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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 278 235 251
Rank change year-on-year -43 +16 -21
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 487 369 367
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.91% 1.13% 0.95%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.61% 9.51% 7.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 201 224
10th Percentile £203 £200 £203
25th Percentile £311 £350 £260
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £461 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -2.89% +5.56% -
75th Percentile £550 £600 £575
90th Percentile £675 £653 £643
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £425
% change year-on-year - +5.88% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 31 31
10th Percentile £26.25 £28.00 £30.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £47.88 £63.13
Median hourly rate £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -19.23% - +30.00%
75th Percentile £81.05 - -
90th Percentile £98.82 £83.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.50 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -19.23% - +33.33%

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 5,067 3,881 4,678
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.44% 11.85% 12.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,990 2,366 2,802
10th Percentile £250 £242 £220
25th Percentile £400 £367 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -3.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +0.21% -5.00% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 371 201 301
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.22% -10.00% -11.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.01 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.77 £43.25 £54.94
% change year-on-year -40.42% -21.27% -4.46%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -29 447 £475 -5.00% 389
UK excluding London -33 265 £450 - 241
London -37 199 £470 -10.48% 185
Work from Home -67 113 £513 -4.38% 123
South East -22 80 £523 +36.07% 57
North of England -52 75 £447 -16.45% 49
South West -5 45 £644 +5.10% 44
North West -25 45 £295 -44.86% 24
Midlands -32 44 £402 -10.67% 38
West Midlands -33 36 £406 -9.72% 20
Yorkshire -52 26 £500 -9.09% 17
East of England -30 20 £423 -23.18% 26
Scotland -17 13 £210 -49.94% 19
Wales -9 8 £425 +136.11% 6
East Midlands -10 8 £402 -26.91% 18
North East -40 4 £438 +75.00% 11

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 50 (10.27%) SharePoint
2 31 (6.37%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (2.26%) Confluence
3 11 (2.26%) OpenStack
4 5 (1.03%) nginx
5 4 (0.82%) FactoryTalk
5 4 (0.82%) WebSphere
6 3 (0.62%) IIS
7 2 (0.41%) CICS
7 2 (0.41%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.41%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.41%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.41%) WebSphere Portal
8 1 (0.21%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 18 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
2 17 (3.49%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (1.44%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.41%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 2 (0.41%) Houdini
5 2 (0.41%) NUKE
6 1 (0.21%) Weka
Business Applications
1 8 (1.64%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 167 (34.29%) Azure
2 123 (25.26%) Microsoft 365
3 110 (22.59%) AWS
4 76 (15.61%) Entra ID
5 36 (7.39%) OneDrive
6 34 (6.98%) GCP
7 22 (4.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 21 (4.31%) GitHub
9 13 (2.67%) Azure Monitor
9 13 (2.67%) OpenShift
10 12 (2.46%) Route 53
11 11 (2.26%) Amazon EC2
11 11 (2.26%) AWS CloudFormation
11 11 (2.26%) Google Workspace
12 10 (2.05%) GitHub Actions
13 9 (1.85%) Azure Sentinel
14 8 (1.64%) Amazon EKS
15 7 (1.44%) Akamai
15 7 (1.44%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 7 (1.44%) Azure DevOps
Communications & Networking
1 295 (60.57%) DNS
2 210 (43.12%) Firewall
3 187 (38.40%) DHCP
4 146 (29.98%) VPN
5 92 (18.89%) Network Security
6 91 (18.69%) WAN
7 80 (16.43%) LAN
8 73 (14.99%) HTTP
9 71 (14.58%) VLAN
10 70 (14.37%) BGP
11 56 (11.50%) SSL
12 44 (9.03%) OSPF
13 43 (8.83%) Wi-Fi
14 42 (8.62%) BIG-IP
14 42 (8.62%) Wireless
15 37 (7.60%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 26 (5.34%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 26 (5.34%) SD-WAN
17 22 (4.52%) Wireshark
18 18 (3.70%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (3.70%) PostgreSQL
2 15 (3.08%) SQL Server
3 8 (1.64%) MySQL
3 8 (1.64%) SQLite
4 7 (1.44%) NoSQL
5 6 (1.23%) MongoDB
6 5 (1.03%) Redis
7 4 (0.82%) Amazon RDS
8 3 (0.62%) KDB
9 2 (0.41%) BigQuery
10 1 (0.21%) Cloud Spanner
10 1 (0.21%) Elasticsearch
10 1 (0.21%) Kdb+
Development Applications
1 45 (9.24%) JIRA
2 36 (7.39%) Git
3 31 (6.37%) Jenkins
4 21 (4.31%) GitLab
5 16 (3.29%) Fiddler
6 9 (1.85%) Browser DevTools
7 8 (1.64%) Sonatype Nexus
8 6 (1.23%) Visual Studio
9 5 (1.03%) Artifactory
9 5 (1.03%) Eclipse
10 4 (0.82%) Selenium
11 2 (0.41%) Bitbucket
11 2 (0.41%) Introscope
11 2 (0.41%) Subversion
12 1 (0.21%) MSI
12 1 (0.21%) Postman
General
1 193 (39.63%) Social Skills
2 77 (15.81%) Analytical Skills
3 67 (13.76%) Finance
4 45 (9.24%) Banking
5 29 (5.95%) Public Sector
6 25 (5.13%) Telecoms
7 21 (4.31%) Investment Banking
8 14 (2.87%) Front Office
9 13 (2.67%) Documentation Skills
10 8 (1.64%) Military
11 6 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 6 (1.23%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.03%) Aerospace
12 5 (1.03%) Legal
12 5 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
12 5 (1.03%) Pharmaceutical
12 5 (1.03%) Police
13 4 (0.82%) Automotive
14 3 (0.62%) Advertising
14 3 (0.62%) Retail
Job Titles
1 107 (21.97%) Network Engineer
2 71 (14.58%) Support Engineer
3 62 (12.73%) Senior
4 55 (11.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 50 (10.27%) IT Support
6 41 (8.42%) IT Engineer
7 37 (7.60%) Architect
8 36 (7.39%) Analyst
9 35 (7.19%) IT Support Engineer
10 25 (5.13%) Senior Network Engineer
11 23 (4.72%) Platform Engineer
11 23 (4.72%) Security Engineer
12 22 (4.52%) Web Engineer
13 20 (4.11%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 19 (3.90%) Linux Engineer
15 17 (3.49%) IP Network Engineer
16 16 (3.29%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
17 15 (3.08%) Blue Coat Engineer
17 15 (3.08%) Support Analyst
18 14 (2.87%) 2nd Line Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 85 (17.45%) Terraform
2 20 (4.11%) SAML
3 16 (3.29%) REST
4 12 (2.46%) ARM Templates
4 12 (2.46%) JSON
5 10 (2.05%) 802.1X
6 9 (1.85%) .NET
7 8 (1.64%) Kafka
7 8 (1.64%) LDAP
7 8 (1.64%) SPNEGO
8 7 (1.44%) HTML
9 6 (1.23%) Elastic Stack
9 6 (1.23%) Jinja
9 6 (1.23%) RabbitMQ
9 6 (1.23%) XML
10 5 (1.03%) FastAPI
10 5 (1.03%) NETCONF
10 5 (1.03%) OpenConfig
10 5 (1.03%) RESTCONF
10 5 (1.03%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 83 (17.04%) Data Centre
2 59 (12.11%) Onboarding
3 33 (6.78%) PKI
4 30 (6.16%) Hybrid Cloud
5 27 (5.54%) Management Information System
6 23 (4.72%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 20 (4.11%) Linux Command Line
8 17 (3.49%) Public Cloud
9 16 (3.29%) Driving Licence
9 16 (3.29%) Operational Technology
9 16 (3.29%) Self-Motivation
10 13 (2.67%) SCADA
11 12 (2.46%) Cloud Native
12 11 (2.26%) Cyber Threat
12 11 (2.26%) Video Conferencing
13 10 (2.05%) Analytical Mindset
13 10 (2.05%) Enterprise Storage
14 9 (1.85%) Distributed Systems
14 9 (1.85%) Private Cloud
14 9 (1.85%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 227 (46.61%) Windows
2 137 (28.13%) Linux
3 70 (14.37%) Windows Server
4 47 (9.65%) Windows 10
5 39 (8.01%) Mac OS
6 24 (4.93%) Unix
7 23 (4.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 18 (3.70%) Apple iOS
9 15 (3.08%) Ubuntu
10 14 (2.87%) Android
11 6 (1.23%) zOS
12 4 (0.82%) CentOS
13 3 (0.62%) Check Point GAiA
13 3 (0.62%) Windows Server 2012
13 3 (0.62%) Windows Server 2019
14 2 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.21%) Data ONTAP
15 1 (0.21%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 134 (27.52%) Problem-Solving
2 113 (23.20%) ITIL
3 80 (16.43%) CI/CD
4 78 (16.02%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 72 (14.78%) Infrastructure as Code
6 66 (13.55%) DevOps
7 62 (12.73%) Load Balancing
8 61 (12.53%) ITSM
9 58 (11.91%) Customer Service
10 57 (11.70%) Cybersecurity
11 56 (11.50%) Agile
12 53 (10.88%) Continuous Improvement
13 51 (10.47%) High Availability
14 50 (10.27%) Migration
15 49 (10.06%) Platform Engineering
16 47 (9.65%) Incident Response
17 46 (9.45%) Service Management
18 44 (9.03%) SIEM
19 43 (8.83%) Technical Leadership
20 42 (8.62%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 151 (31.01%) Python
2 102 (20.94%) PowerShell
3 89 (18.28%) Bash
4 23 (4.72%) SQL
5 20 (4.11%) C++
6 16 (3.29%) JavaScript
7 15 (3.08%) Perl
8 12 (2.46%) Shell Script
9 11 (2.26%) Java
10 10 (2.05%) Bicep
10 10 (2.05%) C#
11 8 (1.64%) Korn
12 7 (1.44%) VBA
13 5 (1.03%) ActionScript
14 4 (0.82%) C
14 4 (0.82%) Go
15 3 (0.62%) Kusto Query Language
15 3 (0.62%) VBScript
16 2 (0.41%) Jython
16 2 (0.41%) Objective-C
Qualifications
1 134 (27.52%) Security Cleared
2 82 (16.84%) SC Cleared
3 64 (13.14%) Degree
4 57 (11.70%) Cisco Certification
5 52 (10.68%) DV Cleared
6 43 (8.83%) CCNP
7 27 (5.54%) CCNA
8 25 (5.13%) Microsoft Certification
9 19 (3.90%) Computer Science Degree
10 18 (3.70%) A+ Certification
11 16 (3.29%) Network+ Certification
12 15 (3.08%) CCIE
13 13 (2.67%) CISSP
14 12 (2.46%) Azure Certification
14 12 (2.46%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
14 12 (2.46%) VCAP
15 11 (2.26%) AWS Certification
16 7 (1.44%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
17 5 (1.03%) CISM
17 5 (1.03%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (4.72%) SLA
2 13 (2.67%) QA
3 11 (2.26%) NIST
4 9 (1.85%) NCSC
5 8 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 5 (1.03%) GDPR
7 4 (0.82%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 4 (0.82%) GxP
7 4 (0.82%) NIST 800
7 4 (0.82%) PCI DSS
8 2 (0.41%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.41%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.21%) ISO 8583
9 1 (0.21%) RMADS
System Software
1 153 (31.42%) Active Directory
2 90 (18.48%) VMware Infrastructure
3 37 (7.60%) Hyper-V
4 30 (6.16%) Docker
5 24 (4.93%) vSphere
6 23 (4.72%) VMware NSX
7 19 (3.90%) Firmware
8 13 (2.67%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (1.03%) Squid
10 4 (0.82%) NFS
10 4 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
11 3 (0.62%) VirtualBox
11 3 (0.62%) VMware ESXi
12 2 (0.41%) KVM
12 2 (0.41%) RACF
13 1 (0.21%) GPFS
13 1 (0.21%) iptables
13 1 (0.21%) NDS
13 1 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.21%) Snort
Systems Management
1 103 (21.15%) Ansible
2 61 (12.53%) Microsoft Intune
3 46 (9.45%) Kubernetes
4 33 (6.78%) SCCM
5 25 (5.13%) Grafana
6 23 (4.72%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (3.70%) FortiGate
8 16 (3.29%) VxRail
9 14 (2.87%) Prometheus
10 11 (2.26%) Jamf Pro
11 8 (1.64%) WSUS
12 6 (1.23%) systemd
13 5 (1.03%) Suricata
14 4 (0.82%) Istio
15 3 (0.62%) Consul
15 3 (0.62%) Puppet
15 3 (0.62%) SELinux
15 3 (0.62%) Tivoli
15 3 (0.62%) Tivoli NetView
15 3 (0.62%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 188 (38.60%) Microsoft
2 102 (20.94%) VMware
3 98 (20.12%) Cisco
4 61 (12.53%) F5
5 59 (12.11%) ServiceNow
6 30 (6.16%) Fortinet
7 25 (5.13%) Zscaler
8 24 (4.93%) Google
8 24 (4.93%) NetApp
9 21 (4.31%) Juniper
10 20 (4.11%) Blue Coat
11 19 (3.90%) Palo Alto
12 18 (3.70%) Citrix
12 18 (3.70%) Infoblox
12 18 (3.70%) McAfee
13 15 (3.08%) CheckPoint
13 15 (3.08%) Red Hat
13 15 (3.08%) Splunk
14 14 (2.87%) Bloomberg
15 10 (2.05%) IBM