Software-Defined Networking Contract Job Trends in England

Software-Defined Networking
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Software-Defined Networking skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 12 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 566 454 518
Rank change year-on-year -112 +64 +111
Contract jobs citing Software-Defined Networking 28 21 17
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.071% 0.086% 0.045%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.74% 0.65% 0.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 15 14 9
10th Percentile - £530 £291
25th Percentile - £550 £381
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £653 £438
Median % change year-on-year -15.74% +49.20% -32.69%
75th Percentile £618 £769 £625
90th Percentile £670 £775 £729
UK median daily rate £563 £600 £438
% change year-on-year -6.25% +37.14% -32.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 0
10th Percentile £72.88 - -
25th Percentile £73.40 - -
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £74.26 - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
England

Software-Defined Networking falls under the Communications and Computer Networking category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring communications or computer networking skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 3,807 3,207 5,163
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.71% 13.16% 13.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,406 2,009 3,122
10th Percentile £225 £220 £205
25th Percentile £400 £375 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.09%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK median daily rate £500 £490 £480
% change year-on-year +2.04% +2.08% -7.34%
Number of hourly rates quoted 189 124 395
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.20 £13.50
25th Percentile £20.75 £19.06 £17.69
Median hourly rate £47.50 £37.07 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +28.13% -7.32% +111.30%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £62.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £79.21 £70.00
UK median hourly rate £43.85 £37.50 £39.25
% change year-on-year +16.94% -4.46% +106.58%

Software-Defined Networking
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software-Defined Networking relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Software-Defined Networking job vacancy trend in England

Software-Defined Networking
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software-Defined Networking.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software-Defined Networking

Software-Defined Networking
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Software-Defined Networking in England over the 6 months to 12 April 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Software-Defined Networking in England

Software-Defined Networking
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software-Defined Networking.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Software-Defined Networking

Software-Defined Networking
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 Software-Defined Networking within the England region over the 6 months to 12 April 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 -63 15 £600 -20.00% 4
North West -30 8 £550 - 1
North of England -69 8 £550 - 4
North East - 3 £550 -
South East -53 2 £713 +18.75% 5
Midlands - 2 - -
West Midlands - 2 - -
South West -23 1 - - 3
Software-Defined Networking
UK

Software-Defined Networking
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 1 (3.57%) JBoss
1 1 (3.57%) WebSphere
Cloud Services
1 9 (32.14%) Azure
2 7 (25.00%) Azure Stack
3 2 (7.14%) GCP
4 1 (3.57%) AWS
4 1 (3.57%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 1 (3.57%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 14 (50.00%) BGP
1 14 (50.00%) Firewall
2 10 (35.71%) VLAN
3 7 (25.00%) OSPF
4 5 (17.86%) Network Security
5 4 (14.29%) LAN
5 4 (14.29%) MPLS
6 3 (10.71%) Intrusion Detection
6 3 (10.71%) WAN
6 3 (10.71%) Wireless
7 2 (7.14%) DHCP
7 2 (7.14%) DNS
7 2 (7.14%) EIGRP
7 2 (7.14%) SD-WAN
7 2 (7.14%) VXLAN
8 1 (3.57%) ICMP
8 1 (3.57%) IPv4
8 1 (3.57%) IPv6
8 1 (3.57%) L2TP
8 1 (3.57%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (3.57%) PostgreSQL
1 1 (3.57%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (3.57%) Jaeger
General
1 8 (28.57%) Analytical Skills
2 6 (21.43%) Social Skills
3 3 (10.71%) Telecoms
4 2 (7.14%) Finance
4 2 (7.14%) Legal
5 1 (3.57%) Banking
5 1 (3.57%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (3.57%) Games
5 1 (3.57%) Influencing Skills
5 1 (3.57%) Investment Banking
5 1 (3.57%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 7 (25.00%) Platform Engineer
2 6 (21.43%) Azure Engineer
2 6 (21.43%) Network Engineer
3 4 (14.29%) Architect
3 4 (14.29%) Cloud Engineer
4 3 (10.71%) Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
4 3 (10.71%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 3 (10.71%) Software Engineer
5 2 (7.14%) Azure Infrastructure Engineer
5 2 (7.14%) Network Architect
6 1 (3.57%) Azure Platform Engineer
6 1 (3.57%) Cloud Platform Engineer
6 1 (3.57%) Data Network Engineer
6 1 (3.57%) Network Monitoring Engineer
6 1 (3.57%) Security Engineer
6 1 (3.57%) Senior
6 1 (3.57%) Senior Network Engineer
6 1 (3.57%) Solutions Architect
6 1 (3.57%) VMware Architect
6 1 (3.57%) VMware Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (10.71%) REST
2 1 (3.57%) 802.1X
2 1 (3.57%) Loki
2 1 (3.57%) OpenTelemetry
Miscellaneous
1 8 (28.57%) Product Ownership
2 7 (25.00%) Data Centre
2 7 (25.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 3 (10.71%) Analytical Mindset
4 2 (7.14%) Cloud Native
4 2 (7.14%) Management Information System
4 2 (7.14%) Operational Technology
5 1 (3.57%) Media Streaming
5 1 (3.57%) Online Games
5 1 (3.57%) PKI
Operating Systems
1 9 (32.14%) Linux
2 6 (21.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
2 6 (21.43%) Windows
2 6 (21.43%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 9 (32.14%) Cybersecurity
2 8 (28.57%) Computer Science
2 8 (28.57%) Containerisation
2 8 (28.57%) Infrastructure as Code
2 8 (28.57%) ITSM
2 8 (28.57%) Platform Engineering
3 7 (25.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 7 (25.00%) High Availability
3 7 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
3 7 (25.00%) RBAC
4 6 (21.43%) Change Control
4 6 (21.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 5 (17.86%) Cloud Security
5 5 (17.86%) Knowledge Management
5 5 (17.86%) Network Virtualisation
5 5 (17.86%) Service Management
5 5 (17.86%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 5 (17.86%) Validation
5 5 (17.86%) Virtual Infrastructure
6 4 (14.29%) Network Design
Programming Languages
1 16 (57.14%) PowerShell
2 12 (42.86%) Python
3 8 (28.57%) Bash
4 5 (17.86%) Perl
5 4 (14.29%) Bicep
6 1 (3.57%) Go
6 1 (3.57%) Java
6 1 (3.57%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 18 (64.29%) SC Cleared
1 18 (64.29%) Security Cleared
2 9 (32.14%) Degree
3 6 (21.43%) CCNP
3 6 (21.43%) Cisco Certification
4 4 (14.29%) Computer Science Degree
5 3 (10.71%) CCDP
5 3 (10.71%) CCNA
6 2 (7.14%) CCIE
7 1 (3.57%) (ISC)2 CCSP
7 1 (3.57%) AWS Certification
7 1 (3.57%) Azure Certification
7 1 (3.57%) CCIE Security
7 1 (3.57%) CCSM
7 1 (3.57%) CCSP
7 1 (3.57%) CISSP
7 1 (3.57%) VCDX
7 1 (3.57%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (3.57%) GDPR
1 1 (3.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (3.57%) NIST
1 1 (3.57%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 9 (32.14%) Hyper-V
2 8 (28.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (17.86%) VMware NSX
4 3 (10.71%) Active Directory
4 3 (10.71%) Docker
5 1 (3.57%) KVM
Systems Management
1 9 (32.14%) Terraform
2 5 (17.86%) Ansible
3 4 (14.29%) Kubernetes
4 2 (7.14%) FortiGate
4 2 (7.14%) vRealize
5 1 (3.57%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (3.57%) Grafana
5 1 (3.57%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 9 (32.14%) VMware
2 7 (25.00%) Microsoft
3 6 (21.43%) Red Hat
4 5 (17.86%) Cisco
4 5 (17.86%) Palo Alto
5 4 (14.29%) Citrix
6 3 (10.71%) Nokia
7 2 (7.14%) F5
7 2 (7.14%) Meraki
8 1 (3.57%) CheckPoint
8 1 (3.57%) Dell
8 1 (3.57%) Fortinet
8 1 (3.57%) Google
8 1 (3.57%) IBM
8 1 (3.57%) Oracle
8 1 (3.57%) SolarWinds
8 1 (3.57%) Splunk