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 23 March 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
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 60 60
Rank change year-on-year -41 0 +13
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,093 1,089 1,462
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.50% 3.68% 3.30%
As % of the Vendors category 5.73% 7.82% 7.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 745 692 871
10th Percentile £263 £313 £255
25th Percentile £388 £410 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -2.56%
75th Percentile £560 £594 £588
90th Percentile £625 £650 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +1.32% - +2.15%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 18 52
10th Percentile £21.40 £17.26 £13.36
25th Percentile £25.60 £20.04 £18.21
Median hourly rate £68.17 £37.07 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +83.87% +48.29% -46.67%
75th Percentile £74.26 £64.06 £41.25
90th Percentile £93.88 £75.00 £67.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £33.52 £24.00
% change year-on-year +121.52% +39.68% -45.14%

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 19,075 13,927 18,932
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 43.58% 47.12% 42.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,217 8,725 11,807
10th Percentile £310 £290 £256
25th Percentile £413 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £513
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% - -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £618 £625
90th Percentile £700 £710 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 975 466 1,035
10th Percentile £15.32 £15.53 £12.13
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £14.48
Median hourly rate £25.15 £29.00 £23.61
Median % change year-on-year -13.28% +22.83% -37.87%
75th Percentile £58.75 £62.50 £54.38
90th Percentile £76.72 £80.75 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £27.43 £21.50
% change year-on-year -13.13% +27.56% -38.57%

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 23 March 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 23 March 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 23 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 -42 917 £489 -2.15% 489
UK excluding London -25 699 £481 +1.32% 445
Work from Home -32 285 £450 -10.00% 97
London -58 274 £500 - 114
South East -1 224 £500 -4.76% 134
North of England -48 180 £481 -3.75% 97
Midlands -13 151 £340 -24.44% 89
North West -14 147 £481 -1.79% 46
West Midlands -7 136 £340 -22.29% 48
Scotland +29 66 £450 +12.50% 22
East of England -5 42 £475 -12.04% 53
South West -69 39 £525 -2.96% 46
Yorkshire -91 27 £450 -14.29% 34
Wales -10 23 £380 -9.25% 15
East Midlands -50 12 £158 -69.27% 41
North East -14 8 £175 -46.15% 17
Northern Ireland - 6 £385 - 6

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 42 (3.84%) SharePoint
2 37 (3.39%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (1.56%) Confluence
4 7 (0.64%) Apache
5 5 (0.46%) IIS
6 3 (0.27%) Appian
6 3 (0.27%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.27%) SharePoint Server
7 2 (0.18%) Skype for Business
8 1 (0.091%) JBoss
8 1 (0.091%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.091%) WebSphere
Applications
1 66 (6.04%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (4.03%) MS Visio
3 20 (1.83%) Microsoft Excel
4 15 (1.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.46%) Acrobat
5 5 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.091%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 17 (1.56%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.091%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 177 (16.19%) Azure
2 152 (13.91%) AWS
3 101 (9.24%) Microsoft 365
4 40 (3.66%) Entra ID
5 39 (3.57%) GCP
6 16 (1.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (1.28%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 14 (1.28%) Datadog
8 12 (1.10%) Nutanix
9 10 (0.91%) Azure Sentinel
10 9 (0.82%) SaaS
11 8 (0.73%) AWS CloudFormation
11 8 (0.73%) Azure DevOps
11 8 (0.73%) OneDrive
11 8 (0.73%) OpenShift
12 7 (0.64%) AWS Lambda
12 7 (0.64%) IaaS
12 7 (0.64%) Microsoft Purview
12 7 (0.64%) Power Platform
12 7 (0.64%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 444 (40.62%) Firewall
2 337 (30.83%) WAN
3 251 (22.96%) BGP
4 248 (22.69%) LAN
5 236 (21.59%) VPN
6 199 (18.21%) Network Security
7 182 (16.65%) OSPF
8 161 (14.73%) Wireless
9 140 (12.81%) SD-WAN
10 130 (11.89%) DNS
11 112 (10.25%) VLAN
12 110 (10.06%) MPLS
13 105 (9.61%) Cisco ISE
14 81 (7.41%) Wi-Fi
15 79 (7.23%) Cisco ASA
16 76 (6.95%) Cisco IOS
17 75 (6.86%) Cisco Nexus
18 73 (6.68%) DHCP
18 73 (6.68%) IPsec
19 71 (6.50%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (0.64%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.46%) DynamoDB
2 5 (0.46%) Power BI
3 3 (0.27%) Amazon Athena
4 2 (0.18%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.091%) Big Data
5 1 (0.091%) Metadata
5 1 (0.091%) MySQL
5 1 (0.091%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.091%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 23 (2.10%) JIRA
2 13 (1.19%) Sonatype Nexus
3 11 (1.01%) GitLab
3 11 (1.01%) Jenkins
4 9 (0.82%) Git
5 3 (0.27%) Cucumber
5 3 (0.27%) Robot Framework
5 3 (0.27%) Selenium
5 3 (0.27%) SonarQube
6 2 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.091%) Bitbucket
General
1 228 (20.86%) Social Skills
2 158 (14.46%) Finance
3 153 (14.00%) Public Sector
4 105 (9.61%) Telecoms
5 75 (6.86%) Analytical Skills
6 63 (5.76%) Manufacturing
7 60 (5.49%) Banking
8 53 (4.85%) Legal
9 51 (4.67%) Documentation Skills
10 45 (4.12%) Marketing
11 43 (3.93%) Electronics
12 18 (1.65%) Investment Banking
13 17 (1.56%) Presentation Skills
14 16 (1.46%) Financial Institution
15 14 (1.28%) Organisational Skills
16 11 (1.01%) Law
17 10 (0.91%) Inclusion and Diversity
17 10 (0.91%) Retail
18 8 (0.73%) Aerospace
18 8 (0.73%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 425 (38.88%) Network Engineer
2 136 (12.44%) Architect
3 97 (8.87%) Cisco Engineer
4 86 (7.87%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 83 (7.59%) Senior
6 81 (7.41%) Network Architect
7 68 (6.22%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 66 (6.04%) Security Engineer
9 54 (4.94%) Analyst
10 49 (4.48%) IT Support
11 45 (4.12%) Consultant
12 41 (3.75%) Network Consultant
12 41 (3.75%) Network Security Engineer
12 41 (3.75%) Senior Network Engineer
13 35 (3.20%) Desktop Support
13 35 (3.20%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 33 (3.02%) Data Network Engineer
14 33 (3.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 33 (3.02%) Solutions Architect
15 28 (2.56%) Infrastructure Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 63 (5.76%) 802.1X
2 17 (1.56%) LDAP
3 16 (1.46%) Flash
4 14 (1.28%) XMPP
5 10 (0.91%) SAML
6 9 (0.82%) NETCONF
7 8 (0.73%) YANG
8 7 (0.64%) Jinja
9 6 (0.55%) JSON
10 5 (0.46%) Node.js
10 5 (0.46%) OpenConfig
10 5 (0.46%) REST
10 5 (0.46%) XML
11 4 (0.37%) HTML
11 4 (0.37%) RESTCONF
11 4 (0.37%) VML
12 2 (0.18%) CSS
12 2 (0.18%) Django
12 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Graph
12 2 (0.18%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 289 (26.44%) Data Centre
2 53 (4.85%) PKI
3 33 (3.02%) Replication
4 32 (2.93%) Data Protection Act
5 31 (2.84%) Linux Command Line
6 30 (2.74%) Hybrid Cloud
7 29 (2.65%) Clustering
8 27 (2.47%) Cloud Native
8 27 (2.47%) Onboarding
9 25 (2.29%) Operational Technology
10 23 (2.10%) Driving Licence
11 18 (1.65%) Product Ownership
12 16 (1.46%) Security Posture
12 16 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
13 14 (1.28%) Video Conferencing
14 13 (1.19%) SCADA
15 12 (1.10%) Enterprise Storage
15 12 (1.10%) NHS
15 12 (1.10%) Public Cloud
16 11 (1.01%) CMDB
Operating Systems
1 181 (16.56%) Windows
2 104 (9.52%) Linux
3 63 (5.76%) Windows Server
4 50 (4.57%) Android
4 50 (4.57%) Mac OS
5 28 (2.56%) Windows 10
6 22 (2.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 16 (1.46%) Unix
8 6 (0.55%) Ubuntu
9 5 (0.46%) Windows Server 2012
9 5 (0.46%) Windows Server 2019
10 4 (0.37%) CatOS
10 4 (0.37%) Solaris
10 4 (0.37%) VMS
11 3 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.18%) AIX
13 1 (0.091%) CentOS
13 1 (0.091%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 159 (14.55%) Migration
2 134 (12.26%) Problem-Solving
3 105 (9.61%) Load Balancing
4 92 (8.42%) High Availability
4 92 (8.42%) ITIL
4 92 (8.42%) Network Design
5 90 (8.23%) Agile
6 80 (7.32%) Roadmaps
7 79 (7.23%) ITSM
8 75 (6.86%) Cybersecurity
9 72 (6.59%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 69 (6.31%) Change Management
11 65 (5.95%) Project Delivery
12 61 (5.58%) Collaborative Working
13 57 (5.22%) Service Management
14 56 (5.12%) Stakeholder Management
15 55 (5.03%) Network Monitoring
16 54 (4.94%) Continuous Improvement
16 54 (4.94%) Network Architecture
17 51 (4.67%) Disaster Recovery
Programming Languages
1 127 (11.62%) Python
2 56 (5.12%) PowerShell
3 28 (2.56%) Bash
4 16 (1.46%) Perl
5 8 (0.73%) JavaScript
5 8 (0.73%) SQL
6 6 (0.55%) Lisp
7 4 (0.37%) C
7 4 (0.37%) PHP
8 2 (0.18%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.18%) Korn
8 2 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
8 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.091%) C++
9 1 (0.091%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 433 (39.62%) Security Cleared
2 337 (30.83%) SC Cleared
3 290 (26.53%) Cisco Certification
4 233 (21.32%) CCNP
5 109 (9.97%) DV Cleared
6 105 (9.61%) CCNA
7 80 (7.32%) Degree
8 77 (7.04%) CCIE
9 24 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (2.01%) JNCIS
11 20 (1.83%) Azure Certification
11 20 (1.83%) Microsoft Certification
12 17 (1.56%) CISSP
12 17 (1.56%) JNCIP
12 17 (1.56%) Network+ Certification
13 16 (1.46%) JNCIA
14 14 (1.28%) AWS Certification
14 14 (1.28%) CCSE
15 13 (1.19%) ITIL Certification
16 12 (1.10%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (3.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 35 (3.20%) NIST
3 32 (2.93%) SLA
4 24 (2.20%) Cyber Essentials
5 19 (1.74%) GDPR
6 17 (1.56%) NCSC
6 17 (1.56%) PMO
7 14 (1.28%) PCI DSS
8 6 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (0.37%) QA
10 3 (0.27%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.27%) JSP 440
10 3 (0.27%) RMADS
11 2 (0.18%) Disclosure Scotland
11 2 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 2 (0.18%) ISA99
12 1 (0.091%) Accessibility
12 1 (0.091%) GRC
12 1 (0.091%) NIST 800
System Software
1 147 (13.45%) VMware Infrastructure
2 95 (8.69%) Active Directory
3 66 (6.04%) VMware NSX
4 59 (5.40%) vSphere
5 42 (3.84%) VMware ESXi
6 18 (1.65%) Firmware
7 16 (1.46%) GPFS
7 16 (1.46%) NFS
8 14 (1.28%) Virtual Machines
9 12 (1.10%) Docker
10 10 (0.91%) Hyper-V
11 8 (0.73%) SRDF
12 4 (0.37%) Snort
12 4 (0.37%) vCloud
13 3 (0.27%) Virtual Desktop
13 3 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
14 2 (0.18%) KVM
14 2 (0.18%) Squid
15 1 (0.091%) IAG
15 1 (0.091%) RHEV
Systems Management
1 103 (9.42%) Ansible
2 90 (8.23%) FortiGate
3 44 (4.03%) Terraform
4 41 (3.75%) vCenter Server
5 36 (3.29%) vRealize
6 24 (2.20%) SCCM
7 22 (2.01%) Grafana
8 19 (1.74%) VxRail
9 18 (1.65%) Microsoft Intune
10 16 (1.46%) Prometheus
11 12 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
12 11 (1.01%) Cisco CUCM
12 11 (1.01%) Kubernetes
13 10 (0.91%) Cisco Prime
14 9 (0.82%) Nagios
15 7 (0.64%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 7 (0.64%) Nessus
15 7 (0.64%) WSUS
16 6 (0.55%) EMC TimeFinder
16 6 (0.55%) QRadar
Vendors
1 283 (25.89%) Palo Alto
2 185 (16.93%) VMware
3 182 (16.65%) Microsoft
4 179 (16.38%) Juniper
5 161 (14.73%) F5
6 142 (12.99%) Aruba
7 113 (10.34%) Fortinet
8 110 (10.06%) CheckPoint
9 101 (9.24%) SolarWinds
10 97 (8.87%) Meraki
11 95 (8.69%) ServiceNow
12 77 (7.04%) Dell
13 64 (5.86%) HP
14 55 (5.03%) Arista
15 52 (4.76%) Splunk
16 46 (4.21%) IBM
17 43 (3.93%) SAP
18 42 (3.84%) Zscaler
19 40 (3.66%) Apple
20 30 (2.74%) Citrix