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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 476 491 565
Rank change year-on-year +15 +74 +162
Contract jobs citing Software-Defined Networking 25 42 35
As % of all contract jobs advertised in England 0.090% 0.13% 0.083%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.76% 1.07% 0.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 21 25
10th Percentile £436 £500 £390
25th Percentile £506 £513 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £561 £600 £615
Median % change year-on-year -6.46% -2.44% +2.50%
75th Percentile £597 £688 £719
90th Percentile £738 £725 £750
UK median daily rate £573 £588 £608
% change year-on-year -2.55% -3.37% +1.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 3
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate - - £69.62
75th Percentile - - £70.14
90th Percentile - - £70.44
UK median hourly rate - - £69.62
% change year-on-year - - +25.55%

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 3,293 3,936 5,601
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 11.86% 12.04% 13.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,057 2,306 3,599
10th Percentile £230 £242 £225
25th Percentile £363 £388 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £508 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.45% +1.50% -1.72%
75th Percentile £600 £613 £619
90th Percentile £688 £688 £713
UK median daily rate £476 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.80% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 165 218 280
10th Percentile £15.28 £14.47 £16.73
25th Percentile £25.00 £22.84 £24.03
Median hourly rate £41.50 £57.35 £56.49
Median % change year-on-year -27.64% +1.52% +34.50%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £67.78
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £76.12
UK median hourly rate £43.00 £50.50 £56.49
% change year-on-year -14.85% -10.60% +36.12%

Software-Defined Networking
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Job postings citing Software-Defined Networking as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in England.

Job vacancy trend for Software-Defined Networking 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 17 September 2025.

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 17 September 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
London +28 12 £554 -0.23% 5
South East +17 4 £575 -17.86% 3
West Midlands -16 4 - -
Midlands -17 4 - - 4
North of England -16 3 £505 -15.83% 6
South West +24 2 £543 - 1
North West -18 2 £505 -15.83% 6
Yorkshire -11 1 - -
East of England - 1 - -
Software-Defined Networking
UK

Software-Defined Networking
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in England by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (8.00%) Confluence
2 1 (4.00%) OpenStack
Applications
1 1 (4.00%) Microsoft Office
Cloud Services
1 4 (16.00%) Azure
1 4 (16.00%) GCP
1 4 (16.00%) IaaS
2 3 (12.00%) AWS
3 2 (8.00%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (4.00%) OpenShift
4 1 (4.00%) PaaS
4 1 (4.00%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 12 (48.00%) Firewall
2 8 (32.00%) BGP
2 8 (32.00%) Cisco ASA
2 8 (32.00%) Wireless
3 6 (24.00%) Cisco Nexus
3 6 (24.00%) DNS
3 6 (24.00%) OSPF
4 5 (20.00%) DHCP
5 4 (16.00%) BIG-IP
5 4 (16.00%) Cisco Firepower
5 4 (16.00%) Network Security
5 4 (16.00%) VLAN
6 3 (12.00%) Ethernet VPN
6 3 (12.00%) LAN
6 3 (12.00%) Multicast
7 2 (8.00%) EIGRP
7 2 (8.00%) HTTP
7 2 (8.00%) SSL
7 2 (8.00%) TACACS
7 2 (8.00%) WAN
Development Applications
1 3 (12.00%) JIRA
1 3 (12.00%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (8.00%) Git
3 1 (4.00%) Bitbucket
3 1 (4.00%) GitLab
3 1 (4.00%) Jenkins
General
1 8 (32.00%) Social Skills
2 5 (20.00%) Public Sector
3 4 (16.00%) Analytical Skills
4 3 (12.00%) Finance
5 2 (8.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 2 (8.00%) Telecoms
6 1 (4.00%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 7 (28.00%) Network Engineer
2 6 (24.00%) Architect
3 5 (20.00%) Senior
4 4 (16.00%) Consultant
4 4 (16.00%) Network Architect
5 2 (8.00%) Cisco Architect
5 2 (8.00%) Cisco Engineer
5 2 (8.00%) Cisco Network Architect
5 2 (8.00%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 2 (8.00%) Lead
5 2 (8.00%) Network Consultant
5 2 (8.00%) Product Owner
5 2 (8.00%) Senior Consultant
5 2 (8.00%) Senior Network Consultant
5 2 (8.00%) Senior Network Engineer
5 2 (8.00%) VMware Specialist
6 1 (4.00%) LAN Engineer
6 1 (4.00%) Product Architect
6 1 (4.00%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 1 (4.00%) Telecoms Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.00%) eBPF
1 1 (4.00%) NETCONF
1 1 (4.00%) REST
1 1 (4.00%) RESTCONF
1 1 (4.00%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 10 (40.00%) Data Centre
2 3 (12.00%) Data Protection Act
3 2 (8.00%) Legacy Systems
3 2 (8.00%) Product Ownership
4 1 (4.00%) Cloud Native
4 1 (4.00%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.00%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (32.00%) Agile
2 7 (28.00%) ITIL
3 5 (20.00%) Infrastructure Automation
3 5 (20.00%) Network Monitoring
3 5 (20.00%) Problem-Solving
3 5 (20.00%) Task Automation
4 4 (16.00%) Load Balancing
5 3 (12.00%) Data Protection
5 3 (12.00%) DevOps
5 3 (12.00%) Network Design
5 3 (12.00%) Process Improvement
6 2 (8.00%) Backlog Prioritisation
6 2 (8.00%) Coaching
6 2 (8.00%) Infrastructure as Code
6 2 (8.00%) Network Virtualisation
6 2 (8.00%) Product Backlog
6 2 (8.00%) Product Requirements
6 2 (8.00%) Product Strategy
6 2 (8.00%) Product Vision
6 2 (8.00%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 8 (32.00%) Python
2 4 (16.00%) PowerShell
3 1 (4.00%) C
Qualifications
1 10 (40.00%) Security Cleared
2 9 (36.00%) Cisco Certification
3 8 (32.00%) CCNP
4 7 (28.00%) SC Cleared
5 5 (20.00%) CCIE
6 4 (16.00%) Degree
6 4 (16.00%) VCAP
7 3 (12.00%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 2 (8.00%) DV Cleared
9 1 (4.00%) CCIE Data Center
9 1 (4.00%) CCIE Routing and Switching
9 1 (4.00%) CCIE Wireless
9 1 (4.00%) CISSP
9 1 (4.00%) Computer Science Degree
9 1 (4.00%) CWSP
9 1 (4.00%) JNCIE
9 1 (4.00%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (4.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (4.00%) NIST
1 1 (4.00%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 6 (24.00%) VMware NSX
2 5 (20.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (12.00%) vSphere
4 1 (4.00%) Docker
4 1 (4.00%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 8 (32.00%) Ansible
2 4 (16.00%) Terraform
2 4 (16.00%) vRealize
3 3 (12.00%) Kubernetes
3 3 (12.00%) vRealize Orchestrator
4 2 (8.00%) Nagios
5 1 (4.00%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (4.00%) PowerCLI
5 1 (4.00%) Puppet
Vendors
1 18 (72.00%) Cisco
2 7 (28.00%) CheckPoint
2 7 (28.00%) F5
2 7 (28.00%) VMware
3 5 (20.00%) Arista
4 3 (12.00%) AlgoSec
4 3 (12.00%) Infoblox
4 3 (12.00%) Palo Alto
4 3 (12.00%) SolarWinds
5 2 (8.00%) Aruba
5 2 (8.00%) Google
5 2 (8.00%) HP
5 2 (8.00%) Juniper
5 2 (8.00%) Microsoft
5 2 (8.00%) Salesforce
6 1 (4.00%) Atlassian
6 1 (4.00%) Dell
6 1 (4.00%) Fortinet
6 1 (4.00%) Red Hat
6 1 (4.00%) Wind River