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

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 416 322 329
Rank change year-on-year -94 +7 +115
Contract jobs citing Network Design 168 147 233
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.41% 0.60% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.49% 0.66% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 85 114
10th Percentile £413 £405 £363
25th Percentile £472 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.73% +15.79% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £575
90th Percentile £675 £715 £638
UK median daily rate £519 £531 £475
% change year-on-year -2.35% +11.84% -5.00%
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 34,470 22,336 31,802
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.75% 91.22% 86.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,971 14,617 20,828
10th Percentile £319 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £501 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -3.75% -0.95% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,149 942 2,251
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.50 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £47.00 £29.07 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.68% -20.36% -2.67%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.13 £28.75 £36.50
% change year-on-year +46.52% -21.23% +0.69%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -39 56 £525 +9.38% 18
South East -50 43 £500 -13.04% 14
North of England -75 29 £555 +11.00% 12
North West -51 21 £540 +8.00% 10
South West -35 15 £500 -6.98% 2
East of England -23 8 £500 +25.00% 1
Yorkshire -50 7 £585 +16.90%
West Midlands -59 7 £363 -24.32% 8
Midlands -64 7 £363 -24.32% 8
North East -15 3 £650 +18.18% 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 7 (4.17%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.19%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.19%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.60%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.60%) Confluence
3 1 (0.60%) Smallworld
Applications
1 8 (4.76%) MS Visio
2 6 (3.57%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.98%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.60%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.60%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.19%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.19%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 44 (26.19%) Azure
2 31 (18.45%) AWS
3 9 (5.36%) OCI
4 5 (2.98%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 5 (2.98%) GCP
4 5 (2.98%) GitHub
4 5 (2.98%) PaaS
4 5 (2.98%) SaaS
5 3 (1.79%) IaaS
6 2 (1.19%) Dynamics 365
6 2 (1.19%) IBM Watson
6 2 (1.19%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (0.60%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (0.60%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.60%) Azure Storage
7 1 (0.60%) Datadog
7 1 (0.60%) Entra ID
7 1 (0.60%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (0.60%) Mimecast
7 1 (0.60%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 69 (41.07%) Firewall
2 60 (35.71%) WAN
3 47 (27.98%) BGP
4 34 (20.24%) OSPF
5 33 (19.64%) LAN
5 33 (19.64%) VPN
6 29 (17.26%) Network Security
7 25 (14.88%) Wi-Fi
8 24 (14.29%) 5G
8 24 (14.29%) MPLS
8 24 (14.29%) SD-WAN
9 21 (12.50%) VLAN
10 19 (11.31%) VXLAN
11 16 (9.52%) 4G
11 16 (9.52%) TCP/IP
12 15 (8.93%) Radio Access Network
13 14 (8.33%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 13 (7.74%) DNS
14 13 (7.74%) Ethernet VPN
14 13 (7.74%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.60%) GIS
Development Applications
1 7 (4.17%) GitLab
2 2 (1.19%) Git
2 2 (1.19%) JIRA
3 1 (0.60%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 40 (23.81%) Social Skills
2 24 (14.29%) Telecoms
3 18 (10.71%) Public Sector
4 14 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (5.36%) Finance
5 9 (5.36%) Legal
6 8 (4.76%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.98%) Police
8 3 (1.79%) Banking
8 3 (1.79%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.79%) Retail
9 2 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.19%) Military
10 1 (0.60%) Aviation
10 1 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.60%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 50 (29.76%) Network Engineer
2 36 (21.43%) Senior
3 31 (18.45%) Architect
4 28 (16.67%) Network Specialist
5 23 (13.69%) Designer
6 22 (13.10%) Network Architect
7 20 (11.90%) Network Design Specialist
8 18 (10.71%) Network Designer
9 13 (7.74%) Design Engineer
10 12 (7.14%) Senior Network Engineer
11 11 (6.55%) Network Design Engineer
11 11 (6.55%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 9 (5.36%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 9 (5.36%) Senior Designer
12 9 (5.36%) Senior Network Designer
13 8 (4.76%) Lead
13 8 (4.76%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
14 6 (3.57%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 6 (3.57%) IP Specialist
14 6 (3.57%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (5.36%) NETCONF
1 9 (5.36%) YANG
2 7 (4.17%) 802.1X
3 5 (2.98%) REST
4 4 (2.38%) OpenConfig
4 4 (2.38%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.19%) Django
5 2 (1.19%) OpenID
5 2 (1.19%) SAML
6 1 (0.60%) JSON
6 1 (0.60%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 50 (29.76%) Data Centre
2 26 (15.48%) Hybrid Cloud
3 16 (9.52%) Cloud Native
4 9 (5.36%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.38%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (2.38%) IoT
5 4 (2.38%) Management Information System
5 4 (2.38%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (1.19%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 2 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
6 2 (1.19%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.19%) Operational Technology
6 2 (1.19%) PKI
6 2 (1.19%) Private Cloud
6 2 (1.19%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.60%) Distributed Architecture
7 1 (0.60%) EMC VNX
7 1 (0.60%) Replication
7 1 (0.60%) SCADA
7 1 (0.60%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 9 (5.36%) Windows
2 8 (4.76%) Linux
3 6 (3.57%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.19%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.60%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (21.43%) Network Architecture
2 28 (16.67%) High Availability
2 28 (16.67%) Load Balancing
3 22 (13.10%) Migration
4 21 (12.50%) Infrastructure as Code
4 21 (12.50%) Problem-Solving
5 19 (11.31%) Zero Trust
6 18 (10.71%) CI/CD
7 16 (9.52%) Roadmaps
8 15 (8.93%) DevOps
9 12 (7.14%) Data Protection
9 12 (7.14%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 11 (6.55%) Network Segmentation
11 10 (5.95%) Continuous Improvement
11 10 (5.95%) Stakeholder Management
11 10 (5.95%) Technical Leadership
12 9 (5.36%) Capacity Planning
12 9 (5.36%) Security Architecture
12 9 (5.36%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 9 (5.36%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 28 (16.67%) Python
2 6 (3.57%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.38%) Bash
4 3 (1.79%) Bicep
5 2 (1.19%) SQL
Qualifications
1 63 (37.50%) Security Cleared
2 42 (25.00%) Cisco Certification
3 39 (23.21%) SC Cleared
4 30 (17.86%) CCNP
5 21 (12.50%) DV Cleared
6 16 (9.52%) CCIE
7 12 (7.14%) CCNA
8 9 (5.36%) JNCIE
8 9 (5.36%) JNCIS
9 8 (4.76%) Azure Certification
9 8 (4.76%) Degree
10 6 (3.57%) AWS Certification
11 3 (1.79%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 3 (1.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (1.19%) BC Cleared
12 2 (1.19%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (1.19%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.19%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.19%) PMP
12 2 (1.19%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (2.98%) NIST
2 3 (1.79%) NCSC
2 3 (1.79%) SLA
3 2 (1.19%) GDPR
3 2 (1.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.60%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.60%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.60%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.60%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.60%) QA
System Software
1 14 (8.33%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.95%) VMware NSX
3 7 (4.17%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.57%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.79%) KVM
5 3 (1.79%) vSphere
6 1 (0.60%) Docker
6 1 (0.60%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 1 (0.60%) Firmware
6 1 (0.60%) NFS
6 1 (0.60%) RHEV
6 1 (0.60%) SRDF
6 1 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.60%) Xen
Systems Management
1 28 (16.67%) Ansible
2 19 (11.31%) Terraform
3 10 (5.95%) FortiGate
4 7 (4.17%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.98%) Nagios
6 2 (1.19%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.19%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (1.19%) SCCM
6 2 (1.19%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.60%) Argo
7 1 (0.60%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.60%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.60%) Grafana
7 1 (0.60%) Iperf
7 1 (0.60%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.60%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.60%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.60%) SnapMirror
7 1 (0.60%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.60%) vRealize
Vendors
1 77 (45.83%) Cisco
2 38 (22.62%) Palo Alto
3 31 (18.45%) Juniper
4 30 (17.86%) F5
5 25 (14.88%) Fortinet
6 21 (12.50%) Microsoft
7 19 (11.31%) VMware
8 16 (9.52%) Aruba
9 15 (8.93%) Nokia
10 14 (8.33%) Meraki
11 13 (7.74%) Arista
12 12 (7.14%) Ericsson
13 10 (5.95%) Huawei
14 9 (5.36%) CheckPoint
15 8 (4.76%) SolarWinds
16 5 (2.98%) Zscaler
17 4 (2.38%) Ekahau
18 3 (1.79%) IBM
18 3 (1.79%) McAfee
18 3 (1.79%) NetScout