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 5 February 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
5 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 336 314 330
Rank change year-on-year -22 +16 +45
Contract jobs citing F5 276 223 278
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.70% 0.72% 0.63%
As % of the Vendors category 1.55% 1.55% 1.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 126 124 188
10th Percentile £335 £400 £378
25th Percentile £413 £455 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.24% +5.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £611 £591 £600
90th Percentile £706 £651 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -0.99%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 7
10th Percentile £46.95 - £64.65
25th Percentile £50.08 £21.25 £68.75
Median hourly rate £57.61 £22.50 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +156.04% -68.97% +271.79%
75th Percentile £63.58 £23.75 £76.88
90th Percentile £65.78 - £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.61 £22.50 £72.50
% change year-on-year +156.04% -68.97% -7.88%

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 17,782 14,379 19,458
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 45.42% 46.17% 43.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,440 8,539 12,289
10th Percentile £300 £275 £253
25th Percentile £410 £408 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.31% -0.48% -2.33%
75th Percentile £608 £625 £633
90th Percentile £700 £713 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 848 422 916
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £12.93
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £15.63
Median hourly rate £23.83 £28.60 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.70% -4.67% +4.53%
75th Percentile £55.00 £62.25 £59.93
90th Percentile £73.75 £80.09 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £26.42 £26.66
% change year-on-year -16.72% -0.91% +3.41%

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 5 February 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 5 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for F5 in the UK

F5
Top 15 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 5 February 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 -29 244 £500 -4.76% 53
UK excluding London -10 192 £500 -4.76% 44
North of England +10 112 £563 +12.78% 17
North West +24 83 £550 +12.24% 11
Work from Home +1 76 £500 +2.04% 12
Midlands -9 74 £415 -31.97% 4
West Midlands +24 73 £415 -24.68% 4
London -35 56 £500 -2.44% 16
Yorkshire -26 39 £575 +43.75% 6
South East -51 25 £500 -1.23% 14
Scotland +19 17 £500 +14.29% 3
South West -31 7 £520 +12.43% 1
East of England -25 2 - - 5
North East -15 1 £550 -
East Midlands -40 1 - -

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 11 (3.99%) Confluence
2 9 (3.26%) OpenStack
3 6 (2.17%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.36%) nginx
Applications
1 17 (6.16%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.09%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 88 (31.88%) AWS
2 52 (18.84%) Azure
3 45 (16.30%) GCP
4 27 (9.78%) Akamai
5 21 (7.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 17 (6.16%) Amazon S3
7 16 (5.80%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 16 (5.80%) Amazon ELB
8 15 (5.43%) Amazon EC2
9 9 (3.26%) OpenShift
10 6 (2.17%) Microsoft 365
10 6 (2.17%) OCI
11 5 (1.81%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 4 (1.45%) Cloudflare
12 4 (1.45%) Mimecast
12 4 (1.45%) Nutanix
13 2 (0.72%) Amazon OpenSearch
13 2 (0.72%) AWS Direct Connect
13 2 (0.72%) Entra ID
13 2 (0.72%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 142 (51.45%) Firewall
2 123 (44.57%) DNS
3 81 (29.35%) Network Security
4 78 (28.26%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 73 (26.45%) TCP/IP
6 68 (24.64%) SSL
7 63 (22.83%) BIG-IP
7 63 (22.83%) VPN
8 62 (22.46%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
9 58 (21.01%) BGP
10 57 (20.65%) WAN
11 53 (19.20%) Wireshark
12 46 (16.67%) HTTP
13 43 (15.58%) LAN
14 39 (14.13%) OSPF
15 37 (13.41%) DMZ
16 33 (11.96%) Wireless
17 29 (10.51%) MPLS
18 22 (7.97%) SD-WAN
19 20 (7.25%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.72%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (0.36%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 28 (10.14%) Fiddler
2 22 (7.97%) Git
3 18 (6.52%) JIRA
4 17 (6.16%) GitLab
4 17 (6.16%) Jenkins
5 2 (0.72%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.36%) Robot Framework
6 1 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 68 (24.64%) Social Skills
2 49 (17.75%) Banking
3 38 (13.77%) Finance
4 36 (13.04%) Investment Banking
5 34 (12.32%) Analytical Skills
6 25 (9.06%) Public Sector
7 18 (6.52%) Documentation Skills
8 15 (5.43%) Telecoms
9 10 (3.62%) Retail
10 7 (2.54%) Financial Institution
11 6 (2.17%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (2.17%) Legal
11 6 (2.17%) Military
11 6 (2.17%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (1.45%) Retail Banking
13 2 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.36%) Billing
14 1 (0.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 105 (38.04%) Network Engineer
2 33 (11.96%) Architect
3 31 (11.23%) Senior
4 29 (10.51%) Security Engineer
4 29 (10.51%) Web Engineer
5 18 (6.52%) Network Security Engineer
6 16 (5.80%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 16 (5.80%) Network Architect
7 14 (5.07%) Blue Coat Engineer
7 14 (5.07%) Cisco Engineer
7 14 (5.07%) IP Network Engineer
7 14 (5.07%) Junior
8 13 (4.71%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 13 (4.71%) DevOps Engineer
8 13 (4.71%) Junior Network Engineer
8 13 (4.71%) Operations Engineer
9 12 (4.35%) Senior DevOps
9 12 (4.35%) Senior DevOps Engineer
10 11 (3.99%) Solutions Architect
11 9 (3.26%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.26%) JSON
2 7 (2.54%) 802.1X
2 7 (2.54%) LDAP
3 6 (2.17%) SAML
4 5 (1.81%) XML
5 4 (1.45%) NETCONF
5 4 (1.45%) REST
5 4 (1.45%) VML
5 4 (1.45%) YANG
6 3 (1.09%) OpenConfig
7 2 (0.72%) RESTCONF
8 1 (0.36%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 49 (17.75%) Data Centre
2 30 (10.87%) Management Information System
3 20 (7.25%) Security Posture
4 13 (4.71%) Public Cloud
5 10 (3.62%) Cloud Native
6 8 (2.90%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (2.90%) Hybrid Cloud
7 7 (2.54%) Private Cloud
8 6 (2.17%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (2.17%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.45%) PKI
9 4 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.09%) Distributed Architecture
10 3 (1.09%) iSeries
11 2 (0.72%) Algorithms
11 2 (0.72%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (0.72%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.72%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 2 (0.72%) Enterprise Storage
11 2 (0.72%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 21 (7.61%) Windows
2 13 (4.71%) Linux
3 8 (2.90%) Windows Server
4 6 (2.17%) Windows Server 2012
4 6 (2.17%) Windows Server 2019
5 4 (1.45%) CatOS
6 3 (1.09%) Unix
7 2 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (38.77%) Load Balancing
2 41 (14.86%) DevOps
2 41 (14.86%) Migration
3 40 (14.49%) Incident Response
3 40 (14.49%) Problem-Solving
4 33 (11.96%) DevSecOps
5 32 (11.59%) CI/CD
6 31 (11.23%) Change Management
6 31 (11.23%) High Availability
7 29 (10.51%) Stakeholder Management
8 25 (9.06%) Business Strategy
8 25 (9.06%) Data Loss Prevention
8 25 (9.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 25 (9.06%) Mentoring
8 25 (9.06%) OWASP
9 24 (8.70%) Application Security
9 24 (8.70%) Malware Detection/Protection
10 23 (8.33%) Infrastructure as Code
11 22 (7.97%) Project Delivery
11 22 (7.97%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 75 (27.17%) Python
2 25 (9.06%) Bash
3 7 (2.54%) PowerShell
4 4 (1.45%) Perl
4 4 (1.45%) SQL
5 2 (0.72%) ActionScript
5 2 (0.72%) JavaScript
5 2 (0.72%) VBA
6 1 (0.36%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 56 (20.29%) Security Cleared
2 40 (14.49%) Cisco Certification
2 40 (14.49%) SC Cleared
3 29 (10.51%) CCNP
4 24 (8.70%) CCIE
5 12 (4.35%) JNCIE
6 10 (3.62%) DV Cleared
7 9 (3.26%) AWS Certification
8 8 (2.90%) CCNA
9 7 (2.54%) Degree
10 5 (1.81%) CCIE Security
10 5 (1.81%) CISSP
10 5 (1.81%) JNCIP
11 4 (1.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (1.45%) CCDP
11 4 (1.45%) CCSP
11 4 (1.45%) JNCIS
12 3 (1.09%) CCSE
12 3 (1.09%) CEH
12 3 (1.09%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.54%) NIST
2 6 (2.17%) COBIT
2 6 (2.17%) PCI DSS
3 5 (1.81%) GDPR
3 5 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.09%) JSP 440
5 2 (0.72%) NCSC
5 2 (0.72%) RMADS
5 2 (0.72%) SLA
6 1 (0.36%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.36%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 64 (23.19%) VMware Infrastructure
2 35 (12.68%) VMware NSX
3 25 (9.06%) Docker
4 15 (5.43%) Firmware
5 14 (5.07%) Active Directory
6 11 (3.99%) vSphere
7 4 (1.45%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (1.09%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.72%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.36%) KVM
10 1 (0.36%) RHEV
10 1 (0.36%) Snort
10 1 (0.36%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.36%) Xen
10 1 (0.36%) XenApp
10 1 (0.36%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 68 (24.64%) Ansible
2 49 (17.75%) Terraform
3 19 (6.88%) CSIRT
4 17 (6.16%) FortiGate
5 11 (3.99%) Kubernetes
6 8 (2.90%) Single Sign-On
7 6 (2.17%) Microsoft Intune
7 6 (2.17%) SCCM
8 5 (1.81%) Prometheus
9 4 (1.45%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 4 (1.45%) Nagios
10 2 (0.72%) Argo
10 2 (0.72%) Grafana
10 2 (0.72%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.72%) Salt
11 1 (0.36%) Podman
11 1 (0.36%) Proxmox
11 1 (0.36%) SCOM
11 1 (0.36%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.36%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 105 (38.04%) Cisco
2 87 (31.52%) VMware
3 70 (25.36%) Palo Alto
4 59 (21.38%) CheckPoint
5 45 (16.30%) Blue Coat
6 40 (14.49%) Juniper
6 40 (14.49%) McAfee
7 30 (10.87%) Fortinet
8 21 (7.61%) Splunk
9 20 (7.25%) NetApp
10 19 (6.88%) Meraki
11 16 (5.80%) Microsoft
11 16 (5.80%) Zscaler
12 15 (5.43%) SolarWinds
13 11 (3.99%) Aruba
14 9 (3.26%) Dell
15 8 (2.90%) Nokia
15 8 (2.90%) ServiceNow
16 7 (2.54%) Infoblox
16 7 (2.54%) Oracle