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 29 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 378 333 335
Rank change year-on-year -45 +2 +139
Contract jobs citing Network Design 208 244 311
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.58% 0.67% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.65% 0.77% 0.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 149 138 179
10th Percentile £400 £400 £413
25th Percentile £413 £463 £472
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £525 £575
Median % change year-on-year -9.52% -8.70% +21.05%
75th Percentile £576 £588 £638
90th Percentile £670 £641 £715
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £558
% change year-on-year -5.00% -10.31% +23.89%
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 32,184 31,740 40,662
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.29% 87.07% 88.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,215 19,128 27,258
10th Percentile £300 £310 £310
25th Percentile £404 £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 £744 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,084 1,140 1,567
10th Percentile £14.56 £15.22 £14.32
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.24 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.04 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year -23.87% -24.65% +25.26%
75th Percentile £45.53 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.85 £32.50 £44.50
% change year-on-year -29.69% -26.97% +39.06%

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 29 November 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 29 November 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Network Design in the UK

Network Design
Top 15 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 29 November 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 -46 189 £475 -9.09% 64
UK excluding London -46 120 £475 -5.00% 67
London +20 78 £450 -14.29% 14
Work from Home -25 48 £537 +7.40% 18
South East -14 32 £500 +2.56% 30
West Midlands +4 31 £400 -46.67% 3
Midlands -7 31 £400 -42.86% 6
North of England -63 23 £519 +3.70% 14
North West -16 21 £519 +9.16% 9
South West -7 17 £548 +4.29% 8
Scotland - 9 £455 - 5
East of England -12 7 £419 -16.25% 3
North East -9 2 £550 - 2
Wales -3 1 - - 2
Yorkshire -54 1 £500 - 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 (3.85%) OpenStack
2 2 (0.96%) nginx
Applications
1 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (0.96%) Microsoft PowerPoint
1 2 (0.96%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.96%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.48%) Remedy ITSM
Cloud Services
1 40 (19.23%) Azure
2 32 (15.38%) AWS
3 13 (6.25%) GCP
4 7 (3.37%) PaaS
4 7 (3.37%) SaaS
5 5 (2.40%) Microsoft 365
6 4 (1.92%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 4 (1.92%) Dynamics 365
6 4 (1.92%) IaaS
7 3 (1.44%) AWS Direct Connect
7 3 (1.44%) Serverless
7 3 (1.44%) Virtual Private Cloud
8 2 (0.96%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (0.96%) Entra ID
8 2 (0.96%) GitHub
8 2 (0.96%) OpenShift
9 1 (0.48%) Akamai
9 1 (0.48%) AWS IoT
9 1 (0.48%) Cloudflare
9 1 (0.48%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 92 (44.23%) Firewall
1 92 (44.23%) WAN
2 68 (32.69%) LAN
3 51 (24.52%) BGP
4 44 (21.15%) Network Security
4 44 (21.15%) VPN
5 41 (19.71%) MPLS
6 39 (18.75%) Wi-Fi
7 38 (18.27%) SD-WAN
8 24 (11.54%) IPsec
9 22 (10.58%) VLAN
10 20 (9.62%) Cisco Nexus
10 20 (9.62%) Radio Access Network
11 18 (8.65%) 4G
12 17 (8.17%) DNS
12 17 (8.17%) TCP/IP
12 17 (8.17%) Wireless
13 14 (6.73%) Cisco ISE
14 13 (6.25%) 5G
14 13 (6.25%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (1.44%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.40%) Git
2 4 (1.92%) GitLab
3 2 (0.96%) Bitbucket
4 1 (0.48%) Robot Framework
4 1 (0.48%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 49 (23.56%) Telecoms
2 48 (23.08%) Social Skills
3 26 (12.50%) Public Sector
4 20 (9.62%) Analytical Skills
5 10 (4.81%) Manufacturing
6 7 (3.37%) Finance
7 6 (2.88%) Documentation Skills
8 4 (1.92%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (1.92%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.44%) Aviation
9 3 (1.44%) Legal
10 2 (0.96%) Electronics
10 2 (0.96%) Retail
11 1 (0.48%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.48%) Law
11 1 (0.48%) Local Government
11 1 (0.48%) Marketing
11 1 (0.48%) Military
11 1 (0.48%) Police
11 1 (0.48%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 74 (35.58%) Architect
1 74 (35.58%) Network Engineer
2 53 (25.48%) Network Architect
3 20 (9.62%) Network Design Specialist
3 20 (9.62%) Network Specialist
4 15 (7.21%) Network Design Architect
5 14 (6.73%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
6 11 (5.29%) 3rd Line Engineer
6 11 (5.29%) Design Engineer
6 11 (5.29%) Performance Specialist
6 11 (5.29%) Support Engineer
7 10 (4.81%) 3rd Line Support
7 10 (4.81%) 3rd Line Support Engineer
7 10 (4.81%) Network Design Engineer
7 10 (4.81%) Senior
7 10 (4.81%) Solutions Architect
8 8 (3.85%) IP Specialist
8 8 (3.85%) Lead
9 7 (3.37%) IP Architect
9 7 (3.37%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 14 (6.73%) 802.1X
2 9 (4.33%) YANG
3 8 (3.85%) NETCONF
4 6 (2.88%) REST
5 5 (2.40%) Middleware
6 4 (1.92%) OpenID
6 4 (1.92%) SAML
7 3 (1.44%) Web Services
8 2 (0.96%) eBPF
8 2 (0.96%) OpenConfig
8 2 (0.96%) RESTCONF
9 1 (0.48%) gRPC
9 1 (0.48%) Jinja
9 1 (0.48%) JSON
9 1 (0.48%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 47 (22.60%) Data Centre
2 17 (8.17%) Hybrid Cloud
2 17 (8.17%) Operational Technology
3 13 (6.25%) Cloud Native
3 13 (6.25%) SCADA
4 12 (5.77%) PKI
5 9 (4.33%) IoT
6 8 (3.85%) Onboarding
7 6 (2.88%) Data Protection Act
8 4 (1.92%) Fibre Optics
8 4 (1.92%) Life Science
8 4 (1.92%) Management Information System
8 4 (1.92%) NB-IoT
8 4 (1.92%) Renewable Energy
8 4 (1.92%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
9 3 (1.44%) Private Cloud
9 3 (1.44%) Product Ownership
10 2 (0.96%) Analytical Mindset
10 2 (0.96%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 10 (4.81%) Windows
2 6 (2.88%) Linux
3 1 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3 1 (0.48%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 50 (24.04%) Network Architecture
2 35 (16.83%) Load Balancing
3 26 (12.50%) Cybersecurity
4 21 (10.10%) Roadmaps
5 20 (9.62%) Migration
5 20 (9.62%) Problem-Solving
6 18 (8.65%) High Availability
7 17 (8.17%) Network Management
7 17 (8.17%) Network Segmentation
7 17 (8.17%) Root Cause Analysis
8 16 (7.69%) DevOps
8 16 (7.69%) Network Virtualisation
8 16 (7.69%) Stakeholder Management
8 16 (7.69%) Zero Trust
9 14 (6.73%) Network Monitoring
10 12 (5.77%) Data Protection
10 12 (5.77%) Incident Response
10 12 (5.77%) ITIL
10 12 (5.77%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 12 (5.77%) Strategic Thinking
Programming Languages
1 26 (12.50%) Python
2 5 (2.40%) SQL
3 3 (1.44%) Perl
4 2 (0.96%) Bash
4 2 (0.96%) C
4 2 (0.96%) PowerShell
5 1 (0.48%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 85 (40.87%) Security Cleared
2 53 (25.48%) Cisco Certification
3 51 (24.52%) SC Cleared
4 37 (17.79%) CCNP
5 33 (15.87%) DV Cleared
6 24 (11.54%) CCIE
7 22 (10.58%) Degree
8 14 (6.73%) CCNA
8 14 (6.73%) CISSP
9 13 (6.25%) JNCIE
10 8 (3.85%) JNCIS
11 6 (2.88%) JNCIP
12 5 (2.40%) AWS Certification
12 5 (2.40%) BPSS Clearance
12 5 (2.40%) Computer Science Degree
13 4 (1.92%) (ISC)2 CCSP
13 4 (1.92%) Azure Certification
13 4 (1.92%) CCSP
14 3 (1.44%) CCIE Security
14 3 (1.44%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (4.33%) GDPR
1 9 (4.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
2 7 (3.37%) NIST
2 7 (3.37%) PCI DSS
3 5 (2.40%) NCSC
4 3 (1.44%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 1 (0.48%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.48%) Disclosure Scotland
5 1 (0.48%) DO-160
5 1 (0.48%) GRC
5 1 (0.48%) QA
System Software
1 7 (3.37%) VMware Infrastructure
2 6 (2.88%) VMware NSX
3 5 (2.40%) Firmware
4 4 (1.92%) Active Directory
5 3 (1.44%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.48%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 25 (12.02%) Ansible
2 12 (5.77%) Terraform
3 10 (4.81%) FortiGate
4 2 (0.96%) HAProxy
4 2 (0.96%) Kubernetes
4 2 (0.96%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (0.96%) NSN NetAct
5 1 (0.48%) Cisco Prime
5 1 (0.48%) Dell DRAC
5 1 (0.48%) Functional Safety
5 1 (0.48%) Grafana
5 1 (0.48%) Host Intrusion Detection System
5 1 (0.48%) Nagios
5 1 (0.48%) Prometheus
5 1 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 88 (42.31%) Cisco
2 43 (20.67%) Palo Alto
3 41 (19.71%) Juniper
4 25 (12.02%) Fortinet
5 22 (10.58%) F5
5 22 (10.58%) Meraki
6 17 (8.17%) Microsoft
7 13 (6.25%) Nokia
7 13 (6.25%) VMware
8 11 (5.29%) Ericsson
9 10 (4.81%) Actix
9 10 (4.81%) CheckPoint
10 9 (4.33%) SolarWinds
11 6 (2.88%) Arista
11 6 (2.88%) Zscaler
12 3 (1.44%) LogicMonitor
12 3 (1.44%) Rockwell
13 2 (0.96%) Infoblox
13 2 (0.96%) Red Hat
13 2 (0.96%) Virgin Media