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 2 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 110 73 101
Rank change year-on-year -37 +28 -25
Contract jobs citing WAN 54 54 38
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 1.69% 2.74% 1.38%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.67% 16.46% 10.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 37 37 29
10th Percentile £300 £241 £292
25th Percentile £418 £325 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +15.22% - +5.88%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £638
90th Percentile £643 £593 £656
England median daily rate £480 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +1.05% -5.00% +8.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £17.92 - -
Median hourly rate £19.84 - -
75th Percentile £21.76 - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £32.38 £53.75 £24.69
% change year-on-year -39.77% +117.74% -58.86%

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 395 328 359
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.37% 16.67% 13.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 231 192 249
10th Percentile £309 £190 £199
25th Percentile £380 £300 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £481 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% -5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £528 £653
90th Percentile £645 £600 £825
England median daily rate £500 £500 £490
% change year-on-year - +2.04% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 3 14
10th Percentile £16.26 £20.00 £17.72
25th Percentile £17.98 £21.12 £18.48
Median hourly rate £41.94 £24.59 £26.75
Median % change year-on-year +70.59% -8.09% -14.40%
75th Percentile £74.26 £25.47 £45.88
90th Percentile - £25.90 £83.76
England median hourly rate £42.10 £30.75 £40.00
% change year-on-year +36.89% -23.13% +114.36%

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 2 May 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
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 2 May 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 -10 16 £540 +2.86%
Manchester -26 16 £535 +12.63% 8
Cheshire -13 11 £455 +40.00% 5
Merseyside -13 6 £130 -39.53% 1
Lancashire - 4 £575 - 6
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 7 (12.96%) Microsoft Exchange
1 7 (12.96%) Skype for Business
2 2 (3.70%) IIS
Applications
1 9 (16.67%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (3.70%) Microsoft Excel
Cloud Services
1 10 (18.52%) Azure
2 7 (12.96%) AWS
3 6 (11.11%) OCI
4 5 (9.26%) Microsoft 365
4 5 (9.26%) SaaS
5 1 (1.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (1.85%) Google Ads
5 1 (1.85%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 30 (55.56%) Firewall
1 30 (55.56%) LAN
2 26 (48.15%) Wi-Fi
3 21 (38.89%) SD-WAN
4 20 (37.04%) VLAN
4 20 (37.04%) VPN
5 14 (25.93%) BGP
5 14 (25.93%) OSPF
5 14 (25.93%) Wireless
6 11 (20.37%) DNS
7 10 (18.52%) DHCP
8 9 (16.67%) Ethernet VPN
8 9 (16.67%) Network Security
8 9 (16.67%) VXLAN
9 8 (14.81%) MPLS
9 8 (14.81%) TCP/IP
10 7 (12.96%) Skype
11 6 (11.11%) Cisco ASA
12 5 (9.26%) BIG-IP
12 5 (9.26%) EIGRP
Development Applications
1 5 (9.26%) GitLab
General
1 14 (25.93%) Social Skills
2 10 (18.52%) Public Sector
3 6 (11.11%) Finance
4 5 (9.26%) Banking
5 1 (1.85%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (1.85%) Military
5 1 (1.85%) Retail
Job Titles
1 19 (35.19%) Network Engineer
2 15 (27.78%) Architect
3 9 (16.67%) Senior
4 8 (14.81%) Network Architect
5 7 (12.96%) Technical Architect
6 5 (9.26%) Analyst
6 5 (9.26%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (7.41%) Cisco Engineer
7 4 (7.41%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
7 4 (7.41%) Support Engineer
8 3 (5.56%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
8 3 (5.56%) Senior Architect
8 3 (5.56%) Senior Network Architect
8 3 (5.56%) Support Analyst
9 2 (3.70%) 1st/2nd Line Support
9 2 (3.70%) 1st/2nd Line Support Engineer
9 2 (3.70%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 2 (3.70%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
9 2 (3.70%) IT Engineer
9 2 (3.70%) Service Desk Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (24.07%) 802.1X
2 2 (3.70%) Software Packaging
3 1 (1.85%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 13 (24.07%) Data Centre
2 9 (16.67%) Onboarding
3 8 (14.81%) Hybrid Cloud
4 4 (7.41%) Cloud Native
5 3 (5.56%) Security Posture
6 2 (3.70%) iPhone
7 1 (1.85%) PKI
7 1 (1.85%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 16 (29.63%) Windows
2 12 (22.22%) Windows 10
3 7 (12.96%) Windows 7
4 5 (9.26%) Windows Server
5 2 (3.70%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (24.07%) Load Balancing
1 13 (24.07%) Network Design
2 12 (22.22%) Zero Trust
3 11 (20.37%) Network Architecture
4 9 (16.67%) Technical Leadership
5 8 (14.81%) Root Cause Analysis
6 7 (12.96%) Disk Encryption
6 7 (12.96%) High Availability
6 7 (12.96%) ITSM
6 7 (12.96%) Network Monitoring
6 7 (12.96%) Service Management
7 6 (11.11%) CI/CD
7 6 (11.11%) Migration
7 6 (11.11%) Validation
8 5 (9.26%) Change Management
8 5 (9.26%) DevOps
8 5 (9.26%) Infrastructure as Code
8 5 (9.26%) Network Segmentation
8 5 (9.26%) Performance Optimisation
8 5 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 8 (14.81%) Python
2 7 (12.96%) PowerShell
2 7 (12.96%) VB
2 7 (12.96%) VBScript
3 2 (3.70%) SQL
Qualifications
1 26 (48.15%) Security Cleared
2 22 (40.74%) SC Cleared
3 12 (22.22%) Cisco Certification
4 9 (16.67%) CCNP
5 7 (12.96%) CCNA
6 6 (11.11%) Degree
7 5 (9.26%) DV Cleared
8 4 (7.41%) Computer Science Degree
9 3 (5.56%) CCIE
10 2 (3.70%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (1.85%) JNCIA
11 1 (1.85%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (14.81%) SLA
System Software
1 7 (12.96%) BitLocker
2 6 (11.11%) Active Directory
3 2 (3.70%) Firmware
4 1 (1.85%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 10 (18.52%) SCCM
2 8 (14.81%) Ansible
3 6 (11.11%) Terraform
4 2 (3.70%) AirWatch
4 2 (3.70%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.85%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (1.85%) Nessus
Vendors
1 20 (37.04%) Cisco
1 20 (37.04%) Palo Alto
2 17 (31.48%) Microsoft
3 14 (25.93%) Aruba
4 9 (16.67%) ServiceNow
5 7 (12.96%) Meraki
6 6 (11.11%) CheckPoint
6 6 (11.11%) Ekahau
7 5 (9.26%) Arista
7 5 (9.26%) F5
8 4 (7.41%) Fortinet
9 2 (3.70%) Bloomberg
9 2 (3.70%) HP
9 2 (3.70%) Infoblox
9 2 (3.70%) Juniper
9 2 (3.70%) SAP
10 1 (1.85%) Forcepoint
10 1 (1.85%) McAfee
10 1 (1.85%) Sophos
10 1 (1.85%) Symantec