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

6 months to
17 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 263 233 276
Rank change year-on-year -30 +43 -42
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 487 362 350
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 1.11% 0.83%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.72% 9.16% 6.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 267 216 228
10th Percentile £203 £210 £193
25th Percentile £313 £355 £263
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £608 £564
90th Percentile £650 £669 £645
UK excluding London median daily rate £447 £450 £463
% change year-on-year -0.67% -2.70% +8.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 23 33
10th Percentile £21.25 £19.72 £20.00
25th Percentile £26.66 £43.60 £56.49
Median hourly rate £38.72 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.43% - +28.92%
75th Percentile £65.00 - -
90th Percentile £90.27 £88.30 £67.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £38.72 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -40.43% - +14.22%

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 5,011 3,952 5,259
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.52% 12.15% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,028 2,401 3,103
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £370 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +2.58% -4.04% +7.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 329 192 405
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.11 £17.63
Median hourly rate £26.44 £48.75 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.76% +21.88% +23.08%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.90 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -38.31% -10.53% -0.48%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 -20 440 £475 - 299
UK excluding London -16 281 £447 -0.67% 273
London -57 174 £475 -5.00% 74
Work from Home -52 116 £500 -9.09% 149
North of England -32 93 £447 -10.60% 59
South East -34 74 £520 +15.56% 83
North West -7 59 £450 +19.87% 22
Midlands -38 40 £401 -19.80% 33
East of England -8 37 £250 -33.77% 38
South West -16 35 £525 -14.63% 41
West Midlands -40 32 £400 -6.10% 19
Yorkshire -45 30 £454 -10.42% 30
Scotland -9 16 £178 -60.56% 17
East Midlands -14 8 £402 -26.91% 14
Wales -9 7 £408 - 5
North East -34 4 £306 +22.50% 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 35 (7.19%) SharePoint
2 19 (3.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 15 (3.08%) Confluence
4 13 (2.67%) nginx
5 7 (1.44%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.82%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.62%) FactoryTalk
7 3 (0.62%) IIS
8 2 (0.41%) CICS
8 2 (0.41%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.41%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.41%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.41%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.21%) Traefik
Applications
1 34 (6.98%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (2.87%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.64%) 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 5 (1.03%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 140 (28.75%) Azure
2 114 (23.41%) AWS
3 101 (20.74%) Microsoft 365
4 54 (11.09%) Entra ID
5 34 (6.98%) GCP
6 32 (6.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 28 (5.75%) OneDrive
8 21 (4.31%) Route 53
9 19 (3.90%) Amazon EC2
10 16 (3.29%) GitHub
11 15 (3.08%) Amazon EKS
12 14 (2.87%) Amazon S3
13 13 (2.67%) AWS Lambda
13 13 (2.67%) Serverless
14 11 (2.26%) AWS CloudFormation
14 11 (2.26%) Google Workspace
15 9 (1.85%) OpenShift
16 8 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
17 7 (1.44%) IaaS
18 6 (1.23%) Akamai
Communications & Networking
1 283 (58.11%) DNS
2 198 (40.66%) Firewall
3 150 (30.80%) DHCP
4 134 (27.52%) VPN
5 86 (17.66%) Network Security
5 86 (17.66%) WAN
6 78 (16.02%) LAN
7 76 (15.61%) BGP
8 74 (15.20%) VLAN
9 70 (14.37%) HTTP
10 63 (12.94%) SSL
11 52 (10.68%) BIG-IP
12 48 (9.86%) OSPF
13 41 (8.42%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 40 (8.21%) Wi-Fi
15 39 (8.01%) Ethernet
16 32 (6.57%) Wireless
17 30 (6.16%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 27 (5.54%) Wireshark
19 24 (4.93%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (2.05%) Elasticsearch
1 10 (2.05%) SQL Server
2 6 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
4 2 (0.41%) MySQL
4 2 (0.41%) NoSQL
4 2 (0.41%) SQLite
5 1 (0.21%) BigQuery
5 1 (0.21%) KDB
5 1 (0.21%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 50 (10.27%) JIRA
2 21 (4.31%) Git
3 20 (4.11%) Fiddler
4 15 (3.08%) GitLab
4 15 (3.08%) Jenkins
5 14 (2.87%) Visual Studio
6 13 (2.67%) Eclipse
7 10 (2.05%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (1.44%) Bitbucket
8 7 (1.44%) SonarQube
9 5 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.62%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.41%) Introscope
11 2 (0.41%) Subversion
12 1 (0.21%) MSI
12 1 (0.21%) Postman
General
1 190 (39.01%) Social Skills
2 68 (13.96%) Analytical Skills
3 63 (12.94%) Finance
4 42 (8.62%) Banking
5 33 (6.78%) Public Sector
6 22 (4.52%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (4.52%) Investment Banking
6 22 (4.52%) Presentation Skills
7 20 (4.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 16 (3.29%) Military
8 16 (3.29%) Telecoms
9 7 (1.44%) Front Office
10 5 (1.03%) Legal
10 5 (1.03%) Manufacturing
10 5 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
10 5 (1.03%) Pharmaceutical
11 3 (0.62%) Police
11 3 (0.62%) Retail
12 2 (0.41%) French Language
12 2 (0.41%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 112 (23.00%) Network Engineer
2 53 (10.88%) Support Engineer
3 50 (10.27%) Architect
4 39 (8.01%) Analyst
5 38 (7.80%) IT Support
6 37 (7.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 37 (7.60%) Senior
7 29 (5.95%) IT Engineer
8 27 (5.54%) Web Engineer
9 26 (5.34%) Security Engineer
10 23 (4.72%) IT Support Engineer
11 22 (4.52%) Technical Engineer
12 20 (4.11%) Systems Engineer
13 18 (3.70%) IP Network Engineer
14 16 (3.29%) Blue Coat Engineer
15 15 (3.08%) Software Engineer
16 14 (2.87%) C# Software Engineer
16 14 (2.87%) Cloud Engineer
16 14 (2.87%) Network Architect
16 14 (2.87%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (4.31%) LDAP
2 19 (3.90%) SAML
3 14 (2.87%) JSON
4 13 (2.67%) Node.js
4 13 (2.67%) Web Services
5 12 (2.46%) REST
6 11 (2.26%) OpenID
7 10 (2.05%) 802.1X
8 7 (1.44%) .NET
9 6 (1.23%) NETCONF
9 6 (1.23%) OpenConfig
9 6 (1.23%) RESTCONF
9 6 (1.23%) XML
9 6 (1.23%) YANG
10 5 (1.03%) OAuth
11 4 (0.82%) ARM Templates
11 4 (0.82%) eBPF
11 4 (0.82%) WinForms
12 3 (0.62%) HTML
12 3 (0.62%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 70 (14.37%) Data Centre
2 42 (8.62%) Onboarding
3 24 (4.93%) Management Information System
4 22 (4.52%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
4 22 (4.52%) PKI
5 19 (3.90%) Security Posture
6 17 (3.49%) Robotics
7 16 (3.29%) Driving Licence
7 16 (3.29%) Hybrid Cloud
8 15 (3.08%) Industry 4.0
8 15 (3.08%) Public Cloud
9 14 (2.87%) Linux Command Line
10 12 (2.46%) Operational Technology
10 12 (2.46%) Private Cloud
10 12 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
11 11 (2.26%) Cloud Native
11 11 (2.26%) SCADA
11 11 (2.26%) Security Operations Centre
12 10 (2.05%) Analytical Mindset
12 10 (2.05%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 203 (41.68%) Windows
2 103 (21.15%) Linux
3 54 (11.09%) Windows Server
4 39 (8.01%) Mac OS
5 30 (6.16%) Windows 10
6 18 (3.70%) Unix
7 17 (3.49%) Apple iOS
8 14 (2.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 13 (2.67%) Android
10 11 (2.26%) Ubuntu
11 7 (1.44%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.82%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.82%) zOS
13 3 (0.62%) CentOS
13 3 (0.62%) Check Point GAiA
13 3 (0.62%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.62%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.41%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.41%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.41%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (28.13%) Problem-Solving
2 94 (19.30%) ITIL
3 60 (12.32%) CI/CD
4 59 (12.11%) Agile
5 55 (11.29%) Load Balancing
6 54 (11.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 52 (10.68%) Customer Service
8 51 (10.47%) DevOps
9 49 (10.06%) Cybersecurity
9 49 (10.06%) Infrastructure as Code
10 47 (9.65%) ITSM
11 46 (9.45%) Migration
12 45 (9.24%) High Availability
12 45 (9.24%) Incident Response
13 43 (8.83%) SIEM
14 35 (7.19%) Stakeholder Management
15 34 (6.98%) Validation
16 32 (6.57%) Change Management
16 32 (6.57%) Continuous Improvement
16 32 (6.57%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 127 (26.08%) Python
2 68 (13.96%) PowerShell
3 58 (11.91%) Bash
4 27 (5.54%) JavaScript
5 26 (5.34%) C++
6 17 (3.49%) C#
7 15 (3.08%) SQL
8 9 (1.85%) VBA
9 7 (1.44%) Java
10 6 (1.23%) C
10 6 (1.23%) Perl
11 5 (1.03%) ActionScript
12 4 (0.82%) Shell Script
13 3 (0.62%) Go
14 2 (0.41%) Jython
14 2 (0.41%) Korn
14 2 (0.41%) Kusto Query Language
14 2 (0.41%) Objective-C
14 2 (0.41%) Ruby
15 1 (0.21%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 128 (26.28%) Security Cleared
2 92 (18.89%) SC Cleared
3 78 (16.02%) Degree
4 58 (11.91%) Cisco Certification
5 43 (8.83%) CCNP
6 35 (7.19%) DV Cleared
7 28 (5.75%) CCNA
8 25 (5.13%) Microsoft Certification
9 21 (4.31%) CISSP
10 18 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
11 17 (3.49%) CCIE
12 14 (2.87%) CompTIA Security+
13 12 (2.46%) Network+ Certification
14 11 (2.26%) Azure Certification
15 10 (2.05%) MCSA
15 10 (2.05%) MCSE
16 9 (1.85%) CompTIA CySA+
17 6 (1.23%) A+ Certification
17 6 (1.23%) JNCIE
18 5 (1.03%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (2.67%) NIST
2 12 (2.46%) NCSC
2 12 (2.46%) SLA
3 10 (2.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (1.44%) QA
5 5 (1.03%) GDPR
6 4 (0.82%) NIST 800
6 4 (0.82%) PCI DSS
7 3 (0.62%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 3 (0.62%) GxP
8 2 (0.41%) Government Security Classifications
8 2 (0.41%) JSP 440
8 2 (0.41%) RMADS
9 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
9 1 (0.21%) GRC
9 1 (0.21%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 124 (25.46%) Active Directory
2 75 (15.40%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (4.52%) Hyper-V
4 21 (4.31%) Docker
5 20 (4.11%) vSphere
6 17 (3.49%) Firmware
6 17 (3.49%) VMware NSX
7 13 (2.67%) Squid
8 12 (2.46%) Virtual Desktop
9 6 (1.23%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (1.03%) NFS
11 4 (0.82%) VMware ESXi
12 2 (0.41%) KVM
12 2 (0.41%) RACF
12 2 (0.41%) VirtualBox
13 1 (0.21%) Citrix Presentation Server
13 1 (0.21%) GPFS
13 1 (0.21%) iptables
13 1 (0.21%) Snort
13 1 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 89 (18.28%) Ansible
2 61 (12.53%) Terraform
3 42 (8.62%) Kubernetes
4 38 (7.80%) Microsoft Intune
5 29 (5.95%) Single Sign-On
6 25 (5.13%) FortiGate
7 23 (4.72%) Grafana
8 21 (4.31%) SCCM
9 17 (3.49%) Prometheus
10 11 (2.26%) Jamf Pro
11 9 (1.85%) Consul
11 9 (1.85%) WSUS
12 8 (1.64%) VxRail
13 6 (1.23%) CASB
14 5 (1.03%) Nessus
14 5 (1.03%) QRadar
14 5 (1.03%) Suricata
15 4 (0.82%) systemd
16 3 (0.62%) Puppet
16 3 (0.62%) SELinux
Vendors
1 168 (34.50%) Microsoft
2 88 (18.07%) Cisco
3 85 (17.45%) VMware
4 70 (14.37%) F5
5 56 (11.50%) ServiceNow
6 31 (6.37%) Fortinet
7 27 (5.54%) Google
7 27 (5.54%) Palo Alto
8 25 (5.13%) Blue Coat
9 24 (4.93%) Juniper
10 23 (4.72%) Zscaler
11 22 (4.52%) Citrix
12 21 (4.31%) Infoblox
12 21 (4.31%) Splunk
13 20 (4.11%) CheckPoint
13 20 (4.11%) NetApp
13 20 (4.11%) Red Hat
14 19 (3.90%) McAfee
15 17 (3.49%) Siemens
16 13 (2.67%) SolarWinds