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

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 432 352 315
Rank change year-on-year -80 -37 +113
Contract jobs citing Network Design 191 160 245
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.43% 0.59% 0.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.50% 0.65% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 125 109 115
10th Percentile £388 £400 £363
25th Percentile £425 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +15.79% -13.64%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £575
90th Percentile £665 £678 £645
UK median daily rate £519 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +3.80% +5.26% -13.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 3
10th Percentile £32.65 £56.13 £25.60
25th Percentile £50.31 £57.81 £29.13
Median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% +75.00% -50.00%
75th Percentile £72.66 £65.31 £55.00
90th Percentile £78.86 £67.38 £67.00
UK median hourly rate £71.00 £61.25 £35.00
% change year-on-year +15.92% +75.00% -50.00%

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 38,339 24,527 31,778
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.54% 90.74% 85.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,173 15,771 20,632
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £645
90th Percentile £733 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £518 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +2.48% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,381 1,262 2,268
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.21 £12.86
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.98 £16.25
Median hourly rate £47.00 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +86.88% -34.02% -6.09%
75th Percentile £68.75 £54.00 £62.00
90th Percentile £82.50 £70.16 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% -6.25%

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 10 July 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 10 July 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 10 July 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 -49 60 £525 +13.51% 18
South East -56 46 £513 -10.87% 11
North of England -86 35 £575 +21.05% 13
North West -52 24 £575 +21.05% 9
South West -28 18 £533 -16.80% 10
Yorkshire -43 10 £519 +3.80% 4
Midlands -57 10 £413 -2.94% 3
West Midlands -68 10 £413 -2.94% 2
East of England -27 7 £525 +0.96% 3
North East -31 7 £650 +18.18%
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 14 (7.33%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.57%) Apache
2 3 (1.57%) CloudStack
3 2 (1.05%) Confluence
3 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.05%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.52%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.52%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (5.24%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (4.71%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (4.19%) Microsoft Excel
4 7 (3.66%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.57%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.52%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.52%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 62 (32.46%) Azure
2 53 (27.75%) AWS
3 15 (7.85%) OCI
4 10 (5.24%) GCP
4 10 (5.24%) SaaS
5 9 (4.71%) GitHub
6 7 (3.66%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (3.66%) IaaS
7 6 (3.14%) OpenShift
8 5 (2.62%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.62%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.57%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.57%) PaaS
10 2 (1.05%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.05%) Datadog
10 2 (1.05%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (1.05%) IBM Watson
10 2 (1.05%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (0.52%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 84 (43.98%) Firewall
2 66 (34.55%) BGP
2 66 (34.55%) WAN
3 50 (26.18%) OSPF
4 37 (19.37%) VPN
5 34 (17.80%) LAN
6 32 (16.75%) Network Security
7 31 (16.23%) SD-WAN
8 30 (15.71%) Wi-Fi
9 29 (15.18%) MPLS
10 27 (14.14%) VLAN
10 27 (14.14%) VXLAN
11 26 (13.61%) 5G
12 22 (11.52%) 4G
12 22 (11.52%) Ethernet VPN
13 21 (10.99%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 18 (9.42%) Radio Access Network
15 17 (8.90%) BIG-IP
16 16 (8.38%) DNS
16 16 (8.38%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.57%) Metadata
2 1 (0.52%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.81%) GitLab
2 4 (2.09%) JIRA
3 3 (1.57%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.52%) Git
4 1 (0.52%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 44 (23.04%) Social Skills
2 28 (14.66%) Telecoms
3 22 (11.52%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (9.95%) Public Sector
5 9 (4.71%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (4.19%) Legal
7 7 (3.66%) Finance
8 5 (2.62%) Retail
9 3 (1.57%) Banking
9 3 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.57%) Police
10 2 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.05%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.05%) Military
11 1 (0.52%) Aviation
11 1 (0.52%) Billing
11 1 (0.52%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.52%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 55 (28.80%) Network Engineer
2 43 (22.51%) Senior
3 42 (21.99%) Architect
4 31 (16.23%) Network Specialist
5 27 (14.14%) Network Architect
6 21 (10.99%) Network Design Specialist
7 19 (9.95%) Senior Network Engineer
8 17 (8.90%) Designer
9 16 (8.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (6.81%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (6.28%) Network Designer
12 9 (4.71%) Design Engineer
13 8 (4.19%) Security Architect
13 8 (4.19%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
13 8 (4.19%) Senior Network Specialist
14 7 (3.66%) IP Architect
14 7 (3.66%) Lead
15 6 (3.14%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
16 5 (2.62%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
16 5 (2.62%) Network Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.81%) NETCONF
1 13 (6.81%) YANG
2 8 (4.19%) REST
3 7 (3.66%) 802.1X
4 6 (3.14%) OpenConfig
4 6 (3.14%) RESTCONF
5 4 (2.09%) Azure Blueprints
6 3 (1.57%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (1.05%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 60 (31.41%) Data Centre
2 47 (24.61%) Hybrid Cloud
3 29 (15.18%) Cloud Native
4 8 (4.19%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (4.19%) Public Cloud
5 7 (3.66%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.14%) Analytical Mindset
6 6 (3.14%) PKI
6 6 (3.14%) Private Cloud
7 5 (2.62%) Security Posture
8 4 (2.09%) CMDB
8 4 (2.09%) IoT
8 4 (2.09%) Operational Technology
9 3 (1.57%) Data Fabric
9 3 (1.57%) Onboarding
9 3 (1.57%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.57%) SCADA
10 2 (1.05%) Enterprise Storage
10 2 (1.05%) Replication
10 2 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 18 (9.42%) Linux
2 16 (8.38%) Windows
3 13 (6.81%) Windows Server
4 8 (4.19%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.09%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (2.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.05%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (1.05%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (20.94%) Network Architecture
2 35 (18.32%) High Availability
3 34 (17.80%) Infrastructure as Code
3 34 (17.80%) Zero Trust
4 30 (15.71%) DevOps
5 29 (15.18%) Migration
6 28 (14.66%) Roadmaps
7 27 (14.14%) Load Balancing
7 27 (14.14%) Problem-Solving
8 24 (12.57%) CI/CD
9 23 (12.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 22 (11.52%) Project Delivery
11 20 (10.47%) Stakeholder Management
12 19 (9.95%) Capacity Planning
13 18 (9.42%) Continuous Improvement
13 18 (9.42%) Technical Leadership
13 18 (9.42%) Validation
14 16 (8.38%) Cybersecurity
15 15 (7.85%) Network Virtualisation
15 15 (7.85%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 46 (24.08%) Python
2 8 (4.19%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.66%) Bicep
4 3 (1.57%) Bash
5 1 (0.52%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 60 (31.41%) Security Cleared
2 45 (23.56%) Cisco Certification
3 37 (19.37%) SC Cleared
4 30 (15.71%) CCNP
5 20 (10.47%) CCIE
6 17 (8.90%) DV Cleared
7 14 (7.33%) JNCIE
8 11 (5.76%) Degree
9 10 (5.24%) AWS Certification
9 10 (5.24%) Azure Certification
10 6 (3.14%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 6 (3.14%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 5 (2.62%) CISSP
12 4 (2.09%) CISM
13 2 (1.05%) CCNA
13 2 (1.05%) CEH
13 2 (1.05%) ISSAP
13 2 (1.05%) JNCIP
13 2 (1.05%) JNCIS
13 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.24%) NIST
2 4 (2.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.57%) NCSC
3 3 (1.57%) SLA
4 2 (1.05%) GDPR
4 2 (1.05%) HIPAA
4 2 (1.05%) NIST 800
4 2 (1.05%) QA
4 2 (1.05%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.52%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.52%) Def Stans
System Software
1 20 (10.47%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (6.81%) VMware NSX
3 10 (5.24%) vSphere
4 9 (4.71%) Active Directory
5 7 (3.66%) Hyper-V
6 3 (1.57%) Firmware
6 3 (1.57%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.05%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (1.05%) KVM
7 2 (1.05%) NFS
7 2 (1.05%) SRDF
8 1 (0.52%) Docker
Systems Management
1 48 (25.13%) Ansible
2 38 (19.90%) Terraform
3 11 (5.76%) Kubernetes
4 6 (3.14%) FortiGate
4 6 (3.14%) Grafana
4 6 (3.14%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.57%) Check_MK
5 3 (1.57%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.05%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.05%) Argo
6 2 (1.05%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (1.05%) EMC VPLEX
6 2 (1.05%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (1.05%) NetBackup
6 2 (1.05%) SCCM
6 2 (1.05%) SnapMirror
6 2 (1.05%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.52%) Cisco Prime
7 1 (0.52%) Nagios
7 1 (0.52%) Nmap
Vendors
1 75 (39.27%) Cisco
2 42 (21.99%) Palo Alto
3 37 (19.37%) F5
4 36 (18.85%) Fortinet
5 26 (13.61%) Juniper
6 25 (13.09%) Microsoft
7 24 (12.57%) VMware
8 20 (10.47%) Arista
9 17 (8.90%) Aruba
10 15 (7.85%) Nokia
11 14 (7.33%) Ericsson
12 13 (6.81%) Huawei
13 12 (6.28%) CheckPoint
14 8 (4.19%) Meraki
14 8 (4.19%) Zscaler
15 7 (3.66%) SolarWinds
15 7 (3.66%) Splunk
16 5 (2.62%) Google
16 5 (2.62%) Veeam
17 4 (2.09%) Qualys