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 9 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 229 196 192
Rank change year-on-year -33 -4 +45
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 428 463 584
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.18% 1.30% 1.28%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 10.85% 10.46% 9.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 269 358
10th Percentile £185 £203 £185
25th Percentile £280 £288 £277
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +5.56% -12.62%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £713 £738 £681
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £425 £400
% change year-on-year - +6.25% -13.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 19 58
10th Percentile £15.50 £28.25 £23.13
25th Percentile £33.00 £62.50 £33.83
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year - +30.00% -23.08%
75th Percentile - - £56.49
90th Percentile £81.50 £67.50 £69.62
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £50.00
% change year-on-year - +30.00% -23.08%

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 3,946 4,427 6,289
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.88% 12.40% 13.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,569 2,561 3,890
10th Percentile £206 £220 £211
25th Percentile £356 £370 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £584 £600 £613
90th Percentile £675 £685 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 186 165 349
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.95 £17.72
25th Percentile £20.04 £22.50 £22.75
Median hourly rate £33.39 £41.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% -25.45% +25.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.98
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £48.03 £56.49
% change year-on-year -11.51% -14.98% +25.53%

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 9 December 2025.

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 9 December 2025.

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 9 December 2025. 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 -22 387 £492 +3.14% 338
UK excluding London -27 256 £425 - 299
London -23 142 £544 +10.13% 86
Work from Home -33 128 £454 -9.20% 175
North of England -36 71 £450 -2.70% 56
South East -17 59 £425 -5.56% 114
East of England +4 54 £413 -28.26% 51
North West -3 40 £505 +3.86% 29
West Midlands -4 35 £225 - 20
Midlands -28 35 £225 -40.00% 29
South West -19 28 £700 +47.37% 33
Yorkshire -49 28 £363 -39.58% 20
Scotland +12 18 £414 +3.44% 16
Wales -3 4 £250 -16.67% 5
North East -8 3 £400 +166.67% 8
Northern Ireland -12 2 - - 3

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 35 (8.18%) SharePoint
2 26 (6.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 14 (3.27%) Skype for Business
4 7 (1.64%) Confluence
4 7 (1.64%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.93%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.70%) Apache
6 3 (0.70%) Apache Spark
6 3 (0.70%) IIS
7 2 (0.47%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.47%) WordPress
8 1 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2010
8 1 (0.23%) Exchange Server 2013
8 1 (0.23%) Jupyter
Applications
1 40 (9.35%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.40%) Weka
3 4 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (0.47%) AutoCAD
4 2 (0.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.47%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.23%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.23%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 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%) Remedy ITSM
1 1 (0.23%) RMDS
1 1 (0.23%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 92 (21.50%) AWS
2 87 (20.33%) Azure
3 85 (19.86%) Microsoft 365
4 27 (6.31%) Amazon EC2
5 26 (6.07%) Amazon S3
6 25 (5.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 24 (5.61%) Entra ID
8 22 (5.14%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 22 (5.14%) Amazon ELB
9 21 (4.91%) GCP
10 13 (3.04%) GitHub
11 9 (2.10%) AWS CloudFormation
12 8 (1.87%) Cloud Computing
12 8 (1.87%) OneDrive
13 7 (1.64%) SaaS
14 5 (1.17%) Apigee
14 5 (1.17%) Google Workspace
15 4 (0.93%) Azure DevOps
15 4 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
15 4 (0.93%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 231 (53.97%) DNS
2 148 (34.58%) Firewall
3 127 (29.67%) DHCP
4 117 (27.34%) VPN
5 81 (18.93%) SSL
6 63 (14.72%) WAN
7 62 (14.49%) LAN
8 61 (14.25%) HTTP
9 58 (13.55%) Network Security
10 55 (12.85%) VLAN
11 29 (6.78%) Wireshark
12 28 (6.54%) Internet
13 27 (6.31%) SAN
14 26 (6.07%) BGP
15 24 (5.61%) Ethernet
16 22 (5.14%) Wi-Fi
16 22 (5.14%) Wireless
17 18 (4.21%) BIG-IP
17 18 (4.21%) OSPF
18 14 (3.27%) Skype
Database & Business Intelligence
1 25 (5.84%) SQL Server
2 9 (2.10%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.17%) Elasticsearch
3 5 (1.17%) NoSQL
3 5 (1.17%) Oracle Database
4 4 (0.93%) Amazon Aurora
4 4 (0.93%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.93%) Big Data
5 3 (0.70%) Apache Cassandra
5 3 (0.70%) Delta Lake
5 3 (0.70%) Hadoop
5 3 (0.70%) MySQL
5 3 (0.70%) Parquet
6 2 (0.47%) DB2
6 2 (0.47%) Relational Database
7 1 (0.23%) Apache Hive
7 1 (0.23%) Impala
7 1 (0.23%) Power BI
7 1 (0.23%) Redis
7 1 (0.23%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 45 (10.51%) Git
2 43 (10.05%) Jenkins
3 29 (6.78%) GitLab
4 21 (4.91%) Eclipse
4 21 (4.91%) Visual Studio
5 20 (4.67%) JIRA
6 16 (3.74%) Fiddler
7 8 (1.87%) Subversion
8 6 (1.40%) Postman
9 4 (0.93%) Robot Framework
9 4 (0.93%) TeamCity
10 3 (0.70%) MLflow
10 3 (0.70%) SonarQube
10 3 (0.70%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.47%) Maven
11 2 (0.47%) Mercurial
11 2 (0.47%) Poetry
11 2 (0.47%) PyCharm
11 2 (0.47%) Visual Studio Code
12 1 (0.23%) Atlassian Bamboo
General
1 156 (36.45%) Social Skills
2 76 (17.76%) Analytical Skills
3 44 (10.28%) Finance
4 33 (7.71%) Public Sector
5 28 (6.54%) Military
6 26 (6.07%) Banking
6 26 (6.07%) Presentation Skills
7 19 (4.44%) Investment Banking
8 12 (2.80%) Legal
9 11 (2.57%) Telecoms
10 10 (2.34%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (2.10%) Front Office
12 8 (1.87%) Law
13 7 (1.64%) Local Government
14 6 (1.40%) Financial Institution
15 5 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
16 4 (0.93%) Manufacturing
17 3 (0.70%) Aerospace
17 3 (0.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
18 2 (0.47%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 75 (17.52%) Network Engineer
2 72 (16.82%) Support Engineer
3 53 (12.38%) Senior
4 52 (12.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 47 (10.98%) Analyst
6 35 (8.18%) IT Support
7 30 (7.01%) IT Engineer
8 26 (6.07%) Developer
9 25 (5.84%) Support Analyst
9 25 (5.84%) Technical Support
10 21 (4.91%) 2nd Line Support
11 20 (4.67%) DevOps Engineer
12 19 (4.44%) C# Software Engineer
12 19 (4.44%) Software Engineer
13 17 (3.97%) Senior DevOps
13 17 (3.97%) Technical Engineer
14 16 (3.74%) Automation Engineer
14 16 (3.74%) IT Support Engineer
14 16 (3.74%) Senior DevOps Engineer
14 16 (3.74%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 24 (5.61%) Node.js
1 24 (5.61%) Web Services
2 16 (3.74%) Middleware
2 16 (3.74%) REST
3 12 (2.80%) LDAP
4 11 (2.57%) SOAP
5 10 (2.34%) Elastic Stack
6 7 (1.64%) AngularJS
6 7 (1.64%) FIX Protocol
7 5 (1.17%) Ultra Messaging
8 4 (0.93%) React
8 4 (0.93%) RESTful
8 4 (0.93%) SAML
9 3 (0.70%) Apache Avro
9 3 (0.70%) ASP.NET Web API
9 3 (0.70%) Bootstrap
9 3 (0.70%) Express.js
9 3 (0.70%) Flask
9 3 (0.70%) JSON
9 3 (0.70%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 30 (7.01%) Data Centre
1 30 (7.01%) Management Information System
2 20 (4.67%) Onboarding
3 18 (4.21%) Analytical Mindset
4 13 (3.04%) Driving Licence
4 13 (3.04%) NHS
4 13 (3.04%) Private Cloud
5 12 (2.80%) Security Posture
6 11 (2.57%) Replication
7 10 (2.34%) PKI
8 9 (2.10%) CMDB
8 9 (2.10%) Public Cloud
8 9 (2.10%) Self-Motivation
9 8 (1.87%) iPhone
9 8 (1.87%) SCADA
9 8 (1.87%) Video Conferencing
10 7 (1.64%) Clustering
10 7 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
10 7 (1.64%) Hybrid Cloud
11 6 (1.40%) Grid Computing
Operating Systems
1 197 (46.03%) Windows
2 146 (34.11%) Linux
3 57 (13.32%) Windows Server
4 45 (10.51%) Windows 10
5 31 (7.24%) Unix
6 17 (3.97%) Windows Server 2016
7 15 (3.50%) Mac OS
8 13 (3.04%) Android
9 10 (2.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 10 (2.34%) Ubuntu
10 9 (2.10%) Windows Server 2019
11 7 (1.64%) Apple iOS
11 7 (1.64%) Debian
12 6 (1.40%) VMS
12 6 (1.40%) Windows 7
12 6 (1.40%) Windows Server 2012
13 5 (1.17%) CentOS
14 4 (0.93%) Solaris
15 3 (0.70%) Windows Server 2003
16 2 (0.47%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 108 (25.23%) Problem-Solving
2 78 (18.22%) CI/CD
3 72 (16.82%) Agile
4 70 (16.36%) ITIL
5 62 (14.49%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 59 (13.79%) DevOps
7 52 (12.15%) Infrastructure as Code
8 44 (10.28%) High Availability
9 38 (8.88%) Load Balancing
10 36 (8.41%) Cybersecurity
10 36 (8.41%) Infrastructure Automation
11 34 (7.94%) Validation
12 33 (7.71%) Continuous Integration
12 33 (7.71%) Migration
13 32 (7.48%) Knowledge Transfer
14 31 (7.24%) Incident Response
15 30 (7.01%) Customer Service
15 30 (7.01%) SIEM
16 29 (6.78%) Configuration Management
17 28 (6.54%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 141 (32.94%) Python
2 77 (17.99%) Bash
3 68 (15.89%) PowerShell
4 29 (6.78%) C++
4 29 (6.78%) Perl
5 27 (6.31%) JavaScript
6 25 (5.84%) C#
7 23 (5.37%) SQL
8 16 (3.74%) Java
9 10 (2.34%) Shell Script
10 9 (2.10%) Go
11 4 (0.93%) C
11 4 (0.93%) Kusto Query Language
12 3 (0.70%) Groovy
12 3 (0.70%) PHP
12 3 (0.70%) Search Processing Language
12 3 (0.70%) T-SQL
13 2 (0.47%) Ruby
14 1 (0.23%) PL/SQL
14 1 (0.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 112 (26.17%) Security Cleared
2 84 (19.63%) SC Cleared
3 38 (8.88%) Cisco Certification
4 34 (7.94%) Degree
4 34 (7.94%) Microsoft Certification
5 30 (7.01%) DV Cleared
6 25 (5.84%) CCNP
7 22 (5.14%) CCNA
8 17 (3.97%) Network+ Certification
9 13 (3.04%) Azure Certification
9 13 (3.04%) MCP
9 13 (3.04%) MCSE
10 12 (2.80%) CISSP
11 11 (2.57%) CompTIA Security+
11 11 (2.57%) Server+ Certification
12 8 (1.87%) MCSA
13 6 (1.40%) A+ Certification
13 6 (1.40%) CCIE
13 6 (1.40%) ECDL
13 6 (1.40%) HNC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (5.37%) GDPR
2 8 (1.87%) Sarbanes-Oxley
3 7 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 6 (1.40%) NIST
5 5 (1.17%) Cyber Essentials
5 5 (1.17%) SLA
6 4 (0.93%) HIPAA
7 3 (0.70%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.70%) QA
8 2 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
8 2 (0.47%) NCSC
9 1 (0.23%) Government Security Classifications
9 1 (0.23%) SOC 2
System Software
1 102 (23.83%) Active Directory
2 72 (16.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 49 (11.45%) Docker
4 35 (8.18%) Hyper-V
5 13 (3.04%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (2.34%) Firmware
7 7 (1.64%) Lustre
7 7 (1.64%) Slurm Workload Manager
7 7 (1.64%) Terminal Services
7 7 (1.64%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (1.40%) GPFS
8 6 (1.40%) vSphere
9 5 (1.17%) NDS
9 5 (1.17%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 5 (1.17%) NFS
10 4 (0.93%) Veritas File System
10 4 (0.93%) Veritas Volume Manager
10 4 (0.93%) VMware NSX
11 3 (0.70%) KVM
11 3 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 87 (20.33%) Ansible
2 62 (14.49%) Terraform
3 36 (8.41%) SCCM
4 27 (6.31%) Kubernetes
5 24 (5.61%) Microsoft Intune
6 19 (4.44%) Puppet
7 17 (3.97%) Grafana
7 17 (3.97%) Prometheus
8 9 (2.10%) FortiGate
8 9 (2.10%) Single Sign-On
8 9 (2.10%) vCenter Server
9 7 (1.64%) Nessus
9 7 (1.64%) Progress Chef
9 7 (1.64%) WSUS
10 6 (1.40%) QRadar
11 5 (1.17%) CASB
11 5 (1.17%) ITRS Geneos
11 5 (1.17%) Red Hat Satellite
12 4 (0.93%) Microsoft Clustering
13 3 (0.70%) Consul
Vendors
1 152 (35.51%) Microsoft
2 96 (22.43%) VMware
3 61 (14.25%) F5
4 54 (12.62%) Cisco
5 50 (11.68%) Palo Alto
6 42 (9.81%) CheckPoint
7 23 (5.37%) Blue Coat
7 23 (5.37%) Splunk
8 22 (5.14%) Citrix
8 22 (5.14%) Red Hat
9 21 (4.91%) ServiceNow
10 19 (4.44%) Fortinet
11 18 (4.21%) McAfee
11 18 (4.21%) NetApp
11 18 (4.21%) Oracle
12 15 (3.50%) SolarWinds
13 11 (2.57%) CyberArk
13 11 (2.57%) Juniper
13 11 (2.57%) Zscaler
14 10 (2.34%) MuleSoft