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

6 months to
17 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 474 377 342
Rank change year-on-year -97 -35 +4
Contract jobs citing Network Design 210 183 239
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.38% 0.56% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.45% 0.61% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 123 134
10th Percentile £363 £400 £404
25th Percentile £414 £413 £451
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 46,183 29,816 32,769
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.50% 90.52% 85.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,080 18,531 20,147
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
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 3,092 1,799 1,460
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.25 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.42 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.50 £44.68 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £41.71 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +84.31% -47.37% +5.81%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 -111 173 £525 +5.00% 254
UK excluding London -119 112 £513 +2.50% 146
Work from Home -46 63 £500 -9.09% 115
London -83 58 £500 +11.11% 126
South East -73 37 £556 +5.95% 45
North of England -73 31 £575 +21.05% 23
North West -40 23 £575 +21.05% 15
Scotland -18 15 £375 -16.67% 13
Midlands -57 13 £425 - 33
West Midlands -62 12 £425 - 25
South West -51 11 £631 -1.41% 19
North East -35 7 £650 +18.18% 1
Yorkshire -41 7 £519 -9.74% 8
East of England -27 5 £385 -6.10% 6
Wales - 3 £363 - 7
East Midlands - 1 - - 8

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 (5.24%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.43%) Apache
2 3 (1.43%) CloudStack
2 3 (1.43%) Confluence
3 1 (0.48%) ArcGIS
Applications
1 10 (4.76%) MS Visio
2 8 (3.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (3.33%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
5 3 (1.43%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.48%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.48%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 62 (29.52%) Azure
2 59 (28.10%) AWS
3 15 (7.14%) OCI
4 10 (4.76%) GCP
4 10 (4.76%) SaaS
5 9 (4.29%) GitHub
6 8 (3.81%) Entra ID
7 7 (3.33%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 7 (3.33%) OpenShift
8 6 (2.86%) IaaS
9 5 (2.38%) Nutanix
10 4 (1.90%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (1.43%) AWS Control Tower
11 3 (1.43%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (0.95%) Azure Storage
12 2 (0.95%) Datadog
12 2 (0.95%) PaaS
13 1 (0.48%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 1 (0.48%) Microsoft 365
13 1 (0.48%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 93 (44.29%) Firewall
2 73 (34.76%) BGP
3 58 (27.62%) OSPF
4 56 (26.67%) WAN
5 43 (20.48%) VLAN
6 38 (18.10%) Network Security
7 36 (17.14%) VPN
8 33 (15.71%) LAN
9 31 (14.76%) SD-WAN
9 31 (14.76%) VXLAN
10 26 (12.38%) Ethernet VPN
10 26 (12.38%) Wi-Fi
11 24 (11.43%) 5G
11 24 (11.43%) MPLS
12 23 (10.95%) 4G
13 22 (10.48%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 19 (9.05%) Radio Access Network
15 18 (8.57%) BIG-IP
16 16 (7.62%) Wireless
17 15 (7.14%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.43%) Metadata
2 1 (0.48%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.19%) GitLab
2 4 (1.90%) JIRA
3 3 (1.43%) Git
3 3 (1.43%) Jenkins
General
1 47 (22.38%) Social Skills
2 34 (16.19%) Telecoms
3 23 (10.95%) Analytical Skills
4 18 (8.57%) Public Sector
5 15 (7.14%) Manufacturing
6 11 (5.24%) Documentation Skills
7 10 (4.76%) Legal
8 7 (3.33%) Retail
9 5 (2.38%) Automotive
10 4 (1.90%) Finance
11 3 (1.43%) Cyber-Physical System
11 3 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.95%) Billing
12 2 (0.95%) Military
13 1 (0.48%) Agriculture
13 1 (0.48%) Aviation
13 1 (0.48%) Banking
13 1 (0.48%) Local Government
13 1 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.48%) Polish Language
Job Titles
1 72 (34.29%) Network Engineer
2 50 (23.81%) Senior
3 47 (22.38%) Architect
4 25 (11.90%) Network Architect
4 25 (11.90%) Network Specialist
4 25 (11.90%) Senior Network Engineer
5 16 (7.62%) Designer
5 16 (7.62%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 14 (6.67%) Network Design Specialist
7 13 (6.19%) Security Architect
7 13 (6.19%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
8 12 (5.71%) Consultant
8 12 (5.71%) Design Engineer
9 11 (5.24%) Network Designer
9 11 (5.24%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
9 11 (5.24%) Senior Network Specialist
10 9 (4.29%) Lead
10 9 (4.29%) Network Consultant
11 8 (3.81%) Network Design Engineer
11 8 (3.81%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (19.52%) Terraform
2 9 (4.29%) NETCONF
2 9 (4.29%) YANG
3 7 (3.33%) REST
4 5 (2.38%) 802.1X
5 4 (1.90%) Azure Blueprints
5 4 (1.90%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.90%) RESTCONF
6 3 (1.43%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (1.43%) Kafka
7 2 (0.95%) YAML
8 1 (0.48%) eBPF
8 1 (0.48%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 66 (31.43%) Data Centre
2 42 (20.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 26 (12.38%) Cloud Native
4 13 (6.19%) Operational Technology
5 11 (5.24%) Management Information System
6 9 (4.29%) IoT
7 8 (3.81%) Public Cloud
8 7 (3.33%) Private Cloud
9 6 (2.86%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (2.86%) Security Posture
10 5 (2.38%) CMDB
10 5 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (2.38%) PKI
11 4 (1.90%) Data Fabric
12 3 (1.43%) Enterprise Software
12 3 (1.43%) Handset
12 3 (1.43%) Onboarding
12 3 (1.43%) Product Ownership
12 3 (1.43%) SCADA
13 2 (0.95%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (7.14%) Linux
2 12 (5.71%) Windows
3 8 (3.81%) Ubuntu
3 8 (3.81%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.90%) Alpine Linux
4 4 (1.90%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.95%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 43 (20.48%) Stakeholder Management
2 42 (20.00%) Zero Trust
3 40 (19.05%) Migration
4 36 (17.14%) High Availability
5 34 (16.19%) Infrastructure as Code
5 34 (16.19%) Network Architecture
5 34 (16.19%) Problem-Solving
6 33 (15.71%) Project Delivery
7 32 (15.24%) Validation
8 30 (14.29%) Roadmaps
9 28 (13.33%) DevOps
10 27 (12.86%) Technical Leadership
11 24 (11.43%) Cybersecurity
11 24 (11.43%) Load Balancing
12 23 (10.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
13 22 (10.48%) CI/CD
14 20 (9.52%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 17 (8.10%) Cloud Security
15 17 (8.10%) Continuous Improvement
15 17 (8.10%) Network Segmentation
Programming Languages
1 43 (20.48%) Python
2 6 (2.86%) Bicep
2 6 (2.86%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.43%) Bash
4 1 (0.48%) ActionScript
4 1 (0.48%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 63 (30.00%) Security Cleared
2 54 (25.71%) Cisco Certification
3 41 (19.52%) SC Cleared
4 40 (19.05%) CCNP
5 17 (8.10%) CCIE
6 16 (7.62%) DV Cleared
7 15 (7.14%) CCNA
8 13 (6.19%) Degree
9 11 (5.24%) JNCIE
10 9 (4.29%) AWS Certification
11 8 (3.81%) Azure Certification
12 7 (3.33%) CISSP
13 6 (2.86%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (2.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 4 (1.90%) CISM
16 2 (0.95%) CCSE
16 2 (0.95%) GIAC
16 2 (0.95%) ISSAP
16 2 (0.95%) Microsoft Certification
16 2 (0.95%) NCDA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (7.14%) NIST
2 13 (6.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.38%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.90%) Actionable Recommendations
4 4 (1.90%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 3 (1.43%) GxP
5 3 (1.43%) NIST 800
5 3 (1.43%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 3 (1.43%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.95%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.95%) GDPR
6 2 (0.95%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.95%) NCSC
6 2 (0.95%) QA
7 1 (0.48%) Data Quality
7 1 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.48%) SLA
System Software
1 19 (9.05%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (4.76%) vSphere
3 9 (4.29%) Hyper-V
4 8 (3.81%) Active Directory
4 8 (3.81%) VMware NSX
5 5 (2.38%) Firmware
6 3 (1.43%) FreeRADIUS
6 3 (1.43%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.95%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (0.95%) NFS
7 2 (0.95%) SRDF
8 1 (0.48%) Docker
8 1 (0.48%) KVM
Systems Management
1 44 (20.95%) Ansible
2 11 (5.24%) Kubernetes
3 8 (3.81%) FortiGate
4 6 (2.86%) Grafana
4 6 (2.86%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.43%) Check_MK
5 3 (1.43%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.43%) SolarWinds Orion
5 3 (1.43%) vCenter Server
6 2 (0.95%) Argo
6 2 (0.95%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (0.95%) EMC VPLEX
6 2 (0.95%) NetBackup
6 2 (0.95%) SnapMirror
6 2 (0.95%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.48%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.48%) QRadar
7 1 (0.48%) SCCM
7 1 (0.48%) Suricata
7 1 (0.48%) vRealize
Vendors
1 90 (42.86%) Cisco
2 51 (24.29%) Palo Alto
3 41 (19.52%) Fortinet
4 37 (17.62%) F5
5 26 (12.38%) Microsoft
6 24 (11.43%) VMware
7 22 (10.48%) Juniper
8 21 (10.00%) Arista
8 21 (10.00%) Nokia
9 20 (9.52%) Aruba
10 17 (8.10%) Ericsson
11 14 (6.67%) Zscaler
12 12 (5.71%) CheckPoint
13 9 (4.29%) Splunk
14 8 (3.81%) Huawei
15 7 (3.33%) Meraki
16 6 (2.86%) ServiceNow
16 6 (2.86%) SolarWinds
17 5 (2.38%) Google
17 5 (2.38%) Veeam