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

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 377 313 291
Rank change year-on-year -64 -22 +186
Contract jobs citing Network Design 167 178 268
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.53% 0.67% 0.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.60% 0.75% 0.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 108 134
10th Percentile £389 £400 £452
25th Percentile £415 £450 £470
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £577
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -8.93% +28.11%
75th Percentile £576 £588 £627
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £575
% change year-on-year -4.76% -8.70% +21.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 12
10th Percentile - - £34.20
25th Percentile - - £62.98
Median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +13.67% -5.74%
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £69.60
UK median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year -0.99% +13.67% -5.74%

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 27,911 23,801 32,210
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 88.11% 89.29% 87.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,824 14,585 21,671
10th Percentile £304 £310 £304
25th Percentile £409 £413 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £538
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,743 772 1,617
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.88 £20.94 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -12.50% +14.29%
75th Percentile £57.50 £64.20 £64.50
90th Percentile £69.43 £75.00 £75.84
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £38.85
% change year-on-year -22.62% -16.34% +19.54%

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 19 January 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
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 19 January 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 -16 72 £500 -4.76% 10
South East -21 35 £500 +2.56% 23
West Midlands -14 24 £400 -16.49% 10
Midlands -22 24 £400 -23.15% 17
North of England -57 20 £539 +7.70% 23
North West -18 18 £531 +18.00% 12
East of England -11 6 £419 -16.25% 15
South West -28 6 £450 -16.28% 15
North East -13 2 £550 - 2
Yorkshire -62 1 £650 +30.00% 9
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 6 (3.59%) OpenStack
Applications
1 6 (3.59%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.80%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (1.20%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.20%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.20%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.60%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 41 (24.55%) Azure
2 29 (17.37%) AWS
3 10 (5.99%) GCP
4 5 (2.99%) PaaS
5 4 (2.40%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 4 (2.40%) Dynamics 365
6 3 (1.80%) AWS Direct Connect
6 3 (1.80%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (1.80%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.20%) IaaS
8 1 (0.60%) Akamai
8 1 (0.60%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.60%) Cloudflare
8 1 (0.60%) Google Ads
8 1 (0.60%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 80 (47.90%) WAN
2 71 (42.51%) Firewall
3 51 (30.54%) LAN
4 42 (25.15%) BGP
5 41 (24.55%) VPN
6 38 (22.75%) MPLS
7 32 (19.16%) Network Security
8 27 (16.17%) Wi-Fi
9 23 (13.77%) SD-WAN
9 23 (13.77%) VLAN
10 18 (10.78%) TCP/IP
11 17 (10.18%) Radio Access Network
12 16 (9.58%) Cisco ISE
12 16 (9.58%) IPsec
13 14 (8.38%) 4G
14 13 (7.78%) DNS
14 13 (7.78%) OSPF
15 12 (7.19%) 5G
16 11 (6.59%) NetScaler
17 10 (5.99%) IPv6
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.80%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.99%) Git
2 2 (1.20%) GitLab
3 1 (0.60%) Robot Framework
General
1 46 (27.54%) Social Skills
2 34 (20.36%) Telecoms
3 20 (11.98%) Public Sector
4 18 (10.78%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (5.39%) Finance
6 7 (4.19%) Legal
6 7 (4.19%) Manufacturing
7 5 (2.99%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (2.40%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (2.40%) Presentation Skills
9 2 (1.20%) Aviation
9 2 (1.20%) Electronics
9 2 (1.20%) Military
9 2 (1.20%) Police
10 1 (0.60%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.60%) Law
10 1 (0.60%) Local Government
10 1 (0.60%) Marketing
10 1 (0.60%) Publishing
10 1 (0.60%) Retail
Job Titles
1 58 (34.73%) Network Engineer
2 50 (29.94%) Architect
3 39 (23.35%) Network Architect
4 18 (10.78%) Network Specialist
5 16 (9.58%) Network Design Specialist
5 16 (9.58%) Senior
6 14 (8.38%) Design Engineer
7 13 (7.78%) Network Design Engineer
8 12 (7.19%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 9 (5.39%) Designer
9 9 (5.39%) IP Specialist
9 9 (5.39%) Network Designer
9 9 (5.39%) Performance Specialist
9 9 (5.39%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 9 (5.39%) Senior Designer
9 9 (5.39%) Senior Network Designer
10 8 (4.79%) 3rd Line Engineer
10 8 (4.79%) 3rd Line Support
10 8 (4.79%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
10 8 (4.79%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.19%) 802.1X
2 10 (5.99%) YANG
3 9 (5.39%) NETCONF
4 6 (3.59%) REST
5 4 (2.40%) OpenID
5 4 (2.40%) SAML
6 2 (1.20%) JSON
6 2 (1.20%) OpenConfig
6 2 (1.20%) RESTCONF
7 1 (0.60%) gRPC
7 1 (0.60%) Jinja
7 1 (0.60%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 39 (23.35%) Data Centre
2 13 (7.78%) Hybrid Cloud
3 10 (5.99%) SCADA
4 8 (4.79%) PKI
5 7 (4.19%) IoT
5 7 (4.19%) Operational Technology
6 6 (3.59%) Cloud Native
6 6 (3.59%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (2.40%) Management Information System
7 4 (2.40%) NB-IoT
7 4 (2.40%) Security Posture
7 4 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.80%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.80%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
9 2 (1.20%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (1.20%) Insider Threat
9 2 (1.20%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.20%) Product Ownership
9 2 (1.20%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 7 (4.19%) Windows
2 4 (2.40%) Linux
3 1 (0.60%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (29.34%) Network Architecture
2 32 (19.16%) Load Balancing
3 19 (11.38%) High Availability
3 19 (11.38%) Problem-Solving
4 17 (10.18%) Roadmaps
5 16 (9.58%) Network Management
5 16 (9.58%) Root Cause Analysis
6 15 (8.98%) Cybersecurity
6 15 (8.98%) Network Segmentation
6 15 (8.98%) Stakeholder Management
7 14 (8.38%) ITIL
7 14 (8.38%) Migration
8 13 (7.78%) DevOps
9 12 (7.19%) Impact Assessments
9 12 (7.19%) Network Virtualisation
9 12 (7.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 12 (7.19%) Zero Trust
10 11 (6.59%) TOGAF
11 10 (5.99%) Data Protection
11 10 (5.99%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 22 (13.17%) Python
2 7 (4.19%) SQL
3 4 (2.40%) Bash
3 4 (2.40%) PowerShell
4 2 (1.20%) Perl
Qualifications
1 70 (41.92%) Security Cleared
2 46 (27.54%) Cisco Certification
3 40 (23.95%) SC Cleared
4 35 (20.96%) CCNP
5 27 (16.17%) DV Cleared
6 21 (12.57%) CCIE
7 18 (10.78%) Degree
8 15 (8.98%) CCNA
9 12 (7.19%) CISSP
10 11 (6.59%) JNCIS
11 10 (5.99%) JNCIE
12 7 (4.19%) AWS Certification
13 6 (3.59%) Computer Science Degree
14 5 (2.99%) Azure Certification
14 5 (2.99%) JNCIP
15 4 (2.40%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 4 (2.40%) CCSP
16 3 (1.80%) BPSS Clearance
16 3 (1.80%) CCIE Security
17 2 (1.20%) Project+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.99%) GDPR
2 8 (4.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (4.19%) PCI DSS
4 6 (3.59%) NIST
5 2 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.60%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.60%) DO-160
6 1 (0.60%) QA
6 1 (0.60%) SLA
System Software
1 6 (3.59%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (2.99%) VMware NSX
3 3 (1.80%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.80%) Firmware
4 2 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.60%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.60%) KVM
5 1 (0.60%) RHEV
5 1 (0.60%) Xen
Systems Management
1 18 (10.78%) Ansible
2 16 (9.58%) FortiGate
3 10 (5.99%) Terraform
4 4 (2.40%) Nagios
5 1 (0.60%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.60%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.60%) Grafana
5 1 (0.60%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.60%) Proxmox
5 1 (0.60%) SCCM
Vendors
1 69 (41.32%) Cisco
2 40 (23.95%) Palo Alto
3 37 (22.16%) Juniper
4 22 (13.17%) Meraki
5 21 (12.57%) F5
6 19 (11.38%) Fortinet
7 17 (10.18%) Microsoft
8 14 (8.38%) Nokia
9 11 (6.59%) SolarWinds
10 10 (5.99%) CheckPoint
11 9 (5.39%) Ericsson
12 8 (4.79%) Actix
12 8 (4.79%) VMware
13 7 (4.19%) Aruba
14 3 (1.80%) LogicMonitor
14 3 (1.80%) Zscaler
15 2 (1.20%) Arista
15 2 (1.20%) Forcepoint
15 2 (1.20%) Rockwell
15 2 (1.20%) Virgin Media