SDH Contracts in the UK excluding London

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring SDH skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited SDH over the 6 months leading up to 4 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 311 381 444
Rank change year-on-year +70 +63 +58
Contract jobs citing SDH 23 22 12
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.18% 0.11% 0.050%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 1.16% 0.65% 0.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 11 12 8
10th Percentile £313 £508 £319
25th Percentile £434 £575 £372
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £650 £422
Median % change year-on-year -30.77% +54.12% +20.50%
75th Percentile £453 £688 £497
90th Percentile £515 - £570
UK median daily rate £450 £625 £419
% change year-on-year -28.00% +49.25% +19.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 3 2
10th Percentile - £16.70 £20.00
25th Percentile - £20.75 £20.75
Median hourly rate - £30.00 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year - +33.33% -
75th Percentile - £32.50 £24.25
90th Percentile - - £25.00
UK median hourly rate - £30.00 £22.50
% change year-on-year - +33.33% -18.18%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

SDH 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 UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for communications or computer networking skills 1,978 3,406 3,579
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 15.47% 16.48% 14.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,207 1,948 2,273
10th Percentile £194 £203 £211
25th Percentile £304 £350 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% - +8.57%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £586
90th Percentile £638 £675 £690
UK median daily rate £488 £490 £520
% change year-on-year -0.51% -5.77% +4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 142 360 325
10th Percentile £13.85 £13.48 -
25th Percentile £15.44 £16.30 £9.80
Median hourly rate £24.40 £45.88 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.81% +148.00% -13.95%
75th Percentile £62.06 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.66 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £31.08 £40.00 £18.93
% change year-on-year -22.30% +111.30% -31.16%

SDH
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing SDH as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for SDH in the UK excluding London

SDH
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing SDH in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for SDH in the UK excluding London

SDH
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing SDH in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 4 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SDH in the UK excluding London

SDH
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing SDH in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for SDH in the UK excluding London

SDH
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 SDH within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 4 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
South East +51 19 £450 - 6
Scotland +15 3 £325 -35.00% 2
West Midlands +15 1 £510 +36.00% 7
Midlands +13 1 £510 +36.00% 9
SDH
UK

SDH
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London 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:

Communications & Networking
1 19 (82.61%) LAN
1 19 (82.61%) MPLS
1 19 (82.61%) WAN
2 18 (78.26%) ATM
2 18 (78.26%) Ethernet
2 18 (78.26%) Frame Relay
3 16 (69.57%) GPRS
3 16 (69.57%) GSM
3 16 (69.57%) LTE
3 16 (69.57%) SAN
3 16 (69.57%) UMTS
3 16 (69.57%) VPN
3 16 (69.57%) Wireshark
4 2 (8.70%) VoIP
5 1 (4.35%) ADSL
5 1 (4.35%) PSTN
5 1 (4.35%) Wireless
General
1 19 (82.61%) Social Skills
1 19 (82.61%) Telecoms
2 2 (8.70%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (8.70%) Electronics
3 1 (4.35%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 15 (65.22%) IP Engineer
2 14 (60.87%) Test Engineer
3 6 (26.09%) Network Engineer
4 5 (21.74%) IP Network Engineer
5 2 (8.70%) Analyst
5 2 (8.70%) Architect
5 2 (8.70%) Consultant
5 2 (8.70%) Field Engineer
5 2 (8.70%) IP Consultant
5 2 (8.70%) IP Network Consultant
5 2 (8.70%) Network Analyst
5 2 (8.70%) Network Architect
5 2 (8.70%) Network Consultant
5 2 (8.70%) Telecoms Engineer
6 1 (4.35%) Field Telecoms Engineer
6 1 (4.35%) Infrastructure Analyst
6 1 (4.35%) Network Field Engineer
6 1 (4.35%) Project Engineer
6 1 (4.35%) Senior
6 1 (4.35%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (4.35%) Java RMI
Miscellaneous
1 16 (69.57%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (13.04%) Driving Licence
2 3 (13.04%) SCADA
3 2 (8.70%) Data Centre
3 2 (8.70%) Fibre Optics
Operating Systems
1 16 (69.57%) Linux
1 16 (69.57%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 19 (82.61%) Problem-Solving
2 18 (78.26%) Project Management
3 16 (69.57%) Fault Management
3 16 (69.57%) Regression Testing
3 16 (69.57%) Test Strategy
4 4 (17.39%) Stakeholder Management
5 3 (13.04%) Project Delivery
6 2 (8.70%) Customer Service
6 2 (8.70%) Disaster Recovery
6 2 (8.70%) Infrastructure Engineering
6 2 (8.70%) ITIL
6 2 (8.70%) Network Monitoring
6 2 (8.70%) Process Management
6 2 (8.70%) Root Cause Analysis
7 1 (4.35%) Change Management
7 1 (4.35%) Incident Management
7 1 (4.35%) Network Design
7 1 (4.35%) Project Planning
7 1 (4.35%) Risk Assessment
7 1 (4.35%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 16 (69.57%) Java
Qualifications
1 18 (78.26%) CCNP
1 18 (78.26%) Cisco Certification
2 16 (69.57%) ISEB
2 16 (69.57%) ISTQB
2 16 (69.57%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 6 (26.09%) SC Cleared
3 6 (26.09%) Security Cleared
4 3 (13.04%) HNC
5 2 (8.70%) BPSS Clearance
5 2 (8.70%) CCNA
6 1 (4.35%) BC Cleared
6 1 (4.35%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (4.35%) QA
1 1 (4.35%) SLA
Vendors
1 19 (82.61%) Cisco
2 16 (69.57%) Juniper
2 16 (69.57%) Microsoft
3 3 (13.04%) Nokia