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 16 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
16 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 357 316 333
Rank change year-on-year -41 +17 +47
Contract jobs citing F5 269 218 281
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.67% 0.71% 0.63%
As % of the Vendors category 1.51% 1.53% 1.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 129 183
10th Percentile £331 £400 £382
25th Percentile £400 £450 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £486 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.38% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £600
90th Percentile £704 £651 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £490
% change year-on-year -4.76% +7.14% -2.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 7
10th Percentile - - £64.65
25th Percentile £44.86 £21.25 £68.75
Median hourly rate £48.72 £22.50 £72.50
Median % change year-on-year +116.53% -68.97% +271.79%
75th Percentile £52.58 £23.75 £76.88
90th Percentile - - £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £22.50 £72.50
% change year-on-year +116.53% -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 17,857 14,220 19,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 44.77% 46.35% 43.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,452 8,494 12,228
10th Percentile £300 £275 £258
25th Percentile £413 £406 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £522 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.12% -0.67% -1.41%
75th Percentile £606 £625 £630
90th Percentile £700 £711 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £493 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 885 404 920
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £12.86
25th Percentile £17.96 £21.20 £15.50
Median hourly rate £23.83 £29.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.24% +7.27% -16.03%
75th Percentile £57.00 £63.75 £58.71
90th Percentile £74.26 £80.75 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.17 £27.13 £26.00
% change year-on-year -18.27% +4.33% -11.26%

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 16 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
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 16 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 -21 240 £500 -4.76% 56
UK excluding London -38 176 £500 -4.76% 52
North of England +10 107 £600 +18.23% 10
North West +24 83 £550 +12.24% 8
Work from Home -6 72 £500 +2.04% 11
Midlands -8 71 £385 -36.89% 9
West Midlands +15 70 £385 -30.13% 9
London -26 63 £475 -7.32% 11
Yorkshire -31 34 £625 +56.25% 2
South East -53 25 £500 - 27
Scotland +9 12 £450 +2.86% 2
South West -39 6 £550 +18.92% 1
East of England -26 2 - - 3
East Midlands -36 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 9 (3.35%) Confluence
2 7 (2.60%) OpenStack
3 6 (2.23%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.37%) nginx
Applications
1 17 (6.32%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 3 (1.12%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.74%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 73 (27.14%) AWS
2 45 (16.73%) Azure
3 34 (12.64%) GCP
4 21 (7.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 19 (7.06%) Akamai
6 17 (6.32%) Amazon S3
7 16 (5.95%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 16 (5.95%) Amazon ELB
8 15 (5.58%) Amazon EC2
9 7 (2.60%) OpenShift
10 6 (2.23%) Microsoft 365
11 5 (1.86%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 4 (1.49%) Cloudflare
12 4 (1.49%) Mimecast
12 4 (1.49%) Nutanix
12 4 (1.49%) OCI
13 2 (0.74%) Amazon OpenSearch
13 2 (0.74%) AWS Direct Connect
13 2 (0.74%) Entra ID
14 1 (0.37%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 135 (50.19%) Firewall
2 127 (47.21%) DNS
3 77 (28.62%) Network Security
4 76 (28.25%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 70 (26.02%) TCP/IP
6 67 (24.91%) BIG-IP
6 67 (24.91%) VPN
7 66 (24.54%) SSL
8 62 (23.05%) BGP
9 59 (21.93%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 56 (20.82%) WAN
11 48 (17.84%) Wireshark
12 46 (17.10%) HTTP
13 41 (15.24%) LAN
13 41 (15.24%) OSPF
14 37 (13.75%) DMZ
15 33 (12.27%) Wireless
16 31 (11.52%) MPLS
17 26 (9.67%) Multicast
18 23 (8.55%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.74%) Elasticsearch
2 1 (0.37%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 29 (10.78%) Fiddler
2 23 (8.55%) Git
3 17 (6.32%) GitLab
3 17 (6.32%) Jenkins
3 17 (6.32%) JIRA
4 2 (0.74%) Rational DOORS
5 1 (0.37%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 59 (21.93%) Social Skills
2 47 (17.47%) Banking
3 40 (14.87%) Finance
4 36 (13.38%) Investment Banking
5 26 (9.67%) Analytical Skills
6 24 (8.92%) Public Sector
7 13 (4.83%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (4.83%) Telecoms
8 8 (2.97%) Financial Institution
8 8 (2.97%) Military
8 8 (2.97%) Retail
9 6 (2.23%) Influencing Skills
9 6 (2.23%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (1.49%) Legal
10 4 (1.49%) Retail Banking
11 2 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.37%) Billing
12 1 (0.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 111 (41.26%) Network Engineer
2 34 (12.64%) Senior
3 33 (12.27%) Web Engineer
4 32 (11.90%) Architect
5 31 (11.52%) Security Engineer
6 21 (7.81%) Network Security Engineer
7 17 (6.32%) Cisco Engineer
8 16 (5.95%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 16 (5.95%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 15 (5.58%) Blue Coat Engineer
9 15 (5.58%) IP Network Engineer
9 15 (5.58%) Network Architect
10 14 (5.20%) Junior
11 13 (4.83%) Data Engineer
11 13 (4.83%) Data Network Engineer
11 13 (4.83%) DevOps Engineer
11 13 (4.83%) Junior Network Engineer
12 12 (4.46%) Cisco Security Engineer
12 12 (4.46%) Operations Engineer
12 12 (4.46%) Senior DevOps
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (3.35%) JSON
2 8 (2.97%) 802.1X
3 7 (2.60%) LDAP
4 6 (2.23%) SAML
5 5 (1.86%) XML
6 4 (1.49%) NETCONF
6 4 (1.49%) REST
6 4 (1.49%) VML
6 4 (1.49%) YANG
7 3 (1.12%) OpenConfig
8 2 (0.74%) RESTCONF
9 1 (0.37%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 51 (18.96%) Data Centre
2 28 (10.41%) Management Information System
3 14 (5.20%) Public Cloud
3 14 (5.20%) Security Posture
4 8 (2.97%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (2.23%) Cloud Native
5 6 (2.23%) Hybrid Cloud
5 6 (2.23%) PKI
5 6 (2.23%) Private Cloud
6 5 (1.86%) Onboarding
7 4 (1.49%) Legacy Systems
7 4 (1.49%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.12%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.12%) iSeries
9 2 (0.74%) Algorithms
9 2 (0.74%) CESG
9 2 (0.74%) Clustering
9 2 (0.74%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 2 (0.74%) Enterprise Storage
9 2 (0.74%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 21 (7.81%) Windows
2 16 (5.95%) Linux
3 8 (2.97%) Windows Server
4 6 (2.23%) Unix
4 6 (2.23%) Windows Server 2012
4 6 (2.23%) Windows Server 2019
5 4 (1.49%) CatOS
6 2 (0.74%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (42.01%) Load Balancing
2 40 (14.87%) DevOps
2 40 (14.87%) Incident Response
2 40 (14.87%) Migration
3 39 (14.50%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (12.64%) High Availability
5 28 (10.41%) Change Management
5 28 (10.41%) CI/CD
6 27 (10.04%) Data Loss Prevention
6 27 (10.04%) DevSecOps
6 27 (10.04%) Stakeholder Management
7 26 (9.67%) Malware Detection/Protection
8 25 (9.29%) Mentoring
9 23 (8.55%) Infrastructure as Code
9 23 (8.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 22 (8.18%) Business Strategy
11 21 (7.81%) Network Design
11 21 (7.81%) Project Delivery
11 21 (7.81%) Roadmaps
11 21 (7.81%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 71 (26.39%) Python
2 25 (9.29%) Bash
3 6 (2.23%) PowerShell
4 4 (1.49%) SQL
5 2 (0.74%) ActionScript
5 2 (0.74%) JavaScript
5 2 (0.74%) VBA
6 1 (0.37%) Perl
6 1 (0.37%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 55 (20.45%) Security Cleared
2 39 (14.50%) Cisco Certification
3 37 (13.75%) SC Cleared
4 30 (11.15%) CCNP
5 23 (8.55%) CCIE
6 12 (4.46%) DV Cleared
7 10 (3.72%) JNCIE
8 8 (2.97%) CCNA
9 7 (2.60%) AWS Certification
9 7 (2.60%) Degree
10 5 (1.86%) CCIE Security
10 5 (1.86%) CISSP
10 5 (1.86%) JNCIP
11 4 (1.49%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (1.49%) CCSP
11 4 (1.49%) JNCIS
12 3 (1.12%) Azure Certification
12 3 (1.12%) CCSE
12 3 (1.12%) GIAC
12 3 (1.12%) GWAPT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.60%) NIST
2 6 (2.23%) PCI DSS
3 5 (1.86%) GDPR
3 5 (1.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (1.49%) COBIT
5 3 (1.12%) JSP 440
6 2 (0.74%) NCSC
6 2 (0.74%) RMADS
6 2 (0.74%) SLA
7 1 (0.37%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.37%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 59 (21.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 34 (12.64%) VMware NSX
3 25 (9.29%) Docker
4 16 (5.95%) Firmware
5 14 (5.20%) Active Directory
6 11 (4.09%) vSphere
7 4 (1.49%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (1.12%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.74%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.37%) KVM
10 1 (0.37%) RHEV
10 1 (0.37%) Snort
10 1 (0.37%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.37%) Xen
10 1 (0.37%) XenApp
10 1 (0.37%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 67 (24.91%) Ansible
2 45 (16.73%) Terraform
3 19 (7.06%) FortiGate
4 13 (4.83%) CSIRT
5 11 (4.09%) Kubernetes
6 9 (3.35%) Prometheus
7 8 (2.97%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (2.23%) Grafana
8 6 (2.23%) Microsoft Intune
8 6 (2.23%) SCCM
9 5 (1.86%) Salt
10 4 (1.49%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (1.49%) Nagios
11 2 (0.74%) Argo
11 2 (0.74%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.37%) Norton AntiVirus
12 1 (0.37%) Proxmox
12 1 (0.37%) SCOM
12 1 (0.37%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.37%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 112 (41.64%) Cisco
2 83 (30.86%) VMware
3 76 (28.25%) Palo Alto
4 62 (23.05%) CheckPoint
5 45 (16.73%) Blue Coat
6 41 (15.24%) McAfee
7 40 (14.87%) Juniper
8 30 (11.15%) Fortinet
9 20 (7.43%) NetApp
9 20 (7.43%) Splunk
10 17 (6.32%) Meraki
11 16 (5.95%) Aruba
11 16 (5.95%) Zscaler
12 15 (5.58%) Microsoft
12 15 (5.58%) SolarWinds
13 14 (5.20%) Arista
14 12 (4.46%) ServiceNow
15 7 (2.60%) Dell
15 7 (2.60%) Infoblox
15 7 (2.60%) Nokia