Wireshark Contract Job Trends

Wireshark
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Wireshark skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 480 445 523
Rank change year-on-year -35 +78 +74
Contract jobs citing Wireshark 106 79 72
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.29% 0.25% 0.17%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 2.72% 1.93% 1.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 66 41 36
10th Percentile £281 - £343
25th Percentile £406 £450 £394
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £544
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -3.45% -1.14%
75th Percentile £492 £675 £632
90th Percentile £588 £738 £678
UK excluding London median daily rate £440 £475 £400
% change year-on-year -7.37% +18.75% -20.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 0
Median hourly rate - £19.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £19.00 -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

Wireshark 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 3,894 4,087 5,896
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 10.49% 12.87% 13.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,562 2,383 3,621
10th Percentile £204 £213 £210
25th Percentile £356 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -2.44%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £688 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 £470 £475
% change year-on-year -4.26% -1.05% +2.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 160 140 347
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.22 £17.72
25th Percentile £18.78 £21.46 £23.00
Median hourly rate £32.00 £35.00 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -8.57% -38.04% +132.95%
75th Percentile £65.00 £57.81 £65.49
90th Percentile £74.33 £70.00 £74.40
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £57.99
% change year-on-year +29.05% -43.96% +177.07%

Wireshark
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Wireshark relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Wireshark job vacancy trend in the UK

Wireshark
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Wireshark.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Wireshark

Wireshark
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Wireshark over the 6 months to 18 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Wireshark in the UK

Wireshark
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Wireshark.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Wireshark

Wireshark
Top 12 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Wireshark within the UK over the 6 months to 18 January 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 -20 98 £450 -15.29% 74
UK excluding London -40 66 £440 -7.37% 74
Midlands -19 31 £440 - 12
West Midlands - 31 £440 - 6
North of England -34 30 £475 -15.56% 16
Work from Home -12 27 £449 -22.00% 17
London -5 26 £450 -30.77% 7
North West -11 26 £475 - 8
South East -16 16 £425 -29.17% 25
South West -18 4 £375 -16.67% 6
Yorkshire -54 4 £505 -10.27% 6
Wales - 1 £250 - 3

Wireshark
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 4 (3.77%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.89%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 6 (5.66%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 29 (27.36%) AWS
2 23 (21.70%) GCP
3 18 (16.98%) Akamai
4 10 (9.43%) Azure
5 3 (2.83%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 2 (1.89%) Azure Sentinel
6 2 (1.89%) Entra ID
6 2 (1.89%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (1.89%) SaaS
7 1 (0.94%) Amazon GuardDuty
7 1 (0.94%) Amazon Macie
7 1 (0.94%) AWS CloudTrail
Communications & Networking
1 39 (36.79%) DNS
1 39 (36.79%) Firewall
2 36 (33.96%) HTTP
2 36 (33.96%) TCP/IP
3 34 (32.08%) SSL
4 30 (28.30%) BIG-IP
5 17 (16.04%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
6 16 (15.09%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
7 15 (14.15%) OSPF
7 15 (14.15%) VPN
8 13 (12.26%) BGP
9 12 (11.32%) 3GPP
9 12 (11.32%) 4G
9 12 (11.32%) Radio Access Network
9 12 (11.32%) WAN
10 11 (10.38%) IPsec
10 11 (10.38%) VLAN
11 10 (9.43%) Cisco ASA
12 9 (8.49%) tcpdump
12 9 (8.49%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.89%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 28 (26.42%) Fiddler
2 10 (9.43%) Metasploit
3 9 (8.49%) Burp Suite
4 1 (0.94%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 42 (39.62%) Social Skills
2 29 (27.36%) Analytical Skills
3 17 (16.04%) Banking
4 16 (15.09%) Investment Banking
5 14 (13.21%) Telecoms
6 5 (4.72%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (3.77%) Front Office
7 4 (3.77%) Public Sector
8 3 (2.83%) Finance
9 1 (0.94%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 42 (39.62%) Network Engineer
2 20 (18.87%) Web Engineer
3 12 (11.32%) Blue Coat Engineer
3 12 (11.32%) IP Network Engineer
3 12 (11.32%) Junior
3 12 (11.32%) Tester
4 11 (10.38%) Junior Network Engineer
5 9 (8.49%) Penetration Tester
6 8 (7.55%) Automation Engineer
6 8 (7.55%) Network Design Specialist
6 8 (7.55%) Network Specialist
6 8 (7.55%) Performance Specialist
7 6 (5.66%) Architect
7 6 (5.66%) Senior
7 6 (5.66%) Support Engineer
7 6 (5.66%) Technical Engineer
7 6 (5.66%) Technical Support
7 6 (5.66%) Technical Support Engineer
8 5 (4.72%) Analyst
8 5 (4.72%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (8.49%) SAML
2 6 (5.66%) LDAP
3 4 (3.77%) FIX Protocol
3 4 (3.77%) Middleware
3 4 (3.77%) REST
3 4 (3.77%) SOAP
3 4 (3.77%) Ultra Messaging
4 2 (1.89%) HTML
4 2 (1.89%) Microsoft Graph
4 2 (1.89%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 16 (15.09%) Management Information System
1 16 (15.09%) Security Posture
2 7 (6.60%) Operational Technology
3 6 (5.66%) Onboarding
4 5 (4.72%) Data Protection Act
5 2 (1.89%) Digital Currency
5 2 (1.89%) SCADA
5 2 (1.89%) Self-Motivation
6 1 (0.94%) Cyber Defence
6 1 (0.94%) Data Centre
6 1 (0.94%) Fixed Income
6 1 (0.94%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 1 (0.94%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (0.94%) IoT
6 1 (0.94%) Security Operations Centre
6 1 (0.94%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 19 (17.92%) Linux
2 9 (8.49%) Kali Linux
3 7 (6.60%) Windows
4 4 (3.77%) CatOS
4 4 (3.77%) Unix
5 2 (1.89%) Mac OS
5 2 (1.89%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (31.13%) Test Automation
2 26 (24.53%) Ethical Hacking
3 24 (22.64%) Load Balancing
4 23 (21.70%) Problem-Solving
5 20 (18.87%) Data Loss Prevention
5 20 (18.87%) Malware Detection/Protection
6 19 (17.92%) OWASP
7 17 (16.04%) Application Security
7 17 (16.04%) DevSecOps
8 15 (14.15%) CI/CD
9 12 (11.32%) Security Testing
10 11 (10.38%) High Availability
10 11 (10.38%) MITRE ATT&CK
11 9 (8.49%) Penetration Testing
11 9 (8.49%) Red Team
11 9 (8.49%) Reverse Engineering
11 9 (8.49%) Root Cause Analysis
12 8 (7.55%) Continuous Integration
12 8 (7.55%) Network Design
12 8 (7.55%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 37 (34.91%) Python
2 23 (21.70%) Bash
3 16 (15.09%) PowerShell
4 4 (3.77%) Java
5 2 (1.89%) JavaScript
6 1 (0.94%) Objective-C
6 1 (0.94%) Swift
Qualifications
1 16 (15.09%) Security Cleared
2 9 (8.49%) CEH
2 9 (8.49%) GPEN
2 9 (8.49%) OSCP
3 8 (7.55%) Cisco Certification
3 8 (7.55%) SC Cleared
4 7 (6.60%) CCNP
5 4 (3.77%) CCNA
6 3 (2.83%) CCIE
6 3 (2.83%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.94%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.94%) CISM
7 1 (0.94%) CISSP
7 1 (0.94%) GCFA
7 1 (0.94%) GCFE
7 1 (0.94%) GREM
7 1 (0.94%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.77%) NIST
2 2 (1.89%) Actionable Recommendations
2 2 (1.89%) GDPR
2 2 (1.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.94%) JTAG
3 1 (0.94%) PCI DSS
3 1 (0.94%) SLA
3 1 (0.94%) SOC 2
System Software
1 18 (16.98%) VMware Infrastructure
2 14 (13.21%) VMware NSX
3 13 (12.26%) Firmware
4 9 (8.49%) Active Directory
5 4 (3.77%) Docker
Systems Management
1 21 (19.81%) Ansible
2 16 (15.09%) CSIRT
3 13 (12.26%) Nmap
4 9 (8.49%) Single Sign-On
5 4 (3.77%) Grafana
5 4 (3.77%) ITRS Geneos
5 4 (3.77%) Prometheus
6 3 (2.83%) Iperf
7 2 (1.89%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (1.89%) Nagios
7 2 (1.89%) Terraform
8 1 (0.94%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.94%) FortiGate
8 1 (0.94%) FTK
8 1 (0.94%) Nessus
Vendors
1 50 (47.17%) F5
2 26 (24.53%) VMware
3 24 (22.64%) Blue Coat
3 24 (22.64%) McAfee
4 21 (19.81%) Splunk
5 20 (18.87%) Cisco
6 16 (15.09%) NetApp
7 15 (14.15%) Microsoft
8 11 (10.38%) CheckPoint
9 10 (9.43%) Nokia
9 10 (9.43%) Palo Alto
9 10 (9.43%) SolarWinds
10 8 (7.55%) Actix
10 8 (7.55%) Ericsson
11 6 (5.66%) Fortinet
12 5 (4.72%) Meraki
13 4 (3.77%) Juniper
13 4 (3.77%) Solace
13 4 (3.77%) TIBCO
13 4 (3.77%) Zscaler