BIG-IP Contract Job Trends

F5 Networks BIG-IP
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring BIG-IP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 518 506 564
Rank change year-on-year -12 +58 +82
Contract jobs citing BIG-IP 79 26 28
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.19% 0.084% 0.063%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.89% 0.64% 0.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 19 16
10th Percentile £263 £415 £313
25th Percentile £318 £463 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £525 £594
Median % change year-on-year -14.95% -11.58% +7.95%
75th Percentile £534 £588 £620
90th Percentile £715 £642 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £464 £513 £614
% change year-on-year -9.56% -16.50% +11.59%
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 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.02 - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

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.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 4,185 4,064 5,928
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.25% 13.17% 13.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,727 2,427 3,539
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £356 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £486
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.88% -6.54%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £682 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £457 £469 £475
% change year-on-year -2.56% -1.32% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 170 129 399
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.34
25th Percentile £18.90 £21.46 £20.00
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% -31.58% +143.59%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £26.75 £50.91
% change year-on-year +51.55% -47.45% +156.06%

BIG-IP
Job Vacancy Trend

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

BIG-IP job vacancy trend in the UK

BIG-IP
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

BIG-IP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing BIG-IP over the 6 months to 20 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for BIG-IP in the UK

BIG-IP
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

BIG-IP
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing BIG-IP over the 6 months to 20 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BIG-IP in the UK

BIG-IP
Top 10 Contract Job Locations

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 UK over the 6 months to 20 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
England -45 72 £406 -22.71% 13
UK excluding London -25 62 £464 -9.56% 13
North of England -26 39 £480 -17.24% 2
North West +6 33 £650 +12.07% 1
Midlands - 26 £308 - 2
West Midlands - 26 £308 - 2
South East -20 16 £581 +16.20% 9
Work from Home -13 11 £488 +18.18%
London -53 6 £323 -38.57%
Yorkshire - 6 £464 - 1

BIG-IP
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 (7.59%) SharePoint
2 5 (6.33%) Confluence
Applications
1 11 (13.92%) MS Visio
2 4 (5.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.27%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 3 (3.80%) Azure
2 2 (2.53%) Entra ID
2 2 (2.53%) Microsoft 365
2 2 (2.53%) OpenShift
3 1 (1.27%) AWS
3 1 (1.27%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 64 (81.01%) DNS
2 42 (53.16%) HTTP
3 41 (51.90%) SSL
4 40 (50.63%) TCP/IP
5 36 (45.57%) Wireshark
6 35 (44.30%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 32 (40.51%) Firewall
8 31 (39.24%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 26 (32.91%) LAN
9 26 (32.91%) WAN
10 21 (26.58%) BGP
10 21 (26.58%) OSPF
11 19 (24.05%) DHCP
12 16 (20.25%) Ethernet VPN
12 16 (20.25%) VXLAN
13 13 (16.46%) Cisco ISE
13 13 (16.46%) Junos
14 10 (12.66%) Network Security
15 9 (11.39%) VPN
16 8 (10.13%) IPsec
Development Applications
1 30 (37.97%) Fiddler
2 6 (7.59%) JIRA
General
1 21 (26.58%) Banking
2 19 (24.05%) Investment Banking
3 10 (12.66%) Social Skills
4 5 (6.33%) Military
4 5 (6.33%) Public Sector
5 4 (5.06%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (5.06%) Finance
6 1 (1.27%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.27%) Billing
6 1 (1.27%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (1.27%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 47 (59.49%) Network Engineer
2 29 (36.71%) Web Engineer
3 16 (20.25%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 16 (20.25%) IP Network Engineer
4 14 (17.72%) Junior
5 13 (16.46%) Architect
5 13 (16.46%) Junior Network Engineer
6 7 (8.86%) Senior
7 6 (7.59%) Senior Network Engineer
8 5 (6.33%) Firewall Specialist
8 5 (6.33%) Lead
8 5 (6.33%) Network Specialist
9 4 (5.06%) Network Architect
10 3 (3.80%) Automation Engineer
10 3 (3.80%) Infrastructure Architect
10 3 (3.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 3 (3.80%) Lead Architect
10 3 (3.80%) Migration Engineer
10 3 (3.80%) Python Engineer
10 3 (3.80%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (16.46%) 802.1X
2 6 (7.59%) LDAP
2 6 (7.59%) SAML
3 3 (3.80%) JSON
4 1 (1.27%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 19 (24.05%) Management Information System
2 14 (17.72%) PKI
3 13 (16.46%) Clustering
4 12 (15.19%) Data Centre
5 5 (6.33%) Onboarding
6 2 (2.53%) Algorithms
6 2 (2.53%) CESG
6 2 (2.53%) Virtual Team
7 1 (1.27%) iSeries
7 1 (1.27%) Product Ownership
7 1 (1.27%) Public Cloud
7 1 (1.27%) RSA SecurID
7 1 (1.27%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 17 (21.52%) Windows
2 4 (5.06%) CatOS
3 2 (2.53%) Windows Server
3 2 (2.53%) Windows Server 2012
3 2 (2.53%) Windows Server 2016
3 2 (2.53%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (64.56%) Load Balancing
2 28 (35.44%) Data Loss Prevention
3 27 (34.18%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 19 (24.05%) High Availability
5 18 (22.78%) Migration
6 13 (16.46%) Identity Access Management
7 12 (15.19%) Observability
8 11 (13.92%) ITIL
8 11 (13.92%) Problem-Solving
9 7 (8.86%) Agile
9 7 (8.86%) Change Management
9 7 (8.86%) Cybersecurity
9 7 (8.86%) Project Delivery
9 7 (8.86%) Security Architecture
9 7 (8.86%) Service Management
10 6 (7.59%) Availability Management
10 6 (7.59%) Network Segmentation
11 5 (6.33%) ITSM
11 5 (6.33%) TOGAF
12 4 (5.06%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 23 (29.11%) Python
2 2 (2.53%) JavaScript
2 2 (2.53%) VBA
3 1 (1.27%) ActionScript
3 1 (1.27%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 18 (22.78%) Security Cleared
2 16 (20.25%) Cisco Certification
3 11 (13.92%) DV Cleared
4 8 (10.13%) JNCIP
5 5 (6.33%) CCIE
5 5 (6.33%) CCNP
5 5 (6.33%) JNCIA
5 5 (6.33%) JNCIS
5 5 (6.33%) SC Cleared
6 3 (3.80%) CCSE
6 3 (3.80%) JNCIE
7 2 (2.53%) CCDP
7 2 (2.53%) CCIE Security
7 2 (2.53%) CESG Certified Professional
7 2 (2.53%) CHECK Team Leader
7 2 (2.53%) CREST Certified
7 2 (2.53%) Degree
8 1 (1.27%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (2.53%) JSP 440
1 2 (2.53%) NCSC
1 2 (2.53%) RMADS
System Software
1 27 (34.18%) VMware Infrastructure
2 20 (25.32%) VMware NSX
3 16 (20.25%) Firmware
4 8 (10.13%) Active Directory
5 2 (2.53%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (1.27%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 24 (30.38%) Ansible
2 18 (22.78%) FortiGate
3 8 (10.13%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (6.33%) Terraform
5 2 (2.53%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (2.53%) SCCM
6 1 (1.27%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 79 (100.00%) F5
2 38 (48.10%) VMware
3 32 (40.51%) Blue Coat
3 32 (40.51%) Cisco
3 32 (40.51%) McAfee
4 20 (25.32%) NetApp
5 19 (24.05%) Juniper
6 15 (18.99%) SolarWinds
7 13 (16.46%) Splunk
8 11 (13.92%) Extreme Networks
8 11 (13.92%) Palo Alto
9 10 (12.66%) CheckPoint
10 9 (11.39%) Microsoft
11 6 (7.59%) ServiceNow
11 6 (7.59%) Zscaler
12 5 (6.33%) Infoblox
13 4 (5.06%) Remedy
14 2 (2.53%) Fortinet
14 2 (2.53%) NetScout
14 2 (2.53%) Red Hat