Telecoms Contract Job Trends

Telecommunications
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Telecoms in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Telecoms over the 6 months leading up to 27 July 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 175 104 67
Rank change year-on-year -71 -37 +15
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 826 839 1,210
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.56% 2.55% 3.01%
As % of the General category 2.85% 4.04% 5.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 468 491 592
10th Percentile £213 £300 £205
25th Percentile £399 £383 £361
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £468 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.60% -1.58% -1.96%
75th Percentile £575 £579 £607
90th Percentile £694 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £455 £475
% change year-on-year -1.10% -4.21% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 47 106
10th Percentile £16.06 - £12.15
25th Percentile £17.73 £14.00 £14.00
Median hourly rate £24.50 £20.75 £51.78
Median % change year-on-year +18.07% -59.93% -15.46%
75th Percentile £50.00 £53.63 £72.50
90th Percentile £178.75 £65.25 £75.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.00 £15.50 £48.56
% change year-on-year +35.48% -68.08% -7.50%

All General Skills
UK

Telecoms falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring general skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for general skills 29,004 20,749 23,018
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 54.93% 62.96% 57.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,299 12,986 14,521
10th Percentile £313 £280 £288
25th Percentile £413 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £634 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £470 £494
% change year-on-year +6.38% -4.86% -1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,057 1,094 1,537
10th Percentile £14.10 £13.36 £13.67
25th Percentile £18.27 £16.25 £16.30
Median hourly rate £33.00 £25.32 £36.17
Median % change year-on-year +30.33% -29.99% +18.42%
75th Percentile £61.18 £51.16 £57.50
90th Percentile £81.05 £70.11 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £22.32 £37.50
% change year-on-year +47.85% -40.48% +42.86%

Telecoms
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Telecoms relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Telecoms job vacancy trend in the UK

Telecoms
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Telecoms.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Telecoms

Telecoms
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Telecoms over the 6 months to 27 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Telecoms in the UK

Telecoms
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Telecoms.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Telecoms

Telecoms
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Telecoms over the 6 months to 27 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Telecoms in the UK

Telecoms
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Telecoms within the UK over the 6 months to 27 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 -80 698 £475 - 628
UK excluding London -83 425 £450 -1.10% 488
London -29 302 £517 +8.74% 235
Work from Home -42 235 £475 - 237
South East -55 192 £460 -8.00% 161
North of England -60 64 £500 -2.44% 102
South West -68 48 £450 -14.29% 46
Scotland +9 47 £300 -7.69% 47
Midlands -58 40 £478 +27.50% 73
West Midlands -58 35 £470 +34.29% 51
East of England -15 34 £160 -57.33% 44
Yorkshire -28 31 £475 +22.58% 26
North West -56 28 £550 +4.76% 60
East Midlands -11 5 £500 +33.33% 22
North East -36 5 £500 - 18
Northern Ireland -3 3 £175 -51.05% 3
Wales -16 1 £500 +132.56% 21

Telecoms
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 13 (1.57%) Confluence
1 13 (1.57%) OpenStack
2 10 (1.21%) ArcGIS
3 9 (1.09%) SharePoint
4 7 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
4 7 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
5 4 (0.48%) Anypoint
5 4 (0.48%) Apache Spark
6 2 (0.24%) Apache
6 2 (0.24%) Appian
6 2 (0.24%) CMS
7 1 (0.12%) Camunda
7 1 (0.12%) IIS
7 1 (0.12%) JBoss
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 1 (0.12%) Smallworld
7 1 (0.12%) Tomcat
7 1 (0.12%) WebLogic
Applications
1 26 (3.15%) Microsoft Office
2 25 (3.03%) Microsoft Excel
3 19 (2.30%) MS Visio
4 10 (1.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.61%) AutoCAD
5 5 (0.61%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.24%) MicroStation
7 1 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
7 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.12%) Revit
7 1 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.12%) Trello
Business Applications
1 20 (2.42%) SAP PSCD
2 11 (1.33%) SAP BRIM
3 9 (1.09%) SAP Hybris
4 8 (0.97%) Remedy ITSM
4 8 (0.97%) SAP FI
5 7 (0.85%) SAP FI-CA
6 5 (0.61%) NetSuite
6 5 (0.61%) Sage X3
6 5 (0.61%) Salesforce CRM
6 5 (0.61%) SAP S/4HANA
7 4 (0.48%) BambooHR
8 3 (0.36%) Remedy AR System
8 3 (0.36%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle BRM
9 1 (0.12%) SAP FS
9 1 (0.12%) SAP IBP
9 1 (0.12%) SAP IS-U
9 1 (0.12%) SAP SRM
9 1 (0.12%) SmartPlant
9 1 (0.12%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 96 (11.62%) Azure
2 86 (10.41%) AWS
3 64 (7.75%) GCP
4 21 (2.54%) Power Platform
5 18 (2.18%) Microsoft 365
6 15 (1.82%) GitHub
6 15 (1.82%) SaaS
7 14 (1.69%) Entra ID
8 11 (1.33%) dbt
8 11 (1.33%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 10 (1.21%) Snowflake
10 9 (1.09%) Azure DevOps
10 9 (1.09%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (0.97%) Cloud Computing
12 6 (0.73%) Cloud Functions
12 6 (0.73%) Datadog
12 6 (0.73%) Serverless
13 5 (0.61%) AWS Lambda
13 5 (0.61%) Fivetran
13 5 (0.61%) Prefect
Communications & Networking
1 96 (11.62%) WAN
2 80 (9.69%) LAN
3 71 (8.60%) 5G
3 71 (8.60%) MPLS
4 51 (6.17%) 4G
5 50 (6.05%) Firewall
6 48 (5.81%) Radio Access Network
7 33 (4.00%) SD-WAN
8 28 (3.39%) BGP
8 28 (3.39%) DNS
9 26 (3.15%) Network Security
10 24 (2.91%) VPN
11 23 (2.78%) 3G
11 23 (2.78%) Wi-Fi
12 22 (2.66%) SDH
13 21 (2.54%) VoIP
14 20 (2.42%) 3GPP
14 20 (2.42%) LTE
14 20 (2.42%) TCP/IP
15 18 (2.18%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (2.42%) Power BI
2 19 (2.30%) Data Warehouse
3 15 (1.82%) BigQuery
4 12 (1.45%) Amazon Redshift
4 12 (1.45%) Looker
4 12 (1.45%) Tableau
5 10 (1.21%) GIS
6 7 (0.85%) Big Data
7 6 (0.73%) NoSQL
8 5 (0.61%) SQL Server
9 4 (0.48%) Apache Cassandra
9 4 (0.48%) MySQL
9 4 (0.48%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.36%) Amazon Athena
10 3 (0.36%) Data Lake
10 3 (0.36%) InfluxDB
10 3 (0.36%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.36%) PostgreSQL
10 3 (0.36%) Semantic Layer
10 3 (0.36%) Tableau Desktop
Development Applications
1 27 (3.27%) JIRA
2 14 (1.69%) Git
3 7 (0.85%) Jenkins
4 3 (0.36%) GitLab
4 3 (0.36%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (0.24%) Robot Framework
5 2 (0.24%) Selenium
6 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
6 1 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
6 1 (0.12%) TestRail
General
1 239 (28.93%) Social Skills
2 126 (15.25%) Finance
3 105 (12.71%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (7.51%) Public Sector
5 37 (4.48%) Billing
6 31 (3.75%) Documentation Skills
7 23 (2.78%) Organisational Skills
7 23 (2.78%) Retail
8 21 (2.54%) Influencing Skills
9 20 (2.42%) Legal
9 20 (2.42%) Marketing
10 14 (1.69%) Presentation Skills
11 12 (1.45%) Aerospace
12 10 (1.21%) Manufacturing
12 10 (1.21%) Publishing
13 8 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 8 (0.97%) Police
14 6 (0.73%) Electronics
15 4 (0.48%) Military
16 3 (0.36%) General Ledger
Job Titles
1 131 (15.86%) Architect
2 76 (9.20%) Senior
3 66 (7.99%) Consultant
4 62 (7.51%) Lead
5 61 (7.38%) Analyst
6 49 (5.93%) Project Manager
7 48 (5.81%) Solutions Architect
8 47 (5.69%) Network Engineer
9 38 (4.60%) Telecoms Manager
10 34 (4.12%) Telecoms Engineer
11 33 (4.00%) Designer
11 33 (4.00%) Field Engineer
12 30 (3.63%) ServiceNow Architect
13 27 (3.27%) Data Engineer
13 27 (3.27%) Developer
14 25 (3.03%) Enterprise Architect
15 21 (2.54%) Delivery Manager
15 21 (2.54%) SAP Consultant
15 21 (2.54%) Telecoms Architect
16 20 (2.42%) Platform Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (5.57%) REST
2 32 (3.87%) SOAP
3 14 (1.69%) Kafka
4 13 (1.57%) ONVIF
5 12 (1.45%) Middleware
5 12 (1.45%) XML
6 10 (1.21%) NETCONF
6 10 (1.21%) YANG
7 9 (1.09%) OpenAPI
7 9 (1.09%) Swagger
8 8 (0.97%) AngularJS
8 8 (0.97%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (0.97%) React
8 8 (0.97%) RESTful
9 7 (0.85%) JSON
10 6 (0.73%) .NET
10 6 (0.73%) HTML
11 5 (0.61%) 802.1X
11 5 (0.61%) CSS
12 4 (0.48%) RAML
Miscellaneous
1 50 (6.05%) CMDB
2 48 (5.81%) Data Centre
3 35 (4.24%) Onboarding
4 33 (4.00%) Cloud Native
5 29 (3.51%) Driving Licence
6 20 (2.42%) Data Protection Act
7 19 (2.30%) Analytical Mindset
7 19 (2.30%) Virtual Team
8 18 (2.18%) Product Ownership
9 17 (2.06%) Hybrid Cloud
10 15 (1.82%) Management Information System
11 13 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.57%) Video\Live Streaming
12 11 (1.33%) Distributed Systems
13 9 (1.09%) Algorithms
13 9 (1.09%) Private Cloud
13 9 (1.09%) TM Forum
14 8 (0.97%) Data Structures
14 8 (0.97%) EPoS
15 7 (0.85%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 37 (4.48%) Windows
2 24 (2.91%) Linux
3 15 (1.82%) Windows 10
4 9 (1.09%) Unix
4 9 (1.09%) Windows Server
5 6 (0.73%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.36%) Android
6 3 (0.36%) Apple iOS
6 3 (0.36%) VMS
7 2 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
7 2 (0.24%) OpenVMS
7 2 (0.24%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 1 (0.12%) Mac OS X
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
8 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.12%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 146 (17.68%) Stakeholder Management
2 115 (13.92%) Agile
3 107 (12.95%) Problem-Solving
4 82 (9.93%) ITIL
4 82 (9.93%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 77 (9.32%) Project Delivery
6 68 (8.23%) AI
7 65 (7.87%) CI/CD
7 65 (7.87%) Roadmaps
8 62 (7.51%) Continuous Improvement
9 61 (7.38%) Service Management
10 59 (7.14%) Migration
11 57 (6.90%) Decision-Making
12 56 (6.78%) Project Management
13 54 (6.54%) Validation
14 52 (6.30%) Analytics
15 51 (6.17%) CRM
15 51 (6.17%) Customer Service
16 50 (6.05%) Change Management
16 50 (6.05%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 70 (8.47%) Python
2 40 (4.84%) SQL
3 30 (3.63%) JavaScript
4 15 (1.82%) Java
5 9 (1.09%) Bash
5 9 (1.09%) C#
5 9 (1.09%) PowerShell
6 7 (0.85%) R
7 6 (0.73%) Apex Code
8 5 (0.61%) C++
9 4 (0.48%) ABAP
9 4 (0.48%) DataWeave
9 4 (0.48%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.36%) LookML
10 3 (0.36%) SOQL
11 2 (0.24%) C
11 2 (0.24%) DCL
12 1 (0.12%) Bicep
12 1 (0.12%) Go
12 1 (0.12%) Kotlin
Qualifications
1 149 (18.04%) Security Cleared
2 102 (12.35%) SC Cleared
3 75 (9.08%) Degree
4 57 (6.90%) Cisco Certification
5 39 (4.72%) CCNA
6 24 (2.91%) CCNP
7 22 (2.66%) DV Cleared
7 22 (2.66%) Microsoft Certification
8 20 (2.42%) A+ Certification
9 18 (2.18%) PMP
10 17 (2.06%) Computer Science Degree
11 15 (1.82%) BPSS Clearance
12 14 (1.69%) PMI Certification
13 13 (1.57%) MCSA
14 10 (1.21%) Azure Certification
14 10 (1.21%) CCIE
15 9 (1.09%) AWS Certification
16 8 (0.97%) Network+ Certification
17 7 (0.85%) CISSP
18 6 (0.73%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (3.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 26 (3.15%) SLA
2 20 (2.42%) GDPR
2 20 (2.42%) GRC
3 19 (2.30%) QA
4 18 (2.18%) NCSC
5 15 (1.82%) Data Quality
6 13 (1.57%) PMO
7 9 (1.09%) NIST
8 3 (0.36%) Actionable Recommendations
8 3 (0.36%) Cyber Essentials
8 3 (0.36%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 2 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
10 1 (0.12%) EU AI Act
10 1 (0.12%) IFRS
10 1 (0.12%) ISO 31000
10 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 15288
10 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.12%) SOC 1
System Software
1 20 (2.42%) Active Directory
2 18 (2.18%) Docker
2 18 (2.18%) VMware Infrastructure
3 8 (0.97%) VMware NSX
4 5 (0.61%) vSphere
5 4 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.24%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.12%) Ceph
7 1 (0.12%) KVM
7 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 45 (5.45%) Kubernetes
2 24 (2.91%) Terraform
3 17 (2.06%) Ansible
4 12 (1.45%) Grafana
4 12 (1.45%) Prometheus
5 6 (0.73%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.61%) Jamf Pro
7 3 (0.36%) Amdocs OSS
7 3 (0.36%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.36%) vRealize
8 2 (0.24%) Check_MK
8 2 (0.24%) Cisco Prime
8 2 (0.24%) Iperf
8 2 (0.24%) NSN NetAct
8 2 (0.24%) Podman
8 2 (0.24%) QRadar
9 1 (0.12%) Nmap
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.12%) SCCM
9 1 (0.12%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 110 (13.32%) Microsoft
2 93 (11.26%) Cisco
3 81 (9.81%) ServiceNow
4 49 (5.93%) Nokia
5 38 (4.60%) Salesforce
6 30 (3.63%) SAP
6 30 (3.63%) VMware
7 24 (2.91%) BT
8 23 (2.78%) Ericsson
9 22 (2.66%) Fortinet
10 21 (2.54%) Google
10 21 (2.54%) Juniper
11 19 (2.30%) F5
12 16 (1.94%) Huawei
12 16 (1.94%) MuleSoft
13 14 (1.69%) Palo Alto
14 13 (1.57%) CheckPoint
15 12 (1.45%) BMC
15 12 (1.45%) Oracle
16 9 (1.09%) Remedy