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

6 months to
26 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 430 341 310
Rank change year-on-year -89 -31 +120
Contract jobs citing Network Design 169 136 235
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.41% 0.57% 0.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.63% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 119 84 113
10th Percentile £412 £413 £363
25th Percentile £474 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.64% +15.79% -7.32%
75th Percentile £588 £628 £575
90th Percentile £675 £718 £638
UK median daily rate £522 £550 £475
% change year-on-year -5.09% +15.79% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 1
10th Percentile £27.85 - -
25th Percentile £33.25 £66.25 £23.25
Median hourly rate £54.25 £67.50 £23.50
Median % change year-on-year -19.63% +187.23% -66.43%
75th Percentile £71.76 £68.75 £23.75
90th Percentile £72.23 - -
UK median hourly rate £54.25 £67.50 £23.50
% change year-on-year -19.63% +187.23% -66.43%

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 35,194 21,730 31,440
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.78% 91.29% 86.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,373 14,199 20,591
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £510 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,179 923 2,284
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.22 £12.86
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.13 £15.99
Median hourly rate £45.59 £28.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.80% -23.29% -2.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £60.00 £61.11
90th Percentile £81.01 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.28 £27.45 £36.00
% change year-on-year +54.01% -23.75% -3.49%

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 26 May 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 26 May 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 26 May 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 56 £525 +9.38% 17
South East -58 41 £500 -13.04% 20
North of England -76 33 £575 +15.00% 9
North West -42 24 £555 +16.84% 8
South West -24 15 £565 -5.83% 2
Yorkshire -53 8 £585 +16.90%
West Midlands -61 8 £425 -18.35% 3
Midlands -62 8 £425 -18.35% 3
East of England - 6 £525 - 1
North East -18 5 £650 +18.18% 1
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 8 (4.73%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.18%) Apache
2 2 (1.18%) CloudStack
2 2 (1.18%) Confluence
2 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.18%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.59%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.59%) Smallworld
Applications
1 6 (3.55%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.96%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.59%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.59%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.59%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.18%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 49 (28.99%) Azure
2 36 (21.30%) AWS
3 13 (7.69%) OCI
4 8 (4.73%) SaaS
5 5 (2.96%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (2.96%) GCP
5 5 (2.96%) GitHub
5 5 (2.96%) IaaS
6 3 (1.78%) PaaS
7 2 (1.18%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.18%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.59%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.59%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.59%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.59%) Datadog
8 1 (0.59%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.59%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.59%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.59%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 75 (44.38%) Firewall
2 63 (37.28%) WAN
3 52 (30.77%) BGP
4 41 (24.26%) OSPF
5 32 (18.93%) VPN
6 31 (18.34%) LAN
7 28 (16.57%) Network Security
7 28 (16.57%) Wi-Fi
8 27 (15.98%) SD-WAN
9 24 (14.20%) VXLAN
10 23 (13.61%) 5G
10 23 (13.61%) VLAN
11 21 (12.43%) MPLS
12 18 (10.65%) Ethernet VPN
12 18 (10.65%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 16 (9.47%) 4G
13 16 (9.47%) Radio Access Network
14 14 (8.28%) BIG-IP
14 14 (8.28%) TCP/IP
15 13 (7.69%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.59%) GIS
Development Applications
1 11 (6.51%) GitLab
2 3 (1.78%) JIRA
3 2 (1.18%) Git
4 1 (0.59%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 37 (21.89%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.02%) Telecoms
3 19 (11.24%) Public Sector
4 14 (8.28%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (5.33%) Finance
5 9 (5.33%) Legal
6 7 (4.14%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.37%) Police
8 3 (1.78%) Banking
8 3 (1.78%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.78%) Retail
9 2 (1.18%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.18%) Military
10 1 (0.59%) Aviation
10 1 (0.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 1 (0.59%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.59%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 48 (28.40%) Network Engineer
2 40 (23.67%) Senior
3 30 (17.75%) Architect
3 30 (17.75%) Network Specialist
4 24 (14.20%) Designer
5 22 (13.02%) Network Architect
6 21 (12.43%) Network Design Specialist
7 19 (11.24%) Network Designer
8 15 (8.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (7.69%) Senior Network Engineer
10 12 (7.10%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 10 (5.92%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 9 (5.33%) Design Engineer
12 9 (5.33%) Senior Designer
12 9 (5.33%) Senior Network Designer
13 8 (4.73%) Network Design Engineer
14 7 (4.14%) Lead
14 7 (4.14%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
14 7 (4.14%) Senior Network Specialist
15 5 (2.96%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.73%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.73%) YANG
2 7 (4.14%) 802.1X
3 6 (3.55%) REST
4 2 (1.18%) Django
4 2 (1.18%) Elastic Stack
4 2 (1.18%) OpenConfig
4 2 (1.18%) RESTCONF
5 1 (0.59%) JSON
5 1 (0.59%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 54 (31.95%) Data Centre
2 31 (18.34%) Hybrid Cloud
3 20 (11.83%) Cloud Native
4 6 (3.55%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.37%) IoT
5 4 (2.37%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.78%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.18%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.18%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (1.18%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.18%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.18%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.18%) PKI
7 2 (1.18%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.18%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.18%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.59%) Distributed Architecture
8 1 (0.59%) Replication
8 1 (0.59%) SCADA
8 1 (0.59%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 12 (7.10%) Windows
2 11 (6.51%) Linux
3 8 (4.73%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.18%) Ubuntu
4 2 (1.18%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.59%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (22.49%) Network Architecture
2 32 (18.93%) High Availability
3 30 (17.75%) Load Balancing
4 25 (14.79%) Infrastructure as Code
5 24 (14.20%) Zero Trust
6 23 (13.61%) Problem-Solving
7 22 (13.02%) CI/CD
7 22 (13.02%) Migration
8 21 (12.43%) DevOps
9 17 (10.06%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 17 (10.06%) Roadmaps
10 12 (7.10%) Network Segmentation
11 11 (6.51%) Capacity Planning
11 11 (6.51%) Continuous Improvement
12 10 (5.92%) Project Delivery
12 10 (5.92%) TOGAF
13 9 (5.33%) Data Protection
13 9 (5.33%) Observability
13 9 (5.33%) Stakeholder Management
13 9 (5.33%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 31 (18.34%) Python
2 6 (3.55%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.37%) Bash
4 3 (1.78%) Bicep
5 2 (1.18%) SQL
Qualifications
1 60 (35.50%) Security Cleared
2 41 (24.26%) Cisco Certification
3 39 (23.08%) SC Cleared
4 30 (17.75%) CCNP
5 17 (10.06%) DV Cleared
6 14 (8.28%) CCIE
7 10 (5.92%) Azure Certification
7 10 (5.92%) CCNA
8 8 (4.73%) AWS Certification
8 8 (4.73%) Degree
8 8 (4.73%) JNCIE
9 7 (4.14%) JNCIS
10 5 (2.96%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 5 (2.96%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 2 (1.18%) BC Cleared
11 2 (1.18%) CEH
11 2 (1.18%) JNCIP
11 2 (1.18%) PMI Certification
11 2 (1.18%) PMP
11 2 (1.18%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (3.55%) NIST
2 3 (1.78%) NCSC
2 3 (1.78%) SLA
3 2 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.18%) NIST 800
3 2 (1.18%) QA
4 1 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.59%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.59%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.59%) GDPR
System Software
1 16 (9.47%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.92%) VMware NSX
3 7 (4.14%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.55%) Hyper-V
5 5 (2.96%) vSphere
6 3 (1.78%) KVM
7 1 (0.59%) Docker
7 1 (0.59%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.59%) Firmware
7 1 (0.59%) NFS
7 1 (0.59%) RHEV
7 1 (0.59%) SRDF
7 1 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.59%) Xen
Systems Management
1 30 (17.75%) Ansible
2 23 (13.61%) Terraform
3 10 (5.92%) FortiGate
4 9 (5.33%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.96%) Nagios
6 3 (1.78%) Grafana
6 3 (1.78%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (1.18%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.18%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.18%) SCCM
7 2 (1.18%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.59%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.59%) EMC NetWorker
8 1 (0.59%) EMC VPLEX
8 1 (0.59%) Iperf
8 1 (0.59%) NetBackup
8 1 (0.59%) Nmap
8 1 (0.59%) SnapMirror
8 1 (0.59%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 73 (43.20%) Cisco
2 40 (23.67%) Palo Alto
3 30 (17.75%) F5
4 26 (15.38%) Fortinet
5 24 (14.20%) Juniper
6 21 (12.43%) VMware
7 20 (11.83%) Aruba
8 18 (10.65%) Microsoft
9 17 (10.06%) Arista
10 16 (9.47%) Nokia
11 13 (7.69%) Ericsson
12 12 (7.10%) Huawei
12 12 (7.10%) Meraki
13 9 (5.33%) CheckPoint
14 8 (4.73%) SolarWinds
15 5 (2.96%) Zscaler
16 4 (2.37%) Ekahau
17 3 (1.78%) NetScout
17 3 (1.78%) Splunk
17 3 (1.78%) Veeam