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 16 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 471 345 324
Rank change year-on-year -126 -21 +16
Contract jobs citing Network Design 172 158 217
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.37% 0.57% 0.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.44% 0.63% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 117 109 123
10th Percentile £400 £400 £403
25th Percentile £450 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -9.26%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £600
90th Percentile £650 £678 £680
UK median daily rate £513 £475 £525
% change year-on-year +7.89% -9.52% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 2 3
10th Percentile - £56.13 £43.00
25th Percentile £55.00 £57.81 £55.00
Median hourly rate £71.00 £61.25 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.92% -18.33% +11.94%
75th Percentile £73.00 £65.31 -
90th Percentile £84.72 £67.38 -
UK median hourly rate £72.00 £61.25 £55.00
% change year-on-year +17.55% +11.36% -17.28%

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 39,062 25,238 28,145
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.72% 90.90% 86.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,917 16,041 17,545
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £423
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
75th Percentile £638 £625 £645
90th Percentile £738 £738 £750
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,725 1,497 1,306
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.38 £14.92
25th Percentile £17.85 £17.87 £20.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -1.91%
75th Percentile £68.00 £49.75 £66.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%

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 16 September 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 16 September 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 16 September 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 -79 58 £500 +11.11% 128
South East -71 37 £556 +5.95% 47
North of England -70 31 £575 +21.05% 26
North West -43 23 £575 +21.05% 17
Midlands -53 12 £425 - 33
South West -54 11 £631 -1.41% 20
West Midlands -62 11 £425 - 24
North East -33 7 £650 +18.18% 1
Yorkshire -40 7 £519 -9.74% 9
East of England -20 5 £385 -6.10% 5
East Midlands - 1 - - 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 11 (6.40%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.74%) Apache
2 3 (1.74%) CloudStack
3 1 (0.58%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (4.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 7 (4.07%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.91%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (2.91%) MS Visio
4 3 (1.74%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.58%) CPLEX
Cloud Services
1 55 (31.98%) Azure
2 48 (27.91%) AWS
3 15 (8.72%) OCI
4 10 (5.81%) SaaS
5 9 (5.23%) GCP
5 9 (5.23%) GitHub
6 7 (4.07%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (4.07%) OpenShift
7 6 (3.49%) IaaS
8 4 (2.33%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (2.33%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.74%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.74%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (1.16%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.16%) Datadog
10 2 (1.16%) PaaS
11 1 (0.58%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 1 (0.58%) AWS Direct Connect
11 1 (0.58%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.58%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 72 (41.86%) Firewall
2 64 (37.21%) BGP
3 51 (29.65%) WAN
4 49 (28.49%) OSPF
5 33 (19.19%) VLAN
6 30 (17.44%) LAN
7 29 (16.86%) Network Security
7 29 (16.86%) VPN
8 28 (16.28%) SD-WAN
9 24 (13.95%) 5G
9 24 (13.95%) VXLAN
10 23 (13.37%) 4G
11 22 (12.79%) Wi-Fi
12 21 (12.21%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 20 (11.63%) Ethernet VPN
14 19 (11.05%) MPLS
14 19 (11.05%) Radio Access Network
15 17 (9.88%) BIG-IP
16 14 (8.14%) WLAN
17 13 (7.56%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.74%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 13 (7.56%) GitLab
2 3 (1.74%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.16%) JIRA
4 1 (0.58%) Git
General
1 39 (22.67%) Social Skills
2 28 (16.28%) Telecoms
3 18 (10.47%) Public Sector
4 16 (9.30%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (5.81%) Manufacturing
6 9 (5.23%) Legal
7 7 (4.07%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (4.07%) Retail
8 4 (2.33%) Finance
9 3 (1.74%) Cyber-Physical System
9 3 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (1.16%) Billing
10 2 (1.16%) Military
11 1 (0.58%) Aviation
11 1 (0.58%) Banking
11 1 (0.58%) Local Government
11 1 (0.58%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.58%) Police
11 1 (0.58%) Polish Language
Job Titles
1 54 (31.40%) Network Engineer
2 42 (24.42%) Senior
3 35 (20.35%) Architect
4 25 (14.53%) Network Specialist
5 22 (12.79%) Senior Network Engineer
6 21 (12.21%) Network Architect
7 16 (9.30%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 14 (8.14%) Designer
8 14 (8.14%) Network Design Specialist
9 13 (7.56%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 11 (6.40%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
10 11 (6.40%) Senior Network Specialist
11 10 (5.81%) Network Designer
12 8 (4.65%) Consultant
12 8 (4.65%) Design Engineer
12 8 (4.65%) Lead
12 8 (4.65%) RAN Engineer
12 8 (4.65%) Security Architect
13 6 (3.49%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 6 (3.49%) IP Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (23.26%) Terraform
2 9 (5.23%) NETCONF
2 9 (5.23%) YANG
3 6 (3.49%) REST
4 5 (2.91%) 802.1X
5 4 (2.33%) Azure Blueprints
5 4 (2.33%) OpenConfig
5 4 (2.33%) RESTCONF
6 3 (1.74%) Elastic Stack
7 1 (0.58%) eBPF
7 1 (0.58%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 57 (33.14%) Data Centre
2 41 (23.84%) Hybrid Cloud
3 26 (15.12%) Cloud Native
4 8 (4.65%) Operational Technology
4 8 (4.65%) Public Cloud
5 6 (3.49%) Private Cloud
6 5 (2.91%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (2.91%) IoT
6 5 (2.91%) PKI
7 4 (2.33%) CMDB
7 4 (2.33%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (2.33%) Management Information System
7 4 (2.33%) Security Posture
8 3 (1.74%) Data Fabric
8 3 (1.74%) Handset
8 3 (1.74%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.74%) SCADA
9 2 (1.16%) Enterprise Storage
9 2 (1.16%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.16%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (8.72%) Linux
2 12 (6.98%) Windows
3 8 (4.65%) Ubuntu
3 8 (4.65%) Windows Server
4 4 (2.33%) Alpine Linux
4 4 (2.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.16%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (20.35%) Stakeholder Management
2 34 (19.77%) High Availability
3 33 (19.19%) Zero Trust
4 31 (18.02%) Infrastructure as Code
5 30 (17.44%) Network Architecture
6 28 (16.28%) Migration
6 28 (16.28%) Roadmaps
7 26 (15.12%) DevOps
8 23 (13.37%) Infrastructure Engineering
8 23 (13.37%) Project Delivery
9 22 (12.79%) Problem-Solving
10 21 (12.21%) CI/CD
10 21 (12.21%) Load Balancing
11 20 (11.63%) Validation
12 18 (10.47%) Cybersecurity
12 18 (10.47%) Technical Leadership
13 15 (8.72%) Capacity Planning
13 15 (8.72%) Continuous Improvement
14 14 (8.14%) TOGAF
15 13 (7.56%) Agile
Programming Languages
1 40 (23.26%) Python
2 6 (3.49%) Bicep
3 5 (2.91%) PowerShell
4 2 (1.16%) Bash
5 1 (0.58%) ActionScript
5 1 (0.58%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 51 (29.65%) Security Cleared
2 35 (20.35%) Cisco Certification
3 32 (18.60%) SC Cleared
4 24 (13.95%) CCNP
5 14 (8.14%) CCIE
6 13 (7.56%) DV Cleared
7 10 (5.81%) JNCIE
8 9 (5.23%) AWS Certification
9 8 (4.65%) Azure Certification
9 8 (4.65%) Degree
10 6 (3.49%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 5 (2.91%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.91%) CISSP
12 4 (2.33%) CISM
13 3 (1.74%) CCNA
14 2 (1.16%) ISSAP
14 2 (1.16%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (1.16%) NCDA
14 2 (1.16%) NCIE
15 1 (0.58%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (6.40%) NIST
2 8 (4.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.33%) Actionable Recommendations
4 3 (1.74%) NIST 800
4 3 (1.74%) SOC 2
5 2 (1.16%) GDPR
5 2 (1.16%) GxP
5 2 (1.16%) HIPAA
5 2 (1.16%) QA
5 2 (1.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 1 (0.58%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.58%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.58%) NCSC
6 1 (0.58%) SLA
System Software
1 15 (8.72%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.81%) vSphere
3 8 (4.65%) VMware NSX
4 4 (2.33%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.74%) Firmware
5 3 (1.74%) FreeRADIUS
5 3 (1.74%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.74%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.16%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (1.16%) NFS
6 2 (1.16%) SRDF
7 1 (0.58%) Docker
7 1 (0.58%) KVM
Systems Management
1 41 (23.84%) Ansible
2 10 (5.81%) Kubernetes
3 8 (4.65%) FortiGate
4 6 (3.49%) Grafana
4 6 (3.49%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.74%) Check_MK
5 3 (1.74%) vCenter Server
6 2 (1.16%) Argo
6 2 (1.16%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (1.16%) EMC VPLEX
6 2 (1.16%) NetBackup
6 2 (1.16%) SnapMirror
6 2 (1.16%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.58%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.58%) QRadar
7 1 (0.58%) SCCM
7 1 (0.58%) Suricata
7 1 (0.58%) vRealize
Vendors
1 69 (40.12%) Cisco
2 39 (22.67%) Palo Alto
3 38 (22.09%) Fortinet
4 35 (20.35%) F5
5 21 (12.21%) Arista
5 21 (12.21%) Juniper
6 19 (11.05%) Aruba
7 18 (10.47%) Microsoft
7 18 (10.47%) Nokia
8 17 (9.88%) Ericsson
8 17 (9.88%) VMware
9 10 (5.81%) Zscaler
10 8 (4.65%) Huawei
11 7 (4.07%) Splunk
12 6 (3.49%) CheckPoint
13 5 (2.91%) Google
13 5 (2.91%) ServiceNow
13 5 (2.91%) SolarWinds
13 5 (2.91%) Veeam
14 4 (2.33%) Rapid7