Network Design Contracts

Network Design
UK

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies requiring Network Design skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Network Design over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 357 338 441
Rank change year-on-year -19 +103 +24
Contract jobs citing Network Design 169 255 287
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.58% 0.59% 0.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.64% 0.68% 0.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 97 131 166
10th Percentile £351 £363 £363
25th Percentile £438 £419 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -5.00% -12.97%
75th Percentile £625 £600 £619
90th Percentile £693 £638 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £538 £450 £489
% change year-on-year +19.44% -7.93% -4.63%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 4 21
10th Percentile - £23.55 £62.00
25th Percentile £66.25 £24.00 £63.23
Median hourly rate £67.50 £47.25 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +42.86% -32.50% +62.79%
75th Percentile £68.75 £70.00 -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £70.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year - - +38.66%

All Process and 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 26,594 37,597 53,655
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.84% 86.31% 89.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,149 24,227 37,238
10th Percentile £308 £300 £325
25th Percentile £413 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +4.76%
75th Percentile £630 £638 £650
90th Percentile £743 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £483 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -3.50% - +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,071 2,443 1,746
10th Percentile £14.41 £12.75 £11.00
25th Percentile £18.21 £16.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.00 £35.65 £37.30
Median % change year-on-year -18.65% -4.42% +49.20%
75th Percentile £60.38 £59.98 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £37.34 £36.00
% change year-on-year -26.35% +3.72% +80.00%

Network Design
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings citing Network Design as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Network Design.

Daily rate trend for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Network Design over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Network Design.

Hourly rate trend for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 15 Contract 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 1 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
England -20 149 £550 +15.79% 130
UK excluding London +1 104 £538 +19.44% 99
Work from Home +33 49 £506 -5.59% 75
London +28 49 £490 -14.78% 44
South East -8 37 £575 +27.78% 37
North of England +40 36 £500 +5.26% 26
North West +40 30 £500 +5.26% 12
South West +43 15 £531 +80.85% 11
Wales - 6 £288 - 4
Yorkshire +6 5 £500 +5.26% 11
Midlands -5 5 £438 +16.67% 12
West Midlands -12 5 £438 +16.67% 9
Scotland +16 4 £437 -27.17% 3
East of England +18 1 £400 -15.79% 5
North East 0 1 £550 - 5

Network Design
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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 3 (1.78%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.59%) ArcGIS
2 1 (0.59%) Confluence
2 1 (0.59%) SharePoint
Applications
1 6 (3.55%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.78%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (1.18%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.59%) AutoCAD
4 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (0.59%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.59%) Revit
Cloud Services
1 24 (14.20%) AWS
1 24 (14.20%) Azure
2 4 (2.37%) Cloud Computing
2 4 (2.37%) Cloudflare
2 4 (2.37%) GCP
3 3 (1.78%) OpenShift
4 2 (1.18%) Microsoft 365
5 1 (0.59%) Akamai
5 1 (0.59%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 1 (0.59%) Azure Key Vault
5 1 (0.59%) Azure Sentinel
5 1 (0.59%) Entra ID
5 1 (0.59%) OCI
5 1 (0.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 72 (42.60%) Firewall
2 54 (31.95%) WAN
3 44 (26.04%) Network Security
4 40 (23.67%) Wireless
5 38 (22.49%) BGP
6 35 (20.71%) OSPF
7 34 (20.12%) VPN
8 32 (18.93%) Wi-Fi
9 26 (15.38%) LAN
10 25 (14.79%) MPLS
10 25 (14.79%) Radio Access Network
11 21 (12.43%) 5G
11 21 (12.43%) SD-WAN
12 20 (11.83%) Cisco ISE
13 19 (11.24%) EIGRP
13 19 (11.24%) NetScaler
14 14 (8.28%) IPsec
15 13 (7.69%) 2G
15 13 (7.69%) 4G
15 13 (7.69%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.59%) Data Warehouse
1 1 (0.59%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.96%) Sonatype Nexus
2 3 (1.78%) GitLab
3 1 (0.59%) JIRA
General
1 58 (34.32%) Social Skills
2 29 (17.16%) Analytical Skills
3 19 (11.24%) Telecoms
4 15 (8.88%) Public Sector
5 9 (5.33%) Finance
6 5 (2.96%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (2.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 5 (2.96%) Legal
7 2 (1.18%) Automotive
7 2 (1.18%) Aviation
7 2 (1.18%) Local Government
7 2 (1.18%) Marketing
7 2 (1.18%) Retail
8 1 (0.59%) Aerospace
8 1 (0.59%) Banking
8 1 (0.59%) Billing
8 1 (0.59%) Electronics
8 1 (0.59%) German Language
8 1 (0.59%) Law
8 1 (0.59%) Military
Job Titles
1 70 (41.42%) Network Engineer
2 36 (21.30%) Architect
3 27 (15.98%) Network Architect
4 21 (12.43%) Senior
5 14 (8.28%) Consultant
5 14 (8.28%) Network Consultant
6 12 (7.10%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
7 11 (6.51%) Design Engineer
7 11 (6.51%) Designer
7 11 (6.51%) Senior Network Engineer
8 10 (5.92%) Network Specialist
9 7 (4.14%) Cloud Engineer
9 7 (4.14%) Network Design Specialist
10 6 (3.55%) Firewall Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) Radio Design Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) Radio Engineer
10 6 (3.55%) Solutions Designer
11 5 (2.96%) Cloud Network Engineer
11 5 (2.96%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
12 4 (2.37%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 27 (15.98%) 802.1X
2 1 (0.59%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 44 (26.04%) Data Centre
2 9 (5.33%) Hybrid Cloud
3 6 (3.55%) Data Protection Act
4 5 (2.96%) Management Information System
4 5 (2.96%) Public Cloud
5 3 (1.78%) Enterprise Storage
5 3 (1.78%) Fibre Optics
5 3 (1.78%) Linux Command Line
5 3 (1.78%) PKI
6 2 (1.18%) CCTV
6 2 (1.18%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
6 2 (1.18%) Embedded Systems
6 2 (1.18%) IoT
6 2 (1.18%) Robotics
6 2 (1.18%) SCADA
6 2 (1.18%) Self-Driving Car
6 2 (1.18%) Team-Oriented Environment
7 1 (0.59%) Cyber Threat
7 1 (0.59%) Driving Licence
7 1 (0.59%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.18%) Embedded Linux
1 2 (1.18%) Linux
1 2 (1.18%) Unix
2 1 (0.59%) VMS
2 1 (0.59%) Windows
2 1 (0.59%) Windows 10
2 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2016
2 1 (0.59%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 51 (30.18%) Network Architecture
2 37 (21.89%) Network Management
3 30 (17.75%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (17.16%) Load Balancing
5 18 (10.65%) Computer Science
6 15 (8.88%) Roadmaps
7 14 (8.28%) Network Monitoring
8 12 (7.10%) Agile
8 12 (7.10%) Impact Assessments
8 12 (7.10%) Migration
9 11 (6.51%) High Availability
10 9 (5.33%) Performance Optimisation
10 9 (5.33%) Stakeholder Management
11 8 (4.73%) Architecture Roadmap
11 8 (4.73%) Network Virtualisation
11 8 (4.73%) Project Delivery
11 8 (4.73%) Service Management
12 7 (4.14%) Process Improvement
12 7 (4.14%) Service Design
12 7 (4.14%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 25 (14.79%) Python
2 4 (2.37%) PowerShell
3 2 (1.18%) Bash
3 2 (1.18%) Perl
4 1 (0.59%) Go
Qualifications
1 54 (31.95%) Security Cleared
2 47 (27.81%) Cisco Certification
3 44 (26.04%) SC Cleared
4 37 (21.89%) CCNP
5 29 (17.16%) Degree
6 18 (10.65%) Computer Science Degree
7 16 (9.47%) CCIE
8 13 (7.69%) DV Cleared
9 12 (7.10%) CCNA
10 8 (4.73%) JNCIS
11 5 (2.96%) Azure Certification
12 4 (2.37%) AWS Certification
13 3 (1.78%) JNCIE
13 3 (1.78%) JNCIP
14 2 (1.18%) BPSS Clearance
14 2 (1.18%) CCDP
14 2 (1.18%) CCIE Data Center
14 2 (1.18%) CISSP
14 2 (1.18%) Master's Degree
15 1 (0.59%) CCIE Security
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (2.37%) QA
2 3 (1.78%) GDPR
2 3 (1.78%) PCI DSS
3 2 (1.18%) HIPAA
3 2 (1.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.59%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.59%) GxP
4 1 (0.59%) NCSC
4 1 (0.59%) SOC 2
System Software
1 11 (6.51%) VMware Infrastructure
2 3 (1.78%) vSphere
3 2 (1.18%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.18%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (1.18%) VMware NSX
4 1 (0.59%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 21 (12.43%) Ansible
2 7 (4.14%) FortiGate
3 4 (2.37%) Cacti
3 4 (2.37%) Terraform
4 3 (1.78%) Cisco Prime
4 3 (1.78%) Progress Chef
5 2 (1.18%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.18%) OPNET
6 1 (0.59%) Cisco LMS
6 1 (0.59%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.59%) Nagios
6 1 (0.59%) SCCM
6 1 (0.59%) Single Sign-On
6 1 (0.59%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 101 (59.76%) Cisco
2 45 (26.63%) Palo Alto
3 29 (17.16%) Juniper
3 29 (17.16%) Meraki
4 27 (15.98%) Fortinet
5 22 (13.02%) F5
6 18 (10.65%) CheckPoint
7 11 (6.51%) Aruba
7 11 (6.51%) Ericsson
7 11 (6.51%) Nokia
7 11 (6.51%) VMware
8 10 (5.92%) Infoblox
8 10 (5.92%) Microsoft
8 10 (5.92%) SolarWinds
9 7 (4.14%) Zscaler
10 6 (3.55%) Fujitsu
11 5 (2.96%) AirMagnet
11 5 (2.96%) Ekahau
12 4 (2.37%) Extreme Networks
12 4 (2.37%) ServiceNow