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

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 204 262
Rank change year-on-year -48 +58 -26
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 427 375 407
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.97% 1.29% 0.92%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.68% 9.82% 6.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 245 270 286
10th Percentile £213 £213 £188
25th Percentile £366 £400 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £519 £481
Median % change year-on-year -11.33% +7.79% -8.33%
75th Percentile £575 £650 £563
90th Percentile £647 £778 £665
UK excluding London median daily rate £460 £513 £459
% change year-on-year -10.24% +11.78% -5.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 8 15
10th Percentile £16.55 £17.55 £16.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £28.06 £21.63
Median hourly rate £41.94 £52.25 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.73% +39.33% -40.05%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.06 £58.25
90th Percentile - £65.00 £75.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £47.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -11.71% -15.91% -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 4,409 3,818 5,889
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.06% 13.11% 13.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,840 2,370 3,543
10th Percentile £213 £213 £205
25th Percentile £375 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +3.16% -9.52%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £475
Number of hourly rates quoted 188 145 397
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £13.94
25th Percentile £18.78 £21.46 £17.72
Median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% +71.05%
75th Percentile £67.31 £63.25 £63.75
90th Percentile £78.10 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £43.12
% change year-on-year +29.05% -24.62% +128.00%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -49 370 £470 -10.48% 192
UK excluding London -17 278 £460 -10.24% 171
London -68 119 £475 -5.00% 40
Work from Home -80 97 £425 -28.42% 68
North of England -21 95 £448 +2.69% 48
North West +8 61 £540 +66.15% 24
South East -32 59 £525 -5.83% 48
East of England -1 53 £350 -24.73% 22
Midlands -48 32 £213 -61.36% 23
West Midlands -35 31 £200 -4.76% 16
Yorkshire -50 31 £443 -23.04% 18
South West -23 29 £700 +13.82% 27
Scotland +19 28 £388 -14.84% 4
Wales -13 5 £293 -26.88% 4
North East -20 3 £200 -11.11% 8
East Midlands -39 1 £625 +13.64% 7

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 19 (4.45%) Confluence
2 17 (3.98%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.51%) SharePoint
4 11 (2.58%) Skype for Business
5 10 (2.34%) nginx
6 7 (1.64%) OpenStack
7 3 (0.70%) Apache
8 2 (0.47%) IIS
8 2 (0.47%) WordPress
9 1 (0.23%) IBM HTTP Server
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 38 (8.90%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (2.34%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.41%) Weka
4 5 (1.17%) Acrobat
5 4 (0.94%) Microsoft Excel
5 4 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) RMDS
1 1 (0.23%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 93 (21.78%) AWS
1 93 (21.78%) Azure
2 76 (17.80%) Microsoft 365
3 29 (6.79%) GCP
4 22 (5.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 19 (4.45%) Entra ID
6 16 (3.75%) Amazon S3
7 15 (3.51%) Amazon EC2
8 14 (3.28%) Route 53
9 11 (2.58%) Amazon EKS
9 11 (2.58%) AWS Lambda
9 11 (2.58%) Serverless
10 10 (2.34%) OneDrive
11 9 (2.11%) AWS CloudFormation
11 9 (2.11%) GitHub
11 9 (2.11%) Google Workspace
12 8 (1.87%) Azure DevOps
13 7 (1.64%) Cloud Computing
13 7 (1.64%) Nutanix
13 7 (1.64%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 237 (55.50%) DNS
2 145 (33.96%) Firewall
3 105 (24.59%) VPN
4 103 (24.12%) DHCP
5 87 (20.37%) WAN
6 78 (18.27%) LAN
7 66 (15.46%) SSL
8 64 (14.99%) HTTP
9 61 (14.29%) VLAN
10 58 (13.58%) Network Security
11 47 (11.01%) BIG-IP
12 45 (10.54%) BGP
13 43 (10.07%) Wi-Fi
14 40 (9.37%) Wireshark
15 39 (9.13%) OSPF
16 33 (7.73%) Ethernet
16 33 (7.73%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
17 28 (6.56%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 22 (5.15%) Wireless
19 19 (4.45%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (3.28%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.81%) Elasticsearch
3 8 (1.87%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.94%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.23%) Amazon Aurora
5 1 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.23%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.23%) MySQL
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.23%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 35 (8.20%) JIRA
2 31 (7.26%) Fiddler
3 22 (5.15%) GitLab
4 15 (3.51%) Git
5 14 (3.28%) Eclipse
5 14 (3.28%) Jenkins
5 14 (3.28%) Visual Studio
6 7 (1.64%) Bitbucket
6 7 (1.64%) SonarQube
7 6 (1.41%) Browser DevTools
8 4 (0.94%) CircleCI
9 2 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.47%) Subversion
10 1 (0.23%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.23%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.23%) IntelliJ
10 1 (0.23%) Introscope
10 1 (0.23%) Maven
10 1 (0.23%) Travis CI
General
1 152 (35.60%) Social Skills
2 53 (12.41%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (10.54%) Finance
4 39 (9.13%) Banking
5 30 (7.03%) Public Sector
6 28 (6.56%) Presentation Skills
7 27 (6.32%) Investment Banking
8 24 (5.62%) Military
9 18 (4.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 15 (3.51%) Documentation Skills
11 12 (2.81%) Front Office
12 10 (2.34%) Telecoms
13 7 (1.64%) Organisational Skills
14 5 (1.17%) Law
15 4 (0.94%) Legal
16 3 (0.70%) Financial Institution
16 3 (0.70%) French Language
16 3 (0.70%) Manufacturing
16 3 (0.70%) Marketing
17 2 (0.47%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 112 (26.23%) Network Engineer
2 56 (13.11%) Analyst
3 50 (11.71%) Support Engineer
4 38 (8.90%) Web Engineer
5 34 (7.96%) Senior
6 28 (6.56%) Architect
7 24 (5.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 22 (5.15%) IT Engineer
8 22 (5.15%) IT Support
9 21 (4.92%) SOC Analyst
9 21 (4.92%) Technical Engineer
10 20 (4.68%) Blue Coat Engineer
10 20 (4.68%) IP Network Engineer
11 17 (3.98%) IT Support Engineer
11 17 (3.98%) Junior
11 17 (3.98%) Systems Engineer
11 17 (3.98%) Technical Support
12 16 (3.75%) Technical Analyst
13 15 (3.51%) Lead
14 14 (3.28%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (4.22%) LDAP
2 17 (3.98%) Web Services
3 14 (3.28%) Node.js
4 10 (2.34%) OpenID
5 9 (2.11%) 802.1X
6 8 (1.87%) SAML
7 7 (1.64%) Middleware
8 6 (1.41%) JSON
8 6 (1.41%) REST
9 5 (1.17%) FIX Protocol
10 4 (0.94%) Kafka
10 4 (0.94%) NETCONF
10 4 (0.94%) OpenConfig
10 4 (0.94%) RESTCONF
10 4 (0.94%) Ultra Messaging
10 4 (0.94%) YANG
11 3 (0.70%) .NET
11 3 (0.70%) ARM Templates
11 3 (0.70%) OAuth
11 3 (0.70%) React
Miscellaneous
1 32 (7.49%) Management Information System
2 30 (7.03%) Data Centre
3 22 (5.15%) Security Operations Centre
4 21 (4.92%) Cyberattack
5 20 (4.68%) Onboarding
6 16 (3.75%) Public Cloud
7 15 (3.51%) Industry 4.0
7 15 (3.51%) Robotics
8 13 (3.04%) Security Posture
9 11 (2.58%) CMDB
9 11 (2.58%) NHS
9 11 (2.58%) PKI
9 11 (2.58%) Private Cloud
10 10 (2.34%) Cyber Threat
10 10 (2.34%) Driving Licence
10 10 (2.34%) Enterprise Software
11 9 (2.11%) Analytical Mindset
12 7 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
13 6 (1.41%) Grid Computing
13 6 (1.41%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 184 (43.09%) Windows
2 109 (25.53%) Linux
3 52 (12.18%) Windows Server
4 23 (5.39%) Windows 10
5 15 (3.51%) Android
6 12 (2.81%) Unix
7 10 (2.34%) Mac OS
8 9 (2.11%) Windows Server 2012
9 8 (1.87%) Apple iOS
10 6 (1.41%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (1.41%) zOS
11 4 (0.94%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.94%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.70%) Debian
12 3 (0.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 3 (0.70%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.70%) VMS
12 3 (0.70%) Windows 7
13 2 (0.47%) AIX
14 1 (0.23%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (29.74%) Problem-Solving
2 64 (14.99%) ITIL
3 56 (13.11%) Agile
4 52 (12.18%) Cybersecurity
4 52 (12.18%) SIEM
5 51 (11.94%) Incident Response
5 51 (11.94%) Load Balancing
6 44 (10.30%) CI/CD
6 44 (10.30%) DevOps
7 38 (8.90%) Infrastructure as Code
7 38 (8.90%) Migration
7 38 (8.90%) Security Operations
8 37 (8.67%) Root Cause Analysis
9 36 (8.43%) Customer Service
10 35 (8.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 35 (8.20%) Validation
11 33 (7.73%) Decision-Making
12 32 (7.49%) Data Loss Prevention
13 31 (7.26%) Malware Detection/Protection
14 28 (6.56%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 101 (23.65%) Python
2 76 (17.80%) PowerShell
3 52 (12.18%) Bash
4 22 (5.15%) JavaScript
5 21 (4.92%) SQL
6 19 (4.45%) C++
7 18 (4.22%) C#
8 11 (2.58%) Java
9 8 (1.87%) Go
9 8 (1.87%) Perl
10 6 (1.41%) C
10 6 (1.41%) Shell Script
11 2 (0.47%) Ruby
11 2 (0.47%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.47%) VBA
11 2 (0.47%) VBScript
12 1 (0.23%) Bicep
12 1 (0.23%) Jython
12 1 (0.23%) Kusto Query Language
12 1 (0.23%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 134 (31.38%) Security Cleared
2 110 (25.76%) SC Cleared
3 63 (14.75%) Degree
4 46 (10.77%) Cisco Certification
5 40 (9.37%) DV Cleared
6 36 (8.43%) CCNP
7 32 (7.49%) CompTIA Security+
8 27 (6.32%) Computer Science Degree
9 23 (5.39%) CCNA
10 18 (4.22%) CISSP
10 18 (4.22%) CompTIA CySA+
11 16 (3.75%) Microsoft Certification
12 11 (2.58%) Network+ Certification
13 10 (2.34%) JNCIS
14 9 (2.11%) MCSA
14 9 (2.11%) MCSE
15 7 (1.64%) Azure Certification
15 7 (1.64%) CCIE
16 6 (1.41%) GCIH
16 6 (1.41%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (1.87%) GDPR
2 8 (1.87%) NIST
2 8 (1.87%) SLA
3 5 (1.17%) NCSC
4 2 (0.47%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.47%) QA
4 2 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
5 1 (0.23%) GRC
5 1 (0.23%) RMADS
System Software
1 85 (19.91%) Active Directory
2 52 (12.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 31 (7.26%) Docker
4 22 (5.15%) Firmware
5 11 (2.58%) VMware NSX
5 11 (2.58%) vSphere
6 9 (2.11%) Squid
7 8 (1.87%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.87%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (1.64%) Lustre
8 7 (1.64%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 6 (1.41%) GPFS
10 4 (0.94%) KVM
10 4 (0.94%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.70%) VMware ESXi
12 2 (0.47%) Ceph
12 2 (0.47%) NDS
12 2 (0.47%) NetIQ eDirectory
12 2 (0.47%) NFS
13 1 (0.23%) iptables
Systems Management
1 67 (15.69%) Ansible
2 41 (9.60%) Terraform
3 39 (9.13%) Kubernetes
4 31 (7.26%) SCCM
5 24 (5.62%) Grafana
5 24 (5.62%) Microsoft Intune
6 21 (4.92%) Prometheus
7 20 (4.68%) Single Sign-On
8 18 (4.22%) FortiGate
9 10 (2.34%) WSUS
10 9 (2.11%) Nagios
10 9 (2.11%) QRadar
11 8 (1.87%) Consul
12 6 (1.41%) Puppet
12 6 (1.41%) Tivoli NetView
13 5 (1.17%) CASB
13 5 (1.17%) Nessus
14 4 (0.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 4 (0.94%) ITRS Geneos
15 3 (0.70%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 115 (26.93%) Microsoft
2 73 (17.10%) VMware
3 69 (16.16%) F5
4 61 (14.29%) Cisco
5 41 (9.60%) Splunk
6 36 (8.43%) Blue Coat
7 35 (8.20%) Palo Alto
8 33 (7.73%) McAfee
9 26 (6.09%) Juniper
9 26 (6.09%) ServiceNow
10 23 (5.39%) Fortinet
10 23 (5.39%) NetApp
11 19 (4.45%) CheckPoint
12 18 (4.22%) Citrix
12 18 (4.22%) Red Hat
13 15 (3.51%) Siemens
14 13 (3.04%) Aruba
14 13 (3.04%) SolarWinds
15 12 (2.81%) Oracle
16 11 (2.58%) Bloomberg