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 27 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 81 61
Rank change year-on-year +8 -20 0
Contract jobs citing WAN 166 71 166
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.86% 2.37% 2.99%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 22.37% 13.98% 13.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 91 44 61
10th Percentile £406 £304 £148
25th Percentile £431 £406 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £450 £450
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% - -
75th Percentile £538 £565 £563
90th Percentile £600 £629 £650
England median daily rate £480 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +1.05% -5.00% +8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 1 7
10th Percentile £34.23 - £21.95
25th Percentile £41.93 £18.50 £41.38
Median hourly rate £45.71 £19.00 £67.02
Median % change year-on-year +140.59% -71.65% +8.10%
75th Percentile £57.43 £19.50 £75.24
90th Percentile £74.71 - £75.94
England median hourly rate £32.38 £53.75 £24.69
% change year-on-year -39.77% +117.74% -58.86%

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 742 508 1,257
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 12.79% 16.96% 22.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 488 319 613
10th Percentile £286 £209 £205
25th Percentile £406 £325 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £475 £488
Median % change year-on-year +6.32% -2.56% -
75th Percentile £598 £588 £588
90th Percentile £688 £630 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £488
% change year-on-year - +2.41% -7.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 40 28 130
10th Percentile £16.45 £14.20 £16.25
25th Percentile £20.08 £20.26 £27.50
Median hourly rate £48.72 £54.94 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -11.32% -4.21% +9.24%
75th Percentile £56.00 £62.50 £64.69
90th Percentile £62.01 £66.88 £85.65
England median hourly rate £42.60 £36.65 £40.00
% change year-on-year +16.26% -8.39% +111.30%

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 27 April 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 27 April 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 27 April 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 +13 95 £460 +2.22% 14
Berkshire +7 76 £430 -4.44% 7
Hampshire -21 33 £525 +7.69% 22
Kent +11 20 £443 +1.14% 5
Surrey -15 13 £509 +10.00% 5
Buckinghamshire -28 11 £560 -3.86%
Oxfordshire -12 8 £480 - 7
East Sussex +3 3 £475 +192.31%
West Sussex -17 1 - - 2
Isle of Wight - 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 3 (1.81%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.60%) Confluence
2 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.60%) SharePoint
Applications
1 7 (4.22%) MS Visio
2 6 (3.61%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (2.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (2.41%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 36 (21.69%) Azure
2 25 (15.06%) AWS
3 4 (2.41%) Entra ID
4 3 (1.81%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (1.81%) GCP
4 3 (1.81%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (1.20%) AWS Direct Connect
5 2 (1.20%) Google Ads
6 1 (0.60%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (0.60%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.60%) IaaS
6 1 (0.60%) PaaS
6 1 (0.60%) SaaS
6 1 (0.60%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 132 (79.52%) LAN
2 103 (62.05%) Firewall
3 84 (50.60%) BGP
4 78 (46.99%) OSPF
5 53 (31.93%) SD-WAN
6 49 (29.52%) VPN
7 44 (26.51%) DNS
8 43 (25.90%) DHCP
9 33 (19.88%) MPLS
10 31 (18.67%) Network Security
11 30 (18.07%) Ethernet VPN
11 30 (18.07%) VXLAN
12 29 (17.47%) BIG-IP
13 26 (15.66%) Cisco ISE
13 26 (15.66%) IPsec
14 25 (15.06%) Junos
15 22 (13.25%) TCP/IP
16 19 (11.45%) Wireless
17 18 (10.84%) Structured Cabling
18 14 (8.43%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.60%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (3.01%) JIRA
2 2 (1.20%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (0.60%) GitLab
3 1 (0.60%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.60%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 35 (21.08%) Social Skills
2 23 (13.86%) Documentation Skills
3 22 (13.25%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (9.64%) Public Sector
5 12 (7.23%) Finance
5 12 (7.23%) Manufacturing
6 9 (5.42%) Telecoms
7 6 (3.61%) Military
8 4 (2.41%) Financial Institution
9 3 (1.81%) Billing
9 3 (1.81%) Legal
10 2 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
10 2 (1.20%) Police
11 1 (0.60%) Retail
Job Titles
1 68 (40.96%) Network Engineer
2 33 (19.88%) Architect
3 28 (16.87%) Senior
4 19 (11.45%) Network Architect
4 19 (11.45%) Senior Network Engineer
5 15 (9.04%) Lead
5 15 (9.04%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 14 (8.43%) Firewall Specialist
6 14 (8.43%) Network Specialist
7 11 (6.63%) Technical Architect
8 10 (6.02%) Cisco Engineer
8 10 (6.02%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 10 (6.02%) Network Manager
8 10 (6.02%) Project Manager
9 8 (4.82%) Senior Architect
10 7 (4.22%) Senior Network Architect
11 6 (3.61%) Network Project Manager
11 6 (3.61%) SC Cleared Project Manager
12 5 (3.01%) IP Specialist
12 5 (3.01%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 32 (19.28%) 802.1X
2 8 (4.82%) Middleware
3 7 (4.22%) NETCONF
3 7 (4.22%) YANG
4 4 (2.41%) OpenConfig
4 4 (2.41%) RESTCONF
5 3 (1.81%) REST
6 1 (0.60%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 72 (43.37%) Data Centre
2 25 (15.06%) Clustering
2 25 (15.06%) PKI
3 13 (7.83%) Hybrid Cloud
4 11 (6.63%) Public Cloud
5 8 (4.82%) Analytical Mindset
6 6 (3.61%) Cloud Native
6 6 (3.61%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.81%) BYOD
7 3 (1.81%) Linux Command Line
8 2 (1.20%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.20%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.20%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.20%) Virtual Team
9 1 (0.60%) Cyber Defence
9 1 (0.60%) Cyber Kill Chain
9 1 (0.60%) Driving Licence
9 1 (0.60%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.60%) Greenfield Project
9 1 (0.60%) Operational Technology
Operating Systems
1 41 (24.70%) Windows
2 16 (9.64%) Linux
3 2 (1.20%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.60%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.60%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (25.90%) High Availability
2 39 (23.49%) Problem-Solving
3 37 (22.29%) ITIL
4 30 (18.07%) Identity Access Management
4 30 (18.07%) Load Balancing
5 29 (17.47%) Observability
6 19 (11.45%) ITSM
7 18 (10.84%) Migration
8 16 (9.64%) Stakeholder Management
8 16 (9.64%) Technical Leadership
9 15 (9.04%) Network Architecture
9 15 (9.04%) Network Design
10 13 (7.83%) Network Virtualisation
10 13 (7.83%) Project Delivery
10 13 (7.83%) Project Management
11 12 (7.23%) Change Management
11 12 (7.23%) Customer Requirements
11 12 (7.23%) Roadmaps
12 11 (6.63%) Network Monitoring
13 10 (6.02%) Service Management
Programming Languages
1 10 (6.02%) Python
2 4 (2.41%) SQL
Qualifications
1 112 (67.47%) Security Cleared
2 75 (45.18%) Cisco Certification
3 72 (43.37%) SC Cleared
4 47 (28.31%) CCNP
5 35 (21.08%) DV Cleared
6 20 (12.05%) Degree
7 17 (10.24%) CCNA
8 10 (6.02%) CCIE
8 10 (6.02%) PMP
9 9 (5.42%) JNCIA
9 9 (5.42%) JNCIS
10 8 (4.82%) JNCIP
11 7 (4.22%) JNCIE
12 6 (3.61%) Network+ Certification
13 3 (1.81%) BPSS Clearance
13 3 (1.81%) PMI Certification
14 2 (1.20%) AWS Certification
14 2 (1.20%) Azure Certification
14 2 (1.20%) Computer Science Degree
14 2 (1.20%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.41%) NIST
1 4 (2.41%) SLA
2 3 (1.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.81%) QA
3 2 (1.20%) JSP 440
3 2 (1.20%) NCSC
4 1 (0.60%) GDPR
System Software
1 16 (9.64%) VMware Infrastructure
2 8 (4.82%) Active Directory
2 8 (4.82%) VMware NSX
3 4 (2.41%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.60%) KVM
4 1 (0.60%) RHEV
4 1 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
4 1 (0.60%) vSphere
4 1 (0.60%) Xen
Systems Management
1 30 (18.07%) FortiGate
2 16 (9.64%) Ansible
3 7 (4.22%) Terraform
4 6 (3.61%) Nagios
5 5 (3.01%) Endace
6 2 (1.20%) WSUS
7 1 (0.60%) Backup Exec
7 1 (0.60%) CASB
7 1 (0.60%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.60%) Norton AntiVirus
7 1 (0.60%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.60%) SCOM
7 1 (0.60%) Single Sign-On
7 1 (0.60%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 94 (56.63%) Cisco
2 51 (30.72%) Juniper
3 38 (22.89%) F5
4 37 (22.29%) SolarWinds
5 32 (19.28%) Palo Alto
6 27 (16.27%) Aruba
7 25 (15.06%) Splunk
8 24 (14.46%) Fortinet
9 22 (13.25%) CheckPoint
9 22 (13.25%) Extreme Networks
10 21 (12.65%) VMware
11 14 (8.43%) Microsoft
12 8 (4.82%) MuleSoft
13 5 (3.01%) Meraki
14 4 (2.41%) Infoblox
14 4 (2.41%) Mellanox
14 4 (2.41%) NVIDIA
14 4 (2.41%) ServiceNow
14 4 (2.41%) Zscaler
15 2 (1.20%) Veeam