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 13 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
13 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 384 315 331
Rank change year-on-year -69 +16 +154
Contract jobs citing Network Design 201 244 306
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.55% 0.68% 0.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.62% 0.78% 0.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 143 140 172
10th Percentile £400 £400 £414
25th Percentile £411 £463 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £455 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -13.33% -8.70% +21.05%
75th Percentile £575 £588 £638
90th Percentile £650 £675 £724
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £500 £550
% change year-on-year -7.00% -9.09% +18.28%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 3 15
10th Percentile £58.85 £33.00 £34.42
25th Percentile £64.63 £48.75 £59.99
Median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +13.67% -5.74%
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £68.80
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year -0.99% +13.67% -5.74%

All Process and 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 32,247 31,236 40,271
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.88% 87.47% 88.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,285 18,990 26,947
10th Percentile £300 £308 £310
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,090 1,084 1,559
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.25 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.19 £18.94
Median hourly rate £25.13 £33.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.86% -22.35% +21.43%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.63 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -30.37% -23.53% +30.77%

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 13 December 2025.

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 13 December 2025.

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 13 December 2025. 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 -63 181 £460 -12.38% 109
UK excluding London -60 113 £465 -7.00% 112
London -5 77 £450 -14.29% 24
Work from Home -38 44 £519 +3.70% 41
West Midlands +1 32 £400 -34.45% 6
Midlands -8 32 £400 -27.27% 15
South East -33 28 £500 -4.76% 45
North of England -60 23 £519 +3.70% 23
North West -6 22 £519 +9.16% 15
South West -31 13 £450 -14.29% 10
Scotland - 9 £455 - 3
East of England -10 7 £419 -16.25% 10
North East -5 2 £550 -
Wales -2 1 - - 5

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 8 (3.98%) OpenStack
Applications
1 2 (1.00%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (1.00%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (1.00%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (1.00%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.50%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 37 (18.41%) Azure
2 31 (15.42%) AWS
3 12 (5.97%) GCP
4 7 (3.48%) PaaS
5 5 (2.49%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (2.49%) SaaS
6 4 (1.99%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (1.99%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (1.99%) IaaS
7 3 (1.49%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.49%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.00%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.00%) OpenShift
8 2 (1.00%) Serverless
9 1 (0.50%) Akamai
9 1 (0.50%) AWS IoT
9 1 (0.50%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.50%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 92 (45.77%) Firewall
1 92 (45.77%) WAN
2 67 (33.33%) LAN
3 47 (23.38%) BGP
4 44 (21.89%) Network Security
5 43 (21.39%) VPN
6 41 (20.40%) MPLS
7 40 (19.90%) Wi-Fi
8 39 (19.40%) SD-WAN
9 21 (10.45%) IPsec
10 20 (9.95%) Cisco Nexus
10 20 (9.95%) Radio Access Network
10 20 (9.95%) VLAN
11 18 (8.96%) 4G
11 18 (8.96%) Wireless
12 17 (8.46%) DNS
13 15 (7.46%) 5G
13 15 (7.46%) Cisco ISE
13 15 (7.46%) TCP/IP
14 13 (6.47%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.49%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.49%) Git
2 2 (1.00%) GitLab
3 1 (0.50%) Robot Framework
3 1 (0.50%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 48 (23.88%) Telecoms
2 46 (22.89%) Social Skills
3 26 (12.94%) Public Sector
4 20 (9.95%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (4.98%) Manufacturing
6 7 (3.48%) Finance
7 5 (2.49%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.99%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (1.99%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.49%) Aviation
9 3 (1.49%) Legal
10 2 (1.00%) Electronics
10 2 (1.00%) Retail
11 1 (0.50%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.50%) Law
11 1 (0.50%) Local Government
11 1 (0.50%) Marketing
11 1 (0.50%) Military
11 1 (0.50%) Police
11 1 (0.50%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 74 (36.82%) Network Engineer
2 69 (34.33%) Architect
3 51 (25.37%) Network Architect
4 20 (9.95%) Network Design Specialist
4 20 (9.95%) Network Specialist
5 15 (7.46%) Network Design Architect
6 13 (6.47%) Design Engineer
6 13 (6.47%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
7 12 (5.97%) Network Design Engineer
8 11 (5.47%) 3rd Line Engineer
8 11 (5.47%) Performance Specialist
8 11 (5.47%) Support Engineer
9 10 (4.98%) 3rd Line Support
9 10 (4.98%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
9 10 (4.98%) Solutions Architect
10 8 (3.98%) IP Specialist
11 7 (3.48%) IP Architect
11 7 (3.48%) Lead
11 7 (3.48%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
11 7 (3.48%) Senior
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (7.46%) 802.1X
2 10 (4.98%) YANG
3 9 (4.48%) NETCONF
4 6 (2.99%) REST
5 4 (1.99%) OpenID
5 4 (1.99%) SAML
6 3 (1.49%) Middleware
7 2 (1.00%) eBPF
7 2 (1.00%) JSON
7 2 (1.00%) OpenConfig
7 2 (1.00%) RESTCONF
7 2 (1.00%) Web Services
8 1 (0.50%) gRPC
8 1 (0.50%) Jinja
8 1 (0.50%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 44 (21.89%) Data Centre
2 17 (8.46%) Hybrid Cloud
3 16 (7.96%) Operational Technology
4 13 (6.47%) SCADA
5 12 (5.97%) Cloud Native
5 12 (5.97%) PKI
6 9 (4.48%) IoT
7 6 (2.99%) Data Protection Act
8 5 (2.49%) Onboarding
9 4 (1.99%) Life Science
9 4 (1.99%) Management Information System
9 4 (1.99%) NB-IoT
9 4 (1.99%) Renewable Energy
9 4 (1.99%) Security Posture
9 4 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.49%) Distributed Architecture
10 3 (1.49%) Fibre Optics
10 3 (1.49%) Product Ownership
11 2 (1.00%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (1.00%) Insider Threat
Operating Systems
1 9 (4.48%) Windows
2 5 (2.49%) Linux
3 1 (0.50%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.50%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 52 (25.87%) Network Architecture
2 39 (19.40%) Load Balancing
3 25 (12.44%) Cybersecurity
4 24 (11.94%) Roadmaps
5 21 (10.45%) Problem-Solving
6 19 (9.45%) High Availability
7 18 (8.96%) Network Management
8 17 (8.46%) Migration
8 17 (8.46%) Root Cause Analysis
8 17 (8.46%) Stakeholder Management
9 16 (7.96%) DevOps
9 16 (7.96%) Network Virtualisation
10 15 (7.46%) Network Segmentation
11 14 (6.97%) Zero Trust
12 13 (6.47%) ITIL
12 13 (6.47%) Network Monitoring
12 13 (6.47%) Stakeholder Engagement
13 12 (5.97%) Incident Response
13 12 (5.97%) Strategic Thinking
14 11 (5.47%) Impact Assessments
Programming Languages
1 26 (12.94%) Python
2 5 (2.49%) SQL
3 3 (1.49%) Perl
4 2 (1.00%) Bash
4 2 (1.00%) C
4 2 (1.00%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.50%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 77 (38.31%) Security Cleared
2 53 (26.37%) Cisco Certification
3 49 (24.38%) SC Cleared
4 38 (18.91%) CCNP
5 25 (12.44%) DV Cleared
6 24 (11.94%) CCIE
7 22 (10.95%) Degree
8 14 (6.97%) CCNA
8 14 (6.97%) CISSP
9 12 (5.97%) JNCIE
10 7 (3.48%) JNCIS
11 6 (2.99%) Computer Science Degree
12 5 (2.49%) AWS Certification
12 5 (2.49%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (2.49%) JNCIP
13 4 (1.99%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (1.99%) Azure Certification
13 4 (1.99%) CCSP
14 3 (1.49%) CCIE Security
14 3 (1.49%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (4.98%) GDPR
2 9 (4.48%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 7 (3.48%) NIST
3 7 (3.48%) PCI DSS
4 3 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 2 (1.00%) NCSC
6 1 (0.50%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.50%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.50%) DO-160
6 1 (0.50%) GRC
6 1 (0.50%) QA
System Software
1 4 (1.99%) Active Directory
1 4 (1.99%) VMware Infrastructure
1 4 (1.99%) VMware NSX
2 3 (1.49%) Firmware
2 3 (1.49%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 24 (11.94%) Ansible
2 13 (6.47%) Terraform
3 12 (5.97%) FortiGate
4 2 (1.00%) Kubernetes
4 2 (1.00%) NSN NetAct
5 1 (0.50%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.50%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (0.50%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.50%) Grafana
5 1 (0.50%) Host Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.50%) Nagios
5 1 (0.50%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 84 (41.79%) Cisco
2 44 (21.89%) Palo Alto
3 38 (18.91%) Juniper
4 27 (13.43%) Fortinet
5 23 (11.44%) Meraki
6 22 (10.95%) F5
7 16 (7.96%) Microsoft
8 15 (7.46%) Nokia
9 11 (5.47%) Ericsson
10 10 (4.98%) Actix
10 10 (4.98%) CheckPoint
11 9 (4.48%) SolarWinds
12 7 (3.48%) VMware
13 6 (2.99%) Arista
13 6 (2.99%) Zscaler
14 3 (1.49%) Aruba
14 3 (1.49%) LogicMonitor
14 3 (1.49%) Rockwell
15 2 (1.00%) ServiceNow
15 2 (1.00%) Wind River