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 26 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 273 219 218
Rank change year-on-year -54 -1 +4
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 502 413 445
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.91% 1.25% 1.16%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.84% 10.88% 9.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 262 226 251
10th Percentile £193 £185 £203
25th Percentile £294 £300 £261
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% -2.63% +5.56%
75th Percentile £549 £597 £594
90th Percentile £675 £661 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £425
% change year-on-year - +5.88% +6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 59 38 30
10th Percentile £26.50 £20.36 £29.13
25th Percentile £33.70 £33.00 -
Median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
75th Percentile £69.13 - -
90th Percentile £93.79 £71.98 £65.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year - - +30.00%

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 5,104 3,795 4,598
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.30% 11.47% 12.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,949 2,369 2,648
10th Percentile £231 £222 £225
25th Percentile £390 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £450 £490
% change year-on-year +5.56% -8.16% +5.95%
Number of hourly rates quoted 425 202 227
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £23.45
Median hourly rate £33.00 £42.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.35% -15.00% -11.49%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £92.11 £72.72 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -32.94% -25.89% -0.26%

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 26 September 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 26 September 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 26 September 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 -56 458 £465 -2.11% 732
UK excluding London -39 285 £450 - 473
London -51 194 £465 -19.13% 323
Work from Home -68 119 £500 - 265
North of England -63 73 £425 -17.87% 91
South East -58 70 £527 +40.60% 138
South West -7 48 £638 +10.87% 53
Midlands -34 44 £401 +3.90% 58
East of England -25 41 £425 -10.53% 69
North West -32 41 £240 -55.76% 50
West Midlands -39 38 £438 +9.38% 35
Yorkshire -46 28 £500 - 30
Scotland -21 17 £210 -49.94% 34
Wales -4 7 £376 +109.03% 12
East Midlands -10 6 £326 +97.58% 23
North East -38 4 £438 +75.00% 14

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 (9.96%) SharePoint
2 36 (7.17%) Microsoft Exchange
3 13 (2.59%) Confluence
4 12 (2.39%) OpenStack
5 5 (1.00%) nginx
6 4 (0.80%) FactoryTalk
7 2 (0.40%) CICS
7 2 (0.40%) IIS
7 2 (0.40%) Skype for Business
7 2 (0.40%) WebSphere
8 1 (0.20%) Traefik
Applications
1 19 (3.78%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (3.19%) Microsoft Excel
3 7 (1.39%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (1.20%) 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 8 (1.59%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 166 (33.07%) Azure
2 128 (25.50%) Microsoft 365
3 104 (20.72%) AWS
4 78 (15.54%) Entra ID
5 36 (7.17%) OneDrive
6 29 (5.78%) GCP
7 23 (4.58%) GitHub
8 18 (3.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 15 (2.99%) OpenShift
10 14 (2.79%) Azure Monitor
11 11 (2.19%) AWS CloudFormation
11 11 (2.19%) GitHub Actions
12 10 (1.99%) Google Workspace
12 10 (1.99%) Route 53
13 9 (1.79%) Azure Sentinel
14 8 (1.59%) Amazon EC2
15 7 (1.39%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 7 (1.39%) IaaS
15 7 (1.39%) SaaS
16 6 (1.20%) Azure ExpressRoute
Communications & Networking
1 295 (58.76%) DNS
2 208 (41.43%) Firewall
3 204 (40.64%) DHCP
4 148 (29.48%) VPN
5 93 (18.53%) Network Security
6 87 (17.33%) WAN
7 82 (16.33%) LAN
8 74 (14.74%) VLAN
9 70 (13.94%) BGP
9 70 (13.94%) HTTP
10 57 (11.35%) SSL
11 48 (9.56%) Wi-Fi
12 47 (9.36%) Wireless
13 45 (8.96%) OSPF
14 32 (6.37%) BIG-IP
15 30 (5.98%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 25 (4.98%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
16 25 (4.98%) SD-WAN
17 24 (4.78%) Ethernet
18 20 (3.98%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 18 (3.59%) PostgreSQL
2 16 (3.19%) SQL Server
3 8 (1.59%) MySQL
3 8 (1.59%) NoSQL
3 8 (1.59%) SQLite
4 7 (1.39%) MongoDB
5 6 (1.20%) Amazon RDS
5 6 (1.20%) Redis
6 3 (0.60%) BigQuery
6 3 (0.60%) KDB
7 1 (0.20%) Cloud Spanner
7 1 (0.20%) Kdb+
7 1 (0.20%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 48 (9.56%) JIRA
2 44 (8.76%) Git
3 33 (6.57%) Jenkins
4 26 (5.18%) GitLab
5 13 (2.59%) Fiddler
5 13 (2.59%) Visual Studio
6 12 (2.39%) Eclipse
7 8 (1.59%) Sonatype Nexus
8 5 (1.00%) Artifactory
8 5 (1.00%) Selenium
9 4 (0.80%) Browser DevTools
10 2 (0.40%) Bitbucket
11 1 (0.20%) MSI
11 1 (0.20%) Postman
General
1 201 (40.04%) Social Skills
2 77 (15.34%) Analytical Skills
3 57 (11.35%) Finance
4 39 (7.77%) Banking
5 32 (6.37%) Public Sector
6 28 (5.58%) Telecoms
7 16 (3.19%) Investment Banking
7 16 (3.19%) Military
8 13 (2.59%) Front Office
9 12 (2.39%) Documentation Skills
10 9 (1.79%) Aerospace
11 8 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 6 (1.20%) Legal
12 6 (1.20%) Manufacturing
12 6 (1.20%) Presentation Skills
13 5 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (1.00%) Pharmaceutical
13 5 (1.00%) Police
14 4 (0.80%) Automotive
14 4 (0.80%) Multimedia
Job Titles
1 110 (21.91%) Network Engineer
2 69 (13.75%) Support Engineer
3 61 (12.15%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 60 (11.95%) Senior
5 56 (11.16%) IT Support
6 45 (8.96%) IT Engineer
7 38 (7.57%) IT Support Engineer
8 34 (6.77%) Architect
9 33 (6.57%) Analyst
10 26 (5.18%) Senior Network Engineer
11 23 (4.58%) Platform Engineer
12 20 (3.98%) Linux Engineer
12 20 (3.98%) Security Engineer
12 20 (3.98%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
13 17 (3.39%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
14 16 (3.19%) Cloud Engineer
14 16 (3.19%) Support Analyst
15 15 (2.99%) IP Network Engineer
16 14 (2.79%) Consultant
16 14 (2.79%) Technical Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 89 (17.73%) Terraform
2 19 (3.78%) REST
3 15 (2.99%) SAML
4 14 (2.79%) JSON
5 12 (2.39%) ARM Templates
5 12 (2.39%) Node.js
5 12 (2.39%) Web Services
6 9 (1.79%) .NET
7 8 (1.59%) 802.1X
7 8 (1.59%) Kafka
7 8 (1.59%) SPNEGO
8 7 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
8 7 (1.39%) Jinja
8 7 (1.39%) LDAP
9 6 (1.20%) CSS
9 6 (1.20%) FastAPI
9 6 (1.20%) Flask
9 6 (1.20%) HTML
9 6 (1.20%) Software Packaging
9 6 (1.20%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 86 (17.13%) Data Centre
2 59 (11.75%) Onboarding
3 34 (6.77%) PKI
4 32 (6.37%) Hybrid Cloud
5 27 (5.38%) Management Information System
6 21 (4.18%) Linux Command Line
7 20 (3.98%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 20 (3.98%) Self-Motivation
8 18 (3.59%) Video Conferencing
9 17 (3.39%) Operational Technology
9 17 (3.39%) Public Cloud
10 16 (3.19%) Driving Licence
11 14 (2.79%) Cloud Native
12 13 (2.59%) SCADA
13 11 (2.19%) Cyber Threat
14 10 (1.99%) Enterprise Storage
14 10 (1.99%) Security Posture
15 9 (1.79%) Distributed Systems
15 9 (1.79%) Private Cloud
15 9 (1.79%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 250 (49.80%) Windows
2 166 (33.07%) Linux
3 81 (16.14%) Windows Server
4 52 (10.36%) Windows 10
5 45 (8.96%) Mac OS
6 31 (6.18%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 30 (5.98%) Unix
8 19 (3.78%) Apple iOS
9 15 (2.99%) Android
9 15 (2.99%) Ubuntu
10 6 (1.20%) CentOS
11 5 (1.00%) zOS
12 3 (0.60%) Check Point GAiA
12 3 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.40%) SUSE
13 2 (0.40%) Windows Server 2012
14 1 (0.20%) Data ONTAP
14 1 (0.20%) Rocky
14 1 (0.20%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 131 (26.10%) Problem-Solving
2 110 (21.91%) ITIL
3 89 (17.73%) CI/CD
4 85 (16.93%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 80 (15.94%) Infrastructure as Code
6 74 (14.74%) DevOps
7 67 (13.35%) ITSM
7 67 (13.35%) Load Balancing
8 62 (12.35%) Agile
8 62 (12.35%) Customer Service
9 56 (11.16%) Cybersecurity
10 54 (10.76%) Continuous Improvement
11 49 (9.76%) Platform Engineering
12 48 (9.56%) Incident Response
12 48 (9.56%) Migration
13 47 (9.36%) Validation
14 46 (9.16%) Change Management
14 46 (9.16%) Service Management
15 44 (8.76%) High Availability
15 44 (8.76%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 151 (30.08%) Python
2 108 (21.51%) PowerShell
3 87 (17.33%) Bash
4 25 (4.98%) C++
5 22 (4.38%) SQL
6 21 (4.18%) JavaScript
7 17 (3.39%) C#
8 16 (3.19%) Shell Script
9 13 (2.59%) Perl
10 12 (2.39%) Bicep
10 12 (2.39%) Java
11 8 (1.59%) Korn
12 7 (1.39%) VBA
13 6 (1.20%) Go
14 5 (1.00%) ActionScript
15 3 (0.60%) Kusto Query Language
15 3 (0.60%) VBScript
16 2 (0.40%) Groovy
16 2 (0.40%) Objective-C
16 2 (0.40%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 138 (27.49%) Security Cleared
2 78 (15.54%) SC Cleared
3 62 (12.35%) Degree
4 57 (11.35%) Cisco Certification
4 57 (11.35%) DV Cleared
5 46 (9.16%) CCNP
6 27 (5.38%) CCNA
7 25 (4.98%) Microsoft Certification
8 20 (3.98%) A+ Certification
9 18 (3.59%) Computer Science Degree
10 15 (2.99%) CCIE
10 15 (2.99%) Network+ Certification
11 13 (2.59%) CISSP
11 13 (2.59%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 12 (2.39%) AWS Certification
12 12 (2.39%) VCAP
13 10 (1.99%) Azure Certification
14 8 (1.59%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 6 (1.20%) JNCIS
16 5 (1.00%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (4.98%) SLA
2 15 (2.99%) QA
3 10 (1.99%) NCSC
4 9 (1.79%) NIST
5 8 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 4 (0.80%) 21 CFR Part 11
6 4 (0.80%) GxP
6 4 (0.80%) NIST 800
6 4 (0.80%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.60%) GDPR
8 2 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials
8 2 (0.40%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
8 2 (0.40%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.40%) JSP 440
9 1 (0.20%) Data Quality
9 1 (0.20%) ISO 8583
9 1 (0.20%) RMADS
System Software
1 172 (34.26%) Active Directory
2 99 (19.72%) VMware Infrastructure
3 43 (8.57%) Hyper-V
4 33 (6.57%) Docker
4 33 (6.57%) vSphere
5 23 (4.58%) VMware NSX
6 21 (4.18%) Firmware
7 15 (2.99%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (1.00%) NFS
9 5 (1.00%) VMware ESXi
10 4 (0.80%) Squid
11 3 (0.60%) VirtualBox
12 2 (0.40%) KVM
12 2 (0.40%) RACF
12 2 (0.40%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 2 (0.40%) Virtual Servers
13 1 (0.20%) GPFS
13 1 (0.20%) iptables
13 1 (0.20%) zsh
Systems Management
1 110 (21.91%) Ansible
2 66 (13.15%) Microsoft Intune
3 49 (9.76%) Kubernetes
4 32 (6.37%) SCCM
5 29 (5.78%) Grafana
6 19 (3.78%) Single Sign-On
7 17 (3.39%) Prometheus
8 16 (3.19%) VxRail
9 15 (2.99%) Jamf Pro
10 14 (2.79%) FortiGate
11 8 (1.59%) Nagios
12 6 (1.20%) Istio
12 6 (1.20%) systemd
13 5 (1.00%) Puppet
13 5 (1.00%) vCenter Server
13 5 (1.00%) WSUS
14 4 (0.80%) Consul
14 4 (0.80%) Suricata
14 4 (0.80%) ZABBIX
15 3 (0.60%) Packer
Vendors
1 206 (41.04%) Microsoft
2 116 (23.11%) VMware
3 103 (20.52%) Cisco
4 62 (12.35%) ServiceNow
5 56 (11.16%) F5
6 26 (5.18%) Fortinet
7 24 (4.78%) Google
7 24 (4.78%) Zscaler
8 22 (4.38%) NetApp
9 20 (3.98%) Infoblox
9 20 (3.98%) Palo Alto
10 19 (3.78%) Juniper
11 18 (3.59%) Splunk
12 17 (3.39%) SolarWinds
13 16 (3.19%) Blue Coat
13 16 (3.19%) Citrix
13 16 (3.19%) Red Hat
14 15 (2.99%) McAfee
15 13 (2.59%) CheckPoint
16 12 (2.39%) Bloomberg