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

6 months to
15 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 272 220 274
Rank change year-on-year -52 +54 -34
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 422 354 361
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.92% 1.21% 0.83%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.40% 9.36% 6.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 240 251 260
10th Percentile £212 £225 £188
25th Percentile £354 £381 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% -3.47%
75th Percentile £551 £630 £563
90th Percentile £638 £750 £667
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% +1.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 10 13
10th Percentile £20.85 £18.18 £16.00
25th Percentile £21.25 £28.81 £20.00
Median hourly rate £41.94 £52.25 £24.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.73% +113.27% -62.31%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.69 £56.49
90th Percentile £67.27 £65.00 £69.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £47.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year +31.58% -15.91% -13.09%

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 4,488 3,783 5,741
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.79% 12.91% 13.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,819 2,340 3,443
10th Percentile £233 £213 £205
25th Percentile £394 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £495 £488 £486
Median % change year-on-year +1.54% +0.31% -5.81%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £469 £475
% change year-on-year +1.28% -1.26% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 207 169 421
10th Percentile £15.85 £14.99 £13.85
25th Percentile £20.63 £21.46 £17.69
Median hourly rate £45.00 £39.32 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +14.45% +2.13% +102.63%
75th Percentile £70.00 £62.25 £61.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £28.00 £45.44
% change year-on-year +96.43% -38.38% +145.62%

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 15 April 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 15 April 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 15 April 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 -52 359 £460 -8.00% 165
UK excluding London -12 270 £450 -10.00% 147
London -61 115 £470 -1.05% 43
Work from Home -61 95 £425 -22.73% 64
North of England -22 91 £450 +3.04% 40
South East -30 60 £523 -5.00% 40
North West -1 57 £540 +72.80% 15
East of England -2 51 £235 -45.35% 23
Midlands -40 35 £300 -40.00% 15
West Midlands -34 32 £225 +7.14% 10
Yorkshire -41 31 £447 -22.35% 19
Scotland +16 26 £425 -4.97% 3
South West -31 22 £575 -6.50% 22
Wales -13 6 £335 -21.18% 10
North East -22 3 £200 -20.00% 8
East Midlands -34 3 £625 +13.64% 5

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 (4.27%) Confluence
2 11 (2.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (2.61%) SharePoint
3 10 (2.37%) nginx
4 6 (1.42%) OpenStack
5 4 (0.95%) Skype for Business
6 3 (0.71%) Apache
7 2 (0.47%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.47%) IIS
7 2 (0.47%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.47%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.47%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.47%) WebSphere Portal
7 2 (0.47%) WordPress
8 1 (0.24%) Traefik
Applications
1 36 (8.53%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (2.37%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.18%) Acrobat
3 5 (1.18%) Weka
4 4 (0.95%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (0.95%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.24%) Adobe Creative Suite
Business Applications
1 1 (0.24%) SystmOne
Cloud Services
1 95 (22.51%) Azure
2 90 (21.33%) AWS
3 73 (17.30%) Microsoft 365
4 28 (6.64%) GCP
5 26 (6.16%) Entra ID
6 20 (4.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 14 (3.32%) Amazon S3
7 14 (3.32%) Route 53
8 13 (3.08%) Amazon EC2
9 12 (2.84%) Amazon EKS
9 12 (2.84%) AWS Lambda
9 12 (2.84%) OneDrive
9 12 (2.84%) Serverless
10 9 (2.13%) AWS CloudFormation
10 9 (2.13%) Google Workspace
11 8 (1.90%) Azure DevOps
11 8 (1.90%) GitHub
12 7 (1.66%) Nutanix
12 7 (1.66%) SaaS
13 5 (1.18%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 232 (54.98%) DNS
2 149 (35.31%) Firewall
3 102 (24.17%) VPN
4 98 (23.22%) DHCP
5 85 (20.14%) WAN
6 78 (18.48%) LAN
7 68 (16.11%) HTTP
8 64 (15.17%) SSL
9 63 (14.93%) VLAN
10 58 (13.74%) Network Security
11 50 (11.85%) BGP
12 49 (11.61%) BIG-IP
13 43 (10.19%) OSPF
14 41 (9.72%) Wi-Fi
15 35 (8.29%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
16 34 (8.06%) Ethernet
17 33 (7.82%) Wireshark
18 28 (6.64%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
19 20 (4.74%) Wireless
20 19 (4.50%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (3.08%) SQL Server
2 12 (2.84%) Elasticsearch
3 9 (2.13%) PostgreSQL
4 5 (1.18%) MongoDB
5 2 (0.47%) MySQL
6 1 (0.24%) Amazon Aurora
6 1 (0.24%) Amazon RDS
6 1 (0.24%) Electronic Patient Records
6 1 (0.24%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.24%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 40 (9.48%) JIRA
2 28 (6.64%) Fiddler
3 17 (4.03%) GitLab
4 14 (3.32%) Eclipse
4 14 (3.32%) Visual Studio
5 13 (3.08%) Git
6 10 (2.37%) Jenkins
7 9 (2.13%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (1.66%) Bitbucket
8 7 (1.66%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.95%) CircleCI
10 3 (0.71%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.47%) Introscope
11 2 (0.47%) Subversion
12 1 (0.24%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 1 (0.24%) Travis CI
General
1 148 (35.07%) Social Skills
2 49 (11.61%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (10.66%) Finance
4 39 (9.24%) Banking
5 29 (6.87%) Public Sector
6 26 (6.16%) Presentation Skills
7 25 (5.92%) Investment Banking
8 24 (5.69%) Military
9 18 (4.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (4.03%) Documentation Skills
11 11 (2.61%) Telecoms
12 7 (1.66%) Front Office
13 5 (1.18%) Law
13 5 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
14 4 (0.95%) Legal
15 3 (0.71%) French Language
15 3 (0.71%) Manufacturing
15 3 (0.71%) Marketing
16 2 (0.47%) Japanese Language
16 2 (0.47%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 106 (25.12%) Network Engineer
2 52 (12.32%) Analyst
3 42 (9.95%) Support Engineer
4 37 (8.77%) Web Engineer
5 33 (7.82%) Senior
6 27 (6.40%) Architect
7 25 (5.92%) IT Support
8 24 (5.69%) IT Engineer
9 23 (5.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 21 (4.98%) IP Network Engineer
10 21 (4.98%) SOC Analyst
11 20 (4.74%) Technical Engineer
12 19 (4.50%) Blue Coat Engineer
13 18 (4.27%) IT Support Engineer
13 18 (4.27%) Security Engineer
14 17 (4.03%) Systems Engineer
15 16 (3.79%) Integration Engineer
16 15 (3.55%) Lead
17 13 (3.08%) Junior
17 13 (3.08%) Technical Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 19 (4.50%) LDAP
2 17 (4.03%) Web Services
3 14 (3.32%) Node.js
4 12 (2.84%) SAML
5 10 (2.37%) 802.1X
5 10 (2.37%) JSON
5 10 (2.37%) OpenID
6 7 (1.66%) REST
7 5 (1.18%) Kafka
8 4 (0.95%) Middleware
8 4 (0.95%) NETCONF
8 4 (0.95%) OAuth
8 4 (0.95%) OpenConfig
8 4 (0.95%) RESTCONF
8 4 (0.95%) YANG
9 3 (0.71%) .NET
9 3 (0.71%) ARM Templates
9 3 (0.71%) HTML
10 2 (0.47%) eBPF
10 2 (0.47%) JMS
Miscellaneous
1 30 (7.11%) Data Centre
2 28 (6.64%) Management Information System
3 22 (5.21%) Onboarding
3 22 (5.21%) Security Operations Centre
4 21 (4.98%) Cyberattack
5 15 (3.55%) Industry 4.0
5 15 (3.55%) Robotics
6 13 (3.08%) Driving Licence
6 13 (3.08%) Enterprise Software
6 13 (3.08%) Public Cloud
7 12 (2.84%) PKI
7 12 (2.84%) Security Posture
8 10 (2.37%) Cyber Threat
8 10 (2.37%) Private Cloud
9 9 (2.13%) NHS
10 8 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
10 8 (1.90%) CMDB
11 7 (1.66%) Data Protection Act
11 7 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
12 6 (1.42%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 188 (44.55%) Windows
2 107 (25.36%) Linux
3 53 (12.56%) Windows Server
4 23 (5.45%) Windows 10
5 16 (3.79%) Android
6 14 (3.32%) Mac OS
7 13 (3.08%) Unix
8 9 (2.13%) Apple iOS
9 8 (1.90%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (1.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (1.42%) Windows Server 2019
10 6 (1.42%) zOS
11 5 (1.18%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.95%) Windows Server 2016
13 3 (0.71%) Debian
13 3 (0.71%) VMS
13 3 (0.71%) Windows 7
13 3 (0.71%) Windows Server 2003
14 2 (0.47%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.47%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 123 (29.15%) Problem-Solving
2 67 (15.88%) ITIL
3 56 (13.27%) Cybersecurity
4 53 (12.56%) Agile
5 51 (12.09%) SIEM
6 48 (11.37%) Incident Response
6 48 (11.37%) Load Balancing
7 39 (9.24%) DevOps
7 39 (9.24%) Migration
7 39 (9.24%) Security Operations
8 37 (8.77%) Validation
9 36 (8.53%) Customer Service
10 34 (8.06%) CI/CD
11 32 (7.58%) Root Cause Analysis
12 31 (7.35%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 29 (6.87%) Computer Science
13 29 (6.87%) Data Loss Prevention
14 28 (6.64%) Decision-Making
14 28 (6.64%) High Availability
14 28 (6.64%) Malware Detection/Protection
Programming Languages
1 93 (22.04%) Python
2 62 (14.69%) PowerShell
3 46 (10.90%) Bash
4 27 (6.40%) JavaScript
5 20 (4.74%) C++
5 20 (4.74%) SQL
6 17 (4.03%) C#
7 9 (2.13%) Java
7 9 (2.13%) Perl
8 7 (1.66%) C
9 6 (1.42%) Shell Script
10 5 (1.18%) Go
10 5 (1.18%) VBA
11 2 (0.47%) Jython
11 2 (0.47%) Ruby
11 2 (0.47%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.47%) VBScript
12 1 (0.24%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 129 (30.57%) Security Cleared
2 108 (25.59%) SC Cleared
3 64 (15.17%) Degree
4 47 (11.14%) Cisco Certification
5 38 (9.00%) CCNP
6 32 (7.58%) CompTIA Security+
7 31 (7.35%) DV Cleared
8 27 (6.40%) Computer Science Degree
9 26 (6.16%) CCNA
10 19 (4.50%) CompTIA CySA+
11 17 (4.03%) CISSP
12 12 (2.84%) Microsoft Certification
13 11 (2.61%) Network+ Certification
14 9 (2.13%) Azure Certification
15 8 (1.90%) CCIE
15 8 (1.90%) JNCIS
15 8 (1.90%) MCSA
15 8 (1.90%) MCSE
16 6 (1.42%) GCIH
17 5 (1.18%) GCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (2.13%) SLA
3 8 (1.90%) NIST
4 7 (1.66%) GDPR
5 4 (0.95%) NCSC
6 2 (0.47%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.47%) QA
6 2 (0.47%) RMADS
6 2 (0.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.24%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.24%) GRC
System Software
1 88 (20.85%) Active Directory
2 51 (12.09%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (6.64%) Docker
4 19 (4.50%) Firmware
5 9 (2.13%) Hyper-V
5 9 (2.13%) Squid
5 9 (2.13%) VMware NSX
6 8 (1.90%) Virtual Machines
6 8 (1.90%) vSphere
7 6 (1.42%) Lustre
7 6 (1.42%) Slurm Workload Manager
8 5 (1.18%) GPFS
9 4 (0.95%) KVM
9 4 (0.95%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (0.71%) NFS
10 3 (0.71%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.47%) Ceph
11 2 (0.47%) iptables
11 2 (0.47%) NDS
11 2 (0.47%) NetIQ eDirectory
Systems Management
1 61 (14.45%) Ansible
2 39 (9.24%) Kubernetes
3 35 (8.29%) Terraform
4 30 (7.11%) SCCM
5 23 (5.45%) Microsoft Intune
6 22 (5.21%) FortiGate
7 21 (4.98%) Single Sign-On
8 18 (4.27%) Grafana
9 15 (3.55%) Prometheus
10 10 (2.37%) WSUS
11 9 (2.13%) Nagios
11 9 (2.13%) QRadar
12 8 (1.90%) Consul
13 6 (1.42%) Puppet
13 6 (1.42%) Tivoli NetView
14 5 (1.18%) CASB
14 5 (1.18%) Nessus
15 4 (0.95%) Active Directory Federation Services
16 3 (0.71%) Red Hat Satellite
17 2 (0.47%) Progress Chef
Vendors
1 112 (26.54%) Microsoft
2 69 (16.35%) VMware
3 66 (15.64%) F5
4 65 (15.40%) Cisco
5 40 (9.48%) Splunk
6 32 (7.58%) Blue Coat
7 29 (6.87%) McAfee
7 29 (6.87%) Palo Alto
7 29 (6.87%) ServiceNow
8 25 (5.92%) Fortinet
8 25 (5.92%) Juniper
9 22 (5.21%) NetApp
10 20 (4.74%) Citrix
10 20 (4.74%) Red Hat
11 16 (3.79%) Siemens
12 14 (3.32%) CheckPoint
13 13 (3.08%) SolarWinds
14 12 (2.84%) Meraki
14 12 (2.84%) Oracle
14 12 (2.84%) Zscaler