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 4 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 458 362 341
Rank change year-on-year -96 -21 +48
Contract jobs citing Network Design 217 192 241
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.58% 0.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.65% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 129 129
10th Percentile £373 £400 £363
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.40% +5.26% -13.64%
75th Percentile £586 £625 £575
90th Percentile £658 £688 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £505 £503 £450
% change year-on-year +0.50% +11.67% -12.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 2 4
10th Percentile £33.85 £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% -21.43%
75th Percentile £73.00 £65.31 £75.00
90th Percentile £82.51 £67.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +31.89% - -21.43%

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 44,879 29,748 33,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.93% 90.41% 85.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,704 18,653 21,488
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,741 1,659 1,873
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.50 £17.30 £18.14
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £74.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.05 £40.94
% change year-on-year +90.72% -43.70% +3.38%

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 4 August 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 4 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 14 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 4 August 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 -84 189 £525 +0.48% 104
UK excluding London -107 118 £505 +0.50% 69
Work from Home -39 66 £463 -22.11% 37
London -45 64 £525 +10.53% 43
South East -68 40 £510 -15.00% 18
North of England -62 35 £575 +21.05% 20
North West -59 26 £575 +21.05% 8
South West -44 17 £500 -21.88% 8
Scotland -9 13 £380 -16.48% 2
Midlands -57 9 £425 -15.00% 14
West Midlands -62 9 £425 -15.00% 9
Yorkshire -39 8 £519 +3.80% 9
East of England -12 7 £525 +0.96% 5
North East - 7 £650 - 3

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 12 (5.53%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.38%) Apache
2 3 (1.38%) CloudStack
2 3 (1.38%) Confluence
3 2 (0.92%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.92%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.46%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.46%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (4.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (4.15%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.15%) MS Visio
3 8 (3.69%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.38%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.46%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.46%) CPLEX
5 1 (0.46%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 61 (28.11%) Azure
2 58 (26.73%) AWS
3 15 (6.91%) OCI
4 10 (4.61%) GCP
4 10 (4.61%) GitHub
4 10 (4.61%) SaaS
5 9 (4.15%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (3.23%) IaaS
6 7 (3.23%) OpenShift
7 5 (2.30%) Nutanix
8 4 (1.84%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.84%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.38%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.38%) PaaS
10 2 (0.92%) Azure Storage
10 2 (0.92%) Datadog
10 2 (0.92%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.46%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (0.46%) AWS Direct Connect
11 1 (0.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 95 (43.78%) Firewall
2 73 (33.64%) BGP
3 61 (28.11%) WAN
4 60 (27.65%) OSPF
5 40 (18.43%) VPN
6 38 (17.51%) Network Security
7 37 (17.05%) VLAN
8 33 (15.21%) VXLAN
9 31 (14.29%) LAN
9 31 (14.29%) SD-WAN
10 30 (13.82%) Wi-Fi
11 29 (13.36%) 5G
12 26 (11.98%) 4G
12 26 (11.98%) Ethernet VPN
13 25 (11.52%) MPLS
14 23 (10.60%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 21 (9.68%) Radio Access Network
16 18 (8.29%) BIG-IP
17 17 (7.83%) IPsec
17 17 (7.83%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.38%) Metadata
2 1 (0.46%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (5.99%) GitLab
2 5 (2.30%) JIRA
3 3 (1.38%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.46%) Git
4 1 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 48 (22.12%) Social Skills
2 32 (14.75%) Telecoms
3 22 (10.14%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (9.68%) Public Sector
5 10 (4.61%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.69%) Legal
7 7 (3.23%) Finance
7 7 (3.23%) Manufacturing
7 7 (3.23%) Retail
8 4 (1.84%) Banking
9 3 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.38%) Police
10 2 (0.92%) Billing
10 2 (0.92%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.92%) Military
10 2 (0.92%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.46%) Aviation
11 1 (0.46%) German Language
11 1 (0.46%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 71 (32.72%) Network Engineer
2 51 (23.50%) Architect
3 45 (20.74%) Senior
4 34 (15.67%) Network Specialist
5 31 (14.29%) Network Architect
6 23 (10.60%) Senior Network Engineer
7 22 (10.14%) Network Design Specialist
8 19 (8.76%) Designer
9 16 (7.37%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (5.99%) Network Designer
10 13 (5.99%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (5.53%) Design Engineer
11 12 (5.53%) Security Architect
12 10 (4.61%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
12 10 (4.61%) Senior Network Specialist
13 8 (3.69%) Network Design Engineer
13 8 (3.69%) Network Security Architect
14 7 (3.23%) Consultant
14 7 (3.23%) Lead
15 6 (2.76%) IP Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.07%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.07%) YANG
2 8 (3.69%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.76%) OpenConfig
3 6 (2.76%) REST
3 6 (2.76%) RESTCONF
4 4 (1.84%) Azure Blueprints
4 4 (1.84%) Kafka
5 3 (1.38%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.46%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 68 (31.34%) Data Centre
2 46 (21.20%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (12.90%) Cloud Native
4 12 (5.53%) Management Information System
5 9 (4.15%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (3.69%) Public Cloud
7 7 (3.23%) Operational Technology
8 6 (2.76%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (2.76%) PKI
9 5 (2.30%) IoT
9 5 (2.30%) Private Cloud
10 4 (1.84%) CMDB
10 4 (1.84%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.38%) Data Fabric
11 3 (1.38%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 3 (1.38%) Product Ownership
11 3 (1.38%) SCADA
12 2 (0.92%) EMC VMAX
12 2 (0.92%) EMC VNX
12 2 (0.92%) Hedge funds
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.37%) Linux
2 14 (6.45%) Windows
3 11 (5.07%) Windows Server
4 8 (3.69%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.84%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (1.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.92%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (0.92%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (19.82%) Network Architecture
2 38 (17.51%) High Availability
2 38 (17.51%) Zero Trust
3 35 (16.13%) Infrastructure as Code
4 34 (15.67%) Migration
5 32 (14.75%) Problem-Solving
5 32 (14.75%) Project Delivery
6 31 (14.29%) Roadmaps
7 29 (13.36%) Stakeholder Management
8 28 (12.90%) DevOps
9 26 (11.98%) Load Balancing
9 26 (11.98%) Validation
10 25 (11.52%) Technical Leadership
11 24 (11.06%) CI/CD
12 23 (10.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 20 (9.22%) Continuous Improvement
13 20 (9.22%) Cybersecurity
14 19 (8.76%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 18 (8.29%) Capacity Planning
16 15 (6.91%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 43 (19.82%) Python
2 7 (3.23%) Bicep
2 7 (3.23%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.92%) Bash
4 1 (0.46%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 69 (31.80%) Security Cleared
2 57 (26.27%) Cisco Certification
3 45 (20.74%) SC Cleared
4 42 (19.35%) CCNP
5 20 (9.22%) CCIE
6 17 (7.83%) DV Cleared
7 13 (5.99%) Degree
7 13 (5.99%) JNCIE
8 11 (5.07%) CCNA
9 10 (4.61%) AWS Certification
9 10 (4.61%) Azure Certification
10 7 (3.23%) CISSP
11 6 (2.76%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (2.76%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (1.84%) CISM
13 3 (1.38%) CEH
14 2 (0.92%) ISSAP
14 2 (0.92%) Microsoft Certification
14 2 (0.92%) SANS
14 2 (0.92%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.53%) NIST
2 5 (2.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.38%) GxP
3 3 (1.38%) NIST 800
3 3 (1.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (0.92%) GDPR
4 2 (0.92%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.92%) NCSC
4 2 (0.92%) QA
4 2 (0.92%) SLA
4 2 (0.92%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.46%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.46%) JSP 440
System Software
1 21 (9.68%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (5.53%) Hyper-V
3 10 (4.61%) VMware NSX
3 10 (4.61%) vSphere
4 7 (3.23%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.38%) Firmware
5 3 (1.38%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.92%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (0.92%) KVM
6 2 (0.92%) NFS
6 2 (0.92%) SRDF
7 1 (0.46%) Docker
7 1 (0.46%) FreeRADIUS
Systems Management
1 45 (20.74%) Ansible
2 41 (18.89%) Terraform
3 12 (5.53%) Kubernetes
4 8 (3.69%) FortiGate
5 6 (2.76%) Grafana
5 6 (2.76%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.38%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.38%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.92%) Argo
7 2 (0.92%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (0.92%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (0.92%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (0.92%) NetBackup
7 2 (0.92%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 2 (0.92%) SnapMirror
7 2 (0.92%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.46%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.46%) Cisco Prime
8 1 (0.46%) SCCM
8 1 (0.46%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 89 (41.01%) Cisco
2 53 (24.42%) Palo Alto
3 43 (19.82%) Fortinet
4 42 (19.35%) F5
5 28 (12.90%) Juniper
6 26 (11.98%) VMware
7 25 (11.52%) Microsoft
8 21 (9.68%) Aruba
9 20 (9.22%) Arista
10 19 (8.76%) Nokia
11 17 (7.83%) Ericsson
12 15 (6.91%) CheckPoint
13 13 (5.99%) Huawei
14 12 (5.53%) Zscaler
15 9 (4.15%) Splunk
16 7 (3.23%) Meraki
17 6 (2.76%) ServiceNow
17 6 (2.76%) SolarWinds
18 5 (2.30%) Google
18 5 (2.30%) Veeam