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

6 months to
24 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 471 375 338
Rank change year-on-year -96 -37 +40
Contract jobs citing Network Design 218 186 244
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.41% 0.56% 0.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.48% 0.62% 0.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 138 124 131
10th Percentile £363 £399 £363
25th Percentile £425 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £514 £500 £488
Median % change year-on-year +2.75% +2.56% -14.47%
75th Percentile £575 £615 £578
90th Percentile £650 £684 £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 45,360 29,849 33,165
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.57% 90.48% 85.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,797 18,603 21,010
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 2,875 1,763 1,706
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.87
25th Percentile £18.27 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £67.89 £47.81 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.74 £42.50
% change year-on-year +93.36% -46.51% +7.39%

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 24 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 24 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 24 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 -90 186 £525 +3.96% 41
UK excluding London -112 114 £510 +2.00% 37
London -57 67 £525 +10.53% 12
Work from Home -54 64 £488 -17.02% 26
South East -74 37 £513 -10.87% 13
North of England -59 33 £575 +21.05% 4
North West -43 25 £575 +21.05% 1
Scotland -12 15 £378 -11.59% 3
South West -48 13 £500 -21.88% 5
Midlands -53 11 £425 - 9
West Midlands -54 10 £425 - 5
East of England -20 7 £525 +28.05% 3
Yorkshire -33 7 £519 -9.74% 1
North East -33 7 £650 +18.18% 2
Wales -17 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 60 (27.52%) Azure
2 57 (26.15%) AWS
3 15 (6.88%) OCI
4 10 (4.59%) GitHub
4 10 (4.59%) SaaS
5 9 (4.13%) GCP
6 7 (3.21%) Azure ExpressRoute
6 7 (3.21%) OpenShift
7 6 (2.75%) Entra ID
7 6 (2.75%) IaaS
8 5 (2.29%) Nutanix
9 4 (1.83%) Azure Sentinel
10 3 (1.38%) AWS Control Tower
11 2 (0.92%) Azure Storage
11 2 (0.92%) Datadog
11 2 (0.92%) GitHub Actions
11 2 (0.92%) PaaS
12 1 (0.46%) AWS Direct Connect
12 1 (0.46%) Microsoft 365
12 1 (0.46%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 92 (42.20%) Firewall
2 72 (33.03%) BGP
3 60 (27.52%) WAN
4 58 (26.61%) OSPF
5 38 (17.43%) VLAN
5 38 (17.43%) VPN
6 34 (15.60%) Network Security
7 32 (14.68%) LAN
7 32 (14.68%) VXLAN
8 31 (14.22%) SD-WAN
8 31 (14.22%) Wi-Fi
9 30 (13.76%) 5G
10 28 (12.84%) 4G
11 25 (11.47%) Ethernet VPN
11 25 (11.47%) MPLS
12 23 (10.55%) Radio Access Network
13 22 (10.09%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
14 19 (8.72%) Wireless
15 18 (8.26%) BIG-IP
16 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 50 (22.94%) Social Skills
2 35 (16.06%) Telecoms
3 23 (10.55%) Analytical Skills
4 20 (9.17%) Public Sector
5 11 (5.05%) Manufacturing
6 9 (4.13%) Documentation Skills
6 9 (4.13%) Legal
7 7 (3.21%) Retail
8 5 (2.29%) Finance
9 3 (1.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 2 (0.92%) Automotive
10 2 (0.92%) Banking
10 2 (0.92%) Billing
10 2 (0.92%) Military
10 2 (0.92%) Police
11 1 (0.46%) Aviation
11 1 (0.46%) Cyber-Physical System
11 1 (0.46%) German Language
11 1 (0.46%) Polish Language
11 1 (0.46%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 73 (33.49%) Network Engineer
2 49 (22.48%) Architect
3 48 (22.02%) Senior
4 35 (16.06%) 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%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (5.50%) Security Architect
12 11 (5.05%) Senior Data Warehouse Specialist
12 11 (5.05%) Senior Network Specialist
13 8 (3.67%) Network Design Engineer
14 7 (3.21%) Lead
14 7 (3.21%) Solutions Architect
15 6 (2.75%) Consultant
15 6 (2.75%) Technical 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 9 (4.13%) Operational Technology
6 8 (3.67%) Data Protection Act
6 8 (3.67%) IoT
6 8 (3.67%) Public Cloud
7 6 (2.75%) Analytical Mindset
8 5 (2.29%) PKI
8 5 (2.29%) Private Cloud
9 4 (1.83%) CMDB
9 4 (1.83%) Security Posture
10 3 (1.38%) Data Fabric
10 3 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
10 3 (1.38%) Product Ownership
10 3 (1.38%) SCADA
11 2 (0.92%) Enterprise Storage
11 2 (0.92%) Handset
11 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 38 (17.43%) Zero Trust
3 37 (16.97%) High Availability
3 37 (16.97%) Stakeholder Management
4 36 (16.51%) Problem-Solving
5 35 (16.06%) Migration
5 35 (16.06%) Project Delivery
6 33 (15.14%) Infrastructure as Code
7 28 (12.84%) Roadmaps
7 28 (12.84%) Validation
8 27 (12.39%) DevOps
8 27 (12.39%) Technical Leadership
9 26 (11.93%) Load Balancing
10 23 (10.55%) Infrastructure Engineering
11 22 (10.09%) CI/CD
12 21 (9.63%) Continuous Improvement
13 19 (8.72%) Cybersecurity
14 18 (8.26%) Capacity Planning
14 18 (8.26%) Stakeholder Engagement
15 14 (6.42%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 43 (19.72%) 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 11 (5.05%) NIST
2 7 (3.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 3 (1.38%) Cyber Essentials
3 3 (1.38%) GxP
3 3 (1.38%) NIST 800
3 3 (1.38%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 2 (0.92%) Actionable Recommendations
4 2 (0.92%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 2 (0.92%) GDPR
4 2 (0.92%) HIPAA
4 2 (0.92%) QA
4 2 (0.92%) SLA
4 2 (0.92%) SOC 2
5 1 (0.46%) Def Stans
5 1 (0.46%) Disclosure Scotland
5 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%) VMware NSX
4 7 (3.21%) Active Directory
5 4 (1.83%) Firmware
6 3 (1.38%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.92%) EMC RecoverPoint
7 2 (0.92%) FreeRADIUS
7 2 (0.92%) NFS
7 2 (0.92%) SRDF
8 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%) Cisco CUCM
7 1 (0.46%) McAfee ePO
7 1 (0.46%) QRadar
7 1 (0.46%) Suricata
7 1 (0.46%) vRealize
Vendors
1 90 (41.28%) Cisco
2 52 (23.85%) Palo Alto
3 42 (19.27%) Fortinet
4 40 (18.35%) F5
5 29 (13.30%) 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