WAN Contract Job Trends in Manchester

Wide Area Network (WAN)
North West > Manchester

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Manchester requiring WAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 88 61 90
Rank change year-on-year -27 +29 +12
Contract jobs citing WAN 9 20 11
As % of all contract jobs in Manchester 0.76% 1.85% 0.72%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.39% 17.39% 6.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 9 9
10th Percentile £301 £354 £372
25th Percentile £301 £394 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +15.56% - -10.00%
75th Percentile £550 £503 £688
90th Percentile £573 £528 £700
North West median daily rate £450 £450 £578
% change year-on-year - -22.08% +28.33%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Manchester

WAN 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 Manchester.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 79 115 182
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester 6.67% 10.65% 11.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 74 133
10th Percentile £170 £212 £313
25th Percentile £301 £375 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £471 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +4.67% - -10.00%
75th Percentile £588 £525 £584
90th Percentile £693 £600 £698
North West median daily rate £471 £461 £500
% change year-on-year +2.22% -7.85% +2.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 0 10
10th Percentile - - £15.75
25th Percentile £18.50 - £15.89
Median hourly rate £19.50 - £17.72
Median % change year-on-year - - +6.97%
75th Percentile £20.00 - £46.88
90th Percentile - - £55.00
North West median hourly rate £27.00 £24.76 £17.72
% change year-on-year +9.05% +39.73% -10.87%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing WAN relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

WAN job vacancy trend in Manchester

WAN
Daily Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing WAN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing WAN

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram in Manchester

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN in Manchester over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in Manchester

WAN
Hourly Rate Trend in Manchester

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing WAN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing WAN

WAN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester 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 (11.11%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 3 (33.33%) Azure
2 1 (11.11%) Entra ID
2 1 (11.11%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 6 (66.67%) Firewall
2 5 (55.56%) LAN
3 4 (44.44%) BGP
3 4 (44.44%) SD-WAN
4 3 (33.33%) Cisco IOS
4 3 (33.33%) OSPF
4 3 (33.33%) VPN
4 3 (33.33%) Wi-Fi
5 2 (22.22%) 802.11
5 2 (22.22%) EIGRP
5 2 (22.22%) IPsec
5 2 (22.22%) MPLS
5 2 (22.22%) Network Security
5 2 (22.22%) SSL
5 2 (22.22%) TCP/IP
5 2 (22.22%) VLAN
5 2 (22.22%) Wireless
6 1 (11.11%) Cisco ASA
6 1 (11.11%) Cisco Nexus
6 1 (11.11%) Unified Communications
Development Applications
1 1 (11.11%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 3 (33.33%) Social Skills
2 2 (22.22%) Public Sector
3 1 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (11.11%) Finance
3 1 (11.11%) Inclusion and Diversity
3 1 (11.11%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 4 (44.44%) Network Engineer
1 4 (44.44%) Senior
2 2 (22.22%) Senior Network Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) Analyst
3 1 (11.11%) Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Consultant
3 1 (11.11%) Delivery Manager
3 1 (11.11%) IT Analyst
3 1 (11.11%) IT Support
3 1 (11.11%) IT Support Analyst
3 1 (11.11%) Network Architect
3 1 (11.11%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) Senior Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Senior IT Support
3 1 (11.11%) Senior IT Support Analyst
3 1 (11.11%) Senior Network Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Senior Support Analyst
3 1 (11.11%) Technical Delivery Manager
3 1 (11.11%) Technical Design Consultant
3 1 (11.11%) Technical Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (22.22%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 2 (22.22%) Onboarding
2 1 (11.11%) Hybrid Cloud
2 1 (11.11%) PKI
2 1 (11.11%) Security Posture
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (22.22%) Kalman Filter
1 2 (22.22%) Migration
1 2 (22.22%) Network Architecture
1 2 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
1 2 (22.22%) Roadmaps
1 2 (22.22%) Root Cause Analysis
1 2 (22.22%) Web Filtering
2 1 (11.11%) Architecture Roadmap
2 1 (11.11%) Cost Reduction
2 1 (11.11%) Customer Experience
2 1 (11.11%) Mentoring
2 1 (11.11%) Presales
2 1 (11.11%) Product Roadmap
2 1 (11.11%) Project Delivery
2 1 (11.11%) RBAC
2 1 (11.11%) Stakeholder Engagement
2 1 (11.11%) Technical Leadership
2 1 (11.11%) Thought Leadership
2 1 (11.11%) Waterfall
2 1 (11.11%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 2 (22.22%) Python
2 1 (11.11%) Perl
Qualifications
1 4 (44.44%) Cisco Certification
2 3 (33.33%) CCNP
2 3 (33.33%) Security Cleared
3 2 (22.22%) CCIE
4 1 (11.11%) CCDP
4 1 (11.11%) CCNA
4 1 (11.11%) Computer Science Degree
4 1 (11.11%) Degree
4 1 (11.11%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (11.11%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (11.11%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 1 (11.11%) Ansible
1 1 (11.11%) Failover Clustering
1 1 (11.11%) FortiGate
1 1 (11.11%) Jamf Pro
1 1 (11.11%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 6 (66.67%) Cisco
2 3 (33.33%) Palo Alto
3 2 (22.22%) Aruba
3 2 (22.22%) Fortinet
3 2 (22.22%) Meraki
3 2 (22.22%) Microsoft
4 1 (11.11%) Broadcom
4 1 (11.11%) CheckPoint
4 1 (11.11%) Ekahau
4 1 (11.11%) F5
4 1 (11.11%) Juniper
4 1 (11.11%) Netskope
4 1 (11.11%) SAP
4 1 (11.11%) SolarWinds
4 1 (11.11%) Symantec