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 28 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 355 287 248
Rank change year-on-year -68 -39 -15
Contract jobs citing Wireless 295 249 396
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.60% 0.87% 0.93%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.23% 6.88% 7.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 190 158 254
10th Percentile £205 £220 £172
25th Percentile £336 £334 £254
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £453 £413
Median % change year-on-year -0.55% +9.70% -2.94%
75th Percentile £525 £550 £533
90th Percentile £600 £591 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £400
% change year-on-year - +12.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 21 20 34
10th Percentile £12.98 - £12.75
25th Percentile £36.25 £14.20 £15.88
Median hourly rate £52.43 £24.66 £19.35
Median % change year-on-year +112.59% +27.47% -61.31%
75th Percentile £60.00 £54.31 £23.80
90th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £61.18
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £15.33 £17.69
% change year-on-year +241.98% -13.34% -11.55%

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 4,738 3,621 5,426
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.70% 12.64% 12.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,909 2,244 3,253
10th Percentile £263 £213 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £484 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £463 £483
% change year-on-year +2.70% -4.15% +1.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 280 156 414
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.14 £17.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £28.44 £40.50 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -29.78% +1.25% +116.22%
75th Percentile £65.00 £59.09 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £30.32 £45.88
% change year-on-year +7.19% -33.91% +154.89%

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 28 May 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 28 May 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 28 May 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 -70 272 £450 -5.26% 265
UK excluding London -53 192 £450 - 246
London -71 76 £438 -5.41% 71
Work from Home -42 73 £450 -2.70% 69
North of England -45 64 £450 +38.46% 47
South East -24 58 £513 +2.50% 96
North West -14 51 £515 +58.46% 28
Midlands -48 29 £380 +16.48% 27
West Midlands -46 28 £403 +87.21% 14
East of England -45 21 £325 -35.96% 28
South West -24 14 £516 +13.04% 35
Yorkshire -58 8 £450 +104.55% 14
Scotland -11 5 £381 -4.57% 12
North East -24 5 £420 -23.64% 8
Northern Ireland - 2 £245 - 2
East Midlands -27 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 5 (1.69%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.68%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.34%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (5.42%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (5.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 13 (4.41%) MS Visio
4 9 (3.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.34%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.68%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 44 (14.92%) Azure
2 32 (10.85%) AWS
3 19 (6.44%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (3.05%) Entra ID
5 6 (2.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 5 (1.69%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 5 (1.69%) GCP
7 4 (1.36%) Route 53
7 4 (1.36%) SaaS
8 3 (1.02%) GitHub
8 3 (1.02%) Google Workspace
9 2 (0.68%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (0.68%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.68%) PaaS
9 2 (0.68%) Slack
10 1 (0.34%) Amazon EC2
10 1 (0.34%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.34%) OCI
10 1 (0.34%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 138 (46.78%) Firewall
2 102 (34.58%) LAN
3 98 (33.22%) WAN
4 69 (23.39%) Network Security
5 66 (22.37%) Wi-Fi
6 57 (19.32%) VPN
7 54 (18.31%) DNS
8 46 (15.59%) VLAN
9 45 (15.25%) DHCP
10 42 (14.24%) BGP
11 41 (13.90%) Cisco ISE
12 40 (13.56%) OSPF
13 39 (13.22%) SD-WAN
14 38 (12.88%) WLAN
15 29 (9.83%) Cisco Wireless
16 27 (9.15%) IPsec
17 24 (8.14%) Structured Cabling
18 22 (7.46%) Cisco Nexus
19 21 (7.12%) TCP/IP
20 19 (6.44%) SAN
Development Applications
1 11 (3.73%) Burp Suite
2 10 (3.39%) Metasploit
3 9 (3.05%) Rational DOORS
4 6 (2.03%) JIRA
5 2 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.34%) MSI
General
1 87 (29.49%) Social Skills
2 16 (5.42%) Analytical Skills
2 16 (5.42%) Documentation Skills
3 12 (4.07%) Finance
3 12 (4.07%) Public Sector
4 11 (3.73%) Aerospace
5 9 (3.05%) Retail
6 5 (1.69%) Banking
6 5 (1.69%) Legal
6 5 (1.69%) Manufacturing
6 5 (1.69%) Telecoms
7 4 (1.36%) Law
8 3 (1.02%) Billing
8 3 (1.02%) Investment Banking
9 2 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.34%) German Language
10 1 (0.34%) Greek Language
10 1 (0.34%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.34%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.34%) Military
Job Titles
1 131 (44.41%) Network Engineer
2 32 (10.85%) Architect
3 22 (7.46%) Cisco Engineer
4 20 (6.78%) Senior
5 18 (6.10%) Software Engineer
5 18 (6.10%) Wireless Engineer
6 17 (5.76%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 17 (5.76%) Network Architect
6 17 (5.76%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 15 (5.08%) Wireless Network Engineer
8 13 (4.41%) Embedded Engineer
8 13 (4.41%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 12 (4.07%) Senior Network Engineer
10 11 (3.73%) IT Support
10 11 (3.73%) Penetration Tester
10 11 (3.73%) Technical Architect
10 11 (3.73%) Tester
11 10 (3.39%) Security Engineer
12 9 (3.05%) Analyst
12 9 (3.05%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 52 (17.63%) 802.1X
2 12 (4.07%) SAML
3 9 (3.05%) LDAP
4 6 (2.03%) X-Windows
4 6 (2.03%) Yocto
5 2 (0.68%) A2A Protocol
5 2 (0.68%) Model Context Protocol
6 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.34%) Qt
6 1 (0.34%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 44 (14.92%) Data Centre
2 15 (5.08%) Onboarding
3 13 (4.41%) IoT
4 12 (4.07%) Embedded Systems
4 12 (4.07%) Security Posture
5 9 (3.05%) FPGA
5 9 (3.05%) PCIe
6 8 (2.71%) Driving Licence
6 8 (2.71%) Self-Motivation
7 7 (2.37%) PKI
8 6 (2.03%) Device Driver
8 6 (2.03%) Enterprise Software
8 6 (2.03%) iPad
8 6 (2.03%) MicroBlaze
8 6 (2.03%) RISC-V
9 5 (1.69%) BYOD
9 5 (1.69%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.69%) Virtual Team
10 4 (1.36%) Hybrid Cloud
10 4 (1.36%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 40 (13.56%) Windows
2 18 (6.10%) Linux
2 18 (6.10%) Windows 10
3 9 (3.05%) FreeRTOS
3 9 (3.05%) Unix
4 7 (2.37%) Embedded Linux
5 6 (2.03%) Mac OS
5 6 (2.03%) Mac OS X
5 6 (2.03%) Windows Server
6 5 (1.69%) Apple iOS
7 4 (1.36%) Android
7 4 (1.36%) CatOS
8 3 (1.02%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.34%) Kali Linux
9 1 (0.34%) VMS
9 1 (0.34%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (12.20%) Network Segmentation
2 33 (11.19%) Problem-Solving
3 31 (10.51%) ITSM
4 30 (10.17%) Technical Leadership
5 26 (8.81%) Zero Trust
6 25 (8.47%) High Availability
7 24 (8.14%) Cybersecurity
8 21 (7.12%) Migration
9 20 (6.78%) ITIL
10 19 (6.44%) Software Engineering
11 18 (6.10%) Continuous Improvement
11 18 (6.10%) Regulatory Compliance
12 17 (5.76%) Project Delivery
12 17 (5.76%) Root Cause Analysis
13 16 (5.42%) Agile
13 16 (5.42%) Change Management
13 16 (5.42%) User Experience
14 15 (5.08%) Digital Signal Processing
14 15 (5.08%) Network Monitoring
14 15 (5.08%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 17 (5.76%) C
2 12 (4.07%) Python
3 7 (2.37%) C++
4 4 (1.36%) Embedded C
5 3 (1.02%) Lisp
6 1 (0.34%) Bash
6 1 (0.34%) Korn
6 1 (0.34%) MATLAB
6 1 (0.34%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 87 (29.49%) Security Cleared
2 81 (27.46%) Cisco Certification
3 77 (26.10%) SC Cleared
4 72 (24.41%) CCNP
5 49 (16.61%) CCNA
6 24 (8.14%) Degree
7 23 (7.80%) Network+ Certification
8 18 (6.10%) CCIE
9 17 (5.76%) Server+ Certification
10 10 (3.39%) CHECK Team Member
11 9 (3.05%) CREST Certified
11 9 (3.05%) Cyber Scheme
12 8 (2.71%) Postgraduate
13 6 (2.03%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (1.69%) CWNA
14 5 (1.69%) DV Cleared
15 4 (1.36%) CWDP
15 4 (1.36%) CWNE
15 4 (1.36%) CWSP
15 4 (1.36%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 14 (4.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 14 (4.75%) QA
2 11 (3.73%) GDPR
3 10 (3.39%) PCI DSS
4 8 (2.71%) PMO
5 7 (2.37%) SLA
6 6 (2.03%) NIST
7 3 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (1.02%) NCSC
8 1 (0.34%) DICOM
8 1 (0.34%) HL7
8 1 (0.34%) JTAG
System Software
1 36 (12.20%) Active Directory
2 14 (4.75%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (3.73%) VMware NSX
4 10 (3.39%) Firmware
5 6 (2.03%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (1.02%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.68%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.34%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 19 (6.44%) Ansible
2 14 (4.75%) FortiGate
3 12 (4.07%) Nmap
4 10 (3.39%) Microsoft Intune
4 10 (3.39%) Single Sign-On
5 7 (2.37%) Prometheus
6 6 (2.03%) Grafana
6 6 (2.03%) SCCM
7 5 (1.69%) Salt
7 5 (1.69%) Terraform
8 4 (1.36%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (0.68%) CASB
10 1 (0.34%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.34%) Jamf Pro
10 1 (0.34%) Nagios
10 1 (0.34%) Nessus
Vendors
1 166 (56.27%) Cisco
2 66 (22.37%) Aruba
2 66 (22.37%) Palo Alto
3 41 (13.90%) ServiceNow
4 36 (12.20%) Microsoft
5 35 (11.86%) F5
6 34 (11.53%) CheckPoint
7 31 (10.51%) Meraki
8 25 (8.47%) Fortinet
9 22 (7.46%) Ekahau
10 19 (6.44%) Juniper
11 17 (5.76%) ForeScout
11 17 (5.76%) VMware
12 10 (3.39%) Splunk
13 9 (3.05%) Apple
13 9 (3.05%) Arista
13 9 (3.05%) SolarWinds
14 7 (2.37%) HP
15 6 (2.03%) BigPanda
16 5 (1.69%) Infoblox