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

6 months to
13 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 274 223 286
Rank change year-on-year -51 +63 -48
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 412 350 336
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.87% 1.21% 0.79%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.14% 9.47% 6.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 233 249 229
10th Percentile £230 £225 £188
25th Percentile £363 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% - +2.56%
75th Percentile £550 £625 £575
90th Percentile £638 £755 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 9 21
10th Percentile £21.25 £17.87 £16.00
25th Percentile £24.50 £28.00 £20.00
Median hourly rate £52.50 £54.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.67% -16.15% +3.92%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £57.50 £62.50 £65.00
% change year-on-year -8.00% -3.85% -

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 4,508 3,694 5,429
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.55% 12.75% 12.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,786 2,274 3,239
10th Percentile £261 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £360 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -0.51% -4.99%
75th Percentile £588 £590 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £696
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 240 164 417
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £17.92 £16.30
Median hourly rate £40.54 £34.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.51% -13.75% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.88 £58.70 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.10 £24.71 £45.88
% change year-on-year +82.53% -46.14% +148.47%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 -51 348 £470 -6.00% 213
UK excluding London -22 255 £450 -10.00% 179
London -69 122 £475 - 61
North of England -19 90 £450 +20.00% 38
Work from Home -83 88 £450 -18.27% 89
South East -32 59 £510 -2.86% 64
North West +5 58 £540 +116.00% 18
East of England -13 40 £228 -47.09% 28
Midlands -38 33 £400 -27.27% 20
West Midlands -37 30 £388 +0.65% 15
Scotland +20 28 £425 -3.95% 6
Yorkshire -38 27 £447 -12.78% 15
South West -34 19 £500 -18.70% 26
Wales -11 7 £408 -9.44% 6
North East -17 5 £306 +22.50% 6
East Midlands -32 3 £625 +13.64% 5

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 18 (4.37%) Confluence
2 10 (2.43%) nginx
3 9 (2.18%) SharePoint
4 8 (1.94%) Microsoft Exchange
5 3 (0.73%) Apache
5 3 (0.73%) IIS
5 3 (0.73%) WebSphere
6 2 (0.49%) IBM HTTP Server
6 2 (0.49%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.49%) Oracle HTTP Server
6 2 (0.49%) WebSphere Application Server
6 2 (0.49%) WebSphere Portal
6 2 (0.49%) WordPress
7 1 (0.24%) CICS
7 1 (0.24%) Traefik
Applications
1 28 (6.80%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.18%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.97%) Acrobat
4 3 (0.73%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.73%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.24%) Weka
Business Applications
1 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 88 (21.36%) AWS
2 86 (20.87%) Azure
3 57 (13.83%) Microsoft 365
4 25 (6.07%) Entra ID
4 25 (6.07%) GCP
4 25 (6.07%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 17 (4.13%) Amazon EC2
6 16 (3.88%) Amazon EKS
7 15 (3.64%) Amazon S3
8 14 (3.40%) Route 53
9 13 (3.16%) AWS Lambda
9 13 (3.16%) Serverless
10 9 (2.18%) AWS CloudFormation
10 9 (2.18%) GitHub
10 9 (2.18%) OneDrive
11 7 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
11 7 (1.70%) Google Workspace
11 7 (1.70%) Nutanix
11 7 (1.70%) SaaS
12 6 (1.46%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 229 (55.58%) DNS
2 146 (35.44%) Firewall
3 99 (24.03%) VPN
4 95 (23.06%) DHCP
5 77 (18.69%) WAN
6 69 (16.75%) LAN
7 68 (16.50%) HTTP
8 66 (16.02%) SSL
9 65 (15.78%) Network Security
10 59 (14.32%) VLAN
11 54 (13.11%) BGP
12 50 (12.14%) BIG-IP
13 44 (10.68%) OSPF
14 34 (8.25%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 34 (8.25%) Wi-Fi
15 32 (7.77%) Ethernet
15 32 (7.77%) Wireshark
16 27 (6.55%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
17 19 (4.61%) Wireless
18 16 (3.88%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.91%) Elasticsearch
2 11 (2.67%) SQL Server
3 7 (1.70%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (1.21%) MongoDB
5 3 (0.73%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.49%) MySQL
7 1 (0.24%) Amazon Aurora
7 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 42 (10.19%) JIRA
2 28 (6.80%) Fiddler
3 21 (5.10%) GitLab
4 19 (4.61%) Git
5 13 (3.16%) Eclipse
5 13 (3.16%) Visual Studio
6 12 (2.91%) Jenkins
7 9 (2.18%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (1.70%) Bitbucket
8 7 (1.70%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.97%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.73%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.49%) Introscope
11 2 (0.49%) Subversion
12 1 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.24%) Postman
12 1 (0.24%) Travis CI
General
1 137 (33.25%) Social Skills
2 52 (12.62%) Finance
3 50 (12.14%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (9.71%) Banking
5 29 (7.04%) Public Sector
6 24 (5.83%) Investment Banking
7 23 (5.58%) Military
7 23 (5.58%) Presentation Skills
8 18 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
8 18 (4.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 10 (2.43%) Telecoms
10 6 (1.46%) Front Office
11 5 (1.21%) Law
12 3 (0.73%) Aerospace
12 3 (0.73%) French Language
12 3 (0.73%) Manufacturing
12 3 (0.73%) Marketing
12 3 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.49%) Aviation
13 2 (0.49%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 106 (25.73%) Network Engineer
2 48 (11.65%) Analyst
3 36 (8.74%) Web Engineer
4 34 (8.25%) Senior
5 30 (7.28%) Support Engineer
6 28 (6.80%) Architect
7 24 (5.83%) Security Engineer
8 22 (5.34%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 21 (5.10%) IP Network Engineer
9 21 (5.10%) Technical Engineer
10 20 (4.85%) SOC Analyst
11 19 (4.61%) Blue Coat Engineer
12 18 (4.37%) IT Support
13 17 (4.13%) Systems Engineer
14 16 (3.88%) IT Engineer
14 16 (3.88%) Junior
15 15 (3.64%) Integration Engineer
15 15 (3.64%) Lead
16 12 (2.91%) Junior Network Engineer
16 12 (2.91%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (5.34%) LDAP
2 15 (3.64%) SAML
2 15 (3.64%) Web Services
3 13 (3.16%) Node.js
4 12 (2.91%) JSON
4 12 (2.91%) OpenID
5 10 (2.43%) 802.1X
6 7 (1.70%) REST
7 5 (1.21%) Kafka
7 5 (1.21%) OAuth
8 4 (0.97%) XML
9 3 (0.73%) ARM Templates
9 3 (0.73%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (0.73%) HTML
9 3 (0.73%) Middleware
9 3 (0.73%) NETCONF
9 3 (0.73%) OpenConfig
9 3 (0.73%) RESTCONF
9 3 (0.73%) YANG
10 2 (0.49%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 29 (7.04%) Data Centre
2 28 (6.80%) Onboarding
3 25 (6.07%) Management Information System
4 23 (5.58%) Security Operations Centre
5 21 (5.10%) Cyberattack
6 15 (3.64%) Industry 4.0
6 15 (3.64%) Robotics
7 14 (3.40%) Security Posture
8 13 (3.16%) Cyber Threat
9 11 (2.67%) Enterprise Software
9 11 (2.67%) PKI
10 10 (2.43%) Public Cloud
11 9 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
12 8 (1.94%) Driving Licence
13 7 (1.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
13 7 (1.70%) Mainframe
14 6 (1.46%) NHS
14 6 (1.46%) Private Cloud
14 6 (1.46%) Self-Motivation
14 6 (1.46%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 170 (41.26%) Windows
2 97 (23.54%) Linux
3 49 (11.89%) Windows Server
4 16 (3.88%) Mac OS
5 15 (3.64%) Windows 10
6 14 (3.40%) Unix
7 13 (3.16%) Android
8 9 (2.18%) Windows Server 2012
9 8 (1.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 7 (1.70%) zOS
11 6 (1.46%) Apple iOS
11 6 (1.46%) Ubuntu
11 6 (1.46%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.97%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.73%) Debian
13 3 (0.73%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.73%) Windows Server 2003
14 2 (0.49%) AIX
14 2 (0.49%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.49%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (28.64%) Problem-Solving
2 61 (14.81%) ITIL
3 53 (12.86%) Cybersecurity
4 51 (12.38%) Incident Response
4 51 (12.38%) SIEM
5 50 (12.14%) Agile
6 48 (11.65%) Load Balancing
7 42 (10.19%) Migration
8 41 (9.95%) DevOps
9 39 (9.47%) Security Operations
10 38 (9.22%) CI/CD
11 34 (8.25%) Validation
12 31 (7.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 30 (7.28%) Data Loss Prevention
13 30 (7.28%) Root Cause Analysis
14 29 (7.04%) Computer Science
14 29 (7.04%) Customer Service
14 29 (7.04%) High Availability
15 28 (6.80%) Decision-Making
15 28 (6.80%) Malware Detection/Protection
Programming Languages
1 91 (22.09%) Python
2 47 (11.41%) PowerShell
3 44 (10.68%) Bash
4 28 (6.80%) JavaScript
5 21 (5.10%) SQL
6 18 (4.37%) C++
7 15 (3.64%) C#
8 8 (1.94%) Java
9 7 (1.70%) Shell Script
9 7 (1.70%) VBA
10 6 (1.46%) C
10 6 (1.46%) Go
11 5 (1.21%) Perl
12 2 (0.49%) Jython
12 2 (0.49%) Ruby
13 1 (0.24%) Groovy
13 1 (0.24%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.24%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 126 (30.58%) Security Cleared
2 104 (25.24%) SC Cleared
3 63 (15.29%) Degree
4 44 (10.68%) Cisco Certification
5 37 (8.98%) CCNP
6 30 (7.28%) CompTIA Security+
7 29 (7.04%) Computer Science Degree
8 26 (6.31%) DV Cleared
9 24 (5.83%) CCNA
10 18 (4.37%) CompTIA CySA+
11 17 (4.13%) CISSP
12 13 (3.16%) Microsoft Certification
13 9 (2.18%) Azure Certification
13 9 (2.18%) MCSA
13 9 (2.18%) Network+ Certification
14 8 (1.94%) MCSE
15 7 (1.70%) CCIE
15 7 (1.70%) JNCIS
16 5 (1.21%) AWS Certification
16 5 (1.21%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (2.67%) SLA
2 9 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (1.70%) NIST
4 5 (1.21%) GDPR
5 4 (0.97%) NCSC
6 3 (0.73%) QA
7 2 (0.49%) RMADS
8 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.24%) GRC
System Software
1 83 (20.15%) Active Directory
2 51 (12.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (5.34%) Docker
4 19 (4.61%) Firmware
5 13 (3.16%) Squid
6 11 (2.67%) Hyper-V
7 9 (2.18%) VMware NSX
7 9 (2.18%) vSphere
8 8 (1.94%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (1.70%) Virtual Desktop
10 5 (1.21%) KVM
11 4 (0.97%) NFS
12 2 (0.49%) Ceph
12 2 (0.49%) iptables
12 2 (0.49%) Lustre
12 2 (0.49%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 2 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
13 1 (0.24%) Citrix Presentation Server
13 1 (0.24%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.24%) Xen
Systems Management
1 68 (16.50%) Ansible
2 38 (9.22%) Terraform
3 35 (8.50%) Kubernetes
4 26 (6.31%) SCCM
5 25 (6.07%) Grafana
6 23 (5.58%) FortiGate
7 22 (5.34%) Single Sign-On
8 20 (4.85%) Microsoft Intune
9 17 (4.13%) Prometheus
10 10 (2.43%) Nagios
10 10 (2.43%) WSUS
11 9 (2.18%) Consul
12 8 (1.94%) QRadar
13 6 (1.46%) CASB
13 6 (1.46%) Tivoli NetView
14 5 (1.21%) Nessus
14 5 (1.21%) Suricata
15 4 (0.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 4 (0.97%) Puppet
16 3 (0.73%) Red Hat Satellite
Vendors
1 99 (24.03%) Microsoft
2 69 (16.75%) VMware
3 67 (16.26%) F5
4 66 (16.02%) Cisco
5 41 (9.95%) Splunk
6 33 (8.01%) Blue Coat
7 30 (7.28%) ServiceNow
8 28 (6.80%) McAfee
8 28 (6.80%) Palo Alto
9 23 (5.58%) Fortinet
10 22 (5.34%) Red Hat
11 21 (5.10%) NetApp
12 20 (4.85%) Citrix
12 20 (4.85%) Juniper
13 16 (3.88%) Siemens
14 15 (3.64%) Zscaler
15 13 (3.16%) CheckPoint
15 13 (3.16%) SolarWinds
16 12 (2.91%) Arista
16 12 (2.91%) Bloomberg