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 17 September 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
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 82 70
Rank change year-on-year -35 -12 -16
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,231 997 1,204
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.25% 3.03% 3.15%
As % of the Vendors category 5.38% 6.40% 7.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 801 627 719
10th Percentile £281 £300 £250
25th Percentile £400 £400 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.96% -2.10% +8.11%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £582
90th Percentile £653 £642 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £463 £491 £500
% change year-on-year -5.80% -1.80% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 41 37
10th Percentile £27.23 - £19.40
25th Percentile £44.00 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +83.33% +9.09% -42.11%
75th Percentile £68.75 £58.75 £55.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £83.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £32.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +69.23% -13.33% -21.60%

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 22,879 15,566 16,911
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.86% 47.26% 44.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 14,025 9,545 10,148
10th Percentile £313 £275 £285
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £614 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £700 £731
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,259 789 677
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.69 £14.26
25th Percentile £16.72 £17.44 £15.62
Median hourly rate £27.30 £25.15 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.55% -16.17% -31.56%
75th Percentile £63.75 £43.25 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £21.19 £30.00
% change year-on-year +23.36% -29.37% -27.71%

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 17 September 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 -43 1,021 £500 - 1,257
UK excluding London -38 716 £463 -5.80% 878
London -33 388 £500 - 496
Work from Home -19 297 £475 +2.70% 308
North of England -3 246 £488 +2.63% 176
North West +15 169 £484 +1.89% 79
South East -70 135 £450 -10.00% 226
Midlands -39 130 £438 -5.41% 114
West Midlands -24 123 £438 -7.89% 64
Scotland +14 97 £413 -2.94% 52
Yorkshire -26 70 £500 +1.63% 68
South West -42 63 £525 -4.55% 137
East of England -23 37 £453 -6.22% 137
Wales +10 29 £390 +95.00% 29
Northern Ireland +2 9 £145 -66.86% 24
North East -37 8 £375 -31.82% 30
East Midlands -20 4 £525 +20.00% 50
Channel Islands -4 3 £600 -17.24%

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 40 (3.25%) SharePoint
2 36 (2.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.06%) Confluence
4 9 (0.73%) OpenStack
5 8 (0.65%) SAS
6 7 (0.57%) Apache
7 6 (0.49%) IIS
7 6 (0.49%) JBoss
8 4 (0.32%) nginx
9 3 (0.24%) CloudStack
9 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
10 2 (0.16%) CMS
10 2 (0.16%) Skype for Business
11 1 (0.081%) Apache Spark
11 1 (0.081%) FactoryTalk
11 1 (0.081%) Mendix
11 1 (0.081%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 49 (3.98%) Microsoft Office
2 26 (2.11%) Microsoft Excel
3 22 (1.79%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.24%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.081%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 1 (0.081%) Monis
1 1 (0.081%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.081%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 256 (20.80%) Azure
2 162 (13.16%) AWS
3 104 (8.45%) Microsoft 365
4 65 (5.28%) Entra ID
5 38 (3.09%) GitHub
6 30 (2.44%) OneDrive
7 27 (2.19%) GCP
8 19 (1.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 18 (1.46%) OpenShift
10 17 (1.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 14 (1.14%) Power Platform
12 13 (1.06%) Nutanix
13 12 (0.97%) SaaS
14 9 (0.73%) Azure Sentinel
15 8 (0.65%) AWS Direct Connect
15 8 (0.65%) Azure DevOps
15 8 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
16 7 (0.57%) IaaS
17 6 (0.49%) Amazon EC2
17 6 (0.49%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 515 (41.84%) Firewall
2 362 (29.41%) WAN
3 309 (25.10%) BGP
4 275 (22.34%) LAN
5 268 (21.77%) VPN
6 258 (20.96%) Network Security
7 213 (17.30%) Wireless
8 195 (15.84%) OSPF
9 191 (15.52%) VLAN
10 186 (15.11%) DNS
11 148 (12.02%) SD-WAN
12 138 (11.21%) Wi-Fi
13 130 (10.56%) MPLS
14 118 (9.59%) Cisco Nexus
15 107 (8.69%) DHCP
16 101 (8.20%) TCP/IP
17 91 (7.39%) Cisco ISE
18 89 (7.23%) Cisco IOS
18 89 (7.23%) VXLAN
19 88 (7.15%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (2.19%) SQL Server
2 7 (0.57%) Power BI
3 6 (0.49%) Big Data
3 6 (0.49%) Hadoop
4 4 (0.32%) Amazon RDS
5 3 (0.24%) Metadata
5 3 (0.24%) MySQL
6 2 (0.16%) NoSQL
6 2 (0.16%) PostgreSQL
7 1 (0.081%) Apache Hive
7 1 (0.081%) ClickHouse
Development Applications
1 36 (2.92%) Git
2 20 (1.62%) JIRA
3 14 (1.14%) GitLab
4 13 (1.06%) Sonatype Nexus
5 8 (0.65%) Jenkins
6 2 (0.16%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.081%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.081%) Tricentis qTest
7 1 (0.081%) Zephyr
General
1 284 (23.07%) Social Skills
2 126 (10.24%) Finance
2 126 (10.24%) Telecoms
3 101 (8.20%) Analytical Skills
4 67 (5.44%) Banking
5 64 (5.20%) Public Sector
6 61 (4.96%) Documentation Skills
7 44 (3.57%) Legal
8 22 (1.79%) Investment Banking
8 22 (1.79%) Organisational Skills
9 19 (1.54%) Retail
10 16 (1.30%) Financial Institution
10 16 (1.30%) Law
11 14 (1.14%) Military
12 11 (0.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 10 (0.81%) Manufacturing
13 10 (0.81%) Police
14 9 (0.73%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (0.49%) Marketing
16 5 (0.41%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 616 (50.04%) Network Engineer
2 183 (14.87%) Senior
3 154 (12.51%) Architect
4 146 (11.86%) Cisco Engineer
5 132 (10.72%) Senior Network Engineer
6 130 (10.56%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 87 (7.07%) Security Engineer
8 81 (6.58%) Network Architect
9 67 (5.44%) Network Security Engineer
10 62 (5.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 51 (4.14%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 43 (3.49%) Field Engineer
13 39 (3.17%) Support Engineer
14 38 (3.09%) Analyst
14 38 (3.09%) Lead
15 35 (2.84%) Data Network Engineer
15 35 (2.84%) Solutions Architect
15 35 (2.84%) Telecoms Engineer
16 30 (2.44%) Consultant
17 29 (2.36%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (6.99%) Terraform
2 58 (4.71%) 802.1X
3 32 (2.60%) REST
4 20 (1.62%) YAML
5 18 (1.46%) JSON
6 12 (0.97%) NETCONF
6 12 (0.97%) SAML
7 8 (0.65%) YANG
8 7 (0.57%) Microsoft Graph
8 7 (0.57%) RESTCONF
8 7 (0.57%) XMPP
9 6 (0.49%) Flash
10 5 (0.41%) OpenConfig
11 3 (0.24%) .NET
11 3 (0.24%) Elastic Stack
11 3 (0.24%) Java RMI
11 3 (0.24%) LAMP
11 3 (0.24%) LDAP
11 3 (0.24%) Middleware
11 3 (0.24%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 302 (24.53%) Data Centre
2 55 (4.47%) Hybrid Cloud
3 51 (4.14%) Onboarding
4 45 (3.66%) PKI
5 44 (3.57%) Driving Licence
6 35 (2.84%) Data Protection Act
7 34 (2.76%) Operational Technology
8 30 (2.44%) Video Conferencing
9 25 (2.03%) Replication
10 23 (1.87%) Cloud Native
10 23 (1.87%) Clustering
10 23 (1.87%) Management Information System
11 21 (1.71%) Public Cloud
11 21 (1.71%) Self-Motivation
12 20 (1.62%) Analytical Mindset
13 17 (1.38%) Enterprise Storage
13 17 (1.38%) Private Cloud
14 16 (1.30%) Linux Command Line
15 14 (1.14%) IoT
16 13 (1.06%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 237 (19.25%) Windows
2 125 (10.15%) Linux
3 95 (7.72%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.71%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 20 (1.62%) Mac OS
6 18 (1.46%) Ubuntu
7 17 (1.38%) Windows 10
8 11 (0.89%) Android
9 9 (0.73%) Unix
9 9 (0.73%) Windows Server 2012
10 8 (0.65%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (0.57%) AIX
11 7 (0.57%) Data ONTAP
12 6 (0.49%) CentOS
13 4 (0.32%) Windows Server 2016
14 3 (0.24%) VMS
15 1 (0.081%) Debian
15 1 (0.081%) Oracle Linux
15 1 (0.081%) Windows 7
15 1 (0.081%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 200 (16.25%) Migration
2 157 (12.75%) Project Delivery
3 139 (11.29%) Problem-Solving
4 135 (10.97%) ITIL
5 112 (9.10%) High Availability
6 111 (9.02%) Load Balancing
7 100 (8.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 98 (7.96%) Change Management
9 97 (7.88%) Stakeholder Management
10 90 (7.31%) Infrastructure as Code
10 90 (7.31%) Network Design
11 88 (7.15%) Validation
12 84 (6.82%) Continuous Improvement
13 73 (5.93%) Technical Leadership
14 70 (5.69%) Zero Trust
15 68 (5.52%) Data Protection
16 66 (5.36%) ITSM
17 64 (5.20%) CI/CD
18 62 (5.04%) Stakeholder Engagement
19 59 (4.79%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 148 (12.02%) Python
2 61 (4.96%) PowerShell
3 32 (2.60%) Bash
4 27 (2.19%) SQL
5 5 (0.41%) Java
6 4 (0.32%) C
6 4 (0.32%) C++
7 3 (0.24%) Lisp
7 3 (0.24%) Shell Script
8 2 (0.16%) Go
8 2 (0.16%) Perl
9 1 (0.081%) Bicep
9 1 (0.081%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.081%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.081%) R
Qualifications
1 331 (26.89%) Cisco Certification
2 297 (24.13%) Security Cleared
3 236 (19.17%) CCNP
4 219 (17.79%) SC Cleared
5 132 (10.72%) CCNA
6 78 (6.34%) DV Cleared
7 73 (5.93%) Degree
8 63 (5.12%) CCIE
9 27 (2.19%) Microsoft Certification
10 23 (1.87%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 19 (1.54%) MCSE
12 16 (1.30%) AWS Certification
12 16 (1.30%) Azure Certification
13 15 (1.22%) CISSP
14 14 (1.14%) Computer Science Degree
14 14 (1.14%) Network+ Certification
15 13 (1.06%) CCSE
16 12 (0.97%) BPSS Clearance
17 11 (0.89%) ISTQB
17 11 (0.89%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (3.25%) SLA
2 27 (2.19%) NIST
3 22 (1.79%) QA
4 19 (1.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 16 (1.30%) Cyber Essentials
6 10 (0.81%) PCI DSS
7 9 (0.73%) NCSC
8 8 (0.65%) GDPR
9 5 (0.41%) Data Quality
9 5 (0.41%) Disclosure Scotland
9 5 (0.41%) JSP 440
9 5 (0.41%) PMO
10 4 (0.32%) GRC
11 3 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 3 (0.24%) ISO 31000
11 3 (0.24%) ISO 9001
11 3 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 3 (0.24%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.16%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 142 (11.54%) VMware Infrastructure
2 126 (10.24%) Active Directory
3 47 (3.82%) vSphere
4 44 (3.57%) VMware NSX
5 39 (3.17%) VMware ESXi
6 36 (2.92%) Hyper-V
7 30 (2.44%) Firmware
8 29 (2.36%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (1.46%) Docker
10 10 (0.81%) NFS
11 6 (0.49%) EMC RecoverPoint
11 6 (0.49%) GPFS
12 5 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.32%) FreeRADIUS
13 4 (0.32%) SRDF
13 4 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
14 3 (0.24%) Dovecot
14 3 (0.24%) ISA Server
14 3 (0.24%) Postfix
15 2 (0.16%) UAG
Systems Management
1 151 (12.27%) Ansible
2 77 (6.26%) FortiGate
3 32 (2.60%) Kubernetes
3 32 (2.60%) Microsoft Intune
4 22 (1.79%) Cisco CUCM
5 21 (1.71%) Cisco Prime
5 21 (1.71%) SCCM
5 21 (1.71%) vCenter Server
6 11 (0.89%) Grafana
7 10 (0.81%) Prometheus
8 9 (0.73%) Nagios
9 8 (0.65%) Failover Clustering
9 8 (0.65%) Puppet
9 8 (0.65%) WMI
9 8 (0.65%) WSUS
10 7 (0.57%) EMC VPLEX
10 7 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.49%) Red Hat Satellite
11 6 (0.49%) vRealize
12 5 (0.41%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 266 (21.61%) Palo Alto
2 240 (19.50%) Microsoft
3 210 (17.06%) Fortinet
4 199 (16.17%) VMware
5 190 (15.43%) F5
6 128 (10.40%) Juniper
7 127 (10.32%) Meraki
8 109 (8.85%) CheckPoint
9 88 (7.15%) Aruba
10 87 (7.07%) ServiceNow
11 82 (6.66%) SolarWinds
12 77 (6.26%) Arista
13 57 (4.63%) Zscaler
14 40 (3.25%) Splunk
15 39 (3.17%) Red Hat
16 35 (2.84%) Dell
17 29 (2.36%) NetApp
17 29 (2.36%) Nokia
18 23 (1.87%) Infoblox
19 22 (1.79%) Citrix