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 15 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
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 113 70 65
Rank change year-on-year -43 -5 -7
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,176 1,154 1,320
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.24% 3.56% 3.09%
As % of the Vendors category 5.42% 7.48% 7.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 790 714 805
10th Percentile £300 £301 £247
25th Percentile £400 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £570 £588 £575
90th Percentile £638 £638 £659
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 33 40
10th Percentile £26.72 £25.03 £17.46
25th Percentile £36.25 £25.15 £23.66
Median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +83.33% +9.09% -45.00%
75th Percentile £72.00 £43.25 £50.00
90th Percentile £78.60 £64.71 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £46.39
% change year-on-year +83.33% -35.33% -2.67%

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 21,678 15,427 18,451
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.20% 47.54% 43.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,483 9,438 11,509
10th Percentile £313 £281 £270
25th Percentile £413 £402 £407
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £715 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,100 748 1,120
10th Percentile £15.99 £14.75 £12.50
25th Percentile £19.25 £17.30 £15.00
Median hourly rate £35.00 £25.15 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.17% +0.60% -38.27%
75th Percentile £65.00 £51.41 £60.83
90th Percentile £83.88 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £22.56 £24.43
% change year-on-year +50.66% -7.65% -18.57%

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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -49 993 £482 -3.70% 709
UK excluding London -47 705 £475 -5.00% 666
London -50 344 £500 - 188
Work from Home -52 285 £463 -7.50% 169
North of England -36 223 £485 -1.42% 146
South East -36 183 £510 -2.86% 160
North West -12 169 £480 +1.05% 72
Midlands -29 130 £425 -5.56% 89
West Midlands -28 124 £423 -0.59% 43
Scotland +21 87 £425 +6.25% 41
South West -59 59 £518 -5.91% 118
Yorkshire -68 51 £500 - 54
East of England -28 29 £500 -9.09% 79
Wales -14 19 £468 +61.21% 24
Northern Ireland +8 9 £145 -58.57% 20
North East -41 4 £425 +30.77% 21
East Midlands -32 3 £500 -9.09% 45
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 29 (2.47%) SharePoint
2 21 (1.79%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (0.94%) Confluence
4 9 (0.77%) OpenStack
5 7 (0.60%) Apache
6 3 (0.26%) CloudStack
6 3 (0.26%) IIS
6 3 (0.26%) nginx
6 3 (0.26%) SAS
6 3 (0.26%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.17%) CMS
8 1 (0.085%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.085%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 49 (4.17%) Microsoft Office
2 28 (2.38%) MS Visio
3 25 (2.13%) Microsoft Excel
4 12 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.17%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 5 (0.43%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 216 (18.37%) Azure
2 150 (12.76%) AWS
3 74 (6.29%) Microsoft 365
4 47 (4.00%) Entra ID
5 22 (1.87%) GCP
6 19 (1.62%) GitHub
6 19 (1.62%) OpenShift
7 18 (1.53%) OneDrive
8 17 (1.45%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 17 (1.45%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 15 (1.28%) Nutanix
10 12 (1.02%) Azure Sentinel
11 11 (0.94%) SaaS
12 10 (0.85%) Power Platform
13 8 (0.68%) Microsoft Purview
14 7 (0.60%) Cloudflare
14 7 (0.60%) IaaS
15 6 (0.51%) Azure DevOps
16 5 (0.43%) GitHub Actions
16 5 (0.43%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 519 (44.13%) Firewall
2 364 (30.95%) WAN
3 314 (26.70%) BGP
4 296 (25.17%) LAN
5 264 (22.45%) VPN
6 257 (21.85%) Network Security
7 219 (18.62%) OSPF
8 200 (17.01%) Wireless
9 186 (15.82%) DNS
10 168 (14.29%) VLAN
11 145 (12.33%) SD-WAN
12 130 (11.05%) MPLS
13 114 (9.69%) Wi-Fi
14 112 (9.52%) Cisco Nexus
15 110 (9.35%) Cisco ISE
16 101 (8.59%) DHCP
17 96 (8.16%) VXLAN
18 88 (7.48%) Cisco ASA
18 88 (7.48%) TCP/IP
19 82 (6.97%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (1.70%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.26%) Amazon RDS
2 3 (0.26%) MySQL
2 3 (0.26%) NoSQL
2 3 (0.26%) Power BI
3 2 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.085%) Apache Hive
4 1 (0.085%) Big Data
4 1 (0.085%) ClickHouse
4 1 (0.085%) Hadoop
4 1 (0.085%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 18 (1.53%) JIRA
2 16 (1.36%) Git
2 16 (1.36%) Sonatype Nexus
3 9 (0.77%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.26%) GitLab
5 2 (0.17%) Bitbucket
General
1 277 (23.55%) Social Skills
2 108 (9.18%) Finance
3 83 (7.06%) Analytical Skills
4 82 (6.97%) Telecoms
5 65 (5.53%) Public Sector
6 64 (5.44%) Banking
7 62 (5.27%) Documentation Skills
8 39 (3.32%) Legal
9 23 (1.96%) Organisational Skills
10 21 (1.79%) Financial Institution
11 19 (1.62%) Investment Banking
12 17 (1.45%) Retail
13 14 (1.19%) Military
14 12 (1.02%) Law
14 12 (1.02%) Manufacturing
15 10 (0.85%) Police
16 9 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
17 6 (0.51%) Marketing
17 6 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
18 5 (0.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 560 (47.62%) Network Engineer
2 137 (11.65%) Senior
3 134 (11.39%) Architect
4 117 (9.95%) Cisco Engineer
5 106 (9.01%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 95 (8.08%) Security Engineer
7 83 (7.06%) Senior Network Engineer
8 74 (6.29%) Network Architect
9 70 (5.95%) Network Security Engineer
10 57 (4.85%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 53 (4.51%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 44 (3.74%) Data Network Engineer
13 36 (3.06%) Analyst
14 34 (2.89%) Data Engineer
15 33 (2.81%) Cisco Security Engineer
16 29 (2.47%) Field Engineer
17 27 (2.30%) Lead
18 26 (2.21%) Network Specialist
19 24 (2.04%) Data Centre Engineer
19 24 (2.04%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 74 (6.29%) 802.1X
2 15 (1.28%) SAML
3 14 (1.19%) REST
4 11 (0.94%) Flash
4 11 (0.94%) LDAP
5 7 (0.60%) NETCONF
6 6 (0.51%) Jinja
6 6 (0.51%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.51%) RESTCONF
6 6 (0.51%) XMPP
6 6 (0.51%) YANG
7 4 (0.34%) Django
7 4 (0.34%) JSON
8 3 (0.26%) Elastic Stack
8 3 (0.26%) LAMP
8 3 (0.26%) LEMP Stack
8 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Graph
8 3 (0.26%) YAML
9 2 (0.17%) .NET Core
9 2 (0.17%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 300 (25.51%) Data Centre
2 60 (5.10%) PKI
3 45 (3.83%) Hybrid Cloud
4 42 (3.57%) Clustering
4 42 (3.57%) Replication
5 40 (3.40%) Data Protection Act
5 40 (3.40%) Onboarding
6 32 (2.72%) Driving Licence
7 30 (2.55%) Operational Technology
7 30 (2.55%) Video Conferencing
8 19 (1.62%) Analytical Mindset
8 19 (1.62%) Enterprise Storage
9 18 (1.53%) EMC VMAX
9 18 (1.53%) Linux Command Line
10 17 (1.45%) Cloud Native
10 17 (1.45%) Security Posture
11 16 (1.36%) Public Cloud
12 14 (1.19%) SCADA
13 13 (1.11%) Virtual Team
14 12 (1.02%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 217 (18.45%) Windows
2 128 (10.88%) Linux
3 67 (5.70%) Windows Server
4 18 (1.53%) Ubuntu
4 18 (1.53%) Windows 10
5 16 (1.36%) Unix
6 15 (1.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 10 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
8 9 (0.77%) Android
9 8 (0.68%) AIX
9 8 (0.68%) Mac OS
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%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.085%) CatOS
14 1 (0.085%) Debian
14 1 (0.085%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.085%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 185 (15.73%) Migration
2 132 (11.22%) Load Balancing
3 127 (10.80%) High Availability
4 123 (10.46%) Problem-Solving
5 112 (9.52%) ITIL
5 112 (9.52%) Project Delivery
6 89 (7.57%) Network Design
7 84 (7.14%) Change Management
8 83 (7.06%) ITSM
9 74 (6.29%) Continuous Improvement
10 73 (6.21%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 68 (5.78%) Infrastructure as Code
11 68 (5.78%) Stakeholder Management
12 65 (5.53%) Validation
13 64 (5.44%) CI/CD
14 62 (5.27%) Disaster Recovery
14 62 (5.27%) Network Monitoring
15 61 (5.19%) Cybersecurity
16 60 (5.10%) Agile
16 60 (5.10%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 146 (12.41%) Python
2 61 (5.19%) PowerShell
3 25 (2.13%) Bash
4 24 (2.04%) SQL
5 6 (0.51%) C
6 5 (0.43%) Shell Script
7 4 (0.34%) Java
7 4 (0.34%) Perl
7 4 (0.34%) PHP
8 3 (0.26%) C++
8 3 (0.26%) Lisp
9 2 (0.17%) ActionScript
9 2 (0.17%) Korn
10 1 (0.085%) Bicep
10 1 (0.085%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 345 (29.34%) Cisco Certification
2 319 (27.13%) Security Cleared
3 250 (21.26%) CCNP
4 223 (18.96%) SC Cleared
5 136 (11.56%) CCNA
6 103 (8.76%) DV Cleared
7 71 (6.04%) Degree
8 68 (5.78%) CCIE
9 28 (2.38%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 27 (2.30%) Microsoft Certification
11 22 (1.87%) Network+ Certification
12 19 (1.62%) MCSE
13 18 (1.53%) BPSS Clearance
14 17 (1.45%) Azure Certification
14 17 (1.45%) Server+ Certification
15 13 (1.11%) VCAP
16 12 (1.02%) AWS Certification
16 12 (1.02%) CCSE
16 12 (1.02%) JNCIP
16 12 (1.02%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (3.40%) SLA
2 34 (2.89%) NIST
3 30 (2.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 24 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials
5 20 (1.70%) QA
6 19 (1.62%) NCSC
7 7 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 7 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
8 6 (0.51%) PMO
9 5 (0.43%) GDPR
9 5 (0.43%) PCI DSS
10 4 (0.34%) JSP 440
11 3 (0.26%) Data Quality
11 3 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 3 (0.26%) NIST 800
12 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
12 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
12 2 (0.17%) GRC
12 2 (0.17%) ISA99
13 1 (0.085%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 148 (12.59%) VMware Infrastructure
2 104 (8.84%) Active Directory
3 57 (4.85%) vSphere
4 56 (4.76%) VMware ESXi
5 50 (4.25%) VMware NSX
6 35 (2.98%) Virtual Machines
7 31 (2.64%) Firmware
8 22 (1.87%) Hyper-V
9 15 (1.28%) NFS
10 12 (1.02%) SRDF
11 11 (0.94%) GPFS
12 9 (0.77%) Docker
13 7 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
14 6 (0.51%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 5 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
16 3 (0.26%) Dovecot
16 3 (0.26%) Postfix
16 3 (0.26%) UAG
17 2 (0.17%) Snort
17 2 (0.17%) vCloud
Systems Management
1 151 (12.84%) Ansible
2 93 (7.91%) FortiGate
3 65 (5.53%) Terraform
4 31 (2.64%) vCenter Server
5 27 (2.30%) Grafana
6 24 (2.04%) Kubernetes
6 24 (2.04%) Microsoft Intune
7 21 (1.79%) SCCM
8 20 (1.70%) Prometheus
9 15 (1.28%) Cisco CUCM
9 15 (1.28%) vRealize
10 13 (1.11%) Cisco Prime
11 10 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
12 8 (0.68%) VxRail
12 8 (0.68%) WMI
13 7 (0.60%) EMC VPLEX
13 7 (0.60%) WSUS
14 6 (0.51%) EMC TimeFinder
14 6 (0.51%) SCOM
15 5 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 271 (23.04%) Palo Alto
2 227 (19.30%) F5
3 202 (17.18%) Microsoft
3 202 (17.18%) VMware
4 198 (16.84%) Fortinet
5 165 (14.03%) Juniper
6 108 (9.18%) CheckPoint
7 99 (8.42%) Aruba
8 97 (8.25%) Meraki
9 95 (8.08%) ServiceNow
10 93 (7.91%) SolarWinds
11 79 (6.72%) Arista
12 60 (5.10%) Splunk
13 47 (4.00%) Zscaler
14 42 (3.57%) Dell
15 30 (2.55%) EMC
16 29 (2.47%) Extreme Networks
17 28 (2.38%) Brocade
18 27 (2.30%) IBM
19 26 (2.21%) Citrix