%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 42 (43.30%) Security Cleared
2 29 (29.90%) Cisco Certification
3 28 (28.87%) CCNP
4 21 (21.65%) SC Cleared
5 20 (20.62%) DV Cleared
6 12 (12.37%) CCNA
7 11 (11.34%) JNCIS
8 7 (7.22%) Network+ Certification
9 6 (6.19%) CCIE
9 6 (6.19%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (4.12%) CISM
10 4 (4.12%) CISSP
10 4 (4.12%) GIAC
10 4 (4.12%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
10 4 (4.12%) JNCIA
10 4 (4.12%) JNCIP
11 2 (2.06%) BC Cleared
11 2 (2.06%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (2.06%) CCDP
11 2 (2.06%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (7.22%) NIST
2 6 (6.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (5.15%) NCSC
4 4 (4.12%) SLA
5 2 (2.06%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (1.03%) GRC
6 1 (1.03%) QA
System Software
1 18 (18.56%) Active Directory
2 10 (10.31%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (9.28%) Hyper-V
4 4 (4.12%) VMware NSX
5 1 (1.03%) BitLocker
5 1 (1.03%) Docker
5 1 (1.03%) KVM
5 1 (1.03%) RHEV
5 1 (1.03%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (1.03%) Xen
Systems Management
1 14 (14.43%) Ansible
2 9 (9.28%) Microsoft Intune
2 9 (9.28%) Nagios
2 9 (9.28%) Terraform
3 6 (6.19%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (5.15%) SCCM
5 4 (4.12%) Iperf
5 4 (4.12%) Nmap
6 3 (3.09%) Endace
7 2 (2.06%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (1.03%) CASB
8 1 (1.03%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (1.03%) FortiGate
8 1 (1.03%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (1.03%) Kubernetes
8 1 (1.03%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 39 (40.21%) Cisco
2 26 (26.80%) Juniper
3 20 (20.62%) Microsoft
4 15 (15.46%) VMware
5 14 (14.43%) Palo Alto
5 14 (14.43%) SolarWinds
6 11 (11.34%) Fortinet
7 8 (8.25%) CheckPoint
8 7 (7.22%) Zscaler
9 5 (5.15%) F5
10 4 (4.12%) Mellanox
10 4 (4.12%) NVIDIA
10 4 (4.12%) SAP
10 4 (4.12%) ServiceNow
10 4 (4.12%) Thales
11 3 (3.09%) McAfee
11 3 (3.09%) Nokia
11 3 (3.09%) Virgin Media
12 2 (2.06%) Meraki
12 2 (2.06%) Tufin