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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 421 344 313
Rank change year-on-year -77 -31 +141
Contract jobs citing Network Design 166 143 233
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.41% 0.58% 0.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.64% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 116 85 111
10th Percentile £413 £405 £363
25th Percentile £474 £463 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.68% +15.79% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £575
90th Percentile £675 £715 £638
UK median daily rate £519 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -1.14% +10.53% -7.32%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 1
10th Percentile £27.85 - -
25th Percentile £33.25 £66.25 £23.25
Median hourly rate £54.25 £67.50 £23.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.63% +187.23% -66.43%
75th Percentile £71.76 £68.75 £23.75
90th Percentile £72.23 - -
UK median hourly rate £54.25 £67.50 £23.50
% change year-on-year -19.63% +187.23% -66.43%

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 34,677 22,323 31,499
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.63% 91.22% 86.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,105 14,603 20,624
10th Percentile £321 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £505 £515 £525
% change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,142 946 2,251
10th Percentile £15.31 £14.41 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £15.97
Median hourly rate £47.00 £29.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.07% -20.55% +0.69%
75th Percentile £67.96 £62.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.05 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.18 £36.02
% change year-on-year +50.82% -21.77% +1.04%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 -44 56 £525 +9.38% 18
South East -57 42 £500 -13.04% 16
North of England -81 29 £565 +13.00% 11
North West -46 21 £555 +13.85% 10
South West -20 14 £533 -7.39% 3
West Midlands -55 8 £425 -18.35% 4
Midlands -61 8 £425 -18.35% 4
East of England -23 7 £525 +31.25% 1
Yorkshire -57 7 £585 +16.90%
North East -18 3 £650 +18.18% 1
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 7 (4.22%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.20%) Apache
2 2 (1.20%) CloudStack
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 7 (4.22%) MS Visio
2 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.60%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.60%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.20%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.60%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 46 (27.71%) Azure
2 33 (19.88%) AWS
3 10 (6.02%) OCI
4 6 (3.61%) SaaS
5 5 (3.01%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (3.01%) GCP
5 5 (3.01%) GitHub
5 5 (3.01%) IaaS
6 4 (2.41%) PaaS
7 2 (1.20%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.20%) Microsoft 365
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%) Dynamics 365
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 72 (43.37%) Firewall
2 59 (35.54%) WAN
3 47 (28.31%) BGP
4 35 (21.08%) OSPF
5 33 (19.88%) VPN
6 32 (19.28%) LAN
7 28 (16.87%) Network Security
8 27 (16.27%) Wi-Fi
9 23 (13.86%) 5G
9 23 (13.86%) SD-WAN
10 21 (12.65%) MPLS
10 21 (12.65%) VLAN
11 20 (12.05%) VXLAN
12 15 (9.04%) 4G
12 15 (9.04%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
12 15 (9.04%) Radio Access Network
12 15 (9.04%) TCP/IP
13 14 (8.43%) Ethernet VPN
14 13 (7.83%) DNS
15 12 (7.23%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.60%) GIS
Development Applications
1 8 (4.82%) GitLab
2 2 (1.20%) Git
2 2 (1.20%) JIRA
3 1 (0.60%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 36 (21.69%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.25%) Telecoms
3 18 (10.84%) Public Sector
4 13 (7.83%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (5.42%) Finance
5 9 (5.42%) Legal
6 7 (4.22%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.41%) Police
8 3 (1.81%) Banking
8 3 (1.81%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.81%) Retail
9 2 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.20%) Military
10 1 (0.60%) Aviation
10 1 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.60%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 50 (30.12%) Network Engineer
2 36 (21.69%) Senior
3 28 (16.87%) Architect
3 28 (16.87%) Network Specialist
4 24 (14.46%) Designer
5 20 (12.05%) Network Architect
5 20 (12.05%) Network Design Specialist
6 19 (11.45%) Network Designer
7 12 (7.23%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 12 (7.23%) Senior Network Engineer
8 11 (6.63%) Design Engineer
8 11 (6.63%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 10 (6.02%) Network Design Engineer
10 9 (5.42%) Senior Designer
10 9 (5.42%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 9 (5.42%) Senior Network Designer
11 8 (4.82%) Lead
12 6 (3.61%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
12 6 (3.61%) Senior Network Specialist
13 5 (3.01%) IP Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.82%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.82%) YANG
2 7 (4.22%) 802.1X
3 5 (3.01%) REST
4 3 (1.81%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.81%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.20%) Django
5 2 (1.20%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.60%) JSON
6 1 (0.60%) OpenID
6 1 (0.60%) SAML
6 1 (0.60%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 52 (31.33%) Data Centre
2 28 (16.87%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (10.24%) Cloud Native
4 7 (4.22%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.41%) IoT
5 4 (2.41%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.81%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (1.81%) Public Cloud
6 3 (1.81%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.20%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (1.20%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.20%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.20%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.20%) PKI
7 2 (1.20%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.20%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.60%) Distributed Architecture
8 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Storage
8 1 (0.60%) Hedge funds
8 1 (0.60%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 11 (6.63%) Windows
2 10 (6.02%) Linux
3 8 (4.82%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.20%) Ubuntu
4 2 (1.20%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.60%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (21.69%) Network Architecture
2 30 (18.07%) High Availability
3 28 (16.87%) Load Balancing
4 23 (13.86%) Migration
5 22 (13.25%) Infrastructure as Code
6 21 (12.65%) Problem-Solving
7 20 (12.05%) Zero Trust
8 19 (11.45%) CI/CD
9 18 (10.84%) DevOps
10 16 (9.64%) Roadmaps
11 14 (8.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 11 (6.63%) Capacity Planning
12 11 (6.63%) Network Segmentation
13 10 (6.02%) Continuous Improvement
13 10 (6.02%) Data Protection
13 10 (6.02%) Project Delivery
13 10 (6.02%) Stakeholder Management
14 9 (5.42%) Observability
14 9 (5.42%) Security Architecture
14 9 (5.42%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 28 (16.87%) Python
2 6 (3.61%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.41%) Bash
4 3 (1.81%) Bicep
5 2 (1.20%) SQL
Qualifications
1 59 (35.54%) Security Cleared
2 43 (25.90%) Cisco Certification
3 37 (22.29%) SC Cleared
4 32 (19.28%) CCNP
5 19 (11.45%) DV Cleared
6 15 (9.04%) CCIE
7 11 (6.63%) CCNA
8 10 (6.02%) Azure Certification
9 8 (4.82%) AWS Certification
9 8 (4.82%) JNCIE
9 8 (4.82%) JNCIS
10 7 (4.22%) Degree
11 5 (3.01%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (3.01%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (1.20%) BC Cleared
12 2 (1.20%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (1.20%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.20%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.20%) PMP
12 2 (1.20%) Project+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.01%) NIST
2 3 (1.81%) NCSC
2 3 (1.81%) SLA
3 2 (1.20%) GDPR
3 2 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.20%) QA
4 1 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.60%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.60%) NIST 800
System Software
1 16 (9.64%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (6.02%) VMware NSX
3 7 (4.22%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.61%) Hyper-V
5 5 (3.01%) vSphere
6 3 (1.81%) KVM
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 28 (16.87%) Ansible
2 20 (12.05%) Terraform
3 10 (6.02%) FortiGate
4 9 (5.42%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.01%) Nagios
6 3 (1.81%) Grafana
6 3 (1.81%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.20%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (1.20%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.20%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.20%) SCCM
7 2 (1.20%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.60%) Argo
8 1 (0.60%) EMC VPLEX
8 1 (0.60%) Iperf
8 1 (0.60%) Network Intrusion Detection System
8 1 (0.60%) Proxmox
8 1 (0.60%) SnapMirror
8 1 (0.60%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.60%) vRealize
Vendors
1 76 (45.78%) Cisco
2 38 (22.89%) Palo Alto
3 29 (17.47%) F5
4 28 (16.87%) Juniper
5 27 (16.27%) Fortinet
6 21 (12.65%) VMware
7 20 (12.05%) Microsoft
8 17 (10.24%) Aruba
9 15 (9.04%) Nokia
10 14 (8.43%) Arista
11 12 (7.23%) Ericsson
11 12 (7.23%) Meraki
12 11 (6.63%) Huawei
13 9 (5.42%) CheckPoint
14 8 (4.82%) SolarWinds
15 5 (3.01%) Zscaler
16 4 (2.41%) Ekahau
17 3 (1.81%) IBM
17 3 (1.81%) NetScout
17 3 (1.81%) Veeam