Cisco Contract Job Trends

Cisco
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of Cisco products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Cisco over the 6 months leading up to 18 June 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

The figures below represent the IT contractor job market in general and are not representative of contractor rates within Cisco Systems, Inc.

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 111 65 70
Rank change year-on-year -46 +5 -12
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,138 1,109 1,309
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.26% 3.73% 2.98%
As % of the Vendors category 5.54% 7.83% 7.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 792 677 802
10th Percentile £300 £300 £250
25th Percentile £402 £408 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £573 £588 £588
90th Percentile £638 £649 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £477 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -4.60% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 29 36
10th Percentile £27.23 £18.06 £14.44
25th Percentile £38.80 £25.00 £20.00
Median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +83.33% +15.38% -48.00%
75th Percentile £69.92 £45.00 £41.25
90th Percentile £76.90 £66.21 £55.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £25.00
% change year-on-year +83.33% +20.00% -48.89%

All Vendors
UK

Cisco falls under the Vendor Products and Services category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of all vendor products and services.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for knowledge or experience of vendor products and services 20,549 14,166 18,528
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 40.77% 47.59% 42.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,890 8,715 11,489
10th Percentile £313 £281 £270
25th Percentile £413 £401 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,053 653 1,156
10th Percentile £15.37 £14.87 £12.19
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.30 £14.50
Median hourly rate £33.98 £25.15 £23.90
Median % change year-on-year +35.11% +5.23% -44.90%
75th Percentile £60.00 £53.95 £58.90
90th Percentile £80.04 £69.47 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.00 £23.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year +39.13% +2.22% -43.75%

Cisco
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Cisco job vacancy trend in the UK

Cisco
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Cisco
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Cisco over the 6 months to 18 June 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Cisco in the UK

Cisco
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Cisco
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Cisco over the 6 months to 18 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cisco in the UK

Cisco
Top 18 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 within the UK over the 6 months to 18 June 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 -48 957 £481 -3.75% 628
UK excluding London -42 701 £477 -4.60% 624
London -50 313 £500 - 170
Work from Home -40 286 £450 -10.00% 132
North of England -40 214 £481 -3.75% 151
South East -26 189 £500 - 144
North West -7 167 £481 -1.79% 73
Midlands -30 131 £402 -15.37% 70
West Midlands -18 124 £402 -10.67% 38
Scotland +20 82 £466 +16.73% 50
South West -67 50 £525 -4.55% 84
Yorkshire -80 46 £490 -2.00% 51
East of England -14 40 £500 +0.50% 71
Wales -18 19 £468 +61.21% 22
Northern Ireland +8 10 £175 -50.00% 42
East Midlands -42 4 £458 -10.73% 32
North East -42 2 £425 +30.77% 28
Channel Islands -1 1 £550 -24.14%

Cisco
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 28 (2.46%) SharePoint
2 18 (1.58%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.05%) Confluence
4 9 (0.79%) Apache
5 6 (0.53%) IIS
5 6 (0.53%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.26%) nginx
6 3 (0.26%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.18%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.18%) CMS
8 1 (0.088%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.088%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 44 (3.87%) Microsoft Office
2 28 (2.46%) MS Visio
3 23 (2.02%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.35%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 7 (0.62%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 210 (18.45%) Azure
2 139 (12.21%) AWS
3 70 (6.15%) Microsoft 365
4 41 (3.60%) Entra ID
5 20 (1.76%) GCP
6 16 (1.41%) SaaS
7 15 (1.32%) GitHub
7 15 (1.32%) Nutanix
7 15 (1.32%) OpenShift
8 13 (1.14%) Azure Sentinel
8 13 (1.14%) OneDrive
9 12 (1.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 10 (0.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 8 (0.70%) IaaS
11 8 (0.70%) Microsoft Purview
12 7 (0.62%) Power Platform
13 5 (0.44%) Azure DevOps
13 5 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
13 5 (0.44%) Rubrik
14 4 (0.35%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 493 (43.32%) Firewall
2 378 (33.22%) WAN
3 287 (25.22%) LAN
4 281 (24.69%) BGP
5 244 (21.44%) VPN
6 241 (21.18%) Network Security
7 197 (17.31%) OSPF
8 176 (15.47%) Wireless
9 173 (15.20%) DNS
10 165 (14.50%) SD-WAN
11 162 (14.24%) VLAN
12 111 (9.75%) MPLS
13 108 (9.49%) Cisco Nexus
14 103 (9.05%) Wi-Fi
15 100 (8.79%) VXLAN
16 99 (8.70%) Cisco ISE
17 94 (8.26%) DHCP
18 76 (6.68%) Cisco IOS
19 74 (6.50%) Multicast
20 73 (6.41%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (1.32%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.26%) MySQL
2 3 (0.26%) NoSQL
3 2 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.088%) Apache Hive
4 1 (0.088%) Big Data
4 1 (0.088%) ClickHouse
4 1 (0.088%) Hadoop
4 1 (0.088%) Metadata
4 1 (0.088%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 23 (2.02%) JIRA
2 13 (1.14%) Sonatype Nexus
3 11 (0.97%) Git
4 8 (0.70%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.35%) GitLab
6 2 (0.18%) Bitbucket
General
1 258 (22.67%) Social Skills
2 120 (10.54%) Finance
3 68 (5.98%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (5.54%) Telecoms
5 62 (5.45%) Public Sector
6 60 (5.27%) Legal
7 57 (5.01%) Documentation Skills
8 54 (4.75%) Banking
9 21 (1.85%) Organisational Skills
10 20 (1.76%) Investment Banking
11 18 (1.58%) Financial Institution
11 18 (1.58%) Manufacturing
12 17 (1.49%) Law
13 15 (1.32%) Retail
14 10 (0.88%) Military
15 8 (0.70%) Marketing
16 7 (0.62%) Police
17 6 (0.53%) Presentation Skills
18 5 (0.44%) Inclusion and Diversity
19 4 (0.35%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 528 (46.40%) Network Engineer
2 139 (12.21%) Architect
3 126 (11.07%) Cisco Engineer
4 117 (10.28%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 117 (10.28%) Senior
5 86 (7.56%) Security Engineer
6 78 (6.85%) Network Architect
7 67 (5.89%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 65 (5.71%) Senior Network Engineer
9 62 (5.45%) Network Security Engineer
10 54 (4.75%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 47 (4.13%) Data Network Engineer
12 34 (2.99%) Analyst
12 34 (2.99%) Data Engineer
13 33 (2.90%) Cisco Security Engineer
14 29 (2.55%) Solutions Architect
15 26 (2.28%) Network Specialist
16 24 (2.11%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
16 24 (2.11%) Lead
17 23 (2.02%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 77 (6.77%) 802.1X
2 14 (1.23%) Flash
2 14 (1.23%) LDAP
2 14 (1.23%) SAML
3 12 (1.05%) REST
4 8 (0.70%) XMPP
5 6 (0.53%) Jinja
6 3 (0.26%) LAMP
6 3 (0.26%) LEMP Stack
6 3 (0.26%) NETCONF
6 3 (0.26%) YAML
7 2 (0.18%) .NET Core
7 2 (0.18%) Blazor
7 2 (0.18%) Django
7 2 (0.18%) Middleware
7 2 (0.18%) OpenConfig
7 2 (0.18%) OpenID
7 2 (0.18%) RESTCONF
7 2 (0.18%) RFC 2544
7 2 (0.18%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 306 (26.89%) Data Centre
2 55 (4.83%) PKI
3 45 (3.95%) Replication
4 39 (3.43%) Clustering
5 37 (3.25%) Data Protection Act
5 37 (3.25%) Onboarding
6 31 (2.72%) Hybrid Cloud
7 28 (2.46%) Operational Technology
8 23 (2.02%) Driving Licence
8 23 (2.02%) Video Conferencing
9 20 (1.76%) Security Posture
10 19 (1.67%) Enterprise Storage
11 18 (1.58%) Linux Command Line
12 17 (1.49%) EMC VMAX
13 15 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
14 14 (1.23%) Cloud Native
14 14 (1.23%) SCADA
14 14 (1.23%) Virtual Team
15 13 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
16 10 (0.88%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 222 (19.51%) Windows
2 120 (10.54%) Linux
3 70 (6.15%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.85%) Unix
5 16 (1.41%) Windows 10
6 13 (1.14%) Ubuntu
7 12 (1.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (0.79%) Windows Server 2019
9 8 (0.70%) Android
10 7 (0.62%) Mac OS
11 6 (0.53%) Windows Server 2012
12 5 (0.44%) AIX
12 5 (0.44%) Data ONTAP
12 5 (0.44%) VMS
13 4 (0.35%) CentOS
13 4 (0.35%) Solaris
14 3 (0.26%) CatOS
15 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
16 1 (0.088%) Check Point GAiA
16 1 (0.088%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 180 (15.82%) Migration
2 131 (11.51%) Load Balancing
3 125 (10.98%) High Availability
4 121 (10.63%) Problem-Solving
5 101 (8.88%) ITIL
6 95 (8.35%) Project Delivery
7 94 (8.26%) ITSM
8 89 (7.82%) Network Design
9 72 (6.33%) Change Management
10 71 (6.24%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 70 (6.15%) Continuous Improvement
12 68 (5.98%) Agile
13 65 (5.71%) Technical Leadership
14 63 (5.54%) Network Monitoring
15 62 (5.45%) Disaster Recovery
16 61 (5.36%) Stakeholder Management
17 60 (5.27%) Infrastructure as Code
18 58 (5.10%) Validation
19 57 (5.01%) Cybersecurity
20 54 (4.75%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 126 (11.07%) Python
2 56 (4.92%) PowerShell
3 24 (2.11%) SQL
4 22 (1.93%) Bash
5 6 (0.53%) C
6 4 (0.35%) Perl
6 4 (0.35%) PHP
7 3 (0.26%) C++
7 3 (0.26%) Java
7 3 (0.26%) Lisp
8 2 (0.18%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.18%) Korn
8 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.088%) Bicep
9 1 (0.088%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.088%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 338 (29.70%) Security Cleared
2 337 (29.61%) Cisco Certification
3 250 (21.97%) SC Cleared
4 248 (21.79%) CCNP
5 136 (11.95%) CCNA
6 101 (8.88%) DV Cleared
7 66 (5.80%) Degree
8 63 (5.54%) CCIE
9 26 (2.28%) Microsoft Certification
10 23 (2.02%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 22 (1.93%) Network+ Certification
12 19 (1.67%) MCSE
13 17 (1.49%) Server+ Certification
14 16 (1.41%) Azure Certification
15 14 (1.23%) BPSS Clearance
15 14 (1.23%) CCSE
16 13 (1.14%) JNCIS
16 13 (1.14%) VCAP
17 12 (1.05%) JNCIP
17 12 (1.05%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (3.51%) SLA
2 32 (2.81%) NIST
3 29 (2.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 26 (2.28%) Cyber Essentials
5 21 (1.85%) QA
6 16 (1.41%) NCSC
7 9 (0.79%) PMO
8 7 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 7 (0.62%) Disclosure Scotland
9 6 (0.53%) GDPR
9 6 (0.53%) JSP 440
10 5 (0.44%) PCI DSS
11 3 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 3 (0.26%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.26%) RMADS
12 2 (0.18%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.18%) GRC
12 2 (0.18%) ISA99
12 2 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 149 (13.09%) VMware Infrastructure
2 95 (8.35%) Active Directory
3 56 (4.92%) VMware ESXi
4 55 (4.83%) vSphere
5 45 (3.95%) VMware NSX
6 33 (2.90%) Virtual Machines
7 28 (2.46%) Firmware
8 21 (1.85%) Hyper-V
9 18 (1.58%) NFS
10 14 (1.23%) GPFS
11 12 (1.05%) SRDF
12 7 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
13 5 (0.44%) Docker
13 5 (0.44%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 4 (0.35%) vCloud
14 4 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.26%) Dovecot
15 3 (0.26%) Postfix
15 3 (0.26%) UAG
16 2 (0.18%) Snort
Systems Management
1 134 (11.78%) Ansible
2 103 (9.05%) FortiGate
3 51 (4.48%) Terraform
4 29 (2.55%) vCenter Server
5 27 (2.37%) Grafana
6 24 (2.11%) Microsoft Intune
7 20 (1.76%) Kubernetes
7 20 (1.76%) Prometheus
8 19 (1.67%) SCCM
9 18 (1.58%) vRealize
10 14 (1.23%) Cisco Prime
11 13 (1.14%) Cisco CUCM
11 13 (1.14%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.79%) VxRail
13 8 (0.70%) WMI
14 6 (0.53%) EMC TimeFinder
14 6 (0.53%) EMC VPLEX
14 6 (0.53%) HAProxy
14 6 (0.53%) SCOM
15 5 (0.44%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 291 (25.57%) Palo Alto
2 214 (18.80%) F5
3 190 (16.70%) Microsoft
4 188 (16.52%) VMware
5 173 (15.20%) Fortinet
6 154 (13.53%) Juniper
7 119 (10.46%) Aruba
8 104 (9.14%) CheckPoint
9 102 (8.96%) ServiceNow
10 90 (7.91%) SolarWinds
11 86 (7.56%) Meraki
12 77 (6.77%) Arista
13 57 (5.01%) Splunk
14 50 (4.39%) Zscaler
15 42 (3.69%) Dell
16 31 (2.72%) EMC
17 29 (2.55%) Extreme Networks
17 29 (2.55%) IBM
18 27 (2.37%) Brocade
19 25 (2.20%) Infoblox