Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
UK

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies with a requirement for SDH skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited SDH over the 6 months to 27 April 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 571 691 818
Rank change year-on-year +120 +127 -147
Contract jobs citing SDH 27 28 31
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.062% 0.047% 0.035%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.48% 0.38% 0.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 18 16
10th Percentile £500 £371 £313
25th Percentile £575 £376 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £650 £450 £350
Median % change year-on-year +44.44% +28.57% -4.11%
75th Percentile £688 £500 £445
90th Percentile - £591 £513
UK excluding London median daily rate £650 £450 £350
% change year-on-year +44.44% +28.57% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 4
10th Percentile £19.55 £20.00 £25.73
25th Percentile £23.75 £20.75 £26.06
Median hourly rate £30.00 £22.50 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +33.33% -18.18% +44.74%
75th Percentile £33.13 £24.25 £29.13
90th Percentile £33.75 £25.00 £29.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £30.00 £22.50 -
% change year-on-year +33.33% - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK

SDH is in the Communications and Computer Networking category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 5,616 7,369 9,710
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 12.97% 12.32% 10.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,363 4,796 6,383
10th Percentile £205 £231 £230
25th Percentile £350 £400 £384
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £519 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.59% +3.80% +11.11%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £606
90th Percentile £700 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £438
% change year-on-year - +8.57% +9.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 420 481 362
10th Percentile £13.50 £9.80 £14.82
25th Percentile £17.00 £10.63 £17.00
Median hourly rate £38.00 £19.00 £28.33
Median % change year-on-year +100.00% -32.93% -0.60%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.50 £50.77
90th Percentile £67.75 £75.00 £66.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.88 £18.50 £21.50
% change year-on-year +148.00% -13.95% -14.00%

SDH
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing SDH as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for SDH in the UK

SDH
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SDH.

Daily rate trend for SDH in the UK

SDH
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SDH over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Daily rate histogram for SDH in the UK

SDH
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SDH.

Hourly rate trend for SDH in the UK

SDH
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing SDH over the 6 months to 27 April 2024.

Hourly rate histogram for SDH in the UK

SDH
Top 9 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing SDH within the UK over the 6 months to 27 April 2024. 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 +126 26 £650 +44.44% 6
UK excluding London +72 22 £650 +44.44% 4
Work from Home +128 14 £675 +50.00% 2
South West - 11 £663 - 2
South East +19 8 - - 1
London +96 5 £500 -6.98%
West Midlands +30 2 £375 -25.00%
Midlands +23 2 £375 -25.00%
Scotland - 1 £500 -

SDH
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Applications
1 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 1 (3.70%) AWS
1 1 (3.70%) Azure
Communications & Networking
1 16 (59.26%) WAN
2 12 (44.44%) Ethernet
3 6 (22.22%) DWDM
3 6 (22.22%) SD-WAN
4 5 (18.52%) Junos
5 4 (14.81%) 2G
5 4 (14.81%) 3G
5 4 (14.81%) 4G
5 4 (14.81%) ATM
5 4 (14.81%) MPLS
6 3 (11.11%) Firewall
6 3 (11.11%) Internet
6 3 (11.11%) SONET
7 2 (7.41%) BGP
7 2 (7.41%) Broadband
7 2 (7.41%) EIGRP
7 2 (7.41%) OSPF
7 2 (7.41%) PPP
7 2 (7.41%) SNMP
7 2 (7.41%) TACACS
Development Applications
1 7 (25.93%) Rational DOORS
General
1 17 (62.96%) Telecoms
2 7 (25.93%) Aeronautics
2 7 (25.93%) Aerospace
3 3 (11.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 2 (7.41%) Social Skills
5 1 (3.70%) Advertising
5 1 (3.70%) Electronics
5 1 (3.70%) Presentation Skills
5 1 (3.70%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 14 (51.85%) Architect
1 14 (51.85%) Solutions Architect
2 3 (11.11%) Network Architect
2 3 (11.11%) Network Engineer
2 3 (11.11%) Transmission Planner
3 2 (7.41%) Cisco Engineer
3 2 (7.41%) NOC Engineer
4 1 (3.70%) Optical Engineer
4 1 (3.70%) Telecoms Manager
4 1 (3.70%) Telecoms Planner
4 1 (3.70%) Transmission Engineer
4 1 (3.70%) Transmission Planning Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 3 (11.11%) Data Protection Act
2 1 (3.70%) Data Centre
2 1 (3.70%) SCADA
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (40.74%) ITIL
2 10 (37.04%) ArchiMate
2 10 (37.04%) BPMN
2 10 (37.04%) Customer Requirements
2 10 (37.04%) TOGAF
3 9 (33.33%) Enterprise Architecture
3 9 (33.33%) Roadmaps
4 8 (29.63%) Problem-Solving
5 7 (25.93%) Architecture Governance
5 7 (25.93%) Commercial Awareness
5 7 (25.93%) Decision-Making
6 6 (22.22%) Customer Engagement
6 6 (22.22%) Presales
6 6 (22.22%) Strategic Roadmap
7 5 (18.52%) Business Analysis
8 4 (14.81%) Computer Science
8 4 (14.81%) Incident Management
8 4 (14.81%) Performance Analysis
8 4 (14.81%) Project Delivery
8 4 (14.81%) Validation
Qualifications
1 16 (59.26%) SC Cleared
1 16 (59.26%) Security Cleared
2 8 (29.63%) Degree
3 7 (25.93%) Cisco Certification
3 7 (25.93%) DV Cleared
4 6 (22.22%) CCNP
5 5 (18.52%) JNCIA
6 4 (14.81%) HND
6 4 (14.81%) TOGAF Certification
7 3 (11.11%) BC Cleared
7 3 (11.11%) BPSS Clearance
7 3 (11.11%) CCNA
8 2 (7.41%) CCDP
8 2 (7.41%) CCIP
9 1 (3.70%) AWS Certification
9 1 (3.70%) CompTIA Security+
9 1 (3.70%) HP ASE
9 1 (3.70%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (3.70%) Network+ Certification
9 1 (3.70%) Server+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (18.52%) SLA
2 2 (7.41%) QA
System Software
1 1 (3.70%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 16 (59.26%) Cisco
1 16 (59.26%) Juniper
1 16 (59.26%) Nokia
2 10 (37.04%) Ciena
3 7 (25.93%) IBM
4 5 (18.52%) Palo Alto
5 4 (14.81%) Alcatel-Lucent
6 2 (7.41%) Huawei
6 2 (7.41%) Microsoft
7 1 (3.70%) EMC
7 1 (3.70%) Google
7 1 (3.70%) VMware