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

6 months to
27 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 472 388 332
Rank change year-on-year -84 -56 +16
Contract jobs citing Network Design 216 183 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.40% 0.55% 0.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.47% 0.61% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 137 124 134
10th Percentile £363 £399 £404
25th Percentile £418 £413 £453
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +7.89% -9.52% -8.70%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £588
90th Percentile £650 £650 £668
UK excluding London median daily rate £513 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +5.13% -2.50% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 1 4
10th Percentile £45.00 - £26.25
25th Percentile £52.50 - £31.88
Median hourly rate £65.50 £55.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +19.09% - -16.64%
75th Percentile £74.75 - £75.00
90th Percentile £83.76 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £71.00 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +29.09% - -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 46,089 29,922 32,856
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.33% 90.54% 85.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,886 18,587 19,900
10th Percentile £325 £295 £308
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 £630 £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 3,201 1,858 1,386
10th Percentile £13.70 £14.29 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.23 £17.30 £20.12
Median hourly rate £39.50 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +57.06% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £65.88 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.00 £74.44
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +77.78% -47.67% +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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -96 174 £515 +8.42% 189
UK excluding London -89 123 £513 +5.13% 122
Work from Home -35 70 £500 -6.98% 94
London -76 52 £494 +9.72% 81
South East -68 37 £556 +11.25% 36
North of England -60 31 £575 +21.05% 20
North West -50 23 £575 +21.05% 14
Midlands -41 18 £438 +2.94% 23
West Midlands -50 17 £438 +2.94% 19
Scotland -18 16 £375 -16.67% 14
South West -37 13 £550 -14.06% 20
North East -31 7 £650 +18.18% 1
Yorkshire -41 7 £519 -9.74% 6
East of England -18 6 £500 +21.21% 4
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 (5.09%) OpenStack
2 4 (1.85%) ArcGIS
2 4 (1.85%) Confluence
3 3 (1.39%) Apache
3 3 (1.39%) CloudStack
4 1 (0.46%) Apache Airflow
Applications
1 10 (4.63%) MS Visio
2 8 (3.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (3.24%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
5 3 (1.39%) AutoCAD
6 1 (0.46%) CPLEX
Business Applications
1 1 (0.46%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
Cloud Services
1 61 (28.24%) Azure
2 58 (26.85%) AWS
3 15 (6.94%) OCI
4 11 (5.09%) GCP
5 10 (4.63%) SaaS
6 9 (4.17%) Entra ID
7 8 (3.70%) GitHub
8 7 (3.24%) OpenShift
9 6 (2.78%) Azure ExpressRoute
9 6 (2.78%) IaaS
10 5 (2.31%) Nutanix
11 4 (1.85%) Azure Sentinel
12 3 (1.39%) AWS Control Tower
12 3 (1.39%) GitHub Actions
13 2 (0.93%) AWS Direct Connect
13 2 (0.93%) Azure Storage
13 2 (0.93%) Datadog
13 2 (0.93%) PaaS
14 1 (0.46%) Microsoft 365
14 1 (0.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 96 (44.44%) Firewall
2 72 (33.33%) BGP
3 60 (27.78%) WAN
4 56 (25.93%) OSPF
5 44 (20.37%) VLAN
6 40 (18.52%) Network Security
7 38 (17.59%) LAN
8 35 (16.20%) VPN
9 32 (14.81%) SD-WAN
10 30 (13.89%) VXLAN
11 26 (12.04%) Ethernet VPN
12 25 (11.57%) MPLS
12 25 (11.57%) Wi-Fi
13 22 (10.19%) 5G
14 21 (9.72%) 4G
14 21 (9.72%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
15 18 (8.33%) BIG-IP
15 18 (8.33%) Wireless
15 18 (8.33%) WLAN
16 17 (7.87%) Radio Access Network
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (1.85%) GIS
2 3 (1.39%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 14 (6.48%) GitLab
2 4 (1.85%) JIRA
3 3 (1.39%) Git
3 3 (1.39%) Jenkins
General
1 54 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 33 (15.28%) Telecoms
3 26 (12.04%) Analytical Skills
4 17 (7.87%) Public Sector
5 16 (7.41%) Manufacturing
6 10 (4.63%) Documentation Skills
6 10 (4.63%) Legal
7 6 (2.78%) Automotive
7 6 (2.78%) Retail
8 4 (1.85%) Finance
9 3 (1.39%) Billing
9 3 (1.39%) Cyber-Physical System
9 3 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.93%) Agriculture
10 2 (0.93%) Military
11 1 (0.46%) Aviation
11 1 (0.46%) Local Government
11 1 (0.46%) Police
11 1 (0.46%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.46%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 77 (35.65%) Network Engineer
2 50 (23.15%) Senior
3 46 (21.30%) Architect
4 25 (11.57%) Senior Network Engineer
5 24 (11.11%) Network Architect
6 23 (10.65%) Network Specialist
7 16 (7.41%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 15 (6.94%) Consultant
9 13 (6.02%) Design Engineer
9 13 (6.02%) Designer
9 13 (6.02%) Security Architect
9 13 (6.02%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
10 12 (5.56%) Network Consultant
10 12 (5.56%) Network Design Specialist
11 11 (5.09%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
11 11 (5.09%) Senior Network Specialist
12 9 (4.17%) Network Design Engineer
13 8 (3.70%) RAN Engineer
13 8 (3.70%) Security Engineer
13 8 (3.70%) Senior Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (19.44%) Terraform
2 9 (4.17%) NETCONF
2 9 (4.17%) YANG
3 7 (3.24%) REST
4 6 (2.78%) 802.1X
5 4 (1.85%) Azure Blueprints
5 4 (1.85%) OpenConfig
5 4 (1.85%) RESTCONF
6 3 (1.39%) Elastic Stack
6 3 (1.39%) Kafka
7 2 (0.93%) YAML
8 1 (0.46%) eBPF
8 1 (0.46%) JSON
Miscellaneous
1 66 (30.56%) Data Centre
2 42 (19.44%) Hybrid Cloud
3 26 (12.04%) Cloud Native
4 14 (6.48%) Operational Technology
5 12 (5.56%) Management Information System
6 9 (4.17%) IoT
7 8 (3.70%) Public Cloud
8 7 (3.24%) Private Cloud
9 6 (2.78%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (2.78%) Data Protection Act
9 6 (2.78%) Security Posture
10 5 (2.31%) CMDB
10 5 (2.31%) PKI
11 4 (1.85%) Data Fabric
11 4 (1.85%) Enterprise Software
11 4 (1.85%) Handset
11 4 (1.85%) Onboarding
12 3 (1.39%) Product Ownership
12 3 (1.39%) SCADA
13 2 (0.93%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 16 (7.41%) Linux
2 13 (6.02%) Windows
3 8 (3.70%) Ubuntu
3 8 (3.70%) Windows Server
4 4 (1.85%) Alpine Linux
4 4 (1.85%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 2 (0.93%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 46 (21.30%) Stakeholder Management
2 43 (19.91%) Zero Trust
3 42 (19.44%) Migration
4 36 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
5 35 (16.20%) Infrastructure as Code
5 35 (16.20%) Project Delivery
6 34 (15.74%) High Availability
6 34 (15.74%) Network Architecture
6 34 (15.74%) Validation
7 30 (13.89%) Roadmaps
8 29 (13.43%) DevOps
9 26 (12.04%) Technical Leadership
10 25 (11.57%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 24 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
11 24 (11.11%) Load Balancing
12 23 (10.65%) CI/CD
13 22 (10.19%) Stakeholder Engagement
14 17 (7.87%) Continuous Improvement
14 17 (7.87%) Network Segmentation
15 16 (7.41%) Mentoring
Programming Languages
1 42 (19.44%) Python
2 7 (3.24%) Bicep
3 6 (2.78%) PowerShell
4 3 (1.39%) Bash
5 1 (0.46%) ActionScript
5 1 (0.46%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 64 (29.63%) Security Cleared
2 55 (25.46%) Cisco Certification
3 43 (19.91%) SC Cleared
4 40 (18.52%) CCNP
5 17 (7.87%) CCIE
5 17 (7.87%) DV Cleared
6 14 (6.48%) CCNA
7 13 (6.02%) Degree
8 11 (5.09%) JNCIE
9 9 (4.17%) AWS Certification
10 8 (3.70%) CISSP
11 7 (3.24%) Azure Certification
12 6 (2.78%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
13 5 (2.31%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 4 (1.85%) CISM
15 3 (1.39%) CCSE
16 2 (0.93%) CCSA
16 2 (0.93%) GIAC
16 2 (0.93%) ISSAP
16 2 (0.93%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 15 (6.94%) NIST
2 13 (6.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 5 (2.31%) Cyber Essentials
4 4 (1.85%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 4 (1.85%) Data Quality
5 3 (1.39%) Actionable Recommendations
5 3 (1.39%) GxP
5 3 (1.39%) NIST 800
5 3 (1.39%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 3 (1.39%) 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 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
7 1 (0.46%) SLA
System Software
1 18 (8.33%) VMware Infrastructure
2 9 (4.17%) Active Directory
2 9 (4.17%) Hyper-V
2 9 (4.17%) vSphere
3 7 (3.24%) VMware NSX
4 5 (2.31%) Firmware
5 4 (1.85%) FreeRADIUS
6 3 (1.39%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.93%) Docker
7 2 (0.93%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (0.93%) NFS
7 2 (0.93%) SRDF
8 1 (0.46%) KVM
Systems Management
1 43 (19.91%) Ansible
2 11 (5.09%) Kubernetes
3 8 (3.70%) FortiGate
3 8 (3.70%) Grafana
3 8 (3.70%) Prometheus
4 3 (1.39%) Check_MK
4 3 (1.39%) Cisco Prime
4 3 (1.39%) SolarWinds Orion
4 3 (1.39%) vCenter Server
5 2 (0.93%) Argo
5 2 (0.93%) EMC NetWorker
5 2 (0.93%) EMC VPLEX
5 2 (0.93%) NetBackup
5 2 (0.93%) SnapMirror
5 2 (0.93%) SnapVault
6 1 (0.46%) Cisco CUCM
6 1 (0.46%) QRadar
6 1 (0.46%) SCCM
6 1 (0.46%) Suricata
6 1 (0.46%) vRealize
Vendors
1 93 (43.06%) Cisco
2 54 (25.00%) Palo Alto
3 43 (19.91%) Fortinet
4 36 (16.67%) F5
5 26 (12.04%) Microsoft
6 23 (10.65%) Aruba
7 22 (10.19%) Arista
7 22 (10.19%) VMware
8 21 (9.72%) Juniper
9 20 (9.26%) Nokia
10 16 (7.41%) Ericsson
11 14 (6.48%) Zscaler
12 13 (6.02%) CheckPoint
13 9 (4.17%) Meraki
13 9 (4.17%) Splunk
14 7 (3.24%) Huawei
15 6 (2.78%) ServiceNow
15 6 (2.78%) SolarWinds
16 5 (2.31%) Google
16 5 (2.31%) Veeam