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 4 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 348 291 256
Rank change year-on-year -57 -35 -44
Contract jobs citing Wireless 340 283 404
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.66% 0.90% 0.93%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.90% 7.32% 7.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 217 172 242
10th Percentile £263 £263 £168
25th Percentile £400 £362 £254
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £400
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
75th Percentile £534 £550 £525
90th Percentile £588 £588 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £468 £396
% change year-on-year -3.74% +18.06% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 31 39
10th Percentile £12.98 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £28.00 £16.56 £16.24
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% +19.76% -58.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £31.00 £24.90
90th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £54.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £27.50 £17.69
% change year-on-year +90.64% +55.46% -20.96%

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 4,925 3,867 5,433
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.54% 12.26% 12.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,996 2,363 3,200
10th Percentile £250 £230 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -0.50%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £470 £493
% change year-on-year +3.25% -4.57% +3.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 307 182 427
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.86
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.50 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £44.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -40.58% -1.11% +100.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £79.50 £73.45
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £35.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -25.71% -26.32% +90.00%

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 4 July 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 4 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Wireless in the UK

Wireless
Top 16 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 4 July 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 -58 306 £450 -3.74% 287
UK excluding London -41 226 £450 -3.74% 240
North of England -33 84 £500 +11.11% 50
London -76 79 £450 +5.88% 84
Work from Home -40 76 £463 -2.63% 105
North West +2 67 £525 +40.00% 24
South East -28 55 £514 +2.75% 95
Midlands -44 36 £425 +22.74% 31
West Midlands -51 35 £425 +66.67% 18
East of England -44 25 £325 -38.10% 28
Scotland -10 13 £381 -6.04% 7
South West -33 12 £510 +23.64% 22
Yorkshire -58 12 £450 - 22
North East -32 5 £420 -23.64% 5
Northern Ireland - 2 £245 - 6
East Midlands -16 1 £235 -46.29% 13

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 10 (2.94%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.59%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.29%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (3.82%) Microsoft Office
1 13 (3.82%) MS Visio
2 10 (2.94%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.29%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 49 (14.41%) Azure
2 25 (7.35%) AWS
3 17 (5.00%) Microsoft 365
4 16 (4.71%) Entra ID
5 8 (2.35%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (2.06%) GitHub
7 5 (1.47%) GCP
8 4 (1.18%) SaaS
8 4 (1.18%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (0.88%) OneDrive
10 2 (0.59%) PaaS
11 1 (0.29%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.29%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 1 (0.29%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.29%) AWS Direct Connect
11 1 (0.29%) Azure Sentinel
11 1 (0.29%) Google Workspace
11 1 (0.29%) IaaS
11 1 (0.29%) Route 53
11 1 (0.29%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 157 (46.18%) Firewall
2 116 (34.12%) LAN
3 115 (33.82%) WAN
4 94 (27.65%) Network Security
5 82 (24.12%) VPN
6 79 (23.24%) Wi-Fi
7 60 (17.65%) DNS
8 54 (15.88%) BGP
9 50 (14.71%) DHCP
10 49 (14.41%) VLAN
11 47 (13.82%) OSPF
12 45 (13.24%) SD-WAN
13 44 (12.94%) Cisco ISE
14 43 (12.65%) WLAN
15 34 (10.00%) Cisco Wireless
16 29 (8.53%) Structured Cabling
17 28 (8.24%) TCP/IP
18 26 (7.65%) IPsec
19 24 (7.06%) Cisco Nexus
20 23 (6.76%) Cisco IOS
Development Applications
1 9 (2.65%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (1.47%) JIRA
3 3 (0.88%) Burp Suite
4 2 (0.59%) Git
4 2 (0.59%) Metasploit
4 2 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.29%) MSI
General
1 96 (28.24%) Social Skills
2 24 (7.06%) Analytical Skills
3 18 (5.29%) Documentation Skills
3 18 (5.29%) Finance
4 15 (4.41%) Aerospace
5 13 (3.82%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.53%) Retail
7 7 (2.06%) Legal
8 4 (1.18%) Banking
8 4 (1.18%) Billing
8 4 (1.18%) Law
8 4 (1.18%) Manufacturing
8 4 (1.18%) Telecoms
9 3 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
9 3 (0.88%) Investment Banking
9 3 (0.88%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.59%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (0.59%) Police
11 1 (0.29%) German Language
Job Titles
1 173 (50.88%) Network Engineer
2 33 (9.71%) Architect
3 23 (6.76%) Senior
4 22 (6.47%) Cisco Engineer
4 22 (6.47%) Wireless Engineer
5 21 (6.18%) Software Engineer
6 19 (5.59%) Wireless Network Engineer
7 18 (5.29%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 18 (5.29%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 17 (5.00%) Embedded Engineer
8 17 (5.00%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 17 (5.00%) Network Architect
9 16 (4.71%) Senior Network Engineer
10 11 (3.24%) Technical Architect
11 10 (2.94%) IT Support
11 10 (2.94%) Security Engineer
12 9 (2.65%) Analyst
12 9 (2.65%) Network Security Engineer
12 9 (2.65%) Support Engineer
13 8 (2.35%) DSP Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (15.59%) 802.1X
2 11 (3.24%) SAML
3 6 (1.76%) LDAP
3 6 (1.76%) X-Windows
3 6 (1.76%) Yocto
4 5 (1.47%) Software Packaging
5 3 (0.88%) REST
6 2 (0.59%) Django
6 2 (0.59%) JSON
6 2 (0.59%) XML
7 1 (0.29%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.29%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 53 (15.59%) Data Centre
2 14 (4.12%) Onboarding
3 12 (3.53%) IoT
4 11 (3.24%) Embedded Systems
5 10 (2.94%) PKI
6 9 (2.65%) FPGA
6 9 (2.65%) PCIe
6 9 (2.65%) Self-Motivation
7 8 (2.35%) Driving Licence
8 7 (2.06%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (1.76%) Device Driver
9 6 (1.76%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.76%) iPad
9 6 (1.76%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.76%) MicroBlaze
9 6 (1.76%) RISC-V
9 6 (1.76%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.47%) BYOD
10 5 (1.47%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.47%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 34 (10.00%) Windows
2 17 (5.00%) Linux
3 10 (2.94%) Apple iOS
3 10 (2.94%) Windows 10
4 9 (2.65%) FreeRTOS
5 8 (2.35%) Unix
6 6 (1.76%) Android
6 6 (1.76%) Embedded Linux
6 6 (1.76%) Mac OS X
6 6 (1.76%) Windows 7
6 6 (1.76%) Windows Server
7 4 (1.18%) Windows XP
8 3 (0.88%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.59%) CatOS
10 1 (0.29%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.29%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (12.35%) Problem-Solving
2 37 (10.88%) Network Segmentation
3 32 (9.41%) ITSM
3 32 (9.41%) Migration
4 31 (9.12%) Change Management
5 30 (8.82%) ITIL
5 30 (8.82%) Project Delivery
6 29 (8.53%) High Availability
7 26 (7.65%) Technical Leadership
7 26 (7.65%) Zero Trust
8 25 (7.35%) Continuous Improvement
9 23 (6.76%) Validation
10 22 (6.47%) Cybersecurity
10 22 (6.47%) Load Balancing
10 22 (6.47%) Software Engineering
11 20 (5.88%) User Experience
12 19 (5.59%) Agile
13 18 (5.29%) Root Cause Analysis
14 17 (5.00%) Network Design
14 17 (5.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 19 (5.59%) Python
2 16 (4.71%) C
3 6 (1.76%) C++
4 4 (1.18%) Embedded C
4 4 (1.18%) PowerShell
5 3 (0.88%) Lisp
6 2 (0.59%) Perl
7 1 (0.29%) Korn
7 1 (0.29%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 102 (30.00%) Cisco Certification
2 87 (25.59%) Security Cleared
3 86 (25.29%) CCNP
4 75 (22.06%) SC Cleared
5 63 (18.53%) CCNA
6 25 (7.35%) Degree
7 23 (6.76%) CCIE
7 23 (6.76%) Network+ Certification
8 17 (5.00%) Server+ Certification
9 6 (1.76%) Computer Science Degree
10 5 (1.47%) CCIE Wireless
10 5 (1.47%) CWNA
10 5 (1.47%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (1.18%) A+ Certification
11 4 (1.18%) CompTIA Security+
11 4 (1.18%) CWNE
11 4 (1.18%) CWSP
11 4 (1.18%) Microsoft Certified Professional
11 4 (1.18%) PMI Certification
11 4 (1.18%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (2.35%) SLA
2 7 (2.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (2.06%) QA
3 6 (1.76%) NIST
4 4 (1.18%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.18%) GDPR
5 3 (0.88%) NCSC
5 3 (0.88%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.29%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.29%) PMO
System Software
1 41 (12.06%) Active Directory
2 12 (3.53%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (2.94%) Firmware
4 8 (2.35%) VMware NSX
5 6 (1.76%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.88%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.88%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.29%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.29%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 28 (8.24%) Ansible
2 21 (6.18%) FortiGate
3 14 (4.12%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (2.35%) Terraform
5 7 (2.06%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.76%) Cisco Prime
6 6 (1.76%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.47%) Grafana
7 5 (1.47%) SCCM
8 4 (1.18%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (1.18%) Salt
9 3 (0.88%) Nmap
10 2 (0.59%) CASB
10 2 (0.59%) Nessus
11 1 (0.29%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.29%) Nagios
11 1 (0.29%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 198 (58.24%) Cisco
2 74 (21.76%) Aruba
2 74 (21.76%) Palo Alto
3 42 (12.35%) F5
4 39 (11.47%) Meraki
4 39 (11.47%) Microsoft
4 39 (11.47%) ServiceNow
5 37 (10.88%) CheckPoint
6 32 (9.41%) Fortinet
7 22 (6.47%) Juniper
8 20 (5.88%) Ekahau
9 17 (5.00%) ForeScout
9 17 (5.00%) VMware
10 13 (3.82%) Arista
11 12 (3.53%) SolarWinds
12 11 (3.24%) Splunk
13 8 (2.35%) Apple
13 8 (2.35%) Zscaler
14 7 (2.06%) Citrix
15 5 (1.47%) HP