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 17 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 334 315 281
Rank change year-on-year -19 -34 -84
Contract jobs citing Wireless 400 260 322
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.73% 0.79% 0.84%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.83% 6.83% 7.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 239 150 185
10th Percentile £250 £204 £217
25th Percentile £366 £313 £267
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £425 £425
Median % change year-on-year +5.88% - -
75th Percentile £525 £500 £550
90th Percentile £588 £588 £633
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £380 £420
% change year-on-year +18.42% -9.52% +1.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 37 42 17
10th Percentile £14.19 £17.86 £16.88
25th Percentile £31.25 £20.13 £17.69
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% +5.67% -30.45%
75th Percentile £60.00 £34.00 £51.91
90th Percentile £70.00 £82.00 £52.35
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £30.00 £48.56
% change year-on-year +74.75% -38.22% +115.82%

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 5,111 3,807 4,537
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.35% 11.56% 11.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,962 2,354 2,642
10th Percentile £232 £225 £225
25th Percentile £390 £363 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £476 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.04% -4.80% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £677 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £452 £500
% change year-on-year +5.20% -9.70% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 419 198 255
10th Percentile £14.74 £15.50 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £32.50 £43.00 £50.50
Median % change year-on-year -24.42% -14.85% -10.60%
75th Percentile £68.75 £64.69 £65.00
90th Percentile £88.55 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.69 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -37.20% -25.89% -0.26%

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 17 September 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 17 September 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 17 September 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 -29 355 £450 +10.70% 681
UK excluding London -26 268 £450 +18.42% 509
North of England -9 106 £495 +49.92% 96
London -72 96 £450 +5.88% 204
Work from Home -26 85 £450 -2.70% 256
North West +23 80 £525 +61.54% 71
South East -61 56 £403 +93.98% 189
Midlands -50 39 £425 +11.84% 60
East of England -8 37 £377 -15.34% 78
West Midlands -55 37 £425 +11.84% 36
Yorkshire -45 20 £450 - 17
Scotland -19 15 £313 -21.68% 27
South West -36 12 £375 -25.00% 52
North East -37 6 £420 -23.64% 10
Wales - 5 £363 - 6
Northern Ireland +3 3 £425 -10.53% 6
East Midlands -6 2 £235 -46.29% 24

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 15 (3.75%) SharePoint
2 8 (2.00%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.50%) Confluence
4 1 (0.25%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 10 (2.50%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (2.00%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (1.50%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (1.50%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.75%) Acrobat
5 1 (0.25%) Simulink
5 1 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 62 (15.50%) Azure
2 48 (12.00%) Microsoft 365
3 29 (7.25%) Entra ID
4 22 (5.50%) AWS
5 12 (3.00%) GitHub
6 8 (2.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 6 (1.50%) OneDrive
8 4 (1.00%) GCP
8 4 (1.00%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (0.75%) Smartsheet
10 2 (0.50%) SaaS
11 1 (0.25%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.25%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 1 (0.25%) Amazon S3
11 1 (0.25%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.25%) IaaS
11 1 (0.25%) IBM Watson
11 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Purview
11 1 (0.25%) OCI
11 1 (0.25%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 175 (43.75%) Firewall
2 137 (34.25%) WAN
3 118 (29.50%) LAN
4 114 (28.50%) VPN
5 107 (26.75%) Network Security
6 95 (23.75%) Wi-Fi
7 82 (20.50%) DNS
8 69 (17.25%) VLAN
9 67 (16.75%) BGP
10 61 (15.25%) DHCP
11 53 (13.25%) OSPF
11 53 (13.25%) SD-WAN
12 48 (12.00%) Cisco ISE
13 46 (11.50%) TCP/IP
14 45 (11.25%) WLAN
15 31 (7.75%) Cisco Nexus
15 31 (7.75%) IPsec
16 30 (7.50%) Cisco Wireless
16 30 (7.50%) Structured Cabling
17 27 (6.75%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (0.75%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 13 (3.25%) JIRA
2 12 (3.00%) Git
3 9 (2.25%) Rational DOORS
4 3 (0.75%) GitLab
4 3 (0.75%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.25%) MSI
General
1 112 (28.00%) Social Skills
2 33 (8.25%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (7.50%) Finance
4 20 (5.00%) Public Sector
5 19 (4.75%) Documentation Skills
6 18 (4.50%) Aerospace
7 17 (4.25%) Telecoms
8 16 (4.00%) Legal
9 14 (3.50%) Retail
10 9 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 8 (2.00%) Banking
12 7 (1.75%) Law
13 5 (1.25%) Manufacturing
13 5 (1.25%) Police
14 4 (1.00%) Investment Banking
14 4 (1.00%) Multimedia
15 3 (0.75%) Front Office
15 3 (0.75%) Influencing Skills
15 3 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
15 3 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 215 (53.75%) Network Engineer
2 43 (10.75%) Senior
3 30 (7.50%) Software Engineer
4 29 (7.25%) Cisco Engineer
4 29 (7.25%) Senior Network Engineer
5 28 (7.00%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 26 (6.50%) Embedded Engineer
6 26 (6.50%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 25 (6.25%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 22 (5.50%) Architect
9 21 (5.25%) Wireless Engineer
10 19 (4.75%) Analyst
10 19 (4.75%) Wireless Network Engineer
11 16 (4.00%) Security Engineer
12 15 (3.75%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 14 (3.50%) Support Engineer
14 13 (3.25%) IT Support
15 12 (3.00%) Implementation Engineer
15 12 (3.00%) Network Implementation Engineer
15 12 (3.00%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (10.75%) 802.1X
2 12 (3.00%) Terraform
3 11 (2.75%) Yocto
4 10 (2.50%) JSON
4 10 (2.50%) REST
5 7 (1.75%) Software Packaging
6 6 (1.50%) Django
7 5 (1.25%) SAML
8 4 (1.00%) Flask
9 3 (0.75%) XML
9 3 (0.75%) YAML
10 2 (0.50%) LDAP
11 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Graph
11 1 (0.25%) Middleware
11 1 (0.25%) ModSecurity
11 1 (0.25%) OpenEmbedded
Miscellaneous
1 63 (15.75%) Data Centre
2 23 (5.75%) Onboarding
3 18 (4.50%) Driving Licence
4 16 (4.00%) Embedded Systems
5 15 (3.75%) PKI
6 14 (3.50%) Digital Signage
7 13 (3.25%) Self-Motivation
8 11 (2.75%) Device Driver
9 10 (2.50%) MicroBlaze
9 10 (2.50%) RISC-V
10 9 (2.25%) FPGA
10 9 (2.25%) Hybrid Cloud
10 9 (2.25%) Management Information System
10 9 (2.25%) PCIe
11 7 (1.75%) Smartphone
12 6 (1.50%) IoT
12 6 (1.50%) Operational Technology
12 6 (1.50%) Video Conferencing
13 5 (1.25%) CCTV
13 5 (1.25%) iPad
Operating Systems
1 55 (13.75%) Windows
2 22 (5.50%) Linux
3 19 (4.75%) Windows Server
4 11 (2.75%) Embedded Linux
4 11 (2.75%) Mac OS
4 11 (2.75%) Windows 10
5 9 (2.25%) FreeRTOS
6 8 (2.00%) Apple iOS
7 5 (1.25%) Android
8 3 (0.75%) VMS
8 3 (0.75%) Windows 7
8 3 (0.75%) Windows XP
9 2 (0.50%) Unix
10 1 (0.25%) OpenWrt
Processes & Methodologies
1 63 (15.75%) Problem-Solving
2 43 (10.75%) Project Delivery
3 40 (10.00%) ITIL
4 38 (9.50%) Change Management
5 31 (7.75%) ITSM
5 31 (7.75%) Software Engineering
6 30 (7.50%) Migration
7 29 (7.25%) Load Balancing
8 28 (7.00%) Agile
9 27 (6.75%) High Availability
9 27 (6.75%) Stakeholder Management
10 25 (6.25%) Continuous Improvement
10 25 (6.25%) Validation
11 24 (6.00%) Network Segmentation
12 23 (5.75%) Zero Trust
13 20 (5.00%) Digital Signal Processing
13 20 (5.00%) Root Cause Analysis
13 20 (5.00%) Signal Processing
13 20 (5.00%) User Experience
14 19 (4.75%) Infrastructure as Code
Programming Languages
1 38 (9.50%) Python
2 21 (5.25%) C
3 12 (3.00%) PowerShell
4 11 (2.75%) C++
5 5 (1.25%) Search Processing Language
6 4 (1.00%) Embedded C
7 3 (0.75%) Lisp
7 3 (0.75%) SQL
7 3 (0.75%) VBScript
8 2 (0.50%) Perl
9 1 (0.25%) Bash
9 1 (0.25%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 96 (24.00%) Cisco Certification
2 93 (23.25%) Security Cleared
3 79 (19.75%) CCNP
4 77 (19.25%) SC Cleared
5 55 (13.75%) CCNA
6 29 (7.25%) Degree
7 21 (5.25%) CCIE
8 19 (4.75%) Network+ Certification
9 11 (2.75%) Server+ Certification
10 7 (1.75%) A+ Certification
10 7 (1.75%) Computer Science Degree
10 7 (1.75%) Microsoft Certification
11 5 (1.25%) CWNA
11 5 (1.25%) JNCIP
12 4 (1.00%) CCIE Wireless
12 4 (1.00%) City & Guilds
12 4 (1.00%) CompTIA Security+
12 4 (1.00%) JNCIS
12 4 (1.00%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 4 (1.00%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.50%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (2.00%) SLA
3 6 (1.50%) NIST
4 5 (1.25%) Data Quality
4 5 (1.25%) QA
5 3 (0.75%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (0.50%) GDPR
7 1 (0.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 54 (13.50%) Active Directory
2 16 (4.00%) Firmware
3 11 (2.75%) Embedded Firmware
4 10 (2.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (1.75%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.25%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (1.00%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (1.00%) VMware NSX
8 3 (0.75%) Docker
9 2 (0.50%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.50%) vSphere
10 1 (0.25%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 26 (6.50%) FortiGate
2 25 (6.25%) Ansible
3 20 (5.00%) Microsoft Intune
4 16 (4.00%) Cisco Prime
5 8 (2.00%) SCCM
6 3 (0.75%) Jamf Pro
7 2 (0.50%) Nagios
7 2 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
7 2 (0.50%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.25%) CASB
8 1 (0.25%) Iperf
8 1 (0.25%) MobiControl
8 1 (0.25%) Nessus
8 1 (0.25%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 213 (53.25%) Cisco
2 70 (17.50%) Palo Alto
3 66 (16.50%) Microsoft
4 53 (13.25%) Aruba
5 50 (12.50%) Meraki
6 47 (11.75%) F5
7 41 (10.25%) Fortinet
8 37 (9.25%) Juniper
9 31 (7.75%) CheckPoint
10 29 (7.25%) ServiceNow
11 17 (4.25%) SolarWinds
11 17 (4.25%) VMware
11 17 (4.25%) Zscaler
12 12 (3.00%) Splunk
13 11 (2.75%) ForeScout
14 10 (2.50%) Ekahau
15 9 (2.25%) Blue Coat
15 9 (2.25%) Citrix
16 7 (1.75%) Arista
16 7 (1.75%) Infoblox