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 12 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 344 287 257
Rank change year-on-year -57 -30 -39
Contract jobs citing Wireless 355 289 401
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.67% 0.88% 0.93%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 7.05% 7.25% 7.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 228 173 236
10th Percentile £250 £263 £183
25th Percentile £380 £363 £256
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £400
Median % change year-on-year - +12.50% -5.88%
75th Percentile £526 £550 £533
90th Percentile £588 £588 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £471 £396
% change year-on-year -4.51% +19.00% -1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 35 39
10th Percentile £12.98 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.23 £16.24
Median hourly rate £52.43 £25.15 £21.00
Median % change year-on-year +108.45% +19.76% -58.00%
75th Percentile £60.00 £34.25 £24.90
90th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £54.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £52.43 £30.00 £17.69
% change year-on-year +74.75% +69.59% -20.96%

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 5,037 3,986 5,374
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 9.51% 12.20% 12.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,062 2,438 3,170
10th Percentile £238 £233 £213
25th Percentile £400 £363 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £482 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.79% -3.65% -
75th Percentile £588 £588 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £472 £488
% change year-on-year +2.81% -3.18% +4.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 319 191 424
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £13.61
25th Percentile £19.34 £24.44 £17.69
Median hourly rate £26.00 £46.25 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -43.78% +15.63% +45.45%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £81.35 £73.60
UK excluding London median hourly rate £26.00 £41.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -37.35% -12.63% +5.56%

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 12 July 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 12 July 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 12 July 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 -57 320 £450 -3.74% 247
UK excluding London -52 233 £450 -4.51% 220
North of England -35 87 £499 +10.83% 44
London -61 85 £438 +2.94% 68
Work from Home -30 81 £463 -1.33% 84
North West -3 68 £520 +38.67% 22
South East -40 58 £496 -0.75% 97
Midlands -34 37 £425 +22.74% 23
West Midlands -48 36 £425 +66.67% 13
East of England -37 26 £325 -38.10% 24
Yorkshire -52 14 £450 - 20
Scotland -13 12 £381 -6.04% 8
South West -36 12 £510 +23.64% 19
North East -32 5 £420 -23.64% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £245 - 6
East Midlands -16 1 £235 -46.29% 10

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 11 (3.10%) SharePoint
2 3 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.28%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 13 (3.66%) Microsoft Office
1 13 (3.66%) MS Visio
2 10 (2.82%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.28%) Acrobat
3 1 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.28%) Simulink
Cloud Services
1 51 (14.37%) Azure
2 25 (7.04%) AWS
3 20 (5.63%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (5.35%) Entra ID
5 8 (2.25%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (1.97%) GitHub
7 5 (1.41%) GCP
7 5 (1.41%) OneDrive
8 4 (1.13%) SaaS
8 4 (1.13%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 2 (0.56%) PaaS
10 1 (0.28%) Amazon EC2
10 1 (0.28%) Amazon GuardDuty
10 1 (0.28%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.28%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.28%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.28%) Google Workspace
10 1 (0.28%) IaaS
10 1 (0.28%) Route 53
10 1 (0.28%) Rubrik
Communications & Networking
1 165 (46.48%) Firewall
2 124 (34.93%) LAN
3 121 (34.08%) WAN
4 95 (26.76%) Network Security
5 90 (25.35%) VPN
6 81 (22.82%) Wi-Fi
7 63 (17.75%) DNS
8 57 (16.06%) BGP
9 53 (14.93%) DHCP
9 53 (14.93%) VLAN
10 50 (14.08%) OSPF
11 47 (13.24%) Cisco ISE
12 46 (12.96%) SD-WAN
12 46 (12.96%) WLAN
13 34 (9.58%) Cisco Wireless
14 33 (9.30%) Structured Cabling
15 31 (8.73%) TCP/IP
16 27 (7.61%) IPsec
17 25 (7.04%) Cisco Nexus
18 23 (6.48%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.28%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 9 (2.54%) Rational DOORS
2 5 (1.41%) JIRA
3 3 (0.85%) Burp Suite
4 2 (0.56%) Git
4 2 (0.56%) Metasploit
4 2 (0.56%) Sonatype Nexus
5 1 (0.28%) MSI
General
1 102 (28.73%) Social Skills
2 26 (7.32%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (5.63%) Finance
3 20 (5.63%) Public Sector
4 18 (5.07%) Documentation Skills
5 15 (4.23%) Aerospace
6 13 (3.66%) Retail
7 9 (2.54%) Legal
8 5 (1.41%) Law
9 4 (1.13%) Banking
9 4 (1.13%) Billing
9 4 (1.13%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.13%) Telecoms
10 3 (0.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.85%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (0.85%) Investment Banking
10 3 (0.85%) Police
10 3 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.28%) German Language
Job Titles
1 183 (51.55%) Network Engineer
2 33 (9.30%) Architect
3 24 (6.76%) Senior
4 22 (6.20%) Cisco Engineer
4 22 (6.20%) Wireless Engineer
5 21 (5.92%) Software Engineer
6 19 (5.35%) Wireless Network Engineer
7 18 (5.07%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 18 (5.07%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 17 (4.79%) Embedded Engineer
8 17 (4.79%) Embedded Software Engineer
8 17 (4.79%) Network Architect
8 17 (4.79%) Senior Network Engineer
9 11 (3.10%) Analyst
9 11 (3.10%) Technical Architect
10 10 (2.82%) IT Support
10 10 (2.82%) Security Engineer
11 9 (2.54%) Network Security Engineer
12 8 (2.25%) Desktop Support
12 8 (2.25%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (14.93%) 802.1X
2 11 (3.10%) SAML
3 6 (1.69%) LDAP
3 6 (1.69%) X-Windows
3 6 (1.69%) Yocto
4 4 (1.13%) Software Packaging
5 3 (0.85%) REST
6 2 (0.56%) Django
6 2 (0.56%) JSON
6 2 (0.56%) XML
7 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.28%) ModSecurity
Miscellaneous
1 55 (15.49%) Data Centre
2 17 (4.79%) Onboarding
3 16 (4.51%) IoT
4 12 (3.38%) Driving Licence
4 12 (3.38%) PKI
5 11 (3.10%) Embedded Systems
6 10 (2.82%) Self-Motivation
7 9 (2.54%) FPGA
7 9 (2.54%) PCIe
8 7 (1.97%) Hybrid Cloud
8 7 (1.97%) Management Information System
9 6 (1.69%) Device Driver
9 6 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
9 6 (1.69%) iPad
9 6 (1.69%) MicroBlaze
9 6 (1.69%) RISC-V
9 6 (1.69%) Security Posture
10 5 (1.41%) BYOD
10 5 (1.41%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.41%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 36 (10.14%) Windows
2 17 (4.79%) Linux
3 11 (3.10%) Windows 10
4 9 (2.54%) Apple iOS
4 9 (2.54%) FreeRTOS
5 8 (2.25%) Unix
6 7 (1.97%) Windows Server
7 6 (1.69%) Embedded Linux
7 6 (1.69%) Mac OS X
8 5 (1.41%) Android
8 5 (1.41%) Windows 7
9 4 (1.13%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.85%) Windows XP
11 2 (0.56%) CatOS
12 1 (0.28%) Kali Linux
12 1 (0.28%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (13.80%) Problem-Solving
2 38 (10.70%) Network Segmentation
3 37 (10.42%) ITIL
4 34 (9.58%) ITSM
5 32 (9.01%) Migration
6 31 (8.73%) Change Management
7 30 (8.45%) High Availability
7 30 (8.45%) Project Delivery
8 27 (7.61%) Zero Trust
9 26 (7.32%) Technical Leadership
10 25 (7.04%) Continuous Improvement
11 24 (6.76%) Validation
12 23 (6.48%) Cybersecurity
13 22 (6.20%) Load Balancing
13 22 (6.20%) Software Engineering
14 20 (5.63%) User Experience
15 19 (5.35%) Agile
16 18 (5.07%) Root Cause Analysis
16 18 (5.07%) Service Management
16 18 (5.07%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 19 (5.35%) Python
2 16 (4.51%) C
3 6 (1.69%) C++
4 4 (1.13%) Embedded C
4 4 (1.13%) PowerShell
5 3 (0.85%) Lisp
6 2 (0.56%) Perl
7 1 (0.28%) Korn
7 1 (0.28%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 105 (29.58%) Cisco Certification
2 89 (25.07%) Security Cleared
3 88 (24.79%) CCNP
4 77 (21.69%) SC Cleared
5 64 (18.03%) CCNA
6 26 (7.32%) Degree
7 24 (6.76%) CCIE
7 24 (6.76%) Network+ Certification
8 17 (4.79%) Server+ Certification
9 7 (1.97%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (1.69%) A+ Certification
10 6 (1.69%) Computer Science Degree
10 6 (1.69%) JNCIP
10 6 (1.69%) JNCIS
11 5 (1.41%) CCIE Wireless
11 5 (1.41%) CWNA
11 5 (1.41%) Microsoft Certified Professional
12 4 (1.13%) CWSP
12 4 (1.13%) PMI Certification
12 4 (1.13%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (3.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (1.97%) NIST
2 7 (1.97%) QA
2 7 (1.97%) SLA
3 4 (1.13%) Cyber Essentials
3 4 (1.13%) GDPR
4 3 (0.85%) NCSC
4 3 (0.85%) PCI DSS
5 1 (0.28%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.28%) PMO
System Software
1 43 (12.11%) Active Directory
2 13 (3.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (2.82%) Firmware
4 8 (2.25%) VMware NSX
5 6 (1.69%) Embedded Firmware
6 4 (1.13%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.85%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.28%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.28%) Virtual Servers
8 1 (0.28%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 28 (7.89%) Ansible
2 21 (5.92%) FortiGate
3 15 (4.23%) Microsoft Intune
4 8 (2.25%) Terraform
5 7 (1.97%) Cisco Prime
5 7 (1.97%) Single Sign-On
6 6 (1.69%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.41%) Grafana
7 5 (1.41%) SCCM
8 4 (1.13%) Salt
9 3 (0.85%) Jamf Pro
9 3 (0.85%) Nmap
10 2 (0.56%) CASB
10 2 (0.56%) Nessus
11 1 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
11 1 (0.28%) Nagios
11 1 (0.28%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 204 (57.46%) Cisco
2 80 (22.54%) Palo Alto
3 75 (21.13%) Aruba
4 43 (12.11%) F5
4 43 (12.11%) Microsoft
5 41 (11.55%) Meraki
6 40 (11.27%) ServiceNow
7 39 (10.99%) CheckPoint
8 32 (9.01%) Fortinet
9 26 (7.32%) Juniper
10 21 (5.92%) Ekahau
11 18 (5.07%) VMware
12 17 (4.79%) ForeScout
13 13 (3.66%) Arista
13 13 (3.66%) SolarWinds
14 11 (3.10%) Splunk
15 8 (2.25%) Citrix
15 8 (2.25%) Zscaler
16 7 (1.97%) Apple
17 5 (1.41%) HP