Network Design Contract Job Trends

Network Design
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Network Design skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 3 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
3 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 430 362 341
Rank change year-on-year -68 -21 +106
Contract jobs citing Network Design 202 168 258
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.43% 0.57% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.50% 0.63% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 98 135
10th Percentile £396 £354 £363
25th Percentile £463 £444 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £531 £486
Median % change year-on-year -2.35% +9.31% -2.80%
75th Percentile £588 £622 £600
90th Percentile £675 £691 £645
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £544 £450
% change year-on-year -8.05% +20.83% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 4
10th Percentile £27.85 - £23.55
25th Percentile £33.25 £66.25 £24.00
Median hourly rate £54.25 £67.50 £47.25
Median % change year-on-year -19.63% +42.86% -32.50%
75th Percentile £71.76 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.23 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.00 - £70.00

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Network Design falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 40,071 26,623 37,492
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.55% 90.89% 86.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,236 17,168 24,151
10th Percentile £319 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £745 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £481 £500
% change year-on-year +1.40% -3.85% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,397 1,072 2,456
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.67 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.85 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £29.00 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +43.29% -18.31% -1.39%
75th Percentile £66.00 £60.84 £60.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.31 £27.64 £37.18
% change year-on-year +56.68% -25.66% +6.23%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Network Design relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Network Design job vacancy trend in the UK

Network Design
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Design.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Design

Network Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Design over the 6 months to 3 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Design.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Network Design

Network Design
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Network Design over the 6 months to 3 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 15 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Network Design within the UK over the 6 months to 3 May 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
England -86 174 £519 -5.73% 55
UK excluding London -86 117 £500 -8.05% 45
London -49 60 £525 +7.14% 17
Work from Home -30 46 £455 -10.12% 16
South East -50 45 £500 -13.04% 13
North of England -71 26 £522 +4.40% 12
North West -48 19 £522 +4.35% 10
South West -24 15 £500 -4.76% 5
Scotland +2 12 £415 -5.03% 5
West Midlands -55 10 £463 -3.44% 9
Midlands -66 10 £463 -3.44% 9
East of England -30 8 £500 +25.00% 1
Yorkshire -48 7 £585 +16.90%
North East -18 2 - - 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £600 -

Network Design
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 7 (3.47%) OpenStack
2 2 (0.99%) Confluence
2 2 (0.99%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (0.99%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.50%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.50%) Smallworld
Applications
1 9 (4.46%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.97%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.48%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (1.98%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.50%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.50%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (0.99%) DELMIA
1 2 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 49 (24.26%) Azure
2 36 (17.82%) AWS
3 7 (3.47%) OCI
4 6 (2.97%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (2.48%) GCP
5 5 (2.48%) GitHub
5 5 (2.48%) PaaS
6 4 (1.98%) IaaS
6 4 (1.98%) SaaS
7 2 (0.99%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (0.99%) IBM Watson
7 2 (0.99%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.50%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.50%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.50%) Datadog
8 1 (0.50%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.50%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.50%) Nutanix
8 1 (0.50%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 75 (37.13%) Firewall
2 70 (34.65%) WAN
3 49 (24.26%) BGP
4 42 (20.79%) LAN
5 41 (20.30%) VPN
6 35 (17.33%) OSPF
7 34 (16.83%) Network Security
8 32 (15.84%) SD-WAN
9 28 (13.86%) VLAN
9 28 (13.86%) Wi-Fi
10 27 (13.37%) MPLS
11 23 (11.39%) 5G
12 19 (9.41%) TCP/IP
13 18 (8.91%) VXLAN
14 16 (7.92%) DNS
15 15 (7.43%) 4G
15 15 (7.43%) IPsec
15 15 (7.43%) Radio Access Network
15 15 (7.43%) Wireless
16 13 (6.44%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.50%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.48%) GitLab
2 3 (1.49%) JIRA
3 2 (0.99%) Git
4 1 (0.50%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.50%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 45 (22.28%) Social Skills
2 26 (12.87%) Telecoms
3 20 (9.90%) Public Sector
4 17 (8.42%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (8.42%) Legal
5 15 (7.43%) Finance
6 8 (3.96%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.48%) Police
8 4 (1.98%) Banking
8 4 (1.98%) Manufacturing
9 2 (0.99%) Electronics
9 2 (0.99%) Influencing Skills
9 2 (0.99%) Military
9 2 (0.99%) Retail
9 2 (0.99%) Retail Banking
10 1 (0.50%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.50%) German Language
10 1 (0.50%) Local Government
10 1 (0.50%) Marketing
10 1 (0.50%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 63 (31.19%) Network Engineer
2 48 (23.76%) Architect
3 35 (17.33%) Network Architect
3 35 (17.33%) Senior
4 28 (13.86%) Network Specialist
5 22 (10.89%) Designer
6 20 (9.90%) Network Design Specialist
7 17 (8.42%) Network Designer
8 16 (7.92%) Design Engineer
9 14 (6.93%) Network Design Engineer
10 13 (6.44%) Senior Network Engineer
11 11 (5.45%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 9 (4.46%) Senior Designer
12 9 (4.46%) Senior Network Designer
12 9 (4.46%) Technical Architect
13 8 (3.96%) Lead
14 7 (3.47%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
14 7 (3.47%) Infrastructure Engineer
15 6 (2.97%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
15 6 (2.97%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (4.46%) NETCONF
1 9 (4.46%) YANG
2 8 (3.96%) 802.1X
3 5 (2.48%) REST
4 4 (1.98%) Kafka
4 4 (1.98%) OpenConfig
4 4 (1.98%) RESTCONF
5 2 (0.99%) Django
5 2 (0.99%) OpenID
5 2 (0.99%) SAML
6 1 (0.50%) JSON
6 1 (0.50%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 51 (25.25%) Data Centre
2 24 (11.88%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (7.43%) Cloud Native
4 12 (5.94%) Management Information System
5 11 (5.45%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (1.98%) IoT
6 4 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.49%) CCTV
7 3 (1.49%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (1.49%) Operational Technology
8 2 (0.99%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (0.99%) Hedge funds
8 2 (0.99%) Onboarding
8 2 (0.99%) PKI
8 2 (0.99%) Private Cloud
8 2 (0.99%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.50%) Distributed Architecture
9 1 (0.50%) Public Cloud
9 1 (0.50%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 9 (4.46%) Windows
2 8 (3.96%) Linux
3 6 (2.97%) Windows Server
4 2 (0.99%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.50%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (21.29%) Network Architecture
2 29 (14.36%) High Availability
2 29 (14.36%) Migration
3 25 (12.38%) Load Balancing
3 25 (12.38%) Problem-Solving
4 19 (9.41%) Infrastructure as Code
4 19 (9.41%) Roadmaps
5 17 (8.42%) Zero Trust
6 16 (7.92%) CI/CD
7 15 (7.43%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 15 (7.43%) Stakeholder Management
8 14 (6.93%) Data Protection
8 14 (6.93%) DevOps
8 14 (6.93%) Technical Leadership
9 13 (6.44%) Network Segmentation
9 13 (6.44%) Project Delivery
10 11 (5.45%) Capacity Planning
10 11 (5.45%) Continuous Improvement
11 10 (4.95%) Cybersecurity
11 10 (4.95%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 27 (13.37%) Python
2 6 (2.97%) PowerShell
3 4 (1.98%) Bash
4 3 (1.49%) Bicep
5 2 (0.99%) SQL
6 1 (0.50%) Perl
6 1 (0.50%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 75 (37.13%) Security Cleared
2 56 (27.72%) Cisco Certification
3 47 (23.27%) SC Cleared
4 41 (20.30%) CCNP
5 28 (13.86%) DV Cleared
6 24 (11.88%) CCIE
7 15 (7.43%) CCNA
8 12 (5.94%) Degree
9 10 (4.95%) JNCIE
9 10 (4.95%) JNCIS
10 8 (3.96%) Azure Certification
11 6 (2.97%) AWS Certification
12 3 (1.49%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (1.49%) RIBA
12 3 (1.49%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 2 (0.99%) CCDP
13 2 (0.99%) CISSP
13 2 (0.99%) ITIL Certification
13 2 (0.99%) JNCIP
13 2 (0.99%) Project+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.47%) NIST
2 3 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.49%) JSP 440
2 3 (1.49%) NCSC
2 3 (1.49%) SLA
3 2 (0.99%) Def Stans
3 2 (0.99%) GDPR
4 1 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.50%) DO-160
4 1 (0.50%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.50%) QA
System Software
1 14 (6.93%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (4.95%) VMware NSX
3 8 (3.96%) Active Directory
4 7 (3.47%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.49%) KVM
5 3 (1.49%) vSphere
6 1 (0.50%) Docker
6 1 (0.50%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 1 (0.50%) Firmware
6 1 (0.50%) NFS
6 1 (0.50%) RHEV
6 1 (0.50%) SRDF
6 1 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.50%) Xen
Systems Management
1 26 (12.87%) Ansible
2 17 (8.42%) Terraform
3 16 (7.92%) FortiGate
4 7 (3.47%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.48%) Nagios
6 2 (0.99%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (0.99%) Cisco Prime
6 2 (0.99%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (0.99%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 2 (0.99%) SCCM
6 2 (0.99%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.50%) Argo
7 1 (0.50%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.50%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.50%) Grafana
7 1 (0.50%) Iperf
7 1 (0.50%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.50%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.50%) SolarWinds Orion
7 1 (0.50%) vRealize
Vendors
1 98 (48.51%) Cisco
2 48 (23.76%) Palo Alto
3 33 (16.34%) Juniper
4 29 (14.36%) F5
5 28 (13.86%) Microsoft
6 26 (12.87%) Fortinet
7 20 (9.90%) VMware
8 18 (8.91%) Aruba
9 15 (7.43%) Meraki
9 15 (7.43%) Nokia
10 14 (6.93%) Arista
11 11 (5.45%) Ericsson
12 10 (4.95%) CheckPoint
13 9 (4.46%) Huawei
14 8 (3.96%) SolarWinds
15 6 (2.97%) Zscaler
16 5 (2.48%) Ekahau
17 3 (1.49%) IBM
17 3 (1.49%) McAfee
17 3 (1.49%) NetScout