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 13 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 78 70
Rank change year-on-year -20 -8 0
Contract jobs citing WAN 97 79 163
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.05% 2.51% 2.99%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.09% 14.06% 12.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 54 53 69
10th Percentile £404 £223 £148
25th Percentile £431 £330 £190
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £453 £475 £413
Median % change year-on-year -4.74% +15.15% -13.16%
75th Percentile £500 £563 £538
90th Percentile £550 £629 £577
England median daily rate £450 £500 £493
% change year-on-year -10.00% +1.42% +9.56%
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% -13.79%
75th Percentile £44.69 £19.50 £67.02
90th Percentile £49.42 - £67.31
England median hourly rate £20.00 £53.75 £24.00
% change year-on-year -62.79% +123.96% -21.95%

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 643 562 1,279
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 13.57% 17.85% 23.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 465 305 637
10th Percentile £211 £223 £200
25th Percentile £350 £375 £305
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £465
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +7.53% -7.01%
75th Percentile £569 £600 £550
90th Percentile £650 £650 £636
England median daily rate £486 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -2.80% +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 17 21 102
10th Percentile £18.14 £31.25 £13.29
25th Percentile £20.32 £35.00 £24.00
Median hourly rate £48.72 £60.50 £56.95
Median % change year-on-year -19.47% +6.23% +26.56%
75th Percentile £60.90 £62.50 £70.00
90th Percentile £82.40 £71.25 £82.60
England median hourly rate £31.44 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -3.26% -31.58% +138.93%

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 13 February 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 13 February 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 13 February 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 -10 45 £453 +0.67% 23
Berkshire -8 38 £445 +34.85% 15
Hampshire -21 20 £500 +12.68% 16
Kent - 20 £443 - 8
Surrey -13 7 £405 -22.86% 1
East Sussex +4 5 £333 +104.62% 1
Oxfordshire - 4 £463 - 1
Buckinghamshire -14 3 £525 -8.50% 7
West Sussex -22 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 10 (10.31%) OpenStack
2 1 (1.03%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (1.03%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (4.12%) MS Visio
2 3 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (3.09%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (2.06%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (2.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 19 (19.59%) AWS
2 18 (18.56%) Azure
3 4 (4.12%) OpenShift
4 3 (3.09%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (2.06%) GCP
5 2 (2.06%) Google Ads
6 1 (1.03%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (1.03%) Entra ID
6 1 (1.03%) IaaS
6 1 (1.03%) PaaS
6 1 (1.03%) SaaS
6 1 (1.03%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 75 (77.32%) LAN
2 44 (45.36%) BGP
3 43 (44.33%) Firewall
4 37 (38.14%) OSPF
5 35 (36.08%) VPN
6 26 (26.80%) MPLS
7 25 (25.77%) SD-WAN
8 21 (21.65%) IPsec
9 18 (18.56%) Network Security
9 18 (18.56%) Structured Cabling
10 12 (12.37%) Wireless
11 11 (11.34%) TCP/IP
12 10 (10.31%) DNS
13 8 (8.25%) SNMP
14 6 (6.19%) DHCP
14 6 (6.19%) IPv6
14 6 (6.19%) TACACS
15 5 (5.15%) Ethernet VPN
15 5 (5.15%) WLAN
16 4 (4.12%) Intrusion Detection
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (1.03%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (1.03%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 29 (29.90%) Social Skills
2 25 (25.77%) Documentation Skills
3 12 (12.37%) Manufacturing
4 9 (9.28%) Analytical Skills
5 7 (7.22%) Public Sector
6 5 (5.15%) Finance
6 5 (5.15%) Telecoms
7 2 (2.06%) Military
8 1 (1.03%) Billing
8 1 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
8 1 (1.03%) Police
8 1 (1.03%) Retail
Job Titles
1 37 (38.14%) Network Engineer
2 22 (22.68%) Architect
3 12 (12.37%) Network Architect
4 11 (11.34%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 10 (10.31%) Lead
6 9 (9.28%) Cisco Engineer
6 9 (9.28%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 7 (7.22%) IP Specialist
7 7 (7.22%) Project Manager
7 7 (7.22%) Senior
8 6 (6.19%) Network Manager
9 5 (5.15%) IP Architect
10 4 (4.12%) Designer
10 4 (4.12%) IP Designer
10 4 (4.12%) Senior Architect
10 4 (4.12%) Technical Architect
11 3 (3.09%) DV Cleared Project Manager
11 3 (3.09%) Network Project Manager
11 3 (3.09%) SC Cleared Project Manager
11 3 (3.09%) Senior Network Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (8.25%) NETCONF
1 8 (8.25%) YANG
2 6 (6.19%) REST
3 4 (4.12%) Middleware
4 2 (2.06%) 802.1X
4 2 (2.06%) OpenConfig
4 2 (2.06%) RESTCONF
Miscellaneous
1 39 (40.21%) Data Centre
2 15 (15.46%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (9.28%) Cloud Native
4 4 (4.12%) Public Cloud
5 3 (3.09%) Linux Command Line
5 3 (3.09%) SCADA
5 3 (3.09%) Self-Motivation
6 2 (2.06%) Analytical Mindset
6 2 (2.06%) Virtual Team
7 1 (1.03%) Cyber Defence
7 1 (1.03%) Cyber Kill Chain
7 1 (1.03%) Driving Licence
7 1 (1.03%) Enterprise Cloud
7 1 (1.03%) Fat Client
7 1 (1.03%) Greenfield Project
7 1 (1.03%) iSeries
7 1 (1.03%) Life Science
7 1 (1.03%) NHS
7 1 (1.03%) PKI
7 1 (1.03%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 9 (9.28%) Linux
2 8 (8.25%) Windows
3 2 (2.06%) Windows Server
4 1 (1.03%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (16.49%) ITIL
2 14 (14.43%) Network Design
3 13 (13.40%) Migration
4 12 (12.37%) Problem-Solving
5 11 (11.34%) Customer Requirements
5 11 (11.34%) Network Architecture
6 10 (10.31%) ITSM
6 10 (10.31%) Network Virtualisation
7 9 (9.28%) Project Delivery
7 9 (9.28%) Stakeholder Management
8 8 (8.25%) Incident Response
8 8 (8.25%) Network Segmentation
9 6 (6.19%) DevOps
9 6 (6.19%) Enterprise Architecture
9 6 (6.19%) Microservices
9 6 (6.19%) Roadmaps
9 6 (6.19%) Strategic Thinking
9 6 (6.19%) Technical Leadership
9 6 (6.19%) TOGAF
9 6 (6.19%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 13 (13.40%) Python
2 2 (2.06%) SQL
Qualifications
1 52 (53.61%) Security Cleared
2 48 (49.48%) Cisco Certification
3 46 (47.42%) SC Cleared
4 35 (36.08%) CCNP
5 16 (16.49%) Degree
6 14 (14.43%) CCIE
7 13 (13.40%) CCNA
8 12 (12.37%) JNCIE
9 10 (10.31%) DV Cleared
10 5 (5.15%) AWS Certification
10 5 (5.15%) PMP
11 4 (4.12%) Network+ Certification
12 3 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
13 2 (2.06%) CCSE
13 2 (2.06%) JNCIA
13 2 (2.06%) JNCIS
14 1 (1.03%) CCDA
14 1 (1.03%) CCDP
14 1 (1.03%) JNCIP
14 1 (1.03%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (4.12%) SLA
2 1 (1.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (1.03%) JSP 440
2 1 (1.03%) NCSC
System Software
1 8 (8.25%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (5.15%) Active Directory
2 5 (5.15%) VMware NSX
3 1 (1.03%) Hyper-V
3 1 (1.03%) KVM
3 1 (1.03%) RHEV
3 1 (1.03%) Virtual Desktop
3 1 (1.03%) Xen
Systems Management
1 17 (17.53%) Ansible
2 9 (9.28%) Terraform
3 4 (4.12%) Nagios
4 3 (3.09%) Endace
5 1 (1.03%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (1.03%) Backup Exec
5 1 (1.03%) CASB
5 1 (1.03%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (1.03%) FortiGate
5 1 (1.03%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (1.03%) Proxmox
5 1 (1.03%) SCCM
5 1 (1.03%) SCOM
5 1 (1.03%) WhatsUp Gold
5 1 (1.03%) WSUS
Vendors
1 51 (52.58%) Cisco
2 23 (23.71%) Juniper
2 23 (23.71%) Palo Alto
3 22 (22.68%) Aruba
3 22 (22.68%) CheckPoint
4 16 (16.49%) Fortinet
5 10 (10.31%) F5
5 10 (10.31%) VMware
6 7 (7.22%) SolarWinds
7 6 (6.19%) Microsoft
8 4 (4.12%) Mellanox
8 4 (4.12%) MuleSoft
8 4 (4.12%) NVIDIA
8 4 (4.12%) Zscaler
9 3 (3.09%) Meraki
10 2 (2.06%) Pegasus
11 1 (1.03%) Blue Coat
11 1 (1.03%) McAfee
11 1 (1.03%) Symantec
11 1 (1.03%) Wyse