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 18 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
18 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 334 282 360
Rank change year-on-year -52 +78 +44
Contract jobs citing F5 283 287 251
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.77% 0.84% 0.57%
As % of the Vendors category 1.64% 1.84% 1.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 148 176 164
10th Percentile £350 £350 £398
25th Percentile £413 £435 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% +3.77%
75th Percentile £625 £588 £625
90th Percentile £704 £650 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +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 17,283 15,622 19,940
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 47.24% 45.70% 45.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,989 9,336 12,667
10th Percentile £293 £283 £253
25th Percentile £409 £410 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £501 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% - -2.42%
75th Percentile £613 £625 £638
90th Percentile £700 £722 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £500
% change year-on-year - - +1.01%
Number of hourly rates quoted 856 464 671
10th Percentile £15.11 £15.62 £14.57
25th Percentile £18.00 £19.87 £19.88
Median hourly rate £23.83 £29.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -17.84% -34.83% +73.08%
75th Percentile £44.75 £61.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £75.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.00 £27.13 £44.75
% change year-on-year -18.89% -39.39% +98.89%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -39 256 £500 - 47
UK excluding London -37 187 £500 -4.76% 46
North of England -5 98 £575 +17.35% 9
Work from Home -21 79 £500 +2.04% 15
London -8 77 £500 +5.26% 7
Midlands +5 68 £440 -37.14% 8
North West +3 68 £598 +21.94% 3
West Midlands +31 67 £440 -27.87% 6
Yorkshire -11 43 £575 +15.00% 3
South East -70 25 £498 -5.24% 16
Scotland +17 19 £500 -6.98% 2
South West -20 10 £550 +14.29% 6
East of England -28 2 - - 10
North East -8 1 £550 - 3
East Midlands -35 1 - - 2

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 (3.53%) Confluence
1 10 (3.53%) OpenStack
2 6 (2.12%) WebSphere
3 4 (1.41%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.71%) CICS
4 2 (0.71%) Tomcat
5 1 (0.35%) WebSphere Application Server
Applications
1 11 (3.89%) MS Visio
2 5 (1.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (0.71%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 102 (36.04%) AWS
2 55 (19.43%) Azure
3 52 (18.37%) GCP
4 32 (11.31%) Akamai
5 29 (10.25%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 25 (8.83%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 24 (8.48%) Amazon ELB
8 23 (8.13%) Amazon EC2
8 23 (8.13%) Amazon S3
9 9 (3.18%) OpenShift
10 6 (2.12%) OCI
10 6 (2.12%) PaaS
10 6 (2.12%) SaaS
11 5 (1.77%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 5 (1.77%) IaaS
12 4 (1.41%) Apigee
12 4 (1.41%) Cloudflare
13 3 (1.06%) GitHub
13 3 (1.06%) Mimecast
14 2 (0.71%) AWS CloudTrail
Communications & Networking
1 155 (54.77%) Firewall
2 113 (39.93%) DNS
3 90 (31.80%) Network Security
4 79 (27.92%) SSL
5 69 (24.38%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 68 (24.03%) VPN
7 66 (23.32%) TCP/IP
8 61 (21.55%) WAN
9 54 (19.08%) BGP
10 53 (18.73%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
11 44 (15.55%) Wireshark
12 43 (15.19%) Wireless
13 41 (14.49%) OSPF
14 39 (13.78%) HTTP
14 39 (13.78%) LAN
15 36 (12.72%) BIG-IP
16 34 (12.01%) DMZ
17 26 (9.19%) Cisco Nexus
17 26 (9.19%) MPLS
18 23 (8.13%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.71%) NoSQL
1 2 (0.71%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (0.71%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 37 (13.07%) Git
2 36 (12.72%) Jenkins
3 22 (7.77%) GitLab
4 18 (6.36%) Fiddler
5 11 (3.89%) JIRA
6 6 (2.12%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (1.41%) Robot Framework
8 2 (0.71%) Rational DOORS
General
1 82 (28.98%) Social Skills
2 47 (16.61%) Banking
3 40 (14.13%) Analytical Skills
4 34 (12.01%) Finance
5 31 (10.95%) Investment Banking
5 31 (10.95%) Public Sector
6 23 (8.13%) Documentation Skills
7 20 (7.07%) Telecoms
8 10 (3.53%) Retail
9 8 (2.83%) Financial Institution
10 7 (2.47%) Military
11 6 (2.12%) Influencing Skills
11 6 (2.12%) Legal
11 6 (2.12%) Presentation Skills
12 4 (1.41%) Retail Banking
13 3 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
14 1 (0.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 97 (34.28%) Network Engineer
2 36 (12.72%) Architect
3 35 (12.37%) Senior
4 26 (9.19%) Security Engineer
5 22 (7.77%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 19 (6.71%) Network Architect
7 18 (6.36%) Web Engineer
8 16 (5.65%) Operations Engineer
9 15 (5.30%) Network Security Engineer
9 15 (5.30%) Solutions Architect
10 13 (4.59%) Automation Engineer
11 12 (4.24%) DevOps Engineer
11 12 (4.24%) Senior DevOps
11 12 (4.24%) Senior DevOps Engineer
12 10 (3.53%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 9 (3.18%) Blue Coat Engineer
13 9 (3.18%) Designer
13 9 (3.18%) IP Network Engineer
13 9 (3.18%) Python Engineer
13 9 (3.18%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (4.59%) 802.1X
2 9 (3.18%) Middleware
3 8 (2.83%) REST
4 6 (2.12%) JSON
4 6 (2.12%) LDAP
5 5 (1.77%) SOAP
5 5 (1.77%) XML
6 4 (1.41%) AngularJS
6 4 (1.41%) NETCONF
6 4 (1.41%) VML
6 4 (1.41%) YANG
7 3 (1.06%) OpenConfig
7 3 (1.06%) RESTful
7 3 (1.06%) SAML
8 2 (0.71%) Regular Expression
8 2 (0.71%) RESTCONF
Miscellaneous
1 54 (19.08%) Data Centre
2 33 (11.66%) Management Information System
3 20 (7.07%) Security Posture
4 14 (4.95%) Data Protection Act
5 11 (3.89%) Private Cloud
6 10 (3.53%) Cloud Native
6 10 (3.53%) Onboarding
7 9 (3.18%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.41%) Legacy Applications
10 3 (1.06%) Distributed Architecture
10 3 (1.06%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (0.71%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (0.71%) Clustering
11 2 (0.71%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 2 (0.71%) Linux Command Line
11 2 (0.71%) Mainframe
11 2 (0.71%) Public Cloud
11 2 (0.71%) Replication
11 2 (0.71%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 30 (10.60%) Linux
2 26 (9.19%) Windows
3 17 (6.01%) Unix
4 10 (3.53%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.71%) CatOS
5 2 (0.71%) Solaris
5 2 (0.71%) VMS
5 2 (0.71%) zOS
6 1 (0.35%) MVS
6 1 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (33.22%) Load Balancing
2 47 (16.61%) DevOps
3 45 (15.90%) Incident Response
4 43 (15.19%) CI/CD
5 39 (13.78%) DevSecOps
5 39 (13.78%) Problem-Solving
6 37 (13.07%) High Availability
6 37 (13.07%) Migration
7 33 (11.66%) Infrastructure Automation
8 32 (11.31%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 31 (10.95%) Business Strategy
10 30 (10.60%) Change Management
11 28 (9.89%) Infrastructure as Code
12 25 (8.83%) Application Security
12 25 (8.83%) Cybersecurity
13 24 (8.48%) OWASP
13 24 (8.48%) Stakeholder Management
14 23 (8.13%) Agile
14 23 (8.13%) Test Automation
15 22 (7.77%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 88 (31.10%) Python
2 34 (12.01%) Bash
3 15 (5.30%) Perl
4 9 (3.18%) SQL
5 8 (2.83%) PowerShell
6 7 (2.47%) Java
7 4 (1.41%) JavaScript
7 4 (1.41%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.35%) VB
Qualifications
1 63 (22.26%) Security Cleared
2 49 (17.31%) SC Cleared
3 44 (15.55%) Cisco Certification
4 34 (12.01%) CCNP
5 25 (8.83%) CCIE
6 14 (4.95%) JNCIE
7 10 (3.53%) AWS Certification
8 7 (2.47%) Degree
9 6 (2.12%) CCNA
9 6 (2.12%) JNCIP
10 5 (1.77%) CCSA
10 5 (1.77%) CISSP
10 5 (1.77%) DV Cleared
11 4 (1.41%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 4 (1.41%) CCSE
11 4 (1.41%) CCSP
12 3 (1.06%) CCIE Security
12 3 (1.06%) CEH
12 3 (1.06%) GIAC
12 3 (1.06%) GWAPT
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (2.47%) NIST
1 7 (2.47%) PCI DSS
2 6 (2.12%) COBIT
2 6 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (1.77%) GDPR
4 4 (1.41%) SLA
5 2 (0.71%) Actionable Recommendations
5 2 (0.71%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.35%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.35%) JSP 440
System Software
1 64 (22.61%) VMware Infrastructure
2 30 (10.60%) Docker
3 28 (9.89%) VMware NSX
4 14 (4.95%) Active Directory
4 14 (4.95%) Firmware
5 11 (3.89%) vSphere
6 3 (1.06%) KVM
6 3 (1.06%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.71%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.71%) ProxySG
7 2 (0.71%) Snort
7 2 (0.71%) Xen
8 1 (0.35%) RHEV
8 1 (0.35%) SRDF
8 1 (0.35%) Veritas Cluster Server
8 1 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.35%) XenApp
8 1 (0.35%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 82 (28.98%) Ansible
2 68 (24.03%) Terraform
3 20 (7.07%) CSIRT
4 14 (4.95%) FortiGate
5 9 (3.18%) Kubernetes
6 4 (1.41%) CA Spectrum
6 4 (1.41%) vCenter Server
7 3 (1.06%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (1.06%) vRealize
8 2 (0.71%) Nagios
8 2 (0.71%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.35%) Backup Exec
9 1 (0.35%) Grafana
9 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Intune
9 1 (0.35%) Norton AntiVirus
9 1 (0.35%) Puppet
9 1 (0.35%) SCCM
9 1 (0.35%) SCOM
9 1 (0.35%) WhatsUp Gold
9 1 (0.35%) WSUS
Vendors
1 104 (36.75%) Cisco
2 84 (29.68%) VMware
3 70 (24.73%) CheckPoint
4 68 (24.03%) Palo Alto
5 53 (18.73%) Juniper
6 40 (14.13%) Blue Coat
7 36 (12.72%) Fortinet
8 29 (10.25%) McAfee
9 23 (8.13%) SolarWinds
9 23 (8.13%) Splunk
10 21 (7.42%) Meraki
11 18 (6.36%) NetApp
12 17 (6.01%) Zscaler
13 14 (4.95%) Microsoft
14 13 (4.59%) Oracle
15 11 (3.89%) Infoblox
16 10 (3.53%) HP
17 9 (3.18%) Aruba
18 8 (2.83%) Nokia
19 7 (2.47%) IBM