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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 75 87 66
Rank change year-on-year +12 -21 +4
Contract jobs citing WAN 152 66 165
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.75% 2.23% 2.93%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 21.05% 12.64% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 82 39 56
10th Percentile £413 £310 £148
25th Percentile £431 £406 £332
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% +2.70% -0.96%
75th Percentile £538 £574 £564
90th Percentile £598 £626 £618
England median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 1 6
10th Percentile £41.82 - £24.63
25th Percentile £42.13 £18.50 £33.38
Median hourly rate £48.72 £19.00 £65.01
Median % change year-on-year +156.42% -70.77% +108.03%
75th Percentile £62.29 £19.50 £73.31
90th Percentile £75.62 - £76.12
England median hourly rate £22.50 £50.00 £24.50
% change year-on-year -55.00% +104.08% -36.57%

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 722 522 1,324
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 13.05% 17.61% 23.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 488 317 643
10th Percentile £261 £212 £205
25th Percentile £406 £363 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £569
90th Percentile £675 £638 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 33 30 124
10th Percentile £16.06 £14.20 £16.25
25th Percentile £20.32 £21.80 £24.19
Median hourly rate £47.50 £35.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +35.71% -38.97% +27.44%
75th Percentile £56.00 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.78 £71.63 £85.65
England median hourly rate £42.25 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +20.71% +7.69% +71.69%

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 3 April 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 3 April 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 3 April 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 +8 85 £460 -14.81% 20
Berkshire +15 69 £430 +15.44% 11
Hampshire -18 31 £513 +9.33% 19
Kent +8 20 £443 +1.14% 2
Surrey -13 10 £528 +5.50% 1
Buckinghamshire -24 9 £525 -9.87% 6
Oxfordshire - 7 £480 - 3
East Sussex +3 4 £475 +192.31% 4
West Sussex -15 1 - - 2
Isle of Wight - 1 - - 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 2 (1.32%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.66%) Confluence
2 1 (0.66%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.66%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (3.95%) MS Visio
2 5 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.63%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (2.63%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 32 (21.05%) Azure
2 21 (13.82%) AWS
3 4 (2.63%) Entra ID
4 3 (1.97%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (1.97%) GCP
4 3 (1.97%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (1.32%) Google Ads
6 1 (0.66%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (0.66%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (0.66%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.66%) IaaS
6 1 (0.66%) PaaS
6 1 (0.66%) SaaS
6 1 (0.66%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 119 (78.29%) LAN
2 92 (60.53%) Firewall
3 76 (50.00%) BGP
4 71 (46.71%) OSPF
5 47 (30.92%) SD-WAN
6 46 (30.26%) VPN
7 39 (25.66%) DNS
8 38 (25.00%) DHCP
9 30 (19.74%) MPLS
10 27 (17.76%) Ethernet VPN
10 27 (17.76%) Network Security
11 26 (17.11%) BIG-IP
12 25 (16.45%) VXLAN
13 24 (15.79%) Cisco ISE
13 24 (15.79%) IPsec
14 23 (15.13%) Junos
15 22 (14.47%) TCP/IP
16 18 (11.84%) Structured Cabling
17 16 (10.53%) Wireless
18 12 (7.89%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.66%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (3.29%) JIRA
2 2 (1.32%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (0.66%) GitLab
3 1 (0.66%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.66%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 32 (21.05%) Social Skills
2 22 (14.47%) Documentation Skills
3 21 (13.82%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (10.53%) Public Sector
5 12 (7.89%) Finance
5 12 (7.89%) Manufacturing
6 7 (4.61%) Telecoms
7 6 (3.95%) Military
8 4 (2.63%) Financial Institution
9 3 (1.97%) Billing
9 3 (1.97%) Legal
10 2 (1.32%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.32%) Police
11 1 (0.66%) Retail
Job Titles
1 62 (40.79%) Network Engineer
2 31 (20.39%) Architect
3 25 (16.45%) Senior
4 17 (11.18%) Network Architect
5 16 (10.53%) Senior Network Engineer
6 15 (9.87%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 14 (9.21%) Lead
8 12 (7.89%) Firewall Specialist
8 12 (7.89%) Network Specialist
9 10 (6.58%) Cisco Engineer
9 10 (6.58%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 10 (6.58%) Project Manager
9 10 (6.58%) Technical Architect
10 9 (5.92%) Network Manager
11 8 (5.26%) Senior Architect
12 7 (4.61%) Senior Network Architect
13 6 (3.95%) Network Project Manager
13 6 (3.95%) SC Cleared Project Manager
14 5 (3.29%) IP Specialist
14 5 (3.29%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (17.76%) 802.1X
2 8 (5.26%) Middleware
3 6 (3.95%) NETCONF
3 6 (3.95%) YANG
4 4 (2.63%) OpenConfig
4 4 (2.63%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.32%) REST
6 1 (0.66%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 65 (42.76%) Data Centre
2 23 (15.13%) Clustering
3 22 (14.47%) PKI
4 10 (6.58%) Hybrid Cloud
4 10 (6.58%) Public Cloud
5 8 (5.26%) Analytical Mindset
6 6 (3.95%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (3.29%) Cloud Native
8 3 (1.97%) BYOD
8 3 (1.97%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.32%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.32%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.66%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.66%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 1 (0.66%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.66%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.66%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.66%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.66%) iSeries
10 1 (0.66%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 38 (25.00%) Windows
2 15 (9.87%) Linux
3 2 (1.32%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.66%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.66%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (26.97%) High Availability
2 38 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
3 33 (21.71%) ITIL
4 28 (18.42%) Identity Access Management
4 28 (18.42%) Load Balancing
5 27 (17.76%) Observability
6 19 (12.50%) ITSM
7 16 (10.53%) Migration
8 13 (8.55%) Project Management
8 13 (8.55%) Stakeholder Management
8 13 (8.55%) Technical Leadership
9 12 (7.89%) Customer Requirements
9 12 (7.89%) Network Architecture
9 12 (7.89%) Project Delivery
10 11 (7.24%) Network Design
10 11 (7.24%) Network Virtualisation
11 10 (6.58%) Change Management
11 10 (6.58%) Service Management
12 9 (5.92%) Availability Management
12 9 (5.92%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 9 (5.92%) Python
2 4 (2.63%) SQL
Qualifications
1 102 (67.11%) Security Cleared
2 66 (43.42%) Cisco Certification
2 66 (43.42%) SC Cleared
3 41 (26.97%) CCNP
4 33 (21.71%) DV Cleared
5 18 (11.84%) Degree
6 16 (10.53%) CCNA
7 9 (5.92%) JNCIA
7 9 (5.92%) JNCIS
7 9 (5.92%) PMP
8 8 (5.26%) CCIE
8 8 (5.26%) JNCIP
9 6 (3.95%) JNCIE
9 6 (3.95%) Network+ Certification
10 2 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (1.32%) CCSE
10 2 (1.32%) ITIL Certification
10 2 (1.32%) PMI Certification
11 1 (0.66%) CCDA
11 1 (0.66%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (1.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (1.97%) NIST
1 3 (1.97%) SLA
2 2 (1.32%) JSP 440
2 2 (1.32%) NCSC
3 1 (0.66%) GDPR
3 1 (0.66%) QA
System Software
1 13 (8.55%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (4.61%) Active Directory
3 6 (3.95%) VMware NSX
4 4 (2.63%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.66%) KVM
5 1 (0.66%) RHEV
5 1 (0.66%) Xen
Systems Management
1 26 (17.11%) FortiGate
2 14 (9.21%) Ansible
3 6 (3.95%) Nagios
3 6 (3.95%) Terraform
4 5 (3.29%) Endace
5 2 (1.32%) WSUS
6 1 (0.66%) Backup Exec
6 1 (0.66%) CASB
6 1 (0.66%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.66%) Norton AntiVirus
6 1 (0.66%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.66%) SCOM
6 1 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.66%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 84 (55.26%) Cisco
2 48 (31.58%) Juniper
3 34 (22.37%) F5
4 32 (21.05%) SolarWinds
5 30 (19.74%) Palo Alto
6 26 (17.11%) Aruba
7 23 (15.13%) Splunk
8 21 (13.82%) CheckPoint
9 20 (13.16%) Extreme Networks
10 19 (12.50%) Fortinet
11 17 (11.18%) VMware
12 11 (7.24%) Microsoft
13 8 (5.26%) MuleSoft
14 5 (3.29%) Zscaler
15 4 (2.63%) Mellanox
15 4 (2.63%) NVIDIA
16 3 (1.97%) Infoblox
16 3 (1.97%) Meraki
16 3 (1.97%) ServiceNow
17 2 (1.32%) HP