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

6 months to
20 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 291 261 271
Rank change year-on-year -30 +10 -18
Contract jobs citing VLAN 196 110 103
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.70% 0.71% 0.57%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.66% 5.29% 3.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 124 77 61
10th Percentile £331 £219 £245
25th Percentile £424 £325 £300
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £447 £413
Median % change year-on-year +11.86% +8.36% -8.33%
75th Percentile £600 £536 £588
90th Percentile £654 £683 £672
UK median daily rate £485 £445 £431
% change year-on-year +8.99% +3.19% -9.21%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 1 1
10th Percentile £18.50 - -
25th Percentile £33.70 £65.75 £21.25
Median hourly rate £58.25 £66.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -12.41% +195.56% -32.27%
75th Percentile £74.00 £67.25 £23.75
90th Percentile £77.41 - -
UK median hourly rate £58.25 £34.00 £30.25
% change year-on-year +71.32% +12.40% -5.10%

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 2,941 2,080 2,595
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.43% 13.47% 14.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,614 1,307 1,433
10th Percentile £210 £200 £205
25th Percentile £353 £323 £356
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £500
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -10.00% +9.89%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £595
90th Percentile £650 £640 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 348 135 216
10th Percentile £14.10 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £19.33 £18.50 £21.37
Median hourly rate £29.50 £42.50 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year -30.59% -25.89% -0.26%
75th Percentile £67.47 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.64 £80.81 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £42.50 £50.50
% change year-on-year -23.53% -15.84% -10.60%

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 20 September 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 20 September 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 20 September 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 61 £500 +11.86% 37
South East -53 50 £500 +11.11% 97
North West -28 33 £520 +9.38% 26
South West -11 31 £495 +29.41% 25
Yorkshire -22 27 £500 +173.97% 8
Midlands -46 25 £250 -47.37% 31
East of England -28 15 £600 +34.83% 22
East Midlands -9 13 - - 7
West Midlands -52 12 £250 -47.37% 24
Scotland -18 10 £375 -14.77% 14
Wales - 4 £363 - 4
North East -42 1 - - 5
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 15 (7.65%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (5.10%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.06%) Skype for Business
4 5 (2.55%) FactoryTalk
5 4 (2.04%) Confluence
Applications
1 8 (4.08%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.51%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (2.04%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 56 (28.57%) Azure
2 35 (17.86%) AWS
3 27 (13.78%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (9.69%) Entra ID
5 14 (7.14%) GCP
6 12 (6.12%) GitHub
7 6 (3.06%) GitHub Actions
7 6 (3.06%) IaaS
8 5 (2.55%) Nutanix
8 5 (2.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 4 (2.04%) Azure DevOps
9 4 (2.04%) OneDrive
10 3 (1.53%) AWS Direct Connect
10 3 (1.53%) Azure Sentinel
11 2 (1.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 2 (1.02%) Google Workspace
12 1 (0.51%) Amazon EC2
12 1 (0.51%) Amazon GuardDuty
12 1 (0.51%) Google Ads
12 1 (0.51%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 111 (56.63%) Firewall
2 98 (50.00%) DNS
3 81 (41.33%) DHCP
4 66 (33.67%) VPN
5 63 (32.14%) BGP
6 61 (31.12%) OSPF
7 58 (29.59%) WAN
8 57 (29.08%) LAN
8 57 (29.08%) TCP/IP
9 42 (21.43%) Wireless
10 39 (19.90%) Network Security
11 32 (16.33%) SAN
11 32 (16.33%) Wi-Fi
12 30 (15.31%) Cisco Nexus
13 28 (14.29%) SD-WAN
14 23 (11.73%) Cisco IOS
15 22 (11.22%) NAS
15 22 (11.22%) NX-OS
16 21 (10.71%) VXLAN
17 20 (10.20%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.10%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.51%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 12 (6.12%) JIRA
2 11 (5.61%) Jenkins
3 6 (3.06%) GitLab
4 3 (1.53%) Git
5 2 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (1.02%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.51%) MSI
General
1 45 (22.96%) Social Skills
2 22 (11.22%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (6.63%) Documentation Skills
4 12 (6.12%) Public Sector
5 10 (5.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 9 (4.59%) Manufacturing
7 6 (3.06%) Telecoms
8 5 (2.55%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.55%) Pharmaceutical
8 5 (2.55%) Police
9 4 (2.04%) Games
10 3 (1.53%) Finance
10 3 (1.53%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.53%) Legal
11 2 (1.02%) Advertising
Job Titles
1 72 (36.73%) Network Engineer
2 46 (23.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 30 (15.31%) Senior
4 25 (12.76%) Architect
5 17 (8.67%) Senior Network Engineer
6 16 (8.16%) IT Engineer
7 14 (7.14%) Network Architect
8 11 (5.61%) Cisco Engineer
9 10 (5.10%) Technical Architect
10 9 (4.59%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 9 (4.59%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
11 8 (4.08%) IT Support
11 8 (4.08%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 8 (4.08%) Support Engineer
12 7 (3.57%) Automation Specialist
12 7 (3.57%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
12 7 (3.57%) Test Engineer
13 6 (3.06%) Lead
13 6 (3.06%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
13 6 (3.06%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (12.76%) Terraform
2 6 (3.06%) 802.1X
3 5 (2.55%) NETCONF
4 4 (2.04%) REST
5 3 (1.53%) RESTCONF
6 2 (1.02%) gRPC
6 2 (1.02%) HTML
6 2 (1.02%) HTML5
6 2 (1.02%) ModSecurity
6 2 (1.02%) ODBC
7 1 (0.51%) .NET
7 1 (0.51%) JSON
7 1 (0.51%) Microsoft Graph
7 1 (0.51%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 69 (35.20%) Data Centre
2 15 (7.65%) Self-Motivation
3 14 (7.14%) Onboarding
4 12 (6.12%) PKI
5 10 (5.10%) Operational Technology
5 10 (5.10%) Replication
6 9 (4.59%) Cloud Native
7 8 (4.08%) Driving Licence
7 8 (4.08%) Virtual Team
8 7 (3.57%) Hybrid Cloud
8 7 (3.57%) SCADA
9 6 (3.06%) Life Science
10 5 (2.55%) CMDB
11 4 (2.04%) Animation
11 4 (2.04%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 4 (2.04%) Private Cloud
12 3 (1.53%) Linux Command Line
12 3 (1.53%) Video Conferencing
13 2 (1.02%) Acoustics
13 2 (1.02%) Handset
Operating Systems
1 66 (33.67%) Windows
2 42 (21.43%) Windows Server
3 22 (11.22%) Linux
4 14 (7.14%) Windows 10
5 9 (4.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (3.06%) CentOS
6 6 (3.06%) Rocky
6 6 (3.06%) Windows 7
7 5 (2.55%) Unix
8 3 (1.53%) Android
9 2 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.51%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.51%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 59 (30.10%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 41 (20.92%) Problem-Solving
3 36 (18.37%) Validation
4 30 (15.31%) Network Segmentation
5 29 (14.80%) ITSM
6 26 (13.27%) ITIL
7 23 (11.73%) Continuous Improvement
7 23 (11.73%) Infrastructure as Code
8 22 (11.22%) Disaster Recovery
8 22 (11.22%) High Availability
9 21 (10.71%) Project Delivery
10 20 (10.20%) Network Design
11 18 (9.18%) CI/CD
12 17 (8.67%) Network Monitoring
13 16 (8.16%) Infrastructure Automation
13 16 (8.16%) Mentoring
13 16 (8.16%) Migration
14 15 (7.65%) Cybersecurity
15 14 (7.14%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 13 (6.63%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 31 (15.82%) PowerShell
2 20 (10.20%) Python
3 6 (3.06%) VB
3 6 (3.06%) VBScript
4 5 (2.55%) ActionScript
4 5 (2.55%) Bash
5 2 (1.02%) SQL
5 2 (1.02%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.51%) Bicep
6 1 (0.51%) C#
Qualifications
1 81 (41.33%) Security Cleared
2 60 (30.61%) Cisco Certification
3 58 (29.59%) SC Cleared
4 54 (27.55%) CCNP
5 32 (16.33%) CCNA
6 20 (10.20%) DV Cleared
7 12 (6.12%) Degree
8 11 (5.61%) Network+ Certification
8 11 (5.61%) Server+ Certification
9 8 (4.08%) CCIE
10 5 (2.55%) ITIL Certification
10 5 (2.55%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (2.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 3 (1.53%) Azure Certification
12 3 (1.53%) DBS Check
13 2 (1.02%) AWS Certification
13 2 (1.02%) JNCIE
14 1 (0.51%) CWNA
14 1 (0.51%) JNCIP
14 1 (0.51%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (4.08%) QA
2 6 (3.06%) NCSC
2 6 (3.06%) SLA
3 5 (2.55%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 4 (2.04%) 21 CFR Part 11
4 4 (2.04%) GxP
4 4 (2.04%) NIST
4 4 (2.04%) NIST 800
5 3 (1.53%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (1.02%) Actionable Recommendations
6 2 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (1.02%) GDPR
6 2 (1.02%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.51%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 60 (30.61%) VMware Infrastructure
2 33 (16.84%) Active Directory
3 21 (10.71%) vSphere
4 19 (9.69%) Hyper-V
5 18 (9.18%) VMware ESXi
6 12 (6.12%) Firmware
7 10 (5.10%) VMware NSX
8 9 (4.59%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (3.57%) BitLocker
10 5 (2.55%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (2.04%) KVM
12 3 (1.53%) VirtualBox
13 2 (1.02%) NFS
13 2 (1.02%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 33 (16.84%) Ansible
2 12 (6.12%) Microsoft Intune
3 11 (5.61%) vCenter Server
4 8 (4.08%) FortiGate
4 8 (4.08%) SCCM
5 7 (3.57%) WSUS
6 6 (3.06%) NetBackup
7 5 (2.55%) Kubernetes
8 4 (2.04%) Nagios
9 3 (1.53%) Avamar
9 3 (1.53%) Grafana
9 3 (1.53%) PowerCLI
9 3 (1.53%) vMotion
10 2 (1.02%) Iperf
10 2 (1.02%) Prometheus
10 2 (1.02%) Red Hat Satellite
10 2 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
11 1 (0.51%) MobiControl
11 1 (0.51%) QRadar
11 1 (0.51%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 96 (48.98%) Cisco
2 76 (38.78%) VMware
3 51 (26.02%) Microsoft
4 30 (15.31%) F5
5 27 (13.78%) ServiceNow
6 22 (11.22%) Palo Alto
7 19 (9.69%) Veeam
8 17 (8.67%) SolarWinds
9 16 (8.16%) Juniper
10 15 (7.65%) CheckPoint
11 14 (7.14%) Fortinet
12 13 (6.63%) NetApp
13 11 (5.61%) Meraki
14 7 (3.57%) Aruba
14 7 (3.57%) Citrix
15 6 (3.06%) CyberArk
16 5 (2.55%) Google
16 5 (2.55%) Rockwell
16 5 (2.55%) Xerox
17 4 (2.04%) HP