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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 100 94 70
Rank change year-on-year -6 -24 -23
Contract jobs citing WAN 139 72 124
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.11% 2.04% 2.62%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 18.10% 11.96% 14.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 89 44 74
10th Percentile £354 £253 £200
25th Percentile £408 £350 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £450 £509
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -11.63% +13.17%
75th Percentile £600 £500 £638
90th Percentile £700 £610 £696
England median daily rate £513 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +13.89% -10.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 6
10th Percentile £17.58 - £18.06
25th Percentile £29.88 - £19.48
Median hourly rate £42.25 - £47.95
75th Percentile £52.58 - £75.24
90th Percentile £63.97 - £76.12
England median hourly rate £19.42 £30.00 £33.94
% change year-on-year -35.27% -11.60% +35.74%

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 768 602 877
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.64% 17.08% 18.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 449 413 459
10th Percentile £300 £219 £260
25th Percentile £406 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - +9.78%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £650 £638 £665
England median daily rate £500 £490 £505
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.97% +1.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 91 30 97
10th Percentile £17.50 £14.20 £26.25
25th Percentile £23.38 £22.94 £51.06
Median hourly rate £51.50 £54.94 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -6.26% -4.21% -3.54%
75th Percentile £59.19 £67.31 £70.00
90th Percentile £69.50 £89.63 £75.10
England median hourly rate £27.11 £42.50 £57.35
% change year-on-year -36.21% -25.89% +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 1 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 1 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 1 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 +16 86 £458 +16.38% 21
Berkshire +8 67 £410 +4.13% 13
Hampshire -20 31 £525 +5.00% 18
Surrey -11 16 £475 +15.15% 15
Buckinghamshire - 16 £645 - 8
Oxfordshire -21 3 £480 -
Middlesex - 2 - -
Sussex - 2 £236 - 1
Isle of Wight - 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 7 (5.04%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.44%) Confluence
Applications
1 5 (3.60%) Microsoft Excel
1 5 (3.60%) Microsoft Office
1 5 (3.60%) MS Visio
2 3 (2.16%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 36 (25.90%) Azure
2 27 (19.42%) AWS
3 4 (2.88%) Entra ID
3 4 (2.88%) GCP
3 4 (2.88%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 3 (2.16%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (2.16%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (1.44%) IaaS
5 2 (1.44%) OpenShift
6 1 (0.72%) AWS CloudFormation
6 1 (0.72%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (0.72%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 103 (74.10%) LAN
2 74 (53.24%) Firewall
3 64 (46.04%) BGP
4 57 (41.01%) SD-WAN
5 44 (31.65%) MPLS
6 39 (28.06%) DNS
6 39 (28.06%) VPN
7 37 (26.62%) OSPF
8 36 (25.90%) Network Security
9 35 (25.18%) IPsec
10 28 (20.14%) DHCP
11 26 (18.71%) Wi-Fi
12 22 (15.83%) TCP/IP
13 20 (14.39%) Wireless
14 18 (12.95%) VLAN
15 17 (12.23%) BIG-IP
15 17 (12.23%) VXLAN
16 15 (10.79%) Cisco Firepower
16 15 (10.79%) NGFW
16 15 (10.79%) SSL
Development Applications
1 6 (4.32%) JIRA
2 2 (1.44%) Browser DevTools
2 2 (1.44%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.72%) GitLab
3 1 (0.72%) Jenkins
General
1 38 (27.34%) Social Skills
2 25 (17.99%) Telecoms
3 20 (14.39%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (6.47%) Finance
5 7 (5.04%) Public Sector
6 5 (3.60%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (2.88%) Billing
7 4 (2.88%) Financial Institution
8 3 (2.16%) Documentation Skills
8 3 (2.16%) Legal
9 2 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (1.44%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.72%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.72%) Military
10 1 (0.72%) Police
Job Titles
1 41 (29.50%) Network Engineer
2 39 (28.06%) Architect
3 25 (17.99%) Network Architect
4 21 (15.11%) Senior
5 14 (10.07%) Senior Network Engineer
6 12 (8.63%) Developer
7 10 (7.19%) Technical Architect
8 8 (5.76%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 8 (5.76%) Network Manager
9 7 (5.04%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 7 (5.04%) Lead
9 7 (5.04%) Network Specialist
9 7 (5.04%) Security Engineer
10 6 (4.32%) Cisco Engineer
10 6 (4.32%) Firewall Specialist
10 6 (4.32%) Project Manager
10 6 (4.32%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 6 (4.32%) Solutions Architect
10 6 (4.32%) Test Engineer
11 5 (3.60%) Network Security Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (12.95%) 802.1X
2 9 (6.47%) NETCONF
3 8 (5.76%) YANG
4 6 (4.32%) Middleware
4 6 (4.32%) REST
5 5 (3.60%) Terraform
6 4 (2.88%) RESTCONF
7 3 (2.16%) OpenConfig
8 1 (0.72%) gRPC
8 1 (0.72%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 40 (28.78%) Data Centre
2 18 (12.95%) Hybrid Cloud
3 12 (8.63%) PKI
4 11 (7.91%) Private Cloud
5 9 (6.47%) Cloud Native
6 8 (5.76%) Public Cloud
7 7 (5.04%) Analytical Mindset
7 7 (5.04%) Clustering
8 5 (3.60%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 4 (2.88%) Data Protection Act
9 4 (2.88%) Security Posture
10 3 (2.16%) Onboarding
10 3 (2.16%) Self-Motivation
11 2 (1.44%) Driving Licence
11 2 (1.44%) Fibre Optics
11 2 (1.44%) IoT
11 2 (1.44%) NHS
11 2 (1.44%) Social Media
12 1 (0.72%) Enterprise Software
12 1 (0.72%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 25 (17.99%) Windows
2 16 (11.51%) Linux
3 4 (2.88%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.44%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 35 (25.18%) ITIL
2 27 (19.42%) High Availability
2 27 (19.42%) Technical Leadership
3 25 (17.99%) Stakeholder Management
4 23 (16.55%) Network Architecture
5 21 (15.11%) Problem-Solving
6 20 (14.39%) Roadmaps
7 17 (12.23%) Change Management
7 17 (12.23%) Network Design
7 17 (12.23%) Network Virtualisation
8 16 (11.51%) Migration
8 16 (11.51%) TOGAF
9 15 (10.79%) Agile
9 15 (10.79%) Identity Access Management
10 14 (10.07%) Project Delivery
11 13 (9.35%) Load Balancing
11 13 (9.35%) Network Monitoring
12 12 (8.63%) DevOps
12 12 (8.63%) Validation
12 12 (8.63%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 14 (10.07%) Python
2 2 (1.44%) SQL
Qualifications
1 85 (61.15%) Security Cleared
2 42 (30.22%) SC Cleared
3 40 (28.78%) DV Cleared
4 38 (27.34%) Cisco Certification
5 20 (14.39%) CCNP
6 16 (11.51%) CCIE
7 9 (6.47%) JNCIE
8 8 (5.76%) Degree
9 7 (5.04%) PMP
10 6 (4.32%) Azure Certification
10 6 (4.32%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 5 (3.60%) AWS Certification
11 5 (3.60%) CCNA
12 4 (2.88%) PMI Certification
13 3 (2.16%) BC Cleared
13 3 (2.16%) JNCIP
13 3 (2.16%) JNCIS
14 2 (1.44%) BPSS Clearance
14 2 (1.44%) ITIL Certification
14 2 (1.44%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (5.76%) NIST
2 7 (5.04%) NCSC
3 4 (2.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.88%) JSP 440
3 4 (2.88%) QA
4 2 (1.44%) PMO
4 2 (1.44%) SLA
5 1 (0.72%) GDPR
System Software
1 22 (15.83%) VMware Infrastructure
2 16 (11.51%) VMware NSX
3 11 (7.91%) Active Directory
4 5 (3.60%) Hyper-V
5 4 (2.88%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (2.88%) vSphere
6 3 (2.16%) Firmware
6 3 (2.16%) Virtual Desktop
6 3 (2.16%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (1.44%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 17 (12.23%) Ansible
2 15 (10.79%) FortiGate
3 2 (1.44%) CASB
3 2 (1.44%) Cisco CUCM
3 2 (1.44%) Endace
3 2 (1.44%) WSUS
4 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.72%) Nagios
4 1 (0.72%) SCCM
4 1 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 67 (48.20%) Cisco
2 33 (23.74%) VMware
3 31 (22.30%) F5
4 29 (20.86%) Palo Alto
5 28 (20.14%) Juniper
5 28 (20.14%) Microsoft
6 27 (19.42%) SolarWinds
7 22 (15.83%) Fortinet
8 10 (7.19%) ServiceNow
9 9 (6.47%) CheckPoint
9 9 (6.47%) Splunk
10 7 (5.04%) Extreme Networks
10 7 (5.04%) Meraki
11 6 (4.32%) BT
11 6 (4.32%) Zscaler
12 5 (3.60%) Aruba
12 5 (3.60%) Blue Coat
13 4 (2.88%) Commvault
13 4 (2.88%) Infoblox
13 4 (2.88%) Veeam