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 23 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 418 337 340
Rank change year-on-year -81 +3 +134
Contract jobs citing Network Design 193 185 271
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.44% 0.63% 0.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.69% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 109 140
10th Percentile £396 £363 £363
25th Percentile £438 £450 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -3.31%
75th Percentile £586 £625 £588
90th Percentile £675 £700 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £538 £450
% change year-on-year -6.98% +19.44% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 5
10th Percentile £29.05 - £23.65
25th Percentile £36.25 - £24.25
Median hourly rate £72.54 - £65.98
75th Percentile £74.26 - £70.00
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £73.40 - £67.99
% change year-on-year - - -2.87%

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 37,591 26,736 38,298
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.89% 90.46% 86.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,832 17,220 24,877
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £610 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -1.54% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,217 938 2,335
10th Percentile £14.99 £15.21 £12.85
25th Percentile £18.50 £20.94 £16.00
Median hourly rate £31.50 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.08% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.51 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.28 £71.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £29.31 £31.76 £31.13
% change year-on-year -7.73% +2.04% -12.14%

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 23 March 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 23 March 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 23 March 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 -96 169 £500 -6.98% 54
UK excluding London -86 105 £500 -6.98% 40
London -28 73 £525 +5.00% 16
Work from Home -49 37 £475 -7.32% 16
South East -62 34 £500 -13.04% 14
North of England -81 21 £525 +5.00% 14
North West -36 17 £525 - 11
West Midlands -45 17 £400 -8.57% 2
Midlands -52 17 £400 -8.57% 3
South West -24 13 £490 -6.67% 3
Scotland +15 10 £650 +36.84%
East of England -20 7 £475 +18.75% 8
Yorkshire -67 4 £663 +35.90% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £600 -
Wales -11 1 - -
North East -14 1 - -

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 3 (1.55%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.04%) Confluence
2 2 (1.04%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.04%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.52%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.52%) Smallworld
Applications
1 8 (4.15%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.59%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.07%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.52%) Autodesk Inventor
4 1 (0.52%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.04%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 48 (24.87%) Azure
2 35 (18.13%) AWS
3 12 (6.22%) GCP
4 6 (3.11%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (2.59%) PaaS
6 4 (2.07%) Microsoft 365
7 3 (1.55%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.55%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (1.55%) IaaS
7 3 (1.55%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.04%) GitHub
8 2 (1.04%) IBM Watson
9 1 (0.52%) Akamai
9 1 (0.52%) AWS CloudFormation
9 1 (0.52%) Cloud Computing
9 1 (0.52%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.52%) Entra ID
9 1 (0.52%) Google Ads
9 1 (0.52%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.52%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 76 (39.38%) Firewall
1 76 (39.38%) WAN
2 45 (23.32%) LAN
2 45 (23.32%) Network Security
3 43 (22.28%) BGP
4 42 (21.76%) VPN
5 32 (16.58%) MPLS
6 31 (16.06%) Wi-Fi
7 30 (15.54%) SD-WAN
7 30 (15.54%) VLAN
8 26 (13.47%) TCP/IP
9 23 (11.92%) 5G
10 22 (11.40%) OSPF
11 18 (9.33%) Radio Access Network
12 17 (8.81%) IPsec
12 17 (8.81%) Wireless
13 16 (8.29%) 4G
13 16 (8.29%) DNS
14 15 (7.77%) DHCP
15 14 (7.25%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.07%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.59%) Git
2 3 (1.55%) JIRA
3 1 (0.52%) GitLab
3 1 (0.52%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 51 (26.42%) Social Skills
2 32 (16.58%) Telecoms
3 25 (12.95%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (10.36%) Public Sector
5 17 (8.81%) Finance
6 15 (7.77%) Legal
7 10 (5.18%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (3.11%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (2.59%) Presentation Skills
10 4 (2.07%) Banking
10 4 (2.07%) Police
11 3 (1.55%) Manufacturing
12 2 (1.04%) Aviation
12 2 (1.04%) Electronics
12 2 (1.04%) Retail Banking
13 1 (0.52%) Aerospace
13 1 (0.52%) German Language
13 1 (0.52%) Local Government
13 1 (0.52%) Marketing
13 1 (0.52%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 65 (33.68%) Network Engineer
2 53 (27.46%) Architect
3 41 (21.24%) Network Architect
4 22 (11.40%) Network Specialist
5 21 (10.88%) Senior
6 18 (9.33%) Network Design Specialist
7 17 (8.81%) Design Engineer
8 15 (7.77%) Network Design Engineer
9 13 (6.74%) Designer
10 12 (6.22%) Network Designer
11 9 (4.66%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 9 (4.66%) Senior Designer
11 9 (4.66%) Senior Network Designer
11 9 (4.66%) Solutions Architect
12 8 (4.15%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
12 8 (4.15%) Senior Network Engineer
13 7 (3.63%) Consultant
13 7 (3.63%) Lead
13 7 (3.63%) Technical Architect
14 6 (3.11%) IP Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (6.22%) 802.1X
2 7 (3.63%) NETCONF
2 7 (3.63%) YANG
3 4 (2.07%) OpenConfig
3 4 (2.07%) RESTCONF
4 3 (1.55%) OpenID
4 3 (1.55%) SAML
5 2 (1.04%) Django
5 2 (1.04%) Kafka
5 2 (1.04%) REST
6 1 (0.52%) JSON
6 1 (0.52%) Middleware
6 1 (0.52%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 45 (23.32%) Data Centre
2 12 (6.22%) Hybrid Cloud
3 10 (5.18%) Data Protection Act
4 9 (4.66%) IoT
5 8 (4.15%) Management Information System
6 5 (2.59%) PKI
6 5 (2.59%) Self-Motivation
7 4 (2.07%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (2.07%) Cloud Native
7 4 (2.07%) NB-IoT
8 3 (1.55%) CCTV
8 3 (1.55%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.55%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (1.55%) SCADA
9 2 (1.04%) Hedge funds
9 2 (1.04%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.04%) Operational Technology
9 2 (1.04%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.04%) Product Ownership
9 2 (1.04%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 10 (5.18%) Windows
2 5 (2.59%) Linux
2 5 (2.59%) Windows Server
3 2 (1.04%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (20.73%) Network Architecture
2 30 (15.54%) Load Balancing
3 28 (14.51%) Problem-Solving
4 22 (11.40%) High Availability
5 19 (9.84%) Migration
5 19 (9.84%) Roadmaps
6 17 (8.81%) Security Architecture
7 16 (8.29%) Cybersecurity
7 16 (8.29%) Stakeholder Management
8 15 (7.77%) Network Management
9 14 (7.25%) Data Protection
9 14 (7.25%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 13 (6.74%) ITIL
11 12 (6.22%) Infrastructure as Code
11 12 (6.22%) TOGAF
12 11 (5.70%) DevOps
12 11 (5.70%) Mentoring
12 11 (5.70%) Network Segmentation
12 11 (5.70%) Root Cause Analysis
12 11 (5.70%) Zero Trust
Programming Languages
1 26 (13.47%) Python
2 7 (3.63%) PowerShell
2 7 (3.63%) SQL
3 5 (2.59%) Bash
4 3 (1.55%) Perl
5 1 (0.52%) Bicep
5 1 (0.52%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 74 (38.34%) Security Cleared
2 54 (27.98%) Cisco Certification
3 45 (23.32%) SC Cleared
4 43 (22.28%) CCNP
5 29 (15.03%) DV Cleared
6 25 (12.95%) CCIE
7 18 (9.33%) Degree
8 14 (7.25%) CCNA
9 12 (6.22%) JNCIS
10 9 (4.66%) AWS Certification
10 9 (4.66%) CISSP
11 8 (4.15%) Azure Certification
11 8 (4.15%) JNCIE
12 6 (3.11%) JNCIP
13 5 (2.59%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (2.07%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (2.07%) CCSP
15 3 (1.55%) CCIE Security
15 3 (1.55%) RIBA
16 2 (1.04%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.18%) GDPR
1 10 (5.18%) NIST
2 7 (3.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.59%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.55%) JSP 440
5 2 (1.04%) NCSC
5 2 (1.04%) SLA
6 1 (0.52%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.52%) DO-160
6 1 (0.52%) QA
System Software
1 12 (6.22%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.18%) VMware NSX
3 7 (3.63%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.07%) Hyper-V
5 2 (1.04%) KVM
6 1 (0.52%) Docker
6 1 (0.52%) Firmware
6 1 (0.52%) RHEV
6 1 (0.52%) Xen
Systems Management
1 22 (11.40%) Ansible
2 18 (9.33%) FortiGate
3 14 (7.25%) Terraform
4 5 (2.59%) Nagios
5 4 (2.07%) Kubernetes
6 2 (1.04%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.04%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (1.04%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 1 (0.52%) Cisco Prime
7 1 (0.52%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.52%) Grafana
7 1 (0.52%) Iperf
7 1 (0.52%) Nmap
7 1 (0.52%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.52%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.52%) SCCM
Vendors
1 92 (47.67%) Cisco
2 48 (24.87%) Palo Alto
3 36 (18.65%) Juniper
4 27 (13.99%) Microsoft
5 26 (13.47%) Fortinet
6 24 (12.44%) F5
7 22 (11.40%) Meraki
8 15 (7.77%) VMware
9 13 (6.74%) Aruba
9 13 (6.74%) Nokia
10 11 (5.70%) CheckPoint
11 10 (5.18%) SolarWinds
12 8 (4.15%) Ericsson
13 7 (3.63%) Arista
14 5 (2.59%) Ekahau
14 5 (2.59%) Huawei
15 3 (1.55%) IBM
15 3 (1.55%) McAfee
15 3 (1.55%) NetScout
16 2 (1.04%) Forcepoint