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

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 423 339 319
Rank change year-on-year -84 -20 +81
Contract jobs citing Network Design 189 167 223
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.42% 0.60% 0.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.49% 0.67% 0.77%
Number of daily rates quoted 125 112 122
10th Percentile £390 £401 £363
25th Percentile £438 £450 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £523 £475
Median % change year-on-year +0.48% +10.00% -13.64%
75th Percentile £588 £638 £575
90th Percentile £665 £688 £650
UK median daily rate £517 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +3.40% +5.26% -13.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 3
10th Percentile £32.65 £56.13 £43.00
25th Percentile £50.31 £57.81 £55.00
Median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% -18.33% +7.14%
75th Percentile £72.66 £65.31 -
90th Percentile £78.86 £67.38 -
UK median hourly rate £71.00 £61.25 £55.00
% change year-on-year +15.92% +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 38,456 25,047 28,792
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.21% 90.72% 85.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,987 16,039 18,801
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £420
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 £758
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,460 1,391 1,685
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.69 £17.87 £18.16
Median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +78.93% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £68.75 £50.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £83.00 £70.16 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -37.90% -4.71%

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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -45 64 £525 +10.53% 27
South East -68 40 £510 -15.00% 17
North of England -62 35 £575 +21.05% 16
North West -59 26 £575 +21.05% 7
South West -44 17 £500 -21.88% 8
Midlands -57 9 £425 -15.00% 10
West Midlands -62 9 £425 -15.00% 6
Yorkshire -39 8 £519 +3.80% 9
East of England -12 7 £525 +0.96% 6
North East - 7 £650 -
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 (6.35%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.59%) Apache
2 3 (1.59%) CloudStack
3 2 (1.06%) Confluence
3 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (1.06%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.53%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.53%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (5.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (4.76%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (4.23%) Microsoft Excel
4 7 (3.70%) MS Visio
5 3 (1.59%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.53%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.53%) CPLEX
6 1 (0.53%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 58 (30.69%) Azure
2 51 (26.98%) AWS
3 15 (7.94%) OCI
4 10 (5.29%) GCP
4 10 (5.29%) GitHub
4 10 (5.29%) SaaS
5 8 (4.23%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (3.70%) IaaS
6 7 (3.70%) OpenShift
7 4 (2.12%) Azure Sentinel
7 4 (2.12%) Entra ID
8 3 (1.59%) AWS Control Tower
8 3 (1.59%) PaaS
9 2 (1.06%) Azure Storage
9 2 (1.06%) Datadog
9 2 (1.06%) GitHub Actions
10 1 (0.53%) AWS CloudFormation
10 1 (0.53%) AWS Direct Connect
10 1 (0.53%) Microsoft 365
10 1 (0.53%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 81 (42.86%) Firewall
2 66 (34.92%) BGP
3 57 (30.16%) WAN
4 52 (27.51%) OSPF
5 33 (17.46%) VPN
6 31 (16.40%) Network Security
7 30 (15.87%) VLAN
8 29 (15.34%) 5G
8 29 (15.34%) LAN
9 28 (14.81%) SD-WAN
9 28 (14.81%) Wi-Fi
10 27 (14.29%) VXLAN
11 26 (13.76%) 4G
12 23 (12.17%) MPLS
13 22 (11.64%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 21 (11.11%) Ethernet VPN
14 21 (11.11%) Radio Access Network
15 17 (8.99%) BIG-IP
16 16 (8.47%) DNS
16 16 (8.47%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.59%) Metadata
2 1 (0.53%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.88%) GitLab
2 4 (2.12%) JIRA
3 3 (1.59%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.53%) Git
4 1 (0.53%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 42 (22.22%) Social Skills
2 29 (15.34%) Telecoms
3 20 (10.58%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (10.58%) Public Sector
4 7 (3.70%) Documentation Skills
4 7 (3.70%) Legal
4 7 (3.70%) Retail
5 6 (3.17%) Finance
5 6 (3.17%) Manufacturing
6 3 (1.59%) Banking
6 3 (1.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (1.59%) Police
7 2 (1.06%) Billing
7 2 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.06%) Military
8 1 (0.53%) Aviation
8 1 (0.53%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.53%) Polish Language
8 1 (0.53%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.53%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 58 (30.69%) Network Engineer
2 44 (23.28%) Senior
3 41 (21.69%) Architect
4 34 (17.99%) Network Specialist
5 25 (13.23%) Network Architect
6 22 (11.64%) Network Design Specialist
6 22 (11.64%) Senior Network Engineer
7 17 (8.99%) Designer
8 16 (8.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (6.88%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (6.35%) Network Designer
11 10 (5.29%) Design Engineer
11 10 (5.29%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
11 10 (5.29%) Senior Network Specialist
12 9 (4.76%) Security Architect
13 7 (3.70%) Lead
14 6 (3.17%) IP Architect
14 6 (3.17%) Network Design Engineer
14 6 (3.17%) Solutions Architect
15 5 (2.65%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.82%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.82%) YANG
2 7 (3.70%) 802.1X
3 6 (3.17%) OpenConfig
3 6 (3.17%) REST
3 6 (3.17%) RESTCONF
4 4 (2.12%) Azure Blueprints
5 3 (1.59%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.53%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 60 (31.75%) Data Centre
2 45 (23.81%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (14.81%) Cloud Native
4 8 (4.23%) Data Protection Act
4 8 (4.23%) Public Cloud
5 6 (3.17%) Analytical Mindset
5 6 (3.17%) Management Information System
5 6 (3.17%) PKI
6 5 (2.65%) IoT
6 5 (2.65%) Operational Technology
6 5 (2.65%) Private Cloud
7 4 (2.12%) CMDB
7 4 (2.12%) Security Posture
8 3 (1.59%) Data Fabric
8 3 (1.59%) Product Ownership
8 3 (1.59%) SCADA
9 2 (1.06%) EMC VMAX
9 2 (1.06%) EMC VNX
9 2 (1.06%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.06%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 16 (8.47%) Linux
2 14 (7.41%) Windows
3 11 (5.82%) Windows Server
4 8 (4.23%) Ubuntu
5 4 (2.12%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (2.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (1.06%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (1.06%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (19.58%) Network Architecture
2 36 (19.05%) High Availability
2 36 (19.05%) Zero Trust
3 34 (17.99%) Infrastructure as Code
4 28 (14.81%) DevOps
5 27 (14.29%) Migration
5 27 (14.29%) Problem-Solving
5 27 (14.29%) Roadmaps
6 26 (13.76%) Load Balancing
7 25 (13.23%) Stakeholder Management
8 24 (12.70%) CI/CD
9 23 (12.17%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 23 (12.17%) Project Delivery
10 20 (10.58%) Technical Leadership
11 18 (9.52%) Capacity Planning
11 18 (9.52%) Validation
12 17 (8.99%) Continuous Improvement
12 17 (8.99%) Cybersecurity
13 14 (7.41%) TOGAF
14 13 (6.88%) Network Virtualisation
Programming Languages
1 43 (22.75%) Python
2 7 (3.70%) Bicep
2 7 (3.70%) PowerShell
3 2 (1.06%) Bash
4 1 (0.53%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 58 (30.69%) Security Cleared
2 41 (21.69%) Cisco Certification
3 37 (19.58%) SC Cleared
4 27 (14.29%) CCNP
5 17 (8.99%) CCIE
6 15 (7.94%) DV Cleared
7 12 (6.35%) JNCIE
8 10 (5.29%) AWS Certification
8 10 (5.29%) Azure Certification
8 10 (5.29%) Degree
9 6 (3.17%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 6 (3.17%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (2.65%) CISSP
11 4 (2.12%) CISM
12 3 (1.59%) CCNA
13 2 (1.06%) CEH
13 2 (1.06%) ISSAP
13 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (1.06%) VCAP
13 2 (1.06%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.29%) NIST
2 4 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.59%) NIST 800
4 2 (1.06%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (1.06%) GDPR
4 2 (1.06%) GxP
4 2 (1.06%) HIPAA
4 2 (1.06%) NCSC
4 2 (1.06%) QA
4 2 (1.06%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (1.06%) SLA
4 2 (1.06%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.53%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.53%) Def Stans
System Software
1 18 (9.52%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.29%) VMware NSX
2 10 (5.29%) vSphere
3 7 (3.70%) Active Directory
4 6 (3.17%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.59%) Firmware
5 3 (1.59%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.06%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (1.06%) KVM
6 2 (1.06%) NFS
6 2 (1.06%) SRDF
7 1 (0.53%) Docker
7 1 (0.53%) FreeRADIUS
Systems Management
1 44 (23.28%) Ansible
2 40 (21.16%) Terraform
3 12 (6.35%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.70%) FortiGate
5 6 (3.17%) Grafana
5 6 (3.17%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.59%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.59%) vCenter Server
7 2 (1.06%) Argo
7 2 (1.06%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (1.06%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (1.06%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (1.06%) NetBackup
7 2 (1.06%) SnapMirror
7 2 (1.06%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.53%) Nagios
8 1 (0.53%) Network Intrusion Detection System
8 1 (0.53%) SCCM
8 1 (0.53%) Suricata
8 1 (0.53%) vRealize
Vendors
1 74 (39.15%) Cisco
2 43 (22.75%) Palo Alto
3 40 (21.16%) F5
4 39 (20.63%) Fortinet
5 26 (13.76%) Juniper
6 22 (11.64%) Microsoft
7 20 (10.58%) Arista
7 20 (10.58%) VMware
8 18 (9.52%) Aruba
8 18 (9.52%) Nokia
9 17 (8.99%) Ericsson
10 13 (6.88%) Huawei
11 10 (5.29%) CheckPoint
11 10 (5.29%) Zscaler
12 7 (3.70%) Splunk
13 6 (3.17%) Meraki
13 6 (3.17%) SolarWinds
14 5 (2.65%) Google
14 5 (2.65%) ServiceNow
14 5 (2.65%) Veeam