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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 452 362 332
Rank change year-on-year -90 -30 +80
Contract jobs citing Network Design 216 193 251
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.59% 0.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.66% 0.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 135 131 129
10th Percentile £377 £399 £363
25th Percentile £425 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £475
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% +5.26% -13.64%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £575
90th Percentile £675 £650 £640
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £523 £450
% change year-on-year -1.44% +16.11% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 2 3
10th Percentile £33.85 £56.13 £25.00
25th Percentile £55.00 £57.81 £28.75
Median hourly rate £71.00 £61.25 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.92% +75.00% -50.00%
75th Percentile £73.00 £65.31 £55.00
90th Percentile £82.51 £67.38 £67.00
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 44,806 29,445 35,310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.99% 90.36% 85.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,768 18,486 22,647
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £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 2,649 1,571 2,189
10th Percentile £14.85 £14.20 £13.06
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.44 £16.86
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -10.31%
75th Percentile £68.55 £50.88 £62.50
90th Percentile £83.00 £68.75 £73.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +87.50% -40.00% -1.45%

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 21 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 21 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 21 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 -70 188 £525 +3.96% 50
UK excluding London -117 120 £515 -1.44% 34
Work from Home -46 65 £488 -12.24% 11
London -48 61 £525 +16.67% 22
South East -70 43 £513 -10.87% 11
North of England -75 36 £575 +21.05% 11
North West -55 25 £575 +21.05% 6
South West -38 17 £500 -21.88% 5
Scotland -14 11 £380 -16.48%
Yorkshire -48 10 £519 +3.80% 4
Midlands -54 8 £413 -17.50% 3
West Midlands -60 8 £413 -17.50% 2
East of England -17 7 £525 +0.96% 3
North East - 7 £650 - 1
Northern Ireland - 1 £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 12 (5.56%) 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%) CPLEX
5 1 (0.46%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 62 (28.70%) Azure
2 59 (27.31%) AWS
3 15 (6.94%) OCI
4 11 (5.09%) GCP
5 10 (4.63%) GitHub
5 10 (4.63%) SaaS
6 9 (4.17%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 7 (3.24%) IaaS
7 7 (3.24%) OpenShift
8 4 (1.85%) Azure Sentinel
8 4 (1.85%) 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
11 1 (0.46%) AWS CloudFormation
11 1 (0.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 93 (43.06%) Firewall
2 72 (33.33%) BGP
3 67 (31.02%) WAN
4 59 (27.31%) OSPF
5 43 (19.91%) VPN
6 38 (17.59%) Network Security
7 35 (16.20%) VLAN
8 34 (15.74%) LAN
9 33 (15.28%) SD-WAN
10 32 (14.81%) VXLAN
10 32 (14.81%) Wi-Fi
11 29 (13.43%) MPLS
12 27 (12.50%) 5G
13 25 (11.57%) Ethernet VPN
14 23 (10.65%) 4G
14 23 (10.65%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 18 (8.33%) BIG-IP
15 18 (8.33%) Radio Access Network
15 18 (8.33%) Wireless
16 17 (7.87%) IPsec
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 47 (21.76%) Social Skills
2 32 (14.81%) Telecoms
3 24 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (9.26%) Public Sector
5 12 (5.56%) Documentation Skills
6 8 (3.70%) Finance
6 8 (3.70%) Legal
7 7 (3.24%) Retail
8 4 (1.85%) Banking
8 4 (1.85%) Manufacturing
9 3 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 3 (1.39%) Police
10 2 (0.93%) Aviation
10 2 (0.93%) Billing
10 2 (0.93%) Influencing Skills
10 2 (0.93%) Military
10 2 (0.93%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.46%) German Language
11 1 (0.46%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 69 (31.94%) Network Engineer
2 49 (22.69%) Architect
3 44 (20.37%) Senior
4 32 (14.81%) Network Specialist
5 31 (14.35%) Network Architect
6 21 (9.72%) Network Design Specialist
6 21 (9.72%) Senior Network Engineer
7 19 (8.80%) Designer
8 16 (7.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 13 (6.02%) Network Designer
9 13 (6.02%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (5.56%) Design Engineer
11 11 (5.09%) Security Architect
12 10 (4.63%) Consultant
13 9 (4.17%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
13 9 (4.17%) Senior Network Specialist
14 8 (3.70%) Network Design Engineer
15 7 (3.24%) Lead
15 7 (3.24%) Network Security Architect
16 6 (2.78%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 11 (5.09%) NETCONF
1 11 (5.09%) YANG
2 8 (3.70%) 802.1X
3 6 (2.78%) OpenConfig
3 6 (2.78%) REST
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
7 1 (0.46%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 66 (30.56%) Data Centre
2 46 (21.30%) Hybrid Cloud
3 28 (12.96%) Cloud Native
4 15 (6.94%) Management Information System
5 10 (4.63%) 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
9 4 (1.85%) CMDB
9 4 (1.85%) IoT
9 4 (1.85%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.39%) CCTV
10 3 (1.39%) Data Fabric
10 3 (1.39%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
10 3 (1.39%) Product Ownership
10 3 (1.39%) SCADA
11 2 (0.93%) Hedge funds
11 2 (0.93%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.41%) Linux
2 14 (6.48%) Windows
3 11 (5.09%) 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 44 (20.37%) Network Architecture
2 38 (17.59%) High Availability
3 35 (16.20%) Infrastructure as Code
3 35 (16.20%) Migration
3 35 (16.20%) Zero Trust
4 31 (14.35%) Problem-Solving
5 30 (13.89%) Project Delivery
5 30 (13.89%) Roadmaps
6 28 (12.96%) DevOps
7 27 (12.50%) Load Balancing
8 25 (11.57%) Stakeholder Management
8 25 (11.57%) Validation
9 24 (11.11%) CI/CD
9 24 (11.11%) Technical Leadership
10 23 (10.65%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 20 (9.26%) Continuous Improvement
12 19 (8.80%) Capacity Planning
12 19 (8.80%) Cybersecurity
12 19 (8.80%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 14 (6.48%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 47 (21.76%) Python
2 7 (3.24%) Bicep
2 7 (3.24%) PowerShell
3 3 (1.39%) Bash
4 1 (0.46%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 73 (33.80%) Security Cleared
2 57 (26.39%) Cisco Certification
3 48 (22.22%) SC Cleared
4 42 (19.44%) CCNP
5 22 (10.19%) CCIE
6 20 (9.26%) DV Cleared
7 13 (6.02%) Degree
7 13 (6.02%) JNCIE
8 10 (4.63%) AWS Certification
8 10 (4.63%) Azure Certification
9 8 (3.70%) CCNA
10 7 (3.24%) CISSP
11 6 (2.78%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 6 (2.78%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (1.85%) CISM
13 3 (1.39%) CEH
13 3 (1.39%) RIBA
14 2 (0.93%) SANS
14 2 (0.93%) TOGAF Certification
14 2 (0.93%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (5.09%) NIST
2 4 (1.85%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.39%) JSP 440
3 3 (1.39%) NCSC
4 2 (0.93%) Actionable Recommendations
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%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.46%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.46%) GxP
5 1 (0.46%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 19 (8.80%) VMware Infrastructure
2 12 (5.56%) VMware NSX
3 10 (4.63%) Hyper-V
3 10 (4.63%) vSphere
4 7 (3.24%) 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 49 (22.69%) Ansible
2 41 (18.98%) Terraform
3 12 (5.56%) 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%) 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%) Cisco CUCM
8 1 (0.46%) Nagios
8 1 (0.46%) Nmap
Vendors
1 90 (41.67%) Cisco
2 50 (23.15%) Palo Alto
3 42 (19.44%) Fortinet
4 41 (18.98%) F5
5 28 (12.96%) Juniper
6 26 (12.04%) VMware
7 25 (11.57%) Microsoft
8 21 (9.72%) Arista
9 20 (9.26%) Aruba
10 16 (7.41%) CheckPoint
10 16 (7.41%) Nokia
11 14 (6.48%) Ericsson
12 13 (6.02%) Huawei
13 10 (4.63%) Zscaler
14 9 (4.17%) Splunk
15 8 (3.70%) Meraki
16 7 (3.24%) SolarWinds
17 5 (2.31%) EMC
17 5 (2.31%) Google
17 5 (2.31%) Veeam