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

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 177 217
Rank change year-on-year -75 +40 +9
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 423 442 493
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.07% 1.44% 1.11%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.28% 11.00% 8.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 243 281 320
10th Percentile £200 £213 £184
25th Percentile £314 £400 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% +10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £581 £675 £575
90th Percentile £655 £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 37 7 40
10th Percentile £15.50 £20.15 £24.15
25th Percentile £21.25 £26.25 £40.85
Median hourly rate £39.50 £54.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.52% +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 4,113 4,018 6,016
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.36% 13.05% 13.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,711 2,366 3,598
10th Percentile £204 £210 £205
25th Percentile £356 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +2.56% -6.16%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £683 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £471 £475
% change year-on-year -4.51% -0.79% +1.06%
Number of hourly rates quoted 170 133 407
10th Percentile £15.50 £16.63 £14.43
25th Percentile £18.59 £21.46 £21.00
Median hourly rate £29.44 £32.50 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -9.42% -31.58% +137.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £53.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.00 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.54 £29.00 £51.89
% change year-on-year +39.79% -44.11% +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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -40 369 £450 -14.29% 252
UK excluding London -31 275 £450 -5.26% 229
London -62 115 £500 - 62
Work from Home -59 113 £425 -31.45% 95
North of England -18 89 £425 -10.05% 52
South East -26 57 £500 -8.26% 64
North West -2 49 £414 +50.50% 26
East of England -6 44 £381 -18.01% 42
West Midlands -18 40 £200 -8.57% 17
Midlands -38 40 £200 -11.11% 22
Yorkshire -40 36 £447 -37.33% 19
South West -28 32 £700 +13.82% 35
Scotland +25 31 £454 +5.58% 15
North East -18 4 £200 +6.67% 11
Wales -8 3 £293 -10.00% 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 27 (6.38%) SharePoint
2 21 (4.96%) Microsoft Exchange
3 19 (4.49%) Confluence
4 14 (3.31%) Skype for Business
5 8 (1.89%) OpenStack
6 7 (1.65%) nginx
7 3 (0.71%) Apache
8 2 (0.47%) IIS
8 2 (0.47%) WordPress
9 1 (0.24%) Apache Airflow
9 1 (0.24%) Jupyter
9 1 (0.24%) Tomcat
Applications
1 32 (7.57%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.89%) MS Visio
3 6 (1.42%) Weka
4 5 (1.18%) Acrobat
5 2 (0.47%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.47%) 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%) RMDS
1 1 (0.24%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 106 (25.06%) AWS
2 96 (22.70%) Azure
3 84 (19.86%) Microsoft 365
4 25 (5.91%) Amazon S3
4 25 (5.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 24 (5.67%) Amazon EC2
6 22 (5.20%) GCP
7 21 (4.96%) Entra ID
8 14 (3.31%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 14 (3.31%) Amazon ELB
9 11 (2.60%) Route 53
10 10 (2.36%) GitHub
10 10 (2.36%) OneDrive
11 9 (2.13%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (1.89%) Amazon EKS
12 8 (1.89%) AWS Lambda
12 8 (1.89%) Serverless
13 7 (1.65%) Cloud Computing
13 7 (1.65%) SaaS
14 6 (1.42%) Google Workspace
Communications & Networking
1 252 (59.57%) DNS
2 143 (33.81%) Firewall
3 123 (29.08%) DHCP
4 120 (28.37%) VPN
5 79 (18.68%) WAN
6 73 (17.26%) LAN
6 73 (17.26%) SSL
7 60 (14.18%) VLAN
8 57 (13.48%) HTTP
8 57 (13.48%) Network Security
9 42 (9.93%) Wireshark
10 39 (9.22%) BIG-IP
11 36 (8.51%) Wi-Fi
12 32 (7.57%) BGP
13 28 (6.62%) OSPF
14 25 (5.91%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 25 (5.91%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 18 (4.26%) Wireless
16 17 (4.02%) Internet
17 16 (3.78%) SAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (4.02%) SQL Server
2 14 (3.31%) Elasticsearch
3 11 (2.60%) PostgreSQL
4 4 (0.95%) MongoDB
5 1 (0.24%) Amazon Aurora
5 1 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
5 1 (0.24%) Apache Cassandra
5 1 (0.24%) Apache Hive
5 1 (0.24%) Big Data
5 1 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
5 1 (0.24%) Impala
5 1 (0.24%) MySQL
5 1 (0.24%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
5 1 (0.24%) Power BI
5 1 (0.24%) Redis
5 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
5 1 (0.24%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 32 (7.57%) JIRA
2 31 (7.33%) GitLab
3 29 (6.86%) Fiddler
4 27 (6.38%) Git
5 24 (5.67%) Jenkins
6 10 (2.36%) Eclipse
6 10 (2.36%) Visual Studio
7 6 (1.42%) Bitbucket
7 6 (1.42%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.95%) CircleCI
9 3 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.71%) Subversion
10 2 (0.47%) Maven
10 2 (0.47%) TeamCity
11 1 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.24%) Cucumber
11 1 (0.24%) GCC
11 1 (0.24%) IntelliJ
11 1 (0.24%) MSI
11 1 (0.24%) Travis CI
General
1 142 (33.57%) Social Skills
2 65 (15.37%) Analytical Skills
3 38 (8.98%) Public Sector
4 31 (7.33%) Banking
5 29 (6.86%) Finance
6 23 (5.44%) Investment Banking
6 23 (5.44%) Military
7 13 (3.07%) Presentation Skills
8 12 (2.84%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (2.60%) Telecoms
10 9 (2.13%) Front Office
11 7 (1.65%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (1.18%) Legal
12 5 (1.18%) Local Government
13 4 (0.95%) Law
14 3 (0.71%) French Language
14 3 (0.71%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 3 (0.71%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.71%) Marketing
15 2 (0.47%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 97 (22.93%) Network Engineer
2 62 (14.66%) Analyst
3 58 (13.71%) Support Engineer
4 44 (10.40%) Senior
5 38 (8.98%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 32 (7.57%) IT Support
7 27 (6.38%) Architect
7 27 (6.38%) Web Engineer
8 26 (6.15%) IT Engineer
9 22 (5.20%) SOC Analyst
10 21 (4.96%) 2nd Line Support
11 20 (4.73%) Junior
12 18 (4.26%) Developer
13 17 (4.02%) DevOps Engineer
13 17 (4.02%) IT Support Engineer
13 17 (4.02%) Lead
13 17 (4.02%) Technical Analyst
13 17 (4.02%) Technical Support
14 16 (3.78%) Security Engineer
15 15 (3.55%) Junior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (3.31%) Web Services
2 12 (2.84%) Middleware
3 11 (2.60%) LDAP
3 11 (2.60%) Node.js
4 9 (2.13%) OpenID
4 9 (2.13%) REST
5 7 (1.65%) SOAP
6 6 (1.42%) JSON
7 5 (1.18%) FIX Protocol
7 5 (1.18%) SAML
8 4 (0.95%) .NET
8 4 (0.95%) Kafka
8 4 (0.95%) React
8 4 (0.95%) Ultra Messaging
9 3 (0.71%) 802.1X
9 3 (0.71%) AngularJS
9 3 (0.71%) Bootstrap
9 3 (0.71%) Express.js
9 3 (0.71%) WCF
9 3 (0.71%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 32 (7.57%) Management Information System
2 28 (6.62%) Data Centre
3 24 (5.67%) Onboarding
4 22 (5.20%) Security Operations Centre
5 20 (4.73%) Cyberattack
6 18 (4.26%) Analytical Mindset
7 16 (3.78%) Public Cloud
8 12 (2.84%) CMDB
8 12 (2.84%) Driving Licence
8 12 (2.84%) NHS
8 12 (2.84%) PKI
9 11 (2.60%) Cyber Threat
9 11 (2.60%) Private Cloud
10 8 (1.89%) Enterprise Software
10 8 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (1.42%) Grid Computing
11 6 (1.42%) Security Posture
12 5 (1.18%) Enterprise Storage
12 5 (1.18%) Replication
12 5 (1.18%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 195 (46.10%) Windows
2 128 (30.26%) Linux
3 50 (11.82%) Windows Server
4 32 (7.57%) Windows 10
5 15 (3.55%) Android
6 14 (3.31%) Unix
7 13 (3.07%) Windows Server 2019
8 10 (2.36%) Mac OS
9 9 (2.13%) Windows Server 2016
10 8 (1.89%) Apple iOS
11 7 (1.65%) Windows Server 2012
12 6 (1.42%) Ubuntu
13 5 (1.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 5 (1.18%) VMS
14 4 (0.95%) Windows Server 2003
14 4 (0.95%) zOS
15 3 (0.71%) CentOS
15 3 (0.71%) Debian
16 2 (0.47%) Solaris
16 2 (0.47%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 117 (27.66%) Problem-Solving
2 66 (15.60%) ITIL
3 59 (13.95%) Incident Response
4 56 (13.24%) Cybersecurity
5 54 (12.77%) SIEM
6 53 (12.53%) Agile
7 52 (12.29%) CI/CD
7 52 (12.29%) DevOps
8 48 (11.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 48 (11.35%) Load Balancing
9 42 (9.93%) Infrastructure as Code
10 39 (9.22%) Root Cause Analysis
11 34 (8.04%) Migration
11 34 (8.04%) Security Operations
12 30 (7.09%) Continuous Improvement
12 30 (7.09%) Knowledge Transfer
13 29 (6.86%) Mentoring
14 28 (6.62%) Data Loss Prevention
14 28 (6.62%) Infrastructure Automation
15 27 (6.38%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 114 (26.95%) Python
2 75 (17.73%) PowerShell
3 60 (14.18%) Bash
4 22 (5.20%) SQL
5 16 (3.78%) JavaScript
6 15 (3.55%) C#
6 15 (3.55%) C++
7 13 (3.07%) Java
8 12 (2.84%) Perl
9 10 (2.36%) Shell Script
10 7 (1.65%) Go
11 5 (1.18%) C
12 3 (0.71%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (0.71%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.47%) Kusto Query Language
13 2 (0.47%) Ruby
13 2 (0.47%) VBA
14 1 (0.24%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.24%) TypeScript
14 1 (0.24%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 140 (33.10%) Security Cleared
2 103 (24.35%) SC Cleared
3 46 (10.87%) Degree
4 43 (10.17%) DV Cleared
5 36 (8.51%) Cisco Certification
6 29 (6.86%) CCNP
7 23 (5.44%) CompTIA Security+
8 21 (4.96%) Microsoft Certification
9 20 (4.73%) Computer Science Degree
10 19 (4.49%) Network+ Certification
11 17 (4.02%) Azure Certification
11 17 (4.02%) CCNA
12 16 (3.78%) CompTIA CySA+
13 11 (2.60%) Server+ Certification
14 10 (2.36%) CISSP
14 10 (2.36%) JNCIS
15 9 (2.13%) Microsoft Certified Professional
16 8 (1.89%) CCIE
17 6 (1.42%) ECDL
18 5 (1.18%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (3.31%) GDPR
2 9 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.89%) SLA
4 6 (1.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 5 (1.18%) NCSC
5 5 (1.18%) NIST
6 4 (0.95%) HIPAA
7 2 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
7 2 (0.47%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.47%) QA
8 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
8 1 (0.24%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.24%) GRC
8 1 (0.24%) RMADS
8 1 (0.24%) SOC 2
System Software
1 93 (21.99%) Active Directory
2 57 (13.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 45 (10.64%) Docker
4 24 (5.67%) Hyper-V
5 16 (3.78%) Firmware
6 11 (2.60%) VMware NSX
7 10 (2.36%) vSphere
8 9 (2.13%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (1.65%) Lustre
9 7 (1.65%) Slurm Workload Manager
9 7 (1.65%) Squid
10 6 (1.42%) GPFS
10 6 (1.42%) Virtual Desktop
11 5 (1.18%) KVM
11 5 (1.18%) NDS
11 5 (1.18%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 5 (1.18%) VMware ESXi
12 4 (0.95%) NFS
13 2 (0.47%) Veritas File System
13 2 (0.47%) Veritas Volume Manager
Systems Management
1 85 (20.09%) Ansible
2 48 (11.35%) Terraform
3 41 (9.69%) Kubernetes
4 36 (8.51%) SCCM
5 31 (7.33%) Microsoft Intune
6 22 (5.20%) Grafana
7 19 (4.49%) Prometheus
8 16 (3.78%) FortiGate
8 16 (3.78%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (1.89%) Puppet
9 8 (1.89%) WSUS
10 7 (1.65%) Consul
10 7 (1.65%) Nagios
10 7 (1.65%) QRadar
11 5 (1.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
11 5 (1.18%) Red Hat Satellite
11 5 (1.18%) Tivoli NetView
12 4 (0.95%) Iperf
12 4 (0.95%) ITRS Geneos
12 4 (0.95%) Nmap
Vendors
1 126 (29.79%) Microsoft
2 82 (19.39%) VMware
3 71 (16.78%) F5
4 59 (13.95%) Cisco
5 44 (10.40%) Palo Alto
6 42 (9.93%) Splunk
7 33 (7.80%) Blue Coat
8 31 (7.33%) McAfee
9 30 (7.09%) CheckPoint
10 27 (6.38%) ServiceNow
11 22 (5.20%) NetApp
12 21 (4.96%) Fortinet
13 20 (4.73%) Juniper
14 19 (4.49%) Red Hat
15 18 (4.26%) SolarWinds
16 15 (3.55%) Oracle
17 14 (3.31%) Meraki
18 12 (2.84%) Citrix
18 12 (2.84%) Veeam
19 11 (2.60%) Zscaler