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 14 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 439 353 306
Rank change year-on-year -86 -47 +88
Contract jobs citing Network Design 187 163 230
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.41% 0.59% 0.69%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.65% 0.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 125 112 128
10th Percentile £396 £401 £363
25th Percentile £450 £450 £422
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £520 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.96% +9.47% -15.56%
75th Percentile £588 £632 £575
90th Percentile £650 £688 £650
UK median daily rate £513 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +2.50% +5.26% -13.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 3
10th Percentile £31.45 £56.13 £43.00
25th Percentile £45.63 £57.81 £55.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £61.25 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year -2.04% -18.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £72.25 £65.31 -
90th Percentile £80.81 £67.38 -
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £55.00
% change year-on-year +6.94% +11.36% -21.43%

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 38,785 25,097 28,627
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.06% 90.81% 85.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,091 16,007 18,621
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £756
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,533 1,429 1,649
10th Percentile £14.48 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.34 £17.87 £18.50
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +2.87%
75th Percentile £68.75 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £70.00 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £41.50
% change year-on-year +68.19% -39.40% -2.35%

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 14 August 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 14 August 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 14 August 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 -58 65 £525 +10.53% 31
South East -74 40 £513 -10.87% 11
North of England -60 33 £575 +21.05% 16
North West -43 25 £575 +21.05% 5
South West -51 15 £495 -22.66% 2
Midlands -55 10 £425 - 13
West Midlands -60 10 £425 - 7
East of England -14 7 £525 +0.96% 2
Yorkshire -35 7 £519 -9.74% 9
North East - 7 £650 - 2
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 12 (6.42%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.60%) Apache
2 3 (1.60%) CloudStack
3 2 (1.07%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.07%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.53%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.53%) Confluence
4 1 (0.53%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (5.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (4.81%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (4.28%) Microsoft Excel
4 7 (3.74%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.60%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.53%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.53%) CPLEX
6 1 (0.53%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 57 (30.48%) Azure
2 49 (26.20%) AWS
3 15 (8.02%) OCI
4 10 (5.35%) GitHub
4 10 (5.35%) SaaS
5 9 (4.81%) GCP
6 7 (3.74%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (3.74%) OpenShift
7 6 (3.21%) IaaS
8 4 (2.14%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (2.14%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.60%) AWS Control Tower
10 2 (1.07%) Azure Storage
10 2 (1.07%) Datadog
10 2 (1.07%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (1.07%) PaaS
11 1 (0.53%) AWS Direct Connect
11 1 (0.53%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.53%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 79 (42.25%) Firewall
2 66 (35.29%) BGP
3 59 (31.55%) WAN
4 51 (27.27%) OSPF
5 31 (16.58%) LAN
5 31 (16.58%) VPN
6 30 (16.04%) 5G
6 30 (16.04%) VLAN
7 29 (15.51%) Network Security
7 29 (15.51%) SD-WAN
8 28 (14.97%) Wi-Fi
9 27 (14.44%) 4G
9 27 (14.44%) VXLAN
10 22 (11.76%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 22 (11.76%) MPLS
10 22 (11.76%) Radio Access Network
11 20 (10.70%) Ethernet VPN
12 17 (9.09%) BIG-IP
13 15 (8.02%) IPsec
13 15 (8.02%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.60%) Metadata
2 1 (0.53%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.95%) GitLab
2 3 (1.60%) Jenkins
3 2 (1.07%) JIRA
4 1 (0.53%) Git
General
1 42 (22.46%) Social Skills
2 29 (15.51%) Telecoms
3 20 (10.70%) Public Sector
4 19 (10.16%) Analytical Skills
5 8 (4.28%) Legal
6 7 (3.74%) Documentation Skills
6 7 (3.74%) Manufacturing
6 7 (3.74%) Retail
7 5 (2.67%) Finance
8 3 (1.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 3 (1.60%) Police
9 2 (1.07%) Banking
9 2 (1.07%) Billing
9 2 (1.07%) Military
10 1 (0.53%) Aviation
10 1 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.53%) Polish Language
10 1 (0.53%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 58 (31.02%) Network Engineer
2 43 (22.99%) Senior
3 39 (20.86%) Architect
4 34 (18.18%) Network Specialist
5 24 (12.83%) Network Architect
6 22 (11.76%) Network Design Specialist
6 22 (11.76%) Senior Network Engineer
7 17 (9.09%) Designer
8 16 (8.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (6.95%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (6.42%) Network Designer
11 10 (5.35%) Design Engineer
11 10 (5.35%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
11 10 (5.35%) Senior Network Specialist
12 8 (4.28%) Security Architect
13 7 (3.74%) Lead
13 7 (3.74%) Solutions Architect
14 6 (3.21%) IP Architect
14 6 (3.21%) Network Design Engineer
15 5 (2.67%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.88%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.88%) YANG
2 7 (3.74%) 802.1X
3 6 (3.21%) OpenConfig
3 6 (3.21%) REST
3 6 (3.21%) RESTCONF
4 4 (2.14%) Azure Blueprints
5 3 (1.60%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.53%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 58 (31.02%) Data Centre
2 44 (23.53%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (14.44%) Cloud Native
4 8 (4.28%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (4.28%) Public Cloud
5 6 (3.21%) Analytical Mindset
6 5 (2.67%) IoT
6 5 (2.67%) Operational Technology
6 5 (2.67%) PKI
6 5 (2.67%) Private Cloud
7 4 (2.14%) CMDB
7 4 (2.14%) Management Information System
7 4 (2.14%) Security Posture
8 3 (1.60%) Data Fabric
8 3 (1.60%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.60%) SCADA
9 2 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (1.07%) Handset
9 2 (1.07%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.07%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (8.02%) Linux
2 13 (6.95%) Windows
3 10 (5.35%) Windows Server
4 8 (4.28%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.14%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (2.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.07%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (1.07%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 36 (19.25%) Network Architecture
2 35 (18.72%) High Availability
3 34 (18.18%) Zero Trust
4 32 (17.11%) Infrastructure as Code
5 27 (14.44%) DevOps
5 27 (14.44%) Migration
5 27 (14.44%) Problem-Solving
5 27 (14.44%) Stakeholder Management
6 25 (13.37%) Load Balancing
6 25 (13.37%) Roadmaps
7 23 (12.30%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 23 (12.30%) Project Delivery
8 22 (11.76%) CI/CD
9 19 (10.16%) Technical Leadership
10 18 (9.63%) Capacity Planning
10 18 (9.63%) Continuous Improvement
10 18 (9.63%) Validation
11 16 (8.56%) Cybersecurity
12 13 (6.95%) Network Virtualisation
13 12 (6.42%) Cloud Security
Programming Languages
1 43 (22.99%) Python
2 7 (3.74%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.21%) Bicep
4 2 (1.07%) Bash
5 1 (0.53%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 55 (29.41%) Security Cleared
2 40 (21.39%) Cisco Certification
3 35 (18.72%) SC Cleared
4 26 (13.90%) CCNP
5 17 (9.09%) CCIE
6 13 (6.95%) DV Cleared
7 12 (6.42%) JNCIE
8 9 (4.81%) Azure Certification
9 8 (4.28%) AWS Certification
9 8 (4.28%) Degree
10 6 (3.21%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 5 (2.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.67%) CISSP
12 4 (2.14%) CISM
13 3 (1.60%) CCNA
14 2 (1.07%) ISSAP
14 2 (1.07%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (1.07%) NCDA
14 2 (1.07%) NCIE
14 2 (1.07%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.81%) NIST
2 4 (2.14%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.60%) NIST 800
4 2 (1.07%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (1.07%) GDPR
4 2 (1.07%) GxP
4 2 (1.07%) HIPAA
4 2 (1.07%) NCSC
4 2 (1.07%) QA
4 2 (1.07%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (1.07%) SLA
4 2 (1.07%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.53%) Def Stans
System Software
1 17 (9.09%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.35%) vSphere
3 9 (4.81%) VMware NSX
4 6 (3.21%) Active Directory
5 5 (2.67%) Hyper-V
6 3 (1.60%) Firmware
6 3 (1.60%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (1.07%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (1.07%) FreeRADIUS
7 2 (1.07%) NFS
7 2 (1.07%) SRDF
8 1 (0.53%) KVM
Systems Management
1 44 (23.53%) Ansible
2 39 (20.86%) Terraform
3 11 (5.88%) Kubernetes
4 8 (4.28%) FortiGate
5 6 (3.21%) Grafana
5 6 (3.21%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.60%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.60%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.07%) Argo
7 2 (1.07%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (1.07%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (1.07%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.07%) NetBackup
7 2 (1.07%) SnapMirror
7 2 (1.07%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.53%) Nagios
8 1 (0.53%) QRadar
8 1 (0.53%) SCCM
8 1 (0.53%) Suricata
8 1 (0.53%) vRealize
Vendors
1 75 (40.11%) Cisco
2 44 (23.53%) Palo Alto
3 40 (21.39%) F5
4 39 (20.86%) Fortinet
5 25 (13.37%) Juniper
6 23 (12.30%) Microsoft
7 21 (11.23%) Arista
8 19 (10.16%) Aruba
8 19 (10.16%) Nokia
8 19 (10.16%) VMware
9 18 (9.63%) Ericsson
10 13 (6.95%) Huawei
11 10 (5.35%) Zscaler
12 9 (4.81%) CheckPoint
13 7 (3.74%) Splunk
14 6 (3.21%) Meraki
14 6 (3.21%) SolarWinds
15 5 (2.67%) Google
15 5 (2.67%) ServiceNow
15 5 (2.67%) Veeam