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

6 months to
7 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 233 187 189
Rank change year-on-year -46 +2 +50
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 426 444 550
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.15% 1.38% 1.29%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.81% 10.76% 9.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 242 267 347
10th Percentile £200 £212 £185
25th Percentile £313 £375 £273
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% +11.11% -14.27%
75th Percentile £600 £630 £579
90th Percentile £655 £738 £681
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £458 £400
% change year-on-year -1.64% +14.38% -15.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 42 7 50
10th Percentile £15.50 £20.15 £23.88
25th Percentile £33.00 £25.63 £40.68
Median hourly rate £62.82 £32.50 £50.20
Median % change year-on-year +93.28% -35.25% -22.78%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £56.49
90th Percentile £82.70 £68.50 £69.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £32.50 £50.39
% change year-on-year +100.00% -35.50% -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 3,939 4,125 5,784
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.64% 12.79% 13.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,578 2,418 3,570
10th Percentile £206 £220 £210
25th Percentile £356 £371 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -1.32%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £474 £473
% change year-on-year -5.01% +0.26% +3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 176 138 326
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.86 £18.00
25th Percentile £19.75 £20.81 £23.22
Median hourly rate £36.75 £32.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year +13.08% -42.47% +125.96%
75th Percentile £66.31 £53.44 £65.98
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.38 £75.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £31.79 £59.50
% change year-on-year +33.69% -46.57% +170.45%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -29 384 £475 -5.00% 290
UK excluding London -28 273 £450 -1.64% 275
Work from Home -37 123 £450 -18.18% 95
London -41 123 £538 +7.50% 48
North of England -25 85 £450 -4.76% 55
South East -13 63 £473 +1.61% 92
North West -6 51 £475 +1.60% 26
East of England -4 48 £350 -30.00% 43
West Midlands -10 38 £213 -5.56% 16
Midlands -29 38 £213 -5.56% 32
South West -7 31 £700 +13.82% 37
Yorkshire -47 30 £447 -36.14% 22
Scotland +12 22 £454 +13.50% 13
Wales -6 4 £250 -23.08% 8
North East -17 4 £400 +166.67% 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 32 (7.51%) SharePoint
2 23 (5.40%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (3.29%) Skype for Business
4 11 (2.58%) Confluence
5 8 (1.88%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.94%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.70%) Apache
7 3 (0.70%) Apache Spark
7 3 (0.70%) IIS
8 2 (0.47%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.47%) WordPress
9 1 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
9 1 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
9 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
Applications
1 37 (8.69%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.41%) Weka
3 5 (1.17%) Acrobat
3 5 (1.17%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.94%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) Eikon
1 1 (0.23%) Eze OMS
1 1 (0.23%) Fidessa
1 1 (0.23%) Finacle
1 1 (0.23%) Pegasus Opera
1 1 (0.23%) RMDS
1 1 (0.23%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 107 (25.12%) AWS
2 101 (23.71%) Azure
3 81 (19.01%) Microsoft 365
4 27 (6.34%) Amazon EC2
4 27 (6.34%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 26 (6.10%) Amazon S3
6 25 (5.87%) GCP
7 22 (5.16%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 22 (5.16%) Amazon ELB
8 21 (4.93%) Entra ID
9 16 (3.76%) GitHub
10 12 (2.82%) AWS CloudFormation
11 10 (2.35%) Cloud Computing
11 10 (2.35%) SaaS
12 7 (1.64%) OneDrive
13 6 (1.41%) GitHub Actions
13 6 (1.41%) Google Workspace
14 4 (0.94%) Amazon EKS
14 4 (0.94%) AWS KMS
14 4 (0.94%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 244 (57.28%) DNS
2 156 (36.62%) Firewall
3 120 (28.17%) VPN
4 119 (27.93%) DHCP
5 89 (20.89%) SSL
6 74 (17.37%) WAN
7 69 (16.20%) LAN
8 63 (14.79%) Network Security
9 60 (14.08%) HTTP
10 58 (13.62%) VLAN
11 34 (7.98%) Wireshark
12 30 (7.04%) Wi-Fi
13 29 (6.81%) BGP
14 26 (6.10%) BIG-IP
15 24 (5.63%) Wireless
16 23 (5.40%) OSPF
17 19 (4.46%) Ethernet
17 19 (4.46%) Internet
17 19 (4.46%) SAN
18 18 (4.23%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (4.93%) SQL Server
2 14 (3.29%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.17%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.94%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (0.94%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.94%) Big Data
4 4 (0.94%) MongoDB
4 4 (0.94%) NoSQL
4 4 (0.94%) Oracle Database
5 3 (0.70%) Delta Lake
5 3 (0.70%) Hadoop
5 3 (0.70%) Parquet
6 1 (0.23%) Apache Cassandra
6 1 (0.23%) Apache Hive
6 1 (0.23%) Electronic Patient Records
6 1 (0.23%) Impala
6 1 (0.23%) Power BI
6 1 (0.23%) Redis
6 1 (0.23%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.23%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 42 (9.86%) Git
1 42 (9.86%) Jenkins
2 33 (7.75%) GitLab
3 26 (6.10%) JIRA
4 22 (5.16%) Fiddler
5 15 (3.52%) Eclipse
5 15 (3.52%) Visual Studio
6 5 (1.17%) Subversion
7 4 (0.94%) CircleCI
7 4 (0.94%) TeamCity
8 3 (0.70%) MLflow
8 3 (0.70%) Robot Framework
8 3 (0.70%) SonarQube
8 3 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.47%) Maven
9 2 (0.47%) Poetry
9 2 (0.47%) Postman
9 2 (0.47%) PyCharm
9 2 (0.47%) Visual Studio Code
10 1 (0.23%) IntelliJ
General
1 147 (34.51%) Social Skills
2 74 (17.37%) Analytical Skills
3 39 (9.15%) Finance
4 38 (8.92%) Public Sector
5 30 (7.04%) Banking
6 26 (6.10%) Military
7 20 (4.69%) Investment Banking
8 18 (4.23%) Presentation Skills
9 10 (2.35%) Legal
9 10 (2.35%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (2.11%) Front Office
11 8 (1.88%) Law
11 8 (1.88%) Telecoms
12 6 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.41%) Local Government
13 5 (1.17%) Financial Institution
14 3 (0.70%) Aerospace
14 3 (0.70%) Manufacturing
15 2 (0.47%) Advertising
16 1 (0.23%) Games
Job Titles
1 87 (20.42%) Network Engineer
2 63 (14.79%) Support Engineer
3 55 (12.91%) Analyst
3 55 (12.91%) Senior
4 49 (11.50%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 30 (7.04%) IT Support
6 27 (6.34%) IT Engineer
7 21 (4.93%) 2nd Line Support
7 21 (4.93%) Web Engineer
8 20 (4.69%) Developer
8 20 (4.69%) DevOps Engineer
9 18 (4.23%) SOC Analyst
10 17 (3.99%) Senior DevOps
10 17 (3.99%) Support Analyst
10 17 (3.99%) Technical Support
11 16 (3.76%) Security Engineer
11 16 (3.76%) Senior DevOps Engineer
12 15 (3.52%) Junior
12 15 (3.52%) Lead
12 15 (3.52%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.46%) Web Services
2 16 (3.76%) Node.js
3 14 (3.29%) Middleware
4 12 (2.82%) REST
5 9 (2.11%) Elastic Stack
5 9 (2.11%) LDAP
5 9 (2.11%) SOAP
6 5 (1.17%) AngularJS
6 5 (1.17%) FIX Protocol
6 5 (1.17%) Kafka
7 4 (0.94%) .NET
7 4 (0.94%) 802.1X
7 4 (0.94%) JSON
7 4 (0.94%) React
7 4 (0.94%) SAML
7 4 (0.94%) Ultra Messaging
8 3 (0.70%) ASP.NET Web API
8 3 (0.70%) Flask
8 3 (0.70%) WCF
8 3 (0.70%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 29 (6.81%) Management Information System
2 26 (6.10%) Data Centre
3 24 (5.63%) Onboarding
4 18 (4.23%) Analytical Mindset
5 16 (3.76%) Security Operations Centre
6 13 (3.05%) CMDB
6 13 (3.05%) Cyberattack
6 13 (3.05%) Driving Licence
7 12 (2.82%) NHS
7 12 (2.82%) Private Cloud
8 11 (2.58%) Public Cloud
9 10 (2.35%) PKI
9 10 (2.35%) Replication
9 10 (2.35%) Security Posture
10 9 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
11 8 (1.88%) Clustering
11 8 (1.88%) Cyber Threat
11 8 (1.88%) Enterprise Software
12 6 (1.41%) Grid Computing
12 6 (1.41%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 200 (46.95%) Windows
2 144 (33.80%) Linux
3 52 (12.21%) Windows Server
4 36 (8.45%) Windows 10
5 29 (6.81%) Unix
6 12 (2.82%) Android
6 12 (2.82%) Windows Server 2019
7 11 (2.58%) Windows Server 2016
8 9 (2.11%) Mac OS
9 8 (1.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 7 (1.64%) VMS
10 7 (1.64%) Windows Server 2012
11 6 (1.41%) Apple iOS
11 6 (1.41%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.94%) CentOS
12 4 (0.94%) Solaris
12 4 (0.94%) Windows Server 2003
13 3 (0.70%) Debian
14 2 (0.47%) Mac OS X
14 2 (0.47%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 119 (27.93%) Problem-Solving
2 68 (15.96%) CI/CD
3 67 (15.73%) ITIL
4 59 (13.85%) DevOps
4 59 (13.85%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 57 (13.38%) Agile
6 54 (12.68%) Cybersecurity
6 54 (12.68%) Incident Response
7 51 (11.97%) SIEM
8 49 (11.50%) Infrastructure as Code
9 41 (9.62%) Load Balancing
10 40 (9.39%) High Availability
11 36 (8.45%) Infrastructure Automation
12 35 (8.22%) Root Cause Analysis
13 32 (7.51%) Knowledge Transfer
13 32 (7.51%) Migration
13 32 (7.51%) Security Operations
14 31 (7.28%) Validation
15 29 (6.81%) Disaster Recovery
15 29 (6.81%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 126 (29.58%) Python
2 78 (18.31%) PowerShell
3 72 (16.90%) Bash
4 24 (5.63%) Perl
4 24 (5.63%) SQL
5 21 (4.93%) JavaScript
6 20 (4.69%) C#
6 20 (4.69%) C++
7 16 (3.76%) Java
8 13 (3.05%) Shell Script
9 7 (1.64%) Go
10 4 (0.94%) C
10 4 (0.94%) Kusto Query Language
11 3 (0.70%) Groovy
11 3 (0.70%) Search Processing Language
11 3 (0.70%) T-SQL
12 2 (0.47%) Ruby
13 1 (0.23%) Bicep
13 1 (0.23%) PL/SQL
13 1 (0.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 137 (32.16%) Security Cleared
2 103 (24.18%) SC Cleared
3 39 (9.15%) Cisco Certification
3 39 (9.15%) Degree
4 37 (8.69%) DV Cleared
5 33 (7.75%) Microsoft Certification
6 26 (6.10%) CCNP
7 23 (5.40%) CompTIA Security+
8 20 (4.69%) Network+ Certification
9 18 (4.23%) CCNA
10 16 (3.76%) Azure Certification
11 15 (3.52%) CISSP
12 12 (2.82%) CompTIA CySA+
12 12 (2.82%) Computer Science Degree
12 12 (2.82%) MCP
13 11 (2.58%) MCSE
13 11 (2.58%) Server+ Certification
14 8 (1.88%) MCSA
15 7 (1.64%) JNCIS
16 6 (1.41%) ECDL
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (5.40%) GDPR
2 9 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.88%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 8 (1.88%) SLA
4 6 (1.41%) NIST
5 4 (0.94%) HIPAA
6 3 (0.70%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.47%) NCSC
8 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.23%) QA
8 1 (0.23%) SOC 2
System Software
1 91 (21.36%) Active Directory
2 65 (15.26%) VMware Infrastructure
3 56 (13.15%) Docker
4 30 (7.04%) Hyper-V
5 13 (3.05%) Firmware
6 9 (2.11%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (2.11%) VMware ESXi
7 8 (1.88%) vSphere
8 7 (1.64%) Lustre
8 7 (1.64%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 7 (1.64%) VMware NSX
9 6 (1.41%) GPFS
10 5 (1.17%) KVM
10 5 (1.17%) NDS
10 5 (1.17%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 5 (1.17%) NFS
10 5 (1.17%) Terminal Services
11 4 (0.94%) Veritas File System
11 4 (0.94%) Veritas Volume Manager
11 4 (0.94%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 88 (20.66%) Ansible
2 57 (13.38%) Terraform
3 38 (8.92%) SCCM
4 34 (7.98%) Kubernetes
5 30 (7.04%) Microsoft Intune
6 17 (3.99%) Grafana
7 12 (2.82%) FortiGate
7 12 (2.82%) Prometheus
7 12 (2.82%) Puppet
8 9 (2.11%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (1.88%) QRadar
9 8 (1.88%) WSUS
10 7 (1.64%) Nessus
10 7 (1.64%) Progress Chef
11 6 (1.41%) Nagios
11 6 (1.41%) vCenter Server
12 5 (1.17%) CASB
12 5 (1.17%) Red Hat Satellite
13 4 (0.94%) ITRS Geneos
14 3 (0.70%) Nmap
Vendors
1 135 (31.69%) Microsoft
2 88 (20.66%) VMware
3 71 (16.67%) F5
4 65 (15.26%) Cisco
5 56 (13.15%) Palo Alto
6 42 (9.86%) Splunk
7 40 (9.39%) CheckPoint
8 29 (6.81%) Blue Coat
9 24 (5.63%) McAfee
10 23 (5.40%) Fortinet
10 23 (5.40%) ServiceNow
11 21 (4.93%) NetApp
11 21 (4.93%) SolarWinds
12 18 (4.23%) Juniper
12 18 (4.23%) Oracle
12 18 (4.23%) Red Hat
13 17 (3.99%) Citrix
14 16 (3.76%) Meraki
15 13 (3.05%) Veeam
16 11 (2.58%) CyberArk