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 30 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 79 88 69
Rank change year-on-year +9 -19 +4
Contract jobs citing WAN 149 65 161
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.72% 2.18% 2.86%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 20.58% 12.45% 12.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 81 40 58
10th Percentile £413 £273 £148
25th Percentile £431 £379 £332
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £480 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year +1.05% +2.70% +1.76%
75th Percentile £538 £576 £560
90th Percentile £581 £630 £611
England median daily rate £490 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.16% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 1 4
10th Percentile £41.82 - £24.48
25th Percentile £42.13 £18.50 £24.81
Median hourly rate £48.72 £19.00 £44.00
Median % change year-on-year +156.42% -56.82% +51.72%
75th Percentile £62.29 £19.50 £67.14
90th Percentile £75.62 - £67.36
England median hourly rate £22.50 £50.00 £24.50
% change year-on-year -55.00% +104.08% -36.57%

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 724 522 1,333
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 13.21% 17.52% 23.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 496 317 644
10th Percentile £261 £209 £205
25th Percentile £405 £350 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +5.26% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £568
90th Percentile £675 £650 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £475
% change year-on-year - +5.26% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 29 119
10th Percentile £16.03 £14.20 £16.20
25th Percentile £20.08 £28.00 £24.00
Median hourly rate £45.10 £54.88 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -17.81% -4.32% +27.44%
75th Percentile £56.38 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.89 £72.00 £85.65
England median hourly rate £40.54 £35.75 £32.50
% change year-on-year +13.40% +10.00% +71.05%

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 30 March 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 30 March 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 30 March 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 +12 82 £458 -13.99% 20
Berkshire +8 67 £430 +30.30% 11
Hampshire -13 31 £513 +7.89% 19
Kent +9 20 £443 +1.14% 2
Surrey -13 10 £528 +14.05% 1
Buckinghamshire -22 8 £525 -9.87% 6
Oxfordshire - 7 £480 - 3
East Sussex +3 4 £475 +192.31% 4
West Sussex -13 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 2 (1.34%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.67%) Confluence
2 1 (0.67%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (0.67%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (4.03%) MS Visio
2 5 (3.36%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (2.68%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 4 (2.68%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 31 (20.81%) Azure
2 20 (13.42%) AWS
3 4 (2.68%) Entra ID
4 3 (2.01%) Azure DevOps
4 3 (2.01%) GCP
4 3 (2.01%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (1.34%) Google Ads
6 1 (0.67%) AWS Direct Connect
6 1 (0.67%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 1 (0.67%) Azure Sentinel
6 1 (0.67%) IaaS
6 1 (0.67%) PaaS
6 1 (0.67%) SaaS
6 1 (0.67%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 117 (78.52%) LAN
2 90 (60.40%) Firewall
3 75 (50.34%) BGP
4 70 (46.98%) OSPF
5 46 (30.87%) SD-WAN
5 46 (30.87%) VPN
6 38 (25.50%) DNS
7 37 (24.83%) DHCP
8 29 (19.46%) MPLS
9 27 (18.12%) Network Security
10 26 (17.45%) Ethernet VPN
11 25 (16.78%) BIG-IP
12 24 (16.11%) IPsec
12 24 (16.11%) VXLAN
13 23 (15.44%) Cisco ISE
14 22 (14.77%) Junos
14 22 (14.77%) TCP/IP
15 18 (12.08%) Structured Cabling
16 16 (10.74%) Wireless
17 12 (8.05%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.67%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 5 (3.36%) JIRA
2 2 (1.34%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (0.67%) GitLab
3 1 (0.67%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.67%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 32 (21.48%) Social Skills
2 22 (14.77%) Documentation Skills
3 20 (13.42%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (10.74%) Public Sector
5 12 (8.05%) Finance
5 12 (8.05%) Manufacturing
6 6 (4.03%) Military
6 6 (4.03%) Telecoms
7 4 (2.68%) Financial Institution
8 3 (2.01%) Billing
8 3 (2.01%) Legal
9 2 (1.34%) Organisational Skills
9 2 (1.34%) Police
10 1 (0.67%) Retail
Job Titles
1 62 (41.61%) Network Engineer
2 30 (20.13%) Architect
3 25 (16.78%) Senior
4 16 (10.74%) Network Architect
4 16 (10.74%) Senior Network Engineer
5 15 (10.07%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 12 (8.05%) Lead
7 11 (7.38%) Firewall Specialist
7 11 (7.38%) Network Specialist
8 10 (6.71%) Cisco Engineer
8 10 (6.71%) Cisco Network Engineer
8 10 (6.71%) Project Manager
9 9 (6.04%) Network Manager
9 9 (6.04%) Technical Architect
10 8 (5.37%) Senior Architect
11 7 (4.70%) Senior Network Architect
12 6 (4.03%) Network Project Manager
12 6 (4.03%) SC Cleared Project Manager
13 5 (3.36%) IP Specialist
13 5 (3.36%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (17.45%) 802.1X
2 8 (5.37%) Middleware
3 6 (4.03%) NETCONF
3 6 (4.03%) YANG
4 4 (2.68%) OpenConfig
4 4 (2.68%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.34%) REST
6 1 (0.67%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 63 (42.28%) Data Centre
2 22 (14.77%) Clustering
3 21 (14.09%) PKI
4 9 (6.04%) Hybrid Cloud
4 9 (6.04%) Public Cloud
5 7 (4.70%) Analytical Mindset
6 6 (4.03%) Self-Motivation
7 5 (3.36%) Cloud Native
8 3 (2.01%) BYOD
8 3 (2.01%) Linux Command Line
9 2 (1.34%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.34%) Virtual Team
10 1 (0.67%) Cyber Defence
10 1 (0.67%) Cyber Kill Chain
10 1 (0.67%) Driving Licence
10 1 (0.67%) Enterprise Cloud
10 1 (0.67%) Enterprise Software
10 1 (0.67%) Greenfield Project
10 1 (0.67%) Operational Technology
10 1 (0.67%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 37 (24.83%) Windows
2 15 (10.07%) Linux
3 2 (1.34%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.67%) Mac OS
4 1 (0.67%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (26.85%) High Availability
2 37 (24.83%) Problem-Solving
3 33 (22.15%) ITIL
4 27 (18.12%) Identity Access Management
4 27 (18.12%) Load Balancing
5 26 (17.45%) Observability
6 19 (12.75%) ITSM
7 16 (10.74%) Migration
8 13 (8.72%) Stakeholder Management
8 13 (8.72%) Technical Leadership
9 12 (8.05%) Customer Requirements
9 12 (8.05%) Network Architecture
9 12 (8.05%) Project Delivery
9 12 (8.05%) Project Management
10 11 (7.38%) Network Design
10 11 (7.38%) Network Virtualisation
11 10 (6.71%) Change Management
11 10 (6.71%) Service Management
12 9 (6.04%) Availability Management
12 9 (6.04%) Network Monitoring
Programming Languages
1 9 (6.04%) Python
2 4 (2.68%) SQL
Qualifications
1 100 (67.11%) Security Cleared
2 66 (44.30%) SC Cleared
3 64 (42.95%) Cisco Certification
4 40 (26.85%) CCNP
5 32 (21.48%) DV Cleared
6 17 (11.41%) Degree
7 16 (10.74%) CCNA
8 9 (6.04%) JNCIA
8 9 (6.04%) JNCIS
8 9 (6.04%) PMP
9 8 (5.37%) CCIE
9 8 (5.37%) JNCIP
10 6 (4.03%) JNCIE
10 6 (4.03%) Network+ Certification
11 2 (1.34%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.34%) CCSE
11 2 (1.34%) ITIL Certification
11 2 (1.34%) PMI Certification
12 1 (0.67%) Computer Science Degree
12 1 (0.67%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (2.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 3 (2.01%) NIST
1 3 (2.01%) SLA
2 2 (1.34%) JSP 440
2 2 (1.34%) NCSC
3 1 (0.67%) GDPR
3 1 (0.67%) QA
System Software
1 13 (8.72%) VMware Infrastructure
2 7 (4.70%) Active Directory
3 6 (4.03%) VMware NSX
4 4 (2.68%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.67%) KVM
5 1 (0.67%) RHEV
5 1 (0.67%) Xen
Systems Management
1 25 (16.78%) FortiGate
2 14 (9.40%) Ansible
3 6 (4.03%) Nagios
3 6 (4.03%) Terraform
4 5 (3.36%) Endace
5 2 (1.34%) WSUS
6 1 (0.67%) Backup Exec
6 1 (0.67%) CASB
6 1 (0.67%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.67%) Norton AntiVirus
6 1 (0.67%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.67%) SCOM
6 1 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.67%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 83 (55.70%) Cisco
2 47 (31.54%) Juniper
3 33 (22.15%) F5
4 31 (20.81%) SolarWinds
5 30 (20.13%) Palo Alto
6 26 (17.45%) Aruba
7 22 (14.77%) Splunk
8 21 (14.09%) CheckPoint
9 19 (12.75%) Extreme Networks
9 19 (12.75%) Fortinet
10 16 (10.74%) VMware
11 10 (6.71%) Microsoft
12 8 (5.37%) MuleSoft
13 5 (3.36%) Zscaler
14 4 (2.68%) Mellanox
14 4 (2.68%) NVIDIA
15 3 (2.01%) Infoblox
15 3 (2.01%) Meraki
15 3 (2.01%) ServiceNow
16 2 (1.34%) Pegasus