F5 Contract Job Trends

F5
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of F5 products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited F5 over the 6 months leading up to 23 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 F5 Networks, Inc.

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 323 356 264
Rank change year-on-year +33 -92 +139
Contract jobs citing F5 373 210 368
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.71% 0.64% 0.90%
As % of the Vendors category 1.71% 1.35% 2.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 167 125 251
10th Percentile £384 £384 £363
25th Percentile £416 £413 £433
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £513
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -6.34% -2.38%
75th Percentile £588 £584 £584
90th Percentile £675 £645 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £520 £490 £525
% change year-on-year +6.23% -6.76% +5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 3
10th Percentile £44.28 - -
25th Percentile £48.68 - -
Median hourly rate £57.02 - £23.80
75th Percentile £65.01 - -
90th Percentile £69.20 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.02 - -

All Vendors
UK

F5 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 21,778 15,500 17,842
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.30% 47.45% 43.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,534 9,482 11,204
10th Percentile £313 £281 £275
25th Percentile £413 £402 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £500 £514
Median % change year-on-year +0.10% -2.72% -2.10%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £713 £731
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,078 764 967
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.75 £13.13
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.30 £15.50
Median hourly rate £35.00 £25.15 £26.03
Median % change year-on-year +39.17% -3.38% -36.22%
75th Percentile £65.00 £50.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £85.00 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.99 £22.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year +51.07% -10.00% -22.24%

F5
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing F5 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

F5 job vacancy trend in the UK

F5
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing F5.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing F5

F5
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing F5 over the 6 months to 23 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for F5 in the UK

F5
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing F5.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing F5

F5
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing F5 over the 6 months to 23 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for F5 in the UK

F5
Top 14 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing F5 within the UK over the 6 months to 23 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 -4 327 £513 +4.91% 37
UK excluding London +22 259 £520 +6.23% 18
North of England +19 126 £542 +14.06% 6
Work from Home -17 91 £550 +22.22% 15
North West +21 87 £575 +21.05% 5
Midlands +2 75 £565 +4.63% 3
West Midlands -1 75 £565 +4.92% 3
London -68 74 £500 +5.26% 25
South East -26 68 £520 -0.95% 6
Yorkshire -34 32 £478 +6.11% 1
Scotland +6 21 £419 -6.94% 2
South West -46 17 £495 -9.09% 1
North East - 13 £650 -
East of England -24 5 £530 +1.92%

F5
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 7 (1.88%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.34%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.07%) nginx
4 3 (0.80%) Apache
4 3 (0.80%) Confluence
4 3 (0.80%) IIS
4 3 (0.80%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.80%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.27%) CMS
Applications
1 9 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (2.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 9 (2.41%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.61%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 62 (16.62%) Azure
2 54 (14.48%) AWS
3 23 (6.17%) OCI
4 20 (5.36%) GitHub
5 15 (4.02%) SaaS
6 10 (2.68%) IaaS
7 9 (2.41%) GCP
8 8 (2.14%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 7 (1.88%) OpenShift
9 7 (1.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 6 (1.61%) Cloudflare
10 6 (1.61%) Microsoft 365
11 4 (1.07%) Entra ID
12 3 (0.80%) Mimecast
12 3 (0.80%) Nutanix
12 3 (0.80%) OneDrive
13 2 (0.54%) Amazon S3
14 1 (0.27%) Amazon GuardDuty
14 1 (0.27%) Amazon OpenSearch
14 1 (0.27%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 203 (54.42%) Firewall
2 167 (44.77%) BGP
3 153 (41.02%) DNS
4 135 (36.19%) BIG-IP
5 120 (32.17%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 120 (32.17%) WAN
6 117 (31.37%) OSPF
7 108 (28.95%) VPN
8 89 (23.86%) LAN
9 82 (21.98%) Network Security
10 81 (21.72%) VXLAN
11 69 (18.50%) TCP/IP
12 63 (16.89%) Multicast
13 62 (16.62%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 58 (15.55%) Ethernet VPN
15 52 (13.94%) Cisco Nexus
15 52 (13.94%) DHCP
16 49 (13.14%) SSL
17 48 (12.87%) SD-WAN
18 46 (12.33%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.07%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.80%) MySQL
3 1 (0.27%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (0.27%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 31 (8.31%) JIRA
2 21 (5.63%) GitLab
3 19 (5.09%) Fiddler
4 13 (3.49%) Jenkins
5 7 (1.88%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (1.34%) Git
7 1 (0.27%) MSI
7 1 (0.27%) Visual Studio
General
1 51 (13.67%) Social Skills
2 49 (13.14%) Banking
3 48 (12.87%) Finance
4 34 (9.12%) Investment Banking
5 26 (6.97%) Public Sector
6 25 (6.70%) Analytical Skills
7 19 (5.09%) Telecoms
8 12 (3.22%) Financial Institution
9 7 (1.88%) Retail
10 6 (1.61%) Military
11 4 (1.07%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.07%) Legal
12 3 (0.80%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.54%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.27%) Law
14 1 (0.27%) Police
14 1 (0.27%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 189 (50.67%) Network Engineer
2 66 (17.69%) Senior
3 60 (16.09%) Security Engineer
4 54 (14.48%) Network Security Engineer
5 42 (11.26%) Cisco Engineer
6 40 (10.72%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 39 (10.46%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 37 (9.92%) Architect
8 37 (9.92%) Data Network Engineer
9 34 (9.12%) Web Engineer
10 33 (8.85%) Data Engineer
11 31 (8.31%) Cisco Security Engineer
12 29 (7.77%) Senior Network Engineer
13 21 (5.63%) IP Network Engineer
14 20 (5.36%) Network Architect
15 19 (5.09%) Network Specialist
15 19 (5.09%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 16 (4.29%) Blue Coat Engineer
17 14 (3.75%) Firewall Specialist
18 13 (3.49%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (10.19%) 802.1X
2 11 (2.95%) JSON
3 7 (1.88%) SAML
3 7 (1.88%) YAML
4 6 (1.61%) NETCONF
4 6 (1.61%) OpenConfig
4 6 (1.61%) RESTCONF
4 6 (1.61%) YANG
5 5 (1.34%) REST
6 4 (1.07%) LDAP
7 3 (0.80%) LAMP
7 3 (0.80%) LEMP Stack
8 2 (0.54%) eBPF
9 1 (0.27%) .NET
9 1 (0.27%) .NET Framework
9 1 (0.27%) Bun
9 1 (0.27%) Elastic Stack
9 1 (0.27%) React
Miscellaneous
1 122 (32.71%) Data Centre
2 42 (11.26%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (7.24%) PKI
4 25 (6.70%) Clustering
5 21 (5.63%) Cloud Native
6 19 (5.09%) Management Information System
7 18 (4.83%) Public Cloud
8 13 (3.49%) Onboarding
9 12 (3.22%) Data Protection Act
10 10 (2.68%) Private Cloud
11 6 (1.61%) Analytical Mindset
11 6 (1.61%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 4 (1.07%) Digital Signage
13 3 (0.80%) Algorithms
13 3 (0.80%) Distributed Applications
13 3 (0.80%) Legacy Systems
13 3 (0.80%) Linux Command Line
13 3 (0.80%) Self-Motivation
13 3 (0.80%) Virtual Team
14 2 (0.54%) iSeries
Operating Systems
1 58 (15.55%) Windows
2 40 (10.72%) Linux
3 10 (2.68%) Unix
4 6 (1.61%) Windows Server
5 5 (1.34%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (1.34%) Windows Server 2019
6 3 (0.80%) CentOS
6 3 (0.80%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.27%) CatOS
7 1 (0.27%) Check Point GAiA
7 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 176 (47.18%) Load Balancing
2 77 (20.64%) High Availability
3 54 (14.48%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 49 (13.14%) Project Delivery
5 47 (12.60%) Migration
6 45 (12.06%) Problem-Solving
7 44 (11.80%) CI/CD
7 44 (11.80%) Zero Trust
8 41 (10.99%) Network Design
9 35 (9.38%) Agile
10 33 (8.85%) Observability
11 32 (8.58%) Change Management
12 31 (8.31%) Stakeholder Management
13 30 (8.04%) Infrastructure as Code
14 29 (7.77%) ITIL
15 27 (7.24%) Network Architecture
16 26 (6.97%) Identity Access Management
16 26 (6.97%) Roadmaps
17 25 (6.70%) Network Management
18 23 (6.17%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 94 (25.20%) Python
2 13 (3.49%) ActionScript
3 11 (2.95%) SQL
4 10 (2.68%) Bash
4 10 (2.68%) JavaScript
5 9 (2.41%) PowerShell
5 9 (2.41%) VBA
6 3 (0.80%) C++
6 3 (0.80%) Lisp
6 3 (0.80%) Shell Script
7 2 (0.54%) Perl
8 1 (0.27%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.27%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 98 (26.27%) Security Cleared
2 71 (19.03%) Cisco Certification
3 56 (15.01%) SC Cleared
4 37 (9.92%) CCNP
5 28 (7.51%) DV Cleared
6 19 (5.09%) CCIE
7 15 (4.02%) Degree
8 7 (1.88%) CCNA
8 7 (1.88%) JNCIA
8 7 (1.88%) JNCIP
8 7 (1.88%) JNCIS
9 6 (1.61%) JNCIE
10 4 (1.07%) CCIE Security
10 4 (1.07%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.80%) CISSP
11 3 (0.80%) GIAC
11 3 (0.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (0.54%) AWS Certification
12 2 (0.54%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (0.54%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.41%) QA
2 6 (1.61%) Disclosure Scotland
3 5 (1.34%) NCSC
4 3 (0.80%) SLA
5 2 (0.54%) GDPR
5 2 (0.54%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.54%) JSP 440
5 2 (0.54%) NIST
6 1 (0.27%) GRC
System Software
1 40 (10.72%) VMware Infrastructure
2 21 (5.63%) VMware NSX
3 18 (4.83%) Firmware
4 14 (3.75%) Active Directory
5 5 (1.34%) Docker
5 5 (1.34%) Virtual Servers
5 5 (1.34%) vSphere
6 3 (0.80%) Dovecot
6 3 (0.80%) Postfix
7 2 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.27%) IAG
8 1 (0.27%) KVM
8 1 (0.27%) ProxySG
8 1 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 85 (22.79%) Ansible
2 52 (13.94%) FortiGate
3 43 (11.53%) Terraform
4 9 (2.41%) Grafana
4 9 (2.41%) Prometheus
5 8 (2.14%) WMI
6 7 (1.88%) Kubernetes
7 6 (1.61%) Cisco Prime
7 6 (1.61%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (1.34%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 5 (1.34%) Single Sign-On
9 3 (0.80%) HAProxy
9 3 (0.80%) Salt
9 3 (0.80%) SCCM
10 2 (0.54%) Avamar
10 2 (0.54%) Puppet
10 2 (0.54%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.27%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.27%) Red Hat Satellite
11 1 (0.27%) vRealize
Vendors
1 231 (61.93%) Cisco
2 139 (37.27%) Palo Alto
3 74 (19.84%) Juniper
4 71 (19.03%) Fortinet
5 56 (15.01%) VMware
6 53 (14.21%) CheckPoint
7 50 (13.40%) Arista
8 46 (12.33%) SolarWinds
9 40 (10.72%) Splunk
10 33 (8.85%) Aruba
11 29 (7.77%) Microsoft
12 27 (7.24%) Blue Coat
13 26 (6.97%) Infoblox
14 23 (6.17%) Extreme Networks
15 21 (5.63%) ServiceNow
16 19 (5.09%) McAfee
17 16 (4.29%) NetApp
18 14 (3.75%) Zscaler
19 8 (2.14%) Citrix
19 8 (2.14%) Meraki