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

6 months to
12 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 291 221 300
Rank change year-on-year -70 +79 -52
Contract jobs citing TCP/IP 426 361 332
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.85% 1.23% 0.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.91% 9.81% 6.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 232 243 226
10th Percentile £206 £225 £188
25th Percentile £356 £362 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +2.56% -
75th Percentile £550 £623 £575
90th Percentile £638 £775 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £488 £475
% change year-on-year -7.69% +2.63% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 11 22
10th Percentile £21.25 £17.79 £16.25
25th Percentile £25.94 £36.88 £20.81
Median hourly rate £33.86 £62.50 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -45.82% -3.85% +17.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.22 £65.00 £65.00
% change year-on-year -45.82% - +11.84%

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 4,779 3,681 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.56% 12.51% 12.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,930 2,266 3,221
10th Percentile £263 £220 £208
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £482 £495
Median % change year-on-year +3.73% -2.63% -3.41%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £469 £481
% change year-on-year +2.27% -2.47% +1.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 287 165 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.25 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £27.50 £44.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +10.00% +113.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £80.61 £71.31
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £31.79 £47.50
% change year-on-year +2.23% -33.07% +156.76%

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 12 June 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 12 June 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 12 June 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 -51 365 £470 -6.00% 198
UK excluding London -24 245 £450 -7.69% 190
London -55 144 £475 +4.11% 38
Work from Home -76 103 £450 -18.23% 67
North of England -30 91 £450 +12.43% 43
North West +6 53 £540 +116.00% 26
South East -55 52 £500 +11.11% 61
East of England -10 36 £350 -18.60% 28
Midlands -47 34 £400 -27.27% 29
Yorkshire -48 33 £449 -11.41% 12
West Midlands -37 31 £388 -29.55% 19
Scotland +2 24 £537 +24.77% 10
South West -22 22 £500 -18.70% 21
Wales -14 7 £408 +30.40% 4
North East -32 5 £306 +22.50% 8
East Midlands -27 3 £625 +13.64% 10

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 (4.23%) SharePoint
2 16 (3.76%) Confluence
3 11 (2.58%) Microsoft Exchange
4 10 (2.35%) nginx
5 4 (0.94%) WebSphere
6 3 (0.70%) IIS
6 3 (0.70%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.47%) CICS
7 2 (0.47%) IBM HTTP Server
7 2 (0.47%) Oracle HTTP Server
7 2 (0.47%) WebSphere Application Server
7 2 (0.47%) WebSphere Portal
8 1 (0.23%) Traefik
Applications
1 30 (7.04%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (1.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 7 (1.64%) MS Visio
3 4 (0.94%) Acrobat
4 3 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.23%) Weka
Business Applications
1 2 (0.47%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 98 (23.00%) Azure
2 90 (21.13%) AWS
3 79 (18.54%) Microsoft 365
4 32 (7.51%) Entra ID
5 29 (6.81%) GCP
6 28 (6.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 20 (4.69%) OneDrive
8 17 (3.99%) GitHub
9 16 (3.76%) Amazon EC2
10 15 (3.52%) Amazon EKS
10 15 (3.52%) Amazon S3
11 14 (3.29%) Route 53
12 13 (3.05%) AWS Lambda
12 13 (3.05%) Serverless
13 11 (2.58%) Google Workspace
14 7 (1.64%) Azure DevOps
14 7 (1.64%) SaaS
15 6 (1.41%) Akamai
15 6 (1.41%) AWS CloudFormation
15 6 (1.41%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 238 (55.87%) DNS
2 147 (34.51%) Firewall
3 100 (23.47%) DHCP
4 97 (22.77%) VPN
5 71 (16.67%) WAN
6 70 (16.43%) HTTP
7 69 (16.20%) SSL
8 64 (15.02%) LAN
8 64 (15.02%) Network Security
9 55 (12.91%) VLAN
10 54 (12.68%) BGP
10 54 (12.68%) BIG-IP
11 38 (8.92%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 38 (8.92%) OSPF
12 37 (8.69%) Wi-Fi
13 34 (7.98%) Ethernet
14 31 (7.28%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
14 31 (7.28%) Wireshark
15 24 (5.63%) Wireless
16 16 (3.76%) SD-WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (2.58%) Elasticsearch
1 11 (2.58%) SQL Server
2 8 (1.88%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (1.17%) MongoDB
4 3 (0.70%) Amazon RDS
5 2 (0.47%) NoSQL
6 1 (0.23%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.23%) MySQL
6 1 (0.23%) Oracle Reports
6 1 (0.23%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 46 (10.80%) JIRA
2 25 (5.87%) Fiddler
3 21 (4.93%) GitLab
4 17 (3.99%) Jenkins
5 16 (3.76%) Git
6 13 (3.05%) Eclipse
6 13 (3.05%) Visual Studio
7 9 (2.11%) Browser DevTools
8 7 (1.64%) Bitbucket
8 7 (1.64%) SonarQube
9 4 (0.94%) Sonatype Nexus
10 3 (0.70%) Artifactory
10 3 (0.70%) CircleCI
11 2 (0.47%) Introscope
11 2 (0.47%) Subversion
12 1 (0.23%) Postman
General
1 160 (37.56%) Social Skills
2 60 (14.08%) Finance
3 48 (11.27%) Analytical Skills
4 41 (9.62%) Banking
5 28 (6.57%) Public Sector
6 26 (6.10%) Investment Banking
7 22 (5.16%) Presentation Skills
8 21 (4.93%) Military
9 20 (4.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 17 (3.99%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (2.11%) Telecoms
12 8 (1.88%) Front Office
13 5 (1.17%) Law
14 3 (0.70%) French Language
14 3 (0.70%) Manufacturing
14 3 (0.70%) Marketing
14 3 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
15 2 (0.47%) Japanese Language
15 2 (0.47%) Retail
15 2 (0.47%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 105 (24.65%) Network Engineer
2 53 (12.44%) Analyst
3 39 (9.15%) Support Engineer
4 33 (7.75%) Web Engineer
5 32 (7.51%) Architect
6 31 (7.28%) IT Support
7 29 (6.81%) Senior
8 25 (5.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 24 (5.63%) Security Engineer
10 22 (5.16%) Technical Engineer
11 20 (4.69%) IP Network Engineer
11 20 (4.69%) SOC Analyst
11 20 (4.69%) Systems Engineer
12 19 (4.46%) IT Engineer
13 18 (4.23%) Blue Coat Engineer
14 16 (3.76%) Junior
15 15 (3.52%) IT Support Engineer
15 15 (3.52%) Lead
16 14 (3.29%) Software Engineer
17 13 (3.05%) C# Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (4.69%) LDAP
2 18 (4.23%) SAML
3 14 (3.29%) Web Services
4 13 (3.05%) Node.js
5 12 (2.82%) JSON
5 12 (2.82%) OpenID
6 11 (2.58%) 802.1X
7 10 (2.35%) REST
8 6 (1.41%) .NET
9 5 (1.17%) Kafka
9 5 (1.17%) OAuth
10 4 (0.94%) XML
11 3 (0.70%) ARM Templates
11 3 (0.70%) HTML
11 3 (0.70%) Middleware
11 3 (0.70%) WinForms
12 2 (0.47%) ASP.NET
12 2 (0.47%) eBPF
12 2 (0.47%) HTML5
12 2 (0.47%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 49 (11.50%) Data Centre
2 44 (10.33%) Onboarding
3 24 (5.63%) Security Operations Centre
4 23 (5.40%) Management Information System
5 21 (4.93%) Cyberattack
6 18 (4.23%) Cyber Threat
7 15 (3.52%) Industry 4.0
7 15 (3.52%) Robotics
8 14 (3.29%) Security Posture
9 10 (2.35%) Driving Licence
9 10 (2.35%) Enterprise Software
10 9 (2.11%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 8 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
12 7 (1.64%) PKI
12 7 (1.64%) Public Cloud
13 6 (1.41%) Analytical Mindset
13 6 (1.41%) Cloud Native
13 6 (1.41%) Mainframe
13 6 (1.41%) NHS
13 6 (1.41%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 185 (43.43%) Windows
2 94 (22.07%) Linux
3 45 (10.56%) Windows Server
4 33 (7.75%) Mac OS
5 20 (4.69%) Windows 10
6 17 (3.99%) Apple iOS
7 15 (3.52%) Unix
8 12 (2.82%) Android
9 8 (1.88%) Windows Server 2012
10 6 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (1.41%) zOS
11 5 (1.17%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.94%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.70%) Windows 7
14 2 (0.47%) AIX
14 2 (0.47%) CentOS
14 2 (0.47%) Oracle Linux
14 2 (0.47%) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
14 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2003
14 2 (0.47%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 122 (28.64%) Problem-Solving
2 71 (16.67%) ITIL
3 55 (12.91%) Agile
3 55 (12.91%) Incident Response
4 48 (11.27%) Cybersecurity
5 47 (11.03%) DevOps
5 47 (11.03%) Load Balancing
6 45 (10.56%) CI/CD
7 44 (10.33%) Migration
7 44 (10.33%) SIEM
8 42 (9.86%) Customer Service
8 42 (9.86%) ITSM
9 37 (8.69%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 35 (8.22%) Validation
11 34 (7.98%) Security Operations
12 33 (7.75%) High Availability
13 32 (7.51%) Root Cause Analysis
14 30 (7.04%) Computer Science
15 29 (6.81%) Decision-Making
15 29 (6.81%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 90 (21.13%) Python
2 40 (9.39%) Bash
2 40 (9.39%) PowerShell
3 29 (6.81%) JavaScript
4 20 (4.69%) C++
5 18 (4.23%) SQL
6 17 (3.99%) C#
7 9 (2.11%) Java
7 9 (2.11%) VBA
8 5 (1.17%) C
8 5 (1.17%) Go
8 5 (1.17%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.94%) ActionScript
9 4 (0.94%) Perl
10 2 (0.47%) Jython
10 2 (0.47%) Ruby
11 1 (0.23%) Groovy
11 1 (0.23%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 109 (25.59%) Security Cleared
2 86 (20.19%) SC Cleared
3 78 (18.31%) Degree
4 43 (10.09%) Cisco Certification
5 33 (7.75%) CCNP
6 30 (7.04%) Computer Science Degree
7 29 (6.81%) CompTIA Security+
8 27 (6.34%) CCNA
9 25 (5.87%) DV Cleared
10 20 (4.69%) CISSP
11 18 (4.23%) CompTIA CySA+
12 15 (3.52%) Microsoft Certification
13 9 (2.11%) MCSA
14 8 (1.88%) Azure Certification
14 8 (1.88%) MCSE
14 8 (1.88%) Network+ Certification
15 7 (1.64%) CCIE
16 5 (1.17%) CISM
16 5 (1.17%) JNCIS
17 4 (0.94%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 13 (3.05%) SLA
2 9 (2.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 9 (2.11%) NIST
3 6 (1.41%) QA
4 5 (1.17%) GDPR
5 3 (0.70%) NCSC
5 3 (0.70%) PCI DSS
6 2 (0.47%) Government Security Classifications
6 2 (0.47%) RMADS
7 1 (0.23%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.23%) GRC
System Software
1 90 (21.13%) Active Directory
2 47 (11.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 18 (4.23%) Firmware
4 16 (3.76%) Docker
5 13 (3.05%) Squid
5 13 (3.05%) Virtual Desktop
6 9 (2.11%) Hyper-V
7 7 (1.64%) VMware NSX
7 7 (1.64%) vSphere
8 4 (0.94%) NFS
8 4 (0.94%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.47%) KVM
9 2 (0.47%) RACF
9 2 (0.47%) VirtualBox
10 1 (0.23%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.23%) GPFS
10 1 (0.23%) iptables
10 1 (0.23%) Slurm Workload Manager
10 1 (0.23%) Snort
10 1 (0.23%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 67 (15.73%) Ansible
2 36 (8.45%) Terraform
3 34 (7.98%) Kubernetes
4 28 (6.57%) Microsoft Intune
5 25 (5.87%) Grafana
6 24 (5.63%) FortiGate
6 24 (5.63%) Single Sign-On
7 20 (4.69%) SCCM
8 15 (3.52%) Prometheus
9 11 (2.58%) Jamf Pro
10 10 (2.35%) WSUS
11 9 (2.11%) Consul
12 6 (1.41%) CASB
12 6 (1.41%) QRadar
13 5 (1.17%) Nagios
13 5 (1.17%) Nessus
13 5 (1.17%) Suricata
14 4 (0.94%) Tivoli NetView
15 3 (0.70%) Puppet
15 3 (0.70%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 126 (29.58%) Microsoft
2 68 (15.96%) Cisco
2 68 (15.96%) F5
3 57 (13.38%) VMware
4 43 (10.09%) ServiceNow
5 40 (9.39%) Splunk
6 31 (7.28%) Blue Coat
7 28 (6.57%) Palo Alto
8 25 (5.87%) McAfee
9 23 (5.40%) Citrix
9 23 (5.40%) Fortinet
10 20 (4.69%) NetApp
11 17 (3.99%) Juniper
11 17 (3.99%) Siemens
11 17 (3.99%) Zscaler
12 16 (3.76%) Red Hat
13 15 (3.52%) Google
14 13 (3.05%) Bloomberg
15 12 (2.82%) CheckPoint
16 11 (2.58%) Netskope