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

6 months to
7 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 280 207 273
Rank change year-on-year -73 +66 -32
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 412 363 355
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.86% 1.24% 0.82%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.99% 9.70% 6.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 258 242
10th Percentile £225 £225 £188
25th Percentile £363 £375 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £508 £500
Median % change year-on-year -11.33% +1.50% -
75th Percentile £550 £627 £575
90th Percentile £638 £750 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -10.00% - +4.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 9 21
10th Percentile £21.25 £17.87 £16.00
25th Percentile £24.50 £28.00 £20.00
Median hourly rate £52.50 £54.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -3.67% -16.15% +1.92%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - -
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 4,583 3,743 5,560
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.61% 12.78% 12.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,847 2,305 3,330
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% -2.50% -3.85%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £601
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 174 423
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.22 £16.93
Median hourly rate £40.54 £36.57 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.85% -8.57% +111.92%
75th Percentile £66.00 £58.39 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £24.71 £45.88
% change year-on-year +97.17% -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 7 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 7 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 7 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 -60 347 £470 -6.00% 233
UK excluding London -26 261 £450 -10.00% 193
London -77 116 £475 - 68
North of England -7 91 £450 +3.09% 43
Work from Home -71 89 £450 -18.27% 99
South East -22 60 £510 -5.12% 65
North West +3 58 £555 +122.00% 22
East of England -13 43 £280 -34.88% 29
Midlands -54 35 £388 -29.55% 20
West Midlands -36 32 £375 +78.57% 17
Scotland +15 28 £425 -3.95% 7
Yorkshire -42 28 £447 -22.26% 16
South West -36 18 £500 -18.70% 31
Wales -14 8 £390 -8.24% 10
North East -16 5 £306 +6.52% 6
East Midlands -35 3 £625 +13.64% 3

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 18 (4.37%) Confluence
2 10 (2.43%) nginx
3 9 (2.18%) SharePoint
4 8 (1.94%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.97%) OpenStack
6 3 (0.73%) Apache
6 3 (0.73%) IIS
6 3 (0.73%) 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 (0.24%) CICS
8 1 (0.24%) Traefik
Applications
1 30 (7.28%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (2.43%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.97%) Acrobat
3 4 (0.97%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (0.97%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (0.73%) Weka
Business Applications
1 1 (0.24%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 87 (21.12%) Azure
2 85 (20.63%) AWS
3 60 (14.56%) Microsoft 365
4 26 (6.31%) GCP
5 24 (5.83%) Entra ID
6 21 (5.10%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 15 (3.64%) Amazon S3
8 14 (3.40%) Route 53
9 13 (3.16%) Amazon EC2
9 13 (3.16%) AWS Lambda
9 13 (3.16%) Serverless
10 12 (2.91%) Amazon EKS
11 9 (2.18%) AWS CloudFormation
11 9 (2.18%) GitHub
11 9 (2.18%) Google Workspace
11 9 (2.18%) OneDrive
12 7 (1.70%) Azure DevOps
12 7 (1.70%) Nutanix
12 7 (1.70%) SaaS
13 5 (1.21%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 231 (56.07%) DNS
2 145 (35.19%) Firewall
3 101 (24.51%) VPN
4 95 (23.06%) DHCP
5 79 (19.17%) WAN
6 70 (16.99%) LAN
7 69 (16.75%) HTTP
8 67 (16.26%) SSL
9 61 (14.81%) Network Security
10 60 (14.56%) VLAN
11 52 (12.62%) BGP
12 51 (12.38%) BIG-IP
13 44 (10.68%) OSPF
14 35 (8.50%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 35 (8.50%) Wi-Fi
15 34 (8.25%) Wireshark
16 33 (8.01%) Ethernet
17 28 (6.80%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
18 20 (4.85%) Wireless
19 16 (3.88%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 12 (2.91%) Elasticsearch
2 11 (2.67%) SQL Server
3 7 (1.70%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (1.21%) MongoDB
5 3 (0.73%) Amazon RDS
6 2 (0.49%) MySQL
7 1 (0.24%) Amazon Aurora
7 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
7 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 42 (10.19%) JIRA
2 29 (7.04%) Fiddler
3 17 (4.13%) GitLab
4 15 (3.64%) Git
5 14 (3.40%) Eclipse
5 14 (3.40%) Visual Studio
6 12 (2.91%) Jenkins
7 9 (2.18%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (1.70%) Bitbucket
8 7 (1.70%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.97%) CircleCI
9 4 (0.97%) Sonatype Nexus
10 2 (0.49%) Introscope
10 2 (0.49%) Subversion
11 1 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 1 (0.24%) Postman
11 1 (0.24%) Travis CI
General
1 143 (34.71%) Social Skills
2 50 (12.14%) Finance
3 49 (11.89%) Analytical Skills
4 43 (10.44%) Banking
5 28 (6.80%) Public Sector
6 27 (6.55%) Investment Banking
7 26 (6.31%) Presentation Skills
8 23 (5.58%) Military
9 18 (4.37%) Documentation Skills
9 18 (4.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (2.67%) Telecoms
11 8 (1.94%) Front Office
12 6 (1.46%) Law
13 3 (0.73%) Aerospace
13 3 (0.73%) French Language
13 3 (0.73%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.73%) Marketing
13 3 (0.73%) Organisational Skills
14 2 (0.49%) Japanese Language
14 2 (0.49%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 104 (25.24%) Network Engineer
2 50 (12.14%) Analyst
3 37 (8.98%) Web Engineer
4 34 (8.25%) Senior
5 31 (7.52%) Support Engineer
6 28 (6.80%) Architect
7 24 (5.83%) Security Engineer
8 22 (5.34%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 22 (5.34%) IP Network Engineer
9 20 (4.85%) Blue Coat Engineer
9 20 (4.85%) IT Support
9 20 (4.85%) SOC Analyst
10 19 (4.61%) Technical Engineer
11 18 (4.37%) IT Engineer
12 17 (4.13%) Systems Engineer
13 15 (3.64%) Integration Engineer
13 15 (3.64%) Lead
14 12 (2.91%) IT Support Engineer
14 12 (2.91%) Junior
15 11 (2.67%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (5.34%) LDAP
2 16 (3.88%) Web Services
3 15 (3.64%) SAML
4 14 (3.40%) Node.js
5 12 (2.91%) JSON
5 12 (2.91%) OpenID
6 10 (2.43%) 802.1X
7 7 (1.70%) REST
8 5 (1.21%) Kafka
8 5 (1.21%) OAuth
9 4 (0.97%) NETCONF
9 4 (0.97%) OpenConfig
9 4 (0.97%) RESTCONF
9 4 (0.97%) XML
9 4 (0.97%) YANG
10 3 (0.73%) ARM Templates
10 3 (0.73%) Elastic Stack
10 3 (0.73%) HTML
10 3 (0.73%) Middleware
11 2 (0.49%) .NET
Miscellaneous
1 28 (6.80%) Data Centre
2 27 (6.55%) Onboarding
3 26 (6.31%) Management Information System
4 23 (5.58%) Security Operations Centre
5 21 (5.10%) Cyberattack
6 15 (3.64%) Industry 4.0
6 15 (3.64%) Robotics
7 14 (3.40%) Security Posture
8 13 (3.16%) Cyber Threat
9 11 (2.67%) Enterprise Software
9 11 (2.67%) PKI
9 11 (2.67%) Public Cloud
10 9 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
11 8 (1.94%) Driving Licence
11 8 (1.94%) Private Cloud
12 7 (1.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 7 (1.70%) Mainframe
12 7 (1.70%) Self-Motivation
13 6 (1.46%) Analytical Mindset
13 6 (1.46%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 173 (41.99%) Windows
2 100 (24.27%) Linux
3 49 (11.89%) Windows Server
4 15 (3.64%) Mac OS
4 15 (3.64%) Windows 10
5 14 (3.40%) Unix
6 13 (3.16%) Android
7 9 (2.18%) Windows Server 2012
8 8 (1.94%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 7 (1.70%) zOS
10 6 (1.46%) Apple iOS
10 6 (1.46%) Ubuntu
10 6 (1.46%) Windows Server 2019
11 4 (0.97%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.73%) Debian
12 3 (0.73%) Windows 7
12 3 (0.73%) Windows Server 2003
13 2 (0.49%) AIX
13 2 (0.49%) CentOS
13 2 (0.49%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (29.61%) Problem-Solving
2 63 (15.29%) ITIL
3 53 (12.86%) Agile
3 53 (12.86%) Cybersecurity
4 51 (12.38%) Incident Response
4 51 (12.38%) SIEM
5 49 (11.89%) Load Balancing
6 39 (9.47%) DevOps
6 39 (9.47%) Migration
6 39 (9.47%) Security Operations
7 36 (8.74%) Validation
8 35 (8.50%) CI/CD
9 31 (7.52%) Data Loss Prevention
9 31 (7.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 31 (7.52%) Root Cause Analysis
10 30 (7.28%) Customer Service
10 30 (7.28%) High Availability
11 29 (7.04%) Computer Science
11 29 (7.04%) Malware Detection/Protection
12 28 (6.80%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 90 (21.84%) Python
2 49 (11.89%) PowerShell
3 42 (10.19%) Bash
4 29 (7.04%) JavaScript
5 21 (5.10%) SQL
6 19 (4.61%) C++
7 16 (3.88%) C#
8 8 (1.94%) Java
9 7 (1.70%) Shell Script
9 7 (1.70%) VBA
10 6 (1.46%) C
10 6 (1.46%) Go
11 5 (1.21%) Perl
12 2 (0.49%) Jython
12 2 (0.49%) Ruby
13 1 (0.24%) Groovy
13 1 (0.24%) T-SQL
13 1 (0.24%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 122 (29.61%) Security Cleared
2 102 (24.76%) SC Cleared
3 63 (15.29%) Degree
4 46 (11.17%) Cisco Certification
5 37 (8.98%) CCNP
6 30 (7.28%) CompTIA Security+
7 29 (7.04%) Computer Science Degree
8 26 (6.31%) DV Cleared
9 25 (6.07%) CCNA
10 18 (4.37%) CompTIA CySA+
11 17 (4.13%) CISSP
12 13 (3.16%) Microsoft Certification
13 10 (2.43%) Network+ Certification
14 9 (2.18%) Azure Certification
14 9 (2.18%) MCSA
15 8 (1.94%) CCIE
15 8 (1.94%) MCSE
16 7 (1.70%) JNCIS
17 5 (1.21%) AWS Certification
17 5 (1.21%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (2.67%) SLA
2 9 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (1.70%) NIST
4 5 (1.21%) GDPR
5 4 (0.97%) NCSC
6 3 (0.73%) QA
7 2 (0.49%) RMADS
8 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.24%) GRC
System Software
1 83 (20.15%) Active Directory
2 52 (12.62%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (5.58%) Docker
4 20 (4.85%) Firmware
5 11 (2.67%) Hyper-V
6 9 (2.18%) Squid
6 9 (2.18%) VMware NSX
6 9 (2.18%) vSphere
7 8 (1.94%) Virtual Machines
8 6 (1.46%) Virtual Desktop
9 5 (1.21%) KVM
10 4 (0.97%) Lustre
10 4 (0.97%) NFS
10 4 (0.97%) Slurm Workload Manager
11 3 (0.73%) GPFS
12 2 (0.49%) Ceph
12 2 (0.49%) iptables
12 2 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
13 1 (0.24%) XenApp
13 1 (0.24%) XenDesktop
Systems Management
1 67 (16.26%) Ansible
2 36 (8.74%) Kubernetes
3 35 (8.50%) Terraform
4 28 (6.80%) SCCM
5 23 (5.58%) FortiGate
6 22 (5.34%) Single Sign-On
7 21 (5.10%) Grafana
7 21 (5.10%) Microsoft Intune
8 17 (4.13%) Prometheus
9 12 (2.91%) WSUS
10 10 (2.43%) Nagios
11 9 (2.18%) Consul
12 8 (1.94%) QRadar
13 6 (1.46%) CASB
13 6 (1.46%) Tivoli NetView
14 5 (1.21%) Nessus
14 5 (1.21%) Puppet
15 4 (0.97%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 3 (0.73%) Red Hat Satellite
17 2 (0.49%) CA Wily
Vendors
1 103 (25.00%) Microsoft
2 70 (16.99%) VMware
3 69 (16.75%) F5
4 64 (15.53%) Cisco
5 41 (9.95%) Splunk
6 34 (8.25%) Blue Coat
7 31 (7.52%) ServiceNow
8 29 (7.04%) McAfee
9 28 (6.80%) Palo Alto
10 24 (5.83%) Fortinet
11 22 (5.34%) NetApp
11 22 (5.34%) Red Hat
12 21 (5.10%) Citrix
12 21 (5.10%) Juniper
13 16 (3.88%) Siemens
14 15 (3.64%) Zscaler
15 13 (3.16%) Bloomberg
15 13 (3.16%) CheckPoint
15 13 (3.16%) SolarWinds
16 11 (2.67%) Veeam