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 29 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 435 340 316
Rank change year-on-year -95 -24 +83
Contract jobs citing Network Design 186 166 227
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.41% 0.60% 0.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.49% 0.67% 0.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 122 112 123
10th Percentile £388 £400 £363
25th Percentile £438 £447 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £475
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% +7.89% -13.64%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £575
90th Percentile £673 £650 £650
UK median daily rate £519 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +3.80% +5.26% -13.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 3
10th Percentile £32.65 £56.13 £43.00
25th Percentile £50.31 £57.81 £55.00
Median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% -18.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £72.66 £65.31 -
90th Percentile £78.86 £67.38 -
UK median hourly rate £71.00 £61.25 £55.00
% change year-on-year +15.92% +11.36% -21.43%

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 38,210 24,959 29,249
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.22% 90.75% 85.85%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,914 15,999 19,151
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £419
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £512 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.54% -2.48% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £756
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,406 1,365 1,791
10th Percentile £15.05 £14.22 £13.87
25th Percentile £21.00 £17.88 £17.75
Median hourly rate £46.62 £25.15 £41.50
Median % change year-on-year +85.35% -39.40% -2.35%
75th Percentile £69.49 £51.65 £65.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £70.10 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -37.13% -5.88%

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 29 July 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 29 July 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 29 July 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 61 £525 +16.67% 25
South East -68 42 £513 -10.87% 11
North of England -76 34 £575 +21.05% 13
North West -57 24 £575 +21.05% 7
South West -39 17 £500 -21.88% 8
Yorkshire -40 9 £519 +3.80% 5
Midlands -65 9 £425 -15.00% 5
West Midlands -65 9 £425 -15.00% 3
East of England -13 7 £525 +0.96% 5
North East - 7 £650 - 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 12 (6.45%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.61%) Apache
2 3 (1.61%) CloudStack
3 2 (1.08%) Confluence
3 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.08%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.54%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.54%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (5.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (4.84%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (4.30%) Microsoft Excel
4 7 (3.76%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.61%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.54%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.54%) CPLEX
6 1 (0.54%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 59 (31.72%) Azure
2 52 (27.96%) AWS
3 15 (8.06%) OCI
4 11 (5.91%) GCP
5 10 (5.38%) GitHub
5 10 (5.38%) SaaS
6 8 (4.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 7 (3.76%) IaaS
7 7 (3.76%) OpenShift
8 4 (2.15%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (2.15%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.61%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.61%) PaaS
10 2 (1.08%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.08%) Datadog
10 2 (1.08%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.54%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (0.54%) AWS Direct Connect
11 1 (0.54%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.54%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 82 (44.09%) Firewall
2 67 (36.02%) BGP
3 59 (31.72%) WAN
4 53 (28.49%) OSPF
5 35 (18.82%) VPN
6 32 (17.20%) Network Security
7 30 (16.13%) LAN
7 30 (16.13%) VLAN
8 29 (15.59%) 5G
8 29 (15.59%) Wi-Fi
9 28 (15.05%) SD-WAN
9 28 (15.05%) VXLAN
10 25 (13.44%) 4G
11 24 (12.90%) MPLS
12 22 (11.83%) Ethernet VPN
12 22 (11.83%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 20 (10.75%) Radio Access Network
14 17 (9.14%) BIG-IP
15 16 (8.60%) IPsec
15 16 (8.60%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.61%) Metadata
2 1 (0.54%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.99%) GitLab
2 4 (2.15%) JIRA
3 3 (1.61%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.54%) Git
4 1 (0.54%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 42 (22.58%) Social Skills
2 30 (16.13%) Telecoms
3 22 (11.83%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (10.22%) Public Sector
5 9 (4.84%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (3.76%) Legal
6 7 (3.76%) Retail
7 5 (2.69%) Finance
8 4 (2.15%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.61%) Banking
9 3 (1.61%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.61%) Police
10 2 (1.08%) Aviation
10 2 (1.08%) Billing
10 2 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.08%) Military
11 1 (0.54%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.54%) Presentation Skills
11 1 (0.54%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 57 (30.65%) Network Engineer
2 44 (23.66%) Senior
3 40 (21.51%) Architect
4 32 (17.20%) Network Specialist
5 26 (13.98%) Network Architect
6 21 (11.29%) Network Design Specialist
6 21 (11.29%) Senior Network Engineer
7 17 (9.14%) Designer
8 16 (8.60%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (6.99%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (6.45%) Network Designer
11 9 (4.84%) Design Engineer
11 9 (4.84%) Security Architect
11 9 (4.84%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
11 9 (4.84%) Senior Network Specialist
12 7 (3.76%) Lead
13 6 (3.23%) IP Architect
14 5 (2.69%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 5 (2.69%) Network Security Architect
14 5 (2.69%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.91%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.91%) YANG
2 7 (3.76%) 802.1X
3 6 (3.23%) OpenConfig
3 6 (3.23%) REST
3 6 (3.23%) RESTCONF
4 4 (2.15%) Azure Blueprints
5 3 (1.61%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.54%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 60 (32.26%) Data Centre
2 45 (24.19%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (15.05%) Cloud Native
4 8 (4.30%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (4.30%) Public Cloud
5 7 (3.76%) Management Information System
6 6 (3.23%) Analytical Mindset
6 6 (3.23%) PKI
7 5 (2.69%) Private Cloud
8 4 (2.15%) CMDB
8 4 (2.15%) IoT
8 4 (2.15%) Operational Technology
8 4 (2.15%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.61%) Data Fabric
9 3 (1.61%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.61%) SCADA
10 2 (1.08%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 2 (1.08%) Enterprise Storage
10 2 (1.08%) Replication
10 2 (1.08%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 16 (8.60%) Linux
2 14 (7.53%) Windows
3 11 (5.91%) Windows Server
4 8 (4.30%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.15%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (2.15%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.08%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (1.08%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 38 (20.43%) Network Architecture
2 36 (19.35%) High Availability
3 34 (18.28%) Infrastructure as Code
3 34 (18.28%) Zero Trust
4 28 (15.05%) DevOps
4 28 (15.05%) Migration
5 27 (14.52%) Load Balancing
5 27 (14.52%) Problem-Solving
6 26 (13.98%) Roadmaps
7 24 (12.90%) CI/CD
8 23 (12.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 23 (12.37%) Project Delivery
8 23 (12.37%) Stakeholder Management
9 19 (10.22%) Capacity Planning
9 19 (10.22%) Technical Leadership
9 19 (10.22%) Validation
10 18 (9.68%) Continuous Improvement
11 16 (8.60%) Cybersecurity
12 13 (6.99%) Network Virtualisation
12 13 (6.99%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 45 (24.19%) Python
2 7 (3.76%) Bicep
2 7 (3.76%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.61%) Bash
4 1 (0.54%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 58 (31.18%) Security Cleared
2 42 (22.58%) Cisco Certification
3 37 (19.89%) SC Cleared
4 29 (15.59%) CCNP
5 18 (9.68%) CCIE
6 15 (8.06%) DV Cleared
7 12 (6.45%) JNCIE
8 10 (5.38%) AWS Certification
8 10 (5.38%) Azure Certification
8 10 (5.38%) Degree
9 6 (3.23%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 6 (3.23%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (2.69%) CISSP
11 4 (2.15%) CISM
12 2 (1.08%) CCNA
12 2 (1.08%) CEH
12 2 (1.08%) ISSAP
12 2 (1.08%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.08%) JNCIS
12 2 (1.08%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.84%) NIST
2 3 (1.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.61%) NCSC
3 2 (1.08%) Actionable Recommendations
3 2 (1.08%) GDPR
3 2 (1.08%) HIPAA
3 2 (1.08%) NIST 800
3 2 (1.08%) QA
3 2 (1.08%) SLA
3 2 (1.08%) SOC 2
4 1 (0.54%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.54%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.54%) GxP
4 1 (0.54%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 18 (9.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.38%) VMware NSX
2 10 (5.38%) vSphere
3 7 (3.76%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.23%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.61%) Firmware
5 3 (1.61%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.08%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (1.08%) KVM
6 2 (1.08%) NFS
6 2 (1.08%) SRDF
7 1 (0.54%) Docker
7 1 (0.54%) FreeRADIUS
Systems Management
1 46 (24.73%) Ansible
2 40 (21.51%) Terraform
3 12 (6.45%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.76%) FortiGate
5 6 (3.23%) Grafana
5 6 (3.23%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.61%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.61%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.08%) Argo
7 2 (1.08%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (1.08%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (1.08%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.08%) NetBackup
7 2 (1.08%) SnapMirror
7 2 (1.08%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.54%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.54%) Nagios
8 1 (0.54%) Nmap
8 1 (0.54%) QRadar
8 1 (0.54%) SCCM
Vendors
1 74 (39.78%) Cisco
2 43 (23.12%) Palo Alto
3 39 (20.97%) F5
4 38 (20.43%) Fortinet
5 26 (13.98%) Juniper
6 22 (11.83%) Microsoft
7 20 (10.75%) VMware
8 19 (10.22%) Arista
9 18 (9.68%) Aruba
10 17 (9.14%) Nokia
11 16 (8.60%) Ericsson
12 13 (6.99%) Huawei
13 11 (5.91%) CheckPoint
14 9 (4.84%) Zscaler
15 7 (3.76%) SolarWinds
16 6 (3.23%) Meraki
16 6 (3.23%) Splunk
17 5 (2.69%) Google
17 5 (2.69%) Veeam
18 4 (2.15%) Qualys