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 24 April 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
24 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 342 344 315
Rank change year-on-year +2 -29 +58
Contract jobs citing F5 311 182 295
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.67% 0.62% 0.68%
As % of the Vendors category 1.58% 1.30% 1.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 128 107 192
10th Percentile £334 £382 £400
25th Percentile £400 £419 £432
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £535 £500
Median % change year-on-year -11.21% +7.00% -4.76%
75th Percentile £550 £594 £588
90th Percentile £675 £650 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £540 £500
% change year-on-year -8.33% +8.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 3
10th Percentile £42.05 - -
25th Percentile £43.11 - -
Median hourly rate £48.72 - £23.80
75th Percentile £62.29 - £45.65
90th Percentile £68.11 - £58.76
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 - £63.00
% change year-on-year - - -19.95%

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 19,649 14,019 18,536
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 42.29% 47.46% 42.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,551 8,811 11,523
10th Percentile £313 £294 £260
25th Percentile £413 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.91% - -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £619 £627
90th Percentile £703 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £497 £500
% change year-on-year -1.01% -0.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 986 554 1,079
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £12.02
25th Percentile £18.61 £18.25 £14.38
Median hourly rate £30.32 £27.13 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +11.78% +20.56% -48.86%
75th Percentile £60.00 £57.57 £57.41
90th Percentile £79.13 £75.88 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.83 £24.19 £21.46
% change year-on-year +10.91% +12.72% -46.35%

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 24 April 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 24 April 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 24 April 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 +3 275 £490 -10.01% 26
UK excluding London +24 211 £495 -8.33% 28
North of England +18 98 £485 -9.35% 12
North West +37 81 £545 +14.74% 6
Midlands -11 68 £339 -41.75% 1
West Midlands -1 67 £339 -38.52% 1
London -64 64 £470 -2.08% 2
South East -16 62 £525 +6.33% 4
Work from Home -29 61 £480 -1.54% 14
Yorkshire -35 20 £478 -13.18% 1
Scotland +16 16 £413 -5.71% 2
South West -44 15 £465 -9.27% 7
East of England -34 2 £530 +13.98% 2
East Midlands -43 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 8 (2.57%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.93%) Confluence
3 1 (0.32%) CMS
3 1 (0.32%) nginx
Applications
1 22 (7.07%) MS Visio
2 8 (2.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 27 (8.68%) Azure
2 26 (8.36%) AWS
3 7 (2.25%) Microsoft 365
4 6 (1.93%) GCP
5 5 (1.61%) Nutanix
5 5 (1.61%) OpenShift
6 4 (1.29%) GitHub
6 4 (1.29%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 3 (0.96%) Amazon S3
7 3 (0.96%) Entra ID
8 2 (0.64%) Amazon OpenSearch
8 2 (0.64%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 2 (0.64%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.32%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.32%) Amazon GuardDuty
9 1 (0.32%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (0.32%) CloudBees
9 1 (0.32%) GitHub Actions
9 1 (0.32%) Google Ads
9 1 (0.32%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 152 (48.87%) Firewall
2 146 (46.95%) DNS
3 121 (38.91%) BGP
4 111 (35.69%) BIG-IP
5 96 (30.87%) WAN
6 88 (28.30%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
7 83 (26.69%) LAN
7 83 (26.69%) VPN
8 81 (26.05%) OSPF
9 75 (24.12%) Network Security
10 66 (21.22%) TCP/IP
11 59 (18.97%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
12 55 (17.68%) SSL
13 53 (17.04%) Multicast
14 49 (15.76%) VXLAN
15 46 (14.79%) Cisco Nexus
15 46 (14.79%) HTTP
16 43 (13.83%) DHCP
17 41 (13.18%) DMZ
17 41 (13.18%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
1 2 (0.64%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.32%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 28 (9.00%) Fiddler
2 18 (5.79%) JIRA
3 6 (1.93%) Git
4 4 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
5 3 (0.96%) GitLab
6 2 (0.64%) Jenkins
General
1 52 (16.72%) Banking
2 48 (15.43%) Social Skills
3 42 (13.50%) Finance
4 38 (12.22%) Investment Banking
5 19 (6.11%) Public Sector
6 15 (4.82%) Analytical Skills
6 15 (4.82%) Financial Institution
7 12 (3.86%) Telecoms
8 8 (2.57%) Military
9 6 (1.93%) Retail
10 5 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.96%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
12 2 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.32%) Billing
13 1 (0.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 168 (54.02%) Network Engineer
2 48 (15.43%) Security Engineer
3 45 (14.47%) Network Security Engineer
4 44 (14.15%) Senior
5 42 (13.50%) Web Engineer
6 39 (12.54%) Architect
7 36 (11.58%) Cisco Engineer
7 36 (11.58%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 33 (10.61%) Data Network Engineer
9 30 (9.65%) Data Engineer
10 28 (9.00%) Cisco Security Engineer
11 27 (8.68%) Senior Network Engineer
12 24 (7.72%) IP Network Engineer
13 19 (6.11%) Blue Coat Engineer
13 19 (6.11%) Network Specialist
14 18 (5.79%) Network Architect
15 16 (5.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 14 (4.50%) Firewall Specialist
17 10 (3.22%) Junior
18 9 (2.89%) Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (9.65%) 802.1X
2 10 (3.22%) JSON
3 9 (2.89%) LDAP
4 8 (2.57%) SAML
5 6 (1.93%) NETCONF
5 6 (1.93%) YANG
6 5 (1.61%) OpenConfig
7 4 (1.29%) RESTCONF
7 4 (1.29%) VML
8 3 (0.96%) REST
9 2 (0.64%) XML
9 2 (0.64%) YAML
10 1 (0.32%) Elastic Stack
10 1 (0.32%) React
Miscellaneous
1 78 (25.08%) Data Centre
2 28 (9.00%) PKI
3 24 (7.72%) Clustering
4 22 (7.07%) Management Information System
5 16 (5.14%) Public Cloud
6 12 (3.86%) Data Protection Act
7 10 (3.22%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (1.93%) Private Cloud
9 5 (1.61%) Algorithms
9 5 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
10 4 (1.29%) Analytical Mindset
10 4 (1.29%) Onboarding
11 3 (0.96%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 3 (0.96%) iSeries
11 3 (0.96%) Virtual Team
12 2 (0.64%) CESG
12 2 (0.64%) Cyber Threat
12 2 (0.64%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (0.64%) Enterprise Storage
13 1 (0.32%) RSA SecurID
Operating Systems
1 47 (15.11%) Windows
2 23 (7.40%) Linux
3 9 (2.89%) Unix
4 8 (2.57%) Windows Server
5 7 (2.25%) Windows Server 2012
5 7 (2.25%) Windows Server 2019
6 4 (1.29%) CatOS
7 3 (0.96%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.32%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (50.16%) Load Balancing
2 57 (18.33%) High Availability
3 48 (15.43%) Problem-Solving
4 42 (13.50%) Migration
5 33 (10.61%) Observability
6 31 (9.97%) Change Management
7 28 (9.00%) Data Loss Prevention
7 28 (9.00%) Malware Detection/Protection
8 26 (8.36%) Identity Access Management
9 24 (7.72%) Project Delivery
10 23 (7.40%) Roadmaps
10 23 (7.40%) Stakeholder Management
11 22 (7.07%) ITIL
12 20 (6.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 19 (6.11%) Network Design
13 19 (6.11%) Technical Leadership
14 18 (5.79%) Agile
15 15 (4.82%) Data Protection
16 14 (4.50%) Continuous Improvement
16 14 (4.50%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 51 (16.40%) Python
2 8 (2.57%) Bash
3 6 (1.93%) JavaScript
3 6 (1.93%) VBA
4 5 (1.61%) PowerShell
5 4 (1.29%) ActionScript
6 3 (0.96%) SQL
7 2 (0.64%) C++
8 1 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
8 1 (0.32%) Lisp
8 1 (0.32%) Shell Script
8 1 (0.32%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 75 (24.12%) Security Cleared
2 68 (21.86%) Cisco Certification
3 39 (12.54%) SC Cleared
4 35 (11.25%) CCNP
5 27 (8.68%) DV Cleared
6 20 (6.43%) CCIE
7 12 (3.86%) CCNA
8 11 (3.54%) JNCIS
9 10 (3.22%) JNCIP
10 8 (2.57%) Degree
10 8 (2.57%) JNCIA
11 7 (2.25%) JNCIE
12 4 (1.29%) Computer Science Degree
13 3 (0.96%) CCDP
13 3 (0.96%) CCIE Security
13 3 (0.96%) CCSE
14 2 (0.64%) BPSS Clearance
14 2 (0.64%) CESG Certified Professional
14 2 (0.64%) CHECK Team Leader
14 2 (0.64%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (1.61%) JSP 440
1 5 (1.61%) SLA
2 4 (1.29%) Disclosure Scotland
2 4 (1.29%) QA
3 3 (0.96%) NCSC
3 3 (0.96%) NIST
4 2 (0.64%) RMADS
5 1 (0.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.32%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 53 (17.04%) VMware Infrastructure
2 31 (9.97%) VMware NSX
3 19 (6.11%) Firmware
4 17 (5.47%) Active Directory
5 7 (2.25%) Docker
5 7 (2.25%) vSphere
6 5 (1.61%) Virtual Servers
7 4 (1.29%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (1.29%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.64%) KVM
8 2 (0.64%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.32%) IAG
9 1 (0.32%) RHEV
9 1 (0.32%) Xen
9 1 (0.32%) XenApp
9 1 (0.32%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 53 (17.04%) Ansible
2 51 (16.40%) FortiGate
3 17 (5.47%) Terraform
4 13 (4.18%) Prometheus
5 11 (3.54%) Grafana
5 11 (3.54%) Single Sign-On
6 7 (2.25%) Kubernetes
6 7 (2.25%) Microsoft Intune
6 7 (2.25%) SCCM
7 5 (1.61%) Salt
8 4 (1.29%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 4 (1.29%) Nagios
9 2 (0.64%) Argo
9 2 (0.64%) Red Hat Satellite
10 1 (0.32%) Backup Exec
10 1 (0.32%) NetBackup
10 1 (0.32%) Norton AntiVirus
10 1 (0.32%) SCOM
10 1 (0.32%) vCenter Server
10 1 (0.32%) WSUS
Vendors
1 192 (61.74%) Cisco
2 86 (27.65%) Palo Alto
3 69 (22.19%) VMware
4 65 (20.90%) Juniper
5 53 (17.04%) CheckPoint
6 36 (11.58%) Fortinet
7 34 (10.93%) Blue Coat
8 32 (10.29%) McAfee
8 32 (10.29%) SolarWinds
9 30 (9.65%) Splunk
10 24 (7.72%) Arista
11 23 (7.40%) Extreme Networks
12 22 (7.07%) Microsoft
13 20 (6.43%) NetApp
14 19 (6.11%) Infoblox
15 18 (5.79%) ServiceNow
16 16 (5.14%) Aruba
17 14 (4.50%) Zscaler
18 10 (3.22%) Meraki
19 6 (1.93%) BigPanda