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

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 599 491 491
Rank change year-on-year -108 0 +84
Contract jobs citing Software-Defined Networking 32 27 41
As % of all contract jobs in England 0.070% 0.098% 0.12%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.74% 0.80% 0.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 19 16 22
10th Percentile £213 £444 £416
25th Percentile £334 £519 £500
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £574 £563
Median % change year-on-year -9.37% +2.00% -8.54%
75th Percentile £681 £650 £669
90th Percentile £703 £775 £725
UK median daily rate £500 £575 £550
% change year-on-year -13.04% +4.55% -9.54%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £55.00 - -
Median hourly rate £63.50 - -
75th Percentile £76.01 - -
90th Percentile £85.92 - -
UK median hourly rate £63.50 - -

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 4,330 3,368 4,138
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 9.44% 12.21% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,615 2,090 2,527
10th Percentile £263 £250 £244
25th Percentile £400 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £492 £504
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% -2.38% +0.80%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £614
90th Percentile £680 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £484 £500
% change year-on-year +3.31% -3.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 344 168 273
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.99 £14.18
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.15 £21.37
Median hourly rate £28.00 £43.00 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year -34.88% -21.64% -0.23%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £84.30 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.14 £46.25 £50.00
% change year-on-year -43.48% -7.50% -9.09%

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 22 August 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Software-Defined Networking in England over the 6 months to 22 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Software-Defined Networking in England

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 22 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
South East -63 11 £650 +10.64% 1
London -83 9 - -
North of England -60 8 £225 -55.45% 5
North West -43 7 £225 -55.45% 4
South West -40 3 £364 -32.86% 3
Yorkshire - 1 - - 1
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:

Cloud Services
1 12 (37.50%) Azure
2 10 (31.25%) AWS
3 2 (6.25%) OpenShift
4 1 (3.13%) AWS Direct Connect
4 1 (3.13%) Azure DevOps
4 1 (3.13%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 1 (3.13%) GitHub
4 1 (3.13%) GitHub Actions
4 1 (3.13%) IaaS
4 1 (3.13%) OCI
4 1 (3.13%) PaaS
4 1 (3.13%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 17 (53.13%) BGP
2 16 (50.00%) Firewall
3 13 (40.63%) Network Security
4 11 (34.38%) OSPF
4 11 (34.38%) WAN
5 9 (28.13%) VPN
6 7 (21.88%) DHCP
6 7 (21.88%) DNS
6 7 (21.88%) Ethernet VPN
6 7 (21.88%) VXLAN
7 6 (18.75%) TCP/IP
8 5 (15.63%) VLAN
9 4 (12.50%) IP Telephony
9 4 (12.50%) MPLS
9 4 (12.50%) PSTN
10 3 (9.38%) Cisco ASA
10 3 (9.38%) LAN
10 3 (9.38%) NGFW
10 3 (9.38%) SD-WAN
10 3 (9.38%) VSAN
Development Applications
1 1 (3.13%) Git
1 1 (3.13%) GitLab
1 1 (3.13%) Jenkins
1 1 (3.13%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 9 (28.13%) Social Skills
2 4 (12.50%) Analytical Skills
2 4 (12.50%) Telecoms
3 3 (9.38%) Finance
4 2 (6.25%) Aerospace
4 2 (6.25%) Banking
4 2 (6.25%) Public Sector
5 1 (3.13%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 10 (31.25%) Network Engineer
2 9 (28.13%) Architect
3 7 (21.88%) Network Architect
4 5 (15.63%) Analyst
4 5 (15.63%) Senior
5 4 (12.50%) Network Analyst
6 3 (9.38%) Senior Network Engineer
7 2 (6.25%) Consultant
7 2 (6.25%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 2 (6.25%) Security Engineer
7 2 (6.25%) Senior Systems Engineer
7 2 (6.25%) Systems Engineer
7 2 (6.25%) VMware Consultant
8 1 (3.13%) Automation Engineer
8 1 (3.13%) Azure Engineer
8 1 (3.13%) Cybersecurity Analyst
8 1 (3.13%) Network Operations Engineer
8 1 (3.13%) Operations Engineer
8 1 (3.13%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 1 (3.13%) Security Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (21.88%) Terraform
2 4 (12.50%) REST
3 2 (6.25%) ARM Templates
4 1 (3.13%) 802.1X
4 1 (3.13%) JSON
4 1 (3.13%) Middleware
4 1 (3.13%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 10 (31.25%) Hybrid Cloud
2 9 (28.13%) Data Centre
3 4 (12.50%) Cloud Native
3 4 (12.50%) Driving Licence
3 4 (12.50%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (9.38%) Management Information System
5 2 (6.25%) PKI
6 1 (3.13%) Distributed Applications
6 1 (3.13%) Distributed Architecture
6 1 (3.13%) Distributed Computing
6 1 (3.13%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 1 (3.13%) Fibre Optics
6 1 (3.13%) Public Cloud
6 1 (3.13%) Security Posture
6 1 (3.13%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 8 (25.00%) Linux
2 5 (15.63%) Windows
3 3 (9.38%) Windows Server
4 2 (6.25%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (34.38%) ITIL
1 11 (34.38%) Network Virtualisation
2 10 (31.25%) Technical Leadership
3 7 (21.88%) Cloud Security
3 7 (21.88%) DevOps
3 7 (21.88%) Project Delivery
3 7 (21.88%) Zero Trust
4 6 (18.75%) Agile
4 6 (18.75%) Infrastructure as Code
4 6 (18.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 6 (18.75%) Migration
4 6 (18.75%) Network Architecture
4 6 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
4 6 (18.75%) Root Cause Analysis
5 5 (15.63%) Computer Science
5 5 (15.63%) Continuous Improvement
5 5 (15.63%) Load Balancing
5 5 (15.63%) Network Design
5 5 (15.63%) Service Management
5 5 (15.63%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 8 (25.00%) Python
2 4 (12.50%) Bash
2 4 (12.50%) PowerShell
3 2 (6.25%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 18 (56.25%) Security Cleared
2 11 (34.38%) Cisco Certification
3 10 (31.25%) DV Cleared
4 8 (25.00%) SC Cleared
5 7 (21.88%) Degree
6 6 (18.75%) CCNP
7 5 (15.63%) CCNA
7 5 (15.63%) Computer Science Degree
8 4 (12.50%) ITIL Certification
9 3 (9.38%) CCIE
9 3 (9.38%) CISSP
9 3 (9.38%) GIAC
10 2 (6.25%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 2 (6.25%) CCIE Security
10 2 (6.25%) CCSA
10 2 (6.25%) CCSE
10 2 (6.25%) CCSP
10 2 (6.25%) GCIA
10 2 (6.25%) GCIH
10 2 (6.25%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (9.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (9.38%) NIST
2 2 (6.25%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 12 (37.50%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (28.13%) VMware NSX
3 4 (12.50%) Firmware
4 3 (9.38%) vSphere
5 2 (6.25%) Hyper-V
6 1 (3.13%) Active Directory
6 1 (3.13%) Docker
Systems Management
1 11 (34.38%) Ansible
2 5 (15.63%) Kubernetes
3 2 (6.25%) Istio
3 2 (6.25%) Progress Chef
3 2 (6.25%) vRealize
4 1 (3.13%) Cisco CUCM
4 1 (3.13%) Puppet
Vendors
1 13 (40.63%) Cisco
2 12 (37.50%) VMware
3 8 (25.00%) Palo Alto
4 5 (15.63%) CheckPoint
4 5 (15.63%) Meraki
5 4 (12.50%) Fortinet
5 4 (12.50%) Microsoft
6 3 (9.38%) F5
6 3 (9.38%) Nokia
7 2 (6.25%) AlgoSec
7 2 (6.25%) Red Hat
8 1 (3.13%) Becrypt
8 1 (3.13%) Dell
8 1 (3.13%) Oracle
8 1 (3.13%) ServiceNow
8 1 (3.13%) SolarWinds