Network Design Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Network Design
England > North of England

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

6 months to
6 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 192 131 147
Rank change year-on-year -61 +16 +54
Contract jobs citing Network Design 21 29 46
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.41% 0.86% 0.92%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.47% 0.97% 1.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 17 19 39
10th Percentile £481 £395 £463
25th Percentile £509 £433 £544
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £537 £500 £600
Median % change year-on-year +7.40% -16.67% +26.32%
75th Percentile £566 £550 £627
90th Percentile £613 - £645
England median daily rate £500 £525 £565
% change year-on-year -4.76% -7.08% +25.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
England median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - -5.74%

All Process & Methodology Skills
North of England

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 North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 4,450 2,976 4,351
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 87.55% 88.49% 87.00%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,952 1,757 2,783
10th Percentile £240 £263 £275
25th Percentile £367 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.05% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £663 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 268 140 305
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.00 £11.77
25th Percentile £20.82 £17.25 £14.00
Median hourly rate £41.94 £27.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.51% +22.22% -10.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £44.92 £46.18
90th Percentile £73.83 £73.68 £53.75
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £35.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -1.41% +2.66%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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

Network Design job vacancy trend in the North of England

Network Design
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Network Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Network Design

Network Design
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Design in the North of England over the 6 months to 6 February 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Design in the North of England

Network Design
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Network Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Network Design

Network Design
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

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 North of England region over the 6 months to 6 February 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
North West -23 17 £525 +7.69% 8
Yorkshire -66 3 £650 +30.00% 2
North East -13 2 £550 -
Network Design
England

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of 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 1 (4.76%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 19 (90.48%) Firewall
1 19 (90.48%) WAN
2 13 (61.90%) Cisco ISE
2 13 (61.90%) Wi-Fi
3 11 (52.38%) NetScaler
4 7 (33.33%) LAN
5 5 (23.81%) MPLS
5 5 (23.81%) VPN
6 4 (19.05%) BGP
7 3 (14.29%) Network Security
7 3 (14.29%) SD-WAN
7 3 (14.29%) VLAN
8 2 (9.52%) Cisco ASA
8 2 (9.52%) Cisco Nexus
8 2 (9.52%) IPsec
8 2 (9.52%) OSPF
8 2 (9.52%) Software-Defined Networking
8 2 (9.52%) SSL
8 2 (9.52%) Wireless
9 1 (4.76%) DNS
General
1 6 (28.57%) Public Sector
2 2 (9.52%) Legal
3 1 (4.76%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (4.76%) Finance
Job Titles
1 16 (76.19%) Network Engineer
2 4 (19.05%) Architect
2 4 (19.05%) Network Architect
2 4 (19.05%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
3 1 (4.76%) Core Network Engineer
3 1 (4.76%) Network Security Architect
3 1 (4.76%) Security Architect
3 1 (4.76%) Senior
3 1 (4.76%) Senior Architect
3 1 (4.76%) Senior Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (52.38%) 802.1X
2 1 (4.76%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 14 (66.67%) Data Centre
2 2 (9.52%) Product Ownership
3 1 (4.76%) Management Information System
3 1 (4.76%) Security Posture
Processes & Methodologies
1 12 (57.14%) Load Balancing
2 11 (52.38%) Impact Assessments
2 11 (52.38%) Network Architecture
2 11 (52.38%) Network Management
3 4 (19.05%) High Availability
4 3 (14.29%) Change Management
4 3 (14.29%) Cybersecurity
5 2 (9.52%) Acceptance Criteria
5 2 (9.52%) Containerisation
5 2 (9.52%) ITSM
5 2 (9.52%) Knowledge Management
5 2 (9.52%) Product Requirements
5 2 (9.52%) Service Management
5 2 (9.52%) User Stories
5 2 (9.52%) Virtual Infrastructure
5 2 (9.52%) Zero Trust
6 1 (4.76%) Observability
6 1 (4.76%) Project Delivery
6 1 (4.76%) Tech Ops
6 1 (4.76%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 3 (14.29%) Python
2 2 (9.52%) Bash
2 2 (9.52%) Perl
2 2 (9.52%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 15 (71.43%) Security Cleared
2 13 (61.90%) SC Cleared
3 4 (19.05%) CCNP
3 4 (19.05%) Cisco Certification
4 2 (9.52%) CCIE
5 1 (4.76%) CCNA
5 1 (4.76%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (4.76%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 2 (9.52%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 4 (19.05%) FortiGate
2 1 (4.76%) Ansible
2 1 (4.76%) Failover Clustering
Vendors
1 20 (95.24%) Cisco
2 15 (71.43%) Palo Alto
3 12 (57.14%) Meraki
4 3 (14.29%) Microsoft
5 2 (9.52%) CheckPoint
5 2 (9.52%) Fortinet
5 2 (9.52%) VMware
6 1 (4.76%) Arista
6 1 (4.76%) Aruba
6 1 (4.76%) F5
6 1 (4.76%) ForeScout
6 1 (4.76%) IBM
6 1 (4.76%) LogicMonitor
6 1 (4.76%) McAfee
6 1 (4.76%) NetScout
6 1 (4.76%) SevOne
6 1 (4.76%) SolarWinds
6 1 (4.76%) Splunk