Network Design Contract Job Trends in the South West

Network Design
England > South West

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South West requiring Network Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 128 92 118
Rank change year-on-year -36 +26 +41
Contract jobs citing Network Design 9 26 27
As % of all contract jobs in the South West 0.37% 1.33% 0.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.45% 1.51% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 5 17 9
10th Percentile £426 £382 £433
25th Percentile - £450 £519
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £538 £538
Median % change year-on-year -16.28% - +26.47%
75th Percentile - £551 £600
90th Percentile £465 £556 £718
England median daily rate £500 £525 £575
% change year-on-year -4.76% -8.70% +27.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 1 9
10th Percentile - - £63.58
25th Percentile - - -
Median hourly rate - £75.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year - +13.67% -5.74%
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - -
England median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year -0.99% +13.67% -5.74%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South West

Network Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the South West.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 2,006 1,719 2,457
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West 81.98% 88.06% 84.93%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,162 1,045 1,615
10th Percentile £263 £248 £275
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £629 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £714 £725
England median daily rate £500 £525 £538
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.33% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 318 106 262
10th Percentile £15.62 £18.51 £17.46
25th Percentile £20.82 £46.56 £44.44
Median hourly rate £38.94 £65.00 £59.84
Median % change year-on-year -40.09% +8.62% -2.70%
75th Percentile £65.00 £68.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £65.30 £74.22 £83.40
England median hourly rate £25.15 £34.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -27.10% -18.82% +21.43%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Network Design job vacancy trend in the South West

Network Design
Daily Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Network Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Network Design

Network Design
Hourly Rate Trend in the South West

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Network Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the South West citing Network Design

Network Design
Contract Job Locations in the South West

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Design within the South West region over the 6 months to 14 January 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
Bristol -16 6 £450 - 2
Wiltshire -21 3 - - 3
Network Design
England

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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:

Applications
1 1 (11.11%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (11.11%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 3 (33.33%) AWS
1 3 (33.33%) Azure
1 3 (33.33%) GCP
2 1 (11.11%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 5 (55.56%) Radio Access Network
2 4 (44.44%) 4G
3 3 (33.33%) 5G
3 3 (33.33%) Firewall
3 3 (33.33%) LTE
3 3 (33.33%) Network Security
4 2 (22.22%) 2G
4 2 (22.22%) 3GPP
4 2 (22.22%) SD-WAN
4 2 (22.22%) WAN
4 2 (22.22%) Wireshark
5 1 (11.11%) 5G NR
5 1 (11.11%) BGP
5 1 (11.11%) Cisco IOS
5 1 (11.11%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (11.11%) DMVPN
5 1 (11.11%) MIMO
5 1 (11.11%) OSPF
5 1 (11.11%) VXLAN
General
1 6 (66.67%) Telecoms
2 4 (44.44%) Social Skills
3 1 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (11.11%) Documentation Skills
3 1 (11.11%) Manufacturing
3 1 (11.11%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 4 (44.44%) Network Design Specialist
1 4 (44.44%) Network Specialist
2 2 (22.22%) Architect
2 2 (22.22%) Design Engineer
2 2 (22.22%) Enterprise Architect
2 2 (22.22%) Network Architect
2 2 (22.22%) Network Engineer
2 2 (22.22%) Performance Specialist
3 1 (11.11%) Ericsson Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) IT Architect
3 1 (11.11%) Network Design Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) RAN Design Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) RAN Engineer
3 1 (11.11%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 2 (22.22%) Cloud Native
1 2 (22.22%) Data Centre
1 2 (22.22%) Hybrid Cloud
2 1 (11.11%) IoT
2 1 (11.11%) NB-IoT
2 1 (11.11%) Virtual Team
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (22.22%) Architectural Design
1 2 (22.22%) Change Management
1 2 (22.22%) Digital Transformation Strategy
1 2 (22.22%) ETL
1 2 (22.22%) High Availability
1 2 (22.22%) ITIL
1 2 (22.22%) Network Architecture
1 2 (22.22%) Release Management
1 2 (22.22%) Root Cause Analysis
1 2 (22.22%) Stakeholder Management
1 2 (22.22%) Visualisation
2 1 (11.11%) Change Control
2 1 (11.11%) Co-Creation
2 1 (11.11%) Critical Thinking
2 1 (11.11%) Customer Experience
2 1 (11.11%) Customer Service
2 1 (11.11%) Matrix Organization
2 1 (11.11%) Presales
2 1 (11.11%) Project Governance
2 1 (11.11%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 2 (22.22%) Python
1 2 (22.22%) SQL
Qualifications
1 2 (22.22%) Degree
2 1 (11.11%) BPSS Clearance
2 1 (11.11%) CCNP
2 1 (11.11%) Cisco Certification
2 1 (11.11%) SC Cleared
2 1 (11.11%) Security Cleared
2 1 (11.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (22.22%) GDPR
2 1 (11.11%) QA
System Software
1 1 (11.11%) VMware Infrastructure
Vendors
1 3 (33.33%) Ericsson
1 3 (33.33%) Nokia
2 2 (22.22%) Actix
3 1 (11.11%) BMC
3 1 (11.11%) Cisco
3 1 (11.11%) Mapinfo
3 1 (11.11%) Remedy
3 1 (11.11%) VMware