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 31 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 346 268 222
Rank change year-on-year -78 -46 +25
Contract jobs citing Wireless 287 269 478
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.64% 0.93% 1.08%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.46% 7.11% 8.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 185 192 296
10th Percentile £170 £213 £168
25th Percentile £204 £363 £283
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £450 £423
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% +6.51% -0.59%
75th Percentile £520 £550 £533
90th Percentile £588 £588 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £401 £438 £420
% change year-on-year -8.34% +4.17% -1.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 15 40
10th Percentile £13.25 - £12.75
25th Percentile £15.50 £14.20 £16.25
Median hourly rate £17.79 £24.66 £18.93
Median % change year-on-year -27.87% +30.27% -62.14%
75th Percentile £25.15 £63.13 £23.06
90th Percentile £42.25 £65.00 £65.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.68 £15.33 £17.69
% change year-on-year +8.82% -13.34% -46.39%

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 4,441 3,783 5,918
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.97% 13.01% 13.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,843 2,352 3,561
10th Percentile £223 £213 £205
25th Percentile £380 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £489 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.30% +2.89% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £470 £475
% change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 194 147 407
10th Percentile £15.52 £14.99 £13.94
25th Percentile £19.34 £21.46 £17.72
Median hourly rate £41.24 £35.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +17.83% +7.69% +71.05%
75th Percentile £69.49 £63.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £77.20 £75.00 £67.95
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.10 £31.79 £43.00
% change year-on-year +41.88% -26.07% +132.43%

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 31 March 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 31 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Wireless in the UK

Wireless
Top 17 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 31 March 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 -84 262 £380 -16.30% 255
UK excluding London -82 190 £401 -8.34% 221
London -72 72 £213 -53.19% 59
Work from Home -33 66 £450 -2.76% 73
South East -24 62 £475 +18.75% 78
North of England -61 49 £401 -5.65% 54
Midlands -29 43 £340 +61.90% 32
North West -29 37 £422 -0.69% 33
West Midlands -24 36 £369 +79.88% 18
East of England -57 18 £325 -32.64% 40
South West -37 16 £513 +24.24% 21
North East -4 9 £188 -65.91% 8
East Midlands -32 7 £158 -47.50% 14
Scotland -1 5 £425 +4.62% 5
Yorkshire -58 3 £440 +4.76% 15
Wales -22 2 £400 -
Northern Ireland - 1 £385 - 2

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 (3.48%) SharePoint
2 3 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 42 (14.63%) Microsoft Office
2 20 (6.97%) Microsoft Excel
3 15 (5.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 15 (5.23%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.44%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 42 (14.63%) Azure
1 42 (14.63%) Microsoft 365
2 40 (13.94%) AWS
3 10 (3.48%) GCP
4 9 (3.14%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 9 (3.14%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 8 (2.79%) SaaS
6 5 (1.74%) Entra ID
6 5 (1.74%) Sauce Labs
7 4 (1.39%) Route 53
8 3 (1.05%) AWS Direct Connect
8 3 (1.05%) Google Workspace
8 3 (1.05%) PaaS
9 2 (0.70%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.70%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (0.70%) IaaS
9 2 (0.70%) Slack
10 1 (0.35%) Cloudflare
10 1 (0.35%) GitHub
10 1 (0.35%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 122 (42.51%) Firewall
2 80 (27.87%) WAN
3 77 (26.83%) LAN
4 55 (19.16%) VPN
5 49 (17.07%) Network Security
6 48 (16.72%) BGP
7 44 (15.33%) Wi-Fi
8 43 (14.98%) OSPF
9 39 (13.59%) VLAN
10 37 (12.89%) DNS
11 35 (12.20%) Cisco ISE
11 35 (12.20%) SD-WAN
12 33 (11.50%) DHCP
13 28 (9.76%) Cisco Wireless
14 27 (9.41%) WLAN
15 25 (8.71%) Cisco ASA
15 25 (8.71%) IPsec
16 20 (6.97%) MPLS
16 20 (6.97%) TCP/IP
17 18 (6.27%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.74%) MySQL
1 5 (1.74%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 16 (5.57%) Burp Suite
2 14 (4.88%) Metasploit
3 5 (1.74%) Android Studio
3 5 (1.74%) Browser DevTools
3 5 (1.74%) Eclipse
3 5 (1.74%) JIRA
3 5 (1.74%) Xcode
4 1 (0.35%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 80 (27.87%) Social Skills
2 33 (11.50%) Public Sector
3 25 (8.71%) Finance
3 25 (8.71%) Telecoms
4 19 (6.62%) Manufacturing
5 18 (6.27%) Analytical Skills
6 16 (5.57%) Marketing
7 15 (5.23%) Electronics
8 14 (4.88%) Banking
9 11 (3.83%) Retail
10 8 (2.79%) Documentation Skills
11 5 (1.74%) Investment Banking
11 5 (1.74%) Legal
11 5 (1.74%) Local Government
12 4 (1.39%) Influencing Skills
12 4 (1.39%) Pharmaceutical
13 3 (1.05%) Billing
14 2 (0.70%) Aerospace
14 2 (0.70%) Military
15 1 (0.35%) Law
Job Titles
1 93 (32.40%) Network Engineer
2 30 (10.45%) IT Support
3 24 (8.36%) Architect
4 23 (8.01%) Desktop Support
5 19 (6.62%) Penetration Tester
5 19 (6.62%) Tester
6 18 (6.27%) 2nd Line Support
6 18 (6.27%) Senior
6 18 (6.27%) Support Engineer
7 17 (5.92%) Cisco Engineer
8 16 (5.57%) Wireless Engineer
9 15 (5.23%) 2nd Line Desktop Support
9 15 (5.23%) SC Cleared Desktop Support
10 14 (4.88%) Network Architect
11 13 (4.53%) Cisco Network Engineer
12 12 (4.18%) Analyst
12 12 (4.18%) Senior Network Engineer
12 12 (4.18%) Wireless Network Engineer
13 10 (3.48%) Security Engineer
14 9 (3.14%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (14.63%) 802.1X
2 9 (3.14%) SAML
3 7 (2.44%) LDAP
4 6 (2.09%) X-Windows
5 5 (1.74%) Ajax
5 5 (1.74%) AngularJS
5 5 (1.74%) CSS
5 5 (1.74%) GraphQL
5 5 (1.74%) React
6 3 (1.05%) Yocto
7 2 (0.70%) A2A Protocol
7 2 (0.70%) Model Context Protocol
8 1 (0.35%) Qt
8 1 (0.35%) Software Packaging
Miscellaneous
1 59 (20.56%) Data Centre
2 21 (7.32%) IoT
3 15 (5.23%) Security Posture
4 11 (3.83%) Onboarding
5 10 (3.48%) Driving Licence
6 6 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
6 6 (2.09%) NHS
6 6 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (1.74%) BYOD
7 5 (1.74%) Device Driver
7 5 (1.74%) Hybrid Cloud
7 5 (1.74%) Management Information System
7 5 (1.74%) Mobile App
7 5 (1.74%) Operational Technology
7 5 (1.74%) Public Cloud
8 4 (1.39%) Embedded Systems
8 4 (1.39%) Video Conferencing
8 4 (1.39%) Virtual Team
9 3 (1.05%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (1.05%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 52 (18.12%) Windows
2 33 (11.50%) Android
3 29 (10.10%) Mac OS
4 23 (8.01%) Linux
5 22 (7.67%) Windows 10
6 12 (4.18%) Unix
6 12 (4.18%) Windows Server
7 6 (2.09%) Embedded Linux
7 6 (2.09%) Mac OS X
8 4 (1.39%) CatOS
9 3 (1.05%) Apple iOS
9 3 (1.05%) Windows 7
10 2 (0.70%) Debian
10 2 (0.70%) Kali Linux
10 2 (0.70%) VMS
11 1 (0.35%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (12.20%) Cybersecurity
2 27 (9.41%) Network Segmentation
2 27 (9.41%) Problem-Solving
3 24 (8.36%) ITSM
4 22 (7.67%) Regulatory Compliance
4 22 (7.67%) Technical Leadership
4 22 (7.67%) Zero Trust
5 21 (7.32%) Migration
6 20 (6.97%) Cloud Security
6 20 (6.97%) ITIL
7 19 (6.62%) Penetration Testing
8 18 (6.27%) Customer Service
8 18 (6.27%) Network Monitoring
9 17 (5.92%) Change Management
9 17 (5.92%) Network Design
9 17 (5.92%) Root Cause Analysis
10 16 (5.57%) Asset Management
10 16 (5.57%) Incident Management
10 16 (5.57%) User Experience
11 15 (5.23%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 21 (7.32%) Python
2 7 (2.44%) C++
2 7 (2.44%) Perl
3 5 (1.74%) C
3 5 (1.74%) Java
3 5 (1.74%) JavaScript
3 5 (1.74%) Lisp
4 1 (0.35%) Bash
4 1 (0.35%) Embedded C
4 1 (0.35%) Embedded C++
4 1 (0.35%) Korn
4 1 (0.35%) Ruby
4 1 (0.35%) SQL
Qualifications
1 92 (32.06%) Security Cleared
2 87 (30.31%) SC Cleared
3 63 (21.95%) Cisco Certification
4 59 (20.56%) CCNP
5 34 (11.85%) CCNA
6 29 (10.10%) Degree
7 15 (5.23%) CCIE
8 14 (4.88%) CHECK Team Member
9 12 (4.18%) CREST Certified
9 12 (4.18%) Cyber Scheme
10 11 (3.83%) Postgraduate
11 10 (3.48%) DV Cleared
12 9 (3.14%) Network+ Certification
13 7 (2.44%) CISSP
13 7 (2.44%) Computer Science Degree
13 7 (2.44%) Server+ Certification
14 6 (2.09%) JNCIA
14 6 (2.09%) JNCIP
14 6 (2.09%) JNCIS
15 5 (1.74%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (8.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 18 (6.27%) GDPR
2 18 (6.27%) PCI DSS
3 13 (4.53%) QA
4 11 (3.83%) PMO
5 7 (2.44%) NIST
6 6 (2.09%) SLA
7 3 (1.05%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (1.05%) NCSC
8 2 (0.70%) GxP
9 1 (0.35%) DICOM
9 1 (0.35%) HL7
9 1 (0.35%) JTAG
System Software
1 30 (10.45%) Active Directory
2 17 (5.92%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (4.53%) VMware NSX
4 11 (3.83%) Firmware
5 5 (1.74%) Embedded Firmware
6 4 (1.39%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.35%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 19 (6.62%) Ansible
2 17 (5.92%) Nmap
3 13 (4.53%) FortiGate
4 9 (3.14%) SCCM
5 8 (2.79%) Single Sign-On
5 8 (2.79%) Terraform
6 7 (2.44%) Prometheus
7 6 (2.09%) Grafana
7 6 (2.09%) Microsoft Intune
8 5 (1.74%) Salt
9 4 (1.39%) Cisco Prime
10 3 (1.05%) Nessus
11 1 (0.35%) CASB
11 1 (0.35%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.35%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 153 (53.31%) Cisco
2 60 (20.91%) Palo Alto
3 48 (16.72%) Aruba
4 42 (14.63%) ServiceNow
5 38 (13.24%) Microsoft
6 33 (11.50%) F5
7 32 (11.15%) CheckPoint
7 32 (11.15%) Meraki
8 31 (10.80%) Apple
9 30 (10.45%) HP
10 27 (9.41%) Dell
11 24 (8.36%) Ekahau
12 23 (8.01%) Fortinet
12 23 (8.01%) Juniper
13 19 (6.62%) VMware
14 15 (5.23%) SAP
14 15 (5.23%) Splunk
15 13 (4.53%) SolarWinds
16 12 (4.18%) Remedy
17 11 (3.83%) ForeScout