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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 273 253 308
Rank change year-on-year -20 +55 -11
Contract jobs citing VLAN 179 89 86
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.73% 0.69% 0.42%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.67% 4.51% 2.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 120 57 61
10th Percentile £299 £178 £184
25th Percentile £409 £243 £210
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £400
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% +12.50% -11.11%
75th Percentile £569 £560 £538
90th Percentile £630 £625 £638
UK median daily rate £465 £450 £444
% change year-on-year +3.33% +1.41% -6.58%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 0 0
10th Percentile £12.43 - -
25th Percentile £15.47 - -
Median hourly rate £74.00 - -
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile £75.60 - -
UK median hourly rate £74.00 - £55.00
% change year-on-year - - +73.91%

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 2,682 1,973 3,283
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.89% 15.33% 16.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,585 1,222 1,868
10th Percentile £230 £200 £202
25th Percentile £374 £300 £335
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £456 £475
Median % change year-on-year +4.11% -3.95% -
75th Percentile £575 £575 £600
90th Percentile £653 £625 £675
UK median daily rate £497 £485 £490
% change year-on-year +2.51% -1.02% -5.31%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 122 358
10th Percentile £16.01 £14.28 £13.25
25th Percentile £21.25 £16.30 £16.30
Median hourly rate £40.54 £27.97 £45.88
Median % change year-on-year +44.94% -39.04% +151.88%
75th Percentile £65.88 £63.44 £63.75
90th Percentile £74.26 £81.01 £70.66
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £37.50 £40.00
% change year-on-year -13.33% -6.25% +116.22%

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 May 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 May 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 May 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 -18 64 £481 +11.21% 17
North West +8 54 £491 +3.29% 11
South East -49 41 £485 -4.43% 56
Midlands -46 31 £413 -31.82% 27
South West -14 27 £485 +61.67% 18
West Midlands -54 16 £413 +184.48% 19
East Midlands -20 14 £275 -57.69% 8
Scotland - 10 £388 - 7
Yorkshire -49 9 £329 +39.89% 4
East of England -31 5 £540 +154.12% 9
Wales -7 3 £175 -61.54% 2
North East - 1 - - 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 12 (6.70%) Microsoft Exchange
2 4 (2.23%) SharePoint
2 4 (2.23%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.56%) Apache
3 1 (0.56%) JBoss
3 1 (0.56%) OpenStack
Applications
1 5 (2.79%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.23%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.56%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 42 (23.46%) Azure
2 21 (11.73%) AWS
3 14 (7.82%) Microsoft 365
4 13 (7.26%) Entra ID
5 6 (3.35%) Azure DevOps
6 3 (1.68%) Nutanix
6 3 (1.68%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.12%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 2 (1.12%) Azure Sentinel
7 2 (1.12%) Google Ads
7 2 (1.12%) SaaS
8 1 (0.56%) Akamai
8 1 (0.56%) Amazon EC2
8 1 (0.56%) Amazon GuardDuty
8 1 (0.56%) Amazon S3
8 1 (0.56%) AWS Direct Connect
8 1 (0.56%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.56%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.56%) OCI
8 1 (0.56%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 106 (59.22%) Firewall
2 65 (36.31%) DHCP
2 65 (36.31%) DNS
3 55 (30.73%) WAN
4 53 (29.61%) LAN
5 52 (29.05%) VPN
6 45 (25.14%) BGP
6 45 (25.14%) OSPF
7 43 (24.02%) Network Security
8 39 (21.79%) TCP/IP
9 37 (20.67%) Wi-Fi
10 35 (19.55%) Wireless
11 25 (13.97%) SD-WAN
12 23 (12.85%) NX-OS
13 21 (11.73%) SAN
14 19 (10.61%) Cisco Nexus
14 19 (10.61%) VXLAN
15 17 (9.50%) Structured Cabling
16 16 (8.94%) Cisco IOS
16 16 (8.94%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.91%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.56%) OpenStack Swift
Development Applications
1 3 (1.68%) JIRA
2 2 (1.12%) Git
2 2 (1.12%) Sonatype Nexus
3 1 (0.56%) Browser DevTools
3 1 (0.56%) GitLab
3 1 (0.56%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.56%) MSI
General
1 51 (28.49%) Social Skills
2 17 (9.50%) Documentation Skills
3 12 (6.70%) Analytical Skills
4 9 (5.03%) Public Sector
5 7 (3.91%) Telecoms
6 6 (3.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 4 (2.23%) Legal
7 4 (2.23%) Organisational Skills
8 3 (1.68%) Manufacturing
9 2 (1.12%) Aviation
9 2 (1.12%) Finance
9 2 (1.12%) Law
10 1 (0.56%) Advertising
10 1 (0.56%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.56%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.56%) Pharmaceutical
10 1 (0.56%) Police
Job Titles
1 75 (41.90%) Network Engineer
2 31 (17.32%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 26 (14.53%) Architect
4 24 (13.41%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 16 (8.94%) IT Support
6 15 (8.38%) IT Engineer
7 13 (7.26%) Network Architect
8 10 (5.59%) Cisco Engineer
8 10 (5.59%) Support Engineer
8 10 (5.59%) Technical Architect
9 9 (5.03%) Analyst
9 9 (5.03%) Senior
10 8 (4.47%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 7 (3.91%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
11 7 (3.91%) Test Engineer
12 6 (3.35%) IT Analyst
12 6 (3.35%) IT Support Analyst
12 6 (3.35%) Support Analyst
13 5 (2.79%) IT Support Engineer
13 5 (2.79%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (7.26%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.12%) RFC 2544
2 2 (1.12%) XMPP
3 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Graph
3 1 (0.56%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 64 (35.75%) Data Centre
2 17 (9.50%) Onboarding
3 8 (4.47%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (3.35%) Operational Technology
5 5 (2.79%) Virtual Team
6 4 (2.23%) Driving Licence
6 4 (2.23%) Replication
6 4 (2.23%) SCADA
6 4 (2.23%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.12%) CCTV
7 2 (1.12%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (1.12%) Hybrid Cloud
7 2 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (1.12%) Management Information System
8 1 (0.56%) Analytical Mindset
8 1 (0.56%) Enterprise Cloud
8 1 (0.56%) Industrial Internet of Things
8 1 (0.56%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.56%) Product Ownership
8 1 (0.56%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 40 (22.35%) Windows
2 17 (9.50%) Windows Server
3 14 (7.82%) Windows 10
4 8 (4.47%) Linux
5 5 (2.79%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (2.23%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.12%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.56%) Rocky
8 1 (0.56%) Ubuntu
8 1 (0.56%) Unix
8 1 (0.56%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (20.67%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 32 (17.88%) Problem-Solving
3 30 (16.76%) Network Segmentation
4 24 (13.41%) Continuous Improvement
5 23 (12.85%) Network Monitoring
6 22 (12.29%) ITSM
7 20 (11.17%) Project Delivery
8 19 (10.61%) Migration
9 17 (9.50%) Network Design
10 15 (8.38%) Validation
11 14 (7.82%) ITIL
12 13 (7.26%) Disaster Recovery
13 12 (6.70%) Root Cause Analysis
14 11 (6.15%) Change Control
14 11 (6.15%) High Availability
14 11 (6.15%) Mentoring
14 11 (6.15%) Service Management
15 10 (5.59%) Technical Leadership
16 9 (5.03%) Decision-Making
16 9 (5.03%) Runbook
Programming Languages
1 14 (7.82%) Python
2 12 (6.70%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.91%) Bash
4 5 (2.79%) VBScript
5 4 (2.23%) VB
6 2 (1.12%) Perl
6 2 (1.12%) SQL
7 1 (0.56%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 86 (48.04%) Security Cleared
2 72 (40.22%) SC Cleared
3 69 (38.55%) Cisco Certification
4 65 (36.31%) CCNP
5 50 (27.93%) CCNA
6 17 (9.50%) Network+ Certification
7 13 (7.26%) DV Cleared
8 12 (6.70%) Server+ Certification
9 8 (4.47%) Degree
10 7 (3.91%) CCIE
11 5 (2.79%) JNCIS
11 5 (2.79%) Microsoft Certification
12 4 (2.23%) ISTQB
13 3 (1.68%) Computer Science Degree
14 2 (1.12%) Azure Certification
14 2 (1.12%) BC Cleared
14 2 (1.12%) JNCIA
15 1 (0.56%) CISSP
15 1 (0.56%) GCIA
15 1 (0.56%) GCIH
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 5 (2.79%) SLA
2 4 (2.23%) NCSC
2 4 (2.23%) QA
3 3 (1.68%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 20000
5 1 (0.56%) GRC
5 1 (0.56%) GxP
5 1 (0.56%) NIST
5 1 (0.56%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 31 (17.32%) Active Directory
2 24 (13.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 17 (9.50%) vSphere
4 14 (7.82%) VMware ESXi
5 8 (4.47%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (3.35%) Hyper-V
7 5 (2.79%) Firmware
8 4 (2.23%) BitLocker
9 3 (1.68%) NFS
10 1 (0.56%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.56%) iptables
10 1 (0.56%) KVM
10 1 (0.56%) RHEV
10 1 (0.56%) Samba
10 1 (0.56%) Snort
10 1 (0.56%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.56%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.56%) VirtualBox
10 1 (0.56%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.56%) Xen
Systems Management
1 9 (5.03%) FortiGate
1 9 (5.03%) Nagios
1 9 (5.03%) vCenter Server
2 8 (4.47%) Ansible
2 8 (4.47%) WSUS
3 7 (3.91%) Terraform
3 7 (3.91%) VxRail
4 5 (2.79%) Microsoft Intune
4 5 (2.79%) SCCM
5 3 (1.68%) Iperf
5 3 (1.68%) Red Hat Satellite
6 2 (1.12%) Avamar
6 2 (1.12%) Cisco CUCM
6 2 (1.12%) Cisco Prime
6 2 (1.12%) Grafana
6 2 (1.12%) Nmap
6 2 (1.12%) PowerCLI
7 1 (0.56%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.56%) WhatsUp Gold
7 1 (0.56%) ZABBIX
Vendors
1 103 (57.54%) Cisco
2 38 (21.23%) Microsoft
3 34 (18.99%) Palo Alto
4 33 (18.44%) VMware
5 20 (11.17%) F5
6 19 (10.61%) ServiceNow
7 18 (10.06%) Juniper
7 18 (10.06%) SolarWinds
8 17 (9.50%) Fortinet
9 16 (8.94%) Aruba
9 16 (8.94%) Veeam
10 14 (7.82%) CheckPoint
11 10 (5.59%) Ekahau
12 9 (5.03%) Citrix
13 8 (4.47%) Meraki
14 7 (3.91%) Dell
15 4 (2.23%) Commvault
15 4 (2.23%) HP
15 4 (2.23%) NetApp
15 4 (2.23%) Red Hat