WAN Contracts in the Thames Valley

Wide Area Network (WAN)
South East > Thames Valley

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the Thames Valley requiring WAN skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited WAN over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 66 66 58
Rank change year-on-year 0 -8 +24
Contract jobs citing WAN 36 80 99
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 2.38% 2.98% 3.38%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 14.29% 13.22% 20.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 21 26 66
10th Percentile £300 £148 £320
25th Percentile £363 £294 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £513 £478
Median % change year-on-year -12.20% +7.27% -2.49%
75th Percentile £550 £583 £550
90th Percentile £615 £650 £578
South East median daily rate £450 £458 £450
% change year-on-year -1.64% +1.67% +5.88%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 5 9
10th Percentile - £20.80 £19.30
25th Percentile £18.50 £24.25 £27.00
Median hourly rate £19.00 £73.50 £66.00
Median % change year-on-year -74.15% +11.36% +407.69%
75th Percentile £19.50 £75.24 £80.25
90th Percentile - £76.29 £80.40
South East median hourly rate £19.00 £67.02 £62.00
% change year-on-year -71.65% +8.10% +249.30%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
Thames Valley

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 Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 252 605 475
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 16.68% 22.52% 16.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 129 295 291
10th Percentile £242 £205 £313
25th Percentile £363 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £466 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year -6.80% +2.46% +5.51%
75th Percentile £550 £594 £570
90th Percentile £618 £650 £650
South East median daily rate £480 £490 £488
% change year-on-year -2.04% +0.51% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 50 15
10th Percentile - £17.79 £19.70
25th Percentile - £23.78 £25.75
Median hourly rate £14.20 £65.00 £66.00
Median % change year-on-year -78.15% -1.52% +288.24%
75th Percentile £22.09 £85.65 £80.25
90th Percentile £31.44 £87.47 £81.22
South East median hourly rate £54.94 £57.35 £53.00
% change year-on-year -4.21% +8.21% +146.51%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Job postings citing WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the Thames Valley

WAN
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing WAN in the Thames Valley.

Daily rate trend for WAN in the Thames Valley

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the Thames Valley

WAN
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing WAN in the Thames Valley.

Hourly rate trend for WAN in the Thames Valley

WAN
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing WAN within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 1 May 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 -11 28 £450 -14.29% 25
Buckinghamshire +20 7 £583 +37.06% 11
Oxfordshire 0 1 - - 14
WAN
South East

WAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 2 (5.56%) Camunda
2 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Exchange
2 1 (2.78%) SharePoint
Applications
1 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Office
1 1 (2.78%) Microsoft Project
Cloud Services
1 8 (22.22%) AWS
2 7 (19.44%) Azure
3 4 (11.11%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (2.78%) Cloud Computing
4 1 (2.78%) GCP
4 1 (2.78%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 26 (72.22%) LAN
2 25 (69.44%) MPLS
2 25 (69.44%) VPN
3 18 (50.00%) Ethernet
4 17 (47.22%) SAN
5 16 (44.44%) ATM
5 16 (44.44%) Frame Relay
5 16 (44.44%) GPRS
5 16 (44.44%) GSM
5 16 (44.44%) LTE
5 16 (44.44%) SDH
5 16 (44.44%) UMTS
5 16 (44.44%) Wireshark
6 14 (38.89%) SD-WAN
7 12 (33.33%) Firewall
8 8 (22.22%) BGP
8 8 (22.22%) DNS
8 8 (22.22%) TCP/IP
9 7 (19.44%) OSPF
10 6 (16.67%) Network Security
General
1 25 (69.44%) Social Skills
2 22 (61.11%) Telecoms
3 2 (5.56%) Analytical Skills
3 2 (5.56%) Billing
3 2 (5.56%) Manufacturing
3 2 (5.56%) Public Sector
4 1 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
4 1 (2.78%) Law
Job Titles
1 15 (41.67%) IP Engineer
2 14 (38.89%) Test Engineer
3 11 (30.56%) Network Engineer
4 10 (27.78%) Architect
5 5 (13.89%) IP Network Engineer
5 5 (13.89%) Technical Architect
6 3 (8.33%) Consultant
6 3 (8.33%) Network Security Engineer
6 3 (8.33%) Security Engineer
6 3 (8.33%) Senior
6 3 (8.33%) Senior Architect
6 3 (8.33%) Senior Technical Architect
7 2 (5.56%) BSS Architect
7 2 (5.56%) IP Consultant
7 2 (5.56%) IP Network Consultant
7 2 (5.56%) Network Architect
7 2 (5.56%) Network Consultant
8 1 (2.78%) Cisco Architect
8 1 (2.78%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
8 1 (2.78%) Network Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (2.78%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 16 (44.44%) Self-Motivation
2 5 (13.89%) Public Cloud
3 4 (11.11%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (8.33%) PKI
4 3 (8.33%) Virtual Team
5 2 (5.56%) Legacy Systems
5 2 (5.56%) TM Forum
6 1 (2.78%) Data Centre
6 1 (2.78%) Data Protection Act
6 1 (2.78%) IoT
6 1 (2.78%) Life Science
6 1 (2.78%) Management Information System
6 1 (2.78%) Private Cloud
6 1 (2.78%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 16 (44.44%) Linux
1 16 (44.44%) Unix
2 2 (5.56%) Windows
3 1 (2.78%) Mac OS
3 1 (2.78%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 18 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
2 17 (47.22%) Project Management
3 16 (44.44%) Fault Management
3 16 (44.44%) Regression Testing
3 16 (44.44%) Test Strategy
4 6 (16.67%) DevSecOps
4 6 (16.67%) TOGAF
5 5 (13.89%) ITIL
6 4 (11.11%) CI/CD
6 4 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
7 3 (8.33%) Adaptive Security
7 3 (8.33%) Cybersecurity
7 3 (8.33%) Infrastructure as Code
7 3 (8.33%) IT Strategy
7 3 (8.33%) Migration
7 3 (8.33%) Requirements Management
7 3 (8.33%) Technology Strategy
8 2 (5.56%) Continuous Integration
8 2 (5.56%) eTOM
8 2 (5.56%) Zachman Framework
Programming Languages
1 16 (44.44%) Java
2 1 (2.78%) SQL
Qualifications
1 23 (63.89%) CCNP
1 23 (63.89%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (44.44%) ISEB
2 16 (44.44%) ISTQB
2 16 (44.44%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 7 (19.44%) Security Cleared
4 6 (16.67%) SC Cleared
5 4 (11.11%) Microsoft Certification
6 3 (8.33%) CCNA
6 3 (8.33%) Degree
6 3 (8.33%) MCSE
6 3 (8.33%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
7 2 (5.56%) CCDP
8 1 (2.78%) A+ Certification
8 1 (2.78%) CCDA
8 1 (2.78%) CCIP
8 1 (2.78%) CISSP
8 1 (2.78%) MCP
8 1 (2.78%) PMI Certification
8 1 (2.78%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (13.89%) NIST
2 4 (11.11%) Cyber Essentials
2 4 (11.11%) NCSC
3 1 (2.78%) PCI DSS
3 1 (2.78%) QA
System Software
1 6 (16.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 5 (13.89%) VMware NSX
3 1 (2.78%) Active Directory
3 1 (2.78%) Hyper-V
3 1 (2.78%) vSphere
3 1 (2.78%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 1 (2.78%) CASB
1 1 (2.78%) FortiGate
1 1 (2.78%) SCCM
Vendors
1 30 (83.33%) Cisco
2 21 (58.33%) Microsoft
3 18 (50.00%) Juniper
4 8 (22.22%) Palo Alto
5 6 (16.67%) VMware
6 2 (5.56%) Aruba
6 2 (5.56%) CheckPoint
6 2 (5.56%) F5
7 1 (2.78%) ADVA
7 1 (2.78%) Alcatel-Lucent
7 1 (2.78%) Blue Coat
7 1 (2.78%) Citrix
7 1 (2.78%) Google
7 1 (2.78%) HP
7 1 (2.78%) Splunk