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 15 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 421 313 309
Rank change year-on-year -108 -4 +135
Contract jobs citing Network Design 169 155 234
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.43% 0.64% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.50% 0.70% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 89 117
10th Percentile £409 £400 £363
25th Percentile £463 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -6.36% +15.79% -4.52%
75th Percentile £574 £625 £550
90th Percentile £675 £728 £616
UK median daily rate £519 £538 £475
% change year-on-year -3.49% +13.16% -5.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 4
10th Percentile £30.25 - £23.55
25th Percentile £44.81 £66.25 £24.00
Median hourly rate £71.77 £67.50 £47.25
Median % change year-on-year +6.33% +42.86% -32.50%
75th Percentile £73.83 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.26 - -
UK median hourly rate £71.77 £67.50 £47.25
% change year-on-year +6.33% +42.86% -32.50%

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 33,504 22,203 32,130
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.48% 91.02% 86.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,453 14,593 21,161
10th Percentile £313 £313 £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 £613 £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 2,080 880 2,196
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.83 £12.85
25th Percentile £20.07 £18.51 £15.75
Median hourly rate £41.56 £31.76 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.84% -6.59% -9.33%
75th Percentile £66.50 £64.50 £58.69
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.28 £71.75
UK median hourly rate £37.00 £30.78 £33.07
% change year-on-year +20.21% -6.91% -8.79%

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 15 April 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 15 April 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 15 April 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 -40 67 £525 +2.44% 18
South East -47 39 £500 -13.04% 14
North of England -85 23 £519 +3.80% 10
North West -56 17 £519 +3.70% 6
West Midlands -51 14 £469 +7.14% 3
Midlands -54 14 £469 +7.14% 4
South West -30 12 £495 -6.82% 4
East of England -23 7 £475 +18.75% 4
Yorkshire -54 6 £585 +16.90%
North East -19 1 - - 4
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 5 (2.96%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.18%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.59%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.59%) Confluence
3 1 (0.59%) Smallworld
Applications
1 8 (4.73%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.96%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.37%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.59%) Autodesk Inventor
4 1 (0.59%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.18%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.18%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 38 (22.49%) Azure
2 26 (15.38%) AWS
3 10 (5.92%) GCP
4 6 (3.55%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 4 (2.37%) GitHub
5 4 (2.37%) PaaS
6 3 (1.78%) AWS Direct Connect
6 3 (1.78%) IaaS
6 3 (1.78%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.18%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (1.18%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.18%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.59%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.59%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.59%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.59%) Datadog
8 1 (0.59%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.59%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.59%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.59%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 71 (42.01%) Firewall
2 60 (35.50%) WAN
3 42 (24.85%) BGP
4 39 (23.08%) LAN
5 37 (21.89%) VPN
6 35 (20.71%) Network Security
7 28 (16.57%) MPLS
8 26 (15.38%) 5G
9 25 (14.79%) OSPF
9 25 (14.79%) Wi-Fi
10 24 (14.20%) VLAN
11 22 (13.02%) SD-WAN
12 18 (10.65%) Radio Access Network
13 17 (10.06%) 4G
13 17 (10.06%) TCP/IP
14 14 (8.28%) DNS
15 13 (7.69%) Cisco ISE
15 13 (7.69%) IPsec
16 12 (7.10%) DHCP
16 12 (7.10%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.18%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.96%) Git
2 2 (1.18%) JIRA
3 1 (0.59%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.59%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 47 (27.81%) Social Skills
2 27 (15.98%) Telecoms
3 19 (11.24%) Analytical Skills
4 14 (8.28%) Public Sector
5 11 (6.51%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (5.92%) Finance
7 9 (5.33%) Legal
8 5 (2.96%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (2.96%) Police
9 4 (2.37%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.78%) Banking
10 3 (1.78%) Manufacturing
11 2 (1.18%) Electronics
12 1 (0.59%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.59%) Aviation
12 1 (0.59%) Local Government
12 1 (0.59%) Marketing
12 1 (0.59%) Military
12 1 (0.59%) Retail
12 1 (0.59%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 55 (32.54%) Network Engineer
2 39 (23.08%) Architect
3 30 (17.75%) Network Architect
4 24 (14.20%) Network Specialist
5 22 (13.02%) Senior
6 20 (11.83%) Designer
7 18 (10.65%) Network Design Specialist
8 15 (8.88%) Design Engineer
8 15 (8.88%) Network Designer
9 13 (7.69%) Network Design Engineer
10 12 (7.10%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 9 (5.33%) Senior Designer
11 9 (5.33%) Senior Network Designer
12 8 (4.73%) Lead
12 8 (4.73%) Senior Network Engineer
13 7 (4.14%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
13 7 (4.14%) Solutions Architect
14 6 (3.55%) IP Specialist
15 5 (2.96%) Technical Architect
16 4 (2.37%) Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.92%) 802.1X
2 7 (4.14%) NETCONF
2 7 (4.14%) YANG
3 4 (2.37%) OpenConfig
3 4 (2.37%) RESTCONF
4 2 (1.18%) Django
4 2 (1.18%) OpenID
4 2 (1.18%) REST
4 2 (1.18%) SAML
5 1 (0.59%) JSON
5 1 (0.59%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 44 (26.04%) Data Centre
2 15 (8.88%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (5.33%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (4.73%) Cloud Native
5 4 (2.37%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (2.37%) IoT
5 4 (2.37%) Self-Motivation
6 3 (1.78%) Distributed Architecture
6 3 (1.78%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.78%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.18%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (1.18%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.18%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.18%) PKI
7 2 (1.18%) Product Ownership
7 2 (1.18%) SCADA
7 2 (1.18%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.59%) EMC VNX
8 1 (0.59%) NB-IoT
8 1 (0.59%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 9 (5.33%) Windows
2 7 (4.14%) Linux
3 6 (3.55%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.18%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.59%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (20.71%) Network Architecture
2 25 (14.79%) Load Balancing
3 24 (14.20%) High Availability
4 22 (13.02%) Problem-Solving
5 21 (12.43%) Migration
6 17 (10.06%) Roadmaps
7 15 (8.88%) Stakeholder Management
8 14 (8.28%) Data Protection
8 14 (8.28%) Security Architecture
9 13 (7.69%) Infrastructure as Code
9 13 (7.69%) Network Management
9 13 (7.69%) Zero Trust
10 12 (7.10%) Cybersecurity
10 12 (7.10%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 12 (7.10%) TOGAF
11 11 (6.51%) Capacity Planning
11 11 (6.51%) ITIL
11 11 (6.51%) Mentoring
11 11 (6.51%) Network Segmentation
12 10 (5.92%) CI/CD
Programming Languages
1 24 (14.20%) Python
2 8 (4.73%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.55%) Bash
4 3 (1.78%) SQL
5 2 (1.18%) Bicep
5 2 (1.18%) Perl
Qualifications
1 65 (38.46%) Security Cleared
2 46 (27.22%) Cisco Certification
3 40 (23.67%) SC Cleared
4 37 (21.89%) CCNP
5 24 (14.20%) DV Cleared
6 20 (11.83%) CCIE
7 15 (8.88%) Degree
8 13 (7.69%) CCNA
9 11 (6.51%) JNCIS
10 10 (5.92%) AWS Certification
10 10 (5.92%) Azure Certification
11 8 (4.73%) JNCIE
12 7 (4.14%) CISSP
13 4 (2.37%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (2.37%) CCSP
13 4 (2.37%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (2.37%) JNCIP
14 3 (1.78%) CCIE Security
14 3 (1.78%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
15 2 (1.18%) BC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.73%) GDPR
1 8 (4.73%) NIST
2 6 (3.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.96%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.78%) SLA
5 2 (1.18%) NCSC
6 1 (0.59%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.59%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.59%) DO-160
System Software
1 15 (8.88%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (6.51%) VMware NSX
3 7 (4.14%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.55%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.78%) KVM
6 2 (1.18%) vSphere
7 1 (0.59%) Docker
7 1 (0.59%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.59%) NFS
7 1 (0.59%) RHEV
7 1 (0.59%) SRDF
7 1 (0.59%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.59%) Xen
Systems Management
1 22 (13.02%) Ansible
2 15 (8.88%) Terraform
3 14 (8.28%) FortiGate
4 7 (4.14%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.96%) Nagios
6 2 (1.18%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.18%) Grafana
6 2 (1.18%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (1.18%) Prometheus
6 2 (1.18%) SCCM
7 1 (0.59%) Argo
7 1 (0.59%) EMC NetWorker
7 1 (0.59%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.59%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.59%) Iperf
7 1 (0.59%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.59%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.59%) SnapMirror
7 1 (0.59%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.59%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 82 (48.52%) Cisco
2 37 (21.89%) Palo Alto
3 32 (18.93%) Juniper
4 24 (14.20%) Fortinet
5 23 (13.61%) Microsoft
6 22 (13.02%) F5
7 20 (11.83%) Meraki
7 20 (11.83%) VMware
8 17 (10.06%) Nokia
9 12 (7.10%) Ericsson
10 10 (5.92%) SolarWinds
11 9 (5.33%) Aruba
11 9 (5.33%) CheckPoint
11 9 (5.33%) Huawei
12 4 (2.37%) Ekahau
13 3 (1.78%) Arista
13 3 (1.78%) IBM
13 3 (1.78%) McAfee
13 3 (1.78%) NetScout
13 3 (1.78%) Zscaler