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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 18 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 357 314 334
Rank change year-on-year -43 +20 +178
Contract jobs citing Network Design 158 218 271
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.57% 0.66% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.63% 0.77% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 109 124 146
10th Percentile £400 £404 £409
25th Percentile £413 £450 £490
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £579
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -9.26% +15.71%
75th Percentile £623 £600 £658
90th Percentile £678 £676 £788
UK median daily rate £475 £525 £575
% change year-on-year -9.52% -8.70% +9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 17
10th Percentile £56.13 £43.00 £61.19
25th Percentile £57.81 £55.00 £65.98
Median hourly rate £61.25 £75.00 £67.00
Median % change year-on-year -18.33% +11.94% +32.71%
75th Percentile £65.31 - £70.00
90th Percentile £67.38 - -
UK median hourly rate £61.25 £55.00 £66.49
% change year-on-year +11.36% -17.28% +31.70%

All Process and 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 25,260 28,349 37,379
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 90.90% 86.08% 89.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 16,060 17,666 25,846
10th Percentile £300 £313 £319
25th Percentile £405 £420 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £510 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
75th Percentile £625 £645 £656
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,499 1,306 1,419
10th Percentile £14.38 £14.92 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.00 £19.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.90
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% -2.05% +51.38%
75th Percentile £50.00 £66.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £75.00 £77.60
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.00
% change year-on-year -41.51% - +48.28%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Network Design as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Network Design 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 September 2025.

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
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 September 2025. 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 -3 48 £450 -14.29% 33
South East +9 40 £525 +5.00% 31
North of England -31 25 £475 -5.00% 15
West Midlands +7 22 £425 -30.61% 7
North West -1 22 £475 - 10
Midlands -8 22 £425 -22.73% 9
South West +15 19 £640 +42.22% 6
East of England +5 3 £410 -20.00% 5
Yorkshire -37 2 £575 +15.00% 5
North East -10 1 £550 -
Network Design
UK

Network Design
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 7 (4.43%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.27%) nginx
3 1 (0.63%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 1 (0.63%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 22 (13.92%) Azure
2 16 (10.13%) AWS
3 9 (5.70%) GCP
4 4 (2.53%) SaaS
5 2 (1.27%) Entra ID
5 2 (1.27%) GitHub
5 2 (1.27%) Serverless
6 1 (0.63%) Akamai
6 1 (0.63%) Azure Key Vault
6 1 (0.63%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.63%) Cloud Computing
6 1 (0.63%) IaaS
6 1 (0.63%) OpenShift
6 1 (0.63%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 72 (45.57%) Firewall
2 68 (43.04%) WAN
3 51 (32.28%) LAN
4 37 (23.42%) Network Security
5 36 (22.78%) BGP
6 31 (19.62%) MPLS
6 31 (19.62%) VPN
7 30 (18.99%) SD-WAN
7 30 (18.99%) Wi-Fi
8 18 (11.39%) Cisco Nexus
9 17 (10.76%) Wireless
10 13 (8.23%) IPsec
10 13 (8.23%) VLAN
11 11 (6.96%) Radio Access Network
12 10 (6.33%) OSPF
13 9 (5.70%) 3GPP
13 9 (5.70%) 4G
13 9 (5.70%) DNS
13 9 (5.70%) TCP/IP
13 9 (5.70%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.63%) GIS
Development Applications
1 4 (2.53%) GitLab
2 2 (1.27%) Bitbucket
2 2 (1.27%) Git
3 1 (0.63%) Robot Framework
3 1 (0.63%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 33 (20.89%) Social Skills
2 32 (20.25%) Telecoms
3 17 (10.76%) Public Sector
4 6 (3.80%) Manufacturing
5 4 (2.53%) Aviation
6 3 (1.90%) Aerospace
6 3 (1.90%) Analytical Skills
6 3 (1.90%) Legal
7 2 (1.27%) Finance
8 1 (0.63%) Billing
8 1 (0.63%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.63%) Fire and Rescue
8 1 (0.63%) French Language
8 1 (0.63%) Law
8 1 (0.63%) Local Government
8 1 (0.63%) Military
8 1 (0.63%) Police
8 1 (0.63%) Retail
Job Titles
1 66 (41.77%) Architect
2 49 (31.01%) Network Architect
3 47 (29.75%) Network Engineer
4 15 (9.49%) Senior
5 12 (7.59%) Network Design Architect
6 11 (6.96%) Network Design Specialist
6 11 (6.96%) Network Specialist
7 8 (5.06%) Performance Specialist
8 7 (4.43%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 7 (4.43%) Designer
8 7 (4.43%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 7 (4.43%) Network Designer
8 7 (4.43%) Support Engineer
9 6 (3.80%) 3rd Line Support
9 6 (3.80%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 6 (3.80%) Cisco Architect
9 6 (3.80%) Cisco Network Architect
9 6 (3.80%) Security Engineer
9 6 (3.80%) Senior Architect
9 6 (3.80%) Senior Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.59%) 802.1X
2 7 (4.43%) YANG
3 6 (3.80%) NETCONF
3 6 (3.80%) REST
4 4 (2.53%) Middleware
5 2 (1.27%) RFC 2544
5 2 (1.27%) Web Services
6 1 (0.63%) eBPF
6 1 (0.63%) gRPC
6 1 (0.63%) Jinja
6 1 (0.63%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 31 (19.62%) Data Centre
2 18 (11.39%) Hybrid Cloud
3 16 (10.13%) Operational Technology
4 12 (7.59%) Cloud Native
5 10 (6.33%) PKI
5 10 (6.33%) SCADA
6 9 (5.70%) Onboarding
7 6 (3.80%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (2.53%) Fibre Optics
8 4 (2.53%) IoT
8 4 (2.53%) Management Information System
9 3 (1.90%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.90%) Security Posture
10 2 (1.27%) CMDB
10 2 (1.27%) Insider Threat
10 2 (1.27%) Legacy Systems
10 2 (1.27%) Life Science
10 2 (1.27%) Public Cloud
10 2 (1.27%) Renewable Energy
10 2 (1.27%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 5 (3.16%) Windows
2 3 (1.90%) Linux
3 1 (0.63%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (27.22%) Network Architecture
2 19 (12.03%) Load Balancing
3 17 (10.76%) Roadmaps
4 16 (10.13%) Cybersecurity
5 15 (9.49%) High Availability
5 15 (9.49%) Network Segmentation
6 14 (8.86%) Migration
7 13 (8.23%) Stakeholder Management
7 13 (8.23%) Zero Trust
8 12 (7.59%) DevOps
8 12 (7.59%) Network Monitoring
8 12 (7.59%) Network Virtualisation
8 12 (7.59%) Service Design
8 12 (7.59%) TOGAF
9 11 (6.96%) Computer Science
9 11 (6.96%) Root Cause Analysis
10 10 (6.33%) Network Management
11 9 (5.70%) Data Protection
11 9 (5.70%) Problem-Solving
11 9 (5.70%) Strategic Thinking
Programming Languages
1 12 (7.59%) Python
2 1 (0.63%) C
2 1 (0.63%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 70 (44.30%) Security Cleared
2 42 (26.58%) SC Cleared
3 37 (23.42%) Cisco Certification
4 29 (18.35%) DV Cleared
5 21 (13.29%) CCNP
6 19 (12.03%) CCIE
7 16 (10.13%) Degree
8 12 (7.59%) JNCIE
9 11 (6.96%) CCNA
10 10 (6.33%) Computer Science Degree
11 8 (5.06%) CISSP
12 5 (3.16%) Master's Degree
13 3 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
14 2 (1.27%) Azure Certification
14 2 (1.27%) JNCIA
15 1 (0.63%) CCSA
15 1 (0.63%) CISM
15 1 (0.63%) CWNA
15 1 (0.63%) JNCIP
15 1 (0.63%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.70%) NCSC
2 3 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.27%) GDPR
3 2 (1.27%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
3 2 (1.27%) NIST
3 2 (1.27%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.63%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.63%) HIPAA
System Software
1 4 (2.53%) Firmware
2 3 (1.90%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (1.90%) VMware NSX
3 2 (1.27%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.63%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.63%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 14 (8.86%) Ansible
2 5 (3.16%) FortiGate
3 3 (1.90%) Terraform
4 2 (1.27%) Cisco CUCM
4 2 (1.27%) HAProxy
4 2 (1.27%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.63%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.63%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (0.63%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.63%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 72 (45.57%) Cisco
2 27 (17.09%) Fortinet
3 25 (15.82%) Juniper
4 24 (15.19%) Palo Alto
5 19 (12.03%) Meraki
6 13 (8.23%) F5
7 12 (7.59%) VMware
8 10 (6.33%) CheckPoint
8 10 (6.33%) Ericsson
9 8 (5.06%) Actix
9 8 (5.06%) Aruba
9 8 (5.06%) Nokia
10 6 (3.80%) Microsoft
11 5 (3.16%) SolarWinds
11 5 (3.16%) Zscaler
12 4 (2.53%) AirMagnet
12 4 (2.53%) Ekahau
12 4 (2.53%) Extreme Networks
13 3 (1.90%) HP
14 2 (1.27%) NetScout