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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 461 350 315
Rank change year-on-year -111 -35 +21
Contract jobs citing Network Design 178 155 221
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.38% 0.56% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.45% 0.62% 0.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 109 123
10th Percentile £400 £400 £403
25th Percentile £450 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.89% -9.52% -9.26%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £594
90th Percentile £650 £654 £670
UK median daily rate £505 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +6.32% -9.52% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 1 3
10th Percentile £45.00 - £43.00
25th Percentile £50.00 - £55.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -26.67% +13.67%
75th Percentile £72.25 - -
90th Percentile £80.81 - -
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +19.09% - -16.64%

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 39,188 25,068 27,886
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.60% 90.98% 86.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,853 15,921 17,051
10th Percentile £325 £298 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £645
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,855 1,537 1,209
10th Percentile £13.91 £14.38 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.60 £17.87 £20.19
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.50 £47.00 £67.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.35 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £39.75 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +58.05% -40.82% -1.16%

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 29 September 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 29 September 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 29 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
London -83 53 £494 +9.72% 72
South East -68 38 £553 +10.50% 28
North of England -66 31 £575 +21.05% 21
North West -47 23 £575 +21.05% 14
Midlands -45 20 £450 +5.88% 18
West Midlands -48 19 £450 +5.88% 11
South West -43 13 £550 -14.06% 15
North East -34 7 £650 +18.18% 2
Yorkshire -35 7 £519 -9.74% 6
East of England -25 6 £500 +21.21% 4
East Midlands - 1 - - 7
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 11 (6.18%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.69%) Apache
2 3 (1.69%) CloudStack
3 2 (1.12%) Confluence
4 1 (0.56%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 8 (4.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (3.93%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.81%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.81%) MS Visio
4 3 (1.69%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.56%) CPLEX
Cloud Services
1 54 (30.34%) Azure
2 48 (26.97%) AWS
3 15 (8.43%) OCI
4 11 (6.18%) GCP
5 10 (5.62%) SaaS
6 8 (4.49%) GitHub
7 7 (3.93%) OpenShift
8 6 (3.37%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 6 (3.37%) IaaS
9 5 (2.81%) Entra ID
10 4 (2.25%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (1.69%) AWS Control Tower
11 3 (1.69%) AWS Direct Connect
11 3 (1.69%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (1.12%) Azure Storage
12 2 (1.12%) Datadog
12 2 (1.12%) PaaS
13 1 (0.56%) Azure Key Vault
13 1 (0.56%) Microsoft 365
13 1 (0.56%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 78 (43.82%) Firewall
2 64 (35.96%) BGP
3 56 (31.46%) WAN
4 47 (26.40%) OSPF
5 37 (20.79%) LAN
6 35 (19.66%) VLAN
7 34 (19.10%) Network Security
8 29 (16.29%) VPN
9 28 (15.73%) SD-WAN
10 23 (12.92%) VXLAN
11 22 (12.36%) 5G
11 22 (12.36%) Wi-Fi
12 21 (11.80%) 4G
13 20 (11.24%) Ethernet VPN
13 20 (11.24%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 20 (11.24%) MPLS
14 19 (10.67%) WLAN
15 17 (9.55%) BIG-IP
15 17 (9.55%) Radio Access Network
16 16 (8.99%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.69%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 14 (7.87%) GitLab
2 3 (1.69%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.12%) JIRA
4 1 (0.56%) Git
General
1 42 (23.60%) Social Skills
2 28 (15.73%) Telecoms
3 19 (10.67%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (9.55%) Public Sector
5 11 (6.18%) Manufacturing
6 9 (5.06%) Legal
7 6 (3.37%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (3.37%) Retail
8 4 (2.25%) Finance
9 3 (1.69%) Billing
9 3 (1.69%) Cyber-Physical System
9 3 (1.69%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.12%) Agriculture
10 2 (1.12%) Automotive
10 2 (1.12%) Military
11 1 (0.56%) Aviation
11 1 (0.56%) Local Government
11 1 (0.56%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.56%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.56%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 60 (33.71%) Network Engineer
2 41 (23.03%) Senior
3 35 (19.66%) Architect
4 23 (12.92%) Network Specialist
5 21 (11.80%) Network Architect
5 21 (11.80%) Senior Network Engineer
6 16 (8.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 13 (7.30%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 12 (6.74%) Network Design Specialist
9 11 (6.18%) Designer
9 11 (6.18%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
9 11 (6.18%) Senior Network Specialist
10 10 (5.62%) Design Engineer
11 8 (4.49%) Consultant
11 8 (4.49%) RAN Engineer
11 8 (4.49%) Security Architect
12 7 (3.93%) Lead
12 7 (3.93%) Network Design Engineer
12 7 (3.93%) Network Designer
12 7 (3.93%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (23.60%) Terraform
2 9 (5.06%) NETCONF
2 9 (5.06%) YANG
3 7 (3.93%) 802.1X
4 6 (3.37%) REST
5 4 (2.25%) Azure Blueprints
5 4 (2.25%) OpenConfig
5 4 (2.25%) RESTCONF
6 3 (1.69%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.56%) eBPF
7 1 (0.56%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 58 (32.58%) Data Centre
2 41 (23.03%) Hybrid Cloud
3 26 (14.61%) Cloud Native
4 9 (5.06%) Operational Technology
5 8 (4.49%) Public Cloud
6 6 (3.37%) Private Cloud
7 5 (2.81%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (2.81%) IoT
7 5 (2.81%) Management Information System
7 5 (2.81%) PKI
8 4 (2.25%) CMDB
8 4 (2.25%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (2.25%) Handset
8 4 (2.25%) SCADA
8 4 (2.25%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.69%) Data Fabric
9 3 (1.69%) Enterprise Software
9 3 (1.69%) Onboarding
9 3 (1.69%) Product Ownership
10 2 (1.12%) EMC VNX
Operating Systems
1 17 (9.55%) Linux
2 14 (7.87%) Windows
3 8 (4.49%) Ubuntu
3 8 (4.49%) Windows Server
4 4 (2.25%) Alpine Linux
4 4 (2.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.12%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (21.35%) Stakeholder Management
2 34 (19.10%) Zero Trust
3 32 (17.98%) High Availability
3 32 (17.98%) Infrastructure as Code
4 30 (16.85%) Network Architecture
5 29 (16.29%) Migration
6 28 (15.73%) Roadmaps
7 27 (15.17%) DevOps
8 26 (14.61%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 25 (14.04%) Problem-Solving
9 25 (14.04%) Project Delivery
10 23 (12.92%) Load Balancing
11 22 (12.36%) CI/CD
12 20 (11.24%) Validation
13 18 (10.11%) Cybersecurity
14 17 (9.55%) Technical Leadership
15 15 (8.43%) Continuous Improvement
16 14 (7.87%) Capacity Planning
16 14 (7.87%) Decision-Making
17 13 (7.30%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 39 (21.91%) Python
2 7 (3.93%) Bicep
3 5 (2.81%) PowerShell
4 2 (1.12%) Bash
5 1 (0.56%) ActionScript
5 1 (0.56%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 53 (29.78%) Security Cleared
2 35 (19.66%) SC Cleared
3 34 (19.10%) Cisco Certification
4 23 (12.92%) CCNP
5 14 (7.87%) CCIE
5 14 (7.87%) DV Cleared
6 10 (5.62%) JNCIE
7 9 (5.06%) AWS Certification
8 8 (4.49%) Degree
9 7 (3.93%) Azure Certification
10 6 (3.37%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 5 (2.81%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.81%) CISSP
12 4 (2.25%) CISM
13 2 (1.12%) CCNA
13 2 (1.12%) ISSAP
13 2 (1.12%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (1.12%) NCDA
13 2 (1.12%) NCIE
14 1 (0.56%) CEH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.18%) NIST
2 8 (4.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.69%) Actionable Recommendations
3 3 (1.69%) NIST 800
3 3 (1.69%) SOC 2
4 2 (1.12%) GDPR
4 2 (1.12%) GxP
4 2 (1.12%) HIPAA
4 2 (1.12%) QA
4 2 (1.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 1 (0.56%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.56%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.56%) NCSC
5 1 (0.56%) SLA
System Software
1 14 (7.87%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (5.06%) vSphere
3 7 (3.93%) VMware NSX
4 5 (2.81%) Active Directory
5 4 (2.25%) FreeRADIUS
6 3 (1.69%) Firmware
6 3 (1.69%) Hyper-V
6 3 (1.69%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.12%) Docker
7 2 (1.12%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (1.12%) NFS
7 2 (1.12%) SRDF
8 1 (0.56%) KVM
Systems Management
1 41 (23.03%) Ansible
2 10 (5.62%) Kubernetes
3 9 (5.06%) Grafana
3 9 (5.06%) Prometheus
4 8 (4.49%) FortiGate
5 3 (1.69%) Check_MK
5 3 (1.69%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.12%) Argo
6 2 (1.12%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (1.12%) EMC VPLEX
6 2 (1.12%) NetBackup
6 2 (1.12%) SnapMirror
6 2 (1.12%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.56%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.56%) QRadar
7 1 (0.56%) SCCM
7 1 (0.56%) Suricata
7 1 (0.56%) vRealize
Vendors
1 71 (39.89%) Cisco
2 43 (24.16%) Palo Alto
3 41 (23.03%) Fortinet
4 35 (19.66%) F5
5 23 (12.92%) Arista
6 22 (12.36%) Aruba
7 20 (11.24%) Juniper
8 18 (10.11%) Microsoft
9 17 (9.55%) Nokia
10 16 (8.99%) Ericsson
11 15 (8.43%) VMware
12 9 (5.06%) Zscaler
13 7 (3.93%) CheckPoint
13 7 (3.93%) Huawei
13 7 (3.93%) Splunk
14 5 (2.81%) Google
14 5 (2.81%) Meraki
14 5 (2.81%) ServiceNow
14 5 (2.81%) SolarWinds
14 5 (2.81%) Veeam