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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 261 228 278
Rank change year-on-year -33 +50 -44
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 487 367 353
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.93% 1.13% 0.83%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 9.73% 9.27% 6.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 268 219 229
10th Percentile £203 £210 £200
25th Percentile £313 £357 £267
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £461 £500 £463
Median % change year-on-year -7.75% +8.11% -2.63%
75th Percentile £550 £612 £575
90th Percentile £650 £675 £646
UK excluding London median daily rate £447 £450 £475
% change year-on-year -0.67% -5.26% +11.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 25 34
10th Percentile £21.25 £19.98 £20.00
25th Percentile £26.66 £45.75 £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 £91.02 £86.98 £66.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.86 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -34.06% - +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 5,003 3,960 5,336
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.51% 12.19% 12.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,036 2,406 3,154
10th Percentile £245 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £365 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +2.89% -4.04% +7.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 325 194 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £50.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -47.12% +25.00% +18.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.70 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £43.25 £47.50
% change year-on-year -39.38% -8.95% -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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -19 438 £475 - 270
UK excluding London -24 280 £447 -0.67% 235
London -48 174 £475 -5.00% 68
Work from Home -70 115 £500 -9.09% 101
North of England -38 94 £447 -10.60% 47
South East -29 73 £527 +17.17% 86
North West -9 59 £450 +19.87% 16
Midlands -41 40 £401 -19.80% 27
East of England -12 37 £250 -41.18% 33
South West -4 33 £475 -22.76% 36
West Midlands -37 32 £400 -6.10% 16
Yorkshire -53 31 £454 -10.42% 26
Scotland -11 17 £301 -33.06% 9
East Midlands -11 8 £402 -26.91% 11
Wales -5 7 £408 - 4
North East -35 4 £306 +22.50% 9

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 18 (3.70%) 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%) IIS
8 2 (0.41%) CICS
8 2 (0.41%) FactoryTalk
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 35 (7.19%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (2.87%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (1.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (1.85%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.21%) Adobe Creative Suite
4 1 (0.21%) Houdini
4 1 (0.21%) NUKE
4 1 (0.21%) Weka
Business Applications
1 5 (1.03%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.21%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 137 (28.13%) Azure
2 113 (23.20%) AWS
3 101 (20.74%) Microsoft 365
4 53 (10.88%) 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
11 15 (3.08%) Amazon S3
12 13 (2.67%) AWS Lambda
12 13 (2.67%) Serverless
13 11 (2.26%) AWS CloudFormation
13 11 (2.26%) Google Workspace
14 9 (1.85%) OpenShift
15 8 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
16 7 (1.44%) IaaS
17 6 (1.23%) Akamai
Communications & Networking
1 285 (58.52%) DNS
2 196 (40.25%) Firewall
3 147 (30.18%) DHCP
4 135 (27.72%) VPN
5 87 (17.86%) Network Security
5 87 (17.86%) WAN
6 79 (16.22%) LAN
7 76 (15.61%) BGP
8 73 (14.99%) VLAN
9 69 (14.17%) 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 11 (2.26%) Elasticsearch
2 10 (2.05%) SQL Server
3 6 (1.23%) PostgreSQL
4 3 (0.62%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.41%) MySQL
5 2 (0.41%) NoSQL
5 2 (0.41%) SQLite
6 1 (0.21%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.21%) KDB
6 1 (0.21%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 51 (10.47%) JIRA
2 22 (4.52%) Git
3 20 (4.11%) Fiddler
4 16 (3.29%) GitLab
5 15 (3.08%) Jenkins
6 14 (2.87%) Visual Studio
7 13 (2.67%) Eclipse
8 10 (2.05%) Browser DevTools
9 7 (1.44%) Bitbucket
9 7 (1.44%) SonarQube
10 6 (1.23%) Sonatype Nexus
11 3 (0.62%) Artifactory
12 2 (0.41%) Introscope
12 2 (0.41%) Subversion
13 1 (0.21%) MSI
13 1 (0.21%) Postman
General
1 191 (39.22%) Social Skills
2 67 (13.76%) Analytical Skills
3 64 (13.14%) 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 6 (1.23%) Legal
11 5 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (0.82%) Manufacturing
12 4 (0.82%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (0.62%) Police
13 3 (0.62%) Retail
14 2 (0.41%) Aviation
14 2 (0.41%) Games
Job Titles
1 113 (23.20%) Network Engineer
2 52 (10.68%) Support Engineer
3 51 (10.47%) Architect
4 42 (8.62%) Analyst
5 38 (7.80%) IT Support
6 37 (7.60%) Senior
7 36 (7.39%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 29 (5.95%) IT Engineer
9 27 (5.54%) Web Engineer
10 26 (5.34%) Security Engineer
11 23 (4.72%) IT Support Engineer
12 22 (4.52%) Technical Engineer
13 20 (4.11%) Systems Engineer
14 18 (3.70%) IP Network Engineer
15 16 (3.29%) Blue Coat Engineer
16 15 (3.08%) Network Architect
16 15 (3.08%) Software Engineer
17 14 (2.87%) C# Software Engineer
17 14 (2.87%) Cloud Engineer
17 14 (2.87%) Senior Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 21 (4.31%) LDAP
2 20 (4.11%) SAML
3 14 (2.87%) JSON
4 13 (2.67%) Node.js
4 13 (2.67%) Web Services
5 12 (2.46%) OpenID
5 12 (2.46%) REST
6 10 (2.05%) 802.1X
7 7 (1.44%) .NET
8 6 (1.23%) NETCONF
8 6 (1.23%) OpenConfig
8 6 (1.23%) RESTCONF
8 6 (1.23%) XML
8 6 (1.23%) YANG
9 5 (1.03%) OAuth
10 4 (0.82%) ARM Templates
10 4 (0.82%) WinForms
11 3 (0.62%) eBPF
11 3 (0.62%) HTML
11 3 (0.62%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 68 (13.96%) Data Centre
2 43 (8.83%) Onboarding
3 23 (4.72%) Management Information System
4 22 (4.52%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 20 (4.11%) PKI
5 20 (4.11%) 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
9 14 (2.87%) Linux Command Line
9 14 (2.87%) Public Cloud
9 14 (2.87%) Security Operations Centre
10 12 (2.46%) Cyber Threat
10 12 (2.46%) Private Cloud
10 12 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
11 11 (2.26%) Cloud Native
11 11 (2.26%) Operational Technology
12 10 (2.05%) Analytical Mindset
12 10 (2.05%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 202 (41.48%) Windows
2 103 (21.15%) Linux
3 52 (10.68%) 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 59 (12.11%) Agile
3 59 (12.11%) CI/CD
4 55 (11.29%) Load Balancing
5 53 (10.88%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 52 (10.68%) Customer Service
7 51 (10.47%) DevOps
8 50 (10.27%) Cybersecurity
9 49 (10.06%) Incident Response
10 48 (9.86%) Infrastructure as Code
11 47 (9.65%) ITSM
11 47 (9.65%) Migration
12 46 (9.45%) High Availability
13 44 (9.03%) SIEM
14 34 (6.98%) Stakeholder Management
14 34 (6.98%) Validation
15 32 (6.57%) Root Cause Analysis
15 32 (6.57%) Service Management
15 32 (6.57%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 127 (26.08%) Python
2 65 (13.35%) PowerShell
3 57 (11.70%) Bash
4 27 (5.54%) JavaScript
5 25 (5.13%) C++
6 17 (3.49%) C#
7 14 (2.87%) 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 93 (19.10%) SC Cleared
3 80 (16.43%) Degree
4 59 (12.11%) Cisco Certification
5 44 (9.03%) CCNP
6 35 (7.19%) DV Cleared
7 29 (5.95%) CCNA
8 25 (5.13%) Microsoft Certification
9 21 (4.31%) CISSP
9 21 (4.31%) Computer Science Degree
10 17 (3.49%) CCIE
11 16 (3.29%) CompTIA Security+
12 12 (2.46%) Network+ Certification
13 11 (2.26%) Azure Certification
13 11 (2.26%) CompTIA CySA+
14 10 (2.05%) MCSA
14 10 (2.05%) MCSE
15 6 (1.23%) A+ Certification
15 6 (1.23%) JNCIE
16 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 2 (0.41%) 21 CFR Part 11
7 2 (0.41%) Government Security Classifications
7 2 (0.41%) GxP
7 2 (0.41%) JSP 440
7 2 (0.41%) RMADS
8 1 (0.21%) Actionable Recommendations
8 1 (0.21%) GRC
8 1 (0.21%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 121 (24.85%) Active Directory
2 71 (14.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (4.11%) Docker
3 20 (4.11%) Hyper-V
4 17 (3.49%) Firmware
4 17 (3.49%) vSphere
5 15 (3.08%) VMware NSX
6 13 (2.67%) Squid
7 12 (2.46%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (1.23%) Virtual Machines
9 5 (1.03%) NFS
10 4 (0.82%) VMware ESXi
11 2 (0.41%) KVM
11 2 (0.41%) RACF
11 2 (0.41%) VirtualBox
12 1 (0.21%) GPFS
12 1 (0.21%) iptables
12 1 (0.21%) Slurm Workload Manager
12 1 (0.21%) Snort
12 1 (0.21%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 89 (18.28%) Ansible
2 60 (12.32%) Terraform
3 40 (8.21%) Kubernetes
4 37 (7.60%) 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 18 (3.70%) Prometheus
10 11 (2.26%) Jamf Pro
11 9 (1.85%) Consul
11 9 (1.85%) WSUS
12 6 (1.23%) CASB
12 6 (1.23%) VxRail
13 5 (1.03%) Nessus
13 5 (1.03%) QRadar
13 5 (1.03%) Suricata
14 4 (0.82%) systemd
15 3 (0.62%) Nagios
15 3 (0.62%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 169 (34.70%) Microsoft
2 90 (18.48%) Cisco
3 81 (16.63%) VMware
4 71 (14.58%) 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
9 24 (4.93%) Splunk
9 24 (4.93%) Zscaler
10 22 (4.52%) Citrix
11 21 (4.31%) Infoblox
11 21 (4.31%) Red Hat
12 20 (4.11%) CheckPoint
12 20 (4.11%) NetApp
13 19 (3.90%) McAfee
14 17 (3.49%) Siemens
15 13 (2.67%) SolarWinds