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 16 February 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
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 57 58
Rank change year-on-year -39 +1 +22
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,048 1,128 1,559
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.63% 3.68% 3.48%
As % of the Vendors category 5.87% 7.93% 7.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 714 696 924
10th Percentile £228 £300 £250
25th Percentile £361 £413 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £461 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -7.75% +5.26% -2.56%
75th Percentile £550 £596 £600
90th Percentile £606 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 24 83
10th Percentile £21.14 £18.13 £14.23
25th Percentile £25.15 £20.00 £23.00
Median hourly rate £65.00 £24.66 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +163.58% -24.12% +14.04%
75th Percentile £75.57 £48.75 £50.00
90th Percentile £94.38 £74.63 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £20.38 £31.25
% change year-on-year +264.47% -34.80% -5.30%

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 17,857 14,220 19,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 44.77% 46.35% 43.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,452 8,494 12,228
10th Percentile £300 £275 £258
25th Percentile £413 £406 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £522 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.12% -0.67% -1.41%
75th Percentile £606 £625 £630
90th Percentile £700 £711 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £493 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 885 404 920
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.96 £21.20 £15.50
Median hourly rate £23.83 £29.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.24% +7.27% -16.03%
75th Percentile £57.00 £63.75 £58.71
90th Percentile £74.26 £80.75 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.17 £27.13 £26.00
% change year-on-year -18.27% +4.33% -11.26%

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 16 February 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 16 February 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 16 February 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 -47 861 £475 -5.00% 492
UK excluding London -27 681 £475 - 417
Work from Home -33 292 £445 -11.22% 155
London -66 253 £464 -9.51% 150
South East -3 206 £500 - 147
North of England -60 151 £475 -5.00% 88
Midlands -3 150 £363 -19.44% 57
West Midlands +6 131 £378 -13.71% 39
North West -20 121 £481 -3.75% 50
Scotland +43 78 £425 +6.25% 26
South West -61 50 £550 +7.32% 42
East of England -14 34 £460 +5.14% 55
Yorkshire -82 24 £450 -10.00% 29
Wales -6 20 £170 -56.83% 10
East Midlands -26 17 £158 -65.95% 18
Northern Ireland +9 13 £475 - 3
North East -14 8 £175 -64.10% 9

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 52 (4.96%) SharePoint
2 41 (3.91%) Microsoft Exchange
3 20 (1.91%) Confluence
4 14 (1.34%) Skype for Business
5 10 (0.95%) Apache
6 7 (0.67%) Mattermost
7 6 (0.57%) Appian
8 5 (0.48%) IIS
8 5 (0.48%) OpenStack
8 5 (0.48%) SharePoint Server
9 4 (0.38%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.095%) JBoss
10 1 (0.095%) WebSphere
Applications
1 76 (7.25%) Microsoft Office
2 44 (4.20%) MS Visio
3 20 (1.91%) Microsoft Excel
4 14 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.48%) Acrobat
5 5 (0.48%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.095%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.095%) OmniGraffle
Business Applications
1 24 (2.29%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.29%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.095%) Actimize
3 1 (0.095%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 160 (15.27%) Azure
2 144 (13.74%) AWS
3 94 (8.97%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (4.10%) GCP
5 33 (3.15%) Entra ID
6 17 (1.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (1.34%) Datadog
8 11 (1.05%) AWS CloudFormation
8 11 (1.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 11 (1.05%) Azure Sentinel
8 11 (1.05%) Nutanix
9 10 (0.95%) AWS Lambda
9 10 (0.95%) OpenShift
9 10 (0.95%) Serverless
10 9 (0.86%) SaaS
11 7 (0.67%) IaaS
11 7 (0.67%) Microsoft Purview
11 7 (0.67%) Mimecast
11 7 (0.67%) OneDrive
11 7 (0.67%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 399 (38.07%) Firewall
2 288 (27.48%) WAN
3 219 (20.90%) VPN
4 210 (20.04%) LAN
5 199 (18.99%) BGP
6 171 (16.32%) Network Security
7 157 (14.98%) Wireless
8 142 (13.55%) OSPF
9 129 (12.31%) SD-WAN
10 110 (10.50%) DNS
11 102 (9.73%) MPLS
12 97 (9.26%) VLAN
13 86 (8.21%) Cisco ISE
14 72 (6.87%) Wi-Fi
15 71 (6.77%) Cisco Nexus
15 71 (6.77%) IPsec
16 68 (6.49%) Cisco ASA
17 67 (6.39%) Cisco IOS
18 56 (5.34%) DHCP
18 56 (5.34%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (0.95%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.48%) DynamoDB
2 5 (0.48%) Power BI
3 3 (0.29%) Amazon Athena
4 2 (0.19%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.095%) Metadata
5 1 (0.095%) MySQL
5 1 (0.095%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.095%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 22 (2.10%) JIRA
2 15 (1.43%) GitLab
3 13 (1.24%) Sonatype Nexus
4 8 (0.76%) Jenkins
5 7 (0.67%) Robot Framework
6 6 (0.57%) Cucumber
6 6 (0.57%) Selenium
6 6 (0.57%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.38%) Git
8 2 (0.19%) Bitbucket
8 2 (0.19%) Rational DOORS
General
1 240 (22.90%) Social Skills
2 166 (15.84%) Public Sector
3 154 (14.69%) Finance
4 115 (10.97%) Telecoms
5 76 (7.25%) Analytical Skills
6 65 (6.20%) Manufacturing
7 57 (5.44%) Documentation Skills
8 49 (4.68%) Legal
9 47 (4.48%) Banking
10 45 (4.29%) Electronics
10 45 (4.29%) Marketing
11 15 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
12 14 (1.34%) Investment Banking
13 13 (1.24%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (1.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 10 (0.95%) Aerospace
16 9 (0.86%) Financial Institution
17 8 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
17 8 (0.76%) Law
17 8 (0.76%) Retail
Job Titles
1 375 (35.78%) Network Engineer
2 114 (10.88%) Architect
3 84 (8.02%) Cisco Engineer
4 72 (6.87%) Network Architect
5 71 (6.77%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 62 (5.92%) Analyst
7 60 (5.73%) Senior
8 59 (5.63%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 58 (5.53%) Security Engineer
10 54 (5.15%) Consultant
11 49 (4.68%) IT Support
12 47 (4.48%) Network Consultant
13 39 (3.72%) Support Engineer
14 37 (3.53%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 37 (3.53%) Network Security Engineer
15 36 (3.44%) Desktop Support
16 34 (3.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
17 32 (3.05%) Solutions Architect
18 26 (2.48%) 2nd Line Support
18 26 (2.48%) Infrastructure Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (3.15%) 802.1X
2 16 (1.53%) Flash
2 16 (1.53%) LDAP
2 16 (1.53%) XMPP
3 10 (0.95%) JSON
3 10 (0.95%) NETCONF
3 10 (0.95%) YANG
4 8 (0.76%) XML
5 7 (0.67%) Jinja
5 7 (0.67%) SAML
6 6 (0.57%) RFC 2544
7 5 (0.48%) Node.js
8 4 (0.38%) HTML
8 4 (0.38%) VML
9 3 (0.29%) OpenConfig
9 3 (0.29%) REST
10 2 (0.19%) CSS
10 2 (0.19%) Django
10 2 (0.19%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (0.19%) RESTCONF
Miscellaneous
1 265 (25.29%) Data Centre
2 45 (4.29%) PKI
3 33 (3.15%) Linux Command Line
4 32 (3.05%) Replication
5 27 (2.58%) Data Protection Act
5 27 (2.58%) Hybrid Cloud
6 26 (2.48%) Onboarding
7 25 (2.39%) Cloud Native
7 25 (2.39%) Driving Licence
8 24 (2.29%) Operational Technology
9 18 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
10 16 (1.53%) Security Posture
10 16 (1.53%) Video Conferencing
11 13 (1.24%) NHS
11 13 (1.24%) Product Ownership
12 12 (1.15%) Clustering
13 11 (1.05%) CMDB
14 9 (0.86%) Enterprise Software
14 9 (0.86%) Fibre Optics
14 9 (0.86%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 173 (16.51%) Windows
2 115 (10.97%) Linux
3 74 (7.06%) Windows Server
4 52 (4.96%) Mac OS
5 50 (4.77%) Android
6 37 (3.53%) Windows 10
7 23 (2.19%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 16 (1.53%) Unix
9 6 (0.57%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.57%) Windows Server 2012
9 6 (0.57%) Windows Server 2016
10 4 (0.38%) CatOS
10 4 (0.38%) Solaris
10 4 (0.38%) Windows Server 2019
11 3 (0.29%) VMS
12 1 (0.095%) CentOS
12 1 (0.095%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 147 (14.03%) Migration
2 125 (11.93%) Problem-Solving
3 90 (8.59%) Agile
4 83 (7.92%) Network Design
5 78 (7.44%) Roadmaps
6 76 (7.25%) Cybersecurity
6 76 (7.25%) ITSM
6 76 (7.25%) Project Delivery
7 74 (7.06%) ITIL
8 69 (6.58%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 67 (6.39%) High Availability
10 63 (6.01%) Load Balancing
11 62 (5.92%) Change Management
12 59 (5.63%) Collaborative Working
13 58 (5.53%) Network Architecture
13 58 (5.53%) Service Management
14 55 (5.25%) Disaster Recovery
15 54 (5.15%) Business Intelligence
16 53 (5.06%) Stakeholder Management
17 51 (4.87%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 120 (11.45%) Python
2 60 (5.73%) PowerShell
3 33 (3.15%) Bash
4 22 (2.10%) SQL
5 21 (2.00%) Perl
6 14 (1.34%) JavaScript
7 8 (0.76%) Lisp
8 5 (0.48%) C++
9 4 (0.38%) C
9 4 (0.38%) Kusto Query Language
9 4 (0.38%) PHP
10 2 (0.19%) Korn
11 1 (0.095%) Java
11 1 (0.095%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 434 (41.41%) Security Cleared
2 343 (32.73%) SC Cleared
3 266 (25.38%) Cisco Certification
4 226 (21.56%) CCNP
5 110 (10.50%) DV Cleared
6 102 (9.73%) CCNA
7 81 (7.73%) Degree
8 70 (6.68%) CCIE
9 25 (2.39%) BPSS Clearance
9 25 (2.39%) Microsoft Certification
10 24 (2.29%) ITIL Certification
11 18 (1.72%) Azure Certification
11 18 (1.72%) JNCIS
12 16 (1.53%) AWS Certification
12 16 (1.53%) CISSP
13 15 (1.43%) MCSE
14 12 (1.15%) JNCIA
14 12 (1.15%) JNCIE
14 12 (1.15%) Network+ Certification
14 12 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (3.82%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 28 (2.67%) NIST
3 25 (2.39%) SLA
4 21 (2.00%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (1.72%) GDPR
6 16 (1.53%) PMO
7 15 (1.43%) PCI DSS
8 11 (1.05%) NCSC
9 6 (0.57%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 5 (0.48%) QA
11 3 (0.29%) Disclosure Scotland
11 3 (0.29%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.29%) JSP 440
11 3 (0.29%) RMADS
12 2 (0.19%) HMG Security Policy Framework
13 1 (0.095%) Actionable Recommendations
13 1 (0.095%) Data Quality
13 1 (0.095%) Def Stans
13 1 (0.095%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.095%) NIST 800
System Software
1 150 (14.31%) VMware Infrastructure
2 119 (11.35%) Active Directory
3 76 (7.25%) VMware NSX
4 59 (5.63%) vSphere
5 40 (3.82%) VMware ESXi
6 21 (2.00%) Virtual Machines
7 16 (1.53%) Docker
7 16 (1.53%) Firmware
7 16 (1.53%) GPFS
7 16 (1.53%) NFS
8 15 (1.43%) Hyper-V
9 5 (0.48%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 5 (0.48%) Virtual Servers
10 4 (0.38%) KVM
10 4 (0.38%) Snort
10 4 (0.38%) SRDF
10 4 (0.38%) vCloud
10 4 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.29%) Squid
12 1 (0.095%) Xen
Systems Management
1 94 (8.97%) Ansible
2 69 (6.58%) FortiGate
3 55 (5.25%) vCenter Server
4 45 (4.29%) Terraform
5 36 (3.44%) vRealize
6 26 (2.48%) SCCM
7 17 (1.62%) VxRail
8 16 (1.53%) Kubernetes
8 16 (1.53%) Microsoft Intune
9 14 (1.34%) Grafana
10 13 (1.24%) Cisco CUCM
11 12 (1.15%) SCOM
12 11 (1.05%) WSUS
13 10 (0.95%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 10 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
14 9 (0.86%) Cisco Prime
14 9 (0.86%) EMC NetWorker
14 9 (0.86%) Nessus
14 9 (0.86%) Prometheus
15 7 (0.67%) Nagios
Vendors
1 254 (24.24%) Palo Alto
2 188 (17.94%) Microsoft
3 184 (17.56%) VMware
4 163 (15.55%) Juniper
5 127 (12.12%) Aruba
6 112 (10.69%) F5
7 110 (10.50%) CheckPoint
7 110 (10.50%) SolarWinds
8 107 (10.21%) Fortinet
9 98 (9.35%) Meraki
10 77 (7.35%) ServiceNow
11 75 (7.16%) Dell
12 60 (5.73%) HP
13 45 (4.29%) Splunk
14 44 (4.20%) IBM
14 44 (4.20%) SAP
15 41 (3.91%) Apple
16 37 (3.53%) Arista
17 36 (3.44%) Remedy
17 36 (3.44%) Zscaler