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

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 268 239 267
Rank change year-on-year -29 +28 -48
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 496 372 342
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.93% 1.13% 0.87%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.94% 9.40% 7.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 266 210 220
10th Percentile £207 £200 £203
25th Percentile £325 £357 £262
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -4.26%
75th Percentile £566 £600 £560
90th Percentile £658 £653 £625
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £450
% change year-on-year +5.56% - +12.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 26 31
10th Percentile £26.09 £20.11 £30.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £42.53 £63.13
Median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% - +28.92%
75th Percentile £67.86 - -
90th Percentile £98.82 £86.32 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -3.85% - +50.39%

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 4,992 3,957 4,742
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.36% 12.02% 12.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,963 2,418 2,878
10th Percentile £250 £235 £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 £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 354 195 327
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £18.27
Median hourly rate £26.66 £50.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.68% +5.26% -5.79%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.78 £83.60 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.66 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -40.76% -18.00% -4.42%

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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -17 457 £491 -1.80% 315
UK excluding London -27 279 £475 +5.56% 221
London -37 189 £475 -13.64% 124
Work from Home -59 119 £500 -9.09% 117
North of England -40 86 £475 -5.00% 47
South East -19 81 £525 +16.67% 78
North West -15 56 £475 -0.05% 25
South West -11 41 £638 +3.03% 31
Midlands -32 39 £402 -19.60% 26
East of England -13 35 £375 -28.57% 25
West Midlands -38 31 £406 +1.06% 17
Yorkshire -55 26 £500 - 14
Scotland -8 11 £301 -32.30% 8
East Midlands -4 8 £402 -26.91% 9
Wales -7 7 £408 +126.39% 5
North East -38 4 £438 +2.94% 10

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 (9.07%) SharePoint
2 23 (4.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.62%) Confluence
4 9 (1.81%) nginx
4 9 (1.81%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.81%) FactoryTalk
5 4 (0.81%) WebSphere
6 3 (0.60%) IIS
7 2 (0.40%) CICS
7 2 (0.40%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.40%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.40%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.40%) WebSphere Portal
8 1 (0.20%) Traefik
Applications
1 36 (7.26%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (3.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.61%) 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 7 (1.41%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 164 (33.06%) Azure
2 115 (23.19%) AWS
3 108 (21.77%) Microsoft 365
4 69 (13.91%) Entra ID
5 36 (7.26%) GCP
6 34 (6.85%) OneDrive
7 29 (5.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 20 (4.03%) GitHub
9 16 (3.23%) Route 53
10 15 (3.02%) Amazon EC2
11 12 (2.42%) Azure Monitor
12 11 (2.22%) AWS CloudFormation
12 11 (2.22%) Google Workspace
12 11 (2.22%) OpenShift
13 10 (2.02%) Amazon EKS
14 9 (1.81%) Amazon S3
14 9 (1.81%) AWS Lambda
14 9 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
14 9 (1.81%) Azure Sentinel
14 9 (1.81%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 292 (58.87%) DNS
2 213 (42.94%) Firewall
3 168 (33.87%) DHCP
4 143 (28.83%) VPN
5 94 (18.95%) Network Security
6 89 (17.94%) WAN
7 79 (15.93%) LAN
8 77 (15.52%) HTTP
9 75 (15.12%) VLAN
10 73 (14.72%) BGP
11 62 (12.50%) SSL
12 44 (8.87%) BIG-IP
12 44 (8.87%) OSPF
13 43 (8.67%) Wi-Fi
14 39 (7.86%) Ethernet
15 38 (7.66%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 35 (7.06%) Wireless
17 27 (5.44%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 24 (4.84%) SD-WAN
18 24 (4.84%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 15 (3.02%) SQL Server
2 9 (1.81%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.01%) MySQL
3 5 (1.01%) NoSQL
4 4 (0.81%) Amazon RDS
4 4 (0.81%) Elasticsearch
4 4 (0.81%) MongoDB
5 3 (0.60%) Redis
6 2 (0.40%) BigQuery
6 2 (0.40%) SQLite
7 1 (0.20%) Cloud Spanner
7 1 (0.20%) KDB
Development Applications
1 45 (9.07%) JIRA
2 28 (5.65%) Git
3 22 (4.44%) Jenkins
4 20 (4.03%) GitLab
5 18 (3.63%) Fiddler
6 14 (2.82%) Visual Studio
7 13 (2.62%) Eclipse
8 10 (2.02%) Browser DevTools
9 8 (1.61%) Sonatype Nexus
10 4 (0.81%) Artifactory
11 3 (0.60%) Bitbucket
12 2 (0.40%) Introscope
12 2 (0.40%) Selenium
12 2 (0.40%) SonarQube
12 2 (0.40%) Subversion
13 1 (0.20%) MSI
13 1 (0.20%) Postman
General
1 200 (40.32%) Social Skills
2 70 (14.11%) Analytical Skills
3 66 (13.31%) Finance
4 44 (8.87%) Banking
5 32 (6.45%) Public Sector
6 23 (4.64%) Telecoms
7 22 (4.44%) Investment Banking
7 22 (4.44%) Presentation Skills
8 20 (4.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 16 (3.23%) Documentation Skills
9 16 (3.23%) Military
10 9 (1.81%) Front Office
11 6 (1.21%) Manufacturing
11 6 (1.21%) Pharmaceutical
12 5 (1.01%) Legal
12 5 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
13 4 (0.81%) Aerospace
13 4 (0.81%) Automotive
13 4 (0.81%) Police
14 3 (0.60%) Retail
Job Titles
1 114 (22.98%) Network Engineer
2 58 (11.69%) Support Engineer
3 53 (10.69%) Senior
4 49 (9.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 41 (8.27%) Architect
6 39 (7.86%) IT Support
7 33 (6.65%) IT Engineer
8 32 (6.45%) Analyst
9 27 (5.44%) Security Engineer
10 26 (5.24%) IT Support Engineer
11 25 (5.04%) Web Engineer
12 23 (4.64%) Systems Engineer
13 22 (4.44%) Technical Engineer
14 20 (4.03%) Platform Engineer
14 20 (4.03%) Senior Network Engineer
15 18 (3.63%) IP Network Engineer
15 18 (3.63%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
16 16 (3.23%) Blue Coat Engineer
17 15 (3.02%) Cloud Engineer
17 15 (3.02%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.03%) SAML
2 15 (3.02%) LDAP
2 15 (3.02%) REST
3 13 (2.62%) ARM Templates
3 13 (2.62%) Node.js
3 13 (2.62%) Web Services
4 12 (2.42%) 802.1X
4 12 (2.42%) JSON
5 8 (1.61%) .NET
6 7 (1.41%) OpenID
7 6 (1.21%) HTML
7 6 (1.21%) NETCONF
7 6 (1.21%) OpenConfig
7 6 (1.21%) RESTCONF
7 6 (1.21%) XML
7 6 (1.21%) YANG
8 5 (1.01%) Kafka
8 5 (1.01%) OAuth
8 5 (1.01%) RESTful
9 4 (0.81%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 78 (15.73%) Data Centre
2 54 (10.89%) Onboarding
3 29 (5.85%) Hybrid Cloud
3 29 (5.85%) PKI
4 26 (5.24%) Management Information System
5 24 (4.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 19 (3.83%) Robotics
7 18 (3.63%) Linux Command Line
7 18 (3.63%) Security Posture
8 17 (3.43%) Driving Licence
9 15 (3.02%) Industry 4.0
9 15 (3.02%) Public Cloud
10 14 (2.82%) Cloud Native
10 14 (2.82%) Operational Technology
10 14 (2.82%) Self-Motivation
11 12 (2.42%) SCADA
12 11 (2.22%) Cyber Threat
13 10 (2.02%) Analytical Mindset
14 9 (1.81%) Private Cloud
15 8 (1.61%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 218 (43.95%) Windows
2 130 (26.21%) Linux
3 64 (12.90%) Windows Server
4 35 (7.06%) Mac OS
4 35 (7.06%) Windows 10
5 23 (4.64%) Unix
6 16 (3.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 15 (3.02%) Apple iOS
8 13 (2.62%) Ubuntu
9 11 (2.22%) Android
10 4 (0.81%) Windows Server 2012
10 4 (0.81%) zOS
11 3 (0.60%) CentOS
11 3 (0.60%) Check Point GAiA
12 2 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.40%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.40%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
13 1 (0.20%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 141 (28.43%) Problem-Solving
2 104 (20.97%) ITIL
3 78 (15.73%) CI/CD
4 72 (14.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 66 (13.31%) Infrastructure as Code
6 63 (12.70%) Agile
6 63 (12.70%) DevOps
7 60 (12.10%) Load Balancing
8 59 (11.90%) Customer Service
9 56 (11.29%) Cybersecurity
10 51 (10.28%) Migration
11 50 (10.08%) ITSM
12 48 (9.68%) SIEM
13 47 (9.48%) High Availability
14 46 (9.27%) Incident Response
15 44 (8.87%) Validation
16 43 (8.67%) Continuous Improvement
16 43 (8.67%) Service Management
17 42 (8.47%) Technical Leadership
18 38 (7.66%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 140 (28.23%) Python
2 91 (18.35%) PowerShell
3 81 (16.33%) Bash
4 27 (5.44%) C++
5 25 (5.04%) JavaScript
6 20 (4.03%) SQL
7 17 (3.43%) C#
8 11 (2.22%) Java
9 9 (1.81%) Bicep
10 8 (1.61%) Perl
10 8 (1.61%) Shell Script
11 7 (1.41%) VBA
12 5 (1.01%) ActionScript
12 5 (1.01%) C
13 4 (0.81%) Go
14 2 (0.40%) Jython
14 2 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.40%) Objective-C
14 2 (0.40%) Ruby
14 2 (0.40%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 135 (27.22%) Security Cleared
2 90 (18.15%) SC Cleared
3 77 (15.52%) Degree
4 61 (12.30%) Cisco Certification
5 45 (9.07%) CCNP
5 45 (9.07%) DV Cleared
6 30 (6.05%) CCNA
7 29 (5.85%) Microsoft Certification
8 22 (4.44%) CISSP
9 20 (4.03%) Computer Science Degree
10 15 (3.02%) CCIE
10 15 (3.02%) Network+ Certification
11 12 (2.42%) Azure Certification
12 11 (2.22%) CompTIA Security+
13 10 (2.02%) A+ Certification
13 10 (2.02%) MCSA
13 10 (2.02%) MCSE
13 10 (2.02%) VCAP
14 8 (1.61%) AWS Certification
15 7 (1.41%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (3.83%) SLA
2 14 (2.82%) NIST
3 11 (2.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (1.81%) NCSC
4 9 (1.81%) QA
5 5 (1.01%) 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 (0.40%) Government Security Classifications
7 2 (0.40%) JSP 440
8 1 (0.20%) ISO 8583
8 1 (0.20%) RMADS
System Software
1 136 (27.42%) Active Directory
2 86 (17.34%) VMware Infrastructure
3 32 (6.45%) Hyper-V
4 30 (6.05%) Docker
5 23 (4.64%) vSphere
6 22 (4.44%) VMware NSX
7 17 (3.43%) Firmware
8 11 (2.22%) Virtual Desktop
9 8 (1.61%) Squid
10 6 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
11 4 (0.81%) NFS
11 4 (0.81%) 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%) NetIQ eDirectory
13 1 (0.20%) Snort
Systems Management
1 97 (19.56%) Ansible
2 81 (16.33%) Terraform
3 51 (10.28%) Microsoft Intune
4 44 (8.87%) Kubernetes
5 27 (5.44%) SCCM
6 26 (5.24%) Single Sign-On
7 23 (4.64%) Grafana
8 20 (4.03%) FortiGate
9 14 (2.82%) VxRail
10 13 (2.62%) Prometheus
11 11 (2.22%) Jamf Pro
12 9 (1.81%) WSUS
13 6 (1.21%) CASB
13 6 (1.21%) QRadar
13 6 (1.21%) systemd
14 5 (1.01%) Consul
14 5 (1.01%) Nessus
14 5 (1.01%) Suricata
15 3 (0.60%) Nagios
15 3 (0.60%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 182 (36.69%) Microsoft
2 99 (19.96%) VMware
3 93 (18.75%) Cisco
4 63 (12.70%) F5
5 54 (10.89%) ServiceNow
6 29 (5.85%) Fortinet
7 28 (5.65%) Zscaler
8 26 (5.24%) Google
9 25 (5.04%) Juniper
10 23 (4.64%) Blue Coat
11 22 (4.44%) Palo Alto
11 22 (4.44%) Splunk
12 21 (4.23%) Citrix
13 19 (3.83%) NetApp
14 18 (3.63%) CheckPoint
14 18 (3.63%) Infoblox
14 18 (3.63%) McAfee
14 18 (3.63%) Red Hat
15 17 (3.43%) Siemens
16 13 (2.62%) Remedy