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 3 June 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
3 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 108 61 65
Rank change year-on-year -47 +4 -6
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,127 1,070 1,326
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.31% 3.72% 3.08%
As % of the Vendors category 5.65% 7.79% 7.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 777 666 816
10th Percentile £300 £300 £250
25th Percentile £405 £409 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £645 £650 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £465
% change year-on-year -5.00% +7.53% +3.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 24 37
10th Percentile £25.99 £17.89 £13.29
25th Percentile £43.34 £24.66 £16.00
Median hourly rate £55.00 £32.70 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.20% +30.80% -50.00%
75th Percentile £74.26 £45.63 £41.25
90th Percentile £78.73 £66.50 £53.83
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £19.00
% change year-on-year +83.33% +57.89% -60.28%

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 19,935 13,729 18,203
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 40.81% 47.72% 42.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,521 8,508 11,350
10th Percentile £313 £281 £263
25th Percentile £413 £405 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £514
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -0.78% -2.10%
75th Percentile £600 £615 £625
90th Percentile £700 £714 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £494 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +0.87% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 599 1,121
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.84 £12.13
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.30 £14.48
Median hourly rate £32.50 £26.04 £22.56
Median % change year-on-year +24.81% +15.43% -46.92%
75th Percentile £58.75 £55.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £70.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £22.50 £21.50
% change year-on-year +33.33% +4.65% -45.64%

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 3 June 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 3 June 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 3 June 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 -45 950 £480 -4.53% 716
UK excluding London -37 699 £475 -5.00% 671
London -67 300 £500 - 207
Work from Home -26 295 £450 -10.00% 164
North of England -41 207 £479 -4.20% 150
South East -25 196 £500 - 171
North West -4 166 £480 -4.00% 62
Midlands -26 133 £402 -10.67% 91
West Midlands -19 125 £400 -8.57% 52
Scotland +19 70 £450 +12.78% 55
South West -60 52 £518 -5.91% 93
East of England -9 41 £495 +15.45% 75
Yorkshire -79 40 £478 -4.97% 60
Wales -19 21 £468 +15.08% 27
Northern Ireland +11 10 £175 -50.00% 21
East Midlands -48 4 £458 -16.82% 39
North East -37 2 £425 +30.77% 30
Channel Islands -1 1 £550 +22.22%

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 (2.57%) SharePoint
2 18 (1.60%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.15%) Confluence
4 10 (0.89%) Apache
5 6 (0.53%) IIS
5 6 (0.53%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.27%) nginx
6 3 (0.27%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.18%) CloudStack
7 2 (0.18%) CMS
8 1 (0.089%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.089%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 44 (3.90%) Microsoft Office
2 30 (2.66%) MS Visio
3 18 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
4 9 (0.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.35%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 11 (0.98%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 210 (18.63%) Azure
2 146 (12.95%) AWS
3 69 (6.12%) Microsoft 365
4 34 (3.02%) Entra ID
5 20 (1.77%) GCP
6 16 (1.42%) SaaS
7 15 (1.33%) Nutanix
7 15 (1.33%) OpenShift
8 12 (1.06%) GitHub
9 11 (0.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 11 (0.98%) Azure Sentinel
9 11 (0.98%) OneDrive
9 11 (0.98%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 8 (0.71%) IaaS
11 7 (0.62%) Microsoft Purview
11 7 (0.62%) Power Platform
12 5 (0.44%) Azure DevOps
12 5 (0.44%) GitHub Actions
12 5 (0.44%) Rubrik
13 4 (0.35%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 496 (44.01%) Firewall
2 372 (33.01%) WAN
3 288 (25.55%) LAN
4 287 (25.47%) BGP
5 242 (21.47%) VPN
6 236 (20.94%) Network Security
7 207 (18.37%) OSPF
8 168 (14.91%) DNS
9 165 (14.64%) Wireless
10 160 (14.20%) VLAN
11 154 (13.66%) SD-WAN
12 103 (9.14%) Cisco Nexus
13 102 (9.05%) VXLAN
14 101 (8.96%) MPLS
15 99 (8.78%) Wi-Fi
16 97 (8.61%) Cisco ISE
17 93 (8.25%) DHCP
18 77 (6.83%) IPsec
19 72 (6.39%) Multicast
20 71 (6.30%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 16 (1.42%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.35%) MySQL
3 3 (0.27%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.18%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.089%) Apache Hive
5 1 (0.089%) Big Data
5 1 (0.089%) ClickHouse
5 1 (0.089%) Hadoop
5 1 (0.089%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.089%) Metadata
5 1 (0.089%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 24 (2.13%) JIRA
2 14 (1.24%) Sonatype Nexus
3 11 (0.98%) Git
4 8 (0.71%) Jenkins
5 5 (0.44%) GitLab
6 2 (0.18%) Bitbucket
General
1 243 (21.56%) Social Skills
2 122 (10.83%) Finance
3 67 (5.94%) Analytical Skills
4 63 (5.59%) Public Sector
5 59 (5.24%) Telecoms
6 57 (5.06%) Documentation Skills
7 55 (4.88%) Banking
8 54 (4.79%) Legal
9 21 (1.86%) Manufacturing
10 20 (1.77%) Investment Banking
11 19 (1.69%) Organisational Skills
12 17 (1.51%) Financial Institution
13 16 (1.42%) Law
13 16 (1.42%) Retail
14 9 (0.80%) Marketing
14 9 (0.80%) Military
15 8 (0.71%) Presentation Skills
16 7 (0.62%) Police
17 4 (0.35%) Front Office
17 4 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 514 (45.61%) Network Engineer
2 140 (12.42%) Architect
3 120 (10.65%) Cisco Engineer
4 116 (10.29%) Senior
5 112 (9.94%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 84 (7.45%) Security Engineer
7 83 (7.36%) Network Architect
8 74 (6.57%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 65 (5.77%) Senior Network Engineer
10 61 (5.41%) Network Security Engineer
11 49 (4.35%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 47 (4.17%) Data Network Engineer
13 34 (3.02%) Data Engineer
14 33 (2.93%) Cisco Security Engineer
15 30 (2.66%) Analyst
16 28 (2.48%) Network Specialist
16 28 (2.48%) Solutions Architect
17 25 (2.22%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
18 24 (2.13%) Lead
19 23 (2.04%) Data Centre Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (6.48%) 802.1X
2 16 (1.42%) LDAP
3 15 (1.33%) Flash
4 13 (1.15%) SAML
5 11 (0.98%) REST
6 7 (0.62%) XMPP
7 6 (0.53%) Jinja
8 4 (0.35%) NETCONF
9 3 (0.27%) HTML
9 3 (0.27%) LAMP
9 3 (0.27%) LEMP Stack
9 3 (0.27%) YAML
9 3 (0.27%) YANG
10 2 (0.18%) .NET
10 2 (0.18%) .NET Core
10 2 (0.18%) ADO
10 2 (0.18%) ASP.NET
10 2 (0.18%) CSS
10 2 (0.18%) OpenID
10 2 (0.18%) VML
Miscellaneous
1 318 (28.22%) Data Centre
2 55 (4.88%) PKI
3 50 (4.44%) Replication
4 42 (3.73%) Clustering
5 36 (3.19%) Data Protection Act
6 34 (3.02%) Hybrid Cloud
7 33 (2.93%) Onboarding
8 30 (2.66%) Operational Technology
9 21 (1.86%) Video Conferencing
10 20 (1.77%) Security Posture
11 19 (1.69%) Cloud Native
11 19 (1.69%) Enterprise Storage
12 18 (1.60%) Linux Command Line
13 17 (1.51%) Driving Licence
13 17 (1.51%) EMC VMAX
14 16 (1.42%) SCADA
15 13 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
15 13 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
15 13 (1.15%) Virtual Team
16 10 (0.89%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 220 (19.52%) Windows
2 122 (10.83%) Linux
3 72 (6.39%) Windows Server
4 21 (1.86%) Unix
5 19 (1.69%) Windows 10
6 13 (1.15%) Ubuntu
7 12 (1.06%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (0.80%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.62%) Android
9 7 (0.62%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (0.53%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.44%) AIX
11 5 (0.44%) Data ONTAP
11 5 (0.44%) VMS
12 4 (0.35%) CentOS
12 4 (0.35%) Solaris
13 3 (0.27%) CatOS
14 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.089%) Windows 7
15 1 (0.089%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 169 (15.00%) Migration
2 129 (11.45%) High Availability
3 126 (11.18%) Problem-Solving
4 125 (11.09%) Load Balancing
5 94 (8.34%) Network Design
6 93 (8.25%) ITIL
7 88 (7.81%) ITSM
8 82 (7.28%) Project Delivery
9 68 (6.03%) Agile
9 68 (6.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 66 (5.86%) Disaster Recovery
10 66 (5.86%) Technical Leadership
11 65 (5.77%) Network Monitoring
12 64 (5.68%) Change Management
13 62 (5.50%) Continuous Improvement
14 57 (5.06%) Infrastructure as Code
15 54 (4.79%) Cybersecurity
16 53 (4.70%) Network Segmentation
17 50 (4.44%) Mentoring
17 50 (4.44%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 119 (10.56%) Python
2 58 (5.15%) PowerShell
3 23 (2.04%) SQL
4 22 (1.95%) Bash
5 7 (0.62%) C
6 4 (0.35%) PHP
7 3 (0.27%) C++
7 3 (0.27%) Java
7 3 (0.27%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.27%) Lisp
7 3 (0.27%) Perl
8 2 (0.18%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.18%) Korn
8 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.089%) Bicep
9 1 (0.089%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 363 (32.21%) Security Cleared
2 338 (29.99%) Cisco Certification
3 270 (23.96%) SC Cleared
4 261 (23.16%) CCNP
5 123 (10.91%) CCNA
6 105 (9.32%) DV Cleared
7 76 (6.74%) Degree
8 66 (5.86%) CCIE
9 32 (2.84%) Microsoft Certification
10 28 (2.48%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 24 (2.13%) Network+ Certification
12 23 (2.04%) MCSE
13 17 (1.51%) Azure Certification
13 17 (1.51%) CCSE
13 17 (1.51%) Server+ Certification
13 17 (1.51%) VCAP
14 16 (1.42%) JNCIS
14 16 (1.42%) MCSA
15 14 (1.24%) BPSS Clearance
15 14 (1.24%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 37 (3.28%) SLA
2 32 (2.84%) NIST
3 28 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 25 (2.22%) Cyber Essentials
5 20 (1.77%) QA
6 17 (1.51%) NCSC
7 10 (0.89%) PMO
8 7 (0.62%) Disclosure Scotland
9 6 (0.53%) JSP 440
10 5 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 5 (0.44%) GDPR
11 4 (0.35%) PCI DSS
12 3 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
12 3 (0.27%) NIST 800
12 3 (0.27%) RMADS
13 2 (0.18%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.18%) Government Security Classifications
13 2 (0.18%) GRC
13 2 (0.18%) ISA99
13 2 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 153 (13.58%) VMware Infrastructure
2 87 (7.72%) Active Directory
3 60 (5.32%) VMware ESXi
4 59 (5.24%) vSphere
5 51 (4.53%) VMware NSX
6 35 (3.11%) Virtual Machines
7 23 (2.04%) Firmware
8 19 (1.69%) NFS
9 18 (1.60%) Hyper-V
10 15 (1.33%) GPFS
11 12 (1.06%) SRDF
12 5 (0.44%) Docker
12 5 (0.44%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 5 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.35%) vCloud
13 4 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
14 3 (0.27%) Dovecot
14 3 (0.27%) Postfix
14 3 (0.27%) UAG
15 2 (0.18%) Snort
Systems Management
1 137 (12.16%) Ansible
2 103 (9.14%) FortiGate
3 52 (4.61%) Terraform
4 33 (2.93%) vCenter Server
5 28 (2.48%) Grafana
6 21 (1.86%) Microsoft Intune
6 21 (1.86%) Prometheus
7 20 (1.77%) vRealize
8 19 (1.69%) Kubernetes
9 16 (1.42%) SCCM
10 14 (1.24%) Cisco Prime
11 13 (1.15%) Cisco CUCM
12 12 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
13 11 (0.98%) VxRail
14 10 (0.89%) Nagios
15 6 (0.53%) EMC TimeFinder
15 6 (0.53%) EMC VPLEX
15 6 (0.53%) HAProxy
15 6 (0.53%) SCOM
15 6 (0.53%) WMI
Vendors
1 294 (26.09%) Palo Alto
2 213 (18.90%) F5
3 192 (17.04%) VMware
4 191 (16.95%) Microsoft
5 168 (14.91%) Fortinet
6 155 (13.75%) Juniper
7 127 (11.27%) Aruba
8 117 (10.38%) CheckPoint
9 104 (9.23%) ServiceNow
10 87 (7.72%) SolarWinds
11 82 (7.28%) Meraki
12 76 (6.74%) Arista
13 54 (4.79%) Splunk
14 47 (4.17%) Zscaler
15 44 (3.90%) Dell
16 32 (2.84%) EMC
16 32 (2.84%) IBM
17 29 (2.57%) Extreme Networks
18 27 (2.40%) Brocade
19 23 (2.04%) NetApp