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 20 September 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 166 110 68
Rank change year-on-year -56 -42 +5
Contract jobs citing Telecoms 913 809 1,222
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.67% 2.46% 3.17%
As % of the General category 3.00% 3.87% 5.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 512 472 556
10th Percentile £225 £251 £233
25th Percentile £377 £374 £364
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £453 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.87% -9.50% -
75th Percentile £550 £573 £600
90th Percentile £669 £675 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £500
% change year-on-year - -10.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 47 89
10th Percentile £14.04 £14.00 £12.75
25th Percentile £16.01 £14.75 £35.00
Median hourly rate £21.00 £21.25 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -1.18% -63.04% +9.52%
75th Percentile £50.00 £49.38 £72.50
90th Percentile £178.75 £70.15 £77.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £17.72 £16.88 £66.25
% change year-on-year +5.01% -74.53% +26.19%

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 30,448 20,925 22,374
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 55.78% 63.60% 58.07%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,837 12,966 13,391
10th Percentile £313 £275 £281
25th Percentile £419 £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 £738 £738 £775
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% 0.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,565 1,206 1,101
10th Percentile £13.50 £13.50 £14.73
25th Percentile £16.25 £16.17 £17.08
Median hourly rate £29.60 £25.15 £35.03
Median % change year-on-year +17.69% -28.20% +27.38%
75th Percentile £54.40 £48.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.50 £67.50 £70.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £21.29 £35.02
% change year-on-year +40.94% -39.21% +27.33%

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 20 September 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 20 September 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 20 September 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 -74 756 £475 +2.15% 1,585
UK excluding London -60 462 £450 - 893
London -43 347 £500 +5.26% 761
Work from Home -30 269 £475 -5.00% 529
South East -41 194 £470 -2.84% 303
Scotland +14 62 £300 +20.00% 76
East of England +7 58 £308 -23.06% 130
North of England -55 58 £463 +43.97% 160
South West -64 49 £488 -7.05% 87
Midlands -74 33 £475 +25.00% 119
Yorkshire -27 32 £475 +95.88% 54
West Midlands -70 31 £476 +25.16% 66
North West -54 25 £463 +25.85% 88
Wales -6 8 £200 +19.40% 13
Northern Ireland +2 6 £358 +155.36% 23
Channel Islands -4 2 £606 -
East Midlands -19 2 £475 +26.67% 53
North East -42 1 - - 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 22 (2.41%) Confluence
2 16 (1.75%) OpenStack
3 14 (1.53%) SharePoint
4 9 (0.99%) ArcGIS
5 8 (0.88%) Microsoft Exchange
6 4 (0.44%) Anypoint
7 3 (0.33%) Apache Airflow
8 2 (0.22%) CMS
9 1 (0.11%) Camunda
9 1 (0.11%) IIS
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Collaboration Suite
Applications
1 37 (4.05%) Microsoft Excel
2 28 (3.07%) Microsoft Office
3 25 (2.74%) MS Visio
4 12 (1.31%) Microsoft Project
5 10 (1.10%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 5 (0.55%) AutoCAD
7 3 (0.33%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.22%) 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 22 (2.41%) SAP PSCD
2 14 (1.53%) SAP BRIM
3 12 (1.31%) SAP Hybris
4 7 (0.77%) SAP FI
5 6 (0.66%) Remedy ITSM
5 6 (0.66%) SAP FI-CA
6 5 (0.55%) NetSuite
6 5 (0.55%) Sage X3
6 5 (0.55%) Salesforce CRM
6 5 (0.55%) SAP S/4HANA
7 3 (0.33%) Remedy AR System
7 3 (0.33%) SAP ERP
8 1 (0.11%) BambooHR
8 1 (0.11%) Dynamics CRM
8 1 (0.11%) Primavera
8 1 (0.11%) SAP CO
8 1 (0.11%) SAP FI/CO
8 1 (0.11%) SAP FS
8 1 (0.11%) SAP IBP
8 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 91 (9.97%) Azure
2 89 (9.75%) AWS
3 61 (6.68%) GCP
4 20 (2.19%) Microsoft 365
5 19 (2.08%) GitHub
6 16 (1.75%) Entra ID
7 14 (1.53%) Power Platform
7 14 (1.53%) SaaS
8 13 (1.42%) SAP Commerce Cloud
9 10 (1.10%) Azure DevOps
9 10 (1.10%) Cloud Computing
9 10 (1.10%) GitHub Actions
10 7 (0.77%) OneDrive
10 7 (0.77%) Snowflake
11 6 (0.66%) Cloud Functions
11 6 (0.66%) dbt
12 5 (0.55%) Figma
12 5 (0.55%) Fivetran
12 5 (0.55%) OpenShift
13 4 (0.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 120 (13.14%) WAN
2 94 (10.30%) 5G
3 92 (10.08%) LAN
4 86 (9.42%) MPLS
5 65 (7.12%) 4G
6 63 (6.90%) Radio Access Network
7 56 (6.13%) Firewall
8 41 (4.49%) Wi-Fi
9 37 (4.05%) SD-WAN
10 35 (3.83%) DNS
11 32 (3.50%) BGP
12 31 (3.40%) VoIP
13 30 (3.29%) Broadband
14 29 (3.18%) 3GPP
15 28 (3.07%) Network Security
15 28 (3.07%) SDH
15 28 (3.07%) TCP/IP
16 27 (2.96%) Wireshark
17 25 (2.74%) LTE
18 24 (2.63%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 14 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
2 13 (1.42%) NoSQL
2 13 (1.42%) Power BI
3 12 (1.31%) BigQuery
4 10 (1.10%) PostgreSQL
5 9 (0.99%) GIS
6 8 (0.88%) Amazon Redshift
6 8 (0.88%) Tableau
7 7 (0.77%) MongoDB
7 7 (0.77%) MySQL
7 7 (0.77%) Redis
8 5 (0.55%) Metadata
9 4 (0.44%) Looker
9 4 (0.44%) SQL Server
10 3 (0.33%) Apache Cassandra
10 3 (0.33%) BusinessObjects
10 3 (0.33%) Cloud Spanner
10 3 (0.33%) SAP BW
10 3 (0.33%) Semantic Layer
10 3 (0.33%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 44 (4.82%) JIRA
2 36 (3.94%) Git
3 18 (1.97%) GitLab
4 16 (1.75%) Jenkins
5 8 (0.88%) Selenium
6 2 (0.22%) JMeter
6 2 (0.22%) Locust
6 2 (0.22%) Robot Framework
6 2 (0.22%) Sonatype Nexus
6 2 (0.22%) TestCafe
7 1 (0.11%) Bitbucket
7 1 (0.11%) Newman
7 1 (0.11%) Rational DOORS
7 1 (0.11%) TestRail
7 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio
7 1 (0.11%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 263 (28.81%) Social Skills
2 142 (15.55%) Finance
3 117 (12.81%) Analytical Skills
4 60 (6.57%) Public Sector
5 36 (3.94%) Documentation Skills
6 35 (3.83%) Billing
7 30 (3.29%) Organisational Skills
8 29 (3.18%) Retail
9 21 (2.30%) Influencing Skills
10 20 (2.19%) Legal
11 19 (2.08%) Marketing
12 18 (1.97%) Manufacturing
13 15 (1.64%) Aerospace
14 14 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
14 14 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
15 9 (0.99%) Banking
15 9 (0.99%) Publishing
16 7 (0.77%) Police
17 4 (0.44%) Aviation
17 4 (0.44%) Games
Job Titles
1 131 (14.35%) Architect
2 78 (8.54%) Senior
3 71 (7.78%) Lead
4 69 (7.56%) Analyst
4 69 (7.56%) Network Engineer
5 66 (7.23%) Consultant
6 56 (6.13%) Field Engineer
6 56 (6.13%) Project Manager
7 52 (5.70%) Telecoms Engineer
8 37 (4.05%) Designer
8 37 (4.05%) Developer
9 35 (3.83%) Solutions Architect
10 30 (3.29%) Telecoms Manager
11 28 (3.07%) ServiceNow Architect
12 26 (2.85%) Business Analyst
12 26 (2.85%) Enterprise Architect
13 23 (2.52%) Data Engineer
13 23 (2.52%) SAP Consultant
14 21 (2.30%) Network Field Engineer
14 21 (2.30%) Telecoms Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (5.91%) REST
2 32 (3.50%) SOAP
3 20 (2.19%) Terraform
4 18 (1.97%) Kafka
5 16 (1.75%) NETCONF
5 16 (1.75%) YANG
6 15 (1.64%) RESTful
7 14 (1.53%) HTML
8 13 (1.42%) CSS
8 13 (1.42%) Elastic Stack
8 13 (1.42%) ONVIF
9 12 (1.31%) XML
10 10 (1.10%) AngularJS
10 10 (1.10%) FastAPI
10 10 (1.10%) JSON
10 10 (1.10%) React
11 8 (0.88%) Middleware
12 7 (0.77%) 802.1X
12 7 (0.77%) Flask
12 7 (0.77%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 52 (5.70%) Data Centre
2 47 (5.15%) Driving Licence
3 46 (5.04%) Onboarding
4 45 (4.93%) CMDB
5 32 (3.50%) Cloud Native
6 22 (2.41%) Analytical Mindset
7 19 (2.08%) Management Information System
7 19 (2.08%) Product Ownership
8 15 (1.64%) Data Protection Act
8 15 (1.64%) Video\Live Streaming
9 14 (1.53%) Hybrid Cloud
9 14 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
9 14 (1.53%) Virtual Team
10 13 (1.42%) Data Structures
11 12 (1.31%) TM Forum
12 10 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
12 10 (1.10%) Video Conferencing
13 9 (0.99%) AI Agents
13 9 (0.99%) Algorithms
13 9 (0.99%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 56 (6.13%) Windows
2 51 (5.59%) Linux
3 14 (1.53%) Windows 10
4 12 (1.31%) Windows Server
5 11 (1.20%) Unix
6 9 (0.99%) Mac OS
7 6 (0.66%) VMS
8 3 (0.33%) Android
8 3 (0.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 2 (0.22%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.22%) CentOS
9 2 (0.22%) Embedded Linux
9 2 (0.22%) OpenVMS
10 1 (0.11%) Mac OS X
10 1 (0.11%) OpenWrt
10 1 (0.11%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.11%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 205 (22.45%) Stakeholder Management
2 123 (13.47%) Agile
3 119 (13.03%) Problem-Solving
4 90 (9.86%) Project Delivery
5 88 (9.64%) ITIL
6 85 (9.31%) AI
7 81 (8.87%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 76 (8.32%) Migration
9 74 (8.11%) Service Management
10 72 (7.89%) Roadmaps
11 71 (7.78%) Project Management
12 70 (7.67%) CI/CD
12 70 (7.67%) Validation
13 67 (7.34%) Continuous Improvement
14 56 (6.13%) Decision-Making
15 55 (6.02%) Change Management
16 52 (5.70%) Customer Service
16 52 (5.70%) ITSM
16 52 (5.70%) Technical Leadership
17 51 (5.59%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 85 (9.31%) Python
2 39 (4.27%) SQL
3 31 (3.40%) JavaScript
4 26 (2.85%) Bash
5 17 (1.86%) Java
6 10 (1.10%) PowerShell
7 8 (0.88%) Apex Code
8 7 (0.77%) C#
8 7 (0.77%) R
8 7 (0.77%) Shell Script
9 5 (0.55%) SOQL
10 4 (0.44%) ABAP
10 4 (0.44%) C++
10 4 (0.44%) DataWeave
10 4 (0.44%) TypeScript
11 3 (0.33%) C
11 3 (0.33%) LookML
12 2 (0.22%) Bicep
12 2 (0.22%) DCL
13 1 (0.11%) Rust
Qualifications
1 164 (17.96%) Security Cleared
2 100 (10.95%) SC Cleared
3 92 (10.08%) Degree
4 74 (8.11%) Cisco Certification
5 47 (5.15%) CCNA
6 32 (3.50%) DV Cleared
7 29 (3.18%) CCNP
8 24 (2.63%) Microsoft Certification
8 24 (2.63%) PMP
9 23 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
10 22 (2.41%) A+ Certification
11 19 (2.08%) Computer Science Degree
11 19 (2.08%) PMI Certification
12 17 (1.86%) CCIE
13 15 (1.64%) CISSP
14 13 (1.42%) Master's Degree
14 13 (1.42%) MCSA
15 11 (1.20%) JNCIE
16 9 (0.99%) CISM
16 9 (0.99%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 41 (4.49%) QA
2 24 (2.63%) SLA
3 23 (2.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 22 (2.41%) PMO
5 21 (2.30%) GRC
6 18 (1.97%) NCSC
7 14 (1.53%) GDPR
8 11 (1.20%) Data Quality
9 4 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
9 4 (0.44%) NIST
10 3 (0.33%) Accessibility
10 3 (0.33%) Cyber Essentials
10 3 (0.33%) PCI DSS
10 3 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 2 (0.22%) EU AI Act
12 1 (0.11%) ISO 22301
12 1 (0.11%) ISO 31000
12 1 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 15288
12 1 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 30 (3.29%) Docker
2 23 (2.52%) Active Directory
2 23 (2.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (1.10%) VMware NSX
4 5 (0.55%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (0.55%) vSphere
5 4 (0.44%) Firmware
6 3 (0.33%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.11%) Ceph
7 1 (0.11%) KVM
7 1 (0.11%) NDS
7 1 (0.11%) NetIQ eDirectory
7 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 43 (4.71%) Kubernetes
2 23 (2.52%) Ansible
3 12 (1.31%) Grafana
3 12 (1.31%) Prometheus
4 8 (0.88%) Microsoft Intune
5 5 (0.55%) Jamf Pro
6 4 (0.44%) Cilium
6 4 (0.44%) Cisco Prime
6 4 (0.44%) Istio
6 4 (0.44%) SolarWinds Orion
7 3 (0.33%) Check_MK
7 3 (0.33%) Kibana
7 3 (0.33%) Podman
7 3 (0.33%) vCenter Server
7 3 (0.33%) vRealize
8 2 (0.22%) NSN NetAct
8 2 (0.22%) QRadar
9 1 (0.11%) AirWatch
9 1 (0.11%) FortiGate
9 1 (0.11%) SCCM
Vendors
1 127 (13.91%) Cisco
2 124 (13.58%) Microsoft
3 84 (9.20%) ServiceNow
4 63 (6.90%) Nokia
5 46 (5.04%) Salesforce
6 37 (4.05%) VMware
7 31 (3.40%) SAP
8 26 (2.85%) Ericsson
9 24 (2.63%) Juniper
10 21 (2.30%) Google
11 19 (2.08%) BT
11 19 (2.08%) MuleSoft
12 18 (1.97%) F5
12 18 (1.97%) Fortinet
13 14 (1.53%) Palo Alto
14 12 (1.31%) BMC
15 11 (1.20%) Arista
15 11 (1.20%) Splunk
16 10 (1.10%) Oracle
16 10 (1.10%) Zscaler