WAN Contract Job Trends in the North West

Wide Area Network (WAN)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the North West requiring WAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 24 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 79 86
Rank change year-on-year -31 +7 -27
Contract jobs citing WAN 62 49 42
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 1.68% 2.26% 1.66%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.94% 15.46% 13.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 39 33 27
10th Percentile £424 - -
25th Percentile £487 £129 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £528 £325 £400
Median % change year-on-year +62.46% -18.75% -5.88%
75th Percentile £588 £488 £506
90th Percentile £626 £588 £651
England median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 1
10th Percentile £19.03 - -
25th Percentile £20.69 - £18.03
Median hourly rate £24.92 £70.16 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year -64.48% +288.38% -62.23%
75th Percentile £28.69 - £18.10
90th Percentile £30.08 - -
England median hourly rate £22.50 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -25.00% +20.63% -58.55%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
North West

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 North West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 479 317 306
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.98% 14.62% 12.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 309 184 213
10th Percentile £276 £153 £211
25th Percentile £375 £325 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £498 £449 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.93% -10.30% +7.53%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £669
90th Percentile £635 £638 £825
England median daily rate £500 £500 £500
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 2 13
10th Percentile £15.71 £25.02 £21.10
25th Percentile £17.06 £32.54 £26.00
Median hourly rate £17.75 £45.08 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year -60.63% -1.74% +172.12%
75th Percentile £32.54 £57.62 £51.00
90th Percentile £74.26 £65.14 £51.91
England median hourly rate £26.72 £45.00 £47.50
% change year-on-year -40.62% -5.26% -4.04%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

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

WAN job vacancy trend in the North West

WAN
Daily Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing WAN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing WAN

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the North West

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN in the North West over the 6 months to 24 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the North West

WAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing WAN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the North West citing WAN

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram in the North West

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WAN in the North West over the 6 months to 24 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the North West

WAN
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 WAN within the North West region over the 6 months to 24 July 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
Cumbria -7 19 £525 +12.90%
Cheshire +1 18 £550 +69.23% 4
Manchester -36 12 £499 +7.84% 10
Lancashire +1 9 £575 +228.57% 3
Merseyside -22 2 - - 4
WAN
England

WAN
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:

Application Platforms
1 2 (3.23%) IIS
Applications
1 3 (4.84%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (4.84%) MS Visio
2 1 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (1.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 19 (30.65%) Azure
2 15 (24.19%) AWS
3 12 (19.35%) OCI
4 10 (16.13%) SaaS
5 3 (4.84%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 2 (3.23%) GCP
6 2 (3.23%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (1.61%) AWS Direct Connect
7 1 (1.61%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (1.61%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (1.61%) GitHub
7 1 (1.61%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.61%) Google Ads
7 1 (1.61%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 45 (72.58%) Firewall
2 36 (58.06%) LAN
3 28 (45.16%) Network Security
3 28 (45.16%) VPN
4 26 (41.94%) SD-WAN
4 26 (41.94%) Wireless
5 25 (40.32%) Wi-Fi
6 22 (35.48%) BGP
6 22 (35.48%) OSPF
7 13 (20.97%) Broadband
7 13 (20.97%) Converged Networks
8 11 (17.74%) Ethernet VPN
8 11 (17.74%) TCP/IP
8 11 (17.74%) VLAN
8 11 (17.74%) VXLAN
8 11 (17.74%) WLAN
9 10 (16.13%) BIG-IP
9 10 (16.13%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 8 (12.90%) DNS
11 6 (9.68%) MPLS
Development Applications
1 11 (17.74%) GitLab
2 3 (4.84%) Git
3 1 (1.61%) Jenkins
3 1 (1.61%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 13 (20.97%) Social Skills
2 8 (12.90%) Public Sector
3 7 (11.29%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (8.06%) Finance
5 4 (6.45%) Banking
6 2 (3.23%) Legal
6 2 (3.23%) Military
7 1 (1.61%) Automotive
7 1 (1.61%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.61%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.61%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.61%) Retail
7 1 (1.61%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 37 (59.68%) Network Engineer
2 14 (22.58%) Senior
3 10 (16.13%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 10 (16.13%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 9 (14.52%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
5 5 (8.06%) Senior Network Engineer
5 5 (8.06%) Support Engineer
6 4 (6.45%) Architect
6 4 (6.45%) Network Architect
7 3 (4.84%) Cisco Engineer
7 3 (4.84%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 2 (3.23%) 1st/2nd Line Support
8 2 (3.23%) 1st/2nd Line Support Engineer
8 2 (3.23%) 2nd Line Support
8 2 (3.23%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
8 2 (3.23%) Developer
8 2 (3.23%) IT Engineer
8 2 (3.23%) IT Support
8 2 (3.23%) IT Support Engineer
8 2 (3.23%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (11.29%) 802.1X
2 3 (4.84%) JSON
2 3 (4.84%) REST
3 2 (3.23%) Django
3 2 (3.23%) Software Packaging
3 2 (3.23%) XML
4 1 (1.61%) ModSecurity
4 1 (1.61%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (29.03%) Data Centre
2 12 (19.35%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (14.52%) Cloud Native
4 2 (3.23%) iPhone
4 2 (3.23%) PKI
4 2 (3.23%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.61%) Public Cloud
5 1 (1.61%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 7 (11.29%) Windows
2 4 (6.45%) Windows Server
3 3 (4.84%) Linux
4 2 (3.23%) Windows 10
4 2 (3.23%) Windows Server 2012
5 1 (1.61%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 29 (46.77%) Load Balancing
2 17 (27.42%) Zero Trust
3 16 (25.81%) High Availability
4 15 (24.19%) Infrastructure as Code
4 15 (24.19%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 14 (22.58%) CI/CD
5 14 (22.58%) Network Design
6 13 (20.97%) Network Architecture
7 12 (19.35%) Impact Assessments
8 11 (17.74%) DevOps
8 11 (17.74%) Problem-Solving
8 11 (17.74%) Project Delivery
9 10 (16.13%) Site Reliability Engineering
10 9 (14.52%) Network Monitoring
11 7 (11.29%) Continuous Improvement
12 6 (9.68%) Capacity Planning
12 6 (9.68%) ITIL
12 6 (9.68%) Network Segmentation
12 6 (9.68%) Validation
13 5 (8.06%) Change Management
Programming Languages
1 20 (32.26%) Python
2 3 (4.84%) PowerShell
3 2 (3.23%) Perl
3 2 (3.23%) SQL
4 1 (1.61%) Bash
4 1 (1.61%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 30 (48.39%) Cisco Certification
2 27 (43.55%) Security Cleared
3 23 (37.10%) SC Cleared
4 22 (35.48%) CCNA
5 15 (24.19%) CCNP
6 8 (12.90%) Degree
7 4 (6.45%) CCIE
8 3 (4.84%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (3.23%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (1.61%) JNCIA
10 1 (1.61%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (6.45%) SLA
2 2 (3.23%) GDPR
3 1 (1.61%) Data Quality
3 1 (1.61%) GRC
System Software
1 6 (9.68%) Firmware
2 4 (6.45%) Active Directory
3 2 (3.23%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (3.23%) VMware NSX
4 1 (1.61%) Docker
4 1 (1.61%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 20 (32.26%) Ansible
2 14 (22.58%) Terraform
3 3 (4.84%) FortiGate
3 3 (4.84%) SCCM
4 2 (3.23%) AirWatch
5 1 (1.61%) CASB
5 1 (1.61%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.61%) Nagios
5 1 (1.61%) Progress Chef
5 1 (1.61%) Puppet
Vendors
1 32 (51.61%) Cisco
2 23 (37.10%) Palo Alto
3 19 (30.65%) Aruba
4 13 (20.97%) Arista
4 13 (20.97%) F5
5 10 (16.13%) Fortinet
6 7 (11.29%) Microsoft
7 5 (8.06%) CheckPoint
7 5 (8.06%) Ekahau
7 5 (8.06%) Juniper
8 4 (6.45%) HP
8 4 (6.45%) Infoblox
8 4 (6.45%) ServiceNow
9 3 (4.84%) Splunk
9 3 (4.84%) VMware
9 3 (4.84%) Zscaler
10 2 (3.23%) Bloomberg
10 2 (3.23%) Forcepoint
10 2 (3.23%) McAfee
11 1 (1.61%) IBM