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

6 months to
20 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 81 64
Rank change year-on-year -3 -17 -1
Contract jobs citing WAN 110 77 165
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.29% 2.43% 3.01%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 16.72% 13.58% 12.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 57 51 69
10th Percentile £416 £250 £148
25th Percentile £431 £356 £200
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £456 £500 £413
Median % change year-on-year -8.80% +21.21% -13.16%
75th Percentile £500 £568 £550
90th Percentile £550 £630 £588
England median daily rate £450 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -10.00% - +8.25%
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% -20.00%
75th Percentile £57.43 £19.50 £67.02
90th Percentile £66.17 - £67.31
England median hourly rate £22.50 £35.00 £24.00
% change year-on-year -35.71% +45.83% -26.15%

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 658 567 1,289
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 13.72% 17.87% 23.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 467 315 635
10th Percentile £219 £220 £201
25th Percentile £350 £375 £310
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £465
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +7.53% -7.01%
75th Percentile £572 £600 £550
90th Percentile £650 £650 £638
England median daily rate £492 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -1.60% +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 19 104
10th Percentile £18.32 £29.93 £13.86
25th Percentile £23.02 £35.00 £23.91
Median hourly rate £48.72 £62.50 £56.95
Median % change year-on-year -22.05% +9.75% +26.56%
75th Percentile £60.90 £63.13 £70.47
90th Percentile £81.20 £72.00 £85.27
England median hourly rate £34.00 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year +4.62% -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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -7 58 £453 -9.40% 29
Berkshire +6 51 £445 +11.25% 18
Hampshire -18 22 £500 +8.11% 18
Kent - 20 £443 - 6
Surrey -18 6 £550 +4.76% 4
East Sussex +8 4 £475 +192.31% 2
Oxfordshire - 4 £463 - 1
Buckinghamshire -14 3 £525 -8.50% 10
West Sussex -19 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 8 (7.27%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.91%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.91%) SharePoint
Applications
1 4 (3.64%) MS Visio
2 3 (2.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (2.73%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (1.82%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (1.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 18 (16.36%) AWS
1 18 (16.36%) Azure
2 3 (2.73%) OpenShift
3 2 (1.82%) GCP
3 2 (1.82%) Google Ads
3 2 (1.82%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (0.91%) Azure Sentinel
4 1 (0.91%) Entra ID
4 1 (0.91%) IaaS
4 1 (0.91%) PaaS
4 1 (0.91%) SaaS
4 1 (0.91%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 87 (79.09%) LAN
2 59 (53.64%) Firewall
3 58 (52.73%) BGP
4 52 (47.27%) OSPF
5 36 (32.73%) VPN
6 26 (23.64%) SD-WAN
7 24 (21.82%) MPLS
8 23 (20.91%) DNS
9 22 (20.00%) IPsec
10 19 (17.27%) DHCP
10 19 (17.27%) Network Security
11 18 (16.36%) Ethernet VPN
11 18 (16.36%) Structured Cabling
12 16 (14.55%) VXLAN
13 14 (12.73%) BIG-IP
13 14 (12.73%) Cisco ISE
14 13 (11.82%) Junos
15 11 (10.00%) TCP/IP
15 11 (10.00%) Wireless
16 7 (6.36%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.91%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (0.91%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 26 (23.64%) Social Skills
2 24 (21.82%) Documentation Skills
3 12 (10.91%) Manufacturing
4 10 (9.09%) Public Sector
5 9 (8.18%) Analytical Skills
6 6 (5.45%) Military
7 5 (4.55%) Telecoms
8 4 (3.64%) Finance
9 1 (0.91%) Billing
9 1 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.91%) Police
9 1 (0.91%) Retail
Job Titles
1 45 (40.91%) Network Engineer
2 22 (20.00%) Architect
3 13 (11.82%) Network Architect
3 13 (11.82%) Senior
4 12 (10.91%) Lead
5 11 (10.00%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 9 (8.18%) Cisco Engineer
6 9 (8.18%) Cisco Network Engineer
7 8 (7.27%) Senior Network Engineer
8 7 (6.36%) Project Manager
9 6 (5.45%) IP Specialist
9 6 (5.45%) Network Manager
10 5 (4.55%) Firewall Specialist
10 5 (4.55%) Network Specialist
11 4 (3.64%) IP Architect
11 4 (3.64%) Senior Architect
11 4 (3.64%) Technical Architect
12 3 (2.73%) Designer
12 3 (2.73%) DV Cleared Project Manager
12 3 (2.73%) IP Designer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (14.55%) 802.1X
2 7 (6.36%) NETCONF
2 7 (6.36%) YANG
3 5 (4.55%) REST
4 4 (3.64%) Middleware
5 2 (1.82%) OpenConfig
5 2 (1.82%) RESTCONF
Miscellaneous
1 49 (44.55%) Data Centre
2 14 (12.73%) Clustering
3 13 (11.82%) Hybrid Cloud
3 13 (11.82%) PKI
4 8 (7.27%) Cloud Native
5 4 (3.64%) Public Cloud
6 3 (2.73%) Linux Command Line
6 3 (2.73%) SCADA
6 3 (2.73%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.82%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.82%) Virtual Team
8 1 (0.91%) BYOD
8 1 (0.91%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 1 (0.91%) Driving Licence
8 1 (0.91%) Enterprise Cloud
8 1 (0.91%) Fat Client
8 1 (0.91%) iSeries
8 1 (0.91%) Life Science
8 1 (0.91%) NHS
8 1 (0.91%) Thin Client
Operating Systems
1 20 (18.18%) Windows
2 9 (8.18%) Linux
3 2 (1.82%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.91%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 21 (19.09%) ITIL
1 21 (19.09%) Problem-Solving
2 20 (18.18%) High Availability
3 15 (13.64%) ITSM
3 15 (13.64%) Load Balancing
3 15 (13.64%) Observability
4 14 (12.73%) Network Design
5 13 (11.82%) Identity Access Management
6 12 (10.91%) Migration
7 11 (10.00%) Customer Requirements
7 11 (10.00%) Network Architecture
8 9 (8.18%) Project Delivery
8 9 (8.18%) Stakeholder Management
9 8 (7.27%) Incident Response
9 8 (7.27%) Network Virtualisation
10 7 (6.36%) Network Segmentation
11 6 (5.45%) Availability Management
11 6 (5.45%) Network Monitoring
11 6 (5.45%) Service Management
11 6 (5.45%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 11 (10.00%) Python
2 2 (1.82%) SQL
Qualifications
1 67 (60.91%) Security Cleared
2 57 (51.82%) Cisco Certification
3 48 (43.64%) SC Cleared
4 37 (33.64%) CCNP
5 20 (18.18%) DV Cleared
6 16 (14.55%) Degree
7 14 (12.73%) CCNA
8 12 (10.91%) CCIE
9 10 (9.09%) JNCIE
10 7 (6.36%) JNCIA
10 7 (6.36%) JNCIS
11 6 (5.45%) JNCIP
12 5 (4.55%) Network+ Certification
12 5 (4.55%) PMP
13 4 (3.64%) AWS Certification
14 3 (2.73%) BPSS Clearance
15 2 (1.82%) CCSE
16 1 (0.91%) CCDA
16 1 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
16 1 (0.91%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (3.64%) SLA
2 1 (0.91%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 1 (0.91%) JSP 440
2 1 (0.91%) NCSC
System Software
1 6 (5.45%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (3.64%) VMware NSX
3 3 (2.73%) Active Directory
4 1 (0.91%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.91%) KVM
4 1 (0.91%) RHEV
4 1 (0.91%) Xen
Systems Management
1 15 (13.64%) Ansible
1 15 (13.64%) FortiGate
2 8 (7.27%) Terraform
3 5 (4.55%) Nagios
4 3 (2.73%) Endace
5 1 (0.91%) Amdocs OSS
5 1 (0.91%) Backup Exec
5 1 (0.91%) CASB
5 1 (0.91%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (0.91%) Norton AntiVirus
5 1 (0.91%) Proxmox
5 1 (0.91%) SCOM
5 1 (0.91%) WhatsUp Gold
5 1 (0.91%) WSUS
Vendors
1 65 (59.09%) Cisco
2 37 (33.64%) Juniper
3 24 (21.82%) Palo Alto
4 23 (20.91%) Aruba
5 22 (20.00%) CheckPoint
5 22 (20.00%) F5
6 21 (19.09%) SolarWinds
7 16 (14.55%) Fortinet
8 13 (11.82%) Splunk
9 11 (10.00%) Extreme Networks
10 8 (7.27%) VMware
11 5 (4.55%) Microsoft
12 4 (3.64%) Mellanox
12 4 (3.64%) MuleSoft
12 4 (3.64%) NVIDIA
12 4 (3.64%) Zscaler
13 3 (2.73%) Meraki
14 2 (1.82%) Pegasus
15 1 (0.91%) HP
15 1 (0.91%) Nokia