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 10 August 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
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 343 325 257
Rank change year-on-year -18 -68 +122
Contract jobs citing F5 358 233 363
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.67% 0.70% 0.94%
As % of the Vendors category 1.62% 1.49% 2.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 157 135 249
10th Percentile £380 £380 £368
25th Percentile £413 £406 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -7.14% -
75th Percentile £588 £606 £584
90th Percentile £680 £650 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £520 £488 £550
% change year-on-year +6.67% -11.36% +10.00%
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 22,146 15,674 16,938
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.52% 47.28% 43.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,674 9,588 10,606
10th Percentile £313 £280 £287
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +1.25% -3.85% -0.95%
75th Percentile £606 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £700 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.28% -4.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,158 798 841
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.50 £13.69
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.30 £15.62
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.15 £29.00
Median % change year-on-year +29.22% -13.28% -30.12%
75th Percentile £65.00 £48.75 £61.60
90th Percentile £83.36 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.00 £21.39 £28.00
% change year-on-year +49.60% -23.61% -18.84%

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 10 August 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 10 August 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 10 August 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 -31 315 £520 +6.67% 33
UK excluding London +4 244 £520 +6.67% 27
North of England +4 112 £550 +15.79% 16
Work from Home -5 94 £550 +22.22% 15
North West +14 79 £575 +21.05% 14
West Midlands +5 78 £573 +34.82% 2
Midlands +4 78 £573 +27.33% 2
London -95 76 £500 +5.26% 12
South East -35 66 £520 -0.48% 2
Yorkshire -38 26 £488 +8.33% 2
Scotland +2 21 £419 -15.40% 5
South West -51 17 £495 -9.55% 3
North East - 13 £650 -
East of England -15 5 £530 +24.71%

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 (1.96%) SharePoint
2 5 (1.40%) OpenStack
3 4 (1.12%) nginx
4 3 (0.84%) Apache
4 3 (0.84%) IIS
4 3 (0.84%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.84%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.56%) Confluence
6 1 (0.28%) CMS
Applications
1 9 (2.51%) Microsoft Excel
1 9 (2.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 9 (2.51%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.68%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 60 (16.76%) Azure
2 51 (14.25%) AWS
3 23 (6.42%) OCI
4 20 (5.59%) GitHub
5 15 (4.19%) SaaS
6 10 (2.79%) IaaS
7 9 (2.51%) GCP
8 8 (2.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 7 (1.96%) OpenShift
9 7 (1.96%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 6 (1.68%) Cloudflare
11 4 (1.12%) Entra ID
11 4 (1.12%) Microsoft 365
12 3 (0.84%) Mimecast
12 3 (0.84%) OneDrive
13 1 (0.28%) Amazon EC2
13 1 (0.28%) Amazon S3
13 1 (0.28%) AWS CloudFormation
13 1 (0.28%) CloudBees
13 1 (0.28%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 196 (54.75%) Firewall
2 165 (46.09%) BGP
3 141 (39.39%) DNS
4 132 (36.87%) BIG-IP
5 119 (33.24%) WAN
6 115 (32.12%) OSPF
7 113 (31.56%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
8 109 (30.45%) VPN
9 88 (24.58%) LAN
10 82 (22.91%) VXLAN
11 79 (22.07%) Network Security
12 64 (17.88%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 62 (17.32%) TCP/IP
14 59 (16.48%) Ethernet VPN
15 58 (16.20%) Multicast
16 55 (15.36%) Cisco Nexus
17 51 (14.25%) DHCP
18 48 (13.41%) SD-WAN
18 48 (13.41%) SSL
19 46 (12.85%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.12%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.84%) MySQL
3 1 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 25 (6.98%) JIRA
2 20 (5.59%) GitLab
3 17 (4.75%) Fiddler
4 13 (3.63%) Jenkins
5 8 (2.23%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (1.40%) Git
7 1 (0.28%) MSI
7 1 (0.28%) Robot Framework
7 1 (0.28%) Visual Studio
General
1 49 (13.69%) Social Skills
2 45 (12.57%) Banking
3 40 (11.17%) Finance
4 33 (9.22%) Investment Banking
5 24 (6.70%) Analytical Skills
5 24 (6.70%) Public Sector
6 19 (5.31%) Telecoms
7 10 (2.79%) Financial Institution
8 7 (1.96%) Retail
9 6 (1.68%) Military
10 5 (1.40%) Documentation Skills
11 4 (1.12%) Legal
12 3 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.28%) Law
14 1 (0.28%) Police
14 1 (0.28%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 186 (51.96%) Network Engineer
2 63 (17.60%) Senior
3 60 (16.76%) Security Engineer
4 54 (15.08%) Network Security Engineer
5 43 (12.01%) Cisco Engineer
6 41 (11.45%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 36 (10.06%) Data Network Engineer
8 35 (9.78%) Architect
9 32 (8.94%) Data Engineer
9 32 (8.94%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 32 (8.94%) Web Engineer
10 31 (8.66%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 30 (8.38%) Senior Network Engineer
12 21 (5.87%) IP Network Engineer
13 20 (5.59%) Network Architect
14 19 (5.31%) Network Specialist
14 19 (5.31%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
15 16 (4.47%) Blue Coat Engineer
16 14 (3.91%) Firewall Specialist
17 13 (3.63%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (10.61%) 802.1X
2 10 (2.79%) YAML
3 8 (2.23%) JSON
4 7 (1.96%) SAML
5 6 (1.68%) NETCONF
5 6 (1.68%) OpenConfig
5 6 (1.68%) RESTCONF
5 6 (1.68%) YANG
6 4 (1.12%) LDAP
6 4 (1.12%) REST
7 3 (0.84%) LAMP
7 3 (0.84%) LEMP Stack
8 2 (0.56%) eBPF
9 1 (0.28%) .NET
9 1 (0.28%) .NET Framework
9 1 (0.28%) Bun
9 1 (0.28%) Elastic Stack
9 1 (0.28%) React
Miscellaneous
1 120 (33.52%) Data Centre
2 42 (11.73%) Hybrid Cloud
3 26 (7.26%) PKI
4 25 (6.98%) Clustering
5 21 (5.87%) Cloud Native
5 21 (5.87%) Management Information System
6 15 (4.19%) Data Protection Act
7 13 (3.63%) Onboarding
8 8 (2.23%) Private Cloud
8 8 (2.23%) Public Cloud
9 6 (1.68%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (1.68%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 4 (1.12%) Digital Signage
10 4 (1.12%) Distributed Applications
11 3 (0.84%) Algorithms
11 3 (0.84%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (0.84%) Linux Command Line
11 3 (0.84%) Self-Motivation
12 2 (0.56%) Operational Technology
13 1 (0.28%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 57 (15.92%) Windows
2 42 (11.73%) Linux
3 11 (3.07%) Unix
4 4 (1.12%) Windows Server
5 3 (0.84%) CentOS
5 3 (0.84%) Ubuntu
5 3 (0.84%) Windows Server 2012
5 3 (0.84%) Windows Server 2019
6 1 (0.28%) CatOS
6 1 (0.28%) Check Point GAiA
6 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 173 (48.32%) Load Balancing
2 72 (20.11%) High Availability
3 49 (13.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 47 (13.13%) Migration
5 46 (12.85%) CI/CD
6 44 (12.29%) Zero Trust
7 42 (11.73%) Network Design
8 39 (10.89%) Project Delivery
9 38 (10.61%) Problem-Solving
10 33 (9.22%) Observability
11 31 (8.66%) Agile
12 30 (8.38%) Change Management
12 30 (8.38%) Stakeholder Management
13 29 (8.10%) ITIL
14 28 (7.82%) Infrastructure as Code
15 27 (7.54%) Network Architecture
16 26 (7.26%) Identity Access Management
17 25 (6.98%) Roadmaps
18 23 (6.42%) Network Management
19 22 (6.15%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 90 (25.14%) Python
2 13 (3.63%) SQL
3 12 (3.35%) ActionScript
4 10 (2.79%) JavaScript
5 9 (2.51%) Bash
6 7 (1.96%) PowerShell
6 7 (1.96%) VBA
7 5 (1.40%) Perl
8 3 (0.84%) C++
8 3 (0.84%) Lisp
9 2 (0.56%) Shell Script
10 1 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
10 1 (0.28%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 98 (27.37%) Security Cleared
2 71 (19.83%) Cisco Certification
3 56 (15.64%) SC Cleared
4 35 (9.78%) CCNP
5 28 (7.82%) DV Cleared
6 20 (5.59%) CCIE
7 15 (4.19%) Degree
8 7 (1.96%) CCNA
8 7 (1.96%) JNCIA
8 7 (1.96%) JNCIP
8 7 (1.96%) JNCIS
9 6 (1.68%) JNCIE
10 4 (1.12%) CCIE Security
10 4 (1.12%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (0.84%) CISSP
11 3 (0.84%) GIAC
11 3 (0.84%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (0.56%) AWS Certification
12 2 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (0.56%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.51%) QA
2 6 (1.68%) Disclosure Scotland
3 5 (1.40%) NCSC
4 3 (0.84%) SLA
5 2 (0.56%) GDPR
5 2 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.56%) JSP 440
5 2 (0.56%) NIST
6 1 (0.28%) GRC
System Software
1 42 (11.73%) VMware Infrastructure
2 19 (5.31%) VMware NSX
3 18 (5.03%) Firmware
4 14 (3.91%) Active Directory
5 5 (1.40%) Virtual Servers
6 3 (0.84%) Docker
6 3 (0.84%) Dovecot
6 3 (0.84%) Postfix
6 3 (0.84%) vSphere
7 1 (0.28%) IAG
7 1 (0.28%) KVM
7 1 (0.28%) ProxySG
7 1 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 80 (22.35%) Ansible
2 50 (13.97%) FortiGate
3 44 (12.29%) Terraform
4 9 (2.51%) Grafana
5 8 (2.23%) Prometheus
5 8 (2.23%) WMI
6 7 (1.96%) Cisco Prime
7 5 (1.40%) Kubernetes
7 5 (1.40%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (1.12%) Microsoft Intune
9 3 (0.84%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 3 (0.84%) HAProxy
9 3 (0.84%) Salt
10 2 (0.56%) Avamar
10 2 (0.56%) Puppet
10 2 (0.56%) vCenter Server
11 1 (0.28%) NetBackup
11 1 (0.28%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.28%) SCCM
11 1 (0.28%) vRealize
Vendors
1 231 (64.53%) Cisco
2 137 (38.27%) Palo Alto
3 73 (20.39%) Juniper
4 72 (20.11%) Fortinet
5 55 (15.36%) VMware
6 52 (14.53%) CheckPoint
7 49 (13.69%) Arista
8 47 (13.13%) SolarWinds
9 40 (11.17%) Splunk
10 34 (9.50%) Aruba
11 28 (7.82%) Microsoft
12 25 (6.98%) Blue Coat
12 25 (6.98%) Infoblox
13 22 (6.15%) Extreme Networks
14 21 (5.87%) ServiceNow
15 16 (4.47%) McAfee
15 16 (4.47%) NetApp
16 14 (3.91%) Zscaler
17 8 (2.23%) Meraki
18 7 (1.96%) Citrix