Wireless Contract Job Trends

Wireless
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Wireless skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 336 308 266
Rank change year-on-year -28 -42 -54
Contract jobs citing Wireless 366 260 346
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.79% 0.89%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.22% 6.72% 7.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 224 151 209
10th Percentile £250 £204 £212
25th Percentile £384 £325 £267
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £405
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% +4.94% -4.71%
75th Percentile £526 £515 £525
90th Percentile £588 £588 £640
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £425 £388
% change year-on-year +5.88% +9.68% -3.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 39 29
10th Percentile £13.79 £14.20 £14.90
25th Percentile £32.13 - £17.69
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £22.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% +14.32% -34.21%
75th Percentile £60.00 £44.75 £51.91
90th Percentile £70.00 £84.33 £56.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £30.00 £48.56
% change year-on-year +74.75% -38.22% +152.26%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

Wireless falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,067 3,869 4,742
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.46% 11.80% 12.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,997 2,360 2,862
10th Percentile £250 £240 £225
25th Percentile £400 £368 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £483 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.52% -3.40% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £473 £500
% change year-on-year +2.22% -5.50% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 370 202 313
10th Percentile £15.18 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.50
Median hourly rate £26.14 £46.25 £49.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.48% -5.61% -12.35%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £81.35 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.00% -4.28%

Wireless
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Wireless job vacancy trend in the UK

Wireless
Daily Rate Trend

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

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

Wireless
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Wireless over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Wireless in the UK

Wireless
Hourly Rate Trend

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

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

Wireless
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Wireless over the 6 months to 21 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Wireless in the UK

Wireless
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 Wireless within the UK over the 6 months to 21 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 -36 327 £450 +5.88% 293
UK excluding London -24 243 £450 +5.88% 270
North of England -9 99 £475 +8.57% 55
London -72 91 £463 +8.82% 55
Work from Home -31 89 £450 -2.70% 84
North West +17 73 £515 +58.46% 31
South East -49 58 £453 +43.32% 119
East of England -7 32 £363 -22.46% 30
Midlands -50 32 £450 +18.42% 41
West Midlands -53 30 £463 +25.85% 25
Yorkshire -37 20 £450 - 14
Scotland -12 13 £381 +1.67% 5
North East -32 6 £420 -23.64% 12
South West -51 5 £400 -12.33% 28
Wales -18 3 £409 -10.16% 3
Northern Ireland +3 2 £265 -44.32%
East Midlands -17 2 £235 -46.29% 16

Wireless
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 (3.55%) SharePoint
2 6 (1.64%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.27%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 11 (3.01%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.19%) Microsoft Excel
2 8 (2.19%) MS Visio
3 4 (1.09%) Microsoft Project
4 3 (0.82%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.27%) Simulink
5 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 56 (15.30%) Azure
2 41 (11.20%) Microsoft 365
3 23 (6.28%) Entra ID
4 20 (5.46%) AWS
5 10 (2.73%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 9 (2.46%) GitHub
7 7 (1.91%) OneDrive
8 4 (1.09%) GCP
8 4 (1.09%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (0.82%) SaaS
10 2 (0.55%) Smartsheet
11 1 (0.27%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.27%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 1 (0.27%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.27%) AWS Direct Connect
11 1 (0.27%) Google Workspace
11 1 (0.27%) IBM Watson
11 1 (0.27%) OCI
11 1 (0.27%) PaaS
11 1 (0.27%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 168 (45.90%) Firewall
2 128 (34.97%) WAN
3 125 (34.15%) LAN
4 99 (27.05%) Network Security
4 99 (27.05%) VPN
5 89 (24.32%) Wi-Fi
6 74 (20.22%) DNS
7 70 (19.13%) BGP
8 68 (18.58%) VLAN
9 58 (15.85%) DHCP
9 58 (15.85%) OSPF
10 50 (13.66%) Cisco ISE
11 46 (12.57%) WLAN
12 45 (12.30%) SD-WAN
13 43 (11.75%) TCP/IP
14 32 (8.74%) Structured Cabling
15 31 (8.47%) Cisco Wireless
16 29 (7.92%) IPsec
17 27 (7.38%) Cisco Nexus
18 26 (7.10%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.55%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (2.46%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (1.91%) JIRA
3 2 (0.55%) Git
4 1 (0.27%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.27%) Metasploit
4 1 (0.27%) MSI
4 1 (0.27%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 109 (29.78%) Social Skills
2 30 (8.20%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (7.92%) Finance
4 19 (5.19%) Public Sector
5 18 (4.92%) Aerospace
5 18 (4.92%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (4.37%) Retail
7 14 (3.83%) Legal
8 11 (3.01%) Telecoms
9 10 (2.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.91%) Law
11 6 (1.64%) Banking
12 5 (1.37%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.37%) Police
13 3 (0.82%) Front Office
13 3 (0.82%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.55%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.55%) Multimedia
14 2 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 201 (54.92%) Network Engineer
2 40 (10.93%) Senior
3 28 (7.65%) Senior Network Engineer
4 27 (7.38%) Software Engineer
5 26 (7.10%) Cisco Engineer
6 24 (6.56%) Architect
7 23 (6.28%) Embedded Engineer
7 23 (6.28%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 22 (6.01%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 22 (6.01%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 22 (6.01%) Wireless Engineer
9 19 (5.19%) Wireless Network Engineer
10 18 (4.92%) Analyst
11 12 (3.28%) Desktop Support
12 11 (3.01%) Implementation Engineer
12 11 (3.01%) Network Architect
12 11 (3.01%) Network Implementation Engineer
12 11 (3.01%) Security Engineer
13 10 (2.73%) Support Engineer
14 9 (2.46%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 45 (12.30%) 802.1X
2 10 (2.73%) Terraform
2 10 (2.73%) Yocto
3 7 (1.91%) Software Packaging
4 6 (1.64%) SAML
5 5 (1.37%) REST
6 3 (0.82%) JSON
6 3 (0.82%) LDAP
6 3 (0.82%) XML
7 2 (0.55%) Django
8 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.27%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 60 (16.39%) Data Centre
2 20 (5.46%) Onboarding
3 15 (4.10%) Driving Licence
3 15 (4.10%) Embedded Systems
3 15 (4.10%) PKI
4 10 (2.73%) Device Driver
4 10 (2.73%) Self-Motivation
5 9 (2.46%) Digital Signage
5 9 (2.46%) FPGA
5 9 (2.46%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.46%) MicroBlaze
5 9 (2.46%) PCIe
5 9 (2.46%) RISC-V
6 7 (1.91%) Hybrid Cloud
6 7 (1.91%) IoT
6 7 (1.91%) Smartphone
7 5 (1.37%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (1.37%) iPad
7 5 (1.37%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (1.09%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 47 (12.84%) Windows
2 14 (3.83%) Linux
3 12 (3.28%) Windows Server
4 11 (3.01%) Windows 10
5 10 (2.73%) Embedded Linux
6 9 (2.46%) FreeRTOS
7 8 (2.19%) Apple iOS
8 7 (1.91%) Mac OS
9 5 (1.37%) Android
10 3 (0.82%) Windows 7
10 3 (0.82%) Windows XP
11 2 (0.55%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (12.02%) ITIL
3 42 (11.48%) Project Delivery
4 36 (9.84%) ITSM
5 33 (9.02%) Change Management
5 33 (9.02%) Migration
6 32 (8.74%) High Availability
7 28 (7.65%) Continuous Improvement
7 28 (7.65%) Software Engineering
8 26 (7.10%) Network Segmentation
9 25 (6.83%) Load Balancing
10 23 (6.28%) Stakeholder Management
11 22 (6.01%) Agile
11 22 (6.01%) User Experience
11 22 (6.01%) Validation
12 21 (5.74%) Zero Trust
13 19 (5.19%) Cybersecurity
13 19 (5.19%) Digital Signal Processing
13 19 (5.19%) Network Design
13 19 (5.19%) Signal Processing
Programming Languages
1 24 (6.56%) Python
2 20 (5.46%) C
3 10 (2.73%) C++
4 7 (1.91%) PowerShell
5 4 (1.09%) Embedded C
6 3 (0.82%) Lisp
6 3 (0.82%) SQL
6 3 (0.82%) VBScript
7 2 (0.55%) Perl
7 2 (0.55%) Search Processing Language
8 1 (0.27%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 106 (28.96%) Cisco Certification
2 88 (24.04%) CCNP
3 86 (23.50%) Security Cleared
4 72 (19.67%) SC Cleared
5 63 (17.21%) CCNA
6 30 (8.20%) Degree
7 23 (6.28%) Network+ Certification
8 22 (6.01%) CCIE
9 15 (4.10%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (2.73%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.91%) A+ Certification
11 7 (1.91%) Microsoft Certification
12 5 (1.37%) CCIE Wireless
12 5 (1.37%) CWNA
12 5 (1.37%) JNCIP
12 5 (1.37%) JNCIS
13 4 (1.09%) City & Guilds
13 4 (1.09%) CompTIA Security+
13 4 (1.09%) CWDP
13 4 (1.09%) CWSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (2.19%) SLA
3 6 (1.64%) QA
4 5 (1.37%) NIST
5 3 (0.82%) GDPR
6 2 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.55%) Data Quality
6 2 (0.55%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 45 (12.30%) Active Directory
2 15 (4.10%) Firmware
3 13 (3.55%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (2.73%) Embedded Firmware
5 6 (1.64%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.37%) Virtual Desktop
6 5 (1.37%) VMware NSX
7 4 (1.09%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.27%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.27%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 26 (7.10%) FortiGate
2 24 (6.56%) Ansible
3 21 (5.74%) Microsoft Intune
4 14 (3.83%) Cisco Prime
5 7 (1.91%) SCCM
6 4 (1.09%) Single Sign-On
7 3 (0.82%) Jamf Pro
8 2 (0.55%) Nagios
9 1 (0.27%) CASB
9 1 (0.27%) MobiControl
9 1 (0.27%) Nessus
9 1 (0.27%) Nmap
9 1 (0.27%) TrustSec
9 1 (0.27%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 204 (55.74%) Cisco
2 75 (20.49%) Palo Alto
3 67 (18.31%) Aruba
4 57 (15.57%) Microsoft
5 43 (11.75%) F5
6 38 (10.38%) Fortinet
6 38 (10.38%) Meraki
7 35 (9.56%) ServiceNow
8 34 (9.29%) CheckPoint
9 29 (7.92%) Juniper
10 20 (5.46%) Ekahau
11 19 (5.19%) VMware
12 16 (4.37%) SolarWinds
13 13 (3.55%) Zscaler
14 10 (2.73%) ForeScout
15 8 (2.19%) Citrix
15 8 (2.19%) Splunk
16 7 (1.91%) Arista
17 6 (1.64%) Apple
17 6 (1.64%) Infoblox