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 12 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 344 298 270
Rank change year-on-year -46 -28 -57
Contract jobs citing Wireless 356 270 337
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.67% 0.82% 0.87%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.10% 6.88% 7.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 222 154 204
10th Percentile £250 £243 £206
25th Percentile £387 £350 £264
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £400
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
75th Percentile £533 £525 £525
90th Percentile £588 £588 £646
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £375
% change year-on-year - +20.00% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 40 30
10th Percentile £13.38 £14.20 £15.20
25th Percentile £28.00 £25.11 £17.69
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% +19.76% -42.81%
75th Percentile £60.00 £54.31 £47.05
90th Percentile £70.00 £83.66 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £30.00 £20.08
% change year-on-year +74.75% +49.44% -10.78%

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 5,015 3,925 4,737
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.40% 11.91% 12.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,970 2,397 2,875
10th Percentile £250 £248 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £494 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.95% -5.00% +9.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 361 200 316
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £19.79
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.88 £49.50
Median % change year-on-year -44.53% -5.30% -5.71%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £83.10 £74.38
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -41.91% -18.18% -2.64%

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 12 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 12 August 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 12 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 -38 323 £450 +4.35% 420
UK excluding London -37 235 £450 - 336
North of England -11 93 £486 +11.14% 66
London -62 91 £450 +5.88% 118
Work from Home -22 82 £450 -4.00% 130
North West +13 73 £515 +58.46% 37
South East -44 59 £480 +6.67% 135
Midlands -50 33 £425 +11.84% 37
West Midlands -44 32 £438 +19.05% 19
East of England -20 31 £363 -26.02% 51
Yorkshire -44 15 £450 - 19
Scotland -3 13 £381 -1.49% 13
South West -46 6 £363 -12.12% 39
North East -38 5 £420 - 11
Northern Ireland +7 1 £104 -78.11% 1
East Midlands -8 1 £235 -46.29% 18

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 (3.65%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.28%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 12 (3.37%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.25%) MS Visio
3 7 (1.97%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (0.84%) Acrobat
5 2 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.28%) Simulink
6 1 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 56 (15.73%) Azure
2 35 (9.83%) Microsoft 365
3 24 (6.74%) Entra ID
4 22 (6.18%) AWS
5 10 (2.81%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 9 (2.53%) GitHub
7 7 (1.97%) OneDrive
8 4 (1.12%) GCP
8 4 (1.12%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (0.84%) SaaS
10 1 (0.28%) Amazon EC2
10 1 (0.28%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.28%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.28%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.28%) Cloudflare
10 1 (0.28%) Google Ads
10 1 (0.28%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.28%) PaaS
10 1 (0.28%) Route 53
10 1 (0.28%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 164 (46.07%) Firewall
2 122 (34.27%) WAN
3 119 (33.43%) LAN
4 98 (27.53%) VPN
5 96 (26.97%) Network Security
6 80 (22.47%) Wi-Fi
7 72 (20.22%) DNS
8 65 (18.26%) BGP
9 63 (17.70%) VLAN
10 54 (15.17%) DHCP
10 54 (15.17%) OSPF
11 48 (13.48%) Cisco ISE
12 44 (12.36%) SD-WAN
13 41 (11.52%) WLAN
14 38 (10.67%) TCP/IP
15 36 (10.11%) Structured Cabling
16 31 (8.71%) Cisco Wireless
17 29 (8.15%) IPsec
18 26 (7.30%) Cisco IOS
19 23 (6.46%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.56%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (2.53%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (1.40%) JIRA
3 2 (0.56%) Git
4 1 (0.28%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.28%) Metasploit
4 1 (0.28%) MSI
4 1 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 106 (29.78%) Social Skills
2 28 (7.87%) Analytical Skills
2 28 (7.87%) Finance
3 19 (5.34%) Public Sector
4 18 (5.06%) Aerospace
5 17 (4.78%) Documentation Skills
6 16 (4.49%) Retail
7 12 (3.37%) Legal
8 9 (2.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 7 (1.97%) Law
9 7 (1.97%) Telecoms
10 5 (1.40%) Banking
11 4 (1.12%) Manufacturing
11 4 (1.12%) Police
12 3 (0.84%) Billing
12 3 (0.84%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
13 2 (0.56%) Front Office
13 2 (0.56%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 194 (54.49%) Network Engineer
2 32 (8.99%) Senior
3 29 (8.15%) Architect
4 25 (7.02%) Software Engineer
5 24 (6.74%) Cisco Engineer
6 21 (5.90%) Embedded Engineer
6 21 (5.90%) Embedded Software Engineer
6 21 (5.90%) Senior Network Engineer
7 20 (5.62%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 20 (5.62%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 20 (5.62%) Wireless Engineer
8 18 (5.06%) Wireless Network Engineer
9 16 (4.49%) Analyst
10 14 (3.93%) Network Architect
11 13 (3.65%) Security Engineer
12 11 (3.09%) Desktop Support
12 11 (3.09%) Implementation Engineer
12 11 (3.09%) Network Security Engineer
12 11 (3.09%) Technical Architect
13 10 (2.81%) Network Implementation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 46 (12.92%) 802.1X
2 8 (2.25%) SAML
2 8 (2.25%) Yocto
3 6 (1.69%) Software Packaging
4 3 (0.84%) LDAP
4 3 (0.84%) REST
5 2 (0.56%) Django
5 2 (0.56%) JSON
5 2 (0.56%) XML
6 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.28%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 56 (15.73%) Data Centre
2 19 (5.34%) Onboarding
3 14 (3.93%) PKI
4 13 (3.65%) Driving Licence
4 13 (3.65%) Embedded Systems
5 9 (2.53%) FPGA
5 9 (2.53%) Management Information System
5 9 (2.53%) PCIe
5 9 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (2.25%) Device Driver
7 7 (1.97%) Digital Signage
7 7 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
7 7 (1.97%) IoT
7 7 (1.97%) MicroBlaze
7 7 (1.97%) RISC-V
7 7 (1.97%) Smartphone
8 6 (1.69%) iPad
9 5 (1.40%) BYOD
10 4 (1.12%) Data Protection Act
10 4 (1.12%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 41 (11.52%) Windows
2 12 (3.37%) Linux
3 10 (2.81%) Windows Server
4 9 (2.53%) Apple iOS
4 9 (2.53%) FreeRTOS
4 9 (2.53%) Windows 10
5 8 (2.25%) Embedded Linux
6 6 (1.69%) Mac OS
7 5 (1.40%) Android
8 3 (0.84%) Unix
8 3 (0.84%) Windows 7
8 3 (0.84%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (15.73%) Problem-Solving
2 40 (11.24%) ITIL
3 37 (10.39%) ITSM
4 36 (10.11%) Project Delivery
5 34 (9.55%) Change Management
6 33 (9.27%) Migration
7 30 (8.43%) High Availability
8 28 (7.87%) Continuous Improvement
9 26 (7.30%) Network Segmentation
9 26 (7.30%) Software Engineering
10 23 (6.46%) Load Balancing
11 21 (5.90%) User Experience
12 20 (5.62%) Agile
12 20 (5.62%) Validation
12 20 (5.62%) Zero Trust
13 19 (5.34%) Root Cause Analysis
13 19 (5.34%) Service Management
13 19 (5.34%) Technical Leadership
14 18 (5.06%) Cybersecurity
14 18 (5.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 21 (5.90%) Python
2 18 (5.06%) C
3 8 (2.25%) C++
4 6 (1.69%) PowerShell
5 4 (1.12%) Embedded C
6 3 (0.84%) Lisp
7 2 (0.56%) Perl
7 2 (0.56%) SQL
7 2 (0.56%) VBScript
8 1 (0.28%) MATLAB
8 1 (0.28%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 105 (29.49%) Cisco Certification
2 89 (25.00%) Security Cleared
3 87 (24.44%) CCNP
4 75 (21.07%) SC Cleared
5 65 (18.26%) CCNA
6 28 (7.87%) Degree
7 25 (7.02%) Network+ Certification
8 21 (5.90%) CCIE
9 17 (4.78%) Server+ Certification
10 9 (2.53%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.97%) A+ Certification
11 7 (1.97%) Microsoft Certification
12 5 (1.40%) CCIE Wireless
12 5 (1.40%) CWNA
12 5 (1.40%) JNCIP
12 5 (1.40%) JNCIS
13 4 (1.12%) City & Guilds
13 4 (1.12%) CompTIA Security+
13 4 (1.12%) CWDP
13 4 (1.12%) CWSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (2.25%) SLA
3 7 (1.97%) NIST
4 6 (1.69%) QA
5 4 (1.12%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.84%) GDPR
7 2 (0.56%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.56%) NCSC
7 2 (0.56%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 42 (11.80%) Active Directory
2 12 (3.37%) Firmware
3 10 (2.81%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (2.25%) Embedded Firmware
5 5 (1.40%) VMware NSX
6 4 (1.12%) Hyper-V
6 4 (1.12%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.84%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.28%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 24 (6.74%) FortiGate
2 23 (6.46%) Ansible
3 19 (5.34%) Microsoft Intune
4 12 (3.37%) Cisco Prime
5 10 (2.81%) Terraform
6 7 (1.97%) SCCM
7 4 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.84%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.56%) Nagios
10 1 (0.28%) CASB
10 1 (0.28%) Grafana
10 1 (0.28%) Nessus
10 1 (0.28%) Nmap
10 1 (0.28%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.28%) TrustSec
10 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 201 (56.46%) Cisco
2 74 (20.79%) Palo Alto
3 70 (19.66%) Aruba
4 51 (14.33%) Microsoft
5 43 (12.08%) F5
6 38 (10.67%) ServiceNow
7 35 (9.83%) Fortinet
8 33 (9.27%) CheckPoint
8 33 (9.27%) Meraki
9 30 (8.43%) Juniper
10 18 (5.06%) Ekahau
11 16 (4.49%) VMware
12 14 (3.93%) SolarWinds
13 12 (3.37%) Zscaler
14 9 (2.53%) ForeScout
15 8 (2.25%) Arista
15 8 (2.25%) Citrix
15 8 (2.25%) Splunk
16 7 (1.97%) Apple
17 6 (1.69%) Blue Coat