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

6 months to
8 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 280 234 292
Rank change year-on-year -46 +58 -51
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 455 365 355
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.87% 1.14% 0.82%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.13% 9.35% 6.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 246 225 234
10th Percentile £202 £213 £200
25th Percentile £313 £356 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £550 £623 £575
90th Percentile £640 £765 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £475
% change year-on-year -0.11% -5.26% +8.97%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 19 33
10th Percentile £21.25 £19.13 £20.00
25th Percentile £25.00 £34.73 £56.49
Median hourly rate £32.50 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -48.00% -3.85% +22.94%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - £67.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.86 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -47.91% - +13.38%

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 4,981 3,902 5,413
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.55% 12.21% 12.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,031 2,385 3,189
10th Percentile £238 £231 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £470 £490
% change year-on-year +2.26% -4.08% +3.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 310 182 426
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.34 £23.87 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.00 £45.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.22% - +69.81%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.44 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £73.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.89 £37.98 £47.50
% change year-on-year -31.85% -20.04% +9.51%

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 8 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 8 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 8 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 -31 406 £470 -6.00% 275
UK excluding London -34 263 £450 -0.11% 240
London -59 158 £470 -6.00% 73
Work from Home -56 110 £500 -9.09% 117
North of England -35 91 £447 -10.60% 46
South East -30 70 £530 +17.67% 80
North West -3 58 £475 +26.60% 18
Midlands -38 40 £402 -26.91% 33
East of England -17 36 £168 -60.59% 27
West Midlands -36 33 £400 -20.00% 20
Yorkshire -44 29 £447 -11.70% 24
South West -24 25 £450 -26.83% 42
Scotland -12 16 £301 -33.06% 7
Wales -13 7 £408 - 5
East Midlands -14 7 £451 -18.00% 13
North East -35 4 £306 +6.52% 8

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 28 (6.15%) SharePoint
2 16 (3.52%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.86%) Confluence
4 10 (2.20%) nginx
5 5 (1.10%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.88%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.66%) IIS
8 2 (0.44%) CICS
8 2 (0.44%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.44%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.44%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.44%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.22%) FactoryTalk
9 1 (0.22%) Traefik
Applications
1 33 (7.25%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (1.76%) MS Visio
4 7 (1.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.22%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 1 (0.22%) Houdini
5 1 (0.22%) NUKE
5 1 (0.22%) Weka
Business Applications
1 3 (0.66%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 119 (26.15%) Azure
2 100 (21.98%) AWS
3 93 (20.44%) Microsoft 365
4 47 (10.33%) Entra ID
5 32 (7.03%) GCP
6 29 (6.37%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 25 (5.49%) OneDrive
8 21 (4.62%) Route 53
9 16 (3.52%) Amazon EC2
10 15 (3.30%) Amazon EKS
10 15 (3.30%) Amazon S3
11 13 (2.86%) AWS Lambda
11 13 (2.86%) GitHub
11 13 (2.86%) Serverless
12 11 (2.42%) AWS CloudFormation
12 11 (2.42%) Google Workspace
13 8 (1.76%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (1.54%) IaaS
15 6 (1.32%) Akamai
15 6 (1.32%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 262 (57.58%) DNS
2 177 (38.90%) Firewall
3 128 (28.13%) DHCP
4 120 (26.37%) VPN
5 83 (18.24%) WAN
6 82 (18.02%) Network Security
7 74 (16.26%) LAN
8 68 (14.95%) BGP
9 67 (14.73%) HTTP
9 67 (14.73%) VLAN
10 63 (13.85%) SSL
11 54 (11.87%) BIG-IP
12 44 (9.67%) OSPF
13 40 (8.79%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 39 (8.57%) Ethernet
15 35 (7.69%) Wi-Fi
16 29 (6.37%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 29 (6.37%) Wireless
16 29 (6.37%) Wireshark
17 24 (5.27%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.42%) Elasticsearch
1 11 (2.42%) SQL Server
2 4 (0.88%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (0.66%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.44%) MySQL
4 2 (0.44%) NoSQL
5 1 (0.22%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.22%) KDB
5 1 (0.22%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 49 (10.77%) JIRA
2 22 (4.84%) Fiddler
3 16 (3.52%) GitLab
4 14 (3.08%) Visual Studio
5 13 (2.86%) Eclipse
5 13 (2.86%) Git
5 13 (2.86%) Jenkins
6 10 (2.20%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (1.54%) Bitbucket
7 7 (1.54%) SonarQube
8 6 (1.32%) Sonatype Nexus
9 3 (0.66%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.44%) Introscope
10 2 (0.44%) Subversion
11 1 (0.22%) MSI
11 1 (0.22%) Postman
General
1 177 (38.90%) Social Skills
2 61 (13.41%) Finance
3 55 (12.09%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (8.79%) Banking
5 26 (5.71%) Public Sector
6 24 (5.27%) Investment Banking
7 22 (4.84%) Presentation Skills
8 21 (4.62%) Documentation Skills
8 21 (4.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (3.74%) Military
10 13 (2.86%) Telecoms
11 8 (1.76%) Front Office
12 6 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.10%) Legal
14 3 (0.66%) French Language
14 3 (0.66%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.66%) Marketing
14 3 (0.66%) Pharmaceutical
14 3 (0.66%) Retail
15 2 (0.44%) Financial Institution
Job Titles
1 106 (23.30%) Network Engineer
2 49 (10.77%) Architect
2 49 (10.77%) Support Engineer
3 40 (8.79%) Analyst
4 37 (8.13%) IT Support
5 29 (6.37%) Web Engineer
6 28 (6.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 28 (6.15%) Senior
7 27 (5.93%) IT Engineer
8 25 (5.49%) Security Engineer
9 22 (4.84%) Technical Engineer
10 21 (4.62%) IT Support Engineer
11 20 (4.40%) Systems Engineer
12 19 (4.18%) IP Network Engineer
13 17 (3.74%) Blue Coat Engineer
14 14 (3.08%) Cloud Engineer
14 14 (3.08%) Software Engineer
15 13 (2.86%) Junior
15 13 (2.86%) Network Architect
15 13 (2.86%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.40%) LDAP
1 20 (4.40%) SAML
2 13 (2.86%) JSON
2 13 (2.86%) Node.js
2 13 (2.86%) Web Services
3 12 (2.64%) OpenID
3 12 (2.64%) REST
4 8 (1.76%) 802.1X
5 6 (1.32%) .NET
5 6 (1.32%) XML
6 5 (1.10%) OAuth
7 4 (0.88%) ARM Templates
7 4 (0.88%) NETCONF
7 4 (0.88%) OpenConfig
7 4 (0.88%) RESTCONF
7 4 (0.88%) YANG
8 3 (0.66%) HTML
8 3 (0.66%) Kafka
8 3 (0.66%) Middleware
8 3 (0.66%) WinForms
Miscellaneous
1 61 (13.41%) Data Centre
2 40 (8.79%) Onboarding
3 23 (5.05%) Management Information System
4 22 (4.84%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 19 (4.18%) Security Posture
6 15 (3.30%) Industry 4.0
6 15 (3.30%) Robotics
7 14 (3.08%) Driving Licence
7 14 (3.08%) Security Operations Centre
8 12 (2.64%) Cyber Threat
8 12 (2.64%) Hybrid Cloud
9 11 (2.42%) Cloud Native
10 10 (2.20%) Operational Technology
10 10 (2.20%) PKI
10 10 (2.20%) Private Cloud
10 10 (2.20%) Public Cloud
10 10 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
11 9 (1.98%) Cyberattack
11 9 (1.98%) SCADA
12 8 (1.76%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 188 (41.32%) Windows
2 86 (18.90%) Linux
3 48 (10.55%) Windows Server
4 37 (8.13%) Mac OS
5 27 (5.93%) Windows 10
6 17 (3.74%) Apple iOS
6 17 (3.74%) Unix
7 12 (2.64%) Android
8 9 (1.98%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 9 (1.98%) Ubuntu
9 7 (1.54%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (1.32%) zOS
11 3 (0.66%) CentOS
11 3 (0.66%) Check Point GAiA
11 3 (0.66%) Windows 7
11 3 (0.66%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.44%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.44%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.44%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 127 (27.91%) Problem-Solving
2 86 (18.90%) ITIL
3 57 (12.53%) Agile
4 54 (11.87%) Load Balancing
5 49 (10.77%) CI/CD
6 48 (10.55%) Incident Response
7 47 (10.33%) Customer Service
8 45 (9.89%) Migration
9 44 (9.67%) High Availability
10 43 (9.45%) DevOps
10 43 (9.45%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 41 (9.01%) ITSM
12 40 (8.79%) Cybersecurity
13 39 (8.57%) Infrastructure as Code
14 37 (8.13%) SIEM
15 34 (7.47%) Root Cause Analysis
16 32 (7.03%) Validation
17 31 (6.81%) Decision-Making
18 30 (6.59%) Stakeholder Management
19 27 (5.93%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 110 (24.18%) Python
2 53 (11.65%) PowerShell
3 49 (10.77%) Bash
4 27 (5.93%) JavaScript
5 22 (4.84%) C++
6 16 (3.52%) C#
7 12 (2.64%) SQL
8 9 (1.98%) VBA
9 6 (1.32%) C
10 5 (1.10%) ActionScript
11 4 (0.88%) Java
11 4 (0.88%) Perl
12 3 (0.66%) Go
13 2 (0.44%) Jython
13 2 (0.44%) Ruby
13 2 (0.44%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.22%) Groovy
14 1 (0.22%) Kusto Query Language
14 1 (0.22%) Objective-C
14 1 (0.22%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 114 (25.05%) Security Cleared
2 86 (18.90%) SC Cleared
3 80 (17.58%) Degree
4 52 (11.43%) Cisco Certification
5 39 (8.57%) CCNP
6 28 (6.15%) CCNA
7 25 (5.49%) DV Cleared
8 22 (4.84%) Microsoft Certification
9 21 (4.62%) Computer Science Degree
10 20 (4.40%) CISSP
11 17 (3.74%) CompTIA Security+
12 14 (3.08%) CCIE
13 11 (2.42%) Azure Certification
14 10 (2.20%) CompTIA CySA+
14 10 (2.20%) MCSA
14 10 (2.20%) MCSE
14 10 (2.20%) Network+ Certification
15 5 (1.10%) GCIA
15 5 (1.10%) GCIH
16 4 (0.88%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (2.64%) NIST
2 11 (2.42%) NCSC
3 10 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 9 (1.98%) SLA
5 7 (1.54%) QA
6 5 (1.10%) GDPR
7 4 (0.88%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.66%) NIST 800
9 2 (0.44%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.44%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.44%) RMADS
10 1 (0.22%) 21 CFR Part 11
10 1 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.22%) GRC
10 1 (0.22%) GxP
10 1 (0.22%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 107 (23.52%) Active Directory
2 59 (12.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (3.96%) Firmware
4 13 (2.86%) Hyper-V
4 13 (2.86%) Squid
5 12 (2.64%) Docker
5 12 (2.64%) Virtual Desktop
6 11 (2.42%) VMware NSX
6 11 (2.42%) vSphere
7 5 (1.10%) NFS
7 5 (1.10%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.66%) VMware ESXi
9 2 (0.44%) KVM
9 2 (0.44%) RACF
9 2 (0.44%) VirtualBox
10 1 (0.22%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.22%) GPFS
10 1 (0.22%) iptables
10 1 (0.22%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.22%) Snort
Systems Management
1 71 (15.60%) Ansible
2 46 (10.11%) Terraform
3 32 (7.03%) Kubernetes
3 32 (7.03%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (5.71%) Single Sign-On
5 24 (5.27%) FortiGate
6 23 (5.05%) Grafana
7 20 (4.40%) SCCM
8 18 (3.96%) Prometheus
9 11 (2.42%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (2.20%) WSUS
11 9 (1.98%) Consul
12 6 (1.32%) CASB
12 6 (1.32%) QRadar
13 5 (1.10%) Nessus
13 5 (1.10%) Suricata
14 4 (0.88%) Nagios
14 4 (0.88%) Tivoli NetView
15 3 (0.66%) Puppet
15 3 (0.66%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 154 (33.85%) Microsoft
2 78 (17.14%) Cisco
3 70 (15.38%) F5
3 70 (15.38%) VMware
4 50 (10.99%) ServiceNow
5 28 (6.15%) Fortinet
5 28 (6.15%) Palo Alto
6 27 (5.93%) Blue Coat
7 26 (5.71%) Google
8 24 (5.27%) Splunk
9 23 (5.05%) Citrix
9 23 (5.05%) Zscaler
10 21 (4.62%) Infoblox
10 21 (4.62%) Juniper
10 21 (4.62%) McAfee
11 19 (4.18%) NetApp
12 18 (3.96%) CheckPoint
12 18 (3.96%) Red Hat
13 17 (3.74%) Siemens
14 14 (3.08%) SolarWinds