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 29 January 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
29 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 329 317 331
Rank change year-on-year -12 +14 +36
Contract jobs citing F5 286 229 274
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.74% 0.73% 0.63%
As % of the Vendors category 1.62% 1.58% 1.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 133 127 183
10th Percentile £336 £400 £378
25th Percentile £400 £456 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -5.66%
75th Percentile £625 £588 £615
90th Percentile £713 £650 £698
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -1.96%
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 17,609 14,510 19,245
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 45.75% 46.09% 43.90%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,336 8,569 12,142
10th Percentile £300 £284 £250
25th Percentile £410 £409 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £523 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.40% -0.38% -2.33%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £700 £713 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -0.10% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 831 427 856
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £13.05
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £23.83 £27.50 £32.06
Median % change year-on-year -13.36% -14.22% +3.41%
75th Percentile £51.38 £62.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £80.00 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.46 £25.00 £30.00
% change year-on-year -14.16% -16.67% +18.76%

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 29 January 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 29 January 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 29 January 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 -30 255 £500 -4.76% 42
UK excluding London -16 193 £500 -4.76% 39
North of England -3 104 £575 +15.00% 15
Work from Home +11 82 £525 +7.14% 10
North West +18 78 £500 +2.04% 6
Midlands -6 78 £380 -37.70% 4
West Midlands +29 77 £380 -31.03% 4
London -16 65 £550 +10.00% 9
Yorkshire -27 37 £638 +27.50% 9
South East -55 27 £500 - 13
Scotland +14 18 £500 +4.17% 3
South West -29 8 £520 +8.05% 1
East of England -16 2 - - 3
North East -17 1 £550 -
East Midlands -45 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 (3.85%) Confluence
2 10 (3.50%) OpenStack
3 6 (2.10%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.70%) CICS
4 2 (0.70%) Tomcat
4 2 (0.70%) WebSphere
5 1 (0.35%) nginx
5 1 (0.35%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 17 (5.94%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.05%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 101 (35.31%) AWS
2 53 (18.53%) Azure
3 48 (16.78%) GCP
4 29 (10.14%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 28 (9.79%) Akamai
6 25 (8.74%) Amazon S3
7 24 (8.39%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 24 (8.39%) Amazon ELB
8 23 (8.04%) Amazon EC2
9 10 (3.50%) OpenShift
10 6 (2.10%) OCI
11 5 (1.75%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 5 (1.75%) Microsoft 365
12 4 (1.40%) Cloudflare
12 4 (1.40%) Mimecast
13 3 (1.05%) GitHub
13 3 (1.05%) Nutanix
14 2 (0.70%) Amazon OpenSearch
14 2 (0.70%) PaaS
14 2 (0.70%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 155 (54.20%) Firewall
2 123 (43.01%) DNS
3 87 (30.42%) Network Security
4 82 (28.67%) SSL
5 78 (27.27%) TCP/IP
6 75 (26.22%) VPN
7 70 (24.48%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 63 (22.03%) WAN
9 59 (20.63%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 56 (19.58%) BGP
11 55 (19.23%) BIG-IP
12 51 (17.83%) Wireshark
13 47 (16.43%) HTTP
14 44 (15.38%) LAN
15 39 (13.64%) Wireless
16 38 (13.29%) DMZ
16 38 (13.29%) OSPF
17 30 (10.49%) MPLS
18 25 (8.74%) IPsec
19 22 (7.69%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.70%) Elasticsearch
1 2 (0.70%) NoSQL
1 2 (0.70%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (0.70%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 30 (10.49%) Git
2 28 (9.79%) Jenkins
3 26 (9.09%) Fiddler
4 22 (7.69%) GitLab
5 15 (5.24%) JIRA
6 2 (0.70%) Rational DOORS
6 2 (0.70%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 68 (23.78%) Social Skills
2 46 (16.08%) Banking
3 37 (12.94%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (11.89%) Finance
4 34 (11.89%) Investment Banking
5 29 (10.14%) Public Sector
6 19 (6.64%) Documentation Skills
7 18 (6.29%) Telecoms
8 10 (3.50%) Retail
9 7 (2.45%) Financial Institution
9 7 (2.45%) Military
10 6 (2.10%) Influencing Skills
10 6 (2.10%) Legal
10 6 (2.10%) Presentation Skills
11 4 (1.40%) Retail Banking
12 2 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.35%) Billing
13 1 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 109 (38.11%) Network Engineer
2 38 (13.29%) Senior
3 31 (10.84%) Architect
3 31 (10.84%) Security Engineer
4 28 (9.79%) Web Engineer
5 24 (8.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 20 (6.99%) Network Security Engineer
7 16 (5.59%) Network Architect
8 14 (4.90%) Operations Engineer
9 13 (4.55%) Blue Coat Engineer
9 13 (4.55%) Cisco Engineer
9 13 (4.55%) DevOps Engineer
9 13 (4.55%) IP Network Engineer
9 13 (4.55%) Junior
10 12 (4.20%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 12 (4.20%) Junior Network Engineer
10 12 (4.20%) Senior DevOps
10 12 (4.20%) Senior DevOps Engineer
10 12 (4.20%) Solutions Architect
11 11 (3.85%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (4.20%) 802.1X
2 9 (3.15%) LDAP
3 6 (2.10%) JSON
3 6 (2.10%) SAML
4 5 (1.75%) XML
5 4 (1.40%) NETCONF
5 4 (1.40%) VML
5 4 (1.40%) YANG
6 3 (1.05%) OpenConfig
6 3 (1.05%) REST
7 2 (0.70%) Middleware
7 2 (0.70%) RESTCONF
8 1 (0.35%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 54 (18.88%) Data Centre
2 31 (10.84%) Management Information System
3 21 (7.34%) Security Posture
4 12 (4.20%) Data Protection Act
5 10 (3.50%) Cloud Native
6 9 (3.15%) Hybrid Cloud
6 9 (3.15%) Private Cloud
7 7 (2.45%) Public Cloud
8 6 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (2.10%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.40%) PKI
9 4 (1.40%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.05%) Distributed Architecture
11 2 (0.70%) Algorithms
11 2 (0.70%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (0.70%) Cyber Threat
11 2 (0.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 2 (0.70%) Enterprise Storage
11 2 (0.70%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (0.70%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 22 (7.69%) Windows
2 20 (6.99%) Linux
3 8 (2.80%) Unix
4 7 (2.45%) Windows Server
5 5 (1.75%) Windows Server 2012
5 5 (1.75%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (1.40%) CatOS
7 2 (0.70%) Solaris
7 2 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (0.70%) zOS
8 1 (0.35%) MVS
8 1 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 104 (36.36%) Load Balancing
2 50 (17.48%) DevOps
3 44 (15.38%) Incident Response
4 39 (13.64%) CI/CD
5 38 (13.29%) DevSecOps
6 37 (12.94%) High Availability
6 37 (12.94%) Migration
7 36 (12.59%) Problem-Solving
8 34 (11.89%) Change Management
9 32 (11.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 27 (9.44%) Business Strategy
10 27 (9.44%) Infrastructure as Code
10 27 (9.44%) Stakeholder Management
11 25 (8.74%) Application Security
11 25 (8.74%) Mentoring
11 25 (8.74%) OWASP
12 24 (8.39%) Infrastructure Automation
13 23 (8.04%) Data Loss Prevention
13 23 (8.04%) Test Automation
14 22 (7.69%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 84 (29.37%) Python
2 33 (11.54%) Bash
3 8 (2.80%) Perl
4 7 (2.45%) PowerShell
5 5 (1.75%) SQL
6 2 (0.70%) Java
6 2 (0.70%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.35%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 67 (23.43%) Security Cleared
2 52 (18.18%) SC Cleared
3 40 (13.99%) Cisco Certification
4 28 (9.79%) CCNP
5 25 (8.74%) CCIE
6 13 (4.55%) JNCIE
7 10 (3.50%) AWS Certification
7 10 (3.50%) DV Cleared
8 8 (2.80%) CCNA
9 6 (2.10%) Degree
10 5 (1.75%) CCIE Security
10 5 (1.75%) CISSP
10 5 (1.75%) JNCIP
11 4 (1.40%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (1.40%) CCDP
11 4 (1.40%) CCSP
11 4 (1.40%) JNCIS
12 3 (1.05%) Azure Certification
12 3 (1.05%) GIAC
12 3 (1.05%) GWAPT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.45%) NIST
2 6 (2.10%) COBIT
2 6 (2.10%) PCI DSS
3 5 (1.75%) GDPR
3 5 (1.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (1.05%) JSP 440
5 2 (0.70%) Actionable Recommendations
5 2 (0.70%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (0.70%) NCSC
5 2 (0.70%) RMADS
5 2 (0.70%) SLA
6 1 (0.35%) Accessibility
System Software
1 67 (23.43%) VMware Infrastructure
2 35 (12.24%) VMware NSX
3 32 (11.19%) Docker
4 15 (5.24%) Active Directory
5 14 (4.90%) Firmware
6 10 (3.50%) vSphere
7 3 (1.05%) KVM
7 3 (1.05%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (1.05%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.70%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.70%) ProxySG
8 2 (0.70%) Xen
9 1 (0.35%) NFS
9 1 (0.35%) RHEV
9 1 (0.35%) Snort
9 1 (0.35%) SRDF
9 1 (0.35%) Veritas Cluster Server
9 1 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.35%) XenApp
9 1 (0.35%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 80 (27.97%) Ansible
2 66 (23.08%) Terraform
3 20 (6.99%) CSIRT
4 14 (4.90%) FortiGate
5 12 (4.20%) Kubernetes
6 8 (2.80%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (1.75%) Microsoft Intune
7 5 (1.75%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.75%) SCCM
8 4 (1.40%) Nagios
9 3 (1.05%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 2 (0.70%) Argo
10 2 (0.70%) Grafana
10 2 (0.70%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (0.70%) Salt
11 1 (0.35%) Norton AntiVirus
11 1 (0.35%) Puppet
11 1 (0.35%) SCOM
11 1 (0.35%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.35%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 112 (39.16%) Cisco
2 89 (31.12%) VMware
3 78 (27.27%) Palo Alto
4 73 (25.52%) CheckPoint
5 48 (16.78%) Blue Coat
6 45 (15.73%) Juniper
7 37 (12.94%) McAfee
8 30 (10.49%) Fortinet
9 22 (7.69%) Splunk
10 21 (7.34%) NetApp
11 19 (6.64%) Meraki
11 19 (6.64%) Zscaler
12 16 (5.59%) Microsoft
13 15 (5.24%) SolarWinds
14 11 (3.85%) Aruba
15 9 (3.15%) Dell
15 9 (3.15%) Oracle
16 8 (2.80%) Nokia
16 8 (2.80%) ServiceNow
17 6 (2.10%) Dynatrace