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

6 months to
18 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 277 264 281
Rank change year-on-year -13 +17 -8
Contract jobs citing VLAN 196 99 98
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.71% 0.65% 0.54%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.67% 4.68% 3.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 127 65 64
10th Percentile £320 £215 £250
25th Percentile £411 £375 £292
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £450 £431
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% +4.35% -10.16%
75th Percentile £600 £536 £555
90th Percentile £653 £698 £666
UK median daily rate £475 £447 £450
% change year-on-year +6.26% -0.67% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 20 1 0
10th Percentile £18.50 - -
25th Percentile £33.70 £65.75 -
Median hourly rate £54.88 £66.50 -
Median % change year-on-year -17.48% - -
75th Percentile £74.00 £67.25 -
90th Percentile £76.96 - -
UK median hourly rate £54.88 £62.00 -
% change year-on-year -11.49% - -

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 2,938 2,117 2,778
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.66% 13.82% 15.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,656 1,268 1,637
10th Percentile £214 £203 £212
25th Percentile £368 £325 £358
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £487 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +2.58% -5.00% +9.89%
75th Percentile £576 £575 £600
90th Percentile £650 £641 £675
UK median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 311 140 270
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.99 £14.16
25th Percentile £18.63 £19.45 £21.28
Median hourly rate £26.14 £45.00 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year -41.91% -18.00% -2.86%
75th Percentile £65.55 £65.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £87.50 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £26.14 £46.25 £49.00
% change year-on-year -43.48% -5.61% -10.91%

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 18 August 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 18 August 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 18 August 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 -32 67 £500 +9.65% 30
South East -59 48 £475 +5.56% 61
North West -21 43 £519 +10.44% 16
South West -16 30 £495 +130.23% 19
Midlands -45 29 £413 -21.43% 24
Yorkshire -23 23 £475 +58.20% 11
East Midlands -11 14 £275 -57.69% 4
West Midlands -47 14 £413 -7.30% 20
East of England -24 12 £600 +60.00% 18
Scotland -7 10 £375 -14.77% 4
Wales -17 2 £269 -40.93% 3
North East -39 1 - - 6
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 1 (0.51%) Apache
5 1 (0.51%) JBoss
5 1 (0.51%) OpenStack
Applications
1 8 (4.08%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.51%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.51%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 56 (28.57%) Azure
2 32 (16.33%) AWS
3 25 (12.76%) Microsoft 365
4 24 (12.24%) Entra ID
5 11 (5.61%) GCP
6 10 (5.10%) GitHub
7 7 (3.57%) Azure DevOps
8 6 (3.06%) Nutanix
8 6 (3.06%) Virtual Private Cloud
9 5 (2.55%) GitHub Actions
9 5 (2.55%) IaaS
10 4 (2.04%) OneDrive
11 3 (1.53%) AWS Direct Connect
11 3 (1.53%) Azure ExpressRoute
11 3 (1.53%) Azure Sentinel
12 2 (1.02%) Google Ads
12 2 (1.02%) Google Workspace
13 1 (0.51%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 1 (0.51%) Route 53
13 1 (0.51%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 114 (58.16%) Firewall
2 91 (46.43%) DNS
3 76 (38.78%) DHCP
4 64 (32.65%) VPN
5 62 (31.63%) WAN
6 61 (31.12%) LAN
7 58 (29.59%) BGP
7 58 (29.59%) OSPF
8 54 (27.55%) TCP/IP
9 46 (23.47%) Wireless
10 38 (19.39%) Wi-Fi
11 35 (17.86%) SAN
12 34 (17.35%) Network Security
13 30 (15.31%) SD-WAN
14 29 (14.80%) Cisco Nexus
15 24 (12.24%) NAS
15 24 (12.24%) NX-OS
16 23 (11.73%) Cisco IOS
17 21 (10.71%) WLAN
18 20 (10.20%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (5.10%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.51%) OpenStack Swift
Development Applications
1 10 (5.10%) Jenkins
2 8 (4.08%) JIRA
3 5 (2.55%) GitLab
4 3 (1.53%) Git
4 3 (1.53%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (1.02%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
6 1 (0.51%) Browser DevTools
6 1 (0.51%) MSI
General
1 52 (26.53%) Social Skills
2 23 (11.73%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (7.14%) Public Sector
4 12 (6.12%) Documentation Skills
5 9 (4.59%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 9 (4.59%) Manufacturing
6 6 (3.06%) Organisational Skills
6 6 (3.06%) Police
6 6 (3.06%) Telecoms
7 5 (2.55%) Pharmaceutical
8 4 (2.04%) Finance
8 4 (2.04%) Games
8 4 (2.04%) Legal
9 3 (1.53%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.02%) Advertising
11 1 (0.51%) Law
Job Titles
1 77 (39.29%) Network Engineer
2 41 (20.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 29 (14.80%) Architect
4 22 (11.22%) Senior
5 19 (9.69%) IT Engineer
6 18 (9.18%) Network Architect
7 11 (5.61%) Cisco Engineer
7 11 (5.61%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 11 (5.61%) Senior Network Engineer
8 10 (5.10%) IT Support
8 10 (5.10%) Technical Architect
9 9 (4.59%) Cisco Network Engineer
10 8 (4.08%) IT Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (4.08%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
10 8 (4.08%) Support Engineer
10 8 (4.08%) Test Engineer
11 7 (3.57%) Automation Specialist
12 6 (3.06%) IT Support Engineer
12 6 (3.06%) Systems Engineer
12 6 (3.06%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (5.10%) 802.1X
2 3 (1.53%) NETCONF
3 2 (1.02%) HTML
3 2 (1.02%) HTML5
3 2 (1.02%) ModSecurity
3 2 (1.02%) ODBC
4 1 (0.51%) Microsoft Graph
4 1 (0.51%) REST
4 1 (0.51%) RESTCONF
Miscellaneous
1 66 (33.67%) Data Centre
2 15 (7.65%) Onboarding
2 15 (7.65%) Self-Motivation
3 12 (6.12%) Operational Technology
4 11 (5.61%) PKI
4 11 (5.61%) Replication
5 10 (5.10%) SCADA
6 9 (4.59%) Cloud Native
7 8 (4.08%) Driving Licence
8 7 (3.57%) Hybrid Cloud
9 6 (3.06%) Life Science
10 5 (2.55%) Virtual Team
11 4 (2.04%) Animation
11 4 (2.04%) CMDB
11 4 (2.04%) Private Cloud
12 3 (1.53%) Analytical Mindset
12 3 (1.53%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
12 3 (1.53%) Linux Command Line
13 2 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
13 2 (1.02%) Social Media
Operating Systems
1 60 (30.61%) Windows
2 39 (19.90%) Windows Server
3 18 (9.18%) Linux
4 14 (7.14%) Windows 10
5 9 (4.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 7 (3.57%) Rocky
7 6 (3.06%) CentOS
7 6 (3.06%) Windows 7
8 4 (2.04%) Unix
9 2 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.51%) Android
10 1 (0.51%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.51%) VMS
10 1 (0.51%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (27.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 43 (21.94%) Problem-Solving
3 33 (16.84%) Network Segmentation
4 25 (12.76%) ITSM
4 25 (12.76%) Validation
5 24 (12.24%) ITIL
6 23 (11.73%) Continuous Improvement
7 21 (10.71%) Project Delivery
8 19 (9.69%) Disaster Recovery
8 19 (9.69%) High Availability
8 19 (9.69%) Infrastructure as Code
9 18 (9.18%) CI/CD
9 18 (9.18%) Network Monitoring
10 17 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
10 17 (8.67%) Migration
10 17 (8.67%) Network Design
11 16 (8.16%) Mentoring
12 14 (7.14%) Infrastructure Automation
13 12 (6.12%) DevOps
13 12 (6.12%) Network Virtualisation
Programming Languages
1 25 (12.76%) PowerShell
2 19 (9.69%) Python
3 6 (3.06%) VB
3 6 (3.06%) VBScript
4 5 (2.55%) ActionScript
5 4 (2.04%) Bash
5 4 (2.04%) SQL
6 2 (1.02%) T-SQL
7 1 (0.51%) Bicep
Qualifications
1 81 (41.33%) Security Cleared
2 66 (33.67%) Cisco Certification
3 59 (30.10%) CCNP
3 59 (30.10%) SC Cleared
4 42 (21.43%) CCNA
5 18 (9.18%) DV Cleared
6 15 (7.65%) Network+ Certification
7 14 (7.14%) Server+ Certification
8 13 (6.63%) Degree
9 8 (4.08%) CCIE
10 4 (2.04%) Azure Certification
10 4 (2.04%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 3 (1.53%) AWS Certification
11 3 (1.53%) Computer Science Degree
11 3 (1.53%) DBS Check
11 3 (1.53%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.51%) ITIL Foundation Certificate
12 1 (0.51%) JNCIA
12 1 (0.51%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.57%) QA
2 6 (3.06%) NCSC
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
4 4 (2.04%) SLA
5 3 (1.53%) Cyber Essentials
6 2 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 2 (1.02%) GDPR
6 2 (1.02%) JSP 440
7 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 52 (26.53%) VMware Infrastructure
2 36 (18.37%) Active Directory
3 17 (8.67%) Hyper-V
4 16 (8.16%) vSphere
5 11 (5.61%) VMware ESXi
6 10 (5.10%) VMware NSX
7 9 (4.59%) Firmware
7 9 (4.59%) Virtual Machines
8 7 (3.57%) BitLocker
9 5 (2.55%) Virtual Desktop
10 3 (1.53%) NFS
10 3 (1.53%) VirtualBox
11 2 (1.02%) KVM
12 1 (0.51%) iptables
12 1 (0.51%) Samba
12 1 (0.51%) Snort
12 1 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 26 (13.27%) Ansible
2 23 (11.73%) Terraform
3 13 (6.63%) Microsoft Intune
4 7 (3.57%) SCCM
4 7 (3.57%) vCenter Server
4 7 (3.57%) WSUS
5 6 (3.06%) FortiGate
5 6 (3.06%) NetBackup
6 5 (2.55%) Nagios
7 4 (2.04%) Kubernetes
8 3 (1.53%) Avamar
8 3 (1.53%) Grafana
8 3 (1.53%) PowerCLI
9 2 (1.02%) Red Hat Satellite
9 2 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
9 2 (1.02%) Suricata
10 1 (0.51%) Iperf
10 1 (0.51%) SELinux
10 1 (0.51%) systemd
10 1 (0.51%) vMotion
Vendors
1 98 (50.00%) Cisco
2 69 (35.20%) VMware
3 49 (25.00%) Microsoft
4 28 (14.29%) Palo Alto
5 26 (13.27%) F5
6 25 (12.76%) ServiceNow
7 17 (8.67%) CheckPoint
7 17 (8.67%) SolarWinds
7 17 (8.67%) Veeam
8 16 (8.16%) Aruba
9 14 (7.14%) Fortinet
10 13 (6.63%) Juniper
11 11 (5.61%) Meraki
12 10 (5.10%) Ekahau
12 10 (5.10%) NetApp
13 7 (3.57%) Citrix
13 7 (3.57%) Rockwell
14 6 (3.06%) CyberArk
14 6 (3.06%) HP
15 5 (2.55%) Google