RFC 2544 Contract Job Trends

Request for Comments: 2544 - Benchmarking Methodology for Network Interconnect Devices
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring RFC 2544 skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 579 534 -
Rank change year-on-year -45 - -
Contract jobs citing RFC 2544 12 7 0
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.033% 0.021% -
As % of the Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards category 0.15% 0.094% -
Number of daily rates quoted 9 7 0
10th Percentile £253 £155 -
25th Percentile £270 £163 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £295 £350 -
Median % change year-on-year -15.71% - -
75th Percentile £298 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median daily rate £295 £350 -
% change year-on-year -15.71% - -

All Software Libraries and Frameworks
UK

RFC 2544 falls under the Software Libraries and Frameworks category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for technical specification, industry standards, software libraries and framework skills 8,270 7,470 9,695
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 22.43% 21.92% 22.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 5,470 4,753 6,888
10th Percentile £355 £350 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £440
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £507 £545 £550
Median % change year-on-year -7.06% -0.91% -4.35%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 203 96 174
10th Percentile £30.85 £21.63 £32.90
25th Percentile £43.00 £36.31 £46.18
Median hourly rate £58.73 £62.50 £53.50
Median % change year-on-year -6.04% +16.82% -17.69%
75th Percentile £67.00 £66.19 £70.00
90th Percentile £80.60 £74.93 £78.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £64.00 £65.00 £51.89
% change year-on-year -1.54% +25.26% -20.17%

RFC 2544
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing RFC 2544 relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

RFC 2544 job vacancy trend in the UK

RFC 2544
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing RFC 2544.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing RFC 2544

RFC 2544
Top 6 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing RFC 2544 within the UK over the 6 months to 20 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
Work from Home - 12 £295 -
UK excluding London -32 10 £295 -15.71%
England -38 10 £295 -15.71%
South East -19 7 £295 -15.71%
West Midlands - 3 - -
Midlands - 3 - -

RFC 2544
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:

Communications & Networking
1 12 (100.00%) Firewall
General
1 6 (50.00%) Telecoms
2 1 (8.33%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 9 (75.00%) Test Engineer
2 6 (50.00%) Network Engineer
3 3 (25.00%) Cisco Engineer
3 3 (25.00%) Cisco Network Engineer
3 3 (25.00%) Infrastructure Manager
3 3 (25.00%) Infrastructure Test Manager
3 3 (25.00%) Test Manager
4 1 (8.33%) Firewall Engineer
4 1 (8.33%) Quality Engineer
4 1 (8.33%) Switch Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 12 (100.00%) Data Centre
2 9 (75.00%) Fibre Optics
3 1 (8.33%) Onboarding
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (100.00%) Test Scripting
2 11 (91.67%) Defect Management
2 11 (91.67%) Disaster Recovery
2 11 (91.67%) Service Management
3 9 (75.00%) Case Management
4 4 (33.33%) Operational Acceptance Testing
5 3 (25.00%) Configuration Management
5 3 (25.00%) Data Centre Operations
5 3 (25.00%) Resource Management
5 3 (25.00%) Risk Management
5 3 (25.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 3 (25.00%) Test Management
5 3 (25.00%) Test Planning
5 3 (25.00%) Use Case
6 1 (8.33%) Performance Testing
6 1 (8.33%) Validation
Qualifications
1 7 (58.33%) SC Cleared
1 7 (58.33%) Security Cleared
2 1 (8.33%) CCNA
2 1 (8.33%) CCNP
2 1 (8.33%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (16.67%) QA
Vendors
1 12 (100.00%) Cisco