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 15 October 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 165 118 66
Rank change year-on-year -47 -52 +10
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 961 790 1,228
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.74% 2.38% 3.26%
As % of the General category 3.06% 3.76% 5.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 526 483 552
10th Percentile £263 £185 £248
25th Percentile £356 £350 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% -10.00% -
75th Percentile £549 £574 £600
90th Percentile £669 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £442 £450 £500
% change year-on-year -1.78% -10.00% +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 56 53 72
10th Percentile £13.54 £14.15 £24.26
25th Percentile £14.68 £15.50 £37.50
Median hourly rate £17.50 £23.00 £67.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.91% -65.93% +28.57%
75th Percentile £31.00 £43.00 £72.50
90th Percentile £50.00 £75.05 £76.13
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £21.25 £70.00
% change year-on-year -17.65% -69.64% +33.33%

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 31,386 21,013 22,089
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.76% 63.28% 58.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,231 13,114 13,043
10th Percentile £313 £275 £280
25th Percentile £420 £400 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £649
90th Percentile £740 £738 £763
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £478
% change year-on-year +5.26% -0.52% -4.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,837 1,247 919
10th Percentile £13.46 £13.59 £15.00
25th Percentile £16.01 £16.30 £17.08
Median hourly rate £27.38 £25.00 £32.28
Median % change year-on-year +9.52% -22.55% +8.50%
75th Percentile £53.75 £44.42 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.10 £71.30
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.08 £21.39 £30.00
% change year-on-year +26.59% -28.70% +11.11%

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 15 October 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 15 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Telecoms in the UK

Telecoms
Top 18 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 15 October 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 -57 800 £469 +1.41% 291
UK excluding London -53 494 £442 -1.78% 261
London -20 361 £500 +8.11% 70
Work from Home -27 274 £475 -5.00% 110
South East -37 193 £469 -6.20% 93
East of England +35 93 £325 -35.64% 47
Scotland +12 66 £300 -2.83% 15
North of England -67 57 £475 +95.88% 35
South West -71 45 £494 -5.90% 30
Yorkshire -20 35 £475 +48.44% 10
Midlands -79 34 £475 +25.00% 39
West Midlands -66 32 £481 +26.64% 23
North West -60 20 £500 +115.05% 23
Wales -8 7 £200 +19.40% 7
Northern Ireland -3 5 £358 +110.29% 4
Channel Islands -3 2 £606 -
East Midlands -20 2 £475 +185.71% 16
North East -41 2 £298 +70.00% 3

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 27 (2.81%) Confluence
2 15 (1.56%) SharePoint
3 14 (1.46%) OpenStack
4 9 (0.94%) ArcGIS
5 7 (0.73%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (0.42%) Anypoint
7 2 (0.21%) Apache
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Airflow
7 2 (0.21%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.10%) CMS
8 1 (0.10%) IIS
8 1 (0.10%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 39 (4.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (3.02%) MS Visio
3 25 (2.60%) Microsoft Office
4 15 (1.56%) Microsoft Project
5 9 (0.94%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.52%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.31%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.21%) Revit
8 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.10%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.10%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.10%) InDesign
9 1 (0.10%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.10%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.10%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 26 (2.71%) SAP PSCD
2 18 (1.87%) SAP BRIM
3 13 (1.35%) SAP Hybris
4 11 (1.14%) SAP FI
5 10 (1.04%) SAP FI-CA
5 10 (1.04%) SAP S/4HANA
6 6 (0.62%) Remedy ITSM
7 5 (0.52%) NetSuite
7 5 (0.52%) Sage X3
8 4 (0.42%) OpenText VIM for SAP
8 4 (0.42%) Salesforce CRM
8 4 (0.42%) SAP MM
9 3 (0.31%) Remedy AR System
9 3 (0.31%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.21%) Dynamics CRM
11 1 (0.10%) Oracle BRM
11 1 (0.10%) SAP FS
11 1 (0.10%) SAP IS-U
11 1 (0.10%) SAP SD
11 1 (0.10%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 90 (9.37%) Azure
2 85 (8.84%) AWS
3 58 (6.04%) GCP
4 19 (1.98%) Entra ID
4 19 (1.98%) GitHub
5 18 (1.87%) Microsoft 365
6 17 (1.77%) SAP Commerce Cloud
7 15 (1.56%) Power Platform
7 15 (1.56%) SaaS
8 12 (1.25%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.04%) Cloud Computing
10 9 (0.94%) GitHub Actions
10 9 (0.94%) Microsoft Purview
10 9 (0.94%) OneDrive
11 7 (0.73%) Miro
12 6 (0.62%) Cloud Functions
12 6 (0.62%) Snowflake
13 5 (0.52%) dbt
13 5 (0.52%) Fivetran
13 5 (0.52%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 117 (12.17%) WAN
2 96 (9.99%) 5G
3 90 (9.37%) MPLS
4 89 (9.26%) LAN
5 72 (7.49%) 4G
6 71 (7.39%) Radio Access Network
7 57 (5.93%) Wi-Fi
8 55 (5.72%) Firewall
9 54 (5.62%) Broadband
10 40 (4.16%) VoIP
11 36 (3.75%) SD-WAN
12 33 (3.43%) SDH
13 32 (3.33%) Wireshark
14 31 (3.23%) 3GPP
14 31 (3.23%) BGP
14 31 (3.23%) DNS
14 31 (3.23%) Network Security
14 31 (3.23%) TCP/IP
15 27 (2.81%) LTE
16 22 (2.29%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.35%) NoSQL
2 12 (1.25%) Data Warehouse
3 11 (1.14%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (1.14%) Power BI
4 10 (1.04%) GIS
5 9 (0.94%) BigQuery
5 9 (0.94%) Metadata
6 8 (0.83%) MongoDB
6 8 (0.83%) MySQL
7 7 (0.73%) Redis
8 6 (0.62%) Tableau
9 5 (0.52%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (0.42%) SQL Server
11 3 (0.31%) Apache Cassandra
11 3 (0.31%) Big Data
11 3 (0.31%) BusinessObjects
11 3 (0.31%) Cloud Spanner
11 3 (0.31%) Hazelcast
11 3 (0.31%) SAP BW
11 3 (0.31%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 56 (5.83%) JIRA
2 44 (4.58%) Git
3 26 (2.71%) GitLab
4 15 (1.56%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.83%) Selenium
6 5 (0.52%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.31%) JMeter
7 3 (0.31%) Locust
7 3 (0.31%) TestCafe
8 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.10%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.10%) JUnit
9 1 (0.10%) Maven
9 1 (0.10%) Mockito
9 1 (0.10%) Newman
9 1 (0.10%) Postman
9 1 (0.10%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.10%) TestRail
9 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.10%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 261 (27.16%) Social Skills
2 149 (15.50%) Finance
3 116 (12.07%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (6.45%) Public Sector
5 41 (4.27%) Billing
6 34 (3.54%) Documentation Skills
6 34 (3.54%) Organisational Skills
7 25 (2.60%) Retail
8 24 (2.50%) Manufacturing
9 23 (2.39%) Legal
10 22 (2.29%) Influencing Skills
11 16 (1.66%) Aerospace
11 16 (1.66%) Marketing
12 14 (1.46%) Banking
12 14 (1.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
13 12 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
14 9 (0.94%) Publishing
15 8 (0.83%) Police
16 6 (0.62%) Aviation
16 6 (0.62%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 144 (14.98%) Architect
2 76 (7.91%) Senior
3 75 (7.80%) Lead
4 70 (7.28%) Consultant
5 67 (6.97%) Network Engineer
6 61 (6.35%) Analyst
7 58 (6.04%) Field Engineer
8 57 (5.93%) Project Manager
9 54 (5.62%) Telecoms Engineer
10 37 (3.85%) Developer
10 37 (3.85%) Solutions Architect
11 35 (3.64%) Designer
12 28 (2.91%) ServiceNow Architect
13 27 (2.81%) Business Analyst
14 26 (2.71%) Enterprise Architect
14 26 (2.71%) SAP Consultant
14 26 (2.71%) Telecoms Manager
15 25 (2.60%) Test Engineer
16 22 (2.29%) Delivery Manager
16 22 (2.29%) Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (5.52%) REST
2 31 (3.23%) SOAP
3 19 (1.98%) Terraform
4 18 (1.87%) Kafka
5 16 (1.66%) NETCONF
5 16 (1.66%) RESTful
5 16 (1.66%) YANG
6 14 (1.46%) HTML
7 13 (1.35%) CSS
7 13 (1.35%) JSON
7 13 (1.35%) ONVIF
7 13 (1.35%) XML
8 10 (1.04%) AngularJS
8 10 (1.04%) Elastic Stack
9 9 (0.94%) FastAPI
9 9 (0.94%) Middleware
9 9 (0.94%) React
10 8 (0.83%) OpenAPI
10 8 (0.83%) Swagger
11 7 (0.73%) Flask
Miscellaneous
1 58 (6.04%) Data Centre
2 46 (4.79%) Driving Licence
3 44 (4.58%) CMDB
4 40 (4.16%) Onboarding
5 34 (3.54%) Cloud Native
6 22 (2.29%) Management Information System
6 22 (2.29%) Product Ownership
7 19 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
8 17 (1.77%) Data Protection Act
9 15 (1.56%) Video\Live Streaming
10 14 (1.46%) Enterprise Software
10 14 (1.46%) Fibre Optics
11 12 (1.25%) Data Structures
11 12 (1.25%) TM Forum
12 11 (1.14%) AI Agents
12 11 (1.14%) Legacy Systems
12 11 (1.14%) Social Media
12 11 (1.14%) Video Conferencing
13 10 (1.04%) Hybrid Cloud
13 10 (1.04%) IoT
Operating Systems
1 56 (5.83%) Linux
2 55 (5.72%) Windows
3 14 (1.46%) Windows Server
4 11 (1.14%) macOS
5 10 (1.04%) Unix
6 9 (0.94%) VMS
6 9 (0.94%) Windows 10
7 4 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.31%) CentOS
9 2 (0.21%) Android
9 2 (0.21%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.21%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.21%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.10%) OpenWrt
10 1 (0.10%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 225 (23.41%) Stakeholder Management
2 131 (13.63%) Problem-Solving
3 128 (13.32%) Agile
4 91 (9.47%) AI
5 89 (9.26%) ITIL
6 85 (8.84%) Project Delivery
7 82 (8.53%) Migration
8 79 (8.22%) Continuous Improvement
9 77 (8.01%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 75 (7.80%) Validation
11 72 (7.49%) Service Management
12 71 (7.39%) Roadmaps
13 70 (7.28%) CI/CD
14 67 (6.97%) Project Management
15 64 (6.66%) Test Automation
16 57 (5.93%) Change Management
17 54 (5.62%) Decision-Making
18 53 (5.52%) DevOps
19 52 (5.41%) Service Delivery
19 52 (5.41%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 85 (8.84%) Python
2 38 (3.95%) SQL
3 30 (3.12%) JavaScript
4 25 (2.60%) Bash
5 23 (2.39%) Java
6 9 (0.94%) PowerShell
7 8 (0.83%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.62%) Apex Code
8 6 (0.62%) C#
9 5 (0.52%) SOQL
10 4 (0.42%) ABAP
10 4 (0.42%) DataWeave
10 4 (0.42%) R
11 3 (0.31%) C
11 3 (0.31%) C++
11 3 (0.31%) TypeScript
12 2 (0.21%) DCL
13 1 (0.10%) Ada
13 1 (0.10%) Bicep
13 1 (0.10%) Rust
Qualifications
1 166 (17.27%) Security Cleared
2 99 (10.30%) SC Cleared
3 93 (9.68%) Degree
4 76 (7.91%) Cisco Certification
5 50 (5.20%) CCNA
6 32 (3.33%) BPSS Clearance
7 28 (2.91%) CCNP
7 28 (2.91%) DV Cleared
8 20 (2.08%) Microsoft Certification
8 20 (2.08%) PMP
9 19 (1.98%) PMI Certification
10 18 (1.87%) A+ Certification
11 17 (1.77%) CCIE
12 15 (1.56%) CISSP
13 14 (1.46%) Computer Science Degree
13 14 (1.46%) Master's Degree
14 13 (1.35%) MCSA
15 12 (1.25%) JNCIE
16 8 (0.83%) AWS Certification
16 8 (0.83%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 52 (5.41%) QA
2 22 (2.29%) SLA
3 21 (2.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 20 (2.08%) GRC
5 19 (1.98%) PMO
6 16 (1.66%) NCSC
7 15 (1.56%) GDPR
8 14 (1.46%) Data Quality
9 6 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
10 5 (0.52%) NIST
10 5 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.42%) Accessibility
12 3 (0.31%) Cyber Essentials
12 3 (0.31%) PCI DSS
13 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
14 1 (0.10%) EU AI Act
14 1 (0.10%) GAAP
14 1 (0.10%) ISO 22301
14 1 (0.10%) ISO 31000
14 1 (0.10%) ISO/IEC 15288
System Software
1 36 (3.75%) Docker
2 22 (2.29%) Active Directory
3 20 (2.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (1.14%) VMware NSX
5 8 (0.83%) Firmware
6 5 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.42%) vSphere
8 3 (0.31%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.21%) NDS
9 2 (0.21%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.10%) Ceph
10 1 (0.10%) KVM
10 1 (0.10%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 40 (4.16%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.29%) Ansible
3 12 (1.25%) Grafana
3 12 (1.25%) Prometheus
4 8 (0.83%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (0.52%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (0.42%) Cilium
6 4 (0.42%) Cisco Prime
6 4 (0.42%) Istio
6 4 (0.42%) Kibana
6 4 (0.42%) SolarWinds Orion
7 3 (0.31%) Check_MK
7 3 (0.31%) NSN NetAct
7 3 (0.31%) Podman
7 3 (0.31%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.31%) vRealize
8 2 (0.21%) QRadar
9 1 (0.10%) Amdocs OSS
9 1 (0.10%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.10%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 129 (13.42%) Microsoft
2 122 (12.70%) Cisco
3 77 (8.01%) ServiceNow
4 69 (7.18%) Nokia
5 43 (4.47%) Salesforce
6 39 (4.06%) SAP
7 34 (3.54%) VMware
8 33 (3.43%) Ericsson
9 21 (2.19%) Juniper
10 19 (1.98%) Google
11 18 (1.87%) Fortinet
11 18 (1.87%) MuleSoft
12 17 (1.77%) BT
13 14 (1.46%) F5
14 13 (1.35%) Palo Alto
15 12 (1.25%) BMC
16 11 (1.14%) Arista
16 11 (1.14%) Oracle
16 11 (1.14%) Zscaler
17 10 (1.04%) Adobe