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 25 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 419 339 330
Rank change year-on-year -80 -9 +101
Contract jobs citing Network Design 188 145 236
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.43% 0.58% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.63% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 123 96 110
10th Percentile £400 £405 £363
25th Percentile £444 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £470
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% +17.02% -10.48%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £575
90th Percentile £675 £694 £639
UK median daily rate £525 £525 £475
% change year-on-year - +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 3
10th Percentile £31.45 £56.13 £25.60
25th Percentile £45.63 £57.81 £29.13
Median hourly rate £60.00 £61.25 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.04% +75.00% -50.00%
75th Percentile £72.02 £65.31 £55.00
90th Percentile £72.72 £67.38 £67.00
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £35.00
% change year-on-year +6.94% +75.00% -50.00%

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 37,051 22,942 31,995
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.33% 91.40% 85.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,408 14,828 20,735
10th Percentile £325 £300 £304
25th Percentile £416 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £730 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £514 £505 £525
% change year-on-year +1.78% -3.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,328 1,099 2,362
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.76
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.87 £16.06
Median hourly rate £47.00 £26.45 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +77.69% -29.47% +6.72%
75th Percentile £68.55 £55.00 £61.48
90th Percentile £82.25 £72.50 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +7.14%

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 25 June 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 25 June 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 25 June 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 -41 64 £525 +9.95% 12
South East -62 43 £513 -10.87% 13
North of England -79 34 £575 +21.05% 13
North West -49 23 £575 +21.05% 8
South West -41 16 £565 -11.72% 5
Yorkshire -49 10 £519 +3.80% 4
West Midlands -54 10 £413 -25.00% 3
Midlands -56 10 £413 -25.00% 4
North East -29 7 £650 +18.18% 1
East of England -22 6 £525 +0.96% 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 11 (5.85%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.06%) Apache
2 2 (1.06%) CloudStack
2 2 (1.06%) Confluence
2 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.06%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.53%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.53%) Smallworld
Applications
1 7 (3.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 6 (3.19%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.66%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.66%) MS Visio
4 3 (1.60%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.53%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.53%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.06%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 64 (34.04%) Azure
2 51 (27.13%) AWS
3 15 (7.98%) OCI
4 10 (5.32%) GCP
4 10 (5.32%) SaaS
5 9 (4.79%) GitHub
6 7 (3.72%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 6 (3.19%) IaaS
8 5 (2.66%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.66%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.60%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.60%) OpenShift
9 3 (1.60%) PaaS
10 2 (1.06%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.06%) Datadog
10 2 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (1.06%) IBM Watson
10 2 (1.06%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (0.53%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 82 (43.62%) Firewall
2 66 (35.11%) WAN
3 63 (33.51%) BGP
4 50 (26.60%) OSPF
5 36 (19.15%) VPN
6 34 (18.09%) LAN
7 31 (16.49%) Network Security
7 31 (16.49%) SD-WAN
8 29 (15.43%) Wi-Fi
9 28 (14.89%) VLAN
10 27 (14.36%) VXLAN
11 26 (13.83%) MPLS
12 24 (12.77%) 5G
13 22 (11.70%) Ethernet VPN
14 21 (11.17%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 20 (10.64%) 4G
16 17 (9.04%) BIG-IP
16 17 (9.04%) Radio Access Network
17 16 (8.51%) DNS
18 15 (7.98%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.60%) Metadata
2 1 (0.53%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.91%) GitLab
2 4 (2.13%) JIRA
3 3 (1.60%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.53%) Git
4 1 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 44 (23.40%) Social Skills
2 23 (12.23%) Telecoms
3 20 (10.64%) Public Sector
4 19 (10.11%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (5.32%) Legal
6 8 (4.26%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (4.26%) Finance
7 5 (2.66%) Retail
8 4 (2.13%) Manufacturing
8 4 (2.13%) Police
9 3 (1.60%) Banking
9 3 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.60%) Military
10 2 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.53%) Aviation
11 1 (0.53%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.53%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.53%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 54 (28.72%) Network Engineer
2 43 (22.87%) Senior
3 39 (20.74%) Architect
4 32 (17.02%) Network Specialist
5 25 (13.30%) Network Architect
6 21 (11.17%) Network Design Specialist
7 18 (9.57%) Senior Network Engineer
8 17 (9.04%) Designer
9 16 (8.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (6.91%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (6.38%) Network Designer
12 9 (4.79%) Lead
12 9 (4.79%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
12 9 (4.79%) Senior Network Specialist
13 8 (4.26%) Design Engineer
13 8 (4.26%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 7 (3.72%) IP Architect
14 7 (3.72%) Security Architect
15 5 (2.66%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 5 (2.66%) Network Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.32%) NETCONF
1 10 (5.32%) YANG
2 8 (4.26%) REST
3 7 (3.72%) 802.1X
4 4 (2.13%) Azure Blueprints
5 3 (1.60%) OpenConfig
5 3 (1.60%) RESTCONF
6 2 (1.06%) Django
6 2 (1.06%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 59 (31.38%) Data Centre
2 43 (22.87%) Hybrid Cloud
3 29 (15.43%) Cloud Native
4 7 (3.72%) Data Protection Act
4 7 (3.72%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.19%) PKI
6 5 (2.66%) Security Posture
7 4 (2.13%) CMDB
7 4 (2.13%) IoT
7 4 (2.13%) Operational Technology
7 4 (2.13%) Public Cloud
8 3 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.60%) Data Fabric
8 3 (1.60%) Onboarding
8 3 (1.60%) Private Cloud
8 3 (1.60%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.60%) SCADA
9 2 (1.06%) Enterprise Storage
9 2 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (1.06%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 18 (9.57%) Linux
2 16 (8.51%) Windows
3 12 (6.38%) Windows Server
4 7 (3.72%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.13%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (2.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.06%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (1.06%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (22.34%) Network Architecture
2 37 (19.68%) High Availability
3 35 (18.62%) Infrastructure as Code
4 33 (17.55%) Zero Trust
5 29 (15.43%) DevOps
6 28 (14.89%) Problem-Solving
6 28 (14.89%) Roadmaps
7 27 (14.36%) Load Balancing
7 27 (14.36%) Migration
8 25 (13.30%) CI/CD
9 22 (11.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 20 (10.64%) Stakeholder Management
11 18 (9.57%) Project Delivery
11 18 (9.57%) Validation
12 17 (9.04%) Capacity Planning
12 17 (9.04%) Continuous Improvement
13 16 (8.51%) Cybersecurity
14 15 (7.98%) TOGAF
15 14 (7.45%) Network Segmentation
15 14 (7.45%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 42 (22.34%) Python
2 9 (4.79%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.72%) Bicep
4 4 (2.13%) Bash
5 2 (1.06%) SQL
6 1 (0.53%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 60 (31.91%) Security Cleared
2 44 (23.40%) Cisco Certification
3 39 (20.74%) SC Cleared
4 30 (15.96%) CCNP
5 17 (9.04%) CCIE
6 15 (7.98%) DV Cleared
7 11 (5.85%) AWS Certification
7 11 (5.85%) Azure Certification
7 11 (5.85%) Degree
7 11 (5.85%) JNCIE
8 5 (2.66%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
8 5 (2.66%) CCNA
8 5 (2.66%) CISSP
8 5 (2.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 4 (2.13%) CISM
10 3 (1.60%) JNCIS
11 2 (1.06%) BC Cleared
11 2 (1.06%) CEH
11 2 (1.06%) ISSAP
11 2 (1.06%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.32%) NIST
2 4 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.60%) NCSC
3 3 (1.60%) SLA
4 2 (1.06%) GDPR
4 2 (1.06%) HIPAA
4 2 (1.06%) NIST 800
4 2 (1.06%) QA
4 2 (1.06%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.53%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.53%) Def Stans
System Software
1 17 (9.04%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (5.85%) VMware NSX
3 9 (4.79%) Active Directory
4 7 (3.72%) Hyper-V
4 7 (3.72%) vSphere
5 3 (1.60%) Firmware
5 3 (1.60%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.06%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (1.06%) KVM
6 2 (1.06%) NFS
6 2 (1.06%) SRDF
7 1 (0.53%) Docker
Systems Management
1 42 (22.34%) Ansible
2 36 (19.15%) Terraform
3 10 (5.32%) Kubernetes
4 8 (4.26%) FortiGate
5 5 (2.66%) Grafana
5 5 (2.66%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.60%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.06%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (1.06%) Argo
7 2 (1.06%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.06%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (1.06%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (1.06%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.06%) Nagios
7 2 (1.06%) NetBackup
7 2 (1.06%) SCCM
7 2 (1.06%) SnapMirror
7 2 (1.06%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.53%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.53%) Nmap
Vendors
1 72 (38.30%) Cisco
2 43 (22.87%) Palo Alto
3 35 (18.62%) F5
4 32 (17.02%) Fortinet
5 23 (12.23%) Juniper
5 23 (12.23%) Microsoft
6 21 (11.17%) VMware
7 20 (10.64%) Arista
8 18 (9.57%) Aruba
9 15 (7.98%) Nokia
10 14 (7.45%) Ericsson
11 13 (6.91%) Huawei
12 11 (5.85%) CheckPoint
13 8 (4.26%) Meraki
13 8 (4.26%) SolarWinds
13 8 (4.26%) Zscaler
14 7 (3.72%) Splunk
15 5 (2.66%) Google
16 4 (2.13%) Qualys
16 4 (2.13%) Veeam