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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 531 523 606
Rank change year-on-year -8 +83 +143
Contract jobs citing BIG-IP 26 39 26
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.079% 0.10% 0.052%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.68% 0.85% 0.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 31 17
10th Percentile £310 £213 £325
25th Percentile £360 £305 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £500 £600
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% -16.67% +9.09%
75th Percentile £450 £588 £630
90th Percentile £536 £613 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £520 £525 £606
% change year-on-year -0.95% -13.40% +10.23%

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 3,805 4,583 6,569
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.55% 11.89% 13.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,363 2,666 4,180
10th Percentile £225 £225 £228
25th Percentile £363 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £608 £613
90th Percentile £680 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £453
% change year-on-year -10.00% +10.50% +0.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 199 252 305
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.16 £16.95
25th Percentile £25.15 £21.37 £23.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £51.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -16.67% -9.72% +36.12%
75th Percentile £64.38 £65.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £75.67
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £57.35 £57.50
% change year-on-year -25.89% -0.26% +27.78%

BIG-IP
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing BIG-IP as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for BIG-IP 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 19 September 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 19 September 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 -3 22 £400 -20.00% 2
UK excluding London +7 12 £520 -0.95% 2
Work from Home +28 10 £450 -26.35%
London -4 9 £348 +39.00%
West Midlands - 8 £400 - 1
Midlands - 8 £400 - 1
North West -5 4 - -
North of England -26 4 - -
East of England - 2 £520 -
South West - 2 £600 -

BIG-IP
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 3 (11.54%) SharePoint
2 2 (7.69%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (11.54%) MS Visio
2 2 (7.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 1 (3.85%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 15 (57.69%) Firewall
2 11 (42.31%) DNS
3 10 (38.46%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 10 (38.46%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 10 (38.46%) Network Security
4 9 (34.62%) Cisco ASA
5 6 (23.08%) LAN
6 5 (19.23%) Cisco ISE
6 5 (19.23%) Cisco Nexus
6 5 (19.23%) DHCP
6 5 (19.23%) WAN
6 5 (19.23%) Wireless
7 4 (15.38%) DMZ
7 4 (15.38%) HTTP
7 4 (15.38%) Software-Defined Networking
7 4 (15.38%) SSL
7 4 (15.38%) TCP/IP
7 4 (15.38%) Wireshark
8 3 (11.54%) BGP
8 3 (11.54%) OSPF
Development Applications
1 5 (19.23%) JIRA
2 4 (15.38%) Fiddler
3 3 (11.54%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 8 (30.77%) Social Skills
2 5 (19.23%) Telecoms
3 4 (15.38%) Banking
3 4 (15.38%) Investment Banking
4 3 (11.54%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (7.69%) Public Sector
6 1 (3.85%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (3.85%) Finance
Job Titles
1 14 (53.85%) Network Engineer
2 5 (19.23%) Consultant
2 5 (19.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 5 (19.23%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
3 4 (15.38%) Architect
3 4 (15.38%) Automation Engineer
3 4 (15.38%) Python Engineer
4 3 (11.54%) Junior
4 3 (11.54%) Junior Network Engineer
4 3 (11.54%) Solutions Architect
5 2 (7.69%) Cisco Engineer
5 2 (7.69%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 2 (7.69%) Designer
5 2 (7.69%) Network Architect
5 2 (7.69%) Network Designer
6 1 (3.85%) Firewall Engineer
6 1 (3.85%) Network Project Manager
6 1 (3.85%) Security Engineer
6 1 (3.85%) Switch Engineer
6 1 (3.85%) Technical Solutions Architect
Miscellaneous
1 4 (15.38%) Data Centre
1 4 (15.38%) Management Information System
1 4 (15.38%) Onboarding
2 1 (3.85%) RSA SecurID
Operating Systems
1 3 (11.54%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (50.00%) Migration
2 11 (42.31%) ITIL
2 11 (42.31%) Load Balancing
3 5 (19.23%) Agile
3 5 (19.23%) Asset Management
3 5 (19.23%) Project Delivery
4 4 (15.38%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 4 (15.38%) Network Monitoring
4 4 (15.38%) Network Segmentation
5 3 (11.54%) Process Improvement
5 3 (11.54%) Runbook
5 3 (11.54%) Security Architecture
5 3 (11.54%) Task Automation
5 3 (11.54%) TOGAF
6 2 (7.69%) Acceptance Criteria
6 2 (7.69%) Business Intelligence
6 2 (7.69%) Change Management
6 2 (7.69%) Customer Requirements
6 2 (7.69%) Network Design
6 2 (7.69%) Workshop Facilitation
Programming Languages
1 7 (26.92%) Python
2 5 (19.23%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 9 (34.62%) Cisco Certification
2 7 (26.92%) CCNP
3 5 (19.23%) SC Cleared
3 5 (19.23%) Security Cleared
4 3 (11.54%) CCIE
4 3 (11.54%) CCSE
4 3 (11.54%) Degree
4 3 (11.54%) JNCIE
4 3 (11.54%) JNCIP
5 2 (7.69%) CCNA
6 1 (3.85%) PMI Certification
6 1 (3.85%) PMP
System Software
1 1 (3.85%) VMware Infrastructure
1 1 (3.85%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 15 (57.69%) Ansible
2 3 (11.54%) Terraform
3 1 (3.85%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 26 (100.00%) F5
2 15 (57.69%) Cisco
3 12 (46.15%) CheckPoint
4 8 (30.77%) ServiceNow
5 5 (19.23%) Palo Alto
5 5 (19.23%) SolarWinds
6 4 (15.38%) Blue Coat
6 4 (15.38%) McAfee
6 4 (15.38%) NetApp
6 4 (15.38%) Zscaler
7 3 (11.54%) AlgoSec
7 3 (11.54%) Infoblox
7 3 (11.54%) Juniper
7 3 (11.54%) Meraki
7 3 (11.54%) Remedy
8 1 (3.85%) CyberArk
8 1 (3.85%) Fortinet
8 1 (3.85%) Riverbed
8 1 (3.85%) VMware