Network Design Contract Job Trends in the Midlands

Network Design
England > Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Midlands requiring Network Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 138 115 112
Rank change year-on-year -23 -3 +60
Contract jobs citing Network Design 25 8 20
As % of all contract jobs in the Midlands 0.77% 0.37% 0.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.90% 0.42% 0.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 6 10
10th Percentile £331 £419 -
25th Percentile - £442 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £535 £500
Median % change year-on-year -25.27% +7.05% +12.36%
75th Percentile £500 £688 £534
90th Percentile £576 £763 £575
England median daily rate £500 £525 £575
% change year-on-year -4.76% -8.70% +27.78%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Midlands

Network Design 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 the Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,767 1,891 2,117
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands 85.64% 87.06% 84.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,724 1,175 1,433
10th Percentile £234 £225 £256
25th Percentile £383 £374 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £484 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -3.17% +5.26% -4.04%
75th Percentile £575 £599 £588
90th Percentile £650 £700 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 187 69 105
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.70 £14.05
25th Percentile £16.30 £17.00 £17.07
Median hourly rate £18.87 £21.59 £24.60
Median % change year-on-year -12.60% -12.24% +46.17%
75th Percentile £25.15 £31.76 £51.50
90th Percentile £30.00 £52.50 £67.50
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -27.10% -18.82% +21.43%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

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

Network Design job vacancy trend in the Midlands

Network Design
Daily Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Network Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Network Design

Network Design
Daily Rate Histogram in the Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Design in the Midlands over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Design in the Midlands

Network Design
Hourly Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Network Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Network Design

Network Design
Contract Job Locations in the Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Design within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 14 January 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
West Midlands -14 25 £400 -23.15% 11
Network Design
England

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Midlands 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 7 (28.00%) AWS
1 7 (28.00%) Azure
2 6 (24.00%) GCP
3 3 (12.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
3 3 (12.00%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 2 (8.00%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 16 (64.00%) Firewall
1 16 (64.00%) VPN
1 16 (64.00%) WAN
2 13 (52.00%) MPLS
3 12 (48.00%) BGP
4 8 (32.00%) IPsec
4 8 (32.00%) SD-WAN
5 7 (28.00%) DNS
5 7 (28.00%) LAN
5 7 (28.00%) Network Security
6 6 (24.00%) WLAN
7 4 (16.00%) IPv4
7 4 (16.00%) IPv6
7 4 (16.00%) NGFW
7 4 (16.00%) OSPF
7 4 (16.00%) VLAN
7 4 (16.00%) VXLAN
7 4 (16.00%) Wireless
8 3 (12.00%) Cisco ASA
8 3 (12.00%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
General
1 7 (28.00%) Social Skills
2 4 (16.00%) Analytical Skills
3 3 (12.00%) Influencing Skills
3 3 (12.00%) Public Sector
4 2 (8.00%) Presentation Skills
4 2 (8.00%) Telecoms
5 1 (4.00%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 13 (52.00%) Architect
2 12 (48.00%) Network Architect
3 8 (32.00%) 3rd Line Engineer
3 8 (32.00%) 3rd Line Support
3 8 (32.00%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
3 8 (32.00%) Support Engineer
4 6 (24.00%) Solutions Architect
5 3 (12.00%) Network Engineer
6 2 (8.00%) Administrator
6 2 (8.00%) Lead
6 2 (8.00%) Network Security Architect
6 2 (8.00%) Network Technical Architect
6 2 (8.00%) Security Architect
6 2 (8.00%) Technical Architect
6 2 (8.00%) Technical Solutions Architect
7 1 (4.00%) 3rd Line Network Engineer
7 1 (4.00%) Network Support
7 1 (4.00%) Network Support Engineer
7 1 (4.00%) WAN Engineer
7 1 (4.00%) Wireless Architect
Miscellaneous
1 8 (32.00%) PKI
2 7 (28.00%) Data Centre
3 4 (16.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 4 (16.00%) Operational Technology
4 2 (8.00%) Data Protection Act
4 2 (8.00%) SCADA
5 1 (4.00%) Self-Motivation
Processes & Methodologies
1 14 (56.00%) Load Balancing
2 10 (40.00%) Network Architecture
3 8 (32.00%) Zero Trust
4 7 (28.00%) Roadmaps
5 6 (24.00%) ITIL
5 6 (24.00%) Mentoring
5 6 (24.00%) Stakeholder Management
6 5 (20.00%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (20.00%) Data Protection
6 5 (20.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 4 (16.00%) Incident Response
7 4 (16.00%) Performance Monitoring
7 4 (16.00%) Security Architecture
7 4 (16.00%) Strategic Thinking
7 4 (16.00%) TOGAF
8 3 (12.00%) Analytical Thinking
8 3 (12.00%) Computer Science
8 3 (12.00%) Enterprise Architecture
8 3 (12.00%) Network Virtualisation
8 3 (12.00%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 4 (16.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 11 (44.00%) Security Cleared
2 10 (40.00%) SC Cleared
3 9 (36.00%) CCIE
3 9 (36.00%) CCNP
3 9 (36.00%) Cisco Certification
4 6 (24.00%) CISSP
5 5 (20.00%) Degree
6 4 (16.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 4 (16.00%) AWS Certification
6 4 (16.00%) CCSP
7 3 (12.00%) Azure Certification
7 3 (12.00%) CCIE Security
8 2 (8.00%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (8.00%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (8.00%) JNCIE
8 2 (8.00%) JNCIP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (24.00%) GDPR
2 4 (16.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 4 (16.00%) NIST
2 4 (16.00%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 3 (12.00%) VMware Infrastructure
1 3 (12.00%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 6 (24.00%) Ansible
1 6 (24.00%) Terraform
2 3 (12.00%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 13 (52.00%) Juniper
2 10 (40.00%) Cisco
3 9 (36.00%) Palo Alto
4 6 (24.00%) Fortinet
5 5 (20.00%) F5
6 4 (16.00%) Meraki
7 3 (12.00%) CheckPoint
7 3 (12.00%) SolarWinds
7 3 (12.00%) VMware
8 2 (8.00%) Forcepoint