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

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 102 69 82
Rank change year-on-year -33 +13 -27
Contract jobs citing VPN 63 56 29
As % of all contract jobs in the West Midlands 1.77% 3.09% 1.56%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.88% 19.86% 11.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 23 41 17
10th Percentile £211 £160 £132
25th Percentile £213 £263 £258
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £288 £380 £425
Median % change year-on-year -24.34% -10.59% -2.86%
75th Percentile £375 £438 £675
90th Percentile £450 £475 £775
England median daily rate £500 £450 £513
% change year-on-year +11.11% -12.20% +8.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £21.25 - -
Median hourly rate £22.50 - £35.00
75th Percentile £23.75 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £25.75 £58.50 £22.40
% change year-on-year -55.98% +161.16% +1.82%

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 288 282 242
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the West Midlands 8.10% 15.55% 12.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 155 166 139
10th Percentile £213 £238 £176
25th Percentile £291 £325 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year - -10.00% +17.65%
75th Percentile £526 £555 £635
90th Percentile £600 £644 £725
England median daily rate £500 £490 £505
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.97% +1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 16 3
10th Percentile £11.46 £16.81 £24.00
25th Percentile £14.09 £22.63 £28.13
Median hourly rate £27.50 £30.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% -14.29% +27.27%
75th Percentile £50.88 £35.63 £47.50
90th Percentile £70.48 £43.63 £55.00
England median hourly rate £45.00 £41.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +9.76% -28.51% +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 23 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 23 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 -3 35 £288 -28.13% 11
Coventry -16 12 £225 -2.81% 4
Warwickshire -11 11 £350 -7.89% 4
Shropshire - 2 £120 - 5
Solihull -20 1 - - 4
Herefordshire - 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 7 (11.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (9.52%) SharePoint
Applications
1 13 (20.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (15.87%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (3.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (1.59%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 26 (41.27%) Azure
2 24 (38.10%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (31.75%) Entra ID
4 17 (26.98%) OneDrive
5 5 (7.94%) AWS
6 4 (6.35%) Azure Sentinel
7 3 (4.76%) Azure DevOps
8 2 (3.17%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (3.17%) Power Platform
9 1 (1.59%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 1 (1.59%) Azure Functions
9 1 (1.59%) Serverless
9 1 (1.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 44 (69.84%) DNS
2 28 (44.44%) DMZ
3 26 (41.27%) BGP
4 23 (36.51%) Multicast
5 16 (25.40%) DHCP
5 16 (25.40%) Firewall
6 15 (23.81%) TCP/IP
6 15 (23.81%) WAN
7 12 (19.05%) LAN
8 10 (15.87%) Network Security
8 10 (15.87%) SSL
9 8 (12.70%) IPsec
9 8 (12.70%) SD-WAN
9 8 (12.70%) Wireless
10 6 (9.52%) Cisco IOS
11 5 (7.94%) Internet
11 5 (7.94%) MPLS
12 4 (6.35%) OSPF
12 4 (6.35%) VLAN
12 4 (6.35%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.59%) Amazon RDS
1 1 (1.59%) Data Lake
Development Applications
1 4 (6.35%) JIRA
2 3 (4.76%) Browser DevTools
General
1 19 (30.16%) Social Skills
2 12 (19.05%) Banking
2 12 (19.05%) Investment Banking
3 5 (7.94%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (3.17%) Finance
4 2 (3.17%) Public Sector
5 1 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (1.59%) Legal
5 1 (1.59%) Manufacturing
5 1 (1.59%) Organisational Skills
5 1 (1.59%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 35 (55.56%) Network Engineer
2 28 (44.44%) Security Engineer
3 27 (42.86%) Network Security Engineer
4 23 (36.51%) Cisco Engineer
4 23 (36.51%) Cisco Network Engineer
4 23 (36.51%) Cisco Security Engineer
4 23 (36.51%) Data Engineer
4 23 (36.51%) Data Network Engineer
5 11 (17.46%) Web Engineer
6 8 (12.70%) Analyst
7 6 (9.52%) Help Desk Support
7 6 (9.52%) Help Desk Support Technician
7 6 (9.52%) Help Desk Technician
7 6 (9.52%) Support Analyst
7 6 (9.52%) Support Technician
8 5 (7.94%) 1st Line Support
9 4 (6.35%) 1st Line Support Analyst
9 4 (6.35%) IT Analyst
9 4 (6.35%) IT Engineer
9 4 (6.35%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (7.94%) SAML
2 3 (4.76%) 802.1X
3 2 (3.17%) LDAP
3 2 (3.17%) Terraform
Miscellaneous
1 10 (15.87%) Onboarding
2 7 (11.11%) Operational Technology
2 7 (11.11%) Smartphone
3 4 (6.35%) Self-Motivation
4 3 (4.76%) Data Centre
4 3 (4.76%) Enterprise Software
5 2 (3.17%) SCADA
6 1 (1.59%) Cloud Native
6 1 (1.59%) CMDB
6 1 (1.59%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 1 (1.59%) Driving Licence
6 1 (1.59%) Embedded Systems
6 1 (1.59%) Hybrid Cloud
6 1 (1.59%) Industrial Internet of Things
6 1 (1.59%) Industry 4.0
6 1 (1.59%) IoT
6 1 (1.59%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.59%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 22 (34.92%) Windows
2 12 (19.05%) Windows 10
3 7 (11.11%) Android
4 5 (7.94%) Mac OS
5 1 (1.59%) Apple iOS
5 1 (1.59%) Linux
5 1 (1.59%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (38.10%) Load Balancing
2 20 (31.75%) ITSM
3 14 (22.22%) Customer Service
4 13 (20.63%) Problem-Solving
5 10 (15.87%) ITIL
6 6 (9.52%) Asset Management
6 6 (9.52%) Customer Experience
6 6 (9.52%) Cybersecurity
6 6 (9.52%) Problem Management
6 6 (9.52%) Zero Trust
7 5 (7.94%) Network Segmentation
7 5 (7.94%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 4 (6.35%) Incident Management
8 4 (6.35%) Ticket Management
9 3 (4.76%) Application Packaging
9 3 (4.76%) DevOps
9 3 (4.76%) Kalman Filter
9 3 (4.76%) Network Monitoring
9 3 (4.76%) User Acceptance Testing
9 3 (4.76%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 2 (3.17%) Python
Qualifications
1 7 (11.11%) Security Cleared
2 6 (9.52%) SC Cleared
3 5 (7.94%) A+ Certification
3 5 (7.94%) Microsoft Certification
4 4 (6.35%) Azure Certification
4 4 (6.35%) CCNP
4 4 (6.35%) Cisco Certification
4 4 (6.35%) Network+ Certification
5 2 (3.17%) CCIE
6 1 (1.59%) BPSS Clearance
6 1 (1.59%) CCNA
6 1 (1.59%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (15.87%) SLA
2 1 (1.59%) NIST
2 1 (1.59%) NIST 800
2 1 (1.59%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 26 (41.27%) Active Directory
2 2 (3.17%) Hyper-V
2 2 (3.17%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (3.17%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (3.17%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.59%) Docker
Systems Management
1 17 (26.98%) Microsoft Intune
2 13 (20.63%) SCCM
3 5 (7.94%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (3.17%) Ansible
5 1 (1.59%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 43 (68.25%) Cisco
2 29 (46.03%) F5
3 25 (39.68%) Microsoft
4 10 (15.87%) Palo Alto
5 7 (11.11%) CheckPoint
5 7 (11.11%) ServiceNow
6 6 (9.52%) Canon
6 6 (9.52%) Zscaler
7 5 (7.94%) Juniper
8 4 (6.35%) Fortinet
9 3 (4.76%) Blue Coat
9 3 (4.76%) Citrix
9 3 (4.76%) Meraki
9 3 (4.76%) SolarWinds
9 3 (4.76%) VMware
10 2 (3.17%) Apple
11 1 (1.59%) Extreme Networks
11 1 (1.59%) Infoblox
11 1 (1.59%) Motorola
11 1 (1.59%) Veeam