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 19 February 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
19 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 435 352 446
Rank change year-on-year -83 +94 +127
Contract jobs citing SolarWinds 168 179 144
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.58% 0.33%
As % of the Vendors category 0.92% 1.25% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 130 119 101
10th Percentile £310 £351 £325
25th Percentile £412 £413 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% +5.00%
75th Percentile £536 £638 £638
90th Percentile £600 £715 £713
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 10
10th Percentile £44.28 - £31.93
25th Percentile £48.68 - £43.16
Median hourly rate £57.02 £38.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year +50.05% -42.41% +5.37%
75th Percentile £65.01 - -
90th Percentile £69.20 - £66.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.02 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - +5.37%

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 18,193 14,299 19,133
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 44.68% 46.42% 43.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,643 8,602 11,971
10th Percentile £300 £275 £258
25th Percentile £413 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £523
Median % change year-on-year -3.89% -0.43% -1.42%
75th Percentile £606 £625 £630
90th Percentile £700 £712 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £495 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 899 407 930
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.62 £12.98
25th Percentile £17.97 £21.25 £15.50
Median hourly rate £24.00 £30.00 £26.72
Median % change year-on-year -20.00% +12.28% -20.24%
75th Percentile £57.63 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.26 £81.45 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.50 £27.13 £26.00
% change year-on-year -17.05% +4.33% -13.33%

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 19 February 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 19 February 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for SolarWinds in the UK

SolarWinds
Top 13 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 19 February 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 -95 146 £500 -4.76% 40
UK excluding London -61 124 £500 -4.76% 38
Work from Home -26 53 £450 -10.00% 8
South East -7 51 £500 +11.11% 23
London -58 27 £500 - 10
West Midlands -57 26 £314 -42.97% 3
Midlands -79 26 £314 -46.28% 4
North of England -96 18 £338 -28.95% 3
South West -21 17 £550 +30.95% 2
North West -51 15 £340 -28.23% 2
East of England -20 6 £363 -37.23% 2
Scotland - 6 £500 - 2
Yorkshire -53 4 £238 +5.56% 1

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 11 (6.55%) Confluence
1 11 (6.55%) Microsoft Exchange
1 11 (6.55%) SharePoint
2 6 (3.57%) IIS
2 6 (3.57%) Skype for Business
3 5 (2.98%) Apache
4 4 (2.38%) BizTalk Server
4 4 (2.38%) SharePoint Server
Applications
1 13 (7.74%) MS Visio
2 6 (3.57%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 45 (26.79%) Azure
2 34 (20.24%) AWS
3 14 (8.33%) Datadog
4 13 (7.74%) Entra ID
5 9 (5.36%) GCP
6 7 (4.17%) Microsoft 365
7 5 (2.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 5 (2.98%) Nutanix
7 5 (2.98%) Power Platform
8 4 (2.38%) Azure Logic Apps
8 4 (2.38%) Azure Monitor
8 4 (2.38%) Cohesity
8 4 (2.38%) PaaS
8 4 (2.38%) SaaS
8 4 (2.38%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (1.79%) Mimecast
10 2 (1.19%) AWS Direct Connect
10 2 (1.19%) Azure Sentinel
10 2 (1.19%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 70 (41.67%) Firewall
2 48 (28.57%) WAN
3 44 (26.19%) LAN
4 42 (25.00%) DNS
5 33 (19.64%) Cisco ISE
5 33 (19.64%) DHCP
6 31 (18.45%) OSPF
7 30 (17.86%) Junos
7 30 (17.86%) VPN
8 29 (17.26%) BGP
9 22 (13.10%) Network Security
9 22 (13.10%) VLAN
10 19 (11.31%) Cisco Firepower
10 19 (11.31%) Cisco IOS
10 19 (11.31%) MPLS
10 19 (11.31%) SD-WAN
11 18 (10.71%) VXLAN
12 17 (10.12%) TCP/IP
13 16 (9.52%) Wireless
14 15 (8.93%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (7.14%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.57%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 5 (2.98%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (2.98%) JIRA
2 4 (2.38%) Git
2 4 (2.38%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.79%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.60%) Subversion
General
1 43 (25.60%) Social Skills
2 29 (17.26%) Public Sector
3 26 (15.48%) Analytical Skills
4 13 (7.74%) Finance
5 7 (4.17%) Documentation Skills
5 7 (4.17%) Law
6 6 (3.57%) Legal
7 5 (2.98%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (2.38%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.38%) Military
8 4 (2.38%) Telecoms
9 3 (1.79%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (1.79%) Retail
10 2 (1.19%) Aviation
11 1 (0.60%) Advertising
11 1 (0.60%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.60%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.60%) French Language
11 1 (0.60%) Local Government
11 1 (0.60%) Police
Job Titles
1 68 (40.48%) Network Engineer
2 18 (10.71%) 3rd Line Engineer
2 18 (10.71%) Analyst
3 17 (10.12%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
3 17 (10.12%) Cloud Engineer
3 17 (10.12%) Cloud Network Engineer
3 17 (10.12%) Support Engineer
4 16 (9.52%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
5 15 (8.93%) Network Support
5 15 (8.93%) Senior
6 14 (8.33%) Network Support Engineer
7 13 (7.74%) 3rd Line Support
7 13 (7.74%) Infrastructure Analyst
7 13 (7.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 12 (7.14%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 10 (5.95%) Architect
10 8 (4.76%) Senior Network Engineer
11 7 (4.17%) DBA
11 7 (4.17%) Server Engineer
11 7 (4.17%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (8.93%) 802.1X
2 5 (2.98%) REST
3 4 (2.38%) JSON
4 2 (1.19%) LDAP
4 2 (1.19%) Middleware
4 2 (1.19%) SAML
5 1 (0.60%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 26 (15.48%) Clustering
1 26 (15.48%) PKI
2 25 (14.88%) Data Centre
3 14 (8.33%) Linux Command Line
4 8 (4.76%) Onboarding
4 8 (4.76%) Operational Technology
4 8 (4.76%) Security Posture
5 7 (4.17%) CMDB
5 7 (4.17%) Replication
6 5 (2.98%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.79%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.79%) Enterprise Software
7 3 (1.79%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (1.79%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.19%) Data Structures
8 2 (1.19%) SCADA
8 2 (1.19%) Taxonomies
9 1 (0.60%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.60%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 61 (36.31%) Windows
2 35 (20.83%) Windows Server
3 28 (16.67%) Linux
4 6 (3.57%) Windows 10
5 5 (2.98%) Windows Server 2016
6 4 (2.38%) Unix
7 3 (1.79%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.60%) Solaris
8 1 (0.60%) VMS
8 1 (0.60%) Windows 7
8 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2003
8 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (20.24%) Service Management
2 33 (19.64%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (18.45%) ITIL
4 27 (16.07%) ITSM
5 25 (14.88%) Agile
6 24 (14.29%) High Availability
6 24 (14.29%) Network Monitoring
7 18 (10.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 18 (10.71%) Load Balancing
8 16 (9.52%) Change Management
9 15 (8.93%) Disaster Recovery
9 15 (8.93%) Observability
9 15 (8.93%) Project Delivery
10 14 (8.33%) Continuous Improvement
11 13 (7.74%) Network Design
12 12 (7.14%) Capacity Planning
12 12 (7.14%) Identity Access Management
13 9 (5.36%) Incident Response
13 9 (5.36%) Migration
13 9 (5.36%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 24 (14.29%) PowerShell
2 15 (8.93%) Python
3 14 (8.33%) SQL
4 8 (4.76%) Bash
5 4 (2.38%) Perl
Qualifications
1 78 (46.43%) Security Cleared
2 41 (24.40%) Cisco Certification
3 36 (21.43%) DV Cleared
4 33 (19.64%) SC Cleared
5 30 (17.86%) CCNP
6 21 (12.50%) CCNA
7 13 (7.74%) Degree
8 10 (5.95%) Microsoft Certification
9 8 (4.76%) CCIE
9 8 (4.76%) JNCIS
9 8 (4.76%) MCSE
10 6 (3.57%) ITIL Certification
10 6 (3.57%) JNCIP
11 5 (2.98%) JNCIA
11 5 (2.98%) Master's Degree
12 4 (2.38%) AWS Certification
12 4 (2.38%) CISSP
12 4 (2.38%) Network+ Certification
13 3 (1.79%) CCSP
13 3 (1.79%) MCSA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.57%) PCI DSS
2 5 (2.98%) GDPR
2 5 (2.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.38%) NIST
4 3 (1.79%) NCSC
4 3 (1.79%) QA
5 2 (1.19%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.60%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.60%) GRC
6 1 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 20000
6 1 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 49 (29.17%) Active Directory
2 45 (26.79%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (18.45%) VMware NSX
4 17 (10.12%) vSphere
5 13 (7.74%) Hyper-V
6 5 (2.98%) Firmware
6 5 (2.98%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 5 (2.98%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (2.98%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.60%) KVM
7 1 (0.60%) RHEV
7 1 (0.60%) Terminal Services
7 1 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.60%) Xen
7 1 (0.60%) XenApp
7 1 (0.60%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 28 (16.67%) vCenter Server
2 26 (15.48%) Ansible
3 19 (11.31%) Terraform
4 17 (10.12%) Nagios
4 17 (10.12%) SCCM
5 15 (8.93%) FortiGate
6 13 (7.74%) vRealize
7 12 (7.14%) VxRail
8 9 (5.36%) Cisco Prime
8 9 (5.36%) WSUS
9 6 (3.57%) Microsoft Clustering
10 5 (2.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 5 (2.98%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (2.38%) Iperf
11 4 (2.38%) Nmap
11 4 (2.38%) Pingdom
12 3 (1.79%) Red Hat Satellite
12 3 (1.79%) Single Sign-On
13 2 (1.19%) Cisco CUCM
13 2 (1.19%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 120 (71.43%) Cisco
2 49 (29.17%) VMware
3 43 (25.60%) Juniper
4 32 (19.05%) Palo Alto
5 28 (16.67%) Fortinet
6 24 (14.29%) F5
6 24 (14.29%) Microsoft
7 23 (13.69%) Splunk
8 21 (12.50%) Veeam
9 19 (11.31%) CheckPoint
10 16 (9.52%) ServiceNow
11 15 (8.93%) Commvault
11 15 (8.93%) Dell
12 14 (8.33%) AppDynamics
12 14 (8.33%) IBM
12 14 (8.33%) Meraki
13 13 (7.74%) HP
14 12 (7.14%) Extreme Networks
15 11 (6.55%) Aruba
16 10 (5.95%) LogicMonitor