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 10 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 458 361 336
Rank change year-on-year -97 -25 +55
Contract jobs citing Network Design 213 195 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.59% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.47% 0.65% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 131 134
10th Percentile £375 £400 £363
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £517 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +3.40% +5.26% -13.64%
75th Percentile £581 £625 £575
90th Percentile £650 £688 £646
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £505 £458
% change year-on-year +0.99% +10.38% -8.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 4
10th Percentile £32.65 £56.13 £26.25
25th Percentile £50.31 £57.81 £31.88
Median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% +11.36% -21.43%
75th Percentile £74.75 £65.31 £75.00
90th Percentile £83.76 £67.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.00 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +30.91% - -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 45,268 29,990 33,185
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.86% 90.46% 85.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,853 18,764 21,291
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £729 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,826 1,696 1,837
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.89 £17.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.50
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.75% +13.33%

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 10 August 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 10 August 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 10 August 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 -96 185 £525 +0.96% 96
UK excluding London -110 115 £510 +0.99% 59
Work from Home -34 64 £481 -18.09% 33
London -69 64 £525 +10.53% 43
South East -76 39 £511 -12.98% 15
North of England -68 33 £575 +21.05% 18
North West -52 25 £575 +21.05% 6
South West -44 16 £500 -21.88% 6
Scotland -4 14 £380 -16.48% 3
Midlands -56 9 £425 - 11
West Midlands -58 9 £425 - 5
East of England -12 7 £525 +0.96% 3
Yorkshire -39 7 £519 +3.80% 10
North East - 7 £650 - 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 12 (5.63%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.41%) Apache
2 3 (1.41%) CloudStack
3 2 (0.94%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.94%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.47%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.47%) Confluence
4 1 (0.47%) Smallworld
Applications
1 10 (4.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 10 (4.69%) MS Visio
2 9 (4.23%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (3.76%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.41%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.47%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.47%) CPLEX
5 1 (0.47%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 60 (28.17%) Azure
2 57 (26.76%) AWS
3 15 (7.04%) OCI
4 10 (4.69%) GCP
4 10 (4.69%) GitHub
4 10 (4.69%) SaaS
5 8 (3.76%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (3.29%) OpenShift
7 6 (2.82%) IaaS
8 5 (2.35%) Nutanix
9 4 (1.88%) Azure Sentinel
9 4 (1.88%) Entra ID
10 3 (1.41%) AWS Control Tower
11 2 (0.94%) Azure Storage
11 2 (0.94%) Datadog
11 2 (0.94%) GitHub Actions
11 2 (0.94%) PaaS
12 1 (0.47%) AWS CloudFormation
12 1 (0.47%) Microsoft 365
12 1 (0.47%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 94 (44.13%) Firewall
2 72 (33.80%) BGP
3 61 (28.64%) WAN
4 58 (27.23%) OSPF
5 38 (17.84%) VPN
6 37 (17.37%) VLAN
7 36 (16.90%) Network Security
8 33 (15.49%) VXLAN
9 31 (14.55%) LAN
9 31 (14.55%) SD-WAN
10 30 (14.08%) Wi-Fi
11 29 (13.62%) 5G
12 26 (12.21%) 4G
13 25 (11.74%) Ethernet VPN
13 25 (11.74%) MPLS
14 23 (10.80%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 21 (9.86%) Radio Access Network
16 18 (8.45%) BIG-IP
17 17 (7.98%) Wireless
18 16 (7.51%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.41%) Metadata
2 1 (0.47%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (6.10%) GitLab
2 3 (1.41%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.94%) JIRA
4 1 (0.47%) Git
General
1 47 (22.07%) Social Skills
2 32 (15.02%) Telecoms
3 23 (10.80%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (9.86%) Public Sector
5 10 (4.69%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.76%) Legal
7 7 (3.29%) Manufacturing
7 7 (3.29%) Retail
8 5 (2.35%) Finance
9 3 (1.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.41%) Police
10 2 (0.94%) Banking
10 2 (0.94%) Billing
10 2 (0.94%) Military
11 1 (0.47%) Aviation
11 1 (0.47%) German Language
11 1 (0.47%) Influencing Skills
11 1 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
11 1 (0.47%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.47%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 70 (32.86%) Network Engineer
2 49 (23.00%) Architect
3 43 (20.19%) Senior
4 34 (15.96%) Network Specialist
5 29 (13.62%) Network Architect
6 22 (10.33%) Network Design Specialist
6 22 (10.33%) Senior Network Engineer
7 19 (8.92%) Designer
8 16 (7.51%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (6.10%) Design Engineer
9 13 (6.10%) Network Designer
9 13 (6.10%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 10 (4.69%) Security Architect
10 10 (4.69%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
10 10 (4.69%) Senior Network Specialist
11 9 (4.23%) Network Design Engineer
12 7 (3.29%) Consultant
12 7 (3.29%) Lead
13 6 (2.82%) Solutions Architect
13 6 (2.82%) Technical Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.16%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.16%) YANG
2 8 (3.76%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.82%) OpenConfig
3 6 (2.82%) REST
3 6 (2.82%) RESTCONF
4 4 (1.88%) Azure Blueprints
4 4 (1.88%) Kafka
5 3 (1.41%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.47%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 67 (31.46%) Data Centre
2 45 (21.13%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (12.68%) Cloud Native
4 12 (5.63%) Management Information System
5 9 (4.23%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (3.76%) Public Cloud
7 7 (3.29%) Operational Technology
8 6 (2.82%) Analytical Mindset
9 5 (2.35%) IoT
9 5 (2.35%) PKI
9 5 (2.35%) Private Cloud
10 4 (1.88%) CMDB
10 4 (1.88%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.41%) Data Fabric
11 3 (1.41%) Product Ownership
11 3 (1.41%) SCADA
12 2 (0.94%) Greenfield Project
12 2 (0.94%) Onboarding
12 2 (0.94%) Replication
12 2 (0.94%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.51%) Linux
2 14 (6.57%) Windows
3 11 (5.16%) Windows Server
4 8 (3.76%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.88%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (1.88%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.94%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (0.94%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (19.25%) Network Architecture
2 38 (17.84%) High Availability
2 38 (17.84%) Zero Trust
3 34 (15.96%) Infrastructure as Code
4 33 (15.49%) Problem-Solving
4 33 (15.49%) Project Delivery
5 32 (15.02%) Migration
6 29 (13.62%) Stakeholder Management
7 28 (13.15%) DevOps
7 28 (13.15%) Roadmaps
8 26 (12.21%) Load Balancing
8 26 (12.21%) Validation
9 25 (11.74%) Technical Leadership
10 23 (10.80%) CI/CD
10 23 (10.80%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 20 (9.39%) Continuous Improvement
12 18 (8.45%) Capacity Planning
12 18 (8.45%) Cybersecurity
13 17 (7.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 13 (6.10%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 43 (20.19%) Python
2 7 (3.29%) PowerShell
3 6 (2.82%) Bicep
4 2 (0.94%) Bash
5 1 (0.47%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 68 (31.92%) Security Cleared
2 57 (26.76%) Cisco Certification
3 44 (20.66%) SC Cleared
4 42 (19.72%) CCNP
5 20 (9.39%) CCIE
6 17 (7.98%) DV Cleared
7 13 (6.10%) JNCIE
8 12 (5.63%) CCNA
9 11 (5.16%) Degree
10 9 (4.23%) AWS Certification
10 9 (4.23%) Azure Certification
11 7 (3.29%) CISSP
12 6 (2.82%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (2.35%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 4 (1.88%) CISM
15 2 (0.94%) GIAC
15 2 (0.94%) ISSAP
15 2 (0.94%) NCDA
15 2 (0.94%) TOGAF Certification
15 2 (0.94%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (4.69%) NIST
2 5 (2.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.41%) GxP
3 3 (1.41%) NIST 800
3 3 (1.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.94%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (0.94%) GDPR
4 2 (0.94%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.94%) NCSC
4 2 (0.94%) QA
4 2 (0.94%) SLA
4 2 (0.94%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.47%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.47%) JSP 440
System Software
1 21 (9.86%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (5.16%) Hyper-V
3 10 (4.69%) VMware NSX
3 10 (4.69%) vSphere
4 7 (3.29%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.41%) Firmware
5 3 (1.41%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.94%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (0.94%) NFS
6 2 (0.94%) SRDF
7 1 (0.47%) Docker
7 1 (0.47%) FreeRADIUS
7 1 (0.47%) KVM
Systems Management
1 45 (21.13%) Ansible
2 40 (18.78%) Terraform
3 12 (5.63%) Kubernetes
4 8 (3.76%) FortiGate
5 6 (2.82%) Grafana
5 6 (2.82%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.41%) Check_MK
6 3 (1.41%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.94%) Argo
7 2 (0.94%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.94%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (0.94%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (0.94%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (0.94%) NetBackup
7 2 (0.94%) SnapMirror
7 2 (0.94%) SnapVault
7 2 (0.94%) SolarWinds Orion
8 1 (0.47%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.47%) Nagios
8 1 (0.47%) SCCM
Vendors
1 89 (41.78%) Cisco
2 53 (24.88%) Palo Alto
3 42 (19.72%) F5
3 42 (19.72%) Fortinet
4 27 (12.68%) Juniper
5 26 (12.21%) Microsoft
5 26 (12.21%) VMware
6 21 (9.86%) Aruba
7 20 (9.39%) Arista
7 20 (9.39%) Nokia
8 17 (7.98%) Ericsson
9 14 (6.57%) CheckPoint
10 13 (6.10%) Huawei
11 12 (5.63%) Zscaler
12 9 (4.23%) Splunk
13 7 (3.29%) Meraki
14 6 (2.82%) ServiceNow
14 6 (2.82%) SolarWinds
15 5 (2.35%) EMC
15 5 (2.35%) Google