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 11 August 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 173 104 71
Rank change year-on-year -69 -33 +9
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 854 840 1,153
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.60% 2.55% 2.96%
As % of the General category 2.90% 4.03% 5.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 483 491 552
10th Percentile £225 £300 £219
25th Percentile £400 £394 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year - - -1.96%
75th Percentile £575 £583 £609
90th Percentile £686 £700 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 48 103
10th Percentile £15.83 - £12.15
25th Percentile £17.28 £14.00 £16.46
Median hourly rate £21.00 £22.13 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -5.08% -61.52% -11.54%
75th Percentile £50.00 £52.81 £72.50
90th Percentile £178.75 £65.25 £76.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.00 £15.50 £57.50
% change year-on-year +35.48% -73.04% -

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 29,401 20,865 22,362
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.05% 63.37% 57.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,435 13,020 14,047
10th Percentile £313 £278 £290
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 £638 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +5.26% -3.94% -1.10%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,230 1,129 1,377
10th Percentile £13.99 £13.25 £14.06
25th Percentile £17.25 £16.30 £17.00
Median hourly rate £32.11 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +27.68% -34.02% +29.22%
75th Percentile £58.56 £50.00 £58.49
90th Percentile £80.00 £70.03 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £22.14 £38.12
% change year-on-year +46.79% -41.92% +51.72%

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 11 August 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 11 August 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 11 August 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 -78 717 £475 -3.06% 864
UK excluding London -81 428 £450 -5.26% 576
London -35 322 £513 +7.27% 360
Work from Home -36 255 £475 -1.04% 330
South East -53 193 £460 -8.00% 203
North of England -64 59 £475 -9.52% 121
Scotland +6 52 £300 -7.69% 44
South West -70 46 £450 -18.18% 53
East of England -7 44 £190 -49.33% 47
Midlands -69 36 £475 +25.00% 85
West Midlands -70 33 £473 +24.34% 53
Yorkshire -25 32 £475 +22.58% 36
North West -47 26 £522 -1.56% 60
Northern Ireland +1 3 £175 -51.05% 3
East Midlands -10 3 £500 +33.33% 32
Wales -13 2 £500 +132.56% 27
North East -42 1 - - 28

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 17 (1.99%) Confluence
2 16 (1.87%) OpenStack
3 10 (1.17%) ArcGIS
3 10 (1.17%) SharePoint
4 8 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
5 7 (0.82%) Apache Airflow
6 4 (0.47%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.35%) Apache Spark
8 2 (0.23%) CMS
9 1 (0.12%) Apache
9 1 (0.12%) Camunda
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
9 1 (0.12%) Smallworld
Applications
1 28 (3.28%) Microsoft Excel
2 25 (2.93%) Microsoft Office
3 21 (2.46%) MS Visio
4 10 (1.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 9 (1.05%) Microsoft Project
6 5 (0.59%) AutoCAD
7 2 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.12%) Adobe Illustrator
8 1 (0.12%) Autodesk Inventor
8 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.12%) InDesign
8 1 (0.12%) MicroStation
8 1 (0.12%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.12%) Revit
8 1 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.12%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (2.22%) SAP PSCD
2 10 (1.17%) SAP BRIM
3 8 (0.94%) SAP FI
3 8 (0.94%) SAP Hybris
4 7 (0.82%) SAP FI-CA
5 6 (0.70%) Remedy ITSM
6 5 (0.59%) NetSuite
6 5 (0.59%) Sage X3
6 5 (0.59%) Salesforce CRM
6 5 (0.59%) SAP S/4HANA
7 4 (0.47%) BambooHR
8 3 (0.35%) Remedy AR System
8 3 (0.35%) SAP ERP
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle BRM
9 1 (0.12%) SAP FI/CO
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%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 95 (11.12%) Azure
2 89 (10.42%) AWS
3 65 (7.61%) GCP
4 21 (2.46%) Power Platform
5 19 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
6 16 (1.87%) GitHub
7 15 (1.76%) Entra ID
8 14 (1.64%) SaaS
9 11 (1.29%) dbt
10 10 (1.17%) Azure DevOps
10 10 (1.17%) Cloud Computing
10 10 (1.17%) SAP Commerce Cloud
10 10 (1.17%) Snowflake
11 9 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
12 6 (0.70%) Cloud Functions
12 6 (0.70%) Datadog
12 6 (0.70%) Serverless
13 5 (0.59%) AWS Lambda
13 5 (0.59%) Fivetran
13 5 (0.59%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 97 (11.36%) WAN
2 79 (9.25%) 5G
3 78 (9.13%) LAN
4 73 (8.55%) MPLS
5 59 (6.91%) 4G
6 50 (5.85%) Radio Access Network
7 46 (5.39%) Firewall
8 32 (3.75%) DNS
8 32 (3.75%) SD-WAN
9 27 (3.16%) BGP
10 26 (3.04%) 3G
11 25 (2.93%) Wi-Fi
12 24 (2.81%) SDH
13 23 (2.69%) LTE
13 23 (2.69%) Network Security
13 23 (2.69%) TCP/IP
14 22 (2.58%) VoIP
14 22 (2.58%) VPN
15 20 (2.34%) 3GPP
15 20 (2.34%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 20 (2.34%) Power BI
2 19 (2.22%) Data Warehouse
3 14 (1.64%) BigQuery
4 13 (1.52%) Tableau
5 12 (1.41%) Amazon Redshift
5 12 (1.41%) Looker
6 11 (1.29%) NoSQL
7 10 (1.17%) GIS
8 8 (0.94%) Big Data
8 8 (0.94%) PostgreSQL
9 6 (0.70%) MySQL
10 5 (0.59%) Apache Cassandra
10 5 (0.59%) MongoDB
11 4 (0.47%) InfluxDB
11 4 (0.47%) SQL Server
12 3 (0.35%) Hazelcast
12 3 (0.35%) Oracle Database
12 3 (0.35%) Redis
12 3 (0.35%) Relational Database
12 3 (0.35%) SAP Data Services
Development Applications
1 30 (3.51%) JIRA
2 22 (2.58%) Git
3 12 (1.41%) Jenkins
4 6 (0.70%) GitLab
5 5 (0.59%) Selenium
6 2 (0.23%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.23%) Sonatype Nexus
7 1 (0.12%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle Forms
7 1 (0.12%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.12%) TestRail
7 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.12%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 243 (28.45%) Social Skills
2 134 (15.69%) Finance
3 111 (13.00%) Analytical Skills
4 59 (6.91%) Public Sector
5 37 (4.33%) Billing
6 29 (3.40%) Documentation Skills
7 27 (3.16%) Retail
8 25 (2.93%) Organisational Skills
9 24 (2.81%) Legal
10 23 (2.69%) Marketing
11 19 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
12 15 (1.76%) Aerospace
12 15 (1.76%) Presentation Skills
13 12 (1.41%) Manufacturing
14 10 (1.17%) Publishing
15 9 (1.05%) Inclusion and Diversity
16 8 (0.94%) Police
17 6 (0.70%) Electronics
18 4 (0.47%) Military
19 3 (0.35%) Banking
Job Titles
1 132 (15.46%) Architect
2 79 (9.25%) Senior
3 67 (7.85%) Consultant
4 66 (7.73%) Lead
5 61 (7.14%) Analyst
6 55 (6.44%) Project Manager
7 51 (5.97%) Network Engineer
8 46 (5.39%) Solutions Architect
9 42 (4.92%) Telecoms Engineer
10 37 (4.33%) Designer
10 37 (4.33%) Field Engineer
11 35 (4.10%) Telecoms Manager
12 32 (3.75%) Developer
13 29 (3.40%) ServiceNow Architect
14 26 (3.04%) Data Engineer
14 26 (3.04%) Enterprise Architect
15 21 (2.46%) Telecoms Architect
16 20 (2.34%) Platform Engineer
16 20 (2.34%) SAP Consultant
17 19 (2.22%) Programme Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (5.85%) REST
2 32 (3.75%) SOAP
3 18 (2.11%) Kafka
4 13 (1.52%) ONVIF
4 13 (1.52%) RESTful
5 12 (1.41%) Elastic Stack
5 12 (1.41%) Middleware
5 12 (1.41%) XML
6 11 (1.29%) NETCONF
6 11 (1.29%) YANG
7 10 (1.17%) AngularJS
7 10 (1.17%) HTML
7 10 (1.17%) React
8 9 (1.05%) CSS
8 9 (1.05%) OpenAPI
8 9 (1.05%) Swagger
9 7 (0.82%) JSON
10 6 (0.70%) RabbitMQ
10 6 (0.70%) Redux
10 6 (0.70%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 50 (5.85%) CMDB
2 45 (5.27%) Data Centre
3 38 (4.45%) Onboarding
4 32 (3.75%) Cloud Native
5 31 (3.63%) Driving Licence
6 19 (2.22%) Analytical Mindset
6 19 (2.22%) Virtual Team
7 18 (2.11%) Data Protection Act
7 18 (2.11%) Product Ownership
8 17 (1.99%) Hybrid Cloud
9 16 (1.87%) Management Information System
10 15 (1.76%) Self-Motivation
11 13 (1.52%) Video\Live Streaming
12 11 (1.29%) Algorithms
13 10 (1.17%) Data Structures
13 10 (1.17%) Distributed Systems
13 10 (1.17%) TM Forum
14 9 (1.05%) Private Cloud
14 9 (1.05%) Video Conferencing
15 8 (0.94%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 39 (4.57%) Windows
2 34 (3.98%) Linux
3 14 (1.64%) Windows 10
4 11 (1.29%) Unix
5 10 (1.17%) Windows Server
6 7 (0.82%) Mac OS
7 4 (0.47%) Android
8 3 (0.35%) Apple iOS
8 3 (0.35%) VMS
9 2 (0.23%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.23%) OpenVMS
9 2 (0.23%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.12%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.12%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 162 (18.97%) Stakeholder Management
2 125 (14.64%) Agile
3 109 (12.76%) Problem-Solving
4 85 (9.95%) Project Delivery
5 83 (9.72%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 82 (9.60%) ITIL
7 72 (8.43%) AI
8 69 (8.08%) Roadmaps
9 68 (7.96%) CI/CD
10 65 (7.61%) Continuous Improvement
10 65 (7.61%) Service Management
11 63 (7.38%) Project Management
12 62 (7.26%) Migration
13 58 (6.79%) Decision-Making
14 57 (6.67%) Validation
15 54 (6.32%) Change Management
15 54 (6.32%) Technical Leadership
16 53 (6.21%) Analytics
17 52 (6.09%) CRM
18 51 (5.97%) Customer Service
Programming Languages
1 74 (8.67%) Python
2 46 (5.39%) SQL
3 32 (3.75%) JavaScript
4 17 (1.99%) Bash
5 15 (1.76%) Java
6 9 (1.05%) C#
6 9 (1.05%) PowerShell
7 7 (0.82%) Apex Code
7 7 (0.82%) R
8 5 (0.59%) C++
9 4 (0.47%) ABAP
9 4 (0.47%) DataWeave
9 4 (0.47%) Shell Script
9 4 (0.47%) SOQL
9 4 (0.47%) TypeScript
10 3 (0.35%) LookML
11 2 (0.23%) C
11 2 (0.23%) DCL
12 1 (0.12%) Ada
12 1 (0.12%) Go
Qualifications
1 151 (17.68%) Security Cleared
2 100 (11.71%) SC Cleared
3 85 (9.95%) Degree
4 57 (6.67%) Cisco Certification
5 40 (4.68%) CCNA
6 23 (2.69%) DV Cleared
6 23 (2.69%) Microsoft Certification
7 22 (2.58%) PMP
8 21 (2.46%) A+ Certification
8 21 (2.46%) CCNP
8 21 (2.46%) Computer Science Degree
9 17 (1.99%) PMI Certification
10 16 (1.87%) BPSS Clearance
11 13 (1.52%) MCSA
12 10 (1.17%) Azure Certification
13 9 (1.05%) AWS Certification
13 9 (1.05%) CCIE
14 8 (0.94%) CISSP
14 8 (0.94%) Master's Degree
14 8 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (3.28%) SLA
2 27 (3.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (2.81%) QA
4 23 (2.69%) GDPR
5 20 (2.34%) GRC
6 19 (2.22%) PMO
7 18 (2.11%) NCSC
8 15 (1.76%) Data Quality
9 9 (1.05%) NIST
10 3 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.35%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.35%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.23%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.23%) EU AI Act
12 1 (0.12%) ISO 31000
12 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.12%) SOC 1
System Software
1 25 (2.93%) Docker
2 22 (2.58%) Active Directory
3 20 (2.34%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.94%) VMware NSX
5 5 (0.59%) vSphere
6 4 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.35%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.12%) Ceph
8 1 (0.12%) Firmware
8 1 (0.12%) KVM
8 1 (0.12%) NDS
8 1 (0.12%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 49 (5.74%) Kubernetes
2 22 (2.58%) Terraform
3 18 (2.11%) Ansible
4 16 (1.87%) Grafana
4 16 (1.87%) Prometheus
5 7 (0.82%) Microsoft Intune
6 5 (0.59%) Jamf Pro
7 3 (0.35%) Amdocs OSS
7 3 (0.35%) Check_MK
7 3 (0.35%) Kibana
7 3 (0.35%) Podman
7 3 (0.35%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.35%) vRealize
8 2 (0.23%) Cisco Prime
8 2 (0.23%) NSN NetAct
8 2 (0.23%) QRadar
8 2 (0.23%) SolarWinds Orion
9 1 (0.12%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle RMAN
9 1 (0.12%) SCCM
Vendors
1 114 (13.35%) Microsoft
2 98 (11.48%) Cisco
3 87 (10.19%) ServiceNow
4 55 (6.44%) Nokia
5 43 (5.04%) Salesforce
6 34 (3.98%) VMware
7 28 (3.28%) SAP
8 24 (2.81%) Google
9 23 (2.69%) Ericsson
10 22 (2.58%) BT
11 19 (2.22%) F5
11 19 (2.22%) Juniper
12 18 (2.11%) Fortinet
12 18 (2.11%) MuleSoft
13 16 (1.87%) Huawei
14 12 (1.41%) BMC
14 12 (1.41%) Palo Alto
15 10 (1.17%) CheckPoint
15 10 (1.17%) Oracle
16 9 (1.05%) Zscaler