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 19 April 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
19 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 66 66
Rank change year-on-year -36 0 +1
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,107 1,052 1,364
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.40% 3.58% 3.12%
As % of the Vendors category 5.63% 7.55% 7.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 748 668 826
10th Percentile £289 £302 £260
25th Percentile £400 £406 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £486
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.88% +2.32%
75th Percentile £560 £588 £588
90th Percentile £635 £650 £708
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £483 £475
% change year-on-year -1.04% +1.58% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 19 46
10th Percentile £21.27 £17.55 £13.29
25th Percentile £30.06 £21.58 £20.03
Median hourly rate £54.86 £37.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +46.29% +25.00% -43.77%
75th Percentile £74.26 £66.88 £41.25
90th Percentile £88.25 £75.00 £72.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £33.52 £30.00
% change year-on-year +121.52% +11.74% -45.77%

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 19,679 13,941 18,557
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 42.61% 47.38% 42.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,593 8,779 11,559
10th Percentile £313 £295 £258
25th Percentile £413 £406 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £517
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -0.87% -1.52%
75th Percentile £600 £615 £630
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 982 536 1,075
10th Percentile £15.03 £14.99 £12.01
25th Percentile £18.50 £18.51 £14.36
Median hourly rate £30.00 £27.97 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.28% +24.29% -47.06%
75th Percentile £60.00 £59.48 £56.91
90th Percentile £78.73 £77.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.11 £24.66 £21.46
% change year-on-year +5.86% +14.91% -44.26%

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 19 April 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 19 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Cisco in the UK

Cisco
Top 17 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 19 April 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 -50 916 £481 -4.70% 502
UK excluding London -31 699 £478 -1.04% 483
Work from Home -19 286 £450 -10.00% 88
London -61 275 £500 -0.05% 123
South East -10 212 £500 - 137
North of England -45 180 £481 -3.75% 112
Midlands -14 150 £375 -16.67% 82
North West -11 142 £481 -1.79% 48
West Midlands -2 136 £350 -20.00% 43
Scotland +28 68 £450 +12.78% 34
South West -70 45 £505 -8.18% 47
East of England -9 39 £485 +2.11% 58
Yorkshire -76 35 £450 -14.29% 46
Wales -10 25 £425 - 21
East Midlands -47 10 £415 -19.02% 38
Northern Ireland +10 9 £385 - 8
North East -19 5 £363 +11.54% 20

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 37 (3.34%) Microsoft Exchange
2 33 (2.98%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.45%) Confluence
4 7 (0.63%) Apache
5 5 (0.45%) IIS
5 5 (0.45%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.090%) JBoss
6 1 (0.090%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.090%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.090%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.090%) WebSphere
Applications
1 48 (4.34%) Microsoft Office
2 40 (3.61%) MS Visio
3 17 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
4 12 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.45%) Acrobat
6 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.090%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 17 (1.54%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.090%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 195 (17.62%) Azure
2 162 (14.63%) AWS
3 87 (7.86%) Microsoft 365
4 42 (3.79%) Entra ID
5 34 (3.07%) GCP
6 17 (1.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 15 (1.36%) Datadog
7 15 (1.36%) OpenShift
8 14 (1.26%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 12 (1.08%) Nutanix
9 12 (1.08%) SaaS
10 9 (0.81%) Azure Sentinel
10 9 (0.81%) GitHub
11 7 (0.63%) AWS CloudFormation
11 7 (0.63%) Azure DevOps
12 6 (0.54%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (0.54%) Amazon Kinesis
12 6 (0.54%) AWS Lambda
12 6 (0.54%) Mimecast
12 6 (0.54%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 473 (42.73%) Firewall
2 352 (31.80%) WAN
3 275 (24.84%) BGP
4 264 (23.85%) LAN
5 239 (21.59%) VPN
6 213 (19.24%) Network Security
7 202 (18.25%) OSPF
8 158 (14.27%) SD-WAN
9 153 (13.82%) Wireless
10 146 (13.19%) DNS
11 136 (12.29%) VLAN
12 105 (9.49%) MPLS
13 102 (9.21%) Cisco ISE
14 97 (8.76%) Cisco Nexus
15 91 (8.22%) VXLAN
16 82 (7.41%) Wi-Fi
17 80 (7.23%) DHCP
18 79 (7.14%) Cisco ASA
19 75 (6.78%) IPsec
20 72 (6.50%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.45%) DynamoDB
2 3 (0.27%) Amazon Athena
2 3 (0.27%) Power BI
2 3 (0.27%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.18%) MariaDB
4 1 (0.090%) Big Data
4 1 (0.090%) Metadata
4 1 (0.090%) MySQL
4 1 (0.090%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.090%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 23 (2.08%) JIRA
2 15 (1.36%) Sonatype Nexus
3 10 (0.90%) Git
4 8 (0.72%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.54%) GitLab
6 1 (0.090%) Bitbucket
General
1 233 (21.05%) Social Skills
2 135 (12.20%) Finance
3 119 (10.75%) Public Sector
4 82 (7.41%) Telecoms
5 70 (6.32%) Analytical Skills
6 59 (5.33%) Banking
7 57 (5.15%) Legal
8 53 (4.79%) Documentation Skills
9 42 (3.79%) Manufacturing
10 28 (2.53%) Marketing
11 23 (2.08%) Electronics
12 17 (1.54%) Investment Banking
13 16 (1.45%) Organisational Skills
14 15 (1.36%) Financial Institution
14 15 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
15 14 (1.26%) Law
16 13 (1.17%) Retail
17 9 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
18 8 (0.72%) Military
19 7 (0.63%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 467 (42.19%) Network Engineer
2 136 (12.29%) Architect
3 102 (9.21%) Cisco Engineer
4 95 (8.58%) Senior
5 94 (8.49%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 82 (7.41%) Network Architect
7 76 (6.87%) Security Engineer
8 71 (6.41%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 53 (4.79%) Network Security Engineer
10 51 (4.61%) Analyst
11 47 (4.25%) Senior Network Engineer
12 44 (3.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 40 (3.61%) Data Network Engineer
14 32 (2.89%) Consultant
14 32 (2.89%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 31 (2.80%) Data Engineer
16 30 (2.71%) Infrastructure Analyst
16 30 (2.71%) Network Consultant
17 28 (2.53%) Cisco Security Engineer
17 28 (2.53%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 62 (5.60%) 802.1X
2 17 (1.54%) Flash
2 17 (1.54%) LDAP
3 14 (1.26%) XMPP
4 11 (0.99%) SAML
5 9 (0.81%) REST
6 7 (0.63%) NETCONF
7 6 (0.54%) Jinja
7 6 (0.54%) YANG
8 5 (0.45%) Node.js
8 5 (0.45%) OpenConfig
9 4 (0.36%) HTML
9 4 (0.36%) JSON
9 4 (0.36%) RESTCONF
9 4 (0.36%) VML
10 2 (0.18%) ADO
10 2 (0.18%) CSS
10 2 (0.18%) Django
10 2 (0.18%) Middleware
10 2 (0.18%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 293 (26.47%) Data Centre
2 50 (4.52%) PKI
3 39 (3.52%) Replication
4 32 (2.89%) Clustering
4 32 (2.89%) Data Protection Act
4 32 (2.89%) Linux Command Line
5 31 (2.80%) Hybrid Cloud
6 30 (2.71%) Cloud Native
6 30 (2.71%) Onboarding
7 27 (2.44%) Operational Technology
8 21 (1.90%) Driving Licence
9 18 (1.63%) Product Ownership
10 17 (1.54%) Enterprise Storage
10 17 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (1.26%) EMC VMAX
11 14 (1.26%) SCADA
11 14 (1.26%) Security Posture
12 13 (1.17%) Video Conferencing
13 12 (1.08%) NHS
14 11 (0.99%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 191 (17.25%) Windows
2 117 (10.57%) Linux
3 66 (5.96%) Windows Server
4 30 (2.71%) Mac OS
5 29 (2.62%) Android
6 26 (2.35%) Windows 10
7 22 (1.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 19 (1.72%) Unix
9 8 (0.72%) Ubuntu
10 7 (0.63%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.36%) CatOS
12 4 (0.36%) Solaris
13 3 (0.27%) Data ONTAP
13 3 (0.27%) VMS
14 2 (0.18%) AIX
14 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.090%) CentOS
15 1 (0.090%) Debian
15 1 (0.090%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 170 (15.36%) Migration
2 137 (12.38%) Problem-Solving
3 110 (9.94%) Load Balancing
4 105 (9.49%) High Availability
5 99 (8.94%) ITIL
6 95 (8.58%) Network Design
7 86 (7.77%) Agile
8 84 (7.59%) ITSM
9 73 (6.59%) Roadmaps
10 72 (6.50%) Change Management
11 71 (6.41%) Cybersecurity
12 63 (5.69%) Continuous Improvement
13 62 (5.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 57 (5.15%) Disaster Recovery
14 57 (5.15%) Project Delivery
14 57 (5.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 54 (4.88%) Network Monitoring
16 53 (4.79%) Service Management
17 52 (4.70%) Collaborative Working
17 52 (4.70%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 129 (11.65%) Python
2 52 (4.70%) PowerShell
3 27 (2.44%) Bash
4 11 (0.99%) Perl
5 8 (0.72%) C
5 8 (0.72%) SQL
6 4 (0.36%) JavaScript
6 4 (0.36%) Lisp
6 4 (0.36%) PHP
7 3 (0.27%) C++
7 3 (0.27%) Java
8 2 (0.18%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.18%) Korn
8 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.090%) Bicep
9 1 (0.090%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.090%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.090%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 408 (36.86%) Security Cleared
2 314 (28.36%) Cisco Certification
2 314 (28.36%) SC Cleared
3 248 (22.40%) CCNP
4 114 (10.30%) CCNA
5 109 (9.85%) DV Cleared
6 83 (7.50%) Degree
7 77 (6.96%) CCIE
8 23 (2.08%) BPSS Clearance
9 21 (1.90%) JNCIS
9 21 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
10 20 (1.81%) Azure Certification
11 17 (1.54%) Network+ Certification
12 16 (1.45%) JNCIP
13 15 (1.36%) JNCIA
14 14 (1.26%) AWS Certification
14 14 (1.26%) CCSE
14 14 (1.26%) MCSE
14 14 (1.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 12 (1.08%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (3.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (2.89%) NIST
3 31 (2.80%) SLA
4 23 (2.08%) Cyber Essentials
5 17 (1.54%) NCSC
6 16 (1.45%) GDPR
7 15 (1.36%) PMO
8 12 (1.08%) PCI DSS
9 10 (0.90%) QA
10 5 (0.45%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 4 (0.36%) JSP 440
12 3 (0.27%) HIPAA
12 3 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.27%) RMADS
13 2 (0.18%) ISA99
13 2 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
13 2 (0.18%) NIST 800
14 1 (0.090%) GRC
14 1 (0.090%) MiFID
System Software
1 152 (13.73%) VMware Infrastructure
2 93 (8.40%) Active Directory
3 64 (5.78%) VMware NSX
4 61 (5.51%) vSphere
5 47 (4.25%) VMware ESXi
6 20 (1.81%) Firmware
6 20 (1.81%) NFS
7 17 (1.54%) GPFS
7 17 (1.54%) Hyper-V
8 15 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
9 9 (0.81%) SRDF
10 7 (0.63%) Docker
11 6 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.36%) vCloud
12 4 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
13 3 (0.27%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 3 (0.27%) KVM
13 3 (0.27%) Snort
13 3 (0.27%) UAG
14 1 (0.090%) Squid
Systems Management
1 114 (10.30%) Ansible
2 103 (9.30%) FortiGate
3 50 (4.52%) Terraform
4 37 (3.34%) vRealize
5 34 (3.07%) vCenter Server
6 24 (2.17%) Grafana
7 20 (1.81%) SCCM
7 20 (1.81%) VxRail
8 19 (1.72%) Microsoft Intune
9 18 (1.63%) Prometheus
10 17 (1.54%) Kubernetes
11 13 (1.17%) Cisco Prime
12 11 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
13 10 (0.90%) Nagios
14 8 (0.72%) Cisco CUCM
15 7 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 7 (0.63%) EMC NetWorker
15 7 (0.63%) EMC VPLEX
15 7 (0.63%) SCOM
16 6 (0.54%) QRadar
Vendors
1 285 (25.75%) Palo Alto
2 192 (17.34%) VMware
3 190 (17.16%) F5
4 181 (16.35%) Microsoft
5 167 (15.09%) Juniper
6 137 (12.38%) Fortinet
7 132 (11.92%) Aruba
8 120 (10.84%) CheckPoint
9 97 (8.76%) SolarWinds
10 95 (8.58%) ServiceNow
11 94 (8.49%) Meraki
12 68 (6.14%) Dell
13 62 (5.60%) Arista
14 54 (4.88%) Splunk
15 48 (4.34%) IBM
16 47 (4.25%) HP
17 42 (3.79%) Zscaler
18 31 (2.80%) EMC
19 29 (2.62%) Citrix
20 28 (2.53%) Extreme Networks