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

6 months to
16 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 339 278 249
Rank change year-on-year -61 -29 -31
Contract jobs citing Wireless 356 286 404
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.88% 0.95%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.12% 7.22% 7.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 168 238
10th Percentile £250 £263 £183
25th Percentile £391 £363 £258
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £453 £400
Median % change year-on-year -0.55% +13.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £526 £550 £531
90th Percentile £588 £588 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £455 £475 £398
% change year-on-year -4.21% +19.35% -0.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 38 39
10th Percentile £13.18 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £24.75 £24.75 £16.24
Median hourly rate £52.43 £27.58 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +90.12% +31.31% -58.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £58.94 £24.90
90th Percentile £70.00 £84.99 £54.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £30.00 £17.69
% change year-on-year +74.75% +69.59% -16.75%

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 5,003 3,960 5,336
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.51% 12.19% 12.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,036 2,406 3,154
10th Percentile £245 £235 £213
25th Percentile £400 £365 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £670 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £489 £475 £495
% change year-on-year +2.89% -4.04% +7.03%
Number of hourly rates quoted 325 194 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.44 £50.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -47.12% +25.00% +18.52%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £83.70 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.22 £43.25 £47.50
% change year-on-year -39.38% -8.95% -0.48%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -39 320 £450 -3.74% 253
UK excluding London -48 233 £455 -4.21% 223
North of England -34 88 £498 +10.56% 45
London -71 86 £438 +2.94% 63
Work from Home -43 85 £475 - 69
North West -6 68 £520 +22.35% 22
South East -36 58 £513 +2.50% 94
Midlands -50 35 £450 +29.96% 23
West Midlands -45 34 £450 +76.47% 15
East of England -35 26 £325 -38.10% 22
Yorkshire -53 15 £450 - 20
Scotland -11 13 £381 -4.45% 6
South West -28 12 £510 +23.64% 32
North East -34 5 £420 - 4
Northern Ireland - 2 £245 - 3
East Midlands -12 1 £235 -46.29% 8

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 11 (3.09%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.84%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.28%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (3.65%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.53%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (2.53%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.56%) Acrobat
4 1 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.28%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 54 (15.17%) Azure
2 25 (7.02%) AWS
3 22 (6.18%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (5.34%) Entra ID
5 10 (2.81%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 9 (2.53%) GitHub
7 5 (1.40%) GCP
7 5 (1.40%) OneDrive
8 4 (1.12%) SaaS
8 4 (1.12%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 2 (0.56%) PaaS
10 1 (0.28%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.28%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.28%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.28%) Cloudflare
10 1 (0.28%) Google Ads
10 1 (0.28%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.28%) IaaS
10 1 (0.28%) Route 53
10 1 (0.28%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 168 (47.19%) Firewall
2 119 (33.43%) LAN
2 119 (33.43%) WAN
3 98 (27.53%) Network Security
4 93 (26.12%) VPN
5 82 (23.03%) Wi-Fi
6 64 (17.98%) DNS
7 58 (16.29%) BGP
8 54 (15.17%) DHCP
8 54 (15.17%) VLAN
9 51 (14.33%) OSPF
10 45 (12.64%) Cisco ISE
11 44 (12.36%) SD-WAN
11 44 (12.36%) WLAN
12 34 (9.55%) Cisco Wireless
13 33 (9.27%) Structured Cabling
14 32 (8.99%) TCP/IP
15 29 (8.15%) IPsec
16 23 (6.46%) Cisco IOS
17 22 (6.18%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.28%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (2.53%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (1.40%) JIRA
3 2 (0.56%) Burp Suite
3 2 (0.56%) Git
3 2 (0.56%) Metasploit
3 2 (0.56%) Sonatype Nexus
4 1 (0.28%) MSI
General
1 100 (28.09%) Social Skills
2 26 (7.30%) Analytical Skills
3 19 (5.34%) Finance
3 19 (5.34%) Public Sector
4 17 (4.78%) Aerospace
4 17 (4.78%) Documentation Skills
5 15 (4.21%) Retail
6 10 (2.81%) Legal
7 7 (1.97%) Telecoms
8 6 (1.69%) Law
9 4 (1.12%) Banking
9 4 (1.12%) Manufacturing
10 3 (0.84%) Billing
10 3 (0.84%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.84%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (0.84%) Investment Banking
10 3 (0.84%) Police
10 3 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.28%) German Language
Job Titles
1 181 (50.84%) Network Engineer
2 33 (9.27%) Architect
3 24 (6.74%) Senior
4 23 (6.46%) Software Engineer
5 21 (5.90%) Cisco Engineer
5 21 (5.90%) Wireless Engineer
6 20 (5.62%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 19 (5.34%) Embedded Engineer
7 19 (5.34%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 18 (5.06%) Wireless Network Engineer
9 17 (4.78%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 17 (4.78%) Network Architect
9 17 (4.78%) Senior Network Engineer
10 13 (3.65%) Security Engineer
11 12 (3.37%) Analyst
12 11 (3.09%) Network Security Engineer
12 11 (3.09%) Technical Architect
13 10 (2.81%) IT Support
14 8 (2.25%) Desktop Support
14 8 (2.25%) Implementation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (15.45%) 802.1X
2 8 (2.25%) SAML
3 6 (1.69%) X-Windows
3 6 (1.69%) Yocto
4 4 (1.12%) Software Packaging
5 3 (0.84%) LDAP
5 3 (0.84%) REST
6 2 (0.56%) Django
6 2 (0.56%) JSON
6 2 (0.56%) XML
7 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.28%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 54 (15.17%) Data Centre
2 16 (4.49%) IoT
2 16 (4.49%) Onboarding
3 13 (3.65%) Driving Licence
3 13 (3.65%) PKI
4 11 (3.09%) Embedded Systems
5 9 (2.53%) FPGA
5 9 (2.53%) PCIe
5 9 (2.53%) Self-Motivation
6 8 (2.25%) Hybrid Cloud
7 7 (1.97%) Management Information System
8 6 (1.69%) Device Driver
8 6 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (1.69%) iPad
8 6 (1.69%) MicroBlaze
8 6 (1.69%) RISC-V
8 6 (1.69%) Smartphone
9 5 (1.40%) BYOD
9 5 (1.40%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.40%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 37 (10.39%) Windows
2 15 (4.21%) Linux
3 12 (3.37%) Windows 10
4 9 (2.53%) Apple iOS
4 9 (2.53%) FreeRTOS
5 7 (1.97%) Unix
5 7 (1.97%) Windows Server
6 6 (1.69%) Embedded Linux
6 6 (1.69%) Mac OS X
7 5 (1.40%) Android
7 5 (1.40%) Windows 7
8 4 (1.12%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.84%) Windows XP
10 1 (0.28%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (13.76%) Problem-Solving
2 37 (10.39%) ITIL
3 36 (10.11%) Network Segmentation
4 34 (9.55%) ITSM
5 33 (9.27%) Change Management
5 33 (9.27%) Migration
6 31 (8.71%) Project Delivery
7 29 (8.15%) Zero Trust
8 28 (7.87%) High Availability
9 25 (7.02%) Continuous Improvement
9 25 (7.02%) Validation
10 24 (6.74%) Software Engineering
10 24 (6.74%) Technical Leadership
11 22 (6.18%) Load Balancing
12 20 (5.62%) Cybersecurity
12 20 (5.62%) User Experience
13 18 (5.06%) Agile
13 18 (5.06%) Network Design
13 18 (5.06%) Service Management
13 18 (5.06%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 21 (5.90%) Python
2 16 (4.49%) C
3 6 (1.69%) C++
4 4 (1.12%) Embedded C
4 4 (1.12%) PowerShell
5 3 (0.84%) Lisp
6 2 (0.56%) Perl
7 1 (0.28%) Korn
7 1 (0.28%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 105 (29.49%) Cisco Certification
2 89 (25.00%) Security Cleared
3 88 (24.72%) CCNP
4 77 (21.63%) SC Cleared
5 64 (17.98%) CCNA
6 25 (7.02%) Degree
7 24 (6.74%) Network+ Certification
8 23 (6.46%) CCIE
9 17 (4.78%) Server+ Certification
10 7 (1.97%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (1.69%) A+ Certification
11 6 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (1.40%) CCIE Wireless
12 5 (1.40%) CWNA
12 5 (1.40%) JNCIP
12 5 (1.40%) JNCIS
12 5 (1.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 4 (1.12%) CWNE
13 4 (1.12%) CWSP
13 4 (1.12%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.37%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (1.97%) NIST
2 7 (1.97%) QA
3 6 (1.69%) SLA
4 4 (1.12%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.12%) GDPR
5 3 (0.84%) NCSC
5 3 (0.84%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.28%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.28%) PMO
System Software
1 40 (11.24%) Active Directory
2 10 (2.81%) Firmware
2 10 (2.81%) VMware Infrastructure
3 6 (1.69%) Embedded Firmware
4 5 (1.40%) VMware NSX
5 4 (1.12%) Hyper-V
6 3 (0.84%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.28%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 28 (7.87%) Ansible
2 22 (6.18%) FortiGate
3 15 (4.21%) Microsoft Intune
4 10 (2.81%) Terraform
5 8 (2.25%) Cisco Prime
6 5 (1.40%) Prometheus
6 5 (1.40%) SCCM
7 4 (1.12%) Grafana
7 4 (1.12%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.84%) Jamf Pro
8 3 (0.84%) Salt
9 2 (0.56%) CASB
9 2 (0.56%) Nmap
10 1 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.28%) Nagios
10 1 (0.28%) Nessus
10 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 204 (57.30%) Cisco
2 81 (22.75%) Palo Alto
3 74 (20.79%) Aruba
4 44 (12.36%) F5
5 41 (11.52%) Microsoft
6 40 (11.24%) Meraki
6 40 (11.24%) ServiceNow
7 39 (10.96%) CheckPoint
8 34 (9.55%) Fortinet
9 30 (8.43%) Juniper
10 20 (5.62%) Ekahau
11 17 (4.78%) ForeScout
12 15 (4.21%) VMware
13 13 (3.65%) SolarWinds
13 13 (3.65%) Zscaler
14 12 (3.37%) Arista
15 10 (2.81%) Splunk
16 8 (2.25%) Citrix
17 7 (1.97%) Apple
18 6 (1.69%) Infoblox