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 23 December 2025, 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
23 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 325 287 364
Rank change year-on-year -38 +77 +36
Contract jobs citing F5 289 283 257
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.78% 0.84% 0.59%
As % of the Vendors category 1.65% 1.83% 1.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 152 174 167
10th Percentile £350 £350 £399
25th Percentile £411 £434 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -0.50% -6.98% +1.42%
75th Percentile £617 £588 £622
90th Percentile £700 £643 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -5.71% +5.00% -4.76%
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% +51.52%

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 17,466 15,440 19,589
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 47.19% 45.73% 45.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,122 9,193 12,424
10th Percentile £293 £285 £250
25th Percentile £408 £410 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -2.78%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £700 £722 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -0.10% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 858 457 650
10th Percentile £15.15 £15.62 £14.73
25th Percentile £18.00 £19.38 £20.00
Median hourly rate £23.75 £28.00 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -15.18% -38.97% +78.45%
75th Percentile £44.40 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.72 £26.13 £45.88
% change year-on-year -16.87% -43.06% +103.91%

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 23 December 2025.

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 23 December 2025.

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 23 December 2025. 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 -35 260 £493 -1.50% 87
UK excluding London -26 193 £495 -5.71% 83
North of England 0 99 £550 +12.24% 21
Work from Home -9 80 £500 +2.04% 16
London -14 75 £500 +5.26% 10
Midlands +5 69 £415 -38.54% 11
North West 0 69 £500 +2.04% 10
West Midlands +34 68 £415 -31.97% 7
Yorkshire -12 43 £575 +15.00% 7
South East -60 27 £500 -4.76% 20
Scotland +20 21 £500 -6.98% 3
South West -18 10 £550 +10.00% 10
East of England -28 2 - - 20
North East -11 1 £550 - 4
East Midlands -38 1 - - 3

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 10 (3.46%) Confluence
1 10 (3.46%) OpenStack
2 5 (1.73%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.38%) WebSphere
4 2 (0.69%) CICS
4 2 (0.69%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.35%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 12 (4.15%) MS Visio
2 5 (1.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.69%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.69%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 103 (35.64%) AWS
2 56 (19.38%) Azure
3 50 (17.30%) GCP
4 32 (11.07%) Akamai
5 29 (10.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 25 (8.65%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 24 (8.30%) Amazon ELB
8 23 (7.96%) Amazon EC2
8 23 (7.96%) Amazon S3
9 9 (3.11%) OpenShift
10 6 (2.08%) OCI
11 5 (1.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 4 (1.38%) Apigee
12 4 (1.38%) Cloudflare
12 4 (1.38%) PaaS
12 4 (1.38%) SaaS
13 3 (1.04%) GitHub
13 3 (1.04%) IaaS
13 3 (1.04%) Microsoft 365
13 3 (1.04%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 161 (55.71%) Firewall
2 116 (40.14%) DNS
3 93 (32.18%) Network Security
4 79 (27.34%) SSL
5 71 (24.57%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
5 71 (24.57%) VPN
6 68 (23.53%) TCP/IP
7 63 (21.80%) WAN
8 55 (19.03%) BGP
9 54 (18.69%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
10 44 (15.22%) Wireshark
11 43 (14.88%) Wireless
12 42 (14.53%) LAN
12 42 (14.53%) OSPF
13 39 (13.49%) HTTP
14 37 (12.80%) BIG-IP
15 35 (12.11%) DMZ
16 28 (9.69%) Cisco Nexus
17 27 (9.34%) MPLS
18 26 (9.00%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.69%) NoSQL
1 2 (0.69%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (0.69%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 37 (12.80%) Git
2 36 (12.46%) Jenkins
3 22 (7.61%) GitLab
4 18 (6.23%) Fiddler
5 11 (3.81%) JIRA
6 6 (2.08%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (1.38%) Robot Framework
8 2 (0.69%) Rational DOORS
General
1 84 (29.07%) Social Skills
2 45 (15.57%) Banking
3 41 (14.19%) Analytical Skills
4 35 (12.11%) Finance
5 33 (11.42%) Public Sector
6 31 (10.73%) Investment Banking
7 23 (7.96%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (7.27%) Telecoms
9 10 (3.46%) Retail
10 8 (2.77%) Financial Institution
11 7 (2.42%) Military
12 6 (2.08%) Influencing Skills
12 6 (2.08%) Legal
12 6 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
13 4 (1.38%) Retail Banking
14 3 (1.04%) Organisational Skills
15 1 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 99 (34.26%) Network Engineer
2 36 (12.46%) Senior
3 35 (12.11%) Architect
4 27 (9.34%) Security Engineer
5 23 (7.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 19 (6.57%) Network Architect
7 18 (6.23%) Web Engineer
8 16 (5.54%) Operations Engineer
9 15 (5.19%) Network Security Engineer
9 15 (5.19%) Solutions Architect
10 14 (4.84%) Automation Engineer
11 12 (4.15%) DevOps Engineer
11 12 (4.15%) Senior DevOps
11 12 (4.15%) Senior DevOps Engineer
12 10 (3.46%) Designer
12 10 (3.46%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 9 (3.11%) Blue Coat Engineer
13 9 (3.11%) IP Network Engineer
13 9 (3.11%) Python Engineer
13 9 (3.11%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (4.50%) 802.1X
2 8 (2.77%) REST
3 7 (2.42%) Middleware
4 6 (2.08%) JSON
4 6 (2.08%) LDAP
5 5 (1.73%) SOAP
5 5 (1.73%) XML
6 4 (1.38%) AngularJS
6 4 (1.38%) NETCONF
6 4 (1.38%) VML
6 4 (1.38%) YANG
7 3 (1.04%) OpenConfig
7 3 (1.04%) RESTful
7 3 (1.04%) SAML
8 2 (0.69%) Regular Expression
8 2 (0.69%) RESTCONF
Miscellaneous
1 58 (20.07%) Data Centre
2 33 (11.42%) Management Information System
3 20 (6.92%) Security Posture
4 14 (4.84%) Data Protection Act
5 10 (3.46%) Cloud Native
5 10 (3.46%) Onboarding
5 10 (3.46%) Private Cloud
6 9 (3.11%) Hybrid Cloud
7 6 (2.08%) Legacy Systems
8 3 (1.04%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.04%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.04%) Self-Motivation
9 2 (0.69%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (0.69%) Clustering
9 2 (0.69%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 2 (0.69%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (0.69%) Mainframe
9 2 (0.69%) PKI
9 2 (0.69%) Replication
9 2 (0.69%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 29 (10.03%) Linux
2 27 (9.34%) Windows
3 15 (5.19%) Unix
4 10 (3.46%) Windows Server
5 3 (1.04%) Windows Server 2012
5 3 (1.04%) Windows Server 2019
6 2 (0.69%) CatOS
6 2 (0.69%) Solaris
6 2 (0.69%) VMS
6 2 (0.69%) zOS
7 1 (0.35%) MVS
7 1 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 99 (34.26%) Load Balancing
2 48 (16.61%) DevOps
3 45 (15.57%) Incident Response
4 43 (14.88%) CI/CD
5 41 (14.19%) Problem-Solving
6 40 (13.84%) High Availability
7 39 (13.49%) DevSecOps
7 39 (13.49%) Migration
8 33 (11.42%) Infrastructure Automation
8 33 (11.42%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 32 (11.07%) Change Management
10 31 (10.73%) Business Strategy
11 28 (9.69%) Infrastructure as Code
12 25 (8.65%) Application Security
12 25 (8.65%) Cybersecurity
13 24 (8.30%) OWASP
13 24 (8.30%) Stakeholder Management
13 24 (8.30%) Test Automation
14 23 (7.96%) Network Design
15 22 (7.61%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 88 (30.45%) Python
2 34 (11.76%) Bash
3 15 (5.19%) Perl
4 9 (3.11%) PowerShell
5 7 (2.42%) Java
5 7 (2.42%) SQL
6 4 (1.38%) JavaScript
6 4 (1.38%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.35%) VB
Qualifications
1 67 (23.18%) Security Cleared
2 52 (17.99%) SC Cleared
3 47 (16.26%) Cisco Certification
4 36 (12.46%) CCNP
5 26 (9.00%) CCIE
6 14 (4.84%) JNCIE
7 10 (3.46%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.42%) CCNA
8 7 (2.42%) Degree
8 7 (2.42%) DV Cleared
9 6 (2.08%) JNCIP
10 5 (1.73%) CCSA
10 5 (1.73%) CISSP
11 4 (1.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (1.38%) CCDP
11 4 (1.38%) CCIE Security
11 4 (1.38%) CCSE
11 4 (1.38%) CCSP
12 3 (1.04%) Azure Certification
12 3 (1.04%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.42%) NIST
1 7 (2.42%) PCI DSS
2 6 (2.08%) COBIT
2 6 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (1.73%) GDPR
4 4 (1.38%) SLA
5 2 (0.69%) Actionable Recommendations
5 2 (0.69%) Disclosure Scotland
5 2 (0.69%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.35%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.35%) NCSC
6 1 (0.35%) RMADS
System Software
1 66 (22.84%) VMware Infrastructure
2 31 (10.73%) Docker
3 30 (10.38%) VMware NSX
4 14 (4.84%) Active Directory
4 14 (4.84%) Firmware
5 12 (4.15%) vSphere
6 3 (1.04%) KVM
6 3 (1.04%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.69%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.69%) ProxySG
7 2 (0.69%) Snort
7 2 (0.69%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.69%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.69%) Xen
8 1 (0.35%) NFS
8 1 (0.35%) SRDF
8 1 (0.35%) Veritas Cluster Server
8 1 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.35%) XenApp
8 1 (0.35%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 82 (28.37%) Ansible
2 68 (23.53%) Terraform
3 20 (6.92%) CSIRT
4 14 (4.84%) FortiGate
5 10 (3.46%) Kubernetes
6 4 (1.38%) CA Spectrum
6 4 (1.38%) Single Sign-On
6 4 (1.38%) vCenter Server
7 3 (1.04%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (1.04%) Nagios
7 3 (1.04%) SCCM
7 3 (1.04%) vRealize
8 2 (0.69%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 2 (0.69%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.35%) Argo
9 1 (0.35%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.35%) Norton AntiVirus
9 1 (0.35%) Podman
9 1 (0.35%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.35%) WSUS
Vendors
1 110 (38.06%) Cisco
2 85 (29.41%) VMware
3 73 (25.26%) Palo Alto
4 72 (24.91%) CheckPoint
5 57 (19.72%) Juniper
6 40 (13.84%) Blue Coat
7 37 (12.80%) Fortinet
8 29 (10.03%) McAfee
9 24 (8.30%) SolarWinds
10 23 (7.96%) Splunk
11 21 (7.27%) Meraki
12 18 (6.23%) NetApp
12 18 (6.23%) Zscaler
13 15 (5.19%) Microsoft
14 11 (3.81%) Infoblox
14 11 (3.81%) Oracle
15 9 (3.11%) Aruba
16 8 (2.77%) HP
16 8 (2.77%) Nokia
17 7 (2.42%) Dell