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

6 months to
23 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 414 340 325
Rank change year-on-year -74 -15 +107
Contract jobs citing Network Design 191 141 236
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.44% 0.56% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.52% 0.62% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 127 92 111
10th Percentile £400 £401 £363
25th Percentile £450 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +15.79% -8.43%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £575
90th Percentile £675 £699 £638
UK median daily rate £525 £540 £475
% change year-on-year -2.78% +13.68% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 2
10th Percentile £31.45 £56.13 £24.43
25th Percentile £45.63 £57.81 £26.19
Median hourly rate £60.00 £61.25 £29.25
Median % change year-on-year -2.04% +109.40% -58.21%
75th Percentile £72.02 £65.31 £32.19
90th Percentile £72.72 £67.38 £33.88
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £29.25
% change year-on-year +6.94% +109.40% -58.21%

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 36,943 22,820 31,966
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.26% 91.36% 85.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,357 14,745 20,676
10th Percentile £325 £300 £303
25th Percentile £415 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £730 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £502 £525
% change year-on-year +2.09% -4.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,312 1,098 2,392
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £21.00 £18.13 £16.06
Median hourly rate £47.00 £27.06 £37.63
Median % change year-on-year +73.67% -28.07% +7.07%
75th Percentile £68.55 £55.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.25 £74.13 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +7.14%

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 23 June 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 23 June 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 23 June 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 -41 66 £525 +9.38% 13
South East -57 45 £510 -11.30% 13
North of England -79 34 £575 +21.05% 16
North West -51 23 £575 +21.05% 10
South West -27 16 £565 -11.72% 6
Yorkshire -47 10 £519 +3.80% 5
Midlands -48 10 £413 -25.00% 5
West Midlands -54 10 £413 -25.00% 4
North East -29 7 £650 +18.18% 1
East of England -23 6 £525 +0.96% 2
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 (5.76%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.05%) Apache
2 2 (1.05%) CloudStack
2 2 (1.05%) Confluence
2 2 (1.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.05%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.52%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.52%) Smallworld
Applications
1 7 (3.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 6 (3.14%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.62%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.62%) MS Visio
4 3 (1.57%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.52%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.52%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.05%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 66 (34.55%) Azure
2 51 (26.70%) 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
7 6 (3.14%) IaaS
8 5 (2.62%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.62%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.57%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.57%) OpenShift
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 81 (42.41%) Firewall
2 67 (35.08%) WAN
3 62 (32.46%) BGP
4 49 (25.65%) OSPF
5 36 (18.85%) VPN
6 34 (17.80%) LAN
7 32 (16.75%) SD-WAN
8 31 (16.23%) Network Security
9 29 (15.18%) Wi-Fi
10 27 (14.14%) VLAN
10 27 (14.14%) VXLAN
11 26 (13.61%) MPLS
12 24 (12.57%) 5G
13 22 (11.52%) Ethernet VPN
14 21 (10.99%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 20 (10.47%) 4G
16 17 (8.90%) BIG-IP
16 17 (8.90%) Radio Access Network
17 16 (8.38%) DNS
18 15 (7.85%) Wireless
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 23 (12.04%) Telecoms
3 20 (10.47%) Public Sector
4 19 (9.95%) Analytical Skills
5 11 (5.76%) Legal
6 9 (4.71%) Finance
7 8 (4.19%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.62%) Retail
9 4 (2.09%) Manufacturing
9 4 (2.09%) Police
10 3 (1.57%) Banking
10 3 (1.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.57%) Military
11 2 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
12 1 (0.52%) Aviation
12 1 (0.52%) Polish Language
12 1 (0.52%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.52%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 53 (27.75%) Network Engineer
2 44 (23.04%) Senior
3 40 (20.94%) Architect
4 31 (16.23%) Network Specialist
5 26 (13.61%) Network Architect
6 21 (10.99%) Network Design Specialist
7 19 (9.95%) Designer
8 17 (8.90%) Senior Network Engineer
9 16 (8.38%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 14 (7.33%) Network Designer
11 13 (6.81%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (4.71%) Lead
13 8 (4.19%) Design Engineer
13 8 (4.19%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
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%) Security Architect
15 5 (2.62%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 5 (2.62%) Network Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.24%) NETCONF
1 10 (5.24%) YANG
2 8 (4.19%) REST
3 7 (3.66%) 802.1X
4 4 (2.09%) Azure Blueprints
5 3 (1.57%) OpenConfig
5 3 (1.57%) RESTCONF
6 2 (1.05%) Django
6 2 (1.05%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 59 (30.89%) Data Centre
2 43 (22.51%) Hybrid Cloud
3 29 (15.18%) Cloud Native
4 7 (3.66%) Data Protection Act
4 7 (3.66%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.14%) PKI
6 5 (2.62%) Security Posture
7 4 (2.09%) CMDB
7 4 (2.09%) IoT
7 4 (2.09%) Operational Technology
7 4 (2.09%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.57%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.57%) Data Fabric
8 3 (1.57%) Onboarding
8 3 (1.57%) Private Cloud
8 3 (1.57%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.57%) SCADA
9 2 (1.05%) Enterprise Storage
9 2 (1.05%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (1.05%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 19 (9.95%) Linux
2 17 (8.90%) Windows
3 12 (6.28%) Windows Server
4 7 (3.66%) 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 42 (21.99%) Network Architecture
2 36 (18.85%) High Availability
2 36 (18.85%) Infrastructure as Code
3 33 (17.28%) Zero Trust
4 29 (15.18%) DevOps
4 29 (15.18%) Problem-Solving
5 28 (14.66%) Roadmaps
6 27 (14.14%) Load Balancing
6 27 (14.14%) Migration
7 26 (13.61%) CI/CD
8 22 (11.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 20 (10.47%) Stakeholder Management
10 18 (9.42%) Project Delivery
10 18 (9.42%) Validation
11 17 (8.90%) Capacity Planning
11 17 (8.90%) Continuous Improvement
12 16 (8.38%) Cybersecurity
13 15 (7.85%) TOGAF
14 14 (7.33%) Network Segmentation
14 14 (7.33%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 42 (21.99%) Python
2 10 (5.24%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.66%) Bicep
4 5 (2.62%) Bash
5 2 (1.05%) SQL
6 1 (0.52%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 61 (31.94%) Security Cleared
2 44 (23.04%) Cisco Certification
3 38 (19.90%) SC Cleared
4 30 (15.71%) CCNP
5 17 (8.90%) CCIE
5 17 (8.90%) DV Cleared
6 11 (5.76%) AWS Certification
6 11 (5.76%) Azure Certification
6 11 (5.76%) Degree
6 11 (5.76%) JNCIE
7 5 (2.62%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 5 (2.62%) CCNA
7 5 (2.62%) CISSP
7 5 (2.62%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 4 (2.09%) CISM
9 3 (1.57%) JNCIS
10 2 (1.05%) BC Cleared
10 2 (1.05%) CEH
10 2 (1.05%) ISSAP
10 2 (1.05%) JNCIP
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 17 (8.90%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (5.76%) VMware NSX
3 9 (4.71%) Active Directory
4 7 (3.66%) Hyper-V
4 7 (3.66%) vSphere
5 3 (1.57%) Firmware
5 3 (1.57%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.05%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (1.05%) KVM
6 2 (1.05%) NFS
6 2 (1.05%) SRDF
7 1 (0.52%) Docker
Systems Management
1 42 (21.99%) Ansible
2 36 (18.85%) Terraform
3 10 (5.24%) Kubernetes
4 9 (4.71%) FortiGate
5 5 (2.62%) Grafana
5 5 (2.62%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.57%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.05%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (1.05%) Argo
7 2 (1.05%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.05%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (1.05%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (1.05%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.05%) Nagios
7 2 (1.05%) NetBackup
7 2 (1.05%) SCCM
7 2 (1.05%) SnapMirror
7 2 (1.05%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.52%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.52%) Nmap
Vendors
1 72 (37.70%) Cisco
2 44 (23.04%) Palo Alto
3 35 (18.32%) F5
4 31 (16.23%) Fortinet
5 24 (12.57%) Microsoft
6 23 (12.04%) Juniper
7 21 (10.99%) VMware
8 20 (10.47%) Arista
9 19 (9.95%) Aruba
10 15 (7.85%) Nokia
11 14 (7.33%) Ericsson
12 13 (6.81%) Huawei
13 11 (5.76%) CheckPoint
14 8 (4.19%) Meraki
14 8 (4.19%) SolarWinds
14 8 (4.19%) Zscaler
15 7 (3.66%) Splunk
16 5 (2.62%) Google
17 4 (2.09%) Qualys
17 4 (2.09%) Veeam