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

6 months to
23 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 426 334 326
Rank change year-on-year -92 -8 +103
Contract jobs citing Network Design 162 153 232
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.41% 0.62% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.68% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 114 89 117
10th Percentile £413 £400 £363
25th Percentile £463 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% +15.79% -4.52%
75th Percentile £574 £625 £550
90th Percentile £675 £728 £638
UK median daily rate £519 £538 £475
% change year-on-year -3.53% +13.16% -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 33,832 22,384 32,276
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.21% 91.08% 86.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,627 14,686 21,247
10th Percentile £315 £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 £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £521 £525
% change year-on-year -4.03% -0.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,111 905 2,227
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.79 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.51 £15.91
Median hourly rate £42.50 £31.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.10% -11.43% -6.67%
75th Percentile £67.25 £63.75 £58.75
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.47
UK median hourly rate £39.50 £29.90 £35.00
% change year-on-year +32.11% -14.57% -6.67%

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 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 23 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 23 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 -37 63 £525 +2.44% 12
South East -50 40 £500 -13.04% 11
North of England -81 20 £517 +3.35% 15
South West -31 15 £500 -5.88% 4
North West -52 14 £508 +1.50% 10
West Midlands -56 9 £463 +5.71% 5
Midlands -57 9 £463 +5.71% 5
East of England -20 7 £475 +18.75% 4
Yorkshire -53 6 £585 +16.90%
North East -19 1 - - 5
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 (3.09%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.23%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.62%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.62%) Confluence
3 1 (0.62%) Smallworld
Applications
1 8 (4.94%) MS Visio
2 6 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.62%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.62%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.23%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 34 (20.99%) Azure
2 20 (12.35%) AWS
3 5 (3.09%) GitHub
4 4 (2.47%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 4 (2.47%) GCP
4 4 (2.47%) PaaS
5 3 (1.85%) IaaS
6 2 (1.23%) Dynamics 365
6 2 (1.23%) IBM Watson
6 2 (1.23%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (0.62%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.62%) Azure Storage
7 1 (0.62%) Datadog
7 1 (0.62%) Entra ID
7 1 (0.62%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.62%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.62%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 60 (37.04%) Firewall
2 51 (31.48%) WAN
3 38 (23.46%) BGP
4 34 (20.99%) VPN
5 33 (20.37%) LAN
6 30 (18.52%) Network Security
7 24 (14.81%) 5G
8 23 (14.20%) MPLS
8 23 (14.20%) OSPF
9 22 (13.58%) VLAN
9 22 (13.58%) Wi-Fi
10 18 (11.11%) SD-WAN
11 16 (9.88%) 4G
11 16 (9.88%) Radio Access Network
11 16 (9.88%) TCP/IP
12 13 (8.02%) IPsec
13 11 (6.79%) DNS
14 10 (6.17%) Wireless
15 9 (5.56%) DHCP
16 8 (4.94%) Cisco IOS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.62%) GIS
Development Applications
1 3 (1.85%) Git
2 2 (1.23%) JIRA
3 1 (0.62%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.62%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 41 (25.31%) Social Skills
2 26 (16.05%) Telecoms
3 13 (8.02%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (8.02%) Public Sector
4 11 (6.79%) Legal
5 10 (6.17%) Finance
6 8 (4.94%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (3.09%) Police
8 3 (1.85%) Banking
8 3 (1.85%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.23%) Electronics
9 2 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.23%) Retail
10 1 (0.62%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.62%) Aviation
10 1 (0.62%) Local Government
10 1 (0.62%) Marketing
10 1 (0.62%) Military
10 1 (0.62%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.62%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 51 (31.48%) Network Engineer
2 34 (20.99%) Architect
3 27 (16.67%) Network Specialist
4 25 (15.43%) Network Architect
5 23 (14.20%) Senior
6 22 (13.58%) Designer
7 21 (12.96%) Network Design Specialist
8 17 (10.49%) Network Designer
9 14 (8.64%) Design Engineer
10 12 (7.41%) Network Design Engineer
11 11 (6.79%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 9 (5.56%) Senior Designer
12 9 (5.56%) Senior Network Designer
12 9 (5.56%) Senior Network Engineer
13 8 (4.94%) Lead
14 6 (3.70%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 6 (3.70%) IP Specialist
15 5 (3.09%) Technical Architect
16 4 (2.47%) Project Manager
16 4 (2.47%) Senior Network Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (4.32%) NETCONF
1 7 (4.32%) YANG
2 6 (3.70%) 802.1X
3 4 (2.47%) OpenConfig
3 4 (2.47%) RESTCONF
4 2 (1.23%) Django
4 2 (1.23%) OpenID
4 2 (1.23%) REST
4 2 (1.23%) SAML
5 1 (0.62%) JSON
5 1 (0.62%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 39 (24.07%) Data Centre
2 16 (9.88%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (5.56%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (4.94%) Cloud Native
5 4 (2.47%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (2.47%) IoT
5 4 (2.47%) Management Information System
5 4 (2.47%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.23%) Distributed Architecture
6 2 (1.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 2 (1.23%) Greenfield Project
6 2 (1.23%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.23%) Private Cloud
6 2 (1.23%) Product Ownership
6 2 (1.23%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.62%) EMC VMAX
7 1 (0.62%) EMC VNX
7 1 (0.62%) Operational Technology
7 1 (0.62%) Public Cloud
7 1 (0.62%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 8 (4.94%) Windows
2 7 (4.32%) Linux
3 6 (3.70%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.23%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.62%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (17.28%) Network Architecture
2 24 (14.81%) High Availability
3 22 (13.58%) Migration
4 20 (12.35%) Problem-Solving
5 17 (10.49%) Load Balancing
6 13 (8.02%) Roadmaps
7 12 (7.41%) Data Protection
7 12 (7.41%) Infrastructure as Code
8 11 (6.79%) Capacity Planning
8 11 (6.79%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 11 (6.79%) Stakeholder Management
9 10 (6.17%) CI/CD
9 10 (6.17%) Continuous Improvement
9 10 (6.17%) Network Segmentation
10 9 (5.56%) DevOps
10 9 (5.56%) Security Architecture
10 9 (5.56%) Technical Leadership
10 9 (5.56%) Zero Trust
11 8 (4.94%) Cybersecurity
11 8 (4.94%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 20 (12.35%) Python
2 8 (4.94%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.70%) Bash
4 2 (1.23%) Bicep
4 2 (1.23%) Perl
4 2 (1.23%) SQL
Qualifications
1 60 (37.04%) Security Cleared
2 41 (25.31%) Cisco Certification
3 37 (22.84%) SC Cleared
4 31 (19.14%) CCNP
5 23 (14.20%) DV Cleared
6 16 (9.88%) CCIE
7 13 (8.02%) CCNA
8 10 (6.17%) Degree
8 10 (6.17%) JNCIS
9 7 (4.32%) Azure Certification
9 7 (4.32%) JNCIE
10 5 (3.09%) AWS Certification
11 3 (1.85%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (1.23%) BC Cleared
12 2 (1.23%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (1.23%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.23%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.23%) PMP
12 2 (1.23%) Project+ Certification
12 2 (1.23%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.47%) NIST
2 3 (1.85%) NCSC
2 3 (1.85%) SLA
3 2 (1.23%) Def Stans
3 2 (1.23%) GDPR
3 2 (1.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.62%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.62%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.62%) DO-160
4 1 (0.62%) NIST 800
System Software
1 12 (7.41%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (4.94%) VMware NSX
3 7 (4.32%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.70%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.85%) KVM
6 2 (1.23%) vSphere
7 1 (0.62%) Docker
7 1 (0.62%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.62%) Firmware
7 1 (0.62%) NFS
7 1 (0.62%) RHEV
7 1 (0.62%) SRDF
7 1 (0.62%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.62%) Xen
Systems Management
1 18 (11.11%) Ansible
2 14 (8.64%) FortiGate
3 11 (6.79%) Terraform
4 7 (4.32%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.09%) Nagios
6 2 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.23%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (1.23%) SCCM
7 1 (0.62%) Argo
7 1 (0.62%) EMC NetWorker
7 1 (0.62%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.62%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.62%) Grafana
7 1 (0.62%) Iperf
7 1 (0.62%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.62%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.62%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.62%) SnapMirror
7 1 (0.62%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.62%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 78 (48.15%) Cisco
2 30 (18.52%) Juniper
2 30 (18.52%) Palo Alto
3 24 (14.81%) Microsoft
4 21 (12.96%) Fortinet
5 19 (11.73%) F5
6 17 (10.49%) VMware
7 16 (9.88%) Nokia
8 14 (8.64%) Meraki
9 12 (7.41%) Ericsson
10 9 (5.56%) Aruba
10 9 (5.56%) CheckPoint
10 9 (5.56%) Huawei
11 7 (4.32%) SolarWinds
12 5 (3.09%) Zscaler
13 4 (2.47%) Ekahau
14 3 (1.85%) IBM
14 3 (1.85%) McAfee
14 3 (1.85%) NetScout
15 2 (1.23%) NetApp