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 10 March 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
10 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 457 340 444
Rank change year-on-year -117 +104 +106
Contract jobs citing SolarWinds 155 180 159
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.37% 0.61% 0.36%
As % of the Vendors category 0.83% 1.30% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 123 117
10th Percentile £304 £303 £328
25th Percentile £359 £414 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £515
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +1.90% +7.33%
75th Percentile £528 £621 £600
90th Percentile £575 £708 £666
UK excluding London median daily rate £493 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -6.19% +5.00% +17.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 5
10th Percentile £44.28 - £42.15
25th Percentile £48.68 - £58.50
Median hourly rate £57.02 - £65.98
75th Percentile £65.01 - -
90th Percentile £69.20 - £66.89
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.02 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - +6.42%

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 18,681 13,883 19,308
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 44.03% 46.96% 43.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,975 8,628 12,043
10th Percentile £306 £285 £256
25th Percentile £413 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £515
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +0.97% -2.83%
75th Percentile £600 £623 £625
90th Percentile £700 £713 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -1.56% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 936 450 1,032
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.62 £12.13
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.02 £14.48
Median hourly rate £25.00 £29.00 £24.65
Median % change year-on-year -13.79% +17.65% -29.57%
75th Percentile £58.75 £63.75 £53.56
90th Percentile £75.00 £80.93 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.68 £27.50 £23.00
% change year-on-year -17.53% +19.57% -29.23%

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 10 March 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 10 March 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 10 March 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 -119 134 £500 -4.76% 35
UK excluding London -95 116 £493 -6.19% 32
South East -20 47 £500 -9.09% 20
Work from Home -31 44 £425 -17.07% 7
West Midlands -61 25 £310 -43.74% 1
Midlands -82 25 £310 -46.85% 3
London -51 24 £510 +2.00% 6
South West -27 16 £550 +33.33% 6
North of England -81 16 £348 -26.84% 2
North West -52 14 £348 -26.84% 1
East of England -28 6 £363 -34.09%
Scotland - 6 £500 -
Yorkshire -54 3 - - 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 (7.10%) Confluence
2 6 (3.87%) IIS
2 6 (3.87%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (3.87%) SharePoint
3 5 (3.23%) Apache
4 4 (2.58%) BizTalk Server
5 3 (1.94%) SharePoint Server
6 2 (1.29%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 14 (9.03%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.65%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 47 (30.32%) Azure
2 35 (22.58%) AWS
3 14 (9.03%) Datadog
4 13 (8.39%) Entra ID
5 10 (6.45%) GCP
6 7 (4.52%) Microsoft 365
7 6 (3.87%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 5 (3.23%) Nutanix
8 5 (3.23%) Power Platform
8 5 (3.23%) SaaS
8 5 (3.23%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 4 (2.58%) Azure Logic Apps
9 4 (2.58%) Azure Monitor
9 4 (2.58%) PaaS
10 3 (1.94%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (1.94%) Cohesity
10 3 (1.94%) Mimecast
11 2 (1.29%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (1.29%) IaaS
12 1 (0.65%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 68 (43.87%) Firewall
2 54 (34.84%) WAN
3 47 (30.32%) LAN
4 43 (27.74%) DNS
5 37 (23.87%) OSPF
6 36 (23.23%) DHCP
7 35 (22.58%) BGP
8 32 (20.65%) Junos
9 31 (20.00%) Cisco ISE
10 27 (17.42%) VPN
11 26 (16.77%) VXLAN
12 22 (14.19%) BIG-IP
12 22 (14.19%) Ethernet VPN
13 20 (12.90%) VLAN
14 18 (11.61%) Network Security
15 15 (9.68%) MPLS
15 15 (9.68%) SD-WAN
16 14 (9.03%) Cisco Firepower
16 14 (9.03%) Cisco Nexus
16 14 (9.03%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (5.81%) SQL Server
2 6 (3.87%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 5 (3.23%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (3.23%) Git
1 5 (3.23%) JIRA
2 4 (2.58%) Jenkins
3 3 (1.94%) Bitbucket
4 2 (1.29%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.65%) Subversion
General
1 34 (21.94%) Social Skills
2 20 (12.90%) Analytical Skills
3 19 (12.26%) Public Sector
4 13 (8.39%) Finance
5 7 (4.52%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (3.87%) Law
6 6 (3.87%) Legal
7 5 (3.23%) Presentation Skills
8 4 (2.58%) Military
9 3 (1.94%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (1.94%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.94%) Retail
10 2 (1.29%) Aviation
10 2 (1.29%) Telecoms
11 1 (0.65%) Advertising
11 1 (0.65%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.65%) Financial Institution
11 1 (0.65%) French Language
11 1 (0.65%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 56 (36.13%) Network Engineer
2 17 (10.97%) Analyst
3 13 (8.39%) Infrastructure Analyst
4 12 (7.74%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 12 (7.74%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
4 12 (7.74%) Cloud Engineer
4 12 (7.74%) Cloud Network Engineer
4 12 (7.74%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
4 12 (7.74%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 12 (7.74%) Network Specialist
4 12 (7.74%) Senior
5 11 (7.10%) Architect
6 10 (6.45%) Firewall Specialist
6 10 (6.45%) Network Support
6 10 (6.45%) Support Engineer
7 9 (5.81%) Network Support Engineer
8 8 (5.16%) 3rd Line Support
8 8 (5.16%) Senior Network Engineer
9 7 (4.52%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 7 (4.52%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (14.19%) 802.1X
2 10 (6.45%) REST
3 4 (2.58%) JSON
4 3 (1.94%) LDAP
4 3 (1.94%) SAML
5 2 (1.29%) Middleware
6 1 (0.65%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.65%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 33 (21.29%) Data Centre
2 31 (20.00%) Clustering
3 28 (18.06%) PKI
4 14 (9.03%) Linux Command Line
5 8 (5.16%) CMDB
6 7 (4.52%) Operational Technology
6 7 (4.52%) Security Posture
7 6 (3.87%) Onboarding
7 6 (3.87%) Replication
8 5 (3.23%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (1.94%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (1.94%) Hybrid Cloud
10 2 (1.29%) Data Structures
10 2 (1.29%) Management Information System
10 2 (1.29%) SCADA
10 2 (1.29%) Taxonomies
11 1 (0.65%) Driving Licence
11 1 (0.65%) Enterprise Cloud
11 1 (0.65%) Enterprise Storage
11 1 (0.65%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 62 (40.00%) Windows
2 29 (18.71%) Linux
3 27 (17.42%) Windows Server
4 5 (3.23%) Windows 10
5 4 (2.58%) AIX
5 4 (2.58%) Windows Server 2016
6 3 (1.94%) Unix
6 3 (1.94%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.65%) Solaris
7 1 (0.65%) VMS
7 1 (0.65%) Windows 7
7 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2003
7 1 (0.65%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (22.58%) Problem-Solving
2 32 (20.65%) ITIL
3 31 (20.00%) High Availability
4 26 (16.77%) Load Balancing
4 26 (16.77%) Service Management
5 24 (15.48%) Agile
6 23 (14.84%) ITSM
6 23 (14.84%) Observability
7 19 (12.26%) Identity Access Management
8 18 (11.61%) Network Monitoring
9 17 (10.97%) Change Management
10 16 (10.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 14 (9.03%) Disaster Recovery
12 13 (8.39%) Continuous Improvement
13 12 (7.74%) Project Delivery
14 11 (7.10%) Capacity Planning
15 10 (6.45%) Network Design
15 10 (6.45%) Roadmaps
16 9 (5.81%) Availability Management
16 9 (5.81%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 26 (16.77%) PowerShell
2 18 (11.61%) Python
3 13 (8.39%) SQL
4 6 (3.87%) Bash
5 4 (2.58%) Perl
5 4 (2.58%) Search Processing Language
6 1 (0.65%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 72 (46.45%) Security Cleared
2 37 (23.87%) Cisco Certification
3 32 (20.65%) SC Cleared
4 29 (18.71%) DV Cleared
5 21 (13.55%) CCNP
6 12 (7.74%) CCNA
7 10 (6.45%) Degree
7 10 (6.45%) JNCIS
8 8 (5.16%) JNCIP
9 7 (4.52%) JNCIA
9 7 (4.52%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (3.87%) CCIE
11 5 (3.23%) MCSE
11 5 (3.23%) Network+ Certification
12 4 (2.58%) AWS Certification
13 3 (1.94%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 3 (1.94%) Azure Certification
13 3 (1.94%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (1.94%) CCIE Security
13 3 (1.94%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.23%) GDPR
1 5 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (2.58%) NIST
2 4 (2.58%) PCI DSS
3 3 (1.94%) NCSC
3 3 (1.94%) QA
4 2 (1.29%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.65%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.65%) GRC
5 1 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 40 (25.81%) Active Directory
1 40 (25.81%) VMware Infrastructure
2 25 (16.13%) VMware NSX
3 17 (10.97%) vSphere
4 12 (7.74%) Hyper-V
5 6 (3.87%) Firmware
6 4 (2.58%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (1.29%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (1.29%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.65%) KVM
8 1 (0.65%) RHEV
8 1 (0.65%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.65%) Xen
8 1 (0.65%) XenApp
8 1 (0.65%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 25 (16.13%) Ansible
2 22 (14.19%) Nagios
3 21 (13.55%) vCenter Server
4 20 (12.90%) FortiGate
4 20 (12.90%) Terraform
5 13 (8.39%) SCCM
5 13 (8.39%) vRealize
6 12 (7.74%) VxRail
7 8 (5.16%) Cisco Prime
8 7 (4.52%) WSUS
9 6 (3.87%) Microsoft Clustering
10 5 (3.23%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (2.58%) Netcool
11 4 (2.58%) OpenView
11 4 (2.58%) Pingdom
11 4 (2.58%) Single Sign-On
11 4 (2.58%) Tivoli
11 4 (2.58%) Tivoli Monitoring
11 4 (2.58%) ZABBIX
12 3 (1.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
Vendors
1 104 (67.10%) Cisco
2 45 (29.03%) Juniper
3 44 (28.39%) VMware
4 32 (20.65%) F5
5 31 (20.00%) Splunk
6 27 (17.42%) Palo Alto
7 19 (12.26%) Extreme Networks
7 19 (12.26%) Fortinet
7 19 (12.26%) Microsoft
8 18 (11.61%) IBM
9 17 (10.97%) HP
10 16 (10.32%) AppDynamics
10 16 (10.32%) ServiceNow
11 15 (9.68%) Commvault
11 15 (9.68%) Veeam
12 14 (9.03%) Dell
13 13 (8.39%) Meraki
14 10 (6.45%) Aruba
14 10 (6.45%) CheckPoint
15 8 (5.16%) LogicMonitor