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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 437 371 336
Rank change year-on-year -66 -35 +87
Contract jobs citing Network Design 216 190 264
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.59% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.65% 0.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 130 126
10th Percentile £382 £381 £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 £613 £575
90th Percentile £650 £650 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £550 £450
% change year-on-year -6.36% +22.22% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 2 4
10th Percentile £33.85 £56.13 £22.73
25th Percentile £55.00 £57.81 £23.06
Median hourly rate £71.00 £61.25 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.92% +104.17% -57.14%
75th Percentile £73.00 £65.31 £45.00
90th Percentile £82.51 £67.38 £63.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 £55.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +31.89% +57.14% -50.00%

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 44,765 29,340 36,482
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.08% 90.42% 85.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,853 18,476 23,295
10th Percentile £325 £300 £304
25th Percentile £418 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £624 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,647 1,521 2,449
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.20 £12.79
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.61 £16.25
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -4.70%
75th Percentile £68.50 £52.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £82.70 £70.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.25 £24.64 £38.12
% change year-on-year +83.64% -35.36% -0.99%

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 15 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 15 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 15 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 15 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 -90 187 £525 -1.41% 63
UK excluding London -114 122 £515 -6.36% 47
Work from Home -53 64 £488 -11.36% 20
London -49 59 £525 +16.67% 25
South East -63 44 £513 -10.87% 14
North of England -77 35 £575 +21.05% 12
North West -53 24 £575 +21.05% 9
South West -30 18 £533 -16.80% 10
Scotland -6 11 £380 -16.48% 1
Yorkshire -49 10 £519 +3.80% 3
Midlands -61 9 £425 -15.00% 3
West Midlands -70 9 £425 -15.00% 2
East of England -16 7 £525 +0.96% 4
North East -33 7 £650 +18.18%
Northern Ireland - 1 £600 - 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 14 (6.48%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.39%) Apache
2 3 (1.39%) CloudStack
2 3 (1.39%) Confluence
3 2 (0.93%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.93%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.46%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.46%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (4.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 9 (4.17%) Microsoft Office
2 9 (4.17%) MS Visio
3 8 (3.70%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.39%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.46%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.46%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 64 (29.63%) Azure
2 60 (27.78%) AWS
3 15 (6.94%) OCI
4 10 (4.63%) GCP
4 10 (4.63%) GitHub
4 10 (4.63%) SaaS
5 9 (4.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (3.24%) IaaS
7 6 (2.78%) OpenShift
8 5 (2.31%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.31%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.39%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.39%) Nutanix
9 3 (1.39%) PaaS
10 2 (0.93%) Azure Storage
10 2 (0.93%) Datadog
10 2 (0.93%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.93%) IBM Watson
10 2 (0.93%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.46%) AWS Direct Connect
Communications & Networking
1 94 (43.52%) Firewall
2 73 (33.80%) BGP
3 68 (31.48%) WAN
4 57 (26.39%) OSPF
5 42 (19.44%) VPN
6 38 (17.59%) Network Security
7 37 (17.13%) LAN
8 34 (15.74%) VLAN
9 32 (14.81%) SD-WAN
9 32 (14.81%) Wi-Fi
10 31 (14.35%) MPLS
10 31 (14.35%) VXLAN
11 26 (12.04%) 5G
12 25 (11.57%) Ethernet VPN
13 23 (10.65%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 22 (10.19%) 4G
15 18 (8.33%) BIG-IP
15 18 (8.33%) Wireless
16 17 (7.87%) IPsec
16 17 (7.87%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.39%) Metadata
2 1 (0.46%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.02%) GitLab
2 5 (2.31%) JIRA
3 3 (1.39%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.46%) Git
4 1 (0.46%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 50 (23.15%) Social Skills
2 31 (14.35%) Telecoms
3 25 (11.57%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (9.26%) Public Sector
5 12 (5.56%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (4.17%) Legal
7 7 (3.24%) Finance
8 6 (2.78%) Retail
9 4 (1.85%) Banking
10 3 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.39%) Police
11 2 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.93%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.93%) Military
11 2 (0.93%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.46%) Aviation
12 1 (0.46%) Billing
12 1 (0.46%) German Language
12 1 (0.46%) Polish Language
12 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 68 (31.48%) Network Engineer
2 49 (22.69%) Architect
3 43 (19.91%) Senior
4 31 (14.35%) Network Specialist
5 30 (13.89%) Network Architect
6 21 (9.72%) Network Design Specialist
7 20 (9.26%) Senior Network Engineer
8 18 (8.33%) Designer
9 16 (7.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (6.02%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (5.56%) Design Engineer
11 12 (5.56%) Network Designer
12 10 (4.63%) Consultant
12 10 (4.63%) Security Architect
13 8 (3.70%) Network Design Engineer
13 8 (3.70%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
13 8 (3.70%) Senior Network Specialist
14 7 (3.24%) IP Architect
14 7 (3.24%) Lead
14 7 (3.24%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.02%) NETCONF
1 13 (6.02%) YANG
2 8 (3.70%) 802.1X
2 8 (3.70%) REST
3 6 (2.78%) OpenConfig
3 6 (2.78%) RESTCONF
4 4 (1.85%) Azure Blueprints
4 4 (1.85%) Kafka
5 3 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
6 2 (0.93%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 68 (31.48%) Data Centre
2 49 (22.69%) Hybrid Cloud
3 29 (13.43%) Cloud Native
4 15 (6.94%) Management Information System
5 9 (4.17%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (3.70%) Public Cloud
7 6 (2.78%) Analytical Mindset
7 6 (2.78%) Operational Technology
7 6 (2.78%) PKI
8 5 (2.31%) Private Cloud
8 5 (2.31%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.85%) CMDB
9 4 (1.85%) IoT
10 3 (1.39%) CCTV
10 3 (1.39%) Data Fabric
10 3 (1.39%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 3 (1.39%) Onboarding
10 3 (1.39%) Product Ownership
10 3 (1.39%) SCADA
11 2 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 17 (7.87%) Linux
2 15 (6.94%) Windows
3 12 (5.56%) Windows Server
4 8 (3.70%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.85%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (1.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.93%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (0.93%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (21.30%) Network Architecture
2 37 (17.13%) High Availability
3 36 (16.67%) Migration
3 36 (16.67%) Zero Trust
4 35 (16.20%) Infrastructure as Code
5 33 (15.28%) Problem-Solving
6 31 (14.35%) Roadmaps
7 30 (13.89%) DevOps
7 30 (13.89%) Project Delivery
8 26 (12.04%) Load Balancing
9 25 (11.57%) Validation
10 24 (11.11%) CI/CD
10 24 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
11 23 (10.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 23 (10.65%) Technical Leadership
12 21 (9.72%) Continuous Improvement
13 19 (8.80%) Capacity Planning
13 19 (8.80%) Cybersecurity
13 19 (8.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 16 (7.41%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 47 (21.76%) Python
2 8 (3.70%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.24%) Bicep
4 3 (1.39%) Bash
5 1 (0.46%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 73 (33.80%) Security Cleared
2 60 (27.78%) Cisco Certification
3 47 (21.76%) SC Cleared
4 43 (19.91%) CCNP
5 25 (11.57%) CCIE
6 21 (9.72%) DV Cleared
7 15 (6.94%) JNCIE
8 13 (6.02%) Degree
9 10 (4.63%) AWS Certification
9 10 (4.63%) Azure Certification
10 8 (3.70%) CCNA
11 7 (3.24%) CISSP
12 6 (2.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 6 (2.78%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 4 (1.85%) CISM
14 3 (1.39%) CEH
14 3 (1.39%) RIBA
15 2 (0.93%) BC Cleared
15 2 (0.93%) SANS
15 2 (0.93%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.56%) NIST
2 5 (2.31%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.39%) JSP 440
3 3 (1.39%) NCSC
4 2 (0.93%) GDPR
4 2 (0.93%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.93%) NIST 800
4 2 (0.93%) QA
4 2 (0.93%) SLA
4 2 (0.93%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.46%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.46%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.46%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 20 (9.26%) VMware Infrastructure
2 13 (6.02%) VMware NSX
3 10 (4.63%) Hyper-V
3 10 (4.63%) vSphere
4 8 (3.70%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.39%) Firmware
5 3 (1.39%) 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 (0.46%) Docker
Systems Management
1 50 (23.15%) Ansible
2 40 (18.52%) Terraform
3 11 (5.09%) Kubernetes
4 7 (3.24%) FortiGate
5 6 (2.78%) Grafana
5 6 (2.78%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.39%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.39%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.93%) Active Directory Federation Services
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 (0.46%) Nagios
8 1 (0.46%) Nmap
Vendors
1 89 (41.20%) Cisco
2 48 (22.22%) Palo Alto
3 41 (18.98%) Fortinet
4 40 (18.52%) F5
5 28 (12.96%) Juniper
6 27 (12.50%) VMware
7 26 (12.04%) Microsoft
8 20 (9.26%) Arista
8 20 (9.26%) Aruba
9 16 (7.41%) CheckPoint
9 16 (7.41%) Nokia
10 14 (6.48%) Ericsson
11 13 (6.02%) Huawei
12 9 (4.17%) Zscaler
13 8 (3.70%) Meraki
13 8 (3.70%) Splunk
14 7 (3.24%) SolarWinds
15 5 (2.31%) EMC
15 5 (2.31%) Google
15 5 (2.31%) Veeam