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 23 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 97 82 70
Rank change year-on-year -15 -12 -2
Contract jobs citing WAN 90 82 154
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.01% 2.50% 2.96%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.66% 13.95% 12.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 45 57 77
10th Percentile £400 £211 £148
25th Percentile £431 £300 £160
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £475 £400
Median % change year-on-year -5.26% +18.75% -15.79%
75th Percentile £500 £563 £544
90th Percentile £545 £633 £646
England median daily rate £458 £495 £500
% change year-on-year -7.47% -1.00% +11.11%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 5
10th Percentile £21.59 - £21.85
25th Percentile £25.47 £18.50 £24.25
Median hourly rate £34.36 £19.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +80.84% -24.00% +8.70%
75th Percentile £44.69 £19.50 £67.02
90th Percentile £49.42 - £67.31
England median hourly rate £21.25 £72.50 £23.50
% change year-on-year -70.69% +208.51% -10.48%

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 614 588 1,236
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 13.72% 17.90% 23.75%
Number of daily rates quoted 449 317 657
10th Percentile £219 £237 £200
25th Percentile £350 £385 £294
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £461
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +8.42% -6.12%
75th Percentile £569 £600 £550
90th Percentile £650 £650 £647
England median daily rate £488 £500 £490
% change year-on-year -2.50% +2.04% -5.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 22 85
10th Percentile £17.87 £31.25 £21.70
25th Percentile £23.25 £35.00 £30.00
Median hourly rate £56.40 £59.13 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.61% -1.46% +33.33%
75th Percentile £72.29 £62.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £84.20 £66.82 £78.00
England median hourly rate £30.00 £35.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year -14.29% -36.36% +150.00%

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 23 January 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 23 January 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 23 January 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 -2 46 £450 - 30
Berkshire -1 40 £438 +59.09% 19
Hampshire -20 18 £500 +12.68% 21
Kent - 16 £439 - 10
East Sussex +8 5 £333 +104.62% 7
Surrey -14 5 £260 -50.48% 7
Oxfordshire - 4 £463 - 4
Buckinghamshire -11 2 - - 7
West Sussex -17 1 - - 7
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 14 (15.56%) OpenStack
2 1 (1.11%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.11%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (4.44%) MS Visio
2 3 (3.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (3.33%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (2.22%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (2.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 20 (22.22%) AWS
2 17 (18.89%) Azure
3 6 (6.67%) OpenShift
4 2 (2.22%) Google Ads
4 2 (2.22%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (1.11%) GCP
5 1 (1.11%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 70 (77.78%) LAN
2 40 (44.44%) BGP
3 35 (38.89%) Firewall
4 30 (33.33%) OSPF
4 30 (33.33%) VPN
5 27 (30.00%) MPLS
6 21 (23.33%) SD-WAN
7 16 (17.78%) IPsec
8 14 (15.56%) Structured Cabling
9 13 (14.44%) Network Security
10 12 (13.33%) Wireless
11 10 (11.11%) DNS
11 10 (11.11%) TCP/IP
12 9 (10.00%) SNMP
13 8 (8.89%) TACACS
14 6 (6.67%) DHCP
15 5 (5.56%) IPv6
15 5 (5.56%) WLAN
16 4 (4.44%) Intrusion Detection
16 4 (4.44%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.11%) SQL Server
General
1 31 (34.44%) Social Skills
2 23 (25.56%) Documentation Skills
3 10 (11.11%) Manufacturing
4 9 (10.00%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (7.78%) Public Sector
6 5 (5.56%) Finance
6 5 (5.56%) Telecoms
7 2 (2.22%) Military
8 1 (1.11%) Billing
8 1 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.11%) Police
8 1 (1.11%) Retail
Job Titles
1 32 (35.56%) Network Engineer
2 22 (24.44%) Architect
3 10 (11.11%) Lead
3 10 (11.11%) Network Architect
4 9 (10.00%) IP Specialist
4 9 (10.00%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 7 (7.78%) IP Architect
5 7 (7.78%) Senior
6 6 (6.67%) Cisco Engineer
6 6 (6.67%) Cisco Network Engineer
6 6 (6.67%) Designer
6 6 (6.67%) IP Designer
7 5 (5.56%) Project Manager
8 4 (4.44%) Senior Architect
8 4 (4.44%) Technical Architect
9 3 (3.33%) DV Cleared Project Manager
9 3 (3.33%) Network Manager
9 3 (3.33%) SC Cleared Project Manager
9 3 (3.33%) Senior Network Architect
10 2 (2.22%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (11.11%) NETCONF
1 10 (11.11%) YANG
2 8 (8.89%) REST
3 4 (4.44%) Middleware
4 2 (2.22%) OpenConfig
4 2 (2.22%) RESTCONF
5 1 (1.11%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 32 (35.56%) Data Centre
2 17 (18.89%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (12.22%) Cloud Native
4 4 (4.44%) Public Cloud
5 3 (3.33%) SCADA
5 3 (3.33%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (2.22%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (2.22%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (2.22%) Virtual Team
7 1 (1.11%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (1.11%) Driving Licence
7 1 (1.11%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.11%) Fat Client
7 1 (1.11%) iSeries
7 1 (1.11%) Life Science
7 1 (1.11%) NHS
7 1 (1.11%) Onboarding
7 1 (1.11%) PKI
7 1 (1.11%) Thin Client
7 1 (1.11%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 7 (7.78%) Linux
1 7 (7.78%) Windows
2 2 (2.22%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 17 (18.89%) Network Design
2 16 (17.78%) Network Virtualisation
3 14 (15.56%) ITIL
4 11 (12.22%) Problem-Solving
5 10 (11.11%) Customer Requirements
5 10 (11.11%) ITSM
5 10 (11.11%) Network Segmentation
6 9 (10.00%) Incident Response
6 9 (10.00%) Migration
6 9 (10.00%) Network Architecture
7 8 (8.89%) DevOps
7 8 (8.89%) Enterprise Architecture
7 8 (8.89%) Microservices
7 8 (8.89%) Roadmaps
7 8 (8.89%) Strategic Thinking
7 8 (8.89%) TOGAF
8 7 (7.78%) Validation
9 6 (6.67%) Project Delivery
9 6 (6.67%) Stakeholder Management
9 6 (6.67%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 16 (17.78%) Python
2 2 (2.22%) SQL
Qualifications
1 43 (47.78%) Security Cleared
2 42 (46.67%) Cisco Certification
3 36 (40.00%) SC Cleared
4 25 (27.78%) CCNP
5 17 (18.89%) CCIE
6 16 (17.78%) JNCIE
7 13 (14.44%) Degree
8 10 (11.11%) DV Cleared
9 9 (10.00%) CCNA
10 6 (6.67%) AWS Certification
11 4 (4.44%) Network+ Certification
12 3 (3.33%) BPSS Clearance
12 3 (3.33%) PMP
13 2 (2.22%) JNCIA
13 2 (2.22%) JNCIS
14 1 (1.11%) CCSE
14 1 (1.11%) Computer Science Degree
14 1 (1.11%) DBS Check
14 1 (1.11%) JNCIP
14 1 (1.11%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.44%) SLA
2 1 (1.11%) JSP 440
System Software
1 9 (10.00%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (7.78%) VMware NSX
3 4 (4.44%) Active Directory
4 1 (1.11%) Firmware
4 1 (1.11%) KVM
4 1 (1.11%) RHEV
4 1 (1.11%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (1.11%) Xen
Systems Management
1 18 (20.00%) Ansible
2 8 (8.89%) Terraform
3 4 (4.44%) Nagios
4 3 (3.33%) Endace
5 1 (1.11%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (1.11%) Backup Exec
5 1 (1.11%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.11%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (1.11%) Proxmox
5 1 (1.11%) SCCM
5 1 (1.11%) SCOM
5 1 (1.11%) WhatsUp Gold
5 1 (1.11%) WSUS
Vendors
1 44 (48.89%) Cisco
2 24 (26.67%) Juniper
3 18 (20.00%) Palo Alto
4 17 (18.89%) CheckPoint
5 16 (17.78%) Fortinet
6 15 (16.67%) Aruba
7 12 (13.33%) F5
8 11 (12.22%) VMware
9 5 (5.56%) Microsoft
9 5 (5.56%) SolarWinds
10 4 (4.44%) MuleSoft
11 3 (3.33%) Zscaler
12 2 (2.22%) Mellanox
12 2 (2.22%) Meraki
12 2 (2.22%) NVIDIA
12 2 (2.22%) Pegasus
13 1 (1.11%) Citrix
13 1 (1.11%) McAfee
13 1 (1.11%) Nokia
13 1 (1.11%) Symantec