BIG-IP Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

F5 Networks BIG-IP
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring BIG-IP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 28 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 119 103 -
Rank change year-on-year -16 - -
Contract jobs citing BIG-IP 26 2 0
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 0.93% 0.13% -
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.58% 0.72% -
Number of daily rates quoted 7 0 0
10th Percentile £324 - -
25th Percentile £510 - -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 - -
75th Percentile £555 - -
90th Percentile £568 - -
South East median daily rate £555 £600 £550
% change year-on-year -7.50% +9.09% -3.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
10th Percentile £44.28 - -
25th Percentile £48.68 - -
Median hourly rate £57.02 - -
75th Percentile £65.01 - -
90th Percentile £69.20 - -
South East median hourly rate £57.02 - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Thames Valley

BIG-IP 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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 395 279 663
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 14.16% 18.39% 23.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 246 137 323
10th Percentile £255 £242 £205
25th Percentile £370 £375 £314
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £464 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -7.25% +2.56% -2.50%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £566
90th Percentile £638 £650 £638
South East median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 8 51
10th Percentile £16.01 - £18.00
25th Percentile £19.17 £14.20 £24.00
Median hourly rate £27.88 £16.60 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +67.95% -65.05% +41.79%
75th Percentile £49.03 £23.38 £85.65
90th Percentile £73.60 £45.01 £87.53
South East median hourly rate £42.71 £54.88 £57.35
% change year-on-year -22.18% -4.32% +27.44%

BIG-IP
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing BIG-IP relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

BIG-IP job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

BIG-IP
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing BIG-IP.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing BIG-IP

BIG-IP
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BIG-IP in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 28 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for BIG-IP in the Thames Valley

BIG-IP
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing BIG-IP.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing BIG-IP

BIG-IP
Hourly Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing BIG-IP in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 28 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BIG-IP in the Thames Valley

BIG-IP
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing BIG-IP within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 28 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
Berkshire -11 22 £520 - 2
Buckinghamshire - 4 £538 - 2
BIG-IP
South East

BIG-IP
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

Applications
1 1 (3.85%) Microsoft Excel
1 1 (3.85%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 4 (15.38%) AWS
1 4 (15.38%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 26 (100.00%) BGP
1 26 (100.00%) OSPF
2 25 (96.15%) Firewall
2 25 (96.15%) LAN
2 25 (96.15%) WAN
3 21 (80.77%) Cisco ISE
3 21 (80.77%) DHCP
3 21 (80.77%) DNS
3 21 (80.77%) Ethernet VPN
3 21 (80.77%) Junos
3 21 (80.77%) VXLAN
4 5 (19.23%) Wireless
5 4 (15.38%) Cisco ASA
5 4 (15.38%) Cisco Firepower
5 4 (15.38%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 4 (15.38%) ICMP
5 4 (15.38%) IPsec
5 4 (15.38%) Network Security
5 4 (15.38%) NGFW
5 4 (15.38%) TCP/IP
General
1 4 (15.38%) Military
2 2 (7.69%) Public Sector
3 1 (3.85%) Billing
3 1 (3.85%) Finance
Job Titles
1 12 (46.15%) Network Engineer
2 11 (42.31%) Firewall Specialist
2 11 (42.31%) Network Specialist
2 11 (42.31%) Senior
2 11 (42.31%) Senior Network Engineer
3 2 (7.69%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
3 2 (7.69%) Lead
4 1 (3.85%) Architect
4 1 (3.85%) Cisco Engineer
4 1 (3.85%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 1 (3.85%) Cisco Project Manager
4 1 (3.85%) Lead Architect
4 1 (3.85%) Network Architect
4 1 (3.85%) Network Support
4 1 (3.85%) Project Manager
4 1 (3.85%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 1 (3.85%) Senior Cisco Engineer
4 1 (3.85%) Senior Cisco Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (80.77%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 21 (80.77%) Clustering
2 20 (76.92%) Data Centre
2 20 (76.92%) PKI
3 1 (3.85%) iSeries
3 1 (3.85%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 21 (80.77%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 25 (96.15%) High Availability
2 21 (80.77%) Identity Access Management
2 21 (80.77%) Load Balancing
3 20 (76.92%) Observability
4 14 (53.85%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (42.31%) ITIL
5 11 (42.31%) Service Management
6 10 (38.46%) ITSM
7 9 (34.62%) Availability Management
8 4 (15.38%) Network Virtualisation
8 4 (15.38%) Security Operations
8 4 (15.38%) Stakeholder Management
8 4 (15.38%) Technical Leadership
8 4 (15.38%) Virtual Environments
9 3 (11.54%) Migration
9 3 (11.54%) Network Monitoring
10 1 (3.85%) Collaborative Working
10 1 (3.85%) Project Delivery
10 1 (3.85%) Project Management
10 1 (3.85%) Risk Assessment
Qualifications
1 24 (92.31%) Security Cleared
2 17 (65.38%) Cisco Certification
3 14 (53.85%) DV Cleared
4 7 (26.92%) JNCIA
4 7 (26.92%) JNCIP
4 7 (26.92%) JNCIS
5 4 (15.38%) SC Cleared
6 1 (3.85%) Degree
6 1 (3.85%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
System Software
1 4 (15.38%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 21 (80.77%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 26 (100.00%) Cisco
1 26 (100.00%) F5
2 21 (80.77%) Juniper
2 21 (80.77%) SolarWinds
2 21 (80.77%) Splunk
3 19 (73.08%) Extreme Networks
4 4 (15.38%) Palo Alto
4 4 (15.38%) VMware
5 2 (7.69%) ServiceNow
6 1 (3.85%) Meraki