WAN Contract Job Trends in the South East

Wide Area Network (WAN)
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring WAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 15 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 112 92 75
Rank change year-on-year -20 -17 -29
Contract jobs citing WAN 119 69 122
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.80% 2.01% 2.66%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.15% 11.73% 14.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 78 42 76
10th Percentile £338 £251 £200
25th Percentile £413 £350 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £450 £513
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -12.20% +13.89%
75th Percentile £600 £500 £638
90th Percentile £704 £571 £694
England median daily rate £513 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +13.89% -10.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 6
10th Percentile £17.55 - £18.06
25th Percentile £17.63 - £19.48
Median hourly rate £48.72 - £47.95
75th Percentile £52.58 - £75.24
90th Percentile £69.66 - £76.12
England median hourly rate £19.42 £30.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year -35.27% -58.62% +190.00%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
South East

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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 737 588 847
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.13% 17.10% 18.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 424 409 457
10th Percentile £286 £204 £254
25th Percentile £406 £333 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - +8.70%
75th Percentile £599 £588 £608
90th Percentile £650 £638 £672
England median daily rate £500 £490 £511
% change year-on-year +2.04% -4.03% +2.12%
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 24 87
10th Percentile £18.81 £15.22 £27.00
25th Percentile £30.56 £31.58 £53.40
Median hourly rate £52.43 £55.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -4.68% -4.10% -4.42%
75th Percentile £63.14 £70.87 £70.00
90th Percentile £80.80 £89.63 £75.24
England median hourly rate £32.50 £41.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -21.69% -27.64% +1.52%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing WAN relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

WAN job vacancy trend in the South East

WAN
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing WAN.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing WAN

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN in the South East over the 6 months to 15 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the South East

WAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing WAN.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing WAN

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WAN in the South East over the 6 months to 15 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the South East

WAN
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing WAN within the South East region over the 6 months to 15 September 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
Thames Valley -5 69 £473 +20.19% 34
Berkshire -1 53 £410 +4.13% 15
Hampshire -32 30 £525 +7.69% 36
Surrey -12 13 £475 +15.15% 19
Buckinghamshire - 13 £710 - 13
Oxfordshire -23 3 £480 - 6
Middlesex - 2 - -
Sussex - 2 £236 - 1
West Sussex - 1 £500 - 15
Isle of Wight - 1 - -
WAN
England

WAN
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 (5.88%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.68%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (3.36%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (3.36%) Microsoft Office
1 4 (3.36%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 25 (21.01%) Azure
2 22 (18.49%) AWS
3 4 (3.36%) GCP
3 4 (3.36%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 2 (1.68%) IaaS
4 2 (1.68%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (1.68%) OpenShift
5 1 (0.84%) AWS CloudFormation
5 1 (0.84%) AWS Direct Connect
5 1 (0.84%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.84%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 88 (73.95%) LAN
2 60 (50.42%) Firewall
3 53 (44.54%) BGP
4 47 (39.50%) SD-WAN
5 36 (30.25%) MPLS
6 33 (27.73%) VPN
7 32 (26.89%) DNS
7 32 (26.89%) IPsec
8 28 (23.53%) Network Security
9 27 (22.69%) OSPF
10 24 (20.17%) Wi-Fi
11 21 (17.65%) DHCP
12 19 (15.97%) Wireless
13 17 (14.29%) VLAN
14 15 (12.61%) TCP/IP
15 14 (11.76%) SSL
15 14 (11.76%) VXLAN
16 12 (10.08%) Cisco Firepower
16 12 (10.08%) NGFW
17 11 (9.24%) BIG-IP
Development Applications
1 2 (1.68%) JIRA
1 2 (1.68%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 35 (29.41%) Social Skills
2 22 (18.49%) Telecoms
3 12 (10.08%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (4.20%) Organisational Skills
5 3 (2.52%) Documentation Skills
5 3 (2.52%) Public Sector
6 2 (1.68%) Billing
6 2 (1.68%) Finance
6 2 (1.68%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (1.68%) Legal
6 2 (1.68%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (0.84%) Financial Institution
7 1 (0.84%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.84%) Military
7 1 (0.84%) Police
Job Titles
1 35 (29.41%) Architect
2 33 (27.73%) Network Engineer
3 26 (21.85%) Network Architect
4 16 (13.45%) Senior
5 12 (10.08%) Developer
6 10 (8.40%) Senior Network Engineer
7 9 (7.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 7 (5.88%) Lead
8 7 (5.88%) Security Engineer
8 7 (5.88%) Technical Architect
9 6 (5.04%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 6 (5.04%) Network Manager
9 6 (5.04%) Solutions Architect
10 5 (4.20%) Cisco Engineer
10 5 (4.20%) IP Architect
10 5 (4.20%) Lead Architect
10 5 (4.20%) Network Security Engineer
10 5 (4.20%) Network Specialist
10 5 (4.20%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 5 (4.20%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (11.76%) 802.1X
2 8 (6.72%) NETCONF
3 7 (5.88%) YANG
4 6 (5.04%) REST
5 5 (4.20%) Terraform
6 3 (2.52%) Middleware
6 3 (2.52%) RESTCONF
7 2 (1.68%) OpenConfig
8 1 (0.84%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 32 (26.89%) Data Centre
2 17 (14.29%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (9.24%) Private Cloud
4 9 (7.56%) Cloud Native
4 9 (7.56%) PKI
5 5 (4.20%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
5 5 (4.20%) Public Cloud
6 4 (3.36%) Clustering
6 4 (3.36%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (3.36%) Security Posture
7 3 (2.52%) Analytical Mindset
7 3 (2.52%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.68%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.68%) Fibre Optics
8 2 (1.68%) IoT
8 2 (1.68%) NHS
8 2 (1.68%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.68%) Social Media
9 1 (0.84%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.84%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 18 (15.13%) Windows
2 13 (10.92%) Linux
3 6 (5.04%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.84%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (21.85%) ITIL
2 23 (19.33%) Technical Leadership
3 21 (17.65%) Network Architecture
3 21 (17.65%) Stakeholder Management
4 18 (15.13%) High Availability
5 17 (14.29%) Roadmaps
6 16 (13.45%) Network Design
6 16 (13.45%) TOGAF
7 13 (10.92%) Network Virtualisation
7 13 (10.92%) Project Delivery
8 12 (10.08%) Agile
8 12 (10.08%) Problem-Solving
8 12 (10.08%) Vulnerability Management
9 11 (9.24%) Change Management
9 11 (9.24%) Migration
9 11 (9.24%) Network Monitoring
10 10 (8.40%) Infrastructure Engineering
10 10 (8.40%) Validation
10 10 (8.40%) Zero Trust
11 9 (7.56%) Enterprise Architecture
Programming Languages
1 12 (10.08%) Python
2 1 (0.84%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 70 (58.82%) Security Cleared
2 36 (30.25%) Cisco Certification
3 34 (28.57%) DV Cleared
3 34 (28.57%) SC Cleared
4 21 (17.65%) CCNP
5 16 (13.45%) CCIE
6 8 (6.72%) JNCIE
7 7 (5.88%) Degree
8 6 (5.04%) CCNA
8 6 (5.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 5 (4.20%) AWS Certification
9 5 (4.20%) Azure Certification
10 4 (3.36%) PMP
11 3 (2.52%) BC Cleared
11 3 (2.52%) PMI Certification
12 2 (1.68%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (1.68%) CISSP
12 2 (1.68%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.68%) JNCIS
12 2 (1.68%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (5.88%) NCSC
2 6 (5.04%) NIST
3 4 (3.36%) JSP 440
3 4 (3.36%) QA
4 2 (1.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.68%) PMO
4 2 (1.68%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (14.29%) VMware Infrastructure
2 15 (12.61%) VMware NSX
3 10 (8.40%) Active Directory
4 6 (5.04%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (4.20%) vSphere
6 4 (3.36%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (2.52%) Firmware
7 3 (2.52%) Hyper-V
7 3 (2.52%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (1.68%) Microsoft Virtual Server
9 1 (0.84%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 15 (12.61%) Ansible
2 12 (10.08%) FortiGate
3 2 (1.68%) CASB
3 2 (1.68%) Cisco CUCM
3 2 (1.68%) WSUS
4 1 (0.84%) Endace
4 1 (0.84%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.84%) Nagios
4 1 (0.84%) SCCM
4 1 (0.84%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 60 (50.42%) Cisco
2 28 (23.53%) VMware
3 27 (22.69%) Microsoft
4 26 (21.85%) Palo Alto
5 25 (21.01%) F5
6 24 (20.17%) SolarWinds
7 23 (19.33%) Juniper
8 21 (17.65%) Fortinet
9 9 (7.56%) CheckPoint
10 8 (6.72%) ServiceNow
11 7 (5.88%) Meraki
12 6 (5.04%) BT
12 6 (5.04%) Splunk
13 5 (4.20%) Aruba
13 5 (4.20%) Blue Coat
13 5 (4.20%) Extreme Networks
13 5 (4.20%) Zscaler
14 4 (3.36%) Becrypt
14 4 (3.36%) Infoblox
14 4 (3.36%) Xerox