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

6 months to
13 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 130 111 68
Rank change year-on-year -19 -43 -19
Contract jobs citing WAN 105 53 119
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 1.60% 1.49% 2.79%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.62% 8.89% 15.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 70 31 83
10th Percentile £325 £250 £200
25th Percentile £400 £366 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -10.00% +12.97%
75th Percentile £554 £500 £619
90th Percentile £676 £694 £680
England median daily rate £505 £466 £500
% change year-on-year +8.49% -6.90% +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% -17.20%
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% +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 718 596 768
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 10.95% 16.78% 17.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 414 429 429
10th Percentile £275 £204 £242
25th Percentile £400 £325 £390
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £511 £488 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.87% -2.50% +10.50%
75th Percentile £590 £588 £608
90th Percentile £650 £638 £665
England median daily rate £500 £478 £500
% change year-on-year +4.71% -4.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 90 20 43
10th Percentile £19.34 £18.86 £26.40
25th Percentile £31.25 £38.94 £35.00
Median hourly rate £52.43 £55.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -4.68% -21.43% +16.67%
75th Percentile £65.22 £84.66 £74.38
90th Percentile £96.00 £90.04 £75.00
England median hourly rate £38.72 £34.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +13.88% -40.87% +1.79%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -6 59 £450 +16.13% 26
Berkshire -5 46 £400 +3.23% 12
Hampshire -25 27 £525 +5.00% 28
Surrey -16 13 £475 +21.41% 18
Buckinghamshire - 11 £652 - 10
Middlesex - 2 - - 1
Oxfordshire - 2 £480 - 4
Sussex - 2 £236 - 3
West Sussex - 1 £500 - 9
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 (6.67%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.95%) Confluence
Applications
1 4 (3.81%) Microsoft Excel
1 4 (3.81%) Microsoft Office
1 4 (3.81%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 22 (20.95%) Azure
2 21 (20.00%) AWS
3 4 (3.81%) GCP
3 4 (3.81%) Virtual Private Cloud
4 2 (1.90%) IaaS
4 2 (1.90%) Microsoft 365
4 2 (1.90%) OpenShift
5 1 (0.95%) AWS CloudFormation
5 1 (0.95%) AWS Direct Connect
5 1 (0.95%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.95%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 79 (75.24%) LAN
2 48 (45.71%) Firewall
3 45 (42.86%) BGP
4 40 (38.10%) SD-WAN
5 33 (31.43%) MPLS
6 32 (30.48%) IPsec
7 31 (29.52%) VPN
8 29 (27.62%) DNS
9 26 (24.76%) Network Security
10 21 (20.00%) Wi-Fi
11 19 (18.10%) DHCP
11 19 (18.10%) OSPF
12 17 (16.19%) VLAN
12 17 (16.19%) Wireless
13 14 (13.33%) TCP/IP
14 13 (12.38%) SSL
15 12 (11.43%) Cisco Firepower
15 12 (11.43%) NGFW
16 10 (9.52%) Cisco ASA
16 10 (9.52%) VXLAN
Development Applications
1 2 (1.90%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.95%) JIRA
General
1 31 (29.52%) Social Skills
2 20 (19.05%) Telecoms
3 9 (8.57%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (4.76%) Organisational Skills
5 4 (3.81%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.86%) Documentation Skills
7 2 (1.90%) Billing
7 2 (1.90%) Influencing Skills
7 2 (1.90%) Manufacturing
7 2 (1.90%) Presentation Skills
8 1 (0.95%) Finance
8 1 (0.95%) Legal
8 1 (0.95%) Military
Job Titles
1 29 (27.62%) Architect
2 25 (23.81%) Network Engineer
3 22 (20.95%) Network Architect
4 12 (11.43%) Developer
4 12 (11.43%) Senior
5 10 (9.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 8 (7.62%) Senior Network Engineer
7 6 (5.71%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 6 (5.71%) Security Engineer
8 5 (4.76%) Cisco Engineer
8 5 (4.76%) Infrastructure Services Engineer
8 5 (4.76%) IP Architect
8 5 (4.76%) Solutions Architect
8 5 (4.76%) Support Engineer
9 4 (3.81%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 4 (3.81%) Consultant
9 4 (3.81%) Lead
9 4 (3.81%) Network Security Engineer
9 4 (3.81%) Technical Architect
9 4 (3.81%) WAN Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (9.52%) 802.1X
2 8 (7.62%) NETCONF
3 7 (6.67%) YANG
4 6 (5.71%) REST
5 4 (3.81%) Terraform
6 3 (2.86%) RESTCONF
7 2 (1.90%) Middleware
7 2 (1.90%) OpenConfig
8 1 (0.95%) gRPC
Miscellaneous
1 27 (25.71%) Data Centre
2 14 (13.33%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (8.57%) Cloud Native
3 9 (8.57%) Private Cloud
4 7 (6.67%) PKI
5 4 (3.81%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (3.81%) Security Posture
6 3 (2.86%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 2 (1.90%) Analytical Mindset
7 2 (1.90%) Clustering
7 2 (1.90%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.90%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (1.90%) IoT
7 2 (1.90%) NHS
7 2 (1.90%) Onboarding
7 2 (1.90%) Operational Technology
7 2 (1.90%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.90%) Self-Motivation
7 2 (1.90%) Social Media
8 1 (0.95%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 16 (15.24%) Windows
2 10 (9.52%) Linux
3 9 (8.57%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.95%) macOS
4 1 (0.95%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 23 (21.90%) ITIL
2 21 (20.00%) Technical Leadership
3 20 (19.05%) Network Architecture
4 18 (17.14%) Stakeholder Management
5 14 (13.33%) Network Design
5 14 (13.33%) TOGAF
6 13 (12.38%) Roadmaps
7 12 (11.43%) High Availability
7 12 (11.43%) Infrastructure Engineering
7 12 (11.43%) Project Delivery
7 12 (11.43%) Vulnerability Management
8 10 (9.52%) Agile
8 10 (9.52%) Network Monitoring
8 10 (9.52%) Network Virtualisation
9 9 (8.57%) Change Control
9 9 (8.57%) Change Management
9 9 (8.57%) Enterprise Architecture
9 9 (8.57%) Network Segmentation
9 9 (8.57%) Problem-Solving
9 9 (8.57%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 11 (10.48%) Python
2 3 (2.86%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 53 (50.48%) Security Cleared
2 29 (27.62%) Cisco Certification
2 29 (27.62%) DV Cleared
3 22 (20.95%) SC Cleared
4 16 (15.24%) CCIE
4 16 (15.24%) CCNP
5 8 (7.62%) JNCIE
6 5 (4.76%) AWS Certification
6 5 (4.76%) Azure Certification
6 5 (4.76%) CCNA
7 4 (3.81%) Degree
7 4 (3.81%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
8 3 (2.86%) BC Cleared
9 2 (1.90%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (1.90%) CISSP
9 2 (1.90%) JNCIP
9 2 (1.90%) JNCIS
9 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Certification
9 2 (1.90%) PMI Certification
9 2 (1.90%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (6.67%) NCSC
2 6 (5.71%) NIST
3 4 (3.81%) QA
4 3 (2.86%) JSP 440
5 2 (1.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.90%) PMO
5 2 (1.90%) SLA
System Software
1 17 (16.19%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (10.48%) Active Directory
2 11 (10.48%) VMware NSX
3 8 (7.62%) vSphere
4 7 (6.67%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (2.86%) Firmware
5 3 (2.86%) Hyper-V
5 3 (2.86%) Virtual Desktop
5 3 (2.86%) Virtual Servers
5 3 (2.86%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (1.90%) Microsoft Virtual Server
Systems Management
1 13 (12.38%) Ansible
2 8 (7.62%) FortiGate
3 3 (2.86%) vCenter Server
4 2 (1.90%) CASB
4 2 (1.90%) Cisco CUCM
4 2 (1.90%) SCCM
4 2 (1.90%) WSUS
5 1 (0.95%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.95%) Nagios
Vendors
1 53 (50.48%) Cisco
2 26 (24.76%) Microsoft
3 25 (23.81%) Palo Alto
3 25 (23.81%) VMware
4 21 (20.00%) SolarWinds
5 20 (19.05%) F5
6 19 (18.10%) Juniper
7 18 (17.14%) Fortinet
8 10 (9.52%) CheckPoint
9 8 (7.62%) Meraki
9 8 (7.62%) ServiceNow
10 7 (6.67%) BT
11 6 (5.71%) Commvault
11 6 (5.71%) Veeam
12 5 (4.76%) Blue Coat
12 5 (4.76%) NetApp
12 5 (4.76%) Xerox
12 5 (4.76%) Zscaler
13 4 (3.81%) Becrypt
13 4 (3.81%) Extreme Networks