SD-WAN Contract Job Trends in the Midlands

Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)
England > Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Midlands requiring SD-WAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 139 97 99
Rank change year-on-year -42 +2 +73
Contract jobs citing SD-WAN 25 35 35
As % of all contract jobs in the Midlands 0.81% 1.39% 1.30%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.13% 10.36% 6.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 14 22 12
10th Percentile £424 £165 £276
25th Percentile £463 £331 £286
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £395 £400
Median % change year-on-year +27.22% -1.25% -5.88%
75th Percentile £584 £489 £681
90th Percentile £600 £634 £734
England median daily rate £475 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -9.52% -2.33% +10.48%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Midlands

SD-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 the Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 408 338 541
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands 13.20% 13.47% 20.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 176 305
10th Percentile £163 £170 £209
25th Percentile £286 £261 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £400 £444 £425
Median % change year-on-year -9.86% +4.41% -2.30%
75th Percentile £517 £584 £550
90th Percentile £584 £715 £675
England median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.45% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 15 30
10th Percentile £17.35 £13.40 £17.40
25th Percentile £18.87 £18.28 £21.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £24.18 £27.25
Median % change year-on-year +4.01% -11.27% +12.37%
75th Percentile £31.00 £34.38 £67.50
90th Percentile £32.60 £35.00 -
England median hourly rate £30.00 £48.56 £56.49
% change year-on-year -38.22% -14.04% +25.53%

SD-WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

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

SD-WAN job vacancy trend in the Midlands

SD-WAN
Daily Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing SD-WAN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing SD-WAN

SD-WAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SD-WAN in the Midlands over the 6 months to 13 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SD-WAN in the Midlands

SD-WAN
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 SD-WAN within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 13 December 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
West Midlands -26 25 £503 +18.24% 4
SD-WAN
England

SD-WAN
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:

Application Platforms
1 1 (4.00%) Confluence
1 1 (4.00%) IIS
1 1 (4.00%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 11 (44.00%) Azure
2 8 (32.00%) AWS
3 7 (28.00%) GCP
4 4 (16.00%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 4 (16.00%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 2 (8.00%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (4.00%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (4.00%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (4.00%) n8n
6 1 (4.00%) Power Automate
6 1 (4.00%) Zapier
Communications & Networking
1 24 (96.00%) WAN
2 18 (72.00%) Firewall
2 18 (72.00%) LAN
3 9 (36.00%) VPN
3 9 (36.00%) Wireless
4 8 (32.00%) WLAN
5 7 (28.00%) BGP
5 7 (28.00%) MPLS
5 7 (28.00%) Network Security
5 7 (28.00%) OSPF
6 6 (24.00%) DHCP
6 6 (24.00%) DNS
6 6 (24.00%) VLAN
6 6 (24.00%) Wi-Fi
7 5 (20.00%) EIGRP
7 5 (20.00%) IPv4
7 5 (20.00%) IPv6
7 5 (20.00%) VXLAN
8 4 (16.00%) Cisco ASA
8 4 (16.00%) Cisco ISE
Development Applications
1 1 (4.00%) JIRA
General
1 6 (24.00%) Analytical Skills
1 6 (24.00%) Social Skills
2 4 (16.00%) Public Sector
3 3 (12.00%) Influencing Skills
4 2 (8.00%) Finance
4 2 (8.00%) Presentation Skills
4 2 (8.00%) Telecoms
5 1 (4.00%) Automotive
5 1 (4.00%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (4.00%) Fire and Rescue
5 1 (4.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (4.00%) Legal
5 1 (4.00%) Manufacturing
5 1 (4.00%) Police
Job Titles
1 11 (44.00%) Architect
1 11 (44.00%) Network Architect
2 5 (20.00%) Lead
2 5 (20.00%) Network Engineer
3 4 (16.00%) Solutions Architect
4 3 (12.00%) Administrator
5 2 (8.00%) Consultant
5 2 (8.00%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 2 (8.00%) IT Manager
5 2 (8.00%) IT Project Manager
5 2 (8.00%) Network Consultant
5 2 (8.00%) Network Manager
5 2 (8.00%) Network Project Manager
5 2 (8.00%) Project Manager
5 2 (8.00%) Senior
5 2 (8.00%) Senior Network Engineer
6 1 (4.00%) Azure Engineer
6 1 (4.00%) DevOps Engineer
6 1 (4.00%) Lead Network Engineer
6 1 (4.00%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.00%) 802.1X
1 1 (4.00%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 7 (28.00%) Data Centre
2 4 (16.00%) Hybrid Cloud
2 4 (16.00%) Operational Technology
3 3 (12.00%) Onboarding
4 1 (4.00%) Driving Licence
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.00%) Windows
1 1 (4.00%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (44.00%) Network Design
1 11 (44.00%) Roadmaps
2 10 (40.00%) Network Architecture
3 9 (36.00%) Zero Trust
4 8 (32.00%) ITIL
5 6 (24.00%) Stakeholder Engagement
6 5 (20.00%) Cybersecurity
6 5 (20.00%) Mentoring
6 5 (20.00%) Network Management
6 5 (20.00%) Security Architecture
6 5 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
7 4 (16.00%) Cost Optimisation
7 4 (16.00%) Data Protection
7 4 (16.00%) Enterprise Architecture
7 4 (16.00%) Load Balancing
7 4 (16.00%) Performance Monitoring
7 4 (16.00%) Strategic Thinking
7 4 (16.00%) TOGAF
8 3 (12.00%) Computer Science
8 3 (12.00%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 5 (20.00%) Python
2 1 (4.00%) Bicep
2 1 (4.00%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 10 (40.00%) CCNP
1 10 (40.00%) Cisco Certification
2 8 (32.00%) CCIE
3 4 (16.00%) (ISC)2 CCSP
3 4 (16.00%) AWS Certification
3 4 (16.00%) Azure Certification
3 4 (16.00%) CCSP
3 4 (16.00%) CISSP
3 4 (16.00%) Degree
3 4 (16.00%) Security Cleared
4 3 (12.00%) CCIE Security
5 2 (8.00%) ITIL Certification
5 2 (8.00%) JNCIE
5 2 (8.00%) JNCIP
5 2 (8.00%) SC Cleared
6 1 (4.00%) CCIE Routing and Switching
6 1 (4.00%) CCNA
6 1 (4.00%) CCSA
6 1 (4.00%) Citrix Certification
6 1 (4.00%) CWSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (28.00%) GDPR
2 6 (24.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (20.00%) NIST
3 5 (20.00%) PCI DSS
4 2 (8.00%) SLA
5 1 (4.00%) GRC
System Software
1 4 (16.00%) VMware Infrastructure
1 4 (16.00%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 8 (32.00%) Ansible
2 7 (28.00%) Terraform
3 1 (4.00%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 13 (52.00%) Cisco
2 11 (44.00%) Fortinet
2 11 (44.00%) Palo Alto
3 7 (28.00%) F5
3 7 (28.00%) SolarWinds
4 6 (24.00%) Juniper
4 6 (24.00%) Meraki
5 4 (16.00%) VMware
6 2 (8.00%) Aruba
6 2 (8.00%) BT
6 2 (8.00%) CenturyLink
6 2 (8.00%) Forcepoint
7 1 (4.00%) CheckPoint
7 1 (4.00%) Microsoft
7 1 (4.00%) Proofpoint
7 1 (4.00%) Zscaler