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

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 162 115 67
Rank change year-on-year -47 -48 +11
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 933 799 1,217
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.70% 2.41% 3.20%
As % of the General category 3.03% 3.81% 5.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 515 478 540
10th Percentile £257 £218 £247
25th Percentile £360 £373 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £469 £453 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.65% -9.50% -
75th Percentile £550 £574 £600
90th Percentile £665 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £500
% change year-on-year - -10.00% +7.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 52 82
10th Percentile £13.96 £14.00 £16.09
25th Percentile £16.01 £14.75 £37.50
Median hourly rate £19.93 £23.00 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.35% -64.62% +23.81%
75th Percentile £31.00 £44.13 £72.50
90th Percentile £53.60 £65.25 £78.63
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.50 £20.75 £70.00
% change year-on-year -15.66% -70.36% +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 30,811 20,994 22,244
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 56.17% 63.35% 58.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,953 13,037 13,174
10th Percentile £313 £275 £281
25th Percentile £420 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £650
90th Percentile £743 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,677 1,229 1,005
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.51 £14.73
25th Percentile £16.25 £16.17 £17.08
Median hourly rate £28.26 £25.08 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.68% -28.36% +27.27%
75th Percentile £53.75 £45.80 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.50 £21.39 £33.00
% change year-on-year +33.24% -35.18% +25.71%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 -66 774 £470 +0.53% 1,847
UK excluding London -60 476 £450 - 1,166
London -31 351 £500 +7.53% 842
Work from Home -23 273 £475 -5.00% 762
South East -42 193 £470 -5.08% 334
East of England +26 75 £325 -35.64% 138
Scotland +12 63 £300 +14.29% 138
North of England -64 58 £463 +68.18% 220
South West -68 47 £503 -4.29% 102
Midlands -79 33 £478 +25.82% 166
Yorkshire -19 32 £469 +70.45% 66
West Midlands -64 31 £506 +33.06% 95
North West -57 24 £463 +49.19% 121
Wales -8 7 £200 +19.40% 35
Northern Ireland 0 6 £290 +75.76% 48
Channel Islands -3 2 £606 -
East Midlands -23 2 £475 +72.73% 71
North East -46 2 £298 +70.00% 37

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 23 (2.47%) Confluence
2 15 (1.61%) OpenStack
3 14 (1.50%) SharePoint
4 9 (0.96%) ArcGIS
5 7 (0.75%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (0.43%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.32%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.21%) Apache
8 2 (0.21%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.21%) CMS
9 1 (0.11%) IIS
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 36 (3.86%) Microsoft Excel
2 29 (3.11%) MS Visio
3 26 (2.79%) Microsoft Office
4 12 (1.29%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (0.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.54%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.32%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.11%) Adobe Illustrator
9 1 (0.11%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.11%) InDesign
9 1 (0.11%) MicroStation
9 1 (0.11%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.11%) Revit
9 1 (0.11%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 25 (2.68%) SAP PSCD
2 17 (1.82%) SAP BRIM
3 13 (1.39%) SAP Hybris
4 10 (1.07%) SAP FI
5 9 (0.96%) SAP FI-CA
6 7 (0.75%) SAP S/4HANA
7 6 (0.64%) Remedy ITSM
8 5 (0.54%) NetSuite
8 5 (0.54%) Sage X3
8 5 (0.54%) Salesforce CRM
9 3 (0.32%) Remedy AR System
9 3 (0.32%) SAP ERP
10 2 (0.21%) OpenText VIM for SAP
10 2 (0.21%) SAP MM
11 1 (0.11%) BambooHR
11 1 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
11 1 (0.11%) Primavera
11 1 (0.11%) SAP CO
11 1 (0.11%) SAP SD
11 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 92 (9.86%) Azure
2 90 (9.65%) AWS
3 59 (6.32%) GCP
4 20 (2.14%) GitHub
5 19 (2.04%) Microsoft 365
6 18 (1.93%) Entra ID
7 16 (1.71%) SaaS
7 16 (1.71%) SAP Commerce Cloud
8 15 (1.61%) Power Platform
9 12 (1.29%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (1.07%) Cloud Computing
10 10 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
11 8 (0.86%) Microsoft Purview
12 7 (0.75%) dbt
12 7 (0.75%) Miro
12 7 (0.75%) OneDrive
12 7 (0.75%) Snowflake
13 6 (0.64%) Cloud Functions
14 5 (0.54%) Fivetran
14 5 (0.54%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 118 (12.65%) WAN
2 93 (9.97%) 5G
3 91 (9.75%) LAN
4 89 (9.54%) MPLS
5 67 (7.18%) 4G
6 65 (6.97%) Radio Access Network
7 54 (5.79%) Firewall
8 48 (5.14%) Wi-Fi
9 41 (4.39%) Broadband
10 36 (3.86%) SD-WAN
11 35 (3.75%) VoIP
12 32 (3.43%) BGP
12 32 (3.43%) SDH
13 30 (3.22%) DNS
13 30 (3.22%) Network Security
14 28 (3.00%) 3GPP
14 28 (3.00%) Wireshark
15 27 (2.89%) TCP/IP
16 23 (2.47%) LTE
16 23 (2.47%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 13 (1.39%) Data Warehouse
1 13 (1.39%) NoSQL
1 13 (1.39%) Power BI
2 12 (1.29%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (1.07%) BigQuery
4 9 (0.96%) GIS
4 9 (0.96%) Metadata
5 8 (0.86%) MongoDB
5 8 (0.86%) MySQL
5 8 (0.86%) Tableau
6 7 (0.75%) Amazon Redshift
6 7 (0.75%) Redis
7 4 (0.43%) SQL Server
8 3 (0.32%) Apache Cassandra
8 3 (0.32%) Big Data
8 3 (0.32%) BusinessObjects
8 3 (0.32%) Cloud Spanner
8 3 (0.32%) Hazelcast
8 3 (0.32%) SAP BW
8 3 (0.32%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 47 (5.04%) JIRA
2 40 (4.29%) Git
3 23 (2.47%) GitLab
4 17 (1.82%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.86%) Selenium
6 5 (0.54%) Robot Framework
7 3 (0.32%) JMeter
7 3 (0.32%) Locust
7 3 (0.32%) TestCafe
8 2 (0.21%) Sonatype Nexus
9 1 (0.11%) Bitbucket
9 1 (0.11%) JUnit
9 1 (0.11%) Maven
9 1 (0.11%) Mockito
9 1 (0.11%) Newman
9 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
9 1 (0.11%) TestRail
9 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
9 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 259 (27.76%) Social Skills
2 145 (15.54%) Finance
3 113 (12.11%) Analytical Skills
4 62 (6.65%) Public Sector
5 38 (4.07%) Billing
6 34 (3.64%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (3.32%) Organisational Skills
8 28 (3.00%) Retail
9 21 (2.25%) Legal
9 21 (2.25%) Manufacturing
10 19 (2.04%) Influencing Skills
11 16 (1.71%) Aerospace
11 16 (1.71%) Marketing
12 14 (1.50%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 14 (1.50%) Presentation Skills
13 13 (1.39%) Banking
14 9 (0.96%) Publishing
15 8 (0.86%) Police
16 6 (0.64%) Aviation
17 4 (0.43%) Games
Job Titles
1 140 (15.01%) Architect
2 74 (7.93%) Lead
3 73 (7.82%) Senior
4 70 (7.50%) Consultant
5 69 (7.40%) Network Engineer
6 64 (6.86%) Analyst
7 57 (6.11%) Field Engineer
8 55 (5.89%) Project Manager
9 53 (5.68%) Telecoms Engineer
10 39 (4.18%) Developer
11 37 (3.97%) Solutions Architect
12 33 (3.54%) Designer
13 28 (3.00%) Business Analyst
13 28 (3.00%) ServiceNow Architect
14 27 (2.89%) Telecoms Manager
15 26 (2.79%) Enterprise Architect
16 25 (2.68%) SAP Consultant
17 22 (2.36%) Field Telecoms Engineer
17 22 (2.36%) Telecoms Architect
18 21 (2.25%) Network Field Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (5.68%) REST
2 31 (3.32%) SOAP
3 21 (2.25%) Terraform
4 18 (1.93%) Kafka
5 17 (1.82%) RESTful
6 16 (1.71%) NETCONF
6 16 (1.71%) YANG
7 14 (1.50%) HTML
8 13 (1.39%) CSS
8 13 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
8 13 (1.39%) ONVIF
9 12 (1.29%) JSON
9 12 (1.29%) XML
10 10 (1.07%) AngularJS
10 10 (1.07%) FastAPI
10 10 (1.07%) React
11 9 (0.96%) Middleware
12 8 (0.86%) OpenAPI
12 8 (0.86%) Swagger
13 7 (0.75%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 54 (5.79%) Data Centre
2 45 (4.82%) CMDB
2 45 (4.82%) Driving Licence
3 40 (4.29%) Onboarding
4 33 (3.54%) Cloud Native
5 19 (2.04%) Analytical Mindset
5 19 (2.04%) Management Information System
5 19 (2.04%) Product Ownership
6 17 (1.82%) Data Protection Act
7 15 (1.61%) Video\Live Streaming
8 13 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
8 13 (1.39%) Hybrid Cloud
9 12 (1.29%) Data Structures
9 12 (1.29%) TM Forum
10 11 (1.18%) Legacy Systems
10 11 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
10 11 (1.18%) Virtual Team
11 10 (1.07%) AI Agents
11 10 (1.07%) Fibre Optics
11 10 (1.07%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 57 (6.11%) Windows
2 54 (5.79%) Linux
3 13 (1.39%) Windows Server
4 12 (1.29%) Windows 10
5 11 (1.18%) Unix
6 9 (0.96%) Mac OS
7 7 (0.75%) VMS
8 4 (0.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.32%) Android
9 3 (0.32%) CentOS
10 2 (0.21%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.21%) Embedded Linux
10 2 (0.21%) OpenVMS
11 1 (0.11%) Mac OS X
11 1 (0.11%) OpenWrt
11 1 (0.11%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.11%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 210 (22.51%) Stakeholder Management
2 122 (13.08%) Agile
3 120 (12.86%) Problem-Solving
4 89 (9.54%) AI
5 88 (9.43%) ITIL
6 84 (9.00%) Project Delivery
7 77 (8.25%) Migration
8 76 (8.15%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 73 (7.82%) CI/CD
10 71 (7.61%) Validation
11 70 (7.50%) Roadmaps
11 70 (7.50%) Service Management
12 69 (7.40%) Continuous Improvement
13 66 (7.07%) Project Management
14 60 (6.43%) Test Automation
15 56 (6.00%) Change Management
16 52 (5.57%) DevOps
16 52 (5.57%) Technical Leadership
17 51 (5.47%) Decision-Making
18 50 (5.36%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 86 (9.22%) Python
2 39 (4.18%) SQL
3 31 (3.32%) JavaScript
4 27 (2.89%) Bash
5 22 (2.36%) Java
6 10 (1.07%) PowerShell
7 8 (0.86%) Shell Script
8 6 (0.64%) Apex Code
8 6 (0.64%) C#
9 5 (0.54%) SOQL
10 4 (0.43%) ABAP
10 4 (0.43%) DataWeave
10 4 (0.43%) R
10 4 (0.43%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.32%) C
11 3 (0.32%) C++
12 2 (0.21%) Bicep
12 2 (0.21%) DCL
13 1 (0.11%) LookML
13 1 (0.11%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 163 (17.47%) Security Cleared
2 100 (10.72%) SC Cleared
3 89 (9.54%) Degree
4 75 (8.04%) Cisco Certification
5 48 (5.14%) CCNA
6 29 (3.11%) CCNP
6 29 (3.11%) DV Cleared
7 27 (2.89%) BPSS Clearance
8 22 (2.36%) Microsoft Certification
9 20 (2.14%) A+ Certification
9 20 (2.14%) PMP
10 17 (1.82%) CCIE
10 17 (1.82%) CISSP
10 17 (1.82%) PMI Certification
11 16 (1.71%) Computer Science Degree
12 13 (1.39%) Master's Degree
12 13 (1.39%) MCSA
13 12 (1.29%) JNCIE
14 10 (1.07%) CISM
15 7 (0.75%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (4.72%) QA
2 24 (2.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (2.47%) SLA
4 20 (2.14%) GRC
4 20 (2.14%) PMO
5 18 (1.93%) NCSC
6 14 (1.50%) GDPR
7 13 (1.39%) Data Quality
8 6 (0.64%) Actionable Recommendations
9 5 (0.54%) NIST
10 4 (0.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 3 (0.32%) Accessibility
11 3 (0.32%) Cyber Essentials
11 3 (0.32%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
13 1 (0.11%) EU AI Act
13 1 (0.11%) GAAP
13 1 (0.11%) ISO 22301
13 1 (0.11%) ISO 31000
13 1 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 15288
System Software
1 35 (3.75%) Docker
2 23 (2.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (2.36%) Active Directory
4 11 (1.18%) VMware NSX
5 6 (0.64%) Firmware
6 5 (0.54%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.43%) vSphere
8 2 (0.21%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.11%) Ceph
9 1 (0.11%) KVM
9 1 (0.11%) NDS
9 1 (0.11%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 1 (0.11%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 47 (5.04%) Kubernetes
2 23 (2.47%) Ansible
3 14 (1.50%) Grafana
3 14 (1.50%) Prometheus
4 8 (0.86%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (0.54%) Jamf Pro
5 5 (0.54%) Kibana
6 4 (0.43%) Cilium
6 4 (0.43%) Cisco Prime
6 4 (0.43%) Istio
6 4 (0.43%) SolarWinds Orion
7 3 (0.32%) Check_MK
7 3 (0.32%) Podman
7 3 (0.32%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.32%) vRealize
8 2 (0.21%) NSN NetAct
8 2 (0.21%) QRadar
9 1 (0.11%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.11%) SCCM
Vendors
1 126 (13.50%) Cisco
2 124 (13.29%) Microsoft
3 79 (8.47%) ServiceNow
4 64 (6.86%) Nokia
5 44 (4.72%) Salesforce
6 37 (3.97%) VMware
7 35 (3.75%) SAP
8 28 (3.00%) Ericsson
9 21 (2.25%) Juniper
10 19 (2.04%) Google
11 18 (1.93%) BT
11 18 (1.93%) Fortinet
11 18 (1.93%) MuleSoft
12 15 (1.61%) F5
13 14 (1.50%) Palo Alto
14 12 (1.29%) BMC
15 11 (1.18%) Arista
15 11 (1.18%) Splunk
15 11 (1.18%) Zscaler
16 10 (1.07%) Oracle