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

6 months to
28 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 284 240 291
Rank change year-on-year -44 +51 +11
Contract jobs citing VLAN 156 99 105
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.70% 0.79% 0.50%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.16% 4.78% 2.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 107 67 75
10th Percentile £270 £217 £186
25th Percentile £403 £243 £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £478 £413 £400
Median % change year-on-year +15.76% +3.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £569 £579 £538
90th Percentile £628 £625 £650
UK median daily rate £465 £433 £413
% change year-on-year +7.51% +4.85% -12.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £12.43 - -
Median hourly rate £74.00 - £76.53
75th Percentile £74.26 - -
90th Percentile £76.96 - -
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 2,533 2,073 3,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 11.34% 16.47% 17.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,605 1,262 2,120
10th Percentile £203 £190 £200
25th Percentile £350 £303 £331
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £470 £475
Median % change year-on-year +1.06% -1.05% -
75th Percentile £575 £580 £596
90th Percentile £656 £638 £688
UK median daily rate £495 £488 £475
% change year-on-year +1.54% +2.63% -9.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 157 125 333
10th Percentile £15.25 £14.99 £13.50
25th Percentile £16.50 £21.00 £17.69
Median hourly rate £42.25 £32.50 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -27.78% +136.84%
75th Percentile £67.50 £65.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £78.61 £70.53
UK median hourly rate £38.50 £35.00 £38.00
% change year-on-year +10.00% -7.89% +96.89%

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 28 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 28 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 28 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 -22 65 £481 +48.08% 35
North West +5 54 £500 +11.11% 24
South East -50 38 £500 -11.50% 43
Midlands -64 26 £413 -29.78% 24
West Midlands -48 18 £469 -19.60% 21
South West -28 12 £475 +15.15% 13
Yorkshire -52 11 £363 +47.96% 8
Scotland +7 8 £325 -18.75% 3
East Midlands -32 7 £275 -57.69% 3
Wales -9 5 £293 -35.71% 3
East of England -36 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 (8.33%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (5.77%) Skype for Business
3 3 (1.92%) SharePoint
4 2 (1.28%) OpenStack
4 2 (1.28%) WordPress
5 1 (0.64%) Apache
5 1 (0.64%) JBoss
Applications
1 10 (6.41%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (2.56%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 42 (26.92%) Azure
2 25 (16.03%) AWS
3 12 (7.69%) Microsoft 365
4 9 (5.77%) Entra ID
5 7 (4.49%) Virtual Private Cloud
6 6 (3.85%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 6 (3.85%) GCP
7 4 (2.56%) Azure DevOps
8 3 (1.92%) AWS Direct Connect
9 2 (1.28%) AWS IoT
9 2 (1.28%) IaaS
9 2 (1.28%) PaaS
9 2 (1.28%) SaaS
10 1 (0.64%) Akamai
10 1 (0.64%) Amazon EC2
10 1 (0.64%) Amazon S3
10 1 (0.64%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.64%) Cloud Computing
10 1 (0.64%) Google Ads
10 1 (0.64%) Route 53
Communications & Networking
1 101 (64.74%) Firewall
2 59 (37.82%) WAN
3 58 (37.18%) LAN
4 53 (33.97%) VPN
5 52 (33.33%) DNS
6 51 (32.69%) DHCP
7 43 (27.56%) BGP
8 41 (26.28%) TCP/IP
9 40 (25.64%) Network Security
10 39 (25.00%) Wi-Fi
11 35 (22.44%) OSPF
12 30 (19.23%) Wireless
13 26 (16.67%) SD-WAN
14 18 (11.54%) MPLS
15 16 (10.26%) WLAN
16 13 (8.33%) Cisco ASA
17 12 (7.69%) EIGRP
18 11 (7.05%) VXLAN
19 10 (6.41%) Cisco ISE
19 10 (6.41%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.92%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.64%) OpenStack Swift
Development Applications
1 2 (1.28%) Git
1 2 (1.28%) Sonatype Nexus
2 1 (0.64%) Browser DevTools
2 1 (0.64%) JIRA
General
1 42 (26.92%) Social Skills
2 18 (11.54%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (6.41%) Documentation Skills
3 10 (6.41%) Public Sector
4 8 (5.13%) Legal
5 7 (4.49%) Telecoms
6 4 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 4 (2.56%) Organisational Skills
7 3 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
8 2 (1.28%) Aviation
8 2 (1.28%) Law
8 2 (1.28%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.64%) Advertising
9 1 (0.64%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.64%) Finance
9 1 (0.64%) Police
9 1 (0.64%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 67 (42.95%) Network Engineer
2 21 (13.46%) Architect
3 20 (12.82%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 19 (12.18%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
5 12 (7.69%) IT Support
6 11 (7.05%) Analyst
6 11 (7.05%) Network Architect
7 10 (6.41%) IT Engineer
8 8 (5.13%) Cisco Engineer
8 8 (5.13%) Senior
9 7 (4.49%) IT Analyst
9 7 (4.49%) Platform Engineer
9 7 (4.49%) Technical Architect
10 6 (3.85%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 6 (3.85%) IT Support Analyst
10 6 (3.85%) Support Analyst
10 6 (3.85%) Support Engineer
11 5 (3.21%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
11 5 (3.21%) Solutions Architect
11 5 (3.21%) Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (7.69%) 802.1X
2 2 (1.28%) RFC 2544
2 2 (1.28%) XMPP
3 1 (0.64%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 42 (26.92%) Data Centre
2 12 (7.69%) Onboarding
3 9 (5.77%) Product Ownership
4 8 (5.13%) Operational Technology
5 4 (2.56%) Analytical Mindset
5 4 (2.56%) Hybrid Cloud
5 4 (2.56%) Security Posture
6 3 (1.92%) 3D Printing
6 3 (1.92%) Driving Licence
6 3 (1.92%) IoT
6 3 (1.92%) SCADA
7 2 (1.28%) CCTV
7 2 (1.28%) Fibre Optics
7 2 (1.28%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.28%) Public Cloud
7 2 (1.28%) Replication
7 2 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.64%) Enterprise Cloud
8 1 (0.64%) Private Cloud
8 1 (0.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 44 (28.21%) Windows
2 21 (13.46%) Windows Server
3 15 (9.62%) Windows 10
4 13 (8.33%) Linux
5 10 (6.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (5.77%) Windows 7
7 2 (1.28%) Ubuntu
7 2 (1.28%) Windows Server 2016
8 1 (0.64%) CentOS
8 1 (0.64%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 26 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
2 25 (16.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
3 23 (14.74%) ITSM
4 20 (12.82%) Continuous Improvement
4 20 (12.82%) Cybersecurity
4 20 (12.82%) Network Design
4 20 (12.82%) Network Monitoring
5 18 (11.54%) High Availability
5 18 (11.54%) Network Segmentation
5 18 (11.54%) Service Management
6 15 (9.62%) Project Delivery
7 14 (8.97%) Change Control
8 13 (8.33%) ITIL
8 13 (8.33%) Root Cause Analysis
9 12 (7.69%) Disaster Recovery
10 11 (7.05%) Incident Response
10 11 (7.05%) Migration
11 9 (5.77%) Disk Encryption
11 9 (5.77%) Runbook
11 9 (5.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
Programming Languages
1 27 (17.31%) PowerShell
2 21 (13.46%) Python
3 14 (8.97%) Bash
4 10 (6.41%) VBScript
5 9 (5.77%) VB
6 7 (4.49%) Perl
7 4 (2.56%) SQL
8 1 (0.64%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 75 (48.08%) Security Cleared
2 65 (41.67%) Cisco Certification
3 62 (39.74%) SC Cleared
4 60 (38.46%) CCNP
5 46 (29.49%) CCNA
6 15 (9.62%) DV Cleared
7 14 (8.97%) Degree
8 13 (8.33%) Network+ Certification
9 10 (6.41%) CCIE
10 5 (3.21%) JNCIS
10 5 (3.21%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (2.56%) AWS Certification
11 4 (2.56%) Azure Certification
11 4 (2.56%) CCDP
11 4 (2.56%) CISSP
11 4 (2.56%) ISTQB
11 4 (2.56%) Server+ Certification
12 3 (1.92%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 3 (1.92%) CCIE Security
12 3 (1.92%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (4.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 5 (3.21%) NIST
2 5 (3.21%) PCI DSS
3 4 (2.56%) GDPR
3 4 (2.56%) NCSC
3 4 (2.56%) SLA
4 3 (1.92%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.28%) QA
6 1 (0.64%) GRC
6 1 (0.64%) GxP
6 1 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 32 (20.51%) Active Directory
2 25 (16.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (8.33%) vSphere
4 12 (7.69%) VMware ESXi
5 9 (5.77%) BitLocker
6 5 (3.21%) Firmware
6 5 (3.21%) VMware NSX
7 4 (2.56%) Docker
7 4 (2.56%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (1.92%) KVM
9 2 (1.28%) Hyper-V
10 1 (0.64%) Ceph
10 1 (0.64%) Citrix Presentation Server
10 1 (0.64%) iptables
10 1 (0.64%) NFS
10 1 (0.64%) QEMU
10 1 (0.64%) RHEV
10 1 (0.64%) Samba
10 1 (0.64%) Snort
10 1 (0.64%) Xen
Systems Management
1 12 (7.69%) Ansible
2 11 (7.05%) SCCM
2 11 (7.05%) vCenter Server
3 10 (6.41%) FortiGate
3 10 (6.41%) Terraform
4 9 (5.77%) Nagios
5 7 (4.49%) VxRail
6 4 (2.56%) Kubernetes
6 4 (2.56%) Microsoft Intune
7 3 (1.92%) WSUS
8 2 (1.28%) Cisco CUCM
8 2 (1.28%) Cisco Prime
8 2 (1.28%) Dell DRAC
8 2 (1.28%) Grafana
8 2 (1.28%) Iperf
8 2 (1.28%) Nmap
8 2 (1.28%) PowerCLI
9 1 (0.64%) Failover Clustering
9 1 (0.64%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.64%) Suricata
Vendors
1 79 (50.64%) Cisco
2 39 (25.00%) Microsoft
3 33 (21.15%) Palo Alto
4 29 (18.59%) VMware
5 21 (13.46%) Fortinet
6 19 (12.18%) Aruba
7 17 (10.90%) SolarWinds
8 13 (8.33%) CheckPoint
8 13 (8.33%) Juniper
8 13 (8.33%) ServiceNow
9 11 (7.05%) F5
9 11 (7.05%) Veeam
10 9 (5.77%) Dell
10 9 (5.77%) Ekahau
11 8 (5.13%) Meraki
11 8 (5.13%) Red Hat
12 7 (4.49%) Citrix
13 4 (2.56%) HP
13 4 (2.56%) Zerto
14 3 (1.92%) Arista