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 30 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 553 496 564
Rank change year-on-year -57 +68 +115
Contract jobs citing BIG-IP 37 38 36
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.10% 0.11% 0.083%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.93% 0.90% 0.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 10 30 22
10th Percentile £261 £213 £303
25th Percentile £304 £319 £372
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £350 £525 £588
Median % change year-on-year -33.33% -10.64% +6.82%
75th Percentile £516 £588 £618
90th Percentile £725 £613 £648
UK excluding London median daily rate £520 £563 £613
% change year-on-year -7.56% -8.16% +11.36%

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 3,965 4,241 5,889
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.72% 12.74% 13.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,593 2,497 3,635
10th Percentile £206 £220 £209
25th Percentile £356 £365 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £474 £472
% change year-on-year -5.01% +0.42% +4.83%
Number of hourly rates quoted 182 136 326
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.78 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.04 £21.13 £23.00
Median hourly rate £34.00 £35.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -38.04% +61.40%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.03 £65.98
90th Percentile £79.75 £70.63 £75.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £32.50 £57.99
% change year-on-year +30.77% -43.96% +42.92%

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 30 December 2025.

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
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 30 December 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
England -45 34 £324 -38.33% 58
UK excluding London -44 28 £520 -7.56% 59
North of England -32 24 £700 +18.64% 12
North West -5 22 - - 5
Midlands - 17 £308 - 19
West Midlands - 17 £308 - 11
Work from Home -3 9 £405 -24.65% 6
London -30 5 £308 -41.43% 3
Yorkshire - 2 £700 - 7
South East -20 1 £700 +27.27% 12

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 5 (13.51%) SharePoint
2 3 (8.11%) Confluence
Applications
1 7 (18.92%) MS Visio
2 3 (8.11%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 2 (5.41%) Azure
1 2 (5.41%) OpenShift
2 1 (2.70%) AWS
2 1 (2.70%) Entra ID
2 1 (2.70%) GCP
2 1 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 28 (75.68%) DNS
2 25 (67.57%) HTTP
2 25 (67.57%) SSL
3 23 (62.16%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 23 (62.16%) TCP/IP
3 23 (62.16%) Wireshark
4 21 (56.76%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
5 10 (27.03%) Firewall
6 8 (21.62%) LAN
6 8 (21.62%) WAN
7 7 (18.92%) VPN
8 6 (16.22%) BGP
8 6 (16.22%) DMZ
8 6 (16.22%) Network Security
8 6 (16.22%) OSPF
9 5 (13.51%) SD-WAN
10 4 (10.81%) Cisco ASA
10 4 (10.81%) IPsec
11 3 (8.11%) Cisco Nexus
11 3 (8.11%) Ethereal
Development Applications
1 20 (54.05%) Fiddler
General
1 15 (40.54%) Banking
2 14 (37.84%) Investment Banking
3 4 (10.81%) Social Skills
4 3 (8.11%) Documentation Skills
4 3 (8.11%) Public Sector
4 3 (8.11%) Telecoms
5 1 (2.70%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (2.70%) Influencing Skills
5 1 (2.70%) Military
5 1 (2.70%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 24 (64.86%) Network Engineer
2 18 (48.65%) Web Engineer
3 10 (27.03%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 10 (27.03%) IP Network Engineer
4 9 (24.32%) Junior
4 9 (24.32%) Junior Network Engineer
5 7 (18.92%) Architect
6 4 (10.81%) Automation Engineer
6 4 (10.81%) Python Engineer
7 3 (8.11%) Network Architect
7 3 (8.11%) Solutions Architect
8 2 (5.41%) Consultant
8 2 (5.41%) Enterprise Architect
9 1 (2.70%) Lead
9 1 (2.70%) Lead Architect
9 1 (2.70%) Lead Infrastructure Architect
9 1 (2.70%) Security Architect
9 1 (2.70%) Senior
9 1 (2.70%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 1 (2.70%) Technical Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (8.11%) LDAP
1 3 (8.11%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 14 (37.84%) Management Information System
2 6 (16.22%) Onboarding
3 1 (2.70%) Algorithms
3 1 (2.70%) CESG
3 1 (2.70%) PKI
3 1 (2.70%) RSA SecurID
Operating Systems
1 4 (10.81%) Windows
2 2 (5.41%) CatOS
3 1 (2.70%) Windows Server
3 1 (2.70%) Windows Server 2012
3 1 (2.70%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (2.70%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (64.86%) Load Balancing
2 17 (45.95%) Data Loss Prevention
3 16 (43.24%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 13 (35.14%) Migration
5 6 (16.22%) Network Segmentation
5 6 (16.22%) Security Architecture
6 5 (13.51%) Project Delivery
6 5 (13.51%) TOGAF
7 4 (10.81%) Change Management
7 4 (10.81%) ITIL
7 4 (10.81%) Runbook
8 3 (8.11%) Acceptance Criteria
8 3 (8.11%) Business Intelligence
8 3 (8.11%) Cybersecurity
8 3 (8.11%) Technical Leadership
8 3 (8.11%) Workshop Facilitation
9 2 (5.41%) Data Protection
9 2 (5.41%) Enterprise Architecture
9 2 (5.41%) High Availability
9 2 (5.41%) Requirements Gathering
Programming Languages
1 16 (43.24%) Python
Qualifications
1 5 (13.51%) CCIE
1 5 (13.51%) Cisco Certification
2 4 (10.81%) CCNP
2 4 (10.81%) CCSE
2 4 (10.81%) JNCIE
2 4 (10.81%) JNCIP
2 4 (10.81%) SC Cleared
2 4 (10.81%) Security Cleared
3 1 (2.70%) CCDP
3 1 (2.70%) CCIE Security
3 1 (2.70%) CESG Certified Professional
3 1 (2.70%) CHECK Team Leader
3 1 (2.70%) CREST Certified
3 1 (2.70%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.70%) JSP 440
1 1 (2.70%) NCSC
1 1 (2.70%) RMADS
System Software
1 17 (45.95%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (29.73%) VMware NSX
3 10 (27.03%) Firmware
4 4 (10.81%) Active Directory
5 1 (2.70%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (2.70%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 17 (45.95%) Ansible
2 5 (13.51%) Terraform
3 4 (10.81%) Single Sign-On
4 1 (2.70%) FortiGate
4 1 (2.70%) Kubernetes
4 1 (2.70%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (2.70%) SCCM
Vendors
1 37 (100.00%) F5
2 23 (62.16%) VMware
3 22 (59.46%) Blue Coat
3 22 (59.46%) McAfee
4 15 (40.54%) NetApp
5 10 (27.03%) Cisco
6 7 (18.92%) CheckPoint
7 5 (13.51%) Juniper
7 5 (13.51%) Palo Alto
7 5 (13.51%) Zscaler
8 4 (10.81%) Microsoft
8 4 (10.81%) Remedy
8 4 (10.81%) ServiceNow
9 2 (5.41%) Infoblox
9 2 (5.41%) NetScout
9 2 (5.41%) Red Hat
9 2 (5.41%) SevOne
10 1 (2.70%) Arista
10 1 (2.70%) Fortinet
10 1 (2.70%) SolarWinds