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 16 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 281 216 289
Rank change year-on-year -65 +73 -51
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 427 363 329
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.85% 1.23% 0.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.93% 9.82% 6.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 232 243 219
10th Percentile £206 £221 £188
25th Percentile £350 £362 £306
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% +1.44%
75th Percentile £550 £623 £575
90th Percentile £638 £775 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £474 £475
% change year-on-year -5.01% -0.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 13 27
10th Percentile £21.25 £18.12 £17.50
25th Percentile £25.94 £28.00 £34.75
Median hourly rate £33.86 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.82% -3.85% +13.38%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.22 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -45.82% - +7.04%

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 4,780 3,698 5,392
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.52% 12.48% 12.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,930 2,273 3,186
10th Percentile £263 £220 £210
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £483 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.52% -3.40% -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £470 £488
% change year-on-year +2.13% -3.59% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 290 172 422
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £19.13 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.69 £41.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -32.87% +3.13% +111.30%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.41 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £79.50 £71.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.25 £31.08 £47.50
% change year-on-year -2.67% -34.57% +156.76%

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 16 June 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 16 June 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 16 June 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 -54 367 £470 -6.00% 246
UK excluding London -43 246 £450 -5.01% 215
London -68 145 £475 +2.70% 63
Work from Home -58 102 £450 -18.18% 75
North of England -29 92 £450 +12.43% 45
North West -2 55 £515 +106.00% 24
South East -42 52 £500 +11.11% 71
East of England -19 36 £350 -18.60% 29
Midlands -42 33 £400 -27.27% 32
Yorkshire -51 32 £450 -11.11% 13
West Midlands -38 30 £388 -29.55% 22
Scotland +2 24 £537 +29.28% 11
South West -26 22 £500 -18.70% 27
Wales -12 7 £408 +30.40% 3
North East -31 5 £306 +22.50% 11
East Midlands -28 3 £625 +13.64% 10

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 18 (4.22%) SharePoint
2 17 (3.98%) Confluence
3 11 (2.58%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (2.34%) nginx
5 4 (0.94%) WebSphere
6 3 (0.70%) IIS
6 3 (0.70%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.47%) CICS
7 2 (0.47%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.47%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.47%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.47%) WebSphere Portal
8 1 (0.23%) Traefik
Applications
1 30 (7.03%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.64%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.94%) Acrobat
4 3 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.23%) Weka
Business Applications
1 2 (0.47%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 98 (22.95%) Azure
2 89 (20.84%) AWS
3 79 (18.50%) Microsoft 365
4 33 (7.73%) Entra ID
5 28 (6.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 27 (6.32%) GCP
7 20 (4.68%) OneDrive
8 16 (3.75%) Amazon EC2
9 15 (3.51%) Amazon EKS
9 15 (3.51%) Amazon S3
9 15 (3.51%) GitHub
10 14 (3.28%) Route 53
11 13 (3.04%) AWS Lambda
11 13 (3.04%) Serverless
12 11 (2.58%) Google Workspace
13 7 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
13 7 (1.64%) SaaS
14 6 (1.41%) Akamai
14 6 (1.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 6 (1.41%) Nutanix
Communications & Networking
1 236 (55.27%) DNS
2 148 (34.66%) Firewall
3 101 (23.65%) DHCP
4 100 (23.42%) VPN
5 72 (16.86%) WAN
6 69 (16.16%) HTTP
7 68 (15.93%) SSL
8 66 (15.46%) Network Security
9 64 (14.99%) LAN
10 56 (13.11%) BGP
11 55 (12.88%) VLAN
12 54 (12.65%) BIG-IP
13 39 (9.13%) OSPF
13 39 (9.13%) Wi-Fi
14 37 (8.67%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 35 (8.20%) Ethernet
16 30 (7.03%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 30 (7.03%) Wireshark
17 24 (5.62%) Wireless
18 17 (3.98%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.58%) Elasticsearch
1 11 (2.58%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.41%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
3 3 (0.70%) MongoDB
4 2 (0.47%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.23%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.23%) MySQL
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.23%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 45 (10.54%) JIRA
2 24 (5.62%) Fiddler
3 19 (4.45%) GitLab
4 15 (3.51%) Jenkins
5 14 (3.28%) Git
6 13 (3.04%) Eclipse
6 13 (3.04%) Visual Studio
7 9 (2.11%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (1.64%) Bitbucket
8 7 (1.64%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.94%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.70%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.47%) Introscope
11 2 (0.47%) Subversion
12 1 (0.23%) CircleCI
12 1 (0.23%) Postman
General
1 161 (37.70%) Social Skills
2 60 (14.05%) Finance
3 48 (11.24%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (9.13%) Banking
5 27 (6.32%) Public Sector
6 25 (5.85%) Investment Banking
7 22 (5.15%) Presentation Skills
8 21 (4.92%) Military
9 20 (4.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (3.98%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (2.11%) Telecoms
12 8 (1.87%) Front Office
13 4 (0.94%) Legal
14 3 (0.70%) French Language
14 3 (0.70%) Law
14 3 (0.70%) Marketing
14 3 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.47%) Aviation
15 2 (0.47%) Japanese Language
15 2 (0.47%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 106 (24.82%) Network Engineer
2 53 (12.41%) Analyst
3 39 (9.13%) Support Engineer
4 32 (7.49%) Architect
4 32 (7.49%) Web Engineer
5 31 (7.26%) IT Support
6 28 (6.56%) Senior
7 26 (6.09%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 25 (5.85%) Security Engineer
9 22 (5.15%) Technical Engineer
10 20 (4.68%) SOC Analyst
10 20 (4.68%) Systems Engineer
11 19 (4.45%) IP Network Engineer
11 19 (4.45%) IT Engineer
12 17 (3.98%) Blue Coat Engineer
13 16 (3.75%) Junior
14 15 (3.51%) IT Support Engineer
15 14 (3.28%) Software Engineer
16 13 (3.04%) Network Security Engineer
16 13 (3.04%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.68%) LDAP
2 18 (4.22%) SAML
3 13 (3.04%) Node.js
3 13 (3.04%) Web Services
4 12 (2.81%) OpenID
5 11 (2.58%) 802.1X
5 11 (2.58%) JSON
6 9 (2.11%) REST
7 5 (1.17%) .NET
7 5 (1.17%) OAuth
8 4 (0.94%) XML
9 3 (0.70%) ARM Templates
9 3 (0.70%) HTML
9 3 (0.70%) Kafka
9 3 (0.70%) Middleware
9 3 (0.70%) WinForms
10 2 (0.47%) .NET Core
10 2 (0.47%) eBPF
10 2 (0.47%) Elastic Stack
10 2 (0.47%) Loki
Miscellaneous
1 49 (11.48%) Data Centre
2 44 (10.30%) Onboarding
3 24 (5.62%) Security Operations Centre
4 22 (5.15%) Management Information System
5 21 (4.92%) Cyberattack
6 18 (4.22%) Cyber Threat
7 15 (3.51%) Industry 4.0
7 15 (3.51%) Robotics
7 15 (3.51%) Security Posture
8 10 (2.34%) Driving Licence
8 10 (2.34%) Enterprise Software
9 9 (2.11%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 8 (1.87%) Data Protection Act
11 7 (1.64%) PKI
11 7 (1.64%) Public Cloud
12 6 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (1.41%) Cloud Native
12 6 (1.41%) Mainframe
12 6 (1.41%) NHS
12 6 (1.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 185 (43.33%) Windows
2 93 (21.78%) Linux
3 45 (10.54%) Windows Server
4 34 (7.96%) Mac OS
5 21 (4.92%) Windows 10
6 17 (3.98%) Apple iOS
7 14 (3.28%) Unix
8 12 (2.81%) Android
9 8 (1.87%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (1.41%) zOS
11 5 (1.17%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.70%) Windows 7
14 2 (0.47%) AIX
14 2 (0.47%) CentOS
14 2 (0.47%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.47%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2003
14 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 121 (28.34%) Problem-Solving
2 73 (17.10%) ITIL
3 55 (12.88%) Agile
3 55 (12.88%) Incident Response
4 47 (11.01%) Load Balancing
5 46 (10.77%) Cybersecurity
6 45 (10.54%) DevOps
6 45 (10.54%) Migration
6 45 (10.54%) SIEM
7 44 (10.30%) Customer Service
8 43 (10.07%) CI/CD
9 42 (9.84%) ITSM
10 38 (8.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 35 (8.20%) Security Operations
11 35 (8.20%) Validation
12 34 (7.96%) High Availability
13 30 (7.03%) Computer Science
13 30 (7.03%) Root Cause Analysis
14 29 (6.79%) Decision-Making
15 27 (6.32%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 91 (21.31%) Python
2 39 (9.13%) Bash
3 38 (8.90%) PowerShell
4 29 (6.79%) JavaScript
5 20 (4.68%) C++
6 16 (3.75%) C#
7 15 (3.51%) SQL
8 9 (2.11%) VBA
9 7 (1.64%) Java
10 5 (1.17%) C
11 4 (0.94%) ActionScript
11 4 (0.94%) Perl
12 3 (0.70%) Go
12 3 (0.70%) Shell Script
13 2 (0.47%) Jython
13 2 (0.47%) Ruby
14 1 (0.23%) Groovy
14 1 (0.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 110 (25.76%) Security Cleared
2 88 (20.61%) SC Cleared
3 78 (18.27%) Degree
4 44 (10.30%) Cisco Certification
5 34 (7.96%) CCNP
6 30 (7.03%) Computer Science Degree
7 29 (6.79%) CompTIA Security+
8 27 (6.32%) CCNA
9 25 (5.85%) DV Cleared
10 21 (4.92%) CISSP
11 18 (4.22%) CompTIA CySA+
12 15 (3.51%) Microsoft Certification
13 9 (2.11%) MCSA
14 8 (1.87%) Azure Certification
14 8 (1.87%) CCIE
14 8 (1.87%) MCSE
14 8 (1.87%) Network+ Certification
15 5 (1.17%) CISM
15 5 (1.17%) JNCIS
16 4 (0.94%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (2.58%) SLA
2 9 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (2.11%) NIST
3 6 (1.41%) QA
4 5 (1.17%) GDPR
5 3 (0.70%) NCSC
5 3 (0.70%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.47%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (0.47%) RMADS
7 1 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.23%) GRC
System Software
1 91 (21.31%) Active Directory
2 46 (10.77%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (3.98%) Firmware
4 14 (3.28%) Docker
5 13 (3.04%) Squid
5 13 (3.04%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (2.11%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.64%) VMware NSX
7 7 (1.64%) vSphere
8 4 (0.94%) NFS
8 4 (0.94%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.47%) KVM
9 2 (0.47%) RACF
9 2 (0.47%) VirtualBox
10 1 (0.23%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.23%) GPFS
10 1 (0.23%) iptables
10 1 (0.23%) Lustre
10 1 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 66 (15.46%) Ansible
2 34 (7.96%) Terraform
3 32 (7.49%) Kubernetes
4 29 (6.79%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (5.85%) FortiGate
6 24 (5.62%) Single Sign-On
7 23 (5.39%) Grafana
8 21 (4.92%) SCCM
9 15 (3.51%) Prometheus
10 11 (2.58%) Jamf Pro
11 10 (2.34%) WSUS
12 9 (2.11%) Consul
13 6 (1.41%) CASB
13 6 (1.41%) QRadar
14 5 (1.17%) Nagios
14 5 (1.17%) Nessus
14 5 (1.17%) Suricata
15 4 (0.94%) Tivoli NetView
16 3 (0.70%) Puppet
16 3 (0.70%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 126 (29.51%) Microsoft
2 70 (16.39%) Cisco
3 68 (15.93%) F5
4 56 (13.11%) VMware
5 42 (9.84%) ServiceNow
6 38 (8.90%) Splunk
7 30 (7.03%) Blue Coat
8 28 (6.56%) Palo Alto
9 25 (5.85%) Fortinet
10 24 (5.62%) McAfee
11 23 (5.39%) Citrix
12 19 (4.45%) NetApp
13 18 (4.22%) Juniper
13 18 (4.22%) Zscaler
14 17 (3.98%) Siemens
15 16 (3.75%) Red Hat
16 15 (3.51%) Google
17 13 (3.04%) Bloomberg
17 13 (3.04%) CheckPoint
18 11 (2.58%) Netskope