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 5 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 86 66
Rank change year-on-year -5 -20 +6
Contract jobs citing WAN 117 72 161
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.30% 2.34% 2.93%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 17.03% 13.28% 12.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 60 48 63
10th Percentile £424 £242 £148
25th Percentile £431 £350 £201
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £469 £425
Median % change year-on-year +1.33% +10.29% -10.53%
75th Percentile £525 £563 £553
90th Percentile £552 £627 £598
England median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - +6.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 5
10th Percentile £25.71 - £21.85
25th Percentile £35.76 £18.50 £24.25
Median hourly rate £45.71 £19.00 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year +140.59% -24.00% -13.79%
75th Percentile £57.43 £19.50 £67.02
90th Percentile £66.17 - £67.31
England median hourly rate £22.50 £35.00 £24.50
% change year-on-year -35.71% +42.86% -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 687 542 1,325
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 13.53% 17.62% 24.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 480 312 656
10th Percentile £231 £211 £203
25th Percentile £381 £350 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £556
90th Percentile £657 £649 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 21 99
10th Percentile £18.32 £24.66 £13.00
25th Percentile £23.02 £35.00 £23.81
Median hourly rate £48.72 £62.50 £57.99
Median % change year-on-year -22.05% +7.78% +28.87%
75th Percentile £60.90 £63.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £81.20 £75.00 £85.65
England median hourly rate £34.50 £35.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year -1.43% -12.50% +108.88%

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 5 March 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 5 March 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 5 March 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 -11 62 £458 -0.97% 28
Berkshire +2 52 £451 +23.42% 17
Hampshire -18 25 £500 +8.11% 14
Kent - 20 £443 - 8
Surrey -12 6 £550 +7.32% 6
Buckinghamshire -21 5 £525 -8.50% 9
Oxfordshire - 5 £475 - 2
East Sussex +7 4 £475 +192.31%
West Sussex -17 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 4 (3.42%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.85%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (5.13%) MS Visio
2 5 (4.27%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (3.42%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (3.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 3 (2.56%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 18 (15.38%) Azure
2 16 (13.68%) AWS
3 3 (2.56%) GCP
4 2 (1.71%) Google Ads
4 2 (1.71%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.85%) AWS Direct Connect
5 1 (0.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (0.85%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (0.85%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.85%) IaaS
5 1 (0.85%) OpenShift
5 1 (0.85%) PaaS
5 1 (0.85%) SaaS
5 1 (0.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 90 (76.92%) LAN
2 65 (55.56%) Firewall
3 61 (52.14%) BGP
4 55 (47.01%) OSPF
5 36 (30.77%) VPN
6 29 (24.79%) SD-WAN
7 25 (21.37%) DNS
8 24 (20.51%) DHCP
9 23 (19.66%) MPLS
10 22 (18.80%) Ethernet VPN
10 22 (18.80%) IPsec
11 20 (17.09%) VXLAN
12 18 (15.38%) BIG-IP
12 18 (15.38%) Cisco ISE
12 18 (15.38%) Network Security
12 18 (15.38%) Structured Cabling
13 17 (14.53%) Junos
14 13 (11.11%) Wireless
15 11 (9.40%) TCP/IP
16 7 (5.98%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.85%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (0.85%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 25 (21.37%) Social Skills
2 22 (18.80%) Documentation Skills
3 12 (10.26%) Manufacturing
3 12 (10.26%) Public Sector
4 11 (9.40%) Analytical Skills
5 6 (5.13%) Military
6 5 (4.27%) Telecoms
7 4 (3.42%) Finance
8 1 (0.85%) Billing
8 1 (0.85%) Legal
8 1 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (0.85%) Police
8 1 (0.85%) Retail
Job Titles
1 48 (41.03%) Network Engineer
2 22 (18.80%) Architect
3 16 (13.68%) Senior
4 14 (11.97%) Network Architect
5 12 (10.26%) Lead
5 12 (10.26%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 10 (8.55%) Senior Network Engineer
7 9 (7.69%) Cisco Engineer
7 9 (7.69%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 8 (6.84%) Firewall Specialist
8 8 (6.84%) Network Specialist
9 7 (5.98%) Project Manager
10 6 (5.13%) IP Specialist
10 6 (5.13%) Network Manager
11 5 (4.27%) Senior Architect
11 5 (4.27%) Technical Architect
12 4 (3.42%) Senior Network Architect
13 3 (2.56%) DV Cleared Project Manager
13 3 (2.56%) Network Project Manager
13 3 (2.56%) SC Cleared Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 22 (18.80%) 802.1X
2 7 (5.98%) NETCONF
2 7 (5.98%) YANG
3 4 (3.42%) Middleware
3 4 (3.42%) OpenConfig
3 4 (3.42%) RESTCONF
4 3 (2.56%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 54 (46.15%) Data Centre
2 18 (15.38%) Clustering
3 17 (14.53%) PKI
4 11 (9.40%) Hybrid Cloud
5 6 (5.13%) Cloud Native
6 5 (4.27%) Public Cloud
6 5 (4.27%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (3.42%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (2.56%) BYOD
8 3 (2.56%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.71%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.85%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.85%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 1 (0.85%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.85%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.85%) Fat Client
10 1 (0.85%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.85%) Life Science
10 1 (0.85%) Onboarding
10 1 (0.85%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 24 (20.51%) Windows
2 9 (7.69%) Linux
3 2 (1.71%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.85%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
2 25 (21.37%) High Availability
3 20 (17.09%) ITIL
4 19 (16.24%) Load Balancing
4 19 (16.24%) Observability
5 18 (15.38%) Identity Access Management
6 16 (13.68%) ITSM
7 13 (11.11%) Network Design
8 11 (9.40%) Customer Requirements
9 10 (8.55%) Migration
9 10 (8.55%) Network Architecture
10 9 (7.69%) Project Delivery
11 8 (6.84%) Availability Management
12 7 (5.98%) Service Management
12 7 (5.98%) Stakeholder Management
13 6 (5.13%) Incident Response
13 6 (5.13%) Mentoring
13 6 (5.13%) Network Monitoring
13 6 (5.13%) Network Virtualisation
13 6 (5.13%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 9 (7.69%) Python
2 2 (1.71%) SQL
Qualifications
1 76 (64.96%) Security Cleared
2 62 (52.99%) Cisco Certification
3 51 (43.59%) SC Cleared
4 40 (34.19%) CCNP
5 23 (19.66%) DV Cleared
6 16 (13.68%) CCNA
6 16 (13.68%) Degree
7 10 (8.55%) CCIE
8 8 (6.84%) JNCIA
8 8 (6.84%) JNCIE
8 8 (6.84%) JNCIS
9 7 (5.98%) JNCIP
10 6 (5.13%) Network+ Certification
11 5 (4.27%) PMP
12 3 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (1.71%) AWS Certification
13 2 (1.71%) CCSE
14 1 (0.85%) CCDA
14 1 (0.85%) CCDP
14 1 (0.85%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.42%) SLA
2 2 (1.71%) NCSC
3 1 (0.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 1 (0.85%) JSP 440
3 1 (0.85%) NIST
3 1 (0.85%) QA
System Software
1 5 (4.27%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (2.56%) Active Directory
2 3 (2.56%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.85%) Hyper-V
3 1 (0.85%) KVM
3 1 (0.85%) RHEV
3 1 (0.85%) Xen
Systems Management
1 20 (17.09%) FortiGate
2 13 (11.11%) Ansible
3 6 (5.13%) Nagios
3 6 (5.13%) Terraform
4 3 (2.56%) Endace
5 1 (0.85%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (0.85%) Backup Exec
5 1 (0.85%) CASB
5 1 (0.85%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.85%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.85%) Proxmox
5 1 (0.85%) SCOM
5 1 (0.85%) WhatsUp Gold
5 1 (0.85%) WSUS
Vendors
1 73 (62.39%) Cisco
2 42 (35.90%) Juniper
3 27 (23.08%) F5
3 27 (23.08%) Palo Alto
4 26 (22.22%) SolarWinds
5 25 (21.37%) Aruba
6 22 (18.80%) CheckPoint
7 17 (14.53%) Splunk
8 16 (13.68%) Fortinet
9 15 (12.82%) Extreme Networks
10 7 (5.98%) Microsoft
10 7 (5.98%) VMware
11 4 (3.42%) Mellanox
11 4 (3.42%) MuleSoft
11 4 (3.42%) NVIDIA
11 4 (3.42%) Zscaler
12 3 (2.56%) Meraki
13 2 (1.71%) Pegasus
14 1 (0.85%) Blue Coat
14 1 (0.85%) Symantec