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 26 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 348 304 316
Rank change year-on-year -44 +12 +173
Contract jobs citing Network Design 188 215 274
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.61% 0.69% 0.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.68% 0.79% 0.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 137 122 156
10th Percentile £400 £400 £413
25th Percentile £413 £450 £473
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £523 £577
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -9.37% +28.11%
75th Percentile £582 £588 £641
90th Percentile £658 £637 £750
UK median daily rate £461 £525 £575
% change year-on-year -12.14% -8.70% +21.05%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 14
10th Percentile £58.85 £43.00 £38.60
25th Percentile £64.63 £55.00 -
Median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +13.67% -5.74%
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £69.10
UK median hourly rate £74.26 £55.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year +35.02% -16.64% -5.74%

All Process and 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 27,581 27,123 34,426
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 89.93% 87.40% 88.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,503 16,556 23,537
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £419 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £649 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.41% -3.18%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,803 997 1,447
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.22 £14.62
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.26 £19.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £36.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -30.14% -20.00% +25.00%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.75 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +27.14%

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 26 November 2025.

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 26 November 2025.

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 26 November 2025. 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 0 78 £450 -14.29% 13
South East -18 33 £575 +17.95% 37
West Midlands +8 31 £400 -46.67% 5
Midlands -7 31 £400 -27.27% 7
North of England -69 21 £509 +1.85% 15
North West -13 19 £497 +4.58% 10
South West -17 17 £548 +12.31% 5
East of England -11 7 £419 -16.25% 3
North East -10 2 £550 - 2
Yorkshire -60 1 £500 - 3
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 (3.72%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.06%) nginx
Applications
1 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (1.06%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.53%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 38 (20.21%) Azure
2 30 (15.96%) AWS
3 14 (7.45%) GCP
4 6 (3.19%) PaaS
5 5 (2.66%) SaaS
6 4 (2.13%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.13%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (1.60%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.60%) IaaS
7 3 (1.60%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (1.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.06%) Entra ID
8 2 (1.06%) GitHub
8 2 (1.06%) Serverless
9 1 (0.53%) Akamai
9 1 (0.53%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.53%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.53%) Google Ads
9 1 (0.53%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 83 (44.15%) Firewall
2 81 (43.09%) WAN
3 60 (31.91%) LAN
4 48 (25.53%) BGP
5 42 (22.34%) Network Security
5 42 (22.34%) VPN
6 41 (21.81%) MPLS
7 34 (18.09%) SD-WAN
8 33 (17.55%) Wi-Fi
9 22 (11.70%) IPsec
10 19 (10.11%) Radio Access Network
11 18 (9.57%) Cisco Nexus
11 18 (9.57%) VLAN
12 16 (8.51%) 4G
13 14 (7.45%) DNS
13 14 (7.45%) TCP/IP
14 12 (6.38%) OSPF
14 12 (6.38%) Wireless
15 11 (5.85%) 3GPP
15 11 (5.85%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.60%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.66%) Git
2 4 (2.13%) GitLab
3 2 (1.06%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.53%) Robot Framework
4 1 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 46 (24.47%) Telecoms
2 45 (23.94%) Social Skills
3 26 (13.83%) Public Sector
4 17 (9.04%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (3.72%) Manufacturing
6 6 (3.19%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.66%) Finance
8 4 (2.13%) Aviation
8 4 (2.13%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (2.13%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.60%) Legal
10 2 (1.06%) Aerospace
10 2 (1.06%) Electronics
11 1 (0.53%) Law
11 1 (0.53%) Local Government
11 1 (0.53%) Marketing
11 1 (0.53%) Military
11 1 (0.53%) Police
11 1 (0.53%) Publishing
11 1 (0.53%) Retail
Job Titles
1 69 (36.70%) Architect
2 61 (32.45%) Network Engineer
3 52 (27.66%) Network Architect
4 20 (10.64%) Network Design Specialist
4 20 (10.64%) Network Specialist
5 14 (7.45%) Network Design Architect
6 13 (6.91%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 11 (5.85%) 3rd Line Engineer
7 11 (5.85%) Design Engineer
7 11 (5.85%) Performance Specialist
7 11 (5.85%) Support Engineer
8 10 (5.32%) 3rd Line Support
8 10 (5.32%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
8 10 (5.32%) Network Design Engineer
9 9 (4.79%) Senior
10 8 (4.26%) IP Specialist
10 8 (4.26%) Solutions Architect
11 7 (3.72%) IP Architect
12 6 (3.19%) Juniper Engineer
12 6 (3.19%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.32%) 802.1X
2 9 (4.79%) YANG
3 8 (4.26%) NETCONF
4 6 (3.19%) REST
5 4 (2.13%) OpenID
5 4 (2.13%) SAML
6 3 (1.60%) Middleware
7 2 (1.06%) OpenConfig
7 2 (1.06%) RESTCONF
7 2 (1.06%) Web Services
8 1 (0.53%) eBPF
8 1 (0.53%) gRPC
8 1 (0.53%) Jinja
8 1 (0.53%) JSON
8 1 (0.53%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 40 (21.28%) Data Centre
2 18 (9.57%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (7.45%) Operational Technology
4 12 (6.38%) SCADA
5 11 (5.85%) Cloud Native
5 11 (5.85%) PKI
6 8 (4.26%) IoT
6 8 (4.26%) Onboarding
7 6 (3.19%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (2.13%) Fibre Optics
8 4 (2.13%) Management Information System
8 4 (2.13%) NB-IoT
8 4 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (1.60%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.60%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.60%) Security Posture
10 2 (1.06%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (1.06%) Distributed Architecture
10 2 (1.06%) Insider Threat
10 2 (1.06%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 8 (4.26%) Windows
2 3 (1.60%) Linux
3 1 (0.53%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (24.47%) Network Architecture
2 31 (16.49%) Load Balancing
3 20 (10.64%) Cybersecurity
4 19 (10.11%) Roadmaps
5 18 (9.57%) Migration
6 17 (9.04%) High Availability
6 17 (9.04%) Network Segmentation
6 17 (9.04%) Root Cause Analysis
7 16 (8.51%) Problem-Solving
7 16 (8.51%) Zero Trust
8 15 (7.98%) DevOps
8 15 (7.98%) Network Virtualisation
8 15 (7.98%) Stakeholder Management
9 12 (6.38%) Incident Response
9 12 (6.38%) ITIL
9 12 (6.38%) Network Management
9 12 (6.38%) Network Monitoring
9 12 (6.38%) TOGAF
10 11 (5.85%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 11 (5.85%) Strategic Thinking
Programming Languages
1 24 (12.77%) Python
2 5 (2.66%) SQL
3 2 (1.06%) Bash
3 2 (1.06%) Perl
3 2 (1.06%) PowerShell
4 1 (0.53%) C
Qualifications
1 82 (43.62%) Security Cleared
2 48 (25.53%) SC Cleared
3 44 (23.40%) Cisco Certification
4 33 (17.55%) DV Cleared
5 31 (16.49%) CCNP
6 22 (11.70%) CCIE
7 18 (9.57%) Degree
8 13 (6.91%) JNCIE
9 12 (6.38%) CISSP
10 11 (5.85%) CCNA
11 7 (3.72%) JNCIS
12 6 (3.19%) JNCIP
13 5 (2.66%) AWS Certification
13 5 (2.66%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (2.13%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (2.13%) BPSS Clearance
14 4 (2.13%) CCSP
15 3 (1.60%) Azure Certification
15 3 (1.60%) CCIE Security
16 2 (1.06%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.79%) GDPR
2 8 (4.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.72%) NIST
3 7 (3.72%) PCI DSS
4 5 (2.66%) NCSC
5 2 (1.06%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
6 1 (0.53%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.53%) DO-160
6 1 (0.53%) QA
System Software
1 6 (3.19%) VMware Infrastructure
1 6 (3.19%) VMware NSX
2 5 (2.66%) Firmware
3 2 (1.06%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.06%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.53%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 24 (12.77%) Ansible
2 11 (5.85%) Terraform
3 10 (5.32%) FortiGate
4 2 (1.06%) HAProxy
4 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.53%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (0.53%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.53%) Grafana
5 1 (0.53%) Kubernetes
5 1 (0.53%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 77 (40.96%) Cisco
2 40 (21.28%) Juniper
3 36 (19.15%) Palo Alto
4 26 (13.83%) Fortinet
5 22 (11.70%) F5
6 18 (9.57%) Meraki
7 14 (7.45%) Microsoft
8 13 (6.91%) Nokia
9 12 (6.38%) VMware
10 11 (5.85%) Ericsson
11 10 (5.32%) Actix
12 9 (4.79%) CheckPoint
12 9 (4.79%) SolarWinds
13 6 (3.19%) Zscaler
14 3 (1.60%) Arista
14 3 (1.60%) Aruba
14 3 (1.60%) LogicMonitor
15 2 (1.06%) Forcepoint
15 2 (1.06%) Infoblox
15 2 (1.06%) NetScout