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

6 months to
29 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 103 79 103
Rank change year-on-year -24 +24 -44
Contract jobs citing WAN 58 49 30
As % of all contract jobs in the North West 1.74% 2.52% 1.11%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.55% 15.36% 9.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 33 22
10th Percentile £306 £219 £220
25th Percentile £438 £325 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £450 £350
Median % change year-on-year +15.39% +28.57% -17.65%
75th Percentile £588 £538 £488
90th Percentile £625 £598 £525
England median daily rate £500 £500 £488
% change year-on-year - +2.56% +2.63%
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 £22.50 £33.75 £24.19
% change year-on-year -33.33% +39.55% -58.77%

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 428 319 319
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 12.86% 16.40% 11.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 263 191 214
10th Percentile £313 £193 £203
25th Percentile £397 £313 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £450 £495
Median % change year-on-year +8.67% -9.09% +4.21%
75th Percentile £591 £536 £664
90th Percentile £638 £600 £843
England median daily rate £500 £495 £500
% change year-on-year +0.93% -0.92% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 16 1 14
10th Percentile £14.50 - £18.63
25th Percentile £17.57 £22.98 £23.38
Median hourly rate £29.16 £24.59 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +18.61% -35.50% +21.97%
75th Percentile £50.02 £26.19 £45.88
90th Percentile £74.26 - £85.30
England median hourly rate £32.50 £38.41 £40.00
% change year-on-year -15.39% -3.98% +134.40%

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 29 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 29 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 -16 16 £522 -5.14% 2
Manchester -36 16 £535 +12.63% 9
Cheshire -10 12 £490 +50.77% 2
Lancashire - 8 £575 - 5
Merseyside -17 4 £130 -39.53% 1
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 4 (6.90%) Microsoft Exchange
1 4 (6.90%) Skype for Business
2 2 (3.45%) IIS
Applications
1 7 (12.07%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (3.45%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (1.72%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 15 (25.86%) Azure
2 11 (18.97%) AWS
3 10 (17.24%) OCI
4 9 (15.52%) SaaS
5 5 (8.62%) Microsoft 365
6 1 (1.72%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (1.72%) Google Ads
6 1 (1.72%) IBM Watson
Communications & Networking
1 36 (62.07%) Firewall
2 31 (53.45%) LAN
3 25 (43.10%) SD-WAN
3 25 (43.10%) Wi-Fi
4 23 (39.66%) VPN
5 21 (36.21%) Wireless
6 19 (32.76%) BGP
6 19 (32.76%) OSPF
7 17 (29.31%) VLAN
8 15 (25.86%) Network Security
9 13 (22.41%) Ethernet VPN
9 13 (22.41%) VXLAN
10 9 (15.52%) BIG-IP
10 9 (15.52%) DNS
10 9 (15.52%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
10 9 (15.52%) WLAN
11 8 (13.79%) TCP/IP
12 7 (12.07%) DHCP
12 7 (12.07%) MPLS
13 6 (10.34%) IPsec
Development Applications
1 9 (15.52%) GitLab
General
1 14 (24.14%) Social Skills
2 10 (17.24%) Public Sector
3 6 (10.34%) Finance
4 5 (8.62%) Banking
5 1 (1.72%) Analytical Skills
5 1 (1.72%) Military
5 1 (1.72%) Retail
Job Titles
1 23 (39.66%) Network Engineer
2 13 (22.41%) Senior
3 10 (17.24%) Architect
4 9 (15.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 8 (13.79%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
6 7 (12.07%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 6 (10.34%) Network Architect
8 5 (8.62%) Analyst
8 5 (8.62%) Cisco Engineer
9 4 (6.90%) Support Engineer
9 4 (6.90%) Technical Architect
10 3 (5.17%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 3 (5.17%) Senior Network Engineer
10 3 (5.17%) Support Analyst
11 2 (3.45%) 2nd Line Support
11 2 (3.45%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
11 2 (3.45%) IT Support Engineer
11 2 (3.45%) Risk Analyst
11 2 (3.45%) Senior Network Architect
11 2 (3.45%) Service Desk Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (18.97%) 802.1X
2 2 (3.45%) Software Packaging
3 1 (1.72%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 15 (25.86%) Data Centre
2 12 (20.69%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (15.52%) Onboarding
4 8 (13.79%) Cloud Native
5 3 (5.17%) Security Posture
6 2 (3.45%) iPhone
7 1 (1.72%) PKI
7 1 (1.72%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 13 (22.41%) Windows
2 9 (15.52%) Windows 10
3 5 (8.62%) Windows Server
4 4 (6.90%) Windows 7
5 2 (3.45%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (36.21%) Load Balancing
2 16 (27.59%) Zero Trust
3 13 (22.41%) Network Design
4 12 (20.69%) Network Architecture
5 10 (17.24%) CI/CD
5 10 (17.24%) High Availability
6 9 (15.52%) DevOps
6 9 (15.52%) Infrastructure as Code
6 9 (15.52%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 8 (13.79%) Root Cause Analysis
8 7 (12.07%) Impact Assessments
8 7 (12.07%) Network Monitoring
8 7 (12.07%) Site Reliability Engineering
8 7 (12.07%) Technical Leadership
8 7 (12.07%) Validation
9 6 (10.34%) Problem-Solving
9 6 (10.34%) Project Delivery
10 5 (8.62%) Migration
10 5 (8.62%) Network Segmentation
11 4 (6.90%) Capacity Planning
Programming Languages
1 13 (22.41%) Python
2 5 (8.62%) PowerShell
3 4 (6.90%) VB
3 4 (6.90%) VBScript
4 2 (3.45%) SQL
5 1 (1.72%) Perl
Qualifications
1 25 (43.10%) Security Cleared
2 21 (36.21%) SC Cleared
3 18 (31.03%) Cisco Certification
4 13 (22.41%) CCNA
5 9 (15.52%) CCNP
6 7 (12.07%) Degree
7 4 (6.90%) Computer Science Degree
8 3 (5.17%) CCIE
9 2 (3.45%) DV Cleared
9 2 (3.45%) ITIL Certification
10 1 (1.72%) JNCIA
10 1 (1.72%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (13.79%) SLA
System Software
1 6 (10.34%) Active Directory
2 4 (6.90%) BitLocker
3 3 (5.17%) Firmware
4 1 (1.72%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 13 (22.41%) Ansible
2 10 (17.24%) Terraform
3 7 (12.07%) SCCM
4 3 (5.17%) FortiGate
5 2 (3.45%) AirWatch
6 1 (1.72%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (1.72%) Nessus
Vendors
1 23 (39.66%) Cisco
2 20 (34.48%) Palo Alto
3 18 (31.03%) Aruba
4 12 (20.69%) Microsoft
5 10 (17.24%) Arista
6 9 (15.52%) F5
7 6 (10.34%) CheckPoint
7 6 (10.34%) Ekahau
7 6 (10.34%) Fortinet
7 6 (10.34%) ServiceNow
8 3 (5.17%) Infoblox
9 2 (3.45%) Bloomberg
9 2 (3.45%) HP
9 2 (3.45%) Juniper
9 2 (3.45%) Meraki
9 2 (3.45%) SAP
9 2 (3.45%) Splunk
9 2 (3.45%) Zscaler
10 1 (1.72%) Broadcom
10 1 (1.72%) SevOne