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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 125 101 67
Rank change year-on-year -24 -34 -20
Contract jobs citing WAN 109 63 127
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.66% 1.80% 2.86%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.95% 10.50% 15.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 73 38 83
10th Percentile £336 £250 £200
25th Percentile £405 £381 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +15.56% -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £575 £500 £600
90th Percentile £708 £611 £675
England median daily rate £511 £456 £500
% change year-on-year +12.05% -8.75% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 6
10th Percentile £17.53 - £18.06
25th Percentile £17.56 - £19.48
Median hourly rate £17.75 - £47.95
75th Percentile £35.23 - £75.24
90th Percentile £45.64 - £76.12
England median hourly rate £19.00 £30.00 £72.50
% change year-on-year -36.67% -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 729 600 799
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.11% 17.15% 18.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 417 421 441
10th Percentile £270 £204 £237
25th Percentile £400 £329 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +7.69% -2.50% +7.53%
75th Percentile £590 £588 £606
90th Percentile £650 £638 £663
England median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 23 57
10th Percentile £19.34 £18.33 £27.00
25th Percentile £31.25 £45.50 £53.40
Median hourly rate £52.43 £55.00 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.68% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £63.21 £78.00 £75.00
90th Percentile £96.00 £89.63 -
England median hourly rate £45.00 £39.66 £57.35
% change year-on-year +13.46% -30.85% +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 29 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 29 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 29 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 -21 63 £458 +14.56% 35
Berkshire -6 49 £400 - 14
Hampshire -22 26 £525 +7.69% 28
Surrey -12 14 £475 -9.09% 16
Buckinghamshire - 13 £710 - 14
Middlesex - 2 - - 1
Sussex - 2 £236 - 2
Oxfordshire -29 1 £480 - 7
West Sussex - 1 £500 - 16
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 (6.42%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.92%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (3.67%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (3.67%) Microsoft Office
1 4 (3.67%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 24 (22.02%) Azure
2 23 (21.10%) AWS
3 4 (3.67%) GCP
3 4 (3.67%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 2 (1.83%) IaaS
4 2 (1.83%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (1.83%) OpenShift
5 1 (0.92%) AWS CloudFormation
5 1 (0.92%) AWS Direct Connect
5 1 (0.92%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.92%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 81 (74.31%) LAN
2 52 (47.71%) Firewall
3 48 (44.04%) BGP
4 44 (40.37%) SD-WAN
5 34 (31.19%) MPLS
6 32 (29.36%) IPsec
7 31 (28.44%) VPN
8 28 (25.69%) DNS
9 26 (23.85%) Network Security
10 23 (21.10%) Wi-Fi
11 22 (20.18%) OSPF
12 18 (16.51%) DHCP
13 17 (15.60%) Wireless
14 16 (14.68%) VLAN
15 14 (12.84%) SSL
16 13 (11.93%) TCP/IP
16 13 (11.93%) VXLAN
17 12 (11.01%) Cisco Firepower
17 12 (11.01%) NGFW
18 10 (9.17%) BIG-IP
Development Applications
1 2 (1.83%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.92%) JIRA
General
1 30 (27.52%) Social Skills
2 22 (20.18%) Telecoms
3 10 (9.17%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (3.67%) Organisational Skills
5 3 (2.75%) Public Sector
6 2 (1.83%) Billing
6 2 (1.83%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (1.83%) Influencing Skills
6 2 (1.83%) Presentation Skills
7 1 (0.92%) Finance
7 1 (0.92%) Legal
7 1 (0.92%) Manufacturing
7 1 (0.92%) Military
Job Titles
1 31 (28.44%) Architect
2 27 (24.77%) Network Engineer
3 24 (22.02%) Network Architect
4 12 (11.01%) Developer
4 12 (11.01%) Senior
5 10 (9.17%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 8 (7.34%) Senior Network Engineer
7 7 (6.42%) Lead
7 7 (6.42%) Security Engineer
8 6 (5.50%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
8 6 (5.50%) Technical Architect
9 5 (4.59%) Cisco Engineer
9 5 (4.59%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
9 5 (4.59%) IP Architect
9 5 (4.59%) Lead Architect
9 5 (4.59%) Network Manager
9 5 (4.59%) Network Security Engineer
9 5 (4.59%) Solutions Architect
9 5 (4.59%) Technical Leader
10 4 (3.67%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (11.93%) 802.1X
2 8 (7.34%) NETCONF
3 7 (6.42%) YANG
4 6 (5.50%) REST
5 4 (3.67%) Terraform
6 3 (2.75%) RESTCONF
7 2 (1.83%) Middleware
7 2 (1.83%) OpenConfig
8 1 (0.92%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 31 (28.44%) Data Centre
2 17 (15.60%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (10.09%) Private Cloud
4 9 (8.26%) Cloud Native
5 8 (7.34%) PKI
6 5 (4.59%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 4 (3.67%) Data Protection Act
7 4 (3.67%) Public Cloud
7 4 (3.67%) Security Posture
8 3 (2.75%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (2.75%) Clustering
9 2 (1.83%) Driving Licence
9 2 (1.83%) Fibre Optics
9 2 (1.83%) IoT
9 2 (1.83%) NHS
9 2 (1.83%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.83%) Operational Technology
9 2 (1.83%) Social Media
10 1 (0.92%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.92%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 15 (13.76%) Windows
2 10 (9.17%) Linux
3 7 (6.42%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.92%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (22.02%) ITIL
2 21 (19.27%) Technical Leadership
3 20 (18.35%) Network Architecture
3 20 (18.35%) Stakeholder Management
4 17 (15.60%) Roadmaps
5 16 (14.68%) Network Design
5 16 (14.68%) TOGAF
6 13 (11.93%) High Availability
7 12 (11.01%) Project Delivery
7 12 (11.01%) Vulnerability Management
8 11 (10.09%) Agile
8 11 (10.09%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 10 (9.17%) Change Management
9 10 (9.17%) Migration
9 10 (9.17%) Network Monitoring
9 10 (9.17%) Network Virtualisation
10 9 (8.26%) Mentoring
10 9 (8.26%) Network Segmentation
10 9 (8.26%) Problem-Solving
10 9 (8.26%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 11 (10.09%) Python
2 2 (1.83%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 59 (54.13%) Security Cleared
2 35 (32.11%) Cisco Certification
3 31 (28.44%) DV Cleared
4 25 (22.94%) SC Cleared
5 21 (19.27%) CCNP
6 16 (14.68%) CCIE
7 8 (7.34%) JNCIE
8 7 (6.42%) Degree
9 6 (5.50%) CCNA
9 6 (5.50%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 5 (4.59%) AWS Certification
10 5 (4.59%) Azure Certification
11 3 (2.75%) BC Cleared
11 3 (2.75%) PMI Certification
11 3 (2.75%) PMP
12 2 (1.83%) BPSS Clearance
12 2 (1.83%) CISSP
12 2 (1.83%) JNCIP
12 2 (1.83%) JNCIS
12 2 (1.83%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (6.42%) NCSC
2 6 (5.50%) NIST
3 4 (3.67%) QA
4 3 (2.75%) JSP 440
5 2 (1.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.83%) PMO
5 2 (1.83%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (15.60%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (11.01%) VMware NSX
3 10 (9.17%) Active Directory
4 7 (6.42%) Virtual Machines
4 7 (6.42%) vSphere
5 4 (3.67%) Virtual Servers
6 3 (2.75%) Firmware
6 3 (2.75%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (1.83%) Hyper-V
7 2 (1.83%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (1.83%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 13 (11.93%) Ansible
2 10 (9.17%) FortiGate
3 2 (1.83%) CASB
3 2 (1.83%) Cisco CUCM
3 2 (1.83%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.92%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.92%) Nagios
4 1 (0.92%) SCCM
4 1 (0.92%) WSUS
Vendors
1 57 (52.29%) Cisco
2 27 (24.77%) Microsoft
2 27 (24.77%) VMware
3 26 (23.85%) Palo Alto
4 23 (21.10%) F5
4 23 (21.10%) SolarWinds
5 21 (19.27%) Juniper
6 18 (16.51%) Fortinet
7 10 (9.17%) CheckPoint
8 9 (8.26%) Meraki
9 8 (7.34%) ServiceNow
10 7 (6.42%) BT
11 6 (5.50%) Commvault
11 6 (5.50%) Veeam
12 5 (4.59%) Aruba
12 5 (4.59%) Blue Coat
12 5 (4.59%) NetApp
12 5 (4.59%) Xerox
12 5 (4.59%) Zscaler
13 4 (3.67%) Extreme Networks