Network Design Contract Job Trends in England

Network Design
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Network Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 414 322 305
Rank change year-on-year -92 -17 +153
Contract jobs citing Network Design 166 155 235
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.42% 0.63% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.49% 0.69% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 115 89 118
10th Percentile £411 £400 £363
25th Percentile £459 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% +15.79% -4.52%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £550
90th Percentile £675 £728 £638
UK median daily rate £519 £531 £475
% change year-on-year -2.31% +11.84% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 4
10th Percentile £30.25 - £23.55
25th Percentile £44.81 £66.25 £24.00
Median hourly rate £71.77 £67.50 £47.25
Median % change year-on-year +6.33% +42.86% -32.50%
75th Percentile £73.83 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.26 - -
UK median hourly rate £71.77 £67.50 £47.25
% change year-on-year +6.33% +42.86% -32.50%

All Process & Methodology Skills
England

Network Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 33,651 22,305 32,263
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.36% 91.07% 86.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,531 14,664 21,253
10th Percentile £313 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £523 £525
% change year-on-year -4.31% -0.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,083 886 2,215
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.80 £12.85
25th Percentile £20.27 £18.51 £15.75
Median hourly rate £41.86 £31.64 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year +32.29% -7.51% -6.66%
75th Percentile £67.13 £63.75 £58.69
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.38 £71.75
UK median hourly rate £37.50 £30.00 £33.78
% change year-on-year +25.00% -11.18% -5.92%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Network Design job vacancy trend in England

Network Design
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Design

Network Design
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Design in England over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Design in England

Network Design
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Design

Network Design
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Design in England over the 6 months to 18 April 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in England

Network Design
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Design within the England region over the 6 months to 18 April 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
London -31 65 £525 +2.44% 19
South East -41 40 £500 -13.04% 16
North of England -86 20 £517 +3.35% 10
North West -62 14 £508 +1.50% 6
South West -29 13 £500 -5.88% 4
West Midlands -56 13 £475 +8.57% 3
Midlands -58 13 £475 +8.57% 4
East of England -26 7 £475 +18.75% 4
Yorkshire -57 6 £585 +16.90%
North East -13 1 - - 4
Network Design
UK

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England 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 5 (3.01%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.20%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.60%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.60%) Confluence
3 1 (0.60%) Smallworld
Applications
1 8 (4.82%) MS Visio
2 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.60%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.60%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.20%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 37 (22.29%) Azure
2 25 (15.06%) AWS
3 9 (5.42%) GCP
4 6 (3.61%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 4 (2.41%) GitHub
5 4 (2.41%) PaaS
6 3 (1.81%) IaaS
6 3 (1.81%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (1.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.20%) AWS Direct Connect
7 2 (1.20%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (1.20%) IBM Watson
8 1 (0.60%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.60%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.60%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.60%) Datadog
8 1 (0.60%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.60%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.60%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 67 (40.36%) Firewall
2 56 (33.73%) WAN
3 40 (24.10%) BGP
4 38 (22.89%) LAN
5 35 (21.08%) VPN
6 34 (20.48%) Network Security
7 27 (16.27%) MPLS
8 25 (15.06%) 5G
8 25 (15.06%) OSPF
9 24 (14.46%) VLAN
10 23 (13.86%) Wi-Fi
11 22 (13.25%) SD-WAN
12 17 (10.24%) Radio Access Network
12 17 (10.24%) TCP/IP
13 16 (9.64%) 4G
14 13 (7.83%) DNS
15 12 (7.23%) DHCP
15 12 (7.23%) IPsec
15 12 (7.23%) Wireless
16 11 (6.63%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.60%) GIS
Development Applications
1 4 (2.41%) Git
2 2 (1.20%) JIRA
3 1 (0.60%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 46 (27.71%) Social Skills
2 26 (15.66%) Telecoms
3 19 (11.45%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (8.43%) Public Sector
5 10 (6.02%) Documentation Skills
5 10 (6.02%) Finance
6 9 (5.42%) Legal
7 5 (3.01%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (3.01%) Police
8 4 (2.41%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.81%) Banking
9 3 (1.81%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.20%) Electronics
11 1 (0.60%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.60%) Aviation
11 1 (0.60%) Local Government
11 1 (0.60%) Marketing
11 1 (0.60%) Military
11 1 (0.60%) Retail
11 1 (0.60%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 51 (30.72%) Network Engineer
2 39 (23.49%) Architect
3 30 (18.07%) Network Architect
4 25 (15.06%) Network Specialist
5 22 (13.25%) Senior
6 20 (12.05%) Designer
7 19 (11.45%) Network Design Specialist
8 15 (9.04%) Design Engineer
8 15 (9.04%) Network Designer
9 13 (7.83%) Network Design Engineer
10 11 (6.63%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 9 (5.42%) Senior Designer
11 9 (5.42%) Senior Network Designer
12 8 (4.82%) Lead
12 8 (4.82%) Senior Network Engineer
13 7 (4.22%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 7 (4.22%) Solutions Architect
14 6 (3.61%) IP Specialist
15 5 (3.01%) Technical Architect
16 4 (2.41%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.22%) NETCONF
1 7 (4.22%) YANG
2 6 (3.61%) 802.1X
3 4 (2.41%) OpenConfig
3 4 (2.41%) RESTCONF
4 2 (1.20%) Django
4 2 (1.20%) OpenID
4 2 (1.20%) REST
4 2 (1.20%) SAML
5 1 (0.60%) JSON
5 1 (0.60%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (24.10%) Data Centre
2 14 (8.43%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (5.42%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (4.82%) Cloud Native
5 4 (2.41%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (2.41%) IoT
5 4 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.81%) Distributed Architecture
6 3 (1.81%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.81%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.20%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (1.20%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.20%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.20%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.20%) SCADA
7 2 (1.20%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.60%) EMC VMAX
8 1 (0.60%) EMC VNX
8 1 (0.60%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 9 (5.42%) Windows
2 7 (4.22%) Linux
3 6 (3.61%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.60%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 33 (19.88%) Network Architecture
2 24 (14.46%) High Availability
3 21 (12.65%) Load Balancing
3 21 (12.65%) Migration
3 21 (12.65%) Problem-Solving
4 18 (10.84%) Roadmaps
5 15 (9.04%) Stakeholder Management
6 14 (8.43%) Data Protection
6 14 (8.43%) Security Architecture
7 13 (7.83%) Cybersecurity
7 13 (7.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 12 (7.23%) Infrastructure as Code
8 12 (7.23%) TOGAF
8 12 (7.23%) Zero Trust
9 11 (6.63%) Capacity Planning
9 11 (6.63%) ITIL
9 11 (6.63%) Mentoring
9 11 (6.63%) Network Segmentation
10 10 (6.02%) DevOps
10 10 (6.02%) Network Management
Programming Languages
1 24 (14.46%) Python
2 8 (4.82%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.61%) Bash
4 2 (1.20%) Bicep
4 2 (1.20%) Perl
4 2 (1.20%) SQL
Qualifications
1 62 (37.35%) Security Cleared
2 45 (27.11%) Cisco Certification
3 37 (22.29%) SC Cleared
4 36 (21.69%) CCNP
5 24 (14.46%) DV Cleared
6 20 (12.05%) CCIE
7 15 (9.04%) Degree
8 13 (7.83%) CCNA
9 11 (6.63%) JNCIS
10 10 (6.02%) Azure Certification
11 9 (5.42%) AWS Certification
12 8 (4.82%) JNCIE
13 7 (4.22%) CISSP
14 4 (2.41%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (2.41%) CCSP
14 4 (2.41%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (2.41%) JNCIP
15 3 (1.81%) CCIE Security
15 3 (1.81%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
16 2 (1.20%) BC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.42%) NIST
2 7 (4.22%) GDPR
2 7 (4.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (3.01%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.81%) NCSC
4 3 (1.81%) SLA
5 2 (1.20%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.60%) DO-160
6 1 (0.60%) NIST 800
System Software
1 15 (9.04%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (6.63%) VMware NSX
3 7 (4.22%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.61%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.81%) KVM
6 2 (1.20%) vSphere
7 1 (0.60%) Docker
7 1 (0.60%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.60%) Firmware
7 1 (0.60%) NFS
7 1 (0.60%) RHEV
7 1 (0.60%) SRDF
7 1 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.60%) Xen
Systems Management
1 21 (12.65%) Ansible
2 14 (8.43%) FortiGate
2 14 (8.43%) Terraform
3 7 (4.22%) Kubernetes
4 5 (3.01%) Nagios
5 2 (1.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (1.20%) McAfee ePO
5 2 (1.20%) SCCM
6 1 (0.60%) Argo
6 1 (0.60%) EMC NetWorker
6 1 (0.60%) EMC VPLEX
6 1 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.60%) Grafana
6 1 (0.60%) Iperf
6 1 (0.60%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.60%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.60%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.60%) SnapMirror
6 1 (0.60%) SnapVault
6 1 (0.60%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 79 (47.59%) Cisco
2 33 (19.88%) Palo Alto
3 31 (18.67%) Juniper
4 24 (14.46%) Fortinet
4 24 (14.46%) Microsoft
5 22 (13.25%) F5
6 20 (12.05%) VMware
7 17 (10.24%) Meraki
7 17 (10.24%) Nokia
8 12 (7.23%) Ericsson
9 10 (6.02%) SolarWinds
10 9 (5.42%) Aruba
10 9 (5.42%) CheckPoint
10 9 (5.42%) Huawei
11 4 (2.41%) Ekahau
12 3 (1.81%) IBM
12 3 (1.81%) McAfee
12 3 (1.81%) NetScout
12 3 (1.81%) Zscaler
13 2 (1.20%) Forcepoint