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 June 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 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 326 340 270
Rank change year-on-year +14 -70 +104
Contract jobs citing F5 363 198 365
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.71% 0.65% 0.84%
As % of the Vendors category 1.74% 1.37% 1.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 158 115 248
10th Percentile £379 £384 £400
25th Percentile £413 £421 £434
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £582 £575 £584
90th Percentile £675 £625 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £525 £500 £506
% change year-on-year +5.00% -1.23% +1.25%
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 20,898 14,480 18,581
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 40.88% 47.40% 42.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,055 8,882 11,532
10th Percentile £313 £281 £270
25th Percentile £413 £402 £408
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year - -2.91% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £715 £735
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,081 682 1,159
10th Percentile £15.75 £14.84 £12.26
25th Percentile £19.03 £17.30 £14.71
Median hourly rate £33.99 £25.15 £24.19
Median % change year-on-year +35.15% +3.97% -41.06%
75th Percentile £62.00 £53.75 £59.95
90th Percentile £81.25 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.36 £23.00 £23.58
% change year-on-year +40.71% -2.46% -27.45%

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 June 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 June 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 29 June 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 +13 317 £520 +6.13% 31
UK excluding London +25 257 £525 +5.00% 20
North of England +25 124 £575 +19.23% 8
Work from Home -23 90 £550 +18.92% 19
North West +32 88 £575 +21.05% 6
Midlands +4 78 £550 +0.82% 3
West Midlands +4 78 £550 +1.85% 3
South East -13 69 £525 -8.70% 4
London -70 64 £475 +5.56% 17
Yorkshire -31 29 £478 -2.45%
Scotland +1 20 £419 -6.94% 1
South West -45 17 £495 -9.09% 2
North East -24 13 £650 +18.18% 2
East of England -27 4 £530 +1.92% 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 (3.03%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.65%) Confluence
3 4 (1.10%) nginx
4 3 (0.83%) Apache
4 3 (0.83%) IIS
4 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Exchange
4 3 (0.83%) Tomcat
5 2 (0.55%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.28%) CMS
Applications
1 15 (4.13%) MS Visio
2 10 (2.75%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 8 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 57 (15.70%) Azure
2 53 (14.60%) AWS
3 22 (6.06%) OCI
4 15 (4.13%) GitHub
4 15 (4.13%) SaaS
5 10 (2.75%) IaaS
6 7 (1.93%) GCP
6 7 (1.93%) Microsoft 365
6 7 (1.93%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 5 (1.38%) Entra ID
8 4 (1.10%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 4 (1.10%) Mimecast
8 4 (1.10%) OpenShift
9 3 (0.83%) Amazon S3
9 3 (0.83%) Cloudflare
9 3 (0.83%) Nutanix
9 3 (0.83%) OneDrive
10 2 (0.55%) Amazon OpenSearch
11 1 (0.28%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 1 (0.28%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 191 (52.62%) Firewall
2 158 (43.53%) DNS
3 151 (41.60%) BGP
4 149 (41.05%) BIG-IP
5 120 (33.06%) WAN
6 117 (32.23%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 107 (29.48%) OSPF
8 96 (26.45%) VPN
9 94 (25.90%) LAN
10 78 (21.49%) VXLAN
11 77 (21.21%) Network Security
12 72 (19.83%) TCP/IP
13 63 (17.36%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 60 (16.53%) Multicast
15 57 (15.70%) Ethernet VPN
16 52 (14.33%) SD-WAN
17 51 (14.05%) Cisco Nexus
17 51 (14.05%) SSL
18 50 (13.77%) DHCP
19 41 (11.29%) DMZ
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.10%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.83%) MySQL
3 2 (0.55%) Elasticsearch
4 1 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 34 (9.37%) JIRA
2 23 (6.34%) Fiddler
3 22 (6.06%) GitLab
4 12 (3.31%) Jenkins
5 5 (1.38%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (1.10%) Git
7 1 (0.28%) MSI
7 1 (0.28%) Visual Studio
General
1 49 (13.50%) Banking
2 48 (13.22%) Social Skills
3 45 (12.40%) Finance
4 36 (9.92%) Investment Banking
5 27 (7.44%) Public Sector
6 18 (4.96%) Analytical Skills
7 15 (4.13%) Telecoms
8 12 (3.31%) Financial Institution
9 6 (1.65%) Military
10 4 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.10%) Retail
11 3 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
11 3 (0.83%) Legal
11 3 (0.83%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.28%) Billing
12 1 (0.28%) Law
12 1 (0.28%) Police
12 1 (0.28%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 176 (48.48%) Network Engineer
2 64 (17.63%) Senior
3 56 (15.43%) Security Engineer
4 52 (14.33%) Network Security Engineer
5 44 (12.12%) Cisco Engineer
6 42 (11.57%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 40 (11.02%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 39 (10.74%) Architect
8 39 (10.74%) Web Engineer
9 38 (10.47%) Data Network Engineer
10 35 (9.64%) Data Engineer
11 33 (9.09%) Cisco Security Engineer
12 27 (7.44%) Senior Network Engineer
13 22 (6.06%) IP Network Engineer
14 20 (5.51%) Network Architect
15 19 (5.23%) Network Specialist
15 19 (5.23%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 17 (4.68%) Blue Coat Engineer
17 14 (3.86%) Firewall Specialist
18 10 (2.75%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (9.37%) 802.1X
2 10 (2.75%) JSON
3 7 (1.93%) LDAP
3 7 (1.93%) SAML
4 6 (1.65%) YAML
5 4 (1.10%) NETCONF
5 4 (1.10%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.10%) REST
5 4 (1.10%) RESTCONF
5 4 (1.10%) YANG
6 3 (0.83%) LAMP
6 3 (0.83%) LEMP Stack
7 1 (0.28%) .NET
7 1 (0.28%) .NET Framework
7 1 (0.28%) Bun
7 1 (0.28%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.28%) React
Miscellaneous
1 116 (31.96%) Data Centre
2 35 (9.64%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (7.71%) PKI
4 25 (6.89%) Clustering
5 19 (5.23%) Cloud Native
5 19 (5.23%) Management Information System
6 17 (4.68%) Public Cloud
7 12 (3.31%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (3.31%) Onboarding
8 10 (2.75%) Private Cloud
9 6 (1.65%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 4 (1.10%) Algorithms
10 4 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.83%) iSeries
11 3 (0.83%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (0.83%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.83%) Virtual Team
12 2 (0.55%) Cyber Threat
12 2 (0.55%) Enterprise Storage
12 2 (0.55%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 59 (16.25%) Windows
2 38 (10.47%) Linux
3 9 (2.48%) Unix
4 6 (1.65%) Windows Server
4 6 (1.65%) Windows Server 2012
4 6 (1.65%) Windows Server 2019
5 3 (0.83%) CatOS
5 3 (0.83%) CentOS
5 3 (0.83%) Ubuntu
6 2 (0.55%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.28%) Check Point GAiA
Processes & Methodologies
1 171 (47.11%) Load Balancing
2 76 (20.94%) High Availability
3 50 (13.77%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 49 (13.50%) Migration
5 43 (11.85%) Problem-Solving
6 39 (10.74%) CI/CD
7 38 (10.47%) Project Delivery
7 38 (10.47%) Zero Trust
8 37 (10.19%) Agile
8 37 (10.19%) Network Design
9 33 (9.09%) Observability
10 28 (7.71%) Roadmaps
11 27 (7.44%) Change Management
11 27 (7.44%) Infrastructure as Code
11 27 (7.44%) Stakeholder Management
12 26 (7.16%) Identity Access Management
12 26 (7.16%) Network Architecture
13 25 (6.89%) ITIL
13 25 (6.89%) Network Management
14 24 (6.61%) DevOps
Programming Languages
1 89 (24.52%) Python
2 14 (3.86%) ActionScript
3 11 (3.03%) Bash
3 11 (3.03%) SQL
4 10 (2.75%) JavaScript
5 9 (2.48%) VBA
6 8 (2.20%) PowerShell
7 3 (0.83%) C++
7 3 (0.83%) Lisp
8 1 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.28%) Perl
8 1 (0.28%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.28%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 91 (25.07%) Security Cleared
2 73 (20.11%) Cisco Certification
3 48 (13.22%) SC Cleared
4 40 (11.02%) CCNP
5 30 (8.26%) DV Cleared
6 18 (4.96%) CCIE
7 16 (4.41%) Degree
8 9 (2.48%) JNCIP
9 8 (2.20%) CCNA
9 8 (2.20%) JNCIS
10 7 (1.93%) JNCIA
11 6 (1.65%) JNCIE
12 4 (1.10%) CCIE Security
12 4 (1.10%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 2 (0.55%) AWS Certification
14 2 (0.55%) BPSS Clearance
14 2 (0.55%) CCDP
14 2 (0.55%) CCSE
15 1 (0.28%) CESG Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.48%) QA
2 6 (1.65%) Disclosure Scotland
2 6 (1.65%) NCSC
3 3 (0.83%) JSP 440
3 3 (0.83%) SLA
4 2 (0.55%) GDPR
4 2 (0.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (0.55%) NIST
5 1 (0.28%) GRC
5 1 (0.28%) RMADS
System Software
1 41 (11.29%) VMware Infrastructure
2 26 (7.16%) VMware NSX
3 19 (5.23%) Firmware
4 18 (4.96%) Active Directory
5 4 (1.10%) Virtual Servers
5 4 (1.10%) vSphere
6 3 (0.83%) Docker
6 3 (0.83%) Dovecot
6 3 (0.83%) Postfix
7 2 (0.55%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.28%) IAG
8 1 (0.28%) KVM
8 1 (0.28%) ProxySG
Systems Management
1 80 (22.04%) Ansible
2 53 (14.60%) FortiGate
3 39 (10.74%) Terraform
4 11 (3.03%) Prometheus
5 10 (2.75%) Grafana
6 9 (2.48%) Single Sign-On
7 8 (2.20%) WMI
8 7 (1.93%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (1.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 4 (1.10%) Salt
10 4 (1.10%) SCCM
11 3 (0.83%) HAProxy
11 3 (0.83%) Kubernetes
12 2 (0.55%) Avamar
12 2 (0.55%) Red Hat Satellite
13 1 (0.28%) Argo
13 1 (0.28%) Cisco Prime
13 1 (0.28%) Nagios
13 1 (0.28%) NetBackup
13 1 (0.28%) Puppet
Vendors
1 215 (59.23%) Cisco
2 125 (34.44%) Palo Alto
3 69 (19.01%) Juniper
4 59 (16.25%) Fortinet
4 59 (16.25%) VMware
5 47 (12.95%) CheckPoint
6 46 (12.67%) Arista
7 45 (12.40%) SolarWinds
8 40 (11.02%) Splunk
9 33 (9.09%) Aruba
10 28 (7.71%) Blue Coat
10 28 (7.71%) Microsoft
11 26 (7.16%) ServiceNow
12 25 (6.89%) Infoblox
13 23 (6.34%) Extreme Networks
13 23 (6.34%) McAfee
14 17 (4.68%) NetApp
15 11 (3.03%) Zscaler
16 5 (1.38%) BigPanda
16 5 (1.38%) Red Hat