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 17 April 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
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 65 64
Rank change year-on-year -36 -1 +4
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,107 1,056 1,377
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.41% 3.60% 3.14%
As % of the Vendors category 5.63% 7.61% 7.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 748 671 834
10th Percentile £289 £300 £256
25th Percentile £400 £407 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £486
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.88% +2.32%
75th Percentile £560 £588 £588
90th Percentile £628 £650 £702
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +1.32% - +4.97%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 19 46
10th Percentile £21.21 £17.55 £13.29
25th Percentile £28.00 £21.58 £20.03
Median hourly rate £61.00 £37.50 £28.75
Median % change year-on-year +62.67% +30.43% -44.36%
75th Percentile £74.26 £66.88 £41.25
90th Percentile £88.50 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £33.52 £27.50
% change year-on-year +121.52% +21.90% -50.29%

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 19,655 13,873 18,669
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 42.72% 47.26% 42.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,586 8,729 11,642
10th Percentile £313 £290 £260
25th Percentile £413 £406 £403
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £517
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -0.92% -1.48%
75th Percentile £600 £615 £630
90th Percentile £700 £711 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 979 529 1,074
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.00 £12.01
25th Percentile £18.72 £18.51 £14.36
Median hourly rate £30.00 £28.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +24.44% -46.84%
75th Percentile £60.00 £60.00 £56.43
90th Percentile £78.75 £78.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.50 £24.66 £21.37
% change year-on-year +7.46% +15.40% -44.49%

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 17 April 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 17 April 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 17 April 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 -43 920 £490 -2.97% 519
UK excluding London -29 699 £481 +1.32% 496
Work from Home -16 285 £450 -11.11% 90
London -77 275 £500 - 128
South East -11 214 £500 - 139
North of England -47 182 £481 -3.75% 116
Midlands -20 151 £373 -17.11% 86
North West -12 144 £481 -1.79% 52
West Midlands +2 137 £345 -21.14% 47
Scotland +28 65 £450 +12.78% 34
South West -72 44 £500 -9.09% 48
East of England -6 39 £485 +2.11% 59
Yorkshire -73 35 £450 -14.29% 47
Wales -12 25 £425 +1.49% 21
East Midlands -49 10 £415 -19.02% 38
Northern Ireland +9 8 £385 - 8
North East -22 5 £363 +11.54% 19

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 37 (3.34%) Microsoft Exchange
2 34 (3.07%) SharePoint
3 16 (1.45%) Confluence
4 7 (0.63%) Apache
5 5 (0.45%) IIS
5 5 (0.45%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.090%) JBoss
6 1 (0.090%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.090%) Skype for Business
6 1 (0.090%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.090%) WebSphere
Applications
1 47 (4.25%) Microsoft Office
2 41 (3.70%) MS Visio
3 17 (1.54%) Microsoft Excel
4 12 (1.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.45%) Acrobat
6 3 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.090%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 17 (1.54%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.090%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 192 (17.34%) Azure
2 160 (14.45%) AWS
3 87 (7.86%) Microsoft 365
4 41 (3.70%) Entra ID
5 34 (3.07%) GCP
6 17 (1.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 15 (1.36%) Datadog
7 15 (1.36%) OpenShift
8 14 (1.26%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 11 (0.99%) SaaS
10 10 (0.90%) Nutanix
11 9 (0.81%) Azure Sentinel
11 9 (0.81%) GitHub
12 7 (0.63%) AWS CloudFormation
12 7 (0.63%) Azure DevOps
13 6 (0.54%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (0.54%) Amazon Kinesis
13 6 (0.54%) AWS Lambda
13 6 (0.54%) Mimecast
13 6 (0.54%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 469 (42.37%) Firewall
2 353 (31.89%) WAN
3 275 (24.84%) BGP
4 263 (23.76%) LAN
5 237 (21.41%) VPN
6 211 (19.06%) Network Security
7 201 (18.16%) OSPF
8 156 (14.09%) SD-WAN
9 154 (13.91%) Wireless
10 145 (13.10%) DNS
11 135 (12.20%) VLAN
12 106 (9.58%) MPLS
13 102 (9.21%) Cisco ISE
14 96 (8.67%) Cisco Nexus
15 90 (8.13%) VXLAN
16 82 (7.41%) Wi-Fi
17 80 (7.23%) DHCP
18 79 (7.14%) Cisco ASA
19 74 (6.68%) IPsec
20 72 (6.50%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (0.45%) DynamoDB
2 3 (0.27%) Amazon Athena
2 3 (0.27%) Power BI
2 3 (0.27%) SQL Server
3 2 (0.18%) MariaDB
4 1 (0.090%) Big Data
4 1 (0.090%) Metadata
4 1 (0.090%) MySQL
4 1 (0.090%) NoSQL
4 1 (0.090%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 23 (2.08%) JIRA
2 15 (1.36%) Sonatype Nexus
3 10 (0.90%) Git
4 8 (0.72%) Jenkins
5 6 (0.54%) GitLab
6 1 (0.090%) Bitbucket
General
1 236 (21.32%) Social Skills
2 136 (12.29%) Finance
3 121 (10.93%) Public Sector
4 82 (7.41%) Telecoms
5 67 (6.05%) Analytical Skills
6 59 (5.33%) Banking
7 57 (5.15%) Legal
8 54 (4.88%) Documentation Skills
9 43 (3.88%) Manufacturing
10 28 (2.53%) Marketing
11 24 (2.17%) Electronics
12 17 (1.54%) Investment Banking
13 16 (1.45%) Organisational Skills
14 15 (1.36%) Financial Institution
14 15 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
15 14 (1.26%) Law
16 13 (1.17%) Retail
17 9 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
18 8 (0.72%) Military
19 7 (0.63%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 467 (42.19%) Network Engineer
2 135 (12.20%) Architect
3 103 (9.30%) Cisco Engineer
4 96 (8.67%) Senior
5 95 (8.58%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 81 (7.32%) Network Architect
7 75 (6.78%) Security Engineer
8 73 (6.59%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 52 (4.70%) Network Security Engineer
10 51 (4.61%) Analyst
11 48 (4.34%) Senior Network Engineer
12 41 (3.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 40 (3.61%) Data Network Engineer
14 34 (3.07%) Consultant
15 32 (2.89%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 32 (2.89%) Network Consultant
16 31 (2.80%) Data Engineer
17 30 (2.71%) Infrastructure Analyst
18 29 (2.62%) IT Support
19 28 (2.53%) Cisco Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (5.78%) 802.1X
2 17 (1.54%) Flash
2 17 (1.54%) LDAP
3 14 (1.26%) XMPP
4 11 (0.99%) SAML
5 9 (0.81%) REST
6 7 (0.63%) NETCONF
7 6 (0.54%) Jinja
7 6 (0.54%) YANG
8 5 (0.45%) Node.js
8 5 (0.45%) OpenConfig
9 4 (0.36%) HTML
9 4 (0.36%) JSON
9 4 (0.36%) RESTCONF
9 4 (0.36%) VML
10 2 (0.18%) ADO
10 2 (0.18%) CSS
10 2 (0.18%) Django
10 2 (0.18%) Middleware
10 2 (0.18%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 295 (26.65%) Data Centre
2 51 (4.61%) PKI
3 39 (3.52%) Replication
4 32 (2.89%) Clustering
4 32 (2.89%) Data Protection Act
4 32 (2.89%) Linux Command Line
5 31 (2.80%) Hybrid Cloud
5 31 (2.80%) Onboarding
6 30 (2.71%) Cloud Native
7 25 (2.26%) Operational Technology
8 22 (1.99%) Driving Licence
9 18 (1.63%) Product Ownership
10 17 (1.54%) Enterprise Storage
10 17 (1.54%) Self-Motivation
11 14 (1.26%) EMC VMAX
11 14 (1.26%) Security Posture
12 13 (1.17%) Video Conferencing
13 12 (1.08%) NHS
13 12 (1.08%) SCADA
14 11 (0.99%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 188 (16.98%) Windows
2 116 (10.48%) Linux
3 64 (5.78%) Windows Server
4 29 (2.62%) Android
4 29 (2.62%) Mac OS
5 25 (2.26%) Windows 10
6 22 (1.99%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 19 (1.72%) Unix
8 8 (0.72%) Ubuntu
9 7 (0.63%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.36%) CatOS
11 4 (0.36%) Solaris
12 3 (0.27%) Data ONTAP
12 3 (0.27%) VMS
13 2 (0.18%) AIX
14 1 (0.090%) CentOS
14 1 (0.090%) Debian
14 1 (0.090%) Windows 7
14 1 (0.090%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 171 (15.45%) Migration
2 135 (12.20%) Problem-Solving
3 110 (9.94%) Load Balancing
4 104 (9.39%) High Availability
5 99 (8.94%) ITIL
6 96 (8.67%) Network Design
7 87 (7.86%) Agile
8 84 (7.59%) ITSM
9 73 (6.59%) Roadmaps
10 72 (6.50%) Change Management
11 71 (6.41%) Cybersecurity
12 62 (5.60%) Continuous Improvement
13 59 (5.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 58 (5.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 57 (5.15%) Project Delivery
16 56 (5.06%) Disaster Recovery
17 55 (4.97%) Collaborative Working
18 53 (4.79%) Network Monitoring
18 53 (4.79%) Service Management
18 53 (4.79%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 128 (11.56%) Python
2 52 (4.70%) PowerShell
3 27 (2.44%) Bash
4 11 (0.99%) Perl
5 8 (0.72%) C
5 8 (0.72%) SQL
6 4 (0.36%) JavaScript
6 4 (0.36%) Lisp
6 4 (0.36%) PHP
7 3 (0.27%) C++
7 3 (0.27%) Java
8 2 (0.18%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.18%) Korn
8 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.090%) Kusto Query Language
9 1 (0.090%) Ladder Logic
9 1 (0.090%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 414 (37.40%) Security Cleared
2 320 (28.91%) SC Cleared
3 312 (28.18%) Cisco Certification
4 247 (22.31%) CCNP
5 113 (10.21%) CCNA
6 109 (9.85%) DV Cleared
7 83 (7.50%) Degree
8 77 (6.96%) CCIE
9 22 (1.99%) BPSS Clearance
10 21 (1.90%) JNCIS
11 20 (1.81%) Azure Certification
11 20 (1.81%) Microsoft Certification
12 17 (1.54%) Network+ Certification
13 16 (1.45%) JNCIP
14 15 (1.36%) JNCIA
15 14 (1.26%) AWS Certification
15 14 (1.26%) CCSE
15 14 (1.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 13 (1.17%) MCSE
17 12 (1.08%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (3.43%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 32 (2.89%) NIST
3 30 (2.71%) SLA
4 23 (2.08%) Cyber Essentials
5 17 (1.54%) NCSC
6 16 (1.45%) GDPR
6 16 (1.45%) PMO
7 12 (1.08%) PCI DSS
8 9 (0.81%) QA
9 4 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 4 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
9 4 (0.36%) JSP 440
10 3 (0.27%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.27%) RMADS
11 2 (0.18%) ISA99
11 2 (0.18%) ISO/IEC 20000
11 2 (0.18%) NIST 800
12 1 (0.090%) GRC
12 1 (0.090%) MiFID
System Software
1 151 (13.64%) VMware Infrastructure
2 92 (8.31%) Active Directory
3 64 (5.78%) VMware NSX
4 61 (5.51%) vSphere
5 47 (4.25%) VMware ESXi
6 20 (1.81%) Firmware
6 20 (1.81%) NFS
7 17 (1.54%) GPFS
7 17 (1.54%) Hyper-V
8 14 (1.26%) Virtual Machines
9 9 (0.81%) SRDF
10 7 (0.63%) Docker
11 6 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
12 4 (0.36%) vCloud
12 4 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
13 3 (0.27%) EMC RecoverPoint
13 3 (0.27%) KVM
13 3 (0.27%) Snort
13 3 (0.27%) UAG
14 1 (0.090%) RHEV
Systems Management
1 113 (10.21%) Ansible
2 102 (9.21%) FortiGate
3 48 (4.34%) Terraform
4 37 (3.34%) vRealize
5 34 (3.07%) vCenter Server
6 24 (2.17%) Grafana
7 20 (1.81%) SCCM
7 20 (1.81%) VxRail
8 19 (1.72%) Microsoft Intune
9 18 (1.63%) Prometheus
10 17 (1.54%) Kubernetes
11 13 (1.17%) Cisco Prime
12 11 (0.99%) Single Sign-On
13 10 (0.90%) Nagios
14 8 (0.72%) Cisco CUCM
15 7 (0.63%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 7 (0.63%) EMC NetWorker
15 7 (0.63%) EMC VPLEX
15 7 (0.63%) SCOM
16 6 (0.54%) QRadar
Vendors
1 284 (25.65%) Palo Alto
2 191 (17.25%) VMware
3 188 (16.98%) F5
4 179 (16.17%) Microsoft
5 169 (15.27%) Juniper
6 134 (12.10%) Aruba
7 133 (12.01%) Fortinet
8 120 (10.84%) CheckPoint
9 97 (8.76%) Meraki
9 97 (8.76%) SolarWinds
10 95 (8.58%) ServiceNow
11 68 (6.14%) Dell
12 63 (5.69%) Arista
13 54 (4.88%) Splunk
14 48 (4.34%) IBM
15 47 (4.25%) HP
16 42 (3.79%) Zscaler
17 31 (2.80%) EMC
18 30 (2.71%) Citrix
19 28 (2.53%) Extreme Networks