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 15 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 347 304 272
Rank change year-on-year -43 -32 -68
Contract jobs citing Wireless 363 263 340
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.68% 0.80% 0.88%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.18% 6.76% 7.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 147 205
10th Percentile £250 £243 £206
25th Percentile £391 £338 £265
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £438 £400
Median % change year-on-year +2.86% +9.38% -5.88%
75th Percentile £531 £525 £525
90th Percentile £588 £588 £645
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £450 £375
% change year-on-year - +20.00% -6.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 34 40 31
10th Percentile £13.59 £14.20 £15.50
25th Percentile £30.06 £25.11 £17.69
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% +19.76% -42.81%
75th Percentile £60.00 £41.13 £51.91
90th Percentile £70.00 £83.66 £53.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £30.00 £35.48
% change year-on-year +74.75% -15.45% +57.69%

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 5,056 3,893 4,759
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.42% 11.81% 12.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,991 2,365 2,897
10th Percentile £250 £247 £220
25th Percentile £400 £375 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £608
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.05% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 366 201 321
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £25.15 £20.00
Median hourly rate £26.14 £46.25 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -43.48% -4.76% -10.07%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £82.10 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.40 £45.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -41.33% -18.00% -3.58%

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 15 August 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 15 August 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 15 August 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 -32 328 £450 +5.88% 418
UK excluding London -29 239 £450 - 338
North of England -3 94 £486 +11.14% 65
London -55 94 £450 +5.88% 116
Work from Home -24 87 £450 -2.70% 124
North West +8 72 £515 +58.46% 37
South East -45 60 £480 +12.94% 140
East of England -17 32 £363 -24.87% 51
Midlands -47 32 £425 +11.84% 42
West Midlands -45 31 £438 +15.13% 24
Yorkshire -42 17 £450 - 17
Scotland -11 13 £381 +1.67% 13
South West -53 6 £363 -27.50% 33
North East -40 5 £420 -23.64% 13
Northern Ireland +5 2 £265 -44.32% 1
East Midlands -16 1 £235 -46.29% 18
Wales -17 1 - - 4

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 13 (3.58%) SharePoint
2 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.28%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 12 (3.31%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (2.48%) Microsoft Excel
3 8 (2.20%) MS Visio
4 4 (1.10%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.83%) Acrobat
6 1 (0.28%) Simulink
6 1 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
Cloud Services
1 56 (15.43%) Azure
2 36 (9.92%) Microsoft 365
3 24 (6.61%) Entra ID
4 22 (6.06%) AWS
5 10 (2.75%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 9 (2.48%) GitHub
7 7 (1.93%) OneDrive
8 4 (1.10%) GCP
8 4 (1.10%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 3 (0.83%) SaaS
10 2 (0.55%) Smartsheet
11 1 (0.28%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 1 (0.28%) AWS Direct Connect
11 1 (0.28%) Cloudflare
11 1 (0.28%) Google Ads
11 1 (0.28%) IBM Watson
11 1 (0.28%) OCI
11 1 (0.28%) PaaS
11 1 (0.28%) Rubrik
11 1 (0.28%) Slack
Communications & Networking
1 167 (46.01%) Firewall
2 126 (34.71%) WAN
3 122 (33.61%) LAN
4 99 (27.27%) VPN
5 97 (26.72%) Network Security
6 82 (22.59%) Wi-Fi
7 71 (19.56%) DNS
8 66 (18.18%) BGP
9 63 (17.36%) VLAN
10 55 (15.15%) OSPF
11 53 (14.60%) DHCP
12 50 (13.77%) Cisco ISE
13 44 (12.12%) SD-WAN
14 43 (11.85%) WLAN
15 39 (10.74%) TCP/IP
16 34 (9.37%) Structured Cabling
17 32 (8.82%) Cisco Wireless
18 30 (8.26%) IPsec
19 24 (6.61%) Cisco IOS
19 24 (6.61%) Cisco Nexus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (0.55%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (2.48%) Rational DOORS
2 7 (1.93%) JIRA
3 2 (0.55%) Git
4 1 (0.28%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.28%) Metasploit
4 1 (0.28%) MSI
4 1 (0.28%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 109 (30.03%) Social Skills
2 31 (8.54%) Analytical Skills
3 28 (7.71%) Finance
4 20 (5.51%) Public Sector
5 18 (4.96%) Aerospace
6 17 (4.68%) Documentation Skills
7 16 (4.41%) Retail
8 12 (3.31%) Legal
8 12 (3.31%) Telecoms
9 10 (2.75%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 7 (1.93%) Law
11 5 (1.38%) Banking
11 5 (1.38%) Police
12 4 (1.10%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.83%) Billing
13 3 (0.83%) Investment Banking
13 3 (0.83%) Presentation Skills
14 2 (0.55%) Front Office
14 2 (0.55%) Influencing Skills
14 2 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 196 (53.99%) Network Engineer
2 35 (9.64%) Senior
3 26 (7.16%) Architect
3 26 (7.16%) Software Engineer
4 25 (6.89%) Cisco Engineer
5 23 (6.34%) Senior Network Engineer
6 22 (6.06%) Embedded Engineer
6 22 (6.06%) Embedded Software Engineer
7 21 (5.79%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 21 (5.79%) Wireless Engineer
8 20 (5.51%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 19 (5.23%) Wireless Network Engineer
10 17 (4.68%) Analyst
11 13 (3.58%) Network Architect
12 12 (3.31%) Security Engineer
13 11 (3.03%) Desktop Support
13 11 (3.03%) Implementation Engineer
14 10 (2.75%) Network Security Engineer
14 10 (2.75%) Support Engineer
14 10 (2.75%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 48 (13.22%) 802.1X
2 9 (2.48%) Yocto
3 8 (2.20%) SAML
4 6 (1.65%) Software Packaging
5 5 (1.38%) REST
6 3 (0.83%) JSON
6 3 (0.83%) LDAP
6 3 (0.83%) XML
7 2 (0.55%) Django
8 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Graph
8 1 (0.28%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 57 (15.70%) Data Centre
2 20 (5.51%) Onboarding
3 15 (4.13%) PKI
4 14 (3.86%) Embedded Systems
5 13 (3.58%) Driving Licence
6 10 (2.75%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (2.48%) Device Driver
7 9 (2.48%) FPGA
7 9 (2.48%) PCIe
8 8 (2.20%) Management Information System
8 8 (2.20%) MicroBlaze
8 8 (2.20%) RISC-V
9 7 (1.93%) Digital Signage
9 7 (1.93%) Hybrid Cloud
9 7 (1.93%) IoT
9 7 (1.93%) Smartphone
10 6 (1.65%) iPad
11 5 (1.38%) BYOD
12 4 (1.10%) Data Protection Act
12 4 (1.10%) Security Operations Centre
Operating Systems
1 43 (11.85%) Windows
2 14 (3.86%) Linux
3 10 (2.75%) Windows 10
3 10 (2.75%) Windows Server
4 9 (2.48%) Apple iOS
4 9 (2.48%) Embedded Linux
4 9 (2.48%) FreeRTOS
5 6 (1.65%) Android
5 6 (1.65%) Mac OS
6 3 (0.83%) Unix
6 3 (0.83%) Windows 7
6 3 (0.83%) Windows XP
Processes & Methodologies
1 61 (16.80%) Problem-Solving
2 40 (11.02%) ITIL
2 40 (11.02%) Project Delivery
3 35 (9.64%) ITSM
4 34 (9.37%) Change Management
5 33 (9.09%) Migration
6 31 (8.54%) High Availability
7 28 (7.71%) Continuous Improvement
8 27 (7.44%) Software Engineering
9 25 (6.89%) Network Segmentation
10 23 (6.34%) Load Balancing
11 22 (6.06%) User Experience
12 21 (5.79%) Agile
12 21 (5.79%) Stakeholder Management
12 21 (5.79%) Zero Trust
13 20 (5.51%) Root Cause Analysis
13 20 (5.51%) Validation
14 19 (5.23%) Service Management
14 19 (5.23%) Technical Leadership
15 18 (4.96%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 23 (6.34%) Python
2 19 (5.23%) C
3 9 (2.48%) C++
4 6 (1.65%) PowerShell
5 4 (1.10%) Embedded C
6 3 (0.83%) Lisp
7 2 (0.55%) Perl
7 2 (0.55%) Search Processing Language
7 2 (0.55%) SQL
7 2 (0.55%) VBScript
8 1 (0.28%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 105 (28.93%) Cisco Certification
2 87 (23.97%) CCNP
3 86 (23.69%) Security Cleared
4 72 (19.83%) SC Cleared
5 63 (17.36%) CCNA
6 28 (7.71%) Degree
7 23 (6.34%) Network+ Certification
8 22 (6.06%) CCIE
9 15 (4.13%) Server+ Certification
10 9 (2.48%) Computer Science Degree
11 7 (1.93%) A+ Certification
11 7 (1.93%) Microsoft Certification
12 5 (1.38%) CCIE Wireless
12 5 (1.38%) CWNA
12 5 (1.38%) JNCIP
12 5 (1.38%) JNCIS
13 4 (1.10%) City & Guilds
13 4 (1.10%) CompTIA Security+
13 4 (1.10%) CWDP
13 4 (1.10%) CWSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (2.75%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 8 (2.20%) SLA
3 7 (1.93%) NIST
4 6 (1.65%) QA
5 4 (1.10%) Cyber Essentials
6 3 (0.83%) GDPR
7 2 (0.55%) Data Quality
7 2 (0.55%) NCSC
7 2 (0.55%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 42 (11.57%) Active Directory
2 13 (3.58%) Firmware
3 11 (3.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 9 (2.48%) Embedded Firmware
5 5 (1.38%) VMware NSX
6 4 (1.10%) Hyper-V
6 4 (1.10%) Virtual Desktop
6 4 (1.10%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.28%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 25 (6.89%) Ansible
2 24 (6.61%) FortiGate
3 19 (5.23%) Microsoft Intune
4 13 (3.58%) Cisco Prime
5 10 (2.75%) Terraform
6 7 (1.93%) SCCM
7 4 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.83%) Jamf Pro
9 2 (0.55%) Nagios
10 1 (0.28%) CASB
10 1 (0.28%) Grafana
10 1 (0.28%) MobiControl
10 1 (0.28%) Nessus
10 1 (0.28%) Nmap
10 1 (0.28%) Prometheus
10 1 (0.28%) TrustSec
10 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 201 (55.37%) Cisco
2 75 (20.66%) Palo Alto
3 70 (19.28%) Aruba
4 54 (14.88%) Microsoft
5 43 (11.85%) F5
6 37 (10.19%) ServiceNow
7 36 (9.92%) Fortinet
8 34 (9.37%) CheckPoint
9 33 (9.09%) Meraki
10 32 (8.82%) Juniper
11 18 (4.96%) Ekahau
12 17 (4.68%) VMware
13 14 (3.86%) SolarWinds
14 12 (3.31%) Zscaler
15 10 (2.75%) ForeScout
16 9 (2.48%) Splunk
17 8 (2.20%) Arista
17 8 (2.20%) Citrix
18 7 (1.93%) Apple
19 6 (1.65%) Blue Coat