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 29 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 353 279 240
Rank change year-on-year -74 -39 -5
Contract jobs citing Wireless 288 269 434
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.61% 0.92% 1.00%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.34% 7.22% 7.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 187 185 263
10th Percentile £190 £219 £168
25th Percentile £288 £325 £252
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £420 £450 £413
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +9.09% -2.94%
75th Percentile £516 £550 £538
90th Percentile £588 £595 £663
UK excluding London median daily rate £418 £438 £400
% change year-on-year -4.46% +9.38% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 16 42
10th Percentile £15.62 - £12.76
25th Percentile £19.85 £14.20 £16.25
Median hourly rate £37.50 £24.66 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year +52.07% +30.27% -62.14%
75th Percentile £60.00 £62.19 £23.80
90th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £63.73
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £14.20 £17.69
% change year-on-year +252.11% -19.73% -46.39%

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 4,545 3,726 5,610
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.65% 12.77% 12.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,834 2,295 3,363
10th Percentile £250 £213 £205
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £490
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -0.51% -5.41%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £475
% change year-on-year +2.70% -2.63% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 224 173 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £20.00 £17.00
Median hourly rate £40.54 £37.50 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year +8.11% -1.32% +100.00%
75th Percentile £67.81 £61.25 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £67.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £48.72 £27.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year +77.16% -40.06% +148.00%

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 29 April 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 29 April 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 29 April 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 -50 265 £417 -10.80% 221
UK excluding London -64 188 £418 -4.46% 215
London -84 73 £379 -20.26% 59
Work from Home -37 69 £425 -5.56% 53
South East -29 63 £480 +19.25% 76
North of England -65 48 £420 +6.33% 47
North West -29 35 £419 +6.08% 18
Midlands -38 32 £358 +66.28% 24
West Midlands -33 29 £358 +74.39% 18
East of England -51 24 £325 -33.67% 33
South West -35 16 £510 +23.64% 21
Yorkshire -61 7 £450 +104.55% 23
North East -10 6 £316 -42.50% 11
Scotland -7 4 £360 -9.89% 16
East Midlands -38 3 - - 6
Wales -24 2 £400 - 6
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 3

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 8 (2.78%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.35%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 25 (8.68%) Microsoft Office
2 21 (7.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (5.21%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 13 (4.51%) MS Visio
5 1 (0.35%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 5 (1.74%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 40 (13.89%) Azure
2 35 (12.15%) AWS
3 26 (9.03%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (2.43%) Entra ID
5 5 (1.74%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (1.74%) GCP
5 5 (1.74%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 4 (1.39%) Route 53
6 4 (1.39%) SaaS
7 3 (1.04%) Google Workspace
8 2 (0.69%) Azure Sentinel
8 2 (0.69%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (0.69%) GitHub
8 2 (0.69%) OneDrive
8 2 (0.69%) PaaS
8 2 (0.69%) Slack
9 1 (0.35%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.35%) Amazon S3
9 1 (0.35%) OCI
9 1 (0.35%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 125 (43.40%) Firewall
2 88 (30.56%) LAN
3 87 (30.21%) WAN
4 58 (20.14%) Network Security
5 57 (19.79%) VPN
6 54 (18.75%) Wi-Fi
7 44 (15.28%) BGP
8 43 (14.93%) DNS
8 43 (14.93%) OSPF
9 38 (13.19%) VLAN
10 37 (12.85%) SD-WAN
11 34 (11.81%) Cisco ISE
11 34 (11.81%) WLAN
12 33 (11.46%) DHCP
13 29 (10.07%) Cisco Wireless
14 27 (9.38%) IPsec
15 20 (6.94%) Cisco ASA
15 20 (6.94%) Cisco Nexus
16 18 (6.25%) TCP/IP
17 17 (5.90%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.35%) MySQL
1 1 (0.35%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 15 (5.21%) Burp Suite
2 14 (4.86%) Metasploit
3 9 (3.13%) Rational DOORS
4 5 (1.74%) JIRA
5 2 (0.69%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.35%) Android Studio
6 1 (0.35%) Browser DevTools
6 1 (0.35%) Eclipse
6 1 (0.35%) MSI
6 1 (0.35%) Xcode
General
1 79 (27.43%) Social Skills
2 16 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (4.86%) Public Sector
4 12 (4.17%) Retail
5 11 (3.82%) Banking
6 10 (3.47%) Finance
7 9 (3.13%) Telecoms
8 8 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (2.43%) Aerospace
10 5 (1.74%) Law
10 5 (1.74%) Local Government
11 4 (1.39%) Legal
11 4 (1.39%) Manufacturing
12 3 (1.04%) Billing
13 2 (0.69%) Investment Banking
13 2 (0.69%) Pharmaceutical
14 1 (0.35%) Back Office
14 1 (0.35%) German Language
14 1 (0.35%) Marketing
14 1 (0.35%) Military
Job Titles
1 115 (39.93%) Network Engineer
2 21 (7.29%) Architect
3 17 (5.90%) Senior
4 16 (5.56%) Penetration Tester
4 16 (5.56%) Tester
5 15 (5.21%) Cisco Engineer
5 15 (5.21%) IT Support
5 15 (5.21%) Wireless Engineer
6 14 (4.86%) Software Engineer
6 14 (4.86%) Support Engineer
7 12 (4.17%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 12 (4.17%) Security Engineer
7 12 (4.17%) Senior Network Engineer
8 11 (3.82%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 11 (3.82%) Wireless Network Engineer
9 10 (3.47%) Analyst
9 10 (3.47%) Network Architect
10 9 (3.13%) Network Security Engineer
11 8 (2.78%) DSP Engineer
11 8 (2.78%) Embedded Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 50 (17.36%) 802.1X
2 11 (3.82%) SAML
3 9 (3.13%) LDAP
4 6 (2.08%) X-Windows
4 6 (2.08%) Yocto
5 2 (0.69%) A2A Protocol
5 2 (0.69%) Model Context Protocol
6 1 (0.35%) Ajax
6 1 (0.35%) AngularJS
6 1 (0.35%) CSS
6 1 (0.35%) GraphQL
6 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.35%) Qt
6 1 (0.35%) React
6 1 (0.35%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 40 (13.89%) Data Centre
2 21 (7.29%) IoT
3 14 (4.86%) Security Posture
4 13 (4.51%) Onboarding
5 12 (4.17%) Embedded Systems
6 9 (3.13%) FPGA
6 9 (3.13%) PCIe
7 8 (2.78%) Self-Motivation
8 7 (2.43%) Driving Licence
8 7 (2.43%) PKI
9 6 (2.08%) Device Driver
9 6 (2.08%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (2.08%) MicroBlaze
9 6 (2.08%) RISC-V
10 5 (1.74%) BYOD
10 5 (1.74%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.74%) Video Conferencing
10 5 (1.74%) Virtual Team
11 4 (1.39%) Hybrid Cloud
12 3 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 47 (16.32%) Windows
2 22 (7.64%) Windows 10
3 21 (7.29%) Linux
4 14 (4.86%) Android
4 14 (4.86%) Mac OS
5 10 (3.47%) Unix
6 9 (3.13%) Embedded Linux
6 9 (3.13%) FreeRTOS
7 8 (2.78%) Windows Server
8 6 (2.08%) Mac OS X
9 4 (1.39%) Apple iOS
9 4 (1.39%) CatOS
10 3 (1.04%) Windows 7
11 2 (0.69%) Debian
12 1 (0.35%) Kali Linux
12 1 (0.35%) VMS
12 1 (0.35%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (10.07%) Cybersecurity
2 28 (9.72%) Technical Leadership
3 27 (9.38%) Network Segmentation
3 27 (9.38%) Zero Trust
4 26 (9.03%) ITSM
4 26 (9.03%) Problem-Solving
5 22 (7.64%) High Availability
5 22 (7.64%) Regulatory Compliance
6 21 (7.29%) Migration
7 19 (6.60%) Customer Service
7 19 (6.60%) Root Cause Analysis
8 18 (6.25%) Change Management
8 18 (6.25%) ITIL
9 17 (5.90%) Cloud Security
9 17 (5.90%) Penetration Testing
10 15 (5.21%) Continuous Improvement
10 15 (5.21%) Digital Signal Processing
10 15 (5.21%) Network Design
10 15 (5.21%) Network Monitoring
10 15 (5.21%) Software Engineering
Programming Languages
1 18 (6.25%) C
2 16 (5.56%) Python
3 10 (3.47%) C++
4 5 (1.74%) Embedded C
5 2 (0.69%) Lisp
5 2 (0.69%) Perl
6 1 (0.35%) Bash
6 1 (0.35%) Embedded C++
6 1 (0.35%) Java
6 1 (0.35%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.35%) Korn
6 1 (0.35%) MATLAB
6 1 (0.35%) PowerShell
6 1 (0.35%) Ruby
6 1 (0.35%) SQL
Qualifications
1 82 (28.47%) Security Cleared
2 78 (27.08%) SC Cleared
3 64 (22.22%) Cisco Certification
4 59 (20.49%) CCNP
5 38 (13.19%) CCNA
6 26 (9.03%) Degree
7 15 (5.21%) CCIE
8 14 (4.86%) CHECK Team Member
8 14 (4.86%) Network+ Certification
9 12 (4.17%) CREST Certified
9 12 (4.17%) Cyber Scheme
10 11 (3.82%) Postgraduate
11 10 (3.47%) DV Cleared
12 8 (2.78%) Server+ Certification
13 6 (2.08%) JNCIA
13 6 (2.08%) JNCIS
14 5 (1.74%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (1.74%) CWNA
14 5 (1.74%) DBS Check
15 4 (1.39%) CompTIA Security+
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (6.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 14 (4.86%) GDPR
2 14 (4.86%) PCI DSS
2 14 (4.86%) QA
3 11 (3.82%) PMO
4 7 (2.43%) SLA
5 5 (1.74%) NIST
6 4 (1.39%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (1.04%) NCSC
8 1 (0.35%) DICOM
8 1 (0.35%) HL7
8 1 (0.35%) JTAG
System Software
1 30 (10.42%) Active Directory
2 14 (4.86%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (4.51%) Firmware
4 11 (3.82%) VMware NSX
5 8 (2.78%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (1.04%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.69%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.35%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 18 (6.25%) Ansible
2 16 (5.56%) Nmap
3 11 (3.82%) FortiGate
4 10 (3.47%) SCCM
4 10 (3.47%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (2.78%) Microsoft Intune
6 7 (2.43%) Prometheus
7 6 (2.08%) Grafana
8 5 (1.74%) Salt
8 5 (1.74%) Terraform
9 4 (1.39%) Cisco Prime
10 1 (0.35%) CASB
10 1 (0.35%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.35%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.35%) Nagios
10 1 (0.35%) Nessus
Vendors
1 149 (51.74%) Cisco
2 64 (22.22%) Palo Alto
3 57 (19.79%) Aruba
4 36 (12.50%) CheckPoint
4 36 (12.50%) Microsoft
4 36 (12.50%) ServiceNow
5 35 (12.15%) F5
6 31 (10.76%) Meraki
7 24 (8.33%) Fortinet
7 24 (8.33%) Juniper
8 22 (7.64%) Ekahau
9 17 (5.90%) Apple
9 17 (5.90%) ForeScout
9 17 (5.90%) VMware
10 16 (5.56%) HP
11 12 (4.17%) Dell
12 11 (3.82%) Splunk
13 10 (3.47%) Arista
14 9 (3.13%) SolarWinds
15 7 (2.43%) Remedy