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

6 months to
27 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 402 321 301
Rank change year-on-year -81 -20 +153
Contract jobs citing Network Design 163 165 269
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.46% 0.64% 0.72%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.53% 0.71% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 113 99 138
10th Percentile £400 £408 £363
25th Percentile £421 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £523
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +0.48% +12.37%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £600
90th Percentile £675 £705 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - +10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 9
10th Percentile £72.88 - £24.05
25th Percentile £73.40 - -
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £70.00
UK median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - -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 30,906 23,179 32,763
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.22% 90.17% 87.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,822 14,560 21,758
10th Percentile £313 £308 £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 £618 £638 £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 1,906 762 2,042
10th Percentile £15.22 £15.62 £13.41
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £28.50 £35.00 £34.23
Median % change year-on-year -18.57% +2.25% -2.20%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £59.94
90th Percentile £72.52 £75.23 £72.00
UK median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £33.07
% change year-on-year -15.38% -1.71% -5.53%

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 27 February 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 27 February 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 68 £475 -5.00% 8
South East -32 35 £500 -13.04% 9
West Midlands -29 21 £400 -16.49% 4
Midlands -36 21 £400 -16.49% 4
North of England -85 20 £531 +6.20% 6
North West -39 16 £525 +5.00% 6
South West -29 10 £483 -7.66% 9
East of England -26 5 £425 -8.11% 1
Yorkshire -73 4 £663 +32.50%
North East -17 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 4 (2.45%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.61%) Confluence
2 1 (0.61%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.61%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (4.29%) MS Visio
2 4 (2.45%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.84%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.23%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.23%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.61%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 44 (26.99%) Azure
2 31 (19.02%) AWS
3 12 (7.36%) GCP
4 6 (3.68%) PaaS
5 5 (3.07%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.45%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (2.45%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (1.84%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.84%) IaaS
7 3 (1.84%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.23%) GitHub
8 2 (1.23%) IBM Watson
9 1 (0.61%) Akamai
9 1 (0.61%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.61%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.61%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.61%) Entra ID
9 1 (0.61%) Google Ads
9 1 (0.61%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.61%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 73 (44.79%) Firewall
2 70 (42.94%) WAN
3 45 (27.61%) LAN
4 41 (25.15%) BGP
5 40 (24.54%) VPN
6 38 (23.31%) Network Security
7 37 (22.70%) MPLS
8 28 (17.18%) Wi-Fi
9 26 (15.95%) VLAN
10 24 (14.72%) SD-WAN
11 21 (12.88%) TCP/IP
12 19 (11.66%) OSPF
13 15 (9.20%) 5G
14 14 (8.59%) Cisco ISE
14 14 (8.59%) Radio Access Network
15 13 (7.98%) DNS
15 13 (7.98%) IPsec
16 12 (7.36%) 4G
16 12 (7.36%) Wireless
17 10 (6.13%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.84%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (3.07%) Git
2 2 (1.23%) JIRA
3 1 (0.61%) GitLab
3 1 (0.61%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 49 (30.06%) Social Skills
2 32 (19.63%) Telecoms
3 22 (13.50%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (11.04%) Public Sector
5 11 (6.75%) Finance
6 8 (4.91%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (4.29%) Legal
8 6 (3.68%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.45%) Manufacturing
9 4 (2.45%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.84%) Aviation
10 3 (1.84%) Police
11 2 (1.23%) Electronics
12 1 (0.61%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.61%) Banking
12 1 (0.61%) Law
12 1 (0.61%) Marketing
12 1 (0.61%) Military
12 1 (0.61%) Publishing
12 1 (0.61%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 59 (36.20%) Network Engineer
2 46 (28.22%) Architect
3 36 (22.09%) Network Architect
4 20 (12.27%) Senior
5 17 (10.43%) Network Specialist
6 15 (9.20%) Design Engineer
7 14 (8.59%) Network Design Engineer
8 13 (7.98%) Network Design Specialist
9 9 (5.52%) Designer
9 9 (5.52%) Network Designer
9 9 (5.52%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 9 (5.52%) Senior Designer
9 9 (5.52%) Senior Network Designer
10 8 (4.91%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 7 (4.29%) IP Specialist
11 7 (4.29%) Network Security Architect
11 7 (4.29%) Security Architect
11 7 (4.29%) Senior Network Engineer
11 7 (4.29%) Solutions Architect
12 6 (3.68%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.75%) 802.1X
2 8 (4.91%) NETCONF
2 8 (4.91%) YANG
3 4 (2.45%) OpenID
3 4 (2.45%) REST
3 4 (2.45%) SAML
4 3 (1.84%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.84%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.23%) Django
6 1 (0.61%) JSON
6 1 (0.61%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (24.54%) Data Centre
2 15 (9.20%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (4.91%) Data Protection Act
3 8 (4.91%) IoT
4 6 (3.68%) SCADA
5 5 (3.07%) Cloud Native
5 5 (3.07%) Operational Technology
5 5 (3.07%) PKI
6 4 (2.45%) NB-IoT
6 4 (2.45%) Onboarding
6 4 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.84%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.84%) Distributed Architecture
7 3 (1.84%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.23%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.23%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.23%) Product Ownership
8 2 (1.23%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.61%) Hedge funds
9 1 (0.61%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 9 (5.52%) Windows
2 5 (3.07%) Linux
3 4 (2.45%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.61%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 39 (23.93%) Network Architecture
2 26 (15.95%) Load Balancing
3 21 (12.88%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (11.66%) High Availability
5 17 (10.43%) Roadmaps
6 16 (9.82%) Migration
7 15 (9.20%) Security Architecture
7 15 (9.20%) Zero Trust
8 14 (8.59%) Network Management
8 14 (8.59%) Stakeholder Management
9 13 (7.98%) Cybersecurity
9 13 (7.98%) Network Segmentation
9 13 (7.98%) Root Cause Analysis
10 12 (7.36%) Data Protection
10 12 (7.36%) DevOps
10 12 (7.36%) ITIL
11 11 (6.75%) Mentoring
11 11 (6.75%) Network Monitoring
11 11 (6.75%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 11 (6.75%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 26 (15.95%) Python
2 7 (4.29%) SQL
3 6 (3.68%) PowerShell
4 5 (3.07%) Bash
5 2 (1.23%) Perl
6 1 (0.61%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 62 (38.04%) Security Cleared
2 49 (30.06%) Cisco Certification
3 40 (24.54%) CCNP
4 37 (22.70%) SC Cleared
5 22 (13.50%) CCIE
5 22 (13.50%) DV Cleared
6 17 (10.43%) Degree
7 14 (8.59%) CCNA
8 12 (7.36%) JNCIS
9 11 (6.75%) CISSP
10 9 (5.52%) AWS Certification
10 9 (5.52%) JNCIE
11 6 (3.68%) Azure Certification
11 6 (3.68%) JNCIP
12 5 (3.07%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (2.45%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (2.45%) CCSP
14 3 (1.84%) CCIE Security
15 2 (1.23%) ITIL Certification
15 2 (1.23%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.13%) GDPR
2 9 (5.52%) NIST
3 7 (4.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (4.29%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.23%) NCSC
5 1 (0.61%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.61%) DO-160
5 1 (0.61%) QA
5 1 (0.61%) SLA
System Software
1 9 (5.52%) VMware Infrastructure
1 9 (5.52%) VMware NSX
2 6 (3.68%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.84%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.23%) Firmware
4 2 (1.23%) KVM
5 1 (0.61%) Docker
5 1 (0.61%) RHEV
5 1 (0.61%) Xen
Systems Management
1 21 (12.88%) Ansible
2 17 (10.43%) FortiGate
3 12 (7.36%) Terraform
4 5 (3.07%) Nagios
5 2 (1.23%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (1.23%) Cisco Prime
6 1 (0.61%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.61%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.61%) Grafana
6 1 (0.61%) Iperf
6 1 (0.61%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.61%) McAfee ePO
6 1 (0.61%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.61%) Nmap
6 1 (0.61%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.61%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.61%) SCCM
Vendors
1 75 (46.01%) Cisco
2 43 (26.38%) Palo Alto
3 35 (21.47%) Juniper
4 24 (14.72%) Fortinet
5 23 (14.11%) F5
6 22 (13.50%) Meraki
7 20 (12.27%) Microsoft
8 14 (8.59%) CheckPoint
9 13 (7.98%) SolarWinds
10 12 (7.36%) VMware
11 11 (6.75%) Nokia
12 9 (5.52%) Aruba
13 6 (3.68%) Ericsson
14 5 (3.07%) Actix
15 4 (2.45%) Arista
15 4 (2.45%) Ekahau
16 3 (1.84%) LogicMonitor
16 3 (1.84%) NetScout
17 2 (1.23%) IBM
17 2 (1.23%) McAfee