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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 429 355 310
Rank change year-on-year -74 -45 +79
Contract jobs citing Network Design 186 162 230
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.41% 0.59% 0.69%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.65% 0.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 123 112 128
10th Percentile £394 £401 £363
25th Percentile £444 £450 £422
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% +9.47% -15.56%
75th Percentile £585 £632 £575
90th Percentile £650 £688 £650
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +2.50% +5.26% -13.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 3
10th Percentile £31.45 £56.13 £43.00
25th Percentile £45.63 £57.81 £55.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £61.25 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.04% -18.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £72.25 £65.31 -
90th Percentile £80.81 £67.38 -
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £55.00
% change year-on-year +6.94% +11.36% -21.43%

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 38,759 25,103 28,648
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.06% 90.80% 85.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,089 16,021 18,628
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £756
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,530 1,424 1,656
10th Percentile £14.55 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.50 £17.87 £18.50
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +3.24%
75th Percentile £68.75 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £41.50
% change year-on-year +68.99% -39.40% -1.55%

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 13 August 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 13 August 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 13 August 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 -62 65 £525 +10.53% 39
South East -66 39 £511 -11.09% 13
North of England -60 33 £575 +21.05% 16
North West -47 25 £575 +21.05% 4
South West -42 15 £495 -22.66% 5
West Midlands -50 10 £425 - 6
Midlands -60 10 £425 - 11
East of England -15 7 £525 +0.96% 2
Yorkshire -36 7 £519 -9.74% 10
North East - 7 £650 - 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 12 (6.45%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.61%) Apache
2 3 (1.61%) CloudStack
3 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.08%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.54%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.54%) Confluence
4 1 (0.54%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (5.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (4.84%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (4.30%) Microsoft Excel
4 7 (3.76%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.61%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.54%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.54%) CPLEX
6 1 (0.54%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 57 (30.65%) Azure
2 50 (26.88%) AWS
3 15 (8.06%) OCI
4 10 (5.38%) GCP
4 10 (5.38%) GitHub
4 10 (5.38%) SaaS
5 7 (3.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 7 (3.76%) OpenShift
6 6 (3.23%) IaaS
7 4 (2.15%) Azure Sentinel
7 4 (2.15%) Entra ID
8 3 (1.61%) AWS Control Tower
9 2 (1.08%) Azure Storage
9 2 (1.08%) Datadog
9 2 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
9 2 (1.08%) PaaS
10 1 (0.54%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.54%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.54%) Microsoft 365
10 1 (0.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 80 (43.01%) Firewall
2 65 (34.95%) BGP
3 58 (31.18%) WAN
4 50 (26.88%) OSPF
5 31 (16.67%) VPN
6 30 (16.13%) 5G
6 30 (16.13%) LAN
6 30 (16.13%) Network Security
6 30 (16.13%) VLAN
7 28 (15.05%) SD-WAN
7 28 (15.05%) Wi-Fi
8 27 (14.52%) 4G
8 27 (14.52%) VXLAN
9 22 (11.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
9 22 (11.83%) MPLS
9 22 (11.83%) Radio Access Network
10 20 (10.75%) Ethernet VPN
11 17 (9.14%) BIG-IP
12 15 (8.06%) DNS
12 15 (8.06%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.61%) Metadata
2 1 (0.54%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.99%) GitLab
2 3 (1.61%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.08%) JIRA
4 1 (0.54%) Git
General
1 42 (22.58%) Social Skills
2 29 (15.59%) Telecoms
3 20 (10.75%) Public Sector
4 19 (10.22%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (4.30%) Legal
6 7 (3.76%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (3.76%) Retail
7 6 (3.23%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.69%) Finance
9 3 (1.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.61%) Police
10 2 (1.08%) Banking
10 2 (1.08%) Billing
10 2 (1.08%) Military
11 1 (0.54%) Aviation
11 1 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.54%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.54%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.54%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 57 (30.65%) Network Engineer
2 43 (23.12%) Senior
3 39 (20.97%) Architect
4 34 (18.28%) Network Specialist
5 24 (12.90%) Network Architect
6 22 (11.83%) Network Design Specialist
6 22 (11.83%) Senior Network Engineer
7 17 (9.14%) Designer
8 16 (8.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (6.99%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (6.45%) Network Designer
11 10 (5.38%) Design Engineer
11 10 (5.38%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
11 10 (5.38%) Senior Network Specialist
12 8 (4.30%) Security Architect
13 7 (3.76%) Lead
14 6 (3.23%) IP Architect
14 6 (3.23%) Network Design Engineer
14 6 (3.23%) Solutions Architect
15 5 (2.69%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.91%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.91%) YANG
2 7 (3.76%) 802.1X
3 6 (3.23%) OpenConfig
3 6 (3.23%) REST
3 6 (3.23%) RESTCONF
4 4 (2.15%) Azure Blueprints
5 3 (1.61%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.54%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 58 (31.18%) Data Centre
2 43 (23.12%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (14.52%) Cloud Native
4 8 (4.30%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (4.30%) Public Cloud
5 6 (3.23%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (2.69%) IoT
6 5 (2.69%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.69%) Operational Technology
6 5 (2.69%) PKI
6 5 (2.69%) Private Cloud
7 4 (2.15%) CMDB
7 4 (2.15%) Security Posture
8 3 (1.61%) Data Fabric
8 3 (1.61%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.61%) SCADA
9 2 (1.08%) EMC VNX
9 2 (1.08%) Handset
9 2 (1.08%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.08%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (8.06%) Linux
2 13 (6.99%) Windows
3 10 (5.38%) Windows Server
4 8 (4.30%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.15%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (2.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.08%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (1.08%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (19.35%) High Availability
1 36 (19.35%) Network Architecture
2 35 (18.82%) Zero Trust
3 32 (17.20%) Infrastructure as Code
4 28 (15.05%) DevOps
5 27 (14.52%) Problem-Solving
5 27 (14.52%) Stakeholder Management
6 26 (13.98%) Load Balancing
6 26 (13.98%) Migration
7 25 (13.44%) Roadmaps
8 23 (12.37%) CI/CD
8 23 (12.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 23 (12.37%) Project Delivery
9 19 (10.22%) Technical Leadership
10 18 (9.68%) Capacity Planning
10 18 (9.68%) Continuous Improvement
10 18 (9.68%) Validation
11 16 (8.60%) Cybersecurity
12 13 (6.99%) Network Virtualisation
12 13 (6.99%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 43 (23.12%) Python
2 7 (3.76%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.23%) Bicep
4 2 (1.08%) Bash
5 1 (0.54%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 56 (30.11%) Security Cleared
2 40 (21.51%) Cisco Certification
3 36 (19.35%) SC Cleared
4 26 (13.98%) CCNP
5 17 (9.14%) CCIE
6 14 (7.53%) DV Cleared
7 12 (6.45%) JNCIE
8 9 (4.84%) AWS Certification
8 9 (4.84%) Azure Certification
9 8 (4.30%) Degree
10 6 (3.23%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 5 (2.69%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.69%) CISSP
12 4 (2.15%) CISM
13 3 (1.61%) CCNA
14 2 (1.08%) ISSAP
14 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (1.08%) NCDA
14 2 (1.08%) NCIE
14 2 (1.08%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.84%) NIST
2 4 (2.15%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.61%) NIST 800
4 2 (1.08%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (1.08%) GDPR
4 2 (1.08%) GxP
4 2 (1.08%) HIPAA
4 2 (1.08%) NCSC
4 2 (1.08%) QA
4 2 (1.08%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (1.08%) SLA
4 2 (1.08%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.54%) Def Stans
System Software
1 17 (9.14%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.38%) vSphere
3 9 (4.84%) VMware NSX
4 6 (3.23%) Active Directory
5 5 (2.69%) Hyper-V
6 3 (1.61%) Firmware
6 3 (1.61%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.08%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (1.08%) FreeRADIUS
7 2 (1.08%) NFS
7 2 (1.08%) SRDF
8 1 (0.54%) Docker
8 1 (0.54%) KVM
Systems Management
1 44 (23.66%) Ansible
2 39 (20.97%) Terraform
3 12 (6.45%) Kubernetes
4 8 (4.30%) FortiGate
5 6 (3.23%) Grafana
5 6 (3.23%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.61%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.61%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.08%) Argo
7 2 (1.08%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (1.08%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (1.08%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.08%) NetBackup
7 2 (1.08%) SnapMirror
7 2 (1.08%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.54%) Nagios
8 1 (0.54%) QRadar
8 1 (0.54%) SCCM
8 1 (0.54%) Suricata
8 1 (0.54%) vRealize
Vendors
1 74 (39.78%) Cisco
2 43 (23.12%) Palo Alto
3 40 (21.51%) F5
4 39 (20.97%) Fortinet
5 25 (13.44%) Juniper
6 22 (11.83%) Microsoft
7 20 (10.75%) Arista
8 19 (10.22%) Aruba
8 19 (10.22%) Nokia
8 19 (10.22%) VMware
9 18 (9.68%) Ericsson
10 13 (6.99%) Huawei
11 10 (5.38%) Zscaler
12 9 (4.84%) CheckPoint
13 7 (3.76%) Splunk
14 6 (3.23%) Meraki
14 6 (3.23%) SolarWinds
15 5 (2.69%) Google
15 5 (2.69%) ServiceNow
15 5 (2.69%) Veeam