Network Optimisation Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Network Optimisation
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Network Optimisation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 393 338 399
Rank change year-on-year -55 +61 +99
Contract jobs citing Network Optimisation 6 18 9
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.033% 0.12% 0.046%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.038% 0.14% 0.053%
Number of daily rates quoted 2 10 9
10th Percentile £449 £292 £300
25th Percentile £495 £381 £375
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £586 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +46.56% -11.11% +9.76%
75th Percentile £688 £569 -
90th Percentile £740 £629 £455
UK median daily rate £500 £550 £450
% change year-on-year -9.09% +22.22% +14.65%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 4 0
Median hourly rate - £49.28 -
UK median hourly rate - £49.28 -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Network Optimisation 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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 15,652 12,774 16,981
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 85.55% 87.39% 87.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,590 7,494 10,922
10th Percentile £221 £243 £250
25th Percentile £375 £381 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £675 £685 £691
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,719 732 1,219
10th Percentile £14.38 £15.50 £14.25
25th Percentile £17.30 £20.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £23.58 £30.45 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.58% -32.33% +40.63%
75th Percentile £51.50 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.22 £73.75 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £44.00
% change year-on-year -22.62% -26.14% +25.71%

Network Optimisation
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Optimisation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Network Optimisation job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

Network Optimisation
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Network Optimisation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Network Optimisation

Network Optimisation
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Optimisation in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Network Optimisation in the UK excluding London

Network Optimisation
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Network Optimisation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Network Optimisation

Network Optimisation
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Optimisation within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 31 December 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
South East -18 5 £423 +5.63% 1
South West -5 1 £750 +36.36%
Network Optimisation
UK

Network Optimisation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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:

Communications & Networking
1 5 (83.33%) MPLS
1 5 (83.33%) VPN
2 3 (50.00%) BGP
2 3 (50.00%) Firewall
2 3 (50.00%) OSPF
2 3 (50.00%) SD-WAN
2 3 (50.00%) WAN
3 2 (33.33%) Broadband
3 2 (33.33%) NaaS
4 1 (16.67%) Network Security
General
1 3 (50.00%) Social Skills
2 2 (33.33%) Public Sector
2 2 (33.33%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 3 (50.00%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
1 3 (50.00%) IP Engineer
1 3 (50.00%) IP Network Engineer
1 3 (50.00%) Network Engineer
2 2 (33.33%) Architect
2 2 (33.33%) Senior
2 2 (33.33%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
2 2 (33.33%) Telecoms Specialist
3 1 (16.67%) Enterprise Architect
3 1 (16.67%) Lead
3 1 (16.67%) Lead Architect
3 1 (16.67%) Network Architect
3 1 (16.67%) Senior Architect
3 1 (16.67%) Senior Enterprise Architect
3 1 (16.67%) Telecoms Architect
Miscellaneous
1 2 (33.33%) Cloud Native
2 1 (16.67%) Data Centre
2 1 (16.67%) TM Forum
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (50.00%) Integration Testing
1 3 (50.00%) Performance Tuning
1 3 (50.00%) Validation
2 2 (33.33%) AI
2 2 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
2 2 (33.33%) Generative AI
2 2 (33.33%) Observability
2 2 (33.33%) Presales
2 2 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 2 (33.33%) Service Catalogue
2 2 (33.33%) Stakeholder Management
2 2 (33.33%) Strategic Planning
2 2 (33.33%) Test Automation
3 1 (16.67%) IT Strategy
3 1 (16.67%) Network Architecture
3 1 (16.67%) Roadmaps
3 1 (16.67%) Technical Architecture
3 1 (16.67%) Technology Strategy
Programming Languages
1 3 (50.00%) Python
Qualifications
1 5 (83.33%) Security Cleared
2 3 (50.00%) DV Cleared
3 2 (33.33%) BPSS Clearance
4 1 (16.67%) CCIE
4 1 (16.67%) Cisco Certification
4 1 (16.67%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (33.33%) SLA
2 1 (16.67%) NCSC
Systems Management
1 3 (50.00%) Ansible
Vendors
1 6 (100.00%) Cisco
2 3 (50.00%) Nokia
2 3 (50.00%) Palo Alto
3 2 (33.33%) Fortinet
3 2 (33.33%) Juniper