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

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 292 282 251
Rank change year-on-year -10 -31 -14
Contract jobs citing VLAN 196 104 119
As % of all contract jobs in the UK excluding London 0.70% 0.66% 0.68%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 6.70% 4.89% 4.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 126 76 71
10th Percentile £319 £219 £250
25th Percentile £400 £269 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £443 £420
Median % change year-on-year +12.99% +5.36% -11.58%
75th Percentile £600 £491 £579
90th Percentile £630 £685 £668
UK median daily rate £475 £447 £450
% change year-on-year +6.26% -0.67% -5.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 15 1 1
10th Percentile £18.50 - -
25th Percentile £26.10 £65.75 £21.25
Median hourly rate £38.72 £66.50 £22.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.77% +195.56% -34.25%
75th Percentile £66.19 £67.25 £23.75
90th Percentile £74.00 - -
UK median hourly rate £42.86 £34.00 £30.25
% change year-on-year +26.06% +12.40% -8.94%

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 2,926 2,127 2,551
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 10.40% 13.42% 14.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,610 1,365 1,394
10th Percentile £213 £194 £200
25th Percentile £353 £305 £342
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 £485
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% -7.22% +5.43%
75th Percentile £576 £575 £588
90th Percentile £650 £645 £660
UK median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 355 136 159
10th Percentile £14.10 £15.42 £15.01
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.53 £24.97
Median hourly rate £26.14 £41.48 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -36.97% -24.59% -4.35%
75th Percentile £65.88 £65.00 £66.01
90th Percentile £85.00 £80.68 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £32.50 £35.00 £49.00
% change year-on-year -7.14% -28.57% -13.26%

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 9 October 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 9 October 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 9 October 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 -20 63 £500 +13.96% 46
South East -51 48 £475 +15.15% 72
North West -29 33 £519 +12.58% 29
South West -6 31 £495 +29.41% 24
Yorkshire -11 29 £488 +122.86% 11
Midlands -39 22 £400 -15.79% 31
East of England -25 17 £600 +30.43% 24
West Midlands -44 16 £400 -15.79% 22
Scotland -20 11 £375 -14.77% 14
East Midlands -15 6 - - 9
Wales - 4 £363 - 5
North East -40 1 - - 9
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 (6.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 11 (5.61%) SharePoint
3 6 (3.06%) Confluence
3 6 (3.06%) Skype for Business
4 5 (2.55%) FactoryTalk
Applications
1 9 (4.59%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.02%) Microsoft Excel
3 1 (0.51%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 6 (3.06%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 55 (28.06%) Azure
2 35 (17.86%) AWS
3 30 (15.31%) Microsoft 365
4 19 (9.69%) Entra ID
5 17 (8.67%) GCP
6 13 (6.63%) GitHub
7 7 (3.57%) GitHub Actions
8 6 (3.06%) IaaS
9 5 (2.55%) Nutanix
10 4 (2.04%) AWS Direct Connect
10 4 (2.04%) Virtual Private Cloud
11 3 (1.53%) Azure DevOps
11 3 (1.53%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (1.53%) OneDrive
12 2 (1.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
12 2 (1.02%) Google Workspace
13 1 (0.51%) Azure Monitor
13 1 (0.51%) Google Ads
13 1 (0.51%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 119 (60.71%) Firewall
2 100 (51.02%) DNS
3 81 (41.33%) DHCP
4 71 (36.22%) VPN
5 63 (32.14%) BGP
6 62 (31.63%) TCP/IP
7 61 (31.12%) LAN
7 61 (31.12%) WAN
8 60 (30.61%) OSPF
9 43 (21.94%) Wireless
10 38 (19.39%) Network Security
11 33 (16.84%) Wi-Fi
12 31 (15.82%) Cisco Nexus
13 30 (15.31%) SAN
14 29 (14.80%) SD-WAN
15 23 (11.73%) WLAN
16 21 (10.71%) Cisco IOS
16 21 (10.71%) VXLAN
17 20 (10.20%) NX-OS
18 19 (9.69%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (3.06%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.51%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 14 (7.14%) JIRA
2 12 (6.12%) Jenkins
3 7 (3.57%) GitLab
4 6 (3.06%) Git
5 2 (1.02%) Sonatype Nexus
5 2 (1.02%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 44 (22.45%) Social Skills
2 23 (11.73%) Analytical Skills
3 13 (6.63%) Public Sector
4 11 (5.61%) Documentation Skills
5 10 (5.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 10 (5.10%) Manufacturing
6 8 (4.08%) Telecoms
7 6 (3.06%) Finance
7 6 (3.06%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (2.55%) Pharmaceutical
8 5 (2.55%) Police
9 4 (2.04%) Games
10 3 (1.53%) Influencing Skills
10 3 (1.53%) Legal
11 2 (1.02%) Banking
12 1 (0.51%) Advertising
12 1 (0.51%) Billing
12 1 (0.51%) Military
Job Titles
1 75 (38.27%) Network Engineer
2 41 (20.92%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 29 (14.80%) Senior
4 20 (10.20%) Architect
5 17 (8.67%) Senior Network Engineer
6 14 (7.14%) IT Engineer
6 14 (7.14%) Network Architect
7 11 (5.61%) IT Support
8 10 (5.10%) Cisco Engineer
8 10 (5.10%) Support Engineer
9 8 (4.08%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 8 (4.08%) Technical Architect
10 7 (3.57%) Automation Specialist
10 7 (3.57%) Network Infrastructure Engineer
10 7 (3.57%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 6 (3.06%) IT Support Engineer
11 6 (3.06%) Project Engineer
11 6 (3.06%) QA Engineer
11 6 (3.06%) QA Test Engineer
11 6 (3.06%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (13.27%) Terraform
2 7 (3.57%) 802.1X
3 5 (2.55%) NETCONF
3 5 (2.55%) REST
4 4 (2.04%) JSON
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
6 2 (1.02%) YAML
7 1 (0.51%) .NET
7 1 (0.51%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 71 (36.22%) Data Centre
2 12 (6.12%) Self-Motivation
3 11 (5.61%) PKI
4 10 (5.10%) Onboarding
4 10 (5.10%) Operational Technology
5 9 (4.59%) Cloud Native
5 9 (4.59%) Replication
6 8 (4.08%) Driving Licence
7 7 (3.57%) CMDB
7 7 (3.57%) SCADA
8 6 (3.06%) Hybrid Cloud
8 6 (3.06%) Life Science
9 5 (2.55%) Virtual Team
10 4 (2.04%) Animation
10 4 (2.04%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 4 (2.04%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (2.04%) Private Cloud
11 3 (1.53%) Management Information System
11 3 (1.53%) Video Conferencing
12 2 (1.02%) Handset
Operating Systems
1 63 (32.14%) Windows
2 41 (20.92%) Windows Server
3 23 (11.73%) Linux
4 11 (5.61%) Windows 10
5 9 (4.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (3.06%) CentOS
6 6 (3.06%) Rocky
6 6 (3.06%) Unix
6 6 (3.06%) Windows 7
7 4 (2.04%) Android
8 2 (1.02%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.51%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.51%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.51%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 53 (27.04%) Infrastructure Engineering
2 37 (18.88%) Problem-Solving
3 35 (17.86%) Validation
4 32 (16.33%) ITSM
5 29 (14.80%) Network Segmentation
6 24 (12.24%) Infrastructure as Code
6 24 (12.24%) ITIL
7 23 (11.73%) Network Design
8 22 (11.22%) Continuous Improvement
8 22 (11.22%) Project Delivery
9 21 (10.71%) CI/CD
9 21 (10.71%) Disaster Recovery
10 20 (10.20%) High Availability
11 17 (8.67%) Cybersecurity
11 17 (8.67%) Network Monitoring
12 14 (7.14%) Infrastructure Automation
12 14 (7.14%) Mentoring
12 14 (7.14%) Migration
12 14 (7.14%) Service Management
13 13 (6.63%) Load Balancing
Programming Languages
1 32 (16.33%) PowerShell
2 22 (11.22%) Python
3 6 (3.06%) Bash
3 6 (3.06%) VB
3 6 (3.06%) VBScript
4 5 (2.55%) ActionScript
5 2 (1.02%) SQL
5 2 (1.02%) T-SQL
6 1 (0.51%) Bicep
6 1 (0.51%) C#
Qualifications
1 71 (36.22%) Security Cleared
2 57 (29.08%) Cisco Certification
3 50 (25.51%) CCNP
3 50 (25.51%) SC Cleared
4 30 (15.31%) CCNA
5 20 (10.20%) DV Cleared
6 12 (6.12%) Degree
7 10 (5.10%) Network+ Certification
8 9 (4.59%) 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%) DBS Check
13 2 (1.02%) AWS Certification
13 2 (1.02%) Azure Certification
13 2 (1.02%) JNCIE
14 1 (0.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 1 (0.51%) JNCIP
14 1 (0.51%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.59%) QA
2 6 (3.06%) NCSC
2 6 (3.06%) SLA
3 4 (2.04%) 21 CFR Part 11
3 4 (2.04%) GxP
3 4 (2.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (2.04%) NIST
3 4 (2.04%) NIST 800
4 3 (1.53%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (1.02%) Actionable Recommendations
5 2 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 2 (1.02%) GDPR
5 2 (1.02%) JSP 440
6 1 (0.51%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 20000
System Software
1 60 (30.61%) VMware Infrastructure
2 35 (17.86%) Active Directory
3 22 (11.22%) vSphere
4 21 (10.71%) Hyper-V
5 18 (9.18%) VMware ESXi
6 13 (6.63%) Firmware
7 9 (4.59%) VMware NSX
8 8 (4.08%) Virtual Machines
9 7 (3.57%) BitLocker
10 5 (2.55%) Virtual Desktop
11 4 (2.04%) KVM
11 4 (2.04%) VirtualBox
12 2 (1.02%) NFS
12 2 (1.02%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 37 (18.88%) Ansible
2 12 (6.12%) Microsoft Intune
3 10 (5.10%) vCenter Server
4 9 (4.59%) SCCM
5 7 (3.57%) FortiGate
6 6 (3.06%) Kubernetes
6 6 (3.06%) NetBackup
7 4 (2.04%) Grafana
7 4 (2.04%) Nagios
7 4 (2.04%) WSUS
8 3 (1.53%) Avamar
8 3 (1.53%) Prometheus
8 3 (1.53%) vMotion
9 2 (1.02%) Cisco Prime
9 2 (1.02%) Red Hat Satellite
9 2 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
10 1 (0.51%) QRadar
10 1 (0.51%) SCOM
10 1 (0.51%) Suricata
10 1 (0.51%) WMI
Vendors
1 98 (50.00%) Cisco
2 75 (38.27%) VMware
3 55 (28.06%) Microsoft
4 31 (15.82%) F5
5 27 (13.78%) Palo Alto
6 26 (13.27%) ServiceNow
7 20 (10.20%) Veeam
8 18 (9.18%) SolarWinds
9 17 (8.67%) Juniper
10 16 (8.16%) CheckPoint
10 16 (8.16%) Fortinet
10 16 (8.16%) NetApp
11 14 (7.14%) Meraki
12 8 (4.08%) Aruba
13 6 (3.06%) CyberArk
13 6 (3.06%) Remedy
13 6 (3.06%) Xerox
14 5 (2.55%) BT
14 5 (2.55%) Commvault
14 5 (2.55%) Dell