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

6 months to
13 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 258 180 214
Rank change year-on-year -78 +34 +22
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 432 443 490
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.08% 1.43% 1.10%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.41% 10.89% 8.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 252 281 320
10th Percentile £201 £213 £184
25th Percentile £315 £400 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +10.53% -9.51%
75th Percentile £575 £675 £575
90th Percentile £653 £775 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £413
% change year-on-year -5.26% +15.15% -17.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 36 7 40
10th Percentile £15.50 £20.15 £24.15
25th Percentile £21.25 £26.25 £40.85
Median hourly rate £40.72 £54.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -25.28% +9.00% -23.08%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.38 £56.49
90th Percentile £67.25 £68.50 £69.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £47.50 £51.70
% change year-on-year -11.71% -8.11% -20.47%

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 4,148 4,068 6,007
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.37% 13.14% 13.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,722 2,402 3,589
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £355 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.56% -6.25%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £680 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £473 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% -0.53% +0.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 168 131 405
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.44 £14.41
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.46 £21.00
Median hourly rate £31.44 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.26% -31.58% +143.59%
75th Percentile £65.00 £55.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £26.75 £51.89
% change year-on-year +51.55% -48.45% +161.00%

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 13 February 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 13 February 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 13 February 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 -40 374 £450 -14.29% 252
UK excluding London -18 277 £450 -5.26% 229
London -53 119 £492 -1.60% 60
Work from Home -54 117 £425 -31.45% 96
North of England -18 90 £424 -10.32% 50
South East -25 57 £500 -11.50% 65
North West -7 50 £414 +50.50% 26
East of England -7 44 £381 -18.01% 44
West Midlands -16 41 £200 -5.88% 17
Midlands -33 41 £200 -11.11% 22
Yorkshire -45 36 £443 -37.89% 17
South West -20 33 £700 +13.82% 35
Scotland +22 31 £454 +3.30% 14
North East -18 4 £200 +6.67% 11
Wales -12 3 £293 -10.00% 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 27 (6.25%) SharePoint
2 21 (4.86%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (4.40%) Confluence
4 14 (3.24%) Skype for Business
5 7 (1.62%) nginx
5 7 (1.62%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.69%) Apache
7 2 (0.46%) IIS
7 2 (0.46%) WordPress
8 1 (0.23%) Apache Airflow
8 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
Applications
1 32 (7.41%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.85%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.39%) Weka
4 5 (1.16%) Acrobat
5 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 1 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 1 (0.23%) RMDS
1 1 (0.23%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 106 (24.54%) AWS
2 99 (22.92%) Azure
3 84 (19.44%) Microsoft 365
4 26 (6.02%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 24 (5.56%) Amazon S3
5 24 (5.56%) GCP
6 23 (5.32%) Amazon EC2
7 21 (4.86%) Entra ID
8 14 (3.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 14 (3.24%) Amazon ELB
9 11 (2.55%) GitHub
9 11 (2.55%) Route 53
10 10 (2.31%) OneDrive
11 9 (2.08%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (1.85%) Amazon EKS
12 8 (1.85%) AWS Lambda
12 8 (1.85%) Serverless
13 7 (1.62%) Cloud Computing
13 7 (1.62%) SaaS
14 6 (1.39%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 262 (60.65%) DNS
2 146 (33.80%) Firewall
3 125 (28.94%) DHCP
4 123 (28.47%) VPN
5 80 (18.52%) WAN
6 75 (17.36%) LAN
6 75 (17.36%) SSL
7 63 (14.58%) VLAN
8 62 (14.35%) Network Security
9 61 (14.12%) HTTP
10 43 (9.95%) Wireshark
11 40 (9.26%) BIG-IP
12 35 (8.10%) Wi-Fi
13 34 (7.87%) BGP
14 30 (6.94%) OSPF
15 26 (6.02%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
15 26 (6.02%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 18 (4.17%) Wireless
17 17 (3.94%) Internet
18 16 (3.70%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (3.94%) SQL Server
2 14 (3.24%) Elasticsearch
3 11 (2.55%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.93%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.23%) Amazon Aurora
5 1 (0.23%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.23%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (0.23%) Apache Hive
5 1 (0.23%) Big Data
5 1 (0.23%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.23%) Impala
5 1 (0.23%) MySQL
5 1 (0.23%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.23%) Power BI
5 1 (0.23%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.23%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 32 (7.41%) GitLab
1 32 (7.41%) JIRA
2 30 (6.94%) Fiddler
3 28 (6.48%) Git
4 23 (5.32%) Jenkins
5 10 (2.31%) Eclipse
5 10 (2.31%) Visual Studio
6 6 (1.39%) Bitbucket
6 6 (1.39%) SonarQube
7 4 (0.93%) CircleCI
8 3 (0.69%) Sonatype Nexus
8 3 (0.69%) Subversion
9 2 (0.46%) Maven
9 2 (0.46%) TeamCity
10 1 (0.23%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.23%) Cucumber
10 1 (0.23%) GCC
10 1 (0.23%) IntelliJ
10 1 (0.23%) MSI
10 1 (0.23%) Travis CI
General
1 141 (32.64%) Social Skills
2 66 (15.28%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (8.80%) Public Sector
4 32 (7.41%) Banking
4 32 (7.41%) Finance
5 24 (5.56%) Investment Banking
6 23 (5.32%) Military
7 13 (3.01%) Documentation Skills
7 13 (3.01%) Presentation Skills
8 11 (2.55%) Telecoms
9 9 (2.08%) Front Office
10 7 (1.62%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.16%) Legal
12 4 (0.93%) Law
12 4 (0.93%) Local Government
13 3 (0.69%) French Language
13 3 (0.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 3 (0.69%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.69%) Marketing
14 2 (0.46%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 101 (23.38%) Network Engineer
2 62 (14.35%) Analyst
3 58 (13.43%) Support Engineer
4 45 (10.42%) Senior
5 37 (8.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 32 (7.41%) IT Support
7 28 (6.48%) Web Engineer
8 26 (6.02%) Architect
8 26 (6.02%) IT Engineer
9 22 (5.09%) SOC Analyst
10 21 (4.86%) 2nd Line Support
11 20 (4.63%) Junior
12 18 (4.17%) Developer
12 18 (4.17%) DevOps Engineer
12 18 (4.17%) Security Engineer
13 17 (3.94%) IT Support Engineer
13 17 (3.94%) Technical Analyst
13 17 (3.94%) Technical Support
14 16 (3.70%) Lead
15 15 (3.47%) Blue Coat Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (3.24%) Web Services
2 12 (2.78%) LDAP
3 11 (2.55%) Middleware
4 10 (2.31%) Node.js
5 9 (2.08%) OpenID
5 9 (2.08%) REST
6 7 (1.62%) SOAP
7 6 (1.39%) JSON
8 5 (1.16%) FIX Protocol
8 5 (1.16%) SAML
9 4 (0.93%) .NET
9 4 (0.93%) Kafka
9 4 (0.93%) React
9 4 (0.93%) Ultra Messaging
10 3 (0.69%) 802.1X
10 3 (0.69%) AngularJS
10 3 (0.69%) ASP.NET Web API
10 3 (0.69%) Express.js
10 3 (0.69%) WCF
10 3 (0.69%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 33 (7.64%) Management Information System
2 27 (6.25%) Data Centre
3 23 (5.32%) Onboarding
3 23 (5.32%) Security Operations Centre
4 20 (4.63%) Cyberattack
5 18 (4.17%) Analytical Mindset
6 16 (3.70%) Public Cloud
7 13 (3.01%) CMDB
8 12 (2.78%) Driving Licence
8 12 (2.78%) NHS
9 11 (2.55%) Cyber Threat
9 11 (2.55%) PKI
9 11 (2.55%) Private Cloud
10 9 (2.08%) Security Posture
11 8 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
11 8 (1.85%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.39%) Grid Computing
13 5 (1.16%) Data Protection Act
13 5 (1.16%) Mainframe
13 5 (1.16%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 201 (46.53%) Windows
2 131 (30.32%) Linux
3 50 (11.57%) Windows Server
4 33 (7.64%) Windows 10
5 15 (3.47%) Android
6 14 (3.24%) Unix
7 13 (3.01%) Windows Server 2019
8 10 (2.31%) Mac OS
9 9 (2.08%) Windows Server 2016
10 8 (1.85%) Apple iOS
11 7 (1.62%) Windows Server 2012
12 6 (1.39%) Ubuntu
13 5 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 5 (1.16%) VMS
14 4 (0.93%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.93%) zOS
15 3 (0.69%) CentOS
15 3 (0.69%) Debian
16 2 (0.46%) Solaris
16 2 (0.46%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (27.31%) Problem-Solving
2 68 (15.74%) ITIL
3 59 (13.66%) Incident Response
4 58 (13.43%) SIEM
5 56 (12.96%) Cybersecurity
6 54 (12.50%) DevOps
7 52 (12.04%) Agile
7 52 (12.04%) CI/CD
8 48 (11.11%) Load Balancing
9 47 (10.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 45 (10.42%) Infrastructure as Code
11 42 (9.72%) Root Cause Analysis
12 36 (8.33%) Security Operations
13 35 (8.10%) Migration
14 30 (6.94%) Knowledge Transfer
15 29 (6.71%) Continuous Improvement
15 29 (6.71%) Data Loss Prevention
15 29 (6.71%) Mentoring
16 28 (6.48%) Change Management
16 28 (6.48%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 118 (27.31%) Python
2 79 (18.29%) PowerShell
3 63 (14.58%) Bash
4 22 (5.09%) SQL
5 17 (3.94%) JavaScript
6 15 (3.47%) C#
6 15 (3.47%) C++
7 13 (3.01%) Java
8 12 (2.78%) Perl
9 10 (2.31%) Shell Script
10 7 (1.62%) Go
11 6 (1.39%) C
12 3 (0.69%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (0.69%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.46%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.46%) Ruby
13 2 (0.46%) VBA
13 2 (0.46%) VBScript
14 1 (0.23%) Bicep
14 1 (0.23%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 141 (32.64%) Security Cleared
2 104 (24.07%) SC Cleared
3 46 (10.65%) Degree
4 43 (9.95%) DV Cleared
5 38 (8.80%) Cisco Certification
6 31 (7.18%) CCNP
7 27 (6.25%) CompTIA Security+
8 22 (5.09%) Microsoft Certification
9 20 (4.63%) Computer Science Degree
10 19 (4.40%) Network+ Certification
11 18 (4.17%) CCNA
12 17 (3.94%) Azure Certification
13 16 (3.70%) CompTIA CySA+
14 15 (3.47%) CISSP
15 11 (2.55%) Server+ Certification
16 10 (2.31%) JNCIS
17 9 (2.08%) Microsoft Certified Professional
18 8 (1.85%) CCIE
19 6 (1.39%) AWS Certification
19 6 (1.39%) ECDL
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.24%) GDPR
2 12 (2.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.85%) NIST
3 8 (1.85%) SLA
4 6 (1.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 5 (1.16%) NCSC
6 4 (0.93%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.46%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.46%) QA
8 1 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.23%) GRC
8 1 (0.23%) RMADS
8 1 (0.23%) SOC 2
System Software
1 94 (21.76%) Active Directory
2 59 (13.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 46 (10.65%) Docker
4 24 (5.56%) Hyper-V
5 17 (3.94%) Firmware
6 11 (2.55%) Virtual Machines
6 11 (2.55%) VMware NSX
7 10 (2.31%) vSphere
8 7 (1.62%) Lustre
8 7 (1.62%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 7 (1.62%) Squid
9 6 (1.39%) GPFS
9 6 (1.39%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (1.16%) KVM
10 5 (1.16%) NDS
10 5 (1.16%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 5 (1.16%) VMware ESXi
11 4 (0.93%) NFS
12 2 (0.46%) Veritas File System
12 2 (0.46%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 87 (20.14%) Ansible
2 50 (11.57%) Terraform
3 40 (9.26%) Kubernetes
4 37 (8.56%) SCCM
5 31 (7.18%) Microsoft Intune
6 22 (5.09%) Grafana
7 19 (4.40%) Prometheus
8 16 (3.70%) Single Sign-On
9 15 (3.47%) FortiGate
10 11 (2.55%) QRadar
11 8 (1.85%) Puppet
11 8 (1.85%) WSUS
12 7 (1.62%) Consul
12 7 (1.62%) Nagios
13 5 (1.16%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 5 (1.16%) Red Hat Satellite
13 5 (1.16%) Tivoli NetView
14 4 (0.93%) Iperf
14 4 (0.93%) ITRS Geneos
14 4 (0.93%) Nmap
Vendors
1 129 (29.86%) Microsoft
2 83 (19.21%) VMware
3 72 (16.67%) F5
4 60 (13.89%) Cisco
5 46 (10.65%) Splunk
6 44 (10.19%) Palo Alto
7 35 (8.10%) Blue Coat
8 32 (7.41%) McAfee
9 31 (7.18%) CheckPoint
10 27 (6.25%) ServiceNow
11 23 (5.32%) NetApp
12 21 (4.86%) Fortinet
13 20 (4.63%) Juniper
14 19 (4.40%) Red Hat
15 18 (4.17%) SolarWinds
16 14 (3.24%) Meraki
16 14 (3.24%) Oracle
17 13 (3.01%) Zscaler
18 12 (2.78%) Citrix
18 12 (2.78%) Veeam