Cisco IOS Contract Job Trends

Cisco IOS
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Cisco IOS skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 579 464 495
Rank change year-on-year -115 +31 +57
Contract jobs citing Cisco IOS 81 87 68
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.15% 0.26% 0.18%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.61% 2.22% 1.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 29 32
10th Percentile £213 £386 £211
25th Percentile £400 £450 £294
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £575 £550 £380
Median % change year-on-year +4.55% +44.93% -9.64%
75th Percentile £612 £600 £478
90th Percentile £703 £613 £571
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £550 £393
% change year-on-year +4.55% +39.86% -7.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 12 1
10th Percentile £49.24 - -
25th Percentile £50.72 £29.00 -
Median hourly rate £54.88 £30.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year +82.92% -53.85% +52.94%
75th Percentile £57.47 £40.81 -
90th Percentile £58.01 £57.20 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £54.88 £30.00 -
% change year-on-year +82.92% - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

Cisco IOS 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 5,031 3,913 4,729
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.40% 11.82% 12.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,979 2,378 2,892
10th Percentile £250 £242 £222
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £486 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.83% -2.75% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.89% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 203 315
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.14 £46.25 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.48% -5.61% -10.91%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.95 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.00% -2.86%

Cisco IOS
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Cisco IOS relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Cisco IOS job vacancy trend in the UK

Cisco IOS
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cisco IOS.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cisco IOS

Cisco IOS
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cisco IOS over the 6 months to 17 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cisco IOS in the UK

Cisco IOS
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cisco IOS.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Cisco IOS

Cisco IOS
Top 13 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Cisco IOS within the UK over the 6 months to 17 August 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 -120 72 £600 +9.09% 30
UK excluding London -119 46 £575 +4.55% 18
London -62 29 £600 +11.63% 19
North of England -49 25 £595 -0.83% 4
North West -22 21 £608 +1.33% 3
Work from Home -53 14 £338 +20.76% 10
Midlands -44 9 £225 -59.09% 3
West Midlands -50 9 £225 -59.09% 2
South East -84 4 £500 -9.09% 4
Yorkshire - 4 £400 - 1
Scotland -9 3 £300 -29.41% 5
South West -43 3 £583 +1.30%
Northern Ireland - 2 £140 -

Cisco IOS
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 1 (1.23%) FactoryTalk
1 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
1 1 (1.23%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (12.35%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (8.64%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (3.70%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 11 (13.58%) Azure
2 8 (9.88%) Microsoft 365
3 6 (7.41%) Entra ID
3 6 (7.41%) OneDrive
4 2 (2.47%) Azure DevOps
5 1 (1.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (1.23%) GitHub
5 1 (1.23%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 52 (64.20%) Firewall
2 44 (54.32%) NX-OS
3 39 (48.15%) BGP
4 32 (39.51%) WAN
5 28 (34.57%) VLAN
6 25 (30.86%) OSPF
7 24 (29.63%) Wireless
8 23 (28.40%) DNS
9 21 (25.93%) DHCP
10 16 (19.75%) NAS
10 16 (19.75%) SAN
10 16 (19.75%) Structured Cabling
10 16 (19.75%) VPN
11 15 (18.52%) LAN
11 15 (18.52%) SD-WAN
12 14 (17.28%) IOS XR
13 12 (14.81%) MPLS
14 11 (13.58%) Network Security
14 11 (13.58%) VXLAN
15 9 (11.11%) Cisco Nexus
Development Applications
1 7 (8.64%) Git
2 3 (3.70%) Jenkins
3 1 (1.23%) GitLab
3 1 (1.23%) Robot Framework
3 1 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 37 (45.68%) Social Skills
2 10 (12.35%) Documentation Skills
3 7 (8.64%) Analytical Skills
4 6 (7.41%) Finance
5 5 (6.17%) Telecoms
6 3 (3.70%) Banking
6 3 (3.70%) Financial Institution
7 2 (2.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (2.47%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (2.47%) Manufacturing
7 2 (2.47%) Police
7 2 (2.47%) Public Sector
8 1 (1.23%) Legal
8 1 (1.23%) Publishing
8 1 (1.23%) Retail
Job Titles
1 48 (59.26%) Network Engineer
2 19 (23.46%) Architect
3 12 (14.81%) Cisco Engineer
4 11 (13.58%) Senior
5 10 (12.35%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 9 (11.11%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 9 (11.11%) Senior Network Engineer
7 8 (9.88%) Automation Engineer
7 8 (9.88%) Technical Architect
8 6 (7.41%) Help Desk Support
8 6 (7.41%) Help Desk Support Technician
8 6 (7.41%) Help Desk Technician
8 6 (7.41%) Support Technician
9 5 (6.17%) Network Architect
10 4 (4.94%) Senior Cisco Engineer
10 4 (4.94%) Senior Cisco Network Engineer
11 3 (3.70%) Core Network Engineer
11 3 (3.70%) IP Engineer
11 3 (3.70%) IP Network Engineer
11 3 (3.70%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (4.94%) Jinja
2 3 (3.70%) 802.1X
3 1 (1.23%) NETCONF
3 1 (1.23%) REST
3 1 (1.23%) RESTCONF
3 1 (1.23%) XMPP
Miscellaneous
1 32 (39.51%) Data Centre
2 9 (11.11%) Onboarding
3 6 (7.41%) Smartphone
4 2 (2.47%) Analytical Mindset
4 2 (2.47%) CMDB
4 2 (2.47%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (2.47%) Driving Licence
4 2 (2.47%) Self-Motivation
5 1 (1.23%) Handset
5 1 (1.23%) Life Science
5 1 (1.23%) Operational Technology
5 1 (1.23%) Renewable Energy
5 1 (1.23%) SCADA
5 1 (1.23%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 10 (12.35%) Windows
2 8 (9.88%) Android
3 5 (6.17%) Linux
4 2 (2.47%) Ubuntu
5 1 (1.23%) CentOS
5 1 (1.23%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (1.23%) Windows 10
5 1 (1.23%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (25.93%) ITSM
2 16 (19.75%) Network Segmentation
3 11 (13.58%) Mentoring
3 11 (13.58%) Network Monitoring
4 10 (12.35%) Change Management
4 10 (12.35%) Infrastructure as Code
5 9 (11.11%) Migration
6 8 (9.88%) CI/CD
6 8 (9.88%) Continuous Improvement
6 8 (9.88%) Customer Service
6 8 (9.88%) Knowledge Transfer
7 7 (8.64%) Asset Management
7 7 (8.64%) Customer Experience
7 7 (8.64%) Performance Management
8 6 (7.41%) Agile
8 6 (7.41%) AI
8 6 (7.41%) DevOps
8 6 (7.41%) ITIL
8 6 (7.41%) Problem Management
8 6 (7.41%) Project Planning
Programming Languages
1 25 (30.86%) Python
2 2 (2.47%) Perl
2 2 (2.47%) PowerShell
3 1 (1.23%) ActionScript
3 1 (1.23%) Bash
Qualifications
1 39 (48.15%) Cisco Certification
2 36 (44.44%) CCNP
3 27 (33.33%) Security Cleared
4 23 (28.40%) SC Cleared
5 22 (27.16%) CCNA
6 15 (18.52%) Network+ Certification
6 15 (18.52%) Server+ Certification
7 7 (8.64%) CCIE
7 7 (8.64%) DV Cleared
8 4 (4.94%) Degree
9 2 (2.47%) CCDA
9 2 (2.47%) CCDP
10 1 (1.23%) A+ Certification
10 1 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Certification
10 1 (1.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (12.35%) SLA
2 3 (3.70%) NIST
3 1 (1.23%) NIST 800
System Software
1 8 (9.88%) Active Directory
2 6 (7.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (4.94%) VMware ESXi
3 4 (4.94%) vSphere
4 2 (2.47%) Docker
5 1 (1.23%) ProxySG
5 1 (1.23%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 18 (22.22%) Ansible
2 7 (8.64%) Terraform
3 6 (7.41%) Microsoft Intune
3 6 (7.41%) SCCM
4 4 (4.94%) FortiGate
5 3 (3.70%) Nagios
6 2 (2.47%) Docker Swarm
6 2 (2.47%) Kubernetes
7 1 (1.23%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (1.23%) Jamf Pro
7 1 (1.23%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 81 (100.00%) Cisco
2 23 (28.40%) Fortinet
3 17 (20.99%) ServiceNow
4 16 (19.75%) Palo Alto
5 13 (16.05%) Juniper
6 12 (14.81%) Arista
6 12 (14.81%) Microsoft
7 9 (11.11%) F5
8 8 (9.88%) VMware
9 6 (7.41%) Canon
9 6 (7.41%) Meraki
10 5 (6.17%) NetScout
11 4 (4.94%) CheckPoint
11 4 (4.94%) SolarWinds
12 3 (3.70%) SevOne
13 2 (2.47%) FireEye
13 2 (2.47%) McAfee
13 2 (2.47%) Splunk
13 2 (2.47%) Tufin
13 2 (2.47%) Zscaler