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 14 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 203 245
Rank change year-on-year -65 +42 -17
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 439 405 430
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.02% 1.37% 0.97%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.02% 10.27% 7.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 255 281 301
10th Percentile £209 £225 £188
25th Percentile £363 £400 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £550 £488
Median % change year-on-year -16.36% +12.82% -7.14%
75th Percentile £575 £656 £569
90th Percentile £650 £800 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £456 £513 £450
% change year-on-year -11.02% +13.89% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 9 19
10th Percentile £15.50 £17.87 £16.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £31.25 £23.75
Median hourly rate £41.94 £54.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -23.05% -3.52% -9.69%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.25
90th Percentile - £66.75 £72.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £62.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -32.90% +10.64% -13.09%

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 4,382 3,944 5,988
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.15% 13.36% 13.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,833 2,414 3,595
10th Percentile £213 £210 £205
25th Percentile £367 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £487 £496 £475
Median % change year-on-year -1.86% +4.46% -8.65%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 181 140 393
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.18 £21.46 £18.93
Median hourly rate £39.50 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.86% +7.69% +71.05%
75th Percentile £67.50 £63.38 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £70.53
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £32.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year +30.00% -29.16% +145.87%

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 14 March 2026.

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 14 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for TCP/IP in the UK

TCP/IP
Top 16 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 14 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 -39 382 £473 -14.09% 202
UK excluding London -11 293 £456 -11.02% 181
London -82 114 £478 -7.86% 42
Work from Home -71 101 £425 -29.98% 70
North of England -22 99 £447 +2.41% 48
North West +9 63 £540 +44.00% 22
South East -35 60 £520 -5.45% 54
East of England -3 55 £350 -30.00% 32
South West -19 35 £700 +13.82% 22
Midlands -35 35 £200 -60.00% 20
West Midlands -35 34 £200 -4.76% 14
Yorkshire -45 33 £433 -24.67% 18
Scotland +22 28 £388 -13.36% 6
Wales -14 5 £293 -26.88% 4
North East -17 3 £200 +6.67% 11
East Midlands -37 1 £625 +13.64% 6

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 22 (5.01%) Microsoft Exchange
2 20 (4.56%) Confluence
3 19 (4.33%) SharePoint
4 14 (3.19%) Skype for Business
5 9 (2.05%) nginx
6 7 (1.59%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.68%) Apache
8 2 (0.46%) IIS
8 2 (0.46%) WordPress
9 1 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.23%) IBM HTTP Server
9 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.23%) Oracle HTTP Server
9 1 (0.23%) Traefik
9 1 (0.23%) WebSphere
9 1 (0.23%) WebSphere Application Server
9 1 (0.23%) WebSphere Portal
Applications
1 42 (9.57%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (2.28%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.37%) Weka
4 5 (1.14%) Acrobat
5 4 (0.91%) Microsoft Excel
5 4 (0.91%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) RMDS
1 1 (0.23%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 101 (23.01%) Azure
2 98 (22.32%) AWS
3 80 (18.22%) Microsoft 365
4 30 (6.83%) GCP
5 22 (5.01%) Entra ID
6 20 (4.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (3.19%) Amazon S3
8 13 (2.96%) Amazon EC2
9 12 (2.73%) Route 53
10 11 (2.51%) OneDrive
11 10 (2.28%) Amazon EKS
12 9 (2.05%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (2.05%) AWS Lambda
12 9 (2.05%) GitHub
12 9 (2.05%) Serverless
13 8 (1.82%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (1.59%) Cloud Computing
14 7 (1.59%) Nutanix
14 7 (1.59%) SaaS
15 6 (1.37%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 246 (56.04%) DNS
2 144 (32.80%) Firewall
3 113 (25.74%) DHCP
4 104 (23.69%) VPN
5 87 (19.82%) WAN
6 78 (17.77%) LAN
7 69 (15.72%) HTTP
7 69 (15.72%) SSL
8 60 (13.67%) VLAN
9 55 (12.53%) Network Security
10 46 (10.48%) BIG-IP
11 44 (10.02%) BGP
12 41 (9.34%) Wi-Fi
13 40 (9.11%) Wireshark
14 38 (8.66%) OSPF
15 33 (7.52%) Ethernet
16 32 (7.29%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 28 (6.38%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 23 (5.24%) Wireless
19 18 (4.10%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (3.87%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.73%) Elasticsearch
3 11 (2.51%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.91%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.23%) Amazon Aurora
5 1 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.23%) Apache Hive
5 1 (0.23%) Big Data
5 1 (0.23%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.23%) Impala
5 1 (0.23%) MySQL
5 1 (0.23%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.23%) Power BI
5 1 (0.23%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.23%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 36 (8.20%) JIRA
2 32 (7.29%) Fiddler
3 23 (5.24%) GitLab
4 15 (3.42%) Git
5 14 (3.19%) Eclipse
5 14 (3.19%) Jenkins
5 14 (3.19%) Visual Studio
6 7 (1.59%) Bitbucket
6 7 (1.59%) SonarQube
7 6 (1.37%) Browser DevTools
8 4 (0.91%) CircleCI
9 3 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.46%) Maven
11 1 (0.23%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.23%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.23%) GCC
11 1 (0.23%) IntelliJ
11 1 (0.23%) Introscope
11 1 (0.23%) MSI
11 1 (0.23%) Travis CI
General
1 152 (34.62%) Social Skills
2 64 (14.58%) Analytical Skills
3 42 (9.57%) Finance
4 38 (8.66%) Banking
5 34 (7.74%) Public Sector
6 30 (6.83%) Presentation Skills
7 26 (5.92%) Investment Banking
8 24 (5.47%) Military
9 18 (4.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 14 (3.19%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (2.05%) Front Office
11 9 (2.05%) Telecoms
12 7 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.14%) Law
13 5 (1.14%) Legal
14 3 (0.68%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.68%) French Language
14 3 (0.68%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.68%) Marketing
15 2 (0.46%) Aviation
Job Titles
1 110 (25.06%) Network Engineer
2 59 (13.44%) Analyst
3 54 (12.30%) Support Engineer
4 36 (8.20%) Web Engineer
5 35 (7.97%) Senior
6 27 (6.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 26 (5.92%) Architect
8 24 (5.47%) IT Engineer
8 24 (5.47%) IT Support
9 21 (4.78%) SOC Analyst
9 21 (4.78%) Technical Engineer
10 19 (4.33%) Blue Coat Engineer
10 19 (4.33%) IP Network Engineer
10 19 (4.33%) Technical Analyst
10 19 (4.33%) Technical Support
11 18 (4.10%) IT Support Engineer
11 18 (4.10%) Junior
12 17 (3.87%) Systems Engineer
13 15 (3.42%) Lead
13 15 (3.42%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (4.10%) LDAP
2 17 (3.87%) Web Services
3 14 (3.19%) Node.js
4 10 (2.28%) OpenID
5 9 (2.05%) 802.1X
5 9 (2.05%) SAML
6 8 (1.82%) Middleware
7 6 (1.37%) JSON
8 5 (1.14%) FIX Protocol
8 5 (1.14%) REST
9 4 (0.91%) Kafka
9 4 (0.91%) NETCONF
9 4 (0.91%) OAuth
9 4 (0.91%) OpenConfig
9 4 (0.91%) RESTCONF
9 4 (0.91%) Ultra Messaging
9 4 (0.91%) YANG
10 3 (0.68%) .NET
10 3 (0.68%) ARM Templates
10 3 (0.68%) React
Miscellaneous
1 35 (7.97%) Management Information System
2 30 (6.83%) Data Centre
3 22 (5.01%) Security Operations Centre
4 21 (4.78%) Cyberattack
5 20 (4.56%) Onboarding
6 16 (3.64%) Public Cloud
7 15 (3.42%) Industry 4.0
7 15 (3.42%) Robotics
8 13 (2.96%) Analytical Mindset
8 13 (2.96%) CMDB
8 13 (2.96%) NHS
8 13 (2.96%) Security Posture
9 12 (2.73%) Driving Licence
9 12 (2.73%) PKI
10 11 (2.51%) Cyber Threat
10 11 (2.51%) Private Cloud
11 10 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
12 8 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
13 6 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
13 6 (1.37%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 198 (45.10%) Windows
2 119 (27.11%) Linux
3 56 (12.76%) Windows Server
4 26 (5.92%) Windows 10
5 14 (3.19%) Android
5 14 (3.19%) Unix
6 12 (2.73%) Mac OS
7 9 (2.05%) Windows Server 2012
8 8 (1.82%) Apple iOS
9 6 (1.37%) Windows Server 2019
10 5 (1.14%) Ubuntu
10 5 (1.14%) zOS
11 4 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 4 (0.91%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.91%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.68%) Debian
12 3 (0.68%) VMS
12 3 (0.68%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.46%) AIX
13 2 (0.46%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 129 (29.38%) Problem-Solving
2 69 (15.72%) ITIL
3 54 (12.30%) Agile
4 52 (11.85%) Cybersecurity
4 52 (11.85%) Incident Response
4 52 (11.85%) SIEM
5 51 (11.62%) Load Balancing
6 45 (10.25%) CI/CD
6 45 (10.25%) DevOps
7 38 (8.66%) Customer Service
7 38 (8.66%) Infrastructure as Code
7 38 (8.66%) Migration
7 38 (8.66%) Security Operations
8 37 (8.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 37 (8.43%) Root Cause Analysis
9 35 (7.97%) Validation
10 31 (7.06%) Data Loss Prevention
10 31 (7.06%) Decision-Making
11 30 (6.83%) Malware Detection/Protection
12 29 (6.61%) Continuous Improvement
Programming Languages
1 108 (24.60%) Python
2 78 (17.77%) PowerShell
3 54 (12.30%) Bash
4 24 (5.47%) SQL
5 21 (4.78%) JavaScript
6 18 (4.10%) C#
6 18 (4.10%) C++
7 14 (3.19%) Java
8 10 (2.28%) Perl
9 8 (1.82%) Go
10 6 (1.37%) Shell Script
11 5 (1.14%) C
12 2 (0.46%) Kusto Query Language
12 2 (0.46%) Ruby
12 2 (0.46%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.46%) VBA
12 2 (0.46%) VBScript
13 1 (0.23%) Bicep
13 1 (0.23%) Jython
13 1 (0.23%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 140 (31.89%) Security Cleared
2 111 (25.28%) SC Cleared
3 61 (13.90%) Degree
4 44 (10.02%) Cisco Certification
5 43 (9.79%) DV Cleared
6 35 (7.97%) CCNP
7 33 (7.52%) CompTIA Security+
8 25 (5.69%) Computer Science Degree
9 21 (4.78%) CCNA
10 19 (4.33%) CISSP
11 18 (4.10%) CompTIA CySA+
12 17 (3.87%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (2.96%) Network+ Certification
14 10 (2.28%) JNCIS
15 9 (2.05%) Azure Certification
15 9 (2.05%) MCSE
16 8 (1.82%) Microsoft Certified Professional
17 7 (1.59%) CCIE
17 7 (1.59%) MCSA
18 6 (1.37%) AWS Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (2.51%) GDPR
2 10 (2.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (2.28%) SLA
3 8 (1.82%) NIST
4 5 (1.14%) NCSC
5 4 (0.91%) HIPAA
5 4 (0.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 2 (0.46%) QA
7 1 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.23%) GRC
7 1 (0.23%) RMADS
System Software
1 95 (21.64%) Active Directory
2 55 (12.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 36 (8.20%) Docker
4 21 (4.78%) Firmware
5 11 (2.51%) Hyper-V
5 11 (2.51%) VMware NSX
5 11 (2.51%) vSphere
6 8 (1.82%) Squid
6 8 (1.82%) Virtual Machines
7 7 (1.59%) Lustre
7 7 (1.59%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 6 (1.37%) GPFS
8 6 (1.37%) KVM
9 5 (1.14%) NDS
9 5 (1.14%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 5 (1.14%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.68%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.46%) Ceph
11 2 (0.46%) NFS
12 1 (0.23%) iptables
Systems Management
1 72 (16.40%) Ansible
2 42 (9.57%) Kubernetes
3 41 (9.34%) Terraform
4 32 (7.29%) SCCM
5 28 (6.38%) Microsoft Intune
6 23 (5.24%) Grafana
7 20 (4.56%) Prometheus
8 19 (4.33%) Single Sign-On
9 17 (3.87%) FortiGate
10 9 (2.05%) Nagios
10 9 (2.05%) QRadar
11 8 (1.82%) Consul
11 8 (1.82%) Puppet
11 8 (1.82%) WSUS
12 5 (1.14%) Active Directory Federation Services
12 5 (1.14%) CASB
12 5 (1.14%) Nessus
12 5 (1.14%) Tivoli NetView
13 4 (0.91%) ITRS Geneos
13 4 (0.91%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 122 (27.79%) Microsoft
2 77 (17.54%) VMware
3 69 (15.72%) F5
4 59 (13.44%) Cisco
5 41 (9.34%) Splunk
6 38 (8.66%) Blue Coat
7 35 (7.97%) Palo Alto
8 34 (7.74%) McAfee
9 29 (6.61%) ServiceNow
10 26 (5.92%) Juniper
11 24 (5.47%) NetApp
12 23 (5.24%) Fortinet
13 19 (4.33%) CheckPoint
13 19 (4.33%) Red Hat
14 15 (3.42%) Citrix
14 15 (3.42%) Oracle
14 15 (3.42%) Siemens
15 13 (2.96%) SolarWinds
16 12 (2.73%) Aruba
16 12 (2.73%) Zscaler