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 18 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
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 489 357 436
Rank change year-on-year -132 +79 +90
Contract jobs citing SolarWinds 142 170 143
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.58% 0.34%
As % of the Vendors category 0.72% 1.21% 0.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 95 117 101
10th Percentile £291 £285 £325
25th Percentile £356 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -2.91% +14.44%
75th Percentile £536 £600 £588
90th Percentile £600 £688 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £457 £525 £515
% change year-on-year -13.05% +1.94% +17.05%
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 19,721 13,999 18,047
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 41.12% 47.64% 42.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,479 8,754 11,225
10th Percentile £313 £280 £263
25th Percentile £413 £406 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £515
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -0.49% -1.90%
75th Percentile £600 £615 £630
90th Percentile £700 £712 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £492 £500
% change year-on-year - -1.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 999 569 1,095
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.84 £12.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.35 £14.45
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.50 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +27.45% +15.91% -48.24%
75th Percentile £58.84 £56.00 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.71 £74.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.00 £22.94 £21.42
% change year-on-year +26.43% +7.11% -44.38%

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 18 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 18 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 18 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 -121 129 £475 -9.52% 24
UK excluding London -85 114 £457 -13.05% 26
South East -37 46 £500 -9.09% 7
Work from Home -43 35 £480 -4.00% 13
London -89 21 £500 - 5
South West -17 19 £426 -19.81% 5
Midlands -72 19 £413 -29.28% 2
West Midlands -58 18 £359 -34.94% 1
North of England -85 18 £353 -25.40% 8
North West -41 15 £350 -17.65% 4
Scotland +6 6 £500 +11.11% 4
East of England -26 6 £363 -22.25%
Yorkshire -61 4 £519 +8.58% 2
East Midlands -35 1 £475 -26.95% 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 6 (4.23%) IIS
2 5 (3.52%) Apache
3 4 (2.82%) BizTalk Server
4 3 (2.11%) Confluence
5 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
5 1 (0.70%) OpenStack
5 1 (0.70%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (7.04%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 37 (26.06%) Azure
2 22 (15.49%) AWS
3 14 (9.86%) Entra ID
4 7 (4.93%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (4.23%) SaaS
6 5 (3.52%) Azure Monitor
6 5 (3.52%) Datadog
7 4 (2.82%) Azure Logic Apps
7 4 (2.82%) Nutanix
8 3 (2.11%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (2.11%) GCP
8 3 (2.11%) Mimecast
8 3 (2.11%) PaaS
8 3 (2.11%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 2 (1.41%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (1.41%) OpenShift
10 1 (0.70%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.70%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 1 (0.70%) Azure Storage
10 1 (0.70%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 68 (47.89%) Firewall
2 62 (43.66%) WAN
3 60 (42.25%) LAN
4 48 (33.80%) DNS
5 40 (28.17%) DHCP
6 33 (23.24%) BGP
6 33 (23.24%) OSPF
7 30 (21.13%) VPN
8 29 (20.42%) BIG-IP
9 27 (19.01%) SNMP
10 26 (18.31%) Ethernet VPN
10 26 (18.31%) VXLAN
11 25 (17.61%) Junos
12 20 (14.08%) Cisco ISE
12 20 (14.08%) Network Security
13 18 (12.68%) VLAN
14 16 (11.27%) SD-WAN
15 13 (9.15%) Cisco Nexus
15 13 (9.15%) TCP/IP
16 10 (7.04%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.63%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.23%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.41%) JIRA
1 2 (1.41%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.70%) Git
2 1 (0.70%) Jenkins
General
1 30 (21.13%) Social Skills
2 12 (8.45%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (4.93%) Law
4 6 (4.23%) Legal
4 6 (4.23%) Public Sector
5 5 (3.52%) Finance
6 4 (2.82%) Documentation Skills
6 4 (2.82%) Military
6 4 (2.82%) Retail
7 2 (1.41%) Aviation
7 2 (1.41%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.70%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.70%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.70%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 45 (31.69%) Network Engineer
2 15 (10.56%) Consultant
2 15 (10.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 14 (9.86%) Firewall Specialist
3 14 (9.86%) Management Consultant
3 14 (9.86%) Network Specialist
3 14 (9.86%) Senior
4 10 (7.04%) Architect
5 9 (6.34%) Senior Network Engineer
6 8 (5.63%) DBA
6 8 (5.63%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
6 8 (5.63%) SQL DBA
7 6 (4.23%) Analyst
7 6 (4.23%) Server Engineer
8 5 (3.52%) Network Architect
8 5 (3.52%) Switch Engineer
9 4 (2.82%) Administrator
9 4 (2.82%) Infrastructure Analyst
9 4 (2.82%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
9 4 (2.82%) Network Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (18.31%) 802.1X
2 24 (16.90%) REST
3 5 (3.52%) LDAP
3 5 (3.52%) SAML
4 4 (2.82%) JSON
5 2 (1.41%) Middleware
6 1 (0.70%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.70%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 40 (28.17%) Data Centre
2 37 (26.06%) Clustering
3 26 (18.31%) PKI
4 7 (4.93%) Replication
4 7 (4.93%) Security Posture
5 5 (3.52%) Self-Motivation
6 4 (2.82%) Enterprise Software
6 4 (2.82%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (2.82%) Linux Command Line
6 4 (2.82%) Onboarding
7 3 (2.11%) CMDB
8 2 (1.41%) Cloud Native
8 2 (1.41%) Data Structures
8 2 (1.41%) Enterprise Storage
8 2 (1.41%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.41%) Taxonomies
9 1 (0.70%) EMC VMAX
9 1 (0.70%) EMC VNX
9 1 (0.70%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 74 (52.11%) Windows
2 35 (24.65%) Linux
3 19 (13.38%) AIX
4 17 (11.97%) Windows Server
5 3 (2.11%) Windows Server 2019
6 2 (1.41%) Unix
6 2 (1.41%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.70%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.70%) VMS
7 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.70%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (26.06%) High Availability
2 32 (22.54%) ITIL
2 32 (22.54%) Observability
3 31 (21.83%) Problem-Solving
4 27 (19.01%) Load Balancing
5 24 (16.90%) Identity Access Management
6 20 (14.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 20 (14.08%) Network Monitoring
7 19 (13.38%) Disaster Recovery
8 17 (11.97%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (9.86%) Dashboard Development
9 14 (9.86%) ITSM
10 13 (9.15%) Project Delivery
11 12 (8.45%) Agile
11 12 (8.45%) Migration
11 12 (8.45%) Service Management
12 11 (7.75%) Change Management
12 11 (7.75%) Performance Tuning
13 10 (7.04%) Capacity Planning
13 10 (7.04%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 36 (25.35%) PowerShell
2 29 (20.42%) SQL
3 25 (17.61%) Python
4 17 (11.97%) Search Processing Language
5 3 (2.11%) Bash
6 2 (1.41%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.70%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 73 (51.41%) Security Cleared
2 37 (26.06%) Cisco Certification
3 34 (23.94%) SC Cleared
4 26 (18.31%) DV Cleared
5 15 (10.56%) CCNP
6 11 (7.75%) JNCIS
7 10 (7.04%) CCNA
8 8 (5.63%) JNCIA
9 7 (4.93%) JNCIP
10 5 (3.52%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (2.11%) CCIE
12 2 (1.41%) BC Cleared
12 2 (1.41%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (1.41%) Degree
12 2 (1.41%) ISTQB
12 2 (1.41%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.41%) PMP
13 1 (0.70%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 1 (0.70%) Azure Certification
13 1 (0.70%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.11%) NCSC
1 3 (2.11%) QA
2 2 (1.41%) Data Quality
2 2 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 2 (1.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.70%) GDPR
3 1 (0.70%) GRC
3 1 (0.70%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.70%) NIST
3 1 (0.70%) PMO
System Software
1 26 (18.31%) Active Directory
2 20 (14.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (8.45%) Hyper-V
3 12 (8.45%) vSphere
4 8 (5.63%) VMware NSX
5 6 (4.23%) Virtual Machines
6 2 (1.41%) Firmware
7 1 (0.70%) Docker
7 1 (0.70%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.70%) KVM
7 1 (0.70%) NFS
7 1 (0.70%) RHEV
7 1 (0.70%) SRDF
7 1 (0.70%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.70%) Xen
Systems Management
1 35 (24.65%) Nagios
2 26 (18.31%) FortiGate
3 19 (13.38%) ZABBIX
4 18 (12.68%) Ansible
4 18 (12.68%) Netcool
5 17 (11.97%) Tivoli
6 16 (11.27%) Terraform
7 15 (10.56%) OpenView
7 15 (10.56%) Tivoli Monitoring
8 8 (5.63%) Cisco Prime
9 6 (4.23%) Microsoft Clustering
9 6 (4.23%) SCCM
9 6 (4.23%) Single Sign-On
9 6 (4.23%) WMI
10 5 (3.52%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (2.82%) Pingdom
11 4 (2.82%) vRealize
12 3 (2.11%) VxRail
12 3 (2.11%) WSUS
13 2 (1.41%) Nmap
Vendors
1 86 (60.56%) Cisco
2 53 (37.32%) Splunk
3 40 (28.17%) F5
4 38 (26.76%) Juniper
5 30 (21.13%) Palo Alto
6 23 (16.20%) Extreme Networks
6 23 (16.20%) Microsoft
7 22 (15.49%) VMware
8 21 (14.79%) BMC
9 20 (14.08%) HP
9 20 (14.08%) IBM
10 19 (13.38%) Fortinet
11 17 (11.97%) ServiceNow
12 13 (9.15%) CheckPoint
13 11 (7.75%) Meraki
14 10 (7.04%) Veeam
15 9 (6.34%) Aruba
16 8 (5.63%) Commvault
16 8 (5.63%) RedGate
17 6 (4.23%) Dell