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 4 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 424 359 339
Rank change year-on-year -65 -20 +126
Contract jobs citing Network Design 199 168 258
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.42% 0.57% 0.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.50% 0.63% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 137 98 134
10th Percentile £400 £354 £363
25th Percentile £463 £444 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £519 £531 £487
Median % change year-on-year -2.31% +9.14% -2.65%
75th Percentile £588 £622 £600
90th Percentile £675 £691 £646
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £544 £450
% change year-on-year -8.05% +20.83% -7.69%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 4
10th Percentile £27.85 - £23.55
25th Percentile £33.25 £66.25 £24.00
Median hourly rate £54.25 £67.50 £47.25
Median % change year-on-year -19.63% +42.86% -32.50%
75th Percentile £71.76 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £72.23 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.00 - £70.00

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 39,853 26,632 37,270
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.47% 90.92% 86.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,078 17,168 24,015
10th Percentile £319 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £520 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% -0.95% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £630 £638
90th Percentile £725 £745 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £488 £481 £500
% change year-on-year +1.46% -3.90% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,383 1,080 2,442
10th Percentile £14.84 £14.63 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £41.56 £29.00 £35.83
Median % change year-on-year +43.29% -19.06% -0.47%
75th Percentile £67.13 £61.69 £60.00
90th Percentile £79.40 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.00 £27.57 £37.50
% change year-on-year +59.59% -26.48% +7.14%

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 4 May 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 4 May 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 4 May 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 -84 171 £519 -5.68% 52
UK excluding London -86 116 £500 -8.05% 45
London -40 58 £525 +7.14% 16
Work from Home -31 46 £455 -10.12% 15
South East -48 44 £500 -13.04% 13
North of England -71 26 £522 +4.40% 12
North West -48 19 £522 +4.35% 10
South West -33 15 £500 -4.76% 5
Scotland 0 12 £415 -5.03% 5
West Midlands -57 10 £463 -3.44% 9
Midlands -67 10 £463 -3.44% 9
East of England -29 8 £500 +25.00% 1
Yorkshire -45 7 £585 +16.90%
North East -19 2 - - 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £600 -

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 7 (3.52%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.01%) Confluence
2 2 (1.01%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.01%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.50%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.50%) Smallworld
Applications
1 9 (4.52%) MS Visio
2 6 (3.02%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.51%) Microsoft Excel
4 4 (2.01%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.50%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.50%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.01%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.01%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 49 (24.62%) Azure
2 36 (18.09%) AWS
3 7 (3.52%) OCI
4 6 (3.02%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 5 (2.51%) GCP
5 5 (2.51%) GitHub
5 5 (2.51%) PaaS
6 4 (2.01%) IaaS
6 4 (2.01%) SaaS
7 2 (1.01%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (1.01%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.01%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.50%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.50%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.50%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.50%) Datadog
8 1 (0.50%) Entra ID
8 1 (0.50%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.50%) Mimecast
8 1 (0.50%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 74 (37.19%) Firewall
2 69 (34.67%) WAN
3 49 (24.62%) BGP
4 41 (20.60%) LAN
5 40 (20.10%) VPN
6 35 (17.59%) OSPF
7 33 (16.58%) Network Security
8 31 (15.58%) SD-WAN
9 28 (14.07%) VLAN
10 27 (13.57%) MPLS
10 27 (13.57%) Wi-Fi
11 23 (11.56%) 5G
12 19 (9.55%) TCP/IP
13 18 (9.05%) VXLAN
14 16 (8.04%) DNS
15 15 (7.54%) 4G
15 15 (7.54%) IPsec
15 15 (7.54%) Wireless
16 14 (7.04%) Radio Access Network
17 13 (6.53%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (0.50%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.51%) GitLab
2 3 (1.51%) JIRA
3 2 (1.01%) Git
4 1 (0.50%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.50%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 45 (22.61%) Social Skills
2 25 (12.56%) Telecoms
3 19 (9.55%) Public Sector
4 17 (8.54%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (8.54%) Legal
5 14 (7.04%) Finance
6 8 (4.02%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.51%) Police
8 4 (2.01%) Banking
9 3 (1.51%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (1.01%) Military
10 2 (1.01%) Retail
10 2 (1.01%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.50%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.50%) Aviation
11 1 (0.50%) Electronics
11 1 (0.50%) German Language
11 1 (0.50%) Local Government
11 1 (0.50%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 63 (31.66%) Network Engineer
2 47 (23.62%) Architect
3 35 (17.59%) Senior
4 34 (17.09%) Network Architect
5 27 (13.57%) Network Specialist
6 22 (11.06%) Designer
7 19 (9.55%) Network Design Specialist
8 17 (8.54%) Network Designer
9 16 (8.04%) Design Engineer
10 14 (7.04%) Network Design Engineer
11 13 (6.53%) Senior Network Engineer
12 11 (5.53%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
13 9 (4.52%) Senior Designer
13 9 (4.52%) Senior Network Designer
13 9 (4.52%) Technical Architect
14 8 (4.02%) Lead
15 7 (3.52%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
15 7 (3.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
16 6 (3.02%) Consultant
16 6 (3.02%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 9 (4.52%) NETCONF
1 9 (4.52%) YANG
2 8 (4.02%) 802.1X
3 5 (2.51%) REST
4 4 (2.01%) Kafka
4 4 (2.01%) OpenConfig
4 4 (2.01%) RESTCONF
5 2 (1.01%) Django
5 2 (1.01%) OpenID
5 2 (1.01%) SAML
6 1 (0.50%) JSON
6 1 (0.50%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 51 (25.63%) Data Centre
2 24 (12.06%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (7.54%) Cloud Native
4 12 (6.03%) Management Information System
5 11 (5.53%) Data Protection Act
6 4 (2.01%) Analytical Mindset
6 4 (2.01%) IoT
6 4 (2.01%) Self-Motivation
7 3 (1.51%) CCTV
7 3 (1.51%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
7 3 (1.51%) Operational Technology
8 2 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
8 2 (1.01%) Hedge funds
8 2 (1.01%) Onboarding
8 2 (1.01%) PKI
8 2 (1.01%) Private Cloud
8 2 (1.01%) Security Posture
9 1 (0.50%) Enterprise Software
9 1 (0.50%) Enterprise Storage
9 1 (0.50%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 9 (4.52%) Windows
2 8 (4.02%) Linux
3 6 (3.02%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.01%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.50%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 42 (21.11%) Network Architecture
2 29 (14.57%) High Availability
3 27 (13.57%) Migration
4 25 (12.56%) Load Balancing
4 25 (12.56%) Problem-Solving
5 19 (9.55%) Infrastructure as Code
5 19 (9.55%) Roadmaps
6 17 (8.54%) Zero Trust
7 16 (8.04%) CI/CD
8 15 (7.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
9 14 (7.04%) Data Protection
9 14 (7.04%) DevOps
9 14 (7.04%) Stakeholder Management
9 14 (7.04%) Technical Leadership
10 13 (6.53%) Network Segmentation
10 13 (6.53%) Project Delivery
11 11 (5.53%) Continuous Improvement
12 10 (5.03%) Capacity Planning
12 10 (5.03%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 10 (5.03%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 27 (13.57%) Python
2 6 (3.02%) PowerShell
3 4 (2.01%) Bash
4 3 (1.51%) Bicep
5 2 (1.01%) SQL
6 1 (0.50%) Perl
6 1 (0.50%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 75 (37.69%) Security Cleared
2 55 (27.64%) Cisco Certification
3 47 (23.62%) SC Cleared
4 40 (20.10%) CCNP
5 28 (14.07%) DV Cleared
6 23 (11.56%) CCIE
7 15 (7.54%) CCNA
8 11 (5.53%) Degree
9 10 (5.03%) JNCIE
9 10 (5.03%) JNCIS
10 8 (4.02%) Azure Certification
11 6 (3.02%) AWS Certification
12 3 (1.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 3 (1.51%) RIBA
12 3 (1.51%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 2 (1.01%) CCDP
13 2 (1.01%) CEH
13 2 (1.01%) CISSP
13 2 (1.01%) JNCIP
13 2 (1.01%) Project+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 7 (3.52%) NIST
2 3 (1.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 3 (1.51%) JSP 440
2 3 (1.51%) NCSC
2 3 (1.51%) SLA
3 2 (1.01%) Def Stans
3 2 (1.01%) GDPR
4 1 (0.50%) Actionable Recommendations
4 1 (0.50%) Cyber Essentials
4 1 (0.50%) DO-160
4 1 (0.50%) NIST 800
4 1 (0.50%) QA
System Software
1 14 (7.04%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (5.03%) VMware NSX
3 7 (3.52%) Active Directory
3 7 (3.52%) Hyper-V
4 3 (1.51%) KVM
4 3 (1.51%) vSphere
5 1 (0.50%) Docker
5 1 (0.50%) EMC RecoverPoint
5 1 (0.50%) Firmware
5 1 (0.50%) NFS
5 1 (0.50%) RHEV
5 1 (0.50%) SRDF
5 1 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.50%) Xen
Systems Management
1 26 (13.07%) Ansible
2 17 (8.54%) Terraform
3 16 (8.04%) FortiGate
4 7 (3.52%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.51%) Nagios
6 2 (1.01%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.01%) Cisco Prime
6 2 (1.01%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (1.01%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 2 (1.01%) SCCM
6 2 (1.01%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.50%) Argo
7 1 (0.50%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.50%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.50%) Grafana
7 1 (0.50%) Iperf
7 1 (0.50%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.50%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.50%) SolarWinds Orion
7 1 (0.50%) vRealize
Vendors
1 97 (48.74%) Cisco
2 47 (23.62%) Palo Alto
3 33 (16.58%) Juniper
4 29 (14.57%) F5
5 27 (13.57%) Microsoft
6 26 (13.07%) Fortinet
7 20 (10.05%) VMware
8 18 (9.05%) Aruba
9 15 (7.54%) Meraki
9 15 (7.54%) Nokia
10 14 (7.04%) Arista
11 11 (5.53%) Ericsson
12 10 (5.03%) CheckPoint
13 9 (4.52%) Huawei
14 8 (4.02%) SolarWinds
15 6 (3.02%) Zscaler
16 5 (2.51%) Ekahau
17 3 (1.51%) IBM
17 3 (1.51%) McAfee
17 3 (1.51%) NetScout