SDH Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
UK > UK excluding London

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

6 months to
6 Oct 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 359 347 409
Rank change year-on-year -12 +62 +106
Contract jobs citing SDH 12 17 13
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.077% 0.098% 0.061%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 0.57% 0.67% 0.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 9 7 3
10th Percentile £420 £418 £293
25th Percentile - £498 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £525 £675
Median % change year-on-year -14.29% -22.22% +53.41%
75th Percentile - £531 £694
90th Percentile - £543 £698
UK median daily rate £450 £513 £525
% change year-on-year -12.20% -2.38% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 1 3
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £19.00 - -
Median hourly rate £20.00 £35.00 £14.00
Median % change year-on-year -42.86% +150.00% -
75th Percentile £21.00 - £23.88
90th Percentile - - £29.80
UK median hourly rate £20.00 £32.50 £23.25
% change year-on-year -38.46% +39.78% -10.58%

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 2,095 2,523 3,636
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 13.41% 14.51% 16.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,340 1,378 2,195
10th Percentile £200 £200 £206
25th Percentile £313 £350 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £453 £485 £455
Median % change year-on-year -6.60% +6.59% +1.11%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £588
90th Percentile £644 £663 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 136 166 274
10th Percentile £15.42 £14.16 £15.90
25th Percentile £18.50 £22.58 £24.38
Median hourly rate £42.50 £57.30 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year -25.83% -0.35% +28.49%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £67.50
90th Percentile £80.68 £75.00 £75.97
UK median hourly rate £41.48 £50.00 £56.49
% change year-on-year -17.05% -11.49% +50.64%

SDH
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

SDH job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

SDH
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

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 6 October 2025.

Daily rate histogram for SDH in the UK excluding London

SDH
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

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 6 October 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 +12 10 £450 -14.29% 7
West Midlands -9 3 £450 - 2
Midlands -14 3 £450 - 2
East of England +10 1 - - 5
South West - 1 - - 5
SDH
UK

SDH
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 11 (91.67%) MPLS
2 10 (83.33%) Ethernet
3 8 (66.67%) WAN
4 7 (58.33%) ATM
4 7 (58.33%) Frame Relay
4 7 (58.33%) GPRS
4 7 (58.33%) GSM
4 7 (58.33%) LAN
4 7 (58.33%) LTE
4 7 (58.33%) SAN
4 7 (58.33%) UMTS
4 7 (58.33%) VPN
4 7 (58.33%) Wireshark
5 2 (16.67%) DWDM
6 1 (8.33%) 5G
6 1 (8.33%) Network Security
6 1 (8.33%) NGN
6 1 (8.33%) Radio Access Network
Development Applications
1 1 (8.33%) Rational DOORS
General
1 9 (75.00%) Telecoms
2 7 (58.33%) Social Skills
3 1 (8.33%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (8.33%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 8 (66.67%) Network Engineer
2 6 (50.00%) IP Engineer
3 5 (41.67%) IP Network Engineer
3 5 (41.67%) Test Engineer
4 2 (16.67%) Consultant
4 2 (16.67%) IP Consultant
4 2 (16.67%) IP Network Consultant
4 2 (16.67%) Network Consultant
5 1 (8.33%) Administrator
5 1 (8.33%) Architect
5 1 (8.33%) Lead
5 1 (8.33%) Network Administrator
5 1 (8.33%) Solutions Architect
5 1 (8.33%) Telecoms Architect
5 1 (8.33%) Transmission Engineer
Miscellaneous
1 7 (58.33%) Self-Motivation
2 3 (25.00%) SCADA
3 1 (8.33%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 7 (58.33%) Linux
1 7 (58.33%) Unix
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (66.67%) Problem-Solving
2 7 (58.33%) Fault Management
2 7 (58.33%) Project Management
2 7 (58.33%) Regression Testing
2 7 (58.33%) Test Strategy
3 4 (33.33%) ITIL
4 3 (25.00%) Disaster Recovery
4 3 (25.00%) Network Monitoring
4 3 (25.00%) Root Cause Analysis
5 1 (8.33%) ArchiMate
5 1 (8.33%) Boundary Protection
5 1 (8.33%) BPMN
5 1 (8.33%) Capacity Planning
5 1 (8.33%) Change Control
5 1 (8.33%) Continuous Improvement
5 1 (8.33%) Enterprise Architecture
5 1 (8.33%) Low Latency
5 1 (8.33%) Network Management
5 1 (8.33%) Network Planning
5 1 (8.33%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 7 (58.33%) Java
Qualifications
1 10 (83.33%) CCNP
1 10 (83.33%) Cisco Certification
2 7 (58.33%) ISEB
2 7 (58.33%) ISTQB
2 7 (58.33%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 4 (33.33%) SC Cleared
3 4 (33.33%) Security Cleared
4 3 (25.00%) CCNA
4 3 (25.00%) Degree
5 1 (8.33%) BC Cleared
5 1 (8.33%) BPSS Clearance
5 1 (8.33%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (8.33%) SLA
Systems Management
1 1 (8.33%) Amdocs OSS
Vendors
1 8 (66.67%) Cisco
1 8 (66.67%) Juniper
2 7 (58.33%) Microsoft
3 2 (16.67%) Nokia
4 1 (8.33%) Ciena
4 1 (8.33%) Cramer
4 1 (8.33%) F5
4 1 (8.33%) IBM
4 1 (8.33%) Palo Alto