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

6 months to
1 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 420 339 312
Rank change year-on-year -81 -27 +138
Contract jobs citing Network Design 185 193 303
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.45% 0.63% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.70% 0.78%
Number of daily rates quoted 129 117 164
10th Percentile £364 £400 £363
25th Percentile £425 £463 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £523
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% +0.48% +10.00%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £601
90th Percentile £675 £700 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £475
% change year-on-year -4.76% +10.53% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 9
10th Percentile £72.88 - £24.05
25th Percentile £73.40 - -
Median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 - £65.98
% change year-on-year - - -5.74%

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 35,946 27,398 38,816
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.59% 90.01% 86.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,812 17,104 25,306
10th Percentile £313 £305 £300
25th Percentile £412 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -1.93% -1.70% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,146 887 2,267
10th Percentile £14.66 £15.62 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.25 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -1.52% -5.71%
75th Percentile £63.48 £64.50 £59.44
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.35 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £34.21
% change year-on-year -20.81% -7.16% -2.26%

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 1 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
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 1 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 -75 163 £500 -4.76% 64
UK excluding London -83 103 £500 -4.76% 56
London -28 69 £475 -5.00% 17
Work from Home -39 39 £488 -2.50% 18
South East -37 34 £500 -13.04% 15
West Midlands -31 21 £400 -16.49% 6
Midlands -35 21 £400 -16.49% 9
North of England -79 20 £531 +6.20% 11
North West -50 16 £525 +5.00% 8
Scotland +21 10 £650 +36.84% 5
South West -31 10 £483 -7.66% 14
East of England -25 5 £425 -8.11% 3
Yorkshire -72 4 £663 +32.50% 1
Northern Ireland - 2 £600 -
Wales -10 1 - - 1
North East -13 1 - - 2

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 (1.62%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.08%) Confluence
3 1 (0.54%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.54%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (3.78%) MS Visio
2 4 (2.16%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.62%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (1.62%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.08%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.54%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 49 (26.49%) Azure
2 34 (18.38%) AWS
3 12 (6.49%) GCP
4 6 (3.24%) Azure ExpressRoute
4 6 (3.24%) PaaS
5 4 (2.16%) Dynamics 365
5 4 (2.16%) Microsoft 365
6 3 (1.62%) AWS Direct Connect
6 3 (1.62%) IaaS
6 3 (1.62%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.08%) GitHub
7 2 (1.08%) IBM Watson
8 1 (0.54%) Akamai
8 1 (0.54%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.54%) AWS IoT
8 1 (0.54%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.54%) Cloudflare
8 1 (0.54%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.54%) Google Ads
8 1 (0.54%) Mimecast
Communications & Networking
1 80 (43.24%) WAN
2 77 (41.62%) Firewall
3 50 (27.03%) LAN
4 44 (23.78%) VPN
5 43 (23.24%) Network Security
6 41 (22.16%) BGP
7 36 (19.46%) MPLS
8 34 (18.38%) SD-WAN
9 31 (16.76%) VLAN
9 31 (16.76%) Wi-Fi
10 25 (13.51%) TCP/IP
11 19 (10.27%) OSPF
12 16 (8.65%) DNS
13 15 (8.11%) 5G
13 15 (8.11%) IPsec
14 14 (7.57%) Cisco ISE
14 14 (7.57%) Radio Access Network
14 14 (7.57%) Wireless
15 13 (7.03%) DHCP
16 12 (6.49%) 4G
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.62%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.70%) Git
2 3 (1.62%) JIRA
3 1 (0.54%) GitLab
3 1 (0.54%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 50 (27.03%) Social Skills
2 32 (17.30%) Telecoms
3 23 (12.43%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (10.81%) Public Sector
5 16 (8.65%) Finance
6 15 (8.11%) Legal
7 8 (4.32%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (3.24%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.16%) Manufacturing
9 4 (2.16%) Presentation Skills
10 3 (1.62%) Aviation
10 3 (1.62%) Police
11 2 (1.08%) Banking
11 2 (1.08%) Electronics
11 2 (1.08%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.54%) Aerospace
12 1 (0.54%) Law
12 1 (0.54%) Local Government
12 1 (0.54%) Marketing
12 1 (0.54%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 66 (35.68%) Network Engineer
2 56 (30.27%) Architect
3 44 (23.78%) Network Architect
4 20 (10.81%) Senior
5 17 (9.19%) Network Specialist
6 16 (8.65%) Design Engineer
7 15 (8.11%) Network Design Engineer
8 13 (7.03%) Network Design Specialist
9 9 (4.86%) Designer
9 9 (4.86%) Network Designer
9 9 (4.86%) Network Security Architect
9 9 (4.86%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
9 9 (4.86%) Security Architect
9 9 (4.86%) Senior Designer
9 9 (4.86%) Senior Network Designer
9 9 (4.86%) Solutions Architect
10 8 (4.32%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
11 7 (3.78%) Consultant
11 7 (3.78%) Senior Network Engineer
12 6 (3.24%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.95%) 802.1X
2 7 (3.78%) NETCONF
2 7 (3.78%) YANG
3 4 (2.16%) OpenID
3 4 (2.16%) SAML
4 3 (1.62%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.62%) REST
4 3 (1.62%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.08%) Django
6 1 (0.54%) JSON
6 1 (0.54%) Kafka
6 1 (0.54%) Middleware
6 1 (0.54%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 43 (23.24%) Data Centre
2 14 (7.57%) Hybrid Cloud
3 9 (4.86%) Data Protection Act
3 9 (4.86%) IoT
4 7 (3.78%) Management Information System
4 7 (3.78%) Operational Technology
5 6 (3.24%) SCADA
6 5 (2.70%) PKI
7 4 (2.16%) Cloud Native
7 4 (2.16%) NB-IoT
7 4 (2.16%) Onboarding
7 4 (2.16%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.62%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.62%) CCTV
8 3 (1.62%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.62%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 2 (1.08%) Hedge funds
9 2 (1.08%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.08%) Product Ownership
9 2 (1.08%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 10 (5.41%) Windows
2 6 (3.24%) Linux
3 4 (2.16%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.54%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (21.62%) Network Architecture
2 27 (14.59%) Load Balancing
3 24 (12.97%) Problem-Solving
4 20 (10.81%) High Availability
4 20 (10.81%) Migration
4 20 (10.81%) Roadmaps
5 17 (9.19%) Cybersecurity
6 16 (8.65%) Security Architecture
7 15 (8.11%) Network Management
7 15 (8.11%) Stakeholder Management
7 15 (8.11%) Zero Trust
8 13 (7.03%) Data Protection
8 13 (7.03%) Network Segmentation
8 13 (7.03%) Root Cause Analysis
8 13 (7.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 12 (6.49%) ITIL
9 12 (6.49%) Network Monitoring
10 11 (5.95%) DevOps
10 11 (5.95%) Mentoring
10 11 (5.95%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 26 (14.05%) Python
2 7 (3.78%) SQL
3 6 (3.24%) PowerShell
4 5 (2.70%) Bash
5 3 (1.62%) Perl
6 1 (0.54%) Bicep
6 1 (0.54%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 69 (37.30%) Security Cleared
2 56 (30.27%) Cisco Certification
3 45 (24.32%) CCNP
4 42 (22.70%) SC Cleared
5 27 (14.59%) DV Cleared
6 26 (14.05%) CCIE
7 18 (9.73%) Degree
8 16 (8.65%) CCNA
9 12 (6.49%) CISSP
9 12 (6.49%) JNCIS
10 9 (4.86%) AWS Certification
11 8 (4.32%) JNCIE
12 6 (3.24%) Azure Certification
12 6 (3.24%) JNCIP
13 5 (2.70%) Computer Science Degree
14 4 (2.16%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 4 (2.16%) CCSP
15 3 (1.62%) CCIE Security
15 3 (1.62%) RIBA
16 2 (1.08%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.95%) NIST
2 10 (5.41%) GDPR
3 8 (4.32%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 7 (3.78%) PCI DSS
5 3 (1.62%) JSP 440
6 2 (1.08%) NCSC
7 1 (0.54%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.54%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.54%) DO-160
7 1 (0.54%) QA
7 1 (0.54%) SLA
System Software
1 9 (4.86%) VMware Infrastructure
1 9 (4.86%) VMware NSX
2 6 (3.24%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.62%) Hyper-V
4 2 (1.08%) Firmware
4 2 (1.08%) KVM
5 1 (0.54%) Docker
5 1 (0.54%) RHEV
5 1 (0.54%) Xen
Systems Management
1 22 (11.89%) FortiGate
2 20 (10.81%) Ansible
3 12 (6.49%) Terraform
4 5 (2.70%) Nagios
5 2 (1.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 2 (1.08%) Cisco Prime
5 2 (1.08%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 1 (0.54%) Dell DRAC
6 1 (0.54%) Failover Clustering
6 1 (0.54%) Grafana
6 1 (0.54%) Iperf
6 1 (0.54%) Kubernetes
6 1 (0.54%) McAfee ePO
6 1 (0.54%) Nmap
6 1 (0.54%) Prometheus
6 1 (0.54%) Proxmox
6 1 (0.54%) SCCM
Vendors
1 90 (48.65%) Cisco
2 52 (28.11%) Palo Alto
3 36 (19.46%) Juniper
4 26 (14.05%) Fortinet
5 24 (12.97%) F5
5 24 (12.97%) Microsoft
6 23 (12.43%) Meraki
7 15 (8.11%) CheckPoint
8 13 (7.03%) SolarWinds
9 12 (6.49%) VMware
10 11 (5.95%) Aruba
10 11 (5.95%) Nokia
11 7 (3.78%) Arista
12 6 (3.24%) Ericsson
13 5 (2.70%) Actix
14 4 (2.16%) Ekahau
15 3 (1.62%) LogicMonitor
15 3 (1.62%) NetScout
16 2 (1.08%) McAfee
16 2 (1.08%) Splunk