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 31 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 466 364 339
Rank change year-on-year -102 -25 +53
Contract jobs citing Network Design 214 194 246
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.59% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.47% 0.65% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 133 131 132
10th Percentile £369 £400 £363
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.80% +5.26% -13.64%
75th Percentile £588 £625 £575
90th Percentile £670 £675 £649
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £520 £450
% change year-on-year -1.44% +15.56% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 2 4
10th Percentile £33.85 £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% -21.43%
75th Percentile £73.00 £65.31 £75.00
90th Percentile £82.51 £67.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +31.89% - -21.43%

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 45,107 29,668 33,959
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.95% 90.46% 85.47%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,893 18,635 21,816
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £736 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,744 1,629 1,969
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £13.69
25th Percentile £19.66 £17.35 £17.72
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £24.00 £40.33
% change year-on-year +83.17% -40.48% +0.81%

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 31 July 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 31 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 14 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 31 July 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 -106 185 £525 +0.48% 65
UK excluding London -94 117 £513 -1.44% 44
Work from Home -32 66 £481 -18.95% 22
London -54 61 £525 +16.67% 26
South East -67 41 £511 -11.09% 12
North of England -76 33 £575 +21.05% 14
North West -62 24 £575 +21.05% 6
South West -42 17 £500 -21.88% 6
Scotland -5 13 £380 -16.48% 1
Midlands -58 9 £425 -15.00% 6
West Midlands -67 9 £425 -15.00% 4
Yorkshire -49 8 £519 +3.80% 7
East of England -14 7 £525 +0.96% 4
North East - 7 £650 - 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 12 (5.61%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.40%) Apache
2 3 (1.40%) CloudStack
2 3 (1.40%) Confluence
3 2 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.93%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.47%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.47%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (4.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (4.21%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.21%) MS Visio
3 8 (3.74%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.40%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.47%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.47%) CPLEX
5 1 (0.47%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 62 (28.97%) Azure
2 59 (27.57%) AWS
3 15 (7.01%) OCI
4 11 (5.14%) GCP
5 10 (4.67%) GitHub
5 10 (4.67%) SaaS
6 9 (4.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 7 (3.27%) IaaS
7 7 (3.27%) OpenShift
8 5 (2.34%) Nutanix
9 4 (1.87%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (1.87%) Entra ID
10 3 (1.40%) AWS Control Tower
10 3 (1.40%) PaaS
11 2 (0.93%) Azure Storage
11 2 (0.93%) Datadog
11 2 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
12 1 (0.47%) AWS CloudFormation
12 1 (0.47%) AWS Direct Connect
12 1 (0.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 96 (44.86%) Firewall
2 75 (35.05%) BGP
3 62 (28.97%) OSPF
4 61 (28.50%) WAN
5 41 (19.16%) VPN
6 38 (17.76%) Network Security
6 38 (17.76%) VLAN
7 34 (15.89%) VXLAN
8 31 (14.49%) LAN
9 30 (14.02%) SD-WAN
9 30 (14.02%) Wi-Fi
10 29 (13.55%) 5G
11 27 (12.62%) Ethernet VPN
12 26 (12.15%) MPLS
13 25 (11.68%) 4G
14 23 (10.75%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 20 (9.35%) Radio Access Network
16 18 (8.41%) BIG-IP
17 17 (7.94%) IPsec
17 17 (7.94%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.40%) Metadata
2 1 (0.47%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.07%) GitLab
2 5 (2.34%) JIRA
3 3 (1.40%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.47%) Git
4 1 (0.47%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 48 (22.43%) Social Skills
2 33 (15.42%) Telecoms
3 23 (10.75%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (9.35%) Public Sector
5 12 (5.61%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.74%) Legal
7 7 (3.27%) Retail
8 6 (2.80%) Finance
9 5 (2.34%) Manufacturing
10 4 (1.87%) Banking
11 3 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.40%) Police
12 2 (0.93%) Aviation
12 2 (0.93%) Billing
12 2 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.93%) Military
12 2 (0.93%) Retail Banking
13 1 (0.47%) German Language
13 1 (0.47%) Polish Language
13 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 70 (32.71%) Network Engineer
2 50 (23.36%) Architect
3 46 (21.50%) Senior
4 33 (15.42%) Network Specialist
5 32 (14.95%) Network Architect
6 23 (10.75%) Senior Network Engineer
7 21 (9.81%) Network Design Specialist
8 19 (8.88%) Designer
9 16 (7.48%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (6.07%) Network Designer
10 13 (6.07%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (5.61%) Security Architect
12 11 (5.14%) Design Engineer
13 10 (4.67%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
13 10 (4.67%) Senior Network Specialist
14 8 (3.74%) Consultant
14 8 (3.74%) Network Security Architect
15 7 (3.27%) Lead
15 7 (3.27%) Network Design Engineer
16 6 (2.80%) IP Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.14%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.14%) YANG
2 8 (3.74%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.80%) OpenConfig
3 6 (2.80%) REST
3 6 (2.80%) RESTCONF
4 4 (1.87%) Azure Blueprints
4 4 (1.87%) Kafka
5 3 (1.40%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.47%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 68 (31.78%) Data Centre
2 46 (21.50%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (13.08%) Cloud Native
4 14 (6.54%) Management Information System
5 9 (4.21%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (3.74%) Public Cloud
7 6 (2.80%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.80%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.80%) PKI
8 5 (2.34%) Private Cloud
9 4 (1.87%) CMDB
9 4 (1.87%) IoT
9 4 (1.87%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.40%) Data Fabric
10 3 (1.40%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 3 (1.40%) Product Ownership
10 3 (1.40%) SCADA
11 2 (0.93%) CCTV
11 2 (0.93%) Hedge funds
11 2 (0.93%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.48%) Linux
2 14 (6.54%) Windows
3 11 (5.14%) Windows Server
4 8 (3.74%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.87%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (1.87%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.93%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (0.93%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (20.56%) Network Architecture
2 39 (18.22%) High Availability
3 36 (16.82%) Zero Trust
4 35 (16.36%) Infrastructure as Code
5 34 (15.89%) Migration
6 32 (14.95%) Problem-Solving
7 31 (14.49%) Project Delivery
8 30 (14.02%) Roadmaps
9 28 (13.08%) DevOps
10 27 (12.62%) Validation
11 26 (12.15%) Load Balancing
11 26 (12.15%) Stakeholder Management
12 24 (11.21%) CI/CD
12 24 (11.21%) Technical Leadership
13 23 (10.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 21 (9.81%) Continuous Improvement
15 19 (8.88%) Capacity Planning
15 19 (8.88%) Cybersecurity
15 19 (8.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 14 (6.54%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 45 (21.03%) Python
2 7 (3.27%) Bicep
2 7 (3.27%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.40%) Bash
4 1 (0.47%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 71 (33.18%) Security Cleared
2 57 (26.64%) Cisco Certification
3 47 (21.96%) SC Cleared
4 43 (20.09%) CCNP
5 21 (9.81%) CCIE
6 18 (8.41%) DV Cleared
7 13 (6.07%) Degree
7 13 (6.07%) JNCIE
8 10 (4.67%) AWS Certification
8 10 (4.67%) Azure Certification
8 10 (4.67%) CCNA
9 7 (3.27%) CISSP
10 6 (2.80%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 6 (2.80%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
11 4 (1.87%) CISM
12 3 (1.40%) CEH
13 2 (0.93%) BC Cleared
13 2 (0.93%) ISSAP
13 2 (0.93%) JNCIP
13 2 (0.93%) JNCIS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.14%) NIST
2 4 (1.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.40%) NCSC
4 2 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (0.93%) GDPR
4 2 (0.93%) GxP
4 2 (0.93%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.93%) JSP 440
4 2 (0.93%) NIST 800
4 2 (0.93%) QA
4 2 (0.93%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.93%) SLA
4 2 (0.93%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.47%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 21 (9.81%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (5.61%) Hyper-V
3 10 (4.67%) VMware NSX
3 10 (4.67%) vSphere
4 7 (3.27%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.40%) Firmware
5 3 (1.40%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.93%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (0.93%) KVM
6 2 (0.93%) NFS
6 2 (0.93%) SRDF
7 1 (0.47%) Docker
7 1 (0.47%) FreeRADIUS
Systems Management
1 47 (21.96%) Ansible
2 41 (19.16%) Terraform
3 12 (5.61%) Kubernetes
4 8 (3.74%) FortiGate
5 6 (2.80%) Grafana
5 6 (2.80%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.40%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.40%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.93%) Argo
7 2 (0.93%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.93%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (0.93%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (0.93%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (0.93%) NetBackup
7 2 (0.93%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 2 (0.93%) SnapMirror
7 2 (0.93%) SnapVault
8 1 (0.47%) Nagios
8 1 (0.47%) SCCM
8 1 (0.47%) SolarWinds Orion
Vendors
1 89 (41.59%) Cisco
2 53 (24.77%) Palo Alto
3 43 (20.09%) Fortinet
4 41 (19.16%) F5
5 28 (13.08%) Juniper
6 26 (12.15%) VMware
7 25 (11.68%) Microsoft
8 21 (9.81%) Aruba
9 19 (8.88%) Arista
10 18 (8.41%) Nokia
11 16 (7.48%) Ericsson
12 15 (7.01%) CheckPoint
13 13 (6.07%) Huawei
14 11 (5.14%) Zscaler
15 8 (3.74%) Splunk
16 7 (3.27%) Meraki
16 7 (3.27%) SolarWinds
17 5 (2.34%) Google
17 5 (2.34%) ServiceNow
17 5 (2.34%) Veeam