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

6 months to
31 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 421 351 307
Rank change year-on-year -70 -44 +132
Contract jobs citing Network Design 181 136 241
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.43% 0.56% 0.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.61% 0.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 126 85 116
10th Percentile £406 £413 £363
25th Percentile £463 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.64% +15.79% -5.00%
75th Percentile £584 £638 £575
90th Percentile £675 £715 £638
UK median daily rate £522 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -0.57% +10.53% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 1 2
10th Percentile £29.05 - £24.43
25th Percentile £36.25 £66.25 £26.19
Median hourly rate £60.00 £67.50 £29.25
Median % change year-on-year -11.11% +130.77% -58.21%
75th Percentile £71.50 £68.75 £32.19
90th Percentile £72.12 - £33.88
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £67.50 £29.25
% change year-on-year -2.96% +130.77% -58.21%

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 35,715 22,116 31,552
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.05% 91.31% 85.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,658 14,376 20,600
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.05% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £623 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £513 £525
% change year-on-year - -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,231 961 2,308
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.20 £12.84
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.13 £16.00
Median hourly rate £47.00 £28.75 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.48% -23.33% -
75th Percentile £68.00 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.05 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +51.79% -23.29% -0.73%

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 31 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 31 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 31 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 -50 64 £525 +9.38% 11
South East -49 44 £500 -13.04% 12
North of England -82 32 £575 +15.00% 8
North West -52 21 £575 +21.05% 6
South West -24 15 £565 -11.72% 5
Yorkshire -54 10 £519 +3.80% 1
Midlands -55 8 £425 -18.35% 4
West Midlands -59 8 £425 -18.35% 3
East of England - 6 £525 - 1
North East -19 5 £650 +18.18% 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 8 (4.42%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.10%) Apache
2 2 (1.10%) CloudStack
2 2 (1.10%) Confluence
2 2 (1.10%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.10%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.55%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.55%) Smallworld
Applications
1 6 (3.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 6 (3.31%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.76%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.66%) Microsoft Excel
4 2 (1.10%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.55%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.55%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.10%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 56 (30.94%) Azure
2 42 (23.20%) AWS
3 13 (7.18%) OCI
4 9 (4.97%) GCP
5 8 (4.42%) SaaS
6 7 (3.87%) GitHub
7 6 (3.31%) IaaS
8 5 (2.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 5 (2.76%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.76%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.66%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.66%) PaaS
10 2 (1.10%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.10%) Datadog
10 2 (1.10%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (1.10%) IBM Watson
10 2 (1.10%) Microsoft 365
10 2 (1.10%) OpenShift
11 1 (0.55%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (0.55%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 80 (44.20%) Firewall
2 64 (35.36%) WAN
3 55 (30.39%) BGP
4 44 (24.31%) OSPF
5 36 (19.89%) VPN
6 32 (17.68%) LAN
6 32 (17.68%) Network Security
7 29 (16.02%) SD-WAN
8 26 (14.36%) Wi-Fi
9 25 (13.81%) VLAN
9 25 (13.81%) VXLAN
10 24 (13.26%) 5G
11 21 (11.60%) MPLS
12 19 (10.50%) Ethernet VPN
12 19 (10.50%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 17 (9.39%) 4G
13 17 (9.39%) DNS
13 17 (9.39%) Radio Access Network
14 15 (8.29%) BIG-IP
15 14 (7.73%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.55%) GIS
Development Applications
1 11 (6.08%) GitLab
2 4 (2.21%) JIRA
3 3 (1.66%) Jenkins
4 2 (1.10%) Git
5 1 (0.55%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 39 (21.55%) Social Skills
2 23 (12.71%) Telecoms
3 20 (11.05%) Public Sector
4 16 (8.84%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.97%) Finance
5 9 (4.97%) Legal
6 7 (3.87%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.21%) Police
8 3 (1.66%) Banking
8 3 (1.66%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.66%) Retail
9 2 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 2 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.10%) Military
10 1 (0.55%) Aviation
10 1 (0.55%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.55%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 51 (28.18%) Network Engineer
2 46 (25.41%) Senior
3 35 (19.34%) Architect
4 32 (17.68%) Network Specialist
5 24 (13.26%) Designer
6 22 (12.15%) Network Architect
6 22 (12.15%) Network Design Specialist
7 19 (10.50%) Network Designer
8 16 (8.84%) Senior Network Engineer
9 15 (8.29%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (6.63%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 10 (5.52%) Design Engineer
12 9 (4.97%) Network Design Engineer
12 9 (4.97%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 9 (4.97%) Senior Designer
12 9 (4.97%) Senior Network Designer
13 8 (4.42%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
13 8 (4.42%) Senior Network Specialist
14 7 (3.87%) Lead
14 7 (3.87%) Security Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.42%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.42%) YANG
2 6 (3.31%) 802.1X
2 6 (3.31%) REST
3 4 (2.21%) Azure Blueprints
4 2 (1.10%) Django
4 2 (1.10%) Elastic Stack
4 2 (1.10%) OpenConfig
4 2 (1.10%) RESTCONF
5 1 (0.55%) JSON
5 1 (0.55%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 56 (30.94%) Data Centre
2 33 (18.23%) Hybrid Cloud
3 25 (13.81%) Cloud Native
4 7 (3.87%) Data Protection Act
5 6 (3.31%) Management Information System
6 4 (2.21%) CMDB
6 4 (2.21%) IoT
6 4 (2.21%) PKI
6 4 (2.21%) Security Posture
7 3 (1.66%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.10%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (1.10%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.10%) EMC VMAX
8 2 (1.10%) EMC VNX
8 2 (1.10%) Enterprise Storage
8 2 (1.10%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (1.10%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.10%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.10%) Replication
8 2 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 17 (9.39%) Linux
1 17 (9.39%) Windows
2 12 (6.63%) Windows Server
3 6 (3.31%) Ubuntu
4 4 (2.21%) Alpine Linux
4 4 (2.21%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (1.10%) Data ONTAP
5 2 (1.10%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (19.89%) Network Architecture
2 34 (18.78%) High Availability
3 31 (17.13%) Infrastructure as Code
4 29 (16.02%) Load Balancing
5 28 (15.47%) Zero Trust
6 27 (14.92%) DevOps
7 26 (14.36%) Problem-Solving
8 25 (13.81%) Migration
9 24 (13.26%) CI/CD
10 21 (11.60%) Roadmaps
11 19 (10.50%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 14 (7.73%) Stakeholder Management
13 13 (7.18%) Capacity Planning
13 13 (7.18%) Network Segmentation
13 13 (7.18%) Security Architecture
14 12 (6.63%) Project Delivery
14 12 (6.63%) TOGAF
15 11 (6.08%) Continuous Improvement
15 11 (6.08%) Technical Leadership
15 11 (6.08%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 37 (20.44%) Python
2 10 (5.52%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.87%) Bicep
4 5 (2.76%) Bash
5 2 (1.10%) SQL
6 1 (0.55%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 63 (34.81%) Security Cleared
2 42 (23.20%) Cisco Certification
3 39 (21.55%) SC Cleared
4 31 (17.13%) CCNP
5 18 (9.94%) DV Cleared
6 14 (7.73%) CCIE
7 11 (6.08%) Azure Certification
8 10 (5.52%) AWS Certification
9 9 (4.97%) CCNA
9 9 (4.97%) Degree
10 8 (4.42%) JNCIE
11 6 (3.31%) JNCIS
11 6 (3.31%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 5 (2.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 4 (2.21%) CISSP
14 3 (1.66%) CISM
15 2 (1.10%) Microsoft Certification
15 2 (1.10%) PMI Certification
15 2 (1.10%) PMP
15 2 (1.10%) Project+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.52%) NIST
2 4 (2.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.66%) NCSC
3 3 (1.66%) SLA
4 2 (1.10%) HIPAA
4 2 (1.10%) NIST 800
4 2 (1.10%) QA
4 2 (1.10%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.55%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.55%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.55%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.55%) GDPR
System Software
1 19 (10.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (6.63%) VMware NSX
3 9 (4.97%) Active Directory
4 7 (3.87%) Hyper-V
5 6 (3.31%) vSphere
6 3 (1.66%) KVM
7 2 (1.10%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (1.10%) NFS
7 2 (1.10%) SRDF
7 2 (1.10%) VMware ESXi
8 1 (0.55%) Docker
8 1 (0.55%) Firmware
8 1 (0.55%) RHEV
8 1 (0.55%) Xen
Systems Management
1 35 (19.34%) Ansible
2 29 (16.02%) Terraform
3 10 (5.52%) FortiGate
3 10 (5.52%) Kubernetes
4 5 (2.76%) Nagios
5 4 (2.21%) Grafana
5 4 (2.21%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.66%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.10%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (1.10%) Argo
7 2 (1.10%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.10%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (1.10%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (1.10%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.10%) NetBackup
7 2 (1.10%) SCCM
7 2 (1.10%) SnapMirror
7 2 (1.10%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.55%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.55%) Nmap
Vendors
1 76 (41.99%) Cisco
2 41 (22.65%) Palo Alto
3 32 (17.68%) F5
4 29 (16.02%) Fortinet
5 24 (13.26%) VMware
6 23 (12.71%) Juniper
7 22 (12.15%) Microsoft
8 20 (11.05%) Aruba
9 18 (9.94%) Nokia
10 17 (9.39%) Arista
11 14 (7.73%) Ericsson
12 13 (7.18%) Huawei
13 11 (6.08%) SolarWinds
14 10 (5.52%) CheckPoint
15 9 (4.97%) Meraki
16 7 (3.87%) Splunk
17 5 (2.76%) Zscaler
18 4 (2.21%) CrowdStrike
18 4 (2.21%) Ekahau
18 4 (2.21%) Okta