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 14 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 430 343 344
Rank change year-on-year -87 +1 +125
Contract jobs citing Network Design 196 177 257
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.43% 0.60% 0.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.50% 0.67% 0.68%
Number of daily rates quoted 134 103 131
10th Percentile £404 £362 £363
25th Percentile £463 £425 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £475
Median % change year-on-year - +10.53% -5.00%
75th Percentile £588 £613 £581
90th Percentile £675 £698 £638
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £525 £450
% change year-on-year -4.76% +16.67% -5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 4
10th Percentile £30.25 - £23.55
25th Percentile £44.81 £66.25 £24.00
Median hourly rate £71.77 £67.50 £47.25
Median % change year-on-year +6.33% +42.86% -32.50%
75th Percentile £73.83 £68.75 £70.00
90th Percentile £74.26 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £72.54 - £70.00

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 38,904 26,533 37,594
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.08% 90.62% 86.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,602 17,197 24,340
10th Percentile £315 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £635 £638
90th Percentile £725 £744 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £487 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.10% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,316 1,022 2,384
10th Percentile £14.98 £14.99 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.38 £18.86 £15.88
Median hourly rate £37.00 £30.79 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year +20.16% -6.87% -8.79%
75th Percentile £65.00 £62.88 £57.50
90th Percentile £78.13 £75.00 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £37.00 £29.00 £33.03
% change year-on-year +27.59% -12.21% -8.24%

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 14 April 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 14 April 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 14 April 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 -91 169 £519 -5.68% 50
UK excluding London -93 109 £500 -4.76% 38
London -52 67 £525 +2.44% 17
South East -48 39 £500 -13.04% 16
Work from Home -49 39 £522 +1.07% 15
North of England -90 23 £525 +5.00% 8
North West -47 17 £525 +5.00% 5
West Midlands -52 14 £469 +7.14% 3
Midlands -58 14 £469 +7.14% 4
South West -33 12 £495 -6.82% 5
Scotland +9 11 £650 +48.74% 2
East of England -23 7 £475 +18.75% 4
Yorkshire -61 6 £585 +23.05%
Northern Ireland - 2 £600 -
Wales -17 1 - -
North East -18 1 - - 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 5 (2.55%) OpenStack
2 2 (1.02%) Confluence
2 2 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
2 2 (1.02%) Skype for Business
3 1 (0.51%) ArcGIS
3 1 (0.51%) Smallworld
Applications
1 8 (4.08%) MS Visio
2 5 (2.55%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (2.55%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (2.04%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.51%) Autodesk Inventor
4 1 (0.51%) MicroStation
Business Applications
1 2 (1.02%) DELMIA
1 2 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 43 (21.94%) Azure
2 31 (15.82%) AWS
3 10 (5.10%) GCP
4 7 (3.57%) Azure ExpressRoute
5 4 (2.04%) GitHub
5 4 (2.04%) PaaS
6 3 (1.53%) AWS Direct Connect
6 3 (1.53%) IaaS
6 3 (1.53%) Virtual Private Cloud
7 2 (1.02%) Dynamics 365
7 2 (1.02%) IBM Watson
7 2 (1.02%) Microsoft 365
8 1 (0.51%) AWS CloudFormation
8 1 (0.51%) Azure Sentinel
8 1 (0.51%) Azure Storage
8 1 (0.51%) Cloud Computing
8 1 (0.51%) Datadog
8 1 (0.51%) GitHub Actions
8 1 (0.51%) OpenShift
8 1 (0.51%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 78 (39.80%) Firewall
2 72 (36.73%) WAN
3 45 (22.96%) BGP
3 45 (22.96%) LAN
4 41 (20.92%) Network Security
5 39 (19.90%) VPN
6 31 (15.82%) SD-WAN
6 31 (15.82%) VLAN
7 29 (14.80%) MPLS
7 29 (14.80%) Wi-Fi
8 28 (14.29%) OSPF
9 26 (13.27%) 5G
10 21 (10.71%) TCP/IP
11 18 (9.18%) Radio Access Network
12 17 (8.67%) 4G
12 17 (8.67%) Wireless
13 16 (8.16%) DNS
14 15 (7.65%) DHCP
14 15 (7.65%) IPsec
15 14 (7.14%) Cisco ISE
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (1.02%) GIS
Development Applications
1 5 (2.55%) Git
2 3 (1.53%) JIRA
3 1 (0.51%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.51%) Sonatype Nexus
General
1 50 (25.51%) Social Skills
2 27 (13.78%) Telecoms
3 21 (10.71%) Analytical Skills
4 16 (8.16%) Legal
4 16 (8.16%) Public Sector
5 15 (7.65%) Finance
6 11 (5.61%) Documentation Skills
7 5 (2.55%) Influencing Skills
7 5 (2.55%) Police
8 4 (2.04%) Banking
8 4 (2.04%) Presentation Skills
9 3 (1.53%) Manufacturing
10 2 (1.02%) Electronics
10 2 (1.02%) Retail Banking
11 1 (0.51%) Aerospace
11 1 (0.51%) German Language
11 1 (0.51%) Local Government
11 1 (0.51%) Marketing
11 1 (0.51%) Military
11 1 (0.51%) Retail
Job Titles
1 66 (33.67%) Network Engineer
2 52 (26.53%) Architect
3 39 (19.90%) Network Architect
4 24 (12.24%) Network Specialist
5 23 (11.73%) Senior
6 20 (10.20%) Designer
7 18 (9.18%) Network Design Specialist
8 16 (8.16%) Design Engineer
9 15 (7.65%) Network Designer
10 14 (7.14%) Network Design Engineer
11 12 (6.12%) SC Cleared Network Engineer
12 10 (5.10%) Senior Network Engineer
13 9 (4.59%) Senior Designer
13 9 (4.59%) Senior Network Designer
14 8 (4.08%) Lead
14 8 (4.08%) Solutions Architect
14 8 (4.08%) Technical Architect
15 7 (3.57%) DV Cleared Network Engineer
16 6 (3.06%) Consultant
16 6 (3.06%) IP Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 12 (6.12%) 802.1X
2 7 (3.57%) NETCONF
2 7 (3.57%) YANG
3 4 (2.04%) OpenConfig
3 4 (2.04%) RESTCONF
4 3 (1.53%) Kafka
5 2 (1.02%) Django
5 2 (1.02%) OpenID
5 2 (1.02%) REST
5 2 (1.02%) SAML
6 1 (0.51%) JSON
6 1 (0.51%) Middleware
6 1 (0.51%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 48 (24.49%) Data Centre
2 14 (7.14%) Hybrid Cloud
3 11 (5.61%) Data Protection Act
4 9 (4.59%) Management Information System
5 7 (3.57%) Cloud Native
6 5 (2.55%) IoT
7 4 (2.04%) Analytical Mindset
7 4 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
8 3 (1.53%) CCTV
8 3 (1.53%) Distributed Architecture
8 3 (1.53%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 3 (1.53%) Operational Technology
8 3 (1.53%) Private Cloud
9 2 (1.02%) Greenfield Project
9 2 (1.02%) Hedge funds
9 2 (1.02%) Onboarding
9 2 (1.02%) PKI
9 2 (1.02%) Product Ownership
9 2 (1.02%) SCADA
9 2 (1.02%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 8 (4.08%) Windows
2 6 (3.06%) Linux
3 5 (2.55%) Windows Server
4 2 (1.02%) Windows Server 2016
5 1 (0.51%) Data ONTAP
Processes & Methodologies
1 41 (20.92%) Network Architecture
2 26 (13.27%) Load Balancing
2 26 (13.27%) Problem-Solving
3 25 (12.76%) High Availability
3 25 (12.76%) Migration
4 21 (10.71%) Roadmaps
5 18 (9.18%) Stakeholder Management
6 16 (8.16%) Cybersecurity
6 16 (8.16%) Data Protection
6 16 (8.16%) Stakeholder Engagement
7 15 (7.65%) Security Architecture
8 14 (7.14%) Network Management
9 13 (6.63%) TOGAF
9 13 (6.63%) Zero Trust
10 12 (6.12%) Infrastructure as Code
10 12 (6.12%) Network Segmentation
11 11 (5.61%) Capacity Planning
11 11 (5.61%) Continuous Improvement
11 11 (5.61%) Mentoring
11 11 (5.61%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 25 (12.76%) Python
2 8 (4.08%) PowerShell
3 6 (3.06%) Bash
4 3 (1.53%) Perl
4 3 (1.53%) SQL
5 1 (0.51%) Bicep
5 1 (0.51%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 75 (38.27%) Security Cleared
2 55 (28.06%) Cisco Certification
3 47 (23.98%) SC Cleared
4 43 (21.94%) CCNP
5 29 (14.80%) DV Cleared
6 26 (13.27%) CCIE
7 16 (8.16%) Degree
8 14 (7.14%) CCNA
9 11 (5.61%) JNCIS
10 9 (4.59%) AWS Certification
10 9 (4.59%) Azure Certification
10 9 (4.59%) JNCIE
11 8 (4.08%) CISSP
12 4 (2.04%) (ISC)2 CCSP
12 4 (2.04%) CCSP
12 4 (2.04%) Computer Science Degree
12 4 (2.04%) JNCIP
13 3 (1.53%) CCIE Security
13 3 (1.53%) RIBA
13 3 (1.53%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 10 (5.10%) NIST
2 8 (4.08%) GDPR
3 7 (3.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 5 (2.55%) PCI DSS
5 3 (1.53%) JSP 440
6 2 (1.02%) NCSC
6 2 (1.02%) SLA
7 1 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
7 1 (0.51%) Def Stans
7 1 (0.51%) DO-160
System Software
1 14 (7.14%) VMware Infrastructure
2 11 (5.61%) VMware NSX
3 6 (3.06%) Active Directory
4 5 (2.55%) Hyper-V
5 3 (1.53%) KVM
6 2 (1.02%) vSphere
7 1 (0.51%) Docker
7 1 (0.51%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 1 (0.51%) Firmware
7 1 (0.51%) NFS
7 1 (0.51%) RHEV
7 1 (0.51%) SRDF
7 1 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.51%) Xen
Systems Management
1 22 (11.22%) Ansible
2 19 (9.69%) FortiGate
3 14 (7.14%) Terraform
4 7 (3.57%) Kubernetes
5 5 (2.55%) Nagios
6 2 (1.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
6 2 (1.02%) Grafana
6 2 (1.02%) McAfee ePO
6 2 (1.02%) Network Intrusion Detection System
6 2 (1.02%) Prometheus
7 1 (0.51%) Argo
7 1 (0.51%) EMC VPLEX
7 1 (0.51%) Failover Clustering
7 1 (0.51%) Iperf
7 1 (0.51%) NetBackup
7 1 (0.51%) Nmap
7 1 (0.51%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.51%) SnapMirror
7 1 (0.51%) SnapVault
7 1 (0.51%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 99 (50.51%) Cisco
2 47 (23.98%) Palo Alto
3 32 (16.33%) Juniper
4 27 (13.78%) Microsoft
5 26 (13.27%) Fortinet
6 24 (12.24%) F5
7 22 (11.22%) Meraki
8 19 (9.69%) VMware
9 17 (8.67%) Nokia
10 13 (6.63%) Aruba
11 12 (6.12%) Ericsson
12 11 (5.61%) SolarWinds
13 10 (5.10%) CheckPoint
14 9 (4.59%) Huawei
15 6 (3.06%) Arista
16 5 (2.55%) Ekahau
17 3 (1.53%) IBM
17 3 (1.53%) McAfee
17 3 (1.53%) NetScout
17 3 (1.53%) Zscaler