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 29 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 531 511 592
Rank change year-on-year -20 +81 +124
Contract jobs citing BIG-IP 33 49 37
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.097% 0.13% 0.079%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.85% 1.10% 0.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 38 22
10th Percentile £304 £234 £303
25th Percentile £348 £400 £366
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £525 £594
Median % change year-on-year -23.81% -11.58% +7.95%
75th Percentile £450 £589 £629
90th Percentile £530 £627 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £460 £563 £615
% change year-on-year -18.22% -8.54% +11.82%

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 3,897 4,451 6,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.40% 12.10% 13.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,516 2,562 4,057
10th Percentile £209 £223 £213
25th Percentile £356 £368 £365
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 £454 £475 £471
% change year-on-year -4.53% +0.85% +4.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 164 336
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.31 £17.23
25th Percentile £20.42 £26.25 £22.69
Median hourly rate £36.25 £48.03 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -24.53% -12.67% +37.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.44
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £50.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -15.00% -11.49% +25.53%

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 29 October 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 29 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
England -15 30 £380 -27.62% 2
UK excluding London -26 19 £460 -18.22% 1
West Midlands - 13 £400 -
Midlands - 13 £400 -
North West -10 12 - -
North of England -24 12 - -
London -2 10 £348 -10.32% 1
Work from Home +21 9 £405 -33.72% 1
East of England -11 2 £520 -16.80%
South West - 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 3 (9.09%) SharePoint
2 2 (6.06%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (9.09%) MS Visio
2 2 (6.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 1 (3.03%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 20 (60.61%) DNS
2 15 (45.45%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
2 15 (45.45%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
2 15 (45.45%) Firewall
3 13 (39.39%) TCP/IP
4 12 (36.36%) HTTP
4 12 (36.36%) SSL
5 11 (33.33%) Wireshark
6 10 (30.30%) Network Security
7 9 (27.27%) Cisco ASA
8 6 (18.18%) DMZ
8 6 (18.18%) LAN
9 5 (15.15%) Cisco ISE
9 5 (15.15%) Cisco Nexus
9 5 (15.15%) DHCP
9 5 (15.15%) WAN
9 5 (15.15%) Wireless
10 4 (12.12%) Software-Defined Networking
11 3 (9.09%) Cisco Firepower
11 3 (9.09%) SD-WAN
Development Applications
1 11 (33.33%) Fiddler
2 5 (15.15%) JIRA
3 3 (9.09%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 9 (27.27%) Banking
1 9 (27.27%) Investment Banking
2 7 (21.21%) Social Skills
3 5 (15.15%) Telecoms
4 3 (9.09%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (6.06%) Public Sector
6 1 (3.03%) Finance
Job Titles
1 22 (66.67%) Network Engineer
2 9 (27.27%) Web Engineer
3 5 (15.15%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 5 (15.15%) Consultant
3 5 (15.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 5 (15.15%) IP Network Engineer
3 5 (15.15%) Junior
3 5 (15.15%) Junior Network Engineer
3 5 (15.15%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
4 4 (12.12%) Automation Engineer
4 4 (12.12%) Python Engineer
5 3 (9.09%) Architect
5 3 (9.09%) Solutions Architect
6 2 (6.06%) Cisco Engineer
6 2 (6.06%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 2 (6.06%) Designer
6 2 (6.06%) Network Architect
6 2 (6.06%) Network Designer
7 1 (3.03%) Firewall Engineer
7 1 (3.03%) Technical Solutions Architect
Miscellaneous
1 9 (27.27%) Management Information System
2 6 (18.18%) Onboarding
3 4 (12.12%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 2 (6.06%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (60.61%) Load Balancing
2 14 (42.42%) Migration
3 11 (33.33%) ITIL
4 8 (24.24%) Data Loss Prevention
5 7 (21.21%) Malware Detection/Protection
6 5 (15.15%) Agile
6 5 (15.15%) Asset Management
6 5 (15.15%) Network Segmentation
6 5 (15.15%) Project Delivery
7 4 (12.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 4 (12.12%) Network Monitoring
8 3 (9.09%) Process Improvement
8 3 (9.09%) Runbook
8 3 (9.09%) Security Architecture
8 3 (9.09%) Task Automation
8 3 (9.09%) TOGAF
9 2 (6.06%) Business Intelligence
9 2 (6.06%) Change Management
9 2 (6.06%) Data Protection
9 2 (6.06%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 11 (33.33%) Python
2 5 (15.15%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 9 (27.27%) Cisco Certification
2 7 (21.21%) CCNP
3 4 (12.12%) SC Cleared
3 4 (12.12%) Security Cleared
4 3 (9.09%) CCIE
4 3 (9.09%) CCSE
4 3 (9.09%) Degree
4 3 (9.09%) JNCIE
4 3 (9.09%) JNCIP
5 2 (6.06%) CCNA
System Software
1 6 (18.18%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (15.15%) Firmware
3 2 (6.06%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 19 (57.58%) Ansible
2 3 (9.09%) Terraform
3 1 (3.03%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 33 (100.00%) F5
2 15 (45.45%) Cisco
3 13 (39.39%) Blue Coat
3 13 (39.39%) McAfee
4 12 (36.36%) CheckPoint
5 10 (30.30%) NetApp
6 8 (24.24%) ServiceNow
6 8 (24.24%) VMware
7 5 (15.15%) Palo Alto
7 5 (15.15%) SolarWinds
8 4 (12.12%) Zscaler
9 3 (9.09%) AlgoSec
9 3 (9.09%) Infoblox
9 3 (9.09%) Juniper
9 3 (9.09%) Meraki
9 3 (9.09%) Remedy
10 1 (3.03%) Fortinet
10 1 (3.03%) Riverbed