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

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 265 210 256
Rank change year-on-year -55 +46 -22
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 434 359 405
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.99% 1.24% 0.91%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.81% 9.45% 6.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 248 257 285
10th Percentile £213 £213 £188
25th Percentile £366 £383 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £458 £513 £488
Median % change year-on-year -10.63% +5.13% -7.14%
75th Percentile £570 £638 £563
90th Percentile £645 £775 £665
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £513 £459
% change year-on-year -11.61% +11.78% -5.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 8 15
10th Percentile £17.08 £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 4,425 3,797 5,893
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.06% 13.06% 13.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,841 2,357 3,552
10th Percentile £220 £213 £205
25th Percentile £375 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £490 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.41% +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 192 145 397
10th Percentile £15.51 £14.99 £13.94
25th Percentile £18.97 £21.46 £17.72
Median hourly rate £38.50 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% +7.69% +69.71%
75th Percentile £67.31 £63.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £76.35 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.25 £32.50 £45.44
% change year-on-year +30.00% -28.48% +140.30%

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 26 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 26 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 26 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 -31 376 £470 -8.29% 197
UK excluding London -14 280 £453 -11.61% 174
London -44 124 £475 -0.42% 42
Work from Home -78 97 £425 -25.44% 79
North of England -16 94 £448 +2.69% 49
South East -31 61 £523 -6.28% 50
North West +5 60 £540 +66.15% 26
East of England -2 53 £350 -18.60% 20
Midlands -44 32 £213 -61.36% 25
Yorkshire -42 31 £443 -23.04% 17
West Midlands -38 30 £200 -4.76% 17
Scotland +24 28 £388 -16.67% 5
South West -21 28 £700 +13.82% 25
Wales -14 6 £335 -21.18% 4
North East -15 3 £200 -11.11% 7
East Midlands -39 2 £625 +13.64% 8

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 (4.38%) Confluence
2 16 (3.69%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.46%) SharePoint
4 10 (2.30%) nginx
4 10 (2.30%) Skype for Business
5 7 (1.61%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.69%) Apache
7 2 (0.46%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.46%) IIS
7 2 (0.46%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.46%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.46%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.46%) WebSphere Portal
7 2 (0.46%) WordPress
8 1 (0.23%) Traefik
Applications
1 38 (8.76%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (2.30%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.38%) Weka
4 5 (1.15%) Acrobat
5 4 (0.92%) Microsoft Excel
5 4 (0.92%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 97 (22.35%) AWS
1 97 (22.35%) Azure
2 75 (17.28%) Microsoft 365
3 31 (7.14%) GCP
4 23 (5.30%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 20 (4.61%) Entra ID
6 17 (3.92%) Amazon S3
7 16 (3.69%) Amazon EC2
8 14 (3.23%) Route 53
9 12 (2.76%) Amazon EKS
9 12 (2.76%) AWS Lambda
9 12 (2.76%) Serverless
10 11 (2.53%) OneDrive
11 10 (2.30%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (2.07%) GitHub
12 9 (2.07%) Google Workspace
13 8 (1.84%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (1.61%) Cloud Computing
14 7 (1.61%) Nutanix
14 7 (1.61%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 241 (55.53%) DNS
2 151 (34.79%) Firewall
3 108 (24.88%) VPN
4 101 (23.27%) DHCP
5 89 (20.51%) WAN
6 79 (18.20%) LAN
7 66 (15.21%) HTTP
8 65 (14.98%) SSL
9 64 (14.75%) VLAN
10 59 (13.59%) Network Security
11 47 (10.83%) BGP
11 47 (10.83%) BIG-IP
12 43 (9.91%) Wi-Fi
13 41 (9.45%) OSPF
14 39 (8.99%) Wireshark
15 33 (7.60%) Ethernet
15 33 (7.60%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 27 (6.22%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
17 22 (5.07%) Wireless
18 20 (4.61%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (3.23%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.76%) Elasticsearch
3 9 (2.07%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (1.15%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.46%) MySQL
6 1 (0.23%) Amazon Aurora
6 1 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.23%) Electronic Patient Records
6 1 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.23%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 37 (8.53%) JIRA
2 30 (6.91%) Fiddler
3 22 (5.07%) GitLab
4 16 (3.69%) Git
5 15 (3.46%) Jenkins
6 14 (3.23%) Eclipse
6 14 (3.23%) Visual Studio
7 7 (1.61%) Bitbucket
7 7 (1.61%) SonarQube
8 6 (1.38%) Browser DevTools
9 4 (0.92%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.46%) Introscope
10 2 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.46%) Subversion
11 1 (0.23%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.23%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.23%) IntelliJ
11 1 (0.23%) Maven
11 1 (0.23%) Travis CI
General
1 153 (35.25%) Social Skills
2 51 (11.75%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (10.37%) Finance
4 37 (8.53%) Banking
5 29 (6.68%) Public Sector
6 26 (5.99%) Investment Banking
6 26 (5.99%) Presentation Skills
7 24 (5.53%) Military
8 18 (4.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 16 (3.69%) Documentation Skills
10 12 (2.76%) Front Office
11 11 (2.53%) Telecoms
12 8 (1.84%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.15%) Law
14 4 (0.92%) Legal
15 3 (0.69%) Financial Institution
15 3 (0.69%) French Language
15 3 (0.69%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.69%) Marketing
16 2 (0.46%) Japanese Language
Job Titles
1 111 (25.58%) Network Engineer
2 56 (12.90%) Analyst
3 50 (11.52%) Support Engineer
4 39 (8.99%) Web Engineer
5 34 (7.83%) Senior
6 27 (6.22%) Architect
7 24 (5.53%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 23 (5.30%) IT Engineer
9 22 (5.07%) IT Support
10 21 (4.84%) SOC Analyst
10 21 (4.84%) Technical Engineer
11 19 (4.38%) Blue Coat Engineer
11 19 (4.38%) IP Network Engineer
12 17 (3.92%) IT Support Engineer
12 17 (3.92%) Junior
12 17 (3.92%) Systems Engineer
12 17 (3.92%) Technical Support
13 16 (3.69%) Integration Engineer
13 16 (3.69%) Security Engineer
13 16 (3.69%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.38%) LDAP
2 17 (3.92%) Web Services
3 14 (3.23%) Node.js
4 10 (2.30%) OpenID
5 9 (2.07%) 802.1X
6 8 (1.84%) Middleware
6 8 (1.84%) SAML
7 6 (1.38%) JSON
7 6 (1.38%) REST
8 5 (1.15%) Kafka
9 4 (0.92%) FIX Protocol
9 4 (0.92%) NETCONF
9 4 (0.92%) OpenConfig
9 4 (0.92%) RESTCONF
9 4 (0.92%) Ultra Messaging
9 4 (0.92%) YANG
10 3 (0.69%) .NET
10 3 (0.69%) HTML
10 3 (0.69%) OAuth
10 3 (0.69%) React
Miscellaneous
1 31 (7.14%) Data Centre
1 31 (7.14%) Management Information System
2 22 (5.07%) Security Operations Centre
3 21 (4.84%) Cyberattack
4 20 (4.61%) Onboarding
5 16 (3.69%) Public Cloud
6 15 (3.46%) Industry 4.0
6 15 (3.46%) Robotics
7 13 (3.00%) Security Posture
8 11 (2.53%) CMDB
8 11 (2.53%) Driving Licence
8 11 (2.53%) Enterprise Software
8 11 (2.53%) NHS
8 11 (2.53%) PKI
8 11 (2.53%) Private Cloud
9 10 (2.30%) Cyber Threat
10 9 (2.07%) Analytical Mindset
11 7 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.38%) Grid Computing
12 6 (1.38%) Mainframe
Operating Systems
1 186 (42.86%) Windows
2 110 (25.35%) Linux
3 53 (12.21%) Windows Server
4 23 (5.30%) Windows 10
5 15 (3.46%) Android
6 13 (3.00%) Unix
7 10 (2.30%) Mac OS
8 9 (2.07%) Windows Server 2012
9 8 (1.84%) Apple iOS
10 6 (1.38%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (1.38%) zOS
11 5 (1.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 4 (0.92%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.92%) Windows Server 2003
12 4 (0.92%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.69%) Debian
13 3 (0.69%) VMS
13 3 (0.69%) Windows 7
14 2 (0.46%) AIX
14 2 (0.46%) Oracle Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (29.26%) Problem-Solving
2 65 (14.98%) ITIL
3 57 (13.13%) Agile
4 55 (12.67%) Cybersecurity
5 52 (11.98%) Incident Response
5 52 (11.98%) Load Balancing
5 52 (11.98%) SIEM
6 46 (10.60%) CI/CD
7 44 (10.14%) DevOps
8 39 (8.99%) Infrastructure as Code
8 39 (8.99%) Migration
9 38 (8.76%) Security Operations
10 37 (8.53%) Root Cause Analysis
11 36 (8.29%) Customer Service
12 35 (8.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 35 (8.06%) Validation
13 33 (7.60%) Decision-Making
14 32 (7.37%) Data Loss Prevention
15 30 (6.91%) Malware Detection/Protection
16 28 (6.45%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 103 (23.73%) Python
2 76 (17.51%) PowerShell
3 56 (12.90%) Bash
4 23 (5.30%) JavaScript
5 20 (4.61%) C++
5 20 (4.61%) SQL
6 17 (3.92%) C#
7 10 (2.30%) Java
8 9 (2.07%) Perl
9 8 (1.84%) Go
10 7 (1.61%) C
11 6 (1.38%) Shell Script
12 2 (0.46%) Jython
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%) Kusto Query Language
13 1 (0.23%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 135 (31.11%) Security Cleared
2 111 (25.58%) SC Cleared
3 63 (14.52%) Degree
4 49 (11.29%) Cisco Certification
5 39 (8.99%) CCNP
5 39 (8.99%) DV Cleared
6 32 (7.37%) CompTIA Security+
7 27 (6.22%) Computer Science Degree
8 26 (5.99%) CCNA
9 18 (4.15%) CISSP
9 18 (4.15%) CompTIA CySA+
10 16 (3.69%) Microsoft Certification
11 12 (2.76%) Network+ Certification
12 10 (2.30%) JNCIS
13 9 (2.07%) MCSA
13 9 (2.07%) MCSE
14 8 (1.84%) Azure Certification
15 7 (1.61%) CCIE
16 6 (1.38%) GCIH
16 6 (1.38%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (1.84%) GDPR
2 8 (1.84%) NIST
2 8 (1.84%) SLA
3 5 (1.15%) NCSC
4 2 (0.46%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.46%) QA
4 2 (0.46%) 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 86 (19.82%) Active Directory
2 51 (11.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (7.37%) Docker
4 21 (4.84%) Firmware
5 11 (2.53%) VMware NSX
5 11 (2.53%) vSphere
6 9 (2.07%) Squid
7 8 (1.84%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.84%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (1.61%) Lustre
8 7 (1.61%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 6 (1.38%) GPFS
10 4 (0.92%) KVM
10 4 (0.92%) Virtual Desktop
11 3 (0.69%) NFS
11 3 (0.69%) VMware ESXi
12 2 (0.46%) Ceph
12 2 (0.46%) NDS
12 2 (0.46%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.23%) Citrix Presentation Server
Systems Management
1 67 (15.44%) Ansible
2 41 (9.45%) Terraform
3 40 (9.22%) Kubernetes
4 31 (7.14%) SCCM
5 24 (5.53%) Grafana
5 24 (5.53%) Microsoft Intune
6 21 (4.84%) Prometheus
7 20 (4.61%) FortiGate
7 20 (4.61%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (2.30%) WSUS
9 9 (2.07%) Nagios
9 9 (2.07%) QRadar
10 8 (1.84%) Consul
11 6 (1.38%) Puppet
11 6 (1.38%) Tivoli NetView
12 5 (1.15%) CASB
12 5 (1.15%) Nessus
13 4 (0.92%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 4 (0.92%) ITRS Geneos
14 3 (0.69%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 115 (26.50%) Microsoft
2 72 (16.59%) VMware
3 68 (15.67%) F5
4 63 (14.52%) Cisco
5 40 (9.22%) Splunk
6 35 (8.06%) Blue Coat
6 35 (8.06%) Palo Alto
7 32 (7.37%) McAfee
8 27 (6.22%) Juniper
9 26 (5.99%) ServiceNow
10 24 (5.53%) Fortinet
11 22 (5.07%) NetApp
12 19 (4.38%) CheckPoint
12 19 (4.38%) Red Hat
13 18 (4.15%) Citrix
14 15 (3.46%) Siemens
15 13 (3.00%) Aruba
15 13 (3.00%) SolarWinds
16 12 (2.76%) Oracle
17 11 (2.53%) Google