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 1 July 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
1 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 113 66 68
Rank change year-on-year -47 +2 -11
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,163 1,116 1,299
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.26% 3.63% 3.01%
As % of the Vendors category 5.53% 7.66% 7.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 792 687 790
10th Percentile £300 £305 £250
25th Percentile £400 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £573 £588 £575
90th Percentile £638 £649 £663
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 29 40
10th Percentile £26.72 £24.93 £16.00
25th Percentile £34.44 £25.15 £23.04
Median hourly rate £53.75 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +79.17% +9.09% -45.00%
75th Percentile £68.88 £43.25 £46.39
90th Percentile £76.50 £62.11 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £41.95
% change year-on-year +83.33% -28.48% -12.30%

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 21,032 14,573 18,472
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 40.92% 47.38% 42.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,109 8,938 11,470
10th Percentile £313 £281 £270
25th Percentile £413 £402 £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 £734
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,088 690 1,156
10th Percentile £15.75 £14.84 £12.28
25th Percentile £19.17 £17.31 £14.72
Median hourly rate £33.99 £25.15 £24.19
Median % change year-on-year +35.15% +3.99% -40.42%
75th Percentile £62.81 £53.69 £59.95
90th Percentile £80.44 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.63 £23.50
% change year-on-year +43.61% -3.70% -27.24%

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 1 July 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 1 July 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 1 July 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 -49 983 £481 -3.75% 750
UK excluding London -40 714 £475 -5.00% 678
London -61 323 £500 - 242
Work from Home -40 292 £463 -7.50% 153
North of England -37 222 £481 -2.18% 154
South East -33 187 £500 - 167
North West -6 172 £481 +1.18% 74
Midlands -22 137 £413 -13.16% 94
West Midlands -13 130 £413 -15.38% 51
Scotland +26 85 £450 +12.50% 49
South West -64 55 £525 -4.55% 88
Yorkshire -68 47 £490 -2.00% 57
East of England -15 35 £500 +0.50% 78
Wales -17 19 £468 +61.21% 32
Northern Ireland +8 9 £145 -58.57% 25
East Midlands -31 4 £458 -3.68% 43
North East -35 4 £425 +30.77% 23
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 (2.41%) SharePoint
2 22 (1.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (1.03%) Confluence
4 8 (0.69%) Apache
5 7 (0.60%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.34%) IIS
7 3 (0.26%) CloudStack
7 3 (0.26%) nginx
7 3 (0.26%) SAS
7 3 (0.26%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.17%) CMS
9 1 (0.086%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.086%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 47 (4.04%) Microsoft Office
2 31 (2.67%) MS Visio
3 26 (2.24%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.17%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 6 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 218 (18.74%) Azure
2 150 (12.90%) AWS
3 73 (6.28%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (3.70%) Entra ID
5 21 (1.81%) GCP
6 17 (1.46%) OpenShift
7 16 (1.38%) GitHub
7 16 (1.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 15 (1.29%) Nutanix
8 15 (1.29%) OneDrive
8 15 (1.29%) SaaS
9 14 (1.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 13 (1.12%) Azure Sentinel
11 9 (0.77%) IaaS
11 9 (0.77%) Power Platform
12 8 (0.69%) Microsoft Purview
13 6 (0.52%) Azure DevOps
14 5 (0.43%) GitHub Actions
14 5 (0.43%) Rubrik
15 4 (0.34%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 503 (43.25%) Firewall
2 381 (32.76%) WAN
3 297 (25.54%) BGP
4 296 (25.45%) LAN
5 252 (21.67%) VPN
6 245 (21.07%) Network Security
7 208 (17.88%) OSPF
8 194 (16.68%) Wireless
9 184 (15.82%) DNS
10 163 (14.02%) SD-WAN
11 161 (13.84%) VLAN
12 120 (10.32%) MPLS
13 114 (9.80%) Cisco Nexus
14 108 (9.29%) Wi-Fi
15 102 (8.77%) Cisco ISE
16 99 (8.51%) DHCP
17 98 (8.43%) VXLAN
18 81 (6.96%) Cisco IOS
19 77 (6.62%) Cisco ASA
19 77 (6.62%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (1.55%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.26%) MySQL
2 3 (0.26%) NoSQL
2 3 (0.26%) Power BI
3 2 (0.17%) Amazon RDS
3 2 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.086%) Apache Hive
4 1 (0.086%) Big Data
4 1 (0.086%) ClickHouse
4 1 (0.086%) Hadoop
4 1 (0.086%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 23 (1.98%) JIRA
2 15 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
3 13 (1.12%) Git
4 9 (0.77%) Jenkins
5 3 (0.26%) GitLab
6 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
General
1 270 (23.22%) Social Skills
2 117 (10.06%) Finance
3 74 (6.36%) Analytical Skills
4 73 (6.28%) Telecoms
5 65 (5.59%) Public Sector
6 60 (5.16%) Documentation Skills
7 58 (4.99%) Banking
8 52 (4.47%) Legal
9 24 (2.06%) Organisational Skills
10 20 (1.72%) Investment Banking
11 18 (1.55%) Financial Institution
12 16 (1.38%) Manufacturing
12 16 (1.38%) Retail
13 13 (1.12%) Law
14 12 (1.03%) Military
15 9 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
16 8 (0.69%) Marketing
16 8 (0.69%) Police
17 7 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
18 5 (0.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 545 (46.86%) Network Engineer
2 141 (12.12%) Architect
3 124 (10.66%) Senior
4 122 (10.49%) Cisco Engineer
5 113 (9.72%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 87 (7.48%) Security Engineer
7 77 (6.62%) Network Architect
8 69 (5.93%) Senior Network Engineer
9 64 (5.50%) Network Security Engineer
10 63 (5.42%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 57 (4.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 47 (4.04%) Data Network Engineer
13 36 (3.10%) Analyst
14 35 (3.01%) Data Engineer
15 34 (2.92%) Cisco Security Engineer
16 29 (2.49%) Lead
17 28 (2.41%) Solutions Architect
18 27 (2.32%) Network Specialist
19 25 (2.15%) Field Engineer
20 23 (1.98%) Data Centre Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (6.36%) 802.1X
2 15 (1.29%) SAML
3 14 (1.20%) LDAP
3 14 (1.20%) REST
4 13 (1.12%) Flash
5 7 (0.60%) XMPP
6 6 (0.52%) Jinja
7 5 (0.43%) NETCONF
8 4 (0.34%) Django
8 4 (0.34%) OpenConfig
8 4 (0.34%) RESTCONF
8 4 (0.34%) YANG
9 3 (0.26%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (0.26%) JSON
9 3 (0.26%) LAMP
9 3 (0.26%) LEMP Stack
9 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Graph
9 3 (0.26%) YAML
10 2 (0.17%) .NET Core
10 2 (0.17%) Blazor
Miscellaneous
1 303 (26.05%) Data Centre
2 57 (4.90%) PKI
3 44 (3.78%) Replication
4 42 (3.61%) Clustering
5 40 (3.44%) Hybrid Cloud
6 37 (3.18%) Data Protection Act
7 35 (3.01%) Onboarding
8 29 (2.49%) Operational Technology
9 28 (2.41%) Driving Licence
10 27 (2.32%) Video Conferencing
11 19 (1.63%) Enterprise Storage
12 18 (1.55%) EMC VMAX
12 18 (1.55%) Security Posture
13 17 (1.46%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (1.46%) Cloud Native
13 17 (1.46%) Linux Command Line
14 15 (1.29%) Virtual Team
15 14 (1.20%) SCADA
16 13 (1.12%) Public Cloud
17 12 (1.03%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 226 (19.43%) Windows
2 125 (10.75%) Linux
3 73 (6.28%) Windows Server
4 19 (1.63%) Unix
5 16 (1.38%) Windows 10
6 15 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 15 (1.29%) Ubuntu
7 10 (0.86%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (0.77%) Android
9 8 (0.69%) Mac OS
10 7 (0.60%) AIX
10 7 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.43%) Data ONTAP
11 5 (0.43%) VMS
12 4 (0.34%) CentOS
13 3 (0.26%) CatOS
13 3 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.17%) Solaris
15 1 (0.086%) Windows 7
15 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 180 (15.48%) Migration
2 131 (11.26%) Load Balancing
3 124 (10.66%) High Availability
4 121 (10.40%) Problem-Solving
5 112 (9.63%) ITIL
6 104 (8.94%) Project Delivery
7 91 (7.82%) Network Design
8 89 (7.65%) ITSM
9 78 (6.71%) Change Management
10 76 (6.53%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 75 (6.45%) Continuous Improvement
12 70 (6.02%) Agile
13 67 (5.76%) Stakeholder Management
14 65 (5.59%) Infrastructure as Code
15 64 (5.50%) Disaster Recovery
16 62 (5.33%) Cybersecurity
17 61 (5.25%) Technical Leadership
18 59 (5.07%) CI/CD
18 59 (5.07%) Validation
19 58 (4.99%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 136 (11.69%) Python
2 59 (5.07%) PowerShell
3 24 (2.06%) SQL
4 22 (1.89%) Bash
5 6 (0.52%) C
6 4 (0.34%) Perl
6 4 (0.34%) PHP
7 3 (0.26%) C++
7 3 (0.26%) Java
7 3 (0.26%) Lisp
8 2 (0.17%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.17%) Korn
8 2 (0.17%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.086%) Bicep
9 1 (0.086%) JavaScript
9 1 (0.086%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 346 (29.75%) Cisco Certification
2 331 (28.46%) Security Cleared
3 252 (21.67%) CCNP
4 239 (20.55%) SC Cleared
5 139 (11.95%) CCNA
6 101 (8.68%) DV Cleared
7 73 (6.28%) Degree
8 66 (5.67%) CCIE
9 28 (2.41%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 27 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
11 22 (1.89%) Network+ Certification
12 19 (1.63%) MCSE
13 17 (1.46%) Azure Certification
13 17 (1.46%) Server+ Certification
14 16 (1.38%) BPSS Clearance
15 14 (1.20%) CCSE
16 13 (1.12%) VCAP
17 12 (1.03%) AWS Certification
17 12 (1.03%) JNCIP
17 12 (1.03%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 43 (3.70%) SLA
2 32 (2.75%) NIST
3 29 (2.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 25 (2.15%) Cyber Essentials
5 21 (1.81%) QA
6 20 (1.72%) NCSC
7 9 (0.77%) PMO
8 7 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 7 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
9 5 (0.43%) GDPR
9 5 (0.43%) JSP 440
9 5 (0.43%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.26%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.17%) Data Quality
11 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.17%) GRC
11 2 (0.17%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 2 (0.17%) RMADS
System Software
1 152 (13.07%) VMware Infrastructure
2 105 (9.03%) Active Directory
3 58 (4.99%) VMware ESXi
4 56 (4.82%) vSphere
5 49 (4.21%) VMware NSX
6 35 (3.01%) Virtual Machines
7 30 (2.58%) Firmware
8 24 (2.06%) Hyper-V
9 17 (1.46%) NFS
10 13 (1.12%) GPFS
11 12 (1.03%) SRDF
12 7 (0.60%) Docker
12 7 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
13 6 (0.52%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 4 (0.34%) vCloud
14 4 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
15 3 (0.26%) Dovecot
15 3 (0.26%) Postfix
15 3 (0.26%) UAG
16 2 (0.17%) Snort
Systems Management
1 141 (12.12%) Ansible
2 101 (8.68%) FortiGate
3 56 (4.82%) Terraform
4 31 (2.67%) vCenter Server
5 28 (2.41%) Grafana
6 25 (2.15%) Microsoft Intune
7 23 (1.98%) SCCM
8 22 (1.89%) Kubernetes
9 21 (1.81%) Prometheus
10 17 (1.46%) vRealize
11 14 (1.20%) Cisco CUCM
12 13 (1.12%) Cisco Prime
12 13 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
13 9 (0.77%) VxRail
14 8 (0.69%) WMI
15 7 (0.60%) EMC VPLEX
15 7 (0.60%) WSUS
16 6 (0.52%) EMC TimeFinder
16 6 (0.52%) HAProxy
16 6 (0.52%) SCOM
Vendors
1 284 (24.42%) Palo Alto
2 220 (18.92%) F5
3 208 (17.88%) Microsoft
4 199 (17.11%) VMware
5 184 (15.82%) Fortinet
6 158 (13.59%) Juniper
7 108 (9.29%) Aruba
7 108 (9.29%) CheckPoint
8 103 (8.86%) ServiceNow
9 93 (8.00%) SolarWinds
10 92 (7.91%) Meraki
11 76 (6.53%) Arista
12 60 (5.16%) Splunk
13 47 (4.04%) Zscaler
14 43 (3.70%) Dell
15 31 (2.67%) EMC
16 30 (2.58%) Extreme Networks
16 30 (2.58%) IBM
17 28 (2.41%) Brocade
18 25 (2.15%) Infoblox