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

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 476 376 333
Rank change year-on-year -100 -43 +6
Contract jobs citing Network Design 212 184 240
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.56% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.46% 0.62% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 137 123 136
10th Percentile £363 £400 £406
25th Percentile £418 £413 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.89% -9.52% -8.70%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £650 £674 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.50% - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 4
10th Percentile £51.00 £56.13 £26.25
25th Percentile £55.00 £57.81 £31.88
Median hourly rate £71.00 £61.25 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.92% +11.36% -17.28%
75th Percentile £76.50 £65.31 £75.00
90th Percentile £85.01 £67.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.00 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +30.91% - -19.11%

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 45,960 29,830 33,021
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.47% 90.53% 85.70%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,897 18,534 20,247
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,123 1,812 1,459
10th Percentile £13.84 £14.23 £14.96
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -1.91%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.76 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.56 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +84.69% -47.67% +1.18%

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 18 September 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 18 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 16 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 18 September 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 -90 173 £519 +3.80% 205
UK excluding London -115 115 £513 +2.50% 127
Work from Home -50 67 £500 -9.09% 98
London -65 57 £500 +11.11% 91
South East -65 38 £553 +5.24% 45
North of England -59 30 £575 +21.05% 18
North West -49 22 £575 +21.05% 14
Scotland -17 15 £375 -16.67% 11
Midlands -54 14 £438 +2.94% 30
West Midlands -53 13 £438 +2.94% 21
South West -43 11 £631 -1.41% 15
Yorkshire -32 7 £519 -9.74% 5
North East -40 7 £650 +18.18%
East of England -26 6 £420 +2.44% 2
Wales - 4 £469 - 7
East Midlands - 1 - - 9

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 11 (5.19%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.42%) Apache
2 3 (1.42%) ArcGIS
2 3 (1.42%) CloudStack
2 3 (1.42%) Confluence
Applications
1 10 (4.72%) MS Visio
2 8 (3.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (3.30%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (2.36%) Microsoft Excel
5 3 (1.42%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.47%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.47%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 60 (28.30%) Azure
2 58 (27.36%) AWS
3 15 (7.08%) OCI
4 11 (5.19%) GCP
5 10 (4.72%) SaaS
6 9 (4.25%) GitHub
7 8 (3.77%) Entra ID
8 7 (3.30%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 7 (3.30%) OpenShift
9 6 (2.83%) IaaS
10 5 (2.36%) Nutanix
11 4 (1.89%) Azure Sentinel
12 3 (1.42%) AWS Control Tower
12 3 (1.42%) GitHub Actions
13 2 (0.94%) AWS Direct Connect
13 2 (0.94%) Azure Storage
13 2 (0.94%) Datadog
13 2 (0.94%) PaaS
14 1 (0.47%) Microsoft 365
14 1 (0.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 93 (43.87%) Firewall
2 73 (34.43%) BGP
3 57 (26.89%) OSPF
4 56 (26.42%) WAN
5 44 (20.75%) VLAN
6 38 (17.92%) Network Security
7 36 (16.98%) VPN
8 35 (16.51%) LAN
9 31 (14.62%) SD-WAN
10 30 (14.15%) VXLAN
11 26 (12.26%) Ethernet VPN
11 26 (12.26%) Wi-Fi
12 24 (11.32%) 5G
12 24 (11.32%) MPLS
13 23 (10.85%) 4G
14 22 (10.38%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 19 (8.96%) Radio Access Network
16 18 (8.49%) BIG-IP
17 17 (8.02%) Wireless
18 16 (7.55%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.42%) GIS
1 3 (1.42%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 13 (6.13%) GitLab
2 4 (1.89%) JIRA
3 3 (1.42%) Git
3 3 (1.42%) Jenkins
General
1 50 (23.58%) Social Skills
2 34 (16.04%) Telecoms
3 23 (10.85%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (8.49%) Public Sector
5 15 (7.08%) Manufacturing
6 10 (4.72%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (4.72%) Legal
7 7 (3.30%) Retail
8 5 (2.36%) Automotive
9 4 (1.89%) Finance
10 3 (1.42%) Cyber-Physical System
10 3 (1.42%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.94%) Billing
11 2 (0.94%) Military
12 1 (0.47%) Agriculture
12 1 (0.47%) Aviation
12 1 (0.47%) Local Government
12 1 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.47%) Police
12 1 (0.47%) Polish Language
Job Titles
1 73 (34.43%) Network Engineer
2 49 (23.11%) Senior
3 46 (21.70%) Architect
4 25 (11.79%) Network Architect
4 25 (11.79%) Network Specialist
5 24 (11.32%) Senior Network Engineer
6 16 (7.55%) Designer
6 16 (7.55%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 14 (6.60%) Consultant
7 14 (6.60%) Network Design Specialist
8 13 (6.13%) Design Engineer
8 13 (6.13%) Security Architect
8 13 (6.13%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 11 (5.19%) Network Consultant
9 11 (5.19%) Network Designer
9 11 (5.19%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
9 11 (5.19%) Senior Network Specialist
10 9 (4.25%) Lead
10 9 (4.25%) Network Design Engineer
11 8 (3.77%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (19.34%) Terraform
2 9 (4.25%) NETCONF
2 9 (4.25%) YANG
3 7 (3.30%) REST
4 6 (2.83%) 802.1X
5 4 (1.89%) Azure Blueprints
5 4 (1.89%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.89%) RESTCONF
6 3 (1.42%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (1.42%) Kafka
7 2 (0.94%) YAML
8 1 (0.47%) eBPF
8 1 (0.47%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 66 (31.13%) Data Centre
2 42 (19.81%) Hybrid Cloud
3 26 (12.26%) Cloud Native
4 13 (6.13%) Operational Technology
5 11 (5.19%) Management Information System
6 9 (4.25%) IoT
7 8 (3.77%) Public Cloud
8 7 (3.30%) Private Cloud
9 6 (2.83%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (2.83%) Security Posture
10 5 (2.36%) CMDB
10 5 (2.36%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (2.36%) PKI
11 4 (1.89%) Data Fabric
12 3 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (1.42%) Handset
12 3 (1.42%) Onboarding
12 3 (1.42%) Product Ownership
12 3 (1.42%) SCADA
13 2 (0.94%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.55%) Linux
2 13 (6.13%) Windows
3 8 (3.77%) Ubuntu
3 8 (3.77%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.89%) Alpine Linux
4 4 (1.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.94%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (20.28%) Stakeholder Management
1 43 (20.28%) Zero Trust
2 41 (19.34%) Migration
3 35 (16.51%) Network Architecture
4 34 (16.04%) High Availability
4 34 (16.04%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (16.04%) Project Delivery
5 33 (15.57%) Infrastructure as Code
5 33 (15.57%) Validation
6 30 (14.15%) Roadmaps
7 28 (13.21%) DevOps
8 27 (12.74%) Technical Leadership
9 24 (11.32%) Cybersecurity
9 24 (11.32%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 24 (11.32%) Load Balancing
10 22 (10.38%) CI/CD
10 22 (10.38%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 17 (8.02%) Cloud Security
12 16 (7.55%) Continuous Improvement
12 16 (7.55%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 43 (20.28%) Python
2 6 (2.83%) Bicep
2 6 (2.83%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.42%) Bash
4 1 (0.47%) ActionScript
4 1 (0.47%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 63 (29.72%) Security Cleared
2 53 (25.00%) Cisco Certification
3 42 (19.81%) SC Cleared
4 39 (18.40%) CCNP
5 17 (8.02%) CCIE
6 15 (7.08%) DV Cleared
7 14 (6.60%) CCNA
8 13 (6.13%) Degree
9 11 (5.19%) JNCIE
10 9 (4.25%) AWS Certification
11 7 (3.30%) Azure Certification
11 7 (3.30%) CISSP
12 6 (2.83%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (2.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 4 (1.89%) CISM
15 2 (0.94%) CCSE
15 2 (0.94%) GIAC
15 2 (0.94%) ISSAP
15 2 (0.94%) Microsoft Certification
15 2 (0.94%) NCDA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (7.08%) NIST
2 13 (6.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.36%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.89%) Actionable Recommendations
4 4 (1.89%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (1.42%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.42%) GxP
5 3 (1.42%) NIST 800
5 3 (1.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 3 (1.42%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.94%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.94%) GDPR
6 2 (0.94%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.94%) NCSC
6 2 (0.94%) QA
7 1 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.47%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (8.49%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (4.72%) vSphere
3 9 (4.25%) Hyper-V
4 8 (3.77%) Active Directory
4 8 (3.77%) VMware NSX
5 5 (2.36%) Firmware
6 3 (1.42%) FreeRADIUS
6 3 (1.42%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.94%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (0.94%) NFS
7 2 (0.94%) SRDF
8 1 (0.47%) Docker
8 1 (0.47%) KVM
Systems Management
1 44 (20.75%) Ansible
2 10 (4.72%) Kubernetes
3 8 (3.77%) FortiGate
4 7 (3.30%) Grafana
4 7 (3.30%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.42%) Check_MK
5 3 (1.42%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.42%) SolarWinds Orion
5 3 (1.42%) vCenter Server
6 2 (0.94%) Argo
6 2 (0.94%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (0.94%) EMC VPLEX
6 2 (0.94%) NetBackup
6 2 (0.94%) SnapMirror
6 2 (0.94%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.47%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.47%) QRadar
7 1 (0.47%) SCCM
7 1 (0.47%) Suricata
7 1 (0.47%) vRealize
Vendors
1 91 (42.92%) Cisco
2 52 (24.53%) Palo Alto
3 42 (19.81%) Fortinet
4 37 (17.45%) F5
5 25 (11.79%) Microsoft
6 23 (10.85%) Juniper
6 23 (10.85%) VMware
7 22 (10.38%) Arista
8 21 (9.91%) Aruba
8 21 (9.91%) Nokia
9 17 (8.02%) Ericsson
10 14 (6.60%) Zscaler
11 12 (5.66%) CheckPoint
12 9 (4.25%) Splunk
13 8 (3.77%) Huawei
14 7 (3.30%) Meraki
15 6 (2.83%) ServiceNow
15 6 (2.83%) SolarWinds
16 5 (2.36%) EMC
16 5 (2.36%) Google