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 29 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
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 83 66
Rank change year-on-year -34 -17 -12
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,230 991 1,248
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.25% 3.04% 3.29%
As % of the Vendors category 5.41% 6.39% 7.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 794 630 744
10th Percentile £263 £290 £259
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -2.20% +8.11%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £588
90th Percentile £668 £638 £660
UK excluding London median daily rate £468 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -4.49% -2.10% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 48 42 37
10th Percentile £27.62 - £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 £42.44 £55.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £81.43 £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 22,749 15,514 16,874
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.65% 47.59% 44.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,847 9,563 9,961
10th Percentile £310 £275 £288
25th Percentile £413 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £618 £613 £625
90th Percentile £705 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,319 804 634
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.75 £14.59
25th Percentile £16.44 £17.74 £15.65
Median hourly rate £25.75 £25.15 £31.25
Median % change year-on-year +2.39% -19.52% -28.57%
75th Percentile £57.50 £42.50 £64.25
90th Percentile £78.30 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £21.30 £30.00
% change year-on-year +17.37% -29.00% -30.23%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -42 1,017 £500 - 919
UK excluding London -32 727 £468 -4.49% 591
London -41 376 £500 +1.63% 348
Work from Home -27 290 £482 +4.27% 251
North of England -2 238 £488 +2.63% 134
North West +14 158 £485 +2.11% 66
South East -75 130 £449 -10.25% 145
Midlands -36 128 £459 +2.00% 93
West Midlands -23 123 £450 -8.86% 50
Scotland +3 98 £400 -5.88% 32
Yorkshire -18 73 £500 +1.63% 47
South West -36 64 £538 -2.27% 86
East of England -3 59 £500 +3.63% 82
Wales +10 28 £376 +88.13% 17
Northern Ireland +2 10 £145 -69.47% 13
North East -36 9 £375 -6.25% 21
Channel Islands -2 3 £600 -17.24%
East Midlands -32 3 £525 +233.33% 43

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 38 (3.09%) SharePoint
2 36 (2.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.14%) CMS
4 12 (0.98%) Confluence
5 11 (0.89%) OpenStack
6 8 (0.65%) IIS
6 8 (0.65%) SAS
7 7 (0.57%) Apache
8 6 (0.49%) JBoss
9 4 (0.33%) nginx
10 3 (0.24%) CloudStack
10 3 (0.24%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.16%) Skype for Business
12 1 (0.081%) Apache Spark
12 1 (0.081%) FactoryTalk
12 1 (0.081%) Mendix
12 1 (0.081%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 46 (3.74%) Microsoft Office
2 27 (2.20%) 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
1 239 (19.43%) Azure
2 151 (12.28%) AWS
3 97 (7.89%) Microsoft 365
4 67 (5.45%) Entra ID
5 37 (3.01%) GitHub
6 31 (2.52%) GCP
6 31 (2.52%) OneDrive
7 20 (1.63%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 16 (1.30%) OpenShift
9 15 (1.22%) Power Platform
9 15 (1.22%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 13 (1.06%) Nutanix
11 12 (0.98%) SaaS
12 10 (0.81%) AWS Direct Connect
13 8 (0.65%) Azure Sentinel
13 8 (0.65%) GitHub Actions
14 7 (0.57%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (0.57%) OCI
14 7 (0.57%) Rubrik
15 6 (0.49%) Cloudflare
Communications & Networking
1 502 (40.81%) Firewall
2 360 (29.27%) WAN
3 298 (24.23%) BGP
4 278 (22.60%) LAN
5 265 (21.54%) Network Security
6 261 (21.22%) VPN
7 212 (17.24%) Wireless
8 188 (15.28%) OSPF
9 181 (14.72%) DNS
10 180 (14.63%) VLAN
11 148 (12.03%) SD-WAN
12 136 (11.06%) Wi-Fi
13 132 (10.73%) MPLS
14 112 (9.11%) Cisco Nexus
15 106 (8.62%) DHCP
16 102 (8.29%) TCP/IP
17 94 (7.64%) Cisco ISE
18 88 (7.15%) Cisco IOS
19 86 (6.99%) VXLAN
20 84 (6.83%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 27 (2.20%) SQL Server
2 8 (0.65%) Power BI
3 6 (0.49%) Hadoop
4 5 (0.41%) Big Data
5 4 (0.33%) Amazon RDS
6 3 (0.24%) Metadata
6 3 (0.24%) MySQL
7 2 (0.16%) NoSQL
7 2 (0.16%) PostgreSQL
8 1 (0.081%) Apache Hive
8 1 (0.081%) ClickHouse
Development Applications
1 37 (3.01%) Git
2 15 (1.22%) GitLab
2 15 (1.22%) JIRA
3 11 (0.89%) Sonatype Nexus
4 8 (0.65%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.16%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.081%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.081%) Tricentis qTest
6 1 (0.081%) Zephyr
General
1 282 (22.93%) Social Skills
2 130 (10.57%) Finance
2 130 (10.57%) Telecoms
3 105 (8.54%) Analytical Skills
4 68 (5.53%) Banking
5 63 (5.12%) Public Sector
6 61 (4.96%) Documentation Skills
7 46 (3.74%) Legal
8 21 (1.71%) Investment Banking
8 21 (1.71%) Organisational Skills
9 19 (1.54%) Retail
10 17 (1.38%) Financial Institution
11 15 (1.22%) Law
12 14 (1.14%) Military
13 10 (0.81%) Manufacturing
14 9 (0.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 9 (0.73%) Influencing Skills
15 8 (0.65%) Police
16 6 (0.49%) Marketing
16 6 (0.49%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 609 (49.51%) Network Engineer
2 184 (14.96%) Senior
3 148 (12.03%) Architect
4 147 (11.95%) Cisco Engineer
5 135 (10.98%) Senior Network Engineer
6 125 (10.16%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 90 (7.32%) Security Engineer
8 78 (6.34%) Network Architect
9 68 (5.53%) Network Security Engineer
10 62 (5.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 53 (4.31%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 46 (3.74%) Lead
13 42 (3.41%) Field Engineer
14 41 (3.33%) Analyst
15 39 (3.17%) Support Engineer
16 35 (2.85%) Telecoms Engineer
17 34 (2.76%) Solutions Architect
18 31 (2.52%) Data Network Engineer
19 29 (2.36%) Consultant
20 26 (2.11%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 86 (6.99%) Terraform
2 55 (4.47%) 802.1X
3 33 (2.68%) REST
4 21 (1.71%) YAML
5 19 (1.54%) JSON
5 19 (1.54%) XMPP
6 13 (1.06%) NETCONF
7 12 (0.98%) SAML
8 9 (0.73%) YANG
9 7 (0.57%) Microsoft Graph
9 7 (0.57%) RESTCONF
10 6 (0.49%) Flash
11 5 (0.41%) OpenConfig
12 3 (0.24%) .NET
12 3 (0.24%) Elastic Stack
12 3 (0.24%) Java RMI
12 3 (0.24%) LDAP
12 3 (0.24%) LEMP Stack
12 3 (0.24%) OpenID
12 3 (0.24%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 291 (23.66%) Data Centre
2 55 (4.47%) Hybrid Cloud
3 49 (3.98%) Onboarding
4 47 (3.82%) Driving Licence
4 47 (3.82%) Video Conferencing
5 42 (3.41%) PKI
6 37 (3.01%) Operational Technology
7 36 (2.93%) Data Protection Act
8 26 (2.11%) Management Information System
9 25 (2.03%) Replication
10 24 (1.95%) Self-Motivation
11 22 (1.79%) Clustering
11 22 (1.79%) Public Cloud
12 21 (1.71%) Cloud Native
13 19 (1.54%) Analytical Mindset
14 17 (1.38%) Private Cloud
15 16 (1.30%) Enterprise Storage
15 16 (1.30%) Linux Command Line
16 15 (1.22%) IoT
17 13 (1.06%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 240 (19.51%) Windows
2 124 (10.08%) Linux
3 97 (7.89%) Windows Server
4 24 (1.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 23 (1.87%) Mac OS
6 18 (1.46%) Windows 10
7 17 (1.38%) Ubuntu
8 10 (0.81%) Android
8 10 (0.81%) 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 5 (0.41%) CentOS
13 4 (0.33%) 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
1 192 (15.61%) Migration
2 161 (13.09%) Project Delivery
3 147 (11.95%) Problem-Solving
4 128 (10.41%) ITIL
5 109 (8.86%) Stakeholder Management
6 105 (8.54%) High Availability
7 102 (8.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 102 (8.29%) Load Balancing
8 94 (7.64%) Network Design
9 93 (7.56%) Change Management
10 92 (7.48%) Continuous Improvement
11 89 (7.24%) Infrastructure as Code
12 88 (7.15%) Validation
13 74 (6.02%) Technical Leadership
14 73 (5.93%) Zero Trust
15 72 (5.85%) Data Protection
16 67 (5.45%) Cybersecurity
17 63 (5.12%) CI/CD
17 63 (5.12%) ITSM
17 63 (5.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 144 (11.71%) Python
2 58 (4.72%) PowerShell
3 32 (2.60%) Bash
4 27 (2.20%) SQL
5 5 (0.41%) Java
6 4 (0.33%) C
6 4 (0.33%) 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
1 328 (26.67%) Cisco Certification
2 302 (24.55%) Security Cleared
3 233 (18.94%) CCNP
4 222 (18.05%) SC Cleared
5 129 (10.49%) CCNA
6 76 (6.18%) DV Cleared
7 71 (5.77%) Degree
8 65 (5.28%) CCIE
9 25 (2.03%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (1.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 20 (1.63%) CISSP
12 17 (1.38%) MCSE
13 15 (1.22%) AWS Certification
14 14 (1.14%) Azure Certification
14 14 (1.14%) Network+ Certification
15 13 (1.06%) CCSE
15 13 (1.06%) Computer Science Degree
16 12 (0.98%) BPSS Clearance
17 11 (0.89%) ISTQB
17 11 (0.89%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 40 (3.25%) SLA
2 31 (2.52%) NIST
3 22 (1.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 21 (1.71%) QA
5 15 (1.22%) PCI DSS
6 13 (1.06%) Cyber Essentials
7 9 (0.73%) GDPR
8 7 (0.57%) NCSC
9 6 (0.49%) GRC
10 5 (0.41%) Data Quality
10 5 (0.41%) ISO 31000
10 5 (0.41%) ISO 9001
10 5 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27005
11 4 (0.33%) Disclosure Scotland
11 4 (0.33%) JSP 440
11 4 (0.33%) NIST 800
11 4 (0.33%) PMO
12 3 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 2 (0.16%) Accessibility
13 2 (0.16%) Government Security Classifications
System Software
1 157 (12.76%) VMware Infrastructure
2 133 (10.81%) Active Directory
3 53 (4.31%) vSphere
4 42 (3.41%) VMware NSX
5 38 (3.09%) VMware ESXi
6 34 (2.76%) Hyper-V
7 30 (2.44%) Firmware
8 28 (2.28%) Virtual Machines
9 18 (1.46%) Docker
10 10 (0.81%) NFS
11 6 (0.49%) GPFS
12 5 (0.41%) FreeRADIUS
12 5 (0.41%) ISA Server
12 5 (0.41%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.33%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 4 (0.33%) SRDF
13 4 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
14 3 (0.24%) Dovecot
14 3 (0.24%) Postfix
15 2 (0.16%) IAG
Systems Management
1 143 (11.63%) Ansible
2 74 (6.02%) FortiGate
3 34 (2.76%) Cisco CUCM
4 32 (2.60%) Kubernetes
5 28 (2.28%) Microsoft Intune
6 21 (1.71%) SCCM
6 21 (1.71%) vCenter Server
7 18 (1.46%) Cisco Prime
8 12 (0.98%) Nagios
9 9 (0.73%) Grafana
9 9 (0.73%) WMI
10 8 (0.65%) Failover Clustering
10 8 (0.65%) Prometheus
10 8 (0.65%) Puppet
10 8 (0.65%) WSUS
11 7 (0.57%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.49%) CASB
12 6 (0.49%) Red Hat Satellite
12 6 (0.49%) vRealize
13 5 (0.41%) EMC VPLEX
Vendors
1 261 (21.22%) Palo Alto
2 248 (20.16%) Microsoft
3 215 (17.48%) VMware
4 208 (16.91%) Fortinet
5 179 (14.55%) F5
6 131 (10.65%) Meraki
7 125 (10.16%) Juniper
8 106 (8.62%) CheckPoint
9 89 (7.24%) Aruba
10 85 (6.91%) SolarWinds
11 82 (6.67%) ServiceNow
12 72 (5.85%) Arista
13 58 (4.72%) Zscaler
14 39 (3.17%) Red Hat
14 39 (3.17%) Splunk
15 32 (2.60%) Dell
16 30 (2.44%) NetApp
17 29 (2.36%) Nokia
18 24 (1.95%) Infoblox
19 21 (1.71%) EMC