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 6 July 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Jul 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 371 335 425
Rank change year-on-year -36 +90 +82
Contract jobs citing Network Design 178 261 273
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.56% 0.60% 0.48%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.62% 0.71% 0.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 121 123 151
10th Percentile £363 £363 £388
25th Percentile £425 £425 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £475 £550
Median % change year-on-year +10.53% -13.64% -
75th Percentile £625 £575 £638
90th Percentile £675 £638 £788
UK excluding London median daily rate £550 £450 £500
% change year-on-year +22.22% -10.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 16
10th Percentile £56.13 £25.60 £56.68
25th Percentile £57.81 £29.13 £62.92
Median hourly rate £61.25 £35.00 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year +75.00% -50.00% +62.79%
75th Percentile £65.31 £55.00 -
90th Percentile £67.38 £67.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £70.00
% change year-on-year - -21.43% +37.88%

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 28,883 36,949 50,825
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 90.68% 85.32% 89.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 18,181 23,576 35,000
10th Percentile £300 £300 £325
25th Percentile £405 £413 £438
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% -4.55% +0.92%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,432 2,509 1,726
10th Percentile £14.20 £12.75 £12.28
25th Percentile £17.42 £16.12 £16.85
Median hourly rate £25.15 £37.50 £38.18
Median % change year-on-year -32.93% -1.77% +46.83%
75th Percentile £53.75 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £72.50 £75.59
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.66 £38.12 £35.00
% change year-on-year -35.31% +8.91% +66.67%

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 6 July 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 6 July 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 -29 151 £550 +15.79% 409
UK excluding London -5 122 £550 +22.22% 253
Work from Home +35 51 £568 +8.45% 206
South East -2 43 £575 +21.05% 60
North of England +14 40 £475 - 54
London +11 38 £478 -9.05% 181
North West +35 34 £475 -9.70% 28
South West +26 14 £640 +42.22% 34
West Midlands -8 9 £475 +26.67% 32
Midlands -11 9 £475 +26.67% 46
Scotland +13 8 £455 -24.17% 23
Wales +12 6 £288 - 8
Yorkshire -2 5 £500 +5.26% 21
East of England - 2 £520 - 23
North East -10 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 2 (1.12%) Confluence
1 2 (1.12%) nginx
1 2 (1.12%) OpenStack
2 1 (0.56%) ArcGIS
2 1 (0.56%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
1 3 (1.69%) MS Visio
2 2 (1.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.12%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.56%) AutoCAD
3 1 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
3 1 (0.56%) Revit
Cloud Services
1 28 (15.73%) AWS
2 27 (15.17%) Azure
3 7 (3.93%) GCP
4 6 (3.37%) SaaS
5 4 (2.25%) Cloud Computing
5 4 (2.25%) Cloudflare
6 3 (1.69%) Entra ID
6 3 (1.69%) Serverless
7 2 (1.12%) Amazon EKS
7 2 (1.12%) GitHub
7 2 (1.12%) IaaS
7 2 (1.12%) Microsoft 365
7 2 (1.12%) OpenShift
7 2 (1.12%) PaaS
8 1 (0.56%) Akamai
8 1 (0.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
8 1 (0.56%) Azure Key Vault
8 1 (0.56%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.56%) OCI
Communications & Networking
1 77 (43.26%) Firewall
2 61 (34.27%) WAN
3 45 (25.28%) BGP
4 44 (24.72%) Network Security
5 42 (23.60%) Wireless
6 41 (23.03%) LAN
7 36 (20.22%) Wi-Fi
8 33 (18.54%) VPN
9 29 (16.29%) OSPF
10 24 (13.48%) MPLS
11 23 (12.92%) SD-WAN
12 20 (11.24%) IPsec
13 17 (9.55%) VLAN
14 16 (8.99%) Cisco ISE
14 16 (8.99%) NetScaler
15 15 (8.43%) Cisco Nexus
15 15 (8.43%) DNS
16 14 (7.87%) EIGRP
17 12 (6.74%) Internet
18 11 (6.18%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.56%) Data Warehouse
1 1 (0.56%) GIS
Development Applications
1 4 (2.25%) GitLab
1 4 (2.25%) Sonatype Nexus
2 2 (1.12%) Bitbucket
2 2 (1.12%) Git
3 1 (0.56%) JIRA
General
1 62 (34.83%) Social Skills
2 24 (13.48%) Analytical Skills
3 20 (11.24%) Telecoms
4 17 (9.55%) Public Sector
5 10 (5.62%) Finance
6 5 (2.81%) Aviation
6 5 (2.81%) Legal
7 3 (1.69%) Aerospace
7 3 (1.69%) Local Government
8 2 (1.12%) Automotive
8 2 (1.12%) Police
9 1 (0.56%) Banking
9 1 (0.56%) Billing
9 1 (0.56%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.56%) Electronics
9 1 (0.56%) Fire and Rescue
9 1 (0.56%) Manufacturing
9 1 (0.56%) Military
9 1 (0.56%) Organisational Skills
9 1 (0.56%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 76 (42.70%) Network Engineer
2 52 (29.21%) Architect
3 37 (20.79%) Network Architect
4 20 (11.24%) Senior
5 13 (7.30%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
6 10 (5.62%) Senior Network Engineer
7 8 (4.49%) Cisco Architect
7 8 (4.49%) Cisco Network Architect
7 8 (4.49%) Consultant
7 8 (4.49%) Solutions Architect
8 7 (3.93%) Cisco Engineer
8 7 (3.93%) Network Consultant
8 7 (3.93%) Senior Architect
8 7 (3.93%) Senior Network Architect
9 6 (3.37%) Cisco Network Engineer
9 6 (3.37%) Design Engineer
9 6 (3.37%) Designer
9 6 (3.37%) Network Designer
10 5 (2.81%) Cloud Engineer
10 5 (2.81%) Lead
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 26 (14.61%) 802.1X
2 5 (2.81%) Middleware
3 3 (1.69%) Web Services
4 2 (1.12%) eBPF
4 2 (1.12%) RFC 2544
5 1 (0.56%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 50 (28.09%) Data Centre
2 11 (6.18%) Hybrid Cloud
3 8 (4.49%) Onboarding
4 7 (3.93%) Data Protection Act
4 7 (3.93%) Public Cloud
5 6 (3.37%) Cloud Native
5 6 (3.37%) Fibre Optics
6 5 (2.81%) PKI
7 3 (1.69%) CCTV
7 3 (1.69%) IoT
7 3 (1.69%) Operational Technology
7 3 (1.69%) Private Cloud
7 3 (1.69%) SCADA
8 2 (1.12%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (1.12%) Embedded Systems
8 2 (1.12%) Legacy Systems
8 2 (1.12%) Robotics
8 2 (1.12%) Self-Driving Car
8 2 (1.12%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 2 (1.12%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 5 (2.81%) Linux
2 2 (1.12%) Embedded Linux
2 2 (1.12%) Unix
2 2 (1.12%) VMS
2 2 (1.12%) Windows
3 1 (0.56%) Windows 10
3 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2016
3 1 (0.56%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (23.60%) Network Architecture
2 28 (15.73%) Load Balancing
3 26 (14.61%) Network Management
4 23 (12.92%) Problem-Solving
5 21 (11.80%) Migration
6 20 (11.24%) Computer Science
7 17 (9.55%) Network Monitoring
8 16 (8.99%) Roadmaps
9 15 (8.43%) Agile
10 14 (7.87%) High Availability
11 12 (6.74%) Cybersecurity
11 12 (6.74%) Impact Assessments
12 11 (6.18%) Project Delivery
13 10 (5.62%) Data Protection
13 10 (5.62%) Service Design
13 10 (5.62%) Stakeholder Management
14 9 (5.06%) Project Management
14 9 (5.06%) Zero Trust
15 8 (4.49%) DevOps
15 8 (4.49%) Network Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 23 (12.92%) Python
2 4 (2.25%) PowerShell
3 2 (1.12%) Bash
3 2 (1.12%) C
3 2 (1.12%) Perl
Qualifications
1 68 (38.20%) Security Cleared
2 60 (33.71%) Cisco Certification
3 49 (27.53%) SC Cleared
4 43 (24.16%) CCNP
5 30 (16.85%) Degree
6 26 (14.61%) DV Cleared
7 19 (10.67%) CCIE
8 18 (10.11%) CCNA
8 18 (10.11%) Computer Science Degree
9 9 (5.06%) JNCIS
10 7 (3.93%) JNCIE
10 7 (3.93%) Master's Degree
11 5 (2.81%) CISSP
12 4 (2.25%) Azure Certification
13 3 (1.69%) AWS Certification
13 3 (1.69%) CCDP
13 3 (1.69%) JNCIA
13 3 (1.69%) JNCIP
14 2 (1.12%) PMI Certification
14 2 (1.12%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (5.06%) NCSC
2 3 (1.69%) GDPR
3 2 (1.12%) HIPAA
3 2 (1.12%) PCI DSS
4 1 (0.56%) Accessibility
4 1 (0.56%) GxP
4 1 (0.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 1 (0.56%) QA
System Software
1 8 (4.49%) VMware Infrastructure
2 2 (1.12%) Active Directory
2 2 (1.12%) Firmware
2 2 (1.12%) Virtual Desktop
2 2 (1.12%) VMware NSX
3 1 (0.56%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 21 (11.80%) Ansible
2 7 (3.93%) Terraform
3 4 (2.25%) Cacti
4 3 (1.69%) Microsoft Intune
5 2 (1.12%) Cisco CUCM
5 2 (1.12%) FortiGate
5 2 (1.12%) HAProxy
5 2 (1.12%) Kubernetes
5 2 (1.12%) NSN NetAct
6 1 (0.56%) Cisco LMS
6 1 (0.56%) Cisco Prime
6 1 (0.56%) Functional Safety
6 1 (0.56%) OPNET
6 1 (0.56%) TrustSec
Vendors
1 115 (64.61%) Cisco
2 43 (24.16%) Palo Alto
3 32 (17.98%) Fortinet
3 32 (17.98%) Juniper
4 31 (17.42%) Meraki
5 26 (14.61%) F5
6 16 (8.99%) CheckPoint
6 16 (8.99%) VMware
7 11 (6.18%) Aruba
7 11 (6.18%) Microsoft
7 11 (6.18%) Zscaler
8 9 (5.06%) Infoblox
8 9 (5.06%) SolarWinds
9 6 (3.37%) AirMagnet
9 6 (3.37%) Ekahau
9 6 (3.37%) Fujitsu
10 5 (2.81%) ServiceNow
11 4 (2.25%) Arista
11 4 (2.25%) Extreme Networks
11 4 (2.25%) HP