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 10 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 60 83 51
Rank change year-on-year +23 -32 +72
Contract jobs citing VPN 78 27 71
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 3.53% 1.49% 3.73%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 22.16% 10.89% 16.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 63 16 40
10th Percentile £164 £161 £192
25th Percentile £263 £210 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £380 £308 £400
Median % change year-on-year +23.58% -23.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £438 £406 £570
90th Percentile £535 £506 £728
England median daily rate £450 £475 £475
% change year-on-year -5.26% - +8.57%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 0
Median hourly rate - £35.00 -
England median hourly rate £25.47 £28.70 £21.00
% change year-on-year -11.25% +36.67% -4.55%

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 352 248 425
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 15.93% 13.72% 22.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 218 138 229
10th Percentile £211 £175 £205
25th Percentile £300 £290 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £401 £466 £425
Median % change year-on-year -13.99% +9.71% -4.49%
75th Percentile £525 £583 £575
90th Percentile £584 £671 £690
England median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.45% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 9 21
10th Percentile £18.50 £12.18 £21.25
25th Percentile £24.00 £15.22 £23.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +18.18% +13.40%
75th Percentile £31.00 £35.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £42.00 £40.00 -
England median hourly rate £30.00 £48.56 £56.49
% change year-on-year -38.22% -14.04% +25.53%

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 10 December 2025.

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 10 December 2025. 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 +28 40 £400 -12.57% 12
Warwickshire +8 21 £378 +42.45% 4
Coventry -14 5 £400 +148.06% 2
Staffordshire +2 4 £394 -21.25% 10
Shropshire -37 3 £400 +90.48% 5
Solihull +3 2 £363 +17.89% 1
Worcestershire -18 1 £538 +270.69% 13
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 1 (1.28%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (5.13%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (3.85%) MS Visio
3 1 (1.28%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 17 (21.79%) AWS
2 12 (15.38%) Azure
3 9 (11.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 8 (10.26%) Microsoft 365
5 6 (7.69%) GCP
6 5 (6.41%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 4 (5.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 4 (5.13%) Amazon EC2
7 4 (5.13%) Amazon ELB
7 4 (5.13%) Amazon S3
8 2 (2.56%) AWS Direct Connect
9 1 (1.28%) Amazon EKS
9 1 (1.28%) Azure DevOps
9 1 (1.28%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (1.28%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (1.28%) Entra ID
9 1 (1.28%) GitHub
9 1 (1.28%) Kong
9 1 (1.28%) OneDrive
9 1 (1.28%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 44 (56.41%) WAN
2 36 (46.15%) Firewall
2 36 (46.15%) IPsec
3 34 (43.59%) DNS
4 30 (38.46%) BGP
5 28 (35.90%) MPLS
6 20 (25.64%) Network Security
7 17 (21.79%) SSL
7 17 (21.79%) Wireless
8 15 (19.23%) TCP/IP
9 14 (17.95%) DHCP
10 13 (16.67%) LAN
11 9 (11.54%) Cisco IPT
11 9 (11.54%) DMVPN
11 9 (11.54%) SD-WAN
12 7 (8.97%) Cisco ASA
13 6 (7.69%) Junos
13 6 (7.69%) OSPF
13 6 (7.69%) VLAN
13 6 (7.69%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.28%) DocumentDB
1 1 (1.28%) MongoDB
1 1 (1.28%) NoSQL
1 1 (1.28%) Redis
Development Applications
1 6 (7.69%) Git
2 4 (5.13%) Jenkins
2 4 (5.13%) JIRA
3 3 (3.85%) GitLab
General
1 21 (26.92%) Social Skills
2 15 (19.23%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (16.67%) Public Sector
4 8 (10.26%) Telecoms
5 5 (6.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 5 (6.41%) Legal
6 3 (3.85%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (2.56%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (1.28%) Finance
8 1 (1.28%) Military
8 1 (1.28%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 20 (25.64%) Network Engineer
2 19 (24.36%) Support Engineer
3 14 (17.95%) 3rd Line Engineer
4 13 (16.67%) 3rd Line Support
4 13 (16.67%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
5 11 (14.10%) WAN Engineer
6 10 (12.82%) 2nd Line Engineer
6 10 (12.82%) Analyst
6 10 (12.82%) Support Analyst
7 9 (11.54%) 2nd Line Support
8 7 (8.97%) 1st Line Support
8 7 (8.97%) Architect
8 7 (8.97%) Network Architect
9 6 (7.69%) IT Analyst
9 6 (7.69%) IT Support
9 6 (7.69%) IT Support Analyst
9 6 (7.69%) Security Engineer
10 5 (6.41%) 1st/2nd Line Support
10 5 (6.41%) 1st/2nd Line Support Analyst
10 5 (6.41%) Network Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (11.54%) 802.1X
2 3 (3.85%) LDAP
2 3 (3.85%) SAML
3 1 (1.28%) Azure Blueprints
3 1 (1.28%) Kafka
3 1 (1.28%) REST
3 1 (1.28%) RESTful
3 1 (1.28%) SignalR
3 1 (1.28%) Spring
3 1 (1.28%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 24 (30.77%) PKI
2 17 (21.79%) Data Centre
3 9 (11.54%) Self-Motivation
4 5 (6.41%) Team-Oriented Environment
5 3 (3.85%) Security Posture
6 2 (2.56%) Hybrid Cloud
6 2 (2.56%) NHS
6 2 (2.56%) Onboarding
6 2 (2.56%) Operational Technology
6 2 (2.56%) SCADA
7 1 (1.28%) Driving Licence
7 1 (1.28%) Educational Technology
Operating Systems
1 16 (20.51%) Windows
2 7 (8.97%) Windows 10
3 6 (7.69%) Windows Server
4 2 (2.56%) CatOS
4 2 (2.56%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 22 (28.21%) Load Balancing
2 19 (24.36%) Network Design
2 19 (24.36%) Problem-Solving
3 16 (20.51%) Change Management
4 15 (19.23%) ITIL
5 11 (14.10%) Customer Service
6 10 (12.82%) Inventory Management
7 9 (11.54%) High Availability
8 8 (10.26%) Mentoring
9 7 (8.97%) Cybersecurity
9 7 (8.97%) Incident Response
9 7 (8.97%) Knowledge Transfer
9 7 (8.97%) Network Architecture
9 7 (8.97%) Zero Trust
10 6 (7.69%) Mobile Device Management
10 6 (7.69%) Project Delivery
11 5 (6.41%) CRM
11 5 (6.41%) DevOps
11 5 (6.41%) Disk Encryption
11 5 (6.41%) Performance Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 8 (10.26%) Python
2 7 (8.97%) Bash
3 4 (5.13%) PowerShell
4 1 (1.28%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 44 (56.41%) Security Cleared
2 37 (47.44%) SC Cleared
3 10 (12.82%) CCNP
3 10 (12.82%) Cisco Certification
4 7 (8.97%) CCIE
4 7 (8.97%) Microsoft Certification
5 6 (7.69%) MCP
6 5 (6.41%) CISSP
6 5 (6.41%) Degree
6 5 (6.41%) MCDST
7 4 (5.13%) Azure Certification
8 3 (3.85%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 3 (3.85%) AWS Certification
8 3 (3.85%) CCIE Security
8 3 (3.85%) CCNA
8 3 (3.85%) CCSP
9 2 (2.56%) ITIL Certification
9 2 (2.56%) JNCIE
9 2 (2.56%) JNCIP
10 1 (1.28%) DV Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (7.69%) GDPR
2 5 (6.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (5.13%) NIST
3 4 (5.13%) PCI DSS
4 2 (2.56%) SLA
5 1 (1.28%) GRC
5 1 (1.28%) NCSC
System Software
1 15 (19.23%) Active Directory
2 10 (12.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (8.97%) VMware NSX
4 5 (6.41%) Docker
5 3 (3.85%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 11 (14.10%) Terraform
2 10 (12.82%) Ansible
3 8 (10.26%) SCCM
4 3 (3.85%) FortiGate
4 3 (3.85%) Microsoft Intune
4 3 (3.85%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (1.28%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 38 (48.72%) Juniper
2 36 (46.15%) Cisco
3 20 (25.64%) F5
4 19 (24.36%) CheckPoint
5 18 (23.08%) Microsoft
6 16 (20.51%) Palo Alto
7 10 (12.82%) VMware
8 9 (11.54%) Blue Coat
9 8 (10.26%) Fortinet
10 6 (7.69%) SolarWinds
11 5 (6.41%) iManage
11 5 (6.41%) Meraki
11 5 (6.41%) Mitel
11 5 (6.41%) ServiceNow
12 4 (5.13%) Netskope
13 2 (2.56%) Forcepoint
14 1 (1.28%) Apple
14 1 (1.28%) Infoblox