SMTP Contract Job Trends

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring SMTP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 588 410 552
Rank change year-on-year -178 +142 +106
Contract jobs citing SMTP 33 113 33
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.071% 0.38% 0.076%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.74% 2.99% 0.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 68 23
10th Percentile £438 £348 £290
25th Percentile £500 £459 £372
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £545 £450
Median % change year-on-year -1.47% +21.11% -18.18%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £713
90th Percentile £638 £641 £925
UK excluding London median daily rate £518 £575 £445
% change year-on-year -10.00% +29.21% -17.59%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 10 0
10th Percentile £43.25 £40.50 -
25th Percentile £51.44 £41.81 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £80.68 -
Median % change year-on-year -19.43% - -
75th Percentile £75.00 £81.35 -
90th Percentile £79.38 £82.29 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £81.35 -
% change year-on-year -20.10% - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

SMTP falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 4,486 3,781 5,724
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.70% 12.84% 13.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,811 2,343 3,430
10th Percentile £238 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -0.51% -5.77%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £465 £480
% change year-on-year +2.15% -3.02% +0.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 206 171 426
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £20.75 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £46.25 £37.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +23.33% -6.25% +110.53%
75th Percentile £70.00 £61.38 £62.38
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £28.00 £46.39
% change year-on-year +96.43% -39.64% +150.76%

SMTP
Job Vacancy Trend

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

SMTP job vacancy trend in the UK

SMTP
Daily Rate Trend

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

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SMTP

SMTP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SMTP over the 6 months to 20 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SMTP in the UK

SMTP
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SMTP.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing SMTP

SMTP
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SMTP over the 6 months to 20 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SMTP in the UK

SMTP
Top 11 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SMTP within the UK over the 6 months to 20 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 -191 31 £537 -0.56% 6
UK excluding London -147 21 £518 -10.00% 4
London -72 10 £625 +25.00% 3
Work from Home -56 9 £535 +7.00% 4
West Midlands -57 8 £519 -16.03%
Midlands -62 8 £519 -16.03%
East of England -49 5 - - 1
South East -74 4 £510 -5.20% 2
South West -27 2 £550 -15.38%
Yorkshire -66 2 - -
North of England -76 2 - - 1

SMTP
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 11 (33.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 3 (9.09%) SharePoint
3 2 (6.06%) Exchange Server 2013
4 1 (3.03%) IIS
4 1 (3.03%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 1 (3.03%) InDesign
1 1 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 7 (21.21%) Entra ID
1 7 (21.21%) IaaS
1 7 (21.21%) Microsoft 365
1 7 (21.21%) PaaS
2 6 (18.18%) Azure
3 4 (12.12%) Microsoft Purview
4 3 (9.09%) OneDrive
5 2 (6.06%) Microsoft Copilot
5 2 (6.06%) Power Platform
5 2 (6.06%) ShareGate
6 1 (3.03%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (3.03%) Azure Key Vault
6 1 (3.03%) Azure Monitor
6 1 (3.03%) Figma
6 1 (3.03%) GCP
6 1 (3.03%) Google Analytics
Communications & Networking
1 22 (66.67%) DNS
2 13 (39.39%) DHCP
3 10 (30.30%) FTP
3 10 (30.30%) HTTP
4 9 (27.27%) Firewall
5 8 (24.24%) SSL
5 8 (24.24%) VPN
6 6 (18.18%) DKIM
6 6 (18.18%) DMARC
7 5 (15.15%) Network Security
7 5 (15.15%) Telnet
8 4 (12.12%) TCP/IP
9 3 (9.09%) SNMP
9 3 (9.09%) SSH
10 1 (3.03%) HTTPS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (21.21%) Elasticsearch
2 2 (6.06%) Power BI
3 1 (3.03%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (3.03%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (3.03%) GIS
3 1 (3.03%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (3.03%) MSI
1 1 (3.03%) webpack
General
1 8 (24.24%) Social Skills
2 5 (15.15%) Analytical Skills
3 4 (12.12%) Legal
4 2 (6.06%) Public Sector
5 1 (3.03%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (3.03%) Finance
5 1 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (3.03%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 11 (33.33%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 8 (24.24%) 3rd Line Engineer
2 8 (24.24%) Analyst
3 7 (21.21%) 3rd Line Infrastructure Engineer
3 7 (21.21%) NetApp Engineer
3 7 (21.21%) Storage Engineer
4 6 (18.18%) SOC Analyst
5 2 (6.06%) Architect
5 2 (6.06%) Cloud Engineer
5 2 (6.06%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
5 2 (6.06%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
5 2 (6.06%) Microsoft 365 Architect
5 2 (6.06%) Server Engineer
5 2 (6.06%) Windows Engineer
5 2 (6.06%) Wintel Analyst
6 1 (3.03%) C++ Developer
6 1 (3.03%) Developer
6 1 (3.03%) Messaging Specialist
6 1 (3.03%) Security Analyst
6 1 (3.03%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (27.27%) LDAP
2 3 (9.09%) Microsoft Graph
3 2 (6.06%) REST
4 1 (3.03%) .NET
4 1 (3.03%) .NET Framework
4 1 (3.03%) ASP.NET
4 1 (3.03%) ASP.NET Core
4 1 (3.03%) ASP.NET MVC
4 1 (3.03%) ATL
4 1 (3.03%) Blazor
4 1 (3.03%) COM
4 1 (3.03%) Entity Framework
4 1 (3.03%) GeoJSON
4 1 (3.03%) MFC
4 1 (3.03%) Razor View Engine
4 1 (3.03%) SAML
4 1 (3.03%) SignalR
Miscellaneous
1 8 (24.24%) Clustering
1 8 (24.24%) PKI
2 7 (21.21%) Enterprise Storage
3 5 (15.15%) Analytical Mindset
3 5 (15.15%) CSOC
3 5 (15.15%) Cyber Threat
3 5 (15.15%) Cyberattack
3 5 (15.15%) Management Information System
3 5 (15.15%) Security Operations Centre
4 3 (9.09%) SCADA
5 1 (3.03%) Data Centre
5 1 (3.03%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 19 (57.58%) Windows
2 15 (45.45%) Windows Server
3 13 (39.39%) Linux
4 7 (21.21%) Windows Server 2003
5 4 (12.12%) CentOS
5 4 (12.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 4 (12.12%) Ubuntu
6 1 (3.03%) Apple iOS
6 1 (3.03%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (33.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
1 11 (33.33%) SIEM
2 8 (24.24%) Cybersecurity
3 7 (21.21%) Incident Management
3 7 (21.21%) Runbook
4 6 (18.18%) Analytics
4 6 (18.18%) Incident Response
4 6 (18.18%) ITIL
4 6 (18.18%) Security Operations
5 5 (15.15%) AI
5 5 (15.15%) Behavioural Analytics
5 5 (15.15%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (15.15%) High Availability
5 5 (15.15%) Information Management
5 5 (15.15%) Information Security
5 5 (15.15%) Machine Learning
5 5 (15.15%) Network Packet Capture
5 5 (15.15%) SOAR
5 5 (15.15%) Threat Detection
5 5 (15.15%) Threat Modelling
Programming Languages
1 20 (60.61%) PowerShell
2 10 (30.30%) Python
3 5 (15.15%) Bash
4 2 (6.06%) SQL
5 1 (3.03%) Bicep
5 1 (3.03%) C#
5 1 (3.03%) C++
5 1 (3.03%) Java
5 1 (3.03%) JavaScript
5 1 (3.03%) Kusto Query Language
5 1 (3.03%) PL/SQL
5 1 (3.03%) T-SQL
5 1 (3.03%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 20 (60.61%) Security Cleared
2 14 (42.42%) DV Cleared
3 9 (27.27%) SC Cleared
4 3 (9.09%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (6.06%) Degree
6 1 (3.03%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 1 (3.03%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (3.03%) CCNA
6 1 (3.03%) CCSP
6 1 (3.03%) CEH
6 1 (3.03%) Cisco Certification
6 1 (3.03%) CISSP
6 1 (3.03%) CompTIA CySA+
6 1 (3.03%) CompTIA Security+
6 1 (3.03%) GCIH
6 1 (3.03%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (6.06%) GDPR
System Software
1 14 (42.42%) Active Directory
2 10 (30.30%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (24.24%) BitLocker
3 8 (24.24%) Hyper-V
3 8 (24.24%) Microsoft App-V
3 8 (24.24%) VMware ESXi
4 7 (21.21%) Docker
5 4 (12.12%) Postfix
6 2 (6.06%) NFS
7 1 (3.03%) Terminal Services
Systems Management
1 8 (24.24%) vCenter Server
1 8 (24.24%) vMotion
2 7 (21.21%) Ansible
2 7 (21.21%) Kubernetes
2 7 (21.21%) Puppet
3 5 (15.15%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (3.03%) CSIRT
4 1 (3.03%) Terraform
Vendors
1 21 (63.64%) Microsoft
2 10 (30.30%) Citrix
2 10 (30.30%) VMware
3 8 (24.24%) NetApp
4 3 (9.09%) Google
5 2 (6.06%) Oracle
5 2 (6.06%) Zscaler
6 1 (3.03%) Adobe
6 1 (3.03%) CrowdStrike
6 1 (3.03%) CyberArk
6 1 (3.03%) Darktrace
6 1 (3.03%) Dell
6 1 (3.03%) Foundry
6 1 (3.03%) HP
6 1 (3.03%) Red Hat
6 1 (3.03%) Symantec