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 14 May 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
14 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 105 62 66
Rank change year-on-year -43 +4 -2
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,080 1,048 1,308
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.27% 3.62% 3.06%
As % of the Vendors category 5.50% 7.61% 7.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 730 648 804
10th Percentile £300 £312 £250
25th Percentile £400 £413 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £479
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +4.44% +0.79%
75th Percentile £565 £588 £591
90th Percentile £644 £650 £689
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £498 £475
% change year-on-year -4.52% +4.74% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 22 41
10th Percentile £26.89 £15.51 £13.29
25th Percentile £44.00 £20.04 £18.50
Median hourly rate £55.00 £37.07 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +48.36% +34.81% -45.00%
75th Percentile £74.26 £57.81 £41.25
90th Percentile £88.75 £74.88 £75.24
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.14 £27.70 £24.75
% change year-on-year +127.92% +11.92% -47.89%

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 19,628 13,772 18,132
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.26% 47.52% 42.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,436 8,611 11,252
10th Percentile £313 £281 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -0.49% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £618 £630
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -0.61% -1.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 996 554 1,092
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.84 £12.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.44 £14.46
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +27.45% +13.33% -47.06%
75th Percentile £58.94 £56.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £78.02 £74.63 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.00 £23.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year +26.09% +6.98% -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 14 May 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 14 May 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 14 May 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 -50 898 £475 -6.52% 532
UK excluding London -36 667 £475 -4.52% 509
Work from Home -19 294 £450 -10.00% 135
London -68 280 £500 -0.99% 153
South East -17 192 £500 - 144
North of England -42 187 £477 -4.55% 112
North West -11 153 £477 -3.64% 52
Midlands -33 129 £397 -11.81% 64
West Midlands -13 120 £380 -13.14% 43
Scotland +25 63 £450 +12.78% 33
South West -65 48 £519 -5.68% 70
East of England -8 44 £495 +23.75% 55
Yorkshire -82 34 £464 -7.75% 39
Wales -10 28 £471 +10.88% 25
Northern Ireland +7 8 £385 +10.00% 12
East Midlands -52 5 £458 -3.68% 21
North East -25 1 - - 21

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 24 (2.22%) SharePoint
2 22 (2.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (1.20%) Confluence
4 7 (0.65%) Apache
5 5 (0.46%) IIS
5 5 (0.46%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.19%) CMS
7 1 (0.093%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.093%) JBoss
7 1 (0.093%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.093%) WebSphere
Applications
1 37 (3.43%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (3.06%) MS Visio
3 13 (1.20%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (1.02%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.37%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.093%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 14 (1.30%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.093%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 192 (17.78%) Azure
2 143 (13.24%) AWS
3 66 (6.11%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (2.87%) Entra ID
5 26 (2.41%) GCP
6 15 (1.39%) Nutanix
7 13 (1.20%) OpenShift
7 13 (1.20%) SaaS
8 11 (1.02%) Azure Sentinel
8 11 (1.02%) GitHub
9 9 (0.83%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 9 (0.83%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 7 (0.65%) OneDrive
11 6 (0.56%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (0.56%) Datadog
11 6 (0.56%) IaaS
11 6 (0.56%) Microsoft Purview
11 6 (0.56%) Mimecast
11 6 (0.56%) Power Platform
12 4 (0.37%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 485 (44.91%) Firewall
2 358 (33.15%) WAN
3 277 (25.65%) BGP
4 274 (25.37%) LAN
5 241 (22.31%) VPN
6 219 (20.28%) Network Security
7 199 (18.43%) OSPF
8 156 (14.44%) DNS
9 148 (13.70%) SD-WAN
10 145 (13.43%) Wireless
11 144 (13.33%) VLAN
12 107 (9.91%) Cisco Nexus
13 96 (8.89%) Cisco ISE
13 96 (8.89%) MPLS
14 94 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
15 89 (8.24%) VXLAN
16 81 (7.50%) DHCP
17 78 (7.22%) IPsec
18 69 (6.39%) Cisco ASA
19 68 (6.30%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (0.74%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.19%) MariaDB
3 1 (0.093%) Big Data
3 1 (0.093%) ClickHouse
3 1 (0.093%) DynamoDB
3 1 (0.093%) Metadata
3 1 (0.093%) MySQL
3 1 (0.093%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.093%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 23 (2.13%) JIRA
2 15 (1.39%) Sonatype Nexus
3 9 (0.83%) Git
4 8 (0.74%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.56%) GitLab
6 1 (0.093%) Bitbucket
General
1 222 (20.56%) Social Skills
2 118 (10.93%) Finance
3 70 (6.48%) Analytical Skills
4 66 (6.11%) Public Sector
5 62 (5.74%) Telecoms
6 56 (5.19%) Banking
6 56 (5.19%) Documentation Skills
7 50 (4.63%) Legal
8 26 (2.41%) Manufacturing
9 19 (1.76%) Investment Banking
10 16 (1.48%) Organisational Skills
10 16 (1.48%) Retail
11 14 (1.30%) Financial Institution
11 14 (1.30%) Law
12 12 (1.11%) Marketing
13 10 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
14 9 (0.83%) Military
15 8 (0.74%) Aerospace
16 6 (0.56%) Electronics
16 6 (0.56%) Police
Job Titles
1 501 (46.39%) Network Engineer
2 129 (11.94%) Architect
3 112 (10.37%) Cisco Engineer
4 106 (9.81%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 106 (9.81%) Senior
5 83 (7.69%) Security Engineer
6 75 (6.94%) Network Architect
6 75 (6.94%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 59 (5.46%) Network Security Engineer
8 56 (5.19%) Senior Network Engineer
9 46 (4.26%) Data Network Engineer
9 46 (4.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 35 (3.24%) Analyst
10 35 (3.24%) Data Engineer
11 34 (3.15%) Cisco Security Engineer
12 29 (2.69%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 25 (2.31%) Lead
13 25 (2.31%) Solutions Architect
14 24 (2.22%) Network Specialist
15 23 (2.13%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (6.30%) 802.1X
2 19 (1.76%) LDAP
3 16 (1.48%) Flash
4 13 (1.20%) SAML
5 8 (0.74%) REST
6 7 (0.65%) XMPP
7 6 (0.56%) Jinja
8 5 (0.46%) NETCONF
9 4 (0.37%) HTML
9 4 (0.37%) VML
9 4 (0.37%) YANG
10 3 (0.28%) JSON
10 3 (0.28%) OpenConfig
10 3 (0.28%) RESTCONF
11 2 (0.19%) ADO
11 2 (0.19%) CSS
11 2 (0.19%) Django
11 2 (0.19%) Middleware
11 2 (0.19%) RFC 2544
12 1 (0.093%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 298 (27.59%) Data Centre
2 52 (4.81%) PKI
3 47 (4.35%) Replication
4 40 (3.70%) Clustering
5 35 (3.24%) Data Protection Act
6 33 (3.06%) Operational Technology
7 31 (2.87%) Hybrid Cloud
8 27 (2.50%) Cloud Native
8 27 (2.50%) Onboarding
9 21 (1.94%) Linux Command Line
10 18 (1.67%) Video Conferencing
11 17 (1.57%) SCADA
11 17 (1.57%) Security Posture
11 17 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
12 16 (1.48%) Driving Licence
12 16 (1.48%) Enterprise Storage
13 14 (1.30%) EMC VMAX
14 12 (1.11%) Analytical Mindset
15 11 (1.02%) Virtual Team
16 9 (0.83%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 197 (18.24%) Windows
2 107 (9.91%) Linux
3 65 (6.02%) Windows Server
4 23 (2.13%) Windows 10
5 20 (1.85%) Unix
6 15 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 13 (1.20%) Mac OS
8 10 (0.93%) Android
9 9 (0.83%) Ubuntu
10 5 (0.46%) CatOS
10 5 (0.46%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.37%) AIX
11 4 (0.37%) Solaris
11 4 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.28%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.28%) VMS
13 2 (0.19%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.093%) CentOS
14 1 (0.093%) Debian
14 1 (0.093%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (14.44%) Migration
2 132 (12.22%) Problem-Solving
3 120 (11.11%) Load Balancing
4 113 (10.46%) High Availability
5 95 (8.80%) ITIL
6 94 (8.70%) Network Design
7 79 (7.31%) ITSM
8 75 (6.94%) Agile
9 69 (6.39%) Change Management
10 65 (6.02%) Cybersecurity
11 63 (5.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 62 (5.74%) Project Delivery
13 60 (5.56%) Network Monitoring
14 59 (5.46%) Disaster Recovery
15 57 (5.28%) Technical Leadership
16 56 (5.19%) Continuous Improvement
17 50 (4.63%) Validation
18 49 (4.54%) Infrastructure as Code
19 48 (4.44%) Zero Trust
20 47 (4.35%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 115 (10.65%) Python
2 49 (4.54%) PowerShell
3 22 (2.04%) Bash
4 16 (1.48%) SQL
5 8 (0.74%) C
6 4 (0.37%) PHP
7 3 (0.28%) C++
7 3 (0.28%) Java
7 3 (0.28%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.28%) Perl
8 2 (0.19%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.19%) Korn
8 2 (0.19%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.093%) Bicep
9 1 (0.093%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.093%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.093%) Lisp
9 1 (0.093%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 370 (34.26%) Security Cleared
2 321 (29.72%) Cisco Certification
3 276 (25.56%) SC Cleared
4 246 (22.78%) CCNP
5 117 (10.83%) CCNA
6 106 (9.81%) DV Cleared
7 76 (7.04%) Degree
8 65 (6.02%) CCIE
9 27 (2.50%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (2.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 21 (1.94%) MCSE
12 19 (1.76%) Azure Certification
12 19 (1.76%) JNCIS
12 19 (1.76%) Network+ Certification
13 17 (1.57%) BPSS Clearance
14 15 (1.39%) CCSE
14 15 (1.39%) VCAP
15 14 (1.30%) JNCIP
15 14 (1.30%) MCSA
16 13 (1.20%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (2.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 29 (2.69%) NIST
1 29 (2.69%) SLA
2 24 (2.22%) Cyber Essentials
3 17 (1.57%) NCSC
4 15 (1.39%) QA
5 10 (0.93%) PMO
6 7 (0.65%) Disclosure Scotland
6 7 (0.65%) GDPR
6 7 (0.65%) JSP 440
7 4 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 3 (0.28%) NIST 800
8 3 (0.28%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.28%) RMADS
9 2 (0.19%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.19%) GRC
9 2 (0.19%) ISA99
9 2 (0.19%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.093%) JTAG
System Software
1 147 (13.61%) VMware Infrastructure
2 79 (7.31%) Active Directory
3 56 (5.19%) VMware ESXi
3 56 (5.19%) vSphere
4 54 (5.00%) VMware NSX
5 28 (2.59%) Virtual Machines
6 25 (2.31%) Firmware
7 19 (1.76%) NFS
8 17 (1.57%) Hyper-V
9 16 (1.48%) GPFS
10 9 (0.83%) SRDF
11 7 (0.65%) Docker
12 5 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.37%) vCloud
13 4 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
14 3 (0.28%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.28%) Snort
14 3 (0.28%) UAG
15 2 (0.19%) KVM
16 1 (0.093%) RHEV
Systems Management
1 125 (11.57%) Ansible
2 102 (9.44%) FortiGate
3 45 (4.17%) Terraform
4 32 (2.96%) vCenter Server
5 26 (2.41%) Grafana
6 25 (2.31%) vRealize
7 19 (1.76%) Prometheus
8 17 (1.57%) Kubernetes
9 16 (1.48%) Microsoft Intune
10 14 (1.30%) Cisco Prime
10 14 (1.30%) SCCM
11 12 (1.11%) Single Sign-On
11 12 (1.11%) VxRail
12 10 (0.93%) Nagios
13 9 (0.83%) Cisco CUCM
14 7 (0.65%) SCOM
15 6 (0.56%) EMC TimeFinder
15 6 (0.56%) EMC VPLEX
15 6 (0.56%) WSUS
16 5 (0.46%) Endace
Vendors
1 295 (27.31%) Palo Alto
2 201 (18.61%) F5
3 188 (17.41%) VMware
4 170 (15.74%) Microsoft
5 156 (14.44%) Juniper
6 145 (13.43%) Fortinet
7 125 (11.57%) CheckPoint
8 119 (11.02%) Aruba
9 92 (8.52%) Meraki
10 91 (8.43%) ServiceNow
11 78 (7.22%) SolarWinds
12 69 (6.39%) Arista
13 49 (4.54%) Splunk
14 48 (4.44%) Zscaler
15 45 (4.17%) Dell
16 36 (3.33%) IBM
17 29 (2.69%) EMC
17 29 (2.69%) Extreme Networks
18 26 (2.41%) Brocade
19 25 (2.31%) HP