SolarWinds Contract Job Trends

SolarWinds
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring knowledge or experience of SolarWinds products and/or services. It includes a benchmarking guide to contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SolarWinds over the 6 months leading up to 1 September 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 SolarWinds.

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 518 401 436
Rank change year-on-year -117 +35 +51
Contract jobs citing SolarWinds 149 155 147
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.28% 0.47% 0.38%
As % of the Vendors category 0.66% 1.00% 0.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 109 87
10th Percentile £306 £313 £308
25th Percentile £419 £400 £411
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +9.26% -5.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £588
90th Percentile £655 £650 £634
UK excluding London median daily rate £523 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +10.00% -5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 3 3
10th Percentile - £58.15 -
25th Percentile £44.86 £61.00 -
Median hourly rate £50.11 £66.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -24.65% +179.41% -63.93%
75th Percentile £55.66 £67.25 -
90th Percentile £57.29 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.11 £66.50 -
% change year-on-year -24.65% - -

All Vendors
UK

SolarWinds 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 22,420 15,451 16,993
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.79% 47.18% 44.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 13,807 9,462 10,397
10th Percentile £313 £275 £287
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.00% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £613 £613 £625
90th Percentile £700 £700 £730
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,170 786 740
10th Percentile £14.35 £14.67 £13.69
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £15.62
Median hourly rate £29.07 £25.15 £29.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.59% -13.28% -31.76%
75th Percentile £65.00 £43.75 £62.51
90th Percentile £81.36 £68.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £21.28 £27.50
% change year-on-year +31.58% -22.62% -30.90%

SolarWinds
Job Vacancy Trend

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

SolarWinds job vacancy trend in the UK

SolarWinds
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

SolarWinds
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SolarWinds over the 6 months to 1 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for SolarWinds in the UK

SolarWinds
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

SolarWinds
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 SolarWinds within the UK over the 6 months to 1 September 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 -132 124 £519 +9.26% 55
UK excluding London -75 119 £523 +10.00% 33
South East -46 46 £538 +19.44% 7
Work from Home -56 26 £582 +29.28% 18
Midlands -45 23 £570 +20.00% 6
South West -28 20 £428 -30.97% 4
West Midlands -42 20 £575 +24.32% 5
London -100 20 £450 -5.26% 27
Scotland -4 18 £475 +5.56% 4
North of England -90 11 £400 -15.79% 9
North West -63 6 £400 -11.11% 6
Yorkshire -49 4 £519 +7.29% 1
East Midlands -12 3 £475 -26.92% 1
East of England -24 1 - - 4
North East -46 1 £225 -53.85% 2

SolarWinds
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 3 (2.01%) Confluence
2 1 (0.67%) OpenStack
Applications
1 3 (2.01%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.34%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 3 (2.01%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 34 (22.82%) Azure
2 15 (10.07%) AWS
3 6 (4.03%) Datadog
3 6 (4.03%) Microsoft 365
3 6 (4.03%) Rubrik
3 6 (4.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 3 (2.01%) Azure Data Factory
4 3 (2.01%) Azure Monitor
4 3 (2.01%) GCP
4 3 (2.01%) OpenShift
4 3 (2.01%) Power Platform
5 2 (1.34%) Azure Storage
5 2 (1.34%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.34%) GitHub
5 2 (1.34%) GitHub Actions
5 2 (1.34%) SaaS
6 1 (0.67%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (0.67%) Azure AKS
6 1 (0.67%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (0.67%) Azure Sentinel
Communications & Networking
1 54 (36.24%) Firewall
2 53 (35.57%) DNS
3 52 (34.90%) WAN
4 50 (33.56%) LAN
5 36 (24.16%) Network Security
6 34 (22.82%) DHCP
7 31 (20.81%) VPN
8 30 (20.13%) SNMP
9 28 (18.79%) BGP
10 24 (16.11%) OSPF
11 22 (14.77%) Cisco Nexus
12 19 (12.75%) Cisco ASA
12 19 (12.75%) MPLS
13 18 (12.08%) BIG-IP
14 17 (11.41%) Wireless
15 16 (10.74%) Cisco ISE
15 16 (10.74%) SD-WAN
16 15 (10.07%) IPsec
16 15 (10.07%) VLAN
17 14 (9.40%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (8.05%) SQL Server
2 3 (2.01%) Power BI
3 2 (1.34%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.67%) MySQL
4 1 (0.67%) Oracle Database
4 1 (0.67%) PostgreSQL
4 1 (0.67%) SAP HANA
Development Applications
1 5 (3.36%) JIRA
2 3 (2.01%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
3 2 (1.34%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.34%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.67%) Git
4 1 (0.67%) Subversion
General
1 39 (26.17%) Social Skills
2 13 (8.72%) Organisational Skills
3 10 (6.71%) Analytical Skills
4 8 (5.37%) Legal
5 7 (4.70%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (4.03%) Finance
7 5 (3.36%) Public Sector
8 4 (2.68%) Telecoms
9 3 (2.01%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.67%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.67%) Aviation
10 1 (0.67%) Electronics
10 1 (0.67%) Law
10 1 (0.67%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.67%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.67%) Retail
Job Titles
1 36 (24.16%) Network Engineer
2 16 (10.74%) Consultant
3 15 (10.07%) Senior
4 14 (9.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 13 (8.72%) Management Consultant
6 10 (6.71%) Cloud Engineer
7 9 (6.04%) Architect
7 9 (6.04%) Senior Network Engineer
8 8 (5.37%) Support Engineer
9 7 (4.70%) Administrator
9 7 (4.70%) DBA
9 7 (4.70%) Lead
9 7 (4.70%) SQL DBA
10 6 (4.03%) Analyst
10 6 (4.03%) Firewall Specialist
10 6 (4.03%) Network Architect
10 6 (4.03%) Network Manager
10 6 (4.03%) Network Specialist
11 5 (3.36%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 5 (3.36%) Principal Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (12.75%) REST
2 15 (10.07%) 802.1X
3 11 (7.38%) Terraform
4 4 (2.68%) SAML
5 3 (2.01%) Elastic Stack
5 3 (2.01%) LDAP
6 1 (0.67%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.67%) Loki
6 1 (0.67%) OpenTelemetry
6 1 (0.67%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (15.44%) Data Centre
2 14 (9.40%) PKI
3 9 (6.04%) Clustering
4 7 (4.70%) Cloud Native
4 7 (4.70%) CMDB
4 7 (4.70%) Hybrid Cloud
4 7 (4.70%) Onboarding
5 5 (3.36%) Replication
6 4 (2.68%) Cyber Threat
6 4 (2.68%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.68%) Fibre Optics
6 4 (2.68%) Private Cloud
7 3 (2.01%) CSOC
7 3 (2.01%) Cyber Defence
7 3 (2.01%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (2.01%) Driving Licence
7 3 (2.01%) Operational Technology
7 3 (2.01%) Security Operations Centre
7 3 (2.01%) Security Posture
8 2 (1.34%) EMC VNX
Operating Systems
1 79 (53.02%) Windows
2 50 (33.56%) Linux
3 18 (12.08%) AIX
4 14 (9.40%) Windows Server
5 8 (5.37%) Windows Server 2019
6 2 (1.34%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (1.34%) Unix
7 1 (0.67%) Check Point GAiA
7 1 (0.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.67%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.67%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (28.19%) ITIL
2 30 (20.13%) Project Delivery
3 29 (19.46%) ITSM
4 28 (18.79%) High Availability
5 26 (17.45%) Network Monitoring
6 23 (15.44%) Technical Leadership
7 21 (14.09%) Network Virtualisation
8 20 (13.42%) Continuous Improvement
8 20 (13.42%) Problem-Solving
9 19 (12.75%) Stakeholder Management
10 18 (12.08%) Observability
10 18 (12.08%) Service Delivery
10 18 (12.08%) Service Management
11 17 (11.41%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 17 (11.41%) Load Balancing
12 16 (10.74%) Agile
13 15 (10.07%) Disaster Recovery
14 13 (8.72%) Change Management
14 13 (8.72%) Dashboard Development
14 13 (8.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 43 (28.86%) PowerShell
2 36 (24.16%) Python
3 29 (19.46%) SQL
4 16 (10.74%) Bash
4 16 (10.74%) Search Processing Language
5 6 (4.03%) T-SQL
6 4 (2.68%) Perl
7 1 (0.67%) Java
7 1 (0.67%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 84 (56.38%) Security Cleared
2 40 (26.85%) DV Cleared
3 36 (24.16%) SC Cleared
4 24 (16.11%) Cisco Certification
5 12 (8.05%) CCNA
6 9 (6.04%) CCNP
7 8 (5.37%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (5.37%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 7 (4.70%) Degree
8 7 (4.70%) MCSE
9 5 (3.36%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.68%) CCIE
10 4 (2.68%) MCSA
11 3 (2.01%) CCA
11 3 (2.01%) Citrix Certification
11 3 (2.01%) PMI Certification
11 3 (2.01%) PMP
12 2 (1.34%) CompTIA CySA+
12 2 (1.34%) CompTIA Security+
12 2 (1.34%) NCDA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.70%) NIST
2 6 (4.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.68%) NCSC
4 2 (1.34%) JSP 440
4 2 (1.34%) SLA
5 1 (0.67%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.67%) GDPR
5 1 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.67%) PMO
5 1 (0.67%) QA
System Software
1 39 (26.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 36 (24.16%) Active Directory
3 16 (10.74%) VMware NSX
4 14 (9.40%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (6.71%) vSphere
6 9 (6.04%) Hyper-V
7 8 (5.37%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (2.01%) NFS
9 2 (1.34%) EMC RecoverPoint
9 2 (1.34%) Firmware
9 2 (1.34%) SRDF
10 1 (0.67%) Docker
10 1 (0.67%) Samba
10 1 (0.67%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 25 (16.78%) Nagios
2 21 (14.09%) SCOM
3 20 (13.42%) ZABBIX
4 17 (11.41%) Netcool
5 16 (10.74%) Tivoli
6 15 (10.07%) vCenter Server
7 14 (9.40%) FortiGate
7 14 (9.40%) OpenView
7 14 (9.40%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 10 (6.71%) Ansible
8 10 (6.71%) SCCM
9 8 (5.37%) NetBackup
9 8 (5.37%) WMI
10 5 (3.36%) Grafana
10 5 (3.36%) Kubernetes
11 4 (2.68%) Cisco CUCM
12 3 (2.01%) Cisco Prime
12 3 (2.01%) Microsoft Intune
12 3 (2.01%) Prometheus
12 3 (2.01%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 80 (53.69%) Cisco
2 54 (36.24%) Splunk
3 47 (31.54%) VMware
4 43 (28.86%) Palo Alto
5 34 (22.82%) F5
6 33 (22.15%) Microsoft
7 26 (17.45%) ServiceNow
8 20 (13.42%) Fortinet
9 19 (12.75%) BMC
10 16 (10.74%) Aruba
11 15 (10.07%) IBM
11 15 (10.07%) Juniper
12 14 (9.40%) HP
13 11 (7.38%) Meraki
14 9 (6.04%) CheckPoint
14 9 (6.04%) Citrix
15 8 (5.37%) Broadcom
15 8 (5.37%) Veeam
16 7 (4.70%) Extreme Networks
16 7 (4.70%) NetApp