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 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 123 78 53
Rank change year-on-year -45 -25 +29
Contract jobs citing WAN 50 103 204
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.31% 2.49% 3.78%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 8.32% 13.98% 17.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 26 74 108
10th Percentile £225 £200 £148
25th Percentile £381 £273 £260
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £431 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -13.75% +11.11% -5.26%
75th Percentile £500 £588 £569
90th Percentile £536 £668 £638
England median daily rate £464 £500 £490
% change year-on-year -7.20% +2.04% +8.89%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 2 11
10th Percentile - £18.10 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £18.82 £18.50
Median hourly rate £20.00 £20.08 £25.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.37% -19.70% +13.64%
75th Percentile £21.00 £21.27 £45.00
90th Percentile - £21.95 £75.25
England median hourly rate £30.00 £70.00 £23.00
% change year-on-year -57.14% +204.35% -

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 601 737 1,188
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 15.70% 17.82% 22.02%
Number of daily rates quoted 434 409 645
10th Percentile £204 £237 £205
25th Percentile £326 £400 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £450
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% +11.11% -2.17%
75th Percentile £587 £606 £580
90th Percentile £625 £651 £650
England median daily rate £488 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -2.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 40 76
10th Percentile £18.32 £26.93 £16.00
25th Percentile £27.01 £35.00 £24.26
Median hourly rate £55.00 £70.00 £57.75
Median % change year-on-year -21.43% +21.22% +28.32%
75th Percentile £86.32 £75.00 £75.67
90th Percentile £90.45 - £77.50
England median hourly rate £34.00 £56.13 £56.45
% change year-on-year -39.42% -0.57% +34.15%

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 November 2025.

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
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 November 2025. 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
Berkshire +10 28 £400 - 93
Thames Valley -10 28 £400 -11.11% 149
Hampshire -7 16 £475 -17.39% 35
Surrey -11 5 £391 -23.66% 16
East Sussex - 2 £190 - 8
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 12 (24.00%) OpenStack
Cloud Services
1 15 (30.00%) AWS
2 11 (22.00%) Azure
3 6 (12.00%) OpenShift
4 3 (6.00%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (2.00%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 37 (74.00%) LAN
2 16 (32.00%) MPLS
3 12 (24.00%) BGP
4 11 (22.00%) Firewall
4 11 (22.00%) Wireless
5 10 (20.00%) VPN
6 8 (16.00%) DNS
7 7 (14.00%) SD-WAN
8 6 (12.00%) Network Security
8 6 (12.00%) OSPF
8 6 (12.00%) SNMP
8 6 (12.00%) TACACS
8 6 (12.00%) TCP/IP
9 4 (8.00%) CATAPAN
10 3 (6.00%) Broadband
10 3 (6.00%) Internet
10 3 (6.00%) Intranet
10 3 (6.00%) IPv6
10 3 (6.00%) NaaS
10 3 (6.00%) Wi-Fi
General
1 22 (44.00%) Social Skills
2 6 (12.00%) Documentation Skills
3 5 (10.00%) Telecoms
4 4 (8.00%) Finance
5 3 (6.00%) Public Sector
6 2 (4.00%) Aerospace
6 2 (4.00%) Aviation
7 1 (2.00%) Military
Job Titles
1 15 (30.00%) Architect
2 12 (24.00%) Network Engineer
3 6 (12.00%) Designer
3 6 (12.00%) IP Architect
3 6 (12.00%) IP Designer
3 6 (12.00%) IP Specialist
4 5 (10.00%) Network Architect
5 4 (8.00%) Installations Engineer
5 4 (8.00%) Senior
6 3 (6.00%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
6 3 (6.00%) Support Engineer
7 2 (4.00%) Desktop Engineer
7 2 (4.00%) Desktop Support
7 2 (4.00%) Desktop Support Engineer
7 2 (4.00%) Firewall Engineer
7 2 (4.00%) Security Engineer
7 2 (4.00%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
7 2 (4.00%) Solutions Architect
7 2 (4.00%) Technical Architect
7 2 (4.00%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (12.00%) NETCONF
1 6 (12.00%) REST
1 6 (12.00%) YANG
2 3 (6.00%) Middleware
3 2 (4.00%) RFC 2544
4 1 (2.00%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 12 (24.00%) Hybrid Cloud
2 10 (20.00%) Data Centre
3 9 (18.00%) Cloud Native
4 3 (6.00%) Data Protection Act
4 3 (6.00%) SCADA
4 3 (6.00%) Virtual Team
5 2 (4.00%) Fibre Optics
6 1 (2.00%) CCTV
6 1 (2.00%) Enterprise Cloud
6 1 (2.00%) Management Information System
6 1 (2.00%) Private Cloud
6 1 (2.00%) Public Cloud
6 1 (2.00%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 5 (10.00%) Windows
2 4 (8.00%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 20 (40.00%) Network Design
2 15 (30.00%) Network Virtualisation
3 8 (16.00%) Migration
3 8 (16.00%) Network Segmentation
3 8 (16.00%) TOGAF
4 7 (14.00%) Incident Response
4 7 (14.00%) Network Architecture
4 7 (14.00%) Problem-Solving
4 7 (14.00%) Roadmaps
4 7 (14.00%) Validation
5 6 (12.00%) DevOps
5 6 (12.00%) Enterprise Architecture
5 6 (12.00%) ITIL
5 6 (12.00%) Microservices
5 6 (12.00%) Strategic Thinking
6 5 (10.00%) Presales
6 5 (10.00%) Stakeholder Management
7 4 (8.00%) Cybersecurity
7 4 (8.00%) Root Cause Analysis
7 4 (8.00%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 12 (24.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 17 (34.00%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (32.00%) Security Cleared
3 13 (26.00%) CCIE
4 12 (24.00%) JNCIE
5 11 (22.00%) SC Cleared
6 6 (12.00%) AWS Certification
7 4 (8.00%) CCNA
7 4 (8.00%) CCNP
7 4 (8.00%) DV Cleared
8 3 (6.00%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (2.00%) BC Cleared
9 1 (2.00%) MCP
9 1 (2.00%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (8.00%) SLA
System Software
1 7 (14.00%) VMware Infrastructure
1 7 (14.00%) VMware NSX
2 4 (8.00%) Active Directory
3 2 (4.00%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (2.00%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 12 (24.00%) Ansible
2 6 (12.00%) Terraform
3 2 (4.00%) SCCM
4 1 (2.00%) Amdocs OSS
Vendors
1 20 (40.00%) Cisco
2 16 (32.00%) Juniper
3 11 (22.00%) Fortinet
4 8 (16.00%) VMware
5 7 (14.00%) F5
6 3 (6.00%) MuleSoft
7 2 (4.00%) Aruba
7 2 (4.00%) Citrix
7 2 (4.00%) HP
7 2 (4.00%) Palo Alto
7 2 (4.00%) Wyse
8 1 (2.00%) Blue Coat
8 1 (2.00%) CheckPoint
8 1 (2.00%) Ciena
8 1 (2.00%) Cramer
8 1 (2.00%) Meraki
8 1 (2.00%) Microsoft
8 1 (2.00%) Nokia
8 1 (2.00%) Qualys
8 1 (2.00%) Zscaler