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 21 May 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
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 314 355 291
Rank change year-on-year +41 -64 +91
Contract jobs citing F5 353 172 320
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.73% 0.59% 0.75%
As % of the Vendors category 1.79% 1.24% 1.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 156 99 206
10th Percentile £344 £386 £391
25th Percentile £400 £425 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £525 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% +5.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £573 £594 £584
90th Percentile £668 £650 £664
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £535 £500
% change year-on-year -6.54% +7.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 2
10th Percentile £42.05 - -
25th Percentile £43.11 - -
Median hourly rate £48.72 - £23.80
75th Percentile £62.29 - -
90th Percentile £68.11 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 - -

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 19,765 13,886 18,000
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 40.96% 47.71% 42.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,516 8,664 11,247
10th Percentile £313 £280 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £514
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -0.29% -2.10%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £627
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +0.41% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 988 568 1,094
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.84 £12.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.30 £14.48
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.50 £22.08
Median % change year-on-year +27.45% +15.52% -47.85%
75th Percentile £58.75 £56.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.40 £73.75 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.54 £22.72 £21.46
% change year-on-year +30.01% +5.86% -44.26%

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 21 May 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 21 May 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 21 May 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 +44 310 £500 -8.17% 17
UK excluding London +34 248 £500 -6.54% 20
North of England +29 116 £563 +18.42% 6
North West +45 91 £575 +21.05% 2
West Midlands +6 76 £415 -24.68% 1
Midlands -2 76 £415 -27.29% 1
Work from Home -32 75 £550 +15.79% 10
South East -9 67 £525 - 6
London -51 62 £470 -2.08% 5
Scotland +8 19 £413 -5.71% 5
South West -40 18 £495 -3.41% 1
Yorkshire -38 17 £468 - 1
North East -14 10 £650 +18.18% 3
East of England -24 3 £530 +13.98% 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 (2.55%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.70%) Confluence
3 2 (0.57%) nginx
4 1 (0.28%) Apache
4 1 (0.28%) CMS
4 1 (0.28%) IIS
4 1 (0.28%) Tomcat
Applications
1 21 (5.95%) MS Visio
2 7 (1.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (1.13%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 47 (13.31%) Azure
2 45 (12.75%) AWS
3 18 (5.10%) OCI
4 8 (2.27%) SaaS
5 7 (1.98%) Microsoft 365
6 5 (1.42%) GCP
6 5 (1.42%) Nutanix
7 4 (1.13%) GitHub
7 4 (1.13%) Mimecast
7 4 (1.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 3 (0.85%) Amazon S3
8 3 (0.85%) Entra ID
9 2 (0.57%) Amazon OpenSearch
9 2 (0.57%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 2 (0.57%) OpenShift
10 1 (0.28%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.28%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.28%) CloudBees
10 1 (0.28%) Google Ads
10 1 (0.28%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 180 (50.99%) Firewall
2 151 (42.78%) DNS
3 145 (41.08%) BGP
4 138 (39.09%) BIG-IP
5 114 (32.29%) WAN
6 105 (29.75%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 102 (28.90%) OSPF
8 94 (26.63%) VPN
9 90 (25.50%) LAN
10 77 (21.81%) Network Security
11 73 (20.68%) VXLAN
12 68 (19.26%) TCP/IP
13 59 (16.71%) Multicast
14 58 (16.43%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 58 (16.43%) SSL
15 55 (15.58%) Ethernet VPN
16 52 (14.73%) Cisco Nexus
17 48 (13.60%) HTTP
18 46 (13.03%) DHCP
19 44 (12.46%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.85%) SQL Server
2 2 (0.57%) Elasticsearch
3 1 (0.28%) MySQL
3 1 (0.28%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 27 (7.65%) Fiddler
2 22 (6.23%) JIRA
3 18 (5.10%) GitLab
4 6 (1.70%) Git
5 4 (1.13%) Sonatype Nexus
6 3 (0.85%) Jenkins
General
1 52 (14.73%) Social Skills
2 51 (14.45%) Banking
3 46 (13.03%) Finance
4 37 (10.48%) Investment Banking
5 30 (8.50%) Public Sector
6 15 (4.25%) Analytical Skills
7 13 (3.68%) Financial Institution
8 11 (3.12%) Telecoms
9 8 (2.27%) Military
10 5 (1.42%) Documentation Skills
10 5 (1.42%) Retail
11 2 (0.57%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.28%) Billing
12 1 (0.28%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.28%) Police
12 1 (0.28%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 182 (51.56%) Network Engineer
2 63 (17.85%) Senior
3 55 (15.58%) Security Engineer
4 51 (14.45%) Network Security Engineer
5 43 (12.18%) Web Engineer
6 42 (11.90%) Cisco Engineer
6 42 (11.90%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 37 (10.48%) Data Network Engineer
8 35 (9.92%) Architect
9 34 (9.63%) Data Engineer
9 34 (9.63%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 32 (9.07%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 28 (7.93%) Senior Network Engineer
12 23 (6.52%) IP Network Engineer
13 19 (5.38%) Network Specialist
14 18 (5.10%) Blue Coat Engineer
15 17 (4.82%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 16 (4.53%) Network Architect
17 14 (3.97%) Firewall Specialist
18 10 (2.83%) Junior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (9.07%) 802.1X
2 11 (3.12%) LDAP
3 10 (2.83%) JSON
3 10 (2.83%) SAML
4 4 (1.13%) NETCONF
4 4 (1.13%) REST
4 4 (1.13%) YAML
4 4 (1.13%) YANG
5 3 (0.85%) OpenConfig
5 3 (0.85%) RESTCONF
5 3 (0.85%) VML
6 1 (0.28%) Bun
6 1 (0.28%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.28%) LAMP
6 1 (0.28%) LEMP Stack
6 1 (0.28%) React
6 1 (0.28%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 103 (29.18%) Data Centre
2 27 (7.65%) PKI
3 24 (6.80%) Clustering
4 23 (6.52%) Hybrid Cloud
5 18 (5.10%) Management Information System
6 17 (4.82%) Public Cloud
7 11 (3.12%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (1.70%) Cloud Native
8 6 (1.70%) Private Cloud
9 5 (1.42%) Algorithms
10 4 (1.13%) Onboarding
10 4 (1.13%) Self-Motivation
11 3 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.85%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 3 (0.85%) iSeries
11 3 (0.85%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (0.85%) Virtual Team
12 2 (0.57%) CESG
12 2 (0.57%) Cyber Threat
12 2 (0.57%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 56 (15.86%) Windows
2 33 (9.35%) Linux
3 9 (2.55%) Unix
4 8 (2.27%) Windows Server
5 7 (1.98%) Windows Server 2012
5 7 (1.98%) Windows Server 2019
6 5 (1.42%) CatOS
7 3 (0.85%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.28%) CentOS
8 1 (0.28%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 180 (50.99%) Load Balancing
2 70 (19.83%) High Availability
3 48 (13.60%) Problem-Solving
4 45 (12.75%) Migration
5 39 (11.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 34 (9.63%) Change Management
7 33 (9.35%) Observability
8 32 (9.07%) Project Delivery
9 30 (8.50%) Network Design
10 27 (7.65%) Data Loss Prevention
10 27 (7.65%) Malware Detection/Protection
11 26 (7.37%) Identity Access Management
12 25 (7.08%) Zero Trust
13 24 (6.80%) CI/CD
14 23 (6.52%) Agile
14 23 (6.52%) Infrastructure as Code
14 23 (6.52%) Roadmaps
14 23 (6.52%) Stakeholder Management
14 23 (6.52%) Technical Leadership
15 22 (6.23%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 72 (20.40%) Python
2 10 (2.83%) SQL
3 8 (2.27%) Bash
3 8 (2.27%) JavaScript
4 7 (1.98%) VBA
5 5 (1.42%) ActionScript
5 5 (1.42%) PowerShell
6 2 (0.57%) C++
7 1 (0.28%) Kusto Query Language
7 1 (0.28%) Lisp
7 1 (0.28%) Perl
7 1 (0.28%) Shell Script
7 1 (0.28%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 88 (24.93%) Security Cleared
2 73 (20.68%) Cisco Certification
3 50 (14.16%) SC Cleared
4 40 (11.33%) CCNP
5 30 (8.50%) DV Cleared
6 19 (5.38%) CCIE
7 12 (3.40%) CCNA
8 11 (3.12%) JNCIS
9 10 (2.83%) Degree
9 10 (2.83%) JNCIP
10 8 (2.27%) JNCIA
11 6 (1.70%) JNCIE
12 4 (1.13%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.85%) CCDP
13 3 (0.85%) CCIE Security
13 3 (0.85%) CCSE
14 2 (0.57%) BPSS Clearance
14 2 (0.57%) CESG Certified Professional
14 2 (0.57%) CHECK Team Leader
14 2 (0.57%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (1.98%) QA
2 6 (1.70%) Disclosure Scotland
3 5 (1.42%) JSP 440
4 4 (1.13%) NIST
5 3 (0.85%) NCSC
5 3 (0.85%) SLA
6 2 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.57%) RMADS
7 1 (0.28%) GRC
7 1 (0.28%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 48 (13.60%) VMware Infrastructure
2 32 (9.07%) VMware NSX
3 21 (5.95%) Active Directory
4 18 (5.10%) Firmware
5 6 (1.70%) vSphere
6 5 (1.42%) Docker
6 5 (1.42%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (1.13%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.85%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.57%) KVM
9 2 (0.57%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.28%) Dovecot
10 1 (0.28%) IAG
10 1 (0.28%) Postfix
10 1 (0.28%) RHEV
10 1 (0.28%) Xen
10 1 (0.28%) XenApp
10 1 (0.28%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 74 (20.96%) Ansible
2 52 (14.73%) FortiGate
3 30 (8.50%) Terraform
4 13 (3.68%) Single Sign-On
5 12 (3.40%) Prometheus
6 11 (3.12%) Grafana
7 7 (1.98%) Microsoft Intune
7 7 (1.98%) SCCM
8 6 (1.70%) WMI
9 5 (1.42%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 5 (1.42%) Kubernetes
9 5 (1.42%) Salt
10 4 (1.13%) Nagios
11 2 (0.57%) Avamar
11 2 (0.57%) Red Hat Satellite
12 1 (0.28%) Argo
12 1 (0.28%) HAProxy
12 1 (0.28%) Proxmox
12 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
12 1 (0.28%) vRealize
Vendors
1 213 (60.34%) Cisco
2 118 (33.43%) Palo Alto
3 68 (19.26%) Juniper
4 67 (18.98%) VMware
5 58 (16.43%) CheckPoint
6 51 (14.45%) Fortinet
7 43 (12.18%) Arista
8 41 (11.61%) SolarWinds
9 37 (10.48%) Splunk
10 34 (9.63%) Blue Coat
11 30 (8.50%) Aruba
11 30 (8.50%) McAfee
12 25 (7.08%) ServiceNow
13 24 (6.80%) Microsoft
14 23 (6.52%) Extreme Networks
15 22 (6.23%) Infoblox
16 18 (5.10%) NetApp
17 12 (3.40%) Zscaler
18 9 (2.55%) Meraki
19 6 (1.70%) BigPanda