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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 71 71
Rank change year-on-year -32 0 -22
Contract jobs citing VPN 64 49 37
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 1.87% 2.79% 1.96%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 22.61% 18.42% 14.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 37 22
10th Percentile £139 £238 £145
25th Percentile £213 £300 £301
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £275 £380 £463
Median % change year-on-year -27.63% -17.84% +3.64%
75th Percentile £331 £475 £675
90th Percentile £440 £574 £775
England median daily rate £500 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% +8.11%

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 283 266 253
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 8.26% 15.14% 13.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 150 163 155
10th Percentile £213 £251 £200
25th Percentile £302 £343 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +17.65%
75th Percentile £537 £567 £636
90th Percentile £584 £648 £750
England median daily rate £500 £490 £505
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.97% +1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 16 1
10th Percentile £11.44 £16.81 -
25th Percentile £12.60 £22.63 £21.25
Median hourly rate £19.34 £30.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -35.53% +33.33% -18.18%
75th Percentile £65.13 £35.63 £23.75
90th Percentile £70.26 £43.63 -
England median hourly rate £27.75 £41.48 £57.35
% change year-on-year -33.09% -27.68% +1.52%

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 4 September 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 4 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
Birmingham +4 38 £288 -28.13% 10
Coventry -19 11 £225 -45.88% 2
Warwickshire -11 10 £350 -7.89% 5
Shropshire - 3 £119 - 1
Solihull -23 1 - - 4
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 7 (10.94%) Microsoft Exchange
1 7 (10.94%) SharePoint
Applications
1 15 (23.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (15.63%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (4.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (3.13%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 25 (39.06%) Azure
1 25 (39.06%) Microsoft 365
2 22 (34.38%) Entra ID
3 18 (28.13%) OneDrive
4 4 (6.25%) AWS
4 4 (6.25%) Azure Sentinel
4 4 (6.25%) Power Platform
5 3 (4.69%) Azure DevOps
6 2 (3.13%) AWS Direct Connect
7 1 (1.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 1 (1.56%) Azure Functions
7 1 (1.56%) Microsoft Copilot
7 1 (1.56%) Microsoft Purview
7 1 (1.56%) SaaS
7 1 (1.56%) Serverless
7 1 (1.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 46 (71.88%) DNS
2 30 (46.88%) BGP
2 30 (46.88%) DMZ
3 27 (42.19%) Multicast
4 14 (21.88%) DHCP
4 14 (21.88%) WAN
5 13 (20.31%) Firewall
6 12 (18.75%) TCP/IP
7 11 (17.19%) LAN
8 10 (15.63%) SSL
9 7 (10.94%) IPsec
9 7 (10.94%) Network Security
9 7 (10.94%) SD-WAN
10 6 (9.38%) Cisco IOS
10 6 (9.38%) Wireless
11 5 (7.81%) Wi-Fi
12 4 (6.25%) Internet
12 4 (6.25%) MPLS
13 3 (4.69%) HTTPS
13 3 (4.69%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.56%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.56%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 4 (6.25%) JIRA
2 3 (4.69%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (1.56%) MSI
General
1 18 (28.13%) Social Skills
2 14 (21.88%) Banking
2 14 (21.88%) Investment Banking
3 7 (10.94%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (3.13%) Finance
4 2 (3.13%) Public Sector
5 1 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (1.56%) Influencing Skills
5 1 (1.56%) Legal
5 1 (1.56%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 35 (54.69%) Network Engineer
2 31 (48.44%) Security Engineer
3 30 (46.88%) Network Security Engineer
4 27 (42.19%) Cisco Engineer
4 27 (42.19%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 27 (42.19%) Cisco Security Engineer
4 27 (42.19%) Data Engineer
4 27 (42.19%) Data Network Engineer
5 13 (20.31%) Web Engineer
6 8 (12.50%) Analyst
7 6 (9.38%) Help Desk Support
7 6 (9.38%) Help Desk Support Technician
7 6 (9.38%) Help Desk Technician
7 6 (9.38%) Support Analyst
7 6 (9.38%) Support Technician
8 5 (7.81%) 1st Line Support
9 4 (6.25%) 1st Line Support Analyst
9 4 (6.25%) IT Analyst
10 3 (4.69%) IT Engineer
10 3 (4.69%) IT Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (9.38%) SAML
2 3 (4.69%) LDAP
3 2 (3.13%) 802.1X
3 2 (3.13%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 10 (15.63%) Onboarding
2 6 (9.38%) Smartphone
3 4 (6.25%) Enterprise Software
3 4 (6.25%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (4.69%) Operational Technology
5 2 (3.13%) Data Centre
6 1 (1.56%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.56%) CMDB
6 1 (1.56%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (1.56%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (1.56%) Industrial Internet of Things
6 1 (1.56%) Industry 4.0
6 1 (1.56%) IoT
6 1 (1.56%) PKI
6 1 (1.56%) Public Cloud
6 1 (1.56%) Replication
6 1 (1.56%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 23 (35.94%) Windows
2 13 (20.31%) Windows 10
3 6 (9.38%) Android
3 6 (9.38%) Mac OS
4 1 (1.56%) Linux
4 1 (1.56%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (43.75%) Load Balancing
2 19 (29.69%) ITSM
3 14 (21.88%) Customer Service
3 14 (21.88%) Problem-Solving
4 10 (15.63%) ITIL
5 6 (9.38%) Asset Management
5 6 (9.38%) Customer Experience
5 6 (9.38%) Problem Management
6 5 (7.81%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (7.81%) Zero Trust
7 4 (6.25%) Incident Management
7 4 (6.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 4 (6.25%) Ticket Management
8 3 (4.69%) Application Packaging
8 3 (4.69%) Kalman Filter
8 3 (4.69%) Manual Testing
8 3 (4.69%) Test Management
8 3 (4.69%) Time Management
8 3 (4.69%) User Acceptance Testing
8 3 (4.69%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (3.13%) Python
2 1 (1.56%) PowerShell
2 1 (1.56%) SQL
2 1 (1.56%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 7 (10.94%) Security Cleared
2 5 (7.81%) Microsoft Certification
2 5 (7.81%) SC Cleared
3 4 (6.25%) A+ Certification
3 4 (6.25%) Azure Certification
3 4 (6.25%) Network+ Certification
4 2 (3.13%) CCNP
4 2 (3.13%) Cisco Certification
5 1 (1.56%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (1.56%) CCIE
5 1 (1.56%) Degree
5 1 (1.56%) JNCIP
5 1 (1.56%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (15.63%) SLA
2 1 (1.56%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 28 (43.75%) Active Directory
2 4 (6.25%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (4.69%) VMware NSX
4 2 (3.13%) Hyper-V
4 2 (3.13%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (1.56%) Docker
5 1 (1.56%) Microsoft App-V
Systems Management
1 18 (28.13%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (20.31%) SCCM
3 7 (10.94%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (3.13%) Ansible
5 1 (1.56%) CASB
5 1 (1.56%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 46 (71.88%) Cisco
2 33 (51.56%) F5
3 26 (40.63%) Microsoft
4 8 (12.50%) Palo Alto
4 8 (12.50%) ServiceNow
5 6 (9.38%) Canon
5 6 (9.38%) CheckPoint
6 5 (7.81%) VMware
6 5 (7.81%) Zscaler
7 4 (6.25%) Citrix
7 4 (6.25%) Juniper
7 4 (6.25%) SolarWinds
8 3 (4.69%) Apple
8 3 (4.69%) Fortinet
9 2 (3.13%) Blue Coat
10 1 (1.56%) Meraki
10 1 (1.56%) Motorola
10 1 (1.56%) NetApp
10 1 (1.56%) Netskope
10 1 (1.56%) Veeam