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 22 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 105 86 74
Rank change year-on-year -19 -12 -14
Contract jobs citing WAN 74 45 49
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 1.89% 2.03% 2.01%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.42% 14.85% 16.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 49 34 32
10th Percentile £414 - £313
25th Percentile £488 £129 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £325 £438
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -25.71% -5.41%
75th Percentile £550 £470 £508
90th Percentile £595 £535 £634
England median daily rate £513 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +13.89% -10.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 1
10th Percentile £19.03 £33.95 -
25th Percentile £20.69 £45.88 £18.03
Median hourly rate £24.92 £66.50 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year -62.53% +268.12% -62.23%
75th Percentile £28.69 £68.71 £18.10
90th Percentile £30.08 £69.58 -
England median hourly rate £19.00 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -36.67% +20.63% -37.83%

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 513 303 299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 13.09% 13.66% 12.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 333 176 198
10th Percentile £231 £147 £250
25th Percentile £353 £325 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £449 £515
Median % change year-on-year +6.35% -12.91% +8.42%
75th Percentile £576 £539 £675
90th Percentile £625 £675 £833
England median daily rate £500 £492 £504
% change year-on-year +1.63% -2.38% +0.80%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 5 9
10th Percentile £14.50 £22.40 £24.61
25th Percentile £16.50 £26.00 £35.00
Median hourly rate £17.50 £66.50 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -73.68% +36.94% +194.30%
75th Percentile £22.26 £67.25 £51.91
90th Percentile £34.08 £69.00 £62.80
England median hourly rate £28.00 £43.00 £54.88
% change year-on-year -34.88% -21.64% -0.23%

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 22 August 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 22 August 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 22 August 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 -3 27 £519 -0.19% 4
Cheshire +5 21 £539 +65.85% 9
Manchester -31 13 £498 +13.71% 12
Lancashire -1 9 £575 +228.57% 4
Merseyside -22 4 - - 2
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 6 (8.11%) Microsoft Exchange
1 6 (8.11%) Skype for Business
2 2 (2.70%) IIS
Applications
1 11 (14.86%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (6.76%) MS Visio
3 3 (4.05%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (4.05%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 19 (25.68%) Azure
2 15 (20.27%) AWS
3 12 (16.22%) OCI
4 10 (13.51%) SaaS
5 3 (4.05%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 2 (2.70%) GCP
6 2 (2.70%) Microsoft 365
7 1 (1.35%) AWS Direct Connect
7 1 (1.35%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (1.35%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (1.35%) GitHub
7 1 (1.35%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.35%) Google Ads
7 1 (1.35%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 47 (63.51%) Firewall
1 47 (63.51%) LAN
2 36 (48.65%) VPN
3 33 (44.59%) Wi-Fi
4 30 (40.54%) Network Security
5 29 (39.19%) Wireless
6 27 (36.49%) SD-WAN
7 22 (29.73%) BGP
7 22 (29.73%) OSPF
8 17 (22.97%) VLAN
9 14 (18.92%) DNS
10 13 (17.57%) Broadband
10 13 (17.57%) Converged Networks
11 11 (14.86%) Ethernet VPN
11 11 (14.86%) TCP/IP
11 11 (14.86%) VXLAN
11 11 (14.86%) WLAN
12 10 (13.51%) BIG-IP
12 10 (13.51%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 9 (12.16%) DHCP
Development Applications
1 11 (14.86%) GitLab
2 3 (4.05%) Git
3 1 (1.35%) Jenkins
3 1 (1.35%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 18 (24.32%) Social Skills
2 11 (14.86%) Analytical Skills
3 8 (10.81%) Finance
3 8 (10.81%) Public Sector
4 6 (8.11%) Banking
5 4 (5.41%) Legal
6 2 (2.70%) Military
7 1 (1.35%) Automotive
7 1 (1.35%) Documentation Skills
7 1 (1.35%) Manufacturing
7 1 (1.35%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.35%) Retail
7 1 (1.35%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 40 (54.05%) Network Engineer
2 15 (20.27%) Senior
3 11 (14.86%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 10 (13.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 9 (12.16%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 7 (9.46%) Support Engineer
7 6 (8.11%) Senior Network Engineer
8 4 (5.41%) Architect
8 4 (5.41%) Network Architect
9 3 (4.05%) Cisco Engineer
9 3 (4.05%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 3 (4.05%) Compliance Specialist
9 3 (4.05%) LAN Specialist
9 3 (4.05%) Network Specialist
9 3 (4.05%) VMware Engineer
9 3 (4.05%) WAN Specialist
10 2 (2.70%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
10 2 (2.70%) CyberArk Engineer
10 2 (2.70%) IT Support
10 2 (2.70%) Service Desk Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (18.92%) Terraform
2 7 (9.46%) 802.1X
3 3 (4.05%) JSON
3 3 (4.05%) REST
4 2 (2.70%) Django
4 2 (2.70%) Software Packaging
4 2 (2.70%) XML
5 1 (1.35%) ModSecurity
5 1 (1.35%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 18 (24.32%) Data Centre
2 12 (16.22%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (12.16%) Cloud Native
4 2 (2.70%) Driving Licence
4 2 (2.70%) iPhone
4 2 (2.70%) PKI
4 2 (2.70%) Security Posture
5 1 (1.35%) Enterprise Storage
5 1 (1.35%) Management Information System
5 1 (1.35%) Onboarding
5 1 (1.35%) Public Cloud
5 1 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 14 (18.92%) Windows
2 8 (10.81%) Windows 10
3 6 (8.11%) Windows 7
4 5 (6.76%) Windows Server
5 3 (4.05%) Linux
6 2 (2.70%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (1.35%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 31 (41.89%) Load Balancing
2 17 (22.97%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 17 (22.97%) Zero Trust
3 16 (21.62%) High Availability
4 15 (20.27%) CI/CD
4 15 (20.27%) Infrastructure as Code
4 15 (20.27%) Problem-Solving
5 14 (18.92%) Network Design
6 13 (17.57%) Network Architecture
6 13 (17.57%) Project Delivery
7 12 (16.22%) Impact Assessments
8 11 (14.86%) DevOps
9 10 (13.51%) Continuous Improvement
9 10 (13.51%) Network Monitoring
9 10 (13.51%) Site Reliability Engineering
10 7 (9.46%) Capacity Planning
10 7 (9.46%) Change Management
11 6 (8.11%) ITIL
11 6 (8.11%) Service Management
11 6 (8.11%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 21 (28.38%) Python
2 9 (12.16%) PowerShell
3 6 (8.11%) VB
3 6 (8.11%) VBScript
4 2 (2.70%) Perl
4 2 (2.70%) SQL
5 1 (1.35%) Bash
5 1 (1.35%) Bicep
5 1 (1.35%) Search Processing Language
Qualifications
1 34 (45.95%) Security Cleared
2 31 (41.89%) Cisco Certification
3 29 (39.19%) SC Cleared
4 22 (29.73%) CCNA
5 16 (21.62%) CCNP
6 9 (12.16%) Degree
7 4 (5.41%) CCIE
7 4 (5.41%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (2.70%) ITIL Certification
9 1 (1.35%) JNCIA
9 1 (1.35%) JNCIS
9 1 (1.35%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (5.41%) SLA
2 3 (4.05%) GRC
3 2 (2.70%) Data Quality
3 2 (2.70%) GDPR
System Software
1 6 (8.11%) BitLocker
1 6 (8.11%) Firmware
2 5 (6.76%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (5.41%) Active Directory
4 2 (2.70%) VMware NSX
5 1 (1.35%) Docker
5 1 (1.35%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 20 (27.03%) Ansible
2 9 (12.16%) SCCM
3 3 (4.05%) FortiGate
4 2 (2.70%) AirWatch
5 1 (1.35%) CASB
5 1 (1.35%) Kubernetes
5 1 (1.35%) Nagios
5 1 (1.35%) Progress Chef
5 1 (1.35%) Puppet
Vendors
1 34 (45.95%) Cisco
2 25 (33.78%) Palo Alto
3 19 (25.68%) Aruba
4 15 (20.27%) F5
4 15 (20.27%) Microsoft
5 13 (17.57%) Arista
6 10 (13.51%) Fortinet
6 10 (13.51%) VMware
7 9 (12.16%) ServiceNow
8 6 (8.11%) CyberArk
8 6 (8.11%) Ekahau
9 5 (6.76%) CheckPoint
9 5 (6.76%) Juniper
10 4 (5.41%) HP
10 4 (5.41%) Infoblox
10 4 (5.41%) Splunk
11 3 (4.05%) Meraki
11 3 (4.05%) Zscaler
12 2 (2.70%) Bloomberg
12 2 (2.70%) SolarWinds