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 13 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 128 71 84
Rank change year-on-year -57 +13 +23
Contract jobs citing WAN 261 526 686
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 2.04% 2.57% 2.92%
As % of the Communications & Networking category 12.91% 15.81% 19.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 173 270 433
10th Percentile £243 £263 £263
25th Percentile £325 £350 £313
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £450 £488 £440
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +10.80% +10.00%
75th Percentile £538 £650 £538
90th Percentile £625 £713 £600
UK median daily rate £488 £494 £475
% change year-on-year -1.27% +3.95% +5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 35 28
10th Percentile £13.62 £13.55 £17.45
25th Percentile £16.12 £20.60 £21.15
Median hourly rate £47.00 £24.87 £57.33
Median % change year-on-year +88.98% -56.62% +160.59%
75th Percentile £75.00 £40.00 £69.56
90th Percentile - £75.24 £89.00
UK median hourly rate £38.75 £24.69 £60.00
% change year-on-year +56.98% -58.86% +118.18%

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 2,021 3,326 3,532
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 15.80% 16.24% 15.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,201 1,900 2,223
10th Percentile £200 £202 £206
25th Percentile £300 £350 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £475 £475
Median % change year-on-year -2.63% - +5.56%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £588
90th Percentile £638 £675 £688
UK median daily rate £488 £495 £517
% change year-on-year -1.52% -4.16% +3.30%
Number of hourly rates quoted 137 358 320
10th Percentile £13.81 £13.43 -
25th Percentile £15.33 £16.30 £9.80
Median hourly rate £24.18 £46.14 £18.47
Median % change year-on-year -47.59% +149.85% -14.12%
75th Percentile £61.50 £63.75 £60.00
90th Percentile £77.41 £70.66 £74.50
UK median hourly rate £28.41 £40.00 £18.50
% change year-on-year -28.98% +116.22% -32.73%

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 13 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 13 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 13 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 -18 74 £469 +10.29% 115
North of England +20 72 £438 +2.94% 75
North West +38 52 £450 +28.57% 33
South West -12 33 £510 -21.54% 48
Midlands -63 31 £431 +15.00% 73
West Midlands -53 26 £413 +10.00% 41
Scotland +16 24 £431 -36.11% 24
East of England +26 21 £428 -18.57% 48
Yorkshire -6 17 £400 -20.40% 30
Wales +8 6 £400 +52.38% 10
East Midlands +5 5 £500 -20.63% 29
North East -6 2 £375 -6.25% 13
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 21 (8.05%) Microsoft Exchange
2 10 (3.83%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.53%) Skype for Business
4 2 (0.77%) Camunda
5 1 (0.38%) Confluence
5 1 (0.38%) IIS
Applications
1 26 (9.96%) Microsoft Office
2 7 (2.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 5 (1.92%) MS Visio
4 2 (0.77%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.38%) Trello
Business Applications
1 6 (2.30%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 46 (17.62%) Azure
2 31 (11.88%) AWS
3 27 (10.34%) Microsoft 365
4 13 (4.98%) Entra ID
5 10 (3.83%) OneDrive
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
Communications & Networking
1 171 (65.52%) LAN
2 120 (45.98%) Firewall
3 116 (44.44%) VPN
4 79 (30.27%) SD-WAN
5 60 (22.99%) MPLS
6 57 (21.84%) BGP
6 57 (21.84%) Wi-Fi
7 53 (20.31%) Network Security
7 53 (20.31%) Wireless
8 43 (16.48%) OSPF
9 33 (12.64%) DNS
10 31 (11.88%) Cisco Nexus
11 30 (11.49%) TCP/IP
12 28 (10.73%) Ethernet
12 28 (10.73%) IPsec
13 23 (8.81%) SAN
14 22 (8.43%) Cisco ISE
14 22 (8.43%) DHCP
14 22 (8.43%) VLAN
15 21 (8.05%) Cisco ASA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.53%) SQL Server
2 1 (0.38%) Data Lake
2 1 (0.38%) MySQL
2 1 (0.38%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (1.53%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (0.77%) JIRA
General
1 84 (32.18%) Social Skills
2 39 (14.94%) Telecoms
3 27 (10.34%) Public Sector
4 24 (9.20%) Finance
5 23 (8.81%) Analytical Skills
6 8 (3.07%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.07%) Electronics
6 8 (3.07%) Legal
7 7 (2.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 7 (2.68%) Manufacturing
8 6 (2.30%) Banking
9 5 (1.92%) Billing
10 4 (1.53%) Influencing Skills
10 4 (1.53%) Law
10 4 (1.53%) Military
10 4 (1.53%) Retail
11 3 (1.15%) Marketing
12 2 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
13 1 (0.38%) Presentation Skills
13 1 (0.38%) Social Housing
Job Titles
1 120 (45.98%) Network Engineer
2 41 (15.71%) Architect
3 23 (8.81%) Support Engineer
3 23 (8.81%) Technical Architect
4 21 (8.05%) Network Architect
4 21 (8.05%) Senior
5 19 (7.28%) IP Engineer
6 15 (5.75%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 15 (5.75%) Test Engineer
7 11 (4.21%) 2nd Line Support
7 11 (4.21%) Project Manager
7 11 (4.21%) Senior Network Engineer
8 10 (3.83%) Cisco Engineer
8 10 (3.83%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 9 (3.45%) 2nd Line Engineer
9 9 (3.45%) 2nd Line Support Engineer
9 9 (3.45%) Field Engineer
9 9 (3.45%) Network Technical Architect
10 8 (3.07%) Administrator
11 7 (2.68%) Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 20 (7.66%) 802.1X
2 8 (3.07%) Middleware
3 4 (1.53%) LDAP
4 1 (0.38%) HTML
4 1 (0.38%) Java RMI
4 1 (0.38%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 53 (20.31%) Data Centre
2 21 (8.05%) Self-Motivation
3 16 (6.13%) Public Cloud
4 14 (5.36%) PKI
5 9 (3.45%) Hybrid Cloud
6 8 (3.07%) Driving Licence
7 7 (2.68%) Management Information System
8 6 (2.30%) CMDB
8 6 (2.30%) IVR
8 6 (2.30%) Video Conferencing
9 5 (1.92%) SCADA
9 5 (1.92%) Virtual Team
10 4 (1.53%) Distributed Computing
10 4 (1.53%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.15%) Cloud Native
11 3 (1.15%) Fibre Optics
11 3 (1.15%) Legacy Systems
11 3 (1.15%) NHS
12 2 (0.77%) CCTV
12 2 (0.77%) TM Forum
Operating Systems
1 53 (20.31%) Windows
2 40 (15.33%) Linux
3 17 (6.51%) Windows 10
4 16 (6.13%) Unix
5 15 (5.75%) Windows Server
6 6 (2.30%) Windows 7
6 6 (2.30%) Windows Server 2016
7 5 (1.92%) Android
7 5 (1.92%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.53%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.77%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.38%) CentOS
10 1 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 1 (0.38%) Windows Server 2012
Processes & Methodologies
1 58 (22.22%) Problem-Solving
2 43 (16.48%) Network Architecture
3 40 (15.33%) ITIL
4 36 (13.79%) Network Design
5 35 (13.41%) Project Management
6 32 (12.26%) Load Balancing
7 27 (10.34%) Network Management
8 24 (9.20%) Customer Service
9 23 (8.81%) Migration
10 22 (8.43%) Network Monitoring
11 19 (7.28%) Change Management
12 17 (6.51%) Stakeholder Management
13 16 (6.13%) Fault Management
13 16 (6.13%) Regression Testing
13 16 (6.13%) Technical Leadership
13 16 (6.13%) Test Strategy
14 13 (4.98%) Incident Management
14 13 (4.98%) Mentoring
15 12 (4.60%) Problem Management
15 12 (4.60%) Project Delivery
Programming Languages
1 16 (6.13%) Java
2 12 (4.60%) Python
3 9 (3.45%) PowerShell
4 6 (2.30%) SQL
5 4 (1.53%) VB
5 4 (1.53%) VBScript
6 2 (0.77%) Bicep
7 1 (0.38%) Bash
7 1 (0.38%) Perl
Qualifications
1 95 (36.40%) Security Cleared
2 87 (33.33%) Cisco Certification
3 70 (26.82%) SC Cleared
4 59 (22.61%) CCNP
5 31 (11.88%) CCNA
6 27 (10.34%) Degree
7 16 (6.13%) ISEB
7 16 (6.13%) ISTQB
7 16 (6.13%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 15 (5.75%) CCIE
9 14 (5.36%) DV Cleared
10 7 (2.68%) Azure Certification
10 7 (2.68%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (2.30%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (1.92%) A+ Certification
12 5 (1.92%) MCSE
13 4 (1.53%) JNCIP
14 3 (1.15%) JNCIE
14 3 (1.15%) JNCIS
14 3 (1.15%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (3.45%) SLA
2 6 (2.30%) QA
3 5 (1.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (1.92%) NCSC
3 5 (1.92%) NIST
4 4 (1.53%) Cyber Essentials
5 2 (0.77%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 32 (12.26%) Active Directory
2 24 (9.20%) VMware Infrastructure
3 11 (4.21%) VMware NSX
4 5 (1.92%) Hyper-V
4 5 (1.92%) Virtual Servers
5 4 (1.53%) BitLocker
5 4 (1.53%) 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 17 (6.51%) SCCM
2 15 (5.75%) Ansible
3 13 (4.98%) FortiGate
4 10 (3.83%) Terraform
5 8 (3.07%) AppManager
6 5 (1.92%) Cisco Prime
6 5 (1.92%) SCOM
7 2 (0.77%) AirWatch
7 2 (0.77%) Microsoft Intune
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%) HP ALM
8 1 (0.38%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 158 (60.54%) Cisco
2 61 (23.37%) Microsoft
3 55 (21.07%) Palo Alto
4 43 (16.48%) Juniper
5 30 (11.49%) VMware
6 24 (9.20%) Meraki
7 18 (6.90%) Fortinet
8 15 (5.75%) F5
9 14 (5.36%) ServiceNow
10 13 (4.98%) Aruba
11 11 (4.21%) SolarWinds
12 10 (3.83%) Ivanti
13 8 (3.07%) CheckPoint
13 8 (3.07%) Remedy
14 6 (2.30%) Arista
14 6 (2.30%) Citrix
14 6 (2.30%) MuleSoft
14 6 (2.30%) Zscaler
15 5 (1.92%) HP
15 5 (1.92%) Red Hat