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

6 months to
11 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 361 292 269
Rank change year-on-year -69 -23 -53
Contract jobs citing Wireless 303 255 385
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.61% 0.87% 0.88%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.34% 6.95% 7.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 198 156 241
10th Percentile £228 £220 £169
25th Percentile £366 £325 £252
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £400
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
75th Percentile £529 £550 £525
90th Percentile £597 £588 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £453 £400
% change year-on-year -0.55% +13.13% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 23 24 35
10th Percentile £12.98 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £44.94 £14.89 £16.00
Median hourly rate £52.43 £24.83 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +111.14% +18.24% -58.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £41.13 £23.80
90th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £59.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £24.66 £17.69
% change year-on-year +112.59% +39.40% -16.28%

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 4,781 3,671 5,438
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.58% 12.50% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,930 2,271 3,228
10th Percentile £263 £220 £206
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £485 £498
Median % change year-on-year +3.09% -2.51% -2.93%
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £476 £469 £483
% change year-on-year +1.39% -2.95% +1.74%
Number of hourly rates quoted 284 165 420
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £21.14 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £27.50 £44.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -37.50% +10.00% +113.73%
75th Percentile £65.00 £60.13 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.18 £80.61 £70.72
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £31.79 £47.50
% change year-on-year +2.23% -33.07% +156.76%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -62 276 £450 -5.26% 241
UK excluding London -59 196 £450 -0.55% 226
London -77 79 £438 -4.11% 55
Work from Home -37 75 £450 -2.70% 73
North of England -48 64 £474 +45.77% 48
South East -24 58 £496 -0.75% 92
North West -18 51 £515 +58.46% 33
Midlands -56 30 £425 +22.74% 26
West Midlands -49 29 £425 +66.67% 13
East of England -42 21 £325 -37.80% 34
South West -23 13 £516 +25.03% 17
Scotland -17 9 £313 -21.78% 7
Yorkshire -52 8 £450 +104.55% 11
North East -24 5 £420 -23.64% 5
Northern Ireland - 2 £245 - 2
East Midlands -28 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 9 (2.97%) SharePoint
2 2 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.33%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 16 (5.28%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (4.62%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (3.96%) MS Visio
4 6 (1.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.33%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 48 (15.84%) Azure
2 31 (10.23%) AWS
3 21 (6.93%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (3.96%) Entra ID
5 8 (2.64%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 5 (1.65%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 5 (1.65%) GCP
6 5 (1.65%) GitHub
7 4 (1.32%) Route 53
7 4 (1.32%) SaaS
8 3 (0.99%) Google Workspace
9 2 (0.66%) Azure Sentinel
9 2 (0.66%) Cloud Computing
9 2 (0.66%) OneDrive
9 2 (0.66%) PaaS
9 2 (0.66%) Slack
10 1 (0.33%) Amazon EC2
10 1 (0.33%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.33%) IaaS
10 1 (0.33%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 135 (44.55%) Firewall
2 100 (33.00%) LAN
3 96 (31.68%) WAN
4 73 (24.09%) Network Security
5 70 (23.10%) Wi-Fi
6 58 (19.14%) VPN
7 52 (17.16%) DNS
8 46 (15.18%) VLAN
9 45 (14.85%) DHCP
10 44 (14.52%) BGP
11 41 (13.53%) SD-WAN
12 40 (13.20%) OSPF
13 39 (12.87%) Cisco ISE
14 38 (12.54%) WLAN
15 30 (9.90%) Cisco Wireless
16 26 (8.58%) Structured Cabling
17 24 (7.92%) IPsec
17 24 (7.92%) TCP/IP
18 21 (6.93%) Cisco IOS
19 20 (6.60%) Cisco Nexus
Development Applications
1 9 (2.97%) Rational DOORS
2 8 (2.64%) Burp Suite
3 7 (2.31%) Metasploit
4 6 (1.98%) JIRA
5 2 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
6 1 (0.33%) MSI
General
1 89 (29.37%) Social Skills
2 16 (5.28%) Documentation Skills
3 15 (4.95%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (4.62%) Aerospace
5 13 (4.29%) Finance
6 11 (3.63%) Public Sector
7 9 (2.97%) Retail
8 6 (1.98%) Legal
9 4 (1.32%) Law
9 4 (1.32%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.32%) Telecoms
10 3 (0.99%) Banking
10 3 (0.99%) Billing
10 3 (0.99%) Investment Banking
11 2 (0.66%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.33%) German Language
12 1 (0.33%) Greek Language
12 1 (0.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 1 (0.33%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.33%) Polish Language
Job Titles
1 138 (45.54%) Network Engineer
2 33 (10.89%) Architect
3 22 (7.26%) Cisco Engineer
4 21 (6.93%) Senior
4 21 (6.93%) Software Engineer
5 20 (6.60%) Wireless Engineer
6 18 (5.94%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 17 (5.61%) Network Architect
7 17 (5.61%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 17 (5.61%) Wireless Network Engineer
8 16 (5.28%) Embedded Engineer
8 16 (5.28%) Embedded Software Engineer
9 13 (4.29%) Senior Network Engineer
10 11 (3.63%) Technical Architect
11 10 (3.30%) Desktop Support
11 10 (3.30%) Security Engineer
11 10 (3.30%) Support Engineer
12 9 (2.97%) Analyst
12 9 (2.97%) IT Support
12 9 (2.97%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 55 (18.15%) 802.1X
2 11 (3.63%) SAML
3 6 (1.98%) LDAP
3 6 (1.98%) X-Windows
3 6 (1.98%) Yocto
4 5 (1.65%) Software Packaging
5 2 (0.66%) A2A Protocol
5 2 (0.66%) Model Context Protocol
6 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (0.33%) Qt
6 1 (0.33%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 47 (15.51%) Data Centre
2 13 (4.29%) Onboarding
3 12 (3.96%) Embedded Systems
3 12 (3.96%) IoT
4 11 (3.63%) Security Posture
5 9 (2.97%) FPGA
5 9 (2.97%) PCIe
5 9 (2.97%) Self-Motivation
6 7 (2.31%) PKI
7 6 (1.98%) Device Driver
7 6 (1.98%) Driving Licence
7 6 (1.98%) Enterprise Software
7 6 (1.98%) iPad
7 6 (1.98%) MicroBlaze
7 6 (1.98%) RISC-V
8 5 (1.65%) BYOD
8 5 (1.65%) Public Cloud
8 5 (1.65%) Smartphone
8 5 (1.65%) Virtual Team
9 4 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 38 (12.54%) Windows
2 17 (5.61%) Linux
3 14 (4.62%) Windows 10
4 9 (2.97%) Apple iOS
4 9 (2.97%) FreeRTOS
4 9 (2.97%) Unix
5 7 (2.31%) Embedded Linux
6 6 (1.98%) Android
6 6 (1.98%) Mac OS X
6 6 (1.98%) Windows 7
7 5 (1.65%) Windows Server
8 4 (1.32%) Windows XP
9 3 (0.99%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.66%) CatOS
11 1 (0.33%) Kali Linux
11 1 (0.33%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (12.21%) Network Segmentation
2 32 (10.56%) Problem-Solving
3 30 (9.90%) Technical Leadership
4 29 (9.57%) ITSM
5 25 (8.25%) High Availability
5 25 (8.25%) Migration
6 24 (7.92%) Zero Trust
7 23 (7.59%) ITIL
8 22 (7.26%) Software Engineering
9 21 (6.93%) Cybersecurity
10 20 (6.60%) Change Management
10 20 (6.60%) Project Delivery
11 19 (6.27%) Continuous Improvement
12 18 (5.94%) User Experience
13 17 (5.61%) Agile
13 17 (5.61%) Incident Management
13 17 (5.61%) Root Cause Analysis
14 16 (5.28%) Validation
15 15 (4.95%) Digital Signal Processing
15 15 (4.95%) Signal Processing
Programming Languages
1 17 (5.61%) C
2 13 (4.29%) Python
3 7 (2.31%) C++
4 4 (1.32%) Embedded C
5 3 (0.99%) Lisp
6 2 (0.66%) PowerShell
7 1 (0.33%) Korn
7 1 (0.33%) MATLAB
7 1 (0.33%) Perl
Qualifications
1 84 (27.72%) Cisco Certification
1 84 (27.72%) Security Cleared
2 75 (24.75%) CCNP
3 73 (24.09%) SC Cleared
4 50 (16.50%) CCNA
5 25 (8.25%) Degree
6 23 (7.59%) Network+ Certification
7 20 (6.60%) CCIE
8 17 (5.61%) Server+ Certification
9 7 (2.31%) CHECK Team Member
9 7 (2.31%) CREST Certified
9 7 (2.31%) Cyber Scheme
10 6 (1.98%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.98%) Postgraduate
11 5 (1.65%) CWNA
12 4 (1.32%) CCIE Wireless
12 4 (1.32%) CWDP
12 4 (1.32%) CWNE
12 4 (1.32%) CWSP
12 4 (1.32%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.96%) QA
2 10 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 10 (3.30%) SLA
3 9 (2.97%) GDPR
4 8 (2.64%) PCI DSS
5 6 (1.98%) PMO
6 5 (1.65%) NIST
7 3 (0.99%) Cyber Essentials
7 3 (0.99%) NCSC
8 1 (0.33%) DICOM
8 1 (0.33%) HL7
System Software
1 35 (11.55%) Active Directory
2 11 (3.63%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (2.97%) Firmware
4 8 (2.64%) VMware NSX
5 6 (1.98%) Embedded Firmware
6 3 (0.99%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.66%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.33%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 23 (7.59%) Ansible
2 17 (5.61%) FortiGate
3 14 (4.62%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (2.64%) Nmap
5 7 (2.31%) Prometheus
5 7 (2.31%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.98%) Grafana
7 5 (1.65%) Salt
7 5 (1.65%) Terraform
8 4 (1.32%) Cisco Prime
8 4 (1.32%) Jamf Pro
8 4 (1.32%) SCCM
9 2 (0.66%) CASB
10 1 (0.33%) Cisco CUCM
10 1 (0.33%) Nagios
10 1 (0.33%) Nessus
Vendors
1 166 (54.79%) Cisco
2 67 (22.11%) Aruba
3 64 (21.12%) Palo Alto
4 40 (13.20%) ServiceNow
5 33 (10.89%) F5
5 33 (10.89%) Meraki
5 33 (10.89%) Microsoft
6 31 (10.23%) CheckPoint
7 27 (8.91%) Fortinet
8 20 (6.60%) Ekahau
9 17 (5.61%) ForeScout
9 17 (5.61%) Juniper
10 14 (4.62%) VMware
11 11 (3.63%) Splunk
12 10 (3.30%) Apple
12 10 (3.30%) Arista
12 10 (3.30%) SolarWinds
13 6 (1.98%) BigPanda
14 5 (1.65%) Infoblox
14 5 (1.65%) Zscaler