Software-Defined Networking Contract Job Trends in the North West

Software-Defined Networking
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring Software-Defined Networking skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 21 October 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 134 115 142
Rank change year-on-year -19 +27 -
Contract jobs citing Software-Defined Networking 2 3 4
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 0.087% 0.13% 0.14%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.65% 0.98% 0.81%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 0 4
10th Percentile £470 - £401
25th Percentile £481 - £441
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 - £475
75th Percentile £523 - £545
90th Percentile £530 - £649
England median daily rate £550 £563 £650
% change year-on-year -2.22% -13.46% +8.33%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North West

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 West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 310 307 496
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.55% 12.98% 17.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 186 152 342
10th Percentile £150 £243 £325
25th Percentile £326 £411 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £447 £498 £494
Median % change year-on-year -10.15% +0.71% +7.16%
75th Percentile £547 £576 £593
90th Percentile £686 £688 £661
England median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.40% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 9 10
10th Percentile - £24.61 £15.72
25th Percentile £15.50 £35.00 £15.75
Median hourly rate £19.00 £48.56 £16.68
Median % change year-on-year -60.87% +191.13% -16.10%
75th Percentile £34.97 £51.91 £46.88
90th Percentile £67.25 £52.02 £49.35
England median hourly rate £32.77 £57.25 £56.49
% change year-on-year -42.76% +1.35% +37.68%

Software-Defined Networking
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

Software-Defined Networking job vacancy trend in the North West

Software-Defined Networking
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

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

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

Software-Defined Networking
Contract Job Locations in the North West

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 West region over the 6 months to 21 October 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
Merseyside +1 1 £535 -
Manchester -6 1 £475 -
Software-Defined Networking
England

Software-Defined Networking
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North West 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 2 (100.00%) LAN
2 1 (50.00%) Cisco ASA
2 1 (50.00%) Cisco Nexus
2 1 (50.00%) DWDM
2 1 (50.00%) Ethernet
2 1 (50.00%) Firewall
2 1 (50.00%) IGMP
2 1 (50.00%) Internet
2 1 (50.00%) MPLS
2 1 (50.00%) Multicast
2 1 (50.00%) Network Security
2 1 (50.00%) SD-WAN
2 1 (50.00%) VPN
2 1 (50.00%) WAN
2 1 (50.00%) Wi-Fi
2 1 (50.00%) Wireless
Job Titles
1 2 (100.00%) Network Engineer
2 1 (50.00%) Cisco Engineer
2 1 (50.00%) Cisco Network Engineer
2 1 (50.00%) LAN Engineer
2 1 (50.00%) Senior
2 1 (50.00%) Senior Cisco Engineer
2 1 (50.00%) Senior Cisco Network Engineer
2 1 (50.00%) Senior Network Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Data Centre
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (50.00%) Network Architecture
1 1 (50.00%) Network Design
Vendors
1 2 (100.00%) Cisco
2 1 (50.00%) Aruba
2 1 (50.00%) CheckPoint
2 1 (50.00%) F5
2 1 (50.00%) HP
2 1 (50.00%) Palo Alto