VPN Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Thames Valley requiring VPN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 90 69 96
Rank change year-on-year -21 +27 -8
Contract jobs citing VPN 26 57 47
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 1.50% 2.63% 1.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.59% 15.75% 8.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 24 28
10th Percentile £273 £289 £220
25th Percentile £400 £403 £380
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £490
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +7.14% -6.67%
75th Percentile £500 £600 £600
90th Percentile £600 £763 £700
South East median daily rate £500 £525 £470
% change year-on-year -4.76% +11.70% -10.48%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 3
10th Percentile £76.59 - £19.70
25th Percentile £84.97 £18.50 £21.50
Median hourly rate £89.63 £19.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +371.74% -24.00% +8.70%
75th Percentile - £19.50 £25.25
90th Percentile - - £25.40
South East median hourly rate £83.32 £19.00 £22.75
% change year-on-year +338.50% -16.48% -1.09%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 271 362 552
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 15.63% 16.68% 20.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 166 187 345
10th Percentile £228 £250 £205
25th Percentile £325 £400 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £431 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -13.75% +5.26% -3.36%
75th Percentile £538 £608 £600
90th Percentile £600 £650 £675
South East median daily rate £488 £500 £463
% change year-on-year -2.50% +7.97% +0.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 4 22
10th Percentile £18.18 £29.83 £17.38
25th Percentile £46.00 £46.81 £21.84
Median hourly rate £83.32 £57.50 £70.73
Median % change year-on-year +44.90% -18.71% +342.08%
75th Percentile £89.63 £62.87 £75.67
90th Percentile £90.87 £70.29 £82.50
South East median hourly rate £55.00 £70.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year -21.43% +16.67% +33.33%

VPN
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

VPN job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

VPN
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VPN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VPN

VPN
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing VPN in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 15 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for VPN in the Thames Valley

VPN
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VPN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing VPN

VPN
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 VPN within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 15 October 2025. 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 -15 16 £450 -5.26% 21
Oxfordshire -3 7 £600 -4.00% 7
Buckinghamshire -9 3 £274 -49.12% 5
VPN
South East

VPN
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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (3.85%) IIS
1 1 (3.85%) Tomcat
Applications
1 3 (11.54%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 5 (19.23%) Azure
1 5 (19.23%) Microsoft 365
2 3 (11.54%) Entra ID
3 2 (7.69%) Azure ExpressRoute
3 2 (7.69%) Azure Sentinel
4 1 (3.85%) AWS
4 1 (3.85%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 15 (57.69%) Firewall
2 12 (46.15%) TCP/IP
3 9 (34.62%) DNS
4 8 (30.77%) Network Security
5 7 (26.92%) WAN
6 6 (23.08%) LAN
7 5 (19.23%) BGP
7 5 (19.23%) Wireless
8 4 (15.38%) DHCP
8 4 (15.38%) MPLS
8 4 (15.38%) OSPF
8 4 (15.38%) VLAN
9 3 (11.54%) ATM
9 3 (11.54%) Ethernet
9 3 (11.54%) GPRS
9 3 (11.54%) Intranet
9 3 (11.54%) IPv6
9 3 (11.54%) SAN
9 3 (11.54%) SDH
9 3 (11.54%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (3.85%) MongoDB
1 1 (3.85%) NoSQL
1 1 (3.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (19.23%) JIRA
2 2 (7.69%) GitLab
3 1 (3.85%) Jenkins
General
1 9 (34.62%) Social Skills
2 4 (15.38%) Analytical Skills
2 4 (15.38%) Organisational Skills
2 4 (15.38%) Telecoms
3 3 (11.54%) Finance
4 2 (7.69%) Aerospace
4 2 (7.69%) Legal
Job Titles
1 6 (23.08%) Network Engineer
2 4 (15.38%) Desktop Support
2 4 (15.38%) Support Engineer
3 3 (11.54%) Analyst
3 3 (11.54%) Desktop Analyst
3 3 (11.54%) Desktop Support Analyst
3 3 (11.54%) IP Engineer
3 3 (11.54%) IP Network Engineer
3 3 (11.54%) Support Analyst
3 3 (11.54%) Test Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) Cloud Architect
4 2 (7.69%) Delivery Manager
4 2 (7.69%) Developer
4 2 (7.69%) IT Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) Migration Architect
4 2 (7.69%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) Service Delivery Engineer
4 2 (7.69%) Service Delivery Manager
4 2 (7.69%) Service Manager
4 2 (7.69%) Service Support Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (7.69%) JSON
1 2 (7.69%) XML
2 1 (3.85%) 802.1X
2 1 (3.85%) NETCONF
2 1 (3.85%) REST
2 1 (3.85%) RESTCONF
2 1 (3.85%) SOAP
2 1 (3.85%) YAML
2 1 (3.85%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 3 (11.54%) Data Centre
1 3 (11.54%) SCADA
1 3 (11.54%) Self-Motivation
1 3 (11.54%) Video Conferencing
1 3 (11.54%) Virtual Team
2 2 (7.69%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 9 (34.62%) Windows
2 5 (19.23%) Mac OS
3 4 (15.38%) Linux
3 4 (15.38%) Unix
3 4 (15.38%) Windows 10
4 1 (3.85%) Android
4 1 (3.85%) Apple iOS
4 1 (3.85%) CentOS
4 1 (3.85%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 10 (38.46%) ITIL
2 8 (30.77%) Problem-Solving
2 8 (30.77%) SIEM
3 7 (26.92%) ITSM
4 5 (19.23%) Computer Science
4 5 (19.23%) Cybersecurity
4 5 (19.23%) Migration
5 4 (15.38%) Customer Service
5 4 (15.38%) Proactive Monitoring
5 4 (15.38%) Security Monitoring
5 4 (15.38%) Security Operations
5 4 (15.38%) Service Management
5 4 (15.38%) Time Management
6 3 (11.54%) Fault Management
6 3 (11.54%) Project Management
6 3 (11.54%) Regression Testing
6 3 (11.54%) Root Cause Analysis
6 3 (11.54%) Security Patching
6 3 (11.54%) Test Strategy
7 2 (7.69%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 6 (23.08%) Python
2 4 (15.38%) Java
3 3 (11.54%) PowerShell
4 1 (3.85%) Bash
4 1 (3.85%) SQL
Qualifications
1 10 (38.46%) Cisco Certification
2 8 (30.77%) CCNP
3 6 (23.08%) SC Cleared
3 6 (23.08%) Security Cleared
4 5 (19.23%) A+ Certification
4 5 (19.23%) Degree
5 4 (15.38%) CCSA
5 4 (15.38%) CCSE
5 4 (15.38%) Check Point Certification
5 4 (15.38%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (11.54%) ISEB
6 3 (11.54%) ISTQB
6 3 (11.54%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 3 (11.54%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
7 2 (7.69%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (3.85%) CCNA
8 1 (3.85%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (15.38%) GDPR
2 3 (11.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (7.69%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (7.69%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 1 (3.85%) NIST
System Software
1 6 (23.08%) Active Directory
2 2 (7.69%) Docker
2 2 (7.69%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 5 (19.23%) Ansible
2 4 (15.38%) SCCM
3 3 (11.54%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (7.69%) Kubernetes
4 2 (7.69%) vCenter Server
5 1 (3.85%) Terraform
Vendors
1 15 (57.69%) Cisco
2 13 (50.00%) Microsoft
3 9 (34.62%) CheckPoint
4 8 (30.77%) Palo Alto
5 4 (15.38%) Juniper
5 4 (15.38%) ServiceNow
6 3 (11.54%) McAfee
7 2 (7.69%) Sophos
7 2 (7.69%) Splunk
8 1 (3.85%) Blue Coat
8 1 (3.85%) F5