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 14 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 532 499 571
Rank change year-on-year -33 +72 +84
Contract jobs citing BIG-IP 94 25 26
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.085% 0.058%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.15% 0.63% 0.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 16 15
10th Percentile £263 £378 £320
25th Percentile £318 £425 £391
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -14.86% -8.70% +4.55%
75th Percentile £555 £591 £620
90th Percentile £725 £649 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £520 £553 £650
% change year-on-year -5.88% -15.00% +18.18%
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 4,382 3,944 5,988
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.15% 13.36% 13.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,833 2,414 3,595
10th Percentile £213 £210 £205
25th Percentile £367 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £487 £496 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.86% +4.46% -8.65%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 140 393
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.18 £21.46 £18.93
Median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.86% +7.69% +71.05%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.38 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £70.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £32.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year +30.00% -29.16% +145.87%

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 14 March 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 14 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for BIG-IP in the UK

BIG-IP
Top 11 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 14 March 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 -25 88 £461 -12.19% 8
UK excluding London -7 79 £520 -5.88% 8
North of England -27 41 £480 -17.24% 1
North West 0 35 £650 +12.07%
Midlands - 30 £275 - 1
West Midlands - 30 £275 - 1
South East -25 28 £555 -7.50% 6
Work from Home -20 13 £560 +35.76% 1
London -64 6 £323 -38.57%
Yorkshire - 6 £464 - 1
Scotland +10 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 7 (7.45%) SharePoint
2 5 (5.32%) Confluence
Applications
1 12 (12.77%) MS Visio
2 4 (4.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 8 (8.51%) Azure
2 5 (5.32%) AWS
3 3 (3.19%) Entra ID
3 3 (3.19%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (2.13%) OpenShift
5 1 (1.06%) GCP
5 1 (1.06%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 75 (79.79%) DNS
2 46 (48.94%) TCP/IP
3 45 (47.87%) Firewall
3 45 (47.87%) HTTP
4 44 (46.81%) SSL
5 42 (44.68%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 39 (41.49%) Wireshark
7 37 (39.36%) LAN
7 37 (39.36%) WAN
8 34 (36.17%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 32 (34.04%) BGP
9 32 (34.04%) OSPF
10 27 (28.72%) DHCP
11 23 (24.47%) Ethernet VPN
11 23 (24.47%) VXLAN
12 21 (22.34%) Cisco ISE
13 20 (21.28%) Junos
14 15 (15.96%) Network Security
15 13 (13.83%) IPsec
16 12 (12.77%) Wireless
Development Applications
1 32 (34.04%) Fiddler
2 7 (7.45%) JIRA
General
1 23 (24.47%) Banking
2 21 (22.34%) Investment Banking
3 8 (8.51%) Social Skills
4 5 (5.32%) Military
4 5 (5.32%) Public Sector
5 4 (4.26%) Finance
6 2 (2.13%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.06%) Analytical Skills
7 1 (1.06%) Billing
7 1 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (1.06%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 58 (61.70%) Network Engineer
2 32 (34.04%) Web Engineer
3 19 (20.21%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 19 (20.21%) IP Network Engineer
4 14 (14.89%) Architect
5 13 (13.83%) Junior
6 12 (12.77%) Junior Network Engineer
6 12 (12.77%) Senior
7 11 (11.70%) Senior Network Engineer
8 10 (10.64%) Firewall Specialist
8 10 (10.64%) Network Specialist
9 6 (6.38%) Lead
10 4 (4.26%) Infrastructure Architect
10 4 (4.26%) Lead Architect
10 4 (4.26%) Network Architect
11 3 (3.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 3 (3.19%) Lead Infrastructure Architect
11 3 (3.19%) Migration Engineer
11 3 (3.19%) Security Architect
12 2 (2.13%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (21.28%) 802.1X
2 7 (7.45%) LDAP
2 7 (7.45%) SAML
3 3 (3.19%) JSON
4 1 (1.06%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 21 (22.34%) Management Information System
1 21 (22.34%) PKI
2 20 (21.28%) Clustering
3 19 (20.21%) Data Centre
4 4 (4.26%) Onboarding
5 2 (2.13%) Algorithms
5 2 (2.13%) CESG
5 2 (2.13%) Virtual Team
6 1 (1.06%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.06%) iSeries
6 1 (1.06%) Product Ownership
6 1 (1.06%) Public Cloud
6 1 (1.06%) RSA SecurID
6 1 (1.06%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 25 (26.60%) Windows
2 4 (4.26%) CatOS
3 3 (3.19%) Windows Server
3 3 (3.19%) Windows Server 2012
3 3 (3.19%) Windows Server 2016
3 3 (3.19%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (67.02%) Load Balancing
2 31 (32.98%) Data Loss Prevention
2 31 (32.98%) High Availability
3 30 (31.91%) Malware Detection/Protection
4 21 (22.34%) Migration
5 20 (21.28%) Identity Access Management
6 19 (20.21%) Observability
7 17 (18.09%) ITIL
7 17 (18.09%) Problem-Solving
8 12 (12.77%) Service Management
9 10 (10.64%) ITSM
10 9 (9.57%) Availability Management
11 8 (8.51%) Agile
11 8 (8.51%) Cybersecurity
12 7 (7.45%) Change Management
12 7 (7.45%) Security Architecture
12 7 (7.45%) Stakeholder Management
12 7 (7.45%) Technical Leadership
13 6 (6.38%) Project Delivery
14 5 (5.32%) Collaborative Working
Programming Languages
1 22 (23.40%) Python
2 2 (2.13%) JavaScript
2 2 (2.13%) VBA
3 1 (1.06%) ActionScript
3 1 (1.06%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 28 (29.79%) Security Cleared
2 24 (25.53%) Cisco Certification
3 16 (17.02%) DV Cleared
4 10 (10.64%) JNCIP
5 8 (8.51%) SC Cleared
6 7 (7.45%) JNCIA
6 7 (7.45%) JNCIS
7 6 (6.38%) CCNP
8 5 (5.32%) CCIE
9 3 (3.19%) CCSE
9 3 (3.19%) JNCIE
10 2 (2.13%) CCDP
10 2 (2.13%) CCIE Security
10 2 (2.13%) CESG Certified Professional
10 2 (2.13%) CHECK Team Leader
10 2 (2.13%) CREST Certified
10 2 (2.13%) Degree
11 1 (1.06%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (2.13%) JSP 440
1 2 (2.13%) NCSC
1 2 (2.13%) RMADS
System Software
1 36 (38.30%) VMware Infrastructure
2 22 (23.40%) VMware NSX
3 19 (20.21%) Firmware
4 10 (10.64%) Active Directory
5 3 (3.19%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (1.06%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 25 (26.60%) FortiGate
2 23 (24.47%) Ansible
3 10 (10.64%) Single Sign-On
4 5 (5.32%) Terraform
5 3 (3.19%) Microsoft Intune
5 3 (3.19%) SCCM
6 1 (1.06%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 94 (100.00%) F5
2 47 (50.00%) VMware
3 45 (47.87%) Cisco
4 34 (36.17%) Blue Coat
4 34 (36.17%) McAfee
5 26 (27.66%) Juniper
6 23 (24.47%) SolarWinds
7 22 (23.40%) NetApp
8 20 (21.28%) Splunk
9 18 (19.15%) Extreme Networks
10 17 (18.09%) Palo Alto
11 11 (11.70%) CheckPoint
11 11 (11.70%) Microsoft
12 9 (9.57%) ServiceNow
13 6 (6.38%) Zscaler
14 5 (5.32%) Infoblox
15 4 (4.26%) Remedy
16 2 (2.13%) Fortinet
16 2 (2.13%) NetScout
16 2 (2.13%) Red Hat