WAN Contracts in the UK excluding London

Wide Area Network (WAN)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the UK excluding London requiring WAN skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited WAN over the 6 months leading up to 3 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 120 69 90
Rank change year-on-year -51 +21 +25
Contract jobs citing WAN 260 546 665
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.04% 2.64% 2.78%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 13.15% 16.02% 18.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 174 286 426
10th Percentile £239 £263 £250
25th Percentile £325 £353 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £438 £500 £440
Median % change year-on-year -12.50% +13.64% +10.00%
75th Percentile £537 £667 £538
90th Percentile £622 £724 £600
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £475
% change year-on-year -5.00% +5.26% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 36 28
10th Percentile £13.62 £13.63 £17.45
25th Percentile £16.12 £20.93 £21.81
Median hourly rate £47.00 £24.87 £57.33
Median % change year-on-year +88.98% -56.62% +163.59%
75th Percentile £75.00 £40.00 £69.56
90th Percentile - £75.24 £89.00
UK median hourly rate £40.00 £24.69 £60.00
% change year-on-year +62.04% -58.86% +130.77%

All Communications and Computer Networking Skills
UK excluding London

WAN 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 1,977 3,409 3,583
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 15.48% 16.47% 14.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,206 1,953 2,274
10th Percentile £194 £203 £210
25th Percentile £303 £350 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £465 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.11% - +8.57%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £586
90th Percentile £638 £675 £690
UK median daily rate £488 £490 £520
% change year-on-year -0.51% -5.77% +4.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 142 359 327
10th Percentile £13.85 £13.45 -
25th Percentile £15.44 £16.30 £9.80
Median hourly rate £24.40 £45.88 £18.50
Median % change year-on-year -46.81% +148.00% -13.95%
75th Percentile £62.06 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £70.66 £74.05
UK median hourly rate £31.08 £40.00 £19.00
% change year-on-year -22.30% +110.53% -30.91%

WAN
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing WAN as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for WAN in the UK excluding London

WAN
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing WAN in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for WAN in the UK excluding London

WAN
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing WAN in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 3 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for WAN in the UK excluding London

WAN
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing WAN in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for WAN in the UK excluding London

WAN
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing WAN in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 3 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for WAN in the UK excluding London

WAN
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 WAN within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 3 May 2025. 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
South East -26 74 £450 - 108
North of England +8 71 £425 -5.56% 64
North West +28 54 £450 +5.88% 24
South West -31 33 £500 -23.08% 47
Midlands -65 31 £425 +13.33% 60
West Midlands -55 26 £400 +6.67% 32
Scotland +15 24 £431 -38.39% 20
East of England +42 22 £430 -18.10% 42
Yorkshire -14 14 £268 -47.80% 27
Wales +11 5 £400 - 10
East Midlands +10 5 £500 -20.63% 27
North East -4 2 £375 -6.25% 15
WAN
UK

WAN
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 23 (8.85%) Microsoft Exchange
2 12 (4.62%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.54%) Skype for Business
4 2 (0.77%) Camunda
5 1 (0.38%) Confluence
5 1 (0.38%) IIS
Applications
1 27 (10.38%) Microsoft Office
2 8 (3.08%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
3 6 (2.31%) MS Visio
4 3 (1.15%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.38%) Trello
Business Applications
1 5 (1.92%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 43 (16.54%) Azure
2 30 (11.54%) AWS
3 27 (10.38%) Microsoft 365
4 12 (4.62%) OneDrive
5 11 (4.23%) Entra ID
6 5 (1.92%) Cloudflare
6 5 (1.92%) GCP
7 3 (1.15%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (0.77%) Akamai
8 2 (0.77%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.38%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.38%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.38%) GitHub
9 1 (0.38%) Nutanix
9 1 (0.38%) Serverless
9 1 (0.38%) Smartsheet
Communications & Networking
1 174 (66.92%) LAN
2 119 (45.77%) VPN
3 117 (45.00%) Firewall
4 74 (28.46%) SD-WAN
5 61 (23.46%) MPLS
6 59 (22.69%) Wi-Fi
7 57 (21.92%) BGP
8 55 (21.15%) Network Security
9 53 (20.38%) Wireless
10 43 (16.54%) OSPF
11 35 (13.46%) DNS
12 31 (11.92%) TCP/IP
13 29 (11.15%) IPsec
14 25 (9.62%) Cisco Nexus
14 25 (9.62%) DHCP
14 25 (9.62%) VLAN
15 23 (8.85%) Ethernet
15 23 (8.85%) SAN
15 23 (8.85%) VoIP
16 22 (8.46%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.54%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.38%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.38%) MySQL
2 1 (0.38%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (1.54%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (0.77%) JIRA
General
1 83 (31.92%) Social Skills
2 38 (14.62%) Telecoms
3 28 (10.77%) Public Sector
4 24 (9.23%) Finance
5 23 (8.85%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (3.08%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.08%) Electronics
6 8 (3.08%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 8 (3.08%) Legal
7 7 (2.69%) Banking
7 7 (2.69%) Manufacturing
8 5 (1.92%) Billing
8 5 (1.92%) Retail
9 4 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (1.54%) Law
9 4 (1.54%) Military
10 3 (1.15%) Marketing
11 2 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
12 1 (0.38%) Presentation Skills
12 1 (0.38%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 114 (43.85%) Network Engineer
2 41 (15.77%) Architect
3 24 (9.23%) Support Engineer
4 22 (8.46%) Technical Architect
5 21 (8.08%) Network Architect
5 21 (8.08%) Senior
6 19 (7.31%) IP Engineer
7 14 (5.38%) Test Engineer
8 12 (4.62%) 2nd Line Support
8 12 (4.62%) Project Manager
8 12 (4.62%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 11 (4.23%) Senior Network Engineer
10 10 (3.85%) 2nd Line Engineer
10 10 (3.85%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
10 10 (3.85%) Cisco Engineer
10 10 (3.85%) Cisco Network Engineer
11 9 (3.46%) Field Engineer
11 9 (3.46%) Network Technical Architect
12 8 (3.08%) Administrator
12 8 (3.08%) Desktop Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (7.69%) 802.1X
2 7 (2.69%) Middleware
3 4 (1.54%) LDAP
4 1 (0.38%) HTML
4 1 (0.38%) Java RMI
4 1 (0.38%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 48 (18.46%) Data Centre
2 21 (8.08%) Self-Motivation
3 15 (5.77%) PKI
3 15 (5.77%) Public Cloud
4 9 (3.46%) Hybrid Cloud
5 8 (3.08%) Driving Licence
6 7 (2.69%) Management Information System
6 7 (2.69%) Video Conferencing
7 6 (2.31%) CMDB
7 6 (2.31%) IVR
7 6 (2.31%) Virtual Team
8 5 (1.92%) SCADA
9 4 (1.54%) Distributed Computing
9 4 (1.54%) Legacy Systems
9 4 (1.54%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.15%) Fibre Optics
10 3 (1.15%) NHS
11 2 (0.77%) CCTV
11 2 (0.77%) Data Protection Act
11 2 (0.77%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 54 (20.77%) Windows
2 39 (15.00%) Linux
3 18 (6.92%) Windows 10
4 16 (6.15%) Unix
5 15 (5.77%) Windows Server
6 6 (2.31%) Windows 7
6 6 (2.31%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (1.92%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.54%) Android
9 3 (1.15%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.38%) CentOS
11 1 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.38%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 56 (21.54%) Problem-Solving
2 43 (16.54%) Network Architecture
3 39 (15.00%) ITIL
4 36 (13.85%) Network Design
4 36 (13.85%) Project Management
5 34 (13.08%) Load Balancing
6 27 (10.38%) Network Management
7 26 (10.00%) Customer Service
8 23 (8.85%) Migration
9 21 (8.08%) Network Monitoring
10 19 (7.31%) Change Management
11 18 (6.92%) Stakeholder Management
12 16 (6.15%) Fault Management
12 16 (6.15%) Regression Testing
12 16 (6.15%) Technical Leadership
12 16 (6.15%) Test Strategy
13 13 (5.00%) Impact Assessments
13 13 (5.00%) Mentoring
14 12 (4.62%) Infrastructure Engineering
15 11 (4.23%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 16 (6.15%) Java
2 12 (4.62%) Python
3 9 (3.46%) PowerShell
4 6 (2.31%) SQL
5 4 (1.54%) VB
5 4 (1.54%) VBScript
6 2 (0.77%) Bicep
7 1 (0.38%) Bash
7 1 (0.38%) Perl
Qualifications
1 93 (35.77%) Security Cleared
2 81 (31.15%) Cisco Certification
3 68 (26.15%) SC Cleared
4 57 (21.92%) CCNP
5 30 (11.54%) CCNA
6 28 (10.77%) Degree
7 16 (6.15%) ISEB
7 16 (6.15%) ISTQB
7 16 (6.15%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 15 (5.77%) CCIE
9 13 (5.00%) DV Cleared
10 7 (2.69%) Azure Certification
10 7 (2.69%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (2.31%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (1.92%) A+ Certification
12 5 (1.92%) MCSE
13 4 (1.54%) JNCIP
14 3 (1.15%) CCDP
14 3 (1.15%) JNCIE
14 3 (1.15%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 8 (3.08%) SLA
2 6 (2.31%) QA
3 5 (1.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (1.92%) NCSC
3 5 (1.92%) NIST
4 4 (1.54%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.77%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 31 (11.92%) Active Directory
2 26 (10.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (4.23%) VMware NSX
4 5 (1.92%) Hyper-V
4 5 (1.92%) Virtual Servers
5 4 (1.54%) BitLocker
5 4 (1.54%) Microsoft Virtual Server
6 2 (0.77%) Firmware
6 2 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
7 1 (0.38%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.38%) vSphere
7 1 (0.38%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 19 (7.31%) SCCM
2 15 (5.77%) Ansible
3 13 (5.00%) FortiGate
4 10 (3.85%) AppManager
4 10 (3.85%) Terraform
5 5 (1.92%) SCOM
6 4 (1.54%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.77%) AirWatch
7 2 (0.77%) XenMobile
8 1 (0.38%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 1 (0.38%) CASB
8 1 (0.38%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.38%) Kubernetes
8 1 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 151 (58.08%) Cisco
2 58 (22.31%) Microsoft
3 56 (21.54%) Palo Alto
4 45 (17.31%) Juniper
5 32 (12.31%) VMware
6 24 (9.23%) Meraki
7 19 (7.31%) Fortinet
8 15 (5.77%) F5
9 14 (5.38%) Aruba
10 13 (5.00%) ServiceNow
11 12 (4.62%) Ivanti
12 11 (4.23%) SolarWinds
13 8 (3.08%) CheckPoint
14 7 (2.69%) Remedy
15 6 (2.31%) Arista
15 6 (2.31%) Citrix
15 6 (2.31%) Zscaler
16 5 (1.92%) Apple
16 5 (1.92%) MuleSoft
16 5 (1.92%) Red Hat