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

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 237 183 191
Rank change year-on-year -54 +8 +55
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 419 441 538
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.13% 1.40% 1.27%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.74% 10.87% 9.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 238 270 340
10th Percentile £200 £213 £185
25th Percentile £313 £376 £274
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £506 £450
Median % change year-on-year -8.15% +12.50% -13.04%
75th Percentile £597 £650 £580
90th Percentile £657 £739 £681
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £454 £400
% change year-on-year -0.83% +13.44% -14.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 6 50
10th Percentile £15.50 £19.88 £23.88
25th Percentile £32.00 £23.75 £40.68
Median hourly rate £62.82 £48.75 £50.20
Median % change year-on-year +28.86% -2.88% -22.78%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £56.49
90th Percentile £80.60 £69.38 £69.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £48.75 £50.39
% change year-on-year +33.33% -3.25% -22.48%

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 3,903 4,056 5,800
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.56% 12.83% 13.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,557 2,375 3,580
10th Percentile £205 £213 £210
25th Percentile £356 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £686 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% +3.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 135 328
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £17.74
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.36 £23.07
Median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +4.62% -42.47% +125.96%
75th Percentile £65.00 £53.13 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £75.08
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.22 £31.08 £60.00
% change year-on-year +35.84% -48.20% +172.73%

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 January 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 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for TCP/IP in the UK

TCP/IP
Top 15 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 January 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 -34 377 £475 -6.40% 249
UK excluding London -25 267 £450 -0.83% 235
London -52 122 £538 +2.38% 51
Work from Home -41 120 £450 -21.05% 88
North of England -27 83 £445 -3.84% 42
South East -10 61 £490 +2.08% 84
North West -5 49 £425 -8.11% 21
East of England -1 47 £350 -30.00% 40
West Midlands -9 37 £200 -11.11% 9
Midlands -27 37 £200 -11.11% 24
South West -26 32 £700 +13.82% 29
Yorkshire -39 30 £447 -36.14% 15
Scotland +10 22 £454 +13.50% 13
Wales -9 4 £250 -23.08% 8
North East -17 4 £400 +166.67% 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 31 (7.40%) SharePoint
2 23 (5.49%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (3.34%) Skype for Business
4 12 (2.86%) Confluence
5 8 (1.91%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.72%) Apache
6 3 (0.72%) IIS
7 2 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.48%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.48%) WordPress
8 1 (0.24%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.24%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.24%) Jupyter
Applications
1 35 (8.35%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.43%) MS Visio
2 6 (1.43%) Weka
3 5 (1.19%) Acrobat
4 3 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.24%) Finacle
1 1 (0.24%) Pegasus Opera
1 1 (0.24%) RMDS
1 1 (0.24%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 107 (25.54%) AWS
2 100 (23.87%) Azure
3 79 (18.85%) Microsoft 365
4 27 (6.44%) Amazon EC2
4 27 (6.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 24 (5.73%) Amazon S3
6 23 (5.49%) GCP
7 22 (5.25%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 22 (5.25%) Amazon ELB
8 20 (4.77%) Entra ID
9 14 (3.34%) GitHub
10 12 (2.86%) AWS CloudFormation
11 10 (2.39%) SaaS
12 9 (2.15%) Cloud Computing
13 7 (1.67%) OneDrive
14 6 (1.43%) Google Workspace
15 4 (0.95%) Amazon EKS
15 4 (0.95%) AWS KMS
15 4 (0.95%) Azure DevOps
15 4 (0.95%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 236 (56.32%) DNS
2 151 (36.04%) Firewall
3 116 (27.68%) DHCP
3 116 (27.68%) VPN
4 86 (20.53%) SSL
5 75 (17.90%) WAN
6 68 (16.23%) LAN
7 61 (14.56%) Network Security
8 60 (14.32%) HTTP
9 58 (13.84%) VLAN
10 35 (8.35%) Wireshark
11 30 (7.16%) Wi-Fi
12 29 (6.92%) BGP
13 27 (6.44%) BIG-IP
14 23 (5.49%) OSPF
15 22 (5.25%) Wireless
16 19 (4.53%) Ethernet
16 19 (4.53%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 19 (4.53%) Internet
16 19 (4.53%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (4.77%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.86%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.19%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.95%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.95%) MongoDB
5 3 (0.72%) Oracle Database
6 2 (0.48%) Big Data
6 2 (0.48%) NoSQL
7 1 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
7 1 (0.24%) Apache Hive
7 1 (0.24%) Hadoop
7 1 (0.24%) Impala
7 1 (0.24%) MySQL
7 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.24%) Parquet
7 1 (0.24%) Power BI
7 1 (0.24%) Redis
7 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.24%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 41 (9.79%) Git
2 40 (9.55%) Jenkins
3 33 (7.88%) GitLab
4 26 (6.21%) JIRA
5 23 (5.49%) Fiddler
6 15 (3.58%) Eclipse
6 15 (3.58%) Visual Studio
7 5 (1.19%) Subversion
8 4 (0.95%) CircleCI
8 4 (0.95%) TeamCity
9 3 (0.72%) Robot Framework
10 2 (0.48%) Maven
10 2 (0.48%) Postman
11 1 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.24%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.24%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.24%) GCC
11 1 (0.24%) IntelliJ
11 1 (0.24%) MLflow
11 1 (0.24%) MSI
General
1 145 (34.61%) Social Skills
2 70 (16.71%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (9.07%) Public Sector
4 33 (7.88%) Finance
5 31 (7.40%) Banking
6 26 (6.21%) Military
7 21 (5.01%) Investment Banking
8 18 (4.30%) Presentation Skills
9 10 (2.39%) Organisational Skills
10 8 (1.91%) Front Office
10 8 (1.91%) Legal
10 8 (1.91%) Telecoms
11 7 (1.67%) Law
12 6 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.43%) Local Government
13 5 (1.19%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.72%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.72%) Manufacturing
15 2 (0.48%) Advertising
15 2 (0.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 89 (21.24%) Network Engineer
2 61 (14.56%) Support Engineer
3 56 (13.37%) Senior
4 53 (12.65%) Analyst
5 48 (11.46%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 29 (6.92%) IT Support
7 26 (6.21%) IT Engineer
8 22 (5.25%) Web Engineer
9 21 (5.01%) 2nd Line Support
10 20 (4.77%) Developer
10 20 (4.77%) DevOps Engineer
11 17 (4.06%) Senior DevOps
11 17 (4.06%) SOC Analyst
12 16 (3.82%) Senior DevOps Engineer
12 16 (3.82%) Support Analyst
13 15 (3.58%) IT Support Engineer
13 15 (3.58%) Junior
13 15 (3.58%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 15 (3.58%) Technical Support
14 14 (3.34%) Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.53%) Web Services
2 16 (3.82%) Node.js
3 14 (3.34%) Middleware
4 12 (2.86%) REST
5 9 (2.15%) SOAP
6 7 (1.67%) Elastic Stack
7 6 (1.43%) LDAP
8 5 (1.19%) AngularJS
8 5 (1.19%) FIX Protocol
8 5 (1.19%) Kafka
9 4 (0.95%) .NET
9 4 (0.95%) JSON
9 4 (0.95%) React
9 4 (0.95%) SAML
9 4 (0.95%) Ultra Messaging
10 3 (0.72%) 802.1X
10 3 (0.72%) ASP.NET Web API
10 3 (0.72%) Bootstrap
10 3 (0.72%) WCF
10 3 (0.72%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 30 (7.16%) Management Information System
2 27 (6.44%) Data Centre
3 24 (5.73%) Onboarding
4 18 (4.30%) Analytical Mindset
5 16 (3.82%) Security Operations Centre
6 13 (3.10%) Cyberattack
6 13 (3.10%) Driving Licence
7 12 (2.86%) CMDB
7 12 (2.86%) Private Cloud
8 11 (2.63%) NHS
8 11 (2.63%) Public Cloud
9 10 (2.39%) PKI
9 10 (2.39%) Replication
10 9 (2.15%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.91%) Clustering
11 8 (1.91%) Cyber Threat
11 8 (1.91%) Enterprise Software
12 6 (1.43%) Grid Computing
12 6 (1.43%) Security Posture
13 5 (1.19%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 194 (46.30%) Windows
2 140 (33.41%) Linux
3 50 (11.93%) Windows Server
4 35 (8.35%) Windows 10
5 26 (6.21%) Unix
6 12 (2.86%) Android
6 12 (2.86%) Windows Server 2019
7 10 (2.39%) Windows Server 2016
8 8 (1.91%) Mac OS
8 8 (1.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 7 (1.67%) VMS
10 6 (1.43%) Apple iOS
10 6 (1.43%) Ubuntu
10 6 (1.43%) Windows Server 2012
11 4 (0.95%) CentOS
11 4 (0.95%) Solaris
11 4 (0.95%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.72%) Debian
12 3 (0.72%) zOS
13 2 (0.48%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 112 (26.73%) Problem-Solving
2 66 (15.75%) CI/CD
3 63 (15.04%) ITIL
4 58 (13.84%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 57 (13.60%) Agile
5 57 (13.60%) DevOps
6 53 (12.65%) Incident Response
7 50 (11.93%) Cybersecurity
8 49 (11.69%) Infrastructure as Code
8 49 (11.69%) SIEM
9 42 (10.02%) Load Balancing
10 39 (9.31%) High Availability
11 36 (8.59%) Infrastructure Automation
11 36 (8.59%) Root Cause Analysis
12 32 (7.64%) Migration
13 31 (7.40%) Knowledge Transfer
13 31 (7.40%) Security Operations
14 29 (6.92%) Disaster Recovery
14 29 (6.92%) Validation
15 28 (6.68%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 124 (29.59%) Python
2 77 (18.38%) PowerShell
3 70 (16.71%) Bash
4 24 (5.73%) Perl
5 22 (5.25%) SQL
6 21 (5.01%) JavaScript
7 20 (4.77%) C#
7 20 (4.77%) C++
8 16 (3.82%) Java
9 13 (3.10%) Shell Script
10 7 (1.67%) Go
11 4 (0.95%) C
12 3 (0.72%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.72%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (0.72%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.48%) Ruby
14 1 (0.24%) Bicep
14 1 (0.24%) Groovy
14 1 (0.24%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.24%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 138 (32.94%) Security Cleared
2 103 (24.58%) SC Cleared
3 38 (9.07%) Cisco Certification
3 38 (9.07%) DV Cleared
4 36 (8.59%) Degree
5 28 (6.68%) Microsoft Certification
6 27 (6.44%) CCNP
7 20 (4.77%) CompTIA Security+
7 20 (4.77%) Network+ Certification
8 18 (4.30%) CCNA
9 16 (3.82%) Azure Certification
10 12 (2.86%) CISSP
10 12 (2.86%) Computer Science Degree
11 11 (2.63%) CompTIA CySA+
11 11 (2.63%) MCP
11 11 (2.63%) Server+ Certification
12 8 (1.91%) JNCIS
13 7 (1.67%) MCSE
14 6 (1.43%) CCIE
14 6 (1.43%) ECDL
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (5.01%) GDPR
2 9 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.91%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 8 (1.91%) SLA
4 5 (1.19%) NIST
5 4 (0.95%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
6 2 (0.48%) NCSC
6 2 (0.48%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
7 1 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.24%) QA
7 1 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 84 (20.05%) Active Directory
2 65 (15.51%) VMware Infrastructure
3 54 (12.89%) Docker
4 29 (6.92%) Hyper-V
5 14 (3.34%) Firmware
6 9 (2.15%) Virtual Machines
7 8 (1.91%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (1.91%) vSphere
8 7 (1.67%) Lustre
8 7 (1.67%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 7 (1.67%) VMware NSX
9 6 (1.43%) GPFS
10 5 (1.19%) KVM
10 5 (1.19%) NDS
10 5 (1.19%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 5 (1.19%) NFS
11 4 (0.95%) Terminal Services
11 4 (0.95%) Veritas File System
11 4 (0.95%) Veritas Volume Manager
11 4 (0.95%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 88 (21.00%) Ansible
2 57 (13.60%) Terraform
3 36 (8.59%) SCCM
4 32 (7.64%) Kubernetes
5 30 (7.16%) Microsoft Intune
6 17 (4.06%) Grafana
7 12 (2.86%) Prometheus
7 12 (2.86%) Puppet
8 11 (2.63%) FortiGate
9 9 (2.15%) QRadar
9 9 (2.15%) Single Sign-On
10 8 (1.91%) WSUS
11 7 (1.67%) Nagios
11 7 (1.67%) Progress Chef
12 5 (1.19%) Red Hat Satellite
12 5 (1.19%) vCenter Server
13 4 (0.95%) ITRS Geneos
13 4 (0.95%) Nessus
13 4 (0.95%) Tivoli NetView
14 3 (0.72%) Nmap
Vendors
1 126 (30.07%) Microsoft
2 88 (21.00%) VMware
3 73 (17.42%) F5
4 65 (15.51%) Cisco
5 54 (12.89%) Palo Alto
6 40 (9.55%) Splunk
7 38 (9.07%) CheckPoint
8 30 (7.16%) Blue Coat
9 25 (5.97%) McAfee
10 22 (5.25%) Fortinet
10 22 (5.25%) NetApp
10 22 (5.25%) ServiceNow
10 22 (5.25%) SolarWinds
11 19 (4.53%) Juniper
12 17 (4.06%) Oracle
12 17 (4.06%) Red Hat
13 16 (3.82%) Meraki
14 15 (3.58%) Citrix
15 13 (3.10%) Veeam
16 11 (2.63%) Zscaler