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 15 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 339 316 280
Rank change year-on-year -23 -36 -74
Contract jobs citing Wireless 396 254 319
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.73% 0.78% 0.84%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.80% 6.78% 7.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 238 145 187
10th Percentile £250 £204 £217
25th Percentile £358 £313 £284
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% - -2.30%
75th Percentile £525 £500 £544
90th Percentile £588 £588 £630
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £380 £420
% change year-on-year +18.42% -9.52% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 42 17
10th Percentile £14.19 £17.86 £16.88
25th Percentile £31.25 £20.13 £17.69
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% +5.67% -30.45%
75th Percentile £60.00 £34.00 £51.91
90th Percentile £70.00 £82.00 £52.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £30.00 £48.56
% change year-on-year +74.75% -38.22% +115.82%

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 5,075 3,744 4,522
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.33% 11.54% 11.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,953 2,307 2,642
10th Percentile £235 £228 £231
25th Percentile £385 £363 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £478 £505
Median % change year-on-year +4.69% -5.43% +1.00%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £610
90th Percentile £675 £676 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £454 £500
% change year-on-year +4.74% -9.30% +9.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 406 196 260
10th Percentile £14.57 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £27.11 £43.00 £51.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.95% -15.69% -9.72%
75th Percentile £65.88 £64.06 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.03 £74.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -38.49% -25.89% -0.26%

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 15 September 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 15 September 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 15 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 -22 353 £450 +9.09% 658
UK excluding London -18 265 £450 +18.42% 488
North of England 0 107 £492 +49.09% 91
London -64 96 £450 +5.88% 209
Work from Home -33 84 £450 -2.70% 235
North West +21 81 £525 +61.54% 67
South East -51 56 £403 +93.98% 185
Midlands -45 39 £425 +11.84% 61
East of England -8 37 £377 -15.34% 70
West Midlands -53 37 £425 +11.84% 33
Yorkshire -31 20 £450 - 16
Scotland -13 14 £313 -21.68% 29
South West -44 10 £350 -30.00% 47
North East -34 6 £420 -23.64% 10
Wales - 5 £363 - 3
Northern Ireland +3 2 £265 -44.32% 9
East Midlands -10 2 £235 -46.29% 28

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 14 (3.54%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.25%) Confluence
3 1 (0.25%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 10 (2.53%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.52%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (1.52%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.76%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.25%) Simulink
5 1 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 61 (15.40%) Azure
2 47 (11.87%) Microsoft 365
3 29 (7.32%) Entra ID
4 21 (5.30%) AWS
5 12 (3.03%) GitHub
6 9 (2.27%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 6 (1.52%) OneDrive
8 4 (1.01%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (0.76%) GCP
9 3 (0.76%) Smartsheet
10 2 (0.51%) SaaS
11 1 (0.25%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.25%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 1 (0.25%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.25%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.25%) IaaS
11 1 (0.25%) IBM Watson
11 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Purview
11 1 (0.25%) OCI
11 1 (0.25%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 173 (43.69%) Firewall
2 137 (34.60%) WAN
3 118 (29.80%) LAN
4 114 (28.79%) VPN
5 106 (26.77%) Network Security
6 94 (23.74%) Wi-Fi
7 80 (20.20%) DNS
8 68 (17.17%) VLAN
9 67 (16.92%) BGP
10 59 (14.90%) DHCP
11 53 (13.38%) OSPF
12 52 (13.13%) SD-WAN
13 47 (11.87%) Cisco ISE
14 45 (11.36%) TCP/IP
14 45 (11.36%) WLAN
15 31 (7.83%) Cisco Nexus
16 30 (7.58%) Cisco Wireless
16 30 (7.58%) IPsec
16 30 (7.58%) Structured Cabling
17 26 (6.57%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.76%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 11 (2.78%) Git
1 11 (2.78%) JIRA
2 9 (2.27%) Rational DOORS
3 3 (0.76%) GitLab
3 3 (0.76%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.25%) MSI
General
1 111 (28.03%) Social Skills
2 33 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (7.58%) Finance
4 19 (4.80%) Public Sector
5 18 (4.55%) Aerospace
5 18 (4.55%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (4.04%) Legal
6 16 (4.04%) Telecoms
7 14 (3.54%) Retail
8 9 (2.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 8 (2.02%) Banking
10 7 (1.77%) Law
11 5 (1.26%) Manufacturing
11 5 (1.26%) Police
12 4 (1.01%) Investment Banking
12 4 (1.01%) Multimedia
13 3 (0.76%) Front Office
13 3 (0.76%) Influencing Skills
13 3 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.76%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 213 (53.79%) Network Engineer
2 41 (10.35%) Senior
3 30 (7.58%) Software Engineer
4 29 (7.32%) Cisco Engineer
5 27 (6.82%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 27 (6.82%) Senior Network Engineer
6 26 (6.57%) Embedded Engineer
6 26 (6.57%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 25 (6.31%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 21 (5.30%) Architect
8 21 (5.30%) Wireless Engineer
9 19 (4.80%) Analyst
9 19 (4.80%) Wireless Network Engineer
10 16 (4.04%) Security Engineer
11 15 (3.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 14 (3.54%) Support Engineer
13 13 (3.28%) IT Support
14 12 (3.03%) Implementation Engineer
14 12 (3.03%) Network Implementation Engineer
14 12 (3.03%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (10.61%) 802.1X
2 13 (3.28%) Terraform
3 11 (2.78%) Yocto
4 9 (2.27%) JSON
4 9 (2.27%) REST
5 7 (1.77%) Software Packaging
6 6 (1.52%) Django
7 5 (1.26%) SAML
8 4 (1.01%) Flask
9 3 (0.76%) XML
10 2 (0.51%) LDAP
10 2 (0.51%) YAML
11 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Graph
11 1 (0.25%) Middleware
11 1 (0.25%) ModSecurity
11 1 (0.25%) OpenEmbedded
Miscellaneous
1 64 (16.16%) Data Centre
2 23 (5.81%) Onboarding
3 18 (4.55%) Driving Licence
4 16 (4.04%) Embedded Systems
5 15 (3.79%) PKI
6 14 (3.54%) Digital Signage
7 13 (3.28%) Self-Motivation
8 11 (2.78%) Device Driver
9 10 (2.53%) MicroBlaze
9 10 (2.53%) RISC-V
10 9 (2.27%) FPGA
10 9 (2.27%) Hybrid Cloud
10 9 (2.27%) Management Information System
10 9 (2.27%) PCIe
11 7 (1.77%) Smartphone
12 6 (1.52%) IoT
12 6 (1.52%) Operational Technology
12 6 (1.52%) Video Conferencing
13 5 (1.26%) CCTV
13 5 (1.26%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 54 (13.64%) Windows
2 22 (5.56%) Linux
3 18 (4.55%) Windows Server
4 11 (2.78%) Embedded Linux
4 11 (2.78%) Mac OS
4 11 (2.78%) Windows 10
5 9 (2.27%) FreeRTOS
6 8 (2.02%) Apple iOS
7 5 (1.26%) Android
8 3 (0.76%) VMS
8 3 (0.76%) Windows 7
8 3 (0.76%) Windows XP
9 2 (0.51%) Unix
10 1 (0.25%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 62 (15.66%) Problem-Solving
2 41 (10.35%) Project Delivery
3 40 (10.10%) ITIL
4 37 (9.34%) Change Management
5 31 (7.83%) Software Engineering
6 30 (7.58%) ITSM
6 30 (7.58%) Migration
7 29 (7.32%) Load Balancing
8 28 (7.07%) Agile
9 27 (6.82%) High Availability
10 26 (6.57%) Stakeholder Management
11 25 (6.31%) Continuous Improvement
11 25 (6.31%) Validation
12 24 (6.06%) Network Segmentation
13 23 (5.81%) Zero Trust
14 20 (5.05%) Digital Signal Processing
14 20 (5.05%) Root Cause Analysis
14 20 (5.05%) Signal Processing
14 20 (5.05%) User Experience
15 19 (4.80%) Incident Management
Programming Languages
1 38 (9.60%) Python
2 21 (5.30%) C
3 11 (2.78%) C++
3 11 (2.78%) PowerShell
4 5 (1.26%) Search Processing Language
5 4 (1.01%) Embedded C
6 3 (0.76%) Lisp
6 3 (0.76%) SQL
6 3 (0.76%) VBScript
7 2 (0.51%) Perl
8 1 (0.25%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 96 (24.24%) Cisco Certification
2 91 (22.98%) Security Cleared
3 79 (19.95%) CCNP
4 76 (19.19%) SC Cleared
5 56 (14.14%) CCNA
6 29 (7.32%) Degree
7 20 (5.05%) CCIE
8 19 (4.80%) Network+ Certification
9 11 (2.78%) Server+ Certification
10 7 (1.77%) A+ Certification
10 7 (1.77%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.77%) Microsoft Certification
11 5 (1.26%) CWNA
11 5 (1.26%) JNCIP
11 5 (1.26%) JNCIS
12 4 (1.01%) CCIE Wireless
12 4 (1.01%) City & Guilds
12 4 (1.01%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (1.01%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 4 (1.01%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.53%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (2.02%) SLA
3 6 (1.52%) NIST
4 5 (1.26%) Data Quality
4 5 (1.26%) QA
5 3 (0.76%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.51%) GDPR
7 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 53 (13.38%) Active Directory
2 17 (4.29%) Firmware
3 11 (2.78%) Embedded Firmware
4 10 (2.53%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.77%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.26%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (1.01%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.76%) Docker
8 3 (0.76%) VMware NSX
9 2 (0.51%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.51%) vSphere
10 1 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 26 (6.57%) FortiGate
2 25 (6.31%) Ansible
3 20 (5.05%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (4.04%) Cisco Prime
5 8 (2.02%) SCCM
6 3 (0.76%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.51%) Nagios
7 2 (0.51%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.51%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.25%) CASB
8 1 (0.25%) MobiControl
8 1 (0.25%) Nessus
8 1 (0.25%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 212 (53.54%) Cisco
2 70 (17.68%) Palo Alto
3 65 (16.41%) Microsoft
4 54 (13.64%) Aruba
5 51 (12.88%) Meraki
6 47 (11.87%) F5
7 40 (10.10%) Fortinet
8 37 (9.34%) Juniper
9 31 (7.83%) CheckPoint
10 28 (7.07%) ServiceNow
11 17 (4.29%) Zscaler
12 16 (4.04%) SolarWinds
12 16 (4.04%) VMware
13 12 (3.03%) Splunk
14 11 (2.78%) ForeScout
15 10 (2.53%) Ekahau
16 9 (2.27%) Blue Coat
16 9 (2.27%) Citrix
17 8 (2.02%) Infoblox
18 7 (1.77%) Arista