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 21 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 279 242 291
Rank change year-on-year -37 +49 +6
Contract jobs citing VLAN 147 98 117
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.67% 0.77% 0.56%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 5.83% 4.61% 3.21%
Number of daily rates quoted 103 68 79
10th Percentile £264 £218 £189
25th Percentile £378 £243 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £413 £400
Median % change year-on-year +14.91% +3.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £550 £577 £550
90th Percentile £610 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £460 £443 £415
% change year-on-year +3.95% +6.63% -12.17%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 0 2
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £12.43 - -
Median hourly rate £12.56 - £76.53
75th Percentile £74.26 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median hourly rate £43.41 - £76.53
% change year-on-year - - +135.48%

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 2,127 3,641
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.46% 16.68% 17.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,610 1,279 2,121
10th Percentile £203 £193 £200
25th Percentile £350 £313 £330
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £475
75th Percentile £575 £580 £588
90th Percentile £656 £638 £675
UK median daily rate £490 £490 £475
% change year-on-year - +3.16% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 151 120 323
10th Percentile £15.50 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £16.50 £21.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £41.94 £32.50 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year +29.05% -29.16% +148.00%
75th Percentile £66.63 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.60 £70.66
UK median hourly rate £32.52 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -7.09% - +84.21%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -25 64 £481 +48.08% 26
North West +12 53 £500 +9.29% 17
South East -47 34 £480 -15.79% 45
Midlands -55 23 £413 -29.78% 18
West Midlands -54 18 £469 -19.60% 15
South West -32 11 £500 +21.21% 12
Yorkshire -53 11 £363 +47.96% 7
Scotland +12 8 £325 -18.75% 2
Wales -2 5 £293 -35.71% 3
East of England -26 4 £540 +191.89% 14
East Midlands -35 4 £275 -57.69% 3
North East - 3 £550 - 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 (7.48%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (6.12%) Skype for Business
3 3 (2.04%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.36%) OpenStack
4 2 (1.36%) WordPress
5 1 (0.68%) Apache
5 1 (0.68%) JBoss
Applications
1 10 (6.80%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.72%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 42 (28.57%) Azure
2 24 (16.33%) AWS
3 12 (8.16%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (6.12%) Entra ID
5 6 (4.08%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 6 (4.08%) GCP
5 6 (4.08%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 4 (2.72%) Azure DevOps
7 3 (2.04%) AWS Direct Connect
8 2 (1.36%) AWS IoT
8 2 (1.36%) IaaS
8 2 (1.36%) PaaS
8 2 (1.36%) SaaS
9 1 (0.68%) Akamai
9 1 (0.68%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.68%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.68%) Google Ads
9 1 (0.68%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.68%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 97 (65.99%) Firewall
2 55 (37.41%) LAN
3 54 (36.73%) WAN
4 52 (35.37%) VPN
5 50 (34.01%) DNS
6 49 (33.33%) DHCP
7 40 (27.21%) TCP/IP
8 39 (26.53%) BGP
8 39 (26.53%) Network Security
9 38 (25.85%) Wi-Fi
10 31 (21.09%) OSPF
11 29 (19.73%) Wireless
12 24 (16.33%) SD-WAN
13 18 (12.24%) MPLS
14 16 (10.88%) WLAN
15 13 (8.84%) Cisco ASA
16 11 (7.48%) EIGRP
16 11 (7.48%) VXLAN
17 10 (6.80%) Cisco ISE
18 9 (6.12%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.68%) OpenStack Swift
1 1 (0.68%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 2 (1.36%) Git
1 2 (1.36%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.68%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.68%) JIRA
General
1 41 (27.89%) Social Skills
2 20 (13.61%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (6.80%) Public Sector
4 9 (6.12%) Documentation Skills
5 7 (4.76%) Legal
5 7 (4.76%) Telecoms
6 4 (2.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (2.72%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (2.04%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.36%) Aviation
8 2 (1.36%) Law
8 2 (1.36%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.68%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.68%) Finance
9 1 (0.68%) Police
9 1 (0.68%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 64 (43.54%) Network Engineer
2 18 (12.24%) Architect
2 18 (12.24%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
3 17 (11.56%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 12 (8.16%) IT Support
5 11 (7.48%) Analyst
5 11 (7.48%) Network Architect
6 9 (6.12%) IT Engineer
7 8 (5.44%) Senior
7 8 (5.44%) Support Engineer
8 7 (4.76%) Cisco Engineer
8 7 (4.76%) IT Analyst
8 7 (4.76%) Platform Engineer
8 7 (4.76%) Technical Architect
9 6 (4.08%) IT Support Analyst
9 6 (4.08%) Support Analyst
10 5 (3.40%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 4 (2.72%) Junior
11 4 (2.72%) Support Specialist
11 4 (2.72%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (8.16%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.36%) RFC 2544
2 2 (1.36%) XMPP
3 1 (0.68%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 40 (27.21%) Data Centre
2 10 (6.80%) Onboarding
3 9 (6.12%) Product Ownership
4 8 (5.44%) Operational Technology
5 6 (4.08%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (2.72%) Security Posture
7 3 (2.04%) 3D Printing
7 3 (2.04%) Hybrid Cloud
7 3 (2.04%) IoT
7 3 (2.04%) SCADA
8 2 (1.36%) CCTV
8 2 (1.36%) Driving Licence
8 2 (1.36%) Fibre Optics
8 2 (1.36%) Management Information System
8 2 (1.36%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.68%) Enterprise Cloud
9 1 (0.68%) NHS
9 1 (0.68%) Private Cloud
9 1 (0.68%) Replication
9 1 (0.68%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 43 (29.25%) Windows
2 19 (12.93%) Windows Server
3 14 (9.52%) Linux
4 13 (8.84%) Windows 10
5 10 (6.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (6.12%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.36%) Ubuntu
7 2 (1.36%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.68%) CentOS
8 1 (0.68%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (17.69%) Problem-Solving
2 23 (15.65%) ITSM
3 21 (14.29%) Infrastructure Engineering
4 20 (13.61%) Continuous Improvement
4 20 (13.61%) Cybersecurity
4 20 (13.61%) Network Design
4 20 (13.61%) Network Monitoring
4 20 (13.61%) Service Management
5 18 (12.24%) Network Segmentation
6 15 (10.20%) High Availability
7 14 (9.52%) Change Control
7 14 (9.52%) ITIL
7 14 (9.52%) Project Delivery
8 13 (8.84%) Root Cause Analysis
9 11 (7.48%) Disaster Recovery
9 11 (7.48%) Incident Response
10 10 (6.80%) Migration
11 9 (6.12%) Computer Science
11 9 (6.12%) Disk Encryption
12 8 (5.44%) Virtual Infrastructure
Programming Languages
1 27 (18.37%) PowerShell
2 20 (13.61%) Python
3 14 (9.52%) Bash
4 10 (6.80%) VBScript
5 9 (6.12%) VB
6 7 (4.76%) Perl
7 4 (2.72%) SQL
8 1 (0.68%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 69 (46.94%) Security Cleared
2 63 (42.86%) Cisco Certification
3 58 (39.46%) CCNP
3 58 (39.46%) SC Cleared
4 45 (30.61%) CCNA
5 15 (10.20%) Network+ Certification
6 14 (9.52%) Degree
7 13 (8.84%) DV Cleared
8 10 (6.80%) CCIE
9 7 (4.76%) Microsoft Certification
10 6 (4.08%) Azure Certification
10 6 (4.08%) Server+ Certification
11 5 (3.40%) JNCIS
12 4 (2.72%) AWS Certification
12 4 (2.72%) CCDP
12 4 (2.72%) CISSP
12 4 (2.72%) ISTQB
13 3 (2.04%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 3 (2.04%) CCIE Security
13 3 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 6 (4.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (3.40%) NIST
2 5 (3.40%) PCI DSS
3 4 (2.72%) GDPR
3 4 (2.72%) NCSC
3 4 (2.72%) SLA
4 3 (2.04%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.36%) QA
6 1 (0.68%) GRC
6 1 (0.68%) GxP
6 1 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 31 (21.09%) Active Directory
2 22 (14.97%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (6.80%) vSphere
4 9 (6.12%) BitLocker
4 9 (6.12%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (3.40%) Firmware
6 4 (2.72%) Docker
6 4 (2.72%) Hyper-V
6 4 (2.72%) VMware NSX
7 3 (2.04%) KVM
8 2 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
9 1 (0.68%) Ceph
9 1 (0.68%) Citrix Presentation Server
9 1 (0.68%) iptables
9 1 (0.68%) NFS
9 1 (0.68%) QEMU
9 1 (0.68%) RHEV
9 1 (0.68%) Samba
9 1 (0.68%) Snort
9 1 (0.68%) Xen
Systems Management
1 11 (7.48%) Ansible
1 11 (7.48%) SCCM
2 10 (6.80%) Terraform
3 9 (6.12%) FortiGate
3 9 (6.12%) Nagios
3 9 (6.12%) vCenter Server
4 7 (4.76%) VxRail
5 4 (2.72%) Kubernetes
5 4 (2.72%) Microsoft Intune
6 2 (1.36%) Cisco CUCM
6 2 (1.36%) Cisco Prime
6 2 (1.36%) Dell DRAC
6 2 (1.36%) Grafana
6 2 (1.36%) Iperf
6 2 (1.36%) Nmap
7 1 (0.68%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.68%) Red Hat Satellite
7 1 (0.68%) WhatsUp Gold
7 1 (0.68%) WSUS
7 1 (0.68%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 76 (51.70%) Cisco
2 41 (27.89%) Microsoft
3 32 (21.77%) Palo Alto
4 25 (17.01%) VMware
5 20 (13.61%) Fortinet
6 19 (12.93%) Aruba
7 17 (11.56%) SolarWinds
8 13 (8.84%) Juniper
8 13 (8.84%) ServiceNow
9 12 (8.16%) CheckPoint
10 10 (6.80%) F5
11 9 (6.12%) Dell
11 9 (6.12%) Ekahau
11 9 (6.12%) Veeam
12 8 (5.44%) Meraki
12 8 (5.44%) Red Hat
13 5 (3.40%) Citrix
14 4 (2.72%) HP
15 3 (2.04%) Arista
15 3 (2.04%) Qualys