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 3 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 109 96 77
Rank change year-on-year -13 -19 -15
Contract jobs citing WAN 77 38 44
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 1.95% 1.74% 1.83%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.28% 12.88% 14.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 51 28 19
10th Percentile £433 - £363
25th Percentile £493 £129 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £535 £154 £495
Median % change year-on-year +247.97% -68.94% -10.00%
75th Percentile £569 £447 £563
90th Percentile £626 £528 £675
England median daily rate £510 £463 £500
% change year-on-year +10.27% -7.50% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 3 1
10th Percentile - £33.95 -
25th Percentile £29.00 £45.88 £18.03
Median hourly rate £30.00 £66.50 £18.07
Median % change year-on-year -54.89% +268.12% -62.23%
75th Percentile £31.00 £68.71 £18.10
90th Percentile - £69.58 -
England median hourly rate £19.00 £30.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year -36.67% -58.62% +81.25%

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 473 295 299
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 11.97% 13.49% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 303 175 155
10th Percentile £203 £147 £246
25th Percentile £330 £333 £409
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.33% -10.00% +2.88%
75th Percentile £575 £538 £613
90th Percentile £626 £680 £750
England median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 12 15 10
10th Percentile £13.33 - £25.43
25th Percentile £17.06 £15.50 £37.55
Median hourly rate £17.50 £19.00 £48.56
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% -60.87% +191.13%
75th Percentile £25.56 £34.97 £51.91
90th Percentile £36.54 £67.25 £57.65
England median hourly rate £43.50 £35.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +24.29% -38.97% +1.52%

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 3 October 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 3 October 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
Cheshire +11 24 £550 +66.67% 6
Cumbria -9 23 £519 -0.17% 1
Manchester -29 14 £500 +8.11% 33
Lancashire -16 9 £575 +125.49% 7
Merseyside -19 6 £445 +235.85% 8
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 (7.79%) Microsoft Exchange
1 6 (7.79%) Skype for Business
2 1 (1.30%) IIS
Applications
1 11 (14.29%) Microsoft Office
2 5 (6.49%) MS Visio
3 3 (3.90%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (3.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 20 (25.97%) Azure
2 15 (19.48%) AWS
3 12 (15.58%) OCI
4 10 (12.99%) SaaS
5 3 (3.90%) GCP
6 2 (2.60%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 1 (1.30%) AWS Direct Connect
7 1 (1.30%) Azure DevOps
7 1 (1.30%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (1.30%) GitHub
7 1 (1.30%) GitHub Actions
7 1 (1.30%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 41 (53.25%) Firewall
2 40 (51.95%) LAN
3 34 (44.16%) SD-WAN
3 34 (44.16%) Wireless
4 33 (42.86%) VPN
5 27 (35.06%) Network Security
5 27 (35.06%) Wi-Fi
6 22 (28.57%) BGP
6 22 (28.57%) OSPF
7 13 (16.88%) Broadband
7 13 (16.88%) Converged Networks
7 13 (16.88%) DNS
8 12 (15.58%) Ethernet VPN
9 11 (14.29%) VLAN
9 11 (14.29%) VXLAN
9 11 (14.29%) WLAN
10 10 (12.99%) BIG-IP
10 10 (12.99%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 10 (12.99%) MPLS
11 9 (11.69%) DHCP
Development Applications
1 11 (14.29%) GitLab
2 9 (11.69%) Git
3 1 (1.30%) Jenkins
3 1 (1.30%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 20 (25.97%) Social Skills
2 14 (18.18%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (11.69%) Banking
4 8 (10.39%) Public Sector
5 7 (9.09%) Finance
6 5 (6.49%) Legal
7 4 (5.19%) Investment Banking
8 3 (3.90%) Military
9 2 (2.60%) Documentation Skills
10 1 (1.30%) Automotive
10 1 (1.30%) Financial Institution
10 1 (1.30%) Manufacturing
10 1 (1.30%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (1.30%) Retail
10 1 (1.30%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 41 (53.25%) Network Engineer
2 20 (25.97%) Senior
3 11 (14.29%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
4 10 (12.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 10 (12.99%) Senior Network Engineer
5 9 (11.69%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 8 (10.39%) Developer
7 5 (6.49%) Automation Developer
7 5 (6.49%) Cisco Engineer
7 5 (6.49%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 4 (5.19%) Core Network Engineer
8 4 (5.19%) Senior Core Network Engineer
8 4 (5.19%) Support Engineer
9 3 (3.90%) Compliance Specialist
9 3 (3.90%) LAN Specialist
9 3 (3.90%) Migration Engineer
9 3 (3.90%) Network Specialist
9 3 (3.90%) Senior Cisco Engineer
9 3 (3.90%) Senior Cisco Network Engineer
9 3 (3.90%) VMware Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (18.18%) Terraform
2 9 (11.69%) REST
3 8 (10.39%) JSON
4 7 (9.09%) Django
5 5 (6.49%) Flask
6 2 (2.60%) 802.1X
6 2 (2.60%) XML
7 1 (1.30%) ModSecurity
7 1 (1.30%) NETCONF
7 1 (1.30%) Software Packaging
7 1 (1.30%) YAML
7 1 (1.30%) YANG
Miscellaneous
1 20 (25.97%) Data Centre
2 11 (14.29%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (11.69%) Cloud Native
4 5 (6.49%) Management Information System
5 4 (5.19%) Driving Licence
5 4 (5.19%) Onboarding
6 2 (2.60%) PKI
7 1 (1.30%) Enterprise Storage
7 1 (1.30%) iPhone
7 1 (1.30%) Operational Technology
7 1 (1.30%) SCADA
7 1 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 10 (12.99%) Windows
2 8 (10.39%) Linux
3 7 (9.09%) Windows 10
4 6 (7.79%) Windows 7
5 4 (5.19%) Windows Server
6 1 (1.30%) Unix
6 1 (1.30%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 28 (36.36%) Load Balancing
2 23 (29.87%) CI/CD
3 21 (27.27%) Infrastructure as Code
4 17 (22.08%) High Availability
4 17 (22.08%) Infrastructure Engineering
5 15 (19.48%) Problem-Solving
6 14 (18.18%) Observability
7 13 (16.88%) Network Architecture
7 13 (16.88%) Project Delivery
7 13 (16.88%) Zero Trust
8 12 (15.58%) Impact Assessments
8 12 (15.58%) Network Design
9 11 (14.29%) DevOps
10 10 (12.99%) Continuous Improvement
10 10 (12.99%) Site Reliability Engineering
11 9 (11.69%) Migration
11 9 (11.69%) Network Monitoring
12 8 (10.39%) Root Cause Analysis
13 7 (9.09%) Change Management
13 7 (9.09%) Problem Management
Programming Languages
1 30 (38.96%) Python
2 9 (11.69%) PowerShell
3 6 (7.79%) VB
3 6 (7.79%) VBScript
4 4 (5.19%) Search Processing Language
5 2 (2.60%) Perl
6 1 (1.30%) Bash
6 1 (1.30%) Bicep
6 1 (1.30%) SQL
Qualifications
1 31 (40.26%) Security Cleared
2 26 (33.77%) Cisco Certification
2 26 (33.77%) SC Cleared
3 16 (20.78%) CCNA
4 12 (15.58%) CCNP
5 5 (6.49%) CCIE
5 5 (6.49%) Degree
6 1 (1.30%) Computer Science Degree
6 1 (1.30%) ITIL Certification
6 1 (1.30%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (6.49%) Data Quality
2 3 (3.90%) GRC
3 2 (2.60%) GDPR
4 1 (1.30%) SLA
System Software
1 6 (7.79%) BitLocker
1 6 (7.79%) Firmware
2 5 (6.49%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (2.60%) Active Directory
3 2 (2.60%) VMware NSX
4 1 (1.30%) Docker
4 1 (1.30%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 20 (25.97%) Ansible
2 7 (9.09%) SCCM
3 5 (6.49%) FortiGate
4 1 (1.30%) AirWatch
4 1 (1.30%) CASB
4 1 (1.30%) Kubernetes
4 1 (1.30%) Nagios
4 1 (1.30%) Progress Chef
4 1 (1.30%) Puppet
Vendors
1 39 (50.65%) Cisco
2 22 (28.57%) Palo Alto
3 17 (22.08%) Arista
4 16 (20.78%) F5
5 14 (18.18%) Aruba
6 13 (16.88%) Fortinet
7 11 (14.29%) Microsoft
8 10 (12.99%) VMware
9 8 (10.39%) Splunk
10 7 (9.09%) ServiceNow
11 6 (7.79%) CyberArk
12 5 (6.49%) Juniper
13 4 (5.19%) Infoblox
13 4 (5.19%) Meraki
13 4 (5.19%) Zscaler
14 3 (3.90%) HP
14 3 (3.90%) SolarWinds
15 2 (2.60%) Avaya
15 2 (2.60%) Forcepoint
15 2 (2.60%) McAfee