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 28 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
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 483 356 434
Rank change year-on-year -127 +78 +83
Contract jobs citing SolarWinds 146 165 152
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.30% 0.58% 0.36%
As % of the Vendors category 0.73% 1.21% 0.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 99 116 106
10th Percentile £297 £285 £357
25th Percentile £356 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £515
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -2.91% +14.44%
75th Percentile £538 £581 £588
90th Percentile £600 £688 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £468 £500 £515
% change year-on-year -6.50% -2.91% +14.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 2
10th Percentile £42.05 - -
25th Percentile £43.11 £56.25 -
Median hourly rate £48.72 £57.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -15.27% +141.60% -61.99%
75th Percentile £62.29 £58.75 -
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 20,001 13,678 18,096
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 40.95% 47.74% 42.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 12,624 8,506 11,301
10th Percentile £313 £281 £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 £625
90th Percentile £700 £713 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £493 £492 £500
% change year-on-year +0.10% -1.60% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,034 573 1,107
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.84 £12.01
25th Percentile £18.55 £17.30 £14.48
Median hourly rate £32.50 £25.30 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +28.46% +12.44% -47.06%
75th Percentile £58.75 £56.00 £57.41
90th Percentile £76.62 £70.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.75 £22.50 £21.46
% change year-on-year +32.22% +4.85% -45.74%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -137 131 £475 -5.00% 18
UK excluding London -75 118 £468 -6.50% 21
South East -29 50 £500 -9.09% 4
Work from Home -63 34 £500 - 11
London -96 20 £500 - 3
South West -18 19 £426 -19.81% 3
North of England -83 19 £355 -25.07% 7
Midlands -68 18 £413 -27.73% 2
West Midlands -61 17 £359 -34.94% 1
North West -41 15 £350 -17.65% 3
Scotland +4 8 £500 +11.11% 4
Yorkshire -60 5 £519 +8.92% 1
East of England -29 4 £363 -9.38%
East Midlands -32 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 4 (2.74%) BizTalk Server
1 4 (2.74%) IIS
2 3 (2.05%) Apache
3 2 (1.37%) Confluence
4 1 (0.68%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.68%) OpenStack
4 1 (0.68%) SharePoint
Applications
1 10 (6.85%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 37 (25.34%) Azure
2 21 (14.38%) AWS
3 12 (8.22%) Entra ID
4 7 (4.79%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (4.11%) SaaS
6 5 (3.42%) Azure Monitor
6 5 (3.42%) Datadog
7 4 (2.74%) Azure Logic Apps
8 3 (2.05%) Azure Sentinel
8 3 (2.05%) GCP
8 3 (2.05%) OpenShift
8 3 (2.05%) PaaS
8 3 (2.05%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 2 (1.37%) Azure Data Factory
9 2 (1.37%) Azure Storage
9 2 (1.37%) GitHub
9 2 (1.37%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (1.37%) Nutanix
10 1 (0.68%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.68%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 70 (47.95%) Firewall
2 66 (45.21%) WAN
3 64 (43.84%) LAN
4 50 (34.25%) DNS
5 40 (27.40%) DHCP
6 34 (23.29%) BGP
6 34 (23.29%) OSPF
7 33 (22.60%) VPN
8 29 (19.86%) BIG-IP
9 27 (18.49%) Ethernet VPN
9 27 (18.49%) SNMP
9 27 (18.49%) VXLAN
10 25 (17.12%) Junos
10 25 (17.12%) Network Security
11 21 (14.38%) Cisco ISE
12 18 (12.33%) VLAN
13 16 (10.96%) SD-WAN
14 15 (10.27%) Cisco Nexus
15 14 (9.59%) MPLS
16 13 (8.90%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (5.48%) SQL Server
2 6 (4.11%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.68%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 2 (1.37%) Jenkins
1 2 (1.37%) JIRA
1 2 (1.37%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.68%) Git
General
1 33 (22.60%) Social Skills
2 13 (8.90%) Analytical Skills
3 7 (4.79%) Law
4 6 (4.11%) Legal
4 6 (4.11%) Public Sector
5 4 (2.74%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (2.74%) Finance
5 4 (2.74%) Military
5 4 (2.74%) Retail
6 3 (2.05%) Organisational Skills
7 2 (1.37%) Aviation
7 2 (1.37%) Telecoms
8 1 (0.68%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
8 1 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 45 (30.82%) Network Engineer
2 16 (10.96%) Consultant
2 16 (10.96%) Senior
3 14 (9.59%) Firewall Specialist
3 14 (9.59%) Management Consultant
3 14 (9.59%) Network Specialist
4 13 (8.90%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 12 (8.22%) Architect
6 11 (7.53%) Senior Network Engineer
7 8 (5.48%) DBA
7 8 (5.48%) SQL DBA
8 6 (4.11%) Network Architect
8 6 (4.11%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
8 6 (4.11%) Server Engineer
9 5 (3.42%) Analyst
9 5 (3.42%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 5 (3.42%) Network Manager
10 4 (2.74%) Administrator
10 4 (2.74%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
10 4 (2.74%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (19.86%) 802.1X
2 24 (16.44%) REST
3 5 (3.42%) LDAP
3 5 (3.42%) SAML
4 4 (2.74%) JSON
5 2 (1.37%) Middleware
6 1 (0.68%) ARM Templates
6 1 (0.68%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 42 (28.77%) Data Centre
2 37 (25.34%) Clustering
3 28 (19.18%) PKI
4 8 (5.48%) Replication
5 7 (4.79%) Security Posture
6 4 (2.74%) Hybrid Cloud
6 4 (2.74%) Onboarding
7 3 (2.05%) Cloud Native
7 3 (2.05%) CMDB
7 3 (2.05%) Enterprise Storage
7 3 (2.05%) Linux Command Line
7 3 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (1.37%) Data Structures
8 2 (1.37%) EMC VMAX
8 2 (1.37%) EMC VNX
8 2 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
8 2 (1.37%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.37%) Taxonomies
9 1 (0.68%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.68%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 73 (50.00%) Windows
2 36 (24.66%) Linux
3 19 (13.01%) AIX
4 15 (10.27%) Windows Server
5 4 (2.74%) Windows Server 2019
6 2 (1.37%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (1.37%) Unix
6 2 (1.37%) Windows 10
7 1 (0.68%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.68%) VMS
7 1 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (25.34%) High Availability
2 33 (22.60%) ITIL
2 33 (22.60%) Observability
3 31 (21.23%) Problem-Solving
4 28 (19.18%) Load Balancing
5 24 (16.44%) Identity Access Management
6 23 (15.75%) Network Monitoring
7 20 (13.70%) Disaster Recovery
8 18 (12.33%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 17 (11.64%) ITSM
9 17 (11.64%) Project Delivery
10 16 (10.96%) Continuous Improvement
11 14 (9.59%) Dashboard Development
11 14 (9.59%) Migration
11 14 (9.59%) Stakeholder Management
12 13 (8.90%) Change Management
13 12 (8.22%) Performance Tuning
13 12 (8.22%) Service Management
14 11 (7.53%) Agile
14 11 (7.53%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 37 (25.34%) PowerShell
2 29 (19.86%) SQL
3 26 (17.81%) Python
4 17 (11.64%) Search Processing Language
5 4 (2.74%) Bash
6 2 (1.37%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.68%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 78 (53.42%) Security Cleared
2 37 (25.34%) Cisco Certification
3 35 (23.97%) SC Cleared
4 30 (20.55%) DV Cleared
5 15 (10.27%) CCNP
6 11 (7.53%) JNCIS
7 10 (6.85%) CCNA
8 8 (5.48%) JNCIA
9 7 (4.79%) JNCIP
10 5 (3.42%) Network+ Certification
11 3 (2.05%) CCIE
12 2 (1.37%) Azure Certification
12 2 (1.37%) BC Cleared
12 2 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (1.37%) ISTQB
12 2 (1.37%) NCDA
12 2 (1.37%) NCIE
12 2 (1.37%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.37%) PMP
12 2 (1.37%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.05%) NCSC
1 3 (2.05%) NIST
1 3 (2.05%) QA
2 2 (1.37%) Data Quality
2 2 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 20000
2 2 (1.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.68%) GDPR
3 1 (0.68%) GRC
3 1 (0.68%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.68%) PMO
System Software
1 27 (18.49%) Active Directory
2 24 (16.44%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (8.22%) vSphere
4 11 (7.53%) Hyper-V
4 11 (7.53%) VMware NSX
5 6 (4.11%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (2.05%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.37%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (1.37%) Firmware
7 2 (1.37%) NFS
7 2 (1.37%) SRDF
8 1 (0.68%) Docker
8 1 (0.68%) KVM
8 1 (0.68%) RHEV
8 1 (0.68%) Xen
Systems Management
1 35 (23.97%) Nagios
2 26 (17.81%) FortiGate
3 19 (13.01%) ZABBIX
4 18 (12.33%) Netcool
5 17 (11.64%) Ansible
5 17 (11.64%) Terraform
5 17 (11.64%) Tivoli
6 15 (10.27%) OpenView
6 15 (10.27%) Tivoli Monitoring
7 8 (5.48%) Cisco Prime
8 6 (4.11%) Microsoft Clustering
8 6 (4.11%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (4.11%) WMI
9 5 (3.42%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (3.42%) SCCM
10 4 (2.74%) Pingdom
10 4 (2.74%) vCenter Server
11 3 (2.05%) Grafana
11 3 (2.05%) Kubernetes
11 3 (2.05%) vRealize
Vendors
1 90 (61.64%) Cisco
2 53 (36.30%) Splunk
3 41 (28.08%) F5
4 39 (26.71%) Juniper
5 33 (22.60%) Palo Alto
6 26 (17.81%) VMware
7 24 (16.44%) Microsoft
8 23 (15.75%) Extreme Networks
9 21 (14.38%) BMC
9 21 (14.38%) Fortinet
10 19 (13.01%) HP
10 19 (13.01%) IBM
10 19 (13.01%) ServiceNow
11 14 (9.59%) CheckPoint
12 11 (7.53%) Aruba
12 11 (7.53%) Meraki
12 11 (7.53%) Veeam
13 8 (5.48%) RedGate
14 7 (4.79%) Commvault
15 6 (4.11%) NetApp