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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 261 242 269
Rank change year-on-year -19 +27 -44
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 500 356 354
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.95% 1.09% 0.86%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.99% 9.02% 6.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 275 210 232
10th Percentile £194 £206 £193
25th Percentile £313 £352 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £600 £560
90th Percentile £650 £653 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £448 £450 £450
% change year-on-year -0.39% - +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 23 31
10th Percentile £21.25 £19.72 £20.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £43.60 £62.50
Median hourly rate £47.00 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.69% - +28.92%
75th Percentile £65.00 - -
90th Percentile £92.53 £88.30 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £49.75 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -23.46% - +15.06%

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 5,003 3,948 5,144
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.49% 12.11% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,016 2,403 3,070
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
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 £592 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +2.89% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 326 195 384
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.91
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.08 £17.67
Median hourly rate £26.22 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.31% +15.63% -16.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.60 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -17.27%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 0 453 £475 -5.00% 269
UK excluding London -22 284 £448 -0.39% 219
London -36 184 £475 -5.00% 81
Work from Home -51 119 £500 -6.72% 92
North of England -31 94 £448 -10.35% 40
South East -35 80 £527 +26.44% 82
North West -5 59 £450 +19.87% 17
Midlands -27 40 £401 -27.09% 24
South West -11 34 £500 -18.70% 37
East of England -12 34 £250 -52.38% 28
West Midlands -34 32 £400 -6.10% 14
Yorkshire -55 31 £460 -9.14% 20
Scotland -16 16 £178 -60.56% 9
East Midlands -11 8 £402 -26.91% 10
Wales -11 7 £408 - 6
North East -39 4 £306 +22.50% 6

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 39 (7.80%) SharePoint
2 21 (4.20%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (3.40%) Confluence
4 14 (2.80%) nginx
5 7 (1.40%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.80%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.60%) FactoryTalk
7 3 (0.60%) IIS
8 2 (0.40%) CICS
8 2 (0.40%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.40%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.40%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.40%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.20%) Traefik
Applications
1 36 (7.20%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (2.80%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.60%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.40%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.40%) Houdini
5 2 (0.40%) NUKE
6 1 (0.20%) Weka
Business Applications
1 6 (1.20%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 151 (30.20%) Azure
2 115 (23.00%) AWS
3 106 (21.20%) Microsoft 365
4 62 (12.40%) Entra ID
5 35 (7.00%) GCP
6 33 (6.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 31 (6.20%) OneDrive
8 21 (4.20%) Route 53
9 20 (4.00%) Amazon EC2
10 17 (3.40%) GitHub
11 15 (3.00%) Amazon EKS
12 14 (2.80%) Amazon S3
13 13 (2.60%) AWS Lambda
13 13 (2.60%) Serverless
14 11 (2.20%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (2.20%) Azure Monitor
14 11 (2.20%) Google Workspace
15 9 (1.80%) Azure Sentinel
15 9 (1.80%) OpenShift
16 8 (1.60%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 294 (58.80%) DNS
2 208 (41.60%) Firewall
3 161 (32.20%) DHCP
4 143 (28.60%) VPN
5 90 (18.00%) Network Security
6 87 (17.40%) WAN
7 79 (15.80%) LAN
8 77 (15.40%) BGP
8 77 (15.40%) VLAN
9 73 (14.60%) HTTP
10 65 (13.00%) SSL
11 52 (10.40%) BIG-IP
12 49 (9.80%) OSPF
13 43 (8.60%) Wi-Fi
14 41 (8.20%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 39 (7.80%) Ethernet
16 34 (6.80%) Wireless
17 30 (6.00%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 27 (5.40%) Wireshark
19 24 (4.80%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.40%) SQL Server
2 10 (2.00%) Elasticsearch
3 6 (1.20%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.40%) MySQL
5 2 (0.40%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.40%) SQLite
6 1 (0.20%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.20%) KDB
6 1 (0.20%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 52 (10.40%) JIRA
2 23 (4.60%) Git
3 20 (4.00%) Fiddler
4 16 (3.20%) Jenkins
5 15 (3.00%) GitLab
6 14 (2.80%) Visual Studio
7 13 (2.60%) Eclipse
8 10 (2.00%) Browser DevTools
9 8 (1.60%) Bitbucket
10 7 (1.40%) SonarQube
11 5 (1.00%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.80%) Artifactory
13 2 (0.40%) Introscope
13 2 (0.40%) Subversion
14 1 (0.20%) MSI
14 1 (0.20%) Postman
General
1 196 (39.20%) Social Skills
2 68 (13.60%) Analytical Skills
3 66 (13.20%) Finance
4 42 (8.40%) Banking
5 34 (6.80%) Public Sector
6 22 (4.40%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (4.40%) Investment Banking
6 22 (4.40%) Presentation Skills
7 20 (4.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 19 (3.80%) Telecoms
9 18 (3.60%) Military
10 7 (1.40%) Front Office
11 5 (1.00%) Legal
11 5 (1.00%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.00%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.80%) Police
13 3 (0.60%) Retail
14 2 (0.40%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.40%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 114 (22.80%) Network Engineer
2 56 (11.20%) Support Engineer
3 49 (9.80%) Architect
4 46 (9.20%) Senior
5 43 (8.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 39 (7.80%) IT Support
7 37 (7.40%) Analyst
8 31 (6.20%) IT Engineer
9 27 (5.40%) Security Engineer
9 27 (5.40%) Web Engineer
10 25 (5.00%) IT Support Engineer
11 22 (4.40%) Technical Engineer
12 20 (4.00%) Systems Engineer
13 18 (3.60%) IP Network Engineer
14 16 (3.20%) Blue Coat Engineer
14 16 (3.20%) Platform Engineer
14 16 (3.20%) Senior Network Engineer
15 15 (3.00%) Software Engineer
16 14 (2.80%) C# Software Engineer
16 14 (2.80%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (4.20%) LDAP
2 19 (3.80%) SAML
3 14 (2.80%) JSON
4 13 (2.60%) Node.js
4 13 (2.60%) Web Services
5 12 (2.40%) REST
6 11 (2.20%) ARM Templates
6 11 (2.20%) OpenID
7 10 (2.00%) 802.1X
8 8 (1.60%) .NET
9 6 (1.20%) NETCONF
9 6 (1.20%) OpenConfig
9 6 (1.20%) RESTCONF
9 6 (1.20%) XML
9 6 (1.20%) YANG
10 5 (1.00%) OAuth
11 4 (0.80%) boto
11 4 (0.80%) eBPF
11 4 (0.80%) WinForms
12 3 (0.60%) Kafka
Miscellaneous
1 71 (14.20%) Data Centre
2 48 (9.60%) Onboarding
3 28 (5.60%) Management Information System
4 23 (4.60%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 23 (4.60%) PKI
5 22 (4.40%) Hybrid Cloud
6 19 (3.80%) Security Posture
7 17 (3.40%) Robotics
8 16 (3.20%) Driving Licence
9 15 (3.00%) Industry 4.0
9 15 (3.00%) Linux Command Line
9 15 (3.00%) Public Cloud
10 13 (2.60%) Self-Motivation
11 12 (2.40%) Operational Technology
11 12 (2.40%) Private Cloud
12 11 (2.20%) Cloud Native
12 11 (2.20%) Cyber Threat
12 11 (2.20%) SCADA
12 11 (2.20%) Security Operations Centre
13 10 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 212 (42.40%) Windows
2 113 (22.60%) Linux
3 61 (12.20%) Windows Server
4 40 (8.00%) Mac OS
5 31 (6.20%) Windows 10
6 19 (3.80%) Unix
7 17 (3.40%) Apple iOS
8 15 (3.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 14 (2.80%) Android
10 11 (2.20%) Ubuntu
11 6 (1.20%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.80%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.80%) zOS
13 3 (0.60%) CentOS
13 3 (0.60%) Check Point GAiA
13 3 (0.60%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.40%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.40%) Windows 7
15 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 139 (27.80%) Problem-Solving
2 102 (20.40%) ITIL
3 67 (13.40%) CI/CD
4 64 (12.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 59 (11.80%) Agile
5 59 (11.80%) DevOps
6 57 (11.40%) Load Balancing
7 55 (11.00%) Customer Service
8 54 (10.80%) Cybersecurity
9 53 (10.60%) Infrastructure as Code
10 49 (9.80%) ITSM
11 48 (9.60%) Incident Response
11 48 (9.60%) Migration
12 44 (8.80%) High Availability
12 44 (8.80%) SIEM
13 40 (8.00%) Service Management
14 39 (7.80%) Validation
15 36 (7.20%) Stakeholder Management
16 35 (7.00%) Continuous Improvement
16 35 (7.00%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 130 (26.00%) Python
2 79 (15.80%) PowerShell
3 66 (13.20%) Bash
4 27 (5.40%) JavaScript
5 26 (5.20%) C++
6 17 (3.40%) C#
7 15 (3.00%) SQL
8 10 (2.00%) Java
9 9 (1.80%) VBA
10 7 (1.40%) Bicep
10 7 (1.40%) Perl
11 6 (1.20%) C
12 5 (1.00%) ActionScript
13 4 (0.80%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.60%) Go
15 2 (0.40%) Jython
15 2 (0.40%) Korn
15 2 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
15 2 (0.40%) Objective-C
15 2 (0.40%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 136 (27.20%) Security Cleared
2 93 (18.60%) SC Cleared
3 79 (15.80%) Degree
4 59 (11.80%) Cisco Certification
5 44 (8.80%) CCNP
6 41 (8.20%) DV Cleared
7 28 (5.60%) CCNA
8 26 (5.20%) Microsoft Certification
9 22 (4.40%) CISSP
10 18 (3.60%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (3.40%) CCIE
12 14 (2.80%) CompTIA Security+
12 14 (2.80%) Network+ Certification
13 10 (2.00%) Azure Certification
13 10 (2.00%) MCSA
14 9 (1.80%) CompTIA CySA+
14 9 (1.80%) MCSE
15 8 (1.60%) A+ Certification
16 6 (1.20%) CISM
16 6 (1.20%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 16 (3.20%) SLA
2 13 (2.60%) NIST
3 12 (2.40%) NCSC
4 10 (2.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.40%) QA
6 5 (1.00%) GDPR
7 4 (0.80%) NIST 800
7 4 (0.80%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.60%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 3 (0.60%) GxP
9 2 (0.40%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.40%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.40%) RMADS
10 1 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.20%) GRC
10 1 (0.20%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 133 (26.60%) Active Directory
2 75 (15.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (4.40%) Hyper-V
4 21 (4.20%) Docker
5 20 (4.00%) vSphere
6 17 (3.40%) Firmware
6 17 (3.40%) VMware NSX
7 13 (2.60%) Squid
8 12 (2.40%) Virtual Desktop
9 6 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (1.00%) NFS
11 4 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
12 2 (0.40%) KVM
12 2 (0.40%) RACF
12 2 (0.40%) VirtualBox
13 1 (0.20%) Citrix Presentation Server
13 1 (0.20%) GPFS
13 1 (0.20%) iptables
13 1 (0.20%) Snort
13 1 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 95 (19.00%) Ansible
2 69 (13.80%) Terraform
3 47 (9.40%) Microsoft Intune
4 41 (8.20%) Kubernetes
5 30 (6.00%) Single Sign-On
6 26 (5.20%) SCCM
7 25 (5.00%) FortiGate
7 25 (5.00%) Grafana
8 17 (3.40%) Prometheus
9 11 (2.20%) Jamf Pro
10 9 (1.80%) Consul
10 9 (1.80%) WSUS
11 8 (1.60%) VxRail
12 6 (1.20%) CASB
13 5 (1.00%) Nessus
13 5 (1.00%) QRadar
13 5 (1.00%) Suricata
14 4 (0.80%) systemd
15 3 (0.60%) Nagios
15 3 (0.60%) SELinux
Vendors
1 176 (35.20%) Microsoft
2 91 (18.20%) Cisco
3 87 (17.40%) VMware
4 71 (14.20%) F5
5 59 (11.80%) ServiceNow
6 32 (6.40%) Fortinet
7 27 (5.40%) Google
7 27 (5.40%) Palo Alto
8 25 (5.00%) Blue Coat
8 25 (5.00%) Zscaler
9 24 (4.80%) Juniper
10 22 (4.40%) Splunk
11 21 (4.20%) CheckPoint
11 21 (4.20%) Citrix
11 21 (4.20%) Infoblox
11 21 (4.20%) Red Hat
12 20 (4.00%) NetApp
13 19 (3.80%) McAfee
14 17 (3.40%) Siemens
15 13 (2.60%) SolarWinds