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 24 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 421 371 336
Rank change year-on-year -50 -35 +101
Contract jobs citing Network Design 221 168 255
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.43% 0.56% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.51% 0.61% 0.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 142 111 122
10th Percentile £388 £363 £363
25th Percentile £438 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -9.52%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £584
90th Percentile £675 £688 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £519 £550 £450
% change year-on-year -5.64% +22.22% -10.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 2 2
10th Percentile £32.65 £56.13 £24.43
25th Percentile £50.31 £57.81 £26.19
Median hourly rate £65.50 £61.25 £29.25
Median % change year-on-year +6.94% +109.40% -58.21%
75th Percentile £72.66 £65.31 £32.19
90th Percentile £75.10 £67.38 £33.88
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.77 £55.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year +30.49% +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 43,234 27,342 36,961
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.93% 91.04% 85.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,976 17,315 23,545
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £502 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.09% -4.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £620 £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 2,595 1,301 2,587
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £12.65
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.79 £16.06
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -32.93% +7.14%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.25 £72.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.08 £38.12
% change year-on-year +77.47% -34.22% +17.29%

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 24 June 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 24 June 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 24 June 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 -63 189 £525 -4.55% 51
UK excluding London -87 123 £519 -5.64% 46
London -43 65 £525 +9.95% 13
Work from Home -33 62 £500 -4.76% 18
South East -58 44 £511 -11.09% 13
North of England -84 34 £575 +21.05% 15
North West -58 23 £575 +21.05% 10
South West -25 16 £565 -11.72% 6
Scotland -7 14 £425 -0.47% 2
Yorkshire -47 10 £519 +3.80% 4
Midlands -50 10 £413 -25.00% 5
West Midlands -53 10 £413 -25.00% 4
North East -29 7 £650 +18.18% 1
East of England -23 6 £525 +0.96% 2
Northern Ireland - 2 £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 11 (4.98%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.36%) Confluence
3 2 (0.90%) Apache
3 2 (0.90%) CloudStack
3 2 (0.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 2 (0.90%) Skype for Business
4 1 (0.45%) ArcGIS
4 1 (0.45%) Smallworld
Applications
1 7 (3.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 7 (3.17%) MS Visio
2 6 (2.71%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (2.26%) Microsoft Excel
4 3 (1.36%) AutoCAD
5 1 (0.45%) Autodesk Inventor
5 1 (0.45%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (0.90%) DELMIA
Cloud Services
1 71 (32.13%) Azure
2 58 (26.24%) AWS
3 15 (6.79%) OCI
4 10 (4.52%) GCP
4 10 (4.52%) SaaS
5 9 (4.07%) GitHub
6 8 (3.62%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 6 (2.71%) IaaS
8 5 (2.26%) Azure Sentinel
8 5 (2.26%) Entra ID
9 3 (1.36%) AWS Control Tower
9 3 (1.36%) Nutanix
9 3 (1.36%) OpenShift
9 3 (1.36%) PaaS
10 2 (0.90%) Azure Storage
10 2 (0.90%) Datadog
10 2 (0.90%) GitHub Actions
10 2 (0.90%) IBM Watson
10 2 (0.90%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.45%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 92 (41.63%) Firewall
2 74 (33.48%) WAN
3 67 (30.32%) BGP
4 54 (24.43%) OSPF
5 41 (18.55%) VPN
6 38 (17.19%) SD-WAN
7 37 (16.74%) LAN
8 36 (16.29%) Network Security
9 32 (14.48%) VLAN
10 31 (14.03%) VXLAN
10 31 (14.03%) Wi-Fi
11 28 (12.67%) MPLS
12 25 (11.31%) Ethernet VPN
13 24 (10.86%) 5G
14 22 (9.95%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 20 (9.05%) 4G
16 18 (8.14%) BIG-IP
17 17 (7.69%) Radio Access Network
17 17 (7.69%) Wireless
18 16 (7.24%) IPsec
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.36%) Metadata
2 1 (0.45%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (5.88%) GitLab
2 5 (2.26%) JIRA
3 3 (1.36%) Jenkins
4 1 (0.45%) Git
4 1 (0.45%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 51 (23.08%) Social Skills
2 26 (11.76%) Telecoms
3 22 (9.95%) Analytical Skills
4 21 (9.50%) Public Sector
5 18 (8.14%) Legal
6 13 (5.88%) Finance
7 11 (4.98%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (2.26%) Retail
9 4 (1.81%) Banking
9 4 (1.81%) Manufacturing
9 4 (1.81%) Police
10 3 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (1.36%) Military
11 2 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
11 2 (0.90%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.45%) Aviation
12 1 (0.45%) German Language
12 1 (0.45%) Polish Language
12 1 (0.45%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 65 (29.41%) Network Engineer
2 52 (23.53%) Architect
3 44 (19.91%) Senior
4 34 (15.38%) Network Architect
5 31 (14.03%) Network Specialist
6 21 (9.50%) Network Design Specialist
7 20 (9.05%) Designer
8 18 (8.14%) Senior Network Engineer
9 16 (7.24%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 14 (6.33%) Network Designer
11 13 (5.88%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
12 10 (4.52%) Design Engineer
13 9 (4.07%) Lead
13 9 (4.07%) Security Architect
14 8 (3.62%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
14 8 (3.62%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
14 8 (3.62%) Senior Network Specialist
14 8 (3.62%) Technical Architect
15 7 (3.17%) Consultant
15 7 (3.17%) Network Design Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 10 (4.52%) NETCONF
1 10 (4.52%) YANG
2 8 (3.62%) 802.1X
2 8 (3.62%) REST
3 4 (1.81%) Azure Blueprints
3 4 (1.81%) Kafka
4 3 (1.36%) OpenConfig
4 3 (1.36%) RESTCONF
5 2 (0.90%) Django
5 2 (0.90%) Elastic Stack
Miscellaneous
1 65 (29.41%) Data Centre
2 43 (19.46%) Hybrid Cloud
3 29 (13.12%) Cloud Native
4 15 (6.79%) Management Information System
5 8 (3.62%) Data Protection Act
6 6 (2.71%) Operational Technology
6 6 (2.71%) PKI
7 5 (2.26%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.81%) CMDB
8 4 (1.81%) IoT
8 4 (1.81%) Public Cloud
9 3 (1.36%) Analytical Mindset
9 3 (1.36%) CCTV
9 3 (1.36%) Data Fabric
9 3 (1.36%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
9 3 (1.36%) Onboarding
9 3 (1.36%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.36%) Product Ownership
9 3 (1.36%) SCADA
10 2 (0.90%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 18 (8.14%) Linux
2 16 (7.24%) Windows
3 12 (5.43%) Windows Server
4 7 (3.17%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.81%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (1.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.90%) Data ONTAP
6 2 (0.90%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 48 (21.72%) Network Architecture
2 37 (16.74%) High Availability
3 35 (15.84%) Infrastructure as Code
3 35 (15.84%) Problem-Solving
4 33 (14.93%) Migration
4 33 (14.93%) Zero Trust
5 32 (14.48%) Roadmaps
6 29 (13.12%) DevOps
7 27 (12.22%) Load Balancing
8 25 (11.31%) CI/CD
8 25 (11.31%) Project Delivery
9 24 (10.86%) Stakeholder Management
9 24 (10.86%) Validation
10 22 (9.95%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 20 (9.05%) Continuous Improvement
11 20 (9.05%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 19 (8.60%) Cybersecurity
12 19 (8.60%) Technical Leadership
13 17 (7.69%) Capacity Planning
14 16 (7.24%) TOGAF
Programming Languages
1 42 (19.00%) Python
2 9 (4.07%) PowerShell
3 7 (3.17%) Bicep
4 4 (1.81%) Bash
5 2 (0.90%) SQL
6 1 (0.45%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 74 (33.48%) Security Cleared
2 60 (27.15%) Cisco Certification
3 48 (21.72%) SC Cleared
4 43 (19.46%) CCNP
5 22 (9.95%) CCIE
6 21 (9.50%) DV Cleared
7 14 (6.33%) Degree
8 12 (5.43%) JNCIE
9 11 (4.98%) AWS Certification
9 11 (4.98%) Azure Certification
9 11 (4.98%) CCNA
10 6 (2.71%) CISSP
11 5 (2.26%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 5 (2.26%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
12 4 (1.81%) CISM
13 3 (1.36%) CEH
13 3 (1.36%) JNCIS
13 3 (1.36%) RIBA
14 2 (0.90%) SANS
14 2 (0.90%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.43%) NIST
2 5 (2.26%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.36%) JSP 440
3 3 (1.36%) NCSC
3 3 (1.36%) SLA
4 2 (0.90%) GDPR
4 2 (0.90%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.90%) NIST 800
4 2 (0.90%) QA
4 2 (0.90%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.45%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.45%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.45%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.45%) Disclosure Scotland
System Software
1 18 (8.14%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (4.98%) Hyper-V
2 11 (4.98%) VMware NSX
3 9 (4.07%) Active Directory
4 7 (3.17%) vSphere
5 3 (1.36%) Firmware
5 3 (1.36%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.90%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (0.90%) KVM
6 2 (0.90%) NFS
6 2 (0.90%) SRDF
7 1 (0.45%) Docker
Systems Management
1 42 (19.00%) Ansible
2 36 (16.29%) Terraform
3 13 (5.88%) FortiGate
4 10 (4.52%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.26%) Grafana
5 5 (2.26%) Prometheus
6 3 (1.36%) vCenter Server
7 2 (0.90%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 2 (0.90%) Argo
7 2 (0.90%) Check_MK
7 2 (0.90%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (0.90%) EMC NetWorker
7 2 (0.90%) EMC VPLEX
7 2 (0.90%) McAfee ePO
7 2 (0.90%) Nagios
7 2 (0.90%) NetBackup
7 2 (0.90%) Network Intrusion Detection System
7 2 (0.90%) SCCM
7 2 (0.90%) SnapMirror
7 2 (0.90%) SnapVault
Vendors
1 90 (40.72%) Cisco
2 53 (23.98%) Palo Alto
3 36 (16.29%) F5
4 34 (15.38%) Fortinet
5 29 (13.12%) Microsoft
6 25 (11.31%) Juniper
6 25 (11.31%) VMware
7 22 (9.95%) Aruba
8 20 (9.05%) Arista
9 16 (7.24%) Nokia
10 15 (6.79%) CheckPoint
11 14 (6.33%) Ericsson
12 13 (5.88%) Huawei
13 9 (4.07%) Meraki
13 9 (4.07%) Zscaler
14 8 (3.62%) SolarWinds
15 7 (3.17%) Splunk
16 5 (2.26%) EMC
16 5 (2.26%) Google
17 4 (1.81%) Qualys