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

6 months to
23 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 399 331 293
Rank change year-on-year -68 -38 +173
Contract jobs citing Network Design 189 203 311
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.50% 0.64% 0.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.57% 0.72% 0.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 131 125 161
10th Percentile £350 £400 £425
25th Percentile £417 £450 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -8.70% +21.05%
75th Percentile £579 £588 £627
90th Percentile £675 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £500 £550
% change year-on-year - -9.09% +16.40%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 1 14
10th Percentile - - £26.58
25th Percentile - - £42.03
Median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £65.98
Median % change year-on-year -0.99% +13.67% -5.74%
75th Percentile - - -
90th Percentile - - £68.79
UK excluding London median hourly rate £74.26 £75.00 £65.98
% change year-on-year -0.99% +13.67% -5.74%

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 33,213 28,195 38,072
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.59% 88.98% 87.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,058 17,139 25,095
10th Percentile £305 £306 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £644
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -4.50% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,026 893 1,862
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.94 £17.00
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £37.01
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -12.19% +15.66%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £30.62 £39.55
% change year-on-year -21.61% -22.59% +52.12%

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 23 January 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
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 23 January 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 -58 169 £500 -4.76% 107
UK excluding London -54 110 £500 - 113
London -27 69 £483 -8.10% 13
South East -23 37 £500 -1.23% 21
Work from Home -38 37 £519 -0.34% 43
West Midlands -25 25 £400 -16.49% 12
Midlands -30 25 £400 -23.15% 20
North of England -65 21 £537 +7.40% 24
North West -21 19 £525 +5.00% 13
Scotland - 12 £650 - 9
South West -26 7 £450 -15.29% 17
East of England -19 6 £419 -16.25% 15
North East -12 2 £550 - 2
Wales -4 1 - - 6
Yorkshire -66 1 £650 +30.00% 9
Northern Ireland - 1 £600 - 3

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 (4.23%) OpenStack
Applications
1 6 (3.17%) MS Visio
2 3 (1.59%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (1.06%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (1.06%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (1.06%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.06%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.53%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 50 (26.46%) Azure
2 33 (17.46%) AWS
3 10 (5.29%) GCP
4 6 (3.17%) Microsoft 365
5 5 (2.65%) PaaS
6 4 (2.12%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (2.12%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (1.59%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.59%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (1.06%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.06%) IaaS
8 2 (1.06%) IBM Watson
9 1 (0.53%) Akamai
9 1 (0.53%) AWS IoT
9 1 (0.53%) Azure Sentinel
9 1 (0.53%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.53%) Entra ID
9 1 (0.53%) Google Ads
9 1 (0.53%) Mimecast
9 1 (0.53%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 92 (48.68%) WAN
2 79 (41.80%) Firewall
3 58 (30.69%) LAN
4 45 (23.81%) BGP
4 45 (23.81%) VPN
5 42 (22.22%) MPLS
6 36 (19.05%) Network Security
7 32 (16.93%) SD-WAN
8 30 (15.87%) Wi-Fi
9 28 (14.81%) VLAN
10 22 (11.64%) TCP/IP
11 17 (8.99%) Cisco ISE
11 17 (8.99%) IPsec
11 17 (8.99%) Radio Access Network
12 16 (8.47%) DNS
13 14 (7.41%) 4G
14 13 (6.88%) OSPF
15 12 (6.35%) DHCP
15 12 (6.35%) NetScaler
15 12 (6.35%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.59%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.65%) Git
2 2 (1.06%) GitLab
3 1 (0.53%) Robot Framework
General
1 50 (26.46%) Social Skills
2 34 (17.99%) Telecoms
3 21 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (10.58%) Public Sector
5 15 (7.94%) Finance
6 14 (7.41%) Legal
7 10 (5.29%) Manufacturing
8 5 (2.65%) Documentation Skills
9 4 (2.12%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (2.12%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (1.06%) Aviation
10 2 (1.06%) Electronics
10 2 (1.06%) Military
10 2 (1.06%) Police
11 1 (0.53%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.53%) Law
11 1 (0.53%) Local Government
11 1 (0.53%) Marketing
11 1 (0.53%) Publishing
11 1 (0.53%) Retail
Job Titles
1 68 (35.98%) Network Engineer
2 57 (30.16%) Architect
3 42 (22.22%) Network Architect
4 18 (9.52%) Network Specialist
5 16 (8.47%) Network Design Specialist
5 16 (8.47%) Senior
6 15 (7.94%) Design Engineer
7 14 (7.41%) Network Design Engineer
8 11 (5.82%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
9 10 (5.29%) IP Specialist
10 9 (4.76%) Designer
10 9 (4.76%) Network Designer
10 9 (4.76%) Performance Specialist
10 9 (4.76%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
10 9 (4.76%) Senior Designer
10 9 (4.76%) Senior Network Designer
10 9 (4.76%) Solutions Architect
11 8 (4.23%) 3rd Line Support
11 8 (4.23%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
11 8 (4.23%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 13 (6.88%) 802.1X
2 12 (6.35%) YANG
3 11 (5.82%) NETCONF
4 8 (4.23%) REST
5 4 (2.12%) OpenID
5 4 (2.12%) SAML
6 2 (1.06%) Django
6 2 (1.06%) JSON
6 2 (1.06%) OpenConfig
6 2 (1.06%) RESTCONF
7 1 (0.53%) gRPC
7 1 (0.53%) Jinja
7 1 (0.53%) Middleware
7 1 (0.53%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 44 (23.28%) Data Centre
2 16 (8.47%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (5.82%) SCADA
4 10 (5.29%) Operational Technology
5 9 (4.76%) PKI
6 8 (4.23%) Cloud Native
6 8 (4.23%) IoT
7 7 (3.70%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (3.17%) Security Posture
9 4 (2.12%) Life Science
9 4 (2.12%) Management Information System
9 4 (2.12%) NB-IoT
9 4 (2.12%) Onboarding
9 4 (2.12%) Renewable Energy
9 4 (2.12%) Self-Motivation
10 3 (1.59%) Distributed Architecture
11 2 (1.06%) Analytical Mindset
11 2 (1.06%) Fibre Optics
11 2 (1.06%) Insider Threat
11 2 (1.06%) Product Ownership
Operating Systems
1 10 (5.29%) Windows
2 7 (3.70%) Linux
3 2 (1.06%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 49 (25.93%) Network Architecture
2 34 (17.99%) Load Balancing
3 25 (13.23%) Problem-Solving
4 22 (11.64%) Roadmaps
5 21 (11.11%) Cybersecurity
5 21 (11.11%) High Availability
6 18 (9.52%) Migration
6 18 (9.52%) Network Management
7 17 (8.99%) Network Segmentation
8 16 (8.47%) Root Cause Analysis
8 16 (8.47%) Stakeholder Management
9 15 (7.94%) DevOps
10 14 (7.41%) ITIL
10 14 (7.41%) Network Virtualisation
10 14 (7.41%) Zero Trust
11 13 (6.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 13 (6.88%) TOGAF
12 12 (6.35%) Data Protection
12 12 (6.35%) Enterprise Architecture
12 12 (6.35%) Security Architecture
Programming Languages
1 27 (14.29%) Python
2 7 (3.70%) SQL
3 5 (2.65%) PowerShell
4 4 (2.12%) Bash
5 3 (1.59%) Perl
6 1 (0.53%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 69 (36.51%) Security Cleared
2 55 (29.10%) Cisco Certification
3 41 (21.69%) SC Cleared
4 40 (21.16%) CCNP
5 26 (13.76%) CCIE
6 25 (13.23%) DV Cleared
7 21 (11.11%) Degree
8 17 (8.99%) CCNA
9 13 (6.88%) CISSP
10 12 (6.35%) JNCIE
11 11 (5.82%) JNCIS
12 7 (3.70%) AWS Certification
12 7 (3.70%) Computer Science Degree
13 6 (3.17%) Azure Certification
14 5 (2.65%) JNCIP
15 4 (2.12%) (ISC)2 CCSP
15 4 (2.12%) BPSS Clearance
15 4 (2.12%) CCSP
16 3 (1.59%) CCIE Security
17 2 (1.06%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.29%) GDPR
1 10 (5.29%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (3.70%) NIST
2 7 (3.70%) PCI DSS
3 3 (1.59%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
4 1 (0.53%) Def Stans
4 1 (0.53%) Disclosure Scotland
4 1 (0.53%) DO-160
4 1 (0.53%) GRC
4 1 (0.53%) QA
4 1 (0.53%) SLA
System Software
1 8 (4.23%) VMware Infrastructure
1 8 (4.23%) VMware NSX
2 6 (3.17%) Active Directory
3 3 (1.59%) Firmware
3 3 (1.59%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.53%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.53%) KVM
4 1 (0.53%) RHEV
4 1 (0.53%) Xen
Systems Management
1 22 (11.64%) Ansible
2 20 (10.58%) FortiGate
3 10 (5.29%) Terraform
4 5 (2.65%) Nagios
5 1 (0.53%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (0.53%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.53%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (0.53%) Failover Clustering
5 1 (0.53%) Grafana
5 1 (0.53%) Host Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.53%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.53%) Proxmox
5 1 (0.53%) SCCM
5 1 (0.53%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 84 (44.44%) Cisco
2 49 (25.93%) Palo Alto
3 37 (19.58%) Juniper
4 25 (13.23%) Microsoft
5 24 (12.70%) Meraki
6 22 (11.64%) F5
7 21 (11.11%) Fortinet
8 14 (7.41%) Nokia
9 12 (6.35%) VMware
10 11 (5.82%) CheckPoint
10 11 (5.82%) SolarWinds
11 9 (4.76%) Aruba
11 9 (4.76%) Ericsson
12 8 (4.23%) Actix
13 7 (3.70%) Arista
14 3 (1.59%) LogicMonitor
14 3 (1.59%) Rockwell
14 3 (1.59%) Zscaler
15 2 (1.06%) Splunk
15 2 (1.06%) Virgin Media