Software-Defined Networking Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Software-Defined Networking
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring Software-Defined Networking skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 227 162 177
Rank change year-on-year -65 +15 +51
Contract jobs citing Software-Defined Networking 8 4 2
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.14% 0.13% 0.041%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.11% 0.69% 0.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 3 0
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £550 -
England median daily rate £550 £603 £444
% change year-on-year -8.75% +35.83% -29.84%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 0 0
Median hourly rate £74.26 - -
England median hourly rate £74.26 - -

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North of 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 the North of England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 722 580 634
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England 12.56% 18.13% 13.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 443 346 463
10th Percentile £203 £183 £193
25th Percentile £358 £250 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £476 £443 £475
Median % change year-on-year +7.57% -6.84% -2.56%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £588
90th Percentile £652 £638 £688
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 24 6 26
10th Percentile £15.65 £15.78 £14.13
25th Percentile £17.57 £20.18 £17.72
Median hourly rate £34.72 £24.67 £24.87
Median % change year-on-year +40.72% -0.79% +133.96%
75th Percentile £74.26 £37.67 £45.88
90th Percentile - £41.50 £48.75
England median hourly rate £37.50 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.14% +7.69% +71.05%

Software-Defined Networking
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Software-Defined Networking relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

Software-Defined Networking job vacancy trend in the North of England

Software-Defined Networking
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Software-Defined Networking.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Software-Defined Networking

Software-Defined Networking
Hourly Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Software-Defined Networking.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Software-Defined Networking

Software-Defined Networking
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 Software-Defined Networking within the North of England region over the 6 months to 24 March 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 -31 8 £550 - 2
North East - 3 £550 -
Software-Defined Networking
England

Software-Defined Networking
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:

Communications & Networking
1 8 (100.00%) BGP
1 8 (100.00%) Firewall
1 8 (100.00%) VLAN
2 3 (37.50%) Network Security
General
1 6 (75.00%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (37.50%) Social Skills
3 2 (25.00%) Legal
Job Titles
1 6 (75.00%) Platform Engineer
2 3 (37.50%) Software Engineer
3 2 (25.00%) Network Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 8 (100.00%) Product Ownership
2 5 (62.50%) Data Centre
3 3 (37.50%) Analytical Mindset
Operating Systems
1 6 (75.00%) Linux
1 6 (75.00%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
1 6 (75.00%) Windows
1 6 (75.00%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (100.00%) Containerisation
1 8 (100.00%) Cybersecurity
1 8 (100.00%) ITSM
2 6 (75.00%) Change Control
2 6 (75.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 6 (75.00%) Platform Engineering
2 6 (75.00%) Problem-Solving
3 5 (62.50%) High Availability
3 5 (62.50%) Knowledge Management
3 5 (62.50%) Service Management
3 5 (62.50%) Virtual Infrastructure
4 3 (37.50%) CI/CD
4 3 (37.50%) Computer Science
4 3 (37.50%) Digital Engineering
4 3 (37.50%) Regulatory Compliance
4 3 (37.50%) Service Delivery
4 3 (37.50%) Software Engineering
4 3 (37.50%) Stakeholder Engagement
5 2 (25.00%) Acceptance Criteria
5 2 (25.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 8 (100.00%) Bash
1 8 (100.00%) PowerShell
2 5 (62.50%) Perl
2 5 (62.50%) Python
Qualifications
1 8 (100.00%) SC Cleared
1 8 (100.00%) Security Cleared
2 3 (37.50%) CCDP
2 3 (37.50%) CCNA
2 3 (37.50%) CCNP
2 3 (37.50%) Cisco Certification
2 3 (37.50%) Degree
System Software
1 3 (37.50%) Active Directory
1 3 (37.50%) Docker
1 3 (37.50%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 3 (37.50%) Kubernetes
2 2 (25.00%) FortiGate
Vendors
1 6 (75.00%) Red Hat
2 3 (37.50%) Citrix
2 3 (37.50%) VMware
3 2 (25.00%) Cisco
3 2 (25.00%) Microsoft
3 2 (25.00%) Palo Alto