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 2 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 407 320 300
Rank change year-on-year -87 -20 +169
Contract jobs citing Network Design 161 160 270
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.46% 0.63% 0.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.52% 0.70% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 111 96 144
10th Percentile £400 £405 £363
25th Percentile £417 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £516
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +1.69% +11.02%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £600
90th Percentile £675 £694 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £520
% change year-on-year -4.76% +0.96% +9.47%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 8
10th Percentile £72.88 - £23.95
25th Percentile £73.40 - £55.55
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
75th Percentile - - £66.99
90th Percentile - - £70.00
UK median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - -5.74%

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 30,728 22,863 33,081
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.02% 90.30% 87.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,671 14,434 21,926
10th Percentile £313 £306 £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 £615 £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 1,917 775 2,089
10th Percentile £15.24 £15.50 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £28.91 £35.00 £34.21
Median % change year-on-year -17.40% +2.31% -3.42%
75th Percentile £63.75 £65.00 £59.92
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.95 £72.07
UK median hourly rate £27.61 £32.50 £33.03
% change year-on-year -15.06% -1.61% -5.62%

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 2 March 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
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 2 March 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 -35 68 £475 -5.00% 18
South East -36 34 £500 -13.04% 14
West Midlands -34 21 £400 -16.49% 6
Midlands -42 21 £400 -16.49% 9
North of England -78 20 £531 +6.20% 11
North West -45 16 £525 +5.00% 8
South West -25 10 £483 -7.66% 13
East of England -24 5 £425 -8.11% 3
Yorkshire -66 4 £663 +32.50% 1
North East -12 1 - - 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 3 (1.86%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.62%) Confluence
2 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.62%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (4.35%) MS Visio
2 4 (2.48%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.86%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.86%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.24%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.24%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.62%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 43 (26.71%) Azure
2 30 (18.63%) AWS
3 12 (7.45%) GCP
4 6 (3.73%) PaaS
5 5 (3.11%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.48%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (2.48%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (1.86%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.86%) IaaS
7 3 (1.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.24%) GitHub
8 2 (1.24%) IBM Watson
9 1 (0.62%) Akamai
9 1 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.62%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.62%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.62%) Entra ID
9 1 (0.62%) Google Ads
9 1 (0.62%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.62%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 72 (44.72%) Firewall
2 67 (41.61%) WAN
3 42 (26.09%) LAN
4 40 (24.84%) BGP
5 39 (24.22%) VPN
6 38 (23.60%) Network Security
7 36 (22.36%) MPLS
8 28 (17.39%) Wi-Fi
9 25 (15.53%) VLAN
10 23 (14.29%) SD-WAN
11 20 (12.42%) TCP/IP
12 19 (11.80%) OSPF
13 15 (9.32%) 5G
14 14 (8.70%) Cisco ISE
14 14 (8.70%) Radio Access Network
15 13 (8.07%) DNS
15 13 (8.07%) IPsec
16 12 (7.45%) 4G
16 12 (7.45%) Wireless
17 10 (6.21%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.86%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (3.11%) Git
2 2 (1.24%) JIRA
3 1 (0.62%) GitLab
3 1 (0.62%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 47 (29.19%) Social Skills
2 32 (19.88%) Telecoms
3 21 (13.04%) Analytical Skills
4 19 (11.80%) Public Sector
5 11 (6.83%) Finance
6 8 (4.97%) Documentation Skills
7 7 (4.35%) Legal
8 6 (3.73%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.48%) Manufacturing
9 4 (2.48%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.86%) Aviation
10 3 (1.86%) Police
11 2 (1.24%) Electronics
12 1 (0.62%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.62%) Banking
12 1 (0.62%) Local Government
12 1 (0.62%) Marketing
12 1 (0.62%) Military
12 1 (0.62%) Publishing
12 1 (0.62%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 58 (36.02%) Network Engineer
2 45 (27.95%) Architect
3 35 (21.74%) Network Architect
4 20 (12.42%) Senior
5 17 (10.56%) Network Specialist
6 15 (9.32%) Design Engineer
7 14 (8.70%) Network Design Engineer
8 13 (8.07%) Network Design Specialist
9 9 (5.59%) Designer
9 9 (5.59%) Network Designer
9 9 (5.59%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 9 (5.59%) Senior Designer
9 9 (5.59%) Senior Network Designer
10 8 (4.97%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
10 8 (4.97%) Solutions Architect
11 7 (4.35%) Network Security Architect
11 7 (4.35%) Security Architect
11 7 (4.35%) Senior Network Engineer
12 6 (3.73%) Azure Engineer
12 6 (3.73%) Performance Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (6.83%) 802.1X
2 7 (4.35%) NETCONF
2 7 (4.35%) YANG
3 4 (2.48%) OpenID
3 4 (2.48%) SAML
4 3 (1.86%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.86%) REST
4 3 (1.86%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.24%) Django
6 1 (0.62%) JSON
6 1 (0.62%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (24.84%) Data Centre
2 14 (8.70%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (4.97%) Data Protection Act
3 8 (4.97%) IoT
4 6 (3.73%) SCADA
5 5 (3.11%) Operational Technology
5 5 (3.11%) PKI
6 4 (2.48%) Cloud Native
6 4 (2.48%) NB-IoT
6 4 (2.48%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.86%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (1.86%) Distributed Architecture
7 3 (1.86%) Management Information System
7 3 (1.86%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.24%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.24%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.24%) Product Ownership
8 2 (1.24%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.62%) Fibre Optics
9 1 (0.62%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 9 (5.59%) Windows
2 5 (3.11%) Linux
3 4 (2.48%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.62%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (22.98%) Network Architecture
2 26 (16.15%) Load Balancing
3 20 (12.42%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (11.80%) High Availability
5 16 (9.94%) Migration
5 16 (9.94%) Roadmaps
6 15 (9.32%) Security Architecture
6 15 (9.32%) Zero Trust
7 14 (8.70%) Network Management
7 14 (8.70%) Stakeholder Management
8 13 (8.07%) Cybersecurity
8 13 (8.07%) Root Cause Analysis
9 12 (7.45%) Data Protection
9 12 (7.45%) ITIL
9 12 (7.45%) Network Segmentation
10 11 (6.83%) DevOps
10 11 (6.83%) Mentoring
10 11 (6.83%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 10 (6.21%) Network Monitoring
11 10 (6.21%) Observability
Programming Languages
1 25 (15.53%) Python
2 7 (4.35%) SQL
3 6 (3.73%) PowerShell
4 5 (3.11%) Bash
5 2 (1.24%) Perl
6 1 (0.62%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 62 (38.51%) Security Cleared
2 48 (29.81%) Cisco Certification
3 40 (24.84%) CCNP
4 37 (22.98%) SC Cleared
5 22 (13.66%) DV Cleared
6 21 (13.04%) CCIE
7 17 (10.56%) Degree
8 14 (8.70%) CCNA
9 12 (7.45%) JNCIS
10 11 (6.83%) CISSP
11 9 (5.59%) AWS Certification
12 8 (4.97%) JNCIE
13 6 (3.73%) Azure Certification
13 6 (3.73%) JNCIP
14 5 (3.11%) Computer Science Degree
15 4 (2.48%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 4 (2.48%) CCSP
16 3 (1.86%) CCIE Security
17 2 (1.24%) ITIL Certification
17 2 (1.24%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (6.21%) GDPR
2 9 (5.59%) NIST
3 7 (4.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (4.35%) PCI DSS
4 2 (1.24%) NCSC
5 1 (0.62%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.62%) DO-160
5 1 (0.62%) QA
5 1 (0.62%) SLA
System Software
1 9 (5.59%) VMware Infrastructure
1 9 (5.59%) VMware NSX
2 6 (3.73%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.86%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.24%) Firmware
4 2 (1.24%) KVM
5 1 (0.62%) Docker
5 1 (0.62%) RHEV
5 1 (0.62%) Xen
Systems Management
1 20 (12.42%) Ansible
2 17 (10.56%) FortiGate
3 12 (7.45%) Terraform
4 5 (3.11%) Nagios
5 2 (1.24%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 1 (0.62%) Cisco Prime
6 1 (0.62%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.62%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.62%) Grafana
6 1 (0.62%) Iperf
6 1 (0.62%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.62%) McAfee ePO
6 1 (0.62%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.62%) Nmap
6 1 (0.62%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.62%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.62%) SCCM
Vendors
1 74 (45.96%) Cisco
2 42 (26.09%) Palo Alto
3 35 (21.74%) Juniper
4 23 (14.29%) F5
4 23 (14.29%) Fortinet
5 22 (13.66%) Meraki
6 19 (11.80%) Microsoft
7 14 (8.70%) CheckPoint
8 12 (7.45%) SolarWinds
8 12 (7.45%) VMware
9 11 (6.83%) Nokia
10 8 (4.97%) Aruba
11 6 (3.73%) Ericsson
12 5 (3.11%) Actix
13 4 (2.48%) Arista
13 4 (2.48%) Ekahau
14 3 (1.86%) LogicMonitor
14 3 (1.86%) NetScout
15 2 (1.24%) IBM
15 2 (1.24%) McAfee