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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 466 377 337
Rank change year-on-year -89 -40 +6
Contract jobs citing Network Design 215 184 241
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.56% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.46% 0.62% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 123 133
10th Percentile £363 £400 £403
25th Percentile £419 £413 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.89% -9.52% -8.70%
75th Percentile £597 £600 £588
90th Percentile £650 £665 £670
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £500 £500
% change year-on-year +2.50% - -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 2 4
10th Percentile £51.00 £56.13 £26.25
25th Percentile £55.00 £57.81 £31.88
Median hourly rate £71.00 £61.25 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +15.92% +11.36% -16.64%
75th Percentile £76.50 £65.31 £75.00
90th Percentile £85.01 £67.38 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.00 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +30.91% - -16.64%

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 46,342 29,835 32,681
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.41% 90.50% 85.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,074 18,533 19,873
10th Percentile £325 £300 £309
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £626 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,192 1,836 1,405
10th Percentile £13.74 £14.31 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.32 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.25% -48.10% +1.18%

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 September 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 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 16 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 September 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 -111 174 £517 +8.84% 197
UK excluding London -97 120 £513 +2.50% 111
Work from Home -51 69 £506 -7.95% 88
London -78 55 £500 +11.11% 98
South East -64 39 £556 +11.25% 36
North of England -58 31 £575 +21.05% 18
North West -49 23 £575 +21.05% 13
Scotland -18 16 £375 -16.67% 13
Midlands -53 15 £450 +5.88% 22
West Midlands -52 14 £450 +5.88% 18
South West -46 11 £631 -1.41% 14
Yorkshire -29 7 £519 -9.74% 4
North East -38 7 £650 +18.18% 1
East of England -28 6 £420 +1.82% 3
Wales - 5 £575 - 4
East Midlands - 1 - - 4

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 (5.12%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.86%) ArcGIS
3 3 (1.40%) Apache
3 3 (1.40%) CloudStack
3 3 (1.40%) Confluence
4 1 (0.47%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 10 (4.65%) MS Visio
2 8 (3.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (3.26%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
5 3 (1.40%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.47%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.47%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 62 (28.84%) Azure
2 57 (26.51%) AWS
3 15 (6.98%) OCI
4 11 (5.12%) GCP
5 10 (4.65%) SaaS
6 9 (4.19%) Entra ID
6 9 (4.19%) GitHub
7 7 (3.26%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 7 (3.26%) OpenShift
8 6 (2.79%) IaaS
9 5 (2.33%) Nutanix
10 4 (1.86%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (1.40%) AWS Control Tower
11 3 (1.40%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (0.93%) AWS Direct Connect
12 2 (0.93%) Azure Storage
12 2 (0.93%) Datadog
12 2 (0.93%) PaaS
13 1 (0.47%) Amazon GuardDuty
13 1 (0.47%) Microsoft 365
Communications & Networking
1 95 (44.19%) Firewall
2 73 (33.95%) BGP
3 58 (26.98%) WAN
4 57 (26.51%) OSPF
5 44 (20.47%) VLAN
6 41 (19.07%) Network Security
7 36 (16.74%) VPN
8 35 (16.28%) LAN
9 32 (14.88%) SD-WAN
10 30 (13.95%) VXLAN
11 26 (12.09%) Ethernet VPN
11 26 (12.09%) Wi-Fi
12 25 (11.63%) MPLS
13 23 (10.70%) 5G
14 22 (10.23%) 4G
14 22 (10.23%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 18 (8.37%) BIG-IP
15 18 (8.37%) Radio Access Network
16 17 (7.91%) Wireless
17 16 (7.44%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.86%) GIS
2 3 (1.40%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 14 (6.51%) GitLab
2 4 (1.86%) JIRA
3 3 (1.40%) Git
3 3 (1.40%) Jenkins
General
1 53 (24.65%) Social Skills
2 34 (15.81%) Telecoms
3 24 (11.16%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (7.91%) Public Sector
5 16 (7.44%) Manufacturing
6 11 (5.12%) Legal
7 10 (4.65%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (3.26%) Retail
9 5 (2.33%) Automotive
10 4 (1.86%) Finance
11 3 (1.40%) Billing
11 3 (1.40%) Cyber-Physical System
11 3 (1.40%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 2 (0.93%) Military
13 1 (0.47%) Agriculture
13 1 (0.47%) Aviation
13 1 (0.47%) Local Government
13 1 (0.47%) Pharmaceutical
13 1 (0.47%) Police
13 1 (0.47%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 76 (35.35%) Network Engineer
2 50 (23.26%) Senior
3 45 (20.93%) Architect
4 25 (11.63%) Senior Network Engineer
5 24 (11.16%) Network Architect
5 24 (11.16%) Network Specialist
6 16 (7.44%) Designer
6 16 (7.44%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 15 (6.98%) Consultant
8 13 (6.05%) Design Engineer
8 13 (6.05%) Network Design Specialist
8 13 (6.05%) Security Architect
8 13 (6.05%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
9 12 (5.58%) Network Consultant
10 11 (5.12%) Network Designer
10 11 (5.12%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
10 11 (5.12%) Senior Network Specialist
11 9 (4.19%) Network Design Engineer
12 8 (3.72%) RAN Engineer
12 8 (3.72%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (20.00%) Terraform
2 9 (4.19%) NETCONF
2 9 (4.19%) YANG
3 7 (3.26%) REST
4 6 (2.79%) 802.1X
5 4 (1.86%) Azure Blueprints
5 4 (1.86%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.86%) RESTCONF
6 3 (1.40%) Elastic Stack
7 2 (0.93%) Kafka
7 2 (0.93%) YAML
8 1 (0.47%) eBPF
8 1 (0.47%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 65 (30.23%) Data Centre
2 43 (20.00%) Hybrid Cloud
3 26 (12.09%) Cloud Native
4 14 (6.51%) Operational Technology
5 10 (4.65%) Management Information System
6 9 (4.19%) IoT
7 8 (3.72%) Public Cloud
8 7 (3.26%) Private Cloud
9 6 (2.79%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (2.79%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (2.79%) Security Posture
10 5 (2.33%) CMDB
10 5 (2.33%) PKI
11 4 (1.86%) Data Fabric
11 4 (1.86%) Enterprise Software
11 4 (1.86%) Handset
12 3 (1.40%) Onboarding
12 3 (1.40%) Product Ownership
12 3 (1.40%) SCADA
13 2 (0.93%) Enterprise Storage
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.44%) Linux
2 13 (6.05%) Windows
3 8 (3.72%) Ubuntu
3 8 (3.72%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.86%) Alpine Linux
4 4 (1.86%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.93%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 44 (20.47%) Zero Trust
2 43 (20.00%) Migration
2 43 (20.00%) Stakeholder Management
3 35 (16.28%) Infrastructure as Code
3 35 (16.28%) Problem-Solving
4 34 (15.81%) High Availability
4 34 (15.81%) Network Architecture
4 34 (15.81%) Project Delivery
4 34 (15.81%) Validation
5 30 (13.95%) Roadmaps
6 29 (13.49%) DevOps
7 26 (12.09%) Technical Leadership
8 25 (11.63%) Infrastructure Engineering
9 24 (11.16%) Cybersecurity
9 24 (11.16%) Load Balancing
10 23 (10.70%) CI/CD
11 22 (10.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
12 17 (7.91%) Cloud Security
12 17 (7.91%) Continuous Improvement
13 16 (7.44%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 43 (20.00%) Python
2 7 (3.26%) Bicep
3 6 (2.79%) PowerShell
4 3 (1.40%) Bash
5 1 (0.47%) ActionScript
5 1 (0.47%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 62 (28.84%) Security Cleared
2 55 (25.58%) Cisco Certification
3 41 (19.07%) SC Cleared
4 40 (18.60%) CCNP
5 17 (7.91%) CCIE
6 15 (6.98%) DV Cleared
7 14 (6.51%) CCNA
8 13 (6.05%) Degree
9 11 (5.12%) JNCIE
10 9 (4.19%) AWS Certification
11 8 (3.72%) CISSP
12 7 (3.26%) Azure Certification
13 6 (2.79%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
14 5 (2.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 4 (1.86%) CISM
16 3 (1.40%) CCSE
17 2 (0.93%) CCSA
17 2 (0.93%) GIAC
17 2 (0.93%) NCDA
17 2 (0.93%) NCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.98%) NIST
2 13 (6.05%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.33%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.86%) Actionable Recommendations
4 4 (1.86%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (1.86%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.40%) GxP
5 3 (1.40%) NIST 800
5 3 (1.40%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 3 (1.40%) SOC 2
6 2 (0.93%) Def Stans
6 2 (0.93%) GDPR
6 2 (0.93%) HIPAA
6 2 (0.93%) NCSC
6 2 (0.93%) QA
7 1 (0.47%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.47%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (8.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (4.65%) vSphere
3 9 (4.19%) Active Directory
3 9 (4.19%) Hyper-V
4 8 (3.72%) VMware NSX
5 5 (2.33%) Firmware
6 4 (1.86%) FreeRADIUS
7 3 (1.40%) VMware ESXi
8 2 (0.93%) Docker
8 2 (0.93%) EMC RecoverPoint
8 2 (0.93%) NFS
8 2 (0.93%) SRDF
9 1 (0.47%) KVM
Systems Management
1 44 (20.47%) Ansible
2 11 (5.12%) Kubernetes
3 9 (4.19%) FortiGate
4 8 (3.72%) Grafana
4 8 (3.72%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.40%) Check_MK
5 3 (1.40%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.40%) SolarWinds Orion
5 3 (1.40%) vCenter Server
6 2 (0.93%) Argo
6 2 (0.93%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (0.93%) EMC VPLEX
6 2 (0.93%) NetBackup
6 2 (0.93%) SnapMirror
6 2 (0.93%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.47%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.47%) QRadar
7 1 (0.47%) SCCM
7 1 (0.47%) Suricata
7 1 (0.47%) vRealize
Vendors
1 93 (43.26%) Cisco
2 53 (24.65%) Palo Alto
3 43 (20.00%) Fortinet
4 37 (17.21%) F5
5 26 (12.09%) Microsoft
6 23 (10.70%) Juniper
6 23 (10.70%) VMware
7 22 (10.23%) Arista
7 22 (10.23%) Aruba
8 20 (9.30%) Nokia
9 16 (7.44%) Ericsson
10 15 (6.98%) Zscaler
11 13 (6.05%) CheckPoint
12 9 (4.19%) Splunk
13 8 (3.72%) Meraki
14 7 (3.26%) Huawei
15 6 (2.79%) ServiceNow
15 6 (2.79%) SolarWinds
16 5 (2.33%) Google
16 5 (2.33%) Veeam