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 1 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
1 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 65 61
Rank change year-on-year -33 -4 +13
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,121 1,043 1,447
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.51% 3.59% 3.27%
As % of the Vendors category 5.79% 7.62% 7.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 766 665 872
10th Percentile £263 £311 £255
25th Percentile £400 £406 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -2.56%
75th Percentile £560 £588 £588
90th Percentile £625 £650 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £490 £475
% change year-on-year -1.79% +3.16% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 19 49
10th Percentile £21.27 £17.55 £13.29
25th Percentile £36.25 £21.58 £16.00
Median hourly rate £68.17 £37.50 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.77% +50.00% -50.00%
75th Percentile £74.26 £66.88 £41.25
90th Percentile £91.13 £75.00 £63.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £33.52 £24.00
% change year-on-year +121.52% +39.68% -49.47%

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 19,377 13,685 18,908
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 43.37% 47.12% 42.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,439 8,647 11,818
10th Percentile £313 £293 £255
25th Percentile £413 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £514
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -0.29% -2.10%
75th Percentile £600 £615 £625
90th Percentile £700 £710 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.60% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 966 482 1,045
10th Percentile £15.28 £15.46 £12.13
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.07 £14.48
Median hourly rate £26.50 £28.75 £23.22
Median % change year-on-year -7.83% +23.84% -41.96%
75th Percentile £58.88 £62.50 £56.25
90th Percentile £78.25 £80.75 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.00 £27.13 £21.50
% change year-on-year -7.83% +26.16% -38.62%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -40 934 £496 -1.74% 542
UK excluding London -24 718 £481 -1.79% 503
Work from Home -20 294 £450 -10.00% 112
London -73 274 £500 -0.05% 126
South East +5 227 £500 -4.76% 139
North of England -50 187 £481 -3.75% 121
North West -10 153 £481 -1.79% 58
Midlands -18 153 £361 -19.89% 92
West Midlands 0 138 £345 -18.82% 46
Scotland +32 68 £425 +6.25% 25
East of England 0 44 £475 -6.40% 60
South West -71 41 £513 -6.82% 58
Yorkshire -80 29 £478 -8.95% 43
Wales -12 25 £425 +1.49% 18
East Midlands -46 12 £410 -20.00% 46
North East -13 7 £175 -46.15% 20
Northern Ireland - 6 £385 - 8

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 39 (3.48%) Microsoft Exchange
1 39 (3.48%) SharePoint
2 18 (1.61%) Confluence
3 7 (0.62%) Apache
4 5 (0.45%) IIS
5 3 (0.27%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.18%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.089%) JBoss
7 1 (0.089%) Skype for Business
7 1 (0.089%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.089%) WebSphere
Applications
1 57 (5.08%) Microsoft Office
2 42 (3.75%) MS Visio
3 19 (1.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 14 (1.25%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.45%) Acrobat
6 4 (0.36%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.089%) AutoCAD
Business Applications
1 17 (1.52%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.089%) Actimize
Cloud Services
1 193 (17.22%) Azure
2 161 (14.36%) AWS
3 96 (8.56%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (3.84%) Entra ID
5 39 (3.48%) GCP
6 17 (1.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 16 (1.43%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 14 (1.25%) Datadog
8 14 (1.25%) OpenShift
9 12 (1.07%) Nutanix
10 11 (0.98%) Azure DevOps
11 9 (0.80%) Azure Sentinel
11 9 (0.80%) GitHub
11 9 (0.80%) SaaS
12 8 (0.71%) AWS CloudFormation
13 7 (0.62%) AWS Lambda
13 7 (0.62%) Microsoft Purview
13 7 (0.62%) OneDrive
13 7 (0.62%) Power Platform
13 7 (0.62%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 466 (41.57%) Firewall
2 352 (31.40%) WAN
3 269 (24.00%) BGP
4 259 (23.10%) LAN
5 244 (21.77%) VPN
6 202 (18.02%) Network Security
7 196 (17.48%) OSPF
8 154 (13.74%) Wireless
9 148 (13.20%) SD-WAN
10 136 (12.13%) DNS
11 123 (10.97%) VLAN
12 111 (9.90%) MPLS
13 107 (9.55%) Cisco ISE
14 83 (7.40%) Cisco ASA
14 83 (7.40%) Cisco Nexus
15 82 (7.31%) Wi-Fi
16 78 (6.96%) Cisco IOS
17 77 (6.87%) VXLAN
18 76 (6.78%) DHCP
19 74 (6.60%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (0.54%) SQL Server
2 5 (0.45%) DynamoDB
2 5 (0.45%) Power BI
3 3 (0.27%) Amazon Athena
4 2 (0.18%) MariaDB
5 1 (0.089%) Big Data
5 1 (0.089%) Metadata
5 1 (0.089%) MySQL
5 1 (0.089%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.089%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 26 (2.32%) JIRA
2 14 (1.25%) Sonatype Nexus
3 11 (0.98%) Jenkins
4 8 (0.71%) Git
4 8 (0.71%) GitLab
5 2 (0.18%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.089%) Bitbucket
General
1 236 (21.05%) Social Skills
2 150 (13.38%) Finance
3 144 (12.85%) Public Sector
4 92 (8.21%) Telecoms
5 67 (5.98%) Analytical Skills
6 61 (5.44%) Banking
7 55 (4.91%) Legal
8 54 (4.82%) Manufacturing
9 52 (4.64%) Documentation Skills
10 37 (3.30%) Marketing
11 35 (3.12%) Electronics
12 18 (1.61%) Investment Banking
13 16 (1.43%) Financial Institution
13 16 (1.43%) Presentation Skills
14 15 (1.34%) Organisational Skills
15 14 (1.25%) Law
16 11 (0.98%) Retail
17 10 (0.89%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 8 (0.71%) Aerospace
18 8 (0.71%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 445 (39.70%) Network Engineer
2 142 (12.67%) Architect
3 102 (9.10%) Cisco Engineer
4 93 (8.30%) Senior
5 91 (8.12%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 84 (7.49%) Network Architect
7 70 (6.24%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 67 (5.98%) Security Engineer
9 53 (4.73%) Analyst
10 45 (4.01%) Consultant
11 44 (3.93%) Network Security Engineer
11 44 (3.93%) Senior Network Engineer
12 41 (3.66%) IT Support
12 41 (3.66%) Network Consultant
13 39 (3.48%) Infrastructure Engineer
14 38 (3.39%) Data Network Engineer
15 34 (3.03%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 34 (3.03%) Solutions Architect
16 29 (2.59%) Data Engineer
16 29 (2.59%) Infrastructure Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (5.71%) 802.1X
2 17 (1.52%) LDAP
3 16 (1.43%) Flash
4 14 (1.25%) XMPP
5 10 (0.89%) SAML
6 7 (0.62%) REST
7 6 (0.54%) NETCONF
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%) Jinja
9 4 (0.36%) RESTCONF
9 4 (0.36%) VML
10 3 (0.27%) JSON
11 2 (0.18%) ADO
11 2 (0.18%) CSS
11 2 (0.18%) Django
11 2 (0.18%) Microsoft Graph
11 2 (0.18%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 293 (26.14%) Data Centre
2 53 (4.73%) PKI
3 36 (3.21%) Replication
4 32 (2.85%) Hybrid Cloud
5 31 (2.77%) Clustering
5 31 (2.77%) Linux Command Line
5 31 (2.77%) Onboarding
6 29 (2.59%) Data Protection Act
7 27 (2.41%) Cloud Native
8 26 (2.32%) Operational Technology
9 25 (2.23%) Driving Licence
10 18 (1.61%) Product Ownership
11 17 (1.52%) Self-Motivation
12 15 (1.34%) Enterprise Storage
12 15 (1.34%) Security Posture
13 14 (1.25%) Video Conferencing
14 13 (1.16%) NHS
14 13 (1.16%) SCADA
15 12 (1.07%) CMDB
15 12 (1.07%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 187 (16.68%) Windows
2 109 (9.72%) Linux
3 65 (5.80%) Windows Server
4 40 (3.57%) Android
5 38 (3.39%) Mac OS
6 27 (2.41%) Windows 10
7 23 (2.05%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 16 (1.43%) Unix
9 7 (0.62%) Ubuntu
10 6 (0.54%) Windows Server 2012
11 5 (0.45%) VMS
11 5 (0.45%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.36%) CatOS
12 4 (0.36%) Solaris
13 2 (0.18%) AIX
13 2 (0.18%) CentOS
13 2 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
14 1 (0.089%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.089%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 175 (15.61%) Migration
2 129 (11.51%) Problem-Solving
3 114 (10.17%) Load Balancing
4 100 (8.92%) High Availability
5 97 (8.65%) ITIL
6 95 (8.47%) Network Design
7 89 (7.94%) Agile
8 84 (7.49%) ITSM
9 81 (7.23%) Roadmaps
10 73 (6.51%) Cybersecurity
11 71 (6.33%) Change Management
12 68 (6.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 64 (5.71%) Project Delivery
14 62 (5.53%) Collaborative Working
15 56 (5.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 56 (5.00%) Service Management
16 55 (4.91%) Stakeholder Management
17 54 (4.82%) Continuous Improvement
17 54 (4.82%) Network Architecture
18 53 (4.73%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 129 (11.51%) Python
2 55 (4.91%) PowerShell
3 29 (2.59%) Bash
4 15 (1.34%) Perl
5 8 (0.71%) SQL
6 5 (0.45%) JavaScript
6 5 (0.45%) Lisp
7 4 (0.36%) C
7 4 (0.36%) PHP
8 2 (0.18%) ActionScript
8 2 (0.18%) Korn
8 2 (0.18%) Kusto Query Language
8 2 (0.18%) Shell Script
9 1 (0.089%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 439 (39.16%) Security Cleared
2 340 (30.33%) SC Cleared
3 302 (26.94%) Cisco Certification
4 242 (21.59%) CCNP
5 111 (9.90%) DV Cleared
6 109 (9.72%) CCNA
7 81 (7.23%) Degree
8 77 (6.87%) CCIE
9 24 (2.14%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (1.96%) JNCIS
11 20 (1.78%) Microsoft Certification
12 19 (1.69%) Azure Certification
13 17 (1.52%) JNCIP
13 17 (1.52%) Network+ Certification
14 16 (1.43%) CISSP
14 16 (1.43%) JNCIA
15 14 (1.25%) AWS Certification
15 14 (1.25%) CCSE
16 13 (1.16%) MCSE
17 12 (1.07%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 42 (3.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 34 (3.03%) NIST
3 32 (2.85%) SLA
4 23 (2.05%) Cyber Essentials
5 18 (1.61%) GDPR
6 17 (1.52%) PMO
7 16 (1.43%) NCSC
8 13 (1.16%) PCI DSS
9 5 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
9 5 (0.45%) QA
10 4 (0.36%) JSP 440
11 3 (0.27%) Disclosure Scotland
11 3 (0.27%) HIPAA
11 3 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
11 3 (0.27%) RMADS
12 2 (0.18%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 2 (0.18%) ISA99
13 1 (0.089%) Accessibility
13 1 (0.089%) GRC
13 1 (0.089%) NIST 800
System Software
1 146 (13.02%) VMware Infrastructure
2 99 (8.83%) Active Directory
3 65 (5.80%) VMware NSX
4 57 (5.08%) vSphere
5 42 (3.75%) VMware ESXi
6 20 (1.78%) Firmware
7 18 (1.61%) NFS
8 16 (1.43%) GPFS
9 14 (1.25%) Virtual Machines
10 13 (1.16%) Hyper-V
11 10 (0.89%) Docker
12 8 (0.71%) SRDF
13 4 (0.36%) Snort
13 4 (0.36%) vCloud
14 3 (0.27%) Virtual Desktop
15 2 (0.18%) EMC RecoverPoint
15 2 (0.18%) KVM
15 2 (0.18%) Squid
15 2 (0.18%) Virtual Servers
16 1 (0.089%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 110 (9.81%) Ansible
2 96 (8.56%) FortiGate
3 47 (4.19%) Terraform
4 37 (3.30%) vCenter Server
5 36 (3.21%) vRealize
6 23 (2.05%) Grafana
7 22 (1.96%) SCCM
8 19 (1.69%) VxRail
9 18 (1.61%) Microsoft Intune
10 17 (1.52%) Prometheus
11 15 (1.34%) Kubernetes
12 13 (1.16%) Cisco Prime
13 10 (0.89%) Single Sign-On
14 9 (0.80%) Cisco CUCM
14 9 (0.80%) Nagios
15 7 (0.62%) Nessus
16 6 (0.54%) EMC TimeFinder
16 6 (0.54%) QRadar
16 6 (0.54%) SCOM
16 6 (0.54%) WSUS
Vendors
1 284 (25.33%) Palo Alto
2 186 (16.59%) VMware
3 183 (16.32%) Juniper
4 180 (16.06%) Microsoft
5 172 (15.34%) F5
6 146 (13.02%) Aruba
7 126 (11.24%) Fortinet
8 112 (9.99%) CheckPoint
9 100 (8.92%) SolarWinds
10 99 (8.83%) ServiceNow
11 95 (8.47%) Meraki
12 72 (6.42%) Dell
13 62 (5.53%) Arista
14 56 (5.00%) Splunk
15 55 (4.91%) HP
16 49 (4.37%) IBM
17 42 (3.75%) Zscaler
18 35 (3.12%) SAP
19 30 (2.68%) Apple
19 30 (2.68%) Citrix