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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 103 76 48
Rank change year-on-year -27 -28 +52
Contract jobs citing WAN 69 122 252
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 1.99% 2.64% 4.48%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 11.60% 14.39% 23.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 42 76 140
10th Percentile £251 £200 £212
25th Percentile £350 £359 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £513 £450
Median % change year-on-year -12.20% +13.89% -6.88%
75th Percentile £500 £638 £544
90th Percentile £571 £694 £600
England median daily rate £450 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -10.00% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 6 16
10th Percentile - £18.06 £16.25
25th Percentile - £19.48 £20.54
Median hourly rate - £47.95 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year - -4.11% +127.27%
75th Percentile - £75.24 £63.75
90th Percentile - £76.12 £70.63
England median hourly rate £30.00 £72.50 £25.00
% change year-on-year -58.62% +190.00% +8.70%

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 595 848 1,095
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 17.16% 18.36% 19.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 414 458 650
10th Percentile £204 £254 £207
25th Percentile £334 £400 £305
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £462
Median % change year-on-year - +8.11% +0.54%
75th Percentile £588 £608 £588
90th Percentile £638 £672 £675
England median daily rate £490 £510 £500
% change year-on-year -3.92% +2.00% -1.96%
Number of hourly rates quoted 26 88 73
10th Percentile £14.20 £27.00 £15.50
25th Percentile £28.00 £53.40 £24.50
Median hourly rate £55.00 £57.35 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.10% -4.42% +33.33%
75th Percentile £70.16 £70.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £89.63 £75.24 £77.80
England median hourly rate £41.45 £57.35 £56.49
% change year-on-year -27.72% +1.52% +34.26%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for WAN 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 14 September 2025.

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
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 14 September 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
Thames Valley -8 34 £394 -25.00% 15
Berkshire +15 33 £394 -21.25% 13
Hampshire +6 21 £488 -22.00% 19
Surrey -6 10 £413 -17.50% 7
Kent -9 1 £450 +188.38% 3
Oxfordshire -13 1 - - 4
East Sussex - 1 £190 - 3
WAN
England

WAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East 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 12 (17.39%) OpenStack
2 2 (2.90%) Camunda
3 1 (1.45%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (1.45%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 17 (24.64%) AWS
2 16 (23.19%) Azure
3 6 (8.70%) OpenShift
4 4 (5.80%) Entra ID
4 4 (5.80%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (1.45%) Akamai
5 1 (1.45%) AWS CloudFormation
5 1 (1.45%) Nutanix
5 1 (1.45%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 55 (79.71%) LAN
2 23 (33.33%) MPLS
3 20 (28.99%) VPN
4 15 (21.74%) BGP
5 13 (18.84%) Firewall
6 12 (17.39%) Wireless
7 11 (15.94%) Ethernet
7 11 (15.94%) SAN
8 10 (14.49%) ATM
8 10 (14.49%) Frame Relay
8 10 (14.49%) GPRS
8 10 (14.49%) GSM
8 10 (14.49%) LTE
8 10 (14.49%) SDH
8 10 (14.49%) UMTS
8 10 (14.49%) Wireshark
9 9 (13.04%) OSPF
9 9 (13.04%) SD-WAN
10 8 (11.59%) Network Security
10 8 (11.59%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.45%) Data Lake
General
1 37 (53.62%) Social Skills
2 13 (18.84%) Telecoms
3 9 (13.04%) Finance
4 6 (8.70%) Documentation Skills
5 4 (5.80%) Public Sector
6 2 (2.90%) Aerospace
6 2 (2.90%) Analytical Skills
6 2 (2.90%) Aviation
6 2 (2.90%) Billing
6 2 (2.90%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.45%) Military
Job Titles
1 20 (28.99%) Network Engineer
2 18 (26.09%) Architect
3 10 (14.49%) Test Engineer
4 9 (13.04%) IP Engineer
5 7 (10.14%) Technical Architect
6 6 (8.70%) Designer
6 6 (8.70%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
6 6 (8.70%) IP Architect
6 6 (8.70%) IP Designer
6 6 (8.70%) IP Specialist
7 5 (7.25%) IP Network Engineer
8 4 (5.80%) Installations Engineer
9 3 (4.35%) Field Engineer
9 3 (4.35%) Field Service Engineer
9 3 (4.35%) Network Architect
9 3 (4.35%) Support Engineer
10 2 (2.90%) Consultant
10 2 (2.90%) Desktop Support
10 2 (2.90%) Network Consultant
10 2 (2.90%) Solutions Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (11.59%) Middleware
2 6 (8.70%) NETCONF
2 6 (8.70%) REST
2 6 (8.70%) YANG
3 2 (2.90%) RFC 2544
4 1 (1.45%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 12 (17.39%) Data Centre
1 12 (17.39%) Hybrid Cloud
2 10 (14.49%) Self-Motivation
3 6 (8.70%) Cloud Native
4 4 (5.80%) Public Cloud
5 3 (4.35%) CCTV
5 3 (4.35%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (4.35%) SCADA
5 3 (4.35%) Virtual Team
6 2 (2.90%) Fibre Optics
6 2 (2.90%) Legacy Systems
6 2 (2.90%) Management Information System
6 2 (2.90%) TM Forum
7 1 (1.45%) Private Cloud
7 1 (1.45%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 22 (31.88%) Linux
2 12 (17.39%) Windows
3 10 (14.49%) Unix
4 2 (2.90%) Windows Server
5 1 (1.45%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (27.54%) Network Design
2 15 (21.74%) Network Virtualisation
2 15 (21.74%) Problem-Solving
3 13 (18.84%) Project Management
4 11 (15.94%) Migration
5 10 (14.49%) Fault Management
5 10 (14.49%) Network Architecture
5 10 (14.49%) Regression Testing
5 10 (14.49%) Test Strategy
5 10 (14.49%) TOGAF
6 9 (13.04%) ITIL
7 8 (11.59%) API Management
7 8 (11.59%) Incident Response
7 8 (11.59%) Network Segmentation
8 7 (10.14%) Architectural Patterns
8 7 (10.14%) Roadmaps
8 7 (10.14%) Strategic Thinking
8 7 (10.14%) Validation
9 6 (8.70%) Enterprise Architecture
9 6 (8.70%) IT Strategy
Programming Languages
1 12 (17.39%) Python
2 10 (14.49%) Java
3 2 (2.90%) SQL
Qualifications
1 30 (43.48%) Cisco Certification
2 18 (26.09%) CCNP
2 18 (26.09%) Security Cleared
3 12 (17.39%) CCIE
3 12 (17.39%) JNCIE
4 10 (14.49%) ISEB
4 10 (14.49%) ISTQB
4 10 (14.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 9 (13.04%) SC Cleared
6 7 (10.14%) DV Cleared
7 6 (8.70%) AWS Certification
8 4 (5.80%) CCNA
9 1 (1.45%) A+ Certification
9 1 (1.45%) Degree
9 1 (1.45%) MCP
9 1 (1.45%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (1.45%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (1.45%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 9 (13.04%) Active Directory
2 8 (11.59%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (10.14%) VMware NSX
4 2 (2.90%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (1.45%) Firmware
5 1 (1.45%) Hyper-V
5 1 (1.45%) vSphere
5 1 (1.45%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 15 (21.74%) Ansible
2 10 (14.49%) Terraform
3 3 (4.35%) SCCM
Vendors
1 32 (46.38%) Cisco
2 22 (31.88%) Juniper
3 13 (18.84%) Microsoft
4 9 (13.04%) VMware
5 8 (11.59%) Fortinet
5 8 (11.59%) MuleSoft
6 7 (10.14%) F5
7 3 (4.35%) Aruba
7 3 (4.35%) Citrix
7 3 (4.35%) Mellanox
7 3 (4.35%) NVIDIA
7 3 (4.35%) Palo Alto
8 2 (2.90%) HP
8 2 (2.90%) Meraki
8 2 (2.90%) Wyse
9 1 (1.45%) CheckPoint
9 1 (1.45%) Dell KACE
9 1 (1.45%) Qualys
9 1 (1.45%) SolarWinds
9 1 (1.45%) Ubiquiti