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 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
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 65 67
Rank change year-on-year -38 +2 -3
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,092 1,046 1,299
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.29% 3.60% 3.04%
As % of the Vendors category 5.55% 7.56% 7.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 745 648 797
10th Percentile £300 £312 £250
25th Percentile £400 £413 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £570 £588 £588
90th Percentile £643 £650 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £463
% change year-on-year -3.46% +6.26% +2.89%
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 19,666 13,833 18,067
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.24% 47.59% 42.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,458 8,647 11,218
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 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -0.05% -1.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 998 559 1,096
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.84 £12.01
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.44 £14.48
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +27.45% +13.33% -47.06%
75th Percentile £58.88 £56.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.81 £74.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.07 £23.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year +26.39% +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 15 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 15 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 15 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 -50 912 £478 -5.45% 547
UK excluding London -37 677 £475 -3.46% 515
Work from Home -15 293 £450 -10.00% 138
London -71 281 £500 -0.99% 164
South East -17 195 £500 - 143
North of England -43 194 £479 -4.20% 116
North West -8 160 £480 -2.04% 55
Midlands -28 129 £397 -11.81% 63
West Midlands -17 121 £380 -13.14% 43
Scotland +19 62 £450 +14.43% 36
South West -63 50 £511 -7.05% 71
East of England -5 44 £495 +23.75% 54
Yorkshire -80 34 £464 -7.75% 39
Wales -8 26 £471 +10.88% 26
Northern Ireland +6 9 £380 +8.57% 12
East Midlands -51 4 £458 -3.68% 20
North East -27 1 - - 23

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 25 (2.29%) SharePoint
2 21 (1.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (1.28%) Confluence
4 7 (0.64%) Apache
5 5 (0.46%) IIS
5 5 (0.46%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.18%) CMS
7 1 (0.092%) CloudStack
7 1 (0.092%) JBoss
7 1 (0.092%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.092%) WebSphere
Applications
1 37 (3.39%) Microsoft Office
2 33 (3.02%) MS Visio
3 13 (1.19%) Microsoft Excel
4 11 (1.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.37%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.092%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 14 (1.28%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.092%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 195 (17.86%) Azure
2 146 (13.37%) AWS
3 65 (5.95%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (2.84%) Entra ID
5 24 (2.20%) GCP
6 15 (1.37%) Nutanix
6 15 (1.37%) SaaS
7 13 (1.19%) OpenShift
8 11 (1.01%) Azure Sentinel
8 11 (1.01%) GitHub
8 11 (1.01%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 9 (0.82%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 7 (0.64%) OneDrive
11 6 (0.55%) Azure DevOps
11 6 (0.55%) Datadog
11 6 (0.55%) IaaS
11 6 (0.55%) Microsoft Purview
11 6 (0.55%) Mimecast
11 6 (0.55%) Power Platform
12 4 (0.37%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 483 (44.23%) Firewall
2 363 (33.24%) WAN
3 281 (25.73%) LAN
4 279 (25.55%) BGP
5 244 (22.34%) VPN
6 221 (20.24%) Network Security
7 201 (18.41%) OSPF
8 159 (14.56%) DNS
9 149 (13.64%) Wireless
10 148 (13.55%) SD-WAN
10 148 (13.55%) VLAN
11 107 (9.80%) Cisco Nexus
12 98 (8.97%) MPLS
13 96 (8.79%) Cisco ISE
14 95 (8.70%) Wi-Fi
15 92 (8.42%) VXLAN
16 84 (7.69%) DHCP
17 78 (7.14%) IPsec
18 68 (6.23%) Cisco ASA
18 68 (6.23%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (0.73%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.18%) MariaDB
3 1 (0.092%) Big Data
3 1 (0.092%) ClickHouse
3 1 (0.092%) DynamoDB
3 1 (0.092%) Metadata
3 1 (0.092%) MySQL
3 1 (0.092%) NoSQL
3 1 (0.092%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 23 (2.11%) JIRA
2 15 (1.37%) Sonatype Nexus
3 9 (0.82%) Git
4 8 (0.73%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.55%) GitLab
6 1 (0.092%) Bitbucket
General
1 226 (20.70%) Social Skills
2 115 (10.53%) Finance
3 67 (6.14%) Analytical Skills
4 65 (5.95%) Public Sector
5 62 (5.68%) Telecoms
6 58 (5.31%) Documentation Skills
7 56 (5.13%) Banking
8 50 (4.58%) Legal
9 24 (2.20%) Manufacturing
10 19 (1.74%) Investment Banking
11 17 (1.56%) Organisational Skills
12 16 (1.47%) Retail
13 14 (1.28%) Financial Institution
13 14 (1.28%) Law
14 11 (1.01%) Marketing
15 9 (0.82%) Military
16 8 (0.73%) Presentation Skills
17 7 (0.64%) Aerospace
18 6 (0.55%) Police
19 5 (0.46%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 500 (45.79%) Network Engineer
2 135 (12.36%) Architect
3 113 (10.35%) Cisco Engineer
4 107 (9.80%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 106 (9.71%) Senior
6 83 (7.60%) Security Engineer
7 79 (7.23%) Network Architect
8 78 (7.14%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 59 (5.40%) Network Security Engineer
10 56 (5.13%) Senior Network Engineer
11 49 (4.49%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 46 (4.21%) Data Network Engineer
13 36 (3.30%) Analyst
14 35 (3.21%) Data Engineer
15 34 (3.11%) Cisco Security Engineer
16 29 (2.66%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
17 25 (2.29%) Lead
17 25 (2.29%) Solutions Architect
18 24 (2.20%) Network Specialist
19 23 (2.11%) Administrator
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 68 (6.23%) 802.1X
2 19 (1.74%) LDAP
3 17 (1.56%) Flash
4 13 (1.19%) SAML
5 8 (0.73%) REST
6 7 (0.64%) XMPP
7 6 (0.55%) Jinja
8 5 (0.46%) NETCONF
9 4 (0.37%) HTML
9 4 (0.37%) VML
9 4 (0.37%) YANG
10 3 (0.27%) JSON
10 3 (0.27%) OpenConfig
10 3 (0.27%) RESTCONF
11 2 (0.18%) ADO
11 2 (0.18%) CSS
11 2 (0.18%) Django
11 2 (0.18%) Middleware
11 2 (0.18%) RFC 2544
12 1 (0.092%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 301 (27.56%) Data Centre
2 52 (4.76%) PKI
3 47 (4.30%) Replication
4 40 (3.66%) Clustering
5 36 (3.30%) Data Protection Act
6 31 (2.84%) Hybrid Cloud
6 31 (2.84%) Operational Technology
7 27 (2.47%) Onboarding
8 24 (2.20%) Cloud Native
9 22 (2.01%) Linux Command Line
10 18 (1.65%) Video Conferencing
11 17 (1.56%) Security Posture
11 17 (1.56%) Self-Motivation
12 16 (1.47%) Driving Licence
12 16 (1.47%) Enterprise Storage
13 15 (1.37%) SCADA
14 14 (1.28%) EMC VMAX
15 12 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
16 11 (1.01%) Virtual Team
17 9 (0.82%) Enterprise Software
Operating Systems
1 201 (18.41%) Windows
2 113 (10.35%) Linux
3 66 (6.04%) Windows Server
4 23 (2.11%) Windows 10
5 21 (1.92%) Unix
6 15 (1.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 12 (1.10%) Mac OS
8 9 (0.82%) Android
8 9 (0.82%) Ubuntu
9 6 (0.55%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (0.46%) CatOS
11 4 (0.37%) AIX
11 4 (0.37%) Solaris
11 4 (0.37%) Windows Server 2012
12 3 (0.27%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.27%) VMS
13 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.092%) CentOS
14 1 (0.092%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.092%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (14.10%) Migration
2 129 (11.81%) Problem-Solving
3 123 (11.26%) Load Balancing
4 112 (10.26%) High Availability
5 95 (8.70%) ITIL
6 94 (8.61%) Network Design
7 81 (7.42%) ITSM
8 76 (6.96%) Agile
9 69 (6.32%) Change Management
10 67 (6.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 63 (5.77%) Cybersecurity
11 63 (5.77%) Project Delivery
12 60 (5.49%) Technical Leadership
13 59 (5.40%) Continuous Improvement
13 59 (5.40%) Network Monitoring
14 58 (5.31%) Disaster Recovery
15 50 (4.58%) Infrastructure as Code
15 50 (4.58%) Validation
15 50 (4.58%) Zero Trust
16 48 (4.40%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 114 (10.44%) Python
2 48 (4.40%) PowerShell
3 22 (2.01%) Bash
4 20 (1.83%) SQL
5 8 (0.73%) C
6 4 (0.37%) PHP
7 3 (0.27%) C++
7 3 (0.27%) Java
7 3 (0.27%) JavaScript
7 3 (0.27%) Perl
8 2 (0.18%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.18%) Korn
8 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.092%) Bicep
9 1 (0.092%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.092%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.092%) Lisp
9 1 (0.092%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 373 (34.16%) Security Cleared
2 325 (29.76%) Cisco Certification
3 280 (25.64%) SC Cleared
4 248 (22.71%) CCNP
5 120 (10.99%) CCNA
6 106 (9.71%) DV Cleared
7 76 (6.96%) Degree
8 66 (6.04%) CCIE
9 28 (2.56%) Microsoft Certification
10 22 (2.01%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 21 (1.92%) MCSE
12 20 (1.83%) Network+ Certification
13 19 (1.74%) Azure Certification
13 19 (1.74%) JNCIS
14 17 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
15 15 (1.37%) CCSE
15 15 (1.37%) VCAP
16 14 (1.28%) JNCIP
16 14 (1.28%) MCSA
17 13 (1.19%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 29 (2.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 29 (2.66%) NIST
1 29 (2.66%) SLA
2 24 (2.20%) Cyber Essentials
3 17 (1.56%) NCSC
4 15 (1.37%) QA
5 11 (1.01%) PMO
6 7 (0.64%) Disclosure Scotland
6 7 (0.64%) GDPR
6 7 (0.64%) JSP 440
7 4 (0.37%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 3 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 3 (0.27%) NIST 800
8 3 (0.27%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.27%) RMADS
9 2 (0.18%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.18%) GRC
9 2 (0.18%) ISA99
9 2 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
10 1 (0.092%) JTAG
System Software
1 145 (13.28%) VMware Infrastructure
2 78 (7.14%) Active Directory
3 58 (5.31%) vSphere
4 57 (5.22%) VMware ESXi
5 51 (4.67%) VMware NSX
6 29 (2.66%) Virtual Machines
7 25 (2.29%) Firmware
8 20 (1.83%) NFS
9 17 (1.56%) GPFS
9 17 (1.56%) Hyper-V
10 9 (0.82%) SRDF
11 7 (0.64%) Docker
12 5 (0.46%) Virtual Desktop
13 4 (0.37%) vCloud
13 4 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
14 3 (0.27%) EMC RecoverPoint
14 3 (0.27%) Snort
14 3 (0.27%) UAG
15 2 (0.18%) KVM
16 1 (0.092%) Squid
Systems Management
1 126 (11.54%) Ansible
2 99 (9.07%) FortiGate
3 47 (4.30%) Terraform
4 33 (3.02%) vCenter Server
5 26 (2.38%) Grafana
5 26 (2.38%) vRealize
6 19 (1.74%) Prometheus
7 17 (1.56%) Kubernetes
8 16 (1.47%) Microsoft Intune
9 14 (1.28%) SCCM
10 13 (1.19%) Cisco Prime
10 13 (1.19%) VxRail
11 12 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
12 10 (0.92%) Nagios
13 9 (0.82%) Cisco CUCM
14 7 (0.64%) SCOM
15 6 (0.55%) EMC TimeFinder
15 6 (0.55%) EMC VPLEX
15 6 (0.55%) WSUS
16 5 (0.46%) Endace
Vendors
1 297 (27.20%) Palo Alto
2 208 (19.05%) F5
3 187 (17.12%) VMware
4 171 (15.66%) Microsoft
5 155 (14.19%) Juniper
6 149 (13.64%) Fortinet
7 125 (11.45%) CheckPoint
8 118 (10.81%) Aruba
9 98 (8.97%) ServiceNow
10 93 (8.52%) Meraki
11 85 (7.78%) SolarWinds
12 69 (6.32%) Arista
13 53 (4.85%) Splunk
14 48 (4.40%) Zscaler
15 45 (4.12%) Dell
16 37 (3.39%) IBM
17 29 (2.66%) EMC
17 29 (2.66%) Extreme Networks
18 26 (2.38%) Brocade
19 25 (2.29%) HP