Network Optimisation Contract Job Trends in England

Network Optimisation
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Network Optimisation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 542 492 547
Rank change year-on-year -50 +55 +187
Contract jobs citing Network Optimisation 8 21 10
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.026% 0.072% 0.027%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.029% 0.081% 0.030%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 12 10
10th Percentile £406 £308 £313
25th Percentile £414 £394 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £436 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year -8.16% +5.56% +9.76%
75th Percentile £475 £588 -
90th Percentile £520 £648 £488
UK median daily rate £450 £550 £450
% change year-on-year -18.18% +22.22% +9.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 6 0
Median hourly rate - £48.56 -
UK median hourly rate - £48.56 -

All Process and Methodology Skills
England

Network Optimisation 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 27,668 25,905 33,491
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 89.00% 88.32% 88.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,615 15,999 22,793
10th Percentile £300 £310 £313
25th Percentile £406 £418 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £506 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -3.62% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £531
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.13% -3.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,810 882 1,400
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.54 £14.74
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.30 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.25
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -20.90% +18.63%
75th Percentile £53.75 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.26 £74.99 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year -23.79% -22.35% +21.43%

Network Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Optimisation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Network Optimisation job vacancy trend in England

Network Optimisation
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Optimisation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Optimisation

Network Optimisation
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Optimisation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Network Optimisation

Network Optimisation
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 Optimisation within the England region over the 6 months to 14 December 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
South East +1 5 £423 +5.63% 1
London +1 3 £450 -21.74% 2
Network Optimisation
UK

Network Optimisation
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:

Communications & Networking
1 6 (75.00%) MPLS
2 5 (62.50%) Firewall
2 5 (62.50%) VPN
3 4 (50.00%) BGP
3 4 (50.00%) OSPF
4 3 (37.50%) SD-WAN
4 3 (37.50%) WAN
5 2 (25.00%) Broadband
5 2 (25.00%) NaaS
5 2 (25.00%) Network Security
6 1 (12.50%) DHCP
6 1 (12.50%) DNS
6 1 (12.50%) Ethernet VPN
6 1 (12.50%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (12.50%) Junos
6 1 (12.50%) LAN
6 1 (12.50%) TCP/IP
6 1 (12.50%) VXLAN
General
1 4 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (25.00%) Telecoms
3 1 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (12.50%) Finance
3 1 (12.50%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 3 (37.50%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
1 3 (37.50%) IP Engineer
1 3 (37.50%) IP Network Engineer
1 3 (37.50%) Network Engineer
1 3 (37.50%) Senior
2 2 (25.00%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
2 2 (25.00%) Telecoms Specialist
3 1 (12.50%) Analyst
3 1 (12.50%) Architect
3 1 (12.50%) Business Analyst
3 1 (12.50%) Consultant
3 1 (12.50%) Enterprise Architect
3 1 (12.50%) Infrastructure Analyst
3 1 (12.50%) Infrastructure Business Analyst
3 1 (12.50%) Senior Analyst
3 1 (12.50%) Senior Architect
3 1 (12.50%) Senior Business Analyst
3 1 (12.50%) Senior Enterprise Architect
3 1 (12.50%) Senior Infrastructure Analyst
3 1 (12.50%) Telecoms Architect
Miscellaneous
1 2 (25.00%) Cloud Native
2 1 (12.50%) Data Centre
2 1 (12.50%) Enterprise Cloud
2 1 (12.50%) PMI
2 1 (12.50%) TM Forum
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (50.00%) Validation
2 3 (37.50%) Integration Testing
2 3 (37.50%) Performance Tuning
2 3 (37.50%) Problem-Solving
3 2 (25.00%) AI
3 2 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 2 (25.00%) Generative AI
3 2 (25.00%) Observability
3 2 (25.00%) Presales
3 2 (25.00%) Service Catalogue
3 2 (25.00%) Stakeholder Management
3 2 (25.00%) Strategic Planning
3 2 (25.00%) Test Automation
4 1 (12.50%) Business Analysis
4 1 (12.50%) Change Management
4 1 (12.50%) GAP Analysis
4 1 (12.50%) ITIL
4 1 (12.50%) Migration
4 1 (12.50%) Service Management
4 1 (12.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 3 (37.50%) Python
Qualifications
1 4 (50.00%) Security Cleared
2 3 (37.50%) DV Cleared
3 2 (25.00%) BPSS Clearance
3 2 (25.00%) CCIE
3 2 (25.00%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (12.50%) CBAP
4 1 (12.50%) CCIE Routing and Switching
4 1 (12.50%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (25.00%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (12.50%) Hyper-V
1 1 (12.50%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 4 (50.00%) Ansible
2 1 (12.50%) Terraform
Vendors
1 6 (75.00%) Cisco
2 4 (50.00%) Palo Alto
3 3 (37.50%) Juniper
3 3 (37.50%) Nokia
4 2 (25.00%) Fortinet
5 1 (12.50%) Extreme Networks
5 1 (12.50%) ServiceNow
5 1 (12.50%) VMware