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

6 months to
27 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 105 77 92
Rank change year-on-year -28 +15 +28
Contract jobs citing VPN 107 79 123
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.97% 2.69% 2.19%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.66% 15.28% 9.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 67 46 56
10th Percentile £229 £242 £184
25th Percentile £400 £435 £203
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £515 £413
Median % change year-on-year -10.68% +24.85% -17.50%
75th Percentile £550 £600 £550
90th Percentile £615 £630 £598
England median daily rate £475 £475 £425
% change year-on-year - +11.76% -2.86%
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 £22.51
Median % change year-on-year - -15.59% +1.81%
75th Percentile £19.50 £19.50 £23.12
90th Percentile - - £24.83
England median hourly rate £16.71 £19.00 £17.72
% change year-on-year -12.08% +7.22% -16.49%

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 730 517 1,327
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 13.46% 17.58% 23.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 501 313 639
10th Percentile £263 £207 £205
25th Percentile £406 £356 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £560
90th Percentile £675 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 29 113
10th Percentile £16.06 £14.20 £16.05
25th Percentile £19.34 £28.00 £24.00
Median hourly rate £42.71 £54.88 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -22.18% -4.32% +27.44%
75th Percentile £56.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.78 £72.00 £85.65
England median hourly rate £40.02 £35.75 £39.25
% change year-on-year +11.94% -8.92% +106.58%

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 27 March 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 27 March 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 -21 55 £418 -24.09% 15
Berkshire -16 38 £428 -5.00% 8
Hampshire -28 32 £550 +6.80% 14
Surrey -7 11 £400 +10.34% 6
Oxfordshire -1 9 £238 +11.76% 3
Buckinghamshire -25 8 £525 -12.32% 4
Kent - 4 £180 - 1
West Sussex -12 3 £400 +110.53% 6
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 (9.35%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (4.67%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (3.74%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.93%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 44 (41.12%) Azure
2 25 (23.36%) AWS
3 18 (16.82%) Entra ID
4 16 (14.95%) Microsoft 365
5 15 (14.02%) GCP
6 7 (6.54%) OneDrive
7 4 (3.74%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 3 (2.80%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (2.80%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (2.80%) Nutanix
9 2 (1.87%) AWS CloudFormation
9 2 (1.87%) Azure AKS
9 2 (1.87%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (1.87%) IaaS
9 2 (1.87%) PaaS
10 1 (0.93%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.93%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.93%) Power Platform
10 1 (0.93%) SaaS
10 1 (0.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 49 (45.79%) Firewall
2 46 (42.99%) WAN
3 44 (41.12%) LAN
4 33 (30.84%) BGP
5 30 (28.04%) OSPF
6 27 (25.23%) SD-WAN
7 25 (23.36%) MPLS
8 23 (21.50%) Network Security
9 21 (19.63%) DNS
10 17 (15.89%) TCP/IP
11 13 (12.15%) VLAN
12 10 (9.35%) Wi-Fi
13 9 (8.41%) DHCP
14 8 (7.48%) Junos
15 7 (6.54%) Ethernet VPN
15 7 (6.54%) IPsec
16 6 (5.61%) Wireless
16 6 (5.61%) WLAN
17 5 (4.67%) IPv6
18 4 (3.74%) S/MIME
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 2 (1.87%) GitLab
2 2 (1.87%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.93%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (0.93%) Git
General
1 38 (35.51%) Social Skills
2 11 (10.28%) Finance
3 9 (8.41%) Documentation Skills
3 9 (8.41%) Public Sector
3 9 (8.41%) Telecoms
4 7 (6.54%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (5.61%) Legal
5 6 (5.61%) Retail
6 3 (2.80%) Electronics
6 3 (2.80%) Manufacturing
6 3 (2.80%) Marketing
7 2 (1.87%) Aviation
7 2 (1.87%) Financial Institution
8 1 (0.93%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.93%) Military
8 1 (0.93%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 30 (28.04%) Architect
1 30 (28.04%) Network Engineer
2 17 (15.89%) Senior
3 13 (12.15%) Lead
4 12 (11.21%) Network Architect
5 11 (10.28%) Infrastructure Architect
6 7 (6.54%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
6 7 (6.54%) Senior Architect
7 6 (5.61%) Senior Network Architect
7 6 (5.61%) Support Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) Design Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) IP Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) IT Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) IT Support
8 5 (4.67%) IT Support Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) Network Manager
8 5 (4.67%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 5 (4.67%) Senior Network Engineer
9 4 (3.74%) IP Network Engineer
9 4 (3.74%) Juniper Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (1.87%) 802.1X
2 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Graph
2 1 (0.93%) SAML
2 1 (0.93%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 25 (23.36%) Data Centre
2 13 (12.15%) Cloud Native
2 13 (12.15%) Public Cloud
3 6 (5.61%) Onboarding
4 4 (3.74%) Algorithms
4 4 (3.74%) Hybrid Cloud
4 4 (3.74%) NHS
4 4 (3.74%) PKI
4 4 (3.74%) Smartcard
5 3 (2.80%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (1.87%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.93%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 1 (0.93%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.93%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (0.93%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (0.93%) Life Science
7 1 (0.93%) TM Forum
7 1 (0.93%) Video Conferencing
7 1 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 19 (17.76%) Windows
2 6 (5.61%) Windows 10
3 5 (4.67%) Linux
4 4 (3.74%) Mac OS
4 4 (3.74%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.93%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (18.69%) ITIL
2 15 (14.02%) High Availability
3 14 (13.08%) ITSM
4 11 (10.28%) Customer Service
4 11 (10.28%) DevOps
4 11 (10.28%) Network Design
4 11 (10.28%) Problem-Solving
5 10 (9.35%) Continuous Improvement
6 9 (8.41%) Cybersecurity
6 9 (8.41%) Identity Access Management
6 9 (8.41%) Network Monitoring
6 9 (8.41%) Validation
7 8 (7.48%) Agile
7 8 (7.48%) Analytics
7 8 (7.48%) Infrastructure Automation
7 8 (7.48%) Network Architecture
7 8 (7.48%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 8 (7.48%) Technical Leadership
7 8 (7.48%) Test Automation
7 8 (7.48%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 8 (7.48%) Python
2 7 (6.54%) PowerShell
3 2 (1.87%) Bash
3 2 (1.87%) Bicep
4 1 (0.93%) SQL
Qualifications
1 50 (46.73%) Security Cleared
2 27 (25.23%) DV Cleared
3 26 (24.30%) Cisco Certification
3 26 (24.30%) SC Cleared
4 25 (23.36%) CCNP
5 11 (10.28%) CCNA
5 11 (10.28%) JNCIS
6 6 (5.61%) Microsoft Certification
6 6 (5.61%) Network+ Certification
7 4 (3.74%) CCIE
7 4 (3.74%) CISM
7 4 (3.74%) CISSP
7 4 (3.74%) GIAC
7 4 (3.74%) JNCIA
7 4 (3.74%) PMP
8 3 (2.80%) JNCIP
9 2 (1.87%) BC Cleared
9 2 (1.87%) CCDP
9 2 (1.87%) CCIP
9 2 (1.87%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (7.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 6 (5.61%) NIST
3 5 (4.67%) NCSC
4 4 (3.74%) SLA
5 3 (2.80%) GDPR
6 2 (1.87%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.93%) GRC
7 1 (0.93%) QA
System Software
1 20 (18.69%) Active Directory
2 16 (14.95%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (10.28%) Hyper-V
4 8 (7.48%) VMware NSX
5 3 (2.80%) Docker
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%) Xen
Systems Management
1 15 (14.02%) Ansible
2 12 (11.21%) Microsoft Intune
2 12 (11.21%) Terraform
3 9 (8.41%) Nagios
4 7 (6.54%) Single Sign-On
5 5 (4.67%) Endace
6 3 (2.80%) Kubernetes
6 3 (2.80%) SCCM
7 2 (1.87%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (1.87%) Iperf
7 2 (1.87%) Nmap
8 1 (0.93%) CASB
8 1 (0.93%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.93%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.93%) Jamf Pro
8 1 (0.93%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 39 (36.45%) Cisco
2 28 (26.17%) Juniper
3 21 (19.63%) VMware
4 19 (17.76%) Microsoft
5 12 (11.21%) Palo Alto
5 12 (11.21%) SolarWinds
6 10 (9.35%) Fortinet
7 8 (7.48%) Zscaler
8 5 (4.67%) CheckPoint
8 5 (4.67%) F5
9 4 (3.74%) Mellanox
9 4 (3.74%) NVIDIA
9 4 (3.74%) SAP
9 4 (3.74%) ServiceNow
9 4 (3.74%) Thales
10 3 (2.80%) HP
10 3 (2.80%) Nokia
10 3 (2.80%) Virgin Media
11 2 (1.87%) Google
11 2 (1.87%) Meraki