TCP/IP Contract Job Trends

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring TCP/IP skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 228 204 205
Rank change year-on-year -24 +1 +47
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 431 445 578
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.25% 1.22% 1.25%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.94% 10.08% 8.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 251 360
10th Percentile £185 £193 £185
25th Percentile £278 £260 £286
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £475 £438
Median % change year-on-year -1.05% +8.57% -15.05%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £594
90th Percentile £719 £700 £683
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £400 £400
% change year-on-year +6.25% - -5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 22 60
10th Percentile £15.50 £32.75 £20.50
25th Percentile £29.00 £63.13 £32.96
Median hourly rate £63.14 £65.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.87% +30.00% -23.08%
75th Percentile £65.00 - £56.49
90th Percentile £67.72 £67.25 £69.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year - +30.00% -23.08%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

TCP/IP falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 3,941 4,414 6,485
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 11.40% 12.09% 13.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,557 2,539 4,039
10th Percentile £213 £223 £213
25th Percentile £358 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 192 162 340
10th Percentile £15.50 £18.08 £17.72
25th Percentile £19.87 £26.25 £22.75
Median hourly rate £34.50 £48.03 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.17% -12.67% +34.05%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £66.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.12
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £52.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -19.05% -7.06% +25.53%

TCP/IP
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing TCP/IP relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

TCP/IP job vacancy trend in the UK

TCP/IP
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing TCP/IP.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing TCP/IP

TCP/IP
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing TCP/IP over the 6 months to 5 November 2025.

Daily rate histogram for TCP/IP in the UK

TCP/IP
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing TCP/IP.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing TCP/IP

TCP/IP
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing TCP/IP over the 6 months to 5 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for TCP/IP in the UK

TCP/IP
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing TCP/IP within the UK over the 6 months to 5 November 2025. 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 -5 392 £475 - 1,034
UK excluding London -39 245 £425 +6.25% 922
London +18 155 £550 +10.00% 334
Work from Home -9 136 £463 -11.90% 778
North of England -30 78 £475 +18.75% 90
South East -12 51 £363 -14.71% 471
East of England -4 47 £413 -31.25% 187
Yorkshire -23 40 £450 +104.55% 27
Midlands -16 35 £263 -30.00% 67
North West -24 35 £505 +9.19% 56
West Midlands +5 34 £300 -22.58% 32
South West -5 25 £700 +30.23% 72
Scotland +2 14 £450 +12.50% 20
Northern Ireland -11 4 - - 9
Wales -2 3 £258 -6.36% 22
North East -12 3 £400 +185.71% 7
East Midlands -32 1 £165 -56.00% 28

TCP/IP
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 34 (7.89%) SharePoint
2 29 (6.73%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (3.25%) Skype for Business
4 8 (1.86%) Confluence
5 5 (1.16%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.93%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.70%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.46%) IIS
8 2 (0.46%) nginx
8 2 (0.46%) Tomcat
9 1 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
Applications
1 38 (8.82%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (0.93%) Weka
3 2 (0.46%) AutoCAD
3 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) Dynamics CRM
1 1 (0.23%) Eikon
1 1 (0.23%) Eze OMS
1 1 (0.23%) Fidessa
1 1 (0.23%) Finacle
1 1 (0.23%) Pegasus Opera
1 1 (0.23%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.23%) RMDS
1 1 (0.23%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 89 (20.65%) Microsoft 365
2 85 (19.72%) Azure
3 82 (19.03%) AWS
4 27 (6.26%) Amazon EC2
4 27 (6.26%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 26 (6.03%) Amazon S3
6 24 (5.57%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 22 (5.10%) Amazon ELB
8 21 (4.87%) Entra ID
8 21 (4.87%) GCP
9 18 (4.18%) GitHub
10 9 (2.09%) OneDrive
11 8 (1.86%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (1.86%) SaaS
12 7 (1.62%) Cloud Computing
13 6 (1.39%) AWS CloudFormation
14 5 (1.16%) Amazon EKS
14 5 (1.16%) AWS Direct Connect
14 5 (1.16%) Google Workspace
15 4 (0.93%) Apigee
Communications & Networking
1 233 (54.06%) DNS
2 163 (37.82%) Firewall
3 131 (30.39%) DHCP
4 124 (28.77%) VPN
5 83 (19.26%) SSL
6 68 (15.78%) LAN
7 64 (14.85%) VLAN
8 61 (14.15%) WAN
9 59 (13.69%) Network Security
10 56 (12.99%) HTTP
11 32 (7.42%) Internet
12 29 (6.73%) BGP
13 27 (6.26%) Wireless
14 24 (5.57%) SAN
15 23 (5.34%) OSPF
15 23 (5.34%) Wireshark
16 22 (5.10%) Ethernet
17 20 (4.64%) Wi-Fi
18 14 (3.25%) Skype
19 13 (3.02%) Multicast
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (5.57%) SQL Server
2 9 (2.09%) NoSQL
3 8 (1.86%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (1.39%) Amazon RDS
5 5 (1.16%) Oracle Database
6 4 (0.93%) Apache Cassandra
6 4 (0.93%) Big Data
6 4 (0.93%) DB2
6 4 (0.93%) Elasticsearch
6 4 (0.93%) MySQL
6 4 (0.93%) Relational Database
7 3 (0.70%) Amazon Aurora
7 3 (0.70%) Delta Lake
7 3 (0.70%) DynamoDB
7 3 (0.70%) Hadoop
7 3 (0.70%) Parquet
8 1 (0.23%) Electronic Patient Records
8 1 (0.23%) Impala
8 1 (0.23%) Power BI
8 1 (0.23%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 55 (12.76%) Git
1 55 (12.76%) Jenkins
2 30 (6.96%) GitLab
3 19 (4.41%) JIRA
4 18 (4.18%) Eclipse
4 18 (4.18%) Visual Studio
5 16 (3.71%) Postman
6 11 (2.55%) Fiddler
7 8 (1.86%) Subversion
8 4 (0.93%) Robot Framework
8 4 (0.93%) TeamCity
9 3 (0.70%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.70%) MLflow
9 3 (0.70%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.46%) Maven
10 2 (0.46%) Mercurial
10 2 (0.46%) Poetry
10 2 (0.46%) PyCharm
10 2 (0.46%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 154 (35.73%) Social Skills
2 82 (19.03%) Analytical Skills
3 54 (12.53%) Finance
4 31 (7.19%) Public Sector
5 26 (6.03%) Military
6 23 (5.34%) Presentation Skills
7 22 (5.10%) Banking
8 15 (3.48%) Investment Banking
9 11 (2.55%) Front Office
9 11 (2.55%) Legal
9 11 (2.55%) Organisational Skills
10 10 (2.32%) Local Government
11 9 (2.09%) Telecoms
12 7 (1.62%) Financial Institution
12 7 (1.62%) Law
13 5 (1.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 5 (1.16%) Marketing
14 4 (0.93%) Documentation Skills
14 4 (0.93%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.70%) Retail
Job Titles
1 74 (17.17%) Support Engineer
2 70 (16.24%) Network Engineer
3 57 (13.23%) Senior
4 53 (12.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 47 (10.90%) Analyst
6 36 (8.35%) IT Support
7 32 (7.42%) IT Engineer
8 28 (6.50%) Technical Support
9 27 (6.26%) Developer
9 27 (6.26%) Support Analyst
10 25 (5.80%) Technical Engineer
11 23 (5.34%) DevOps Engineer
12 22 (5.10%) 2nd Line Support
13 18 (4.18%) C# Software Engineer
13 18 (4.18%) Software Engineer
13 18 (4.18%) Technical Analyst
14 17 (3.94%) Senior DevOps
15 16 (3.71%) Automation Engineer
15 16 (3.71%) Senior DevOps Engineer
15 16 (3.71%) Windows Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (4.87%) Node.js
2 20 (4.64%) Web Services
3 19 (4.41%) Middleware
4 16 (3.71%) REST
5 12 (2.78%) FIX Protocol
6 10 (2.32%) Elastic Stack
6 10 (2.32%) LDAP
6 10 (2.32%) SOAP
7 6 (1.39%) AngularJS
8 5 (1.16%) FpML
8 5 (1.16%) Ultra Messaging
9 4 (0.93%) RESTful
9 4 (0.93%) SAML
10 3 (0.70%) Apache Avro
10 3 (0.70%) Flask
10 3 (0.70%) NumPy
10 3 (0.70%) Pandas
10 3 (0.70%) React
11 2 (0.46%) Apache NiFi
11 2 (0.46%) Bootstrap
Miscellaneous
1 30 (6.96%) Data Centre
2 28 (6.50%) Management Information System
3 22 (5.10%) Onboarding
4 16 (3.71%) Analytical Mindset
5 14 (3.25%) Driving Licence
6 13 (3.02%) NHS
6 13 (3.02%) Private Cloud
6 13 (3.02%) Security Posture
7 11 (2.55%) Replication
8 10 (2.32%) Video Conferencing
9 9 (2.09%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
9 9 (2.09%) SCADA
10 8 (1.86%) Clustering
10 8 (1.86%) CMDB
10 8 (1.86%) iPhone
10 8 (1.86%) Public Cloud
10 8 (1.86%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (1.62%) Fixed Income
12 6 (1.39%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 198 (45.94%) Windows
2 137 (31.79%) Linux
3 51 (11.83%) Windows Server
4 49 (11.37%) Windows 10
5 36 (8.35%) Unix
6 19 (4.41%) Mac OS
7 16 (3.71%) Windows Server 2016
8 13 (3.02%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 12 (2.78%) Android
10 8 (1.86%) Apple iOS
10 8 (1.86%) Ubuntu
10 8 (1.86%) Windows 7
10 8 (1.86%) Windows Server 2003
10 8 (1.86%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (1.62%) Solaris
12 6 (1.39%) CentOS
12 6 (1.39%) VMS
12 6 (1.39%) Windows Server 2012
13 4 (0.93%) Debian
14 3 (0.70%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 101 (23.43%) Problem-Solving
2 75 (17.40%) CI/CD
3 70 (16.24%) Agile
3 70 (16.24%) DevOps
4 69 (16.01%) ITIL
5 61 (14.15%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 49 (11.37%) Infrastructure as Code
7 46 (10.67%) High Availability
8 40 (9.28%) Infrastructure Automation
9 38 (8.82%) Configuration Management
10 33 (7.66%) Load Balancing
11 32 (7.42%) Cybersecurity
11 32 (7.42%) Incident Response
12 31 (7.19%) Continuous Integration
12 31 (7.19%) Migration
13 29 (6.73%) Root Cause Analysis
14 28 (6.50%) Knowledge Transfer
14 28 (6.50%) SIEM
14 28 (6.50%) Validation
15 25 (5.80%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 146 (33.87%) Python
2 71 (16.47%) Bash
3 58 (13.46%) PowerShell
4 30 (6.96%) C++
5 29 (6.73%) Perl
6 25 (5.80%) C#
7 24 (5.57%) SQL
8 23 (5.34%) JavaScript
9 21 (4.87%) Java
10 10 (2.32%) Shell Script
11 9 (2.09%) Go
12 4 (0.93%) C
12 4 (0.93%) Kusto Query Language
13 3 (0.70%) Groovy
13 3 (0.70%) PHP
13 3 (0.70%) Search Processing Language
14 2 (0.46%) T-SQL
15 1 (0.23%) PL/SQL
15 1 (0.23%) Ruby
15 1 (0.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 102 (23.67%) Security Cleared
2 76 (17.63%) SC Cleared
3 42 (9.74%) Cisco Certification
4 41 (9.51%) Degree
5 37 (8.58%) Microsoft Certification
6 27 (6.26%) CCNP
6 27 (6.26%) DV Cleared
7 24 (5.57%) CCNA
8 16 (3.71%) Network+ Certification
9 15 (3.48%) MCP
10 14 (3.25%) MCSE
11 13 (3.02%) Azure Certification
12 12 (2.78%) CISSP
13 11 (2.55%) MCSA
13 11 (2.55%) Server+ Certification
14 10 (2.32%) CompTIA Security+
15 8 (1.86%) Computer Science Degree
16 7 (1.62%) A+ Certification
17 6 (1.39%) ECDL
17 6 (1.39%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (5.80%) GDPR
2 9 (2.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.86%) NIST
3 8 (1.86%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 6 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (1.16%) SLA
6 4 (0.93%) HIPAA
6 4 (0.93%) QA
7 3 (0.70%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.70%) SOC 2
8 2 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
8 2 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
9 1 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.23%) NCSC
9 1 (0.23%) PMO
System Software
1 97 (22.51%) Active Directory
2 74 (17.17%) VMware Infrastructure
3 44 (10.21%) Docker
4 36 (8.35%) Hyper-V
5 13 (3.02%) VMware ESXi
6 11 (2.55%) vSphere
7 9 (2.09%) Firmware
8 7 (1.62%) Terminal Services
9 6 (1.39%) Veritas Cluster Server
9 6 (1.39%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (1.16%) NDS
10 5 (1.16%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 5 (1.16%) Virtual Machines
11 4 (0.93%) GPFS
11 4 (0.93%) Lustre
11 4 (0.93%) NFS
11 4 (0.93%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 4 (0.93%) Veritas File System
11 4 (0.93%) Veritas Volume Manager
11 4 (0.93%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 89 (20.65%) Ansible
2 57 (13.23%) Terraform
3 36 (8.35%) SCCM
4 27 (6.26%) Puppet
5 21 (4.87%) Kubernetes
6 20 (4.64%) Microsoft Intune
7 19 (4.41%) Prometheus
8 18 (4.18%) Grafana
9 12 (2.78%) FortiGate
10 10 (2.32%) Microsoft Clustering
11 9 (2.09%) vCenter Server
12 7 (1.62%) Nessus
12 7 (1.62%) Single Sign-On
13 6 (1.39%) ITRS Geneos
13 6 (1.39%) QRadar
14 5 (1.16%) CASB
14 5 (1.16%) Progress Chef
14 5 (1.16%) Tivoli
15 4 (0.93%) Red Hat Satellite
16 3 (0.70%) Iperf
Vendors
1 150 (34.80%) Microsoft
2 97 (22.51%) VMware
3 58 (13.46%) Cisco
4 56 (12.99%) Palo Alto
5 55 (12.76%) F5
6 46 (10.67%) CheckPoint
7 26 (6.03%) Citrix
8 24 (5.57%) Splunk
9 22 (5.10%) Oracle
10 21 (4.87%) Fortinet
10 21 (4.87%) Red Hat
10 21 (4.87%) ServiceNow
11 20 (4.64%) MuleSoft
12 19 (4.41%) SolarWinds
13 17 (3.94%) Blue Coat
14 14 (3.25%) NetApp
15 13 (3.02%) McAfee
16 12 (2.78%) Juniper
16 12 (2.78%) Veeam
17 11 (2.55%) Google