VPN Contract Job Trends in the West Midlands

Virtual Private Network (VPN)
England > West Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the West Midlands requiring VPN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 11 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 106 81 48
Rank change year-on-year -25 -33 -1
Contract jobs citing VPN 70 39 60
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 2.00% 2.30% 3.22%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 23.81% 16.74% 20.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 27 28 39
10th Percentile £174 £202 £264
25th Percentile £213 £256 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £288 £353 £375
Median % change year-on-year -18.44% -6.00% -16.67%
75th Percentile £390 £438 £581
90th Percentile £457 £513 £775
England median daily rate £500 £450 £465
% change year-on-year +11.11% -3.23% -2.11%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
West Midlands

VPN 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 in the West Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 294 233 300
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 8.40% 13.75% 16.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 161 138 193
10th Percentile £213 £250 £250
25th Percentile £313 £332 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £463 £425
Median % change year-on-year -2.70% +8.82% +4.62%
75th Percentile £538 £575 £635
90th Percentile £619 £650 £725
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 14 3
10th Percentile £11.44 £17.79 £13.40
25th Percentile £16.84 £26.00 £13.63
Median hourly rate £33.17 £30.00 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.57% +114.29% -48.15%
75th Percentile £67.38 £37.44 £18.88
90th Percentile £70.26 £43.78 £21.80
England median hourly rate £28.00 £44.00 £54.94
% change year-on-year -36.36% -19.91% +5.87%

VPN
Job Vacancy Trend in the West Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing VPN relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands.

VPN job vacancy trend in the West Midlands

VPN
Daily Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing VPN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing VPN

VPN
Daily Rate Histogram in the West Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing VPN in the West Midlands over the 6 months to 11 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for VPN in the West Midlands

VPN
Hourly Rate Trend in the West Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing VPN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the West Midlands citing VPN

VPN
Contract Job Locations in the West Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing VPN within the West Midlands region over the 6 months to 11 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
Birmingham +8 42 £288 -28.13% 7
Coventry -18 12 £225 -45.88% 3
Warwickshire -11 11 £380 +7.04% 5
Shropshire - 3 £119 - 1
Solihull -25 1 - - 3
VPN
England

VPN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the West Midlands 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 8 (11.43%) SharePoint
2 5 (7.14%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.43%) Confluence
Applications
1 13 (18.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (14.29%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (4.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (2.86%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 25 (35.71%) Azure
2 24 (34.29%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (28.57%) Entra ID
4 16 (22.86%) OneDrive
5 5 (7.14%) AWS
5 5 (7.14%) Power Platform
6 4 (5.71%) Azure DevOps
6 4 (5.71%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (2.86%) AWS Direct Connect
7 2 (2.86%) Microsoft Copilot
7 2 (2.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 1 (1.43%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 1 (1.43%) Azure Functions
8 1 (1.43%) Microsoft Purview
8 1 (1.43%) SaaS
8 1 (1.43%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 49 (70.00%) DNS
2 36 (51.43%) BGP
3 34 (48.57%) DMZ
4 31 (44.29%) Multicast
5 16 (22.86%) Firewall
5 16 (22.86%) WAN
6 13 (18.57%) DHCP
6 13 (18.57%) LAN
7 11 (15.71%) TCP/IP
8 10 (14.29%) SSL
9 9 (12.86%) Network Security
10 8 (11.43%) SD-WAN
11 7 (10.00%) IPsec
12 6 (8.57%) Cisco IOS
12 6 (8.57%) MPLS
12 6 (8.57%) Wi-Fi
12 6 (8.57%) Wireless
13 5 (7.14%) Internet
13 5 (7.14%) OSPF
13 5 (7.14%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.43%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.43%) Data Lake
1 1 (1.43%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 5 (7.14%) JIRA
2 3 (4.29%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (1.43%) MSI
General
1 18 (25.71%) Social Skills
2 16 (22.86%) Banking
2 16 (22.86%) Investment Banking
3 8 (11.43%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (4.29%) Finance
4 3 (4.29%) Public Sector
4 3 (4.29%) Telecoms
5 2 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
6 1 (1.43%) Legal
Job Titles
1 41 (58.57%) Network Engineer
2 35 (50.00%) Security Engineer
3 34 (48.57%) Network Security Engineer
4 31 (44.29%) Cisco Engineer
4 31 (44.29%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 31 (44.29%) Cisco Security Engineer
4 31 (44.29%) Data Engineer
4 31 (44.29%) Data Network Engineer
5 15 (21.43%) Web Engineer
6 7 (10.00%) Analyst
7 6 (8.57%) Help Desk Support
7 6 (8.57%) Help Desk Support Technician
7 6 (8.57%) Help Desk Technician
7 6 (8.57%) Support Technician
8 4 (5.71%) IT Analyst
8 4 (5.71%) Support Analyst
8 4 (5.71%) Test Engineer
9 3 (4.29%) 1st Line Support
9 3 (4.29%) Architect
9 3 (4.29%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (8.57%) SAML
2 3 (4.29%) 802.1X
2 3 (4.29%) LDAP
3 1 (1.43%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 10 (14.29%) Onboarding
2 6 (8.57%) Smartphone
3 5 (7.14%) Enterprise Software
4 4 (5.71%) Self-Motivation
5 3 (4.29%) Data Centre
5 3 (4.29%) Operational Technology
6 1 (1.43%) Analytical Mindset
6 1 (1.43%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.43%) CMDB
6 1 (1.43%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.43%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (1.43%) Fibre Optics
6 1 (1.43%) Industrial Internet of Things
6 1 (1.43%) Industry 4.0
6 1 (1.43%) IoT
6 1 (1.43%) PKI
6 1 (1.43%) Public Cloud
6 1 (1.43%) Replication
6 1 (1.43%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 22 (31.43%) Windows
2 11 (15.71%) Windows 10
3 6 (8.57%) Android
3 6 (8.57%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.43%) Linux
4 1 (1.43%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 32 (45.71%) Load Balancing
2 17 (24.29%) ITSM
3 12 (17.14%) Customer Service
3 12 (17.14%) Problem-Solving
4 9 (12.86%) ITIL
5 6 (8.57%) Asset Management
5 6 (8.57%) Customer Experience
5 6 (8.57%) Problem Management
6 5 (7.14%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (7.14%) Incident Management
6 5 (7.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 5 (7.14%) Zero Trust
7 4 (5.71%) Change Management
7 4 (5.71%) DevOps
7 4 (5.71%) Manual Testing
7 4 (5.71%) Network Segmentation
7 4 (5.71%) Scenario Testing
7 4 (5.71%) Test Management
8 3 (4.29%) Kalman Filter
8 3 (4.29%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 3 (4.29%) Python
2 2 (2.86%) SQL
3 1 (1.43%) Java
3 1 (1.43%) Kotlin
3 1 (1.43%) PowerShell
3 1 (1.43%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 10 (14.29%) Security Cleared
2 8 (11.43%) SC Cleared
3 4 (5.71%) Azure Certification
4 3 (4.29%) CCNP
4 3 (4.29%) Cisco Certification
4 3 (4.29%) Microsoft Certification
5 2 (2.86%) A+ Certification
5 2 (2.86%) Network+ Certification
6 1 (1.43%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (1.43%) CCIE
6 1 (1.43%) CCNA
6 1 (1.43%) Degree
6 1 (1.43%) ISTQB
6 1 (1.43%) JNCIP
6 1 (1.43%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (14.29%) SLA
2 1 (1.43%) Data Quality
2 1 (1.43%) NCSC
2 1 (1.43%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 26 (37.14%) Active Directory
2 4 (5.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (4.29%) VMware NSX
4 2 (2.86%) Hyper-V
4 2 (2.86%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (1.43%) Docker
5 1 (1.43%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 16 (22.86%) Microsoft Intune
2 11 (15.71%) SCCM
3 7 (10.00%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (2.86%) Ansible
4 2 (2.86%) Terraform
5 1 (1.43%) CASB
5 1 (1.43%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 52 (74.29%) Cisco
2 37 (52.86%) F5
3 25 (35.71%) Microsoft
4 8 (11.43%) ServiceNow
5 6 (8.57%) Canon
5 6 (8.57%) CheckPoint
5 6 (8.57%) Palo Alto
6 5 (7.14%) VMware
7 4 (5.71%) Citrix
7 4 (5.71%) Fortinet
7 4 (5.71%) Juniper
7 4 (5.71%) SolarWinds
7 4 (5.71%) Zscaler
8 3 (4.29%) Apple
9 2 (2.86%) Blue Coat
10 1 (1.43%) HP
10 1 (1.43%) Meraki
10 1 (1.43%) Motorola
10 1 (1.43%) NetApp
10 1 (1.43%) Veeam