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 6 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 120 108 67
Rank change year-on-year -12 -41 -19
Contract jobs citing WAN 108 59 121
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.65% 1.67% 2.80%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 15.00% 9.83% 15.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 74 36 84
10th Percentile £336 £250 £200
25th Percentile £406 £373 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +13.89% -10.00% +11.11%
75th Percentile £560 £500 £616
90th Percentile £688 £616 £679
England median daily rate £510 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +7.37% -5.00% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 4
10th Percentile £17.53 - £17.89
25th Percentile £17.56 £19.00 £18.28
Median hourly rate £17.75 £20.00 £20.70
Median % change year-on-year -11.25% -3.38% -48.25%
75th Percentile £35.23 £21.00 £35.61
90th Percentile £45.64 - £59.39
England median hourly rate £19.00 £30.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year -36.67% -57.14% +180.00%

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 720 600 778
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 11.03% 17.00% 17.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 412 429 436
10th Percentile £275 £204 £237
25th Percentile £400 £325 £384
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.38% -2.50% +11.11%
75th Percentile £590 £588 £608
90th Percentile £650 £638 £667
England median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 92 22 48
10th Percentile £19.34 £22.40 £26.78
25th Percentile £31.25 £50.63 £52.82
Median hourly rate £52.43 £56.25 £64.76
Median % change year-on-year -6.80% -13.14% +7.93%
75th Percentile £65.22 £80.50 £74.06
90th Percentile £94.25 £89.63 £75.00
England median hourly rate £38.72 £35.00 £57.35
% change year-on-year +10.63% -38.97% +1.52%

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 6 October 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 6 October 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 6 October 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 61 £458 +14.56% 41
Berkshire -6 47 £400 - 18
Hampshire -29 26 £525 +5.00% 41
Surrey -11 15 £475 +21.41% 22
Buckinghamshire - 12 £658 - 12
Middlesex - 2 - -
Oxfordshire - 2 £480 - 11
Sussex - 2 £236 - 3
West Sussex - 1 £500 - 17
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 (6.48%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.93%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (3.70%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (3.70%) Microsoft Office
1 4 (3.70%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 23 (21.30%) Azure
2 22 (20.37%) AWS
3 4 (3.70%) GCP
3 4 (3.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 2 (1.85%) IaaS
4 2 (1.85%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (1.85%) OpenShift
5 1 (0.93%) AWS CloudFormation
5 1 (0.93%) AWS Direct Connect
5 1 (0.93%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.93%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 81 (75.00%) LAN
2 52 (48.15%) Firewall
3 47 (43.52%) BGP
4 44 (40.74%) SD-WAN
5 33 (30.56%) MPLS
6 32 (29.63%) IPsec
6 32 (29.63%) VPN
7 29 (26.85%) DNS
8 27 (25.00%) Network Security
9 24 (22.22%) Wi-Fi
10 21 (19.44%) OSPF
11 19 (17.59%) DHCP
12 18 (16.67%) Wireless
13 17 (15.74%) VLAN
14 14 (12.96%) SSL
15 13 (12.04%) TCP/IP
16 12 (11.11%) Cisco Firepower
16 12 (11.11%) NGFW
16 12 (11.11%) VXLAN
17 10 (9.26%) Cisco ASA
Development Applications
1 2 (1.85%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.93%) JIRA
General
1 31 (28.70%) Social Skills
2 21 (19.44%) Telecoms
3 9 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
4 4 (3.70%) Organisational Skills
4 4 (3.70%) Public Sector
5 2 (1.85%) Billing
5 2 (1.85%) Documentation Skills
5 2 (1.85%) Influencing Skills
5 2 (1.85%) Presentation Skills
6 1 (0.93%) Finance
6 1 (0.93%) Legal
6 1 (0.93%) Manufacturing
6 1 (0.93%) Military
Job Titles
1 30 (27.78%) Architect
2 28 (25.93%) Network Engineer
3 23 (21.30%) Network Architect
4 13 (12.04%) Senior
5 12 (11.11%) Developer
6 11 (10.19%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 9 (8.33%) Senior Network Engineer
8 7 (6.48%) Security Engineer
9 6 (5.56%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 6 (5.56%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
10 5 (4.63%) Cisco Engineer
10 5 (4.63%) IP Architect
10 5 (4.63%) Lead
10 5 (4.63%) Network Manager
10 5 (4.63%) Network Security Engineer
10 5 (4.63%) Solutions Architect
10 5 (4.63%) Technical Architect
11 4 (3.70%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 4 (3.70%) Consultant
11 4 (3.70%) Technical Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (11.11%) 802.1X
2 8 (7.41%) NETCONF
3 7 (6.48%) YANG
4 6 (5.56%) REST
5 4 (3.70%) Terraform
6 3 (2.78%) RESTCONF
7 2 (1.85%) Middleware
7 2 (1.85%) OpenConfig
8 1 (0.93%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 30 (27.78%) Data Centre
2 16 (14.81%) Hybrid Cloud
3 10 (9.26%) Private Cloud
4 9 (8.33%) Cloud Native
5 7 (6.48%) PKI
6 4 (3.70%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (3.70%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 4 (3.70%) Security Posture
7 3 (2.78%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.85%) Analytical Mindset
8 2 (1.85%) Clustering
8 2 (1.85%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.85%) Fibre Optics
8 2 (1.85%) IoT
8 2 (1.85%) NHS
8 2 (1.85%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.85%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.85%) Social Media
9 1 (0.93%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.93%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 14 (12.96%) Windows
2 10 (9.26%) Linux
3 7 (6.48%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.93%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 24 (22.22%) ITIL
2 22 (20.37%) Technical Leadership
3 20 (18.52%) Network Architecture
3 20 (18.52%) Stakeholder Management
4 16 (14.81%) Network Design
5 15 (13.89%) Roadmaps
5 15 (13.89%) TOGAF
6 13 (12.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 13 (12.04%) Project Delivery
7 12 (11.11%) High Availability
7 12 (11.11%) Vulnerability Management
8 11 (10.19%) Agile
8 11 (10.19%) Network Monitoring
9 10 (9.26%) Change Control
9 10 (9.26%) Change Management
9 10 (9.26%) Migration
9 10 (9.26%) Network Virtualisation
10 9 (8.33%) Mentoring
10 9 (8.33%) Network Segmentation
10 9 (8.33%) Problem-Solving
Programming Languages
1 11 (10.19%) Python
2 2 (1.85%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 57 (52.78%) Security Cleared
2 33 (30.56%) Cisco Certification
3 30 (27.78%) DV Cleared
4 25 (23.15%) SC Cleared
5 20 (18.52%) CCNP
6 16 (14.81%) CCIE
7 8 (7.41%) JNCIE
8 6 (5.56%) CCNA
8 6 (5.56%) Degree
9 5 (4.63%) AWS Certification
9 5 (4.63%) Azure Certification
9 5 (4.63%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (2.78%) BC Cleared
10 3 (2.78%) PMI Certification
10 3 (2.78%) PMP
11 2 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (1.85%) CISSP
11 2 (1.85%) JNCIP
11 2 (1.85%) JNCIS
11 2 (1.85%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (6.48%) NCSC
2 6 (5.56%) NIST
3 4 (3.70%) QA
4 3 (2.78%) JSP 440
5 2 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.85%) PMO
5 2 (1.85%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (16.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (11.11%) VMware NSX
3 10 (9.26%) Active Directory
4 8 (7.41%) Virtual Machines
4 8 (7.41%) vSphere
5 4 (3.70%) Virtual Servers
6 3 (2.78%) Firmware
6 3 (2.78%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (1.85%) Hyper-V
7 2 (1.85%) Microsoft Virtual Server
7 2 (1.85%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 13 (12.04%) Ansible
2 9 (8.33%) FortiGate
3 2 (1.85%) CASB
3 2 (1.85%) Cisco CUCM
3 2 (1.85%) vCenter Server
4 1 (0.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 1 (0.93%) Nagios
4 1 (0.93%) SCCM
4 1 (0.93%) WSUS
Vendors
1 57 (52.78%) Cisco
2 27 (25.00%) Microsoft
2 27 (25.00%) VMware
3 26 (24.07%) Palo Alto
4 23 (21.30%) SolarWinds
5 22 (20.37%) F5
6 20 (18.52%) Juniper
7 19 (17.59%) Fortinet
8 11 (10.19%) CheckPoint
9 10 (9.26%) Meraki
10 8 (7.41%) BT
10 8 (7.41%) ServiceNow
11 7 (6.48%) Commvault
11 7 (6.48%) Veeam
12 6 (5.56%) NetApp
12 6 (5.56%) Xerox
13 5 (4.63%) Aruba
13 5 (4.63%) Blue Coat
13 5 (4.63%) Zscaler
14 4 (3.70%) Extreme Networks