VLAN Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Virtual LAN (VLAN)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring VLAN skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 26 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
26 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 289 245 291
Rank change year-on-year -44 +46 +7
Contract jobs citing VLAN 154 99 104
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.70% 0.79% 0.49%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.11% 4.75% 2.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 106 68 74
10th Percentile £270 £218 £186
25th Percentile £385 £243 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £413 £388
Median % change year-on-year +15.03% +6.45% -8.82%
75th Percentile £564 £577 £536
90th Percentile £619 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £460 £435 £406
% change year-on-year +5.75% +7.08% -14.02%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £12.43 - -
Median hourly rate £74.00 - £76.53
75th Percentile £74.26 - -
90th Percentile £74.71 - -
UK median hourly rate £74.00 - £65.77
% change year-on-year - - +102.35%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

VLAN 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 2,520 2,084 3,640
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.41% 16.55% 17.31%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,602 1,273 2,119
10th Percentile £203 £191 £200
25th Percentile £350 £310 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £475
75th Percentile £575 £580 £595
90th Percentile £656 £638 £688
UK median daily rate £492 £490 £475
% change year-on-year +0.41% +3.16% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 153 125 330
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £16.50 £21.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £42.25 £32.50 £45.44
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -28.48% +140.30%
75th Percentile £67.25 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £78.61 £70.66
UK median hourly rate £38.50 £35.00 £32.50
% change year-on-year +10.00% +7.69% +69.71%

VLAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

VLAN job vacancy trend in the UK excluding London

VLAN
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

VLAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing VLAN in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 26 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for VLAN in the UK excluding London

VLAN
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

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

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

VLAN
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing VLAN in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 26 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for VLAN in the UK excluding London

VLAN
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 VLAN within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 26 March 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
North of England -20 65 £481 +48.08% 35
North West +4 54 £500 +9.29% 24
South East -50 36 £498 -11.95% 43
Midlands -51 26 £413 -29.78% 24
West Midlands -53 18 £469 -19.60% 21
South West -30 12 £475 +15.15% 13
Yorkshire -51 11 £363 +47.96% 8
Scotland +14 8 £325 -18.75% 3
East Midlands -32 7 £275 -57.69% 3
Wales -7 5 £293 -35.71% 3
East of England -34 4 £540 +189.93% 12
North East - 3 £550 - 3
VLAN
UK

VLAN
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:

Application Platforms
1 13 (8.44%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (5.84%) Skype for Business
3 3 (1.95%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.30%) OpenStack
4 2 (1.30%) WordPress
5 1 (0.65%) Apache
5 1 (0.65%) JBoss
Applications
1 10 (6.49%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.60%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 42 (27.27%) Azure
2 25 (16.23%) AWS
3 12 (7.79%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (5.84%) Entra ID
5 7 (4.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (3.90%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (3.90%) GCP
7 4 (2.60%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (1.95%) AWS Direct Connect
9 2 (1.30%) AWS IoT
9 2 (1.30%) IaaS
9 2 (1.30%) PaaS
9 2 (1.30%) SaaS
10 1 (0.65%) Akamai
10 1 (0.65%) Amazon EC2
10 1 (0.65%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.65%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.65%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.65%) Google Ads
10 1 (0.65%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 99 (64.29%) Firewall
2 58 (37.66%) WAN
3 57 (37.01%) LAN
4 53 (34.42%) DNS
4 53 (34.42%) VPN
5 52 (33.77%) DHCP
6 43 (27.92%) BGP
7 41 (26.62%) TCP/IP
8 40 (25.97%) Network Security
9 39 (25.32%) Wi-Fi
10 35 (22.73%) OSPF
11 30 (19.48%) Wireless
12 26 (16.88%) SD-WAN
13 18 (11.69%) MPLS
14 16 (10.39%) WLAN
15 13 (8.44%) Cisco ASA
16 12 (7.79%) EIGRP
17 11 (7.14%) VXLAN
18 10 (6.49%) Cisco ISE
18 10 (6.49%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.95%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.65%) OpenStack Swift
Development Applications
1 2 (1.30%) Git
1 2 (1.30%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.65%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.65%) JIRA
General
1 42 (27.27%) Social Skills
2 19 (12.34%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (6.49%) Public Sector
4 9 (5.84%) Documentation Skills
5 7 (4.55%) Legal
5 7 (4.55%) Telecoms
6 4 (2.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (2.60%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.95%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.30%) Aviation
8 2 (1.30%) Law
8 2 (1.30%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.65%) Advertising
9 1 (0.65%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.65%) Finance
9 1 (0.65%) Police
9 1 (0.65%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 66 (42.86%) Network Engineer
2 20 (12.99%) Architect
3 19 (12.34%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 18 (11.69%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 12 (7.79%) IT Support
6 11 (7.14%) Analyst
6 11 (7.14%) Network Architect
7 10 (6.49%) IT Engineer
8 8 (5.19%) Cisco Engineer
8 8 (5.19%) Senior
9 7 (4.55%) IT Analyst
9 7 (4.55%) Platform Engineer
9 7 (4.55%) Support Engineer
9 7 (4.55%) Technical Architect
10 6 (3.90%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 6 (3.90%) IT Support Analyst
10 6 (3.90%) Support Analyst
11 5 (3.25%) Test Engineer
12 4 (2.60%) Solutions Architect
12 4 (2.60%) Support Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.79%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.30%) RFC 2544
2 2 (1.30%) XMPP
3 1 (0.65%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 41 (26.62%) Data Centre
2 12 (7.79%) Onboarding
3 9 (5.84%) Product Ownership
4 8 (5.19%) Operational Technology
5 5 (3.25%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (2.60%) Security Posture
7 3 (1.95%) 3D Printing
7 3 (1.95%) Driving Licence
7 3 (1.95%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (1.95%) IoT
7 3 (1.95%) SCADA
8 2 (1.30%) CCTV
8 2 (1.30%) Fibre Optics
8 2 (1.30%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.30%) Public Cloud
8 2 (1.30%) Self-Motivation
9 1 (0.65%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.65%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.65%) Replication
9 1 (0.65%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 44 (28.57%) Windows
2 21 (13.64%) Windows Server
3 15 (9.74%) Windows 10
4 13 (8.44%) Linux
5 10 (6.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (5.84%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.30%) Ubuntu
7 2 (1.30%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.65%) CentOS
8 1 (0.65%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 27 (17.53%) Problem-Solving
2 23 (14.94%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 23 (14.94%) ITSM
3 20 (12.99%) Continuous Improvement
3 20 (12.99%) Cybersecurity
3 20 (12.99%) Network Design
3 20 (12.99%) Network Monitoring
4 19 (12.34%) Service Management
5 18 (11.69%) Network Segmentation
6 17 (11.04%) High Availability
7 15 (9.74%) Project Delivery
8 14 (9.09%) Change Control
8 14 (9.09%) ITIL
9 13 (8.44%) Root Cause Analysis
10 11 (7.14%) Disaster Recovery
10 11 (7.14%) Incident Response
11 10 (6.49%) Migration
12 9 (5.84%) Computer Science
12 9 (5.84%) Disk Encryption
12 9 (5.84%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 27 (17.53%) PowerShell
2 21 (13.64%) Python
3 14 (9.09%) Bash
4 10 (6.49%) VBScript
5 9 (5.84%) VB
6 7 (4.55%) Perl
7 4 (2.60%) SQL
8 1 (0.65%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 74 (48.05%) Security Cleared
2 65 (42.21%) Cisco Certification
3 62 (40.26%) SC Cleared
4 60 (38.96%) CCNP
5 46 (29.87%) CCNA
6 14 (9.09%) Degree
6 14 (9.09%) DV Cleared
6 14 (9.09%) Network+ Certification
7 10 (6.49%) CCIE
8 6 (3.90%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (3.25%) Azure Certification
9 5 (3.25%) JNCIS
9 5 (3.25%) Server+ Certification
10 4 (2.60%) AWS Certification
10 4 (2.60%) CCDP
10 4 (2.60%) CISSP
10 4 (2.60%) ISTQB
11 3 (1.95%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 3 (1.95%) CCIE Security
11 3 (1.95%) CCSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (3.25%) NIST
2 5 (3.25%) PCI DSS
3 4 (2.60%) GDPR
3 4 (2.60%) NCSC
3 4 (2.60%) SLA
4 3 (1.95%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.30%) QA
6 1 (0.65%) GRC
6 1 (0.65%) GxP
6 1 (0.65%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 32 (20.78%) Active Directory
2 24 (15.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (7.14%) vSphere
4 10 (6.49%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (5.84%) BitLocker
6 5 (3.25%) Firmware
6 5 (3.25%) VMware NSX
7 4 (2.60%) Docker
8 3 (1.95%) Hyper-V
8 3 (1.95%) KVM
8 3 (1.95%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.65%) Ceph
9 1 (0.65%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.65%) iptables
9 1 (0.65%) NFS
9 1 (0.65%) QEMU
9 1 (0.65%) RHEV
9 1 (0.65%) Samba
9 1 (0.65%) Snort
9 1 (0.65%) Xen
Systems Management
1 12 (7.79%) Ansible
2 11 (7.14%) SCCM
3 10 (6.49%) FortiGate
3 10 (6.49%) Terraform
3 10 (6.49%) vCenter Server
4 9 (5.84%) Nagios
5 7 (4.55%) VxRail
6 4 (2.60%) Kubernetes
6 4 (2.60%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (1.95%) WSUS
8 2 (1.30%) Cisco CUCM
8 2 (1.30%) Cisco Prime
8 2 (1.30%) Dell DRAC
8 2 (1.30%) Grafana
8 2 (1.30%) Iperf
8 2 (1.30%) Nmap
9 1 (0.65%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.65%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.65%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.65%) Suricata
Vendors
1 79 (51.30%) Cisco
2 40 (25.97%) Microsoft
3 33 (21.43%) Palo Alto
4 28 (18.18%) VMware
5 21 (13.64%) Fortinet
6 19 (12.34%) Aruba
7 17 (11.04%) SolarWinds
8 13 (8.44%) CheckPoint
8 13 (8.44%) Juniper
8 13 (8.44%) ServiceNow
9 11 (7.14%) F5
10 10 (6.49%) Veeam
11 9 (5.84%) Dell
11 9 (5.84%) Ekahau
12 8 (5.19%) Meraki
12 8 (5.19%) Red Hat
13 7 (4.55%) Citrix
14 4 (2.60%) HP
15 3 (1.95%) Arista
15 3 (1.95%) Qualys