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

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 455 373 332
Rank change year-on-year -82 -41 +30
Contract jobs citing Network Design 218 183 242
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.56% 0.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.62% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 137 123 129
10th Percentile £363 £399 £363
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year +3.00% - -12.85%
75th Percentile £575 £618 £580
90th Percentile £650 £685 £650
UK excluding London median daily rate £510 £500 £475
% change year-on-year +2.00% +5.26% -9.52%
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% -17.91%
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 45,365 29,616 33,160
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.57% 90.47% 85.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,789 18,444 20,998
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £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 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,884 1,758 1,700
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.87
25th Percentile £18.00 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.56 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +65.23% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £67.99 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.50
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.75% +6.25%

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 25 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 25 August 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 25 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 -87 185 £525 +2.59% 46
UK excluding London -102 114 £510 +2.00% 42
London -53 66 £525 +10.53% 12
Work from Home -53 64 £488 -17.02% 30
South East -73 37 £513 -10.87% 14
North of England -57 33 £575 +21.05% 4
North West -34 25 £575 +21.05% 1
Scotland -6 15 £378 -11.59% 3
South West -48 13 £500 -21.88% 6
Midlands -69 11 £425 - 11
West Midlands -53 10 £425 - 7
East of England -17 7 £525 +28.05% 4
North East -33 7 £650 +18.18% 2
Yorkshire -34 7 £519 -9.74% 1
Wales -15 1 £363 +101.39% 2
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 12 (5.50%) OpenStack
2 3 (1.38%) Apache
2 3 (1.38%) CloudStack
3 1 (0.46%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.46%) Confluence
3 1 (0.46%) Microsoft Exchange
3 1 (0.46%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.46%) Smallworld
Applications
1 11 (5.05%) MS Visio
2 10 (4.59%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (4.13%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (3.67%) Microsoft Excel
5 3 (1.38%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.46%) Autodesk Inventor
6 1 (0.46%) CPLEX
6 1 (0.46%) MicroStation
Cloud Services
1 61 (27.98%) Azure
2 58 (26.61%) AWS
3 15 (6.88%) OCI
4 10 (4.59%) SaaS
5 9 (4.13%) GCP
6 8 (3.67%) GitHub
7 7 (3.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
7 7 (3.21%) Entra ID
7 7 (3.21%) OpenShift
8 6 (2.75%) IaaS
9 5 (2.29%) Nutanix
10 4 (1.83%) Azure Sentinel
11 3 (1.38%) AWS Control Tower
12 2 (0.92%) Azure Storage
12 2 (0.92%) Datadog
12 2 (0.92%) GitHub Actions
12 2 (0.92%) PaaS
13 1 (0.46%) AWS Direct Connect
13 1 (0.46%) Microsoft 365
13 1 (0.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 94 (43.12%) Firewall
2 73 (33.49%) BGP
3 60 (27.52%) WAN
4 58 (26.61%) OSPF
5 39 (17.89%) VLAN
6 38 (17.43%) VPN
7 35 (16.06%) Network Security
8 32 (14.68%) LAN
8 32 (14.68%) VXLAN
9 31 (14.22%) SD-WAN
9 31 (14.22%) Wi-Fi
10 30 (13.76%) 5G
11 28 (12.84%) 4G
12 25 (11.47%) Ethernet VPN
12 25 (11.47%) MPLS
13 23 (10.55%) Radio Access Network
14 22 (10.09%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 19 (8.72%) Wireless
16 18 (8.26%) BIG-IP
17 15 (6.88%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.38%) Metadata
2 1 (0.46%) GIS
Development Applications
1 13 (5.96%) GitLab
2 3 (1.38%) Jenkins
3 2 (0.92%) JIRA
4 1 (0.46%) Git
General
1 48 (22.02%) Social Skills
2 35 (16.06%) Telecoms
3 23 (10.55%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (9.17%) Public Sector
5 12 (5.50%) Manufacturing
6 10 (4.59%) Documentation Skills
7 9 (4.13%) Legal
8 7 (3.21%) Retail
9 5 (2.29%) Finance
10 3 (1.38%) Automotive
10 3 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.92%) Banking
11 2 (0.92%) Billing
11 2 (0.92%) Military
11 2 (0.92%) Police
12 1 (0.46%) Aviation
12 1 (0.46%) Cyber-Physical System
12 1 (0.46%) German Language
12 1 (0.46%) Pharmaceutical
12 1 (0.46%) Polish Language
Job Titles
1 71 (32.57%) Network Engineer
2 50 (22.94%) Architect
3 49 (22.48%) Senior
4 33 (15.14%) Network Specialist
5 27 (12.39%) Network Architect
6 25 (11.47%) Senior Network Engineer
7 22 (10.09%) Network Design Specialist
8 19 (8.72%) Designer
9 16 (7.34%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 13 (5.96%) Design Engineer
10 13 (5.96%) Network Designer
10 13 (5.96%) Security Architect
10 13 (5.96%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 11 (5.05%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
11 11 (5.05%) Senior Network Specialist
12 8 (3.67%) Network Design Engineer
13 7 (3.21%) Consultant
13 7 (3.21%) Lead
13 7 (3.21%) Solutions Architect
14 6 (2.75%) IP Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 40 (18.35%) Terraform
2 11 (5.05%) NETCONF
2 11 (5.05%) YANG
3 8 (3.67%) 802.1X
4 6 (2.75%) OpenConfig
4 6 (2.75%) REST
4 6 (2.75%) RESTCONF
5 5 (2.29%) Kafka
6 4 (1.83%) Azure Blueprints
7 3 (1.38%) Elastic Stack
8 1 (0.46%) eBPF
Miscellaneous
1 66 (30.28%) Data Centre
2 45 (20.64%) Hybrid Cloud
3 27 (12.39%) Cloud Native
4 12 (5.50%) Management Information System
5 10 (4.59%) Operational Technology
6 9 (4.13%) IoT
7 8 (3.67%) Data Protection Act
7 8 (3.67%) Public Cloud
8 6 (2.75%) Analytical Mindset
9 5 (2.29%) PKI
9 5 (2.29%) Private Cloud
10 4 (1.83%) CMDB
10 4 (1.83%) Security Posture
11 3 (1.38%) Data Fabric
11 3 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
11 3 (1.38%) Product Ownership
11 3 (1.38%) SCADA
12 2 (0.92%) Enterprise Storage
12 2 (0.92%) Handset
12 2 (0.92%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 15 (6.88%) Linux
2 12 (5.50%) Windows
3 9 (4.13%) Windows Server
4 8 (3.67%) Ubuntu
5 4 (1.83%) Alpine Linux
5 4 (1.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.92%) Data ONTAP
7 1 (0.46%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 40 (18.35%) Network Architecture
2 39 (17.89%) Zero Trust
3 38 (17.43%) High Availability
3 38 (17.43%) Stakeholder Management
4 37 (16.97%) Migration
5 36 (16.51%) Problem-Solving
6 35 (16.06%) Project Delivery
7 33 (15.14%) Infrastructure as Code
8 28 (12.84%) Roadmaps
8 28 (12.84%) Technical Leadership
8 28 (12.84%) Validation
9 27 (12.39%) DevOps
10 26 (11.93%) Load Balancing
11 23 (10.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 22 (10.09%) CI/CD
13 20 (9.17%) Cybersecurity
14 19 (8.72%) Continuous Improvement
15 18 (8.26%) Capacity Planning
15 18 (8.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 15 (6.88%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 41 (18.81%) Python
2 6 (2.75%) Bicep
2 6 (2.75%) PowerShell
3 2 (0.92%) Bash
4 1 (0.46%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 64 (29.36%) Security Cleared
2 56 (25.69%) Cisco Certification
3 42 (19.27%) SC Cleared
4 41 (18.81%) CCNP
5 20 (9.17%) CCIE
6 14 (6.42%) CCNA
7 13 (5.96%) DV Cleared
7 13 (5.96%) JNCIE
8 12 (5.50%) Degree
9 9 (4.13%) Azure Certification
10 8 (3.67%) AWS Certification
11 7 (3.21%) CISSP
12 6 (2.75%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (2.29%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 4 (1.83%) CISM
15 2 (0.92%) GIAC
15 2 (0.92%) ISSAP
15 2 (0.92%) Microsoft Certification
15 2 (0.92%) NCDA
15 2 (0.92%) VCDX
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 12 (5.50%) NIST
2 8 (3.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 4 (1.83%) Cyber Essentials
4 3 (1.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 3 (1.38%) GxP
4 3 (1.38%) NIST 800
4 3 (1.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
5 2 (0.92%) GDPR
5 2 (0.92%) HIPAA
5 2 (0.92%) QA
5 2 (0.92%) SLA
5 2 (0.92%) SOC 2
6 1 (0.46%) Def Stans
6 1 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
6 1 (0.46%) NCSC
System Software
1 19 (8.72%) VMware Infrastructure
2 10 (4.59%) Hyper-V
2 10 (4.59%) vSphere
3 8 (3.67%) Active Directory
3 8 (3.67%) VMware NSX
4 4 (1.83%) Firmware
5 3 (1.38%) VMware ESXi
6 2 (0.92%) EMC RecoverPoint
6 2 (0.92%) FreeRADIUS
6 2 (0.92%) NFS
6 2 (0.92%) SRDF
7 1 (0.46%) KVM
Systems Management
1 45 (20.64%) Ansible
2 11 (5.05%) Kubernetes
3 8 (3.67%) FortiGate
4 6 (2.75%) Grafana
4 6 (2.75%) Prometheus
5 3 (1.38%) Check_MK
5 3 (1.38%) Cisco Prime
5 3 (1.38%) SolarWinds Orion
5 3 (1.38%) vCenter Server
6 2 (0.92%) Argo
6 2 (0.92%) EMC NetWorker
6 2 (0.92%) EMC VPLEX
6 2 (0.92%) NetBackup
6 2 (0.92%) SnapMirror
6 2 (0.92%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.46%) McAfee ePO
7 1 (0.46%) QRadar
7 1 (0.46%) SCCM
7 1 (0.46%) Suricata
7 1 (0.46%) vRealize
Vendors
1 91 (41.74%) Cisco
2 50 (22.94%) Palo Alto
3 42 (19.27%) Fortinet
4 40 (18.35%) F5
5 30 (13.76%) Microsoft
6 24 (11.01%) Juniper
6 24 (11.01%) VMware
7 23 (10.55%) Aruba
7 23 (10.55%) Nokia
8 21 (9.63%) Arista
9 19 (8.72%) Ericsson
10 13 (5.96%) CheckPoint
10 13 (5.96%) Huawei
11 12 (5.50%) Zscaler
12 9 (4.13%) Meraki
12 9 (4.13%) Splunk
13 6 (2.75%) ServiceNow
13 6 (2.75%) SolarWinds
14 5 (2.29%) Google
14 5 (2.29%) Veeam