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 18 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 350 285 261
Rank change year-on-year -65 -24 -52
Contract jobs citing Wireless 315 265 392
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.63% 0.89% 0.89%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.57% 7.12% 7.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 205 161 238
10th Percentile £263 £243 £168
25th Percentile £380 £362 £254
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £406
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% +13.85% -4.41%
75th Percentile £537 £550 £525
90th Percentile £598 £588 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £471 £396
% change year-on-year -4.51% +19.00% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 27 27 35
10th Percentile £12.98 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £38.75 £15.23 £16.00
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% +19.76% -58.00%
75th Percentile £61.88 £34.25 £23.80
90th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £59.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £24.83 £17.69
% change year-on-year +111.14% +40.36% -20.53%

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 4,793 3,724 5,432
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.51% 12.51% 12.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,942 2,288 3,212
10th Percentile £250 £220 £210
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -1.96%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £470 £488
% change year-on-year +2.13% -3.59% +2.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 291 175 422
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.04 £19.14 £17.69
Median hourly rate £27.88 £44.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.64% +10.00% +110.53%
75th Percentile £65.00 £61.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £78.00 £71.19
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £31.08 £47.50
% change year-on-year -9.91% -34.57% +150.46%

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 18 June 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 18 June 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 18 June 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 -65 289 £450 -5.26% 219
UK excluding London -61 208 £450 -4.51% 211
London -59 78 £450 -2.70% 58
Work from Home -34 76 £450 -2.70% 76
North of England -40 73 £508 +12.78% 38
North West -2 59 £525 +61.54% 25
South East -23 57 £514 +2.75% 87
Midlands -46 32 £425 +66.67% 25
West Midlands -42 31 £425 +66.67% 11
East of England -43 24 £325 -38.10% 26
South West -25 12 £513 +24.24% 15
Scotland -12 9 £313 -24.24% 7
Yorkshire -68 9 £450 -4.20% 10
North East -32 5 £420 -23.64% 5
Northern Ireland - 2 £245 - 12
East Midlands -23 1 £235 -46.29% 14

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 (2.54%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.32%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (5.08%) Microsoft Office
2 13 (4.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (4.13%) MS Visio
3 5 (1.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.32%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 49 (15.56%) Azure
2 30 (9.52%) AWS
3 18 (5.71%) Microsoft 365
4 14 (4.44%) Entra ID
5 7 (2.22%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (1.90%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (1.90%) GitHub
7 4 (1.27%) GCP
7 4 (1.27%) Route 53
7 4 (1.27%) SaaS
8 3 (0.95%) Google Workspace
9 2 (0.63%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.63%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (0.63%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.63%) PaaS
10 1 (0.32%) Amazon EC2
10 1 (0.32%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.32%) IaaS
10 1 (0.32%) OCI
10 1 (0.32%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 146 (46.35%) Firewall
2 107 (33.97%) LAN
3 106 (33.65%) WAN
4 83 (26.35%) Network Security
5 76 (24.13%) Wi-Fi
6 66 (20.95%) VPN
7 53 (16.83%) DNS
8 48 (15.24%) BGP
8 48 (15.24%) VLAN
9 45 (14.29%) DHCP
10 44 (13.97%) OSPF
10 44 (13.97%) SD-WAN
11 41 (13.02%) Cisco ISE
12 40 (12.70%) WLAN
13 30 (9.52%) Cisco Wireless
14 28 (8.89%) Structured Cabling
15 26 (8.25%) IPsec
16 24 (7.62%) TCP/IP
17 22 (6.98%) Cisco IOS
18 20 (6.35%) Cisco Nexus
Development Applications
1 9 (2.86%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (2.22%) Burp Suite
3 6 (1.90%) Metasploit
4 5 (1.59%) JIRA
5 2 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.32%) MSI
General
1 90 (28.57%) Social Skills
2 17 (5.40%) Documentation Skills
3 16 (5.08%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (4.44%) Aerospace
5 12 (3.81%) Finance
6 11 (3.49%) Public Sector
7 10 (3.17%) Retail
8 6 (1.90%) Legal
9 4 (1.27%) Law
9 4 (1.27%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.27%) Telecoms
10 3 (0.95%) Banking
10 3 (0.95%) Billing
10 3 (0.95%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.63%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.32%) German Language
12 1 (0.32%) Greek Language
12 1 (0.32%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.32%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 152 (48.25%) Network Engineer
2 33 (10.48%) Architect
3 22 (6.98%) Wireless Engineer
4 21 (6.67%) Cisco Engineer
4 21 (6.67%) Senior
4 21 (6.67%) Software Engineer
5 19 (6.03%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 19 (6.03%) Wireless Network Engineer
6 17 (5.40%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 17 (5.40%) Network Architect
7 16 (5.08%) Embedded Engineer
7 16 (5.08%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 13 (4.13%) Senior Network Engineer
9 11 (3.49%) Technical Architect
10 10 (3.17%) Security Engineer
10 10 (3.17%) Support Engineer
11 9 (2.86%) Analyst
11 9 (2.86%) Desktop Support
11 9 (2.86%) IT Support
11 9 (2.86%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 58 (18.41%) 802.1X
2 11 (3.49%) SAML
3 6 (1.90%) LDAP
3 6 (1.90%) X-Windows
3 6 (1.90%) Yocto
4 5 (1.59%) Software Packaging
5 2 (0.63%) A2A Protocol
5 2 (0.63%) Model Context Protocol
6 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.32%) ModSecurity
6 1 (0.32%) Qt
6 1 (0.32%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 48 (15.24%) Data Centre
2 16 (5.08%) Onboarding
3 12 (3.81%) Embedded Systems
3 12 (3.81%) IoT
4 10 (3.17%) Security Posture
5 9 (2.86%) FPGA
5 9 (2.86%) PCIe
5 9 (2.86%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (2.22%) Driving Licence
6 7 (2.22%) PKI
7 6 (1.90%) Device Driver
7 6 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.90%) iPad
7 6 (1.90%) MicroBlaze
7 6 (1.90%) RISC-V
8 5 (1.59%) BYOD
8 5 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
8 5 (1.59%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.59%) Smartphone
8 5 (1.59%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 36 (11.43%) Windows
2 16 (5.08%) Linux
3 12 (3.81%) Windows 10
4 9 (2.86%) Apple iOS
4 9 (2.86%) FreeRTOS
5 8 (2.54%) Unix
6 7 (2.22%) Embedded Linux
7 6 (1.90%) Android
7 6 (1.90%) Mac OS X
7 6 (1.90%) Windows 7
8 5 (1.59%) Windows Server
9 4 (1.27%) Windows XP
10 2 (0.63%) CatOS
10 2 (0.63%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.32%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.32%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (11.75%) Network Segmentation
2 33 (10.48%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (9.84%) Technical Leadership
4 29 (9.21%) ITSM
5 28 (8.89%) Migration
6 27 (8.57%) High Availability
7 25 (7.94%) ITIL
7 25 (7.94%) Zero Trust
8 23 (7.30%) Change Management
8 23 (7.30%) Project Delivery
9 22 (6.98%) Software Engineering
9 22 (6.98%) Validation
10 21 (6.67%) Cybersecurity
11 20 (6.35%) Continuous Improvement
11 20 (6.35%) Load Balancing
11 20 (6.35%) User Experience
12 19 (6.03%) Agile
12 19 (6.03%) Root Cause Analysis
13 17 (5.40%) Incident Management
13 17 (5.40%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 17 (5.40%) C
1 17 (5.40%) Python
2 7 (2.22%) C++
3 4 (1.27%) Embedded C
3 4 (1.27%) PowerShell
4 3 (0.95%) Lisp
5 2 (0.63%) Perl
6 1 (0.32%) Korn
6 1 (0.32%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 93 (29.52%) Cisco Certification
2 88 (27.94%) Security Cleared
3 78 (24.76%) CCNP
4 76 (24.13%) SC Cleared
5 58 (18.41%) CCNA
6 25 (7.94%) Degree
7 22 (6.98%) Network+ Certification
8 21 (6.67%) CCIE
9 17 (5.40%) Server+ Certification
10 6 (1.90%) CHECK Team Member
10 6 (1.90%) CREST Certified
10 6 (1.90%) Cyber Scheme
11 5 (1.59%) Computer Science Degree
11 5 (1.59%) CWNA
11 5 (1.59%) Postgraduate
12 4 (1.27%) CWNE
12 4 (1.27%) CWSP
12 4 (1.27%) JNCIA
12 4 (1.27%) PMI Certification
12 4 (1.27%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (3.49%) QA
2 10 (3.17%) SLA
3 9 (2.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 8 (2.54%) GDPR
5 7 (2.22%) PCI DSS
6 5 (1.59%) NIST
6 5 (1.59%) PMO
7 3 (0.95%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.95%) NCSC
8 1 (0.32%) DICOM
8 1 (0.32%) HL7
System Software
1 36 (11.43%) Active Directory
2 11 (3.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (3.17%) Firmware
4 8 (2.54%) VMware NSX
5 6 (1.90%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.63%) Hyper-V
6 2 (0.63%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 25 (7.94%) Ansible
2 18 (5.71%) FortiGate
3 13 (4.13%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (2.22%) Nmap
4 7 (2.22%) Single Sign-On
4 7 (2.22%) Terraform
5 6 (1.90%) Prometheus
6 5 (1.59%) Grafana
7 4 (1.27%) Cisco Prime
7 4 (1.27%) Jamf Pro
7 4 (1.27%) Salt
7 4 (1.27%) SCCM
8 2 (0.63%) CASB
9 1 (0.32%) Cisco CUCM
9 1 (0.32%) Nagios
9 1 (0.32%) Nessus
Vendors
1 176 (55.87%) Cisco
2 69 (21.90%) Aruba
3 65 (20.63%) Palo Alto
4 38 (12.06%) ServiceNow
5 35 (11.11%) Microsoft
6 33 (10.48%) F5
6 33 (10.48%) Meraki
7 30 (9.52%) CheckPoint
7 30 (9.52%) Fortinet
8 20 (6.35%) Ekahau
8 20 (6.35%) Juniper
9 17 (5.40%) ForeScout
10 14 (4.44%) VMware
11 11 (3.49%) Arista
11 11 (3.49%) Splunk
12 10 (3.17%) Apple
12 10 (3.17%) SolarWinds
13 6 (1.90%) Zscaler
14 5 (1.59%) BigPanda
14 5 (1.59%) Infoblox