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 11 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
11 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 277 231 281
Rank change year-on-year -46 +50 +29
Contract jobs citing VLAN 135 110 134
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.68% 0.82% 0.64%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.81% 4.98% 3.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 96 73 84
10th Percentile £219 £223 £186
25th Percentile £300 £250 £233
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £413 £400
Median % change year-on-year +14.91% +3.13% -11.11%
75th Percentile £569 £588 £569
90th Percentile £619 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £460 £425 £414
% change year-on-year +8.24% +2.72% -11.97%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 6
10th Percentile £12.43 - £48.82
25th Percentile £25.76 £21.25 £66.11
Median hourly rate £70.38 £22.50 £76.53
Median % change year-on-year +212.80% -70.60% +167.35%
75th Percentile £74.26 £23.75 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £50.25 £30.25 £67.27
% change year-on-year +66.12% -55.03% +106.97%

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 2,325 2,209 3,622
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.73% 16.43% 17.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,543 1,270 2,081
10th Percentile £191 £185 £205
25th Percentile £302 £300 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £471 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.51% -0.79% +1.06%
75th Percentile £563 £580 £588
90th Percentile £653 £650 £675
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £488
% change year-on-year -5.00% +2.56% -6.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 127 107 334
10th Percentile £15.15 £15.44 £14.30
25th Percentile £16.00 £21.00 £21.28
Median hourly rate £40.54 £29.00 £51.89
Median % change year-on-year +39.79% -44.11% +161.00%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £74.56 £70.50 £74.70
UK median hourly rate £29.44 £32.50 £47.50
% change year-on-year -9.42% -31.58% +137.50%

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 11 February 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 11 February 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 11 February 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 -24 53 £481 +48.08% 33
North West +5 43 £525 +16.67% 20
South East -38 41 £460 -19.30% 52
Midlands -57 17 £525 -9.95% 13
West Midlands -46 15 £531 -9.56% 11
Yorkshire -55 10 £363 +49.48% 9
South West -36 9 £425 +3.03% 21
East of England -19 6 £475 +153.33% 19
Scotland +10 5 £270 -32.50% 7
Wales +3 4 £335 - 4
North East - 3 £550 - 5
East Midlands -26 2 £275 -50.89% 2
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 11 (8.15%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (6.67%) Skype for Business
3 3 (2.22%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.48%) WordPress
5 1 (0.74%) Confluence
5 1 (0.74%) IIS
5 1 (0.74%) OpenStack
Applications
1 10 (7.41%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.96%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 42 (31.11%) Azure
2 29 (21.48%) AWS
3 14 (10.37%) Microsoft 365
4 7 (5.19%) GCP
5 5 (3.70%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 4 (2.96%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.96%) Entra ID
7 2 (1.48%) AWS Direct Connect
7 2 (1.48%) AWS IoT
7 2 (1.48%) SaaS
8 1 (0.74%) Akamai
8 1 (0.74%) Azure DevOps
8 1 (0.74%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.74%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.74%) IaaS
8 1 (0.74%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 81 (60.00%) Firewall
2 48 (35.56%) DNS
3 47 (34.81%) DHCP
4 44 (32.59%) VPN
5 41 (30.37%) TCP/IP
5 41 (30.37%) WAN
6 40 (29.63%) LAN
7 35 (25.93%) BGP
8 34 (25.19%) Network Security
9 27 (20.00%) Wi-Fi
10 25 (18.52%) OSPF
11 20 (14.81%) Wireless
12 19 (14.07%) SD-WAN
13 14 (10.37%) Cisco ASA
13 14 (10.37%) MPLS
14 11 (8.15%) WLAN
15 10 (7.41%) EIGRP
15 10 (7.41%) Skype
15 10 (7.41%) Software-Defined Networking
15 10 (7.41%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.48%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 1 (0.74%) Bitbucket
1 1 (0.74%) JIRA
1 1 (0.74%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 36 (26.67%) Social Skills
2 27 (20.00%) Analytical Skills
3 11 (8.15%) Public Sector
4 9 (6.67%) Telecoms
5 7 (5.19%) Documentation Skills
6 6 (4.44%) Legal
7 3 (2.22%) Finance
7 3 (2.22%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (2.22%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (2.22%) Manufacturing
8 2 (1.48%) Aviation
8 2 (1.48%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.74%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.74%) Electronics
9 1 (0.74%) Law
9 1 (0.74%) Marketing
9 1 (0.74%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 45 (33.33%) Network Engineer
2 24 (17.78%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 17 (12.59%) Support Engineer
4 14 (10.37%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 12 (8.89%) Architect
5 12 (8.89%) Infrastructure Support
5 12 (8.89%) Infrastructure Support Engineer
6 11 (8.15%) Analyst
7 10 (7.41%) Senior
8 9 (6.67%) IT Engineer
8 9 (6.67%) IT Support
9 8 (5.93%) Platform Engineer
10 7 (5.19%) IT Analyst
10 7 (5.19%) Technical Architect
11 6 (4.44%) Cisco Engineer
11 6 (4.44%) IT Support Analyst
11 6 (4.44%) Support Analyst
12 5 (3.70%) Administrator
12 5 (3.70%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
13 4 (2.96%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (2.96%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.48%) XMPP
3 1 (0.74%) JFC
3 1 (0.74%) Middleware
3 1 (0.74%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 32 (23.70%) Data Centre
2 14 (10.37%) Analytical Mindset
3 9 (6.67%) Product Ownership
4 8 (5.93%) Onboarding
5 4 (2.96%) Operational Technology
6 3 (2.22%) 3D Printing
6 3 (2.22%) CCTV
6 3 (2.22%) IoT
6 3 (2.22%) Management Information System
6 3 (2.22%) NHS
7 2 (1.48%) Driving Licence
7 2 (1.48%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.48%) Replication
7 2 (1.48%) Security Posture
8 1 (0.74%) Clustering
8 1 (0.74%) Fibre Optics
8 1 (0.74%) Legacy Systems
8 1 (0.74%) Public Cloud
8 1 (0.74%) Security Operations Centre
8 1 (0.74%) Smartphone
Operating Systems
1 51 (37.78%) Windows
2 24 (17.78%) Linux
3 19 (14.07%) Windows Server
4 14 (10.37%) Windows 10
5 9 (6.67%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 9 (6.67%) Windows 7
6 2 (1.48%) VMS
6 2 (1.48%) Windows Server 2012
7 1 (0.74%) CentOS
7 1 (0.74%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.74%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 30 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
2 28 (20.74%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 27 (20.00%) Service Management
4 20 (14.81%) ITIL
5 19 (14.07%) Disaster Recovery
5 19 (14.07%) ITSM
6 17 (12.59%) Continuous Improvement
6 17 (12.59%) Cybersecurity
6 17 (12.59%) Virtual Infrastructure
7 16 (11.85%) Network Design
8 15 (11.11%) Network Monitoring
9 12 (8.89%) Change Control
9 12 (8.89%) High Availability
10 11 (8.15%) Preventative Maintenance
10 11 (8.15%) Project Delivery
11 10 (7.41%) Network Segmentation
12 9 (6.67%) Disk Encryption
12 9 (6.67%) Incident Response
13 8 (5.93%) Containerisation
14 7 (5.19%) Platform Engineering
Programming Languages
1 25 (18.52%) PowerShell
2 17 (12.59%) Python
3 15 (11.11%) Bash
4 9 (6.67%) VB
4 9 (6.67%) VBScript
5 7 (5.19%) Perl
6 2 (1.48%) SQL
7 1 (0.74%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 68 (50.37%) Security Cleared
2 55 (40.74%) SC Cleared
3 49 (36.30%) Cisco Certification
4 44 (32.59%) CCNP
5 30 (22.22%) CCNA
6 18 (13.33%) Network+ Certification
7 14 (10.37%) Azure Certification
7 14 (10.37%) Degree
7 14 (10.37%) DV Cleared
7 14 (10.37%) Microsoft Certification
8 11 (8.15%) Server+ Certification
9 10 (7.41%) CCIE
10 4 (2.96%) CCDP
10 4 (2.96%) JNCIS
11 3 (2.22%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 3 (2.22%) AWS Certification
11 3 (2.22%) CCSP
11 3 (2.22%) CISSP
11 3 (2.22%) DBS Check
11 3 (2.22%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.44%) ISO/IEC 27001
1 6 (4.44%) PCI DSS
1 6 (4.44%) SLA
2 5 (3.70%) NIST
3 4 (2.96%) GDPR
4 3 (2.22%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (2.22%) NCSC
5 2 (1.48%) QA
6 1 (0.74%) GRC
6 1 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 36 (26.67%) VMware Infrastructure
2 27 (20.00%) Active Directory
3 16 (11.85%) Hyper-V
4 9 (6.67%) BitLocker
4 9 (6.67%) VMware ESXi
4 9 (6.67%) vSphere
5 5 (3.70%) VMware NSX
6 4 (2.96%) Docker
7 3 (2.22%) KVM
7 3 (2.22%) Virtual Machines
8 1 (0.74%) Ceph
8 1 (0.74%) Firmware
8 1 (0.74%) QEMU
8 1 (0.74%) RHEV
8 1 (0.74%) Xen
Systems Management
1 11 (8.15%) Ansible
1 11 (8.15%) SCCM
2 10 (7.41%) vCenter Server
3 8 (5.93%) FortiGate
3 8 (5.93%) Terraform
4 7 (5.19%) Nagios
4 7 (5.19%) VxRail
5 5 (3.70%) Kubernetes
6 4 (2.96%) Iperf
6 4 (2.96%) Nmap
7 3 (2.22%) Microsoft Intune
8 2 (1.48%) Cisco CUCM
8 2 (1.48%) Cisco Prime
8 2 (1.48%) Dell DRAC
9 1 (0.74%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.74%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.74%) Red Hat Satellite
9 1 (0.74%) WhatsUp Gold
Vendors
1 66 (48.89%) Cisco
2 45 (33.33%) Microsoft
3 40 (29.63%) VMware
4 30 (22.22%) Palo Alto
5 18 (13.33%) Fortinet
5 18 (13.33%) SolarWinds
6 14 (10.37%) Dell
7 10 (7.41%) F5
7 10 (7.41%) Juniper
8 9 (6.67%) CheckPoint
8 9 (6.67%) ServiceNow
8 9 (6.67%) Veeam
9 8 (5.93%) Aruba
9 8 (5.93%) Red Hat
10 7 (5.19%) Citrix
11 4 (2.96%) Meraki
12 3 (2.22%) Arista
12 3 (2.22%) HP
12 3 (2.22%) Zscaler
13 2 (1.48%) Ekahau