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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 428 348 305
Rank change year-on-year -80 -43 +142
Contract jobs citing Network Design 165 142 235
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.40% 0.59% 0.65%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.47% 0.64% 0.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 116 85 113
10th Percentile £413 £405 £363
25th Percentile £474 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -5.68% +15.79% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £575
90th Percentile £675 £715 £638
UK median daily rate £519 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -1.19% +10.53% -9.52%
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 34,902 22,108 31,434
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.66% 91.30% 86.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,235 14,434 20,613
10th Percentile £325 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £510 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -0.49% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,141 960 2,249
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.42 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.50 £18.22 £16.00
Median hourly rate £46.80 £28.75 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +62.78% -21.23% -0.11%
75th Percentile £67.84 £62.24 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.50 £28.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +51.79% -23.29% +1.39%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -46 54 £525 +9.38% 17
South East -51 42 £500 -13.04% 19
North of England -75 30 £575 +15.00% 8
North West -47 21 £555 +16.84% 7
South West -30 14 £533 -7.39% 2
West Midlands -56 8 £425 -18.35% 3
Midlands -56 8 £425 -18.35% 3
East of England -18 7 £525 +31.25% 1
Yorkshire -50 7 £585 +16.90%
North East -20 4 £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 7 (4.24%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.21%) Apache
2 2 (1.21%) CloudStack
2 2 (1.21%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.21%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.61%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.61%) Confluence
3 1 (0.61%) Smallworld
Applications
1 7 (4.24%) MS Visio
2 5 (3.03%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.42%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.61%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.61%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.21%) DELMIA
2 1 (0.61%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 47 (28.48%) Azure
2 34 (20.61%) AWS
3 11 (6.67%) OCI
4 6 (3.64%) SaaS
5 5 (3.03%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (3.03%) GCP
5 5 (3.03%) GitHub
5 5 (3.03%) IaaS
6 4 (2.42%) PaaS
7 2 (1.21%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.21%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.61%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.61%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.61%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.61%) Datadog
8 1 (0.61%) Dynamics 365
8 1 (0.61%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.61%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.61%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.61%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 73 (44.24%) Firewall
2 60 (36.36%) WAN
3 48 (29.09%) BGP
4 36 (21.82%) OSPF
5 33 (20.00%) VPN
6 32 (19.39%) LAN
7 28 (16.97%) Network Security
8 26 (15.76%) Wi-Fi
9 24 (14.55%) SD-WAN
10 22 (13.33%) 5G
11 21 (12.73%) VLAN
11 21 (12.73%) VXLAN
12 20 (12.12%) MPLS
13 16 (9.70%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 15 (9.09%) 4G
14 15 (9.09%) Ethernet VPN
14 15 (9.09%) Radio Access Network
14 15 (9.09%) TCP/IP
15 13 (7.88%) DNS
16 12 (7.27%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.61%) GIS
Development Applications
1 9 (5.45%) GitLab
2 2 (1.21%) Git
2 2 (1.21%) JIRA
3 1 (0.61%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.61%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 36 (21.82%) Social Skills
2 21 (12.73%) Telecoms
3 18 (10.91%) Public Sector
4 13 (7.88%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (5.45%) Finance
5 9 (5.45%) Legal
6 7 (4.24%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.42%) Police
8 3 (1.82%) Banking
8 3 (1.82%) Manufacturing
8 3 (1.82%) Retail
9 2 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.21%) Military
10 1 (0.61%) Aviation
10 1 (0.61%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.61%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 48 (29.09%) Network Engineer
2 37 (22.42%) Senior
3 28 (16.97%) Architect
3 28 (16.97%) Network Specialist
4 24 (14.55%) Designer
5 20 (12.12%) Network Architect
5 20 (12.12%) Network Design Specialist
6 19 (11.52%) Network Designer
7 13 (7.88%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 12 (7.27%) Senior Network Engineer
9 10 (6.06%) Design Engineer
9 10 (6.06%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 10 (6.06%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 9 (5.45%) Network Design Engineer
10 9 (5.45%) Senior Designer
10 9 (5.45%) Senior Network Designer
11 8 (4.85%) Lead
12 6 (3.64%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
12 6 (3.64%) Senior Network Specialist
13 5 (3.03%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (4.85%) NETCONF
1 8 (4.85%) YANG
2 7 (4.24%) 802.1X
3 5 (3.03%) REST
4 3 (1.82%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.82%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.21%) Django
5 2 (1.21%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.61%) JSON
6 1 (0.61%) OpenID
6 1 (0.61%) SAML
6 1 (0.61%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 52 (31.52%) Data Centre
2 29 (17.58%) Hybrid Cloud
3 17 (10.30%) Cloud Native
4 6 (3.64%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.42%) IoT
5 4 (2.42%) Management Information System
6 3 (1.82%) Analytical Mindset
6 3 (1.82%) Public Cloud
6 3 (1.82%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.21%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
7 2 (1.21%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.21%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.21%) PKI
7 2 (1.21%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.21%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.61%) EMC VMAX
8 1 (0.61%) EMC VNX
8 1 (0.61%) Replication
8 1 (0.61%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 11 (6.67%) Windows
2 10 (6.06%) Linux
3 8 (4.85%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.21%) Ubuntu
4 2 (1.21%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.61%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (21.82%) Network Architecture
2 30 (18.18%) High Availability
3 28 (16.97%) Load Balancing
4 23 (13.94%) Infrastructure as Code
4 23 (13.94%) Migration
5 21 (12.73%) Problem-Solving
5 21 (12.73%) Zero Trust
6 20 (12.12%) CI/CD
7 18 (10.91%) DevOps
8 16 (9.70%) Roadmaps
9 15 (9.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 11 (6.67%) Capacity Planning
10 11 (6.67%) Network Segmentation
11 10 (6.06%) Continuous Improvement
11 10 (6.06%) Project Delivery
11 10 (6.06%) Stakeholder Management
12 9 (5.45%) Data Protection
12 9 (5.45%) Observability
12 9 (5.45%) Technical Leadership
12 9 (5.45%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 29 (17.58%) Python
2 6 (3.64%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.42%) Bash
4 3 (1.82%) Bicep
5 2 (1.21%) SQL
Qualifications
1 58 (35.15%) Security Cleared
2 43 (26.06%) Cisco Certification
3 37 (22.42%) SC Cleared
4 32 (19.39%) CCNP
5 18 (10.91%) DV Cleared
6 15 (9.09%) CCIE
7 11 (6.67%) CCNA
8 10 (6.06%) Azure Certification
9 8 (4.85%) AWS Certification
9 8 (4.85%) JNCIE
9 8 (4.85%) JNCIS
10 7 (4.24%) Degree
11 5 (3.03%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (3.03%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 2 (1.21%) BC Cleared
12 2 (1.21%) Computer Science Degree
12 2 (1.21%) ITIL Certification
12 2 (1.21%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.21%) VCAP
12 2 (1.21%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (3.03%) NIST
2 3 (1.82%) NCSC
2 3 (1.82%) SLA
3 2 (1.21%) GDPR
3 2 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (1.21%) QA
4 1 (0.61%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.61%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.61%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.61%) NIST 800
System Software
1 16 (9.70%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (6.06%) VMware NSX
3 7 (4.24%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.64%) Hyper-V
5 5 (3.03%) vSphere
6 3 (1.82%) KVM
7 1 (0.61%) Docker
7 1 (0.61%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.61%) Firmware
7 1 (0.61%) NFS
7 1 (0.61%) RHEV
7 1 (0.61%) SRDF
7 1 (0.61%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.61%) Xen
Systems Management
1 29 (17.58%) Ansible
2 21 (12.73%) Terraform
3 10 (6.06%) FortiGate
4 9 (5.45%) Kubernetes
5 5 (3.03%) Nagios
6 3 (1.82%) Grafana
6 3 (1.82%) Prometheus
7 2 (1.21%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (1.21%) Check_MK
7 2 (1.21%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.21%) SCCM
7 2 (1.21%) vCenter Server
8 1 (0.61%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.61%) EMC NetWorker
8 1 (0.61%) EMC VPLEX
8 1 (0.61%) Iperf
8 1 (0.61%) NetBackup
8 1 (0.61%) Nmap
8 1 (0.61%) SnapMirror
8 1 (0.61%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 75 (45.45%) Cisco
2 39 (23.64%) Palo Alto
3 29 (17.58%) F5
4 27 (16.36%) Fortinet
4 27 (16.36%) Juniper
5 21 (12.73%) VMware
6 20 (12.12%) Microsoft
7 18 (10.91%) Aruba
8 15 (9.09%) Arista
8 15 (9.09%) Nokia
9 12 (7.27%) Ericsson
9 12 (7.27%) Meraki
10 11 (6.67%) Huawei
11 9 (5.45%) CheckPoint
12 8 (4.85%) SolarWinds
13 5 (3.03%) Zscaler
14 4 (2.42%) Ekahau
15 3 (1.82%) IBM
15 3 (1.82%) NetScout
15 3 (1.82%) Veeam