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

6 months to
5 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 288 219 293
Rank change year-on-year -69 +74 -50
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 425 350 328
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.87% 1.21% 0.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.91% 9.63% 6.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 239 240 224
10th Percentile £207 £225 £188
25th Percentile £365 £362 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - +2.56%
75th Percentile £550 £623 £575
90th Percentile £638 £775 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £453 £488
% change year-on-year -0.55% -7.18% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 11 21
10th Percentile £21.25 £17.79 £16.00
25th Percentile £26.25 £36.88 £20.00
Median hourly rate £35.22 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.65% -3.85% +13.38%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.58 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -40.65% - +3.92%

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 4,771 3,635 5,392
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.72% 12.56% 12.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,920 2,249 3,208
10th Percentile £263 £214 £206
25th Percentile £400 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £495
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -3.03% -3.41%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +2.15% -2.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 282 163 415
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.96 £16.30
Median hourly rate £28.96 £41.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.22% +3.75% +119.30%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.44 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.93 £80.81 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.86 £31.79 £45.88
% change year-on-year +6.51% -30.71% +154.89%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -41 365 £470 -6.00% 257
UK excluding London -42 246 £450 -0.55% 218
London -54 141 £475 -2.56% 71
Work from Home -60 101 £450 -18.23% 83
North of England -33 91 £450 +12.50% 43
North West +1 54 £540 +116.00% 26
South East -44 53 £500 +11.11% 73
East of England -16 37 £263 -38.95% 29
Midlands -35 33 £400 -27.27% 30
Yorkshire -44 32 £449 -10.30% 12
West Midlands -35 30 £388 -29.55% 17
Scotland +6 24 £537 +21.24% 12
South West -29 21 £500 -18.70% 30
Wales -18 7 £408 -9.44% 5
North East -26 5 £306 +22.50% 6
East Midlands -28 3 £625 +13.64% 13

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 16 (3.76%) Confluence
2 14 (3.29%) SharePoint
3 10 (2.35%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (2.35%) nginx
4 4 (0.94%) OpenStack
4 4 (0.94%) WebSphere
5 3 (0.71%) IIS
6 2 (0.47%) CICS
6 2 (0.47%) IBM HTTP Server
6 2 (0.47%) Oracle HTTP Server
6 2 (0.47%) WebSphere Application Server
6 2 (0.47%) WebSphere Portal
7 1 (0.24%) Traefik
Applications
1 29 (6.82%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.12%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.41%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (0.94%) Acrobat
5 3 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.24%) Weka
Business Applications
1 2 (0.47%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 96 (22.59%) Azure
2 93 (21.88%) AWS
3 75 (17.65%) Microsoft 365
4 28 (6.59%) Entra ID
4 28 (6.59%) GCP
5 26 (6.12%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 16 (3.76%) Amazon EC2
6 16 (3.76%) OneDrive
7 15 (3.53%) Amazon EKS
7 15 (3.53%) Amazon S3
8 14 (3.29%) GitHub
8 14 (3.29%) Route 53
9 13 (3.06%) AWS Lambda
9 13 (3.06%) Serverless
10 10 (2.35%) Google Workspace
11 7 (1.65%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (1.65%) Nutanix
11 7 (1.65%) SaaS
12 6 (1.41%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 6 (1.41%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 236 (55.53%) DNS
2 153 (36.00%) Firewall
3 103 (24.24%) VPN
4 101 (23.76%) DHCP
5 75 (17.65%) WAN
6 71 (16.71%) Network Security
7 68 (16.00%) HTTP
7 68 (16.00%) LAN
8 67 (15.76%) SSL
9 60 (14.12%) VLAN
10 57 (13.41%) BGP
11 52 (12.24%) BIG-IP
12 42 (9.88%) OSPF
13 36 (8.47%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 35 (8.24%) Wi-Fi
15 34 (8.00%) Ethernet
16 30 (7.06%) Wireshark
17 29 (6.82%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 22 (5.18%) Wireless
19 16 (3.76%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.59%) Elasticsearch
1 11 (2.59%) SQL Server
2 8 (1.88%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.18%) MongoDB
4 3 (0.71%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.47%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.24%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.24%) MySQL
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 44 (10.35%) JIRA
2 24 (5.65%) Fiddler
3 21 (4.94%) GitLab
4 16 (3.76%) Git
4 16 (3.76%) Jenkins
5 13 (3.06%) Eclipse
5 13 (3.06%) Visual Studio
6 9 (2.12%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (1.65%) Bitbucket
7 7 (1.65%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.94%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.71%) Artifactory
9 3 (0.71%) CircleCI
10 2 (0.47%) Introscope
10 2 (0.47%) Subversion
11 1 (0.24%) Postman
General
1 154 (36.24%) Social Skills
2 60 (14.12%) Finance
3 50 (11.76%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (9.41%) Banking
5 30 (7.06%) Public Sector
6 25 (5.88%) Investment Banking
7 22 (5.18%) Presentation Skills
8 21 (4.94%) Military
9 19 (4.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (4.24%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (2.12%) Telecoms
12 8 (1.88%) Front Office
13 5 (1.18%) Law
14 3 (0.71%) French Language
14 3 (0.71%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.71%) Marketing
14 3 (0.71%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.47%) Japanese Language
15 2 (0.47%) Retail
15 2 (0.47%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 106 (24.94%) Network Engineer
2 52 (12.24%) Analyst
3 36 (8.47%) Support Engineer
4 32 (7.53%) Web Engineer
5 30 (7.06%) Architect
5 30 (7.06%) Senior
6 28 (6.59%) IT Support
7 26 (6.12%) Security Engineer
8 24 (5.65%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 22 (5.18%) Technical Engineer
10 20 (4.71%) SOC Analyst
11 19 (4.47%) IP Network Engineer
12 18 (4.24%) IT Engineer
12 18 (4.24%) Systems Engineer
13 17 (4.00%) Blue Coat Engineer
14 16 (3.76%) Junior
15 15 (3.53%) Lead
16 14 (3.29%) IT Support Engineer
16 14 (3.29%) Software Engineer
17 13 (3.06%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.71%) LDAP
2 16 (3.76%) SAML
3 14 (3.29%) Web Services
4 13 (3.06%) Node.js
5 12 (2.82%) JSON
5 12 (2.82%) OpenID
6 11 (2.59%) 802.1X
7 10 (2.35%) REST
8 6 (1.41%) .NET
9 5 (1.18%) Kafka
9 5 (1.18%) OAuth
10 4 (0.94%) XML
11 3 (0.71%) ARM Templates
11 3 (0.71%) HTML
11 3 (0.71%) Middleware
11 3 (0.71%) WinForms
12 2 (0.47%) .NET Core
12 2 (0.47%) Blazor
12 2 (0.47%) eBPF
12 2 (0.47%) NETCONF
Miscellaneous
1 44 (10.35%) Data Centre
2 43 (10.12%) Onboarding
3 24 (5.65%) Security Operations Centre
4 22 (5.18%) Management Information System
5 21 (4.94%) Cyberattack
6 17 (4.00%) Cyber Threat
7 15 (3.53%) Industry 4.0
7 15 (3.53%) Robotics
8 14 (3.29%) Security Posture
9 10 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (2.12%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 9 (2.12%) Driving Licence
11 8 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.88%) Public Cloud
12 7 (1.65%) PKI
13 6 (1.41%) Cloud Native
13 6 (1.41%) Mainframe
13 6 (1.41%) NHS
13 6 (1.41%) Private Cloud
13 6 (1.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 182 (42.82%) Windows
2 93 (21.88%) Linux
3 48 (11.29%) Windows Server
4 28 (6.59%) Mac OS
5 18 (4.24%) Windows 10
6 15 (3.53%) Unix
7 13 (3.06%) Apple iOS
8 11 (2.59%) Android
9 10 (2.35%) Windows Server 2012
10 7 (1.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 6 (1.41%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (1.41%) zOS
12 3 (0.71%) Ubuntu
12 3 (0.71%) Windows 7
12 3 (0.71%) Windows Server 2003
12 3 (0.71%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.47%) CentOS
13 2 (0.47%) Oracle Linux
13 2 (0.47%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
13 2 (0.47%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (28.24%) Problem-Solving
2 67 (15.76%) ITIL
3 57 (13.41%) Incident Response
4 54 (12.71%) Agile
5 49 (11.53%) Cybersecurity
6 47 (11.06%) DevOps
6 47 (11.06%) Load Balancing
6 47 (11.06%) SIEM
7 42 (9.88%) CI/CD
8 41 (9.65%) Migration
9 38 (8.94%) ITSM
10 37 (8.71%) Security Operations
11 36 (8.47%) Customer Service
11 36 (8.47%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 34 (8.00%) High Availability
12 34 (8.00%) Validation
13 33 (7.76%) Root Cause Analysis
14 30 (7.06%) Computer Science
14 30 (7.06%) Decision-Making
15 28 (6.59%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 90 (21.18%) Python
2 43 (10.12%) PowerShell
3 41 (9.65%) Bash
4 29 (6.82%) JavaScript
5 21 (4.94%) C++
6 18 (4.24%) SQL
7 17 (4.00%) C#
8 9 (2.12%) Java
8 9 (2.12%) VBA
9 6 (1.41%) C
9 6 (1.41%) Go
10 5 (1.18%) Shell Script
11 4 (0.94%) Perl
12 3 (0.71%) ActionScript
13 2 (0.47%) Jython
13 2 (0.47%) Ruby
14 1 (0.24%) Groovy
14 1 (0.24%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 116 (27.29%) Security Cleared
2 91 (21.41%) SC Cleared
3 74 (17.41%) Degree
4 47 (11.06%) Cisco Certification
5 38 (8.94%) CCNP
6 30 (7.06%) Computer Science Degree
7 29 (6.82%) CompTIA Security+
8 28 (6.59%) CCNA
9 25 (5.88%) DV Cleared
10 19 (4.47%) CISSP
11 18 (4.24%) CompTIA CySA+
12 14 (3.29%) Microsoft Certification
13 10 (2.35%) Azure Certification
13 10 (2.35%) Network+ Certification
14 9 (2.12%) MCSA
15 8 (1.88%) MCSE
16 7 (1.65%) CCIE
16 7 (1.65%) JNCIS
17 5 (1.18%) CISM
17 5 (1.18%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.06%) SLA
2 10 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 9 (2.12%) NIST
4 6 (1.41%) GDPR
4 6 (1.41%) QA
5 3 (0.71%) NCSC
6 2 (0.47%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (0.47%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.47%) RMADS
7 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.24%) GRC
System Software
1 84 (19.76%) Active Directory
2 48 (11.29%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (4.00%) Docker
3 17 (4.00%) Firmware
4 13 (3.06%) Squid
5 11 (2.59%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (2.12%) Hyper-V
7 8 (1.88%) vSphere
8 7 (1.65%) VMware NSX
9 6 (1.41%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.94%) KVM
11 3 (0.71%) NFS
12 2 (0.47%) RACF
12 2 (0.47%) VirtualBox
13 1 (0.24%) Citrix Presentation Server
13 1 (0.24%) GPFS
13 1 (0.24%) Lustre
13 1 (0.24%) RHEV
13 1 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
13 1 (0.24%) Xen
Systems Management
1 66 (15.53%) Ansible
2 36 (8.47%) Terraform
3 35 (8.24%) Kubernetes
4 26 (6.12%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (5.88%) FortiGate
5 25 (5.88%) Grafana
6 23 (5.41%) SCCM
6 23 (5.41%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (3.53%) Prometheus
8 11 (2.59%) WSUS
9 10 (2.35%) Nagios
10 9 (2.12%) Consul
11 8 (1.88%) Jamf Pro
11 8 (1.88%) QRadar
12 6 (1.41%) CASB
13 5 (1.18%) Nessus
13 5 (1.18%) Suricata
14 4 (0.94%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 4 (0.94%) Tivoli NetView
15 3 (0.71%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 119 (28.00%) Microsoft
2 72 (16.94%) Cisco
3 69 (16.24%) F5
4 59 (13.88%) VMware
5 39 (9.18%) ServiceNow
5 39 (9.18%) Splunk
6 30 (7.06%) Blue Coat
7 26 (6.12%) Palo Alto
8 24 (5.65%) McAfee
9 23 (5.41%) Fortinet
10 22 (5.18%) Citrix
11 21 (4.94%) Juniper
12 18 (4.24%) NetApp
13 17 (4.00%) Red Hat
13 17 (4.00%) Siemens
13 17 (4.00%) Zscaler
14 14 (3.29%) Bloomberg
15 13 (3.06%) Google
16 12 (2.82%) CheckPoint
16 12 (2.82%) SolarWinds