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

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 323 299 282
Rank change year-on-year -24 -17 -84
Contract jobs citing Wireless 404 257 313
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.74% 0.79% 0.82%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.92% 6.84% 6.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 146 182
10th Percentile £250 £204 £220
25th Percentile £355 £325 £303
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% - -
75th Percentile £525 £509 £550
90th Percentile £588 £588 £649
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £399 £420
% change year-on-year +12.78% -5.00% +0.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 42 13
10th Percentile £14.80 £15.73 £18.63
25th Percentile £30.44 £18.50 £23.80
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% -48.21% +41.91%
75th Percentile £60.81 £31.00 £51.91
90th Percentile £70.00 £82.00 £52.45
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 5,099 3,757 4,513
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.34% 11.57% 11.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,952 2,332 2,627
10th Percentile £235 £225 £227
25th Percentile £395 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £680 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £453 £500
% change year-on-year +4.86% -9.40% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 418 199 235
10th Percentile £14.19 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.08 £22.93
Median hourly rate £33.64 £42.50 £51.50
Median % change year-on-year -20.85% -17.48% -8.83%
75th Percentile £68.75 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.74 £73.40 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -23.53% -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 22 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 22 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 22 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 -30 358 £450 +7.46% 613
UK excluding London -16 271 £450 +12.78% 460
North of England -2 103 £500 +42.86% 87
London -54 97 £450 +5.88% 180
Work from Home -28 85 £463 - 233
North West +13 79 £525 +61.54% 61
South East -56 54 £380 +83.13% 171
East of England -5 41 £400 -11.11% 66
Midlands -52 40 £425 +11.84% 59
West Midlands -51 38 £425 +11.84% 34
Yorkshire -43 20 £450 - 15
Scotland -21 16 £313 -24.15% 23
South West -28 14 £350 -30.00% 48
Wales - 5 £363 - 6
North East -33 4 £400 -27.27% 13
Northern Ireland +4 3 £425 -10.53% 5
East Midlands -13 2 £235 -46.29% 25

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 15 (3.71%) SharePoint
2 9 (2.23%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.50%) Confluence
4 1 (0.25%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 10 (2.48%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (1.98%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.49%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (1.49%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.74%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.25%) Simulink
5 1 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 66 (16.34%) Azure
2 52 (12.87%) Microsoft 365
3 32 (7.92%) Entra ID
4 23 (5.69%) AWS
5 12 (2.97%) GitHub
6 8 (1.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 6 (1.49%) OneDrive
8 5 (1.24%) GCP
9 4 (0.99%) Virtual Private Cloud
10 3 (0.74%) Smartsheet
11 2 (0.50%) SaaS
12 1 (0.25%) Amazon EC2
12 1 (0.25%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 1 (0.25%) Amazon S3
12 1 (0.25%) GitHub Actions
12 1 (0.25%) IaaS
12 1 (0.25%) IBM Watson
12 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Purview
12 1 (0.25%) OCI
12 1 (0.25%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 176 (43.56%) Firewall
2 138 (34.16%) WAN
3 119 (29.46%) LAN
4 117 (28.96%) VPN
5 104 (25.74%) Network Security
6 91 (22.52%) Wi-Fi
7 79 (19.55%) DNS
8 67 (16.58%) VLAN
9 65 (16.09%) BGP
10 59 (14.60%) DHCP
11 54 (13.37%) SD-WAN
12 51 (12.62%) OSPF
13 49 (12.13%) Cisco ISE
14 46 (11.39%) TCP/IP
15 44 (10.89%) WLAN
16 31 (7.67%) Cisco Nexus
16 31 (7.67%) Cisco Wireless
16 31 (7.67%) IPsec
17 30 (7.43%) Structured Cabling
18 28 (6.93%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.74%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 15 (3.71%) Git
2 14 (3.47%) JIRA
3 9 (2.23%) Rational DOORS
4 4 (0.99%) GitLab
5 3 (0.74%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.25%) MSI
General
1 115 (28.47%) Social Skills
2 33 (8.17%) Analytical Skills
3 31 (7.67%) Finance
4 21 (5.20%) Public Sector
5 19 (4.70%) Aerospace
5 19 (4.70%) Documentation Skills
6 18 (4.46%) Telecoms
7 16 (3.96%) Legal
8 14 (3.47%) Retail
9 9 (2.23%) Banking
9 9 (2.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.73%) Law
11 6 (1.49%) Manufacturing
12 5 (1.24%) Investment Banking
12 5 (1.24%) Police
13 4 (0.99%) Front Office
13 4 (0.99%) Multimedia
13 4 (0.99%) Presentation Skills
14 3 (0.74%) Influencing Skills
14 3 (0.74%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 214 (52.97%) Network Engineer
2 45 (11.14%) Senior
3 31 (7.67%) Software Engineer
4 29 (7.18%) Cisco Engineer
4 29 (7.18%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 29 (7.18%) Senior Network Engineer
5 27 (6.68%) Embedded Engineer
5 27 (6.68%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 25 (6.19%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 21 (5.20%) Architect
8 20 (4.95%) Wireless Engineer
9 19 (4.70%) Wireless Network Engineer
10 18 (4.46%) Analyst
11 16 (3.96%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 16 (3.96%) IT Support
11 16 (3.96%) Security Engineer
12 15 (3.71%) Support Engineer
13 12 (2.97%) Desktop Support
13 12 (2.97%) Implementation Engineer
13 12 (2.97%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (10.15%) 802.1X
2 12 (2.97%) JSON
2 12 (2.97%) REST
2 12 (2.97%) Terraform
3 11 (2.72%) Yocto
4 7 (1.73%) Django
4 7 (1.73%) Software Packaging
5 5 (1.24%) Flask
5 5 (1.24%) SAML
6 4 (0.99%) YAML
7 3 (0.74%) XML
8 2 (0.50%) LDAP
9 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Graph
9 1 (0.25%) Middleware
9 1 (0.25%) ModSecurity
9 1 (0.25%) OpenEmbedded
Miscellaneous
1 63 (15.59%) Data Centre
2 23 (5.69%) Onboarding
3 20 (4.95%) Driving Licence
4 17 (4.21%) Embedded Systems
5 15 (3.71%) PKI
6 14 (3.47%) Digital Signage
6 14 (3.47%) Self-Motivation
7 11 (2.72%) Device Driver
8 10 (2.48%) MicroBlaze
8 10 (2.48%) RISC-V
9 9 (2.23%) FPGA
9 9 (2.23%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (2.23%) Management Information System
9 9 (2.23%) PCIe
10 7 (1.73%) Smartphone
11 6 (1.49%) IoT
11 6 (1.49%) Operational Technology
11 6 (1.49%) Video Conferencing
12 5 (1.24%) CCTV
12 5 (1.24%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 59 (14.60%) Windows
2 24 (5.94%) Linux
3 21 (5.20%) Windows Server
4 13 (3.22%) Mac OS
5 12 (2.97%) Windows 10
6 11 (2.72%) Embedded Linux
7 9 (2.23%) FreeRTOS
8 8 (1.98%) Apple iOS
9 5 (1.24%) Android
10 4 (0.99%) VMS
11 3 (0.74%) Windows 7
11 3 (0.74%) Windows XP
12 2 (0.50%) Unix
13 1 (0.25%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 64 (15.84%) Problem-Solving
2 44 (10.89%) Project Delivery
3 42 (10.40%) ITIL
4 38 (9.41%) Change Management
5 33 (8.17%) ITSM
6 32 (7.92%) Software Engineering
7 30 (7.43%) Load Balancing
8 29 (7.18%) Agile
8 29 (7.18%) Migration
9 27 (6.68%) High Availability
9 27 (6.68%) Stakeholder Management
10 26 (6.44%) Validation
11 25 (6.19%) Continuous Improvement
12 23 (5.69%) Zero Trust
13 22 (5.45%) Network Segmentation
14 21 (5.20%) Infrastructure as Code
14 21 (5.20%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 20 (4.95%) Digital Signal Processing
15 20 (4.95%) Root Cause Analysis
15 20 (4.95%) Signal Processing
Programming Languages
1 41 (10.15%) Python
2 22 (5.45%) C
3 14 (3.47%) PowerShell
4 11 (2.72%) C++
5 5 (1.24%) Search Processing Language
6 4 (0.99%) Embedded C
7 3 (0.74%) Lisp
7 3 (0.74%) SQL
7 3 (0.74%) VBScript
8 2 (0.50%) Bash
8 2 (0.50%) Perl
9 1 (0.25%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 95 (23.51%) Cisco Certification
2 93 (23.02%) Security Cleared
3 78 (19.31%) CCNP
4 77 (19.06%) SC Cleared
5 55 (13.61%) CCNA
6 29 (7.18%) Degree
7 20 (4.95%) CCIE
8 19 (4.70%) Network+ Certification
9 11 (2.72%) Server+ Certification
10 7 (1.73%) A+ Certification
10 7 (1.73%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.73%) Microsoft Certification
11 5 (1.24%) CWNA
11 5 (1.24%) JNCIP
12 4 (0.99%) CCIE Wireless
12 4 (0.99%) City & Guilds
12 4 (0.99%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (0.99%) DV Cleared
12 4 (0.99%) JNCIS
12 4 (0.99%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (1.98%) SLA
3 6 (1.49%) NIST
3 6 (1.49%) QA
4 5 (1.24%) Data Quality
5 3 (0.74%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.50%) GDPR
7 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 58 (14.36%) Active Directory
2 16 (3.96%) Firmware
3 11 (2.72%) Embedded Firmware
4 10 (2.48%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.73%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.24%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.99%) Docker
7 4 (0.99%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.99%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.74%) vSphere
9 2 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
10 1 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 26 (6.44%) Ansible
1 26 (6.44%) FortiGate
2 21 (5.20%) Microsoft Intune
3 16 (3.96%) Cisco Prime
4 10 (2.48%) SCCM
5 3 (0.74%) Jamf Pro
6 2 (0.50%) Nagios
6 2 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
6 2 (0.50%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.25%) CASB
7 1 (0.25%) Iperf
7 1 (0.25%) MobiControl
7 1 (0.25%) Nessus
7 1 (0.25%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 214 (52.97%) Cisco
2 71 (17.57%) Microsoft
3 70 (17.33%) Palo Alto
4 50 (12.38%) Aruba
5 49 (12.13%) Meraki
6 47 (11.63%) F5
7 40 (9.90%) Fortinet
8 38 (9.41%) Juniper
9 31 (7.67%) CheckPoint
10 29 (7.18%) ServiceNow
11 17 (4.21%) SolarWinds
11 17 (4.21%) VMware
11 17 (4.21%) Zscaler
12 12 (2.97%) Splunk
13 11 (2.72%) ForeScout
14 10 (2.48%) Citrix
15 9 (2.23%) Blue Coat
15 9 (2.23%) Ekahau
16 7 (1.73%) Arista
17 6 (1.49%) Apple