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

6 months to
22 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 261 248 271
Rank change year-on-year -13 +23 -39
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 499 354 353
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.95% 1.08% 0.85%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.99% 8.92% 6.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 277 208 231
10th Percentile £196 £209 £200
25th Percentile £313 £357 £265
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -6.00% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £550 £602 £560
90th Percentile £650 £655 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £456
% change year-on-year -0.06% -1.37% +7.35%
Number of hourly rates quoted 41 23 31
10th Percentile £21.25 £19.72 £20.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £43.60 £62.50
Median hourly rate £47.00 £65.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -27.69% - +28.92%
75th Percentile £65.00 - -
90th Percentile £92.53 £88.30 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £49.75 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -23.46% - +15.06%

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 4,993 3,967 5,141
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.47% 12.16% 12.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,011 2,422 3,069
10th Percentile £250 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.25% -2.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £589 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.05% -5.00% +9.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 324 193 383
10th Percentile £16.00 £14.99 £13.90
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £17.66
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% +15.63% -16.67%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.80 £73.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.55 £42.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.53% -10.53% -16.91%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -6 454 £475 -5.00% 267
UK excluding London -20 283 £450 -0.06% 219
London -37 186 £475 -5.00% 84
Work from Home -44 120 £500 -6.89% 98
North of England -33 93 £455 -9.05% 39
South East -23 80 £527 +17.17% 81
North West -5 59 £475 +26.60% 17
Midlands -34 40 £401 -27.09% 25
South West -10 34 £500 -18.70% 38
East of England -10 34 £250 -52.38% 27
West Midlands -36 32 £400 -6.10% 15
Yorkshire -51 30 £468 -7.65% 19
Scotland -17 16 £178 -60.56% 11
East Midlands -11 8 £402 -26.91% 10
Wales -12 7 £408 - 5
North East -33 4 £306 +22.50% 6

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 41 (8.22%) SharePoint
2 23 (4.61%) Microsoft Exchange
3 17 (3.41%) Confluence
4 14 (2.81%) nginx
5 7 (1.40%) OpenStack
6 4 (0.80%) WebSphere
7 3 (0.60%) FactoryTalk
7 3 (0.60%) IIS
8 2 (0.40%) CICS
8 2 (0.40%) IBM HTTP Server
8 2 (0.40%) Oracle HTTP Server
8 2 (0.40%) WebSphere Application Server
8 2 (0.40%) WebSphere Portal
9 1 (0.20%) Traefik
Applications
1 37 (7.41%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (2.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.80%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (1.60%) 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 7 (1.40%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 154 (30.86%) Azure
2 116 (23.25%) AWS
3 108 (21.64%) Microsoft 365
4 63 (12.63%) Entra ID
5 36 (7.21%) GCP
6 33 (6.61%) OneDrive
6 33 (6.61%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 21 (4.21%) Route 53
8 20 (4.01%) Amazon EC2
9 19 (3.81%) GitHub
10 15 (3.01%) Amazon EKS
11 14 (2.81%) Amazon S3
12 13 (2.61%) AWS Lambda
12 13 (2.61%) Serverless
13 11 (2.20%) AWS CloudFormation
13 11 (2.20%) Azure Monitor
13 11 (2.20%) Google Workspace
14 9 (1.80%) Azure DevOps
14 9 (1.80%) Azure Sentinel
14 9 (1.80%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 294 (58.92%) DNS
2 210 (42.08%) Firewall
3 163 (32.67%) DHCP
4 147 (29.46%) VPN
5 92 (18.44%) Network Security
6 90 (18.04%) WAN
7 80 (16.03%) LAN
8 77 (15.43%) BGP
9 76 (15.23%) VLAN
10 70 (14.03%) HTTP
11 63 (12.63%) SSL
12 49 (9.82%) BIG-IP
12 49 (9.82%) OSPF
13 45 (9.02%) Wi-Fi
14 39 (7.82%) Ethernet
14 39 (7.82%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 34 (6.81%) Wireless
16 28 (5.61%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
17 26 (5.21%) SD-WAN
17 26 (5.21%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (2.61%) SQL Server
2 10 (2.00%) Elasticsearch
3 6 (1.20%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.60%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.40%) BigQuery
5 2 (0.40%) MySQL
5 2 (0.40%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.40%) SQLite
6 1 (0.20%) Cloud Spanner
6 1 (0.20%) KDB
6 1 (0.20%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 52 (10.42%) JIRA
2 25 (5.01%) Git
3 19 (3.81%) Fiddler
4 18 (3.61%) Jenkins
5 17 (3.41%) GitLab
6 14 (2.81%) Visual Studio
7 13 (2.61%) Eclipse
8 10 (2.00%) Browser DevTools
9 8 (1.60%) Bitbucket
10 7 (1.40%) SonarQube
11 6 (1.20%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (0.80%) Artifactory
13 2 (0.40%) Introscope
13 2 (0.40%) Subversion
14 1 (0.20%) MSI
14 1 (0.20%) Postman
General
1 198 (39.68%) Social Skills
2 70 (14.03%) Analytical Skills
3 65 (13.03%) Finance
4 42 (8.42%) Banking
5 34 (6.81%) Public Sector
6 22 (4.41%) Documentation Skills
6 22 (4.41%) Investment Banking
6 22 (4.41%) Presentation Skills
7 21 (4.21%) Telecoms
8 19 (3.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (3.41%) Military
10 7 (1.40%) Front Office
11 5 (1.00%) Legal
11 5 (1.00%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
11 5 (1.00%) Pharmaceutical
12 4 (0.80%) Police
13 3 (0.60%) Automotive
13 3 (0.60%) Retail
14 2 (0.40%) Law
Job Titles
1 115 (23.05%) Network Engineer
2 56 (11.22%) Support Engineer
3 50 (10.02%) Architect
4 48 (9.62%) Senior
5 44 (8.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 39 (7.82%) IT Support
7 37 (7.41%) Analyst
8 31 (6.21%) IT Engineer
9 26 (5.21%) Security Engineer
9 26 (5.21%) Web Engineer
10 25 (5.01%) IT Support Engineer
11 22 (4.41%) Technical Engineer
12 20 (4.01%) Systems Engineer
13 18 (3.61%) IP Network Engineer
13 18 (3.61%) Senior Network Engineer
14 16 (3.21%) Blue Coat Engineer
14 16 (3.21%) Platform Engineer
15 15 (3.01%) Software Engineer
16 14 (2.81%) C# Software Engineer
16 14 (2.81%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (4.21%) LDAP
2 19 (3.81%) SAML
3 15 (3.01%) JSON
4 13 (2.61%) Node.js
4 13 (2.61%) REST
4 13 (2.61%) Web Services
5 11 (2.20%) 802.1X
5 11 (2.20%) ARM Templates
5 11 (2.20%) OpenID
6 8 (1.60%) .NET
7 6 (1.20%) NETCONF
7 6 (1.20%) OpenConfig
7 6 (1.20%) RESTCONF
7 6 (1.20%) XML
7 6 (1.20%) YANG
8 5 (1.00%) OAuth
9 4 (0.80%) boto
9 4 (0.80%) eBPF
9 4 (0.80%) WinForms
10 3 (0.60%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 71 (14.23%) Data Centre
2 49 (9.82%) Onboarding
3 28 (5.61%) Management Information System
4 25 (5.01%) Hybrid Cloud
5 24 (4.81%) PKI
6 23 (4.61%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 19 (3.81%) Security Posture
8 18 (3.61%) Robotics
9 16 (3.21%) Driving Licence
9 16 (3.21%) Linux Command Line
9 16 (3.21%) Public Cloud
10 15 (3.01%) Industry 4.0
11 14 (2.81%) Self-Motivation
12 12 (2.40%) Cloud Native
12 12 (2.40%) Operational Technology
12 12 (2.40%) Private Cloud
13 11 (2.20%) Cyber Threat
13 11 (2.20%) SCADA
13 11 (2.20%) Security Operations Centre
14 10 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 213 (42.69%) Windows
2 115 (23.05%) Linux
3 61 (12.22%) Windows Server
4 40 (8.02%) Mac OS
5 31 (6.21%) Windows 10
6 20 (4.01%) Unix
7 17 (3.41%) Apple iOS
8 15 (3.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 14 (2.81%) Android
10 12 (2.40%) Ubuntu
11 6 (1.20%) Windows Server 2012
12 4 (0.80%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.80%) zOS
13 3 (0.60%) CentOS
13 3 (0.60%) Check Point GAiA
14 2 (0.40%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.40%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.40%) Windows 7
14 2 (0.40%) Windows Server 2016
15 1 (0.20%) Windows Server 2003
Processes & Methodologies
1 141 (28.26%) Problem-Solving
2 103 (20.64%) ITIL
3 69 (13.83%) CI/CD
4 66 (13.23%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 61 (12.22%) DevOps
6 60 (12.02%) Agile
7 58 (11.62%) Load Balancing
8 56 (11.22%) Customer Service
8 56 (11.22%) Infrastructure as Code
9 54 (10.82%) Cybersecurity
10 50 (10.02%) Incident Response
10 50 (10.02%) ITSM
10 50 (10.02%) Migration
11 46 (9.22%) High Availability
12 44 (8.82%) SIEM
13 42 (8.42%) Service Management
14 41 (8.22%) Validation
15 37 (7.41%) Continuous Improvement
15 37 (7.41%) Stakeholder Management
16 35 (7.01%) Root Cause Analysis
Programming Languages
1 132 (26.45%) Python
2 79 (15.83%) PowerShell
3 69 (13.83%) Bash
4 27 (5.41%) JavaScript
5 26 (5.21%) C++
6 17 (3.41%) C#
7 16 (3.21%) SQL
8 10 (2.00%) Java
9 9 (1.80%) VBA
10 7 (1.40%) Bicep
10 7 (1.40%) Perl
11 6 (1.20%) C
12 5 (1.00%) ActionScript
13 4 (0.80%) Shell Script
14 3 (0.60%) Go
15 2 (0.40%) Jython
15 2 (0.40%) Korn
15 2 (0.40%) Kusto Query Language
15 2 (0.40%) Objective-C
15 2 (0.40%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 137 (27.45%) Security Cleared
2 94 (18.84%) SC Cleared
3 78 (15.63%) Degree
4 61 (12.22%) Cisco Certification
5 46 (9.22%) CCNP
6 41 (8.22%) DV Cleared
7 28 (5.61%) CCNA
8 26 (5.21%) Microsoft Certification
9 22 (4.41%) CISSP
10 18 (3.61%) CCIE
10 18 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
11 14 (2.81%) CompTIA Security+
11 14 (2.81%) Network+ Certification
12 10 (2.00%) Azure Certification
12 10 (2.00%) MCSA
13 9 (1.80%) CompTIA CySA+
13 9 (1.80%) MCSE
14 8 (1.60%) A+ Certification
15 6 (1.20%) CISM
15 6 (1.20%) JNCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 17 (3.41%) SLA
2 13 (2.61%) NIST
3 12 (2.40%) NCSC
4 10 (2.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 7 (1.40%) QA
6 5 (1.00%) GDPR
7 4 (0.80%) NIST 800
7 4 (0.80%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.60%) 21 CFR Part 11
8 3 (0.60%) GxP
9 2 (0.40%) Government Security Classifications
9 2 (0.40%) JSP 440
9 2 (0.40%) RMADS
10 1 (0.20%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.20%) GRC
10 1 (0.20%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 133 (26.65%) Active Directory
2 76 (15.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (4.61%) Docker
4 22 (4.41%) Hyper-V
5 19 (3.81%) vSphere
6 17 (3.41%) Firmware
6 17 (3.41%) VMware NSX
7 13 (2.61%) Squid
8 12 (2.40%) Virtual Desktop
9 6 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
10 5 (1.00%) NFS
11 4 (0.80%) VMware ESXi
12 2 (0.40%) KVM
12 2 (0.40%) RACF
12 2 (0.40%) VirtualBox
13 1 (0.20%) GPFS
13 1 (0.20%) iptables
13 1 (0.20%) Slurm Workload Manager
13 1 (0.20%) Snort
13 1 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 96 (19.24%) Ansible
2 72 (14.43%) Terraform
3 49 (9.82%) Microsoft Intune
4 43 (8.62%) Kubernetes
5 30 (6.01%) Single Sign-On
6 26 (5.21%) SCCM
7 25 (5.01%) Grafana
8 24 (4.81%) FortiGate
9 17 (3.41%) Prometheus
10 11 (2.20%) Jamf Pro
11 9 (1.80%) Consul
11 9 (1.80%) WSUS
12 8 (1.60%) VxRail
13 6 (1.20%) CASB
14 5 (1.00%) Nessus
14 5 (1.00%) QRadar
14 5 (1.00%) Suricata
14 5 (1.00%) systemd
15 3 (0.60%) Nagios
15 3 (0.60%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 180 (36.07%) Microsoft
2 93 (18.64%) Cisco
3 87 (17.43%) VMware
4 69 (13.83%) F5
5 60 (12.02%) ServiceNow
6 31 (6.21%) Fortinet
7 28 (5.61%) Google
8 27 (5.41%) Palo Alto
9 26 (5.21%) Zscaler
10 25 (5.01%) Juniper
11 24 (4.81%) Blue Coat
12 22 (4.41%) Splunk
13 21 (4.21%) CheckPoint
13 21 (4.21%) Citrix
13 21 (4.21%) Infoblox
13 21 (4.21%) Red Hat
14 20 (4.01%) NetApp
15 18 (3.61%) McAfee
16 17 (3.41%) Siemens
17 13 (2.61%) SolarWinds