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 22 July 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
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 117 70 65
Rank change year-on-year -47 -5 -7
Contract jobs citing Cisco 1,171 1,130 1,280
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 2.22% 3.46% 3.10%
As % of the Vendors category 5.38% 7.30% 7.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 779 698 782
10th Percentile £300 £306 £246
25th Percentile £400 £406 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £574 £588 £575
90th Percentile £638 £638 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £477 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -4.60% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 36 36
10th Percentile £26.72 £25.08 £16.81
25th Percentile £37.53 £25.15 £23.45
Median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +83.33% +9.09% -48.45%
75th Percentile £70.96 £57.81 £50.94
90th Percentile £78.58 £86.32 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £30.00 £46.39
% change year-on-year +83.33% -35.33% -22.42%

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 21,772 15,486 17,927
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.28% 47.46% 43.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,534 9,470 11,254
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -2.44% -2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £713 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £478 £500
% change year-on-year +4.71% -4.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,082 759 982
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.74 £12.87
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.04 £15.50
Median hourly rate £35.00 £25.15 £26.00
Median % change year-on-year +39.17% -3.27% -36.65%
75th Percentile £65.00 £50.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £22.41 £25.00
% change year-on-year +51.69% -10.37% -22.60%

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 22 July 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 22 July 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 22 July 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 -42 997 £490 -2.00% 590
UK excluding London -42 695 £477 -4.60% 522
London -47 356 £500 - 184
Work from Home -33 293 £475 -5.00% 108
North of England -36 220 £490 -0.41% 122
South East -37 183 £513 -4.65% 143
North West -13 164 £484 +1.89% 52
Midlands -32 128 £425 -12.82% 64
West Midlands -24 122 £420 -6.67% 36
Scotland +13 83 £425 - 32
South West -66 55 £500 -9.09% 81
Yorkshire -61 53 £500 - 52
East of England -21 32 £515 -6.36% 58
Wales -17 19 £468 +16.88% 18
Northern Ireland +9 8 £115 -67.14% 15
North East -38 4 £425 +30.77% 19
East Midlands -31 3 £500 -11.11% 28
Channel Islands +1 1 £550 -24.14%

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 31 (2.65%) SharePoint
2 26 (2.22%) Microsoft Exchange
3 9 (0.77%) Confluence
3 9 (0.77%) OpenStack
4 7 (0.60%) Apache
5 3 (0.26%) CloudStack
5 3 (0.26%) IIS
5 3 (0.26%) nginx
5 3 (0.26%) SAS
5 3 (0.26%) Tomcat
6 2 (0.17%) CMS
7 1 (0.085%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.085%) JBoss
7 1 (0.085%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 51 (4.36%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (2.13%) MS Visio
3 24 (2.05%) Microsoft Excel
4 10 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 2 (0.17%) Acrobat
Business Applications
1 5 (0.43%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 231 (19.73%) Azure
2 150 (12.81%) AWS
3 80 (6.83%) Microsoft 365
4 53 (4.53%) Entra ID
5 23 (1.96%) GCP
5 23 (1.96%) GitHub
6 21 (1.79%) OpenShift
7 20 (1.71%) OneDrive
8 18 (1.54%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 18 (1.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 13 (1.11%) Nutanix
10 12 (1.02%) Azure Sentinel
11 11 (0.94%) SaaS
12 10 (0.85%) Power Platform
13 9 (0.77%) Azure DevOps
14 8 (0.68%) IaaS
14 8 (0.68%) Microsoft Purview
15 7 (0.60%) Cloudflare
15 7 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
16 6 (0.51%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 525 (44.83%) Firewall
2 364 (31.08%) WAN
3 311 (26.56%) BGP
4 294 (25.11%) LAN
5 268 (22.89%) VPN
6 257 (21.95%) Network Security
7 219 (18.70%) OSPF
8 206 (17.59%) Wireless
9 195 (16.65%) DNS
10 175 (14.94%) VLAN
11 141 (12.04%) SD-WAN
12 129 (11.02%) MPLS
13 117 (9.99%) Wi-Fi
14 111 (9.48%) Cisco ISE
14 111 (9.48%) Cisco Nexus
14 111 (9.48%) DHCP
15 98 (8.37%) VXLAN
16 93 (7.94%) TCP/IP
17 87 (7.43%) Cisco ASA
18 80 (6.83%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (2.05%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.34%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.26%) MySQL
3 3 (0.26%) Power BI
4 2 (0.17%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.17%) PostgreSQL
5 1 (0.085%) Apache Hive
5 1 (0.085%) Big Data
5 1 (0.085%) ClickHouse
5 1 (0.085%) Hadoop
5 1 (0.085%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 21 (1.79%) Git
2 19 (1.62%) JIRA
3 14 (1.20%) Sonatype Nexus
4 11 (0.94%) Jenkins
5 4 (0.34%) GitLab
6 1 (0.085%) Bitbucket
General
1 274 (23.40%) Social Skills
2 109 (9.31%) Finance
3 91 (7.77%) Telecoms
4 88 (7.51%) Analytical Skills
5 65 (5.55%) Banking
6 61 (5.21%) Documentation Skills
6 61 (5.21%) Public Sector
7 35 (2.99%) Legal
8 24 (2.05%) Organisational Skills
9 22 (1.88%) Financial Institution
10 19 (1.62%) Investment Banking
11 16 (1.37%) Retail
12 14 (1.20%) Military
13 13 (1.11%) Law
14 11 (0.94%) Manufacturing
14 11 (0.94%) Police
15 9 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
16 6 (0.51%) Marketing
16 6 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
17 5 (0.43%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 572 (48.85%) Network Engineer
2 152 (12.98%) Senior
3 132 (11.27%) Architect
4 121 (10.33%) Cisco Engineer
5 111 (9.48%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 97 (8.28%) Senior Network Engineer
7 95 (8.11%) Security Engineer
8 73 (6.23%) Network Architect
9 71 (6.06%) Network Security Engineer
10 59 (5.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 54 (4.61%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 42 (3.59%) Data Network Engineer
13 34 (2.90%) Analyst
14 33 (2.82%) Data Engineer
15 32 (2.73%) Cisco Security Engineer
16 29 (2.48%) Field Engineer
17 27 (2.31%) Network Specialist
18 26 (2.22%) Automation Engineer
19 25 (2.13%) Data Centre Engineer
19 25 (2.13%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 79 (6.75%) 802.1X
2 15 (1.28%) REST
3 14 (1.20%) SAML
4 9 (0.77%) Flash
5 7 (0.60%) LDAP
5 7 (0.60%) NETCONF
6 6 (0.51%) Jinja
6 6 (0.51%) OpenConfig
6 6 (0.51%) RESTCONF
6 6 (0.51%) XMPP
6 6 (0.51%) YANG
7 5 (0.43%) JSON
8 4 (0.34%) YAML
9 3 (0.26%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (0.26%) Java RMI
9 3 (0.26%) LAMP
9 3 (0.26%) LEMP Stack
9 3 (0.26%) Microsoft Graph
10 2 (0.17%) .NET
10 2 (0.17%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 293 (25.02%) Data Centre
2 62 (5.29%) PKI
3 49 (4.18%) Hybrid Cloud
4 39 (3.33%) Clustering
5 38 (3.25%) Data Protection Act
5 38 (3.25%) Onboarding
6 36 (3.07%) Replication
7 34 (2.90%) Driving Licence
8 31 (2.65%) Video Conferencing
9 30 (2.56%) Operational Technology
10 20 (1.71%) Analytical Mindset
11 19 (1.62%) Cloud Native
11 19 (1.62%) Enterprise Storage
12 18 (1.54%) EMC VMAX
12 18 (1.54%) Linux Command Line
13 17 (1.45%) Public Cloud
14 16 (1.37%) Self-Motivation
15 15 (1.28%) Security Posture
16 14 (1.20%) SCADA
17 12 (1.02%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 214 (18.27%) Windows
2 129 (11.02%) Linux
3 69 (5.89%) Windows Server
4 18 (1.54%) Ubuntu
4 18 (1.54%) Unix
4 18 (1.54%) Windows 10
5 13 (1.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 10 (0.85%) Windows Server 2019
7 9 (0.77%) AIX
7 9 (0.77%) Android
8 8 (0.68%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
10 5 (0.43%) Data ONTAP
10 5 (0.43%) VMS
11 4 (0.34%) CentOS
12 3 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.085%) CatOS
13 1 (0.085%) Check Point GAiA
13 1 (0.085%) Windows 7
13 1 (0.085%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 180 (15.37%) Migration
2 136 (11.61%) Load Balancing
3 126 (10.76%) Problem-Solving
4 123 (10.50%) High Availability
5 121 (10.33%) Project Delivery
6 119 (10.16%) ITIL
7 90 (7.69%) Change Management
8 88 (7.51%) Network Design
9 82 (7.00%) ITSM
10 81 (6.92%) Continuous Improvement
11 80 (6.83%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 70 (5.98%) Infrastructure as Code
13 68 (5.81%) Stakeholder Management
14 66 (5.64%) CI/CD
15 64 (5.47%) Validation
16 61 (5.21%) Network Monitoring
17 60 (5.12%) Technical Leadership
18 57 (4.87%) Cybersecurity
19 56 (4.78%) Agile
19 56 (4.78%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 142 (12.13%) Python
2 60 (5.12%) PowerShell
3 31 (2.65%) Bash
4 24 (2.05%) SQL
5 5 (0.43%) C
5 5 (0.43%) Shell Script
6 4 (0.34%) Java
7 3 (0.26%) C++
7 3 (0.26%) Lisp
7 3 (0.26%) Perl
7 3 (0.26%) PHP
8 2 (0.17%) ActionScript
9 1 (0.085%) Bicep
9 1 (0.085%) Ladder Logic
Qualifications
1 341 (29.12%) Cisco Certification
2 316 (26.99%) Security Cleared
3 244 (20.84%) CCNP
4 218 (18.62%) SC Cleared
5 136 (11.61%) CCNA
6 103 (8.80%) DV Cleared
7 71 (6.06%) Degree
8 64 (5.47%) CCIE
9 26 (2.22%) Microsoft Certification
10 25 (2.13%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 22 (1.88%) Network+ Certification
12 18 (1.54%) MCSE
13 17 (1.45%) Azure Certification
13 17 (1.45%) BPSS Clearance
13 17 (1.45%) Server+ Certification
14 13 (1.11%) JNCIP
14 13 (1.11%) JNCIS
15 12 (1.02%) AWS Certification
15 12 (1.02%) Computer Science Degree
16 11 (0.94%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (3.76%) SLA
2 32 (2.73%) NIST
3 28 (2.39%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 24 (2.05%) Cyber Essentials
5 20 (1.71%) QA
6 19 (1.62%) NCSC
7 6 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
7 6 (0.51%) Disclosure Scotland
7 6 (0.51%) PMO
8 5 (0.43%) GDPR
8 5 (0.43%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.34%) JSP 440
10 3 (0.26%) Data Quality
10 3 (0.26%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
10 3 (0.26%) NIST 800
11 2 (0.17%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.17%) Government Security Classifications
11 2 (0.17%) GRC
11 2 (0.17%) ISA99
12 1 (0.085%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 139 (11.87%) VMware Infrastructure
2 108 (9.22%) Active Directory
3 48 (4.10%) vSphere
4 46 (3.93%) VMware ESXi
5 44 (3.76%) VMware NSX
6 31 (2.65%) Firmware
6 31 (2.65%) Virtual Machines
7 23 (1.96%) Hyper-V
8 13 (1.11%) NFS
9 12 (1.02%) Docker
9 12 (1.02%) SRDF
10 9 (0.77%) GPFS
11 6 (0.51%) EMC RecoverPoint
12 5 (0.43%) Virtual Desktop
12 5 (0.43%) Virtual Servers
13 3 (0.26%) Dovecot
13 3 (0.26%) Postfix
13 3 (0.26%) UAG
14 2 (0.17%) Snort
15 1 (0.085%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 143 (12.21%) Ansible
2 91 (7.77%) FortiGate
3 70 (5.98%) Terraform
4 29 (2.48%) Kubernetes
5 27 (2.31%) Microsoft Intune
6 24 (2.05%) Grafana
6 24 (2.05%) vCenter Server
7 21 (1.79%) Prometheus
7 21 (1.79%) SCCM
8 17 (1.45%) Cisco Prime
9 16 (1.37%) Cisco CUCM
10 11 (0.94%) vRealize
11 10 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
12 8 (0.68%) VxRail
12 8 (0.68%) WMI
13 7 (0.60%) EMC VPLEX
13 7 (0.60%) WSUS
14 6 (0.51%) EMC TimeFinder
15 5 (0.43%) Puppet
15 5 (0.43%) SCOM
Vendors
1 269 (22.97%) Palo Alto
2 231 (19.73%) F5
3 210 (17.93%) Microsoft
4 203 (17.34%) Fortinet
5 197 (16.82%) VMware
6 165 (14.09%) Juniper
7 109 (9.31%) CheckPoint
8 97 (8.28%) Aruba
9 93 (7.94%) Meraki
9 93 (7.94%) SolarWinds
10 92 (7.86%) ServiceNow
11 75 (6.40%) Arista
12 58 (4.95%) Splunk
13 51 (4.36%) Zscaler
14 40 (3.42%) Dell
15 29 (2.48%) Extreme Networks
16 28 (2.39%) EMC
17 27 (2.31%) Citrix
18 26 (2.22%) Brocade
18 26 (2.22%) Red Hat