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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 237 267
Rank change year-on-year -31 +30 -42
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 491 369 353
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 1.12% 0.91%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.78% 9.46% 7.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 258 210 222
10th Percentile £206 £200 £203
25th Percentile £316 £357 £262
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £611 £560
90th Percentile £672 £653 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +5.56% - +12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 28 32
10th Percentile £26.17 £20.36 £31.63
25th Percentile £31.25 £38.34 £63.44
Median hourly rate £63.48 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.34% - +28.92%
75th Percentile £71.43 - -
90th Percentile £98.82 £84.99 £67.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.48 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -2.34% - +114.88%

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 5,020 3,900 4,751
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.41% 11.84% 12.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,973 2,384 2,884
10th Percentile £250 £250 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% +9.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 363 200 319
10th Percentile £15.19 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.88 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -44.53% -4.34% -6.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.10 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.00% -2.86%

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 August 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 August 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 13 August 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 -21 457 £500 -1.23% 499
UK excluding London -30 282 £475 +5.56% 287
London -53 186 £490 -14.78% 263
Work from Home -58 113 £515 -6.36% 145
South East -24 83 £523 +16.11% 91
North of England -38 83 £475 -6.17% 57
North West -13 54 £450 -10.99% 28
South West -1 44 £638 +3.03% 42
Midlands -30 42 £402 -19.60% 34
East of England -15 35 £375 -28.57% 29
West Midlands -23 34 £406 +1.06% 23
Yorkshire -49 25 £500 -1.23% 18
Scotland -12 9 £425 +1.31% 20
East Midlands -13 8 £402 -26.91% 11
Wales -9 7 £408 +126.39% 9
North East -40 4 £438 +2.94% 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 45 (9.16%) SharePoint
2 24 (4.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 12 (2.44%) Confluence
4 9 (1.83%) OpenStack
5 7 (1.43%) nginx
6 4 (0.81%) FactoryTalk
6 4 (0.81%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.61%) IIS
8 2 (0.41%) CICS
8 2 (0.41%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.41%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.41%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.41%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.20%) Traefik
Applications
1 36 (7.33%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (3.26%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.63%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.41%) Houdini
5 2 (0.41%) NUKE
6 1 (0.20%) Weka
Business Applications
1 7 (1.43%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 167 (34.01%) Azure
2 115 (23.42%) AWS
3 110 (22.40%) Microsoft 365
4 72 (14.66%) Entra ID
5 36 (7.33%) GCP
6 34 (6.92%) OneDrive
7 25 (5.09%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 21 (4.28%) GitHub
9 13 (2.65%) OpenShift
9 13 (2.65%) Route 53
10 12 (2.44%) Amazon EC2
11 11 (2.24%) AWS CloudFormation
11 11 (2.24%) Azure Monitor
11 11 (2.24%) Google Workspace
12 10 (2.04%) GitHub Actions
13 8 (1.63%) Akamai
13 8 (1.63%) Amazon EKS
13 8 (1.63%) Azure Sentinel
14 7 (1.43%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 7 (1.43%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 285 (58.04%) DNS
2 212 (43.18%) Firewall
3 174 (35.44%) DHCP
4 141 (28.72%) VPN
5 90 (18.33%) Network Security
6 89 (18.13%) WAN
7 79 (16.09%) LAN
8 74 (15.07%) HTTP
9 73 (14.87%) VLAN
10 71 (14.46%) BGP
11 60 (12.22%) SSL
12 43 (8.76%) BIG-IP
12 43 (8.76%) OSPF
12 43 (8.76%) Wi-Fi
13 39 (7.94%) Ethernet
14 38 (7.74%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 38 (7.74%) Wireless
15 27 (5.50%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 26 (5.30%) SD-WAN
17 23 (4.68%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.05%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.83%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.02%) MySQL
3 5 (1.02%) NoSQL
4 4 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.81%) MongoDB
5 3 (0.61%) Redis
6 2 (0.41%) BigQuery
6 2 (0.41%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (0.41%) SQLite
7 1 (0.20%) Cloud Spanner
7 1 (0.20%) KDB
Development Applications
1 44 (8.96%) JIRA
2 27 (5.50%) Git
3 24 (4.89%) Jenkins
4 20 (4.07%) GitLab
5 17 (3.46%) Fiddler
6 14 (2.85%) Visual Studio
7 13 (2.65%) Eclipse
8 10 (2.04%) Browser DevTools
9 8 (1.63%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.81%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.41%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.41%) Introscope
11 2 (0.41%) Selenium
11 2 (0.41%) Subversion
12 1 (0.20%) MSI
12 1 (0.20%) Postman
12 1 (0.20%) SonarQube
General
1 202 (41.14%) Social Skills
2 72 (14.66%) Analytical Skills
3 65 (13.24%) Finance
4 43 (8.76%) Banking
5 30 (6.11%) Public Sector
6 23 (4.68%) Telecoms
7 22 (4.48%) Investment Banking
7 22 (4.48%) Presentation Skills
8 20 (4.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 16 (3.26%) Military
10 13 (2.65%) Documentation Skills
11 10 (2.04%) Front Office
12 6 (1.22%) Manufacturing
12 6 (1.22%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (1.02%) Aerospace
13 5 (1.02%) Legal
13 5 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (0.81%) Automotive
14 4 (0.81%) Police
15 3 (0.61%) Retail
Job Titles
1 109 (22.20%) Network Engineer
2 57 (11.61%) Support Engineer
3 54 (11.00%) Senior
4 51 (10.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 38 (7.74%) Architect
5 38 (7.74%) IT Support
6 34 (6.92%) Analyst
7 32 (6.52%) IT Engineer
8 26 (5.30%) Systems Engineer
9 25 (5.09%) IT Support Engineer
10 24 (4.89%) Security Engineer
10 24 (4.89%) Web Engineer
11 22 (4.48%) Platform Engineer
11 22 (4.48%) Technical Engineer
12 20 (4.07%) Senior Network Engineer
13 19 (3.87%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 18 (3.67%) IP Network Engineer
15 16 (3.26%) Blue Coat Engineer
16 15 (3.05%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
16 15 (3.05%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.07%) SAML
2 15 (3.05%) REST
3 13 (2.65%) Node.js
3 13 (2.65%) Web Services
4 12 (2.44%) 802.1X
4 12 (2.44%) JSON
4 12 (2.44%) LDAP
5 11 (2.24%) ARM Templates
6 8 (1.63%) .NET
7 6 (1.22%) NETCONF
7 6 (1.22%) OpenConfig
7 6 (1.22%) RESTCONF
7 6 (1.22%) XML
7 6 (1.22%) YANG
8 5 (1.02%) HTML
8 5 (1.02%) Kafka
8 5 (1.02%) OAuth
8 5 (1.02%) OpenID
8 5 (1.02%) RESTful
9 4 (0.81%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 78 (15.89%) Data Centre
2 55 (11.20%) Onboarding
3 30 (6.11%) Hybrid Cloud
3 30 (6.11%) PKI
4 27 (5.50%) Management Information System
5 24 (4.89%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 19 (3.87%) Linux Command Line
6 19 (3.87%) Robotics
7 17 (3.46%) Driving Licence
8 16 (3.26%) Operational Technology
8 16 (3.26%) Public Cloud
9 15 (3.05%) Industry 4.0
9 15 (3.05%) Security Posture
10 14 (2.85%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (2.65%) SCADA
12 12 (2.44%) Cloud Native
13 11 (2.24%) Cyber Threat
14 10 (2.04%) Analytical Mindset
15 9 (1.83%) Private Cloud
16 8 (1.63%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 219 (44.60%) Windows
2 134 (27.29%) Linux
3 66 (13.44%) Windows Server
4 36 (7.33%) Windows 10
5 35 (7.13%) Mac OS
6 25 (5.09%) Unix
7 16 (3.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 15 (3.05%) Apple iOS
9 13 (2.65%) Ubuntu
10 11 (2.24%) Android
11 5 (1.02%) zOS
12 4 (0.81%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.61%) CentOS
13 3 (0.61%) Check Point GAiA
14 2 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2019
15 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.20%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (27.90%) Problem-Solving
2 105 (21.38%) ITIL
3 80 (16.29%) CI/CD
4 75 (15.27%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 68 (13.85%) Infrastructure as Code
6 63 (12.83%) Agile
7 61 (12.42%) Customer Service
7 61 (12.42%) DevOps
8 60 (12.22%) Load Balancing
9 58 (11.81%) Cybersecurity
10 51 (10.39%) ITSM
11 49 (9.98%) High Availability
11 49 (9.98%) Migration
12 46 (9.37%) Incident Response
13 45 (9.16%) Continuous Improvement
13 45 (9.16%) Technical Leadership
13 45 (9.16%) Validation
14 44 (8.96%) Service Management
14 44 (8.96%) SIEM
15 41 (8.35%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 139 (28.31%) Python
2 92 (18.74%) PowerShell
3 79 (16.09%) Bash
4 28 (5.70%) C++
5 24 (4.89%) JavaScript
6 19 (3.87%) SQL
7 17 (3.46%) C#
8 11 (2.24%) Java
9 9 (1.83%) Bicep
9 9 (1.83%) Perl
10 8 (1.63%) Shell Script
11 7 (1.43%) VBA
12 5 (1.02%) ActionScript
13 4 (0.81%) C
13 4 (0.81%) Go
14 2 (0.41%) Jython
14 2 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.41%) Objective-C
14 2 (0.41%) Ruby
14 2 (0.41%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 136 (27.70%) Security Cleared
2 88 (17.92%) SC Cleared
3 80 (16.29%) Degree
4 61 (12.42%) Cisco Certification
5 48 (9.78%) DV Cleared
6 45 (9.16%) CCNP
7 30 (6.11%) CCNA
8 29 (5.91%) Microsoft Certification
9 21 (4.28%) Computer Science Degree
10 17 (3.46%) CISSP
11 16 (3.26%) CCIE
11 16 (3.26%) Network+ Certification
12 12 (2.44%) Azure Certification
13 11 (2.24%) A+ Certification
13 11 (2.24%) VCAP
14 9 (1.83%) MCSA
14 9 (1.83%) MCSE
15 8 (1.63%) AWS Certification
16 7 (1.43%) CompTIA Security+
16 7 (1.43%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.87%) SLA
2 11 (2.24%) NIST
2 11 (2.24%) QA
3 9 (1.83%) NCSC
4 8 (1.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 5 (1.02%) GDPR
6 4 (0.81%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 4 (0.81%) GxP
6 4 (0.81%) NIST 800
6 4 (0.81%) PCI DSS
7 2 (0.41%) Government Security Classifications
7 2 (0.41%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.20%) ISO 8583
8 1 (0.20%) RMADS
System Software
1 140 (28.51%) Active Directory
2 91 (18.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 34 (6.92%) Hyper-V
4 29 (5.91%) Docker
5 24 (4.89%) vSphere
6 22 (4.48%) VMware NSX
7 18 (3.67%) Firmware
8 12 (2.44%) Virtual Desktop
9 6 (1.22%) Squid
10 4 (0.81%) NFS
10 4 (0.81%) VMware ESXi
11 3 (0.61%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.61%) VirtualBox
12 2 (0.41%) KVM
12 2 (0.41%) RACF
13 1 (0.20%) Citrix Presentation Server
13 1 (0.20%) GPFS
13 1 (0.20%) iptables
13 1 (0.20%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.20%) Snort
Systems Management
1 101 (20.57%) Ansible
2 84 (17.11%) Terraform
3 54 (11.00%) Microsoft Intune
4 46 (9.37%) Kubernetes
5 28 (5.70%) SCCM
6 24 (4.89%) Single Sign-On
7 22 (4.48%) Grafana
8 19 (3.87%) FortiGate
9 15 (3.05%) VxRail
10 12 (2.44%) Prometheus
11 11 (2.24%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (1.83%) WSUS
13 6 (1.22%) systemd
14 5 (1.02%) CASB
14 5 (1.02%) Suricata
15 4 (0.81%) Consul
15 4 (0.81%) Nessus
16 3 (0.61%) Puppet
16 3 (0.61%) SELinux
16 3 (0.61%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 184 (37.47%) Microsoft
2 103 (20.98%) VMware
3 93 (18.94%) Cisco
4 63 (12.83%) F5
5 53 (10.79%) ServiceNow
6 31 (6.31%) Fortinet
7 26 (5.30%) Google
8 25 (5.09%) Juniper
8 25 (5.09%) Zscaler
9 23 (4.68%) Palo Alto
10 21 (4.28%) Blue Coat
10 21 (4.28%) Citrix
11 19 (3.87%) NetApp
12 18 (3.67%) Infoblox
12 18 (3.67%) McAfee
13 17 (3.46%) CheckPoint
13 17 (3.46%) Siemens
13 17 (3.46%) Splunk
14 16 (3.26%) Red Hat
15 12 (2.44%) Bloomberg