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 28 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
28 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 72 65
Rank change year-on-year -45 -7 -8
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,164 1,119 1,236
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.20% 3.42% 3.08%
As % of the Vendors category 5.33% 7.22% 7.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 771 695 760
10th Percentile £300 £303 £250
25th Percentile £400 £406 £373
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £492
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +1.73% +3.47%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £580
90th Percentile £638 £638 £660
UK excluding London median daily rate £477 £503 £475
% change year-on-year -5.17% +5.89% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 36 35
10th Percentile £26.72 £25.08 £16.65
25th Percentile £37.53 £25.15 £23.10
Median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +83.33% +9.09% -45.00%
75th Percentile £70.96 £57.81 £51.88
90th Percentile £78.58 £86.32 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £43.75
% change year-on-year +83.33% -31.43% -20.91%

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 21,831 15,499 17,449
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.30% 47.33% 43.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,562 9,484 10,956
10th Percentile £313 £280 £280
25th Percentile £413 £400 £412
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £710 £732
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,092 777 916
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.67 £13.28
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.08 £15.62
Median hourly rate £35.11 £25.15 £27.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.60% -6.85% -35.41%
75th Percentile £65.33 £50.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £34.00 £22.32 £25.00
% change year-on-year +52.36% -10.74% -28.06%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -44 992 £495 -1.00% 617
UK excluding London -43 694 £477 -5.17% 561
London -50 352 £500 - 187
Work from Home -30 290 £475 -5.00% 118
North of England -32 222 £497 +1.49% 133
South East -47 178 £505 -8.18% 150
North West -6 167 £485 +2.11% 55
Midlands -32 129 £420 -20.00% 72
West Midlands -22 124 £416 -20.71% 36
Scotland +16 83 £425 - 34
South West -60 57 £500 -9.09% 83
Yorkshire -57 52 £500 - 58
East of England -19 33 £500 -9.09% 68
Wales -14 19 £468 +16.88% 21
Northern Ireland +4 7 £110 -68.71% 14
North East -43 4 £425 +30.77% 21
East Midlands -31 2 - - 36
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 32 (2.75%) SharePoint
2 28 (2.41%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (0.77%) Confluence
3 9 (0.77%) OpenStack
4 7 (0.60%) Apache
5 3 (0.26%) CloudStack
5 3 (0.26%) IIS
5 3 (0.26%) nginx
5 3 (0.26%) SAS
5 3 (0.26%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.17%) CMS
6 2 (0.17%) JBoss
7 1 (0.086%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.086%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 50 (4.30%) Microsoft Office
2 24 (2.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 24 (2.06%) MS Visio
3 10 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.26%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 4 (0.34%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 236 (20.27%) Azure
2 150 (12.89%) AWS
3 83 (7.13%) Microsoft 365
4 56 (4.81%) Entra ID
5 24 (2.06%) GCP
6 22 (1.89%) GitHub
6 22 (1.89%) OneDrive
7 20 (1.72%) OpenShift
8 18 (1.55%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 18 (1.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 12 (1.03%) Azure Sentinel
9 12 (1.03%) Nutanix
10 11 (0.95%) SaaS
11 10 (0.86%) Power Platform
12 9 (0.77%) Azure DevOps
13 8 (0.69%) IaaS
13 8 (0.69%) Microsoft Purview
14 7 (0.60%) Cloudflare
14 7 (0.60%) Rubrik
15 6 (0.52%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 521 (44.76%) Firewall
2 364 (31.27%) WAN
3 312 (26.80%) BGP
4 293 (25.17%) LAN
5 264 (22.68%) VPN
6 251 (21.56%) Network Security
7 216 (18.56%) OSPF
8 207 (17.78%) Wireless
9 195 (16.75%) DNS
10 175 (15.03%) VLAN
11 141 (12.11%) SD-WAN
12 130 (11.17%) MPLS
13 120 (10.31%) Wi-Fi
14 111 (9.54%) DHCP
15 110 (9.45%) Cisco ISE
16 108 (9.28%) Cisco Nexus
17 98 (8.42%) VXLAN
18 91 (7.82%) TCP/IP
19 86 (7.39%) Cisco ASA
20 80 (6.87%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (2.15%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.26%) MySQL
3 3 (0.26%) Power BI
4 2 (0.17%) Big Data
4 2 (0.17%) Hadoop
4 2 (0.17%) Metadata
4 2 (0.17%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.086%) Apache Hive
5 1 (0.086%) ClickHouse
Development Applications
1 21 (1.80%) Git
2 20 (1.72%) JIRA
3 12 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
4 10 (0.86%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.34%) GitLab
6 1 (0.086%) Bitbucket
General
1 275 (23.63%) Social Skills
2 108 (9.28%) Finance
3 94 (8.08%) Telecoms
4 89 (7.65%) Analytical Skills
5 64 (5.50%) Banking
6 62 (5.33%) Documentation Skills
6 62 (5.33%) Public Sector
7 36 (3.09%) Legal
8 23 (1.98%) Organisational Skills
9 20 (1.72%) Financial Institution
10 19 (1.63%) Investment Banking
11 16 (1.37%) Military
12 15 (1.29%) Law
12 15 (1.29%) Retail
13 11 (0.95%) Manufacturing
13 11 (0.95%) Police
14 9 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
15 6 (0.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 6 (0.52%) Marketing
16 5 (0.43%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 571 (49.05%) Network Engineer
2 153 (13.14%) Senior
3 133 (11.43%) Architect
4 124 (10.65%) Cisco Engineer
5 114 (9.79%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 100 (8.59%) Senior Network Engineer
7 94 (8.08%) Security Engineer
8 74 (6.36%) Network Architect
9 70 (6.01%) Network Security Engineer
10 59 (5.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 54 (4.64%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 43 (3.69%) Data Network Engineer
13 36 (3.09%) Analyst
14 34 (2.92%) Data Engineer
15 33 (2.84%) Cisco Security Engineer
16 31 (2.66%) Field Engineer
17 27 (2.32%) Network Specialist
18 26 (2.23%) Automation Engineer
18 26 (2.23%) Lead
19 24 (2.06%) Telecoms Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (6.79%) 802.1X
2 15 (1.29%) REST
3 14 (1.20%) SAML
4 9 (0.77%) Flash
5 7 (0.60%) LDAP
5 7 (0.60%) NETCONF
6 6 (0.52%) Jinja
6 6 (0.52%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.52%) RESTCONF
6 6 (0.52%) XMPP
6 6 (0.52%) YANG
7 5 (0.43%) JSON
8 4 (0.34%) YAML
9 3 (0.26%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (0.26%) Java RMI
9 3 (0.26%) LAMP
9 3 (0.26%) LEMP Stack
9 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (0.17%) .NET Core
10 2 (0.17%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 287 (24.66%) Data Centre
2 62 (5.33%) PKI
3 47 (4.04%) Hybrid Cloud
4 39 (3.35%) Clustering
4 39 (3.35%) Onboarding
5 37 (3.18%) Data Protection Act
6 34 (2.92%) Replication
7 33 (2.84%) Driving Licence
7 33 (2.84%) Video Conferencing
8 30 (2.58%) Operational Technology
9 21 (1.80%) Enterprise Storage
10 20 (1.72%) Analytical Mindset
11 19 (1.63%) Cloud Native
12 18 (1.55%) EMC VMAX
12 18 (1.55%) Linux Command Line
13 16 (1.37%) Public Cloud
13 16 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
14 14 (1.20%) SCADA
14 14 (1.20%) Security Posture
15 12 (1.03%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 215 (18.47%) Windows
2 130 (11.17%) Linux
3 70 (6.01%) Windows Server
4 19 (1.63%) Windows 10
5 18 (1.55%) Ubuntu
5 18 (1.55%) Unix
6 14 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 9 (0.77%) AIX
7 9 (0.77%) Android
7 9 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
8 8 (0.69%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.43%) Data ONTAP
10 5 (0.43%) VMS
11 4 (0.34%) CentOS
12 3 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.086%) CatOS
13 1 (0.086%) Check Point GAiA
13 1 (0.086%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.086%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 179 (15.38%) Migration
2 137 (11.77%) Load Balancing
3 130 (11.17%) Problem-Solving
4 123 (10.57%) Project Delivery
5 121 (10.40%) High Availability
6 120 (10.31%) ITIL
7 91 (7.82%) Change Management
8 88 (7.56%) Network Design
9 83 (7.13%) Continuous Improvement
10 80 (6.87%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 80 (6.87%) ITSM
11 71 (6.10%) Stakeholder Management
12 67 (5.76%) Infrastructure as Code
13 64 (5.50%) CI/CD
14 61 (5.24%) Technical Leadership
14 61 (5.24%) Validation
15 60 (5.15%) Network Monitoring
16 57 (4.90%) Cybersecurity
17 55 (4.73%) Agile
17 55 (4.73%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 138 (11.86%) Python
2 58 (4.98%) PowerShell
3 29 (2.49%) Bash
4 24 (2.06%) SQL
5 5 (0.43%) Shell Script
6 4 (0.34%) C
6 4 (0.34%) Java
7 3 (0.26%) C++
7 3 (0.26%) Lisp
7 3 (0.26%) PHP
8 2 (0.17%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.17%) Perl
9 1 (0.086%) Bicep
9 1 (0.086%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 335 (28.78%) Cisco Certification
2 312 (26.80%) Security Cleared
3 240 (20.62%) CCNP
4 215 (18.47%) SC Cleared
5 134 (11.51%) CCNA
6 102 (8.76%) DV Cleared
7 69 (5.93%) Degree
8 60 (5.15%) CCIE
9 25 (2.15%) Microsoft Certification
10 23 (1.98%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 22 (1.89%) Network+ Certification
12 17 (1.46%) Azure Certification
12 17 (1.46%) MCSE
12 17 (1.46%) Server+ Certification
13 15 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
14 13 (1.12%) JNCIP
15 12 (1.03%) AWS Certification
15 12 (1.03%) Computer Science Degree
15 12 (1.03%) JNCIS
16 11 (0.95%) CCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 45 (3.87%) SLA
2 32 (2.75%) NIST
3 28 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 24 (2.06%) Cyber Essentials
5 19 (1.63%) QA
6 17 (1.46%) NCSC
7 6 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (0.52%) Disclosure Scotland
7 6 (0.52%) PMO
8 5 (0.43%) GDPR
8 5 (0.43%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.34%) Data Quality
9 4 (0.34%) JSP 440
10 3 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.26%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.17%) ISA99
12 1 (0.086%) GRC
12 1 (0.086%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 136 (11.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 110 (9.45%) Active Directory
3 45 (3.87%) VMware ESXi
4 44 (3.78%) vSphere
5 41 (3.52%) VMware NSX
6 30 (2.58%) Firmware
7 29 (2.49%) Virtual Machines
8 24 (2.06%) Hyper-V
9 13 (1.12%) NFS
10 12 (1.03%) Docker
10 12 (1.03%) SRDF
11 9 (0.77%) GPFS
12 6 (0.52%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 5 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
13 5 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
14 3 (0.26%) Dovecot
14 3 (0.26%) Postfix
14 3 (0.26%) UAG
15 2 (0.17%) FreeRADIUS
15 2 (0.17%) Snort
Systems Management
1 136 (11.68%) Ansible
2 92 (7.90%) FortiGate
3 68 (5.84%) Terraform
4 29 (2.49%) Microsoft Intune
5 28 (2.41%) Kubernetes
6 23 (1.98%) Grafana
6 23 (1.98%) vCenter Server
7 21 (1.80%) Prometheus
7 21 (1.80%) SCCM
8 17 (1.46%) Cisco Prime
9 16 (1.37%) Cisco CUCM
10 10 (0.86%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.86%) vRealize
11 8 (0.69%) VxRail
11 8 (0.69%) WMI
12 7 (0.60%) EMC VPLEX
12 7 (0.60%) WSUS
13 6 (0.52%) EMC TimeFinder
13 6 (0.52%) Puppet
14 5 (0.43%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 266 (22.85%) Palo Alto
2 230 (19.76%) F5
3 209 (17.96%) Microsoft
4 202 (17.35%) Fortinet
5 194 (16.67%) VMware
6 161 (13.83%) Juniper
7 105 (9.02%) CheckPoint
8 99 (8.51%) Aruba
9 94 (8.08%) Meraki
9 94 (8.08%) ServiceNow
10 93 (7.99%) SolarWinds
11 72 (6.19%) Arista
12 58 (4.98%) Splunk
13 52 (4.47%) Zscaler
14 37 (3.18%) Dell
15 29 (2.49%) Extreme Networks
16 28 (2.41%) Red Hat
17 26 (2.23%) Citrix
17 26 (2.23%) EMC
18 24 (2.06%) Brocade