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 9 May 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
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 488 350 437
Rank change year-on-year -138 +87 +91
Contract jobs citing SolarWinds 139 171 149
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.29% 0.59% 0.35%
As % of the Vendors category 0.70% 1.23% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 119 107
10th Percentile £285 £285 £328
25th Percentile £345 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% -2.95% +14.49%
75th Percentile £525 £615 £619
90th Percentile £625 £691 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £447 £537 £515
% change year-on-year -16.80% +4.32% +17.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 2
10th Percentile £42.05 - -
25th Percentile £43.11 - -
Median hourly rate £48.72 - £23.80
75th Percentile £62.29 - -
90th Percentile £68.11 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 - -

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 19,841 13,863 18,278
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.57% 47.53% 42.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,610 8,683 11,336
10th Percentile £313 £284 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £515 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.85% -0.07% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £620 £630
90th Percentile £703 £716 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £496 £500
% change year-on-year -1.22% -0.79% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 996 562 1,095
10th Percentile £15.28 £14.84 £12.01
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.50 £14.41
Median hourly rate £32.36 £25.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +26.91% +13.33% -48.57%
75th Percentile £60.00 £57.13 £57.50
90th Percentile £78.02 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.22 £23.00 £21.50
% change year-on-year +22.70% +6.98% -45.67%

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 9 May 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
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SolarWinds over the 6 months to 9 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SolarWinds in the UK

SolarWinds
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 SolarWinds within the UK over the 6 months to 9 May 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 -132 127 £457 -13.87% 28
UK excluding London -89 113 £447 -16.80% 27
South East -42 46 £500 -9.09% 6
Work from Home -42 34 £445 -11.00% 14
South West -27 20 £426 -19.81% 5
London -104 20 £500 - 6
North of England -72 18 £353 -25.79% 5
Midlands -70 17 £302 -48.18% 8
West Midlands -59 16 £300 -45.55% 8
North West -39 15 £350 -17.65% 2
Scotland +6 6 £500 +11.11% 2
East of England -35 6 £363 -22.25% 1
Yorkshire -53 4 £519 +7.01% 2
East Midlands -40 1 £475 -26.95%

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 6 (4.32%) Confluence
1 6 (4.32%) IIS
2 5 (3.60%) Apache
3 4 (2.88%) BizTalk Server
4 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.72%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.72%) SharePoint
Applications
1 12 (8.63%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 39 (28.06%) Azure
2 23 (16.55%) AWS
3 14 (10.07%) Entra ID
4 8 (5.76%) Microsoft 365
5 7 (5.04%) Datadog
6 5 (3.60%) Azure Monitor
7 4 (2.88%) Azure Logic Apps
7 4 (2.88%) GCP
7 4 (2.88%) Nutanix
7 4 (2.88%) SaaS
8 3 (2.16%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (2.16%) Mimecast
8 3 (2.16%) PaaS
9 2 (1.44%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (1.44%) OpenShift
10 1 (0.72%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.72%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (0.72%) GitHub
10 1 (0.72%) IaaS
10 1 (0.72%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 68 (48.92%) Firewall
2 58 (41.73%) WAN
3 56 (40.29%) LAN
4 46 (33.09%) DNS
5 38 (27.34%) DHCP
6 33 (23.74%) BGP
6 33 (23.74%) OSPF
7 29 (20.86%) BIG-IP
8 28 (20.14%) VPN
9 27 (19.42%) Junos
10 26 (18.71%) Ethernet VPN
10 26 (18.71%) VXLAN
11 22 (15.83%) Cisco ISE
12 21 (15.11%) SNMP
13 20 (14.39%) Network Security
14 16 (11.51%) VLAN
15 14 (10.07%) SD-WAN
16 13 (9.35%) Cisco Nexus
16 13 (9.35%) TCP/IP
17 10 (7.19%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.76%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.72%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 3 (2.16%) JIRA
2 2 (1.44%) Git
2 2 (1.44%) Jenkins
2 2 (1.44%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.72%) Bitbucket
General
1 27 (19.42%) Social Skills
2 12 (8.63%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (5.76%) Public Sector
4 7 (5.04%) Law
5 6 (4.32%) Finance
5 6 (4.32%) Legal
6 4 (2.88%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (2.88%) Military
6 4 (2.88%) Retail
7 3 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (1.44%) Aviation
8 2 (1.44%) Telecoms
9 1 (0.72%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.72%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 46 (33.09%) Network Engineer
2 15 (10.79%) Consultant
3 14 (10.07%) Firewall Specialist
3 14 (10.07%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 14 (10.07%) Management Consultant
3 14 (10.07%) Network Specialist
3 14 (10.07%) Senior
4 9 (6.47%) Senior Network Engineer
5 8 (5.76%) Analyst
5 8 (5.76%) Architect
5 8 (5.76%) DBA
5 8 (5.76%) SQL DBA
6 7 (5.04%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
7 6 (4.32%) Infrastructure Analyst
7 6 (4.32%) Server Engineer
8 5 (3.60%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 5 (3.60%) Switch Engineer
9 4 (2.88%) Administrator
9 4 (2.88%) Lead
9 4 (2.88%) Network Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (18.71%) 802.1X
2 24 (17.27%) REST
3 5 (3.60%) LDAP
3 5 (3.60%) SAML
4 4 (2.88%) JSON
5 2 (1.44%) Middleware
6 1 (0.72%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.72%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 37 (26.62%) Clustering
2 36 (25.90%) Data Centre
3 28 (20.14%) PKI
4 7 (5.04%) Replication
4 7 (5.04%) Security Posture
5 6 (4.32%) Linux Command Line
6 5 (3.60%) Hybrid Cloud
6 5 (3.60%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.88%) Enterprise Software
7 4 (2.88%) Onboarding
8 3 (2.16%) CMDB
9 2 (1.44%) Cloud Native
9 2 (1.44%) Data Structures
9 2 (1.44%) Enterprise Storage
9 2 (1.44%) Management Information System
9 2 (1.44%) Taxonomies
10 1 (0.72%) EMC VMAX
10 1 (0.72%) EMC VNX
10 1 (0.72%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.72%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 70 (50.36%) Windows
2 32 (23.02%) Linux
3 19 (13.67%) AIX
3 19 (13.67%) Windows Server
4 3 (2.16%) Windows Server 2019
5 2 (1.44%) Unix
5 2 (1.44%) Windows 10
6 1 (0.72%) Data ONTAP
6 1 (0.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 1 (0.72%) VMS
6 1 (0.72%) Windows Server 2012
6 1 (0.72%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (26.62%) High Availability
2 33 (23.74%) Problem-Solving
3 32 (23.02%) ITIL
3 32 (23.02%) Observability
4 27 (19.42%) Load Balancing
5 24 (17.27%) Identity Access Management
6 20 (14.39%) Network Monitoring
7 19 (13.67%) Disaster Recovery
7 19 (13.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 16 (11.51%) ITSM
9 15 (10.79%) Agile
9 15 (10.79%) Change Management
9 15 (10.79%) Continuous Improvement
9 15 (10.79%) Dashboard Development
10 14 (10.07%) Service Management
11 13 (9.35%) Project Delivery
12 12 (8.63%) Capacity Planning
13 11 (7.91%) Migration
13 11 (7.91%) Performance Tuning
14 9 (6.47%) Availability Management
Programming Languages
1 39 (28.06%) PowerShell
2 26 (18.71%) Python
3 23 (16.55%) SQL
4 17 (12.23%) Search Processing Language
5 4 (2.88%) Bash
6 2 (1.44%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.72%) JavaScript
7 1 (0.72%) Perl
Qualifications
1 75 (53.96%) Security Cleared
2 37 (26.62%) Cisco Certification
3 33 (23.74%) SC Cleared
4 28 (20.14%) DV Cleared
5 15 (10.79%) CCNP
6 11 (7.91%) JNCIS
7 10 (7.19%) CCNA
8 8 (5.76%) JNCIA
9 7 (5.04%) JNCIP
10 5 (3.60%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (2.16%) BPSS Clearance
11 3 (2.16%) CCIE
11 3 (2.16%) Degree
11 3 (2.16%) Microsoft Certification
12 2 (1.44%) BC Cleared
12 2 (1.44%) ISTQB
12 2 (1.44%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.44%) PMP
12 2 (1.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 1 (0.72%) CCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.16%) NCSC
1 3 (2.16%) QA
2 2 (1.44%) Data Quality
2 2 (1.44%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 2 (1.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.72%) GDPR
3 1 (0.72%) GRC
3 1 (0.72%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.72%) NIST
3 1 (0.72%) PMO
System Software
1 27 (19.42%) Active Directory
2 22 (15.83%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (9.35%) Hyper-V
4 12 (8.63%) vSphere
5 10 (7.19%) VMware NSX
6 4 (2.88%) Firmware
6 4 (2.88%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.72%) Docker
7 1 (0.72%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.72%) KVM
7 1 (0.72%) NFS
7 1 (0.72%) RHEV
7 1 (0.72%) SRDF
7 1 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.72%) Xen
Systems Management
1 35 (25.18%) Nagios
2 26 (18.71%) FortiGate
3 20 (14.39%) Ansible
4 19 (13.67%) ZABBIX
5 18 (12.95%) Netcool
6 17 (12.23%) Terraform
6 17 (12.23%) Tivoli
7 15 (10.79%) OpenView
7 15 (10.79%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 8 (5.76%) Cisco Prime
9 6 (4.32%) Microsoft Clustering
9 6 (4.32%) SCCM
9 6 (4.32%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (4.32%) vRealize
10 5 (3.60%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (3.60%) VxRail
11 4 (2.88%) Pingdom
11 4 (2.88%) vCenter Server
12 3 (2.16%) WSUS
13 2 (1.44%) Iperf
Vendors
1 80 (57.55%) Cisco
2 47 (33.81%) Splunk
3 40 (28.78%) Juniper
4 34 (24.46%) F5
5 24 (17.27%) Palo Alto
5 24 (17.27%) VMware
6 23 (16.55%) Extreme Networks
7 22 (15.83%) HP
7 22 (15.83%) IBM
8 21 (15.11%) BMC
9 20 (14.39%) Microsoft
10 13 (9.35%) Fortinet
11 11 (7.91%) CheckPoint
11 11 (7.91%) ServiceNow
12 10 (7.19%) Veeam
13 9 (6.47%) Aruba
13 9 (6.47%) Commvault
13 9 (6.47%) Meraki
14 8 (5.76%) AppDynamics
14 8 (5.76%) Dell