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

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 97 74
Rank change year-on-year -33 -23 +43
Contract jobs citing VPN 97 71 113
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.49% 2.01% 2.61%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.47% 11.83% 14.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 66 58 59
10th Percentile £283 £273 £223
25th Percentile £386 £400 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +16.67%
75th Percentile £622 £600 £581
90th Percentile £650 £638 £685
England median daily rate £500 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 5 3
10th Percentile £61.74 £48.06 £17.80
25th Percentile £63.50 £71.00 £18.06
Median hourly rate £71.43 £89.63 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.31% +371.74% -16.48%
75th Percentile £96.00 - £20.95
90th Percentile - - £21.82
England median hourly rate £25.75 £58.50 £23.80
% change year-on-year -55.98% +145.80% +10.70%

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 720 600 778
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.03% 17.00% 17.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 412 429 436
10th Percentile £275 £204 £237
25th Percentile £400 £325 £384
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.38% -2.50% +11.11%
75th Percentile £590 £588 £608
90th Percentile £650 £638 £667
England median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 22 48
10th Percentile £19.34 £22.40 £26.78
25th Percentile £31.25 £50.63 £52.82
Median hourly rate £52.43 £56.25 £64.76
Median % change year-on-year -6.80% -13.14% +7.93%
75th Percentile £65.22 £80.50 £74.06
90th Percentile £94.25 £89.63 £75.00
England median hourly rate £38.72 £35.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +10.63% -38.97% +1.52%

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 6 October 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing VPN in the South East over the 6 months to 6 October 2026.

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 6 October 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 -13 58 £520 +15.56% 37
Berkshire -9 31 £410 -8.89% 6
Buckinghamshire -5 21 £615 +124.85% 11
Hampshire -42 19 £500 -15.61% 28
Surrey -12 14 £475 -9.52% 34
Oxfordshire -30 6 £450 -25.00% 20
Middlesex - 3 £450 - 2
West Sussex - 2 £315 - 4
Home Counties - 2 £600 -
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 6 (6.19%) SharePoint
2 4 (4.12%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 5 (5.15%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (2.06%) Adobe Creative Suite
2 2 (2.06%) Houdini
2 2 (2.06%) NUKE
3 1 (1.03%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.03%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.03%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (1.03%) Oracle EBS
1 1 (1.03%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 44 (45.36%) Azure
2 19 (19.59%) Entra ID
3 16 (16.49%) AWS
4 14 (14.43%) Microsoft 365
5 11 (11.34%) Azure Monitor
6 8 (8.25%) OpenShift
7 7 (7.22%) Azure Sentinel
8 6 (6.19%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 6 (6.19%) OneDrive
9 5 (5.15%) GCP
9 5 (5.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 4 (4.12%) AWS Direct Connect
11 3 (3.09%) Azure Key Vault
12 2 (2.06%) Azure AKS
12 2 (2.06%) Azure DevOps
12 2 (2.06%) Google Workspace
13 1 (1.03%) AWS CloudTrail
13 1 (1.03%) Azure Functions
13 1 (1.03%) GitHub Actions
13 1 (1.03%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 63 (64.95%) Firewall
2 59 (60.82%) DNS
3 43 (44.33%) DHCP
4 32 (32.99%) TCP/IP
4 32 (32.99%) WAN
5 31 (31.96%) LAN
6 27 (27.84%) Network Security
7 24 (24.74%) VLAN
8 21 (21.65%) SSL
9 18 (18.56%) IPsec
10 14 (14.43%) BGP
10 14 (14.43%) SD-WAN
11 13 (13.40%) Cisco Firepower
12 12 (12.37%) Cisco ASA
13 11 (11.34%) Wireless
14 10 (10.31%) Wi-Fi
15 9 (9.28%) BIG-IP
16 8 (8.25%) MPLS
16 8 (8.25%) NGFW
16 8 (8.25%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.09%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (2.06%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (1.03%) Git
2 1 (1.03%) GitLab
2 1 (1.03%) Jenkins
General
1 32 (32.99%) Social Skills
2 17 (17.53%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (10.31%) Telecoms
4 6 (6.19%) Aerospace
5 3 (3.09%) Influencing Skills
5 3 (3.09%) Public Sector
6 2 (2.06%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.06%) Finance
6 2 (2.06%) Military
6 2 (2.06%) Organisational Skills
6 2 (2.06%) Retail
7 1 (1.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.03%) Legal
7 1 (1.03%) Local Government
7 1 (1.03%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 20 (20.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
1 20 (20.62%) Senior
2 18 (18.56%) Architect
3 17 (17.53%) Network Engineer
4 9 (9.28%) Azure Engineer
4 9 (9.28%) Network Architect
5 8 (8.25%) Security Engineer
5 8 (8.25%) Senior Network Engineer
6 7 (7.22%) IT Engineer
6 7 (7.22%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 7 (7.22%) Support Engineer
6 7 (7.22%) Systems Engineer
7 6 (6.19%) Cloud Engineer
7 6 (6.19%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
8 5 (5.15%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 5 (5.15%) Platform Engineer
9 4 (4.12%) IT Support
9 4 (4.12%) Lead
9 4 (4.12%) Network Security Architect
9 4 (4.12%) Security Assurance Coordinator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 23 (23.71%) Terraform
2 16 (16.49%) 802.1X
3 11 (11.34%) ARM Templates
4 2 (2.06%) ModSecurity
4 2 (2.06%) REST
4 2 (2.06%) Unreal Engine
5 1 (1.03%) gRPC
5 1 (1.03%) NETCONF
5 1 (1.03%) RESTCONF
5 1 (1.03%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 24 (24.74%) Hybrid Cloud
2 22 (22.68%) Data Centre
3 14 (14.43%) Onboarding
4 13 (13.40%) PKI
5 7 (7.22%) Cloud Native
5 7 (7.22%) Management Information System
6 5 (5.15%) Private Cloud
7 4 (4.12%) ARM Cortex
7 4 (4.12%) Fibre Optics
7 4 (4.12%) iPhone
7 4 (4.12%) Public Cloud
8 3 (3.09%) Blackberry
8 3 (3.09%) Data Protection Act
8 3 (3.09%) Device Driver
8 3 (3.09%) Digital Signage
8 3 (3.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (3.09%) Driving Licence
9 2 (2.06%) Operational Technology
9 2 (2.06%) Replication
9 2 (2.06%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 47 (48.45%) Windows
2 28 (28.87%) Linux
3 23 (23.71%) Windows Server
4 10 (10.31%) Windows 10
5 2 (2.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (1.03%) Apple iOS
6 1 (1.03%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (30.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 24 (24.74%) ITIL
3 18 (18.56%) Infrastructure as Code
4 17 (17.53%) DevOps
4 17 (17.53%) Zero Trust
5 16 (16.49%) Disaster Recovery
5 16 (16.49%) Technical Leadership
6 14 (14.43%) Cybersecurity
7 13 (13.40%) Business Continuity
7 13 (13.40%) Migration
8 12 (12.37%) CI/CD
8 12 (12.37%) Infrastructure Monitoring
8 12 (12.37%) Network Virtualisation
8 12 (12.37%) Platform Engineering
9 11 (11.34%) Observability
9 11 (11.34%) Problem-Solving
9 11 (11.34%) Security Operations
9 11 (11.34%) Validation
10 10 (10.31%) Change Management
10 10 (10.31%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 26 (26.80%) PowerShell
2 13 (13.40%) Bash
2 13 (13.40%) Bicep
3 11 (11.34%) Python
Qualifications
1 57 (58.76%) Security Cleared
2 31 (31.96%) SC Cleared
3 30 (30.93%) DV Cleared
4 11 (11.34%) Degree
5 10 (10.31%) Cisco Certification
6 9 (9.28%) CCNP
7 8 (8.25%) Azure Certification
7 8 (8.25%) Microsoft Certification
8 7 (7.22%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 4 (4.12%) AWS Certification
10 3 (3.09%) CCIE
10 3 (3.09%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
11 2 (2.06%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 2 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (1.03%) BPSS Clearance
12 1 (1.03%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (1.03%) JNCIE
12 1 (1.03%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (12.37%) NCSC
2 10 (10.31%) JSP 440
3 7 (7.22%) NIST
4 4 (4.12%) RMADS
5 2 (2.06%) NIST 800
5 2 (2.06%) SLA
6 1 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (1.03%) QA
System Software
1 37 (38.14%) Active Directory
2 32 (32.99%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (13.40%) VMware NSX
4 11 (11.34%) Hyper-V
4 11 (11.34%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (10.31%) vSphere
6 5 (5.15%) Docker
7 4 (4.12%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (3.09%) BitLocker
9 2 (2.06%) Virtual Desktop
9 2 (2.06%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 18 (18.56%) Ansible
2 14 (14.43%) Microsoft Intune
3 12 (12.37%) Kubernetes
4 9 (9.28%) Grafana
4 9 (9.28%) SCCM
5 8 (8.25%) Prometheus
6 4 (4.12%) Cisco CUCM
7 3 (3.09%) FortiGate
7 3 (3.09%) Istio
8 2 (2.06%) Single Sign-On
8 2 (2.06%) vCenter Server
9 1 (1.03%) Rancher
Vendors
1 54 (55.67%) Microsoft
2 38 (39.18%) VMware
3 33 (34.02%) Cisco
4 24 (24.74%) Palo Alto
5 18 (18.56%) F5
5 18 (18.56%) SolarWinds
6 12 (12.37%) CheckPoint
7 11 (11.34%) Juniper
8 9 (9.28%) Fortinet
9 8 (8.25%) ServiceNow
9 8 (8.25%) Veeam
10 6 (6.19%) Arista
10 6 (6.19%) BT
10 6 (6.19%) Commvault
10 6 (6.19%) Meraki
10 6 (6.19%) NetApp
10 6 (6.19%) Red Hat
10 6 (6.19%) Xerox
10 6 (6.19%) Zscaler
11 5 (5.15%) CrowdStrike