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

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 284 222 275
Rank change year-on-year -62 +53 -45
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 407 359 359
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.86% 1.23% 0.83%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.88% 9.62% 6.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 256 248
10th Percentile £213 £225 £188
25th Percentile £365 £379 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £510 £500
Median % change year-on-year -11.76% +2.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £628 £575
90th Percentile £638 £750 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £506 £500
% change year-on-year -11.11% +1.25% +4.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 9 19
10th Percentile £21.25 £17.87 £16.00
25th Percentile £24.50 £28.00 £20.00
Median hourly rate £52.50 £54.50 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -3.67% -3.52% -13.09%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile - - £66.25
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 4,584 3,730 5,566
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.67% 12.73% 12.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,862 2,294 3,329
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -0.51% -5.77%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +2.15% -2.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 230 175 424
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.32 £17.00
Median hourly rate £41.94 £36.65 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.45% -8.39% +110.53%
75th Percentile £67.13 £58.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £49.36 £24.71 £45.88
% change year-on-year +99.76% -46.14% +148.00%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -60 343 £470 -6.00% 214
UK excluding London -27 261 £450 -11.11% 177
London -80 111 £475 - 61
North of England -16 91 £450 +3.09% 38
Work from Home -71 89 £447 -18.73% 80
South East -36 60 £523 -5.00% 59
North West +2 56 £559 +78.80% 17
East of England -15 45 £280 -34.88% 31
Midlands -51 34 £375 -31.82% 14
West Midlands -36 31 £300 +42.86% 12
Yorkshire -39 30 £447 -22.26% 15
Scotland +9 28 £425 -3.95% 4
South West -32 17 £550 -10.57% 32
Wales -13 7 £408 -4.12% 9
North East -20 5 £306 +22.50% 7
East Midlands -37 3 £625 +13.64% 2

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 17 (4.18%) Confluence
2 10 (2.46%) nginx
3 8 (1.97%) SharePoint
4 7 (1.72%) Microsoft Exchange
5 5 (1.23%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.74%) Apache
6 3 (0.74%) IIS
6 3 (0.74%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.49%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.49%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.49%) WebSphere Portal
7 2 (0.49%) WordPress
8 1 (0.25%) CICS
8 1 (0.25%) Traefik
Applications
1 32 (7.86%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (2.46%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.23%) Acrobat
4 4 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (0.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.98%) Weka
Business Applications
1 1 (0.25%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 87 (21.38%) Azure
2 85 (20.88%) AWS
3 62 (15.23%) Microsoft 365
4 27 (6.63%) GCP
5 24 (5.90%) Entra ID
6 21 (5.16%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 15 (3.69%) Amazon S3
8 14 (3.44%) Route 53
9 13 (3.19%) Amazon EC2
9 13 (3.19%) AWS Lambda
9 13 (3.19%) Serverless
10 12 (2.95%) Amazon EKS
11 10 (2.46%) OneDrive
12 9 (2.21%) AWS CloudFormation
12 9 (2.21%) GitHub
12 9 (2.21%) Google Workspace
13 8 (1.97%) SaaS
14 7 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (1.72%) Nutanix
15 4 (0.98%) GitHub Actions
Communications & Networking
1 227 (55.77%) DNS
2 142 (34.89%) Firewall
3 99 (24.32%) VPN
4 92 (22.60%) DHCP
5 80 (19.66%) WAN
6 71 (17.44%) LAN
7 66 (16.22%) HTTP
8 64 (15.72%) SSL
9 59 (14.50%) Network Security
10 58 (14.25%) VLAN
11 51 (12.53%) BGP
12 50 (12.29%) BIG-IP
13 44 (10.81%) OSPF
14 37 (9.09%) Wi-Fi
15 34 (8.35%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 33 (8.11%) Wireshark
17 32 (7.86%) Ethernet
18 27 (6.63%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 18 (4.42%) Wireless
20 16 (3.93%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.95%) Elasticsearch
2 11 (2.70%) SQL Server
3 7 (1.72%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (1.23%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.49%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.49%) MySQL
6 1 (0.25%) Amazon Aurora
6 1 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.25%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 41 (10.07%) JIRA
2 28 (6.88%) Fiddler
3 17 (4.18%) GitLab
4 14 (3.44%) Eclipse
4 14 (3.44%) Git
4 14 (3.44%) Visual Studio
5 12 (2.95%) Jenkins
6 9 (2.21%) Browser DevTools
7 7 (1.72%) Bitbucket
7 7 (1.72%) SonarQube
8 4 (0.98%) CircleCI
8 4 (0.98%) Sonatype Nexus
9 2 (0.49%) Introscope
9 2 (0.49%) Subversion
10 1 (0.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 1 (0.25%) Postman
10 1 (0.25%) Travis CI
General
1 143 (35.14%) Social Skills
2 48 (11.79%) Finance
3 46 (11.30%) Analytical Skills
4 42 (10.32%) Banking
5 28 (6.88%) Public Sector
6 26 (6.39%) Investment Banking
6 26 (6.39%) Presentation Skills
7 23 (5.65%) Military
8 18 (4.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (4.18%) Documentation Skills
10 11 (2.70%) Telecoms
11 8 (1.97%) Front Office
12 6 (1.47%) Law
13 3 (0.74%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.74%) French Language
13 3 (0.74%) Legal
13 3 (0.74%) Marketing
14 2 (0.49%) Aviation
14 2 (0.49%) Japanese Language
14 2 (0.49%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 100 (24.57%) Network Engineer
2 50 (12.29%) Analyst
3 36 (8.85%) Web Engineer
4 33 (8.11%) Senior
5 31 (7.62%) Support Engineer
6 28 (6.88%) Architect
7 22 (5.41%) Security Engineer
8 21 (5.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 21 (5.16%) IP Network Engineer
8 21 (5.16%) IT Support
9 20 (4.91%) SOC Analyst
10 19 (4.67%) Blue Coat Engineer
11 18 (4.42%) Technical Engineer
12 17 (4.18%) IT Engineer
12 17 (4.18%) Systems Engineer
13 15 (3.69%) Integration Engineer
13 15 (3.69%) Lead
14 13 (3.19%) IT Support Engineer
15 11 (2.70%) Junior
15 11 (2.70%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (5.16%) LDAP
2 16 (3.93%) Web Services
3 15 (3.69%) SAML
4 14 (3.44%) Node.js
5 12 (2.95%) JSON
5 12 (2.95%) OpenID
6 10 (2.46%) 802.1X
7 7 (1.72%) REST
8 5 (1.23%) Kafka
8 5 (1.23%) OAuth
9 4 (0.98%) NETCONF
9 4 (0.98%) OpenConfig
9 4 (0.98%) RESTCONF
9 4 (0.98%) XML
9 4 (0.98%) YANG
10 3 (0.74%) ARM Templates
10 3 (0.74%) HTML
10 3 (0.74%) Middleware
11 2 (0.49%) JMS
11 2 (0.49%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 27 (6.63%) Data Centre
2 26 (6.39%) Onboarding
3 25 (6.14%) Management Information System
4 22 (5.41%) Security Operations Centre
5 21 (5.16%) Cyberattack
6 15 (3.69%) Industry 4.0
6 15 (3.69%) Robotics
7 14 (3.44%) Security Posture
8 12 (2.95%) Enterprise Software
8 12 (2.95%) Public Cloud
9 11 (2.70%) Cyber Threat
9 11 (2.70%) PKI
10 9 (2.21%) Data Protection Act
10 9 (2.21%) Driving Licence
10 9 (2.21%) Private Cloud
11 7 (1.72%) Mainframe
11 7 (1.72%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.47%) Analytical Mindset
12 6 (1.47%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 6 (1.47%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 173 (42.51%) Windows
2 101 (24.82%) Linux
3 50 (12.29%) Windows Server
4 16 (3.93%) Windows 10
5 14 (3.44%) Android
5 14 (3.44%) Mac OS
5 14 (3.44%) Unix
6 9 (2.21%) Windows Server 2012
7 7 (1.72%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (1.72%) zOS
8 6 (1.47%) Apple iOS
8 6 (1.47%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (1.23%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.98%) Windows Server 2016
11 3 (0.74%) Debian
11 3 (0.74%) Windows 7
11 3 (0.74%) Windows Server 2003
12 2 (0.49%) Oracle Linux
12 2 (0.49%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
12 2 (0.49%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 120 (29.48%) Problem-Solving
2 65 (15.97%) ITIL
3 54 (13.27%) Cybersecurity
4 52 (12.78%) Agile
5 50 (12.29%) SIEM
6 49 (12.04%) Incident Response
7 48 (11.79%) Load Balancing
8 40 (9.83%) DevOps
9 39 (9.58%) Migration
10 38 (9.34%) Security Operations
11 36 (8.85%) Validation
12 35 (8.60%) CI/CD
13 32 (7.86%) Customer Service
14 31 (7.62%) Root Cause Analysis
15 30 (7.37%) Data Loss Prevention
16 29 (7.13%) High Availability
16 29 (7.13%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 28 (6.88%) Change Management
17 28 (6.88%) Decision-Making
17 28 (6.88%) Malware Detection/Protection
Programming Languages
1 89 (21.87%) Python
2 50 (12.29%) PowerShell
3 42 (10.32%) Bash
4 29 (7.13%) JavaScript
5 21 (5.16%) SQL
6 19 (4.67%) C++
7 16 (3.93%) C#
8 8 (1.97%) Java
9 7 (1.72%) Shell Script
9 7 (1.72%) VBA
10 6 (1.47%) C
10 6 (1.47%) Go
11 5 (1.23%) Perl
12 2 (0.49%) Jython
12 2 (0.49%) Ruby
13 1 (0.25%) Groovy
13 1 (0.25%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.25%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 122 (29.98%) Security Cleared
2 103 (25.31%) SC Cleared
3 62 (15.23%) Degree
4 45 (11.06%) Cisco Certification
5 36 (8.85%) CCNP
6 30 (7.37%) CompTIA Security+
7 28 (6.88%) Computer Science Degree
8 25 (6.14%) DV Cleared
9 24 (5.90%) CCNA
10 18 (4.42%) CompTIA CySA+
11 16 (3.93%) CISSP
12 13 (3.19%) Microsoft Certification
13 9 (2.21%) Azure Certification
13 9 (2.21%) MCSA
13 9 (2.21%) Network+ Certification
14 8 (1.97%) CCIE
14 8 (1.97%) MCSE
15 7 (1.72%) JNCIS
16 5 (1.23%) AWS Certification
16 5 (1.23%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (2.70%) SLA
2 9 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (1.72%) NIST
4 5 (1.23%) GDPR
5 4 (0.98%) NCSC
6 2 (0.49%) QA
6 2 (0.49%) RMADS
7 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.25%) GRC
System Software
1 82 (20.15%) Active Directory
2 49 (12.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (5.65%) Docker
4 19 (4.67%) Firmware
5 9 (2.21%) Hyper-V
5 9 (2.21%) Squid
5 9 (2.21%) VMware NSX
5 9 (2.21%) vSphere
6 8 (1.97%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (1.23%) Lustre
7 5 (1.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 4 (0.98%) GPFS
8 4 (0.98%) KVM
8 4 (0.98%) Virtual Desktop
9 3 (0.74%) NFS
10 2 (0.49%) Ceph
10 2 (0.49%) iptables
10 2 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.25%) RHEV
11 1 (0.25%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 66 (16.22%) Ansible
2 37 (9.09%) Kubernetes
3 35 (8.60%) Terraform
4 28 (6.88%) SCCM
5 23 (5.65%) Single Sign-On
6 22 (5.41%) FortiGate
7 21 (5.16%) Microsoft Intune
8 19 (4.67%) Grafana
9 16 (3.93%) Prometheus
10 11 (2.70%) WSUS
11 9 (2.21%) Consul
11 9 (2.21%) Nagios
12 8 (1.97%) QRadar
13 6 (1.47%) CASB
13 6 (1.47%) Puppet
13 6 (1.47%) Tivoli NetView
14 5 (1.23%) Nessus
15 4 (0.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 3 (0.74%) Red Hat Satellite
17 2 (0.49%) CA Wily
Vendors
1 103 (25.31%) Microsoft
2 68 (16.71%) F5
3 66 (16.22%) VMware
4 64 (15.72%) Cisco
5 40 (9.83%) Splunk
6 32 (7.86%) Blue Coat
7 31 (7.62%) ServiceNow
8 28 (6.88%) McAfee
8 28 (6.88%) Palo Alto
9 24 (5.90%) Fortinet
10 22 (5.41%) Red Hat
11 21 (5.16%) Juniper
11 21 (5.16%) NetApp
12 20 (4.91%) Citrix
13 16 (3.93%) Siemens
14 14 (3.44%) Zscaler
15 13 (3.19%) Bloomberg
15 13 (3.19%) CheckPoint
15 13 (3.19%) SolarWinds
16 12 (2.95%) Meraki