WAN Contracts in the North West

Wide Area Network (WAN)
England > North West

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the North West requiring WAN skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited WAN over the 6 months leading up to 2 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 78 101 53
Rank change year-on-year +23 -48 +49
Contract jobs citing WAN 49 36 109
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the North West 2.38% 1.30% 3.58%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.91% 10.84% 25.35%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 28 66
10th Percentile £129 £282 £288
25th Percentile £263 £313 £303
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £388 £425
Median % change year-on-year +9.68% -8.82% +0.59%
75th Percentile £500 £497 £550
90th Percentile £598 £648 £588
England median daily rate £478 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -4.50% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 1
Median hourly rate £70.16 - £47.83
England median hourly rate £30.00 £24.87 £57.33
% change year-on-year +20.63% -56.62% +120.50%

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 308 332 430
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the North West 14.97% 11.95% 14.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 182 231 283
10th Percentile £186 £210 £288
25th Percentile £350 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% -
75th Percentile £538 £669 £566
90th Percentile £638 £825 £638
England median daily rate £493 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -1.40% -2.44% +2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 14 11
10th Percentile £27.70 £21.28 £15.72
25th Percentile £34.78 £26.06 £17.11
Median hourly rate £47.37 £45.88 £27.50
Median % change year-on-year +3.25% +66.84% +42.86%
75th Percentile £59.17 £50.44 £49.98
90th Percentile £65.76 £51.91 £52.13
England median hourly rate £38.41 £45.88 £20.71
% change year-on-year -16.28% +121.59% -17.18%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the North West

Job postings citing WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the North West.

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the North West

WAN
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing WAN in the North West.

Daily rate trend for WAN in the North West

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 July 2025.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the North West

WAN
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the North West

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing WAN in the North West.

Hourly rate trend 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 2 July 2025. 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 +22 22 £495 -26.67% 4
Manchester +3 10 £475 +40.74% 38
Cheshire -8 9 £325 -31.58% 29
Merseyside - 7 £133 - 14
Lancashire - 1 - - 24
WAN
England

WAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the North West by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 5 (10.20%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (8.16%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 6 (12.24%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (2.04%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 3 (6.12%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 5 (10.20%) Azure
2 3 (6.12%) Entra ID
3 2 (4.08%) AWS
3 2 (4.08%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (2.04%) Cloudflare
4 1 (2.04%) GCP
Communications & Networking
1 28 (57.14%) Wi-Fi
2 26 (53.06%) Firewall
3 24 (48.98%) LAN
4 13 (26.53%) Cisco ISE
4 13 (26.53%) NetScaler
4 13 (26.53%) SD-WAN
5 11 (22.45%) VPN
5 11 (22.45%) Wireless
6 9 (18.37%) Network Security
7 8 (16.33%) MPLS
8 6 (12.24%) BGP
8 6 (12.24%) DNS
8 6 (12.24%) OSPF
9 5 (10.20%) DHCP
9 5 (10.20%) DWDM
9 5 (10.20%) WLAN
10 4 (8.16%) Ethernet
10 4 (8.16%) Internet
10 4 (8.16%) Skype
10 4 (8.16%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (2.04%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (2.04%) JIRA
General
1 5 (10.20%) Analytical Skills
2 4 (8.16%) Public Sector
3 3 (6.12%) Legal
3 3 (6.12%) Social Skills
3 3 (6.12%) Telecoms
4 2 (4.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 1 (2.04%) Banking
5 1 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
5 1 (2.04%) Finance
5 1 (2.04%) Law
5 1 (2.04%) Presentation Skills
5 1 (2.04%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 30 (61.22%) Network Engineer
2 10 (20.41%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
3 6 (12.24%) IT Technician
4 4 (8.16%) Infrastructure Engineer
5 3 (6.12%) Cisco Engineer
5 3 (6.12%) Cisco Network Engineer
5 3 (6.12%) IP Engineer
6 2 (4.08%) Deployment Engineer
6 2 (4.08%) IT Engineer
6 2 (4.08%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
6 2 (4.08%) NOC Engineer
6 2 (4.08%) Senior
6 2 (4.08%) Senior Cisco Engineer
6 2 (4.08%) Senior Cisco Network Engineer
6 2 (4.08%) Senior Network Engineer
6 2 (4.08%) Transmission Engineer
7 1 (2.04%) Deployment Consultant
7 1 (2.04%) Head of Digital
7 1 (2.04%) Lead
7 1 (2.04%) Windows Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (26.53%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 12 (24.49%) Data Centre
2 5 (10.20%) CMDB
2 5 (10.20%) Management Information System
2 5 (10.20%) Video Conferencing
3 1 (2.04%) IVR
3 1 (2.04%) Security Posture
3 1 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
3 1 (2.04%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 7 (14.29%) Windows
2 4 (8.16%) Windows 10
2 4 (8.16%) Windows 7
3 2 (4.08%) Linux
4 1 (2.04%) Android
4 1 (2.04%) Windows Server
4 1 (2.04%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (34.69%) Network Design
2 16 (32.65%) Load Balancing
3 15 (30.61%) Network Management
4 13 (26.53%) Network Architecture
5 12 (24.49%) ITIL
6 11 (22.45%) Impact Assessments
6 11 (22.45%) Service Management
7 10 (20.41%) Customer Service
7 10 (20.41%) Problem-Solving
8 6 (12.24%) Change Management
8 6 (12.24%) Performance Metrics
8 6 (12.24%) Problem Management
9 5 (10.20%) Asset Management
9 5 (10.20%) ITSM
10 4 (8.16%) Disk Encryption
10 4 (8.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 4 (8.16%) Network Monitoring
10 4 (8.16%) Service Delivery
11 3 (6.12%) Collaborative Working
11 3 (6.12%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 5 (10.20%) PowerShell
2 4 (8.16%) VB
2 4 (8.16%) VBScript
3 1 (2.04%) Perl
3 1 (2.04%) Python
Qualifications
1 21 (42.86%) SC Cleared
1 21 (42.86%) Security Cleared
2 15 (30.61%) Cisco Certification
3 10 (20.41%) CCNA
4 8 (16.33%) Degree
5 7 (14.29%) CCNP
6 3 (6.12%) CCIE
7 2 (4.08%) Network+ Certification
8 1 (2.04%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (2.04%) California Consumer Privacy Act
1 1 (2.04%) GDPR
1 1 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 1 (2.04%) PCI DSS
1 1 (2.04%) SLA
System Software
1 4 (8.16%) Active Directory
1 4 (8.16%) BitLocker
2 2 (4.08%) Virtual Servers
2 2 (4.08%) VMware Infrastructure
3 1 (2.04%) Hyper-V
3 1 (2.04%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 4 (8.16%) SCCM
2 2 (4.08%) Ansible
3 1 (2.04%) Cisco Prime
3 1 (2.04%) FortiGate
3 1 (2.04%) Terraform
Vendors
1 32 (65.31%) Cisco
2 18 (36.73%) Palo Alto
3 15 (30.61%) Meraki
4 8 (16.33%) Microsoft
5 5 (10.20%) ServiceNow
6 3 (6.12%) Aruba
6 3 (6.12%) BMC
6 3 (6.12%) Fortinet
6 3 (6.12%) Huawei
6 3 (6.12%) Remedy
7 2 (4.08%) HP
7 2 (4.08%) SolarWinds
7 2 (4.08%) Splunk
7 2 (4.08%) VMware
8 1 (2.04%) Apple
8 1 (2.04%) Arista
8 1 (2.04%) McAfee