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

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 287 222 286
Rank change year-on-year -65 +64 -36
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 408 350 336
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.84% 1.22% 0.79%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.65% 9.67% 6.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 234 248 229
10th Percentile £208 £225 £188
25th Percentile £371 £362 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -8.00% - +2.56%
75th Percentile £550 £623 £575
90th Percentile £638 £775 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £453 £475 £488
% change year-on-year -4.63% -2.56% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 10 21
10th Percentile £21.25 £17.54 £16.00
25th Percentile £26.25 £32.44 £20.00
Median hourly rate £38.58 £58.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -34.05% -10.00% +10.35%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £63.75 £65.00
% change year-on-year -34.21% -1.92% +3.92%

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 4,715 3,618 5,402
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.67% 12.66% 12.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,897 2,244 3,234
10th Percentile £263 £213 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £486 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.83% -0.77% -4.39%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £465 £475
% change year-on-year +2.15% -2.11% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 274 153 414
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.93 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £28.96 £40.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.60% - +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.66 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £79.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.22 £30.70 £46.14
% change year-on-year +14.72% -33.46% +156.31%

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 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 27 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 27 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 -68 349 £470 -6.00% 216
UK excluding London -41 246 £453 -4.63% 190
London -67 127 £475 - 59
North of England -20 89 £450 +12.50% 35
Work from Home -82 89 £450 -18.23% 77
South East -39 57 £520 +15.56% 67
North West -2 56 £540 +116.00% 20
East of England -16 37 £263 -38.95% 30
Midlands -53 34 £400 -27.27% 25
West Midlands -40 31 £388 -29.55% 17
Yorkshire -41 28 £447 -12.78% 12
Scotland +11 24 £537 +21.24% 11
South West -32 19 £500 -18.70% 26
Wales -16 7 £408 -9.44% 6
North East -22 5 £306 +22.50% 4
East Midlands -35 3 £625 +13.64% 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 17 (4.17%) Confluence
2 12 (2.94%) SharePoint
3 10 (2.45%) nginx
4 9 (2.21%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.98%) IIS
5 4 (0.98%) WebSphere
6 3 (0.74%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.49%) Apache
7 2 (0.49%) CICS
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
8 1 (0.25%) Traefik
Applications
1 28 (6.86%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.96%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.98%) Acrobat
4 3 (0.74%) Microsoft Excel
5 2 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.25%) Weka
Business Applications
1 2 (0.49%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 94 (23.04%) Azure
2 93 (22.79%) AWS
3 69 (16.91%) Microsoft 365
4 29 (7.11%) Entra ID
5 28 (6.86%) GCP
6 26 (6.37%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 17 (4.17%) Amazon EC2
8 16 (3.92%) Amazon EKS
9 15 (3.68%) Amazon S3
10 14 (3.43%) OneDrive
10 14 (3.43%) Route 53
11 13 (3.19%) AWS Lambda
11 13 (3.19%) Serverless
12 11 (2.70%) GitHub
13 7 (1.72%) Akamai
13 7 (1.72%) AWS CloudFormation
13 7 (1.72%) Azure DevOps
13 7 (1.72%) Google Workspace
13 7 (1.72%) Nutanix
13 7 (1.72%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 229 (56.13%) DNS
2 142 (34.80%) Firewall
3 100 (24.51%) VPN
4 94 (23.04%) DHCP
5 72 (17.65%) WAN
6 71 (17.40%) HTTP
7 69 (16.91%) SSL
8 68 (16.67%) Network Security
9 66 (16.18%) LAN
10 55 (13.48%) VLAN
11 52 (12.75%) BGP
12 49 (12.01%) BIG-IP
13 42 (10.29%) OSPF
14 34 (8.33%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 34 (8.33%) Wi-Fi
15 31 (7.60%) Ethernet
15 31 (7.60%) Wireshark
16 27 (6.62%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
17 20 (4.90%) Wireless
18 14 (3.43%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.94%) Elasticsearch
2 11 (2.70%) SQL Server
3 7 (1.72%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (1.23%) MongoDB
5 4 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.25%) Amazon Aurora
6 1 (0.25%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.25%) MySQL
6 1 (0.25%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.25%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.25%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 41 (10.05%) JIRA
2 26 (6.37%) Fiddler
3 21 (5.15%) GitLab
4 17 (4.17%) Git
5 14 (3.43%) Jenkins
6 12 (2.94%) Eclipse
6 12 (2.94%) Visual Studio
7 9 (2.21%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (1.72%) Bitbucket
8 7 (1.72%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.98%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.98%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.74%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.49%) Introscope
11 2 (0.49%) Subversion
12 1 (0.25%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.25%) Postman
12 1 (0.25%) Travis CI
General
1 141 (34.56%) Social Skills
2 55 (13.48%) Finance
3 47 (11.52%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (9.31%) Banking
5 28 (6.86%) Public Sector
6 23 (5.64%) Investment Banking
7 22 (5.39%) Presentation Skills
8 20 (4.90%) Military
9 19 (4.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 18 (4.41%) Documentation Skills
11 8 (1.96%) Telecoms
12 6 (1.47%) Front Office
13 5 (1.23%) Law
14 3 (0.74%) French Language
14 3 (0.74%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.74%) Marketing
14 3 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.49%) Aviation
15 2 (0.49%) Japanese Language
15 2 (0.49%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 97 (23.77%) Network Engineer
2 50 (12.25%) Analyst
3 34 (8.33%) Web Engineer
4 33 (8.09%) Support Engineer
5 31 (7.60%) Senior
6 28 (6.86%) Architect
7 26 (6.37%) Security Engineer
8 25 (6.13%) IT Support
9 22 (5.39%) Technical Engineer
10 20 (4.90%) IP Network Engineer
10 20 (4.90%) SOC Analyst
11 18 (4.41%) Blue Coat Engineer
11 18 (4.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 17 (4.17%) Systems Engineer
13 16 (3.92%) IT Engineer
13 16 (3.92%) Junior
14 15 (3.68%) Lead
15 13 (3.19%) Technical Support
16 12 (2.94%) Integration Engineer
16 12 (2.94%) IT Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.90%) LDAP
2 16 (3.92%) SAML
3 13 (3.19%) Web Services
4 12 (2.94%) Node.js
4 12 (2.94%) OpenID
5 11 (2.70%) JSON
6 10 (2.45%) 802.1X
7 9 (2.21%) REST
8 5 (1.23%) Kafka
8 5 (1.23%) OAuth
8 5 (1.23%) XML
9 3 (0.74%) .NET
9 3 (0.74%) ARM Templates
9 3 (0.74%) Elastic Stack
9 3 (0.74%) HTML
9 3 (0.74%) Middleware
10 2 (0.49%) eBPF
10 2 (0.49%) Loki
10 2 (0.49%) NETCONF
10 2 (0.49%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 36 (8.82%) Data Centre
1 36 (8.82%) Onboarding
2 24 (5.88%) Management Information System
2 24 (5.88%) Security Operations Centre
3 21 (5.15%) Cyberattack
4 16 (3.92%) Cyber Threat
5 15 (3.68%) Industry 4.0
5 15 (3.68%) Robotics
6 13 (3.19%) Security Posture
7 10 (2.45%) Enterprise Software
8 9 (2.21%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 8 (1.96%) Data Protection Act
9 8 (1.96%) Driving Licence
9 8 (1.96%) PKI
9 8 (1.96%) Public Cloud
10 6 (1.47%) Mainframe
10 6 (1.47%) NHS
10 6 (1.47%) Private Cloud
11 5 (1.23%) CMDB
11 5 (1.23%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 172 (42.16%) Windows
2 92 (22.55%) Linux
3 48 (11.76%) Windows Server
4 25 (6.13%) Mac OS
5 17 (4.17%) Windows 10
6 14 (3.43%) Unix
7 11 (2.70%) Android
7 11 (2.70%) Apple iOS
8 10 (2.45%) Windows Server 2012
9 8 (1.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 7 (1.72%) Windows Server 2019
11 6 (1.47%) Ubuntu
11 6 (1.47%) zOS
12 4 (0.98%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.74%) Debian
13 3 (0.74%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.74%) Windows Server 2003
14 2 (0.49%) AIX
14 2 (0.49%) CentOS
14 2 (0.49%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 116 (28.43%) Problem-Solving
2 65 (15.93%) ITIL
3 55 (13.48%) Incident Response
4 49 (12.01%) Agile
5 48 (11.76%) Cybersecurity
5 48 (11.76%) Load Balancing
5 48 (11.76%) SIEM
6 45 (11.03%) DevOps
7 38 (9.31%) CI/CD
7 38 (9.31%) Security Operations
8 36 (8.82%) Customer Service
8 36 (8.82%) Migration
9 34 (8.33%) ITSM
10 32 (7.84%) High Availability
11 31 (7.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 31 (7.60%) Validation
12 30 (7.35%) Computer Science
12 30 (7.35%) Root Cause Analysis
13 29 (7.11%) Decision-Making
14 28 (6.86%) Data Loss Prevention
Programming Languages
1 85 (20.83%) Python
2 42 (10.29%) Bash
3 40 (9.80%) PowerShell
4 26 (6.37%) JavaScript
5 19 (4.66%) SQL
6 18 (4.41%) C++
7 14 (3.43%) C#
8 9 (2.21%) Java
9 7 (1.72%) Shell Script
9 7 (1.72%) VBA
10 6 (1.47%) C
10 6 (1.47%) Go
11 4 (0.98%) Perl
12 2 (0.49%) Jython
12 2 (0.49%) Ruby
13 1 (0.25%) Groovy
13 1 (0.25%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 118 (28.92%) Security Cleared
2 96 (23.53%) SC Cleared
3 71 (17.40%) Degree
4 44 (10.78%) Cisco Certification
5 37 (9.07%) CCNP
6 30 (7.35%) Computer Science Degree
7 29 (7.11%) CompTIA Security+
8 28 (6.86%) DV Cleared
9 25 (6.13%) CCNA
10 18 (4.41%) CISSP
10 18 (4.41%) CompTIA CySA+
11 13 (3.19%) Microsoft Certification
12 9 (2.21%) Azure Certification
12 9 (2.21%) MCSA
13 8 (1.96%) MCSE
13 8 (1.96%) Network+ Certification
14 7 (1.72%) CCIE
14 7 (1.72%) JNCIS
15 5 (1.23%) CISM
16 4 (0.98%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.19%) SLA
2 10 (2.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (1.96%) NIST
4 6 (1.47%) GDPR
5 5 (1.23%) QA
6 3 (0.74%) NCSC
7 2 (0.49%) RMADS
8 1 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.25%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.25%) GRC
8 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 85 (20.83%) Active Directory
2 46 (11.27%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (4.66%) Docker
4 18 (4.41%) Firmware
5 13 (3.19%) Squid
6 10 (2.45%) Virtual Desktop
7 9 (2.21%) vSphere
8 8 (1.96%) Hyper-V
8 8 (1.96%) VMware NSX
9 7 (1.72%) Virtual Machines
10 4 (0.98%) KVM
11 3 (0.74%) NFS
12 2 (0.49%) RACF
13 1 (0.25%) Ceph
13 1 (0.25%) Citrix Presentation Server
13 1 (0.25%) GPFS
13 1 (0.25%) iptables
13 1 (0.25%) RHEV
13 1 (0.25%) Snort
13 1 (0.25%) Xen
Systems Management
1 64 (15.69%) Ansible
2 37 (9.07%) Terraform
3 35 (8.58%) Kubernetes
4 27 (6.62%) Grafana
5 25 (6.13%) FortiGate
5 25 (6.13%) Microsoft Intune
6 23 (5.64%) SCCM
6 23 (5.64%) Single Sign-On
7 17 (4.17%) Prometheus
8 10 (2.45%) Nagios
9 9 (2.21%) Consul
9 9 (2.21%) WSUS
10 8 (1.96%) QRadar
11 6 (1.47%) CASB
11 6 (1.47%) Jamf Pro
12 5 (1.23%) Nessus
12 5 (1.23%) Puppet
12 5 (1.23%) Suricata
13 4 (0.98%) Active Directory Federation Services
13 4 (0.98%) Tivoli NetView
Vendors
1 107 (26.23%) Microsoft
2 65 (15.93%) F5
3 64 (15.69%) Cisco
4 62 (15.20%) VMware
5 41 (10.05%) Splunk
6 36 (8.82%) ServiceNow
7 31 (7.60%) Blue Coat
8 26 (6.37%) McAfee
8 26 (6.37%) Palo Alto
9 22 (5.39%) Fortinet
9 22 (5.39%) Red Hat
10 20 (4.90%) Citrix
11 19 (4.66%) Juniper
11 19 (4.66%) NetApp
12 17 (4.17%) Siemens
13 16 (3.92%) Zscaler
14 13 (3.19%) SolarWinds
15 12 (2.94%) Bloomberg
15 12 (2.94%) CheckPoint
16 11 (2.70%) Google