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

6 months to
24 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 275 226 280
Rank change year-on-year -49 +54 -40
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 433 358 336
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.85% 1.19% 0.77%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.98% 9.63% 6.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 232 231 224
10th Percentile £206 £220 £188
25th Percentile £347 £362 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £481
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +3.90% +0.36%
75th Percentile £550 £625 £575
90th Percentile £638 £800 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £488
% change year-on-year - -7.69% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 38 16 30
10th Percentile £21.25 £18.63 £18.25
25th Percentile £25.31 £38.09 £48.81
Median hourly rate £33.86 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.82% -3.85% +17.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.22 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -45.82% - +11.84%

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 4,820 3,719 5,374
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 12.38% 12.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,962 2,279 3,175
10th Percentile £250 £225 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +2.13% -3.98% +3.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 176 426
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.56 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.94 £45.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.91% +12.50% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.50 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.08 £77.50 £72.70
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.72 £36.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -26.79% -23.16% +150.00%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -43 382 £470 -6.00% 200
UK excluding London -37 247 £450 - 188
London -60 150 £475 +1.33% 37
Work from Home -63 108 £500 -13.04% 72
North of England -35 90 £450 +5.82% 39
South East -34 60 £523 +16.11% 64
North West -4 56 £508 +79.65% 23
East of England -15 37 £175 -59.30% 34
Midlands -36 35 £413 -25.00% 26
West Midlands -35 31 £400 -27.27% 18
Yorkshire -53 30 £450 -10.00% 12
South West -29 22 £500 -18.70% 24
Scotland -11 16 £301 -27.41% 3
Wales -10 7 £408 -9.44% 4
East Midlands -21 4 £563 +2.27% 8
North East -34 4 £306 +22.50% 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 22 (5.08%) SharePoint
2 17 (3.93%) Confluence
3 14 (3.23%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (2.31%) nginx
5 4 (0.92%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.92%) WebSphere
6 3 (0.69%) IIS
7 2 (0.46%) CICS
7 2 (0.46%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.46%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.46%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.46%) WebSphere Portal
8 1 (0.23%) Traefik
Applications
1 30 (6.93%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.62%) MS Visio
4 6 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.92%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.23%) Weka
Business Applications
1 2 (0.46%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 108 (24.94%) Azure
2 95 (21.94%) AWS
3 84 (19.40%) Microsoft 365
4 38 (8.78%) Entra ID
5 31 (7.16%) GCP
6 29 (6.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 22 (5.08%) OneDrive
7 22 (5.08%) Route 53
8 16 (3.70%) Amazon EC2
9 15 (3.46%) Amazon EKS
9 15 (3.46%) Amazon S3
10 13 (3.00%) AWS Lambda
10 13 (3.00%) GitHub
10 13 (3.00%) Serverless
11 11 (2.54%) AWS CloudFormation
11 11 (2.54%) Google Workspace
12 9 (2.08%) SaaS
13 7 (1.62%) Azure DevOps
13 7 (1.62%) IaaS
14 6 (1.39%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 237 (54.73%) DNS
2 162 (37.41%) Firewall
3 108 (24.94%) DHCP
4 103 (23.79%) VPN
5 78 (18.01%) WAN
6 75 (17.32%) Network Security
7 70 (16.17%) LAN
8 68 (15.70%) HTTP
9 65 (15.01%) SSL
10 61 (14.09%) BGP
11 57 (13.16%) BIG-IP
11 57 (13.16%) VLAN
12 41 (9.47%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 41 (9.47%) OSPF
13 38 (8.78%) Wi-Fi
14 37 (8.55%) Ethernet
15 31 (7.16%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 30 (6.93%) Wireshark
17 22 (5.08%) Wireless
18 20 (4.62%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.54%) Elasticsearch
1 11 (2.54%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.92%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (0.69%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.46%) MySQL
4 2 (0.46%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.23%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.23%) KDB
5 1 (0.23%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 49 (11.32%) JIRA
2 24 (5.54%) Fiddler
3 16 (3.70%) GitLab
4 14 (3.23%) Visual Studio
5 13 (3.00%) Eclipse
5 13 (3.00%) Jenkins
6 11 (2.54%) Git
7 9 (2.08%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (1.62%) Bitbucket
8 7 (1.62%) SonarQube
9 5 (1.15%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.69%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.46%) Introscope
11 2 (0.46%) Subversion
12 1 (0.23%) MSI
12 1 (0.23%) Postman
General
1 170 (39.26%) Social Skills
2 61 (14.09%) Finance
3 53 (12.24%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (8.78%) Banking
5 25 (5.77%) Investment Banking
6 22 (5.08%) Presentation Skills
6 22 (5.08%) Public Sector
7 21 (4.85%) Documentation Skills
8 20 (4.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 20 (4.62%) Military
9 11 (2.54%) Telecoms
10 9 (2.08%) Front Office
11 5 (1.15%) Legal
12 4 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.69%) French Language
13 3 (0.69%) Marketing
14 2 (0.46%) Aerospace
14 2 (0.46%) Games
14 2 (0.46%) Japanese Language
14 2 (0.46%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 104 (24.02%) Network Engineer
2 44 (10.16%) Architect
3 43 (9.93%) Support Engineer
4 39 (9.01%) Analyst
5 33 (7.62%) IT Support
6 31 (7.16%) Web Engineer
7 26 (6.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 25 (5.77%) Security Engineer
8 25 (5.77%) Senior
9 22 (5.08%) IT Engineer
9 22 (5.08%) Technical Engineer
10 21 (4.85%) Systems Engineer
11 19 (4.39%) IP Network Engineer
12 17 (3.93%) Blue Coat Engineer
12 17 (3.93%) IT Support Engineer
13 15 (3.46%) Junior
14 14 (3.23%) Software Engineer
15 13 (3.00%) C# Software Engineer
15 13 (3.00%) Technical Support
16 12 (2.77%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.62%) LDAP
2 18 (4.16%) SAML
3 13 (3.00%) Node.js
3 13 (3.00%) Web Services
4 12 (2.77%) OpenID
5 11 (2.54%) JSON
6 10 (2.31%) REST
7 9 (2.08%) 802.1X
8 6 (1.39%) .NET
9 5 (1.15%) OAuth
10 4 (0.92%) ARM Templates
10 4 (0.92%) XML
11 3 (0.69%) HTML
11 3 (0.69%) Kafka
11 3 (0.69%) Middleware
11 3 (0.69%) NETCONF
11 3 (0.69%) OpenConfig
11 3 (0.69%) RESTCONF
11 3 (0.69%) WinForms
11 3 (0.69%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 54 (12.47%) Data Centre
2 43 (9.93%) Onboarding
3 22 (5.08%) Management Information System
4 20 (4.62%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 18 (4.16%) Security Posture
6 15 (3.46%) Industry 4.0
6 15 (3.46%) Robotics
7 13 (3.00%) Cyber Threat
7 13 (3.00%) Security Operations Centre
8 11 (2.54%) Driving Licence
9 10 (2.31%) Cloud Native
9 10 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (2.08%) Cyberattack
10 9 (2.08%) Hybrid Cloud
11 8 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.85%) Private Cloud
12 7 (1.62%) Analytical Mindset
12 7 (1.62%) Linux Command Line
12 7 (1.62%) PKI
12 7 (1.62%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 182 (42.03%) Windows
2 80 (18.48%) Linux
3 45 (10.39%) Windows Server
4 35 (8.08%) Mac OS
5 24 (5.54%) Windows 10
6 17 (3.93%) Apple iOS
7 15 (3.46%) Unix
8 11 (2.54%) Android
9 7 (1.62%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (1.39%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (1.39%) Ubuntu
10 6 (1.39%) zOS
11 3 (0.69%) Check Point GAiA
11 3 (0.69%) Windows 7
11 3 (0.69%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.46%) CentOS
12 2 (0.46%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.46%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.46%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.46%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (28.41%) Problem-Solving
2 80 (18.48%) ITIL
3 57 (13.16%) Agile
4 54 (12.47%) Load Balancing
5 48 (11.09%) Incident Response
6 47 (10.85%) Customer Service
7 46 (10.62%) Migration
8 44 (10.16%) High Availability
9 43 (9.93%) ITSM
10 42 (9.70%) CI/CD
10 42 (9.70%) DevOps
11 39 (9.01%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 37 (8.55%) Cybersecurity
13 35 (8.08%) Infrastructure as Code
13 35 (8.08%) Root Cause Analysis
13 35 (8.08%) SIEM
13 35 (8.08%) Validation
14 30 (6.93%) Decision-Making
15 29 (6.70%) Change Management
15 29 (6.70%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 104 (24.02%) Python
2 48 (11.09%) PowerShell
3 46 (10.62%) Bash
4 29 (6.70%) JavaScript
5 21 (4.85%) C++
6 16 (3.70%) C#
7 12 (2.77%) SQL
8 9 (2.08%) VBA
9 5 (1.15%) ActionScript
9 5 (1.15%) C
10 4 (0.92%) Java
10 4 (0.92%) Perl
11 3 (0.69%) Go
12 2 (0.46%) Jython
12 2 (0.46%) Ruby
12 2 (0.46%) Shell Script
13 1 (0.23%) Groovy
13 1 (0.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 108 (24.94%) Security Cleared
2 88 (20.32%) SC Cleared
3 76 (17.55%) Degree
4 46 (10.62%) Cisco Certification
5 35 (8.08%) CCNP
6 26 (6.00%) CCNA
7 22 (5.08%) CISSP
8 21 (4.85%) Computer Science Degree
9 19 (4.39%) CompTIA Security+
10 18 (4.16%) DV Cleared
10 18 (4.16%) Microsoft Certification
11 11 (2.54%) CCIE
12 10 (2.31%) Azure Certification
12 10 (2.31%) MCSA
13 9 (2.08%) CompTIA CySA+
13 9 (2.08%) MCSE
14 8 (1.85%) Network+ Certification
15 5 (1.15%) CISM
16 4 (0.92%) CEH
16 4 (0.92%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (2.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 9 (2.08%) NIST
2 8 (1.85%) SLA
3 6 (1.39%) NCSC
3 6 (1.39%) QA
4 5 (1.15%) GDPR
5 3 (0.69%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.46%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (0.46%) RMADS
7 1 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.23%) GRC
System Software
1 94 (21.71%) Active Directory
2 47 (10.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (4.16%) Firmware
4 13 (3.00%) Squid
5 12 (2.77%) Virtual Desktop
6 10 (2.31%) Docker
7 9 (2.08%) Hyper-V
7 9 (2.08%) VMware NSX
8 6 (1.39%) vSphere
9 4 (0.92%) NFS
9 4 (0.92%) Virtual Machines
10 2 (0.46%) KVM
10 2 (0.46%) RACF
10 2 (0.46%) VirtualBox
11 1 (0.23%) Citrix Presentation Server
11 1 (0.23%) GPFS
11 1 (0.23%) iptables
11 1 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 1 (0.23%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 65 (15.01%) Ansible
2 41 (9.47%) Terraform
3 32 (7.39%) Microsoft Intune
4 28 (6.47%) Kubernetes
5 26 (6.00%) FortiGate
6 25 (5.77%) Single Sign-On
7 21 (4.85%) Grafana
7 21 (4.85%) SCCM
8 16 (3.70%) Prometheus
9 11 (2.54%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (2.31%) WSUS
11 9 (2.08%) Consul
12 6 (1.39%) CASB
12 6 (1.39%) QRadar
13 5 (1.15%) Nessus
13 5 (1.15%) Suricata
14 4 (0.92%) Nagios
14 4 (0.92%) Tivoli NetView
15 3 (0.69%) Puppet
15 3 (0.69%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 144 (33.26%) Microsoft
2 72 (16.63%) Cisco
2 72 (16.63%) F5
3 58 (13.39%) VMware
4 43 (9.93%) ServiceNow
5 29 (6.70%) Blue Coat
6 27 (6.24%) Fortinet
7 26 (6.00%) Palo Alto
8 24 (5.54%) Google
9 23 (5.31%) Citrix
9 23 (5.31%) McAfee
9 23 (5.31%) Splunk
10 21 (4.85%) Zscaler
11 20 (4.62%) Infoblox
12 19 (4.39%) NetApp
13 18 (4.16%) Juniper
14 17 (3.93%) Siemens
15 16 (3.70%) CheckPoint
15 16 (3.70%) Red Hat
16 13 (3.00%) Bloomberg