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 4 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 100 69
Rank change year-on-year +9 -31 -20
Contract jobs citing WAN 162 65 137
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.45% 1.86% 2.76%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.20% 10.94% 14.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 45 72
10th Percentile £369 £285 £260
25th Percentile £422 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £450 £509
Median % change year-on-year +16.67% -11.63% +13.17%
75th Percentile £562 £500 £638
90th Percentile £694 £625 £688
England median daily rate £510 £463 £500
% change year-on-year +10.27% -7.50% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 0 6
10th Percentile £34.23 - £18.06
25th Percentile £41.93 - £19.48
Median hourly rate £45.71 - £47.95
75th Percentile £57.43 - £75.24
90th Percentile £74.71 - £76.12
England median hourly rate £24.61 £30.00 £24.87
% change year-on-year -17.97% +20.63% -48.00%

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 802 594 968
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.11% 17.03% 19.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 471 402 517
10th Percentile £275 £205 £260
25th Percentile £413 £359 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% - +6.38%
75th Percentile £600 £588 £608
90th Percentile £675 £625 £655
England median daily rate £500 £494 £500
% change year-on-year +1.21% -1.20% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 85 31 102
10th Percentile £18.08 £14.20 £22.42
25th Percentile £22.50 £24.63 £51.06
Median hourly rate £47.50 £55.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -13.64% -4.10% -0.26%
75th Percentile £56.21 £70.16 £70.00
90th Percentile £67.47 £89.63 £75.24
England median hourly rate £28.00 £45.00 £51.50
% change year-on-year -37.78% -12.62% -0.75%

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 4 August 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 4 August 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 4 August 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 +20 106 £480 +15.66% 16
Berkshire +24 83 £414 -0.30% 4
Hampshire -28 36 £525 +5.00% 19
Buckinghamshire - 19 £603 - 7
Surrey -19 15 £475 +2.70% 14
Oxfordshire -15 4 £480 - 5
Kent +1 2 £504 +15.14% 3
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 (4.32%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.23%) Confluence
Applications
1 6 (3.70%) MS Visio
2 5 (3.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (3.09%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.47%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.62%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 41 (25.31%) Azure
2 33 (20.37%) AWS
3 6 (3.70%) GCP
4 4 (2.47%) Entra ID
4 4 (2.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
5 3 (1.85%) Azure DevOps
5 3 (1.85%) Microsoft 365
6 2 (1.23%) AWS Direct Connect
6 2 (1.23%) OpenShift
7 1 (0.62%) AWS CloudFormation
7 1 (0.62%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 1 (0.62%) Azure Sentinel
7 1 (0.62%) IaaS
7 1 (0.62%) PaaS
7 1 (0.62%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 129 (79.63%) LAN
2 99 (61.11%) Firewall
3 87 (53.70%) BGP
4 59 (36.42%) OSPF
4 59 (36.42%) SD-WAN
5 56 (34.57%) DNS
6 47 (29.01%) DHCP
7 46 (28.40%) MPLS
8 40 (24.69%) VPN
9 38 (23.46%) Network Security
10 35 (21.60%) VXLAN
11 33 (20.37%) IPsec
12 32 (19.75%) BIG-IP
12 32 (19.75%) Ethernet VPN
13 26 (16.05%) Cisco ISE
13 26 (16.05%) Wi-Fi
14 25 (15.43%) Junos
15 24 (14.81%) TCP/IP
15 24 (14.81%) Wireless
16 18 (11.11%) VLAN
Development Applications
1 6 (3.70%) JIRA
2 3 (1.85%) Sonatype Nexus
3 2 (1.23%) Browser DevTools
4 1 (0.62%) GitLab
4 1 (0.62%) Jenkins
General
1 36 (22.22%) Social Skills
2 21 (12.96%) Telecoms
3 18 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
4 12 (7.41%) Public Sector
5 9 (5.56%) Finance
6 5 (3.09%) Military
6 5 (3.09%) Organisational Skills
7 4 (2.47%) Billing
7 4 (2.47%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.47%) Financial Institution
7 4 (2.47%) Legal
8 2 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.62%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.62%) Police
Job Titles
1 53 (32.72%) Network Engineer
2 42 (25.93%) Architect
3 30 (18.52%) Senior
4 28 (17.28%) Network Architect
5 23 (14.20%) Senior Network Engineer
6 15 (9.26%) Network Specialist
7 14 (8.64%) Firewall Specialist
8 12 (7.41%) Developer
9 10 (6.17%) Technical Architect
10 9 (5.56%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
10 9 (5.56%) Network Manager
11 8 (4.94%) Lead
11 8 (4.94%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 7 (4.32%) Cisco Engineer
12 7 (4.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 6 (3.70%) Cisco Network Engineer
13 6 (3.70%) Lead Architect
13 6 (3.70%) Project Manager
13 6 (3.70%) Solutions Architect
13 6 (3.70%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 36 (22.22%) 802.1X
2 9 (5.56%) NETCONF
2 9 (5.56%) YANG
3 5 (3.09%) REST
4 4 (2.47%) Middleware
4 4 (2.47%) OpenConfig
4 4 (2.47%) RESTCONF
5 1 (0.62%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 60 (37.04%) Data Centre
2 28 (17.28%) PKI
3 25 (15.43%) Clustering
4 20 (12.35%) Hybrid Cloud
5 9 (5.56%) Cloud Native
5 9 (5.56%) Private Cloud
5 9 (5.56%) Public Cloud
6 8 (4.94%) Analytical Mindset
7 5 (3.09%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 4 (2.47%) Security Posture
8 4 (2.47%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (1.85%) BYOD
9 3 (1.85%) Data Protection Act
10 2 (1.23%) Driving Licence
10 2 (1.23%) Fibre Optics
10 2 (1.23%) IoT
10 2 (1.23%) NHS
10 2 (1.23%) Onboarding
11 1 (0.62%) Enterprise Software
11 1 (0.62%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 40 (24.69%) Windows
2 15 (9.26%) Linux
3 2 (1.23%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.62%) VMS
4 1 (0.62%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (25.93%) High Availability
2 40 (24.69%) ITIL
3 32 (19.75%) Problem-Solving
4 30 (18.52%) Identity Access Management
4 30 (18.52%) Load Balancing
5 27 (16.67%) Observability
6 26 (16.05%) Network Architecture
7 22 (13.58%) Stakeholder Management
8 21 (12.96%) Technical Leadership
9 20 (12.35%) Network Design
10 19 (11.73%) Network Virtualisation
11 18 (11.11%) Roadmaps
12 17 (10.49%) Migration
13 15 (9.26%) Change Management
13 15 (9.26%) Network Monitoring
13 15 (9.26%) Project Delivery
14 14 (8.64%) TOGAF
15 13 (8.02%) Agile
16 12 (7.41%) ITSM
16 12 (7.41%) Vulnerability Management
Programming Languages
1 14 (8.64%) Python
2 2 (1.23%) SQL
Qualifications
1 105 (64.81%) Security Cleared
2 61 (37.65%) Cisco Certification
3 54 (33.33%) DV Cleared
4 42 (25.93%) SC Cleared
5 30 (18.52%) CCNP
6 17 (10.49%) CCIE
7 11 (6.79%) CCNA
8 9 (5.56%) Degree
8 9 (5.56%) JNCIE
8 9 (5.56%) JNCIP
8 9 (5.56%) JNCIS
9 8 (4.94%) PMP
10 7 (4.32%) JNCIA
11 6 (3.70%) AWS Certification
11 6 (3.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 5 (3.09%) Azure Certification
12 5 (3.09%) PMI Certification
13 2 (1.23%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (1.23%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (1.23%) Network+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.56%) NIST
2 7 (4.32%) NCSC
3 5 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (2.47%) QA
5 2 (1.23%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.62%) GDPR
6 1 (0.62%) SLA
System Software
1 22 (13.58%) VMware Infrastructure
2 18 (11.11%) VMware NSX
3 12 (7.41%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.47%) Hyper-V
4 4 (2.47%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (2.47%) vSphere
5 3 (1.85%) Firmware
6 1 (0.62%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.62%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 33 (20.37%) FortiGate
2 18 (11.11%) Ansible
3 7 (4.32%) Terraform
4 3 (1.85%) CASB
4 3 (1.85%) Cisco CUCM
4 3 (1.85%) Nagios
5 2 (1.23%) Endace
5 2 (1.23%) WSUS
6 1 (0.62%) SCCM
6 1 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 90 (55.56%) Cisco
2 48 (29.63%) SolarWinds
3 47 (29.01%) Juniper
4 45 (27.78%) F5
5 34 (20.99%) VMware
6 31 (19.14%) Palo Alto
7 26 (16.05%) Microsoft
7 26 (16.05%) Splunk
8 24 (14.81%) Fortinet
9 22 (13.58%) Extreme Networks
10 12 (7.41%) Aruba
11 10 (6.17%) ServiceNow
12 9 (5.56%) CheckPoint
13 8 (4.94%) Meraki
14 5 (3.09%) BT
15 4 (2.47%) Becrypt
15 4 (2.47%) Commvault
15 4 (2.47%) Infoblox
15 4 (2.47%) NetApp
15 4 (2.47%) Veeam